On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a light-hearted, Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow the various narrative paths.
“Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly, HoF Umpire.
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Today in baseball history:
1866 – The first game of the East Coast championship between the Brooklyn Atlantics and Philadelphia Athletics in Philadelphia, PA is a victim of its own success. Newspapers estimate that the crowd gathered around the baseball grounds numbers close to 40,000. The host ball club is ill-prepared to handle the huge crowd, which soon invades the playing field and forces the cancellation of the game. However, the fiasco does prove that there is a large potential market for top-level professional baseball. (2)
1973 – In the first game of a scheduled make-up doubleheader at Wrigley Field, a day after the regular season ended, the New York Mets beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-1, to capture the National League East flag. The Mets, who were 11.5 games behind and in last place on August 5th, by winning their 82nd game (the lowest number of victories ever to win a title), clinch the division, making the second game of the twin bill unnecessary. (2)
2014 – Major League Baseball announces that it will test some new rules to speed up the flow of the game during this coming Arizona Fall League season. Hitters will no longer be allowed to step out of the batter’s box during an at-bat; pitchers will need to begin their pitching motion within 20 seconds of receiving the ball; a batter will take his base automatically when an intentional walk is called for, without the need for the pitcher to throw four pitches outside the strike zone; teams will be limited to three mound conferences, now called time-outs, per game; and there will be a set maximum time before the first pitch is delivered following a change of innings or a pitching change. Most of these changes will be be introduced at all levels of organized baseball, including the major leagues, in future years. (2)
Cubs Birthdays: Bill Bonham*, Vance Law, Chuck McElroy, Mitch Atkins. Also notable: Rod Carew HOF, Mark McGwire.
Today in History:
331 BC -Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela.
1273 – Count Rudolf van Habsburg becomes the first King of the Germans.
1814 – Opening of the Congress of Vienna redraws Europe’s political map after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte.
1864 – Cyclone strikes Calcutta, killing 70,000.
1879 – Cincinnati Enquirer publishes the first report on baseball’s reserve clause; rights to players are retained by the team upon the contract’s expiration; replaced by free agency.
1892 – University of Chicago opens.
1922 – Former Chicago Staleys play their first NFL game as the Chicago Bears and beat the Racine Legion 6-0 at Horlick Field in Racine, Wisconsin.
1949 – People’s Republic of China proclaimed by Mao Zedong (National Day).
1957 – First appearance of “In God We Trust” on US paper currency.
2024 – Claudia Sheinbaum is sworn in as Mexico’s first female president in over 200 years.
Common sources:
*pictured.
Things are as near to the truth as we can get them. Some of these items spread from site to site without being fact-checked, and that is why we ask for verifiable sources, so that we can help update the records and have documentation of why.