On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a 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.
Happy birthday, Paul Assenmacher*, the death of the spitball, and other stories.
Today in baseball history:
1918 – John Heydler becomes president of baseball’s National League for the second time.
1919 – The votes to ban the spitball’s use by all new pitchers. The National League, spearheaded by the leadership of Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss, approves the banning of the spitball, allowing just the current spitballers presently throwing the pitch to use it under a “grandfather” clause. The ban will be formally worked out by the Rules Committee in February. A year later the American League will adopt the same rule (1,2)
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1972 – The major leagues make modifications to the official save rule, a statistic officially adopted before the 1969 season. A pitcher shall be credited with a save if, when entering a game as a reliever, he finds the tying or winning run on base or at the plate, and he preserves the lead. Or he pitches three effective innings and preserves the lead. The rule will be tweaked again, to take its lasting form, before the 1975 season. (2)
1990 – Maniford Harper, known to his friends as Hack, is true to his word when he is buried in a Cub uniform, keeping to the arrangements that made him a central Illinois celebrity in 1980. The 75 year-old Washburn (IL) native’s devotion to the team began in 1926 when as a polio-stricken 11-year-old, Chicago legend Hack Wilson, who was among several players visiting the local Shriners hospital, put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and correctly predicted, ‘Kid, stick it out. Someday you’re gonna walk’. (1, 3)
1993 – The Colorado Silver Bullets are officially recognized as the first all-women’s baseball team in the minor leagues. (2)
2011 – ESPN reveals that Ryan Braun, the reigning National League MVP, tested positive for PEDs during the postseason. Facing a 50-game suspension, Braun claims his innocence and announces he is appealing the test result. (2)
Cubs Birthdays: Jimmy Johnston, Ed Donnelly, Steve Renko, Paul Assenmacher*, Rick Wrona, Mel Rojas.
Today in History:
1690 – Massachusetts Bay becomes the first American colonial government to issue paper money.
1799 – Metric system first adopted in France.
1817 – Mississippi admitted as 20th state of the Union.
1898 – Treaty of Paris which ended the Spanish–American War is signed by US President McKinley; US acquires Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam.
1922 – First National Football League Championship: undefeated Canton Bulldogs (10-0-2) named inaugural champions.
Common sources:
*pictured.
Some of these items spread from site to site without being fact-checked, and that is why we ask for verifiable sources, in order to help correct the record.