{"id":551387,"date":"2026-02-03T01:30:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T01:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/551387\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T01:30:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T01:30:56","slug":"chicago-cubs-history-unpacked-january-30-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/551387\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs history unpacked, January 30"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,\u00a0Bleed Cubbie Blue<\/a>\u00a0is pleased to present a\u00a0Cubs<\/a>-centric look at baseball\u2019s colorful past.\u00a0Here\u2019s a handy Cubs timeline<\/a>, to help you follow the various narrative paths.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I called it wrong, but it\u2019s official.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Tom Connolly<\/a>, HoF Umpire.<\/p>\n

Happy birthday to Brailyn Marquez*, Grover Cleveland Alexander threatens to retire, and other stories.<\/p>\n

Today in baseball history:<\/p>\n

1917\u00a0\u2013 Pitcher\u00a0Grover Cleveland Alexander<\/a>\u00a0announces he is ready to retire from professional baseball and join a semipro team if his salary demands are not met. Alexander wants a three-year contract at $15,000 per year. (2)<\/p>\n

1926\u00a0\u2013 The Major League\u00a0Rules<\/a>\u00a0Committee agrees that\u00a0pitchers<\/a>\u00a0may have access to a\u00a0rosin bag<\/a>. On\u00a0February 8<\/a>, the\u00a0American League<\/a>\u00a0will refuse to permit its use, but on\u00a0April 28th<\/a>, the league will give in and allow a rosin bag on the\u00a0field<\/a>, but discourage its use by players. The Committee also discusses the possible elimination of the\u00a0intentional walk<\/a>, a topic that has come up before, by making the pitcher throw to the batter. Calling a\u00a0balk<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0catcher<\/a>\u00a0if he steps out of his\u00a0box<\/a>\u00a0has not eliminated the intentional walk as intended. No action is taken, however. (2)<\/p>\n

2006 \u2013\u00a0The Cubs and Jerry Hairston Jr. (.261, 4, 30) avoid salary arbitration when the second baseman\/outfielder agrees to a one-year, $2.3 million deal. The 29-year-old Illinois native was acquired from the\u00a0Orioles<\/a>\u00a0last February for slugger\u00a0Sammy Sosa<\/a>. (2)<\/p>\n

2017\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Commissioner<\/a>\u00a0Rob Manfred<\/a>\u00a0issues a ruling in the case of an employee of the\u00a0St. Louis Cardinals<\/a>\u00a0caught for hacking into the scouting database of the\u00a0Houston Astros<\/a>. The Cards are fined $2 million, which they must pay to Houston, and also surrender two top picks in the upcoming\u00a0amateur draft<\/a>\u00a0to the Astros. The guilty former employee,\u00a0Chris Correa<\/a>, incurs a lifetime ban. This is on the top of the 46-month prison sentence and $279,000 fine he received after pleading guilty to federal charges last July. (2)<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Cubs Birthdays: Doc Watson<\/a>,\u00a0Vin Campbell<\/a>,\u00a0Davey Johnson<\/a>,\u00a0Matt Alexander<\/a>,\u00a0Brailyn Marquez<\/a>*.<\/p>\n

Today in History:<\/p>\n

1661\u00a0\u2013 Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed after having been dead for two years.<\/p>\n

1835\u00a0\u2013 Richard Lawrence misfires at President Andrew Jackson in Washington, D.C. in first attempted assassination of a US President.<\/p>\n

Common sources:<\/p>\n

*pictured.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,\u00a0Bleed Cubbie Blue\u00a0is pleased to present a\u00a0Cubs-centric look at baseball\u2019s colorful past.\u00a0Here\u2019s a handy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[152,5,72621,138,24,4245,535,161,52146,54,72619,4,63,125,72620,67,46656,46654],"class_list":["post-551387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-american-league","tag-baseball","tag-brailyn-marquez","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicagocubs","tag-cincinnati","tag-cubs","tag-grover-cleveland-alexander","tag-houston-astros","tag-matt-alexander","tag-mlb","tag-oakland-athletics","tag-orioles","tag-rosin-bag","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-today-in-baseball-history","tag-tom-connolly"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116004119122387439","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}