Baseball history unpacked, November 2

A wildly popular Cubs-centric look at baseball’s past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow along as we review select scenes from the rich tapestry of Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball history.

Today marks the anniversary of the most important game ever. Video is below.

Today in baseball history:

• 1881 - The American Association is founded in Cincinnati, OH with the motto “Liberty to All.” The members are the Brooklyn Atlantics, Cincinnati Red Stockings, Louisville Colonels, Philadelphia Athletics, Pittsburgh Alleghenys and St. Louis Brown Stockings. The Brooklyn team will be replaced by the Baltimore Orioles before the start of the first season. This AA will be considered a major league. (3)
• 2000 - Wrigley Field has been granted preliminary landmark status by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. Any plans to refurbish or tear down the Chicago Cubs’ home since 1916 will have to be reviewed by this panel. (3)
• 2004 - After a groundskeeper finds a grenade in the Wrigley Field turf, police bomb and arson investigators are called to evaluate the discovery. The rusty, hollowed-out shell turns out to be harmless and its origins remain a mystery. (3)

“It’s a dud, just like the Cubs were,” Police spokesman Pat Camden said Wednesday. (6)

• 2011 - In one of the first moves of the new management team led by team President Theo Epstein, the Cubs fire manager Mike Quade. The long-time coach and minor league manager found success as Lou Piniella’s interim replacement at the end of the 2010 season, but 2011 was another story, as the Cubs finished 5th in the NL Central, 20 games below .500. (3)

Theo called me 10 minutes after they issued the press release (on Quade) and told me that they have a list of guys and I’m not on it,’’ Ryne Sandberg said, according to the Daily Herald. “He wished me good luck and said he hoped I got a chance somewhere soon.

“He didn’t owe me that at all. He didn’t have to do that. It was a classy move and I’m very appreciative of the phone call. In the end, I wished him and everybody there good luck.”

“Theo was class all the way,” Quade said. “He and Jed were so impressive in the way they approached me and listened to what I had to say about the team. If you’re going to let someone go, they handled it as well as anyone could.

”I’m really going to miss all the people in the front office, media relations, marketing, all the great people at the ball park. They were my family for a while, and that part really stings. But life does go on.” (7)

• 2016 - The Cubs win their first World Series title in 108 years by defeating Cleveland, 8 - 7, in Game 7, making up a three games to one deficit in the process as it’s a great day for teams with ursine names. It’s an epic ballgame worthy of the high stakes, as Dexter Fowler hits a lead-off homer off Corey Kluber, but the Indians manage to tie the score in the 3rd. In the 4th, the Cubs score twice, including one run on a daring rush to the plate by Kris Bryant on a fly ball to CF Rajai Davis that travels perhaps 150 feet. Javier Baez and David Ross also homer for Chicago as the Cubs build up their lead, but Cleveland scores two runs on a wild pitch by Jon Lester in the 6th, then trailing 6 - 4 with two outs in the 8th, Davis homers off Aroldis Chapman to tie the game again. Play is stopped briefly by rain after the 9th inning, but in the 10th, Ben Zobrist, who is named World Series MVP, puts the Cubs ahead with a double and Miguel Montero adds an insurance run with a single, a run which proves important as the Indians manage to score once in the bottom of the 10th before Mike Montgomery retires Michael Martinez on a grounder to third to clinch the title. Cleveland now takes over as owners of the longest championship drought in the majors, their last title having come in 1948. (3)

• Cubs birthdays: Otto Williams, Clem Clemens, Dutch Zwilling, Jesse Flores, Johnny Vander Meer, Bill Connors, Orlando Merced. Also notable: Travis Jackson (HoF).

Sources:

• (1) — The National Pastime.
• (2) — Today in Baseball History.
• (3) — Baseball Reference.
• (4) — Society for American Baseball Research.
• (5) — Baseball Hall of Fame.

Last year’s model.