Baseball history unpacked, July 9

A Cubs-centric look at baseball’s past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline. Just a few items of interest today, but they’re of great interest. Lots of good reading in the links.

Today in baseball history:

• 1956 - The BBWAA, by a narrow margin of 14-12, votes to establish the Cy Young Award to honor the major leagues’ most outstanding pitcher. Commissioner Ford Frick initiated the idea because he felt hurlers were not recognized in the MVP voting, but ironically the first recipient of the Cy Young Award, Dodger Don Newcombe, also won the Most Valuable Player Award. (1)
• 1969 - Tom Seaver’s near-perfect game, which will be immortalized as “The Imperfect Game”, is broken up when Cubs’ outfielder Jimmy Qualls, a lifetime .223 hitter, singles into center field. (1)

Box score. Ken Holtzman took the loss. Good bio of Jim Qualls. About the “Imperfect Game” and Qualls.

• 2005 - On the first pitch of his only big league plate appearance, 24 year-old Adam Greenberg, entering the game as a ninth-inning pinch-hitter for the Cubs, is struck in the back of the head by a 92-mph fastball thrown by Marlin hurler Valerio de los Santos. The Guilford High School (CT) standout, the first player in the history of the state to be named to four all-state teams, sustains a concussion and will experience positional vertigo as a result of the beaning. (1)

The Marlins let him have a second at-bat. [VIDEO].

• Cubs birthdays: Buttons Briggs, Rowdy Elliott, Charlie Gilbert, Al Spangler, Ken Patterson, Jerome Walton, Bobby Ayala. Also notable: Hank O’Day (HoF).

Sources:

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

Thanks for playing along.