Baseball history unpacked, October 14

... on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue brings a you 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. The embedded links often point to articles that pertain to the scenes, such as reproductions of period newspapers, images, and/or other such material as is often found in the wild.

Today in baseball history:

• 1906 - The Chicago White Sox, known as baseball’s ‘hitless wonders’, jump on the Chicago Cubs’ Three Finger Brown for seven runs in the first two innings and coast behind Doc White to a 7-1 World Series-ending victory. The losers share of $439.50 for the Cubs, who had won a record 116 regular season games, is the lowest ever. (1,2,3)

1908 - Before the smallest crowd in World Series history (6,210), the host Detroit Tigers are tamed on three hits by Orval Overall, who strikes out 10 in a 2-0 triumph. The Chicago Cubs win the World Series in five games. Upset over seating arrangements at the World Series, sports reporters form a professional group that will become the Baseball Writers Association of America. The 6,210 fans, witnessing the game at Detroit’s Bennett Park, have no idea it will be the last time the Cubs will win a World Championship in the next 100+ years. (1,3)

Box score.

• 1929 - The Philadelphia Athletics rally for three runs in the ninth inning to beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2, and take the World Series in five games. A two-run home run by Mule Haas ties the game and Bing Miller hits a RBI double to get the victory. There won’t be another winning rally by a team down two runs in the ninth inning of a Series final game in the 20th century. The Arizona Diamondbacks, in 2001, will do it next. (2,3)

Box score.

• 1968 - The National League holds an expansion draft for two new teams: the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres. The list of players taken in the draft includes future Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm and notables like Nate Colbert, Donn Clendenon, Cito Gaston, Dave Giusti, Mudcat Grant, Al McBean, Manny Mota and Maury Wills. The American League will hold its draft tomorrow. (3)
• 2003 - Holding a 3-0 lead and needing only five more outs to reach the World Series for the first time since 1945, the Chicago Cubs give up eight runs on five hits, three walks and an error to the Florida Marlins. Chicago appears to come apart after a Cubs fan, sitting along the left-field foul line at Wrigley Field, tries to catch a foul ball that is about to be caught by Cubs’ outfielder Moises Alou for the second out of the inning. (3)

Box score.

• 2017 - The Dodgers win Game 1 of the NLCS, 5-2, at home over the Cubs. Chris Taylor breaks a 2-2 tie with a solo homer off Hector Rondon in the sixth, and Yasiel Puig follows suit with a shot off Mike Montgomery in the seventh as six Dodgers pitchers limit Chicago to five hits. (3)

Box score.

• Cubs birthdays: Charlie Waitt, Ed Eiteljorge, Hugh Casey, Art Shamsky, Joe Girardi, Carlos Marmol, Brad Wieck.

Sources:

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

Thanks for reading.