Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field and baseball history

Baseball history unpacked, October 28

The Good Kid, Curt Flood, Stadia, and other stories

By Duane Pesice@moderan13 Oct 28, 2019, 6:00am CDT

... on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue brings a you a lighthearted 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 in baseball history:

1948 - On Lou Boudreau Day, held in his honor by the citizens of his hometown, Harvey, Illinois, the Indians skipper tells an audience his Indians were lucky to win the recent World Series. The Cleveland player-manager cites his infielders driving in more than 400 runs and the lack of injuries to key players as reasons why his “third-place” club excelled. (1)

SABR on Boudreau.

The greatest show in Cleveland.

1954 - Major League Baseball owners vote down the sale of the Philadelphia Athletics to a hometown syndicate. A week later, Arnold Johnson will buy a controlling interest in the Athletics from the Mack family for $3.5 million and move the team to Kansas City. (2,3)

Departure without dignity. “A bad team, sparse crowds, burdensome debt, and internal strife all were set against the backdrop of playing in an old ballpark located in a declining neighborhood with limited parking and bad transportation.”

1958 - Construction began on the new ballpark for the Giants in San Francisco. The rocks in the area are said to have resembled candlesticks. (2,3)

About Candlestick Park. Some welcomed the light going out. Stu Miller might have been one of them.

1961 - Workers break ground on a new ballpark in Flushing Meadows, Queens, NY. Shea Stadium will become the home of the expansion New York Mets in 1964. (2,3)

Nobody ever called Shea Stadium a cathedral.

1998 - President Clinton signs Curt Flood Act of 1998, revoking baseball’s antitrust exemption for labor matters, but not for issues involving relocation, expansion or the minor leagues. The passage of the legislation by the 105th Congress comes over seventy-five years after the Supreme Court ruled that the sport was not involved in interstate commerce or trade as customarily defined within the context of the Sherman Antitrust Act. (1)

Curt Flood changed baseball. He was a pretty good player, too.

2016 - In the first World Series game played at Wrigley Field in 71 years, the Indians eke out a 1-0 victory over the Cubs in Game 3 of the 2016 World Series. Pinch-runner Michael Martinez scores the only run in the seventh when he is driven in from third base by pinch-hitter Coco Crisp’s single. Cody Allen ends the game by striking out Ben Zobrist with two runners in scoring position.