Baseball history unpacked, July 1

... 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:

• 1859 - In the first college baseball game ever played, Amherst defeats Williams College, 73 - 32 (66 - 32 by some reports) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. (3)
• 1903 - Cy Young drives in the contest’s lone run when he blanks the Pale Hose at Chicago’s South Side Park, 1-0. The shutout, his fourth consecutive complete game without allowing a run, is the Boston American right-hander’s third 1-0 victory in a span of nine days. (1)
• 1906 - Righthander Jack Taylor, 8-9 with the St. Louis Cardinals, returns to the Cubs in exchange for second-string C Pete Noonan, rookie P Fred Beebe and cash. Taylor will help the Cubs by going 12-3 the rest of the year.
• 1920 - Leaving Robison Field in mid-season, the Cardinals make their debut as the home team at Sportsman’s Park, also the home of the American League’s St. Louis Browns, bowing to the Pirates, 6-2. After signing a ten-year lease for $20,000 annually with Browns’ president Phil Ball, the team moves six blocks to be able to play its home games in a modern ballpark. (1)
• 1958 - The Cubs’ Tony Taylor hits a ball inside the third base line that falls into the rain gutter in fair territory at Wrigley Field. San Francisco rookie OF Leon Wagner chases the ball, but is fooled by Cubs relief pitchers staring intently under the bench. Wagner does not look for the ball in the gutter 40 to 50 feet further down. Taylor reaches home on the hit. (1,3)
• 2005 - After walking 2,100 miles from Camp Verde, Arizona to reach Wrigley Field, Bill Holden throws the ceremonial first pitch and leads the crowd in singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the seventh-inning stretch at the Cubs game against the Nationals. Inspired by the DVD, This Old Cub, a documentary about former Cubs All-Star third baseman Ron Santo who lost both his legs to diabetes, the 56-year-old school teacher, with two bad knees, pounds the pavement for 172 days and raises $250,000 with his ‘Walk the Walk’ campaign for juvenile diabetes research. (1,3)
• Cubs birthdays: John Clarkson (HoF), Fred Holmes, Hersh Freeman, Frank Baumann, Dick Drott, Mike Montgomery, Colin Rea. Also notable: Roger Connor (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.

Thanks for reading.