Baseball history unpacked, July 3

... 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:

• 1929 - The Cubs and the Reds become the first teams to turn nine double plays in a major league contest collectively. Chicago, responsible for five of the twin killings, beats Cincinnati at Wrigley Field, 7-5. (1)

Box score.

• 1939 - Cardinal first baseman Johnny Mize accumulates 13 total bases, hitting two home runs, a triple, and a double. The ‘Big Cat’s’ offensive output contributes to the Redbirds’ 5-3 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. (1)

Box score.

• 1945 - At Braves Field in Boston, the Cubs tally the most runs in their post-1900 history when they blast the Braves, 24-2. Phil Cavarretta, Don Johnson, and Stan Hack each score five times, tying a major league mark. (1)

Box score.

• 1967 - At the launching pad in Atlanta, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and Randy Hundley homer for Chicago, and Rico Carty and Felipe Alou answer for the Braves - all in the 1st inning, a major league record. Carty adds another homer later, but Glenn Beckert’s three-run shot helps put the game out of reach. Ray Culp emerges the winner, 12 - 6. (3)

The five round-trippers tie a major league record for home runs hit by two teams in the same inning, but the barrage marks the first time the feat occurs in the opening frame. (1)

Box score.

• 1970 - At Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Gene Alley and Roberto Clemente each hit two homers to help the visiting Bucs outlast their hosts, 16 - 14. This slugfest also numbers a game-tying, 2nd-inning grand slam by Chicago’s Billy Williams among its 8 homers and 70 total bases. Mother Nature, however, has to get a good deal of credit for the day’s offensive production; clearly, the “Windy City” has earned its sobriquet today. “It blew fourteen miles per hour toward center,” reports The Chicago Tribune, “prompting Clemente to all but apologize for his first homer.” “I just tapped the ball,” Clemente tells The Post-Gazette. “There was no way that ball should have gone out of here. The wind was blowing to left, to center, to right. Everywhere it was blowing, it was for the hitter.” (3)

Box score.

• 2014 - Nostalgic for the 1980s, Rays manager Joe Maddon proposes a starting line-up that goes 8-6-7-5-3-0 (for the DH spot)-9 in today’s game against the Tigers, reproducing the 1981 hit single “867-5309/Jenny” by Tommy Tutone. The line-up fails to be a hit, though, as the Rays lose, 8 - 1, to Max Scherzer. Maddon claims the line-up, which features Vince Belnome making his major league debut in the “0” slot, is inadvertent, but he embraces the coincidence as the namesake song is played in his team’s dugout. (1,3)
• Cubs birthdays: Cliff Curtis, Matt Keough, Moises Alou, John Koronka, Tommy Hunter, Zach Putnam, Casey Coleman.

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.