Baseball history unpacked, August 9

... 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:

• 1905 - “COME AT ONCE STOP VERY SORRY STOP YOUR FATHER DEAD IN SHOOTING ACCIDENT STOP HURRY.” - telegram sent to Ty Cobb by Joe Cunningham, a long-time hometown Royston friend.

Ty Cobb, playing for the Augusta Tourists of the South Atlantic League, receives a telegram sent by his long-time hometown Royston friend Joe Cunningham informing him that his father Professor W. H. Cobb has been killed in a shooting accident the previous night. The incident, which will have profound effect on the life of the 18-year-old minor-leaguer, will become a sordid affair when it is revealed that his mother pulled the trigger. (1)

• 1906 - Cubs right-hander Jack Taylor, who will amass a lifetime record of 152-139 along with an ERA of 2.66, goes the distance, beating Brooklyn at Washington Park, 5-3. The victory will be the last of his 187 consecutive complete games, an amazing streak which began on June 20, 1901 with a 2-0 loss in Boston. (1)
• 1942 - The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 10 - 8, in 18 innings at Cincinnati. The Reds tie the score in the 9th, 10th, and 12th innings before the Cubs hang on. Stan Hack collects five hits and three runs for Chicago. Both teams combine to notch 25 bases on balls for the match, and the Cubs strand 23 runners, while the Reds leave 21, a major-league record until 1974. Each team uses six pitchers, also a record. The Reds take game two by a 2 - 1 score. (3)

Box scores. Game one. Game two.

• 1946 - In MLB’s version of Friday Night Lights, all eight games, scheduled in eight different cities, will be played under the lights. It will be the first time in the major league history that every team will participate in an evening tilt on the same night. (1)
• 1963 - One loss shy of tying the major league record of 19 consecutive defeats, Roger Craig switches his uniform number to 13 in an attempt to change his luck. The move appears to work when Jim Hickman lofts a short fly ball in the ninth inning with two outs and the bases-full in a tie game, that just ticks the upper-deck overhang in left field at the Polo Grounds for a walk-off grand slam, giving the Mets an improbable 7-3 victory over the Cubs. (1)

Box score.

• 1988 - After 5,687 consecutive contests take place during the day at the Chicago Northside ballpark dating back to 1914, the first official major league night game is played at Wrigley Field, with the hometown Cubs taking a 6-4 decision from the Mets. The historic event was scheduled for last night, but the contest against the Phillies was rained out after the third inning. (1)

Box score.

• 2001 - Mike Hampton ties the National League record for pitchers with his seventh homer when he goes deep off Felix Heredia in the Rockies’ 14-5 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The Colorado southpaw equals the mark established by Dodger hurlers Don Drysdale (1958, 1965) and Don Newcombe (1955), and two shy of the major league standard set by Wes Ferrell, playing for the Indians in 1931. (1)

Box score.

• 2008 - Micah Hoffpauir ties a modern Pacific Coast League record by homering in his first four at-bats in the Iowa Cubs’ 15-3 rout over the Round Rock Express. The 28-year-old slugging first baseman becomes the third player in the history of the storied PCL to go deep in four consecutive at-bats and the fifth to accomplish the feat in one game. (1)
• Cubs birthdays: Bill Campbell, Junior Kennedy, Steve Swisher, Bob Scanlan, Pat Mahomes, Ben VanRyn, Jason Heyward.

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.