Baseball history unpacked, September 13

The black cat thing should have been today. Just sayin’.

... 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:

• 1845 - Alexander Cartwright presents the first set of baseball rules, 20 in total. (3)
• 1883 - Cleveland’s one-arm pitcher Hugh Daily no-hits Philadelphia, 1-0. The fireballing Irish right-hander lost his left hand as a result of a gun accident earlier in his life. (1,3)
• 1902 - Johnny Evers, acquired to replace second baseman Bobby Lowe, who broke his ankle, joins shortstop Joe Tinker and first baseman Frank Chance on the Chicago infield, marking the first time the three Cubs’ infielders have played together. The legendary double play trio will be immortalized in Franklin Pierce Adams’ baseball poem, “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,” better known as “Tinker to Evers to Chance”. Germany Schaefer is at 3B as Chicago clips St. Louis, 12 - 0. (1,3)
• 1906 - At St. Louis, Chicago tops the Cardinals, 6 - 2, as Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown wins his 11th straight. (3)
• 1931 - At Wrigley Field, the Cubs win 11 - 7 over the Braves when player-manager Rogers Hornsby cracks an 11th-inning pinch grand slam. This is the first extra-inning pinch grand slam in major league history. The Cubs take the second game, 8 - 1, behind Guy Bush’s one-hitter, his second of the year. His first was against the Cards on August 9th. (3)

Box scores: Game one. Game two.

• 1934 - Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis sells the World Series broadcast rights to the Ford Motor Company for $100,000. Previously no fee had been charged. (2)
• 1938 - A special committee names Alexander Cartwright to Baseball’s Hall of Fame for originating the sport’s basic concepts. Henry Chadwick, inventor of the box score and the first baseball writer, is also honored. (2)
• 1960 - Eighteen-year-old OF Danny Murphy becomes the youngest Cub to hit a home run when he clouts a 3-run homer off Bob Purkey, but the Reds win, 8 - 6, in Cincinnati. Murphy will play just 49 games for the Cubs from 1960 to 1962. He will come back as a pitcher for the White Sox in 1969 and 1970.

Box score.

• 1964 - The Cardinals become only the second team in major league history this century to score at least one run in every inning as they rout Chicago, 15-2. A dropped pop-up in the top of the ninth secures St. Louis’ place in history. (1)

Box score.

• 1970 - At Wrigley Field, the Pirates lead the Cubs, 2 - 1, with two outs and no one on in the 9th when Willie Smith hits a routine fly to Matty Alou. Alou drops it and three singles later the Cubs have a 3 - 2 win. The victory puts the Cubs a game behind the Bucs and a half-game behind the Mets. (3)

Box score.

• 1998 - Sammy Sosa’s ninth-inning homer in the bottom of the ninth off Eric Plunk helps to tie the game at 10 runs apiece in the Cubs’ eventual 11-10 extra-inning victory over Milwaukee at Wrigley Field. The round-tripper, his second of the contest, is the Chicago right fielder’s 62nd of the season, to pass Roger Maris’s single season mark and ties him with Mark McGwire for the league’s lead. (1)

Box score.

• Cubs birthdays: Dutch Ruether, John Kelleher, Rabbit Warstler, Greg Hibbard, Wade Miller.

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.