Baseball history unpacked, July 31

... 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 hand-threaded seams from the rich tapestry of Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball history*.

Today in baseball history:

• 1897 - St. Louis hurler John Grimes establishes a major league record which still stands today by hitting six batters in a nine-inning game. (3)
• 1910 - Cubs rookie King Cole pitches a seven-inning no-hitter for a 4-0 win over St. Louis. Cole will top the National League with a 20-4 record, but will have only one more winning season. (3)
• 1932 - In front of a major league record crowd of 80,184, the Indians play their first game at Lakefront Stadium. Mel Harder loses to the A’s Lefty Grove 1-0 on Mickey Cochrane’s RBI single. Except for the 1933 season, the Tribe, who prefer League Park, will not play a full schedule at their new colossal horseshoe home until 1947, when the ballpark will become known as Cleveland Municipal Stadium. (1,3)
• 1954 - At Ebbets Field, using a borrowed bat, Joe Adcock hits four home runs in one game as well as a double which misses by inches being his fifth round-tripper, in the Braves’ 15-7 victory over the Dodgers. The Milwaukee first baseman’s 18 total bases, collected on just seven pitches, set a major league record, surpassing the mark established in 1950 by Brooklyn’s Gil Hodges. (1)
• 1962 - The National League rejects Commissioner Ford Frick’s proposal for interleague play in 1963. (2,3)
• 1968 - Chicago’s Billy Williams, Ernie Banks and Jim Hickman hit 4th-inning home runs as Fergie Jenkins (12-10) beats the Astros, 6-1, at Wrigley Field. (3)
• 1981 - The fifty-day old baseball strike is settled as owners and players agree on a pooling system for free agent compensation. The All-Star game will mark the end of baseball’s first-ever mid-season work stoppage. (1,3)
• 2000 - The Cubs pick up oft-injured OF Rondell White from the Expos for P Scott Downs, making Henry Rodriguez expendable. But it is Downs who will spend the next five seasons in the infirmary, getting injured in his first outing for the Expos and not coming back to full health until 2004. The Cubs then make their fifth trade in 11 days, sending Rodriguez to the Marlins for 1B/OF Ross Gload and P Dave Noyce. (3)
• 2004 - The long-anticipated trade of Nomar Garciaparra is finally accomplished as the Red Sox shortstop is traded to the Cubs in a four-team deal which includes the Twins and Expos. Chicago first acquires shortstop Orlando Cabrera from the Expos for shortstop Alex Gonzalez, relief pitcher Francis Beltran and minor leaguer Brendan Harris. They then pry 1B Doug Mientkiewicz from the Twins for minor league southpaw Justin Jones. Finally, Chicago flips its two new acquisitions to the Bosox for Garciaparra, prospect Matt Murton and cash. (1,3)
• 2005 - Among thousands of high-spirited Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs fans and the 48 Hall of Famers sitting on the dais, Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg are enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Also honored are San Diego Padres announcer Jerry Coleman, winner of the Ford C. Frick Award, and sportswriter and broadcast analyst Peter Gammons, recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award. (1,3)
• 2006 - The Dodgers trade infielder Cesar Izturis to the Cubs for 300-game winner Greg Maddux. The last-minute deadline deal, in which the future Hall of Famer waived his no-trade clause, allows the 40-year-old hurler to go to a contender.
• 2016 - The Cubs’ 7-6 win over the Mariners can be credited to a series of brilliant moves by manager Joe Maddon. Trailing 6-2 in the sixth, he sends in P Travis Wood in relief of Joe Nathan, and he gets out of a runners on second and third with nobody out situation without allowing a run. Maddon then moves Wood to left field in the seventh as Pedro Strop takes the mound, and Wood robs Franklin Gutierrez by crashing into the ivy at Wrigley Field to snag a line drive. With two outs in the 8th, Wood replaces Strop and picks off Shawn O’Malley at first base to end the inning. The Cubs score three runs off Steve Cishek in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings, then in the 12th, Maddon asks P Jon Lester to pinch-hit with Jason Heyward on third base, and the otherwise awful hitter lays down an excellent squeeze bunt to drive in the winning run against Cody Martin. (3)
• Cubs Birthdays: Larry Doyle, Art Nehf, Bill Fleming, Earl Stephenson, Leon Durham, Mike Bielecki, Rene Rivera.

SimNews:

The simCubs took all four games from the Giants and are flat-out looking more and more inevitable at 78-31 (Cleveland has the same record). This was a game of contrasts — Kyle Hendricks (13-3, 2.69) was possibly more valuable as a hitter than as a pitcher, as his sixth-inning single broke up a no-hitter bid from Drew Smyly. Hendricks gave up a long drive to Adam Duvall (15) for two runs that held up until Kris Bryant (24) and his billboard hit a clutch three-run bomb in the eighth to give the Cubs a lead that Brad Wieck (3-0) promptly relinquished in the bottom of the inning. Wieck then was the beneficiary of a simCubs EXPLOSION, an eight-run, three-homer beatdown of the Giants’ hopes to salvage a game. Noted clutch hitter David Bote (6) jacked one out of the yard for three, Pittsburgh native Ian Happ (27) followed with a solo voyage into the Cove, and versatile weapon Javier Baez (19) took a mighty swing and capped off the scoring with a three-run humdinger of his own. Dan Winkler mopped up and kept everything sparkling clean. Great stuff!

Today’s game features Ryan Yarbrough (11-4, 3.30) against Eric Lauer (9-7, 4.36) at beautiful simWrigley Field for the first game of a three-game set.

Here are the current standings and league leaders.

Saturday and Sunday we’ll detail any trades and the results of contract extension talks. We have news on both fronts.

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.

*We try to vet each item. Please let us know if an item is in error, especially if you have a source.