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Baseball history unpacked, January 19

A thrice-weekly look at #Cubs, #MLB, and #MiLB history.

By Al Yellon
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On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue brings a you a light-hearted, Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past, with plenty of the lore and deep dives into various narratives that expand over the course of time. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow along.

Today in baseball history:

  • 1934 - Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis denies Shoeless Joe Jackson’s appeal for reinstatement. Jackson was one of eight Chicago White Sox players banned for their part in throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.
  • 1972 - The BBWAA elects Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra, and Early Wynn to the Hall of Fame. At age 36, Koufax is the youngest man to be elected to the Hall. He won three Cy Young awards in a four-year span (1963-66). At the time, there was only one Cy Young given for both leagues. Berra played in 14 World Series and won 10 Series rings, and he was a three-time MVP for the Yankees. Wynn won 300 games and was a five-time 20-game winner.
  • 1977 - The BBWAA elects Ernie Banks to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He received 321 votes, or 83.8 percent. He won back-to-back MVP awards in 1959 and is generally considered the greatest player in Cubs history.
  • 1995 - Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos announces that his team will not use replacement players if the strike is not settled before Opening Day.

Cubs birthdays: Amaury Telemaco*, Chris Stynes, Anthony Young, Ken Frailing. (* = pictured)

Today in world history:

  • 1809 - Poet, author and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston, Massachusetts.
  • 1883 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey
  • 1955 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower held the first-ever televised presidential press conference.
  • 1977 - President Gerald Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D’Aquino (Tokyo Rose), a Japanese-American broadcaster from Japan to U.S. troops during World War II, who, after the war, was convicted of treason and served six years in a U.S. prison. She later settled in Chicago and, with her son, ran a retail store only a few blocks from Wrigley Field.

Common sources:

There is a very active baseball history community and there are many facets to their views. We strive for clarity. Please be aware that we are trying to make the historical record as represented by our main sources coherent and as accurate as is possible. No item is posted here without corroboration. Some of these items spread from site to site without being verified. That is exactly why we ask for reputable sources, so that we can address them to the originators. BBRef is very cooperative in this regard, as are SABR and the Baseball Almanac. We have removed thenationalpastime from our sourcing list, as there have been multiple complaints about their content and they do not respond to attempts to communicate.

Also please remember that this is supposed to be fun.

Thank you for your cooperation. And thanks for reading!

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