Baseball history unpacked, January 11

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a light-hearted, Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past, with plenty of the lore and various narratives to follow as they unfold over the course of time. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow along.

Today in baseball history:

• 1881 - The first of a series of Tuesday games on ice is played in Chicago, Illinois, using professional and amateur players. These games will be a regular winter feature. (2)
• 1909 - The National Commission approves owner Charles Murphy’s payment of a $10,000 bonus to his Chicago Cubs players for their 1908 World Series triumph. (2)
• 1915 - Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston buy the New York Yankees from Frank Farrell and Bill Devery for $460,000. Ruppert, who owns a brewery, is thinking of renaming the team the “Knickerbockers” to promote his product, but is dissuaded by newspaper men. (1,2)
• 1960 - The Philadelphia Phillies send outfielder Richie Ashburn to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for infielders Alvin Dark and Jim Woods, and pitcher John Buzhardt. (2)
• 1965 - Wally Pipp, the predecessor of Lou Gehrig at first base for the New York Yankees, dies in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Pipp, who, as legend has it, had asked out of the Yankees lineup with a headache in 1925 (in fact he had been beaned in a previous game), was 71 years old. After giving way to Gehrig, Pipp never again played a game at first base for New York. (2)
• 1969 - The Chicago Cubs acquire veteran reliever Ted Abernathy from the Cincinnati Reds for three minor league players. The trade marks the return of the side-arming Abernathy to Chicago, where he led the National League with 31 saves in 1965. (2)
• 1971 - 27-year-old Detroit Tigers reliever John Hiller suffers chest pains that doctors will later diagnose as a heart attack. Hiller will miss the entire 1971 season but will make an incredible comeback in 1973, saving a then-major league record 38 games. (1,2)
• 1973 - Major League owners approve one of the game’s most controversial rules: the designated hitter. The owners decide to allow American League teams to implement the rule on an experimental three-year basis, but the rule will become a permanent addition to the AL while the National League never adopts it. (2)
• 1977 - The Cubs trade outfielder Rick Monday* and pitcher Mike Garman to the Dodgers for first baseman Bill Buckner, shortstop Ivan DeJesus, and Minor League pitcher Jeff Albert. The trade solidifies the Cubs infield for the next five years, and Buckner will hit .300 for the team over the next seven seasons, but the Dodgers will win three National League pennants in that span, with Monday a major contributor. (1,2)

Cubs birthdays: Harry McIntire, Paddy Driscoll, Roy Hughes, Jack Curtis, Lloyd McClendon, Donn Pall, Rey Ordóñez. Also notable: Elmer Flick HOF, Max Carey HOF.

Today in history:

• 1569 - 1st recorded lottery in England is drawn in St Paul’s Cathedral. This is widely regarded as the World’s first lottery.
• 1787 - Titania and Oberon, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Herschel.
• 1838 - First public demonstration of telegraph messages sent using dots and dashes at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail.
• 1919 - Romania annexes Transylvania.
• 1922 - Insulin first used on humans to treat diabetes, when Frederick Banting injects fellow Canadian Leonard Thompson, aged 14.
• 1982 - Atlanta, Georgia’s temperature goes below zero F.

Common sources:

• (1) — Today in Baseball History.
• (2) — Baseball Reference.
• (3) — Society for American Baseball Research.
• (4) — Baseball Hall of Fame.
• (5) — This Day in Chicago Cubs history.
• For world history.

*pictured.

Some of these items spread from site to site without being verified. That is exactly why we ask for reputable sources if you have differences with a posted factoid, so that we can address that to the originators and provide clarity if not ‘truth’. Nothing is posted here without at least one instance of corroboration. Thanks for reading.