Baseball history unpacked, January 13

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:

• 1883 - Both of the New York Major League clubs will play simultaneously at the Polo Grounds. Their fields will be separated by an 8-foot fence. (2) (The Gothams and the Metropolitans)
• 1922 - Former Chicago White Sox star Buck Weaver applies for reinstatement to baseball. Weaver, one of the eight “Black Sox” players banned for their involvement in throwing the 1919 World Series, is turned down by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. (1,2)
• 1972 - Former umpire, now housewife, Bernice Gera wins her lawsuit against Organized Baseball, initiated on March 15, 1971. Gera is slated to umpire in the New York-Pennsylvania League starting in June. She will umpire just one game, making her point before deciding to call it quits. (1,2)
• 1978 - Hall of Fame manager Joe McCarthy dies in Buffalo, New York, at the age of 90. McCarthy was the first manager to win pennants with both National and American League teams, won nine league titles overall and seven World Series championships. (2)
• 1995 - Baseball’s executive council approves the use of replacement players for spring training and regular season games. With the Players’ Association on strike, the owners say they will look to retired players, minor leaguers and amateurs to fill out their rosters. (2)
• 2000 - The Tampa Bay Devil Rays sign free agent pitcher Steve Trachsel to a one-year contract. Trachsel, who led the Cubs in innings pitched (206) and posted a 8-18 record, was expected to ink a multi-year deal. (2)
• 2018 - Umpire Doug Harvey, a veteran of 13 seasons in the National League and over 4,600 major league games, dies at age 87. Considered by many as the best umpire ever and nicknamed “God” for his infallibility, he was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2010. (2)
• 2020 - The hammer comes down hard on the Astros as Major League Baseball announces its punishment in relation with their use of technology to steal their opponents’ signs during their World Series-winning campaign in 2017: GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch are both suspended for a full season, and the team will have to pay a fine of $5 million in addition to losing its top two picks in the next two amateur drafts. Team owner Jim Crane takes it one step further and fires both Luhnow and Hinch almost immediately after the announcement of the suspensions. (2)

Cubs birthdays: Emmett O’Neill, Steve Mesner, Mike Tyson, Jose Nunez, Kevin Foster*.

Today in history:

• 532 - Nika riots begin in Constantinople, a revolt against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I that leaves half the city burned and thousands dead. The riots were prompted by the failed execution of chariot racing supporters and only stopped after Empress Theodora refused to flee, forcing her husband to act decisively.
• 1610 - Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, fourth satellite of Jupiter.
• 1920 - NY Times editorial (falsely) reports rockets can never fly.
• 1968 - Minnesota North Stars NHL player Bill Masterson, suffers head injuries during a game and dies two days later, becoming the first player to die as result of a game.
• 2021 - World’s oldest known cave painting of an animal - a pig, 45,000 years old, discovered in Leang Tedongnge cave, island of Sulawesi, Indonesia.

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.