Baseball history unpacked, April 7

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:

• 1958 - The newly transplanted Los Angeles Dodgers erect a 42-foot screen at the Los Angeles Coliseum as part of an effort to cut down on home runs to left field, which is only 250 feet from home plate. (1,2)
• 1969 - Pitcher Bill Singer of the Los Angeles Dodgers earns the first official save in major league history. Making his only relief appearance of the season, Singer finishes off Don Drysdale’s 3-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Thanks to the efforts of sportswriter Jerome Holtzman, the save became an official statistic this off-season. (1,2)
• 1970 - The Milwaukee Brewers play their first home game after their recent relocation from Seattle where they had played the 1969 season as the Pilots. The Brewers lose to the California Angels, 12-0, as major league baseball returns to Milwaukee, WI after a five-year absence. (1,2)
• 1971 - The dismissal of Curt Flood’s suit against Major League Baseball is upheld by a three-judge U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The verdict will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. (1,2)
• 1979 - In the earliest no-hitter in major league history until then, Ken Forsch of the Houston Astros shuts downs the Atlanta Braves, 6-0. Forsch and his brother Bob, who hurled a no-hitter in 1978, become the first brothers to pitch no-hit no-run games. In 1984, Jack Morris will match Forsch’s feat, and in 2001, Hideo Nomo will pitch a no-hitter on an earlier date, April 4th. (1,2)
• 1984 - Jack Morris of the Detroit Tigers pitches a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox. Morris strikes out eight and walks six in shutting down the Sox at Comiskey Park. Morris becomes the first Tiger since Jim Bunning, who accomplished the feat in 1958, to toss a no-hitter. (1,2)
• 1998 - On the same day that Major League Baseball returned to Wisconsin 28 years earlier, National League baseball returns to Milwaukee for the first time in 32 years. It’s a complicated story with a happy ending: The Milwaukee Braves were a National League team that moved to Atlanta in 1966, and the Seattle Pilots, who were formed as an American League expansion team in 1969, moved to Milwaukee and played their first game as the Brewers on this day in 1970. Five years after their team owner, Bud Selig, became Commissioner of baseball, the Brewers became a National League club, as part of the shuffle created by this year’s expansion. And on this day they are 6-4 winners over the Expos in their home opener. (1,2)
• 2016 - The Cubs defeat the Diamondbacks, 14-6, but lose outfielder Kyle Schwarber as he tears his anterior cruciate ligament in an outfield collision with Dexter Fowler resulting in an inside-the-park homer by Jean Segura. He will return just in time to play in the World Series. For Chicago, Anthony Rizzo homers and drives in 6 runs in support of John Lackey. (2)

Cubs birthdays: John Ganzel, Fred Lear, Richie Myers, Bobby Del Greco, Tom Phoebus, David Bote*. Also notable: John McGraw HOF, Bobby Doerr HOF.

*pictured.

Today in history:

• 1348 - Prague University, first university in central Europe, formed by Charles IV.
• 1776 - Captain John Barry and the USS Lexington captures the Edward.
• 1795 - France adopts the meter as the basic measure of length.
• 1940 US Post Office issues first postage stamp of African American educator Booker T. Washington.
• 2001 - Mars Odyssey is launched.
• 2022 - Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes the first black woman to be confirmed by the US Senate to the Supreme Court in a 53-47 vote.

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 (this also includes the history bullets). Thanks for reading, and thanks also for your cooperation.