Baseball history unpacked, July 26

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:

• 1879 - Syracuse’s Harry McCormick hits a home run in the first and then makes it stand up by beating Boston’s Tommy Bond 1-0. This will be the only time in Major League history that a pitcher wins a 1-0 game with a first-inning home run. (1)
• 1900 - Gus Weyhing is released by the Cardinals but does not get the ten days’ pay he is entitled to. He gets a deputy sheriff to seize the St. Louis share of the gate at Brooklyn, but it comes to less than the $100 he’s claiming. Weyhing will pitch briefly in 1901 before calling it quits, the last gloveless pitcher in the majors. (2)
• 1930 - Phils pitchers continue their consistently dismal performance, giving up five home runs to the Cubs in a 16-2 pasting. Hack Wilson has three of the homers, while Gabby Hartnett and winning pitcher Pat Malone add the other two. (2)
• 1935 - An unusual double play occurs when a line drive hit by Yankee Jesse Hill bounces off Senator pitcher Ed Linke’s head in the air to catcher Jack Redmond who throws to second to double off runner Ben Chapman. Linke will be hospitalized for two days. (2)
• 1975 - Bill Madlock goes 6 for 6 during the Cubs’ 10-inning, 9-8 loss to the Mets. (2)
• 1987 - Catfish Hunter, Billy Williams, and Ray Dandridge are inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. (2)
• 1996 - The Cubs defeat the Rockies, 17-4, as catcher Tyler Houston leads the way with a single, double, homer, and six RBIs. Sammy Sosa has his National League-leading 34th homer. (2)
• 2000 - The Dodgers re-obtain oft-injured pitcher Ismael Valdes from the Cubs for minor leaguers Jamie Arnold and Jorge Piedra. The Dodgers swapped Valdes to the Cubs last year. Piedra was a top prospect in 1998, hitting .383 at Great Falls, while reaching base in 54 straight games. (2)
• 2009 - With a 5-2 win over the Reds, the Cubs move into first place in the tight NL Central race. Rich Harden, who had not won at Wrigley Field since August 24, 2008, is the winner. (2)
• 2014 - The Hall of Fame announces a change in voting rules, as players will now be able to stay on the BBWAA ballot for a maximum of 10 and not 15 years, as long as they meet the minimum 5 percent threshold. The move is designed to prevent the ballot from becoming overly crowded because of players tainted by steroids staying on the ballot for years on end with no realistic chance of election, but drawing votes away from more legitimate candidates. However, a number of inductees with an untainted record have had to wait over 10 years for election in recent years, such as Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven or Andre Dawson, making it likely that the rule change will have the effect of also squeezing out some worthy candidates. (2)

Cubs birthdays: Hoyt Wilhelm HOF, Lou Jackson, Jose Bautista, Brandon Morrow, Alex Burnett.

Today in history:

• 1267 - Inquisition forms in Rome under Pope Clement IV.
• 1609 - English mathematician Thomas Harriot is the first person to draw a map of the Moon by looking through a telescope.
• 1971 - Apollo 15 launched (Scott and Irwin) to 4th manned landing on Moon.
• 2018 - Observation of a black hole by The Very Large Telescope in Chile proves Albert Einstein’s prediction of “gravitational redshift”, published in “Journal Astronomy & Astrophysics”.

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.