Baseball history unpacked, July 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:

• 1900 - By defeating Chicago, 11-4, Beaneaters hurler Kid Nichols takes only nine seasons to win 300 games. The 30-year-old righty will amass 361 victories during his 15-year career and will remain the youngest player ever to accomplish the feat. (2)
• 1912 - To fend off possible future challenges to the legality of the standard contract and its reserve clause, new wording provides for compensation to the player for the right to renew. A player’s salary is specified as 75 percent for his services and 25 percent for the privilege of reserving them for the following season. (2)
• 1914 - Suffering heavy losses from Federal League competition in Baltimore, Orioles owner Jack Dunn offers Babe Ruth (plus Ernie Shore and C Ben Egan) for $10,000 to old friend Connie Mack, who refuses, pleading poverty. Cincinnati, which has a working agreement giving them the choice of two players, ignores Ruth and takes OF George Twombly and SS Claud Derrick. Dunn finally peddles his threesome to new owner Joe Lannin of the Red Sox for a reported $25,000. (1,2)
• 1925 - The seventh-place Cubs install Rabbit Maranville as manager, replacing Bill Killefer. (2)
• 1927 - Cubs righthander Charlie Root’s one-hitter drops the Pirates into second place, with the Cubs on top. In the second of his 16 years with the Cubs, Root will lead the National League with 26 wins and 309 innings pitched. (2)
• 1942 - A military All-star team that includes Bob Feller, Cecil Travis, Sam Chapman, Benny McCoy, Johnny Sturm, and Frankie Pytlak loses 5-0 to A.L. stars in a game at Cleveland in front of more than 60,000 fans. Military relief receives $160,000. (1)
• 1948 - The Indians stun the baseball world by signing Satchel Paige, veteran Negro League pitcher. The move is ridiculed by some as a Bill Veeck publicity stunt, and J.G. Taylor Spink in The Sporting News editorializes, “Veeck has gone too far in his quest for publicity [...] To sign a hurler at Paige’s age is to demean the standards of baseball in the big circuits.” The 42-year-old Paige will answer the critics in his first game tomorrow, getting a relief decision in an 8-6 win over New York in a doubleheader sweep. He will finish at 6-1. Paige is the oldest player to debut in the majors, but not the first 40-year-old: Chuck Hostetler in 1944 was 40. (1,2)
• 1968 - Phil Regan picks up two wins in relief for the second time this season as the Cubs sweep the Pirates, 5-4 and 4-3, edging Bob Veale and Elroy Face. Regan won a pair on April 21st for the Dodgers, and no other reliever has ever won a pair twice in a season. The Vulture will the top the National League with 12 relief wins and 25 saves. (2)
• 1971 - Commissioner Bowie Kuhn announces that players from the Negro Leagues elected to the Hall of Fame will be given full membership in the museum. It had been previously announced that they would be honored in a separate wing. (2)
• 1977 - Chicago’s Rick Reuschel shuts out the Cardinals to run his record to 12-2. Reuschel has not given up an earned run, except a homer, since June 1st. (2)
• 1991 - Umpire Steve Palermo and former pro football player Terence Mann are shot while coming to the aid of two women during an attempted robbery in a restaurant parking lot in Dallas. Palermo is listed in stable condition after being shot in the stomach. (2)
• 1993 - Tom Browning decides that he has seen the view from the dugout often enough, so he leaves Wrigley Field and watches the Reds beat the Cubs 4-3 from the roof of a three-story building across Sheffield Avenue. He is fined $500 for leaving the dugout - not to mention the ballpark - during a game. RIP, Tom. That was legendary.

Tom Browning* waves his hat to the crowd.

Cubs birthdays: Willard Mains, George Moriarty, Billy Herman HOF, Franmil Reyes. Also notable: Satchel Paige HOF.

Today in history:

• 1456 - A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.
• 1534 - First act of trade between the French and Amerindians when Jacques Cartier trades items with Micmacs at Chaleur Bay.
• 1550 - Traditional date Chocolate thought to have been introduced to Europe.
• 1912 - American athlete Jim Thorpe wins four of five events to win the Pentathlon gold medal at the Stockholm Olympics, medal stripped 1913 (played pro baseball), reinstated 1982.
• 1928 - Sliced bread sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company, Missouri, using a machine invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder. Described as the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped.
• 1947 - Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident.

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.