Baseball history unpacked, August 2

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 - Following a disputed call in a 7-6 loss to Chicago, New York manager George Davis leads the crowd in an assault on umpire Adonis Terry. Clark Griffith emerges with the win for Chicago. (2)
• 1906 - Defeating the Americans, 3-0, the White Sox begin an American League record 19-game winning streak. In this century, the “Hitless Wonders’” streak will only be equaled by the 1947 New York Yankees. The streak, interrupted only by a tie with New York, catapults Chicago from fourth place to first in ten days. (1,2)
• 1907 - Senators rookie Walter Johnson makes his major league debut, losing to the Tigers, 3-2. Ty Cobb gets the first hit off the future Hall of Famer with a bunt single.
• 1907 - Three Finger Brown tops Christy Mathewson for the third time this season, allowing just four hits in shutting out the Giants, 5-0. The first-place Cubs paste Matty for nine hits, and will take four out of five games in the series with New York. (2)
• 1909 - Harry Pulliam is buried in Louisville. For the first time in history, both National League and American League games are postponed in tribute. After the funeral, a special meeting of the Board of Directors appoints John Heydler to succeed Pulliam as president of the NL. (2)
• 1910 - At the Polo Grounds, the Giants score four runs in the first off Orval Overall, but Overall tightens his belt and allows no more scoring. The Cubs come back with five runs off Christy Mathewson to win, 5-4. (2)
• 1916 - Phils star Grover Alexander wins his 20th of the season, pitching a 12-inning, 1-0 shutout over the Cubs. In the 12th, Alex intentionally walks two and then fans pitcher Mike Prendergast with the bases loaded. Bill Killefer strolls home with the winning run while the Cubs are arguing a call at third base. Alexander has now won more games than the cross-town A’s (19). (2)
• 1921 - A Chicago jury brings in a verdict of not guilty against the Black Sox. That night, jurors and defendants celebrate with a party in an Italian restaurant. Ignoring the verdict, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis bans all eight defendants from baseball for life. (1,2)
• 1932 - Rogers Hornsby is fired as manager of the Chicago Cubs and 1B Charlie Grimm is put in charge. (2)
• 1938 - Larry MacPhail has official baseballs dyed dandelion yellow, and they are used in the first game of a doubleheader between the Dodgers and Cardinals at Ebbets Field. The Dodgers win 6-2. The Dodgers will use up their yellow balls in three more games in 1939. (1,2)
• 1947 - At Wrigley Field, the Cubs pummel seven Dodgers hurlers to win a second straight from the Dodgers, 12-7. Peanuts Lowrey and Eddie Waitkus, the first two hitters for Chicago, have five hits apiece. (2)
• 1950 - Andy Pafko of the Cubs hits three home runs in the second game of a doubleheader, but the Cubs lose both to the Giants, 11-1 and 8-6.
• 1955 - “Mr. Cub” Ernie Banks hits his fourth grand slam of the season, tying the major league record, as Bob Rush bests the Pirates, 12-4. (2)
• 1968 - Ron Hansen (Washington Senators) & Tim Cullen (Chicago White Sox) become the first MLB players to be traded for each other twice in the same season; they had been traded in February in opposite directions.
• 1979 - Yankees C Thurman Munson, 32, perishes at Canton, Ohio, in a crash of the plane he was piloting. A crowd of 51,151 will attend the memorial tribute at Yankee Stadium tomorrow. (1,2)
• 1993 - The Cubs defeat the Pirates, 12-10, in a game marked by seven home runs. (box score) (2)
• 2011 - The Cubs hit six homers, including two by Alfonso Soriano, as they beat the Pirates, 11-6, in Pittsburgh. Briefly in first place in the NL Central in late July, Pittsburgh has now lost five straight and 10 of 13 and risks falling out of the playoff race entirely. Also homering for the Cubbies are Aramis Ramirez, Geovany Soto, Marlon Byrd and Tyler Colvin; Garrett Jones goes deep twice for the Pirates, and Brandon Wood once. (2)
• 2022 - Broadcaster Vin Scully*, the voice of the Dodgers for six decades and considered by many to have been the greatest ever at his profession, dies at 94; he had described his last game at the end of the 2016 season. (2)

Cubs birthdays: Lloyd Merriman, Derek Botelho, Matt Guerrier, Brett Jackson.

Today in history:

• 1610 - English explorer Henry Hudson enters the bay later named after him.
• 1776 - Formal signing of the US Declaration of Independence by 56 people (date most accepted by modern historians).
• 1790 - First US census conducted, the population was 3,939,214..
• 1865 - Lewis Carroll publishes “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.
• 1880 - British Parliament officially adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
• 1932 - Carl David Anderson discovers and photographs a positron, the first known antiparticle.
• 1937 - Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, essentially rendering marijuana and all its by-products illegal.

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.