Baseball history unpacked, August 28

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:

• 1884 - New York Gothams pitcher Mickey Welch strikes out the first nine Cleveland Blues hitters to face him, establishing a major league record that still stands. (1,2)
• 1909 - In New York, the matchup between Three Finger Brown and Christy Mathewson fizzles when the Cubs score four runs in the first two innings. Matty is lifted and Brown wins the game, 6-1. (2)
• 1930 - The Cards outlast the league-leading Cubs, 8-7, in a 20-inning game at Wrigley Field. Andy High’s single scores the winning run, even though High is tagged out trying to reach second base. Taylor Douthit’s run is ruled to have scored before the out. Hack Wilson leaves the game with a strained back after a big swing. (2)
• 1940 - The Cubs recall Dizzy Dean from Dallas and release Billy Rogell. (2)
• 1950 - At Wrigley Field, Hank Sauer socks three consecutive home runs off Curt Simmons, as the Cubs edge the Phillies, 7-5, in the first game. Sauer will connect for three homers off Simmons once more, in 1952. Knuckleballer Dutch Leonard, in his only start of the year, is today’s winner. The Phils then take the nitecap, 9-5, to move 5½ games ahead of the Dodgers. (2)
• 1990 - Ryne Sandberg homers to become the first second baseman to hit 30 home runs in consecutive seasons as the Cubs beat the Astros, 5-2. He will finish the year with 40 home runs to become the first second baseman since Rogers Hornsby in 1925 to lead the league in that category. (1,2)
• 1998 - The Cubs defeat the Rockies, 10-5, as Sammy Sosa hits homer No. 53 for Chicago. (2)
• 2001 - The Marlins defeat the Cubs, 4-3, despite Sammy Sosa’s 52nd home run. The blast gives Sosa a share of the National League record for home runs in August, tying the mark set by Willie Mays in 1965. He also ties Babe Ruth for the most homers in seven consecutive seasons: the Babe hit 343 between 1926 and 1932. Mark McGwire has hit 338 homers from 1995 through this year. (2)

Cubs birthdays: Dode Paskert, Charlie Grimm, Jeff Cross, Cliff Aberson, Johnny Pramesa, Billy Cowan, Dick LeMay, Darren Lewis, Shane Andrews, Randy Wells.

Today in history:

• 475 - Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna, now seen as the end of the Roman Empire in the West.
• 476 - Orestes, father of Emperor Romulus Augustulus is captured and executed by Odoacer and his followers.
• 1207 - King John of England grants small town of Liverpool a charter (right to elect a mayor and aldermen).
• 1830 - 1st American built locomotive, “Tom Thumb” races a horse-drawn car from Stockton and Stokes stagecoach company from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills. Let history record that due to mechanical problems the horse won!
• 1955 - Chicago black teenager Emmett Till is kidnapped, beaten and shot dead by white men in Money, Mississippi; his killers are eventually acquitted, but the case helps ignite the US civil rights movement.
• 1963 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I have a dream” speech addressing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom civil rights march at Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

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.