Tag: Chicago Cubs

Aug 28: Unlikely source

AUGUST 28, 1990 | HOUSTON, TEXAS • Ryne Sandburg of the Chicago Cubs hit his 30th home run of the season on this date in 1990. It helped the Cubs beat the Houston Astros at the Astrodome. It was the second year in a row the future Hall of Famer hit at least 30 home runs, the first major league second baseman to do that.

Sandburg wasn’t done in 1990 either. He ended up with 40 home runs that year. He hit an even 30 in 1989.

Ryne Sandburg played 16 years in the major leagues, his first with the Philadelphia Phillies, but as a result of a classic ill-advised trade on the part of Philadelphia, was sent to the Cubs in year-2 and played the next 15 seasons on the northside. He was a career .285 hitter, appeared in ten all-star games, was National League Most Valuable Player in 1984, and elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005. Not bad for a kid from Spokane drafted in the 20th round in 1976.

Contributing Sources:
August 28, 1990 box score
Ryne Sandberg Stats

Nov 4: Tale of 2 franchises

NOVEMBER 4, 2016 | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – The Chicago Cubs were welcomed home by millions on this date in 2016 after winning their first World Series Championship in 108 years.

How long is 108 years? Well, the last time the Cubs were the last team standing was 1908. The New York Yankees had yet to win their first World Series in 1908. In fact they weren’t even called the Yankees yet. They were known as the Highlanders.

Which shows how dominant the New York Yankees have been over the decades. Also on this date in 2009 the Yankees won their 27th World Series Championship.

Did you know the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series the Yankees had won none? In fact they weren’t even called the Yankees. They were the New York Highlanders in 1908.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/2009_WS.shtml
Cubs post-season results

Oct 8: Cow halts baseball

OCTOBER 8, 1871 | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – The Chicago White Stockings (today’s Chicago Cubs) were in a great position to win the National Association pennant on this day in baseball history. Then the Great Chicago Fire erupted. It destroyed much of the city including, according to historian Leonard Koppett, the White Stockings’ ball park.

As Koppett writes in Koppett’s Concise History of Major League Baseball, the White Stockings had to play the rest of their games on the road and lost them. They dropped out of the league for two years.

The National Association is what passed for the major leagues in 1871. The National League was still five years from its inception. The White Stockings ended up joining the National League in 1876.

The White Stockings eventually shed the name, gave a few other names a try, such as Colts and Orphans, before settling on Cubs, which is what the team is known as today.

The Chicago franchise of the new American League took the name White Stockings in 1901, later shortening it to White Sox, which they still go by.

Contributing Sources:
Koppett’s Concise History of Major League Baseball
Cubs team history
National Association    

Sep 28: RBI from the grave

SEPTEMBER 28, 1930 | CINCINNATI, OHIO – On this date in 1930 the Chicago Cubs‘ Hack Wilson drove in his 189th and 190th runs of the season to set the single season RBI record that stands to this day – more than 80 years later. His RBI helped the Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 13-11 on the last day of the season.

Wilson was such a prolific run producer that he could deliver from the grave. In 1999, more than 50 years after his death, it was discovered that one run batted in back in 1930 had been incorrectly credited to another Cub player. It should have gone to Wilson, so the official record stands at 191.

Wilson didn’t look the part of a slugger, he was 5′ 6″, 190 lbs, but he was such a prolific run producer that he drove an extra run in long after he stopped playing, in fact long after he died.

The single season RBI record is seldom mentioned as one that will never be broken, but no one has come close in decades, in fact the closest anyone has come was the year after the record was set. The closest anyone has come in the last 50 years was Manny Ramirez‘ 165 RBI in 1999 – hardly a serious threat.

Here are the top ten, eight of which are from the 1930’s, none more recently than 1937:

1. Hack Wilson 1930 Cubs – 191
2. Lou Gehrig 1931 Yankees – 184
3. Hank Greenberg 1937 Tigers – 183
4. Jimmie Foxx 1938 Red Sox – 175
5. Lou Gehrig 1927 Yankees – 175
6. Lou Gehrig 1930 Yankees – 174
7. Babe Ruth 1921 Yankees – 171
8. Hank Greenberg 1935 Tiger – 170
9. Chuck Klein 1930 Phillies – 170
10. Jimmie Foxx 1932 Red Sox – 169

Contributing sources:
RBI Leaders, BASEBALL-REFERENCE 
More on: Hack Wilson

March 19: Tragedy at Cubs Camp

MARCH 19, 1965 | MESA, ARIZONA – Tragedy struck the Chicago Cubs on this date in 1965. Cubs’ play-by-play announcer Jack Quinlan, shown here with Cubs star Ernie Banks, was killed in a car accident on the outskirts of Mesa, Arizona where the Cubs were training.

The accident occurred late in the evening when Quinlan’s car struck a parked truck. He was returning to Chandler, Arizona after playing golf in Mesa.

Quinlan was a broadcasting boy wonder after graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1948. He started doing Cubs games in 1952 at the age of 25. Hall of Fame Cubs’ broadcaster Jack Brickhouse wrote in his book A Voice for all Seasons, “He was dynamic and authoritative, and with his sense of humor they added up to a superb announcer. Sometimes I thought you could actually hear his smile on the air.”

Jack Quinlan was 38 when he died.

Contributing sources:
“Thanks for Listening,” by Jack Brickhouse, 1996
The Chicago Tribune, March 20, 1965