Chicago Cubs history unpacked — October 9

Free of charge for the discerning reader.

Happy birthday to Courtney Duncan*, and a mighty host of others.

Today in baseball history, in 1906 – Snow flies at Chicago’s West Side Park as the first one-city World Series opens with the 116-win Cubs heavy favorites. However, White Sox starter Nick Altrock outduels Three Finger Brown for a 2-1 victory, and other stories as well.

Today in baseball history:

• 1905 – Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants outpitches 26-game winner Eddie Plank and the Philadelphia Athletics, 30, in the first game of an all-shutout World Series.
• 1910 – Nap Lajoie, in a batting race with Ty Cobb, collects eight hits for Cleveland in a season-ending doubleheader with the St. Louis Browns. The hits are somewhat tainted, however, as St. Louis third baseman Red Corriden plays back while Lajoie bunts safely six times. Cobb still wins.
• 1916 – Babe Ruth outpitches Sherry Smith of the Brooklyn Robins as the Boston Red Sox win the longest World Series game, 2-1, in 14 innings. The number of innings will be matched in 2005, and annihilated by Game 3 of the 2018 World Series which goes 18 innings and lasts over seven hours.
• 1919 – Chicago White Sox starter Lefty Williams gets just one man out in the first inning and the Cincinnati Reds go on to a 10-5 victory. Cincinnati wins the best-of-nine World Series in eight games. A year after the Series ends, the White Sox will become the “Black Sox“, and eight players will be barred from baseball for taking part in throwing the Series, including Williams who was allegedly threatened before the game to make sure the outcome is no longer in doubt after the first inning.
• 1920 – Several hours before the start of Game 4 of the World Series, Brooklyn’s Rube Marquard, a Cleveland native, is arrested when he tries to sell a ticket to an undercover cop for $350. He will be found guilty and fined a dollar and court costs ($3.80). For their first World Series game on the lakefront, 25,734 Indians fans watch their home team score two in the first and two in the third off Leon Cadore and Al Mamaux. Cleveland wins the game, 5-1.
• 1926 – The St. Louis Cardinals’ Grover Alexander scatters eight hits in Game 6 of the World Series while St. Louis tees off New York at Yankee Stadium for a 10-2 romp that sends the Series to a seventh game.
• 1928 – Babe Ruth hits three home runs in a World Series game for the second time in his career as the Yankees beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3.
• 1934 – The St. Louis Cardinals’ Dizzy Dean blanks the Detroit Tigers, 11-0, in Game 7 of the World Series.
• 1944 – The Cardinals top the Browns, 3-1, and win the World Series in six games.
• 1949 – The Yankees pound the Brooklyn Dodgers, 10-6, to win the World Series in five games.
• 1958 – The New York Yankees’ Bob Turley pitches 6.2 shutout innings in relief to beat the Milwaukee Braves, 6-2, for the World Series title. New York becomes the first team since 1925 to win the World Series after being down three games to one.
• 1966 – In the World Series, Dave McNally of the Baltimore Orioles wraps up a brilliant pitching display, and a World Championship, with a four-hit 1-0 victory. Frank Robinson‘s home run off Don Drysdale gives Baltimore a surprising sweep of the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers. The 33 consecutive scoreless innings pitched by Baltimore sets a World Series record.
• 1984 – The Detroit Tigers win the World Series opener as Jack Morris pitches a complete game, 3-2, victory over San Diego. Larry Herndon‘s two-run home run in the fifth inning provides the winning margin.
• 1988 – The Oakland Athletics complete a four-game sweep in the American League Championship Series by beating the Boston Red Sox, 4-1. Jose Canseco ties a playoff record with his third home run of the Series and Dennis Eckersley sets a major league playoff mark with his fourth save.
• 2017 – In the ALDS, Houston eliminates Boston with a 5-4 win in Game 4. Boston takes a 3-2 lead in the 5th on a two-run homer by Andrew Benintendi off Justin Verlander, making the first relief appearance of his career. In the eighth, Alex Bregman ties it with a solo homer off Chris Sale, also making an unexpected relief outing, before Carlos Beltran drives in the go-ahead run with a single off closer Craig Kimbrel.

Today in Cubs history:

• 1938 – In the World Series, the New York Yankees become the first team to win three successive World Championships, defeating the Cubs, 8-3. Red Ruffing posts his second victory of the Series as the Yankees sweep the Cubs for the second time in six years.
• 1989 – The Giants win their first National League pennant since 1962 by defeating the Cubs, 3-2, in Game 5 of the NLCS. Will Clark bats .650 in the series with eight RBI to win MVP honors.
• 2015 – John Lackey is the star, pitching 7.1 innings during which he gives up no runs on two hits, making a 1-0 Cardinals lead dating back to the 1st inning hold. The Cards score three more runs in the bottom of the eighth, on a pinch-hit homer by Tommy Pham and a two-run shot by Stephen Piscotty, and end up 4-0 winners over the Cubs and Jon Lester.
• 2017 – Max Scherzer pitches no-hit ball until one out in the seventh, when Ben Zobrist hits a double for the Cubs then scores the tying run on a single by pinch-hitter Albert Almora. In the eighth, Anthony Rizzo drops a hit between a trio of players in the outfield to allow Leonys Martin to score from second, and Chicago wins Game 3 of the NLDS, 2-1, over Washington.
• 2025 – In the other NLDS, Ian Happ hits a three-run homer off Freddy Peralta in the bottom of the 1st, and it’s all the runs the Cubs need as they go on to defeat the Brewers, 6-0. The win forces a decisive Game 5 to be played.

Cubs Birthdays: Derek Holland, David Phelps, Courtney Duncan*, Félix Fermín, Jim Qualls, Joe Pepitone, Dave Rowe. Also notable: Joe Sewell HOF. Rube Marquard HOF.

Today in history:

• 1000 – Leif Erikson reaches “Vinland” (possibly L’Anse aux Meadows, Canada), reputedly becoming the first European to reach North America.
• 1781 – Americans under George Washington and the French under Comte de Rochambeau begin bombardment of Yorktown, the last battle of American Revolutionary War.
• 1924 – Municipal Grant Park Stadium in Chicago, Illinois (later known as Soldier Field) is officially dedicated.
• 1936 – Hoover Dam begins transmitting electricity to Los Angeles.
• 1965 – The Beatles’ single “Yesterday” goes No. 1 and stays there for four weeks.
• 2012 – Women’s rights and education activist Malala Yousafzai is shot by a Taliban gunman as she tries to board her school bus in the Swat district of northwest Pakistan.
• 2022 – Brightest cosmic explosion ever seen: a gamma-ray burst 2.4 billion light-years away, believed to be a massive star collapsing to form a black hole in a 1-in-10,000-year event.

*pictured.