Chicago Cubs history unpacked — October 14

Free of charge for the discerning reader.

Happy birthday to Carlos Marmol, and a mighty host of others.

Today in baseball history, in 1908 – Before the smallest crowd in World Series history (6,210), the host Detroit Tigers are tamed on three hits by Orval Overall, who strikes out 10 in a 2-0 triumph. The Chicago Cubs win the World Series in five games. Upset over seating arrangements at the World Series, sports reporters form a professional group that will become the Baseball Writers Association of America, and other stories as well.

Today in baseball history:

• 1896 – Future Negro Leagues star and Hall of Famer Oscar Charleston is born in Indianapolis.
• 1905 – Christy Mathewson shuts out the Philadelphia Athletics, 2-0, to give the New York Giants the World Series in five games. All are shutouts, with Mathewson getting three, Joe McGinnity one, and Charles Bender of Philadelphia one.
• 1906 – The Chicago White Sox jump on the Chicago Cubs’ Three Finger Brown for seven runs in the first two innings and coast behind Doc White to a 7-1 World Series-ending victory. The losers share of $439.50 for the Cubs is the lowest ever.
• 1927 – Walter Johnson retires as a player. He will return to the majors as a manager.
• 1964 – In Game 6 of the World Series, New York Yankees Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle hit home runs on back-to-back pitches from Curt Simmons of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Joe Pepitone belts a grand slam. New York wins, 8-3, at St. Louis and evens the Series, forcing a decisive seventh game.
• 1965 – Sandy Koufax pitches his second shutout to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 2-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins and the World Series in seven games.
• 1973 – The New York Mets win Game 2 of the World Series, 10-7, scoring four runs in an 11th inning that features the last major league hit by Willie Mays and two errors by Oakland Athletics second baseman Mike Andrews. 
• 1975 – The Cincinnati Reds take a 2-1 lead in the World Series with a controversial 6-5, 10-inning victory over the Boston Red Sox in Cincinnati. In the 10th inning, Reds pinch-hitter Ed Armbrister attempts a sacrifice bunt and bounces the ball in front of the plate. Boston catcher Carlton Fisk, in an attempt to field the ball, collides with Armbrister and throws the ball into center field while trying to force Cesar Gerónimo at second base. Gerónimo goes to third base and later scores the game winner, as Armbrister moves to second. Home plate umpire Larry Barnett rules there is no interference despite heated protests by the Red Sox.
• 1976 – Chris Chambliss hits a ninth-inning home run off Mark Littell to give the New York Yankees a 7-6 victory over the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS and their first American League pennant since 1964.
• 1984 – Kirk Gibson hits two home runs to lead the Detroit Tigers to an 8-4 victory and the World Series in five games over the San Diego Padres.
• 1992 – The Toronto Blue Jays become the first Canadian baseball team to reach the World Series with a 9 – 2 victory over the Oakland Athletics in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series. Joe Carter and Candy Maldonado hit home runs for Toronto.
• 1992 – Pinch-hitter Francisco Cabrera delivers a two-out single in the bottom of the 9th inning, driving in the tying and winning runs for the Atlanta Braves in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. Cabrera’s heroics give the Braves a dramatic 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates and a spot in the World Series.
• 1997 – Kevin Brown pitches a complete game and Bobby Bonilla collects three RBI as the Florida Marlins defeat the Atlanta Braves, 7-4, winning the National League Championship Series, 4-2.
• 1998 – The San Diego Padres reach the World Series for the first time since 1984, shutting down the Atlanta Braves’ comeback bid behind MVP Sterling Hitchcock, for a 5-0 victory in Game 6 of the NLCS.
• 2015 – The Blue Jays complete a comeback from a two-games-to-none deficit by defeating the Rangers, 6-3, in Game 5 of the ALDS. The game features a wild seventh inning. In the top half, Rougned Odor scores the go-ahead run for Texas when C Russell Martin‘s throw back to P Aaron Sanchez hits Shin-soo Choo‘s bat and goes astray; the crowd at Rogers Centre screams for an interference call and pelts the field with debris, but the umpires allow the run to stand. In the bottom of the inning, the Rangers commit three straight errors to load the bases with none out, then the Blue Jays score four runs on a pop-up that drops just out of Odor’s reach, and a three-run homer by Jose Bautista off Sam Dyson, followed by an epic bat flip.
• 2021 – The Division Series between the Dodgers and Giants, the teams who posted the two best records in the majors this year, goes to the very limit, as the Dodgers score the winning run in the top of the ninth in Game 5, with Cody Bellinger‘s single off Camilo Doval driving in Justin Turner. Max Scherzer then comes out to pitch the bottom of the 9th, earning his first career save in nailing down the 2-1 win.

Today in Cubs history:

• 1929 – The Philadelphia Athletics rally for three runs in the 9th inning to beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2, and take the World Series in five games. A two-run home run by Mule Haas ties the game and Bing Miller hits a RBI double to get the victory. There won’t be another winning rally by a team down two runs in the ninth inning of a Series final game in the 20th century. The Arizona Diamondbacks, in 2001, will do it next.
• 2003 – Holding a 3-0 lead and needing only five more outs to reach the World Series for the first time since 1945, the Chicago Cubs give up eight runs on five hits, three walks and an error to the Florida Marlins. Chicago appears to come apart after a Cubs fan, sitting along the left-field foul line at Wrigley Field, tries to catch a foul ball that is about to be caught by Cubs’ outfielder Moises Alou for the second out of the inning, although the bigger blow comes when SS Alex Gonzalez misplays a routine double play grounder a few moments later. The Cubs also will lose the seventh and final game of the NLCS.
• 2017 – The Dodgers win Game 1 of the NLCS, 5-2, at home over the Cubs. Chris Taylor breaks a 2-2 tie with a solo homer off Hector Rondon in the sixth, and Yasiel Puig follows suit with a shot off Mike Montgomery in the seventh as six Dodgers pitchers limit Chicago to five hits.

Cubs Birthdays: Brad Wieck, Julian Merryweather, Carlos Marmól*, Joe Girardi, Art Shamsky, Hugh Casey, Ed Eiteljorg, Tom Poorman, Charlie Waitt, Joe Start. Also notable: Oscar Charleston HOF.

Today in history:

• 1884 – George Eastman patents paper strip photographic film.
• 1947 – Chuck Yeager makes the first supersonic flight in the Bell XS-1 at Mach 1.06.
• 1957 – Everly Brothers’ single “Wake Up Little Susie” reaches No. 1.
• 1960 – Peace Corps first suggested by John F. Kennedy in a speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
• 1964 – Little known American distance runner Billy Mills scores major upset by winning the 10,000m at the Tokyo Olympics; beats Mohammed Gammoudi of Tunisia by 0.4 second; only American to ever win the event.
• 1968 – American sprinter Jim Hines runs a world record 9.95s to beat Lennox Miller of Jamaica and Charles Greene of the US, and win the 100m gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics.
• 1968 – The Beatles finish recording their double album “The Beatles” more commonly known as “The White Album.”
• 1977 – RCA releases David Bowie‘s 12th studio album, “Heroes”; his second collaboration with Brian Eno in what becomes known as his ‘Berlin trilogy’ features contributions from guitarist Robert Fripp
• 1985 – New York Jets retire Joe Namath‘s No. 12 on nationally televised Monday Night Football; beat Miami Dolphins, 23-7.

*pictured.