By Rick Kaempfer
In This Week in 1908
May 12th, 2024
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How Long Ago was 1908? The vast majority of games are umpired by only one man. This leads to what we would consider to be widespread cheating. Cubs third baseman Harry Steinfeldt is notorious for “accidentally tripping” players approaching third base while the umpire is watching the actio...
By Rick Kaempfer
In Today's Cub Birthday
May 12th, 2024
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~Hank Borowy 1916–2004 (Cubs 1945-1948) He had won 17, 14, and 15 games in his three previous seasons with Yankees, and had already won 10 games in 1945 when the Cubs acquired Hank. Borowy was 29 years old and in the prime of his career. People thought the Yankees had lost their minds. After Bo...
By Rick Kaempfer
In Today's Cub Birthday
May 11th, 2024
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5677 Views
~Milt Pappas 1939–2016 (Cubs 1970-1973) Milt had some of his best seasons as a big league pitcher with the Cubs at the tail end of his career. In 1971 he became one of only ten pitchers in big league history to strike out the side on nine pitches. In 1972 he came just one out […]...
By Rick Kaempfer
In Today's Cub Birthday
May 10th, 2024
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~Jim Hickman 1937–2016 (Cubs 1969-1973) After eight forgettable seasons with three different teams, Jim Hickman was magically transformed from a perennial struggler to a powerful slugger. In 1970 at the age of 33, “Gentleman Jim” somehow batted .315, with 32 home runs, 115 runs batted in, and 1...
By Rick Kaempfer
In This Week in 1945
May 10th, 2024
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5152 Views
This week (May 10–May 16) during the last year the Cubs went to the World Series (before 2016)… World War II *Georgia welcomes back the famous General Courtney Hodges *The New York Times describes the damage in Germany this way: “Berlin is dead. As a city, it no longer exists. The p...
By Rick Kaempfer
In Today's Cub Birthday
May 9th, 2024
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4176 Views
~Billy Jurges 1908–1997 (Cubs 1931-1938, 1946-1947) He was known as a fiery, ill-tempered, good fielding, weak-hitting shortstop for the Cubs, but he was also one of the team leaders during the best decade of the Cubs bad century (they were in the World Series in ’32, ’35, and ’38). Stories of ...
By Rick Kaempfer
In Today's Cub Birthday
May 8th, 2024
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3874 Views
~Ross Barnes 1850–1915 (White Stockings 1876-1877) Barnes was an integral member of that first National League Cubs team (then known as the White Stockings). He was one of three players brought over from Boston by Al Spalding to stock that original National League team. Barnes was already a fou...
By Rick Kaempfer
In This Weeks Historical Events
May 8th, 2024
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7816 Views
May 9, 1873 Future Chicago mayor Anton Cermak is born. Throughout the last century many of Chicago’s mayors have been White Sox fans (most notably the Daleys), but there have been a few notable exceptions, and Mayor Cermak may have been the most famous. He loved the Cubs. When the Cubs and Yank...
By Rick Kaempfer
In Today's Cub Birthday
May 7th, 2024
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3865 Views
~Mickey Doolin 1880–1951 (Cubs 1916) Doc, as he was known, was part of the first Cubs team to play at Wrigley Field. The previous season Doolin had also called the ballpark home–as a member of the Federal League Whales. When team owner Charles Weeghman merged the Whales/Cubs teams, he cherry pi...
By Rick Kaempfer
In This Week In Wrigley History
May 7th, 2024
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11055 Views
May 8, 1963 Cubs pitcher Bob Buhl ends his long nightmare. Pitchers are not supposed to be great hitters, but Bob Buhl had taken that concept to a whole different level. His record setting streak began in 1961, when he was still with the Milwaukee Braves. That year he got a whopping 4 hits in [&helli...
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