On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a light-hearted, Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow the various narrative paths.

“Maybe I called it wrong, but it’s official.” — Tom Connolly, HoF Umpire.

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Happy birthday to me!

Today in baseball history:

• 1945 – Happy Chandler, who had continued to serve in the U.S. Senate after becoming commissioner, resigns his political office. He will move the commissioner’s quarters to Cincinnati. (2)

• 1981 – Bill Giles, Phillies vice president for the past 11 years, heads a group that purchases the club for just over $30 million, the highest price paid to date for a major league club. Giles is the son of long-time National League president and Hall of Fame member Warren C. Giles. (1,2)

• 2018 – The Mets hire prominent player agent Brodie Van Wagenen as their General Manager, replacing Sandy Alderson. Other GMs have worked briefly as agents in the past, but none so prominent as Van Wagenen, who heads his own firm, CAA Baseball, and has a number of his clients currently playing in the organization. (2)

Cubs Birthdays: Mark Baldwin, Solly Hofman, Richie Barker, Arismendy Alcantara.

Today in History:

• 1390 – First trial for witchcraft in Paris.

• 1618 – English adventurer, writer and courtier Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against King James I of England.

• 1889 ”World Championship” Baseball Series, Polo Grounds, NYC: defending champion NY Giants (NL) beat Brooklyn Bridegrooms (AA), 3-2 in Game 9 to claim series, 6-3.

• 1929 – ”Black Tuesday” Wall Street Stock Market crashes triggering the “Great Depression.”

• 1945 – Happy Chandler resigns as US Senator, remains as baseball commissioner

• 1967 – Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni and James Rado’s musical “Hair” premieres in NYC

• 1969 – US Supreme Court orders end to all school segregation “at once.”

Common sources:

*pictured.

Things are as near to the truth as we can get them. Some of these items spread from site to site without being fact-checked, and that is why we ask for verifiable sources, so that we can help update the records and have documentation.