Chicago Cubs history unpacked, November 17 — Sveum, Quade, Bryant, Epstein

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a 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.

Today in baseball history:

1903 – Chicago Cubs shortstop Joe Tinker tells an interviewer that it is “impossible to fix” a major league baseball game. (2)
1953 – The St. Louis Browns officially become the Baltimore Baseball Club Inc. The Baltimore franchise board officially changes its name to the Orioles, the traditional name for baseball teams from the city.
1965 – Major League Baseball owners unanimously elect William D. Eckert as Commissioner, succeeding Ford Frick, who leaves office after 14 years. Eckert, a retired Lt. General in the United States Air Force, becomes baseball’s fourth commissioner. He will serve only one term before being replaced by Bowie Kuhn. (1,2)
2011 – The Chicago Cubs announce they have hired Dale Sveum as their new manager, replacing Mike Quade. Sveum managed the Milwaukee Brewers at the tail end of the 2008 season, ending a swoon and leading them through their first playoff appearance since the 1982 World Series, but has not managed since. (2)
2020 – Theo Epstein, the architect behind the Chicago Cubs’ 2016 World Series title that ended a drought of over a century, and before that of the Boston Red Sox‘ first title in almost 90 years in 2004 as the original wunderkind General Manager, resigns from his job as team President of the Cubs. Still in his 40s, he is likely to look for a new challenge in baseball at some point in the future, but for now he sticks to his principle that a senior executive should not stay with an organization for more than ten years. (2)

Cubs Birthdays: Tom Dettore, Mitch Williams, Darnell McDonald, Scott Moore. Also notable: Tom Seaver HOF.

Today in History:

1603 – English explorer, writer and courtier Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.
1869 – Suez Canal in Egypt opens, linking Mediterranean and Red seas.
1926 – NHL’s Chicago Black Hawks play their first game, beat Toronto St Pats 4-1.
1973 – US President Richard Nixon tells AP: “…people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”

Common sources:

*pictured.

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. Also, this is supposed to be fun.

Thanks for reading.