On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Bleed Cubbie Blue is pleased to present a light-hearted, Cubs-centric look at baseball’s colorful past, with plenty of the lore and various narratives to follow as they unfold over the course of time. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow along.

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

Today in baseball history:

• 1894 – King Kelly, probably the most popular baseball player of the 19th century, dies of pneumonia in Boston, MA. (2)
• 1920 – At a meeting to depose Ban Johnson as the American League president, a new 12-team National League, made up of the dissenting 11 teams plus one of the five teams loyal to Johnson, is agreed to. John Heydler will be its president and federal judge Kenesaw Landis the proposed chairman of the new commission. This revolutionary plan for a new senior circuit will be discarded a few days later, after four of the five American League clubs still backing Johnson agree to a joint meeting on November 12th in Chicago, IL. (2)
• 1934 – Ford Frick, National League publicity director, is named league President. He will eventually become Commissioner. (1,2)
• 1954 – American League owners approve the move of the Philadelphia Athletics to Kansas City. The vote is 6-2 in favor. The transplanted Athletics will play home games at Municipal Stadium, which will be expanded from 17,000 to 36,000 seats. (1,2)
• 1966 – Triple Crown winner Frank Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles is the unanimous choice as American League MVP. He becomes the first major league player to win the award in both leagues. (1,2)
• 1977 – Hall of Fame manager Bucky Harris dies on his 81st birthday. Harris won two World Championships and three American League pennants over a 29-year career with the Washington Senators and New York Yankees, among other teams. (2)
• 1983 – Atlanta Braves outfielder Dale Murphy, who hit .302 with 36 home runs, 121 RBI and 30 stolen bases in the National League, joins Ernie Banks, Joe Morgan and Mike Schmidt as one of the players who has won the MVP Award in consecutive years. Murphy receives 21 of the 24 first-place votes cast. (2)
• 1989 – Chicago Cubs outfielder Jerome Walton wins the 1989 National League Rookie of the Year Award, collecting 22 of 24 first-place votes to defeat teammate Dwight Smith. They are the first teammates to finish 1-2 in the NL voting since Philadelphia Phillies rookies Jack Sanford and Ed Bouchee in 1957. Walton also becomes the first Cubs player to win rookie honors since Billy Williams, in 1961. (1,2)
• 1998 – Chicago Cubs right fielder Sammy Sosa is named the National League MVP. Sosa hit 66 home runs and led the National League in RBI with 158 while carrying his team to the playoffs. (2)
• 2005 – Infielder Neifi Perez* and the Chicago Cubs agree to a $5 million, two-year contract. Perez, who became a free agent in October, hit .274 with 9 home runs and 54 RBI last season. (2)

Cubs Birthdays: Dwight Smith, Henry Rodríguez, Darwin Barney,

Today in History:

• 392 – Roman Emperor Theodosius declares Christian religion the state religion.
• 1519 – First meeting of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II and Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés in Tenochtitlan, Mexico.
• 1895 – German physicist Wilhelm Röentgen produces and detects electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today known as X-rays or Röentgen rays.
• 2023 – European Space Telescope Euclid releases its first images. It’s the first telescope able to capture an entire galaxy in one single exposure, also built to explore dark matter and dark energy.

Common sources:.

• (1) — Today in Baseball History.
• (2) — Baseball Reference.
• (3) — Society for American Baseball Research.
• (4) — Baseball Hall of Fame.
• (5) — This Day in Chicago Cubs history.
• For world history.

*pictured.

Some of these items spread from site to site without being verified. That is exactly why we ask for reputable sources if you have differences with a posted factoid. We are trying to set the record as straight as possible. But it isn’t brain surgery.

Also, the ‘history’ segment is highly edited for space and interest. Of course a great many other things happened on those days. We try to follow up on the interesting or unfamiliar ones.

Thanks for reading.