Duane PesiceWed, November 26, 2025 at 12:00 PM UTC·2 min readHappy birthday to Matt Garza* and other former Cubs!
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:
1909 – The Philadelphia Phillies are sold for $350,000 to a group headed by sportswriter Horace Fogel. Because of his dual roles, Fogel will become the only executive barred from a league meeting. (2)
1948 – National League president Ford Frick steps in and pays $350 for funeral services, including the cost of a coffin, for the unclaimed body of Hack Wilson. The former slugger, who had died probably of alcohol abuse a few days earlier in a Baltimore hospital, is identified only as a white male. (2)
1961 – The Professional Baseball Rules Committee votes 8-1 against legalizing the spitball. Only National League supervisor of umpires Cal Hubbard votes in favor. (1,2)
1996 – Less than three weeks after major league owners voted 18-12 against ratification of baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement, owners vote again and this time approve it by a vote of 26-4. The landmark agreement brings interleague play to the regular season for the first time, as well as revenue sharing among owners and a payroll tax on players. (1,2)
1999 – Arbitrator Alan Symonette rejects the owners’ attempt to dismiss the umpires’ grievance, giving the 22 umps booted as a result of last season’s disastrous mass resignation strategy a chance to get their jobs back. Symonette will hear the grievance beginning December 13th. (2)
Cubs Birthdays: Hugh Duffy HOF, Jim Canavan, John Churry, Richie Hebner, Larry Gura, Jay Howell, Ron Meridith, Matt Garza*. Also notable: Lefty Gomez HOF.
Today in History:
1789 – First national Thanksgiving in America.
1868 – First baseball game played in enclosed field in San Francisco, at 25th & Folsom.
1917 – NHL forms with Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Maroons, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators & Quebec Bulldogs; National Hockey Association disbands.
1922 – English archaeologist Howard Carter opens Tutankhamun’s virtually intact tomb in Egypt.
1969 – Cream’s final concert (Royal Albert Hall).
2003 – Supersonic airplane the Concorde makes its last ever flight, returning to Bristol, England.
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.
(6) — Wikipedia.
(7) — The British Museum
(8) — For world history.
*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.
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