What s in a (team) name?, Part 4 ( Microbes ?) By JohnW53 on Jan 6, 2021, 3:31am CST +
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From 1898 through the early years of the 20th Century, the team customarily was called the Orphans.
But at various times the Chicago Tribune featured several alternative names, none of which gained public favor.
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The Tribune actually introduced this name before the first appearance of Orphans.
The team began the 1898 on the road, winning 5 of 8 games, with 2 more rained out.
On April 29, the Tribune published this: Threatening skies and dull, dripping rain lasted long enough yesterday morning to scare the managers of the Chicago club into postponing the opening game of the local season until this afternoon. . . .
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MINNEAPOLIS All of the roster chaos created by the pandemic-impacted 2020 season had one interesting side effect: unusual uniform numbers became more prevalent around the Majors as clubs dug deep into their depth to call up players who, in many cases, had those extra numbers assigned to them in Spring Training.
In fact, baseball finally saw every jersey number from 0 to 99 worn in an MLB game when the Yankees assigned No. 89 to Miguel Yajure on Aug. 20. The Twins narrowly missed being part of history, as Minnesota right-hander Edwar Colina was one month too late to become the first player in MLB history to wear No. 86.
Cubs lineup: Hometown Heroes
P : Toby Kaufmann
Admittedly, not exactly Murderer s Row.
But each of them truly is a hometown hero. Each and every one was born in Chicago.
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FAN FAVORITE PHILLIABUCK
Cavarretta s name, if not his nickname, is familiar to most long-time Cubs fans. He joined the Cubs in 1934, when he was just 17 years old, and played for them for 20 seasons, through 1953. He was the National League s Most Valuable Player in 1945, when he led the Major Leagues in batting average (.355) and on-base percentage (.449). A career-high .500 slugging mark made his OPS .949, more than 100 points higher than he posted in any other season.
14 Cubs form chain that spans 145 seasons By JohnW53 on Dec 20, 2020, 7:35am CST 1
Some years ago, an enterprising baseball historian figured out how to make a chain of just 9 players that spanned the history of Major League Baseball.
It began with Harry Wright of the 1869 Cincinnati Reds, the first professional team. In his final season, another player was a rookie, and it that player s final season, a third player was a rookie, and so on to the current season.
(I hunted for the story online but could not find it.)
I wondered how few players it would take to do something similar using only Cubs, and beginning in 1876, the first year of the National League.
December 17, 2020
The year 2020 has not been filled with good news as far as baseball is concerned, but on Wednesday, some arrived. After lengthy study, Major League Baseball announced that it will officially recognize seven professional Negro Leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948 as major leagues. For as overdue as the decision is, it’s first and foremost an official acknowledgement as if one was needed that the baseball played in those leagues at a time when MLB’s shameful color line was in effect was of comparable quality.
“In the minds of baseball fans worldwide, this serves as historical validation for those who had been shunned from the Major Leagues and had the foresight and courage to create their own league that helped change the game and our country too,” said Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, via MLB’s press release. “This acknowledgement is a meritorious nod to the courageous owners and players who he