Page 14 - Cap Anson News Today

share-square-1078505 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 narro...

Cubs lineup: Hometown Heroes P : Toby Kaufmann Admittedly, not exactly Murderers Row. But each of them truly is a hometown hero. Each and every one was born in Chicago. .......... FAN FAVORITE PHILLIABUCK Cavarrettas 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 Leagues Most Valuable Player in 1945, when he led the Major Leagues in batting averag...

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 players final season, a third player was a rookie, and so on to the current season. (I hunted for the st...

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 c...

Cubs catchers fiery farewell, Part 1 By JohnW53 on Dec 16, 2020, 7:07am CST + Many players, upon leaving the Cubs or other Major League teams, have written letters to their teammates and fans, often paying significant amount for them to appear as full-page advertisements in newspapers. More than 120 years ago, catcher Tim Donahue of the Orphans, as the Cubs then were known, wrote a farewell letter of a distinctly different kind, a letter that the Chicago Tribune printed in full, for...

When Cubs won pennant on final day By JohnW53 on Dec 15, 2020, 1:50am CST + They wrapped up the National League Central Division in 2017 on Wednesday, with 4 days to go. In 2007, they did it on Friday, with 2 days to go. The Cubs celebrated pennants in 1938 and 1945, and division titles, in 2003 and 2020, on Saturdays, with 1 day left -- in 1938, by winning Game 2 of a doubleheader; in 1945 and 2003, by sweeping twin bills. They won the 1908 NL crown with a 4-2 victory at New York o...

Cubs longest homers before 1900, Part 1 By JohnW53 on Dec 13, 2020, 6:46am CST 2 This one is for ernaga, loyal BCB reader and fellow lover of Cubs history, who posted this comment in response to my 2-part post about the Cubs "bounced" home runs: "In your extensive pre-1900 research, have you found contemporaneous accounts that draw frequent reference to home runs of exceptional distance as often as they apparently do to these bounce-ins?" .......... The longest home run likely hit ...

Cap Anson miscellany (funny stuff!) By JohnW53 on Dec 12, 2020, 7:06am CST + One of the delights of any kind of historical research is to come across some wholly unexpected aspect of the topic. It may not fit into the narrative being researched, but that makes it no less interesting, especially if it is funny. And it still may shed new light on, or provide new insight into, the character or personality of a person or organization. Following are just a few of the surprises that I enc...

Cap Anson, Chicago city clerk, Park 2 By JohnW53 on Dec 11, 2020, 3:41am CST + ......... By May of 1906, Cap Anson had been Chicagos city clerk for a little over a year, during which he had become embroiled in a number of disputes. One battle, over whether a friend whom Anson had appointed as chief clerk was a permanent or temporary hire, ended only when the citys Civil Service Commission froze the payroll for Ansons department. But that was small potatoes compared to what came next...

Cap Anson, Chicago city clerk, Park 1 By JohnW53 on Dec 10, 2020, 5:53am CST + Imagine if Michael Jordan, after leading the Bulls to their 6 NBA championships, had run for city office in Chicago. Thats pretty much what happened in 1906, when Cap Anson, legendary player-manager of the Cubs from 1876-97, entered the race for city clerk. In some ways, Anson was even more of an icon in Chicago in the early 20th Century than Jordan was near the centurys end. The Cubs, first known as the ...