Chicago Cubs history unpacked — August 12

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Happy birthday to Matt Clement, and a mighty host of others.

Today in baseball history, in 2018 – After another great performance by Max Scherzer, the Nationals go into the bottom of the 9th with a 3 – 0 lead in a Sunday night game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, only to see rookie David Bote hit a two-out pinch-hit walk-off grand slam off Ryan Madson for a 4-3 win, and other stories as well.

Today in baseball history:

• 1876 – Chicago’s versatile Cal McVey has the unusual distinction of both pitching and catching in a 5-0 win over Cincinnati. The win goes to starter Al Spalding‚ his 10th straight win over the Reds
• 1930 – With 40‚000 fans on hand at Wrigley Field‚ Dazzy Vance gives up 14 hits and walks four but strands 16 Cubs runners. With the game tied 2-2 in the 11th, Riggs Stephenson bounces a single to drive in the winning run.
• 1934 – In St. Louis, the Cubs sweep the Deans‚ winning 7-2 against Paul‚ and 6-4 over Dizzy. Big Jim Weaver wins the opener and Pat Malone is the victor against Diz.
• 1951 – Roy Campanella breaks up a pitching duel between Don Newcombe and Boston’s Johnny Sain with a three-run homer‚ his second of the game‚ and the third time in nine games he’s collected a pair of homers. Campy’s five ribbies give the Dodgers a 7-2 win.
• 1953 – Brooklyn slugger Duke Snider hits his second grand slam in three days‚ accounting for all the runs in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win over the Giants. Carl Erskine allows New York just two hits.
• 1956 – At Wrigley Field‚ Stan Musial doubles in the sixth for his 1‚071st extra-base hit‚ tying Mel Ott for the National League record‚ but his Cards lose‚ 6-2.
• 1963 – Stan Musial announces his retirement, effective at the end of the season, at the St. Louis Cardinals’ annual team picnic.
• 1964 – Mickey Mantle sets a major league record when hits a home run from both sides of the plate for the tenth time in his career. Mantle hits a left-handed homer off Ray Herbert over the 461-foot marker in centerfield that lands 15 rows into the bleachers, 502 feet from the plate.
• 1974 – Nolan Ryan fans 19 batters in the California Angels’ 4-2 win over the Boston Red Sox. Ryan breaks the American League record of 18 strikeouts set by Bob Feller in 1938 and ties the major league record set by Steve Carlton in 1969 and Tom Seaver in 1970. He also ties the major league record with 32 Ks in his last two games.
• 2001 – The Braves fall to the Diamondbacks‚ 9-1‚ as Greg Maddux‘s National League-record streak for innings without allowing a walk is ended at 72.1. Maddux intentionally walks Steve Finley in the 3rd inning to end the streak.

Cubs Birthdays:Ian Happ, Matt Clement*, Dave Pavlas, Ellis Burton, Bob Buhl, Charlie Gassaway, Don Hurst. Also related: Ray Schalk HOF. Christy Mathewson HOF.

Today in history:

• 1492 – Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World,
• 1851 – American inventor Isaac Singer patents his famous sewing machine.
• 1877 – To his amazement, Thomas Edison records himself reciting “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on his newly completed cylinder phonograph, a device that records sound onto tinfoil cylinders.
• 1908 – Ford Motor Company builds its first Model T car, which Henry Ford himself tests on a hunting trip to Wisconsin and northern Michigan.
• 1958 – Art Kane photographs a group portrait of 57 leading jazz musicians assembled in front of a brownstone on 126th Street in NYC for Esquire magazine; originally titled “Harlem, 1958,” it appears as the centerfold of Esquire’s January 1959 issue celebrating the “Golden Age of Jazz”.
• 1966 – The Beatles hold a press conference at the Astor Tower Hotel, in Chicago, Illinois; John Lennon apologizes for his “more popular than Jesus” remark.
• 1966 – The last Beatles concert tour of North America begins with two shows at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1978 – NFL New England Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley suffers a spinal cord injury, leaving him with incomplete quadriplegia after a hit by Oakland Raiders’ Jack Tatum in a preseason exhibition game.
• 1991 – Heavy metal band Metallica releases its fifth album, “Metallica,” which debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
• 2016 – American star swimmer Katie Ledecky sets a world record of 8:04.79 to dominate the women’s 800 m field at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; a medal tally of four golds and onx silver makes her the most decorated US female athlete at one Olympics.

*pictured.