NATIONAL LEAGUE FOUNDED 1876
April 25, 1876
Chicago White Stockings — later to become the Cubs — make National League debut with 4-0 victory in Louisville. The team goes on to win the inaugural National League championship.
AMERICAN LEAGUE FOUNDED 1901
April 24, 1901
In the team’s debut, Roy Patterson pitches White Sox to their first American League victory, an 8-2 win over Cleveland at 39th Street Grounds.
Sept. 13, 1902
Infielders Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance, later immortalized in verse, play together for first time.
SOX 1ST WORLD TITLE 1906
Oct. 14, 1906
White Sox, a.k.a. The Hitless Wonders (they batted a league-worst .230), beat heavily favored, 116-game-winning Cubs 8-3 in Game 6 to win World Series.
CUBS 1ST WORLD TITLE 1907
1907
“Cubs” officially becomes team’s nickname, after years of being known as, among other things, the White Stockings, Colts, Orphans, Spuds, Zephyrs, Rainmakers, Cowboys, Rough Riders, Remnants, Nationals and Trojans.
CUBS LAST WORLD TITLE 1908
3-Finger Mordecai Brown
Two separate child-hood farm accidents cost Brown his index finger and badly mangled two others. But his gnarled hand allowed him to do wondrous things with a baseball. With a curveball second to none, “Three Finger” Brown was one of the dominant pitchers of the early 20th Century, winning 239 games in his 14-year career.
COMISKEY PARK OPENS 1910
July 1, 1910
Charles A. Comiskey opens his brand new “Base Ball (sic) Palace of the World” at 35th and Shields. It serves as the Sox’s home for the next 80 years.
1911
With African-Americans banned from the major leagues, Andrew “Rube” Foster organizes Chicago American Giants, soon to become one of black baseball’s best teams.
WEEGHMAN PARK BUILT 1914
CUBS MOVE TO WEEGHMAN 1916
SOX LAST WORLD TITLE 1917
May 2, 1917
Fred Toney of Cincinnati and Jim “Hippo” Vaughn of the Cubs both pitch hitless ball for nine innings at Wrigley Field, then known as Weeghman Park. Reds win 1-0 on two hits in 10th. Toney completes his no-hitter.
Oct. 9, 1919
Sox lose 9-1 to Cincinnati and drop World Series five games to three amid rumors some Sox were not exactly playing their best. A year later, eight “Black Sox” are barred from baseball for life, even though they were acquitted at trial.
NEGRO NATIONAL LEAGUE FOUNDED 1920
May 2, 1920
In front of more than 8,000 spectators, the Indianapolis ABCs beat the visiting Chicago American Giants 4 to 2 in the Negro National League’s inaugural game.
Oct. 1, 1924
First Chicago baseball game broadcast on radio when Cubs and Sox meet in post-season City Series at Cubs Park.
May 15, 1929
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Rookie first baseman Art Shires, a hard-drinker, gets into a clubhouse fight with Sox manager Lena Blackburne and is KO’d. He is fined and suspended 10 days. A “rematch,” in a Philadelphia hotel room, on Sept. 14, results in a season-ending suspension for Shires.
Oct. 12, 1929
Nine outs from tying World Series at two games apiece, Cubs blow 8-0 lead as Philadel-phia A’s score 10 runs in seventh inning. Athletics win 10-8 and go on to win Series in five games.
1930 season
Hack Wilson hits 56 homers, a National League record that stood for 68 years, and drives in 191 runs, a major-league mark that still stands. A year later he hits just 13 homers with 61 RBIs and is traded to St. Louis.
Oct. 1, 1932
In Game 3 of the World Series -which ends in a Yankees sweep -Babe Ruth either points to the Wrigley Field bleachers or at Cubs taunting him from the dugout, then hits a homer that goes down in history as Ruth’s called shot.
1ST ALL STAR GAME 1933
July 6, 1933
Comiskey Park is site of first All-Star game. Babe Ruth hits a home run, and American League wins 4-2.
On Sept. 10, first Negro league All-Star game is held at Comiskey Park and draws more than 20,000 fans.
Sept. 28, 1938
Gabby Hartnett’s two-out, two-strike, last-of-the-ninth home run-the “homer in the Gloamin'” -beats darkness and first-place Pittsburgh 6-5. Three days later Cubs beat St. Louis for their 10th win in a row, clinching the pennant.
1ST COMISKEY PARK NIGHT GAME 1939
April 26, 1941
With Roy Nelson at the keys, Wrigley Field becomes first ballpark with an organ.
July 1, 1943
First night game played at Wrigley Field, a benefit all-star contest featuring women from the All-American Girls Professional Ball League.
LAST CUBS PENNANT 1945
Oct. 6, 1945
Billy Goat Tavern owner Bill Sianis (above) is not allowed to bring his pet goat to Game 4 of World Series at Wrigley Field. He puts a curse on the Cubs, who haven’t been to a World Series since.
May 18, 1947
Cubs draw single-game team-record 46,572 fans for game against Brooklyn and its new first baseman, Jackie Robinson (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
June 14, 1949
One-time Cub Eddie Waitkus, now with Phillies, becomes the inspiration for “The Natural” when he is shot in the Edgewater Beach Hotel by Ruth Ann Steinhagen, a 19-year-old fan.
1951
Under new manager Paul Richards and sparked by the likes of Nellie Fox, Billy Pierce, shortstop Chico Carrasquel, first baseman Eddie Robinson, rookie center fielder Jim Busby, pitcher Saul Rogovin and left fielder Minnie Minoso–the Sox launch a string of 17 straight winning seasons.
May 1, 1951
Minnie Minoso of the White Sox becomes city’s first black player when he debuts with a home run off Yankees’ Vic Raschi.
CHICAGO AMERICAN GIANTS LAST SEASON 1952
Sept. 8, 1953
The Cubs buy the contract of Ernie Banks, a 22-year-old shortstop, from the Negro leagues’ Kansas City Monarchs for $10,000.
April 23, 1955
The Sox tie the all-time American League single-game record for runs scored in a 29-6 rout of the A’s in Kansas City. Bob Nieman drives in seven runs, Chico Carrasquel and Sherm Lollar get five hits each and the Sox hit seven home runs. Naturally, the Sox are shut out the next two games.
Dec. 20, 1958
Bill Veeck and his investors buy White Sox, and baseball games on the South Side will never be the same. Among nightly surprises will be fireworks displays, midgets posing as Martians and other silliness.
SOX LAST PENNANT 1959
Sept. 22, 1959
Sox’s 4-2 victory at Cleveland clinches first pennant in 40 years. Back in Chicago, Fire Commissioner Robert Quinn orders city’s air-raid sirens turned on to celebrate, but thousands of non-baseball fans fear the worst and flee to basements and air-raid shelters and brace for imminent Soviet attack.
Jan. 12, 1961
Cubs owner Phil Wrigley announces plan to have the team run by a revolving college of coaches.
Team finishes next-to-last in standings in 1961 and ’62 before experiment is abandoned.
Sept. 9, 1969
Cubs lose to N. Y. Mets 7-1, their 6th straight loss, after a black cat walks past their dugout. Next day, they lose to the Phils and fall into 2nd place behind the Mets. The Cubs, in 1st place almost all season, lose 17 of 25 in September and end up 8 games out.
Dec. 10, 1975
With AL owners set to move Sox to Seattle and allow Charlie Finley to move his A’s to Comiskey Park, Bill Veeck and his investors re-purchase club from John Allyn, keeping Sox in Chicago.
Aug. 8, 1976
Sox wear shorts for first game of doubleheader against Royals. Sox steal five bases in game. They return in the evening wearing sensible pants.
July 12, 1979
“Disco Demolition” draws 47,795 to Comiskey Park to watch WLUP’s Steve Dahl blow up a pile of disco records between games of doubleheader. Thousands pour onto field, tearing it up and forcing Sox to forfeit second game.
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1981
Bill Veeck sells White Sox to a partnership, headed by Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, for $20.5 million. William Wrigley sells Cubs to Tribune Co. for $20.5 million.
Sept. 17, 1983
“Winnin’ ugly” Sox beat Seattle 4-3 to clinch AL West championship, Chicago baseball’s first title in 24 years. They go on to lose to Orioles in League Championship Series. Club becomes first Chicago team to surpass 2 million in attendance.
Oct. 2-7, 1984
Cubs lose to San Diego in National League Championship Series, three games to two. Cubs had won first two games, 13-0 and 4-2 in Chicago, but lost three in San Diego.
July 22, 1986
Cubs fire ballgirl Marla Collins after she poses for Playboy pictorial.
CUBS 1ST WRIGLEY NIGHT GAME 1988
June 30, 1988
Several minutes past a midnight deadline, and with some arm-twisting by Gov. Jim Thompson, Illinois General Assembly passes an amended stadium bill that ensures Sox will stay in Chicago. Sox owners were prepared to move team to St. Petersburg, Fla.
NEW COMISKEY PARK DEBUTS 1991
March 30, 1992
White Sox send Sammy Sosa and Ken Patterson to Cubs for George Bell.
NEW COMISKEY PARK DEBUTS 1994
Aug. 12, 1994
With Sox 67-46, one game ahead of Cleveland in the AL Central and on pace to draw more than 2.6 million, a strike by the players union ends season. Baseball is shut down until late April 1995.
July 31, 1997
With the club 3 1/2 games out of AL Central lead, Sox trade three of their top pitchers to Giants for seven minor-leaguers. The deal amazes the baseball world and helps further alienate a fan base still angry over 1994 strike.
May 6, 1998
A 20-year-old Kerry Wood, only a month into his major-league career, strikes out 20 Houston batters in a 2-0 Cubs victory at Wrigley, tying the all-time record for K’s.
1998 season
Sammy Sosa and St. Louis’ Mark McGwire stage season-long home run derby that ends with McGwire hitting 70 and Sosa 66. Sosa’s heroics lead Cubs to play-offs–where they lose to Atlanta in three games — and him to the NL Most Valuable Player award.
Oct. 14, 2003
A foul fly. Grabby fan. An 8-run 8th inning and a Florida Marlins victory. There’s always next year.