6 C u b s THE CUBS ARE BORN hicago Illinois has been known as the Windy City since the late 1800s Some suggest that the nickname took root because the city which was built on the banks of Lake Michigan in the early 1800s is often visited by fierce breezes off the lake Some say it was born out of a rivalry with the city of Cincinnati Ohio which used the nickname derisively or that a New York City newspaperman coined the term when Chicago hosted the World’s Fair in 1893 Still others claim that it’s a reference to how eager many of Chicago’s 2 8 million residents are to brag about their midwestern home Those residents who make Chicago the third-largest metropolitan area in the United States can take pride in many things about their city including the fact that Chicago boasts professional teams in every prominent American sport including one of the oldest major league baseball clubs in the country the Chicago Cubs When baseball’s National League NL was founded in 1876 the Chicago White Stockings whose name later changed to the Cubs were one of the original teams C
Downtown Chicago has long been marked by towering skyscrapers including the 108-story Willis Tower named the Sears Tower until 2009
ALL-TIME CUBS C u b s 8 Chicago Cubs (cid:39)(cid:32)(cid:43)(cid:26)(cid:31)(cid:28)(cid:41)(cid:1)(cid:76)(cid:1)MORDECAI BROWN When a boy grows up with a nickname like Three Finger his prospects of becoming a major-league pitcher are not great As a child Mordecai Brown lost a finger in a farm machine accident Later while chasing a rabbit he fell and broke his other fingers leaving him with a bent middle finger a paralyzed pinky and a mere stump of an index finger This odd combination however allowed him to get a grip on a baseball that provided excellent movement much like the split-finger fastball thrown by pitchers today Brown pitched 10 years for the Cubs posting 6 consecutive seasons of 20 or more victories STATS Cubs seasons 1904 12 1916 Height 5-foot-10 Weight 175 (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:18)(cid:19)(cid:25)(cid:110)(cid:17)(cid:19)(cid:16)(cid:0)(cid:67)(cid:65)(cid:82)(cid:69)(cid:69)(cid:82)(cid:0)(cid:82)(cid:69)(cid:67)(cid:79)(cid:82)(cid:68) (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:18)(cid:23)(cid:17)(cid:0)(cid:67)(cid:79)(cid:77)(cid:80)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:84)(cid:69)(cid:0)(cid:71)(cid:65)(cid:77)(cid:69)(cid:83) (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:18)(cid:14)(cid:16)(cid:22)(cid:0)(cid:67)(cid:65)(cid:82)(cid:69)(cid:69)(cid:82)(cid:0)(cid:37)(cid:50)(cid:33) (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:34)(cid:65)(cid:83)(cid:69)(cid:66)(cid:65)(cid:76)(cid:76)(cid:0)(cid:40)(cid:65)(cid:76)(cid:76)(cid:0)(cid:79)(cid:70)(cid:0)(cid:38)(cid:65)(cid:77)(cid:69)(cid:0)(cid:73)(cid:78)(cid:68)(cid:85)(cid:67)(cid:84)(cid:69)(cid:69)(cid:0) 1949 Mordecai Brown Pitcher
Player manager A G Spalding pitched the team’s first game and recorded its first hit on April 25 of that year launching a 52 14 campaign that earned Chicago the league’s first pennant But after the team posted a losing record in 1877 Spalding retired In 1879 first baseman Adrian Cap Anson began a 19-year tenure as the team’s manager leading Chicago to 5 NL pennants by 1886 But in the next decade the team slipped low in the standings where it would remain until the turn of the century During the early years of professional baseball it was common for a team to change its name frequently The Chicago squad was known by 15 different names during its first 25 years from White Stockings to Colts and even Orphans But when the club went through an obvious youth movement in 1902 under the leadership of new manager Frank Selee a Chicago newspaper began to refer to the young team as the Cubs By 1903 the team had adopted the title as its official name The early years of the 1900s were golden ones for Cubs baseball In 1907 another player manager first baseman Frank Chance led the Cubs to their first World Series victory as they beat the Detroit Tigers and star outfielder Ty Cobb The Cubs won the world championship C u b s 9
