Chicago's Northside Baseball Team

The Chicago Cubs play in the National League, and play at Wrigley Field. Wrigley Field opened in 1914 with the Federal League Chicago Whales, and the NL moved in when the FL folded after the 1915 season.

Officially, the Chicago National League Ball Club (Cubs has only been part of their official name for less than 10 years) was founded in 1876. But let's look at what happened between 1915 and 1916.

When the Federal League folded, former Whales owner Weeghman bought the NL Cubs.

The team played in Weeghman field, as had the Whales. The park was later named for the successive owner Wrigley.

The Manager was Joe Tinker, who had managed the Whales for two seasons. The Cubs acquired Tinker along with 11 players on February 10th.

Looking at the 8 regulars for 1916 described by Retrosheet, 4 were with Chicago NL in 1915, 2 were with Chicago (FL), one was acquired in a trade mid-season, and one made his major league debut in 1916. That edge would go to the 1916 team being the continuation of the Cubs.

On the entire pitching staff (11 pitchers), 4 pitched for the Whales in '15, 3 were with the Cubs (including George Pierce, who appeared in only 4 games in 1916), and 4 were elsewhere in the majors. This would tend to suggest that the 1916 team was the continuation of the Whales.

Looking at all position players with 100 plate appearances, we find 7 on the 1915 Cubs, 5 on the 1915 Whales (including Art Wilson, who began 1916 in Pittsburgh), and 4 who were either out of the majors or with another club in 1915. So this puts it at 9 Cubs and 8 Whales counting regulars and pitchers except for Pierce and Wilson, with 8 spending their 1915 elsewhere. I'd say this might be too close to call.

If you look at the 18 players who had less than 100 PA and who were not pitchers, however, we find only one player who was on the 1915 Cubs -- catcher Bob O'Farrell, who played 2 games in 1915 and 1 in 1916. There are 5 Whales, including Tinker, and 12 who were elsewhere in the majors or minors in 1915. Counting all players, this makes 11 Cubs and 14 Whales including the manager.

So, is the current team the continuation of the Whales or of the Cubs?

Looking at 1998, we find the Milwaukee Brewers changed leagues but kept their same ownership and players. They also kept the history of the 1970-1997 Brewers. In 1972, the Washington Senators of the AL East moved to Texas and the AL West as the Rangers. They retained legal rights to the name Washington Senators and the records of all the Senators; eventually they transferred the 1901-1960 history to the Minnesota Twins, who had previously been the Senators.

If the current Cubs are in fact heirs to the Whales, then they have never won the World Series. Granted, the pennant they won in 1915 did not lead to a berth in the World Series, but they still did not win the Series. They were only 20 games over .500 (86-66), and had 2 fewer decisions than the St Louis Terriers (87-67). The Boston Red Sox finished 51 games over .500 and the Philadelphia Phillies were 28 games over .500 that year.

Penalty for celebration

In the Eagles-Cowboys game of 12 December, DeSean Jackson was flagged for excessive celebration after a touchdown. Looking at the replays, it seems the foul occured before the touchdown. Why was in not penalized from the spot of the foul rather than the succeeding spot? If the NFL really wants to cut down on taunting, they should have penalized this from the 1 instead of on the ensuing kickoff. I recall one Packer game from the late 1980s or early 1990s where there was a flag for excessive celebration after a touchdown that was called back due to a holding penalty. Both penalties were assessed before the next play.

IHSA Football playoffs

East St Louis (Sr.) qualified for the IHSA football playoffs and was seeded #1 in the southern half of the southern 7A bracket. They were later required to forfeit five of their victories because they had a player who did not live in their district, reducing their record to 4-5 and knocking them out of the playoffs.


If East St Louis (Sr.) were replaced in the IHSA football playoffs...

• They would have been replaced by Belleville Althoff (5-4, 38 playoff points), a 4A school.


• Metamora (8-1, 39) would move up to 5A.


• Crystal Lake Central (7-2, 41) would move up to 6A.


• Collinsville (5-4, 46) would move up to 7A.

Collinsville could easily take ESL's place in the south-south subbracket for 7A and teams would just move up one placement.


In 6A, SN#7 Dolton (Thornridge) (5-4, 43) would move from south-north to south-south, and N#9 Palos Heights (Shepherd) (6-3, 41) would move from north to south-north. Dolton (Th.) would play Danville and DeKalb would instead go to Rock Island (HS). Shepherd would become the SN#6 seed and Calumet City (TF North) would drop to SN#7 unless there is a restriction about playing conference opponents in the first round, in which case Shepherd would be SN#7 and TFN would be SN#6. CLC would become the #8 seed, knocking Lake Forest (HS) down to #9, so LFHS would lose a home game.


In 5A, the North would lose their #8 seed. They could be replaced with New at #8 Lenox (Lincoln-Way West), currently #4 in the south-north. Metamora would be coming in at #3 in the south-north, dropping Sterling to #4.


In 4A, Rochester would move from #1 in the south-south to #1 in the south-north, where #1 Pontiac would fall to #2. Belleville Althoff would come in at #8 and all eight teams would move up one spot in the rankings.



Total number of games affected: 6 in 4A, 3 in 5A, 4 in 6A (and the integrity of the bracket), 4 in 7A.


Total number of teams affected: 34.


The suggestion to create a bye was a better idea. Unfortunately, the courts required ESL be allowed back into the playoffs.

Why they call it FOOTball

The play at the end of the Montréal-Toronto CFL game last week featured a placekick, two punts, and a drop kick.



Video at the CFL website here.

No...

So Roy Halladay threw a no-hitter, the first in the postseason since Don Larsen in 1956. A lot of people are mentioning that this is the first time a pitcher has thrown two no-hitters in the same season since Nolan Ryan in 1973. Not too many are comparing this no-no, in the opening day of the playoffs, to the one by Bob Feller on Opening Day in 1940.

My fault

In golf and pick-up recreational sports, one often calls fouls on oneself. Rachel Blount of the Star Tribune tells about one NCAA women's volleyball team doing so here.

Myles Brand can't count

The Big Ten has 11 teams and will soon have 12. (The CIC, the academic arm of the conference, has 13.)
The Big Twelve has 10.
The Pac-10 has 12.
The A-10 has 14.



Maybe collegiate conferences should stop including the number of teams in their official name.

(Yes, I know Brand is dead.  But I don't know the name of his successor at the NCAA off the top of my head.)

NFL in court

In a recent Supreme Court Decision, SCOTUS declared that the NFL consists of 32 separate entities.



I am not a lawyer, I don't play one on television, and I do not work in a law library; I have not been following all the details of the cases. To me, this decision would seem to support the claim of Williams and Williams that their drug test should be subject to Minnesota State Law, since their employer is based in Minnesota.  There is one part of state law that the League and the Vikings failed to follow.

Top 10 reasons Obama rooted for the Saints

Note: If the Big Ten can have 11 teams, so can these top 10 lists

1. Part of the deal to get Louisiana Senators to vote for his health care package


2. He just wanted to upset David Letterman


3. If he supports New Orleans, and they lose, he can always blame Bush -- Reggie Bush


4. He thought it was the Saints' owner who came out against Rush Limbaugh owning part of the Rams


5. He hasn't forgiven the Colts for beating his Bears in Super Bowl XLI


6. He sees the Colts on TV too much because he doesn't watch Fox


7. Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Not him


8. The Colts are from the American Football Conference, and we all know how he feels about Americans


9. Saints wear White Sox colors, Colts wear Cubs colors


10. Ditka went to the Saints after he left da Bears


11. Hot tip from Tim Donaghy

Hit by pitch

So...Cardinals pitcher almost hits a NY Met batter in the head and gets a 3-game suspension.  Meanwhile, a Dodger pitcher hits a Brewer Fielder in the [cup], almost, and walks away with only a fine.  Is that baseball?  It surely isn't cricket.


Update: Later, that same Met gets hit in the head with a concussion and no pitcher suspension.

Who would you rather have...

...Michael Vick in 2009, or Tim Tebow in 2010?

AL wins All-Star game

Originally, the All-Star game was a chance to see NL players take on AL players before the World Series. Now we have Interleague Play for that.

Interleague play began in 1997. Since that time, the AL is 12-0-1 in the All-Star game, including tonight's game in St Louis.

NCAA Basketball rules question

So the NCAA has changed the rules about what to do when the designated shooter cannot take the free throws due to injury.


What about in a false double foul situation, when the designated shooter is disqualified before he [and does it apply to the women's game too?] can take the shots?  Currently, a substitute would take those free throws, but what about under the new rules?

UND Name Change

Story here, here, and elsewhere

The NDUS has decided that the University of North Dakota will not keep the Fighting Sioux athletic nickname unless the two Sioux tribes in North Dakota allow the university to do so for 30 years and make a decision by October 1st. So...here are some suggestions:

• Eliminate "Dakota" from the name as well; your Chester Fritz University Fighting Engelstads! (In sympathy, NDSU will drop Dakota from their name and become Fargo State, since Northern State is already taken.)


• Keep the old uniforms as long as possible: the Fighting S O X. Minnesota sports fans (and Northside Chicagoans) hate the White Sox anyway, so...


• Since Grand Forks is not as home to as many pre-Columbian Americans as it used to be, the Fighting Olsons (and the NDSU Fighting Andersons) (Or maybe the Immigrants for one of them)


• Go just with the colors: The Pink And Green


• Keep the tradition of the nickel alive: instead of UND Sioux vs. NDSU Bison, renew the rivalry with the UND Jeffersons vs. NDSU Monticellos (Monticelli?)


• Let the fans keep the name, like they tried with the Baltimore CFL ---- (and then the fans would say COLTS)


• Saint Louis has athletics teams named for a popular toy around 1920. So...the UND Bobbleheads?


• In St Louis, "hoosier" is a fightin'words-level insult for someone rural. If Indiana University can keep the nickname Hoosiers, the UND Rednecks?


• (Not totally original idea) If we can have the Thunder, the Hurricanes, or the Avalanche, why not the Flood?