1914 - Baseball declares that all stadiums must have a green, blank centerfield wall known as "the batter's eye."  This is not to be confused with the actual batter's eye which has an eyeball.1942 - Cubs sign the Parker Brothers (Emil and Leon) to a minor league contact.  Granted, they never made the majors, but hey, that's Life Hungry Hungry Hippos.1964 - A retired Bob Lemon attempts to break into the childrens' book market.  His first (and last) attempt, "Amerigo Vespucci and the Cheese Monkeys

After months of silence about the Chicago Cubs, Mark Cuban said he's backed off his pursuit of the team, confirming what baseball sources have previously told the Chicago Tribune.

Matt talks about the news that there could be a new independant baseball team playing the new downtown stadium.

Ken Davidoff delivers a new and exciting statistical analysis of a player's worth that is only slightly less useful than the landmark Phil Rogers plus-minus system.It involves health and happiness and the remarkably simple measures of "yes" and "no," but it only seems to apply to players with nine-figure deals. Here's how Davidoff describes it:In honor of the recently arrived new year, let's use two measures of evaluation for these players: Health, and Happiness. "Health" will cover actual health

Nice pick Barack:New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday announced that he was withdrawing his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama's commerce secretary amid a grand jury investigation into how some of his political donors won a lucrative state contract. Richardson's withdrawal was the first disruption of Obama's Cabinet process and the second "pay-to-play" investigation that has touched Obama's transition to the presidency. The president-elect has remained above the fray in both the c

I love baseball newsy days in January. I love roster moves. You can see that I don't even mind listening to a baseball guru or two. Fox's Baseball analyst, Ken Rosenthal was on WGN Radio's "Sports Central" show hosted by David Kaplan tonight. For those not able to listen, here's a summary of his take on all things recently swirling in Cubsville. He takes on Milton Bradley vs Lou Piniella (a dangerous mix). Could these two ever be as lovable as Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson in the 2003 film,

Melissa Isaacson seems to think the signing of Milton Bradley will turn the Cubs clubhouse into "one big festering cancer." She bases this on ... well, nothing anybody who has played with Bradley has ever said.So, what if Bradley turns the Cubs clubhouse into "Real World: Wrigleyville"? Does it matter in the least? A team that featured Sammy Sosa, Sammy Sosa's boom box, Kenny Lofton, Kyle Farnsworth and Mark Prior got to within five outs of the World Series.I don't care if they get along, so long

The dust around him isn't from sliding into home, it's from whaling on all the pregnant women in the standsmlbtraderumors.com: According to ESPN Radio's Bruce Levine, the Cubs signed Milton Bradley to a three-year, $30MM contract "with some options in the deal."  Ken Rosenthal has a similar story, noting that the two sides have to "work through language issues."   Bradley, 31 in April, had a monster .321/.436/.563 line this year for the Rangers, but he spent only 165 innings in the field.  This i

The Cubs signed Milton Bradley to a 3 year, $30MM deal today after the Rays settled their deal for Pat Burrell.Two gigantic, "let's hope the glass knees don't break for three years" thumbs up on this one. Bradley's good at baseball.

A newspaper out of Tampa reports that Bradley's contract with the Cubs will be formally announced later this week. The general response to this news is one of celebration and brow-wiping by the Goat Riders (who feared that Dunn would get his Wrigley Field wish) while Al Yellon is gently shaking with rage because the Cubs chose talent over character. But hey, when they have the Character Guy World Series, while Bradley would lose, we can take comfort in knowing that he will pummel the winner.UPDAT

1920 - (Direct quote from www.nationalpastime.com in italics) Red Sox owner Harry Frazee defends selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees for cash by calling his former player "one of the most selfish and inconsiderate men ever to put on a baseball uniform". What they never realized was, homers win more games than unselfishness each and every day....except for tuesdays.  Tuesday is the day of the scrappy white guy.1920-2000 *no history occurs*2001 - Cardinals sign Bobby Bonilla, Bernard Gilkey, John Mabr

As per young Kurt this morning: (with his question boiled down to its simplest version)"Without Bradley and/or Dunn, would you agree that the Cubs should be favored to win the NL Central and reach the playoffs?"This assumes the following:Bradley and Dunn are our only two available choices to play our Vacant Corner Outfield Position DuJour - currently regarded to be Right Field.That you, the gentle reader, are going to answer Yes, to complete the rest of Kurt's premise.I think both are presumptuou

The rest of the world might have been on holidays the last few weeks, but general managar Jim Hendry was busy shuffling the deck chairs on the Cubbie Titanic. Things happened at a rather fast and furious pace last week, so let's revisit with a more in-depth look. What you may have missed while in your drunken egg nog stupor... Cubs Sign GathrightGranted, this was before the holiday break, but it's not like I can let a Cubs move go without commenting. Gathright, as we all know by now, can jump o

Good for baseball, which too often pretends like its pariahs don't exist (I guess that's what you do with pariahs). The MLB Network used its "Inside the Moments" show to do a glowing piece on Pete Rose and his quest for the hit record.Spark Anderson, Dave Winfield, Johnny Bench, Tom Hume (!) and Paul O'Neill were all on saying nice things. The best moment, however, came from Pete himself:"My goal was always to get 200 hits. If you get 200 hits enough times, you're going to challenge anybody's rec

Good for baseball, which too often pretends like its pariahs don't exist (I guess that's what you do with pariahs). The MLB Network used its "Inside the Moments" show to do a glowing piece on Pete Rose and his quest for the hit record.Spark Anderson, Dave Winfield, Johnny Bench, Tom Hume (!) and Paul O'Neill were all on saying nice things. The best moment, however, came from Pete himself:"My goal was always to get 200 hits. If you get 200 hits enough times, you're going to challenge anybody's rec

There is a lot of information available on the InterWeb, but this site appears to be among the most useful if you have questions about a baseball player's contract status.Cubs details here.

I will start by saying I think this is by far the best site on the net for Cubbie baseball discussion. I have learned so much about our system from top to bottom thanks to the blogs and discussion on goatriders. I have been telling all my fellow Cubbie Blue Bleeders about the site and they enjoy it as well. (OK did I suck up enough??") Here are just a few thoughts I've had concerning the team and the state we are in RIGHT NOW.First the lineup as I see it right now:1. Soriano2. Fontenot3. Lee (I s

1942 - Rogers Hornsby is elected to the HOF with only 78% of the vote.  And so the next time you complain that Rickey Henderson was only elected to the Hall with 99.7% of the vote (presumably this will be a future complaint), just remember that the greatest second baseman in history was not chosen by 22% of voters.1976 - Baseball celebrates America's 299 1/2th birthday with a large cake and a special Washington #1 jersey.  The giant "We're #1" foam finger was reserved for America's 300th birthday

1920 - Babe Ruth deal is officially announced, breaking the hearts of Red Sox fans everywhere.  They'd finally recover in 2004 when Jimmy Fallon fell in love with Drew Barrymore and tried to sell his season tickets but she wouldn't let him and then Bip Roberts stole second and Mitch Williams gave up a single and the rest was history...or something like that.1973 - Steinbrenner takes over the Yankees.  He's best known for his various interactions with George Costanza, including demanding delicous

The weekly radio baseball gabfest known as "Talking Baseball" (ESPN AM 1000, Chicago) hosted by Bruce Levine (and frequently Chet Coppock, in the role of sidekick) is a nice source of Cub information. Of course you have to wade through lengthy questions that often take minutes to unfold. Interviews with management are usually cloaked in generalizations, clich??s and unrequited hope. This saturday's show featured an interview with Cubs Vice President of Player Personnel, Oneri Fleita, as well a

The weekly radio baseball gabfest known as "Talking Baseball" (ESPN AM 1000, Chicago) hosted by Bruce Levine (and frequently Chet Coppock in the role of sidekick) is a nice source of Cub information. Of course you have to wade through lengthy questions that often take minutes to unfold. Interviews with management are usually cloaked in generalizations, cliches and unrequited hope. This saturday's show featured an interview with Cubs Vice President of Player Personnel, Oneri Fleita, as well as

1918 - Casey Stengel and George Cutshaw are traded for Burleigh Grimes, Al Mamaux, and Cuck Ward.  Burleigh Grimes remains the 7th best baseball name in baseball history.1977 - Ted Turner is suspended for a year for tampering with Gary Matthews.  Supposedly he slipped him a mickey...nobody knows what happened next.1986 - Bill Veeck, as in Wreck, dies.  Veeck would be remembered for midgets and explosions..much like "The Man Show".1996 - Red Sox sign 33 year old free agent Jamie Moyer.  Moyer woul