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June 21, 1908 - Cubs lose, but probably don't try very hard

  • Make America 1908 Again
  • Jun 21, 2016
  • 2 min read

Cubs lose an exhibition game, but does anybody really care?

I just can't even fathom what would happen in today's baseball if you told the players that on their off day they had to take a 160 mile midnight boat ride to a town in the middle of nowhere to play an exhibition game, and then take that boat back the same day so you could play the following day in NYC. OK, maybe people in Troy, NY wanna argue that it isn't the middle of nowhere, but "just north of Albany" is not a place most humans think of as a mecca. I went to school in Ithaca, NY. Not exactly booming with things to do.

You think A-Rod's gonna make that trip? I doubt it.

Yeah well that's exactly what the Cubs players got to do on their "day off" in 1908. Now ... the one saving grace is that this was Johnny Evers' hometown, so at least there's that. And 3,500 people showed up for the game ... which I can only imagine is the entire population of Troy, NY. (Side note: I have no idea how many people lived in Troy in 1908. There's 50,000 people there today, but beyond that I have no clue.)

If nothing else, can we at least all agree that Johnny Evers was freakin' awesome? The guy was 5'9" and weighed 125 pounds and is in the baseball Hall of Fame. Jose Altuve is shorter at 5'6", but also has a solid 40 pounds advantage at 165. Seriously ... Evers looks like he took Dad's old baseball uniform and is wearing it to play dress-up with his friends ...

Little Johnny

Naturally Evers was honored at the game, which is nice and all, but I have to imagine the rest of the players are thinking "I'm here on my day off. Ain't nobody giving ME any presents!" The Tribune reports that Evers' gift was "a huge flower basket and also an ebony toilet set." So now Evers has to figure out how the hell to get this stuff back onto the damn boat, bring it back to NYC, and then take it all the way back Chicago after that. Gee ... ummm ... thanks?

So yeah ... the Cubs lost to Troy, but can you really blame them? They were probably exhausted, annoyed, and knew the game didn't mean anything in the actual standings. I can't fault them for mailing this one in.

Not only that, Pittsburgh played a real game today and won, so now the Cubs lead is down to one game. Final game of the world's longest road trip is tomorrow against the Giants.

Spoiler alert: They lose! Because they're exhausted!!! Details to come.

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