June 23, 1908 - Cubs off day ... It's flippin' hot, fishermen catch a dinosaur, and beer is

The Cubs are off today, so we look at the sweltering hot day in Chicago, plus liar fishermen in Maine who claim to catch a sea monster

The Cubs are on their way back from New York today, which consists of a 25 hour train ride. Oh ... and as if that wasn't enough it's also 90 degrees and humid (and the train obviously has no air conditioning). Not exactly a relaxing trip home for the road-weary Cubs, who were also battling various injuries, ailments, and suspensions.

Del Howard got spiked in the leg on the trip and ended up with blood poising (thanks sucky medicine!), Johnny Evers is still out one more game for his suspension, and pitching stud Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown is still MIA while dealing with his sick mother.

Things got so bad by the end of the trip the Cubs had a backup catcher playing outfield and only had three available pitchers on the entire roster. THREE!!!!

Here's Del lookin' awful sad ...

On to the other news of the day from the Tribune, we have a bunch of liar fishermen in Maine that claim to have caught a "sea monster weighing 15,000 pounds and 45 feet in length." Um ... exactly what kind of miracle 1908 fishing equipment did these people use to catch what can only be dubbed "Maine's Loch Ness Monster?" A measly mackerel net of course!

So yeah ... this sea monster was described as having the head of a shark, the body of a snake, and a gigantic tail like a whale. And I totally assumed this article would end with "but he got away and we will probably never see him again." Nope! The fishermen allegedly dragged it back to shore, cut it up, and served it to all the locals to eat. I'm calling a big pile of BS on this whole thing! But hey ... maybe it was just a BABY WHALE like these guys caught ...

And finally ... beer is awesome. Specifically old timey beer ads are awesome. Today's ad is brought to you by Schlitz, who wanna let you know that beer is borderline health food, and we should all be drinking it. Amen Schlitz!

Hooray beer!

The Cubs are back in action tomorrow for a totally random one game series against St. Louis. EIGHT straight games against the Reds after that. Oh ... and Pittsburgh split a doubleheader today, so the Cubs lead is still one game.

#1908 #cubs #baseball #beer #liars