June 30, 1908 - Cubs lose, Catcher practically dies, and a parrot testifies in a court case

Cubs lose their second straight to Cincinnati 4-2 to fall a game behind Pittsburgh in the standings. Meanwhile, a parrot testifies in a court case.

Personally I still think that long, horrible road trip is affecting the Cubs at this point in the season as they drop their second in a row to the Reds by a score of 4-2. Add in the fact that Johnny Evers is still hobbling around on crutches and Mordecai Brown has been at his mother's funeral, and you have the first day since April where the Cubs have fallen out of first place.

Now ... I realize yesterday I mentioned that they fell out of first place by a half game. That's what Baseball Reference said, and I'm using them as the official guide for the season. However, the edition of the Chicago Tribune on this day in 1908 listed today as the day they fell out of first, so feel free to go by whichever one you want. Really what is screwing everything up right now is the fact that Pittsburg has played four more games than the Cubs, so it's all about boring things like percentage points and loss columns and blah blah blah. Point is ... the Cubs ain't in first anymore.

The biggest news from this game was that Reds catcher Larry McLean damn near died when he took a foul tip directly in the throat. Now we all know journalists from this era laid it on REAL thick when writing up their articles, but even if the quote that it "sounded like a green watermelon hitting a mallet" was only half true, I'm still pretty confident that foul tip to the throat hurt like hell. They even added "sympathetic members of both teams surrounded the dying man." Damn!

But since this is 1908, they gave McLean a glass of ice water, let him catch his breath for a minute, and then the "dying man" stayed in the game like nothing had ever happened. No wonder life expectancy was so much lower back then!

Here's the not corpse of Larry McLean (who by the way died at the age of 39 because ... you know ... getting hit in the throat and not coming out of baseball games and the like) ...

In other baseball news of the day from the American League, Cy Young threw a no hitter against the New York Highlanders because he's CY FREAKING YOUNG of course!

So the stupid question of the day is ... If Cy Young could win the Cy Young Award, would he just call it "Winning the ME?" (Editor's note: I apologize for that sentence. That was quite stupid and not really funny at all)

In non-baseball news, a bird testified in a court case. Yep ... that actually happened. Apparently two women were fighting for custody over a parrot. Emma Harris had possession of the bird, but a sexy young thang by the name of Bertha Saunders claimed that the bird was hers, and she had proof of all the different phrases SHE had trained the bird to say.

So the judge did what any judge would do ... Call the bird to the stand to testify. OK ... and by "any judge" I actually mean "a TV judge like Judge Harry Stone on the 80's sitcom 'Night Court,'" but this real judge did it too. Oh I can only imagine the antics of that wacky parrot and goofy bailiff Bull Shannon!

Good news for Bertha ... the parrot totally recited all her submitted phrases, and she won the case and got to keep the bird. By the way ... do you think there is ANY hope at all that the name Bertha ever makes a comeback? Yeah ... me neither.

Awww ... but look at cute little Baby Bertha! Yeah ... nope. Never coming back.

In conclusion ... The Cubs loss sends them to 37-23 on the year. Pittsburgh didn't play today, so that gives them a one game lead over the Cubs with a five game series of the two teams coming up starting July 2nd. Worth noting that the Tribune reported that fans in Pittsburgh were so happy to be in first that they celebrated in the streets. (Personally, that seems like a massive overreaction to me to be celebrating that hard with three months of baseball still to play.)

One more game against the Reds tomorrow and then on to Pittsburgh.