Today in 1908 - Cubs win, bologna fingers, and Cy Young is a badass.

The Cubs downed the Doves today 5-2. Joe Tinker had a nice game, while Frank Chance has a bologna finger. Also, Cy Young is a badass.

The Cubs rebounded from yesterday's loss, making pretty quick work of the Doves today by scoring a run in five of the first six innings and winning 5-2. Joe Tinker had another nice game (I told you his hot streak was coming!), this time with an RBI triple and a couple nice plays in the field. Meanwhile, Ed Reulbach had a pretty solid day on the mound, scattering five hits and striking out four.

The only bad news for the Cubs on this day was the return of the injury bug. Johnny Evers, Frank Schulte, and Johnny Kling are finally all back and relatively healthy, and now player-manager Frank Chance finds himself on the bench with a bad finger.

It seems the Peerless Leader (that's what they used to call him) banged his finger pretty good the other day. In fact, it was so bad, the Tribune described it as looking like "a dime's worth of bologna sausage."

Mmmm ... tasty!

I enjoy a good piece of bologna as much as the next guy, but now all I'm picturing is this little tube of pink meat that vaguely resembles some dude's mangled finger. Suddenly, I'm not so much in the mood for bologna anymore. (I guess it's a good appetite suppressant if nothing else.)

I have a boo boo

Speaking of injuries, I thought I'd mention that a bum finger had Chance on the bench, but the crosstown rival White Sox lost today to a one-legged pitcher. Granted, it was THE Cy Young we're talking about here, but the dude entered the stadium walking with a cane while dealing with a bad ankle. He then promptly shed the cane and fired off a complete game, eight strikeout, 8-1 victory.

And just so you know ... eight K's was a TON for a pitcher in a single game back then. In 300 innings in 1908, Young only struck out 150 guys, so eight in a game was a pretty big deal. Oh ... and he was 41 years old at the time ... which based on the 1908 general health and life expectancy is probably the equivalent of being about 167 years old in 2016.

Old Man Cy

In summary ... the Cubs win moves them to 48-34 on the season. Pittsburgh also won today, so the Cubs still trail by a game and a half, but at least leapfrog into 2nd over the idle Giants. Game three of the four game series with Boston is tomorrow.

#cubswin #chicagocubs #cyyoung #bologna