August 7, 1908: Cubs rained out. Also, hating your kid's significant other.

The Cubs were rained out today and now begin their series with New York tomorrow. Also, hating your kid's significant other and what you would do to break them up.

No baseball today. Mother Nature, as the ultimate arbiter, decided instead that the Cubs-Giants series will start tomorrow. What I do find interesting about 1908 is that it is left up to the manager when the game will be made up, and he doesn't have to decide right away. At this point, Giants manager John McGraw says there will "maybe" be a doubleheader in the next few days, but he hasn't decided.

(Spoiler alert #1: It happens it September instead, which ultimately is much better for the Cubs because it ends up happening at a time that they are playing solid baseball vs. the caca they've been churning out this week.)

Regardless, there will be a game tomorrow between the two teams and Mordecai Brown is likely to take the hill for Chicago. Jack Pfiester was scheduled to go today and Brown tomorrow, but the Cubs are likely to ride their ace as much as possible when it's his turn in the rotation.

In other Cubs news, the team is currently in a contract dispute with the Brooklyn Dodgers over the signing of a free agent named Tom Catterson. Cubs President Charles Murphy made the announcement last night, but Brooklyn claims they already signed Catterson earlier in the day. So now the league will decide who's claim is valid.

(Spoiler alert #2: Catterson ends up playing for Brooklyn. No need to worry, he has a lousy .191 batting average the rest of the season and is out of baseball by this time next year. So no big loss.)

I did manage to find a picture of Catterson at least ...

Hi. You'll never speak my name again.

So let's move on to this question ... What would you do if you hated your kid's significant other? And even beyond that ... what (if any) extremes would you go to prevent your kid from being with that person?

Well if you're the mother of Miss Ethel Ludwig, you'd go as far as kidnapping your own daughter to keep her away from her fiancee. Now obviously there has to be more to this story, because the dude was a chemistry professor at a college in San Francisco as well as a chemist for the Northern Pacific Railway. He seems like a smart dude with a good job, so I'm not sure what Mom's problem was.

Maybe she just didn't want her daughter moving to San Francisco? It's possible. I mean, in 1908 travel times, moving to San Francisco might as well be moving to Mars ... you're pretty much never gonna see the kid ever again. So maybe that's it. Maybe he's a jerk. I have no clue. All I know, is that on this day in 1908, the dude had yet to locate his alleged bride-to-be.

Here's young Ethel (a name I'm pretty sure is never coming back in style by the way) ...

(Spoiler alert #3: I found her. A little search of my old friend Google located a San Francisco newspaper article later this month where the (sorta) happy couple were reunited in Sacramento, CA. It appears that Ethel escaped her Mom's clutches and took off to find her man, who managed to get to her before Momma could. So I GUESS this is a happy ending, though I'm thinking they won't be getting together for Thanksgiving dinner any time soon.)

Oh ... Ethel. Oh ... Dr. F.F. (the paper never gave his first name)

OK ... back to baseball tomorrow. Pittsburgh got rained out too, so the standings remain the same. See you then!