August 12, 1908: Cubs win again on the arm of Three Finger Brown. Also ... the legendary Model T d

The Cubs win their second game in a row, shutting out the first place Pirates 3-0. Also, one of the most significant products of all-time was introduced today.

Sure, it was a big day for the Cubs, taking down the first place Pirates and winning their second straight after dropping five in a row. However, far and away, this was a bigger day in the history of the automobile industry. More on that later, first lets get to the Cubs.

Mordecai Brown was back to his badass self on the mound today, scattering three hits, walking one, and picking up one of his nine shutouts on the season. Just to give you some present-day perspective, Clayton Kershaw has ten shutouts since 2013. So yeah ... Brown was THAT good.

Not only was he good, but he also may or may not be some sort of robot, because after the complete game shutout, he then lobbied managed Frank Chance to let him start again TOMORROW. His simple justification was, "well we have an off day on Friday, so I can rest then." Awesome!

I'm kind of a big deal

Unfortunately Chance doesn't grant his wish and gives the ball to Ed Reulbach tomorrow, which you can come back here to find out that maybe he should've just let ol' Brownie pitch again as requested. (Hint hint)

Hey man ... ride that arm for all it's worth! When I played baseball in high school, we had a guy on our team named Joe Dillon who was far and away our best pitcher. In our 20 game season, we won 12 games. Joe had nine of those wins, and then picked up the save in the other three. One time he even pitched in a game for the first 5 innings, moved to the outfield for a reliever, and then got brought back to close out the 7th. So technically he saved his own win (if that's even allowed).

And so what if his elbow fell off when he turned 30 ... we got the wins we needed! [Editor's note: That's a total lie, but it sounds way more dramatic to put it out there.]

Anyway ... the Cubs scored two in the 2nd inning and that's all they really needed for the win since Brown was on cruise control the whole day. I should also note that Frank Schulte's "lucky" dog Cub rode in the front row of the team bus and also sat right on the Cubs' bench in the dugout. The good luck dog is on a roll!

Let's move on to the historical significance of this day ... August 12, 1908 was the day Henry Ford introduced the Model T automobile to the world. At the time, cars were still relatively scarce, and less than 200,000 were on the road in the entire country. It was a rich man's toy, and a normal middle class individual couldn't really afford one ... Until now!

The 1908 Model T

Thanks to the innovation of Ford's assembly line production, the Model T was affordable, and essentially marketed as the car that any normal person could have for themselves. The Model T was an instant success, and 15,000 pre-orders came in before the first cars started rolling off the lines in late September.

And the success didn't stop there ... we will go from1908 where there's less than 200,000 cars on the road, and now fast-forward to 1927 when Henry Ford himself would watch the 15 MILLIONTH Model T roll off the assembly lines.

And yes ... a roof would've really been awesome for those rainy days (not to mention the cold-ass Chicago winter days), but we're taking baby steps here!

In summary, the Cubs win puts them at 58-42 on the year, and beating the Pirates closes the gap on first to three games. One more against Pittsburgh tomorrow, and then the 15 day, 18 game road trip finally comes to a close.