August 30, 1908: Cubs sweep the Giants for their 8th straight win and first place is within reach.

What a weekend for the Cubs!

Jack Pfiester, dubbed "Jack The Giant Killer" by the Tribune, took to the mound on a Sunday afternoon for a 2-1 win as Chicago swept the crucial series with the first place New York Giants. The Cubs are now knocking on the door, just a half game out of first place.

As I've mentioned the past couple days, the city of Chicago is pretty much gripped with baseball fever right now. In addition to an overflow crowd on hand at the West Side Grounds to watch the game, another 20,000 Cub fans gathered in front of the offices of the Tribune to watch their electronic scoreboards relay the play by play of the game.

Keep in mind that in 1908, that's pretty much the only way you're going to get updates on game results unless you just wait for the newspaper in the morning. Even RADIO isn't really a thing yet in 1908, so you're either watching it live or staring at a giant billboard in front of a building on Michigan Ave.

Here's the actual crowd from today's game, which I always think is pretty cool when I manage to find it ...

West Side Grounds, August 30, 1908

The Cubs and Giants both only had five hits on the day, but Chicago made theirs count more. The Cubs drew first blood in the bottom of the first inning. Solly Hofman led off with a single and was then advanced to second on a hit and run force by Jimmy Sheckard. Frank Chance then laced a single up the middle and Hofman scored the first run of the game.

The Giants managed to answer in the top of the second by manufacturing a run. Giants' captain Mike Donlin battled back from an 0-2 count for a leadoff walk. Cy Seymour followed with a single to put runners on first and third. Art Devlin then grounded into a 4-6-3 double play (which by the way Evers to Tinker to Chance doesn't have quite the same ring to it), but that was enough to score Donlin from third.

The Cubs then went ahead for good in the 5th inning thanks to a Joe TInker infield hit, a sac punt, and then a Solly Hofman single to center. So basically a fair uneventful pitchers' duel on the day, but the Cubs came out on the winning side of it.

Here's the picture from the Tribune of Tinker scoring the winning run, which could also be described as "Joe Tinker is as happy as a pretty ballerina as he crosses home plate."

I'm Peter Pan!

The only real issue on the day was that when the game ended, the giant crowd that was on hand got a little rowdy in their victory celebration. Cub fans were pretty well behaved throughout the game, but once the victory was sealed a "spirit of reckless ruffianism" took over for a little while and fans threw a bunch of seat cushions high up in the air in celebration.

The problem with that, of course, is that what goes up must come down. So a bunch of people had their fancy hats smashed by falling seat cushions. Here's the scene ...

My precious straw hat!

In other news ... Wanna buy some land in the middle of nowhere?

That's what the U.S. government was trying to get you to do with this ad they ran in the Tribune ...

So I checked, and this is what the booming metropolis of Dallas, SD looks like today ...

Well ... we have a water tower at least

Yep ... population of a whopping 120 people in the most recent census in 2010. Needless to say, I don't think the government's plan to turn this into the corn-growing mecca worked out exactly as planned.

In summary, the Cubs win sends them to 70-47 on the season and only a half game away from the first place Giants. Rival St. Louis comes to town tomorrow for a five game series. Meanwhile, the Giants head east to Boston to take on the Doves.