September 2, 1908: Cubs rebound from tough loss to crush the Cardinals. Also, wearing the wrong out

After yesterday's 9th inning collapse, the Cubs very well could've come out flat for today's game, which thankfully they did not. Not to sound overly dramatic (though I will), a couple losses in a row right now would've essentially been the nail in the coffin of the 1908 season.

The Cubs have made an impressive comeback from being down six games just two weeks ago, but they still have to deal with both the Giants and Pirates for another month of the season. The Giants in particular are about to rattle off a very impressive string of games, so every victory will be crucial for the Cubs to keep pace.

The rebound started today with Chick Fraser firing a three hit shutout, striking out five, on the way to an impressive 8-0 butt kicking of the St. Louis Cardinals. Fraser was strong right out of the gates, and thru six innings had actually faced the minimum 18 batters.

Meanwhile on offense, the Cubs took advantage of some incredibly sloppy play by the visiting Cardinals. Despite only having seven hits all game, the Cards chipped in with four errors and a couple passed balls to hand Chicago a pretty easy victory.

The scoring started in the third with a Jimmy Sheckard leadoff double. Frank Chance returned to the lineup and delivered a single to score Sheckard from second. From there an error, a passed ball, and a single led to two more runs and a 3-0 lead.

The remaining five runs in the game all came in the 6th inning when the Cubs loaded the bases with nobody out, and the Cardinals then proceeded to commit two more errors and a passed ball to let all three runners score (plus two more).

Jimmy Sheckard and Frank Chance were the only two Cubs with more than one hit, Sheckard going 2-3 and Chance 2-4. The three remaining hits were scattered thru the lineup, but this was a day where the Cubs could basically sit back and let the other team shoot themselves in the foot over and over again.

The Giants were rained out today in Boston, so the gap is just one game with the Cubs set for a doubleheader against the Cardinals tomorrow.

In other news ... let's talk about clothes for a second. I don't know about you, but personally it drives me nuts when I end up somewhere and my clothes are wildly inappropriate for an event. I'll give an example ... a couple years ago I had to help emcee a charity dinner, and I didn't realize it was as formal an event as it was. So I show up in just a shirt and pants, while EVERYBODY else was in a suit. I felt like such an underdressed piece of garbage!

Since then, I've always sworn that it is better to be OVERdressed for something so I didn't risk that same embarrassment. However, I may stand corrected today when I see future U.S. President William H. Taft going bass fishing.

At this time in 1908 Taft was on the campaign trail in advance of the November elections (SPOILER ALERT: He wins and stuff), and on this day he made a little media appearance while on a vacation in Middle Bass Island, Ohio.

And as you can see ... Mr. Taft is massively overdressed for the occasion ...

I am very sweaty right now

Who fishes in a three piece suit? How could that possibly be comfortable? If nothing else, his feet and pant legs have to be soaking wet by the end of the day, right? This doesn't even look remotely enjoyable!

So I stand corrected ... it IS possible to be overdressed and feel like a fool.

Anyway ... in summary the Cubs are now 72-48 on the year and trail the idle Giants by one game. Tomorrow they'll play a doubleheader to close out the Cardinal series, followed a quick trip to Pittsburgh for two huge games against the pennant contending Pirates.