September 11, 1908: Cubs win 5th straight, Cardinals stink, and the invention of the sac fly.

Man the Cardinals stunk in 1908. Today they got blasted yet again by the Cubs, giving up three runs in the first two innings, and then limping their way to an easy 8-3 victory for the Cubs. In addition, the Cards play 25 more games this season, and they will win a whopping FIVE of them. (Though I imagine fellow Cubs fans, like me, aren't losing any sleep of their "sad" plight!)

Here's something I didn't realize heading into this game ... the "sacrifice fly" didn't exist prior to the 1908 season. In fact, I'm pretty sure this was one of the first games it was ever used, since the Tribune referred to "the newly invented sacrifice fly" and how it came into play quite a bit in this game. I've always been a fan of baseball history, but I guess I just assumed it was always a part of the game (at least as long as the sacrifice bunt if nothing else).

Not surprisingly it came into play today. A lot. Five times to be exact. Let's not forget that baseball in 1908 LOVED the sacrifice. Sac bunts were a massive part of the game. In 2016, the Atlanta Braves currently lead the league with 56 sac bunts. In 1908, the Cubs quintupled that total for a team tally of 270. Every single regular player on the team had more sac bunts than the 2016 leader Billy Hamilton. They loved a bunt!

I'll bunt your face in!

Today was an easy win for the Cubs, as the Tribune noted "another wreath was placed on the tomb of the departed Cardinals." They scored two runs in the first (both on sac flies), and then another in the second to take an early 3-0 lead.

St. Louis made a bit of a game of it for a little while, picking up two in the 4th (one sac fly), but then their pitcher Art Fromme imploded in the 5th by walking the first three Cubs he faced, followed by two hits that knocked him right out of the game. Chicago never looked back from there and cruised to an 8-3 victory.

Frank Chance led the offensive charge with a 3-3 day. It was also announced that he signed a three year contract extension to continue as Cub player-manager through 1911. Interesting side note ... Chance also owned $10,000 worth of stock in the team at the time. Now I wonder if he held on to that later in life, and if his heirs are sittin' pretty today with a big pile of valuable Cubs stock. That would not suck!

[Editor's note: He didn't keep it. I found an article from 1914 that showed him selling it for $40,000. Man that sucks for his heirs!]

I screwed my grandkids!

Johnny Evers, Harry Stenfeldt, and Johnny Kling all had two singles each for the Cubs as well. In fact, all 12 of the Cubs' hits today were singles, a fairly typical indication of the small ball baseball that used to go down in the early 20th century. On the mound, Jack Pfiester managed to scatter six hits and four walks for the complete game victory.

The win moved the Cubs to 81-51 on the season, an impressive 30 games over .500. Naturally, the Giants and Pirates both won again, since both teams are equally as hot as the Cubs right now, so Chicago still sits in 3rd place and two games behind New York. Game three of this enjoyable four game series with the flailing Cardinals is tomorrow.