September 19, 1908: Cubs come from behind to win one, tie another. Also, humans with whale teeth.

After yesterday's loss that sent the Cubs four and a half games behind the first place Giants, the season was basically on the line with today's doubleheader in Philadelphia. The Cubs managed to rally in the 8th inning of game one to pull out a crucial 4-2 come from behind victory.

Cubs ace Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown got the call for the first game, squaring off against Frank Corridon for the Phillies. Brown came out of the gates flat, giving up six hits and two runs in the first three innings, but then settled in quite nicely after that. In the next six innings the Phillies only managed three hits and Brown held them scoreless as well.

With the score 2-1 in the top of the 8th inning, new Cub recruit Jack Hayden led off the inning with a single. Center fielder Del Howard followed suit with the same, moving Hayden to third, where he then scored on a Frank Schulte ground out to tie the game. Third baseman Harry Steinfeldt then gave the Cubs the lead with a single to left that scored Howard.

In the 9th, the Cubs added an insurance run on a Joe Tinker triple and a Johnny Kling single. Brown meanwhile made short work of the Phillies and the game ended with a huge 4-2 Cubs win. Even more importantly, the Giants lost a 10 inning battle with the Pirates, so the Cubs already managed to close the gap to three and a half games with game two providing an opportunity to gain even more.

Unfortunately for the Cubs, they couldn't score a single run in the second game. Fortunately for the Cubs, neither could the Phillies and the game ended in a 0-0 tie when the game was called because of darkness after the 10th inning. It's worth noting that the two teams played all ten in innings in just 90 minutes, which is about how long ONE inning takes in a typical Yankees-Red Sox matchup in 2016.

And since 1908 rules were pretty terrible, that means the game gets totally tossed out and they gotta play the ENTIRE thing over again Monday as part of another doubleheader. AHHH!!!

The Cubs best chance at a run came in the 8th when Joe Tinker was on third base with two outs and Jack Hayden at the plate, but foolishly Tinker tried to steal home when he thought pitcher Lew Richie wasn't paying attention. Tinker was out easily at the plate and the inning was over. This marks the second time in as many games that Tinker has gotten thrown out trying to steal home. (He may wanna stop doing that.)

I screwed up!

Big Ed Reulbach pitched well for the Cubs, but basically it didn't matter since this game more or less never existed and will be replayed tomorrow.

In other news ... Anybody want a badass set of whalebone teeth?

Now to be clear, ideally I'd like to keep my own original human teeth for my entire life, but if I can't, it does sound like a wonderful conversation piece to brag about your whalebone teeth. Granted, I feel like those people on Whale Wars on Animal Planet would probably get pretty pissed at you if they found out.

I will say this, "new and different" isn't exactly what I find as selling points when I'm shopping for something as significant as teeth. I much prefer "thoroughly tested and reliable." But ultimately, I prefer "original human teeth" more than anything ... though maybe it would be pretty awesome to have a big set of shark's teeth in your mouth.

Time to tear up a ribeye!

In summary, the Cubs win sends them to 86-53 on the year, and the Giants loss means they are now three and half games out of first. The Cubs are off tomorrow (it's Sunday in 1908) and will play two more against the Phillies the next day. See you then!