June 28, 1908 - Cubs win twice, Guard your women ... There's an eclipse!

Cubs sweep a doubleheader from the Reds and a solar eclipse makes women do crazy things

So in the early morning hours of this Sunday in America in 1908, there was a partial eclipse of the sun. You know how I know this? Because the reporter covering the Cubs game simply would ... not ... STOP with the astronomy-related puns in his recap of the games.

The article starts with "the eclipse of the Red Nebula of Cincinnati by the constellation of the Big Bears," and just gets worse from there ...

"The constellation of Cubs played rings around the nebulous Reds"

"Chance used nearly all the stars in his orbit"

"Solly Hofman appeared in three different sections of the zodiac"

And on ... and on ... and ON. Exhausting! It was all I could do to stop myself from bashing my face into my keyboard to make it stop.

But on the bright side ... oh crap ... Now I'M making star references too!!!!

What I'm trying to say is that the Cubs won both games ... 3-1 in the first, then 2-0 in game two. Ed Reulbach and Jack Pfiester each pitched great games for the Cubs, especially Pfiester who fired a three hit shutout in the second game.

In game one, the Cubs were trailing 1-0 until the 7th and Jimmy Sheckard was the hero at the plate, delivering what ended up being the game winning home run. And it's worth noting even more because this is the Dead Ball Era and home runs are crazy hard to come by. Sheckard hit a whopping TWO the entire season, and that was good enough for third best on the entire team. (BTW ... Joe Tinker led the team with 6, followed by Johnny Kling with 4. And if you're really curious, the league leader for the whole year, Tim Jordan, had 12.)

Jimmy Sheckard be pimpin' ...

In other eclipse-related news, apparently it was very important to keep an eye on the women in your life, because it was front page news that the eclipse might make them act all squirrelly. According to the astrologist interviewed, the eclipse would cause "the imagination of people to be stimulated, especially women [who] will be interested in all kids of new fads and fancies." (And yes ... that previous sentence says "astrologist," and not "astronomer," so this information is about as accurate as me trying to build a successful DraftKings lineup.)

They go on to say that "fashions will be unconventional as well." You know what? Life seemed pretty darn stuffy in 1908 ... I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing if your woman decides to try to dress a little sexier and experiment with new things. Maybe this was the official birth of that whole "50 Shades of Grey" phenomenon? OK ... probably not ... but at least maybe some woman somewhere exposed her NAKED ANKLE on a beach for like two seconds before covering up. Oooooh ... sexy!!!!

Here's the actual picture of the eclipse from the Tribune that day, which is kinda cool to see ...

Anyway ... the Cubs won both games of the doubleheader to move to 37-21 on the year. However, the stupid Pirates feel like they never lose and also swept their doubleheader with lowly St. Louis. The Cubs lead remains one game.

After five games with the Reds, the Cubs now travel to Cincy to still play the Reds for three more, followed by a big trip to Pittsburgh to take on the second place Pirates.