Baez making history? 9 notable Chicago Cubs firsts
Will Chicago Cubs history be made again after Javier Baez hit his first major-league home run in the 12th inning of his first major-league game to win it for his team in the bigs?
Only time will tell. And Baez has a lot of Cubs history to compete with. Here are 9 notable Cubs firsts, the first eight as recorded on mlb.com's Cubs timeline.
April 29, 1898: First baseman Frank Chance plays his first major-league game. The first Tinkers-to-Evers-to-Chance double play happened on Sept. 15, 1902.
May 18, 1947: Jackie Robinson plays his first game in Chicago (playing for the Dodgers, of course) at Wrigley Field, in front of a record crowd (46,572). The Dodgers won 4-2.
Sept. 20, 1953: Ernie Banks slugs his first career home run. His first game was three days earlier, says baseball-reference.com.
May 15, 1960: Don Cardwell no-hits the Cardinals in his first Cubs game. Moose Moryn's shoestring catch preserves the 4-0 win.
April 23, 1966: Fergie Jenkins homers and picks up his first win as a Cub in a 2-0 victory vs. the Dodgers.
Aug. 21, 1975: Rick and Paul Reuschel become the first brothers to combine on a shutout in Cubs' 7-0 win vs. the Dodgers.
Sept. 18, 1999: Sammy Sosa becomes the first player in major-league history to reach the 60-homer mark in back-to-back seasons. (We'll let you decide on the asterisk.)
May 7, 2010: Shortstop Starlin Castro hits a 3-run homer in his first at-bat and added a 3-run triple later.
Aug. 5, 2014: Javier Baez goes 1 for 6 in his first major-league game with the Cubs - the 1 being a home run in the 12th to give the Cubs the win.