Cubs 365, May 9

On this day in 1873, future Chicago mayor Anton Cermak was born. Throughout the last century many of Chicago's mayors have been White Sox fans (most notably the Daleys), but there have been a few notable exceptions, and Mayor Cermak may have been the most famous. He loved the Cubs.

When the Cubs and Yankees played each other in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, two VIPs were sitting in the front row; Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago and Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York. Roosevelt was the Democratic nominee for the Presidency and was campaigning in the Midwest. The paraplegic Roosevelt leaned against his son as he threw out the first pitch. He was the guest of Cermak, who was poised to deliver Chicago's vote to the Presidential challenger. Cermak was the creator and founder of Chicago's Democratic Machine, and was extremely powerful despite only having been the Mayor since 1931. History hasn't noted what these two men discussed that day, but it has mythologized the game itself. It was the game that Babe Ruth supposedly called his shot.

Unfortunately for Mayor Cermak, he never went to another Cubs game after that World Series loss to the Yankees.

On February 15, 1933 after a fishing trip in the Bahamas, Franklin Roosevelt emerged from his yacht in Miami, and a small crowd was there to greet him. Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak was in the crowd, and so was a man named Giuseppe Zangara.

After a short speech, Roosevelt motioned Cermak to his side in the back seat of a convertible. They were talking to each other when Zangara raised a handgun and began shooting. He claimed to be aiming for Roosevelt, but he hit Cermak and four others. The crowd collapsed on Zangara, and wrestled him to the ground, as Cermak was rushed to the hospital in Roosevelt's car. During that ride, with Roosevelt at his side, Cermak supposedly said: "I am glad it was me instead of you."

The real question is: was the assassin trying to hit Roosevelt or Cermak? Everyone assumed the intended victim was Roosevelt, but the triggerman Giuseppe Zangara was Sicilian, and it’s very possible he was sent by the Chicago Outfit to retaliate for Cermak's move against Frank Nitti in the Chicago bootlegging business. We'll never know for sure. Zangara was executed only a few weeks after Cermak died.

After Cermak's death on March 6, 1933, 22nd Street was renamed "Cermak".

A few weeks later on Opening Day at Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs had a moment of silence in honor of their fallen mayor.

They finished in third place that season, six games behind the New York Giants.