Cubs 365, October 10

On this day in 1908, the World Series began in Detroit amid much fanfare, but not a great deal of excitement. The Tigers, led by Ty Cobb, were the prohibitive underdogs and the city of Detroit wasn't optimistic that they could win it all. Especially against the defending champs who had beaten them the previous year.

Big Ed Reulbach (photo), who had been on fire for the past month, was given the ball to start this game and he didn't quite have it. The Cubs went to the bullpen in the seventh and eighth, calling on their big guns Orval Overall and Mordecai Brown to rescue the win. Neither man pitched that well, but the Cubs came back to score 5 runs in the top of the ninth to win the game 10-6. The bottom of their order, Solly Hofman and Johnny Kling (each with two RBI), were the heroes of this Game 1 victory.