March 27, 1902

You know, friends, baseball has a way of painting its own history with the simplest of brushstrokes. On a crisp spring day in 1902, as the century was just learning to walk, a small seed was planted in the fertile soil of Chicago's North Side.

It was the Chicago Daily News, in an unassuming column without a byline, that first whispered the word that would echo through the ages. 'Cubs,' they called them. Just like that, as casually as a fan might catch a foul ball.

The paper noted that manager Frank Selee - a man who knew a thing or two about building a ballclub - would be focusing his efforts on the 'teamwork of the new Cubs.' Little did they know, those unnamed wordsmiths, that they were christening a legacy.

Now, the team had been known as the Colts, a perfectly fine name if you're talking horses. But Cubs? That had a ring to it. It spoke of youth, of promise, of a future as bright as the ivy that would one day adorn the walls of their beloved ballpark.

And so, like a pebble tossed into Lake Michigan, this simple word began to ripple outward. The Cubs. The Chicago Cubs. It rolled off the tongue like a well-turned double play.

In time, as sure as day follows night, 'Cubs' would push 'Colts' into the shadows of history. And here we are, over a century later, still feeling the echoes of that nameless writer's pen.

That's baseball for you. In a game of inches, sometimes the biggest changes come from the smallest moments. And isn't that just like life?