Why does the Cubs logo still have a trademark instead of registered mark? –Or perhaps the TM has a different meaning!
164 meanings for TM are given by Acronymfinder. Here are some of the highlights:
- Time Machine: All this time, the Cubs logo was predicting the Back to the Future World Series win in 2015!
- Trust Me: Something all Cubs fans have to do.
- Test Mode: Meaningful during team rebuilds
- Thulium: Its atomic number is 69, and that’s kinda funny.
- Thanks Much: This phrase can be said to a pitcher when giving up a homerun. Or can be said sarcastically by Cubs fans to their team.
- Team Mate: Everyone who wears this logo is a team mate.
- Thermal Monitor: For when the Cubs get really hot!
- Trouble Maker: Especially true of relief pitchers of the past like Mitch Williams.
- Techno Mix: Sammy Sosa appreciated this meaning.
- Tactical Missile: In honor of Kyle Schwarber.
It’s also possible that the TM is kept in honor of a particular Cub. How many Cubs have the initials TM? There are only TWO Chicago Cubs with the initials TM: pitcher Terry Mulholland (1997-1999) and outfielder Tony Murray (1923).
Terry Mulholland is a yawner, he played most of his career with the Phillies and Giants. Clearly the TM is not for him.
Tony Murray on the other hand is a much more interesting TM. He played only two games in his MLB career: Oct 6, 1923 and Oct 7, 1923. The Cubs lost both games to St. Louis, 2-5 and 3-6. He was used a replacement in both games. His first game he went 1-for-2. His second and last game he went 0-for-2, with one HBP. I’d like to think think his first at bat he got a hit, and his last at bat he was HBP. Although I hope that HBP didn’t end his career.
Tony is one of 141 Cubs with just one career hit with the Cubs. There are three other Cubs with one hit and one hit by pitch: Eddie Stack (1913-1914), Johnny Bates (1914), and Jamie Arnold (2000). All three played for other teams in addition to the Cubs. Tony is the only Cub with one hit, one HBP that played only for the Cubs.
Someone wrote up a little piece about Tony Murray:
~Tony Murray 1904 (Cubs 1923)
Murray was a local Chicago boy who played the last two games of the 1923 season for the Cubs at the tender age of 19. He went 1 for 4. In his first game he played right and left field, and got his only career hit against Cardinal pitcher Eddie Dyer. He filled in for starting centerfielder Jigger Statz in the last game of the year, and made two catches in the outfield, but he went 0-2 at the plate against Johnny Stuart. The Cubs lost that game too. Even though he only played in those two games, he could always claim that he shared the field with a Hall of Famer (Gabby Hartnett). Murray became an attorney after his playing career ended. He died in 1974 at the age of 69, and is buried in the same cemetery as his old teammate Gabby Hartnett (All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines).
And then his grandson, Tony Murray III, commented on the post!
Other interesting tid bits about my Grandfather are: He was drafted right out of Old St. Patrick’s High School; after his playing days were over he became a Chicago Police officer and ran the CPD baseball team; and as an attorney, one of his clients was Hall of Famer Rogers Horsnby – whose affairs he handled for many years.
I’d like to know more about Tony Murray running the Chicago Police Department’s baseball team! Well, certainly that’s why the Cubs have TM on their logo. It’s in honor of Tony Murray.
Do you have an interpretation of the TM in the Cubs logo? If so, please leave your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter.
I think you’re on to something here. The Iowa Cubs, who use the exact same logo with an additional handwritten “Iowa”, uses a circle R in place of the TM. So certainly there’s a specific intent from the Chicago Cubs in using the TM.
The word “Cubs” alone cannot have an R. The Iowa Cubs probably use an R, because they say “Iowa Cubs.” We should get our patent lawyer on this.