Baseball History

[Silas]

Reading a Dodgers history book I read that Robinson actually retired before the Dodgers traded him to the Giants. Robinson had already signed a contract to do public service work for the Chock-full-of-nuts company and had further agreed not to disclose the contract until the first of the year (1957). The Dodgers were unaware of his intention to retire or his deal with Chock-full-of-nuts when the deal was made with the Giants.

In a later interview, Robinson said if he still intended to play baseball he would have reported to the Giants. So, the story about Robinson retiring rather than playing for the Giants makes for good copy, but wasn't accurate.

 

[67RedSox]

Silas, thanks for the heads up on the Robinson retirement. Obviously, I wasn’t aware of that and find it hard to believe that 50+ years after he retired the story of his being traded/retiring is still being reported inaccurately…including by myself.
There’s not too many fans who were around when Robinson’s MLB career began or even ended unless at a very young age which means anything we know about him has been from the written word or hearing about him. I guess of all the topics that can be discussed about him the details of him being traded/retiring would not be high on the list of what’s important. I have to admit that my depth of knowledge about him isn’t the greatest so I casually read about him today and even in that casual reading discovered stuff I had no idea about…assuming it’s true. For example, I had no idea that Robinson did not like Walter Alston…Jackie's last years with the Dodgers had not been harmonious. He disliked both manager Walt Alston and owner Walter O'Malley, whose power play forced Branch Rickey out of the Brooklyn front office in 1950.
As you likely know though the Dodgers had captured the 1956 pennant, the once dominating nucleus was growing old. Robinson himself was no longer a top performer on the field and had become increasingly outspoken on racial issues both inside and outside of baseball. The Dodgers brass was hoping he'd step down gracefully, but Jackie refused to announce his retirement. Finally the club forced his hand by swapping him to the New York Giants on December 13, 1956, for journeyman hurler Dick Littlefield and $30,000 in cash.
On January 22, 1957 Robinson's retirement from baseball was announced in an exclusive article in Look magazine, in which he took a few parting shots at the remaining segregated teams in the majors. Jackie had actually decided to retire before he was dealt to the Giants, but couldn't say anything earlier because of his deal with Look. The Giants reportedly offered him $60,000 to stay, and the prospect of playing alongside Willie Mays definitely had some appeal. But when Brooklyn general manager Buzzy Bavasi publicly implied that Robinson was just trying to use the magazine article to get a better contract, he decided to prove the Dodgers wrong and declined the Giants' offer.

Interesting stuff, none of which I would know if you hadn’t clued me in…appreciate it.

 

[67RedSox]

Remember Eddie Brinkman, Gene Alley, Dal Maxvill or Bobby Wine? They were pretty good fielding shortstops but you wouldn’t want them at the plate if you needed a 3-Run HR to tie the game.
It was on this date in 1937 the NY Giants purchase the services of Tommy Thevenow from the Reds. Thevenow will end up playing for the Pirates in 1938 which will mark his 15th & last season in the Majors. Thevenow epitomized the good-fielding / weak-hitting shortstops that all of the above were. In fact, he holds the ML record of 3,347 consecutive at bats without a home run. He hit only two home runs in his 15-year career. Those two home runs were hit five days apart in 1926 and were both inside-the-park jobs and then he never hit another home run in his next 12 seasons.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=tomm...-pirates-in-history-arky-vaughan.html;285;366

It was on this date in 1936 that Charles Stoneham, the owner of the NY Giants since 1919, dies and control of the team will pass to his son, Horace. During his tenure as owner, Stoneham saw the Giants win the World Series in 1921-22 and 1933. Stoneham was involved in the aborted move of the NY Yankees to Boston in 1920. The Yankees, the city's second team, had leased the Polo Grounds from the Giants since 1913. At the time, the AL was driven by an internecine war. The Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox on one side and AL President Ban Johnson and the other five clubs on the other. With the acquisition of Babe Ruth in 1920, the once-moribund Yankees suddenly became competitive and outdrew the Giants.
To destroy one of the three teams that opposed him, Johnson persuaded Stoneham to evict the Yankees. This would give Johnson an excuse to force a sale to a more pliable owner. The Yankees' owners responded by announcing they would move to Boston as tenants of the Red Sox. Stoneham realized that if the Yankees left town, he'd lose revenue from a valuable tenant. He also didn't want to be held responsible for forcing Ruth, the biggest star in the game, out of town. With these factors in mind, he renewed the Yankees' lease for one more year. The incident led the Yankees to construct their own park, Yankee Stadium, to ensure that no other team would have the power to deny them a place to play.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=char...otDetail.aspx%3Finventoryid%3D54283;1064;1416

It was on this date in 1999 Nolan Ryan is the first passenger to board the "Nolan Ryan Express‚" a Southwest Boeing 737. He autographs both sides of the aircraft's nose on two specially designed decals each featuring a baseball with airplane wings and a Southwest colored tail. In July‚ Ryan will again board the "Nolan Ryan Express" to fly to the National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in New York.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=the+...ASC%26imageuser%3D4%26cutoffdate%3D2;1180;604

It was on this date in 1967 that Johnny Keane dies becoming the 3rd Manager of a 1966 ML team to die. His death was preceded by Chuck Dressen who began the 1966 season the Detroit Tigers and by Bob Swift who coincidently replaced Dressen. There are four Managers who managed in 1966 that are still alive: Sam Mele, Twins ( Age 91 ), Alvin Dark, KC Athletics ( Age 92-tomorrow ), Red Schoendienst, Cardinals ( Age 90 ) and Dave Bristol, Reds ( Age 80 ).

https://www.google.ca/search?q=john...logspot.com%2F2009_11_01_archive.html;489;698

Phil Masi was born on this date in 1916. If you don’t know who he was it’s understandable. Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain certainly know him as the primary catcher of the Boston Braves throughout the 1940’s and as their catcher during some of their 20 Win seasons. He was a very good catcher and played in the Majors for 14 seasons, 1939-1952, and although he was a four-time All-Star and respected throughout Baseball as an excellent defensive catcher and steady hitter, Phil Masi is best remembered for being part of one of the most controversial plays in World Series history.
During the bottom of the eighth inning in Game One of the 1948 Series between the Braves and Indians, Cleveland pitcher Bob Feller spun around and threw to shortstop Lou Boudreau to try to pick Masi off of second base. Masi, who was pinch-running for slow-footed starting receiver Bill Salkeld, slid back to the bag and was called safe by umpire Bill Stewart, though most observers believed he was out. The implications became huge moments later when Masi scored the only run of the game denying Hall of Famer Feller his best chance to win a World Series contest. Although the Indians went on to win the series in 6 games, controversy raged over the play for decades -- and Masi made a point of not conceding he was out.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=phil...Ffive_worst_umpiring_calls_in_history;320;282

Someone else who is also primarily remembered for a one play despite a 12 year ML career, Ralph Branca, was born on this date in 1926 and celebrates his 88th birthday today. Branca, a 3-time NL All-Star won 21 games for the 1947 Dodgers and led to the World Series against the NY Yankees who defeated them in 7 games. However, Branca is perhaps best remembered for one infamous relief appearance in a 1951 National League playoff game at the Polo Grounds against the crosstown rival New York Giants. Branca entered the game in relief of Don Newcombe in the bottom of the ninth inning with one out and runners on second and third base and surrendered a walk-off home run known as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" to Bobby Thomson, giving the Giants the pennant.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=ralp...-new-york-giants-autographed-8x10%2F;1024;820

Hall of Famer Early Wynn was born on this date in 1920. Nicknamed Gus, Wynn got along well with his teammates, but was a grim, scowling presence on the mound. “That space between the white lines – that's my office, that's where I conduct my business,” he told sportswriter Red Smith. With his large frame, grizzled appearance, and willingness to knock down opposing hitters, Wynn stood out as one of the most intimidating pitchers in the game. Wynn was never afraid to throw at batters who got too close to the plate. Some called him a headhunter, but Early regarded close pitches as part of the game. To those who suggested that he would throw at his own mother, Early famously replied, “I would if she were crowding the plate.” His toughness and durability made Wynn part of one of the greatest pitching rotations of all time in Cleveland, with Wynn, Bob Lemon, Bob Feller, and Mike Garcia all posting 20-win seasons during the early 1950s.
He was the 14th pitcher to collect 300 Wins and fully expected to be the last of the 300-game winners, and often referred to himself in such terms in interviews. As it was, Early saw six pitchers surpass his total before he died in 1999. There are now 24 with 300 Wins.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=earl...tournament-wagner-bracket-part-1.html;506;340

 

[Silas]

But for having read about Robinson retiring I had always believed that Robinson retired rather than play for the Giants. Somehow it makes a Dodger fan feel all warm and fuzzy to think a Dodger would refuse to play for the Giants, but that is being naive .

I must say I was shocked when Brian Wilson joined the Dodgers. I thought, God no! Brian Wilson and that horrible beard.

Now, I'm glad the Dodgers have him.

 

[67RedSox]

Silas, we not being old enough to remember the Dodgers and Giants during the Golden Age of Baseball I don’t think it would be completely naïve to think a Dodger would refuse to play for the Giants. The New York rivalry between the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees must have been unbelievable particularly say, Post WWII.
The Dodger – Giant rivalry is regarded as one of the most competitive and longest-standing rivalries in Baseball, with some observers considering it the greatest Baseball rivalry of all time…how can it not be. I know Tommy Lasorda pitched for Kansas City after his brief pitching career with the Dodgers but can you imagine his reaction if asked to don the uniform of the Giants. Of course, today with money the central object of everyone’s affections loyalty almost always means nothing but I’m not so sure that would have been the case prior to 1958.
One of the reasons the Dodger – Giant rivalry is so strong and has lasted so long is not only were they rivals in New York but when they both jumped ship on New York and moved 2,500 West they moved to the same State, to the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco that have long been competitors in the economic, cultural, and political arenas, so California became fertile ground for the rivalry's transplantation. Each team's ability to endure for over a century while leaping across an entire continent, as well as the rivalry's growth from a cross-city to a cross-state engagement, have led to the rivalry being considered one of the greatest in sports history, not just in Baseball.
Unlike many other historic baseball match-ups in which one team remains dominant for most of their history, the Dodgers-Giants rivalry has exhibited a persistent balance in the respective successes of the two teams. In over 100 years the numbers are remarkably close. While the Giants have more total wins (10,962 – 10,395), head-to-head wins (1,119 – 1,099), National League pennants, and World Series titles in franchise history, the Dodgers have won the National League West eleven times compared to the Giants' eight since the beginning of the Divisional Era in 1969, and have advanced to the postseason as the wild card twice, compared to the Giants' one time. The 2010 World Series was the Giants' first championship since moving to California, while the Dodgers' last title came in the 1988 World Series.
In the 1880s, New York City played host to a number of professional baseball clubs in the National League and the American Association. By 1889, each league had but one representative in New York—the Giants and Dodgers—and the teams met in an early version of the World's Championship Series in which the Giants defeated the Dodgers 6 games to 3. In 1890, the Dodgers switched to the National League and the rivalry was officially underway.
Although the two teams were natural rivals anyway, the animosity between the two teams runs deeper than mere competitiveness. Giants fans were seen as well to do elitists of Manhattan while Dodger fans tended to be more blue collar and had more newly arrived immigrants as fans due to what was then the working class atmosphere of Brooklyn. In the early 1900s, the rivalry was heightened by a long-standing personal feud (originally a business difference) between Charles Ebbets, owner of the Dodgers, and John McGraw, manager of the Giants. The two used their teams as fighting surrogates, which caused incidents between players both on and off the field, and inflamed local fans' passions. The rivalry is said to have been the motive for at least one fan-on-fan homicide, in 1938, and another in 2007 within close proximity to AT&T Park in San Francisco. Former Dodger manager Joe Torre recalled how he felt threatened being a Giants fan growing up in Brooklyn. During the latter years for both teams in New York, players often engaged in purposeful, aggressive, physical altercations. We all remember when, in 1965, Giants pitcher Juan Marichal knocked Dodger catcher John Roseboro over the head with a bat. (Ironically, Marichal ended his career with the Dodgers albeit not moving from San Francisco directly)
Over the years 221 players have played for both the Dodgers and Giants, 76 have been pitchers. Many of those players were with neither team long enough to perhaps get any real sense of the rivalry so it meant nothing and others didn’t go from one team directly to the other. For example, HOF’er Waite Hoyt was a rookie with the Giants in 1918 appearing in but 1 game for 1 inning before he moved to the American League where he spent the majority of his career. It wasn’t until 1937 that he wore a Dodger uniform and I doubt the fact that he pitched 1 inning for the Giants 18 years previously meant anything to him.
I would like to have been around in 1948 when Leo Durocher began the season managing the Dodgers and finished it managing the Giants. Wow...that probably got the flames jumping.
Other than Wilson who looks like a good pick-up by the Dodgers (note: his salary with the Dodgers is greater than it ever was with the Giants) I think of 2 or 3 players who came over from the Giants who still had something left in the tank. The most notable might have been “Fat Freddie” Fitzsimmons who was a right-handed starting pitcher for the NY Giants for 13 seasons from 1925-1937. He was a 20 Game winner and was the 3rd winningest right-hander in the NL over the 35 year period from the end of the Dead Ball Era until 1955. He and Carl Hubbell formed one of the best righty-lefty duos in Baseball for the Giants in the 1930’s when they were no strangers to going to the World Series. When Fitzsimmons came over to the Dodgers he pitched well for 3 or 4 seasons including 1940 when he went 16-2 and set an NL record with a single-season winning percentage of .889 not topped until Elroy Face went 18-1 in 1959.
When Johnny Roseboro was moved to the Minnesota Twins along with Ron Perranoski after the 1967 season for a couple of players who didn’t do much for the Dodgers ( Mudcat Grant and Zoilo Versalles ) it was the Giants the Dodgers turned to for a catcher…trading for 30 year old Tom Haller. Haller stuck around for 4 seasons.
Finally there was Sal Maglie. I know he didn’t come from the Giants directly to the Dodgers as he had a 12 game stop in Cleveland in between but he is probably the most celebrated of players to change rivalry uniforms and he did it 1950’s. To add to this Maglie went from the Dodgers to the Yankees so in the space of three seasons he pitched for all three NY teams.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTBsFDlJicM]Dodgers-Giants Rivalry - YouTube[/ame]

https://www.google.ca/search?q=dodg...ants-rivalry-that-started-in-nyc%2F;2000;1333

https://www.google.ca/search?q=dodg...2009%2F08%2F09%2Fgiants-vs-dodgers%2F;666;640

https://www.google.ca/search?q=dodg...o.com%2Fgift-ideas-for-sf-giants-fans;317;475

 

[67RedSox]

If I say…who was George Burns?...chances are more would say the radio, TV and movie guy who smoked cigars and lived to be 100. Well, you’d be right but I’m more interested in George Burns, the baseball player. Well, it could be George Burns of the NY Giants who was the most consistent hitter in ML history, batting .287 for his 15-year career (1911-1925), but never higher than .303 nor lower than .272 in a full season. Though Burns is hardly remembered today, John McGraw described him as "one of the most valuable ball players that ever wore the uniform of the Giants." He consistently ranked 1st (12 times) among the NL leaders in hits, runs, walks, and stolen bases. George was tremendously strong even though he stood just 5'7" and weighed only 160 lbs. He demonstrated his strength by wielding a 42", 52-oz. bat, which was a tree trunk even by Dead Ball Era standards.
But the George Burns I’m thinking about was neither of those guys but the guy the Cleveland Indians traded for on this date in 1924. Why did they trade for him?… not because he became the first player to get a hit in Yankee Stadium on April 18, 1923 off of New York’s Bob Shawkey in the second inning nor was it because he completed the near impossible ( for a 1B ) unassisted triple play against them the year before when in the top of the second inning, Tribe second baseman Riggs Stephenson led off with a single to left field and third baseman Rube Lutzke followed with a walk. Up stepped first baseman Frank Brower, and Manager, Tris Speaker put the hit-and-run play on. Brower smashed a line drive headed to right field but the ball never got there as Burns snared it from his position at 1st base and tagged Lutzke for the second out. Seeing that Stephenson was retracing his steps to second, Burns raced to the bag, sliding and beating the runner by a whisker. No, it was because they knew the 1B was one of the best hitters in the AL and he would prove them correct when in 1926 when he led the Majors with 216 Basehits and established a then ML record by hitting 64 Doubles and was the AL’s MVP that season.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=geor...k-machine-walter-ruether-the-dutchman;425;710

It was on this date in 1962 the 61 year old Three-I League is disbanded. Formally known as the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League, but generally known as the Three-I, the league ran from 1901 to 1961 with a breaks in 1918 for WWI, for three years during the Great Depression and in 1942 closing down for WWII. The League again took the field in 1946, lasting through 1961. A class B league from 1902 throughout its lifespan, no League survived for as long at that level. The end of World War II proved a boon to Minor League Baseball in the United States. In 1945, there were but a dozen Minor Leagues in the nation. Four years later, there were a record 59 leagues in 448 communities. During this period, the Three-I enjoyed relative stability. Waterloo drew a single-season club record of 174,000 in 1947. Three years later, the league set an all-time attendance record of almost 783,000. In the 1950s, with competition from television and the manpower drain of the Korean War, Minor Leagues throughout the nation began folding. With the end approaching, the League was the Three-I in name only, as no Illinois or Indiana cities were represented after 1957 and teams from Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska joined its ranks. The Three-I League suspended operations after the 1961 season, marking the end of the nation's oldest Class B league. Some 31 cities had fielded teams in the 61 year run of one of Minor League Baseball's showcase League's. Hall of Fame Alumni include Luis Aparicio, Lou Boudreau, Mordecai Brown, Jim Bunning, Red Faber, Hank Greenberg, Burleigh Grimes, Carl Hubbell, Chuck Klein, Tony Lazzeri, Joe McGinnity, Red Ruffing, Warren Spahn and Billy Williams.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=thre...2Fwww.three-eye.com%2FgalOther.html;2970;2079

Here’s something I didn’t know. It was so confusing to players and fans alike it didn’t last long but it did exist. With the emergence of the new American Association the NL, not wanting to be outdone by the new League, instituted a uniform code on this date in 1882.. Each team was to have multi-hued silk uniforms, with each shirt color representing a position on the field. The National League mandated that all players were to wear white pants, white belts and white ties. The shirts and hats were to represent the positions they played…

P - Light Blue
C - Scarlet
1B - Scarlet and white vertical stripes
2B - Orange and black vertical stripes
3B - Blue and white vertical stripes
SS - Maroon
LF - White
CF - Red and black vertical stripes
RF - Gray
1st substitute - Green
2nd substitute – Brown

The teams were only identified by their socks.

National League team color socks:

Boston Red Caps- Red
Buffalo Bisons - Gray
Chicago White Stockings - White
Cleveland Blues - Navy
Detroit Wolverines - Old Gold
Providence Grays - Light Blue (sky)
Troy Trojans - Green
Worcester Ruby Legs - Brown

American Association team color socks:

Baltimore Orioles - Yellow
Cincinnati Red Stockings- Red
Louisville Eclipse - Gray
Philadelphia Athletics - White
Pittsburgh Alleghenys - Black
St. Louis Browns - Brown

Alvin Dark who was mentioned in yesterday’s Post as one of the four still alive who managed in the Majors during the 1966 season was born on this date in 1922…Happy 92nd.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IZRkKlDmK0]Alvin Dark Tribute - YouTube[/ame]

HOF’er Johnny Mize was born on this date in 1913. In 1947, Johnny Mize did something unmatched in baseball history. He became the first and, so far, only player to hit 50 or more home runs in a season while striking out less than 50 times, one of the game’s extraordinary records. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, etc., etc. – none of baseball’s best all-around hitters ever combined meticulous bat control with brute power the way Mize did in ’47, back when the New York Giants carried two trunks of bats when they hit the road. “One trunk was for Johnny Mize,” said Buddy Blattner, Mize’s roommate on the Giants. “The other was for the rest of the team.”
Mize hit above .300 his first 9 seasons in the Majors…missing 3 seasons to WWII between seasons # 7 and 8. He was a lifetime .312 hitter with a Batting Crown and numerous HR and RBI Crowns on his resume.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V1ashdE2kk]Johnny Mize - Baseball Hall of Fame Biographies - YouTube[/ame]

 

[67RedSox]

Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey is believed to be the site of the first organized baseball game, giving Hoboken a strong claim to be the birthplace of Baseball.
In 1845, Knickerbocker Club of New York City began using Elysian Fields in Hoboken to play baseball due to the lack of suitable grounds across the Hudson River in Manhattan. On June 19, 1846, the Knickerbockers led by Alexander Cartwright played the New York Nine on these grounds in the first organized game between two clubs. By the 1850s, several Manhattan-based member clubs of the National Association of Base Ball Players were using the grounds as their home field.
In 1856, Elysian Fields was the place that inspired pioneering journalist Henry Chadwick, then a cricket writer for The New York Times, to develop the idea that baseball could be America's National Pastime. As Chadwick relates:
"I chanced to go through Elysian Fields during the progress of a contest between the noted Eagle and Gotham Clubs. The game was being sharply played on both sides, and I watched it with deeper interest that any previous ball match between clubs I had seen. It was not long before I was struck with the idea that base ball was just the game for a national sport for Americans."
Chadwick went on to become the game's preeminent reporter developing baseball's statistics and scoring system.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=elys...age-elysian-fields-baseball-game.html;730;446

It was on this date in 1898 that the NL adopts the use of 2 umpires per game. The more experienced umpire will stay behind the plate. Previously, the lone arbitrator would move away from home and stand behind the pitcher when a base was occupied. Here’s a chronology of some Umpire Stuff:
1876 - William McLean, from Philadelphia, became the first professional umpire when he umpired the first game in National League history between Boston and Philadelphia on April 22.
1878 - The National League instructed home teams to pay umpires $5 per game.
1879 - National League president William A. Hulbert appointed a group of 20 men from which teams could choose an umpire, therefore becoming baseball's first umpiring staff.
1879 - Umpires were given the authority to impose fines for illegal acts.
1882 - National League umpire Richard Higham became the only ML umpire ever expelled from the game after the League judged him guilty of collusion with gamblers.
1885 - Umpires began wearing chest protectors for the first time.
1901 - Thomas Connolly umpired the first game in the American League between Cleveland and Chicago on April 24.
1903 - Hank O'Day and Thomas Connolly worked the first modern World Series between the Boston Pilgrims and Pittsburgh Pirates.
1906 - William Evans, at 22 years old, became the youngest umpire in ML history.
1909 - The four-umpire system was employed for the first time in the World Series.
1910 - The umpire organizational chart was established. The plate umpire was appointed the umpire-in-chief and the others were field umpires.
1910 - Chicago Cubs manager Frank Chance became the first person ejected from a World Series game when umpire Thomas Connolly threw him out for protesting a home run call.
1911 - Bill Dinneen worked as an umpire in the World Series and became the first person to play and umpire in the Fall Classic. Dinneen played for the Boston Pilgrims in the 1903 Series.
1912 - Both the American and National Leagues had 10 person umpiring staffs with two umpires being used in games and two reserves.
1921 - Umpires in both leagues began the practice of rubbing mud into the balls prior to each game in order to remove the gloss.
1933 - Bill Dinneen, Bill Klem, Bill McGowan and Cy Rigler umpired the first All-Star Game at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
1935 - George Barr of the National League opened the first umpire training school in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
1939 - The Bill McGowan School for Umpires opened.
1941 - Bill Klem, the oldest umpire in ML history at 68, retired from umpiring after working a record 37 seasons and became the National League's first modern chief of umpires.
1946 - Bill McKinley became the first graduate of an umpiring training school to reach the Major Leagues.
1947 - In the 1947 World Series, featuring the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees, the current six-man crew was established as an alternate umpire was stationed along each foul line.
1950 - Umpires were no longer allowed to levy fines for illegal acts as that was to be handled by each League president.
1951 - Emmett Ashford became an umpire in the Southwestern International League and became the first black professional umpire.
1952 - The four-man umpiring crew was instituted for all regular season games.
1953 - Thomas Connolly and Bill Klem became the first umpires inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
1956 - Ed Rommel and Frank Umont broke a long-standing taboo by becoming the first umpires to wear eyeglasses on the field.
1966 - Emmett Ashford became the first black umpire in the ML’s when he reached the American League after 14 seasons in the minor leagues.
1970 - The first strike by umpires in ML history lasted one day during the League Championship Series. This action prompted both the American and National League presidents to recognize the newly-formed Major League Umpires Association and negotiate a labor contract with them.
1972 - Bernice Gera became the first woman to umpire a professional baseball game when she worked a Class A New York-Penn League game.
1973 - Art Williams became the first black umpire to reach the National League staff.
1974 - Armando Rodriguez became the first Hispanic umpire to work in the major leagues as he joined the American League staff.
1979 - ML umpires went on strike for the third time in history from Opening Day until May 18. Replacement umpires were used during this strike.
1991 - Steve Palermo, an American League umpire, suffered a career-ending gunshot wound while attempting to prevent the robbery of two women.
1996 - National League umpire John McSherry collapsed during an Opening Day game in Cincinnati and passed away after being rushed to a nearby hospital.
1997 - Mike DiMuro became the first American umpire to work a regular season game in the Japanese Leagues.
1998 - Harry and Hunter Wendelstedt became the first father-son umpire combination to work a ML game together.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=1898...american-pastime-daniel-hagerman.html;900;519

Gene Freese, who died last summer at the age of 79, was born on this date in 1934. Not too many today will remember Freese but he was a good guy and a good 3rd Baseman in his time despite playing for six teams in 12 years. His career year was 1961 when he hit 26 HRs and drove in 87 runs for the Reds which coincided with Cincinnati going to the World Series. Unfortunately, he suffered a broken ankle the following Spring and missed almost the entire 1962 season and never did regain his pre-injury form. As a teammate of Pete Rose in Rose’s rookie season in 1963 Freese is credited with giving Rose his nickname of “Charlie Hustle”.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=gene...om%2F2010%2F02%2F492-gene-freese.html;418;300

Walker Cooper was born on this date in 1915. Now if you remember him it’s less likely because of his 18 year ML career ( 1940-1957 ) and more likely because he was Mort Cooper’s brother. Brother Mort was a very good right-hander who led the Majors (tied) in Wins both in 1942 and 1943 while playing for the Cardinals…winning the NL’s MVP Crown in 1942. His catcher while winning all those games was…brother, Walker Cooper. Mort last pitched in the Majors in 1947 but Walker played on until retiring after the 1957 season. All that is interesting but the reason I mentioned Walker Cooper in the first place is not because of any of that but because in 1956 he played for the Cardinals and one of his teammates that year was Don Blasingame, the Cardinals regular 3rd Baseman…who just happened to be his son-in-law. As far as I know they were the only father/son -in-law to play together in the Majors.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=walk...atchers%2Fcatchers%2F1940catchers.htm;475;674

 

[67RedSox]

Based upon Forbes Magazine’s latest valuations the top three valued MLB franchises are:

1) New York Yankess - $2.3 Billion
2) Los Angeles Dodgers - $1.62 Billion
3) Boston Red Sox - $1.31 Billion

It was on this date in 1903 Baltimore's defunct American League franchise is sold to Frank Farrell and Bill Devery for $18,000 and is moved to New York. The Manhattan team will be first known as the Highlanders before being officially renamed the Yankees in 1913.
Adjusting for inflation this means in the over 40,000 days since the Yankee franchise was originally purchased it has increased in value by an average of $57,000.00 each and every day since. Not a bad return. Of course, if you think that’s a lot it pales in comparison to what Cliff Lee earns every day he works which is $806,000.00 ( based on $25,000,000.00 per season and 31 Starts ). Not bad work if you can get it.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=new+...ki%2F1903_New_York_Highlanders_season;400;334

Ralph Terry a fixture in the Yankee’s rotation in the early 1960’s and who went to 5 consecutive World Series with them was born on this date in 1936. In 1999 the Sporting News named Baseball’s 25 Greatest Moments and Terry was directly involved in 2 of them, the pitcher who served up the pitch for Moments # 2 and 13 which follow:

1-The Shot Heard 'Round the World
2-Bill Mazeroski's Home Run
3-Don Larsen's Perfect Game
4-Carlton Fisk Waves It Fair
5-Hank Aaron's 715th Home Run
6-Kirk Gibson's Home Run
7-Mark McGwire Hits No. 62
8-E-3 on Bill Buckner
9-Willie Mays' Catch
10-Enos Slaughter's Mad Dash
11-The Luckiest Man Alive Speech
12-Reggie Jackson's Three Homers
13-Willie McCovey Lines Out
14-Bucky Dent's Home Run
15-Roger Maris hits No. 61
16-Joe Carter's Home Run
17-Cal Ripken breaks Gehrig's Streak
18-Brooklyn wins the World Series
19-Haddix's Perfect Loss
20-Pete Rose gets hit No. 4,192
21-Chris Chambliss' Home Run
22-George Brett's Home Run
23-Owen and the Dropped Third Strike
24-Dave Henderson's Home Run
25-Cookie Lavagetto beats Bill Bevens

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE1nYMg-jU4]The Greatest Homerun Ever: Bill Mazeroski (Longer Version) - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD1TPzwIG9I]1962 World Series Game 7: Yankees @ Giants - YouTube[/ame]

Ferrell Anderson was born on this date in 1918. Now, if you don’t know that name join everyone except his family because he only played 97 games in the Majors…79 with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946 and 18 with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1953. He gets a mention here because WWII probably cost him a real career in the Majors and serving your country goes a long way in my books. He was a catcher, and a tough one. Here’s what Dodger Manager, Leo Durocher had to say about him…"See that Anderson there? He's solid and he isn't afraid of anybody or anything. He'll knock the grandstand out of his way if it gets in his way."

https://www.google.ca/search?q=ferr...Fplayers%2Fplayer.php%3Fp%3Danderfe01;238;300

Charlie Bennett was a ML catcher for 15 seasons. Aside from his abilities as a slugger, Bennett is regarded as one of the best defensive catchers of the 19th Century. He led the National League in fielding percentage by a catcher seven times (1881, 1883, 1886, and 1888–1891). He also led National League catchers in double plays and putouts three times, and is credited with inventing the chest protector. He had his wife rig up a cork-lined vest, which he wore under his uniform.
He played his last game in the Majors on September 30, 1893. It was not his last game by choice but by circumstance. After the 1893 season, Bennett went hunting with pitcher John Clarkson. It was on this date in 1894 Bennett got off the train in Wellsville, Kansas to speak to an acquaintance. When he tried to re-board, Bennett slipped and fell under the train's wheels. Bennett lost both legs in the accident. He was fitted with artificial limbs but his baseball career was over.
After his injury, Bennett moved to Detroit, where he operated a cigar store. His greatest success in the Majors occurred during the eight years he played for the Detroit Wolverines…then members of the National league. He became one of the most popular players in the history of that city albeit few would know his name now. When Detroit got a new ballpark in 1896 it was named Bennett Park in his honour. Bennett caught the first pitch at Bennett Park in 1896 and it became a tradition for the next 30 years that he would catch the first pitch in Detroit’s home opener. When Bennett Park opened in 1896 it was home to the Detroit Tigers of the then Western League. The Western League changed its name to the American League in 1900 and declared itself a Major League in 1901. The ballpark sat 5,000 when opened in 1896 and was gradually expanded to 14,000 by 1911. This small ballpark enjoyed some big success, as the Tigers and their young sensation Ty Cobb won three consecutive pennants during 1907-1909. Unfortunately, their success ran out in the post-season on each occasion, losing to stronger National League teams in the World Series. This ballpark is hallowed ground to fans of the Chicago Cubs, as it was on this site in both 1907 and 1908 that the Cubs clinched their only World Series championships.
Between the 1911 and 1912 seasons, the Tigers acquired the rest of the block, demolished both the wildcat bleachers and Bennett Park, and built Navin Field on the same site, though the new stadium was shifted by 90 degrees, with home plate where the left field corner had formerly been. Navin was the name of the Tiger’s owner at the time and as ownership of the team changed so did the name of the ballpark first to Briggs Stadium in the 1930’s and finally to Tiger Stadium in 1961 when John Fetzer took control.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=char...ball-non-tiger-1-charlie-bennett.html;315;317

 

[67RedSox]

How would you like to have an infield like the John McGraw managed in 1927 with the NY Giants. Every one of them in the Hall of Fame:

1B- Bill Terry who had a .400 season, .341 lifetime BA and NL record 254 basehits in a single season tied with Lefty O’Doul.
2B- Rogers Hornsby who enjoyed three .400 seasons, 7 Batting Crowns, a .358 lifetime BA and a couple of MVPs
SS- Travis Jackson who was regarded as one of the premier defensive shortstops in the Majors and who batted over .300 six times, including a career-high of .339
3B- Freddie Lindstrom who was known as the “Boy Wonder” of the Major Leagues. The youngest player ever to appear in the World Series, a distinction he still holds. For several years his star shone brightly in the National League. He twice collected 231 hits in a season hitting .358 and .379 those two seasons.

If that wasn’t enough in your line-up throw in a couple of more future Hall of Famers in the form of a young Mel Ott in the outfield and the last of the the spitballers, Burleigh Grimes, anchoring the starting pitching staff.
That should add up to a winning season and it did as the Giants finished with a mark of 92-62. Alas, not good enough to win the NL Pennant as the season was quite competitive with the Pirates, cardinals and Giants all vying to be # 1. The Pirates finished on top with 94 Wins and the Cardinals nudged out the Giants for 2nd place.
The pugnacious John McGraw managed the same way he played…putting a premium on strategy and guile seeking out every advantage he could. Known as "Mugsy" (a nickname he detested) and "Little Napoleon" (for his dictatorial methods), McGraw administered harsh tongue-lashings to his players and frequently fought with umpires; he was ejected from 118 contests during his career, far more than any other Manager of his time. "McGraw eats gunpowder every morning for breakfast and washes it down with warm blood," said Giants coach Arlie Latham.
With all that talent and a 3rd place finish you knew McGraw would find fault somewhere and do something about it. I can only suppose it was reminiscent of one of the final scenes from Dickens, A Christmas Carol, where Ebenezer Scrooge confronts Bob Cratchit when he 18 minutes late for work the day after Christmas and says, “ I’m not going to stand for this any longer…therefore, therefore I’m going to double your salary ”. In the Giants case Rogers Hornsby and his .361 BA and League leading On-Base % of .448 was apparently the problem so on this date in 1928 the Giants trade him to the Boston Braves likely saying to him…, “ We’re not going to stand for this any longer…therefore, therefore we’re going to trade you to the Boston Braves ” . Actually, the reason cited by Giant’s owner Charles Stoneham was because they were displeased with his abrasive style and gambling habits.
Off to Boston went Hornsby and with the Braves the following season he leads the Majors with a BA of .387 and an On-Base % of .498.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjn7Xmlo-QM]Rogers Hornsby - Baseball Hall of Fame Biographies - YouTube[/ame]

There were a couple of Hall of Famers born on January 10th . Harry Wright was born on this date in 1835 and made it to the Hall of Fame in 1953…should have been much sooner and Willie McCovey who never hit a cheap Homerun among the 521 he did hit…and I’m pretty sure Walter Alston will back me up on that...was born on this date in 1938.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=harr...r-Professional-Base%2Fdp%2F0786415614;317;475

https://www.google.ca/search?q=will...nly-willie-mccovey-final-tribute.html;723;523

There is another who celebrates a birthday today. Jim O’Toole was born on this date in 1937. Yes he had 11 children and 34 grandchildren but he was also a standout left-hander during the 5 years from 1960-1964, winning 81 games, on a very good pitching staff in Cincinnati. He was a competitor and aggressive on the mound. In 1960 the Reds finished 20 games under .500 at 67-87 with O’Toole going 12-12 in his first full season. In 1961 the Reds won the NL Pennant going 93-61 with O’Toole winning 19 games. Some viewed O’Toole’s improvement from the previous season as one of the keys to the 1961 Reds’ success.
1964 would prove to be a disappointing and heartbreaking year for O’Toole and his teammates because of events both on and off the diamond. In January, universally respected Manager Fred Hutchinson was diagnosed with cancer. Although Hutch was optimistic and tried to avoid letting his illness interfere with his job, by mid-season he was too sick to continue, and coach Dick Sisler assumed managerial duties. Cincinnati did not start impressively, but 1964 was the year of the Philly “Phlop” and the Reds had won 12 of 13 entering their last homestand. The Phillies, who had lost 10 straight, came to town on October 2. The Reds started the day 92-68, the Phillies were 90-70, and the Cardinals were 92-67. O’Toole started for the Reds and had a 3-0 lead through seven innings. At this point the scoreboard flashed the news that the Mets had beaten the Cardinals, and the Reds were in position to take over first place.
In the bottom of the seventh, shortstop and number eight hitter, Leo Cardenas gets hit by a pitch. Incredulously his teammates watched as Cardenas took his bat and headed toward the mound. Although the benches cleared, most of the Reds were simply trying to get Cardenas to calm down so they could finish the game and take a ½ game lead on the Cardinals. When the Reds took the field in the top of the eighth, Cardenas – evidently feeling his teammates hadn’t supported him – did not participate when the other infielders tossed the ball around. With one out, Frank Thomas hit a soft fly to the edge of the grass behind short. Reports vary, but Cardenas made a half-hearted effort at best, and the ball fell in for a single. Fierce competitor that he was, O’Toole was furious; in all his accounts of the incident Jim claimed that Cardenas did not even attempt to field the ball. O’Toole walked the next batter and then gave up another hit before being relieved. The Phillies came back and won the game.
It was in the locker that things got really ugly. Angry words were exchanged between O’Toole and Cardenas; the pitcher grabbed the Cuban and threw him against the wall. Cardenas then came after O’Toole with an ice pick, but Joey Jay stopped him before any harm could be done. That was the Reds season as the Cardinals won the following day to take the Pennant.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=jim+...%2Fcol%2F1%2Fyea%2F1962%2FJim-O'Toole;350;252

 

[Silas]

Over the years I have watched baseball there are a few players who make you hold your breath when they come to bat; especially with the game on the line.

I don't think any player I ever watched made me hold my breath more than Willie McCovey. As a Dodgers fan he broke my heart more than a few times. He was a terrific player and is certainly a player and person Giants' fans can cherish.

Jim O'Toole was certainly one of many very good pitchers during the 1960's. The Reds had some pretty good teams in those days. Sure brings back some stirring memories.

 

[67RedSox]

What would you do?
In 1931 Bill Terry, of the NY Giants, collects 213 basehits and loses winning the Batting Crown .3486 to Chick Hafey’s .3488. He finishes a close 3rd in the MVP voting behind Frankie Frisch and Chuck Klein. He also leads the League with 121 Runs Scored and 20 Triples. That season he earned $21,500.00. How do the Giants respond…by sending him a contract for the 1932 season for $12,500.00, a reduction of $9,000.00. Terry does what I would have done and on this date in 1932 he sends it back telling the Giants he’s thoroughly disgusted.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=bill...5602-Bill-s-Rare-Photo-Finds%2Fpage10;650;809

I'm starting to scratch the surface of the PCL and in doing so I learned some geography today…Vernon, California is a city five miles (8.0 km) south of downtown Los Angeles, California. The population was 112 at the 2010 United States Census, the smallest of any incorporated city in the State (and the nearest one to downtown Los Angeles). I’ll come back to Vernon after mentioning there were two versions of the Hollywood Stars in the Pacific Coast League. The first was born on this date in 1926 when the Salt Lake City franchise was transferred to Hollywood. They actually played their home games as tenants of the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field in South Los Angeles. Though the Stars won pennants in 1929 and 1930, they never developed much of a fan base, playing their home games miles from the glamorous Hollywood district. They were merely a team to watch when the Angels were on the road. Attendance had been quite good (by standards of that era) during their inaugural year in 1926, but tapered off after that, exacerbated by the Great Depression. When, after the 1935 season, the Angels doubled the Stars’ rent, Lane announced the Stars would move to San Diego for the 1936 season, to become the San Diego Padres. Los Angeles became a one-team city once more for the 1936 and 1937 seasons.
The second version of the Hollywood Stars joined the PCL in 1909 as the Vernon Tigers. As the Tigers, the team won two PCL pennants (and finished first in another only to lose the postseason series) before moving to San Francisco for the 1926 season. The transplanted Tigers, now known as the Mission Reds or usually just "the Missions," foundered in San Francisco, failing to establish a rivalry with the existing San Francisco Seals.
In 1938 Missions' owner Herbert Fleishaker moved his team back to Los Angeles, and took the name of the departed Stars. After but one season, the team was sold to new owners, among them Robert H. “Bob” Cobb, one of the owners of the Brown Derby restaurant and for whom the Cobb salad is named. The new ownership realized the team needed to represent Hollywood in order to succeed. They sold stock in the team to movie stars, movie moguls, and Hollywood civic leaders ("the Hollywood Stars owned by the Hollywood stars"). (One of these, Gene Autry, subsequently became owner of his own major league franchise, now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.) Another major investor was William Frawley from TV's I Love Lucy. Moreover, the team actually played in the Hollywood area, beginning in 1939 when 13,000-seat Gilmore Field was opened in the Fairfax District adjacent to Hollywood. (The club played part of the 1939 season in nearby Gilmore Stadium, after having played at Wrigley Field during 1938.)
The new Stars (or “Twinks”) caught on and became a very popular team, winning three pennants before 1958. They had successful affiliations with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball. In 1955, actress Jayne Mansfield was named Miss Hollywood Star. The Stars became genuine rivals of the Angels, and it was not uncommon for fights between the teams to break out during Angels-Stars games. In fact, on August 2, 1953, a brawl between the two teams lasted 30 minutes, broken up only when 50 riot police were sent to Gilmore Field by Chief of Police William Parker, who was at home watching the game on television when the fight started.
The Twinks were innovators. They began the custom of dragging the infield during the fifth inning, creating an artificial break in the action hoping fans would run to the concessions stands. The team began televising home games in 1939, and in later years televised every home game.
The Stars also had the dubious distinction of being the first team to replace the traditional bloused baseball trousers and stirrup socks with shorts and long socks in 1950. The theory was that players could run faster in this gear than in the baggy wool or cotton flannel uniforms of the day. The new uniforms resembling those worn by female softball players were "too Hollywood" even for Hollywood, as well as being very tough on the legs when sliding. They were soon replaced.
The Columbia Broadcasting System, owner of Gilmore Field, announced plans to raze the facility to build a new headquarters - CBS Television City, as it became known - in 1952. Before Stars' owners could make contingency plans, however, the "other shoe dropped." In October 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers confirmed their long-rumored move to Los Angeles for the 1958 season, which forced the Stars and the Angels to relocate. The Angels, who had been purchased by Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley prior to the 1957 season, became the Spokane Indians in 1958.
Having no interest in operating the Twinks anywhere but in Los Angeles, the ownership group led by Frank J. Kanne, Jr. was compelled to sell the team, which it did, to a group based in Salt Lake City. The Stars, in a sense, "returned" to Salt Lake City (whence the original Stars had moved in 1926) in 1958, becoming the Salt Lake Bees once more.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=holl...re-short-shorts-hollywood-stars.html;1600;970

https://www.google.ca/search?q=gilm...-history-of-la-baseball-stadiums.html;597;474

The St. George Grounds were in Staten Island, New York and it’s believed this field in 1853 hosted a game between the Washington Club (later known as the Gotham Club) and the Knickerbocker Club. The field was said to slope sharply from third base to left field and was a very short walk to the Staten Island Ferry dock. The National League New York Giants were the last team to use the filed in the 19th century on June 14, 1889.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=st+g...%2Fimage-st-george-staten-island.html;730;536

As well, here’s a drawing of the Philadephia Grounds which also hosted early versions of the Grand Old Game.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=the+...ge-philadelphia-baseball-grounds.html;730;485

 

[67RedSox]

Quick now…who holds the ML record for the most stolen bases (9) by a pitcher in one season? My guess is most of you easily snapped the correct answer however for those few that didn’t know the answer… it was Win Mercer.
Mercer pitched 9 seasons in the Majors from 1894-1902 and won 132 games. He was the ace of the lowly Washington Senators who finished below .500 every season of their existence. His high mark in Wins was 25 in 1896.
Mercer is remembered for far more than stealing 9 bases in a single season as a pitcher. Some of it is amusing and some sad. On this date in 1903 having only recently been named as the Manager of the Detroit Tigers he commits suicide by inhaling gas in San Francisco's Occidental Hotel on this date in 1903.
Mercer was born June 20, 1874 in Chester, West Virginia, and moved to the industrial city of East Liverpool, Ohio across the Ohio River from Chester. As a teenager he pitched so well for the town's pottery factory teams that he acquired the nickname "Winner." This was quickly shortened to "Winnie" and then "Win." Only 5'7" and a thin 140 pounds, clean shaven in an era of facial hair, with dark tousled hair he looked even younger than his actual age. Only 19 when he arrived in Washington he quickly became a fan favourite especially among the female fans because of his youthful good looks. (Most of us can relate to that, eh). Mercer also loved the ladies so it seemed like a perfect match. The team's owners liked to pitch Mercer on Tuesdays and Fridays, days designated as Ladies Days, because he attracted a crowd. According to reports an 1897 Ladies Day game ended in shambles when women rioted after Umpire Bill Carpenter ejected Mercer. As it described the incident: "an army of angry females poured out of the stands. They surrounded Carpenter, shoved him to the ground and started to rip away at his clothing. Finally police brought the situation under control".
Never a power pitcher, he got by on craft, nibbling at the corners and a nasty curve. He issued a lot of base on balls, even in his best years he walked more than he struck out. So he threw a lot of pitches. The years of overwork caught up with him. With his pitching role reduced, he began to play more in the field, shortstop and outfield were his main positions in 1898. Although he had little power, his .321 average led the Nationals. In 1899 he became the regular third baseman, although he played every position except catcher. He hit .299 and led the club in runs, and drove in a career-best 35 runs.
In 1902 Mercer appeared to regain the pitching skills which had left him after 1897. Used exclusively as a pitcher he had his best season since 1897. His 15 victories led Detroit. Moreover, his 3.04 ERA was the best of his career. Following the 1902 season, Detroit announced that Mercer would be its manager the next year at a salary of $3,800.
Following the 1902 season Mercer, along with old-time St. Louis Browns' star Tip O'Neill, organized a three-month barnstorming tour of the West. Teams of American and National Leaguers played each other almost daily in cities between Chicago and Los Angeles. The scheduled tour finished in San Francisco with the Americans and Nationals playing a three game series. The teams laid over in San Francisco for a few days of relaxation before heading back to Chicago. It was then, on January 12, 1903, that Mercer left the teams at the Langham Hotel and registered at the Occidental Hotel under the name of George Murray of Philadelphia. After penning several notes, he ran a tube from the gas jet into his mouth and asphyxiated himself. The reasons for his suicide remain a mystery. Some believe Mercer lost in excess of $8,000 at the horse track and it was money owing to the players on the barnstorming tour. On the other hand, Fred Lieb, Baseball writer and historian denied that Mercer had lost the players' money. According to him Mercer "ascribed his rash act to women". Mercer's suicide note warned "A word to friends: beware of women and a game of chance".

https://www.google.ca/search?q=win+...-16-first-ladies-day-at-baseball.html;375;525

https://www.google.ca/search?q=occi....org%2Fark%3A%2F13030%2Fkt338nc32n%2F;600;537

Mitch Williams who pitched in the Majors for 11 years from 1986-1997 and is best remembered for his three seasons in Philadelphia 1991-92-93 when he collected 102 Saves. I wonder how times the video of Joe Carter hitting a World Series winning walk-off Homerun has been viewed. Williams had the nickname of “Wild Thing” and he had it for a reason. He is the only pitcher in ML history ( at least 500 Innings Pitched ) who gave up more Walks than Basehits (691 Innings, 544 Walks, 537 Basehits ). Here’s a quote from teammate, Andy Van Slyke…"Patrick Ewing is 7-feet tall, and has a 6-foot strike zone. Mitch walked him."

https://www.google.ca/search?q=mitc...mbering-1993-philadelphia-phillies%2F;800;457

I’m not a Tommy Lasorda fan but I will admit he’s a very good baseball story teller and is always good for a quote. Here’s a quote on one of the differences in the Game between his time playing and now. "I walk into the clubhouse today and it's like walking into the Mayo Clinic. We have four doctors, three therapists and five trainers. Back when I broke in, we had one trainer who carried a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and by the 7th inning he'd already drunk it."--Tommy Lasorda

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvZR7BPg1CE]Tommy Lasorda talks about facing Mickey Mantle - YouTube[/ame]

Admiral Schlei was born on this date in 1878. He played in the Majors in the Dead Ball Era between 1904 and 1911. He was a catcher and for two of those seasons he was the Reds starting catcher. He was the first Cincinnati catcher to wear shin guards. Cricket was the first sport to adopt the use of shin guards. In Baseball, one of the innovators of the modern shin guard, New York Giants catcher Roger Bresnahan, began wearing shin guards in 1907. Made of leather, the guards were fastened with straps and hooks.
On Opening Day in 1907, Bresnahan began to experiment with protective gear. Though ***** league catcher Chappie Johnson wore protective gear and Nig Clarke wore similar gear in MLB in 1905, most catchers did not wear any protective equipment. Bresnahan practiced in shin guards that are worn in cricket during spring training, and debuted them on April 11, 1907. Fans, used to seeing catchers play without protective equipment, threw snowballs on the field, and without police at the game, umpire Bill Klem called off the game, with the Giants forfeiting to the Philadelphia Phillies. The press also criticized the use of shin guards. However, other catchers began to adopt Bresnahan's idea. Though Pittsburgh Pirates manager Fred Clarke protested Bresnahan's gear to the League, the protest was denied and the equipment was approved.
Bresnahan also developed the first batting helmet. He was hit in the head with a pitch by Andy Coakley of the Cincinnati Reds on June 18, 1907. Bresnahan was unconscious, and a Catholic priest read him his last rites. Bresnahan was hospitalized for ten days, during which time he developed schematics for a plastic batting helmet, though this piece of equipment did not become commonplace until the 1940s. Bresnahan was also the first catcher to wear a padded facemask while catching.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=admi...bb_catchers%2Fcatchers%2Fphotomo3.htm;449;352

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNB_DDV1bUc]Roger Bresnahan - Baseball Hall of Fame Biographies - YouTube[/ame]

Although many Hall of Famers played in the old PCL only one, Paul Waner , won a PCL Batting Crown. He hit .401 that season. Lefty O'Doul hit 'only' .375

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNhTSqc9bJs]Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Hall of Famers - YouTube[/ame]

 

[67RedSox]

In 1903 peace was achieved between the rival National and American Leagues in the form of what was called the National Agreement of 1903. The National Commission was established as the “ruling” body of Baseball and consisted of three people…the President of the National league, the President of the American League and a Commission chairman. The primary responsibilities of the Commission were to preside at meetings and to mediate disputes. There were a series of incidents in the late 1910’s that jeopardized the integrity of the Grand Old Game and team owners decided in 1920 to reform the National Commission with a membership of non-baseball men. They tapped Federal Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, an ardent Baseball fan, to serve as the reformed commission's chairman.
However, Landis declared that he would only accept an appointment as sole commissioner. He also demanded nearly unlimited authority to act in the "best interests of baseball"—in essence, serving as an arbitrator whose decisions could not be appealed. The owners, still reeling from the perception that the sport was crooked, readily agreed. Thus, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball was created and Landis had a huge problem to deal with immediately…the Black Sox Scandal.
More than enough has been written, discussed and put on film to last us all two lifetimes so I won’t babble about something I don’t know much about except to summarize the players involved. Despite the players being acquitted in the Courts the result from the Commissioner’s Office was far different. On August 3, 1921, the day after the players were acquitted, the Commissioner issued his own verdict:
Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ballplayers and gamblers, where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.
Consequently, nine not eight players, were vanquished from the game never to be reinstated. Of the eight White Sox players 1B Chick Gandil was the ringleader. It was he who came up with the idea and who had longstanding ties to underworld figures. He persuaded Joseph "Sport" Sullivan, a friend and professional gambler, that the fix could be pulled off. The White Sox team was comprised of two factions. One faction was those who disliked club owner Charles Comiskey because of his miserliness and the second faction were those “straight-laced” players like 2B Eddie Collins, a graduate of Columbia College of Columbia University, catcher Ray Schalk, and pitcher Red Faber. By most contemporary accounts, the two factions almost never spoke to each other on or off the field.
Of the remaining seven players on the White Sox other than the ringleader, Gandil there were starting pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude "Lefty" Williams, outfielder Oscar "Happy" Felsch, and shortstop Charles "Swede" Risberg were all principally involved with Gandil and there is little doubt of their guilt. Although he hardly played in the series, the sixth player of the group, utility infielder, Fred McMullin got word of the fix and threatened to report the others unless he was in on the payoff.
That left two players…Shoeless Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver. The extent of Shoeless Joe’s part in the conspiracy remains controversial. Jackson maintained that he was innocent and all involved have said he was never present at any of the meetings with the gamblers. He had a Series-leading .375 batting average – including the Series' only home run – threw out five baserunners, and handled 30 chances in the outfield with no errors. His greatest fault may have been that he was illiterate.
Finally, there was Buck Weaver who had no part in the fix and unlike the other seven he had not accepted any money to throw the Series, and there is no doubt that he played the games to win. His "crime" was simply his silence since he was aware of the fix. There was a method to Landis's cruelty. By making an example of Weaver, Landis sent a message to the rest of organized baseball that any player who learned of a fix was guilty in the eyes of baseball unless he immediately reported it.
It was on this date in 1922 Buck Weaver applies unsuccessfully for re-instatement. It would be the first of his eight applications for re-instatement. Weaver was the only Black Sox player to remain in Chicago after his banishment. Into his old age, Weaver continued to pursue every avenue to clear his name and return to the good graces of organized baseball. His final petition came in 1953, when he again requested reinstatement from Commissioner Ford Frick…his request received no response. On January 31, 1956, Weaver died of a heart attack at the age of 65; his body was found on West 71st Street by a Chicago policeman.
The 9th player banned was Joe Gedeon, second baseman for the St. Louis Browns. Gedeon placed bets on the Series after learning of the fix from Risberg.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=blac...orts-history.html%2Fchicago-black-sox;650;496

https://www.google.ca/search?q=joe+...Fwww.lonecadaver.com%2FColorized.html;460;690

Pitcher Larry Jaster was born on this date in 1944. His career was brief, 80 Starts over seven seasons with a record of 35-33. In his rookie season in 1966 ( he had 3 starts in 1965 ) the Los Angeles Dodgers were the class of the National League winning 95 games and the Pennant. Immersed in a pennant race that would go down to the wire, the Dodgers took the field at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on September 28, 1966, in hopes of putting distance between themselves and their two closest competitors. The St. Louis Cardinals had no intention of making this endeavor any easier when they sent 22-year-old left-handed hurler Larry Jaster to the mound. Nicknamed “The Creeper” by his teammates because of his quiet nature, Jaster was later dubbed the Dodger Killer for the task he was about to accomplish. Thirty-three batters later the Cardinals rookie had etched his name in Baseball history by blanking the Dodgers for the fifth consecutive time (yielding a mere 24 singles in the five games). Baseball’s post-1900 era had been witness to five shutouts against one team in a single season just twice before – the last being in 1916 by future Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander – but none of the hurlers did it consecutively, or against an eventual League champion. Another future Hall of Famer, Sandy Koufax, sat in the opposing dugout watching this unique performance said afterward, “Jaster makes it look so easy. Was he impressive? He’s better than impressive. What’s the next adjective?”
Jaster went to the World Series twice appearing in one game in each of the 1967 and 1968 Series. Both were memorable in a dubious sort of way. His first postseason appearance was a brief outing against the Boston Red Sox in Game Six of the World Series. He was one of 11 pitchers who took the mound for both teams, at the time a World Series record, in an 8-4 Boston victory. St. Louis went on to win the Series the next day.
In the 1968 World Series Jaster again had but one appearance, and once again it was of the record-setting variety. In the third inning of Game Six the Tigers exploded for a record-tying ten runs – accomplished by the Philadelphia Athletics in 1929 – and Jaster was right in the middle of this outburst. Entering with the Tigers down 3-0 and runners on first and third, Jaster yielded a run-scoring single and a walk that brought Detroit’s Jim Northrup to the plate with the bases loaded. Jaster had surrendered two grand slams during the season and Northrup had blasted four for the Tigers (not to mention two during the preceding 1967 season). Northrup connected again, Jaster was promptly removed, and the Tigers tacked on four more runs to tie the Athletics’ record. After the 13-1 rout, Detroit would go on to won the Series the next day, October 10. Four days later Jaster was a Montreal Expo.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=larr...%2F20111015%2FSPORTS02%2F110150387%2F;512;358

Both Joe DiMaggio in 1935 and Dom DiMaggio in 1939 were MVPs in the PCL.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=joe+...ofessor-Dom-DiMaggio-dies-3242706.php;628;434

 

[67RedSox]

It was on this date in 1963 the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles whipped up a six-player trade involving two future Hall of Famers. The principals in the deal had 39 year old Relief Pitcher ( the term Closer hadn’t come into to vogue at that time ) for 28 year old Shortstop Luis Aparicio who was coming off a run where he had won 5 consecutive Gold Gloves, and Stolen Base Crowns not to mention being an All-Star in each of those seasons and runner-up to Nellie Fox for MVP.
On the face of it the Orioles got the better of the deal but it actually worked out very well for both clubs. In addition to acquiring Wilhelm the White Sox also obtained the left side of their infield in the deal…Pete Ward at 3B who would be runner-up for the ROTY Award in 1963 and Shortstop Ron Hansen who was the AL’s ROTY in 1960. Over the next three seasons the White Sox, with very good starting pitching and a winner in Wilhelm coming out of the bullpen, averaged 96 Wins per season and in 1966 the Orioles win it all.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwUCbosPayM]Hoyt Wilhelm - Baseball Hall of Fame Biographies - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoZaOzcw5GA]Luis Aparicio - Baseball Hall of Fame Biographies - YouTube[/ame]

Curry Foley, one of 32 Irish-born Major Leaguers in the 19th century was born on this date in 1856 in Milltown, County Kerry. The population of Milltown in 2006 was 401 and is higher now but when Foley was born it must have been much less as the train didn’t arrive until 1886. In true Irish fashion though the town has six Pubs to serve the few hundred who live there. Although Foley’s ML career was brief, 305 games over three full and 2 part-time seasons, he was the first ML'er to hit for the cycle and did make a larger contribution to the Game... due to his ill health. He was forced to retire because of rheumatism. When his rheumatism dramatically curtailed Foley's career in 1883 his plight was compounded when the Buffalo club, believing he was faking and seeking a better deal, refused to play him or to release him so that he could earn a living at his craft. Under the Reserve Rule, he couldn't take a job in organized Baseball. John Montgomery Ward recognized the Foley case as one of management's biggest abuses, and highlighted it in his arguments against the reserve clause. Ward formed the game's first players union in an effort to protect his fellow ballplayers against any such abuses. It was too late for Foley; the rheumatism took hold and within a short time he was incapacitated both physically and financially. He died without a penny and for a long stretch resided in an asylum.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=curr...Baseball_players_to_hit_for_the_cycle;170;243

Since we’re talking about 19th Century Baseball players born overseas and had an impact on the Game away from the field more than on it I’ll mention another…Al Reach who died on this date in 1928 at the ripe old age of 87. He was a player, team owner and founder. In 1865 he was paid a salary ($25.00 a week) to play baseball, thus becoming the first professional player in Philadelphia. He was a founding member of the 1876 National Association (NA), which was the first organized Baseball league. He played for the Philadelphia Athletics of the NA for 5 years. In 1883, along with John Rogers, he financially backed a new baseball team in Philadelphia - The Phillies. He hired Harry Wright to manage the team. After baseball he turned to business and ran a sporting goods store in Philadelphia, and was responsible for the invention of the cork-center baseball and it was used as the official baseball of the American until 1977 when Rawlings took over supplying both the American League from Reach and the National League from Spalding.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=al+r...F2010-tri-star-obak-hot-box-13.html;1052;1493

https://www.google.ca/search?q=al+r...Fmlb-game-ball-multi-colored-laces%2F;700;676

On this date in 1932 Babe Ruth rejects the Yankee’s salary offer of $70,000.00 for the coming season…a drop from the $80,000.00 he earned in both 1930 and 1931. During the 1931 season the Bambino collected 199 Basehits, 46 HRs, 163 RBIs, 128 Walks, .373 BA, .495 OB% and a Slugging mark of .700. So why the reduction in salary? Well, it’s the Depression. Not a good enough reason for Ruth to accept such a reduction so according to Bill James he agreed to $75,000.00 plus 25% of the Yankees Spring Training profits.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=babe...ac.com%2Ftsn%2Fbabe_ruth_salary.shtml;340;600

It was on this date in 1895 that the grandstands of the Orioles ballpark, Union Park (a.k.a. Oriole Park III) burns to the ground. The stands were rebuilt and the 1895 season went on as scheduled and Baltimore enjoyed the 3rd highest attendance figure in the League behind Philadelphia and Chicago drawing 293,000 fans for 65 home games, an average of 4,500. The Baltimore Orioles have won 7 AL Pennants and 3 World Series. In 1895 however the Baltimore Orioles were part of the National League and won the Pennant with a record of 87-43 however lost the post-season Temple Cup Series to the 2nd place Cleveland Spiders. In those days the NL played for the Temple Cup. The Temple Cup was a cup awarded to the winner of a best-of-seven, post-season championship series in the National League, from 1894–1897. The 30-inch-high silver cup cost $800, was donated by coal, citrus, and lumber baron William Chase Temple, the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates at the time. There was only one Major League at the time, so the Series was played between the first- and second-place teams. Despite the success the Orioles enjoyed in the NL they were dropped when the League contracted after the 1899 season.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=unio...spring10%2Fdoku.php%3Fid%3Dunion_park;900;344

 

[67RedSox]

I’m too young to remember either the Giants or Dodgers when they were part of the fabric of New York City but growing up in the years after they moved West what Baseball fan didn’t know all about them. It seemed just as often as you’d hear Koufax’s or Mays’ name mentioned you’d hear the names of Walter/Peter O’Malley and Horace Stoneham mentioned. It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 40 years since Stoneham disappeared from the scene and almost 20 years since the O’Malleys were calling the shots but that’s the case. It was on this date in 1936 Horace Stoneham became President of the New York Giants succeeding his father, Charles, who died nine days earlier. The 32-year old will hold the position for the next 40 years before selling the team to Bob Lurie and Bud Herseth in 1976.
It’s been more than 50 years since the Dodgers and Giants departed New York and I suspect to this day Walter O’Malley is seen as “the villain” by all the baseball fans who had their hearts broken in 1957 and Horace Stoneham gets a pass as simply the guy who ‘tagged along’. Robert E. Murphy was a kid in New York at the time of the moves and a Dodger fan was one of those who had his heart broken. He wrote about it 50 years after the fact and I suppose like any good Dodger fan he considers Stoneham the “real villain” not O’Malley…and I might just agree with him. Of course, this is all on the premise that there was a villain here at all. I guess that all depends what’s more important to you as the owner of a MLB team…your financial well-being or the hearts of your fans. If you were a Dodger or Giant fan in New York in the 1950’s there certainly would be a villain.
There can be no argument as It turns out that Stoneham was much more coolly committed to moving from the city than was the infamous O’Malley. By the mid-1950s, New York had been the unrivaled center of the national game for a full 100 years. For the 11 years ending in 1957, at least one of the city’s three teams played in the World Series in every year except 1948.
But for all the seminal contributions to baseball by Brooklyn, and for all the wonders wrought by the Yankees, the team most central to the city’s baseball history was the Giants. The Yankees were just being born and had not yet been christened when, in the first years of the 20th century, the Giants’ manager, John McGraw, bonded with pitcher Christy Mathewson, and the franchise became the best-known sports team in America. They were Manhattan’s team; they would be Jimmy Walker’s, Toots Shor’s and Tallulah Bankhead’s team. They were the team of Mayor Robert Wagner in the 1950s. For heaven’s sake, even Walter O’Malley rooted for the Giants when he was growing up in the Bronx and Hollis, Queens. It was still a “wonderful franchise,” in Red Smith’s words, when Horace Stoneham inherited it in 1936 from his scurrilous father, Charles, a scandal-raising philanderer, gambler and crooked stockbroker. Horace was 32, the youngest owner ever. He was a great fan and, having been groomed for the job, took up his tasks with vim.
The Giants quickly won two pennants, but then, while the Yankees continued to conquer and the Dodgers ascended, Horace’s wonderful franchise faded, until in 1946 it finished “a dark, dank eighth.” By then, baseball people and members of the press were whispering that Stoneham, who functioned as his own GM, was at least unfocused and perhaps incompetent. And everybody knew he was a drunk.

He was accused of harboring a paralyzing attachment to his ballplayers. His field managers were expected not only to direct his team but also to be his drinking partners.
The common assumption is that the Los Angeles-bound Walter O’Malley tricked Stoneham into moving the Giants to San Francisco however the gentle Stoneham proves to have been the more decisive operator of the two. He determined that his situation was all but hopeless while O’Malley was still evaluating his prospects in Brooklyn and Queens, and he had a completed deal in place with the City of San Francisco well before the Dodgers had even a tentative arrangement with Los Angeles.
According to a document released in recent years by the O’Malley family, Stoneham told O’Malley in March 1957 that he had made up his mind — “quite independent of anything Brooklyn might do” — to transport the Giants to Minneapolis. O’Malley did call later to ask Stoneham to think about San Francisco, and the city’s mayor, George Christopher, came to New York and met twice with both owners by mid-May. Christopher offered Stoneham, quietly sipping from a bottle of Scotch, then a second bottle, a municipal stadium with 12,000 parking spaces, and Stoneham said he was interested. The three men talked quietly three more times, and the Giants announced on August 19th that they would play in San Francisco in 1958. But through September, the Dodgers said nothing definitive about Los Angeles.
While the garrulous O’Malley waited, the quiet Stoneham acted, although he was more deeply attached to his team’s tradition, to the queerly shaped old Polo Grounds, where, day and night, he had watched games from the same seat in the center-field clubhouse in which his father had sat. It was Stoneham, not O’Malley, who lived in New York and who clinked glasses deep into the night with the sporting and writing and show-business crowd at the city’s most famous Midtown saloon. He was the loyal one who cared about his friends and the fans of his team. But when only 629,000 of these fans, the smallest attendance in the league, came to his park in 1956, he made up his mind. And when George Christopher came calling, Stoneham rolled the dice.
While for years Walter O’Malley proposed and considered, then fussed and blustered and pleaded for help in building a new ballpark, Horace Stoneham calmly stood up one day in 1955 and said that if New York was going to help the Dodgers, then it should help the Giants, too. But unlike his Brooklyn counterpart, he did not press and press harder against the city and its chief of all projects, Robert Moses, about making available a suitable spot to build on, nor did he inspect with Moses, as O’Malley did, a location for a stadium in Flushing Meadow. Stoneham just decided, quietly, that he had to get out of his lifelong city to Minnesota or San Francisco or any other location where his team could make money, while O’Malley considered his options on both coasts. If O’Malley had not received, by a margin of one, the vote he needed from the Los Angeles City Council on Oct. 8, 1957, he might have let Stoneham paddle in the Pacific by himself.
Stoneham did not go West without sadness. “The last day we played there,” he would tell Roger Angell about the Polo Grounds, “I couldn’t go to the game. I just didn’t want to see it come to an end.” That was the sentimental Horace Stoneham. But his determined alter ego never looked back.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=walt...%2Fwalter-omalley-and-horace-stoneham;512;324

https://www.google.ca/search?q=dese...logspot.com%2F2010_05_01_archive.html;547;445

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUTCySLDJD0]Saying Goodbye Ebbets Field - YouTube[/ame]

 

[67RedSox]

On this date in 1912 former Brooklyn P Elmer Stricklett‚ said to be the inventor of the spitball‚ is reinstated by the National Commission after playing outside organized baseball for 3 years. After 1 game with the Chicago White Sox in 1904 Stricklett played three seasons in Brooklyn winning 9,14 and 12 games those seasons.
After the 1907 season, Stricklett returned to the California League to pitch for the San Jose Prune Prickers and Sacramento Sacts, and refused to report to Brooklyn in 1908 as his wife wanted him to remain closer to their California home. As the California League was not recognized in organized baseball at this time, Stricklett was banned by MLB for four years. After the 1910 season, Stricklett retired from baseball. However, he applied for reinstatement in 1912, which was granted by the National Commission. Stricklett was fined $100 for playing outside organized baseball for the previous three years.] The Superbas sold his rights to the Binghamton Bingoes of the New York State League, and he pitched for the team but never again in the Majors.
Stricklett denied inventing the spitball, though he claimed to be the first pitcher to master the spitball and to feature it exclusively. To achieve the pitch, he would moisten the ball with a spot the size of two of his fingers. The pitch would act "exactly the same way as reverse English does on a billiard ball". Stricklett learned the spitball from Minor League teammate George Hildebrand in 1902, who learned about it from Frank Corridon. Stricklett played an important role in popularizing the spitball and he taught it to HOF’er Jack Chesbro who saw him use the pitch while pitching in Minors. Though Chesbro had experimented with the pitch in the Minor Leagues Stricklett showed him how to master it in 1904. Stricklett also taught it to HOF’er Ed Walsh while they roomed together with the White Sox.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=elme...%2C_standing_at_West_Side_Grounds.jpg;628;453

It was on this date in 1934 Babe Ruth accepts a cut of $17,000 and signs a 1934 contract with the Yankees for $35,000. In today’s $$ adjusted for inflation that would be about $609,000.00.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=babe...date-yankees-history-december-29th%2F;600;335

How vital was and still is the Grand Old Game. One answer was given on this date in 1942. In his famous 'Green Light letter', President Franklin D. Roosevelt answers Commissioner Landis's query about playing baseball in the wake of WWII. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives baseball the go-ahead to play despite the War. FDR encourages more night baseball so that war workers may attend. Ironically, the Cubs, who had signed contracts to install lights at Wrigley Field, drop their plans because of the military need for the material. There will be no lights at Wrigley for 35 more years.

Baseball Prospectus | Skewed Left: The Best of FDR's Baseball Correspondence

Here’s some stuff that happened in 1942:

- Ted Williams wins the Triple Crown and is selected as the Major Leagues Player of the Year, however, the Baseball writers vote Joe Gordon the MVP because they and Williams don’t get along.
- February 12 - Minor League outfielder Gordon Houston becomes the first player in Organized Baseball to die during active duty in World War II. Houston had played with Texarkana in 1940. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in November 1940. He practiced as a fighter pilot, patrolling the coast for Japanese ships. He was preparing to land in February 1942 when another plane was coming in right after him. He opted to head for the head of the runway and overrun, not knowing that a ditch had been dug that day to put sewer tile in. His plane hit the ditch and flipped over, killing him.
- March 18 - Jackie Robinson and Nate Moreland have try-outs with the White Sox. Sox manager Jimmie Dykes praises Robinson's baserunning to Pittsburgh Courier sportswriter Herman Hill, saying that "he stole everything but my infielders' gloves." Dykes goes on record to the Courier, saying "Personally, I would welcome ***** players on the White Sox and I believe every one of the other fifteen managers would do so likewise. As for the players, they'd all get along too." Ultimately, Dykes is unable to even consider offering contracts to either. No black ballplayer played in organized baseball during Landis's commissionership and it took his death in 1944 for that to change.
- May 13 - Jim Tobin of the Boston Braves almost single-handedly beats the Chicago Cubs at Braves Field, 6–5, by pitching a five-hitter and hitting three consecutive home runs. Tobin, who hit a pinch-homer the day before, becomes the only pitcher in modern history to collect three home runs in a Major League game. His fourth at-bat results in a fly ball caught against the fence in left field.
- June 19 - Paul Waner of the Boston Braves joins the 3,000 hit club.
- July 19 - Boston Red Sox pitcher Mike Ryba catches both games of a doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park.
- September 11 - Chicago Cubs catcher Paul Gillespie homers in his first major league at bat. In 1945 he will homer in his final major league at bat and become the only player in MLB history to do both.
- October 5 - The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the New York Yankees, 4-2, in Game 5 of the World Series to win their fourth World Championship, four game to one. The loss was the Yankees' first since the 1926 World Series to the Cardinals. They had won eight Series in the interim.

 

[67RedSox]

My Posts here babble about the history of the Grand Old Game. I almost totally ignore yakking about anything in the recent past because most of us remember that stuff. Today though I’ll deviate from my usual and not only babble about something in the recent past ( 1973 ) but worse still… something that may not have even officially happened yet…Clayton Kershaw’s new contract.
It was on this date in 1973 that Steve Carlton becomes the highest paid pitcher in MLB when he signs a contract, with the Phillies, for a reported $165,000. Now, the news that Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers have agreed to a 7-year, $215M contract that will be slightly more than Carlton’s record deal. In fact, Kershaw’s deal is 186 times the amount Carlton’s record deal was worth just 41 years ago.
I’m already on record, several times over, of stating how ridiculous the contracts today have become, especially long-term guaranteed contracts for pitchers whose elbows and shoulders can be as fragile as a 1-0 lead at Coors Field. I can’t change my stated position, however, despite the fact the Dodgers and anyone who wears their uniform are arch enemies of the Rockies I must applaud both the Dodgers and Kershaw about this deal. It seems to me both sides went about this in exactly the professional manner they should have. I have stated for a couple of years that Kershaw is easily the best pitcher in the game and that takes no great wisdom to have figured out…just look at his numbers. The guy is 25 years, owns 2 Cy Youngs ( it could easily be three ), has won 77 games and has an ERA that is Koufax-like.
I knew the Dodgers and Kershaw were talking but I didn’t think a deal would be consummated this quickly and as quietly as it has. I heard talk of a deal that might reach as much as $300M over its term so 7 years and $215M strikes me as very reasonable…if an average of $930,000.00 every time he takes the mound can be considered reasonable.
I know the Dodgers also have their sights on Tanaka. To me he’s an unproven commodity. I hope Kershaw’s deal doesn’t automatically assure every other pitcher is guaranteed an extra couple of million $$. If the Dodgers do sign Tanaka their starting pitching may just be good enough to let them play with the Big Boys ( the Rockies ) in 2014.

 

[67RedSox]

If you’re looking for something to do come the middle of June and you like Celtic/Punk music and beautiful scenery you might want to head for Interlaken. It’s a beautiful town sandwiched between Lake Thun to the West and Lake Brienz to the East in the Swiss Alps and Dropkick Murphys will be playing there on the 12th, 13th and 14th. If that’s too far to travel they’ll also be playing in a host of cities between Pittsburgh and Austin, Texas before that. One of the tunes they play is called ‘Jimmy Collins Wake’ and it tells the story of Jimmy's wake in Buffalo, New York.
Hall of Famer, Jimmy Collins, was born on this date in 1870 in Buffalo, NY. He is considered to be the father of modern day 3rd Basemen. He was also the first Manager of the Boston Red Sox ( called the Beaneaters in those early days ) and winning Manager in the first ever World Series back in 1903 when Boston defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 5 games to 3 in a best-of-nine affair.
Collins was especially regarded for his defense. He was best known for his ability to field a bunt—prior to his debut, it was the shortstop who fielded bunts down the third base line. Despite the more than 100 years that have passed since he played he still ranks 2nd to Brooks Robinson in the AL for all-time in Putouts by a 3rd Baseman and his 251 Putouts is the single season record for 3rd Basemen since 1900. Brooks Robinson never had more than 174 in a single season and Nolan Arenado the NL’s GG 3rd Baseman in 2013 had 91 so I would guess the game has changed a bit over the years for the “Hot Corner” especially since the advent of the Live Ball Era in 1920.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=jimm...%2F04%2F17%2F1903-boston-americans%2F;588;453

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Rbj-axneA]Dropkick Murphys-Jimmy Collins' Wake - YouTube[/ame]

Another Hall of Famer, Dizzy Dean, was born on this date in 1910. He only had half a career playing but 6 full seasons and bits and pieces of 6 other seasons but enough to qualify for the mandatory 10 years in order to be eligible for the Hall of Fame. 133 of his 150 lifetime Wins came in his 6 full seasons, 1932-1937. He is the last NL pitcher to win 30 games in a season when he did that in 1934 when he led the Cardinals, known as the ‘Gas House Gang’ to a World Series victory in 7 games over the Detroit Tigers. He pitched a 6-hit shutout in Game 7 of the Series.
While pitching for the NL in the 1937 All-Star Game, Dean faced Earl Averill of the American League Cleveland Indians. Averill hit a line drive back at the mound, hitting Dean on the foot. Told that his big toe was fractured, Dean responded, "Fractured, hell, the damn thing's broken!" Coming back too soon from the injury, Dean changed his pitching motion to avoid landing as hard on his sore toe enough to affect his mechanics. As a result he hurt his arm, losing his great fastball.
By 1938, Dean's arm was largely gone but P.K. Wrigley wanted Dean at any cost for the Cubs and acquired him from the Cardinals the day before the regular season started for the princely sum of $185,000.00. Dean helped the Cubs win the 1938 National League pennant. The Cubs had been in third place, six games behind the first place Pittsburgh Pirates led by Pie Traynor but by September 27, with one week left in the season, the Cubs had battled back to within a game and a half game of the Pirates in the NL standings as the two teams met for a crucial three-game series.
Dean pitched the opening game of the series and with an ailing arm, relied more on his experience and grit to defeat the Pirates by a score of 2 to 1. Dean would later call it the greatest outing of his career. The Cubs clinched the Pennant a few days later. Unfortunately, the Cubs had to play maybe the greatest team ever in the World Series…the 1938 New York Yankees. If not the greatest team ever most would agree the 2nd greatest team ever behind the ’27 Yankees. The Cubs were swept in 4 games with Dean starting and losing Game 2, 6-3, although he took a 3-2 lead into the 8th inning.
In 1934 he was selected the NL’s MVP and was runner-up in both the 1935 and 1936 seasons to Gabby Hartnett and Carl Hubbell so he did pack a lot of winning baseball into a relatively short career.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FSYUNxSnnE]Dizzy Dean highlight video - YouTube[/ame]
The other day I did a Post on the Black Sox Scandal and the 9 players banned for life…eight from the Chicago White Sox and Joe Gedeon, 2B for the St. Louis Browns. There was another player who played for the Chicago White Sox during that infamous season of 1919 who never saw the light of day again as a player in the Majors after that season…but for a far different reason than those banned. His name is Frank Shellenback. As it turned out never playing in the Majors again was probably a blessing for Shellenback and his family and definitely a blessing for the Pacific Coast League.
Shellenback was an up and coming 19 year old RHP for the Chicago White Sox in 1918 when he was a ML rookie. He went 9-12 with an ERA of 2.66 and finished second behind Eddie Cicotte’s 12 Wins for the team lead. Shellenback, although born in Missouri, grew up and loved California. He was friendly with and played beside Chick Gandil and Fred McMullin over the winter of 1918-19 in California. He was also well acquainted with fellow West Coast players Williams, Buck Weaver and Swede Risberg. Had Shellenback stayed with the White Sox at the end of 1919, it’s conceivable that these associations, with five of the banned players, might have led him down the path to expulsion from organized baseball in the wake of the tainted World Series.
Shellenback, picked up throwing the spitball when he went to his first Spring Training as an 18 year old in 1917 and it became his pitch. Prior to the 1919 season a couple of veteran pitchers the White Sox lost to WWI returned to camp and edged Shellenback out of the starting rotation. He made a few starts but after an appearance on July 5th he was shipped out to the Minors and was still on the Minor League roster at the end of season. In 1920 the National Commission did away with trick deliveries -- and Frank’s team, the Chicago White Sox, didn’t list his name among those grandfathered to legally throw the pitch in the majors because he was then in Double A. “That oversight prevented my ever getting another chance in the Big Leagues,” he later remarked. Thus, for the very reason he was an effective pitcher he wasn’t welcomed back. Fortunately, the Pacific Coast League allowed him to utilize his complete arsenal. As a result he pitched the next 19 seasons in the PCL having his greatest success with the Hollywood Stars. In total, he won a record 295 or 296 (some question) games in the PCL. It is also the most Wins by any pitcher in any Minor League. One interesting note, Shellenback used only one glove during his entire PCL career.
Shellenback grew up in Los Angeles and preferred the fine weather and leisurely pace of the West Coast to the predominantly eastern major leagues. In fact, he asked the White Sox to trade him to a Pacific Coast League club even before the spitball was banned. He was also more than happy to stay close to his family. As Shellenback later professed, “I enjoyed my stay at Hollywood, was well paid and didn’t have to worry about moving my wife and six children from one city to another.”
Following his career in the PCL he spent the rest of his career and life coaching and scouting at the Major League level…to the day he died at the age of 70 in 1969.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=fran...ipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFrank_Shellenback;225;304

 

[67RedSox]

99 years and counting…on this date in 1915 the Cleveland officially adopts the nickname of the “Indians”. Cleveland was a charter member of the AL in 1901 and they played under the nickname of the Bluebirds…the players didn't think the name "Bluebirds" was suitable for a baseball team. Writers frequently shortened it to Cleveland Blues due to the players' all-blue uniforms, but the players didn't like this unofficial name either. The players themselves tried to change the name to Cleveland Bronchos (or Broncos) in 1902, but the name never really caught on.
The Bluebirds suffered from financial problems in their first two seasons. Cleveland’s owner, Charles Somers, gave consideration to moving the team. Relief came in 1902 as a result of the conflict between the NL and the AL. In 1901, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the Phillies' star 2B, jumped to the cross-town A's after his contract was capped at $2,400 per year—one of the highest-profile players to jump to the upstart AL. The Phillies subsequently filed an injunction to force Lajoie's return, which was granted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The injunction appeared to doom any hopes of an early settlement between the warring Leagues. However, a lawyer discovered that the injunction was only enforceable in the state of Pennsylvania. Connie Mack, partly to thank Somers for his past financial support, agreed to trade Lajoie to the then-moribund Blues, who offered $25,000 salary over three years. Due to the injunction, however, Lajoie had to sit out any games played against the A's in Philadelphia. Lajoie arrived in Cleveland on June 4 and was an immediate hit, drawing 10,000 fans to League Park. Soon afterward, he was named team captain, and in 1903 the team was renamed the Cleveland Naps after a newspaper conducted a write-in contest.
Lajoie was named Manager in 1905, and the team's fortunes improved. They finished half a game short of the pennant in 1908. However, the success did not last and Lajoie resigned during the 1909 season as Manager but remained on as a player. After that, the team began to unravel. Despite a strong lineup anchored by the potent Lajoie and Shoeless Joe Jackson, poor pitching kept the team below third place for most of the next decade. One reporter referred to the team as the Napkins, "because they fold up so easily".
1915 brought significant changes to the team. Lajoie, nearly 40 years old was no longer a top hitter in the League, batting only .258 in 1914. With Lajoie engaged in a feud with Manager Joe Birmingham, the team sold Lajoie back to the A's. With Lajoie gone, the Molly McGuires now needed a new nickname. Somers asked the local newspapers to come up with a new name, and based on their input, the team was renamed the Cleveland Indians. Legend has it that the team honoured Louis Sockalexis when it assumed its current name in 1915. Sockalexis, a Native American, had played in Cleveland 1897–99. Research indicates that this legend is mostly untrue, and that the new name was a play on the name of the Boston Braves, then known as the "Miracle Braves" after going from last place on July 4 to a sweep in the 1914 World Series. Proponents of the name acknowledged that the Cleveland Spiders of the National League had sometimes been informally called the "Indians" during Sockalexis' short career there, a fact which merely reinforced the new name.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=1902...5074india-20130713%2C0%2C981711.photo;340;510

On this date in 1970 Willie Mays is selected as the Player of the 1960’s Decade. The Big Three from those days were Mays, Aaron and Mantle who combined to hit 1,951 Homeruns or an average of 650 each. Mays weighed in at about 170 lbs., Aaron around 180 lbs. and Mantle the heavyweight at about 195 lbs. In 2013 the HR leaders were Chris Davis in the AL who weighs in at 230 and in the NL Pedro Alvarez and Paul Goldschmidt who weighed in at 235 and 245 lbs. Another way the Game has changed in our lifetime.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=mays...talkin-leeea-vy-bryant-and-jim-hirsch;400;328

After the newly appointed Commissioner of Baseball throttled those involved in the Black Sox affair he turned his mind to other dubious characters in the game. It didn’t take him long to bring the axe down on Benny Kauff who, like the Black Sox bunch, would never play again in the Majors.
A flashy dresser and world-class trash talker, Benny Kauff was the Deion Sanders of the Dead Ball Era. "I'll make them all forget that a guy named Ty Cobb ever pulled on a baseball shoe," the brash 26-year-old told reporters on his arrival with the New York Giants in 1916. Kauff's boastfulness was not without some justification. Dubbed "The Ty Cobb of the Federal League," Kauff was the most heralded young player of his generation, a five-tool star whose unique combination of speed and power defied his stocky 5'8" frame. The Federal League, considered a “Major” League operated for two seasons in 1914 and 1915 as a rival to the NL and AL. Kauff led the Federal League in Batting and Stolen Bases both seasons hitting .370 and .342 and swiping 75 and 55 bases.
The NY Giants wanted him badly and got him for the 1916 season when the Federal League ceased operations. The New York press loved his act. Sportswriter Frank Graham had this to say when Kauff showed up at the Giants Spring Training site…"He wore a loudly-striped silk shirt, an expensive blue suit, patent leather shoes, a fur-collared overcoat and a derby hat," Graham wrote. "He was adorned with a huge diamond stickpin, an equally huge diamond ring and a gold watch encrusted with diamonds, and he had roughly $7,500 in his pockets." The forgiving right-field porch of the Polo Grounds was still on Kauff's mind. "I'll hit so many balls into the grandstand that the management will have to put screens up in front to protect the fans and save the money that lost balls would cost," he bragged.
Judged against the hype, Kauff was a huge disappointment in his first year in New York. He was merely very good. His unimpressive .264 batting average masked other attributes: a knack for getting on base, a penchant for the long ball and an aggressive… some called it reckless base running style that produced 40 stolen bases. That package would have been a credit to any team, but alas, it didn't measure up to Ty Cobb. The fans never let him forget it. Kauff played much better in 1917 and 1918, as he cleared the magic .300 barrier each season. But with more singles came fewer walks and extra-base hits.
After the 1919 season Kauff started an automobile accessory business with his half-brother. He was soon implicated in a car theft. According to the criminal complaint, authorities alleged that Kauff and two associates stole a vehicle from a West End Avenue parking lot, then fitted it with a new paint job, new tires, and a new license before selling it to an unsuspecting customer for $1,800. Kauff adamantly denied the charges, claiming he didn't know the car was stolen. Specifically, he claimed the two employees had given him what turned out to be a false bill of sale, thus leading him to believe the car had been acquired legally. The jury deliberated for less than an hour before returning with a not-guilty verdict.
The Commissioner told baseball writer Fred Lieb that he personally believed Kauff was guilty, and claimed his acquittal "smelled to high heaven" and was "one of the worst miscarriages of justice that ever came under my observation." He also told Kauff that even though he was acquitted, the trial revealed serious questions about his character and reputation that would raise questions about baseball's integrity if he were ever allowed to play again and he gave him the boot for life. Stunned by Landis' decision, Kauff applied to the New York State Supreme Court for a permanent injunction against his banishment. It was on this date in 1922 his career when the Court concluded it had no grounds to act on Kauff's request. See ya!

https://www.google.ca/search?q=benn...ripod.com%2Ftherest%2Fbennykauff.html;576;724

In 1959 Willie McCovey was the NL’s Rookie of the Year. In 1959 Willie McCovey also led the Pacific Coast League in Homeruns…now that’s what I call impressive.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=1959...he-year-slugger-HOFer-%2F231114414890;233;300

 

[67RedSox]

What do Kansas City, Washington and Minnesota have in common? The answer is a Major League Baseball team that is now known as the Minnesota Twins which was formerly the Washington Senators and before that the Kansas City Blues. It was on this date in 1887 a new Kansas City club is founded to play in the Western League. It vows to compete with the local NL team.
The Western League of Professional Baseball Clubs, simply called the Western League, was a Minor League baseball league originally founded on February 11, 1885, and focused in the Midwest. After several failures and reorganizations, the most notable version of the league was organized by Ban Johnson on November 20, 1893. In 1900, the league was renamed the American League, and declared Major League status in 1901.

THE HISTORY OF THE KC BLUES

We’ve talked about him before and any time you have the opportunity to mention one of the most prolific hitters in the Game you take that opportunity so it was on this date in 1922 the Chicago Cubs buy OF’er Jigger Statz ( and P Vic Aldridge ) from Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League for eight players and cash.
One of a very few ballplayers to ever collect more than 4,000 hits in Organized Baseball, Jigger Statz collected 737 of those hits in his eight seasons in the Major Leagues and another 3,356 in his 18 seasons in the Minors. His career saw him in the Majors before he played Minor-League ball. Only Pete Rose played more games professionally. Statz still holds three records as a professional ballplayer: most runs scored, most outfield putouts, and most seasons played with one minor-league club (Los Angeles Angels).
Despite playing the majority of his career in the ‘highest’ of the Minors Statz was a quality Major League hitter. In 1923 he played in every single game of the year for the Cubs and his 655 at-bats (he walked 56 times) led the league. He scored 110 Runs and collected 209 Hits hitting for a .319 average with 10 homers. Overall he was a .285 hitter in 8 Major League seasons.
Jigger's real talent, however, showed with the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, where he spent his entire minor league career. Jigger, a 5-foot-7-inch, 150-pound speedster holds PCL records for games 2790, hits 3356, doubles 597, triples 136 and runs 1996. He also sported a .315 batting average over 18 seasons in the league. His fielding exploits also showed 6,893 outfield putouts and 295 assists. In 1926, while with the Angels, Jigger hit .354 in 199 games with 291 hits, 68 doubles and 18 triples, while scoring 150 runs. With a fielding percentage of .997, he committed just two errors in 604 chances.
I’m hoping this is not the last time we talk about Statz…one of the Game’s greatest of all-time.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=jigg...w%2Fjigger-statz-pacific-coast-legend;551;350

https://www.google.ca/search?q=jigg...mlbtown%26mbsIdx%3D36859%26cpage%3D22;640;800

Now here’s something refreshing…on this date in 1950 Bob Feller of the Indians requests and gets his salary reduced to $45,000, a $20,000 cut, because he believes his sub-par record of 15-14 doesn't merit an increase.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=bob+...in-1950-bob-feller-demanded-a-pay-cut;630;400

0n this date in 1973…41 years ago…Orlando Cepeda signs with the Boston Red Sox making him the first player to be signed by a team specifically to be its Designated Hitter. It would be the 16th season of his 17 season ML career and he would earn his keep as he goes .289 / 20 / 86.
Cepeda, I must admit, was a player who I thought was very good but not great. Clearly I missed something about the guy because the large majority felt he was great and better than just very good. His election to the Hall of Fame wasn’t automatic…it took the Veterans Committee to elect him after 15 years of failing to get enough votes by the BBWAA where his highest vote total was 73.5%. He is an excellent example of what I find wrong with the HOF voting. Here’s a guy who is in the HOF but has to wait 25 years after he finished playing to get there…absolutely ridiculous. He lost 25 years of enjoying being a HOF’er…shameful. I’ve pretty much always felt the vote should be taken from the Baseball writers because they are, as a group, pretty pathetic when it comes to judging whether or not a player is Hall worthy. I always go back to Duke Snider who had to wait for 5 years after he retired to get 17% of the vote his first year of eligibility and then had to go through ten more years of being slighted until in his 11th year he received almost 87% of the vote. How one goes from 17% to 87% just defies justification.
Anyway, after that little rant, back to Cepeda. Maybe it was because Cepeda played ‘way out ’on the West Coast or because he played for a team I didn’t much like that his greatness went under my radar. He was a good hitter and had a couple of ‘great’ seasons but the ditches along the road leading to the Hall of Fame are littered with players like that. Yes, he was the NL’s MVP one season but I think the Baseball writers even got that wrong. He should have been the MVP in 1961 when it went to Frank Robinson. In 1967 when he was selected the MVP it was a year when there was no one really deserving to win but someone had to get it so they gave it to Cepeda ( much like 2013 when Andrew McCutchen was named MVP ).
Those who follow the game closer than me will tell you that Cepeda was a far greater hitter which his stats might indicate. For most of his career pitchers feared to see him walking up to the plate. A writer, Mark Stewart, had this say about him…”A power hitter in the truest sense of the word… a difference-maker both in the field and the clubhouse, he had an uncanny ability to make bad teams good and good teams great. “
Cepeda finished his career at .297 / 379 / 1,365. Baseball wisdom holds that had Cepeda simply been kept at first base because of his bad knees instead of also playing in the outfield, he might have stayed healthy and approached or perhaps even exceeded 600 career home runs. At age 26, when he was in his prime as a hitter, he was a third of the way there, and only five players in history had more home runs at that age—Frank Robinson, Mickey Mantle, Mel Ott, Jimmie Foxx and Eddie Mathews.
Perhaps it was his trouble with the law after he retired that played a large role in his being snubbed. before Christmas in 1975. He was arrested at the San Juan Airport after police found 170 pounds of marijuana in his luggage. He was returning from a baseball clinic in Colombia. After two years of unsuccessful legal maneuvering, Cepeda was found guilty of drug possession and sentenced to five years in prison. Thanks to a sentence-reduction petition organized by Cepeda’s Kansas City teammate, Cookie Rojas, he served only 10 months. But upon his release he found that from the exalted status he had enjoyed as a national hero in Puerto Rico, he was now considered a national disgrace. Over the next several years he worked hard at restoring his good name through charitable work and helping youngters learn the game. He was eventually hired by the Giants and became a sort of goodwill ambassador for the organization.
In 1999, Cepeda was voted into the Hall of Fame by the Committee on Veterans. He entered the Hall as part of a group that included Nolan Ryan, George Brett, Robin Yount, old-time manager Frank Selee, umpire Nestor Chylak and ***** Leaguer Joe Williams. Cepeda was just the second Puerto Rican, after Roberto Clemente, to reach Cooperstown. The Giants also retired his number 30 that year and in 2008, the Giants erected a nine-foot bronze statue in Cepeda’s honor outside AT&T Park. It was the fourth such statue, after Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7ugyAmYzFI]Orlando Cepeda - Baseball Hall of Fame Biographies - YouTube[/ame]