Baseball History

[67RedSox]

Red Barrett was born on this date in 1915. He pitched 11 seasons in the Majors and enjoyed some success including in 1945 when he led the National League In Wins with 23. However, what he’ll always be remembered for was for a single game he pitched. He earned a page in the record books when he threw only a record low 58 pitches for the Braves in a complete game. It was a 2-0 win over Bucky Walters and the Cincinnati Reds in a one hour, 15 minutes on the evening of August 10, 1944, at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. Steve Trachsel of the Chicago Cubs in 1997 tossed more pitches in a single inning, 61 than Barrett’s complete game 58.

August 10, 1944 Boston Braves at Cincinnati Reds Play by Play and Box Score | Baseball-Reference.com

It was on this date in 1916 that the Chicago White Sox acquire “Shoeless Joe” in a trade with the Cleveland Indians. Many Baseball fans think of Shoeless Joe Jackson as only having worn the uniform of the White Sox. The fact is, other than 10 games with the Philadelphia Athletics he split his 12 seasons in the Majors equally between the Indians and the White Sox. He played six seasons and 674 games with the Indians and six seasons and 648 games with the White Sox. He six seasons in Cleveland were an extraordinary success. He hit .375 overall during those years with individual seasons where he batted .408 and .395. His years with the Indians were more prolific than his years with the White Sox where he hit a “mere” .340. The natural question then would be…Why would Cleveland trade such a talent? The answer is almost one of the Indians having virtually no choice except to do so.
In 1915 Cleveland owner, Charles Somers, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, decided that he could not afford to keep his two best players, Jackson and Shortstop Ray Chapman who 5 years later would meet his demise due to a Carl Mays high and inside fastball. He needed to trade one and rebuild the ball club around the other. Somers' mind was made up when the newspapers reported that the Federal League had offered Jackson a multiple-year contract at a salary of $10,000 per year. Somers feared that Jackson would bolt for the new circuit, leaving the Indians with nothing in exchange, so the Cleveland owner solicited offers for his cleanup hitter.
Jackson, who at the time was in the second season of a three-year contract for $6,000 per annum, was not opposed to a trade. The Washington Senators offered a package of players for Jackson, but Somers rejected the bid to await a better one, which soon came from the Chicago White Sox. Owner Charles Comiskey coveted Jackson, and sent his secretary, Harry Grabiner, to Cleveland with a blank check. "Go to Cleveland," ordered Comiskey, "watch the bidding for Jackson, and raise the highest one made by any club until they all drop out." On August 20, 1915, Grabiner and Somers reached an agreement. Somers signed Joe to a three-year contract extension at his previous salary, then sent him to Chicago for $31,500 in cash and three players (outfielders Bobby Roth and Larry Chappell and pitcher Ed Klepfer).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48LEcB44YHA

After the 1910 season the traditional centered baseball was replaced with one with a cork center. How did that impact on hitting and pitching in 1911. The number of .300 hitters in the AL went from 8 in 1910 to 27 in 1911 and the League batting average from .243 to .273. The NL saw a jump in the League batting average from .256 in 1910 to .272 in 1912. 1911 happened to be the best season of Ty Cobb’s career; Cobb batted .420 with 248 hits. Joe Jackson hit .408 in 1911. The average ERA in the AL jumped from 2.53 to 3.34 while in the NL the rise was from 3.02 to 3.39. It could be argued then that the live-ball era really began in 1911 and not after 1920…but it didn’t. The reason was despite the center of the ball being changed things settled back to where they were after a couple of seasons because of the introduction of the emery ball and the reluctance to take a ball out of the game ( cost factor ) offset things. It wasn’t until 1921 that real change was effected. The reasons were a few including the cork centered ball, the outlawing of illegal pitches, the Ray Chapman beaning in 1920 caused baseballs to be replaced every time they got dirty, not after it softened after more than 100 pitches on average and the change in ballpark dimensions as more and more newer ballparks came into being.

Dead-ball era - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

During the 1950s the mentality in MLB was to take advantage of the ‘power game’...get a man or two on base and hit HRs. Stealing bases wasn’t really part of the game although there were the exception like Luis Aparicio and the Chicago White Sox. Since most teams followed this power model and the Yankees and Dodgers and had the best power hitters before the Giants followed suit guess who were the best teams. For the decade of the 1950s there were only two players to hit 300 HRs and those same two were also the only two to drive in at least 1,000 runs for the decade. Duke Snider led with 326 HRs and 1,031 RBIs while teammate Gil Hodges was at 310 and 1,001. Not bad to average 30HRs and 1,000 RBIs every year for a decade.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=duke...%2F%2Fwww.zeprock.com%2FSnider.html;2179;1512

https://www.google.ca/search?q=gil+...2Fthe-mfc-gil-hodges-collection.html;1208;863

This and That:

Except for 1968, The Year of the Pitcher, and strike-shortened seasons Adrian Gonzalez' 116 RBIs in 2014 was the lowest for a ML leader since the Dead–Ball Era.

Forget Babe Ruth, or Hank Aaron or Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Stan Musial or any other Hall of Famer. Carlos Lee is the only player in ML history to play at least 14 seasons and have more than 75 RBIs in each and every season.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/leeca01.shtml

Hall of Famer Ted Lyons pitched in the Majors for 21 seasons between 1923 and 1946, all for the Chicago White Sox winning 260 games. He pitched once a week on Sundays only. He’s the only pitcher to pitch 28 Complete Games in his last 28 starts in the Majors. He pretty much finished what he started, 74% of his career Starts were Complete Games…356 of 484.

http://www.centerfieldgate.com/pitching/flashback-friday-chicagos-sunday-pitcher

Hack Wilson, on why he drank as much as he did…”If I drink whiskey, I'll never get worms!"

In 1961 Roger Maris hits 61 HRs and receives 0 Intentional Walks. In 1973 Don Kessinger received 18 Intentional Walks despite not hitting any homers. Of course, Kessinger didn’t have Mickey Mantle hitting behind him but still!

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

He holds the record for hitting the most HRs before reaching the age of 25 with 190 thanks to hitting 25-47-40-41 and 37 in his first 5 seasons. He led the Majors with 47 as a 21 year old. Can you name this Hall of Famer whose career began spanned the 1950s and 1960s who later managed the team he won a World Series Ring with.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Tom Cheney, Washington Senators -21 Strikeouts in a game against the Baltimore Orioles, May 12, 1962. (Can you name the pitcher with the most strikeouts in a single MLB game?)

 

[67RedSox]

It was on this date in 1910 that some changes and new rules are implemented in the Game. The NL votes for a 154-game schedule which the AL had already adopted. Other rules: umpires must announce all team changes to spectators; batting orders must be delivered to the umpire at home plate before the game; a batter is out if he crosses the plate from one batter's box to the other while the pitcher is in position to pitch and a base runner is out if he passes another runner.
Both Major Leagues also adopt resolutions banning syndicate baseball‚ which allowed owners to have financial interests in more than one team. The practice was banned after the Cleveland Spider debacle in 1899, however, as there were a few instances of owners ending up with stakes in more than one team (usually small minority positions) it was felt best to fully resolve the issue.
Syndicate baseball or syndicate ownership refers to a practice in the National League in the 1890s in which one group could own several teams in the League. The practice soon proved detrimental when some of these groups decided to favour one of their franchises at the expense of the other. Most notorious were brothers, Frank and Stanley Robison, who owned both the St. Louis Perfectos ( to be re-named the Cardinals ) and the Cleveland Spiders. They moved all of the Spiders' best players to St. Louis before the 1899 season. The Spiders ended up as the worst team in Major League history. With a decimated roster, the Spiders made a wretched showing. They finished with a dismal won-lost record of 20–134 (.130), the worst in baseball history, 84 games behind the pennant-winning Brooklyn Superbas and 35 games behind the next-to-last (11th) place Washington Senators. The Spiders' first 16 home games drew a total of 3,179 fans, or an average of 199 fans per game. Due to these meager attendance figures, the other 11 NL teams refused to come to League Park, as their cut of the revenue from ticket sales did not even begin to cover their hotel and travel expenses. The Spiders were thus forced to play 85 of their remaining 93 games on the road. The Spiders finished 9–33 (.214) at home and 11–101 (.098) on the road. Only 6,088 fans paid to attend Spiders home games in 1899, for a pitiful average of a mere 145 spectators per game in 9,000-seat League Park. The 101 road losses is a major-league record that will never be threatened,
Other syndicate owners include John Brush, who had stakes in both the New York Giants and Cincinnati Reds, and the ownership groups of the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and Baltimore Orioles, who were similarly inter-linked. In all cases, incestuous relations among owners led to movements of players highly detrimental to one of the two partner franchises. It thus became clear that there was an inherent conflict of interest in the practice. Syndicate ownership was outlawed after the 1899 season, when the National League contracted by four teams. There have been a few instances of owners ending up with stakes in more than one team since, but these have usually involved small minority positions.

Billy Southworth Jr. died on this date in 1945. This blurb is not about Billy Southworth, the Hall of Famer, who played RF in the Majors for 13 seasons and then managed the St. Louis Cardinals to back-to-back-to-back NL Pennants in 1942, 1943 and 1944 before moving on to the Bostaon Braves and taking them to the World Series as well in 1948 but instead to his son, Billy Southworth Jr., who never played a single game in the Majors but still gets a tip of the cap today for this Minor Leaguer’s accomplishments off the field.
Southworth Jr. was, like his father, a good hitting outfielder who work his way up through the Minor Leagues reaching the highest level, AA in those days, now AAA. But then WWII came calling. Actually for Southworth the War didn’t come calling on him…he went calling on the War become the first professional baseball player to enlist in the armed forces prior to World War II, even before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He became a decorated bomber pilot in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Rising to the rank of Major, Southworth was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal after completing 25 bombing missions in the European Theater of Operations in 1942 and 1943. He returned home after his 25 bombing missions to train pilots to fly the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the same airplane that would drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On February 15, 1945, he was piloting a B-29 that left Mitchel Field in New York, bound for Florida. Shortly after take-off one of the engines was throwing a heavy stream of smoke. At 3:50 P.M., the four-engine bomber appeared over LaGuardia Field with the left outboard engine stopped. Southworth radioed the control tower to prepare for an emergency landing. Struggling at the controls of the crippled plane, he overshot the runway, and attempted to climb above Flushing Bay, but a wing clipped the water and the 37-ton bomber somersaulted and burst into flames. Heavy acrid smoke quickly blanketed the whole area, as police launches rushed to the scene and battled to rescue five crew members. But another five, including Southworth, Jr., were missing in the front section of the plane which sank in 30 feet of water. Every effort was made to recover the bodies of the missing airmen but strong currents and a high tide hindered the work of grapplers and divers. Rescue efforts continued for weeks and Billy Jr.'s father remained in New York during that time. "It has been my privilege to go aboard the ship from which the search is being made for the missing crew members of the plane," he said. "The close personal contacts that I have had with the officers and men of the various units, conducting the search was most gratifying. On August 4, 1945, 24 weeks after the crash, an unrecognizable body washed ashore at the confluence of the East River and Long Island Sound in New York. Dental records identified the body as that of Southworth.

Billy Southworth, Jr. - Baseball's Greatest Sacrifice

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/sports/baseball/19southworth.html?pagewanted=all

In another aircraft related death of a ballplayer it was on this date in 1964 Cubs 2B Ken Hubbs‚ 22‚ dies when his private plane crashes near Provo‚ UT‚ while en route to Colton‚ CA. In 1962 Hubbs was the NL’s Rookie of the Year and Gold Glove winner as he sets the record of playing in 78 consecutive games without making an error.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=ken+...2%2F29%2F550-ken-hubbs-in-memoriam%2F;756;544

In 2014 the Cincinnati Reds had a rookie by the name of Billy Hamilton who finished runner-up to Jacob deGrom as the NL’s Rookie of the Year. He can run like the wind and his 56 Stolen Bases was also runner-up to Dee Gordon’s 64. He’s not the first ‘Billy Hamilton’ to play in the Majors or even the first Billy Hamilton to play in the Majors and run like the wind. Hall of Famer, Billy Hamilton, was born on this date in 1866. For 80 years he was the ML leader in career Stolen Bases with 914. That was from 1897 until Lou Brock broke the record in 1978. He won a couple of NL Batting Crowns. At .344 he’s tied with Ted Williams for the 7th highest career batting average. With 1,697 runs scored in 1,584 games he is one of only three players to average more than one run per game played. His .455 career on-base percentage ranks fourth all-time behind Ted Williams, Babe Ruth and John McGraw.

Billy Hamilton Statistics and History | Baseball-Reference.com

50 years ago today (1964) as teams were getting ready for Spring Training the Beatles, I Want To Hold Your Hand, was enjoying a 7 week stay atop the charts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipADNlW7yBM

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

Dodgers and Angels HR hitters. One is good enough but give both a shot. Can you name the all-time HR leader for the Dodgers, only while they have played in Los Angeles and for the Angels since their inception.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Eddie Mathews. (He holds the record for hitting the most HRs before reaching the age of 25 with 190 thanks to hitting 25-47-40-41 and 37 in his first 5 seasons. He led the Majors with 47 as a 21 year old. Can you name this Hall of Famer whose career began spanned the 1950s and 1960s who later managed the team he won a World Series Ring with.)

 

[67RedSox]

It was on this date in 1924 that Boston Braves' 3B, Tony Boeckel, becomes the first ML’er to be killed in an automobile accident. Boeckel who drove in the Braves only run in the Majors longest game, a 26 inning 1-1 tie, Brooklyn and Boston in 1920 was travelling near San Diego when he and his good friend, Bob Meusel, an outfielder with the NY Yankees were involved in a three-car accident near San Diego the day before. Boeckel suffered critical injuries and died one day later. Meusel escaped from the mishap unscathed. Their driver was Los Angeles theatrical man Bob Albright, who received minor injuries. The three were returning from a hunting trip in Mexico.

Tony Boeckel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Let’s see, who do I begin with…maybe with… Mel Ott, Bill Terry, Jimmie Foxx or Paul Waner. If not them then how about… Rabbit Maranville, Al Simmons, Dizzy Dean or Bill Dickey. No you say, well how about Hank Greenbery, Lefty Gomez, Hack Wilson or Chuck Klein. Still unacceptable…well there’s no hope. It was on this date in 1950 the Baseball Writers exhibited again how little they really know about the Game when in their annual Hall of Fame voting they denied each of these players the required vote to enter the Hall. All of them and 36 more players they denied in the same vote later went into the Hall. You can see the odd player here and there worthy of the Hall not getting in but when they say no to 48 who eventually go in you have to wonder if the right people are making these decisions.

1950 Hall of Fame Voting | Baseball-Reference.com

It was on this date in 1953 Ted Williams safely crash-lands his damaged Panther jet after flying a combat mission in Korea. The plane was hit by enemy fire. There’s an interview where Williams talks about the incident…alas, I can find it quickly but in looking for it I found his interview with Bob Costas. I’ve always found Williams one of the most interesting baseball players to listen to. Below is Part 1 of a 3 Part interview Bob Costas had with him. About 6 ½ or 7 minutes into the interview Williams talks about two of the greatest compliments he ever received as a young ballplayer. One was from Lefty O’Doul who told him when he was 18 years old to never let anyone change the way he hits and the second was when Eddie Collins, a great hitter and HOF’er who was then GM of the Red Sox told him that he reminded him of Shoeless Joe. It shows Williams respect for the Game and how much he appreciated being complimented by one of the greatest hitters the Game has seen and being compared to another one of the greatest hitters in the Game. Sadly, Jackson and O’Doul rank #3 and #4 on the career Highest Batting Average and neither is in the Hall of Fame.

Welcome to the Official Ted Williams Website

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeiNQqMyQ_k

Alex Ferguson was born on this date in 1897. Never more than a journeyman right-hander he played 10 years in the Majors from 1918 to 1929 and never enjoyed great success going 61-85 in his career including 14-17 for the Boston Red Sox in 1924 when he led the AL in Losses. There’s nothing in anything said so far that separates him from hundreds or thousands of others who have come before and after him except one thing…which I love to hear from a ballplayer…he was once asked what his greatest thrill was. He could have said starting and winning Game 3 of the 1925 World Series but he didn’t. Instead he merely replied…”my greatest thrill was always just before a game … standing on the dugout steps waiting to run onto the field in front of the spectators. “It’s a feeling I can’t describe.”

Alex Ferguson (baseball) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It was on this date two HOF’ers died. Gary Carter on this date in 2012 and Dazzy Vance on this date in 1961. Vance was 31 before he won his first ML game. He would end his career with 197 Wins, as many as 28 in one season, and MVP Crown in 1924 and 7 consecutive seasons leading the NL in Strikeouts. No NL pitcher accomplished that before or since Vance. However the interesting part of Dazzy Vance’s story has nothing to do with what happened on the baseball field.
Could a friendly poker game among Minor League teammates lead to a Hall of Fame career for a 29-year-old who had been pitching in professional baseball for nine years, never had won a ML game, and seldom had put two good years back to back in the minors? Perhaps. Arthur Vance had earned the nickname Dazzy for the dazzling fastball he had shown as a teenage semipro in rural Nebraska. He had even had two shots at the Majors but nary a victory there as his total Big League record consisted of zero wins and four losses. In the Minors he showed occasional flashes of brilliance, but his best performances were usually followed by a sore arm and a disappointing next season. He was with the New Orleans Pelicans in the Southern League that evening when the fateful poker game occurred in the Big Easy. According to Jack Kavanagh and Norman Macht, Vance banged his arm on the edge of the table while raking in a pot. He immediately felt intense pain. When the arm still hurt the next morning, Vance went to a doctor, who diagnosed an underlying injury that had not been discovered by all the medicos who had examined him previously. Exactly what the doctor did is unknown. Bill James speculated that the surgeon probably removed bone chips and debris from the elbow. That guess seems as good as any. At any rate, the operation was a success and the patient not only survived, but he thrived. After receiving this treatment, Dazzy was able to pitch again painlessly. The Dazzler rebounded to win 21 games for the Pelicans in 1921, his first 20-win season since 1914. He made it to the Majors to stay the very next year. The rest, as they say, is history.

http://baseballhall.org/hof/vance-dazzy

This and That:

There are four players to have hit a HR in 4 different decades…Ted Williams, Willie McCovey, Rickey Henderson and Omar Vizquel.

The game has changed both in obvious ways and subtle ways. Here’s a subtle example using a couple of Giants pitchers. Ryan Vogelsong, let’s face it has not put up very good numbers in his ML career…a losing record as a result of him having a winning record in only 2 of his 10 ML seasons. 49 lifetime Wins and a lifetime ERA of 4.42. During the 1960s Juan Marichal was easily one of the best pitchers in the Majors, some will argue the best for the decade. He did win 191 games in the 1960s, more than any other pitcher that decade or any decade since. He had six 20-Win seasons with half of those 25 Wins or more. With all of the above said Marichal did not receive a single vote in Cy Young voting during his decade of dominance while Vogelsong has.

Ted Kluszewski was a HR hitting machine in the 4 seasons 1953-54-55-56. He banged out a total of 171 HRs or an average of almost 43. In the same 4 years he struck out only 140 times or 35 times a season on average.

How good was Ron Guidry’s 1978 season. His record was 25-3 with an ERA of 1.74. he tossed more Complete Games (16) than he gave up Home Runs (13)…and that is clearly not an easy thing to do, the Great Kershaw cannot even claim this although he came close in 2014… (6) and (9), pretty remarkable in itself.

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

Can you name the only pitcher to face both Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle?…that’s the easy part of the question. The tougher part is…can you name the only catcher to catch both Babe Ruth and Ted Williams when they pitched in the Majors?

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Eric Karros, Dodgers-270 HRs, and Tim Salmon Angels-299

 

[67RedSox]

Wally Pipp was born on this date in 1893. In 1916 the left-handed, free-swinging Pipp became the first player in AL history to lead the League in both HRs and strikeouts. In addition to his batting exploits, Pipp was one of the finest defensive 1B of the Dead Ball Era; in 1915, he led all AL first basemen in putouts, assists, double plays, and fielding percentage. Yet despite these achievements, today Pipp is most remembered as the man whose nagging headache persuaded him to accept a day off on June 2, 1925, a decision that--along with his poor hitting that year--led to his permanent displacement from the starting lineup by a young Lou Gehrig.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=wall...%2Ftopic%2F4570-the-players%2Fpage-8;1040;704

Nemo Leibold was born on this date in 1892. Never heard of him? You’ve certainly heard of many of his teammates. He played in the outfield with Shoeless Joe Jackson for 4 seasons and is one of only 3 regulars on the 1919 White Sox who was not implicated in the Black Sox scandal. He played Right Field. It’s interesting that he’s one of the few players not implicated in the scandal because he was a .300 hitter in the regular season yet went only 1 for 18 in the Series batting paltry .056. After his playing days he went on to manage in the Minors for 20 years. He was the last surviving member of the 1919 Black Sox passing away in 1977 at the age of 84.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=nemo...h_Shano_Collins_Joe_Jackson%2F2053231;760;540

For 13 seasons, 1930-1942 they were pitching mainstays with the NY Yankees. Hall of Famers Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez both died on February 17th and both at the age of 80. Ruffing died on this date in 1986 and Gomez on this date in 1989.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVX49qwiVuk

This and That:

Baseball 1888 - When Baseball fans think of pinstripes the Yankees come to mind however it wasn’t the Yankees who first introduced pinstripes on uniforms. That happened in 1888 or 15 years before the Yankees came into existence when the Washington Nationals and Detroit Wolverines of the National League and the Brooklyn Bridegrooms ( now Dodgers ) of the American Association tried them out. The pinstripes didn’t last because neither the Nationals nor the Wolverines lasted beyond the 1889 season. Brooklyn kept the pinstripes in 1889 but also introduced horizontal stripes so the vertical and horizontal pinstripes served to create a checkered uniform. Brooklyn was always the Versace of Baseball fashion and experimental with a variety of designs and fabrics…even satin in the 1940s. In 1952 they were the first ML team to introduce numbers on the front of uniforms.
Following is an article on the 25 Most Influential Baseball Uniforms of All-Time. If you check it out you’ll see the Brooklyn’s checkered uniforms which they brought back in 1916 (#10) as well the satin uniforms in 1944 (#17) and the Post-1952 Dodger uniform (#3) sporting the player’s number on the front. I love #6 on the list, the 1927 St. Louis Cardinals and if you want to see one forlorn looking ballplayer check out #8 the 1917 Chicago White Sox…if that’s what the White Sox were wearing in 1919 I have some idea while they threw the World Series…to get enough money to buy new uniforms.

National Baseball Hall of Fame - Dressed to the Nines - Timeline

25 Most Influential Baseball Uniforms Of All-Time | Classic Kicks

1888 was also a significant year in for Baseball because with the slogan “You push the button - we do the rest,” Kodak introduced the snapshot camera to the World. The earliest baseball photographs date from the 1850s, but with the new invention, Kodak now made photography available to the masses.


Baseball 1938 – Here’s some stuff noteworthy of the Majors in 1938:

- Jimmie Foxx 1B, Red Sox and Ernie Lombardi C, Reds are the MVPs
- Yankees defeat Cubs 4-0 in World Series
- Johnny Vander Meer selected The Sporting News Player of the Year in honour of his consecutive No-Hitters
- Babe Ruth signs a contract to coach with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Ruth dons a Dodger uniform the next day, entertains observers with a batting demonstration, and works the third-base coaching box for the remainder of the season.
- Hall of Famers Gaylord Perry, Billy Williams and Willie McCovey were born.
- The Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals used a yellow baseball in the first game of a doubleheader as an experiment and Charles O. Finley is nowhere in sight.
- It’s ironic that Mickey Mantle is named after the great Detroit catcher Mickey Cochrane yet “Mickey” was only Cochrane’s his baseball persona. Away from the field he went by and was called, Mike although his given names were Gordon Stanley. In Detroit’s baseball world Cochrane was bigger than life. He was a 2-time MVP’er and was the playing-manager of the Tigers in the 1930’s leading them to 2 AL Pennants and 1 World Series Championship in 1935 over the Cubs. His playing career and life almost ended as a result of a 1937 beaning. In 1938 he returned as the non-playing Manager of the Tigers but once he stopped playing he seemed to lose his competitive edge and was fired in early August of 1938 with the Tigers in 5th place with a record of 47-51. Except for a brief stint as general manager of the Athletics in 1950 during Mack's final days in Philadelphia, and brief outing as a scout with the New York Yankees in the mid-1950s, Cochrane never again worked in major league baseball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQbSvRlam2w

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

Sandy Koufax (1965 and 1966), Juan Marichal (1968), Denny McLain (1968) and Steve Carlton (1972) are 4 of the 5 MLB pitchers to win more than 25 games in a season in the past 50 years…going back to 1965. Can you name the 5th Major League pitcher, and the most recent, to Win more than 25 games in a season...R.I.P.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Pitcher – Al Benton, Catcher – Joe Glenn (Can you name the only pitcher to face both Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle?…that’s the easy part of the question. The tougher part is…can you name the only catcher to catch both Babe Ruth and Ted Williams when they pitched in the Majors?)

 

[moxie]

This and That:

Baseball 1888 - When Baseball fans think of pinstripes the Yankees come to mind however it wasn’t the Yankees who first introduced pinstripes on uniforms. That happened in 1888 or 15 years before the Yankees came into existence when the Washington Nationals and Detroit Wolverines of the National League and the Brooklyn Bridegrooms ( now Dodgers ) of the American Association tried them out. The pinstripes didn’t last because neither the Nationals nor the Wolverines lasted beyond the 1889 season. Brooklyn kept the pinstripes in 1889 but also introduced horizontal stripes so the vertical and horizontal pinstripes served to create a checkered uniform. Brooklyn was always the Versace of Baseball fashion and experimental with a variety of designs and fabrics…even satin in the 1940s. In 1952 they were the first ML team to introduce numbers on the front of uniforms.
Following is an article on the 25 Most Influential Baseball Uniforms of All-Time. If you check it out you’ll see the Brooklyn’s checkered uniforms which they brought back in 1916 (#10) as well the satin uniforms in 1944 (#17) and the Post-1952 Dodger uniform (#3) sporting the player’s number on the front. I love #6 on the list, the 1927 St. Louis Cardinals and if you want to see one forlorn looking ballplayer check out #8 the 1917 Chicago White Sox…if that’s what the White Sox were wearing in 1919 I have some idea while they threw the World Series…to get enough money to buy new uniforms.

National Baseball Hall of Fame - Dressed to the Nines - Timeline

25 Most Influential Baseball Uniforms Of All-Time | Classic Kicks

Those 1976 White Sox were some real funky ones, too! Shorts?! lol! The "Worlds Champion" ones are interesting. Thanks for the link... cool info

 

[Silas]

My answer to the trivia question is Bob Welch.

Great to see you back. I've not been on this Board in ages, but should more often now that the season nears.

Love your articles and missed them during the cold Winter months.

 

[67RedSox]

How often do you think in the history of the Grand Old Game a pitcher needed permission from his High School principal to pitch in the Majors. If you’re in the group who believes it’s never happened you’d be wrong. I can’t see it happening again but on this date in 1944 15-year old Joe Nuxhall signs a contract with the Reds after getting permission from his parents and principal. Later that year, on June 10th, he will become the youngest player ever to appear in a ML game, tossing 2/3 of an inning for Cincinnat, still just 15 years old.

Nuxhall came into that game on June 10th to start the 9th inning against the St. Louis Cardinals with the Reds down 13-0. After a groundout, walk and pop-up he was close to working a scoreless inning but didn’t get there, thanks in part to giving up a base hit to some guy named Stan Musial. It must have been pretty tough to face the best team in Baseball as a 15 year old but my guess is that Nuxhall cherished the moment. Nuxhall would pitch 16 seasons in the Majors, 15 with Cincinnati and then spend 40 years in the Reds radio broadcast booth…and it all started with a note from his principal.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=joe+...om%2F2009%2F07%2F312-joe-nuxhall.html;412;295

Speaking of principals and schools of the 19 songs that hit #1 in the U.S. in 1967 LuLu’s To Sir With Love was #1 on the Charts for 5 consecutive weeks…the only song to top that was the Monkees, I’m A Believer.


Quick now, name the ML’er who had the initials Z.Z. If you said Zip Zabel you’d be correct. Zip was born on this date in 1891. Almost 100 years ago, on June 17, 1915, he set the record for most innings pitched in relief in one game. He came in relief for Bert Humphries with two out in the first inning, and pitched the final 18 1/3 innings to earn the win over the Brooklyn Robins and opposing pitcher Jeff Pfeffer, who pitched the complete game. The Chicago White Sox signed relief pitcher, David Robertson, to a $46M contract this off-season. He averages about 60 innings pitched a year…less than an inning per appearance. If Zabel was paid at the same rate Robertson will be he would have earned $3.5M for that record setting single appearance.

http://research.sabr.org/journals/best-games-pitched-in-relief

It was on this date in 1908 that Cy Young is traded by the Boston Red Sox back to where his ML career started…Cleveland. This despite him winning 21 games, set a record low ERA mark of 1.26 and tossed a No-Hitter. However, at 41 he was the second oldest player in the League and in the twilight of his career. He would pitch three more seasons with Cleveland winning 33 more games including his 500th. After he left the game he spent the last 42 years of his life living and working on his farm in Ohio taking the odd job here and there to make ends meet but he never returned to the Game.

Cy Young and one of this year’s entrants to the Hall of Fame…Randy Johnson both spent 22 seasons in the Majors however as far as Innings Pitched Johnson was nowhere near Young. In fact, if you add the innings of another entrant to the Hall of Fame this year, Pedro Martinez their combined career Innings Pitched are still about 400 behind Young’s 7,356. Young tossed over 700 more Complete Games than did Martinez ( 749 to 46 ).

http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2012/11/28/cy-young-remembers-his-greatest-day/

It was on this date in 1960 Walter O'Malley completes the purchase of land just north of downtown Los Angeles as the site of a new ballpark for his transplanted Brooklyn club. The Dodger owner paid a reported $494,000 for the property at Chavez Ravine, believed to be worth $92,000 at the time. I’m going out on a limb here but my guess is that the land is worth more now than what O’Malley paid for it. I love some of the photos of the then Chavez Ravine.


Spook Jacobs, who died on this date in 2011, was one of those guys who loved playing baseball, so much so, he spent 14 seasons in the Minors playing on teams all across the country just so he could realize his dream of playing in the Majors. He also He got to the Majors for a total of 188 games with 132 of those coming as the Philadelphia Athletics 2B in their final year in Philadelphia (1954) before they moved to Kansas City. Although he never reached star level in the Majors he was a star before he even got to the Majors. He graduated from High School in the middle of WWII and immediately enlisted in the United States Army where he rose to the rank of Sergeant during World War II and was awarded the Asian Pacific Campaign Theatre Medal, the American Campaign Theatre Medal, the United States Army Good Conduct Medal, and the United States Victory Medal. When the War ended his professional baseball career began. Unfortunately, he was in the Dodger organization and the wealth of young baseball talent they enjoyed was tremendous so it was tough to move up to the Big Club and before he did the Athletics plucked him up. At 5’8” and 155 lbs he wasn’t a power hitter but was a slap hitter who reached base by batting balls through the infield. Despite his brief foray into the Majors he accomplished something no MLB player did before him and only two have done since…on April 13, 1954, Opening Day, in his Major League debut, he became the only player in history to collect four consecutive hits in his first four Major League at bats. He remains one of only three players to go 4-for-4 in their debut, the others being Delino DeShields and Willie McCovey. These guys are always worth mentioning.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=spoo...obs-61-Baseball-Card-Value-Prices.htm;438;307

This and That:

Clayton Kershaw is the only active pitcher with a career ERA under 3.00 ( minimum 1,000 IP ) and he’s under by a long-shot at 2.48. Adam Wainwright is close at 3.01

In the history of the Grand Old Game 211 players have a career Batting Average of .300 or better (minimum 3,000 Plate Appearances), 11 of those are active led by Miguel Cabrera at .320

Bullet Joe Bush whose ML pitching career spanned both the Dead-Ball and Live-Ball Eras (1912-1928) won 196 Big League games. When he developed arm trouble midway through his career from throwing so many curveballs necessity was the “mother of invention” and he invented the forkball, one of about 6 versions of the fastball. There’s a few pitchers of note who threw the pitch with some success and varying degrees of frequency who owe some thanks to Bush…Sandy Koufax, Jack Morris, Tim Lincecum and Dave Stewart and if you can go back a bit further a couple of pretty darn good relief pitchers…Elroy Face and Lindy McDaniel. As a kid Joe, from Minnesota, would practice his pitching in an old orchard by throwing "exceedingly-fast rotten apples" at the crescent-shaped hole of a neighbouring outhouse. A direct hit meant considerable spray spattered throughout its interior, particularly annoying to anyone seated there. I suspect this form of practice is not as common today.

Here’s some rules that were in effect in the 1800s we no longer see…An umpire could appeal to fans at the game if a catch had been fairly made before rendering a decision…If a foul ball was caught on the fly or on the first bounce the batter was out…bats did not have to be round but could have a flat side if the batter so wished.

Base Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

Can you name the only pitcher in ML history to Win and Lose a World Series game in both the National League and the American League? He was the last pitcher to face Babe Ruth and the first to face Jackie Robinson. He won 3 World Series as a player in the 1950s. During the 1960s he was Whitey Ford’s pitching coach when he won 25 games in 1961 and the Yankees went to the World Series. He was Jim ‘Mudcat’ Grant’s pitching coach in 1965 when he won 21 games and the Twins went to the World Series. In 1968 he was Denny McLain’s pitching coach when he won 31 games and the Tigers went to the World Series.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question, snapped by Silas… Bob Welch, 27-6 in 1990. (Sandy Koufax (1965 and 1966), Juan Marichal (1968), Denny McLain (1968) and Steve Carlton (1972) are 4 of the 5 MLB pitchers to win more than 25 games in a season in the past 50 years…going back to 1965. Can you name the 5th Major League pitcher, and the most recent, to Win more than 25 games in a season...R.I.P.)

 

[67RedSox]

During WWII more than 4,500 professional baseball players swapped flannels for military uniforms to serve their Nation and future Hall of Famers like Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams lost vital playing time in the prime of their careers. In all there were over 500 Major Leaguers who wore military uniforms during WWII. What is far less commonly known is that at least 130 Minor League players lost their lives while serving their country. Despite the loss of so much talent it was vital that the Grand Old Game continued to be played for the morale of the Nation. As a result there were players who ended up in the Majors quicker than they otherwise would have if at all. One such player who may fall into this category was Chuck Aleno who was born on this date in 1919. Despite his career in the Majors being brief he was deserving to be there because he distinguished himself by setting a record, that still stands. He played in only 118 games, all with Cincinnati spread over 4 seasons during WWII, 1941-1944. His lifetime BA was a modest .208 however he holds the record for the longest hitting streak to start a career, 17 games (from May 15 to May 31, 1941).

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/alenoch01.shtml

http://www.baseballinwartime.com/index.htm

I always like to recognize ballplayers who make a military contribution be they household names like Ted Williams or names long forgotten in the Baseball World like Larry Chappell who was born on this date in 1890. Several days ago I mentioned how the White Sox acquired Shoeless Joe in a trade with the Indians in 1915.Three players went to the Indians in return and one of them was Larry Chappell, an Outfielder. His stay with the Indians amounted to 3 games and 2 At-Bats before he was purchased by the Boston Braves. His entire MLB career consisted of 109 games. He is well worth a mention though because when WWI came calling he answered and died at an Army camp in France in 1918…not from a War injury but the Spanish influenza pandemic which killed 50-100 million worldwide. Nevertheless, he went to War and did not survive.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/chappla01.shtml

Coincidentally, I should mention that the 5-week Battle of Iwo Jima started on this date in 1945. Some of the fiercest fighting of the War in the Pacific took place there. There were 45,000 casualties on both sides with 25,000 killed. I know of one MLB player killed in the battle, Harry O’Neill. O’Neill and Elmer Gedeon were the only two MLB players to die in WWII. O’Neill, a catcher, was the subject of a bidding war between the Senators and his hometown Philadelphia Athletics. Connie Mack and the A’s bid higher. On July 23, 1939, during a 16-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers, O’Neill replaced Philadelphia’s starting catcher, Frankie Hayes. He caught the final two innings but never got a chance to hit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/s...-major-leaguers-who-died-in-world-war-ii.html

It was on this date in 1935 Lou Gehrig signs for $30,000.00 making him the highest paid player in the Game. Ruth had made $35,000.00 in his last year with the Yankees in 1934, his lowest salary since 1921, and I’m not sure what he earned with the Boston Braves in 1935 but it was less than $30,000.00.

This and That:

There are 74 pitchers in the Hall of Fame. Babe Ruth is counted as one of those 75. The average number of Wins each has is 253. Without surprise the pitcher with the fewest ML Wins is Satchel Paige with 28 given he was in his 40s before he even pitched in the Majors.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_pitching.shtml

In the past 10 years there have been 50 new inductees into the Hall of Fame.

I select Tony Gwynn because he’s pretty much the Gold Standard in Baseball over the past 40 years or so. He had 3,141 base hits in his career, led the Majors in base hits on 5 separate occasions. He could steal a base swiping as many as 56 in a single season, He scored 1,383 runs in his career. He received 97.6% of the vote in his first year of Hall of Fame voting…how could there ever be any doubt of that?

On the other hand you have Tim Raines. Raines and Gwynn in their careers came to the plate an almost identical number of times. Raines got on base more often than Gwynn, scored almost 200 more runs than Gwynn and stole almost 500 more bases than Gwynn. Yet, Raines receives less than 25% of the vote in his first year of HOF voting eligibility and about the same as steroid-tainted Mark McGwire did the same year. Some things in the Grand Old Game just baffle me and Raines being so ignored is one of them.

Like him or not Bill James’ Historical Baseball Abstract is an interesting read. Based upon all skills such as hitting, catching skills, throwing, catching, calling a game, knowing the game and just getting the jib done here’s how he ranks the Top 3 Catchers of all time…1) Yogi Berra, 2) Johnny Bench, 3) Roy Campanella.

As for pitchers, he goes with…1) Walter Johnson, 2) Lefty Grove, 3) Pete Alexander

During his 15 full seasons in the Majors, 1950-1964, Nellie Fox averaged almost 600 ABs per season. He may have been but I’m not sure if he was ever on the Disabled List at any point in those 15 years. He never once struck out more than 18 times in a season. His career strikeout total was 216. Both Adam Dunn (222) and Mark Reynolds (223) have topped that in a single season. Of all players whose careers have been played Post WWII Fox has been the toughest to strike out…by a long shot…once in about every 43 ABs.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=foxne01

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

Can you name the 1997 Cy Young Award winning pitchers…the only year both pitched for cities not in the U.S.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question… Johnny Sain (Can you name the only pitcher in ML history to Win and Lose a World Series game in both the National League and the American League? He was the last pitcher to face Babe Ruth and the first to face Jackie Robinson. He won 3 World Series as a player in the 1950s. During the 1960s he was Whitey Ford’s pitching coach when he won 25 games in 1961 and the Yankees went to the World Series. He was Jim ‘Mudcat’ Grant’s pitching coach in 1965 when he won 21 games and the Twins went to the World Series. In 1968 he was Denny McLain’s pitching coach when he won 31 games and the Tigers went to the World Series.)

First we’ll use Spahn, then we’ll use Sain,

Then an off day, followed by rain.

Back will come Spahn, followed by Sain

And followed, we hope, by two days of rain.

— Gerry Hern, Boston Post, September 14, 1948

 

[67RedSox]

It was on this date in 1890 one of those often forgotten Hall of Famers of the past was born. That would be Sam Rice the Washington Senators leading hitter of the 1920s. His 2,987 hits leave just short of the 3,000 Club and is attributable to a few things such as beginning his ML career as a pitcher, not reaching the Majors until he was 25 and then missing the 1918 season while wearing an Army uniform and serving in France. He had six 200-hit seasons and a lifetime batting average of .322. In the 1930 season he collected 207 hits and hit .349…not bad for someone who turned 40 before that season began. In addition to his hitting ability he was as crafty a baserunner as was Ty Cobb and a very good outfielder with a strong arm. Unknown to the public until after his death in 1974 was that he and his family suffered a terrible tragedy in 1912. While Rice was away in Galesburg, his wife and children moved in with his parents on the family farm in Donovan, Illinois. A tornado ripped through Donovan one Sunday evening leaving a wake of death and destruction in its path. The high winds destroyed the Rice farmhouse and killed Rice's wife, both of his children, his mother, and his youngest two sisters. According to a report published in the Kentland Democrat a few days later, "... the house, with contents, and everything else on the premises ... was seized, torn, and whirled into fragments and strewn entirely across the farm... bodies were found ... 150 to 400 yards south of where the house was ... all nearly entirely naked, the clothing having been whipped into shreds and torn away by the wind." His father survived the storm, but was seriously injured. When neighbors came upon the scene, they found Mr. Rice running distractedly about among his dead dear ones in the ravine, and carrying in his arms one of the children that yet showed evidence of life, but died a few moments later. Mr. Rice died from his injuries a few days later. The fact this was unknown until after his death more than 60 years later speaks of just how private a person Rice was.

http://baseballhall.org/hof/rice-sam

This is a big day in the history of the St. Louis Cardinals as on this date in 1953 August Busch and his brewery bought the team from Fred Saigh for $3.75 million and pledges not to move the team from St. Louis. Perhaps the best thing that ever happened as far as Baseball in St. Louis is concerned…other than Stan Musial. It certainly meant the survival of the team there even though attendance dropped the first season under the Busch banner. Until his death in 1989 Gussie Busch controlled the Cardinals and the club is now owned by Bill Dewitt, Jr. whose father once owned the competing baseball team in St. Louis, the Browns.


It was on this date in 1963 a couple of things happened. Willie Mays becomes the highest paid player in the NL ( Musial would also get $100,000.00 in 1963 ) when he signs for $100,000.00 and the Chicago Cubs officially put an end to their radical approach in using multiple field bosses during the course of the season when they hire Bob Kennedy as their only Manager, or sometimes referred to, Head Coach. With the "College of Coaches" system disbanded, the club will post an 82-80 record…their best since 1946.

The College of Coaches was an unorthodox strategy employed by the Chicago Cubs in 1961 and 1962. After the Cubs finished 60-94 in 1960, their 14th straight second-division finish, Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley announced in December 1960 that the Cubs would no longer have a manager, but would be led by an eight-man committee. The Cubs officially rolled out the College of Coaches during 1961 Spring Training. The original "faculty" included El Tappe, Charlie Grimm, Goldie Holt, Bobby Adams, Harry Craft, Verlon Walker, Ripper Collins and Vedie Himsl. Each coach would serve as "head coach" for part of the season. The original concept called for the eight coaches to rotate through the entire organization from the low minors all the way to the Cubs, ensuring a standard system of play. Additionally, Wrigley argued that it would be better for the players to be exposed to the wisdom and experience of eight men rather than just one.

The head coach position rotated among four different men in 1961 and three more in 1962. Occasionally the various coaches were at odds with each other. Each coach brought a different playing style and a different lineup. Additionally, according to relief pitcher Don Elston, the other coaches didn't bother to help the "head coach," leaving whoever was in charge to fend for himself. Without firm and consistent leadership, chaos reigned in the Cubs' dugout. Under the circumstances, the result was predictable. In 1961, the Cubs finished with a 64-90 record, seventh in the National League, which was actually a slight improvement over the previous year. The 1962 season brought the worst record in Cubs history, as they finished 59-103, in ninth place in the expanded NL; only the first-year New York Mets, who lost 120 games, finished lower.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/02/today_in_sports_history_birmin.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_Coaches

Justin Verlander was born on this date in 1983 so Happy 32nd. Don’t worry about getting him a present…the Tigers are giving him $76,000.00 a day, each and every day of the year, for the next 5 years.

This and That:

Talk about not getting any credit. Ed Olwine pitched for the Atlanta Braves for three seasons, 1986-87-88 appearing in 80 games and never recorded a Win establishing the ML record for most games pitched without a Win. A few years later Juan Alvarez, either trying to make Olwine feel better or just wanting a part of the record ended up doing the same… pitched in 80 ML games without a Win for three teams, Angels, Rangers, and Marlins over 4 years.

You’re a baserunner…so take your choice, would you rather try to steal against Luis Tiant or Whitey Ford. In 1968 nine baserunners tried to steal against Tiant and all nine were thrown out. He set the single season record for the most steal attempts against with none being successful. He tossed 258 innings that season. Whitey Ford, in 1960, set the record for most innings pitched in a season with no steals against…283 ( there were three attempts ).

In a career that spanned 12 seasons with the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins, lead-footed catcher Russ Nixon never once managed to steal a base.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/nixonru01.shtml

It took him a while to master the spitball but when he did he became one of the best, hardest working and most competitive pitchers you would ever want to face. Hall of Famer, Ed Walsh, tossed for the Chicago White Sox during the Dead-Ball Era ( 1904-1916 ) and is the last ML’er to win 40 games in a season ( 40-15 in 1908 ) and holds the record for the lowest lifetime ERA…are you ready…1.82.

http://baseballhall.org/hof/walsh-ed

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

Duke Snider and Warren Spahn you associate almost exclusively with the Dodgers and Braves however both also played for the NY Mets. They ended their playing careers however playing for the same team…Snider in 1964 and Spahn in 1965. Can you name that team?

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Pedro Martinez, NL in Montreal, Roger Clemens, AL in Toronto. (Can you name the 1997 Cy Young Award winning pitchers…the only year both pitched for cities not in the U.S.)

 

[67RedSox]

The first baseball game played at night, as far as I know, was on September 2, 1880 on the lawn in the rear of Nantasket's Sea Foam House at Nantasket Bay on the ocean side of Hull, Massachusetts between two of Boston’s larger department stores. The game last 9 innings and ended in a 16-16 tie. The game was called to allow the two teams to take the last boat back to Boston. Some 300 spectators attended the historic encounter. The three light towers provided about 30,000 candle power.

50 years, on May 2, 1930 in Des Moines, Iowa the first night professional baseball game, played under permanent lights, was held at the Western League Park at Sixth Avenue and Holcomb. The Des Moines Demons defeated the Wichita Aviators 13-6 before a crowd of nearly 12,000. The evolution of night baseball in a previously daytime only sport had begun. "One hundred forty six projectors diffusing 53,000,000 candle-power of mellow light and the amazing batting of Des Moines' nocturnal-eyed players made the opening night of the local baseball season a complete success Friday night," wrote Sec Taylor in the May 3, 1930 Des Moines Register. "Baseball was played successfully after dark on an illuminated field and the Demons won 13-6 in a contest that was normal in every respect so far as the playing was concerned."

It was on this date in 1931 the White Sox and NY Giants become the first Major League teams to play a night game in Houston's Buff Stadium. Buffalo Stadium, a.k.a. Buff Stadium and Busch Stadium, was a Minor League stadium primarily used by the Texas League Houston Buffaloes from 1928 through 1958 except for 1943 - 1945 because of World War II. The Buffaloes were a farm team of the St. Louis Cardinals and provided many great ballplayers to the Cardinals' success in 1930s and 1940s. The arrival of the National League Houston Colt .45s in 1962 brought an end to Minor League baseball in Houston. Capacity was 11,556 and later increased to 14,000. It favoured pitchers, the wind blew in from right field, and it was outdoors with high humidity and with LF and RF fences 344’ from home plate…straight away CF was a poke of 430’.

Yes, the first official night game in the Majors was played on May 24, 1935 at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field between the Reds and Phillies but it was on this date in 1931 the Chicago White Sox and the New York Giants play the first night game in MLB history, albeit an exhibition game. The game was played in Houston’s Buff Stadium and went to extra innings.

By the time the United States entered World War II, 11 of the 16 major league teams had installed lights. Following the war, four other teams made arrangements to play night baseball. Only the Chicago Cubs resisted and did so until 1988.

http://research.sabr.org/journals/under-the-lights

http://www.19cbaseball.com/field-10.html

http://www.milb.com/content/page.jsp?ymd=20060206&content_id=41085806&sid=t451&vkey=team1

It happened on this date in 1957…in an ominous development for Brooklyn‚ Walter O'Malley "trades" Minor League franchises with Phil Wrigley of the Cubs‚ giving up the Dodgers' Ft. Worth Cats (Texas) club in return for the Cubs' Los Angeles Angels (Pacific Coast League). This effectively gave the Dodgers territorial rights to L.A., which they obviously used in 1958. Incidentally, those ’57 Los Angeles Angels had four players who would later manage in the Majors and two of them made it to the Hall of Fame for their managerial success…Tom Lasorda, Sparky Anderson, El Tappe and Roy Hartsfield.

http://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/oldftw/oldlagravefield.jpg

https://www.google.ca/search?q=wrig...aseballfield.com%2FWrigleyField1.html;970;453

It was on this date in 1966 Emmett Ashford becomes the first black to be a MLB umpire when he is hired by the American League. Known for his flashy style in the Pacific Coast League where he honed his skills for 12 years before spending 5 years in the Majors including the 1970 World Series, thereafter retiring as he had reached the mandatory retirement age of 56.

His style was that as a showman, exuberant, strong, alert, loud and expressive. Ashford was a sensation right away, but not principally because of his race. His style, well-known on the west coast, took the conservative major leagues by a storm. The stocky (5-foot-7, 185 pounds) Ashford sprinted to his position between innings, stepping on the bases or leaping the pitcher's mound, and raced around the field after foul balls or plays on the bases. The Sporting News was impressed enough to claim, "For the first time in the history of the grand old American game, baseball fans may buy a ticket to watch an umpire perform." The fans did not always need to watch Ashford, they could just listen to his high-pitched cannon of a voice, as he called out a batter or runner.

On a strike call, Ashford jerked his right arm first to the side, then up, then down like a karate chop. That completed, he would then reach either up as if twice yanking a train whistle, or to the right as if opening a car door. Even while dusting the plate he knew every eye in the house was on him, and he behaved accordingly, pirouetting on one foot and hopping back to his position.

In his first game behind the plate, Andy Etchebarren, the Orioles' catcher, recalled diving into the stands after a foul ball: "I knew I couldn't reach the ball, but I dove into the seats thinking a fan would put the ball in my glove or I could grab it off the floor. But while I was reaching I looked around, and who was in the seats with me but Emmett. I couldn't believe it." In a later Baltimore game, Frank Robinson quipped, "That Ashford gets a better jump on the ball than Paul Blair [the Orioles' fleet-footed center fielder]."

Though he was generally well-liked and admired by the people in the game, the open question was always whether he was a good umpire--whether his style came at the expense of substance. But then, what umpire’s ability has never been questioned.

http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/40af3222

Can’t let today go by without mentioning Vinegar Bend Mizell who died on this date in 1999. He was a pretty good ML pitcher for most of the 1950s tossing for the Cardinals. He was consistently a double figure winner in the Cardinal rotation. Mizell’s career with the Cardinals ended in 1960. On May 28 he was traded with infielder Dick Gray to the Pittsburgh Pirates for infielder Julian Javier and right-handed pitching prospect Ed Bauta. The Cardinals were in need of a second baseman and the 23-year-old Javier was blocked at that position in Pittsburgh by Bill Mazeroski. That trade was fortuitous for Mizell as he would wing a Ring that year as the Pirates downed the Yankees in the World Series. After Baseball he entered politics and served extensively in that field. He served three terms in the House of Representatives. The small community of Vinegar Bend, Alabama, provided an unusual nickname for the Major Leaguer. Contrary to the belief that he was born in Vinegar Bend, he was born in neighboring Leakesville, Mississippi, and graduated from high school there in 1949, but the little town of fewer than 200 people on the other side of the state line offered a better moniker. The town of Vinegar Bend got its name when a train passing through the area careened off the tracks and spilled its load of vinegar there. Mizell was best known in baseball for his Southern drawl and country-boy wit. His laid-back walk and style were a hit with fans and teammates as he was often compared to the comic strip character Li’l Abner.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mizelvi01.shtml

Trivia Question: ( Answer Tomorrow )

In the history of the Grand Old Game there have been 166 players who have played their entire career (minimum 10 seasons) with just one team. The Giants seem to have more than their fair share of such players, 13. One of them is the all-time leader in Games Played at 3B by a Giant, whether he played in New York or San Francisco. I can tell you he would have made almost every single throw across the diamond to either Willie McCovey or Orlando Cepeda.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…San Francisco Giants (Duke Snider and Warren Spahn you associate almost exclusively with the Dodgers and Braves however both also played for the NY Mets. They ended their playing careers however playing for the same team…Snider in 1964 and Spahn in 1965. Can you name that team?)

 

[67RedSox]

A pretty good Manager who climbed to the top of the mountain first with the Reds and then the Tigers, Sparky Anderson, was born on this date in 1934.


If you’re a Padres fan for more than a few years you likely remember Padre manager, Preston Gomez, pulling Clay Kirby after 8 innings while he was pitching a no-hitter in 1970. Some will remember the manager of the Baltimore Orioles, Hank Bauer, topping that when he pulled Steve Barber with 2-out in the bottom of the 9th inning while Barber had a no-hitter going. Stu Miller came in to get the last out and preserve the no-hitter. The fact that Barber had walked 10 and the Orioles being down 2-1 due to those walks and a wild pitch was the reason Bauer took Barber out. Barber, born on this date in 1938, was the first of that stable of very good starting pitchers the Orioles started producing in the 1960s that led them to playing in 4 World Series in a 6 year span, 1966-1971. Barber became the first Baltimore Oriole (modern day version) pitcher to be a 20-game Winner when he went 20-13 in 1963.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/barbest02.shtml

Clarence Mitchell was born on this date in 1891. He was a Major League pitcher, a spitball specialist, and toiled in the Majors for 18 seasons, winning 125 games. Clarence Mitchell is best remembered not for a pitch he threw from the mound, but for one he hit while standing in the batter’s box. It was Sunday, October 10, 1920, the fifth game of the World Series between Cleveland and Brooklyn. The series was tied at two games each, but in this game the Indians had knocked out Burleigh Grimes early and were leading 7-0 at the end of four innings. Pete Kilduff led off the top of the fifth for the Dodgers with a single to left field. Otto Miller followed with a single to center. So there were two men on base and nobody out when Clarence Mitchell, who had entered the game in relief of Grimes, stepped up to the plate. He hit a line shot up the middle, just to the second baseman’s right, a rising liner that looked like a sure base hit. But second baseman Bill Wambsganss was off with the crack of the bat, running toward second and making a tremendously high leap to spear the ball. One out. Wamby’s motion carried him toward second, and he tagged the bag to double up Kilduff who was still running toward third. Two out. Then Wamby noticed Miller, who had come down from first base, was standing a few feet away, so he tagged him for the third out. Shortstop Joe Sewell later said that he thought that Wambsganss was going to throw to first to double off Miller, but that he yelled, “Tag him!” Mitchell became the first—and, so far, only—man to hit into an unassisted triple play in a World Series. The next time up, Clarence hit into a double play, making him responsible for five outs in two consecutive trips to the plate, another World Series record.

In 1920 when the spitball was banned from the Major Leagues 17 pitchers were given grandfather exemptions to continue throwing it…Mitchell was one of those 17 but he was unique from the other 16 in that he was a southpaw. A left-handed spitballer was among the rarest of sightings in the Majors. Clarence Mitchell was the only legal left-handed spitball pitcher to appear in a major-league game since 1920, and there were few, if any, before that. Mitchell doctored the baseball with slippery elm sliced from a special tree on the farm of a neighbor in Nebraska.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=worl...ll-almanac.com%2Ffeats%2Ffeats8.shtml;299;300

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mitchcl01.shtml

Since I’m mentioning birthdays, here’s one more. This guy was the one pitcher ML batters in the 1950s or 1960s least liked to face. No, it wasn’t Koufax, Gibson, Score or McDowell and it wasn’t Drysdale who could groove a high, fast one with the best of them. No, it was Ryne Duren who was born on this date in 1929. You see, with Duren you not only had to worry about getting on base but more importantly you had to hope to survive the at-bat. Koufax, amazingly almost never hit anyone with a pitch, a mere 18 in his career. Gibson and Drysdale would only hit you with a pitch if you deserved to be hit. Score, like Koufax almost never hit a batter…only 7 in his abbreviated career.
Duren was different. He was known for the combination of his blazing fastball and his very poor vision. With his thick coke bottle glasses, few batters dared to dig in against Duren. Casey Stengel said, "I would not admire hitting against Ryne Duren, because if he ever hit you in the head you might be in the past tense." He was a relief specialist and when called into a game and started his warmups, the first pitch was typically a hard fastball 20 feet over the catcher's head. The succeeding warmup pitches would be thrown lower and lower (but not slower) until Duren would finally "find" the plate. Imagine waiting in the on-deck circle waiting to face him…you were virtually out before you got to the plate. In addition to terrifying batters he’s also who HOF’er, Ryne Sandberg, was named after.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/16427934/

I saw a Post today by Nosferatu…a poll as to who the best starting pitcher in the history of the Grand Old Game was. Last I looked Walter Johnson was ahead and that would be tough to argue. Lefty Grove got a mention and I would have loved to see him pitch at his best and that reminds me of something worth mentioning that involved Grove.

For three years running, 1926-1927-1928, the NY Yankees dominated the American League. Many will argue the 1927 Yankees were the best team ever. In 1928 they were being challenged hard by the Philadelphia Athletics who would overtake the Yankees in 1929 and see themselves go to the World Series three times straight in 1929-1930-1931.

In 1928 there was a huge series between the two in Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. The series started on May 24th with a Thursday doubleheader and the Yankees holding a 3.5 game lead in the standings. Shibe Park ( later known as Connie Mack Stadium ) had a capacity of under 30,000 in 1928 but 40,000 jammed in to watch at least the 2nd game. The fans outside the stadium who couldn't get in numbered 15,000, including those perched on rooftops beyond the RF fence. Well, the Yankees won the series but the fans who watched the 1st game of the series, Game 1 of the Thursday doubleheader got to see something pretty special…the most Hall of Famers on the field during a single MLB game. If you had to guess how many would you say…if you guessed 17 you would be correct. That included 13 players, 2 Managers and 2 Umpires:

Umpires - Tommy Connolly and Bill McGowan

Managers - Miller Huggins (Yankees) and Connie Mack (A's)

Yankees players

CF Earle Combs

SS Leo Durocher

LF Babe Ruth

1B Lou Gehrig

2B Tony Lazzeri

P Waite Hoyt

Athletics players

RF Ty Cobb

CF Tris Speaker

C Mickey Cochrane

PH Al Simmons

PH Eddie Collins

P Lefty Grove

PH Jimmie Foxx

There were three more Cooperstown enshrinees on the Yankees roster, but they didn't get in the game:

P Stan Coveleski

P Herb Pennock

C Bill Dickey


This and That:

Despite having over 8,000 few plate appearances, 1,836 fewer hits and 1,275 fewer stolen bases than Rickey Henderson, Casey Stengel had 23 more triples than Henderson…89 to 66.

It isn’t a Beatles tune but Procol Harum’s, A Whiter Shade of Pale, that has been played on British radio more often than any other song since World War II.



Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

In the history of the Grand Old Game only two players have led the Majors in Batting Average three consecutive seasons…Ty Cobb did it twice, 1911-12-13 and 1917-18-19. Can you name the only other player to do so. He is a living member of the Hall of Fame.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Jim Davenport. (In the history of the Grand Old Game there have been 166 players who have played their entire career (minimum 10 seasons) with just one team. The Giants seem to have more than their fair share of such players, 13. One of them is the all-time leader in Games Played at 3B by a Giant, whether he played in New York or San Francisco. I can tell you he would have made almost every single throw across the diamond to either Willie McCovey or Orlando Cepeda.)

 

[67RedSox]

February 23rd is not a good date for back-up catchers in the National League, at least for a couple of them. In 2001 The Sporting News did an article about the best nicknames of all time. Ironically, the player selected to have the #1 nickname of all time, Pickles Dillhoefer died on this date in 1922 and one of the runner-ups, Bubbles Hargrave died on this date in 1969. Further they were both back-up catchers in the National League at the same time although Hargrave would later win the NL Batting Crown in 1926. Poor Pickles was only 27 when he died and worse he died of typhoid fever just after he got married.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=pick...06ba-dd6e-59c9-b78a-a016236002c0.html;620;429

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hargrbu01.shtml

Elston Howard was born on this date in 1929. He was an AL All-Star for 9 consecutive seasons, 1957-1965 and the AL’s MVP in 1963. In his first 10 seasons with the Yankees, 1955-1964 he went to 9 World Series. Like, Roger Maris, his teammate on all 5 consecutive World Series teams from 1960-1965 he died way too young at age 51. He was the first Black American to play for the Yankees and the first Black American to win the AL’s MVP Award.

http://bronxbaseballdaily.com/2011/03/classic-yankees-elston-howard/

Before Don Mattingly, before Tommy Lasorda, before Walter Alston, before Chuck Dressen, Burt Shotton and Leo Durocher there was Casey Stengel. It was on this date in 1934 Stengel was hired to become the Manager of the Dodgers. He didn’t meet with great success but would in another borough of New York in years to come.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=case...2Fwww.rmyauctions.com%2Flot-614.aspx;1000;783

Being with one team for 2,500 games is quite an accomplishment. There have been 26 players do that since 1950. On the other hand there’s Woody English On this date in 1939 Woody English went from the Reds to the Dodgers to the Cubs in just one day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_English

In the National League in 1963 there were two 2nd Basemen who were the cream of the crop among rookies. Unfortunately for Ron Hunt who was born on this date in 1941 one of them was Pete Rose. Rose picked up 17 of the 20 votes and was selected as the Rookie of the Year while Hunt was the runner-up. Still though, it’s unusual when a couple of 2nd Basemen duke it out for any award. Hunt came up with the woeful Mets in 1963, a team that went 51-111 under Casey Stengel, but Hunt who was a 2-time All-Star in his 4 seasons with the Mets loved playing there and was devastated when he was traded to the Dodgers after the 1966 in a deal that brought Tommy Davis to the Mets. For those not familiar with Ron Hunt he’s the one you always see that’s black and blue in pictures. Hunt once said, "Some people give their bodies to science; I give mine to baseball." He retired with three ML records for being Hit by a Pitch: most times in a career (243); in a season (50, 1971); and in a game (three, tied). For seven straight years he led the NL in HBP. He had other ways to get on, as two .300 seasons and good walk totals showed. He set Expo team records for fewest strikeouts in a season (19, 1973) and fewest times hitting into double plays (one, 1971).

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/7669/ron-hunts-painful-1971-season

This and That:

Max Scherzer, now in the National League, is the most recent AL pitcher to lead the League in Wins in back to back seasons and that has been in the past 2 years 2013 and 2014 (tie). He won’t get a chance for a 3-peat. It’s been 20 years since it was last done in the NL…Greg Maddux, 1994 and 1995.

In 1984 Pete Rose played in his 3,309th ML game to take over as the all-time leader in Games Played from Carl Yastrzemski. He finished his career with 3,562. The closest active player to him is 992 games behind. Unlikely he will ever be surpassed.

During his Major League career Bert Campaneris played in an amazing eleven no-hitters.

In 1954, the Baltimore Oriole's first year of their existence, their pitching star was Bob Turley who lead the American League in strikeouts that season by fanning 185 batters. That was almost 60 years ago and no Oriole has led the league since.

Trivia Question: ( Answer Tomorrow )

Can you name the most recent pitcher to lead both the National and American Leagues in Wins. The years accomplished were 2003 and 2010 so it’s fairly recent.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question is…Rod Carew, 1973-74-75 (In the history of the Grand Old Game only two players have led the Majors in Batting Average three consecutive seasons…Ty Cobb did it twice, 1911-12-13 and 1917-18-19. Can you name the only other player to do so. He is a living member of the Hall of Fame.)

 

[67RedSox]

There were a couple of HOF’ers born on February 24th. Honus Wagner on this date in 1874 and on this date in 1956, Eddie Murray. With 3.420 and 3,255 base hits I’d say February 24th is well represented.



60 miles northwest of Baltimore you’ll find Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. When you think Gettysburg of course you think Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address and the what some consider the turning point in the Civil War when General Lee was sent retreating back to Virginia. There was a pretty famous Dead-Ball Era pitcher who was born, lived and on this date in 1926 died in Gettysburg from a stroke at the age of 50…Eddie Plank.

Eddie Plank was a lefthander, a Hall of Famer and one of the most annoying pitchers the Game has ever seen. MLB has just introduced new measures to speed up the Grand Old Game. If Plank was still pitching today any game he tossed would likely still be 3 hours long even with those new measures. If you were counting the lefthanders with the most career Wins you wouldn’t get very far before you got to Eddie Plank. 1-Warren Spahn 363, 2-Steve Carlton 329 and 3-Eddie Plank 326. He pitched entirely in the Dead-Ball Era from 1901-1917 and all but the final 3 seasons he tossed for Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics.

Eddie Plank fidgeted. On every pitch, Plank went through a seemingly endless ritual: Get the sign from his catcher, fix his cap just so, readjust his shirt and sleeve, hitch up his pants, ask for a new ball, rub it up, stare at a base runner if there was one, look back at his catcher, ask for a new sign—and start the process all over again. As if that wasn't enough, from the seventh inning on, he would begin to talk to himself and the ball out loud: "Nine to go, eight to go . . ." and so on until he had retired the last batter. Frustrated hitters would swing at anything just to have something to do. His fielders would grow antsy. Fans, not wanting to be late for supper, would stay away when he was pitching. Writers, fearful of missing deadlines, roasted him.

Plank rarely threw to a base to hold a runner close. Sad Sam Jones, good enough to win 229 games over a long career, told Lawrence Ritter, "I once heard Eddie Plank say, 'There are only so many pitches in this old arm, and I don't believe in wasting them throwing to first base.' And he rarely did. Made sense to me. I was just a young punk, and I figured if it was good enough for Plank it should be good enough for me."

Somebody that annoying can hang around for only one reason—if he's a winner. Plank was exactly that, winning 326 games, the most by any lefthander until Warren Spahn and Steve Carlton came along. His 69 shutouts remain the standard for southpaws. Despite all his accomplishments, however, it was Eddie Plank’s fate to be second banana. He had some great seasons and many good ones, but there always seemed to be someone having a better one. Usually it was Walter Johnson, but there would occasionally be someone like Jack Chesbro, Ed Walsh, or Joe Wood, whose overall careers weren't the equal of Plank's. Accordingly, in no season was he considered the top pitcher in the American League; he had to be satisfied with being one of the top four or five, but he was in that position year after year, and while other pitchers came and went, Plank persevered, helping the Philadelphia Athletics to five American League pennants and three world championships. "Plank was not the fastest," teammate Eddie Collins once observed. "He was not the trickiest, and not the possessor of the most stuff. He was just the greatest."

http://baseballhall.org/hof/plank-eddie

It was 50 years ago he arrived on the Baseball scene and 25 years ago, on this date in 1990, former Red Sox slugger Tony Conigliaro dies of pneumonia and kidney failure at the age of 45. Hitting 32 home runs in 1965 at the age of 20, the hometown boy becomes the youngest player ever to lead the American League in HRs. Also, despite nearly being blinded by a 1967 beaning he was the youngest American League player ever to reach 100 career HRs.


Here’s something a little ironic, I think. On this date in 1943 the Texas League announces it will quit for the duration of World War II. The Cardinals, with 260 farm players in the service, will reduce farm clubs from 22 to six. Only nine Minor Leagues will start the 1943 season. Advertisements for players appear in The Sporting News. In 1943 there may not be Baseball being played in Texas but there is in war-torn London, of all places, as the following article illustrates. Wonderful story.

http://www.baseballinwartime.com/player_biographies/eisenmann_chuck.htm

Wilbur Cooper was born on this date in 1892. Beyond the city limits of Pittsburgh he may not be a household name or even a known name but to any knowledgeable Pirate fans he is considered the greatest Pirate pitcher of all-time. His career, 1912-1926 straddled the Dead-Ball and Live-Ball Eras. Cooper holds the franchise single-season record for ERA (1.87 in 1916) and the all-time records for victories (202) and complete games (263). He was an exceptional control pitcher. Cooper drew little support for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving no more than 11 votes from the baseball writers during his period of eligibility. He remains one of only two pitchers with more than 3,000 innings and an ERA under 3.00 who are not enshrined at Cooperstown. In one of his last letters he wrote: "I would die a happy man if they voted me into the Hall of Fame. But, if they don't, I will understand."

I believe Jack Powell…primarily of the St. Louis Browns…is the other pitcher with 3,000 innings and an ERA under 3.00 not in the Hall of Fame. Cooper and Powell were both Dead Ball Era pitchers. In the Live Ball Era ( 1920- ) of the 83 pitchers that threw at least 3,000 innings only 7 had a career ERA under 3.00:

1. Whitey Ford: 2.75 Career ERA

2. Jim Palmer: 2.86 Career ERA

3. Tom Seaver: 2.86 Career ERA

4. Juan Marichal: 2.89 Career ERA

5. Bob Gibson: 2.91 Career ERA

6. Don Drysdale: 2.95 Career ERA

7. Carl Hubbell: 2.98 Career ERA

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/coopewi01.shtml


Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

In 1990 he led all Major League hitters with a Batting Average of .330. He had 645 Plate Appearances that season and collected 184 base hits in 558 ABs. Despite having the highest BA of any player in either League that season he did not win a Batting Crown. Can you name this Hall of Famer.
The player you are looking for was eligible in every sense to win the Batting Title…this is not similar to 2012 when Melky Cabrera’s .346 BA led all of Baseball but he was ineligible for the Batting Crown because of his positive drug test and suspension.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Roy Halladay. 2003 AL-22 Wins, 2010 NL-21 Wins and was CY Young Award winner each of those seasons. Can you name the most recent pitcher to lead both the National and American Leagues in Wins. The years accomplished were 2003 and 2010 so it’s fairly recent.

 

[67RedSox]

HOF’er Monte Irvin was born on this date in 1919 and celebrates his 95th birthday today. Giant fans from the 1950’s remember Irvin. 1951 was his year to shine. He sparked the Giants' miraculous comeback to overtake the Dodgers in the Pennant race, batting .312 with 24 homers and a NL best 121 RBIs, en route to the World Series (he went 11–24 for .458). In the third game of the playoff between the Giants and Dodgers, Monte Irvin popped out in the bottom of the ninth inning before Bobby Thomson hit the historic home run. That year Irvin teamed with Hank Thompson and Willie Mays to form the first all-black outfield in the Majors.


William C. Yawkey, back in the day, was the richest man in all of Michigan thanks to his lumber interests. In 1903 he agrees to buy the Detroit Tigers but as fate would have it he died before the deal closed. His son, William H. Yawkey steps in and agrees to complete the deal thus becoming the sole owner of the Tigers and remains so until 1908 when he sells a half-interest to Frank Navin because he really had very little interest in running a baseball team. In 1919 he contracts the Spanish Flu and dies leaving his $40M estate entirely to his adopted son (nephew, who he adopted) Tom Yawkey, then only 16 years old. Today that $40M would be the equivalent of about $550,000,000.00. Well, 14 years later, on this date in 1933 Tom Yawkey uses some spare change, $1.2M, to purchase the Boston Red Sox and was the sole owner of the team for 44 seasons, longer than anyone else in baseball history.

At the time the Red Sox were the dregs of the American League having floundered badly dating back to former owner, Harry Frazee, selling off his stars like Babe Ruth to prop up his other business interests. In fact, in 1932, the season before Yawkey bought the team the Red Sox had lost a franchise record 111 games. Yawkey did two things to turn the tide…first he hired Eddie Collins to be his GM. Collins, who would be elected to the HOF as a player in 1939, collected over 3,300 base hits in his playing career and had managed the Chicago White Sox. He was a baseball man and in the 14 years he stayed on as GM the fortunes of the Red Sox improved significantly. The second thing Yawkey did was heavily renovate Fenway Park, which had fallen into disrepair over the years.

The only knock on Yawkey is that he has the distinction of being the last owner to integrate his ball club, when he reluctantly let Pumpsie Green put on the Red Sox uniform and stroll out onto the field in 1959, a mere 12 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=tom+...84046-gambo-t_wil1-photopack-802.html;499;700

Ron Santo one of four Hall of Famers from those wonderful Cub teams that ended the 1960’s and began the 1970’s was born on this date in 1940. The 1958 version of the Seattle Rainiers was not the best in franchise history, in fact, they finished last in the Pacific Coast league that season. Nevertheless they had a couple of pretty good teenagers in the line-up in 19 year old Vada Pinson who led them offensively hitting .343 and 18 year old Claude Osteen who would later Win 147 games for the LA Dodgers including having a couple of 20-Win seasons. Santo grew up in Seattle and lived in the shadow of Sick’s Stadium and in 1958, less than 2 years before he was playing in the Big Leagues himself, he worked as an usher, in the press box, and in the clubhouse there and would shine Vada Pinson’s shoes. On July 1, 1960 they would face each other in the Majors for the first time in a game at Wrigley Field which the Reds won in extra innings. They both went 0-5 in the game.

http://content.usatoday.com/communi...all-of-fame-veterans-committee/1#.VO3O9_nF-So

https://www.google.ca/search?tbm=is...ks.com%2FAmerican%2FSicks_640_18.html;640;469

In 1971 Steve Carlton became a 20 Game winner for the first time in his 7 year (5 full seasons) ML career. He and Cardinal owner, Gussie Busch, get embroiled in a salary dispute and Busch orders him traded. On this date in 1972 “Lefty” is traded to the cellar dwelling Phillies as his penance. What does Carlton do in 1972 but go 27-10 with an ERA of 1.97 and win the CY Young Award.


Do you remember Don LeJohn. Very good, if you do. He died on this date in 2005. I remember him because I had his baseball card. In 1965 he played in 34 games for the Dodgers and came to bat 78 times and hit .256. He was a 3rd baseman and would spell Jim Gilliam and Dick Tracewski when needed. After his 34 games in 1965 he would never play in the Majors again.

There are a host of Hall of Famers who played their entire lengthy careers without ever getting to the World Series. Guys like Ernie Banks, Rod Carew, Luke Appling, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Frank Thomas, Andre Dawson, Joe Torre and Ryne Sandberg never made it to the Big Show but LeJohn did and he won a Ring. He made it to the Dodgers WS roster in 1965, made 1 appearance in the Series striking out against Jim “Mudcat” Grant in the Dodgers Game 1 loss.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=don+...12%2F10%2Ffinal-card-don-le-john.html;696;490

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

Among players who have won multiple Batting Titles these two players have the lowest lifetime Batting Averages, one won his Batting Crowns in the AL and one in the NL and all were won in the 1960’s. Can you name both or even one of these players:

AL Multi Batting Champ - .285 lifetime Batting Average

NL Multi Batting Champ - .294 lifetime Batting Average

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Eddie Murray (In 1990 he led all Major League hitters with a Batting Average of .330. He had 645 Plate Appearances that season and collected 184 base hits in 558 ABs. Despite having the highest BA of any player in either League that season he did not win a Batting Crown. Can you name this Hall of Famer. )

The player you are looking for was eligible in every sense to win the Batting Title…this is not similar to 2012 when Melky Cabrera’s .346 BA led all of Baseball but he was ineligible for the Batting Crown because of his positive drug test and suspension.

Explanation – George Brett won the AL Batting Crown with a mark of .329. Willie McGee won the NL Batting Crown with a mark of .335 to Murray’s .330 however he was traded to Oakland on August 29th. He had enough PAs / ABs to qualify for the Batting Title. In Oakland he hit .274 which lowered his season average to .324.

 

[67RedSox]

Several days ago I did a Post in which I mentioned that according to Bill James’ Baseball Abstract the three best pitchers in ML history were…1) Walter Johnson, 2) Lefty Grove and 3) Pete Alexander.

Grover Cleveland “Pete” Alexander was born on this date in 1887. Some will argue he’s as good as any pitcher who pitched in the Majors. His 373 Wins and ERAs of 1.22, 1.55, 1.83, 1.73, 1.72 and 1.91 in successive seasons to close out the Dead Ball Era, 1915-1920 lend credence to that argument. His 1918 season was abbreviated due to WWI.

Alexander was cursed. Except for Ty Cobb, no other player had to cope with so many personal demons. In 1918 Alexander won two of his three decisions, all complete games, with a 1.73 ERA when the Army and WWI came calling. A sergeant assigned to the 89th Division and the 342nd Field Artillery, Alexander shipped out from New York on June 28 and arrived in England on July 9. His unit went to the front late in July.

Many men survived the War, but they didn't recover from it. One of the many cruel coincidences of the War is that it destroyed the two greatest NL pitchers of the Dead Ball Era, if not of the 20th century, Christy Mathewson and Grover Cleveland Alexander.

Alexander spent seven weeks at the Front under relentless bombardment that left him deaf in his left ear. Pulling the lanyard to fire the howitzers caused muscle damage in his right arm. He caught some shrapnel in his outer right ear, an injury thought not serious at the time but which may have been the progenitor of cancer almost thirty years later. He was shell-shocked. Worst of all, the man who used to have a round or two with the guys and call it a day became alcoholic and epileptic, a condition possibly caused by the skulling he'd received in Galesburg. Alexander tried to cover up his epilepsy, using alcohol in the mistaken belief that it would alleviate the condition. Living in a world that believed epileptics to be touched by the devil, he knew it was more socially acceptable to be a drunk. Life and Baseball continued but the quality of each was never the same and when his baseball career ended his personal life went into a downspin from which he never recovered.


One of the Boys of Summer, Preacher Roe, was born on this date in 1916. Roy Campanella named Roe as the best pitcher he ever caught. Roe’s best season was Brooklyn’s most heartbreaking. He won his first ten decisions in 1951 and another ten in a row in the second half. He finished 22-3 with a 3.04 ERA, recording career highs in victories, starts, innings, and complete games. His .880 winning percentage is still the National League record for a 20-game winner. The Sporting News named him the National League Pitcher of the Year. But the Dodgers blew a 13-game lead in August and September to finish tied for first place with the New York Giants. Roe did not pitch in the playoff, when Bobby Thomson hit “The Shot” that won the pennant for New York.


All good things must come to an end they say and maybe the best good thing ever in Baseball history came to an end on this date in 1935 when Babe Ruth is granted his release from the Yankees giving the aging superstar an opportunity to play for the Boston Braves. The 39-year old outfielder hit 659 home runs and batted .349 during his 15-year tenure with New York.

The New York Times: This Day In Sports

In 1951 Don Newcombe becomes the first black pitcher to become a 20 Game Winner in the Majors. It won’t be until 1954 that he pitches again in the Majors…thanks to Korea he was invited by the U.S. Army to spend a couple of years with them on this date in 1952. He would Win 20 games again in both 1955 and in 1956 when he became the first winner of the CY Young Award and doubles as the NL’s MVP. Newcombe will be 89 this coming June and although it’s been 55 years since he last pitched in the Majors he’s still involved with the Dodgers as a special advisor. He battled alcohol but has maintained sobriety since 1967. Despite all the honours earned while playing here’s what he has to say…“What I have done after my baseball career and being able to help people with their lives and getting their lives back on track and they become human beings again — means more to me than all the things I did in baseball.”

Others have noticed and paid attention to what Newcombe has done with his life and once in a while acknowledge it. Here’s something President Obama had to say in 2010…first a comment referring to just Newcombe, “someone who helped America become what it is” and then about Newcombe and Jackie Robinson… “I would not be here if it were not for Jackie (Robinson) and it were not for Don Newcombe.”

Don Newcombe 1951 Game by Game Pitching Logs

Tony Lazzeri is in the Hall of Fame but only decades after he died in 1946. It was on this date in 1991 when the Veterans Committee elects him. If you were a student of the Game Lazzeri would be one of those players you would sit quietly in the stands and watch a master work his craft. Many will tell you the Yankees 2nd Baseman was as important to the team as Ruth or Gehrig during their glory years of the 1920s and 1930s. That’s saying an awful lot and if so it’s a shame it took over 50 years after he retired in 1939 for him to make it to the Hall of Fame.

Popular with his teammates and respected by his opponents, Lazzeri was a leader, cool under pressure, quick thinking, and considered by many as one of the smartest men in the game. Even Miller Huggins acknowledged him to be the brains of the Yankee infield. Lazzeri took charge when events called for steady nerves.

Lazzeri was an excellent fielder, and for a smaller man compared to the likes of Ruth, Gehrig, and Meusel, he could hit the ball exceptionally far. He also had the knack of hitting with men on base, becoming one of the best "clutch" hitters in baseball.

Lazzeri did not like the limelight, he would shy away from it and sportswriters who said this about him…"Interviewing that guy," one reporter complained, "is like mining coal with a nail file."

Tony Lazzeri | SABR


This and That:

In the past 20 years there have been 5 players hit above .370…Todd Helton, Larry Walker, Tony Gwynn, Ichiro Suzuki and Nomar Garciaparra. In case you were wondering where Garciaparra’s name, Nomar, comes from ( I know you weren’t )…it’s is his father’s name, Ramon, spelled backwards.

How difficult is it for a player to attain 100 extra-base hits in a season. So difficult that no one has ever done more than twice and only three players have done it twice. Lou Gehrig did it in 1927 and again in 1930. Chuck Klein did it in 1930 and 1932 and finally the only player in ML history to do it in back to back seasons, Todd Helton in 2000 and 2001.

With Randy Johnson now in the Hall of Fame the pitcher with the most Strikeouts in a single season, 1900 – Present, not in the Hall is Sudden Sam McDowell who had 325 in 1965.

I pity the next Major League Manager…he will be number 666 in the history of the Grand Old Game…since the formation of the National League in 1876.

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

There are presently two Managers in the Majors who won HR Crowns during their ML playing careers…can you name either one of them.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Carl Yastrzemski (AL) and Tommy Davis (NL).

Among players who have won multiple Batting Titles these two players have the lowest lifetime Batting Averages, one won his Batting Crowns in the AL and one in the NL and all were won in the 1960’s. Can you name both or even one of these players:

AL Multi Batting Champ - .285 lifetime Batting Average

NL Multi Batting Champ - .294 lifetime Batting Average

 

[67RedSox]

It was on this date in 1874 the first match of American baseball ever played in England takes place at the Kennington Oval Cricket Field in London.

It was on this date in 1912 the NY Yankees announce they will begin wearing pinstripes on their uniforms. It was essentially done as a fashion statement. The 1912 uniforms featured the pinstripes but for the next two seasons, 1913 & 1914 the pinstripes were dropped for some reason and came back to stay for good in 1915.

As for the Yankee insignia…the interlocking N and Y…that came along in 1909 and specifically to compete with the orange NY symbol used by the rival New York Giants ballclub. The insignia was first created back in 1877 by Louis B. Tiffany of the famous jeweler, Tiffany & Co. The symbol was first struck on a medal that was awarded by the New York City Police Department to the first NYC policeman shot in the line of duty - Officer John McDowell. Thirty-two years later the design was repurposed by the Yankees, then known as the “New York Highlanders”. The insignia was worn on the uniform over the heart as it is today from 1909-1917 and then disappeared for 20 years until making its return in 1936 which means the Babe played his entire Yankee career without the insignia on his uniform.

The Yankee logo did not make its appearance until after WWII. It was created in 1947 by sports artist Henry Alonzo Keller and consists of "Yankees" against a baseball, written in red script with a red bat forming the vertical line of the K, an Uncle Sam hat hanging from the barrel. The logo was only slightly changed over the years, with the current version first appearing in the 1970s.

New York Yankees Uniform and Team History | Heritage Uniforms and Jerseys

ny yankee insignia - Google Search

yankee logo - Google Search

Fenway Park in Boston is one of Baseball’s most interesting ballparks with a number of unique features. It has one of the weirdest right field configurations in all of baseball and part of that is The Pesky Pole, a.k.a, Pesky’s Pole. Johnny Pesky, one of the Boston Red Sox’ favourite players of all time was born on this date in 1919…not as John Michael Pesky as he lived his life from 1947 until his death in 2010 but as John Michael Paveskovich, his birth name that he changed to Pesky in 1947.

The Pesky Pole, is the nickname for the right field foul pole at Fenway Park. The pole sits only 302 feet away from home plate. Like the measurement of the left-field line at Fenway Park, this has been disputed. Aerial shots show it to be noticeably shorter than 302 feet. Pesky himself has been quoted as estimating it to be "around 295 feet." Former teammate and Sox broadcaster Mel Parnell named the pole after Pesky in 1948. On September 27, 2006, on Pesky's 87th birthday, the Red Sox officially dedicated the right field foul pole as Pesky's Pole with a commemorative plaque placed at its base.

In the history of the Red Sox the team has retired seven uniform numbers, other than Jackie Robinson’s # 42. The Red Sox have a strict policy as to the requirements for retiring a number and they are, 1) the player must be inducted into Baseball’s HOF, and 2) the player must have played at least 10 years for the Red Sox. The Red Sox previously had a requirement that the player "must have finished their career with Red Sox", but this was reconsidered after the election of Carlton Fisk to the Hall of Fame. Fisk actually retired with the White Sox, but then-GM Dan Duquette hired him for one day as a special assistant, which allowed Fisk to technically end his career with the Red Sox. After that, with the anticipation that there might be other former Red Sox players who would be denied the chance to have their number retired by the club (prime examples include Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs), the team dropped the rule. Some would argue that the 3rd rule still exists de facto, as Boggs' number 26 has not been retired (nor withheld from circulation) by Boston even though he meets the 2 official requirements (Boggs finished his career with the Tampa Bay Rays after spending five years with the rival New York Yankees). But the Red Sox, who inducted Boggs into their team Hall of Fame in 2004, won't retire his number.

The only exception that has been made to date is for Johnny Pesky, whose number 6 was retired on September 28, 2008. Pesky neither spent ten years as a player nor was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; however, Red Sox ownership cited "... his versatility of his contributions—on the field, off the field, and in the dugout ...", including as a manager, scout, and special instructor and decided that the honor had been well-earned.

pesky pole - Google Search

It was on this date in 2011 the greatest slugger of the 1950s, Duke Snider, passed away. Snider’s ride in Brooklyn had some bumps in the road but he was a force with the bat and in the 5 year period 1953-1957 he averaged 116 Runs a season with a batting line of .311 / 41 / 117. Today that would get you a contract like Stanton’s but in those days it got Snider $36,000.00 on average. His one flaw was he just couldn’t charge a groundball and baserunners knowing he would wait for the ball to get to him would take an extra base on him. Snider’s passing and Don Zimmer’s last year means there’s few “Boys of Summer” still around and those that are pitchers like Don Newcombe (88), Carl Erskine (88), Ed Roebuck (83) and Sandy Koufax (79).


Quick now…how many ML teams other than the Dodgers did Fernando Valenzuela pitch for? The answer of 5 surprised me. It was on this date in 1993 the Orioles signed him as a free agent and I don’t even remember him pitching for the Orioles where he went 8-10 in 31 Starts that year. The teams other than the Dodgers he tossed for are…San Diego, Angels, Phillies, Cardinals and Orioles.

fernando valenzuela - Google Search

This and That:

The 1959 season is too far back for me to remember but the Dodgers beat the White Sox in the World Series that year…Ernie Banks and Nellie Fox were MVPs and Early Wynn was the CY Young Award winner. What I find interesting is that Willie McCovey was the unanimous winner of the NL’s Rookie of the Year Award. He received all 24 votes. Why I find that interesting is that in that same year, 1959 guess who won the Pacific Coast League’s HR Crown…if you said Willie McCovey you’d be right. Tearing up one League makes you good, tearing up two Leagues was a pretty good indicator this guy would end up in the Hall of Fame.

On September 30, 1927, Babe Ruth hit his historic 60th home run of the season off of Tom Zachary of the Washington Senators. That game was memorable for a second reason. Hall Of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson appeared as a pinch hitter. It was the final Major League appearance ever for the "Big Train".

September 30, 1927 Washington Senators at New York Yankees Box Score and Play by Play | Baseball-Reference.com

In 1982 The National League Cy Young Award Winner, Steve Carlton, had a higher batting average (.218) than the National League Home Run Champion, Dave Kingman (.204)

Ted Williams was not a base stealer. In his 19 seasons there were 9 seasons when he did not steal a base and 7 seasons when he swiped only 1…yet, he was the first ML player to steal a base in 4 different decades.

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

Who was the youngest pitcher to toss a World Series shutout? He’s in the Hall of Fame and won 3 Cy Young Awards in a 4 year span.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Matt Williams 1994 (43) with the Giants and Ryne Sandberg 1990 (40) with the Cubs. (There are presently two Managers in the Majors who won HR Crowns during their ML playing careers…can you name either one of them.)

 

[67RedSox]

If you had a depth of knowledge on the history of the Cleveland Indians and I asked who played in more games for the Indians than any other player you’d still likely have trouble with the answer. You’d likely throw out names like Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker, Lou Boudreau or Omar Vizquel. I’d say…close, but no cigar. It’s been Terry Turner since the days of Babe Ruth wearing a Red Sox uniform. Turner was born on this date in 1881 and played in the Majors for 17 seasons, 15 of them in Cleveland. His career and the Dead-Ball Era ended the same year, 1919. He is the all-time leader in Games Played in an Indians uniform with 1,619. Known for his fielding prowess and head-first slides, Terry "Cotton Top" Turner was, in the words of sportswriter Gordon Cobbledick, "a little rabbit of a man with the guts of a commando." Because normal slides hurt his ankles, he pioneered the use of the head-first slide. For over 77 years, Turner held the Indians' team record for the most career stolen bases with 254. His record was broken by Kenny Lofton in 1996.

Terry Turner Statistics and History | Baseball-Reference.com

The Pirates win the 1925 World Series and it was on this date in 1926 the Pittsburgh Pirates announce an increase in seating prices: with tax included box seats will be $1.75; Reserved $1.50; Grandstand $1.10. Bleachers will remain at $.50. Tp put that in 2015 $ the ticket prices would range from $23.00 to $6.60.

forbes field 1926 - Google Search

Frank Malzone was born on this date in 1930. In his 11 seasons with the Red Sox Malzone was an All-Star 6 times. Malzone was the first 3B to win a Gold Glove as a rookie when he did so in 1957...he also won again in 1958 and 1959 and thereafter somebody by the name of Brooks Robinson came along and made it his personal possession for 16 straight years. Other than playing in 82 games for the Angels in the 1966 season when his playing career with the Red Sox ended he was been an employee of the Red Sox for 67 years (since 1947) and might still be today as he celebrates his 85th birthday. After 35 years as a Boston scout, Malzone became a player development consultant for the Red Sox.

frank malzone, baseball - Google Search

As the Brooklyn Dodgers started to look westward Steve Bilko was quickly becoming, as some have described him, the most popular sports figure in Los Angeles history until MLB came to town. I never saw the guy play but I’m thinking if you were a Baseball fan and went to Los Angeles Angels games in 1955, 1956 or 1957 you would have to agree with that comment. Although Bilko played 600 ML games spread over 10 seasons he is best remembered for being a huge star in the Minors. He was the MVP in each of 1955, 1956 and 1957 when the Pacific Coast League was an Open League or somewhere between AAA and the Majors. If you lived west of the Mississippi or on the West Coast the Pacific Coast League was the “Major Leagues”. Bilko’s batting lines those 3 seasons:

1955 - .328 / 37 / 124, 1956 - .360 / 55 / 164, 1957 - .356 / 40 / 140

steve bilko, baseball - Google Search

It was on this date in 1966…Sandy Koufax’s last season in the Majors that he and Don Drysdale begin their famous holdout for $1.05M. This sum is to be split equally between them and to cover three years…or roughly $167,000.00 per season for each of them. In comparison to today’s salaries it would be ‘tip money’ but in 1966 it would have made them the highest paid players in the game topping the $125,000.00, I believe, the Say Hey Kid was making.

In the mid-1960’s there was not a team I despised more than the Dodgers because they were good and because I was a Yankee first and an AL fan second. The Dodgers did a number on my Yankees in the 1963 World Series and I don’t mean they just beat them, I mean they did a number on them. I wasn’t even a teenager then but I remember that Series as if it was yesterday. It was painful. I thought revenge would be sweet when the Twins defeated Drysdale and Koufax in the first two games of the 1965 World Series but the Dodgers won 4 of the next 5 to take the Series. Therefore, 1966 started with not a good taste in my mouth. The audacity of Koufax and Drysdale holding out. However, I knew it then and I feel exactly the same almost 50 years later…Koufax was and still is a class act the best pitcher I’ve ever seen. As painful an opponent as he was there was always something about Koufax that made you respect him. The only other Dodger I could tolerate was Junior Gilliam…underrated and selfless, the ultimate team player and I’d be surprised if even a Giants fan wouldn’t say exactly the same thing ( if given some truth serum ).

After the Koufax / Drysdale holdout In 1966 and after Koufax had no option except to retire after the 1966 season Sports Illustrated did an article with Buzzie Bavasi , then the Dodger GM, about the holdout. I’ve attached it below and I think it allows me to understand why I respected the guy despite the pain he inflicted upon me.

THE GREAT HOLDOUT - SI.com

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

In 1949 Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to win a NL Batting Crown. Who was the first African-American to win an AL Batting Crown…it took a few years.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Jim Palmer, October 6, 1966 vs. Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium ( Who was the youngest pitcher to toss a World Series shutout? He’s in the Hall of Fame and won 3 Cy Young Awards in a 4 year span.)

October 6, 1966 World Series Game 2, Orioles at Dodgers | Baseball-Reference.com

 

[67RedSox]

Aparicio, Banks, Maranville, Reese, Rizzuto, Smith, Wagner and Yount. Every single one a Shortstop and all in the Hall of Fame. There’s another Shortstop MLB cannot forget and thanks to Silas from the Dodger Board I’m certainly aware of him. Dickey Pearce was born on this date in 1836. Depending on how you look at it Pearce was either born 44 ¾ years ago or 179 years ago today. He was one of those rare Leap Year babies born on February 29th so technically only has a birthday once every four years.
If you pull up Dickey Pearce’s statistics at the reference sites you’d be completely unimpressed. His numbers in the National Association and the National League are unremarkable. This is only part of the story; he was 35 years old when the National Association started and 40 when the National League began. Pearce’s reputation and contributions were made long before. He was one of the most famous and respected of all the early ballplayers. He and James Creighton were two of the game’s most recognizable stars and if not the first among the first to be paid for their baseball skills.
Pearce played for and captained perhaps the top team of the amateur era and the game’s first dynasty, the Atlantics of Brooklyn – champion of the National Association of Base Ball Players in 1859-1861, 1864-1866 and 1869. Upon joining the Atlantics, Pearce, short and squat (5-feet-3½, 161 pounds), was assigned to the short field position, a roving spot beyond the infield but not deep enough to be an outfielder. At the time the three infielders hugged their bags. Pearce quickly decided he was more valuable moving into the infield to the open spot to the left of second base; hence, he redefined the infield, in the process created the now-familiar shortstop position. With the bat, Pearce also redefined strategic hitting. He introduced the bunt.

Dickey Pearce - BR Bullpen

Paul Hines was born on this date in 1855. He played in the Majors for 20 seasons from 1872 to 1891 and is credited with winning baseball's first Triple Crown in 1878 while playing for the National league’s Providence Grays ; the accomplishment was not noted at the time, as RBIs would not be counted until years later, home runs were rare and home run leadership obscure, and Abner Dalrymple was then erroneously recognized as the batting champion. His Triple Crown numbers were .358 / 4 / 50. There is also some controversy over whether Hines was also the first player to turn an unassisted triple play.

Paul Hines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I like to acknowledge Major League players who make a contribution on the field and in a military uniform and have from time to time...this one has a bit of a twist to it. Ernie Padgett was born on this date in 1899. He played but 5 seasons in the Majors, 271 games in total, and in only one of those seasons was he a regular when in 1924 he played for the Boston Braves appearing in 113 games at 3B and 29 games at 2B. Although his ML career was brief Padgett is best known for turning the fourth unassisted triple play in Major League Baseball history on October 6, 1923. Now, the military connection. Padgett himself never wore a military uniform…he was too young for WWI and too old for WWII. He had a son born in 1921 who was fatally injured in 1937 while playing basketball. With the outbreak of WWII Ernie’s wife joined the WAAC as a private in 1942. This is because she felt she would be symbolically taking their deceased son's place, as he would have been twenty-one years old and thus eligible for conscription into the army. Before reporting for duty, Edith taught Ernie how to cook. When asked which one was more challenging to accomplish, Padgett joked that making an unassisted triple play was "much easier than making a soufflé.

Ernie Padgett Statistics and History | Baseball-Reference.com

Providence News - Google News Archive Search


The area around Pittsburgh was inhabited by the Shawnee when the British and French began fighting over the territory. The area was first settled with trading posts around 1717 and was the city was founded 40 years later, in 1758 when the French surrendered the area to British General John Forbes. Forbes began construction on Fort Pitt, named after the soon-to-be Prime Minister William Pitt and named the settlement Pittsburgh.
So, 150 years later, on this date in 1909 the Pirates begin construction of a new stadium near the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. The state-of-the-art stadium is named Forbes Field in honor of this Scottish born British Army General.

forbes field 1909 - Google Search

Presidents and former Presidents don’t just attend Home Openers they sometimes will take in a Spring Training game and on this date in 1961 a mere few weeks after leaving Office, former President Eisenhower finds himself at the Angels Spring Training site in Palm Springs joking with the Angel players. He will sit in the dugout with the newly established expansion team during its five-inning scrimmage. My guess is he had more fun in the Angels dugout than he did in the Oval Office. Vintage Spring Training photos are among my favourites. A couple of pictures follow, the first is one of Bill Rigney leading his players from that 1961 Angel squad through a workout and the second is a great picture of the Cubs training on Santa Catalina Island sometime between 1921-1951 when they trained there. William Wrigley’s two passions were the Cubs and Catalina, and he owned them both.

1961 spring training - Google Search

http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/F1999.jpg

Pick a ring any ring from 1922 to 2013 ( I await to see the 2014 Giants’ ring ). Among my favourites are just about any of the St. Louis Cardinals rings, the 1955 Brooklyn Dodger ring, the 1930 Philadelphia Athletics ring or the 2010 Giants ring. It was on this date in 1910 the National Commission prohibits giving mementos to players on winning World Series teams. This will later be reversed‚ making way for the traditional winners' watches‚ rings‚ and stickpins. Following are shots of every World Series ring from the first one issued in 1922 except for the Giants from last year. Clicking on any of them will provide greater detail.

WorldSeriesRings.net

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

Legendary for his shallow outfield play he could track a fly ball at the crack of an opponent’s bat better than anyone. This center fielder played so shallow that six times he made unassisted double plays, catching flies and crossing second base before the runners could get back? He hit .300 or better in 18 of the 19 full seasons he played in the Majors.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Frank Robinson, 1966 (Triple Crown season). (In 1949 Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to win a NL Batting Crown. Who was the first African-American to win an AL Batting Crown…it took a few years.)

Note: Bobby Avila in 1954 was Mexican and Tony Oliva in 1964 and 1965 was Cuban.

 

[67RedSox]

Master Spy, Moe Berg was born on this date in 1902. He wore the tools of ignorance in the Majors for 15 seasons from 1923 to 1939 (only in one season did he play more than 100 games) but was anything but dumb as he graduated from both Princeton and Columbia Law School and he mastered 12 different languages. Here’s the kettle calling the pot black…Casey Stengel, an eccentric man himself, called Moe Berg "the strangest man ever to play baseball."
One of Berg's many eccentricities involved the newspaper. He would not let anyone touch his newspapers until he had read them. If anyone did touch them, Berg considered them dead and would go out and buy the papers again. Even in a snowstorm Berg would go out to buy papers if someone had touched them before he did.
Berg was recruited into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), later to become the CIA and carried out several missions. On one mission, during WWII, Berg posed as a German businessman attending a lecture in Zurich Switzerland. His job order from the OSS was to carry a shoulder-holstered pistol and assassinate Werner Heisenberg, the top scientist suspected of working on an atomic bomb (if indeed the Germans were moving ahead on the A-Bomb). Heisenberg divulged nothing. Berg, who was to shoot him on the spot and then take cyanide to avoid capture, concluded that the Germans were nowhere close to an atomic bomb. Heisenberg and Berg were to live another day. Sounds a bit James Bondish doesn’t it.
After his careers as a ballplayer and a spy were over by 1954 Berg could never find another career that interested him. He invested his earnings in a company that was profitable for a few years, but then had difficulties and went broke. Without money, Berg ended up spending the last 18 years of his life living off the generosity of family and friends.


Moe Berg Statistics and History | Baseball-Reference.com


Hall of Famer, Mel Ott, was born on this date in 1909.

"I never knew a baseball player who was so universally loved. Why, even when he was playing against us he would be cheered and there are no more rabid fans than in Brooklyn." - Leo Durocher, about Mel Ott

Ott was not a very successful manager. He was the manager about whom Leo Durocher said "Nice guys finish last".

Ott holds the record for the most games played before his 30th birthday, with 1,739. Second is Robin Yount with 1,671 and third is Andruw Jones with 1,625.

Ott remains the youngest player in major league history to hit 100 Home Runs (22 years, 132 days) as well as 200 Home Runs (25 years, 144 days). He is also the youngest player in MLB history to reach 1,000 RBI (27 years, 94 days).

He is the youngest player in National League history to reach 1,000 Hits (24 years, 154 days). He is the youngest player in major league history to hit for the cycle, at 20 in 1929.

He was the first player in National League history to hit 300, 400 & 500 Home Runs. He holds the record for the most home runs in one ballpark, with 323 HR at the Polo Grounds. He also holds the record for career home runs in one city, with 348 in New York. Second is Babe Ruth who hit 344 in New York, including 259 at Yankee Stadium; no-one else has even 300 in the same city.

However, my favourite Mel Ott stat is that he led the NY Giants in HRs for 18 consecutive seasons.


One of the Boys of Summer, Clem Labine, died on this date in 2007. The free-spirited sinkerballer was one of baseball's premier relievers in the 1950s. The durable Labine helped the Dodgers to four pennants in Brooklyn and another in Los Angeles. His first taste of glory came as a rookie during the 1951 three-game playoff between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants; he shut out the Giants 10-0 on October 2nd, evening the series at one game apiece and setting the stage for the Shot Heard 'Round the World the next day. One of the most important games hurled by Labine took place at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn on October 9, 1956. The day before, Don Larsen had pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 2-0, in the fifth game of the World Series. Dodgers manager Walter Alston gave the ball to the right-handed Labine, despite being a reliever, because he knew about Clem’s courageous and smart demeanor once he got on the mound. With the Yankees up three games to two, manager Casey Stengel sent starter Bob Turley to try to win the Series. Labine and Turley battled in a scoreless game until the bottom of the tenth, when Jackie Robinson’s single drove in Jim Gilliam to tie the Series at three games apiece and break a streak of 18 scoreless innings for the Dodgers.

Pitchers are generally poor hitters but Labine was exceptionally bad ending his 13-year career with a lifetime batting average of .075 ( 17 for 227 ). In 1953 Labine collected only three hits but all three were Home Runs.

clem labine - Google Search

Since we’re now knee high into Spring Training it wouldn’t hurt to take a brief look at the history of Spring Training. The origins of Spring Training are lost in the shadows but we know this: Spring training is almost as old as baseball itself. On an 1886 barnstorming tour of the South the Chicago White Sox were said to stopped off at Hot Springs, Ark., to basically sober up before the start of the season. The best evidence points to ST first taking place in 1870, when the Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Chicago White Stockings held organized baseball camps in New Orleans. Other baseball historians argue that the Washington Capitals of the NL pioneered spring training in 1888, holding a four-day camp in Jacksonville. In a well-documented argument for ST, Gus Schmelz, when managing the Cincinnati Red Stockings of the original American Association in 1888, petitioned team owner Aaron Stern to allow the team to train down South. It was a unique proposition: the players and the team would split the costs of training, and the two would also share in any profits. Though it was pitched more as a barnstorming tour than as an intense training session, Stern gave approval to the plan on the basis of it being a cheap way to figure out what veterans were expendable and what youngsters were worth keeping.
Still, most teams did not view Spring Training as being an activity that warranted out-of-town travel until barnstorming became an integral part of the equation. Most teams trained locally (indoors when the elements did now allow outdoor training), as it was cheaper for owners. When teams did train on the road, they combined workouts with exhibition games; many of these tours ran through Arkansas, Mississippi and Georgia, where the sight of pro baseball players was still a novelty.
Spring Training was not the big business back then as it is today where you can pay as much as $34-$44 for a box seat. These were truly training camps designed to get players into playing shape. Typically most baseball players could not live year-round on their baseball salaries and took on other jobs that might or might not keep them in shape.
The Detroit Tigers are credited with being the first team to conduct a Spring Training camp in Arizona when they trained in Phoenix in 1929. While Florida and Arizona now host all MLB teams for ST, this has not always been the case. Venues have included Arkansas, Tulsa, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs, Riverside / San Bernardino, Las Vegas and Catalina Island. The Brooklyn Dodgers trained in Havana, Cuba in 1947 and 1949, and in the Dominican Republic in 1948. The New York Yankees also trained in the early 1950s in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Spring Training camps and games were also held in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and various cities of northern Mexico. During WWII teams, because of travel restrictions, trained closer to home.

spring training postcards - Google Search

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

There are 4 players in the Hall of Fame whose MLB career began since 1950 who never played a single game in the Minors. Two are Pitchers, two are Outfielders. You only need one.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Tris Speaker (Legendary for his shallow outfield play he could track a fly ball at the crack of an opponent’s bat better than anyone. This center fielder played so shallow that six times he made unassisted double plays, catching flies and crossing second base before the runners could get back? He hit .300 or better in 18 of the 19 full seasons he played in the Majors.)

 

[67RedSox]

Wee Willie Keeler who inspired the saying, “hit ‘em where they ain’t”, was born on this date in 1872. Eight straight times he collected more than 200 hits, and his .424 average in 1897 is the highest single-season mark by a left-handed hitter in Baseball history. Keeler compiled a .341 career batting average and racked up 2,932 hits – 85 percent of them singles – in 2,123 games. At 5’4” and 140 lbs he wasn’t the biggest player ever to play in the Majors.

wee willie keeler - Google Search

Have you ever heard of Ned Williamson? He’s not in the Hall of Fame, he last played in the Majors in 1890 and his lifetime Batting Average of .255 was even less impressive in his day than it is now. He died on this date in 1894. Despite that one of my earliest remembrances as a kid of players of yesteryear was Ned Williamson. The only explanation as to why he goes back so far with me is that for over 30 years he held the single season HR record with 27 that he set in 1884 playing 3B for the Chicago White Stockings who would later become the Cubs. That record wasn’t broken until the Babe hit 29 in 1919. I must have read about him in connection with Ruth.

ned williamson - Google Search

It was on this date in 1927 Babe Ruth becomes the highest paid player in Major League history when the Yankees announce the Bambino will receive $210,000.00 for three years, or $70,000.00 per season. He had asked for $100,000.00 per season. Max Scherzer signed for exactly 1,000 times that amount this off-season…longer term though.

babe ruth 1927 $70,000.00 record contract - Google Search

It was on this date in 1961 Frank Robinson is indicted in Cincinnati for carrying a concealed weapon. He was arrested on February 8 when he was discovered to be carrying a .25 caliber pistol. The discovery occurred after an incident in a restaurant where Robinson was eating with two friends. He was fined $250 for it. Being a bad boy worked wonders for Robinson and the Reds that year. He was the NL’s MVP and the Reds win the NL Pennant. There are still some today who argue the guy who played beside him in the Cincinnati outfield, vada Pinson should have been the MVP that season. Pinson and Robinson grew up together as friends in Oakland.

frank robinson 1961 mvp - Google Search

This and That:

In the 5 consecutive seasons 1921-1925 combined Rogers Hornsby’s BA was better than .400

Don Mattingly shares the record for the most grand slams in a season, with 6. How many more did he hit in his 14-season career…0

Clayton Kershaw has won 4 NL ERA titles in a row and he’s still only 26. In the history of the Grand Old Game that’s happened on only two other occasions…Sandy Koufax 5 straight, 1962-1966 and Lefty Grove back in the 1930s.

Since 1900 there have been only two pitchers who have had 20 Win seasons 13 times…Christy Mathewson and Warren Spahn.

Dave Winfield is the only HOF’er to get his 3,000th hit off a HOF pitcher…Dennis Eckersley.

In 1982 Fergie Jenkins became the first ML pitcher to collect 3,000 strikeouts with less than 1,000 walks. Five pitchers have since joined that club.

Baseball Trivia: ( Answer Tomorrow )

He’s the youngest pitcher to win an AL ERA title and the only pitcher to win a 14-inning complete World Series game.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…Sandy Koufax, Catfish Hunter, Dave Winfield and Al Kaline (There are 4 players in the Hall of Fame whose MLB career began since 1950 who never played a single game in the Minors. Two are Pitchers, two are Outfielders. You only need one.)