Category: Baseball History

Event to honor surviving St Louis Browns on pennant anniversary

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Babe Martin of the St Louis Browns

The last two surviving members of the St Louis Browns will be honored at an event on April 28 in recognition of the 65th anniversary of their pennant-winning season.

It’s being put on by the St Louis Browns Fan Club (who knew?) and the event will be billed as “Lunch with the Browns”.  The Browns attending:  Babe Martin who broke in the bigs in 1944, the year of their pennant and pitcher Al LaMacchia, who played for the Browns between 1943-1946. 

You can find out more about who, when, and where at the St Louis Browns Fan Club blog. 

Baseball Factoids #1

I received a White Sox tear-off calendar for a Christmas gift, I’ll share some interesting baseball factoids with you as I come across them.

Only two pitchers since 1970 have notched 10 complete games in a single season: Jim Palmer with the Orioles in 1975 (10) and John Tudor with the Cardinals in 1985 (10).

Who was the first player to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Negro Leagues Committee in 1971? Satchel Paige

The 1906 White Sox, dubbed the “hitless wonders”, won the American League pennant with a .230 team batting average. The entire club smacked a total of seven home runs through 154 games.

Baseball Digest online

CLuke passed on this link to a treasure trove of digitized Baseball Digest magazines going back to 1945 thanks to Google Book Search.  For baseball history buffs, it’s well worth browsing through it! 

To whet your appetite, here’s an article from Jerry Holtzman from 1960 entitled White Sox Make Glove Men Respectable Again. 

Greg Maddux Announces his Retirement

With all the talk about the Hall of Fame, sure to be Hall of Famer, Greg Maddux announced his retirement as the 2008 Baseball Winter Meetings began. Maddux first appeared in the major leagues in 1986 with the Chicago Cubs as a pinch runner, stayed in the game, and picked up the loss in relief. He proved the loss to be a fluke, as he amassed a 355-227 record during his 23 year big league career.

Greg never was an overpowering pitcher, he’d spot his fastball & change speeds. No other 300 win pitchers has ever reached the 3,000 strikeout plateau, while walking less than 1,000 batters. His 355 wins are more lifetime wins than any righthanded pitcher since Walter Johnson, who retired in 1927.

Check out this story on mlb.com about Greg Maddux’ amazing career.

Congratulations Greg Maddux on a wonderful baseball career!!!

All-time worst MVPs list? I don’t think so.

In light of the upcoming MVP awards to be announced this week, Scott McCoy who covers the Texas Rangers for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has come out with his list of Baseball’s Top 5 worst MVPs. 

In typical Texas Ranger fashion, the author seems to focus on hitting (particularly power) for his baseline and doesn’t consider context when making his choices. 

Seven of his ten choices (he had five honorable mentions) were middle infielders and in most cases (1944 Marty Marion, 1959 Nellie Fox, 1995 Barry Larkin) were excellent with the glove. 

Some while not exhibiting great stats by today’s measures, were playing in hitting-depressed eras (again Fox and Marion).  Others yet displayed leadership beyond the statistics (1931 Frankie Frisch, 1925 Roger Peckinpaugh) or played a good part in leading their team to championships (Fox once more, Frisch). 

Would I have made those same MVP choices given the chance?  I’m not sure.  But “Worst MVPs” seems a bit harsh.

I couldn’t let that one go.

Buck O’Neil & Black Baseball in Chicago

Last night while watching the Blackhawks win big over Calgary, I was flipping the channel to my TV, and what should I see, but baseball! Needless to say, I stopped flipping, and my eyes became transfixed on the images on the screen. Channel 20 in Chicago was airing the premiere of Buck O’Neil & Black Baseball in Chicago, an encore showing will air November 13th at 7:30 PM, again on channel 20.

The late, great, Buck O’Neil talked about his days in the Negro Leagues and becoming the first African American baseball coach in the major leagues with the Chicago Cubs. O’Neil said, he never really resented not being allowed to play in the big leagues, because the best ballplayers of the day were in the Negro Leagues. Bob Kendrick, the Director of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, stated how upset he was when Buck didn’t make it into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown before his death. Seventeen former Negro Leaguers were inducted in the last induction before O’Neil’s death. Buck didn’t feel sorry for himself at not getting in, but rather was thrilled 17 others had made it, according to Kendrick.

The documentary brings the past to life. It talked about the Double Duty Classic, which features the best young high school African American ballplayers competing in this East/West Classic, named after Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe. It also shows the statue of Buck O’Neil that resides in the HOF, and there’s a lifetime achievement award named after O’Neil. Buck was the first winner of this award. Back in the day, the East/West Classic was the Negro Leagues All Star Game, was played at Comiskey Park in Chicago, would draw 50,000 fans, and featured the best African American ballplayers playing all out.

The show talks about how O’Neil managed Ernie Banks for the Kansas City Monarchs and then coached Banks with the Cubs. Buck also talked Billy Williams out of quitting after experiencing racism in Texas before coming up to the Cubs. Jermaine Dye, of the Chicago White Sox, came up with the Kansas City Royals, commented how fortunate he was to have met Buck O’Neil, while coming up to the big leagues.

There is also mention of the Chicago Baseball Museum, a work in progress, that can be checked out at www.chicagobaseballmuseum.org Also, if you can, checkout Buck O’Neil & Black Baseball in Chicago when its encore performance airs on Thursday the 13th on channel 20.

Bad is Good

Seamheads.com has their list of SS with the best careers.  They base their list on a couple of esoteric stats which pretty much derive from career win shares. 

The highest ranked non-active shortstop not in the Hall?

180px-BillDahlen

Bad Bill Dahlen at #9.  Dahlen, who debuted with the Chicago Colts in 1891, is to be considered for induction by the Veterans committee this year.  We’ll find out December 8 whether he gets in.

25 years ago: George Brett and the Pine Tar Incident

It was 25 years ago today when the infamous Pine Tar Incident took place at Yankee Stadium.  I remember it well.  I watched the game live on television and I remember thinking “that’s one angry ballplayer” when George Brett came running out of the dugout to face umpire Tim McClelland.

The Royals appealed the ruling that pine tar was too far up the bat handle.  The AL president Lee McPhail upheld the appeal the next day and the rest of of game was finished on August 18th.  The Royals won the game 5-4 thanks in part to Brett’s ninth-inning two-run homer that almost didn’t count. 

Here’s a treat… take a listen to broadcaster Phil Rizzuto’s call of George Brett’s homerun. 

Jerome Holtzman, R.I.P.

Jerome Holtzman, one of my favoriteĀ sports writers, a long time reporter & columnist in the Chicago newspapers and upon retirement, MLB’s historian (the inventor of the “save”), died at the age of 82.

Jerome Holtzman was writing in Chicago way back when I was growing up.He and John Carmichael (“The Barber Shop”) were my favorites. My memory fades. Did Holtzman write for the old Chicago American? Or the Chicago Daily News? Those papers don’t exist anymore (and hardly do I).

Remember the jingle? “Chicago American. Always on top of the news.” I could sing it for you to this day.

I appreciate his contributions in developing my love for baseball. And for the enjoyment he contributed to my youth through reading his work.

He also wrote an interesting book, “(There’s) No Cheering in the Pressbox” about the newspaper sports writers of note.

One of the last summers I lived in Chicago: Pete Rose said, “Not only did Ken Holtzman shut us down in the afternoon game, I pick up the paper the next morning and he’s WRITING about it.” Pete obviously read only the last name.

Jerome Holtzman’s save statistic has made a lot of money for a lot of relievers.

DonS.