Coming and Going

NEW YORK, NEW YORK & MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - This date in 1956 provided hints of one franchise moving, and a city trying to bring another back. On January 27 the New York football Giants announced they would desert the Polo Grounds for Yankee Stadium for the upcoming season. This added to speculation that the baseball Giants wouldn't be long for the Polo Grounds either.

The Associated Press reported that the baseball Giants were also contemplating a "move across the Harlem River" to Yankee Stadium by 1957. The baseball team ended up moving in 1958 but not across the Harlem River, across the continental United States to San Francisco where they remain to this day.

Ten years later on this date Milwaukee was trying to get the Braves back from Atlanta. The team hadn't played any games in Georgia yet, but they'd already left Wisconsin. According to UPI (United Press International) on January 27, 1966 Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Elmer Roller stopped just short of ordering the league to expand to Milwaukee or bring the Braves back, but he said the league should do everything "within their scope" to get a team there.

As it turned out, the Braves stayed in Atlanta and the American League franchise Seattle Pilots left Puget Sound for Milwaukee in 1970, and changed their name to the Brewers. And the Polo Grounds, the ballpark was demolished in 1964.

Contributing sources:
United Press International, January 28, 1966
Associated Press, January 28, 1956
Giants history

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Man Behind the Myth

BALLSTON SPA, NEW YORK - Abner Doubleday died on this date in 1893. You know, the guy who didn't invent baseball. His name is so tied to the game however, I'd be remiss not to tell his story on a baseball website.

Doubleday was rather extraordinary. He was born near Albany in upstate New York, spent more than thirty years in the military, achieving the rank of general for the Union in the Civil War. He reportedly fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter - the battle that started the War between the States.

The story goes that Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, NY in 1839. The only evidence to support this is the word of a man named Abner Graves who was described as being of questionable integrity. On the other hand, there is ample evidence that Doubleday did not invent the game. For example, while Cooperstown was home at one time, he was a cadet at West Point in 1839, so if he was drawing up rules for how to play Base Ball he was doing it while AWOL. Also, Doubleday never claimed, wrote or uttered that he invented the game.

So how did the story come about? Baseball historian Harold Seymour wrote in Baseball: The Early Years that around the turn of the 19th century Abraham Mills, the fourth president of the National League, "wanted it distinctly understood that patriotism and research had established that the game of baseball was American in its origin," and not a descendant of the English game rounders. A committee Mills chaired officially "concluded" as much in 1907. The story was promulgated to such an extent that a shrine to the game of baseball was built in Cooperstown - the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the ballpark adjacent to the Hall is called Doubleday Field.

General Abner Doubleday accomplished a lot in his life, none of which appeared to have had anything to do with baseball.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
"Baseball: The Early Years," by Harold Seymour
Abner Doubleday-Wikipedia

[Photo from the public domain via britannica.com ]

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The Price is Right

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - The New York Yankees were sold on this date in 1945 for $2.5 million to Larry MacPhail, Dan Topping and Del Webb. Compare that to what Forbes Magazine estimates the Yankees are worth today, $1.7 BILLION, with a "B".

Even comparing for inflation, major league baseball teams command significantly greater dollars these days.

The list below from Forbes Magazine shows the estimated value of each team as of 2011. Only the Nationals, Indians and Blue Jays have dropped in value since 2007:

1.  New York Yankees $1,700,000,000
2.  Boston Red Sox $912,000,000
3.  Los Angeles Dodgers $800,000,000
4.  Chicago Cubs $773,000,000
5.  New York Mets $747,000,000
6.  Philadelphia Phillies $609,000,000
7.  San Francisco Giants $563,000,000
8.  Texas Rangers $561,000,000
9.  LA Angels of Anaheim $554,000,000
10. Chicago White Sox $526,000,000
11. St. Louis Cardinals $518,000,000
12. Minnesota Twins $490,000,000
13. Atlanta Braves $482,000,000
14. Houston Astros $474,000,000
15. Seattle Mariners $449,000,000
16. Washington Nationals $417,000,000
17. Baltimore Orioles $411,000,000
18. Colorado Rockies $411,000,000
19. San Diego Padres $406,000,000
20. Arizona Diamondbacks $396,000,000
21. Detroit Tigers $385,000,000
22. Milwaukee Brewers $376,000,000
23. Cincinnati Reds $375,000,000
24. Florida Marlins $360,000,000
25. Cleveland Indians $353,000,000
26. Kansas City Royals $351,000,000
27. Toronto Blue Jays $337,000,000
28. Tampa Bay Rays $331,000,000
29. Oakland A's $307,000,000
30. Pittsburgh Pirates $304,000,000

Comparing the cost of living in 1945 with today, the average new home back then cost about $4,600. The same home in 2008 would cost about $280,000 - that's an increase of 61 times. A gallon of gas in 1945 was 15¢. Gas have reached close to $4.00 in the past year. That's an increase of about 25 times. But the value of the Yankees is 480 times greater than it was in 1945. The increase in value is staggering even for middle of the pack teams, such as the Chicago White Sox. Even if the White Sox were worth $2.5 million in 1945, which they most likely were not, the franchise's value as of 2007 is 152 times greater.

Contributing Sources:
Forbes Magazine MLB Team Values, 2011
Forbes Magazine MLB Team Values, 2007
The New York Times, January 26, 1945
Energy Information Administration
US Census Bureau (home prices)

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Deion Tries Baseball Again

CINCINNATI, OHIO - Deion Sanders decided to give baseball another try and was invited to spring training by the Cincinnati Reds on this date in 2001. General Manager Jim Bowden gave the 2-sport star a non-guaranteed minor league contract to play for the Triple-A Louisville Riverbats. The Washington Redskins all-pro cornerback hadn't played major league baseball in three years. He played 115 games in the outfield for the Reds in 1997, hitting .273 with 56 stolen bases, 53 runs scored and 23 RBI, but he was 29 then. He's 33 now.

Sanders made it up to the Reds for 32 games in 2001, but he hit just .173 in seventy-five at-bats, and that was the end of his baseball career. In a 9-year major league career with the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, Reds and San Francisco Giants Sanders played in 641 games, hitting .263 with a .319 on base percentage and 186 stolen bases. He hit .533 (8 for 15) and had five stolen bases for the Braves in the 1992 World Series which was won by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Sanders gave whichever baseball team he played for instant speed. He had a more productive football career - eight time all-pro and played on two Super Bowl winning teams - but the debate that will never be answered is, how good a baseball player would he have been had he played with a bat and ball exclusively. He knew which was more challenging when asked by the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2000:

Q - What's tougher: hitting off Greg Maddux or guarding Jerry Rice?
A - "Hitting a baseball is definitely the hardest thing in sports to do, not only for me but for a lot of guys, but guarding Jerry Rice isn't easy either. I just make it look easy. "

Contributing sources:
Cincinnati Enquirer, February 27, 2000
More on Deion Sanders
Deion Sanders NFL stats

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Letting Freddie go

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - It was not an auspicious offseason for the Boston Red Sox in 1981. On this date the Red Sox had to trade the only player, up to that time, to win Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season, centerfielder Fred Lynn. They didn't want to part with Lynn, but the front office failed to mail a contract to him by the deadline allowing Lynn to become a free agent if he wasn't traded. He was sent to the California Angels for Joe Rudi and Frank Tanana.

Freddie Lynn came on like gang-busters his rookie season of 1975, less than two years after being drafted by the Red Sox out of the University of Southern California. He hit .331 with 21 home runs, 105 runs batted in and 103 runs scored. Oh, he also won a Gold Glove and made the all-star team. He was almost the perfect ballplayer, as evidenced by being awarded the Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year awards - the first player in history to win both (Ichiro Suzuki won MVP and ROY awards in 2001, but he had already played nine seasons in the Japanese major leagues).

Fred Lynn had a very good career, but only once did he match or surpass his rookie production, that was 1979 when he hit .333 with 39 home runs, 122 runs batted in, 116 runs scored and a .416 on-base percentage.

The Red Sox also messed up with Carlton Fisk that same off-season. That's a story for another time.

Contributing source:
Joseph Durso, The New York Times, January 24, 1981

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