Author: Bill Grimes

I'm from Chicago. I worked in broadcast journalism for much of the 1970's and 80's. In 1990 I became a litigation consultant, retiring in 2017. Around 2005 I recall flipping through the sports section of the newspaper coming across "On this day in baseball history Willie Mays hit his 600th home run." I enjoyed the one-liners, but I wanted more. I wanted a story. I took my news reporting skills and started researching and telling baseball stories, one for every day of the year. TodayinBaseball.com is the result.

FEB 1: Yanks let one get away

TODAY’S STORY TAKES US BACK TO NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 1, 1999. The New York Yankees traded prospect named Mike Lowell to the Florida Marlins on this date in 1999. They got three minor league pitchers in return; Mark Johnson, Eddie Yarnall and Todd Noel.

With Mike Lowell, and several other quality players, the Marlins won their second World Series in 2003 - beating the Yankees.

Lowell became a 4-time all-star with two World Series rings, one as Most Valuable Player (2007 for the Boston Red Sox).

Eddie Yarnall appeared in seven games for the Yankees and was out of baseball by 2001.

Mark Johnson was picked up by the Detroit Tigers after never making it out of the Yankees farm system. He appeared in handful of games for the Tigers in 2000, but he too was also out of baseball by 2001.

Todd Noel never made it to the major leagues and is no where to be found.

With Mike Lowell, and several other quality players, the Marlins won their second World Series in 2003 – beating the Yankees. Lowell was traded to the Boston Red Sox after the 2005 season and helped them win the World Series in ’07. They made the playoffs in ’08 winning the American League Division Series but losing to the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL Championship Series.

The Yankees did let Lowell go, but was it a bad trade? If the goal of any team is to get to the post-season, the Yankees succeeded, more often than Lowell’s teams. The Yankees went to the post season 9 of the next 10 years after the trade was made. The Florida Marlins went to the post-season once in those 10 years. Still, most Yankee fans probably believe letting Mike Lowell go in 1999 was not a good trade.

Contributing Sources:
Yankees post season
Marlins post season
Red Sox post season

JAN 30: FAN-VOTE “A JOKE”

TODAY’S STORY TAKES US BACK TO NEW YORK CITY, JANUARY 30, 1958. #Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick saw a lot of red at the 1957 all-star game and he didn’t like it. He called the fan-vote for starting position players “a joke.” Starting with the 1958 midsummer classic, starting lineups would be determined by a vote of players, coaches and managers.

Frick must have thought, ‘Hold on. No Mays, no Musial! No way.' Frick replaced Bell and Crowe with the two future hall-of-famers.

The problem in 1957 was Cincinnati fans stuffed the ballot boxes enough that almost the entire NL all-star team was Redlegs (The Cincinnati Reds was called the Redlegs in the 1950’s and 60’s because of paranoia during the red scare of communism. Anything “red” was considered verboten).

As it turned out, 5 Cincinnati Redlegs were in the starting lineup: Frank Robinson, Don Hoak, Roy McMillan, Ed Bailey and Johnny Temple, except for Robinson, not exactly household names. Gus Bell and George Crowe also appeared to have enough fan support to make the starting lineup.

Frick must have thought, ‘Hold on. No Mays, no Musial! No way.’ Frick replaced Bell and Crowe with the two future hall of famers.

According to MLB.com, players, coaches and managers chose the starters for the all-star team through 1969. The starting lineups, except for starting pitchers, went back to a fan-vote in 1970.

Contributing Sources:
MLB.com all-star game roster rules
Fred DeLuca, International News Service (INS), January 31, 1958
Baseball-almanac
MLB all-star game Wikipedia

JAN 29: MUSIAL REWARDED

OUR STORY TAKES US BACK TO ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI JANUARY 29, 1958. 

Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals became the highest paid player in National League history. Stan “The Man” gratefully stroked his signature across a contract worth $100,000. Musial was being richly rewarded for winning his seventh batting title in 1957 with a .357 average. He drove in more than 100 runs for the tenth time in his career. The Associated Press reported that only Ted Williams of the American League’s Boston Red Sox probably makes more at an estimated $125,000.

 

The Cardinals made it clear they wanted Stan to stick around. According to the Associated Press the 37-year old former outfielder who now plays first base, told reporters, ”Baseball has rewarded me richly, and the Cardinals have always treated me more than fairly, this year in particular. I would have settled for less.”

 

Musial went on to hit .337 in 1958. He would play six more seasons, finishing with a lifetime .331 average. He was not considered a home run hitter, but hit over 30 six times and finished with 475 for his career.


Stan Musial was named to 24 all-star teams (there were two all-star games some years back then). The man richly rewarded with the biggest contract in National League history, was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.

 

Contributing sources:
Associated Press, January 30, 1958

JAN 27: MLB EXPANDS

TODAY’S STORY TAKES US TO JANUARY 27TH 10 YEARS APART – 1956 & 1966. EVENTS ON THOSE DATES FORESHADOWED A MAJOR SHIFT BY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL WEST & SOUTH.

On this date in 1956 the New York football Giants announced they would desert the Polo Grounds for Yankee Stadium. The New York baseball Giants also called the Polo Grounds home. The football team moving 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 contemplating a “move across the Harlem River” to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx by 1957. Fat chance the Yankees would let that happen.

The baseball Giants ended up moving in 1958, but far beyond The Bronx. They moved across country to San Francisco. The Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles the same year.

Eight years later the City of Milwaukee tried to get the Braves back from Atlanta. The team left Wisconsin after the 1965 season, but hadn’t played any games in Georgia yet.

On this date in 1966 Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Elmer Roller stopped short of ordering the league to expand to Milwaukee. He instructed that Major League Baseball should do everything “within their scope” to get a team in Milwaukee.

As it turned out, the Braves stayed in Atlanta.

The American League franchise Seattle Pilots left Puget Sound for Milwaukee in 1970. They changed their name to the Brewers and remain there to this day.

The Dodgers and Giants have been in their respective Los Angeles and San Francisco homes for more than 6 decades, and continue to thrive.

The Polo Grounds in New York was demolished in 1964.

More information:
Chicago Tribune, Judge Orders NL: Stay in Milwaukee, January 28, 1966
“They took our hearts too,” New York Times, May 28, 1957
United Press International, January 28, 1966
Associated Press, January 28, 1956
New York/San Francisco Giants history

JAN 24: WHAT IF, DEION?

TODAY IN BASEBALL TAKES US BACK TO  CINCINNATI, OHIO JANUARY 24, 2001.

What if Deion Sanders only played baseball? He decided to give baseball another try on this date in 2001. As the story goes, he was invited to spring training by the Cincinnati Reds. 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. Sanders 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 was 33 in 2001.

Sanders made it up to the Reds for 32 games in 2001, but he hit just .173 in seventy-five at-bats. That was the end of his baseball career.

The debate that will never end is, how good a baseball player would Deion Sanders have been had he played with a bat and ball exclusively.

In a 9-year major league baseball 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, but he was most known for his speed. He had 186 stolen bases, which average out to 47 per year.

His only World Series was an impressive one. 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.

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.”

Sanders was an exceptional athlete. We’ll never know how could exceptional a baseball player he could have been had he only played baseball.

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