Category: February

FEB 8: Dodgers get wings

TODAY IN BASEBALL TAKES BACK TO LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 8, 1957. There was a time when baseball, and other professional sports teams, traveled with the rest of us – first by train, then by air. A new age was ushered in on this date in 1957. The Los Angeles Dodgers became the first team to own a plane. It bought a 44-passenger twin-engine airplane for $800,000.

Teams began flying in 1934, but not for every trip. Expansion to the west coast made air travel a necessity.

Travel has always been a major consideration for professional sports. Early on it restricted major league baseball to a relatively small section of the country. Before the late 1950’s major league baseball was entirely in the northeastern part of the country. When the National League was established in 1876 that’s where most of the population was.

These maps show the locations of major league franchises at various times. National League teams are in red. American Association (after 1901, American League) teams in blue.

1882
1955
1962
2005

It took too long to travel outside the Northeast in the late 1800s. It took 20 hours to travel from New York to Chicago by rail. Smart scheduling kept teams from having to do that, but even New York to Buffalo was a 7-hour train ride, making travel days necessary.

Travel days are a thing of the past as all teams followed the Dodgers – the first team to own a plane.

Contributing Sources:
“How the automobile ruined ballpark design,” by Alex  Reisner, March 22, 2006 (also published in The Baseball Research Journal of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

FEB 5: The King is born

TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY TAKES US BACK TO  MOBILE, ALABAMA IN 1934.  That was the day Henry Aaron was born. He would become major league baseball’s all-time home-run king in 1974 when he eclipsed Babe Ruth‘s record of 714.

Aaron finished his career with 755 home runs. Barry Bonds broke Aaron’s record in 2007, tainted, however, by allegations of steroid use.

Henry Aaron, not unlike his unassuming demeanor, quietly set many major league records and is among the leaders of many more. Here are some as compiled by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR):

Most seasons with at least 20 HRs            20 (1st)
Most career RBI                                              2,297 (1st)
Most career extra base hits                        1,477 (1st)
Most career total bases                                6,856 (1st)
Most seasons at least 100 runs scored     15 (1st)
Most career home runs                                 755 (2nd)
Most career hits                                               3,771 (3rd)
Most career runs                                             2,174 (4th)
Most career at-bats                                       12,364 (2nd)
Most seasons at least 100 RBI                     11 (4th)
Most career games                                         3,298 (3rd)

It’s also remarkable, considering he was the all-time HR king for almost 40 years, the lists Aaron is not on:
Most seasons with at least 60 HRs             0
Most seasons with at least 50 HRs             0

Henry Aaron was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.

Contributing sources:
MLB batting leaderboards, Baseball-Reference
More on Hank Aaron

FEB 3: LOU BOUDREAU SUSPENDED

TODAY’S STORY TAKES US BACK TO CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS in 1938. Future Baseball Hall-of-Famer, manager and broadcaster Lou Boudreau was a two-sport star at the University of Illinois before his major league baseball career. The U of I was forced to discipline Lou Boudreau for efforts to turn pro too soon.

The 20-year old forward and captain of the Illinois basketball team was disciplined for taking money from a professional baseball team. The Cleveland Indians was sending his mother monthly checks in exchange for the Harvey, Illinois native’s word that he would give the Indians the right of first refusal when he graduated.

Boudreau missed six basketball games at the end of the 1938 season. The Illini won two and lost four and finished with an uninspired 9-9 record in the Big Ten.

Boudreau ended up not returning to the University of Illinois in the fall for his Senior year because he signed a contract with Cleveland and started his professional baseball career.

He played 13 seasons for the Indians, mostly at shortstop, including nine as player-manager. He started managing at the age of 24. He guided the team to a World Series Championship in 1948, and was he league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP).

Boudreau finished his playing career with the Boston Red Sox in 1952. He also managed the Red Sox, Kansas City A’s (today’s Oakland A’s) and Chicago Cubs. Boudreau began broadcasting Cubs games in 1958, and except for managing the Cubs for one season (1960) he remained in the booth until 1987.

Louis Boudreau, the two-sport star the University of Illinois was forced to suspend in 1938, was voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970.

Contributing sources:
Boudreau as manager
Associated Press (AP), February 4, 1938s

FEB 2: NATIONAL LEAGUE IS BORN

FOR THIS STORY WE GO BACK TO NEW YORK IN 1876. The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, more commonly known as the National League, was formed on this date in 1876. While the plan for the new league was finalized and agreed upon in New York City, it was organized by Midwesterners William Hulbert of Chicago and Albert G. Spalding of Rockford, Illinois.

Hulbert and Spalding were both involved in the National Association founded in 1871. Both were convinced the east coast dominated National Association was not any way to run major league. They wanted professional baseball to survive. Both loved the game – Spalding was one of the stars of the era – and saw major league baseball as a viable commercial enterprise; especially Spalding who wanted to sell sporting goods.

They saw the National Association as a poor business model. It allowed gambling, alcohol and players to move too freely from team to team. The National Association was also lax in its scheduling. It allowed teams to work out scheduling with each other.

The National League’s constitution was strict about gambling and alcohol, there wouldn’t be any. And every team had to play out its full schedule.

Hulbert and Spalding needed a solid plan before the start of the next season to attract select east coast National Association teams. They got commitments from Midwest teams in Cincinnati, Louisville and St. Louis to join Chicago. That’s where the February 2, 1876 meeting came in.

The gathering was held at the Central Hotel in New York with representatives from Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Hartford. They all agreed, and the National League was born. Play began that spring with those eight teams. As Koppett wrote, “It established a pattern that became the model for all commercialized spectator team sports from then on.”

Contributing Sources:
Leonard Koppett, Koppett’s Concise History of Major League Baseball, 1998
William Hulbert and the birth of the National League     Baseball-Reference

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