Category: March

A STORY FROM MARCH 11 IN BASEBALL HISTORY – JOHN McGRAW ATTEMPTS TO PULL ONE OVER

TODAY IN BASEBALL TAKES US TO HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS ON MARCH 11, 1901. Arrogant, ornery and extremely successful Baltimore Orioles manager John McGraw attempted to pull one over on the rest of major league baseball on this date in 1901.

The problem wasn’t that Tokohoma was a Native American, the problem was, he was Black.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer McGraw tried to sign Charlie Tokohoma, a Cherokee Indian, to a major league contract.

McGraw first saw him working as a bellhop at a Hot Springs, Arkansas hotel during spring training. The problem wasn’t that Tokohoma was a Native American. The problem was, he was Black.

By this time a well entrenched “gentgralemen’s agreement” dictated that no team would sign Black players.

Several sources including James A. Riley, author of The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues says Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey, the gentleman that he was, let the cat out of the bag. He recognized “Tokohoma” as Charlie Grant, second baseman for the Columbia Giants, a Chicago based Negro Leagues team.

For a few weeks, McGraw insisted that Tokohoma (Grant) was Native American, and had him in the lineup for a few spring training games, but Grant never saw regular season major league action. John McGraw attempted to pull one over on the rest of Major League Baseball, but failed.

Contributing sources:
The Cincinnati Enquirer, Hot Springs, Arkansas, March 11, 1901
Baseball Think Factory
Charlie Grant
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

March 10 – MJ’s experiment ends

TODAY IN BASEBALL TAKES US BACK TO CHICAGO, ILLINOIS MARCH 10, 1995. Michael Jordan’s foray into baseball ended on this date in 1995. He gave up his dream of becoming a major league baseball player after one minor league season. Jordan said a players’ strike, which was going on at the time, was blocking his development, “As a 32-year-old minor leaguer who lacks the benefit of valuable baseball experience over the past 15 years, I am no longer comfortable that there is a meaningful opportunity to continue my improvement.” Michael Jordan’s experiment ends.

Thanks to the fact that Bulls’ owner Jerry Reinsdorf also owned the Chicago White Sox, when Jordan retired from basketball in 1994 he was given an opportunity to play for the Birmingham Barons, a White Sox Double-A farm team. He played one season:

Michael Jordan, Birmingham Barons – 1994
Games                    127
Average                  .202
Home Runs            3
RBI                              51
Stolen bases          30

While his stats were mediocre, 51 runs batted in and 30 stolen bases in 127 games against professional baseball players weren’t bad for a guy who hadn’t played baseball since he was a kid.

The basketball world now awaited the inevitable – Jordan’s return to the National Basketball Association where he led the Chicago Bulls to three championships before retiring in 1993 to try baseball. Michael Jordan returned to the NBA a month after he announced his retirement from baseball. He went on to lead the Bulls to three more world championships – 6 in all. But on this date in 1995, Michael Jordan’s experiment to become a major league baseball player ended.

Contributing sources:
Chicago Tribune , March 11, 1995
More on Michael Jordan 

Mar 9: A real Cleveland Indian

TODAY IN BASEBALL TAKES US BACK TO CLEVELAND, OHIO, MARCH 9, 1897. A member of the Penobscot Indian tribe was signed by the National League Cleveland Spiders on this date in 1897, and some later claimed that’s where Cleveland’s American League franchise got its name – a real Cleveland Indian.

Louis Sockalexis showed superb athletic ability and ferocious power playing baseball as a kid on the Penobscot reservation in Maine. Stories, some apocryphal, had him throwing a ball 600 feet over the Penobscot River and hitting a baseball just as far.

He went on to play baseball at Holy Cross College and the University of Notre Dame before signing a major league contract. His career didn’t last long. Before the turn of the century he was no longer a major league baseball player – heavy drinking took its toll. Sockalexis died in 1913 at age 42.

A year after Sockalexis died Cleveland’s American League team was in need of a new name. They had been called the Naps, after star player Nap Lajoie, but he was traded in 1914. The name “Indians” was chosen.

As time went by the story that the team was named in honor of a real Indian, Louis Sockalexis, was allowed to surface. Ithaca College Professor Ellen Staurowsky, among others, looked into the issue and wrote in the Sociology of Sport Journal, in 1998 that the name “Indians” was more likely chosen for exploitative purposes. The real story of why “Indians” was chosen was that it was a take off on the Boston Braves which were a baseball sensation that year for going from last place on July 4th to winning the World Series.

Contributing sources:
“An Act of Honor or Exploitation?: The Cleveland Indians’ Use of the Louis Francis Sockalexis Story,” by Ellen Staurowsky, Sociology of Sport Journal, 1998
The American Indian Quarterly   

Mar 8 – Baseball goes to Paris

PARIS, FRANCE, MARCH 8, 1889.  It was a dream come true for Albert Spalding. A team of touring American baseball players he organized played an exhibition baseball game in Paris, France.

They finally settled on a park in the shadow of Eiffel's rising tower,

There was some difficulty finding a suitable field. As Mark Lamster wrote in Spalding’s World Tour, “Paris was endowed with countless formal parks and squares, but a large, enclosed space that would allow Spalding to charge admission was proving harder to come by.” They finally settled on, and got permission to use, the Parc Aérostatique, a park in the shadow of Eiffel’s rising tower, which would be completed later that year.

Albert Spalding, the fledgling sporting goods magnate, was a good ballplayer in his own right, and quite the promoter. He decided to tour the world to promote baseball and, in turn, get more business for his sporting goods venture.

He set out west from Chicago after the 1888 season with a group of 20-odd ballplayers, including stars Adrian “Cap” Anson and John Montgomery Ward. They barnstormed across the western states playing in cities like Omaha, Denver and Salt Lake City, eventually reaching San Francisco and settling sail for Hawaii and Australia. Spalding’s tour played in Sydney, Cairo, Paris, London and numerous ports along the way.

The tour returned to the United States in April 1889, more than a year after leaving. And just in time for the 1889 National League baseball (the American League hadn’t been established yet.) And many stories to tell of baseball goes to Paris.

Contributing sources:
Spalding’s World Tour, by Mark Lamster, Public Affairs Publishing, 2006
Eiffel’s Tower

MARCH 7: BRING BACK THE SPITTER

TODAY IN BASEBALL TAKES US BACK TO CLEARWATER, FLORIDA MARCH 7, 1955.

Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick believed baseball had tipped in favor of the hitter. So, on this date in 1955 he said if he had his way he would bring back the spitter.

While visiting the Philadelphia Phillies training camp Frick said, “Something positive should be done to help the pitchers.” In advocating the return of the spitball Frick added, “There’s nothing dangerous about it. It was nothing like the screwball they have to throw today, with a twisted elbow and tricky snapping of the wrists. No wonder today’s pitchers can’t go on as long.”

Had the game tipped in favor of the hitter? Runs scored and earned run average (ERA) were up in the 1950’s compared to the 1940’s (during World War II), but runs and ERA’s were down from the 1930’s.

It’s true, throughout the years pitchers have been steadily pitching fewer innings and throwing fewer pitches, but for a variety of reasons, two of the most prominent being the proliferation of the home run, and the increased strategic prominence of the bullpen. Needless to say, the spitball did not come back – legally.

Contributing sources:
Associated Press, Clearwater, Florida, March 8, 1955
Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)
Ford Frick