Category: March

A STORY FROM MARCH 6 IN BASEBALL HISTORY – KIRBY PUCKETT DIES MUCH TOO YOUNG

TODAY IN BASEBALL TAKES US BACK TO MARCH 6, 2006 IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA. Kirby Puckett always tried to look on the bright side, which would have helped his family, friends and fans when he died on this date in 2006. The former Minnesota Twins outfielder and member of the Hall of Fame suffered a massive brain hemorrhage the previous day, and died after surgery to relieve the pressure.

Puckett probably would have said something like, “It was a short life (45 years), but a fulfilling one.” This is what Puckett (5′ 8″ 210 lbs) actually did say when he was forced to retire in 1996 after waking up one morning blind in one eye, “I was told I would never make it because I’m too short. Well, I’m still too short, but I’ve got 10 All-Star Games, two World Series championships, and I’m a very happy and contented guy.

It doesn't matter what your height is, it's what's in your heart."

Kirby Puckett was born Chicago and raised in the Robert Taylor Homes, at the time, the largest public housing project in the country and one of the most notorious; infested with drugs, gangs and crime. But Kirby make it out, attending Bradley University for a short time where he was an all-conference outfielder as a freshman. He transferred to Triton Junior College outside Chicago and was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 1982 draft, after his hometown Cubs passed him up. He finished his 12-year career with a lifetime .318 average, and despite a shortened career finished with over 2,000 hits and 1,000 RBI’s.

Puckett’s pristine, community-conscious image took hit after he was forced to retire. His former wife accused him of threatening her, and he was accused (and acquitted) of groping a woman in a Twin Cities restaurant. As time went on he gained a tremendous amount of weight, ballooning to well over 300 lbs, which likely lead to his hypertension and contributed to his death.

Contributing sources:
Kirby Puckett – Baseball-Almanac
1982 Amateur Draft – mlb.com

MARCH 4: HOW BASEBALL GOT TO JAPAN

EVER WONDER HOW BASEBALL GOT TO JAPAN? HERE’S THE STORY OF HORACE WILSON, WHO DIED MARCH 4, 1927.

Baseball hasn’t existed in Japan as long as it has in the United States, but our national pastime has been part of Japanese culture for over 140 years. According to Japanese baseball officials, the game was brought to the Land of the Rising Sun in the 1870’s by Horace Wilson, a Tokyo University English Professor from the United States.

Wilson was born on a Gorham, Maine farm in 1843. After the Civil War he headed west to California and later to Japan. One day in 1872 (or 1873, depending who’s telling the story) he decided his students at the First Higher School of Tokyo, now known as Tokyo University, needed some recreation. He got their blood pumping with a bat and ball, and taught them the game of baseball, which he probably learned during the Civil War.

According to Steve Solloway of the Portland, (Maine) PressHerald, a game was organized a few weeks later between the Japanese players and a group of foreigners, one of whom was Horace Wilson. The foreigners won 34-11 and a Japanese pastime was born.

Contributing sources:
Baseball Reference
Japan Baseball Daily
Portland Press Herald, May 20, 2007, by Steve Solloway
Horace Wilson
More on Baseball in Japan

Mar 3: One city’s loss another’s gain

TODAY IN BASEBALL TAKES US TO SARASOTA, FLORIDA MARCH 3, 1953. How does “Milwaukee Browns” sound? It almost became a reality. There was an attempt in 1953 to shift the American League’s St. Louis Browns franchise to Milwaukee, but that idea was put to rest on this date in 1953. As it turned out Milwaukee’s loss is Baltimore’s gain.

One door closing often opens another. That’s what happened here.

Veeck moved his St. Louis Browns to Baltimore where they started the 1954 season as the Orioles, and remain to this day.

Let me try to explain the sometimes convoluted machinations of Major League Baseball franchise moves and almost moves.

The Braves (today’s Atlanta Braves) technically, were still in Boston on this date 1953, but they owned a minor league franchise in Milwaukee. The Braves would have had to move that franchise if a major league team moved in.

St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck was eager to move to Milwaukee, and the city was anxious to get a major league team, using a $5 million, 32,000 seat stadium as an enticement.

It was up to the Boston Braves. Vice-president Joseph Cairnes said, “We wouldn’t stand in the way of Milwaukee getting in the major leagues, but before we give up the [minor league] franchise we want another Triple-A franchise of the same potential.” There wasn’t time to work that out before opening day 1953, so the Browns stayed in St. Louis, if only for one more year.

In 1954, Veeck moved his St. Louis Browns to Baltimore where they started the season as the Orioles, and remain to this day.

The Boston Braves saw an opening. They got permission from enough of the owners to move to Milwaukee for the start of the 1953 season. They didn’t stay long. The Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966, where they remain to this day.

Contributing sources:
Browns/Orioles
Braves (Boston/Milwaukee/Atlanta)
New York Times, Sarasota, Florida, March 4, 1953

MARCH 2: RUTH HIGHEST PAID

TODAY IN BASEBALL TAKES US TO NEW YORK, MARCH 2, 1927. Babe Ruth became the highest paid player in the major leagues on this date. The New York Yankees announced that the 32-year old Bambino will earn $70,000 per season for the next three years.

Seventy-thousand dollars a year in 1927 translates to about $1,000,000 in today’s dollars. Not a huge amount compared to today’s salaries, but that was before free agency when a player was the property of a team till the end of his career. The only way he could put on another uniform was if he were traded or released.

Major League Baseball salary records compiled by economist Michael J. Haupert of the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse show Ruth was also the highest paid player of the 1930’s. He earned $80,000 in 1930 and 1931.

Below is Haupert’s list of the highest annual salaries per decade, as best he can determine. Haupert says records of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are “tenuous,” but illustrate how salaries have changed:

1870’s (Al Spaulding) $4,000
1880’s (Fred Dunlap, Buck Ewing) $5,000
1890’s (Hardy Richardson) $4,000
1900’s (Nap Lajoie) $9,000
1910’s (Ty Cobb) $20,000
1920’s (Babe Ruth) $70,000
1930’s (Babe Ruth) $80,000
1940’s (Joe DiMaggio) $100,000
1950’s (Joe DiMaggio) $100,000
1960’s (Willie Mays) $135,000
1970’s (Rod Carew) $800,000
1980’s (Orel Hershiser/Frank Viola) $2,766,667
1990’s (Gary Sheffield) $14,936,667
2000’s (Alex Rodriguez) $33,000,000
2010’s (Alex Rodriguez) $33,000,000

Contributing sources:
“MLB’s Annual Salary Leaders, 1874-2012,” by Michael Haupert 
“Ruth gets 3-year contract; $210,000,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 3, 1927

March 20-MINOR UPS & DOWNS

MARCH 20, 1953 | WASHINGTON, D.C. – There was a time when Major League Baseball (MLB) teams were prevented from broadcasting games within 50 miles of a Minor-League Baseball (MiLB) ball park. The thinking was the major-league broadcasts hurt minor league attendance.

That appeared to be the case in the 1940’s and 1950’s, but in 1949 the U-S Justice Department said the rule violated anti-trust laws. The broadcasts had to be allowed.

The 12th year in a row that minor league affiliated baseball drew over 41-million fans.

As U-S Senator Edwin Johnson put it, “Then the heavens caved in.” Senator Johnson’s reaction may have been a little melodramatic, but on this date in 1953 the Colorado democrat introduced a bill that would leave it up to each individual team whether to allow major league broadcasts in minor league towns. Johnson said the broadcasts, many now television, were destroying minor league baseball in small cities and towns, but is that still the case?

At its zenith in 1949, there were 59 minor leagues and 448 teams. Attendance nationwide was 39.6 million. When Senator Johnson introduced his bill in 1953 the number of leagues had dropped from 59 to 39 and many of them on shaky ground. Johnson’s bill did not pass, and minor league teams continued to shrink in number.

But broadcasting and other factors eventually breathed life into minor league baseball. According to Street & Smith’s SportsBusinessDaily, in 2016, total paid attendance of minor league teams affiliated with major league teams was **41.4 million. That’s down slightly from 2015, but the 9th largest attendance in MiLB history. And the 12th year in a row that minor league affiliated baseball drew over 41-million fans.

Contributing sources:
The Associated Press, Washington, D.C., March 21, 1953
Official site of Minor League Baseball  
MiLB teams

**These numbers do not count independent professional baseball leagues such as The Northern League and The Frontier League.