Category: May

May 16 in baseball history: Into the night

MAY 16, 1939 | PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – On this date in 1939 the American League finally played a game under the lights – four years after the National League pioneered the trend. The game took place at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Cleveland Indians beat the home team Philadelphia Athletics (today’s Oakland A’s) 8-3 in ten innings .

Night games are so prevalent today, it’s hard to imagine a time when all games were played during the day. That slowly began to change in 1935. The Cincinnati Reds played the first night game at Crosley Field in Cincinnati May 24, 1935. Crosley was the only park to have lights for more than 3 years.

The Brooklyn Dodgers (today’s Los Angeles Dodgers) was the next team to play under the lights on June 15, 1938. By coincidence, or maybe because of it, the Dodgers first night game was the night Johnny Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds pitched his second consecutive no-hitter – the only time it’s been done.

CONTRIBUTORY SOURCES:
Baseball-Almanac
Baseball Library

MAY 7- Pitcher’s worst nightmare

MAY 7, 1957 | CLEVELAND, OHIO – A pitcher’s worst nightmare happened to a promising 23-year old Cleveland Indians starter on this date in 1957. There was one out in the top of the first when Herb Score was hit in the face by a line drive off the bat of Gil McDougald. Score was in the vulnerable position pitchers always find themselves immediately after releasing the ball. The ball struck him in the right eye, ricocheted over to third baseman Al Smith who threw out McDougald. Score had to be carried off the field on a stretcher. He missed the rest of the season with broken bones in his face and a damaged right eye. His career was never the same. Score was more than promising. He was proven. He won 16 games as a rookie in 1955 and was 20 – 9 in ‘56. Before he got hit in 1957 Score was 2-1 with an ERA of 2.00.

He tried to make a comeback with Cleveland in 1958 but could not find the magic. He was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 1960. He never finished a season with an ERA below 3.00 again. In 1962, Score retired to the Indians broadcast booth where he spent more than 35 years.

Other promising careers have been cut short, or worse, by injuries on the field. They include:

Tony Conigliaro – Boston Red Sox outfielder beaned while batting in 1967. He was just 22 but already had 104 home runs. He missed the rest of ’67 and all of ’68 and was out of baseball at age 30.

Ray Chapman – Cleveland Indian shortstop knocked unconscious by a beaning August 16, 1920. He never regained consciousness and died the next day – believed to be the only modern major league player to die as a result of being hit by a ball.

Baseball has been described as a pastoral, deliberate, non-contact sport marked by long stretches of inactivity. This “inactivity” builds anticipation for the potential of violence; the collision of a play at the plate, bodies flying through the air as a double play is attempted at second, players crashing into walls, railings and each other trying to catch fly balls and line drives, a pitcher throwing the ball as fast as he can at a target inches from a batter protected only by a helmet, a ball being hit – often at far greater speeds – back at an even less protected pitcher barely 50 feet away after he releases the ball.

Baseball is a much more subdued sport than football, basketball or hockey, but the threat of what happened to Herb Score, Tony Conigliaro and Ray Chapman are always possibilities.

June 20: Lesson in Attendance

JUNE 20, 1948 | CLEVELAND, OHIO – Guess which team set the regular season attendance record on this date in 1948 (the dateline kind of gives it away)? It wasn’t the New York Yankees or some other storied franchise. It was the Cleveland Indians.

The Indians drew 82,781 fans to Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium on this date in 1948 to watch the Indians sweep a doubleheader from the Philadelphia A’s. Cleveland drew exceptionally well that entire year, and for good reason, they won the American League Pennant and beat the Boston Braves in the World Series.

The record for a game that mattered was set during the 1959 World Series when the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox drew 92,720 to the Los Angeles Coliseum, better suited for football, for game 5. The Coliseum was used by the Dodgers while waiting for Dodger Stadium to be built.

Speaking of attendance, it has been generally uphill since the late 1800’s with downturns for major catastrophes such as World Wars and The Great Depression. Attendance usually picks up after those events resolve.

World War I
Year average
1916 5,215 – War goes on but United States not involved.
1917 4,186 – United States enters World War I
1918 3,032 – War still going during the season, ends in November.
1919 5,843 – 1st season after the Armistice

The Great Depression
1929 7,802 – Stock Market crash October
1930 8,211 – Attendance record set. Economic downturn not fully felt yet
1931 6,850 – Depression sets in
1932 5,657 – Depression continues
1933 4,967 – Depression at its worst
1934 5,694 – Some recovery seen
1935 5,982 – More modest recovery
1936 6,529 – More modest recovery
1937 7,216 – Recession sets in, lasts through most of ‘38

World War II
1941 7,789 – Pearl Harbor attacked in December
1942 6,988 – War continues
1943 6,031 – War continues
1944 7,063 – War continues, but attendance increases from previous year
1945 8,814 – Japan surrenders in August, war ends
1946 14,914 – Attendance boom in 1st full season after war ends

The Great Recession – 2007 to 2013

See: http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/2000-2009-mlb-attendance/

2007 – 32,785 Beginning of Great Recession

2008 – 32,694

2009 – 30,206

May 8: Plot Against Jackie Robinson?

MAY 8, 1947 | BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – On this date in 1947 the sports editor of the New York Herald Tribune claimed to have uncovered a plot to put Jackie Robinson back behind the color barrier. Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers three weeks earlier. The thrust of sports editor Stanley Woodward’s story is that some members of the St. Louis Cardinals threatened to strike rather than play a team with a black player. Woodward reported that the alleged strike was thwarted by a stern warning from Cardinal team owner Sam Breadon that the league would suspend any player taking part in a strike. Breadon and others denied that any of what Woodward wrote ever took place, but several players were known to be vehemently opposed to Robinson playing and discussions of some kind of job action were not unheard of.

Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947 wasn’t the end of racism in baseball, in many ways it was just the beginning. Before April 15, 1947 there were no blacks in the game to put down, insult, threaten or force to stay in separate hotels. When Robinson began playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers White baseball and White America had to confront its racism. Some of it was ugly.

And some of it was hopeful, such as later that May in Cincinnati. Robinson was being taunted mercilessly until shortstop and team captain Pee Wee Reese, a White man from Kentucky, walked across the infield and put his arm around Robinson’s shoulder to show baseball and all of America that a White man born in segregated Ekron, Kentucky and a black man born in Cairo, Georgia were in this together.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
The Era: 1947-1957: When the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants Ruled the World, by Roger Kahn
Baseball’s Greatest Experiment: Jackie Robinson and his Great Legacy, by Jules Tygie

JUNE 22 IN BASEBALL HISTORY – Veeck joins the club

JUNE 22, 1946 | CLEVELAND, OHIO – Groucho Marx once said, “I would not join a club that would have someone like me for a member.” Non-conformist Bill Veeck probably shared that attitude. But on this date in 1946 Veeck (as in wreck) joins the club he would often be at odds with – the Major League Baseball owners.

Veeck was a showman who would stop at practically nothing to get fans in the stands.

Veeck put together a group, which included entertainer Bob Hope, that inked a deal for the Cleveland Indians on June 22, 1946. This was the start of a career as a major league club owner. He later ran the St. Louis Browns (today’s Baltimore Orioles) and Chicago White Sox (twice) franchises.

Veeck was a showman who would stop at practically nothing to get fans in the stands. He employed a midget who had one at bat for the Browns and walked; the pitcher had a tough time finding 3-foot/7-inch Eddie Gaedel‘s strike zone. The commissioner’s office didn’t like the idea and immediately barred Gaedel from baseball, but not before his one at bat.

There were a number of Veeck innovations fellow owners originally balked at that have since become commonplace; player names on uniforms, fireworks displays, food other than peanuts and Cracker Jacks available at the ball park.

He also understood the importance of winning. Only three teams other than the New York Yankees won the American League pennant from 1947 to 1959, two of them were Veeck’s – the ‘48 Indians and ‘59 White Sox. Each team set attendance records under Veeck’s leadership as well. Veeck wouldn’t want to join a club that would have someone like him for a member, but did just that on this date in baseball history.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES: 
Richard Dugan, United Press (UP), June 23, 1946, Cleveland, Ohio
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