Lou Gehrig Photo as Streak Ends<\/a><\/strong> Tom Cheney Strikes Out 21 in One Game<\/a><\/strong> Rivalries<\/strong><\/a> The Designated Hitter<\/a><\/strong> Celebrating Professional Baseball\u2019s Centennial<\/a><\/strong> Card Backs<\/strong><\/a> This Great Game\/ Vintage Books<\/strong><\/a> RETROACTIVE AWARDS<\/a> Sons of Major Leaguers<\/a><\/strong> Holidays & baseball Suzyn Waldman<\/strong><\/a> Plaque Check: Pud Galvin Billy Herman<\/a><\/strong> Rube Waddell<\/a><\/strong> Paul Waner<\/strong><\/a> Harry Heilmann<\/a><\/strong> Plaque Check \/ Joe Medwick<\/strong><\/a> Plaque Check \/ Clark Griffith Plaque check\/ Babe Ruth issue\/ Lazzeri<\/strong><\/a> Dan Brouthers<\/strong><\/a> Larry Doby\/Plaque Check<\/strong><\/a> Burleigh Grimes\/Plaque Check<\/a> Joe Tinker\/Plaque Check<\/strong><\/a> Jacob Ruppert\/Plaque Check<\/strong><\/a> Sol White<\/strong><\/a> Sliding Billy Hamilton<\/a> Rabbit Maranville\/Plaque Check<\/strong><\/a> Happy Chandler Wilbert Robinson<\/strong><\/a> Harry Hooper<\/strong><\/a> Joe Sewell\/Plaque Check<\/strong><\/a> Roger Bresnahan\/The Duke of Tralee<\/strong><\/a> George Weiss\/Plaque Check<\/strong><\/a> Sam Crawford\/Plaque Check<\/strong><\/a> George Kell<\/strong><\/a> Plaque Check \u2013 Morgan Bulkeley<\/strong><\/a> King Kelly On Stage<\/strong><\/a> Johnny Mize<\/strong><\/a> Pee Wee Reese\/ Sportsmanship<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been more than half a century since Pee Wee Reese played his last game for the Dodgers, but his legacy endures. The dedication of a statue in Brooklyn several years ago showing Pee Wee with a symbolic hand on Jackie Robinson\u2019s shoulder spoke well of how a small gesture can help change social history. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Earle Combs<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Forty summers ago, it became official. The hallowed ground of center field in Yankee Stadium, to which everyone thinks \u201cDiMaggio,\u201d \u201cMantle\u201d (and for younger fans, Bernie Williams), was in fact hallowed ground going back to 1925. That\u2019s because 40 years ago, Earle Combs, the gentlemanly, pre-maturely grey center fielder on the Murderer\u2019s Row team, was elected to the Hall of Fame. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Plaque Check \u2013 Johnny Evers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n While today\u2019s publishing industry seems to love books from big stars, it took a long time for books by players to find their way into the marketplace. Mike \u201cKing\u201d Kelly produced a book in 1888, John Montgomery Ward that same year, and then Cap Anson had one in 1900. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Spalding\/Barnstorming<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n While the pyramids of Egypt would hardly qualify as \u201cbarns,\u201d they did prove the setting of what might be called the very origins of baseball\u2019s barnstorming days. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Plaque Check\/ Buck Ewing<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the early years of Veteran\u2019s Committee selections, electors were charged with identifying 19th century players worthy of full Hall of Fame induction. In 1939, the committee (then called the Centennial Commission) was comprised of just three men \u2013 Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, National League President Ford Frick, and American League President Will Harridge. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sy Berger<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a bubble gum card story that begins at the kitchen table. Like many tales of \u201coff the field\u201d baseball, it\u2019s a sweet story. Sy Berger, a Bucknell University graduate and a World War II veteran, was a young hire at the Topps Gum Company. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nap Lajoie<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n When the American League began play in 1901, two major stars jumped ship from the National League, seeking to overcome the $2400 maximum salary level. One was Cy Young, who would become the winningest pitcher of all time and whose name would live on as the name affixed to the \u2018best pitcher\u2019 award each season. Every baseball fan knows Cy Young. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Larry MacPhail \u2013 WW I<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Larry MacPhail was the bombastic top executive of the Dodgers, Reds, and Yankees, who brought air travel to teams and night games to Major League Baseball. His creative mind was always ticking. He didn\u2019t procrastinate, he acted. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Red Ruffing<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n This August 5 will mark 70 years since Charlie \u201cRed\u201d Ruffing passed Bob Shawkey as the winningest pitcher in Yankee history. While southpaw Whitey Ford would pass Ruffing in 1965, Red remains the winningest righty, and figures to continue to be so for at least another generation. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Slide<\/b>, Kelly, Slide<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The birth of the recording industry came a few decades after the birth of the professional base ball industry, but they came to meet nicely one morning at a recording studio in New Jersey with the production of a little song called \u201cSlide, Kelly, Slide.\u201d more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Martin Dihigo<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n To baseball fans, the first two electees to the Hall of Fame by the special committee chosen to honor the Negro Leagues\u2019 legacy were familiar names \u2013 Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. You had to be a fan who knew Negro League history to know those who immediately followed \u2013 Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson, Oscar Charleston and Pop Lloyd. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sliding Billy Hamilton<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n For fans of modern baseball, it was Luis Aparicio who heralded in a new era of base stealing in the 1950s, an era that was soon punctuated by the feats of Maury Wills, who broke Ty Cobb\u2019s single season record in 1962. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Amos Rusie<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine being a pitcher and having a year so dominating, that they move the mound back ten feet the following season. Not just for you, but for everyone, and you\u2019re the reason. You\u2019re just too good for the game, and it can\u2019t continue under existing standards without too many people striking out. Moving the mound changes the course of baseball forever, and it\u2019s all your doing. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Baseball Figures & Politics<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Who is the only New York Yankees player to ever serve in Congress? If you answered Pi Schwert, who caught 12 games for the 1914 and 1915 teams, you are one fine trivia fan. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The 500 Home Run Club<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the more revealing tales in Leigh Montville\u2019s acclaimed 2004 biography of Ted Williams was a small anecdote that had to do with Williams\u2019 considering retirement following the 1954 season. He was going through a divorce, was concerned about alimony payments coming out of his salary, and some had suggested that he might be better off not playing. He even told the Boston writers that he was going to quit after \u201954. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n A free round of golf for Mickey and Whitey<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The first of the two All-Star Games of 1961 was to be played in Candlestick Park, San Francisco. With the game being played on Tuesday, and the Yankees playing Sunday afternoon in Chicago, teammates Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford flew to San Francisco immediately after the game and had a full day off on Monday. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Baseball Best Sellers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Baseball\u2019s place in American literature is not necessarily measured by book sales and a landing on best-seller lists. Indeed, many fine books about the game develop cult followings, strong word-of-mouth, and a treasured place in baseball libraries without being necessarily reflected in sales. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ladies Days<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ladies Days ended in, naturally, the 1960s, an era when much that was accepted without question in America came under challenge. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelly and the Autograph<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n By the latter part of the 19th century, people knew that it was a nice thing to own the signature of a Washington, a Lincoln or a General Grant, but the practice of approaching someone and saying, \u201cCan I please have your autograph?\u201d did not exist until young baseball fans followed Mike \u201cKing\u201d Kelly to the South End Grounds on Walpole Street in Boston in the late 1880s. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Birth of Instant Replay<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using videotape instant replays has changed the way we watch sports over the last four decades. The idea that people saw Bobby Thomson\u2019s historic home run in 1951, and never saw it again until movie theater newsreels a week later is almost unthinkable today. more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lou Gehrig Photo as Streak EndsFor all his triumphs over all his years, the most memorable Lou Gehrig photography came with the end of his historic playing streak in 1939.\u00a0 That photography gives us a seat to the monumental event… Continue Reading
For all his triumphs over all his years, the most memorable Lou Gehrig photography came with the end of his historic playing streak in 1939.\u00a0 That photography gives us a seat to the monumental event of the day, an event which captured the nation\u2019s attention. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tom Cheney was a journeyman righthander who both started and relieved over an eight-year Major League career between 1957-1964.\u00a0 He might be all but forgotten today except for a game for the ages on Wednesday evening, September 12, 1962 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In baseball \u2013 the ultimate team sport \u2013 individual rivalries often take a back seat to team goals. But sometimes, a player vs. player duel will turn into an epic battle within the game. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
On April 6, 1973, the Fenway Park public address announcer Sherm Feller cleared his throat and said, \u201c\u2026.batting sixth, the designated hitter, number 12, Ron Blomberg, number 12.\u201d <\/span>more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fifty years ago, Major League Baseball decided to throw a centennial birthday party for the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the game\u2019s first true professional team. The celebration proved to be far more – it marked the birth of modern baseball marketing. <\/span>more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not every player in the \u201850s and \u201860s spent their off-season hunting and fishing. Of course if one read the backs of baseball cards, it may have seemed that way. <\/span>more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forty years ago, infielder Billy Herman was part of the \u201cClass of 1975.\u201d He was a popular choice in that he was truly a \u201cbaseball lifer,\u201d and everyone in the game seemed to know him and like him. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Just how many Cy Young Awards would Cy Young have won? He didn\u2019t win any of course, because the award only began in 1956, eight months after he had died. Commissioner Ford Frick, sensitive to the repeated failure of Philadelphia\u2019s Robin Roberts to win an MVP Award, proposed the award to distinguish pitchers from everyday players, without removing pitchers from MVP competition. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back in 1903, when southpaw Jack Doscher took the mound for the Chicago Cubs, a bit of baseball history was made. His father, Herm, was a third baseman and outfielder for five National League clubs between 1872-1882. Herm was better than Jack. But Jack was the first son of a Major Leaguer to himself reach the big leagues. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong><\/a>For baseball fans, Opening Day, the All-Star Game, and the start of the World Series are \u201cnational holidays.\u201d But for the national holidays that all Americans celebrate, they have long been special days on the baseball calendar too. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
For New York Yankees broadcaster Suzyn Waldman, it has all been an \u201cimpossible dream.\u201d She could never have imagined being part of the legacy of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. But the two of them were going to make history together. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/strong>Since baseball may have seen it\u2019s last 300-game winner in Randy Johnson, (at least for a long time to come), we would do well to recall the first member of the club, a pitcher named James Francis \u201cPud\u201d Galvin of St. Louis, Missouri. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forty years ago, infielder Billy Herman was part of the \u201cClass of 1975.\u201d He was a popular choice in that he was truly a \u201cbaseball lifer,\u201d and everyone in the game seemed to know him and like him. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pete Sheehy, who worked in the New York Yankees clubhouse from 1927 to 1985, saw a lot of left-handers come and go during those 58 seasons. And with the wisdom that one acquires observing human behavior, he had the science of \u201chandedness\u201d down to a gesture. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Paul Waner got his 3,000th hit in 1942, he was the only player between Eddie Collins (1925) and Stan Musial (1958) to achieve that feat. It was a span of 33 years, and no one but Waner broke the barrier in all that time. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the first ballplayers to transition from the field to the broadcast booth was Detroit\u2019s Harry Heilmann, the four-time batting champion whose success at the plate came during an era when legendary hitters were dominant. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was an occasional member of the makeshift Gas House Gang band, and presumably just as bad as the rest of them, but on a team of popular players with colorful nicknames, he managed to stand out. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/strong>In Babe Ruth\u2019s rookie season of 1914, he was up and down between Providence, Baltimore and Boston, but he did finish the year with the Red Sox, and he did pitch in the season finale, a meaningless 11-4 victory over Washington in Fenway Park, as the Red Sox finished second and Washington third. It was one of five appearances Ruth made for Boston that season. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1927, the year Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs and Lou Gehrig hit 47 – the baseball world did not implode from power hitting. They were exceptions to the rule, almost as though they were the only ones being thrown lively balls by pitchers. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
For baseball fans in the mid-20th century, the name Dan Brouthers was as well known as Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle is to today’s fans. The time span is the same, and Brouthers was in the conversation of who was the greatest 19th century player. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would be ironic to say that Larry Doby was the second baseball player honored with a U.S. postage stamp – but he wasn’t. (That was Babe Ruth). Still, when Doby’s time came in 2011, the Buzz Aldrin of baseball received his due. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>As the career of Burleigh Grimes fades further into past, baseball fans have a shorthand recall of him: last pitcher to throw a legal spitball, and nickname of Ol’ Stubblebeard. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These are the saddest of possible words: \u2018Tinker to Evers to Chance\u2019 – Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble \u2018Tinker to Evers to Chance\u2019” You didn\u2019t have to follow baseball to know this poem. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Jacob Ruppert was able to attend his induction ceremony in Cooperstown this year, it’s possible that his thoughts might drift back to a ceremony filled with pomp and ceremony in 1892, on the 400th anniversary of Columbus discovering America 1892. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sol White wasn’t the first sportswriter in the Hall of Fame. That would have been British-born Henry Chadwick, who made it into the big room on his own merits. This was long before the Spink Award was established (1962) to annually honor journalists. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Remember the Boston Red Sox second baseman in the 1986 World Series? Marty Barrett. Played nine seasons for Boston. Well, a century before, there was another Marty Barrett, this one a catcher, and he also played in Boston – for the predecessors of the Boston Braves – the Boston Beaneaters. Baseball fans love stuff like this. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walter James Vincent Maranville, who played Major League baseball from 1912-1935, reminds of us of the reason that fans always seemed to fall for little, light-hitting middle infielders who found so many ways to beat you. And when you had a nickname like \u201cRabbit,\u201d it didn\u2019t hurt either. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong><\/a>Succeeding Kenesaw Mountain Landis as Commissioner of Baseball was not unlike succeeding J. Edgar Hoover as head of the FBI or Franklin D. Roosevelt as President of the United States. After such a long time in office – 25 years in Landis\u2019s case – the job was so associated with one figure, succession would be a great challenge. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The folksy, neighborly image we now have of the Brooklyn Dodgers was largely shaped by Wilbert Robinson, their manager from 1914-1931, during which time sportswriters began referring to the team as the \u201cRobins\u201d in his honor. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harry Hooper was the first Red Sox batter in the very first game at Fenway Park, and although he went 0-for-5 that afternoon, he was there for the start of a world championship season, one of four the Sox would win over the next seven years. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talk about stepping into a pressure situation. Joe Sewell was 21 years old, and in his second year of pro baseball. He had gone to spring training in 1921, but had failed to make much of an impression on Cleveland manager Tris Speaker. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his playing career of 1897-1915, most baseball people and fans thought Roger Bresnahan was a native of Ireland, and his nickname \u2013 The Duke of Tralee \u2013 spoke to that. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before Pat Gillick, the last pure executive inducted into the Hall of Fame was George Weiss, best known as Casey Stengel\u2019s general manager on the Yankees and the Mets. Weiss was selected in 1971, five years after his retirement from the game and a year before his death. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1913, Yahoo Sam Crawford of Detroit hit his 245th career triple, breaking the lifetime mark held by Jake Beckley. Ever since that day, he has held the career record. That was 98 years ago, and there is no sign that that record \u2013 which wound up being 309 \u2013 is going to fall anytime soon. (Later research brought the total down from 312, as it says on his plaque). more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an era before free agency, it was unusual to find a player of Hall of Fame quality play for five teams during a career of just 14 full seasons. And George Kell was no ordinary player, as demonstrated by his ten All-Star selections, his .306 lifetime average, a batting championship, and as many as 218 hits in a season. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The community of baseball is justifiably proud of those who served their nation during time of war, and the Hall of Fame has long called special attention to those veterans of military service who went on to induction in the Hall itself. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before there was YouTube, before there was MySpace, before there was television, before there was radio, and before there were movies, entertainers had the vaudeville stage and local saloons to present their acts, and vaudeville was where you wanted to be if you really thought you had some talent. Talent, or at least celebrity. Mike \u201cKing\u201d Kelly of Boston was the biggest sports celebrity in the land in the 1880s. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Young St. Louis Cardinals fans in the 1930s loved their Gashouse Gang, but oh, did they wish they had their very own version of Babe Ruth. And then, in 1936, they got him. more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n