1.
1920 Cleveland Indians season
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The 1920 Cleveland Indians season was the 20th season in franchise history. The Indians won the American League pennant and proceeded to win their first World Series title in the history of the franchise, pitchers Jim Bagby, Stan Coveleski and Ray Caldwell combined to win 75 games. Despite the teams success, the season was perhaps more marked by the death of starting shortstop Ray Chapman. During the season, Jim Bagby became the last pitcher to win 30 games in one season for the Indians in the 20th century, Note, Pos = Position, G = Games played, AB = At bats, H = Hits, Avg. = Batting average, HR = Home runs, RBI = Runs batted in Note, G = Games played, AB = At bats, H = Hits and he caught a line drive, touched second base, and tagged the runner coming from first base. On the same day, Elmer Smith hit the first grand slam in World Series history, during that same game, Indians pitcher Jim Bagby became the first pitcher to hit a home run in World Series history. AL Cleveland Indians vs. baseball-almanac. com 1920 WS page at Baseball Reference
2.
Tris Speaker
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Tristram Edgar Speaker, nicknamed The Grey Eagle, was an American baseball player. Considered one of the best offensive and defensive center fielders in the history of Major League Baseball and his 792 career doubles represent an MLB career record. His 3,514 hits are fifth in the all-time hits list, defensively, Speaker holds career records for assists, double plays, and unassisted double plays by an outfielder. His fielding glove was known as the place where triples go to die, after playing in the minor leagues in Texas and Arkansas, Speaker debuted with the Boston Red Sox in 1907. He became the center fielder by 1909 and led the Red Sox to World Series championships in 1912 and 1915. In 1915, Speakers batting average dropped to.322 from.338 the previous season, as player-manager for Cleveland, he led the team to its first World Series title. In ten of his seasons with Cleveland, he finished with a batting average greater than.350. Speaker resigned as Clevelands manager in 1926 after he and Ty Cobb faced game fixing allegations, during his managerial stint in Cleveland, Speaker introduced the platoon system in the major leagues. Speaker played with the Washington Senators in 1927 and the Philadelphia Athletics in 1928, then became a minor league manager and he later held several roles for the Cleveland Indians. Late in life, Speaker led a short-lived indoor baseball league, ran a liquor business, worked in sales. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937 and he was named 27th in the Sporting News 100 Greatest Baseball Players and was also included in the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Speaker was born on April 4,1888, in Hubbard, Texas, to Archie, as a youth, Speaker broke his arm after he fell from a horse, the injury forced him to become left-handed. In 1905, Speaker played a year of baseball for Fort Worth Polytechnic Institute. He worked on a ranch before beginning his professional baseball career, Speakers abilities drew the interest of Doak Roberts, owner of the Cleburne Railroaders of the Texas League, in 1906. After losing several games as a pitcher, Speaker converted to outfielder to replace a Cleburne player who had struck in the head with a pitch. Speakers mother opposed his participation in the leagues, saying that they reminded her of slavery. Though she relented, for several years Mrs. Speaker questioned why her son had not stayed home and he performed well for the Texas Leagues Houston Buffaloes in 1907, but his mother stated that she would never allow him to go to the Boston Americans. Roberts sold the youngster to the Americans for $750 or $800, Speaker played in seven games for the Americans in 1907, with three hits in 19 at bats for a.158 average
3.
History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
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The teams name derived from the reputed skill of Brooklyn residents at evading the citys trolley streetcar network. The team is noted for signing Jackie Robinson in 1947 as the first black player in the major leagues. Brooklyn was home to numerous clubs in the mid-1850s. Eight of 16 participants in the first convention were from Brooklyn, including the Atlantic, Eckford, Brooklyn helped make baseball commercial, as the locale of the first paid admission games, a series of three all star contests matching New York and Brooklyn in 1858. The Excelsiors no longer challenged for the championship after the Civil War. The Eckfords and Atlantics declined to join until 1872 and thereby lost their best players, the Eckfords survived only one season and the Atlantics four, with losing teams. When the Mutuals were expelled by the league, the Hartford Dark Blues club moved in, changed its name to The Brooklyn Hartfords and played its home games at Union Grounds in 1877 before disbanding. Byrne arranged to build a grandstand on a lot bounded by Third Street, Fourth Avenue, Fifth Street, and Fifth Avenue, the Grays played in the minor Inter-State Association of Professional Baseball Clubs that first season. Doyle became the first team manager, and they drew 6,431 fans to their first home game on May 12,1883 against the Trenton team. The Grays won the title after the Camden Merritt club disbanded on July 20. The Grays were invited to join the American Association for the 1884 season and they lost the 1889 World Series to the New York Giants and tied the 1890 World Series with the Louisville Colonels. Their success during this period was partly attributed to their having absorbed skilled players from the defunct New York Metropolitans, in 1899, the Grays merged with the Baltimore Orioles, as Baltimore manager Ned Hanlon became the clubs new manager and Charles Ebbets became the primary team owner. The team name, Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, was coined in 1895, the nickname was still new enough in September 1895 that a newspaper could report that Trolley Dodgers is the new name which eastern baseball cranks have given the Brooklyn club. Some sources erroneously report that the name Trolley Dodgers referred to pedestrians avoiding fast cars on street car tracks that bordered Eastern Park on two sides, however, Eastern Park was not bordered by street-level trolley lines that had to be dodged by pedestrians. The name was shortened to Brooklyn Dodgers. Other team names used by the franchise that finally came to be called the Dodgers were the Grooms, the Bridegrooms, Wards Wonders, the Superbas, and the Robins. All of these nicknames were used by fans and newspaper sports writers to describe the team, the teams legal name was the Brooklyn Base Ball Club. However, the Trolley Dodgers nickname was used throughout this period, along with nicknames, by fans
4.
Wilbert Robinson
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Wilbert Robinson, nicknamed Uncle Robbie, was an American catcher, coach and manager in Major League Baseball. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945 and he also spent one season,1900, with the St. Louis Cardinals. Over the course of his career, Robinson played 1,316 games as a catcher, which prepared him for his second baseball career as a manager. The star catcher of the Orioles dynasty which won three titles from 1894 to 1896, he compiled a career batting average of.273. Durable behind the plate, he caught a triple-header in 1896 and he also was the first catcher to play directly behind the batter at all times, as the previous practice had been to play farther back when there were fewer than two strikes. A highlight of his career was a seven-hit game June 10,1892. He also batted in 11 runs in game, on September 16,1924, as manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. While owners of a bowling, billiards and pool hall in Baltimore, Robinson, Robinson and McGraw joined as business partners in the Baltimore Orioles, a team that would debut in the new American League in 1901. McGraw served as player-manager of the AL Orioles in 1901 and the beginning of the 1902 season, Robinson succeeded McGraw as manager of the Orioles. After the season, McGraw enticed Robinson to be his coach from 1903 to 1913. Robinson would not don the managers cap again in the majors until 1914, in his 18 years at the helm of the Brooks, Robinson compiled a record of 1375–1341, including National League championships in 1916 and 1920 – Brooklyns only pennants between 1901 and 1940. Those two clubs lost in the World Series to the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians, respectively and his 1375 NL victories were, at the time, the 3rd-highest total in NL history, trailing only the totals of McGraw and Fred Clarke. Robinson was highly regarded for his ability to draw outstanding performances from his pitching staffs, among the pitchers he guided to success were Joe McGinnity with both Orioles teams and the Giants, Rube Marquard with the Giants, and Dazzy Vance and Burleigh Grimes with the Dodgers. On March 13,1915, at spring training in Daytona Beach, Florida, ruth Law, the aviator, supposedly forgot to bring a baseball and instead dropped a grapefruit, which splattered all over the manager. The grapefruit made such a mess that Robinson thought he had lost his eye because of the acid and he quickly realized that it was a joke when he saw his teammates burst out in laughter. Outfielder Casey Stengel, later a manager himself, is generally believed to have convinced Law to make the switch. From this point on Robinson referred to airplanes as fruit flies, Robinson was manager when Al López started out as a catcher in the majors. Robinson watched Lopez style and finally hollered, Tell that punk he got two hands to catch with, never mind the Fancy Dan stuff
5.
Bill Klem
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William Joseph Klem, born William Joseph Klimm, known as the Old Arbitrator and the father of baseball umpires, was a National League umpire in Major League Baseball from 1905 to 1941. He worked 18 World Series, which is a league record. Klem was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953, Klem was born on February 22,1874 in the Dutchtown area of Rochester, New York. He had changed the spelling of his last name from Klimm to Klem because he thought it had a better sound, Klem pursued a baseball career as a catcher until he sustained an arm injury. He then worked as a bartender and traveled through the Northeast building bridges and he decided to pursue umpiring after reading a newspaper article about major league umpire Silk OLoughlin. His umpiring career began in the Connecticut League in 1902 and that year, Klem had a run-in with league secretary and team manager Jim ORourke after Klem ejected one of the managers players. ORourke threatened that Klem would not umpire another game in the league, but Klem responded, Maybe so and he worked in the New York State League the following year. Klem spent the 1904 season in the American Association before joining the NL in 1905. He worked a record 18 World Series,1908,1909,1911,1912,1913,1914,1915,1917,1918,1920,1922,1924,1926,1929,1931,1932,1934 and 1940. No other umpire has worked in more than ten Series, of the 16 major league teams in existence during his career, all but one—the St. He was also one of the umpires for the first All-Star Game in 1933, Klem holds the MLB record for most career ejections by an umpire with 251. He called balls and strikes in five no-hitters, an NL record later tied by Harry Wendelstedt and he was also the home plate umpire on September 16,1924, when Jim Bottomley of the St. Louis Cardinals had a record 12 runs batted in. Klem had a number of nicknames amongst the players, his favorite was The Old Arbitrator, Klem despised the latter name, and was notorious for ejecting players whom he caught using it. One particular incident involved a player whom Klem ejected after he caught the player drawing a picture of a catfish with his foot in the infield dirt. Klem also dismissed catcher Al López from a game after López pasted a newspaper clipping onto home plate which showed Klem clearly in error calling a play involving López, the catcher had covered the photo with dirt and waited for Klem to brush off home plate. As Klem got older, he began to experience a skin condition that he related to his nerves. He once commented on the toll that umpiring took on him, saying, feel that these verbal and physical public humiliations go in one ear and out the other. They go in one ear and go straight to the system, eating away coordination, self-confidence
6.
Tom Connolly
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Thomas Henry Connolly was an English-American umpire in Major League Baseball. He officiated in the National League from 1898 to 1900, followed by 31 years of service in the American League from 1901 to 1931, Connolly was born in Manchester, England, and played cricket as a boy. He immersed himself in the book, and within a few years was umpiring for local games. While working in YMCA games, he was discovered by major league umpire Tim Hurst, who obtained a position for Connolly in the New England League, where he umpired from 1894 to 1897. Connolly had the privilege of umpiring, as its sole arbiter, during the ensuing argument, Connolly was struck in the mouth by a bottle thrown by a spectator. His reputation earned him prominent game assignments, including the first AL games ever played at Comiskey Park, Shibe Park, Fenway Park, Connolly was also the sole AL umpire chosen to work in the first World Series in 1903. In his career, Connolly worked in an AL-record eight World Series,1903,1908,1910,1911,1913,1916,1920 and 1924. He was also the plate umpire for Addie Joss perfect game on October 2,1908, one of four no-hitters in which he called balls. Connolly was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953, Connolly and Klem are the only two umpires in history to have worked in five decades, Connollys record of 31 years umpiring American League games was broken by Larry Barnett in 1999. Connolly died at age 90 in Natick, Massachusetts
7.
Hank O'Day
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Henry M. Hank ODay, nicknamed The Reverend, was an American right-handed pitcher and later an umpire and manager in Major League Baseball. After a seven-year major league playing career, he worked as a National League umpire for 30 seasons between 1895 and 1927. ODay umpired in ten World Series – second only to Bill Klems total of 18 – including five of the first seven played, and was behind the plate for the first modern World Series game in 1903. His 3,986 total games as an umpire ranked third in league history when he retired. He is largely known for his decision in a pivotal 1908 game. ODay interrupted his umpiring career twice for single seasons as a manager, leading the Cincinnati Reds in 1912 and he remains the only person ever to serve full seasons in the NL as a player, manager and umpire. ODay was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in July 2013, ODay was born in Chicago, the son of railroad engineer James ODay and his wife Margaret, who were immigrants from Ireland and were both deaf. The couple had at least seven children, Daniel, James Jr. Catherine, Henry, Margaret, Mary McNamara, the ODays originally settled in Buffalo, New York, by the mid-1850s, they had moved to Cincinnati, and they relocated to Chicago around 1858. Jackson Street, which remained the residence until the early 20th century. ODay worked as a fitter in Chicago before entering organized baseball. With Toledo, he played alongside Fleet Walker, the first African American to play in the major leagues, ODay made his major league debut on May 2,1884, and served as the teams second pitcher behind Tony Mullane. However, he made only 13 other non-pitching appearances in the field in later years, in 1885, he split playing time with the Pittsburgh Alleghenys of the AA and the Washington Nationals of the Eastern League. ODay had a record of 5–7 for the Alleghenys, his time was limited because he was caring for his sick father. He made only five starts after May 11, and left the team for the last time after his July 6 start, in the meantime, the Chicago White Stockings had opened West Side Park on June 6, less than a mile and a half from the ODay residence. In 15 games with Washington in the Eastern League, he had a record of 13–2, on September 5 of that year, his younger brother Joseph died at age 15 from injuries he had suffered two days earlier after falling from the front car of a roller coaster. At the end of the season, the Nationals folded, and ODay joined a Louisville ball club, ODay spent most of 1886 with the Savannah team in the Southern Association, and during his time there he was considered a favorite among other players. In 39 games with Savannah, ODay won 26 games, lost 11, late in the year, he joined the Washington Nationals, where he posted a 2-2 record in six games. ODay became a starter for the Nationals in 1887
8.
Bill Dinneen
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Dinneen was the plate umpire for baseballs first All-Star Game. He played for the Washington Senators and Boston Braves, and the Boston Red Sox, Dinneen recorded three wins for the Red Sox over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series in 1903. Dinneen broke the record for most strikeouts in a World Series with 11, Dinneen was born in Syracuse, New York on April 5,1876. He led the AL in losses in 1902 with 21, and led the league in saves in 1903 and 1907. In his remarkable 1904 season for the Red Sox, as they repeated as AL champions, he started 37 games, completing one of them for a total of 335 2⁄3 innings pitched. On June 12, he won a 16-inning contest by a score of 2–1 over the Browns, the game went into the final inning tied 2–2 before a wild pitch by Chesbro gave a 3–2 victory, and the flag, to Boston. On September 27,1905, Dinneen pitched a 2–0 no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox, Dinneen joined the AL umpiring staff on September 12,1909, just 17 days after his final pitching appearance with the Browns. He umpired in eight World Series, tying the AL record set by Tommy Connolly and he served as crew chief for the 1914,1926 and 1932 Series. He was also selected to work in the first All-Star game in 1933, calling balls, shore retired the runner as well as all 26 batters he faced. Dinneen had his own confrontation with Ruth in the 1922 season, on June 19, the outfielder got into an argument with the umpire, and during the next days game he again insulted the official. Bill Dinneen was one of the greatest pitchers the game ever produced and he is one of the cleanest and most honorable men baseball ever fostered. Your conduct at Cleveland on Monday was reprehensible to a great degree – shocking to every American mother who permits her boy to go to a professional game, the American League cares nothing for Ruth. The individual player means nothing to the organization, when he steps on the ball field he is subject to our control and discipline. You branded Umpire Dinneen as yellow and this is the most remarkable declaration a modern ball player has made. Dinneen stands out in the history of the game as one of the most courageous players we have ever had, if you could match up to his standard you would not be in the trough you occupy today. Coupled with your misconduct on Monday, you doubled the penalty on Tuesday and you are hereby notified of your suspension for five days without salary. It seems the period has arrived when you should allow some intelligence to creep into a mind that has plainly been warped, in addition to the no-hitter he pitched, Dinneen also called balls and strikes for five other no-hitters. He remains the only individual in major league history to pitch a no-hitter and call one as plate umpire
9.
Stan Coveleski
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Stanley Anthony Coveleski was an American Major League Baseball pitcher during the 1910s and 1920s who primarily threw the spitball. In 14 seasons in the American League, Coveleski pitched for the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators and New York Yankees. In 450 career games, Coveleski pitched 3,082 innings and posted a record of 215–142, with 224 complete games,38 shutouts. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969, born in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, Coveleski began playing professional baseball in 1908, following in the footsteps of his brother, Harry Coveleski. He played mostly for the Lancaster Red Roses until he made his league debut with the Athletics in 1912. Following three more seasons in the leagues, he stayed in the major leagues after signing with the Indians in 1916. During his nine seasons with the Indians, his accomplishments included winning three games during the 1920 World Series, after his time with the Indians ended, Coveleski spent three seasons with the Senators and one with the Yankees before retiring after the 1928 season. He retired to South Bend, Indiana, where he died in 1984, a starting pitcher, Coveleski specialized in throwing the spitball, a pitch where the ball is altered with a foreign substance such as chewing tobacco. It was legal when his career began and outlawed in 1920, stanislaus Anthony Kowalewski was the youngest of five baseball-playing brothers in the coal-mining community of Shamokin, Pennsylvania. His oldest brother Jacob died serving in the Spanish–American War, his other brothers Frank and John also played baseball and his older brother, Harry Coveleski, later won 20 games in a season on three occasions during his major league career. Like many his age in the Shamokin area, Coveleski began work as a boy at a local colliery at the age of 12. In return for 72 hours of labor per week, Coveleski received $3.75, there was nothing strange in those days about a twelve-year-old Polish kid working in the mines for 72 hours a week at a nickel an hour, he later recalled. What was strange is that I ever got out of there, Coveleski was rarely able to play baseball as a child due to his work schedule. Nevertheless, he worked on his skills during the evenings. When he was 18 years old, Coveleskis abilities caught the attention of the local ball club. When it came to throwing a baseball, why it was easy to pitch, after all, the plates a lot bigger than a tin can to throw at. His baseball career in Shamokin was short-lived, after five games, Coveleski relocated to Lancaster, Coveleski signed his first professional contract in 1909 with the minor league Lancaster Red Roses, a club affiliated with the Tri-State League. During his first trip to Lancaster, he recalled that it was the first time I ever rode on a train, in 272 innings of work his first season, Coveleski had a 23–11 win-loss record with an earned run average of 1.95
