1.
Miller Huggins
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Miller James Huggins was an American professional baseball player and manager. Huggins played second base for the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals and he managed the Cardinals and New York Yankees, including the Murderers Row teams of the 1920s that won six American League pennants and three World Series championships. He received a degree in law from the University of Cincinnati, rather than serve as a lawyer, Huggins chose to pursue a professional baseball career. He played semi-professional and minor league baseball from 1898 through 1903, as a player, Huggins was adept at getting on base. Despite fielding successful teams for the Yankees in the 1920s, he continued to make changes in order to maintain his teams superiority in the AL. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1964, Huggins was born in Cincinnati, where his father, an Englishman, worked as a grocer. His mother was a native of Cincinnati and he had two brothers and one sister. Huggins attended Woodward High School, Walnut Hills High School, where he studied law and played college baseball for the Cincinnati Bearcats baseball team. A shortstop, he was named captain of the Bearcats in 1900. Seeing him consumed with baseball, his law professors summoned him to justify why they should keep him in the law program, Huggins father, a devout Methodist, objected to his son playing baseball on Sundays. In 1900, he played for Fleischmanns semiprofessional team based in the Catskill Mountains and he was admitted to the bar, but never practiced law. Huggins began his career in minor league baseball with the Mansfield Haymakers of the Class B Interstate League in 1899. He continued his minor league apprenticeship with the St. Paul Saints of the American Association from 1901 through 1903, in 1903, he pulled off the first delayed steal in recorded baseball history. Fleischmann, part-owner of the Cincinnati Reds of the National League, the Reds duly purchased his contract from the Saints before the 1904 season. He made his MLB debut on April 15,1904, and he batted.264 with the Reds that season and improved in the 1906 season, finishing with a.292 batting average and 41 stolen bases, while spending considerable time developing his upper-body strength. Although Huggins hoped to be selected as Ned Hanlons successor as Cincinnatis manager after the 1907 season, in 1908, He played with the Reds in the Cuban-American Major League Clubs Series. Hampered by an ankle and torn ligaments in his shoulder. Before the 1910 season, the Reds traded Huggins, along with Frank Corridon and Rebel Oakes, to the St. Louis Cardinals in return for Fred Beebe and Alan Storke
2.
Donie Bush
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Owen Joseph Donie Bush, was an American professional baseball player, manager, team owner, and scout. He was active in baseball for 65 years from 1905 until his death in 1972. Bush was the shortstop for the Detroit Tigers from 1908 to 1921. He was recognized as one of the best defensive shortstops of the dead-ball era and he had more putouts, assists, and total chances than any other shortstop of the era, and his 1914 totals of 425 putouts and 969 chances are still American League records for shortstops. He also led the American League in assists by a shortstop on five occasions, as a batter, Bush did not hit for high batting average but was regularly among the Major League leaders in drawing bases on balls, sacrifice hits, stolen bases, and runs scored. At the time of his retirement in 1923, Bushs 1,158 bases on balls ranked second in Major League history and his 337 sacrifice hits still ranks fifth in Major League history, and his 1909 total of 52 sacrifice hits is the fourth highest in Major League history. His 1927 Pittsburgh Pirates won the National League pennant and lost to the 1927 Yankees in the World Series, Bush was also a co-owner of the Louisville Colonels and Indianapolis Indians, president of the Indians, and a scout for the Boston Red Sox. He was given the title King of Baseball during Major League Baseballs 1963 winter meetings and he was known as Mr. Baseball in Indianapolis and was an inaugural inductee of the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame. Bush was born in 1887 in Indianapolis, Indiana and he was the son of Irish-American parents and raised on the east side of Indianapolis. His father died when Bush was a child, and at the time of the 1900 United States Census, Bush was living with his mother, Bush was one of the best defensive shortstops of the dead-ball era. He collected more putouts, assists, and total chances than any other shortstop of the era and his 1914 total of 969 chances is also still the American League record. He also led the American League in assists by a shortstop on five occasions,1909,1911,1912,1914, Bush also holds the Major League record for most career triple plays with nine. Bushs triple plays came on May 4,1910, April 24,1911, May 20,1911, September 9,1911, April 6,1912, August 23,1917, August 14,1919, May 18,1921, and September 14,1921. As a batter, Bush ranked among the American League leaders in bases on balls 12 straight years, from 1909 through 1920 and his career high was 118 bases on balls in 1915. During the decade from 1910 to 1919, no Major League player had more bases on balls than Bush, at the time of his retirement in 1923, Bush had 1,158 walks, second best in Major League history trailing only Eddie Collins. Bush also collected 337 sacrifice hits in his career, ranking him fifth on the all-time Major League leader list and he led the league with 52 sacrifice hits in 1909 and hit another 48 in 1920. In 1920, Baseball Magazine rated Bush among the top ten players in Major League Baseball over the past decade in the categories of waiters, run-getters, and base-stealers. Bush was also one of the shortest players in the Major Leagues at five feet, six inches, Bush once said, I used to tell em it aint how big you are, its how good you are
3.
Lou Gehrig
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Henry Louis Lou or Buster Gehrig was an American baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees, from 1923 through 1939. Gehrig was renowned for his prowess as a hitter and for his durability and he was an All-Star seven consecutive times, a Triple Crown winner once, an American League Most Valuable Player twice, and a member of six World Series champion teams. He had a career.340 batting average.632 slugging average, and he hit 493 home runs and had 1,995 runs batted in. In 1939, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and was the first MLB player to have his number retired by a team. A native of New York City and attendee of Columbia University, the disease forced him to retire at age 36 and was the cause of his death two years later. The pathos of his farewell from baseball was capped off by his iconic 1939 Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth speech at Yankee Stadium, a monument in Gehrigs honor, originally dedicated by the Yankees in 1941, currently resides in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. The Lou Gehrig Memorial Award is given annually to the MLB player best exhibiting his integrity, Gehrig was born in 1903 at 309 East 94th Street in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan, he weighed almost 14 pounds at birth. He was the second of four children of German immigrants, Christina Foch and Heinrich Gehrig and his father was a sheet metal worker by trade but frequently unemployed due to alcoholism, and his mother, a maid, was the main breadwinner and disciplinarian in the family. His two sisters died at an age from whooping cough and measles, a brother also died in infancy. From an early age, Gehrig helped his mother with work, doing such as folding laundry. In 1910, he lived with his parents at 2266 Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights, in 1920, the family resided on 8th Avenue in Manhattan. His name was anglicized to Henry Louis Gehrig and he was known as Lou so that he would not be confused with his identically named father. Gehrig first garnered attention for his baseball ability while playing in a game at Cubs Park on June 26,1920. His New York School of Commerce team was playing a team from Chicagos Lane Tech High School in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 spectators. With his team leading 8–6 in the top of the inning, Gehrig hit a grand slam completely out of the major league park. Gehrig attended PS132 in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, then went to Commerce High School and he then studied at Columbia University for two years, although he did not graduate. Initially, he went to Columbia on a scholarship, where he was preparing to pursue a degree in engineering. After he played a dozen games for the Hartford Senators in the Eastern League, in 1922, Gehrig returned to collegiate sports as a fullback for the Columbia Lions football program
4.
Babe Ruth
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George Herman Babe Ruth Jr. was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Ruth established many MLB batting records, including home runs, runs batted in, bases on balls, slugging percentage, and on-base plus slugging. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time, in 1936, Ruth was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its first five inaugural members. At age seven, Ruth was sent to St, in 1914, Ruth was signed to play minor-league baseball for the Baltimore Orioles but was soon sold to the Red Sox. By 1916, he had built a reputation as a pitcher who sometimes hit long home runs. With regular playing time, he broke the MLB single-season home run record in 1919, after that season, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees amid controversy. The trade fueled Bostons subsequent 86 year championship drought and popularized the Curse of the Bambino superstition, in his 15 years with New York, Ruth helped the Yankees win seven American League championships and four World Series championships. As part of the Yankees vaunted Murderers Row lineup of 1927, Ruth hit 60 home runs and he retired in 1935 after a short stint with the Boston Braves. During his career, Ruth led the AL in home runs during a season twelve times, Ruths legendary power and charismatic personality made him a larger-than-life figure in the Roaring Twenties. During his career, he was the target of press and public attention for his baseball exploits. His often reckless lifestyle was tempered by his willingness to do good by visiting children at hospitals, after his retirement as a player, he was denied a managerial job in baseball, most likely due to poor behavior during parts of his playing career. In his final years, Ruth made many appearances, especially in support of American efforts in World War II. In 1946, he became ill with cancer, and died two years later, George Herman Ruth Jr. was born in 1895 at 216 Emory Street in Pigtown, a working-class section of Baltimore, Maryland, named for its meat-packing plants. Its population included recent immigrants from Ireland, Germany and Italy, Ruths parents, George Herman Ruth, Sr. and Katherine Schamberger, were both of German American ancestry. According to the 1880 census, his parents were born in Maryland, the paternal grandparents of Ruth, Sr. were from Prussia and Hanover. Ruth, Sr. had a series of jobs, including lightning rod salesman and streetcar operator, before becoming a counterman in a combination grocery. George Ruth Jr. was born in the house of his grandfather, Pius Schamberger. Only one of young Georges seven siblings, his younger sister Mamie, many details of Ruths childhood are unknown, including the date of his parents marriage
5.
World Series
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The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball in North America, contested since 1903 between the American League champion team and the National League champion team. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a playoff. As the series is played in October, during the season in North America. As of 2016, the World Series has been contested 112 times, with the AL winning 64, the 2016 World Series took place between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs. Seven games were played, with the Cubs victorious after game seven, the final score was 8–7, the game went into extra innings after a tied score of 6–6. This was the third World Series won by the Cubs, as well as their first title since 1908, in the National League, the St. As of 2016, no team has won consecutive World Series championships since the New York Yankees in 1998,1999, all championships were awarded to the team with the best record at the end of the season, without a postseason series being played. From 1884 to 1890, the National League and the American Association faced each other in a series of games at the end of the season to determine an overall champion. These series were disorganized in comparison to the modern World Series, the number of games played ranged from as few as three in 1884, to a high of fifteen in 1887. Both the 1885 and 1890 Series ended in ties, each team having won three games with one tie game, the series was promoted and referred to as The Championship of the United States, Worlds Championship Series, or Worlds Series for short. In his book Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded, August 27,1883, Simon Winchester mentions in passing that the World Series was named for the New York World newspaper, but this view is disputed. Until about 1960, some sources treated the 19th-century Series on a basis with the post-19th-century series. After about 1930, however, many authorities list the start of the World Series in 1903, following the collapse of the American Association after the 1891 season, the National League was again the only major league. The league championship was awarded in 1892 by a playoff between half-season champions and this scheme was abandoned after one season. Beginning in 1893—and continuing until divisional play was introduced in 1969—the pennant was awarded to the club in the standings at the end of the season. For four seasons, 1894–1897, the league played the runners-up in the post season championship series called the Temple Cup. A second attempt at this format was the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup series, in 1901, the American League was formed as a second major league. No championship series were played in 1901 or 1902 as the National and these series were arranged by the participating clubs, as the 1880s Worlds Series matches had been
6.
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, and operated by private interests. The Halls motto is Preserving History, Honoring Excellence, Connecting Generations, the word Cooperstown is often used as shorthand for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The Hall of Fame was established in 1939 by Stephen Carlton Clark, Clark had sought to bring tourists to a city hurt by the Great Depression, which reduced the local tourist trade, and Prohibition, which devastated the local hops industry. A new building was constructed, and the Hall of Fame was dedicated on June 12,1939, the erroneous claim that U. S. Civil War hero Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown was instrumental in the early marketing of the Hall. An expanded library and research facility opened in 1994, dale Petroskey became the organizations president in 1999. In 2002, the Hall launched Baseball As America, an exhibit that toured ten American museums over six years. The Hall of Fame has since also sponsored educational programming on the Internet to bring the Hall of Fame to schoolchildren who might not visit, the Hall and Museum completed a series of renovations in spring 2005. The Hall of Fame also presents an annual exhibit at FanFest at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Jeff Idelson replaced Petroskey as president on April 16,2008. In 2012, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed a law ordering the United States Mint to produce and sell commemorative, non-circulating coins to benefit the private, non-profit Hall. The bill, House Bill H. R.2527, was introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Rep. Richard Hanna, a Republican from New York, the coins, which depict baseball gloves and balls, are the first concave designs produced by the Mint. The mintage included 50,000 gold coins,400,000 silver coins, the Mint released them on March 27,2014, and the gold and silver editions quickly sold out. The Hall receives money from surcharges included in the sale price,114 members of the Hall of Fame have been inducted posthumously, including four who died after their selection was announced. Of the 35 Negro league members,29 were inducted posthumously, the Hall of Fame includes one female member, Effa Manley. The newest inductees, enshrined on July 24,2016, are players Mike Piazza, the incoming class of 2017, to be formally enshrined on July 30, consists of executives John Schuerholz and Bud Selig and players Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, and Iván Rodríguez. In addition to honoring Hall of Fame inductees, the National Baseball Hall of Fame has presented 40 men with the Ford C, while Frick and Spink Award honorees are not members of the Hall of Fame, they are recognized in an exhibit in the Hall of Fames library. ONeil Award honorees are also not Hall of Fame members, but are listed alongside a permanent statue of the namesake and first recipient, Buck ONeil. From a final ballot typically including 25–40 candidates, each writer may vote for up to 10 players, until the late 1950s, any player named on 75% or more of all ballots cast is elected. A player who is named on fewer than 5% of ballots is dropped from future elections, players receiving 5% or more of the votes but fewer than 75% are reconsidered annually until a maximum of ten years of eligibility
7.
1926 World Series
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The 1926 World Series pitted the NL champion St. Louis Cardinals against the AL champion New York Yankees. The Cardinals defeated the Yankees four games to three in the series, which took place from October 2 to 10,1926 at Yankee Stadium. They would play in another 36 World Series through the end of the 2012 season, in Game 1, Herb Pennock pitched the Yankees to a 2–1 win over the Cards. In Game 2, pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander evened the Series for the Cards with a 6–2 victory, knuckleballer Jesse Haines complete game shutout in Game 3 gave St. Louis a 2–1 Series lead. In the Yankees 10–5 Game 4 win, Babe Ruth hit three home runs, a World Series record equaled only four times since, according to newspaper reports, Ruth had promised a sickly boy named Johnny Sylvester to hit a home run for him in Game 4. After Ruths three-homer game, the boys condition miraculously improved, the newspapers account of the story is disputed by contemporary baseball historians, but it remains one of the most famous anecdotes in baseball history. Pennock again won for the Yankees in Game 5, 3–2, Cards player-manager Rogers Hornsby chose Alexander to start Game 6, and used him in relief to close out Game 7. Behind Alexander, the Cardinals won the two games of the series, and with it the world championship. In Game 7, the Yankees, trailing 3–2 in the bottom of the inning and down to their last out, Ruth walked. Ruth, successful in half of his stolen base attempts in his career, Meusel swung and missed, and catcher Bob OFarrell threw to second baseman Hornsby who tagged Ruth out, ending Game 7 and thereby crowning his Cardinals World Series champions for the first time. The Cardinals won the 1926 National League pennant with 89 wins and 65 losses, before 1926 was half over, they traded outfielder Heinie Mueller to the New York Giants for outfielder Billy Southworth. They also claimed future Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander on waivers from the Chicago Cubs and their starting rotation was led by Flint Rhem with 20 wins and a 3.21 earned run average, far surpassing his eight wins and 4.92 ERA of 1925. Offensively, the Cardinals were led by Jim Bottomley, Rogers Hornsby, the 1926 NL pennant race was heated. During the second and third weeks of September, both the Cardinals and the Reds had multi-game winning streaks and traded first and second place almost every day. On September 17, the Cards took a lead over the Reds. They lost the last game of the season to the Reds on September 26, the Yankees had the best record in the AL at 91–63, finishing three games ahead of the Cleveland Indians and greatly improving on their 69-win, seventh-place 1925 season. Lou Gehrig played his first full season as the Yankees starting first baseman, Gehrig, Lazzeri and Ruth led the offense, while Pennock and Urban Shocker led the starting rotation with 42 wins between them. In early September 1926, thousands of Cleveland fans, confident that their Indians would win the pennant even when they trailed the Yankees by six games, made World Series ticket reservations
8.
Earle Combs
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Earle Bryan Combs was an American professional baseball player who played his entire career for the New York Yankees. Combs batted leadoff and played center field on the Yankees fabled 1927 team. He is one of six players on that team who have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Combs led the league in triples three times and was among the top ten in the category in several other seasons. He suffered a skull and other injuries from a crash into an outfield wall in 1934. Nicknamed the Kentucky Colonel, Combs was known as a gentleman on and he remained in baseball as a coach for many years after his retirement as a player. Combs was born in Pebworth, Owsley County, Kentucky, as a child, he played baseball games with tree limbs as bats and with baseballs made out of string and the material of old shoes. He left Pebworth in 1917 to enter Eastern Kentucky State Normal School in Richmond, in those early days, Eastern prepared its students to become teachers. On completion of a program, graduates were often employed in rural one-room schools. They were often responsible for forty or more students, ranging in age six to teen-age in grades one through eight. In his first year at Eastern, he put on a performance in a faculty-student baseball game and was encouraged to join the school team by Dr. Charles Keith. He hit.591 at Eastern during his last season, after graduating from Eastern, Combs went back to his native Owsley County and taught in one-room schoolhouses in both Ida May and Levi. Combs continued to play baseball in his spare time and he played for High Splint in the Pine Mountain League and hit.444. He also played baseball for the Lexington Reos of the Bluegrass League. It was in Lexington that Combs drew the attention of the Louisville Colonels of the American Association, after scouting him, Louisville offered him a contract which provided a salary that exceeded the $37 per month he made as a teacher in Owsley County. His Louisville debut was unsettling, he committed several outfield errors, the last one gave the opposition the two runs they needed to win the game. Distraught afterward, Combs said, As I went after the dropped ball I was tempted to keep right on going, climb the fence and he had married Ruth McCollum, his high school sweetheart, the year before and was concerned about his future. Combs soon found his stride, hitting.344 in 1922 and.380 in 1923 for the Colonels and also earning a reputation for speedy ball-hawking in the outfield, in 1924, the New York Yankees won a spirited bidding war and bought Combs contract for $50,000. This was a large sum at that time, but it bore fruit for the Yankees as Combs proved an immediate success in New York
9.
Herb Pennock
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Herbert Jefferis Pennock was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball from 1912 through 1933 and he is best known for his time spent with the star-studded New York Yankee teams of the mid to late 1920s and early 1930s. Connie Mack signed Pennock to his Philadelphia Athletics in 1912, after using Pennock sparingly, and questioning his competitive drive, Mack sold Pennock to the Boston Red Sox in 1915. After returning from service in 1919, Pennock became a regular contributor for the Red Sox. After retiring as a player, Pennock served as a coach and farm director for the Red Sox. Pennock was regarded as one of the greatest left-handed pitchers in baseball history, Mack later called his sale of Pennock to the Red Sox his greatest mistake. Pennock died of a hemorrhage in 1948, later that year. Pennock was born on February 10,1894 in Kennett Square and his father, Theodore Pennock, and mother Mary Louise Pennock were of Scotch-Irish and Quaker descent. His ancestors came to the United States with William Penn, Herb was the youngest of four children. Pennock attended Westtown School and Cedarcroft Boarding School, where he played for the baseball team, after struggling as a first baseman, with a weak offensive output and throwing arm that resulted in curved throws, his Cedarcroft coach converted Pennock into a pitcher. While pitching at Cedarcroft, Pennock threw a no-hitter to catcher Earle Mack, Pennock agreed to sign with the Athletics at a later date. Mack signed Pennock in 1912 to play for his team based in Atlantic City. Pennocks father insisted that he sign under an alias in order to protect his collegiate eligibility, Pennock threw a no-hitter against a traveling Negro league baseball team, and Mack promoted him to the Athletics. Mack intended for Pennock to be one of the prospects who would replace star pitchers Eddie Plank, Chief Bender, Pennock made his major league debut with the Athletics during the 1912 season on May 14, allowing one hit in four innings pitched. He was the youngest person to play in the American League that season, former major leaguer Mike Grady, a neighbor of Pennocks in Kennett Square, took Pennock under his wing, while Bender taught Pennock to throw a screwball. Pennock missed most of the 1913 season with an illness, but was able to rejoin the team late in the season, Mack let Bender go after the season, naming Pennock his Opening Day starting pitcher in 1915. On Opening Day, Pennock threw a complete game shutout against the Boston Red Sox. However, as the Athletics struggled, Pennocks nonchalant playing style drew Macks ire, concluding that Pennock lacked ambition, Mack sold Pennock to the Red Sox for the waiver price of $2,500
10.
Major League Baseball on NBC
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Major League Baseball on NBC is the de facto branding for weekly broadcasts of Major League Baseball games produced by NBC Sports, and televised on the NBC television network. Major League Baseball games first aired on the network from 1947 to 1989, there have been several variations of the program dating back to the 1940s, including The NBC Game of the Week and Baseball Night in America. From 1947 to 1956 and again in 1965, NBC only aired the All-Star Game, from 1957 to 1989, the network aired the Saturday afternoon Game of the Week. From 1994 to 1995, NBC aired games under a joint broadcasting venture with Major League Baseball, from 1996 to 2000, the networks league coverage was reduced to postseason games, as well as the All-Star Game in even-numbered years. NBC televisions relationship with Major League Baseball technically dates back to August 26,1939 and it was on that particular date that on W2XBS, the first-ever Major League Baseball game was televised. With Red Barber announcing, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds played a doubleheader at Ebbets Field, the Reds won the first game 5–2 while the Dodgers won the second, 6–1. Barber called the game without the benefit of a monitor and with two cameras capturing the game. One camera was on Barber and the other was behind the plate, Barber had to guess from which light was on and where it pointed. By 1947, television sets, most with five and seven-inch screens, were selling almost as fast as they could be produced, because of this, Major League teams began televising games and attracted a whole new audience into ballparks in the process. People who had only casually followed baseball began going to the games in person, in 1948, Major League Baseballs total attendance reached a record high of 21 million. 1947 also saw the first televised World Series, the games were broadcast in the New York City area by NBCs WNBT, CBSs WCBS-TV and DuMonts WABD and sponsored by Gillette and Ford. The 1947 World Series brought in an estimated 3.9 million viewers, in addition to New York City, live coverage of the Series was also seen on WRGB in Schenectady/Albany, WPTZ in Philadelphia, WMAR-TV in Baltimore and WTTG in Washington, D. C. In 1948 and 1949, the World Series would be carried on the stations, as well as on WBZ-TV and WNAC-TV in Boston, WNHC-TV in New Haven and WTVR-TV in Richmond. In 1949, the World Series was also live in other Northeastern and Midwestern cities that had been hooked up to network lines over the previous year. In 1950, the Mutual Broadcasting System acquired the television as well as radio broadcast rights to the World Series, almost at the moment Thomsons bat struck Ralph Brancas pitch. Harwell later admitted he had called it too soon, but fortunately for him. And then, Harwell recalled, the took over. On January 31,1953, the New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, the respective franchises tried to force the Browns to play afternoon games in an attempt to avoid having to share television revenues
11.
Graham McNamee
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Graham McNamee was an American radio broadcaster, the mediums most recognized national personality in its first international decade. McNamee, was an attorney and legal advisor to President Grover Clevelands cabinet, and his mother, Anne, was a homemaker, born in Washington, D. C. and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, McNamee had early aspirations of being an opera singer. He studied voice as a youth and sang in churches, and in 1922 gave a concert in Aeolian Hall, New York. In 1922, while serving duty in New York City, he visited the studios of radio station WEAF en route to the courthouse and, on a whim. Someone noticed his voice and asked him to speak through a microphone and he was given an audition and hired as a staff announcer on the spot. Radio broadcasting of sporting events was a new thing in the 1920s, the play-by-play announcements were performed by a rotating group of newspaper writers. Their descriptions were matter-of-fact and boring at best, in 1923, announcer McNamee was assigned to help the sportswriters liven up their broadcasts. He wasnt an expert, but had a knack for conveying what he saw in great detail. He began broadcasting first as a commentator, bringing the sights. McNamee had various on-air responsibilities at WEAF, including baseball color commentary culminating in play-by-play of the 1926 World Series, later that year, McNamee was featured on the cover of Time. With Phillips Carlin, whose voice was so similar that few listeners could tell them apart, in 1923, he described the Harry Greb-Johnny Wilson boxing match and covered many World Series baseball games and the top football games for years. He also covered many major news events outside the world, described the Republican and Democratic National conventions. In the early 1940s his principal activity was as a newsreel commentator, in 1925, at the Radio World Fair, he won a solid gold cup as Americas most popular announcer, receiving 189,470 votes out of 1,161,659 votes cast. He was married to concert and church soprano Josephine Garrett, McNamee continued to broadcast into the 1930s, as an announcer on such programs as Rudy Vallees and Ed Wynns weekly shows. He played straight man on the latter, reacting to Wynns gags, on July 7,1936 he was briefly reunited with Ed Wynn for a brief, ad-libbed spot on an experimental, NBC television broadcast. In the early 1940s, he hosted Behind the Mike for NBC and he opened each broadcast by saying, Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the radio audience. He was married twice, the first time, in 1921 and they were divorced in 1932, and he married Anne Lee Sims in 1934. McNamee died on May 9,1942 at St. Lukes Hospital at the age of 53, the cause of death was a brain embolism after he had been hospitalized with a streptococcus infection
12.
Paul Waner
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Paul Glee Waner, nicknamed Big Poison, was an American professional baseball right fielder. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Braves and he won three National League batting titles and the NL Most Valuable Player Award while with the Pirates. He was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952, Waner was born in Harrah, Oklahoma. For most of the period from 1927 to 1940, Paul patrolled right field at Forbes Field while Lloyd covered the next to him in center field. On September 15,1938, the brothers hit back-to-back home runs against Cliff Melton of the New York Giants, Paul was known as Big Poison and Lloyd was known as Little Poison. One story claims that their nicknames reflect a Brooklyn Dodgers fans pronunciation of Big Person, in 1927, the season the brothers accumulated 460 hits, the fan is said to have remarked, Them Waners. Its always the little poison on thoid and the big poison on foist, but given that Lloyd was actually taller, this story would seem somewhat incongruous. After playing the first 15 years of his career with the Pirates, Waner ended his playing for the Dodgers, Boston Braves. Famous for his ability to hit while hung over, when Waner gave up drinking in 1938 at managements request, as Casey Stengel said in complimenting his base-running skills, He had to be a very graceful player, because he could slide without breaking the bottle on his hip. Waner was also nearsighted, a fact that Pirate management only learned late in his career when he remarked that he had difficulty reading the ads posted on the outfield walls. Waner led the National League in batting on three occasions and accumulated over 3,000 hits during his 20-year baseball career. He collected 200 or more hits on eight occasions, was voted the NLs Most Valuable Player in 1927 and he was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952. He set the Major League record for games with an extra-base hit, with 14. Waner died in Sarasota, Florida in 1965 at age 62, in 1999, he was ranked number 62 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. The Pirates retired Waners No.11 in a ceremony before their game vs. the Astros on July 21,2007, a plaque has been placed in the interior of PNC Park to commemorate the retiring of Waners jersey. Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference Paul Waner at the Baseball Hall of Fame The Deadball Era – Obituaries The Deadball Era – Beer Drinkers
