1.
1927 New York Yankees season
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The 1927 New York Yankees season was their 25th season. The team finished with a record of 110–44, winning their fifth pennant, New York was managed by Miller Huggins. The Yankees played at Yankee Stadium, in the World Series, they swept the Pittsburgh Pirates. This Yankee team is known for their lineup, which was nicknamed Murderers Row. This team is considered to be the best baseball team in the history of MLB. The Yankees 110 victories broke the previous American League mark of 105 and this was the first year the Yankees acknowledged their team nickname on their uniforms, albeit their road uniforms. Their home uniforms remained free of any kind of logo except for the NY on their caps. The roster included seven future Hall of Famers, Pitchers Herb Pennock and Waite Hoyt, Infielders Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri, outfielders Babe Ruth and Earle Combs, and Manager Miller Huggins. With the race long since decided, the attention turned to Babe Ruths pursuit of his own home run mark of 59. Early in the season, Ruth expressed doubts about his chances, to do that, youve got to start early, and the pitchers have got to pitch to you. I dont start early, and the pitchers havent really pitched to me in four seasons, I get more bad balls to hit than any other five men. and fewer good ones. Ruth was also being challenged for his sluggers crown by teammate Lou Gehrig, but Ruth caught Gehrig, and then had a remarkable last leg of the season, hitting 17 home runs in September. His 60th came on September 30, in the Yankees next-to-last game, Ruth was exultant, shouting after the game, Sixty, count em, sixty. Lets see some son-of-a-b**** match that, in later years, he would give Gehrig some credit, Pitchers began pitching to me because if they passed me they still had Lou to contend with. In addition to his career-high 60 home runs, Ruth batted.356, drove in 164 runs, 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, Avg. In addition, the clause prohibiting repeat winners led to unusual results like Babe Ruths 1927 not being eligible for the award. As The New York Times wrote in 1925, he purpose, of course, is to pass the honor around, the diary runs the length of the full 1927 season, from April 13 through October 10,1927
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Ernest C. Quigley
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Ernest Cosmos Quigley was a Canadian-born American sports official who became notable both as a basketball referee and as an umpire in Major League Baseball. He also worked as an American football coach and official, born in Canada and raised in Concordia, Kansas, Quigley attended college and law school at the University of Kansas. There he played basketball under the games inventor, James Naismith. He became the football coach at Kansas Wesleyan University and then the athletic director at the University of Kansas. Quigley refereed college basketball for 40 years and umpired more than 3,000 Major League Baseball games, as a college football official, he worked in several bowl games and served on the Rules Committee of the NCAA for several years. Quigley died in Kansas in 1960, Quigley was born in Newcastle, New Brunswick, and was raised in Concordia, Kansas where he was a prominent member of the high school football team in the 1890s. Quigley was a student of basketball inventor James Naismith at the University of Kansas. After graduating he served as a coach, teacher and athletic director at St. Marys College in St. Marys, Kansas from 1903 until 1912, while also attending law school at the University of Kansas. Quigley was the head football coach for the Kansas Wesleyan University Coyotes located in Salina, Kansas and he held that position for the 1919 season. The team lost its one-game on November 22,1919 against Fort Hays State University by a score of 26 to 0. In 1944, Quigley became the director at the University of Kansas, where he hired coaches George Sauer, Jules V. Sikes. Quigley officiated at more than 1,500 collegiate and Amateur Athletic Union games during his 40-year career, rather than using his whistle, the small-statured Quigley often used his high-pitched voice to command attention in supervising play. In 1944 he became director at Kansas, serving until 1950. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961 and he also participated in a 1928 baseball tour of Japan, and later became an NL supervisor of umpires. After a 1933 game, Quigley was found unconscious by partner George Barr following a shock from an exposed wire. His 3,351 games as an umpire ranked seventh in league history when he retired. Quigley Field, the University of Kansas first baseball stadium, was named after him, Quigley also served as an official in major college football contests including the Army–Navy Game, five Harvard–Yale games, the Michigan–Illinois game, three Rose Bowls, and the Cotton Bowl Classic. He was a member of the NCAAs Rules Committee from 1946 to 1954, Quigley married Marge Darlington in Concordia
5.
Dick Nallin
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Richard Francis Dick Nallin was an American football player and coach and baseball player and umpire. He served as football coach at Villanova College—now known as Villanova University—in 1899. Nallin a Major League Baseball umpire from 1915 to 1932 for the American League and he umpired the 1923 World Series and 1931 World Series. During his umpiring career, he was home plate umpire for three no-hitters, Ernie Koobs on May 5,1917, Bob Grooms the very next day, and Charlie Robertsons perfect game on April 30,1922. As of the end of the 2010 season, only two umpires have called balls and strikes for two no-hitters in the same month, Bill Dinneen in September 1923 and Bill Deegan in May 1977. He was also the umpire during Ty Cobbs final game on September 11,1928. List of Major League Baseball umpires Dick Nallin at the College Football Data Warehouse Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
6.
Charley Moran
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After graduating, he became an assistant to Pop Warner at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Moran coached the University of Nashville football team in 1900 and 1901, the 1901 team was one of the Souths greatest. Moran played minor league baseball in 1902 for teams in Little Rock, Chattanooga, in 1903, Moran pitched for the National Leagues St. Louis Cardinals, who finished in last place, but he appeared in only three games before injuring his arm. He posted a 5.25 earned run average in his tenure of 24 innings, being charged with a loss without earning a win. He went back to the leagues to manage the Dallas Giants in 1904. He returned to the Cardinals as a catcher in 1908 and played in 21 games and his minor league career continued with teams in Milwaukee, Mobile, New Orleans, Dallas and Montgomery until he suffered a broken leg in 1912. He briefly played with teams in Chattanooga and Brunswick in 1913 before retiring as a player, after managing an Austin team in 1914, he began umpiring, in the Texas League in 1915–16 and the Southern Association in 1917. Moran began coaching football in 1909 at Texas A&M, where he accumulated a 38–8–4 record as coach over six seasons through 1914. This may be incorrect as he was elevated to head coach after the game of the 1909 season. He became a National League umpire in 1918, a job he held through the 1939 season and he officiated in four World Series, serving as crew chief on the last two occasions. He was behind the plate on May 8,1929 when Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants pitched an 11–0 no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Moran also resumed his career as a head coach in 1917 at Centre College. The first two games of the 1917 season were coached by Robert L, chief Myers, and the rest by Moran. According to Centre publications, Myers realized he was dealing with a group of exceptional athletes and he needed someone who could the team justice, and found that person in Charles Moran. His record including undefeated seasons in 1919 and 1921, when the team was led on the field by Hall of Fame quarterback Bo McMillin. On October 29,1921, Moran guided Centre College to a historic 6–0 upset of Harvard, the game, commonly appreviated C6-H0, was ranked the 3rd biggest upset in college football history by ESPN. During the 1921 season Moran began a friendship with future baseball commissioner Happy Chandler, Moran then moved to Bucknell University, where he had a 19–10–2 record from 1924 through 1926. He was co-coach with Ed Weir of the NFLs Frankford Yellow Jackets in 1927 and his final coaching job was at Catawba College from 1930 through 1933, where he had a 22–11–5 record
7.
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
8.
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
9.
Tony Lazzeri
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Anthony Michael Tony Lazzeri was an American professional baseball second baseman during the 1920s and 1930s, predominantly with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. He was part of the famed Murderers Row Yankee batting lineup of the late 1920s, along with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and he was also the first person to hit two grand slams in one game in 1936 vs Athletics. Lazzeri was born and raised in San Francisco, California and he dropped out of school to work with his father as a boilermaker, but at the age of 18, began to play baseball professionally. After playing in minor league baseball from 1922 through 1925, Lazzeri joined the Yankees in 1926 and he was a member of the original American League All-Star team in 1933. He was nicknamed Poosh Em Up by Italian-speaking fans, from a mistranslation of an Italian phrase meaning to hit it out. Lazzeri is one of only 14 major league players to hit for the natural cycle. Lazzeri was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1991, Lazzeri was born on December 6,1903, to Augustine and Julia Lazzeri, who had emigrated from Italy. They lived in the Cow Hollow district of San Francisco, at age 15, Lazzeri was expelled from school. He began to work with his father, earning $4.50 a day, Lazzeri also played semi-professional baseball and trained to become a prizefighter. A friend of Lazzeri convinced Duffy Lewis, who managed the Salt Lake City Bees of the Pacific Coast League, Lazzeri made the team, earning $250 a month as a utility infielder. He batted.192 in 45 games, and was demoted to the Peoria Tractors of the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League in 1923 to gain more experience, Lazzeri batted.248 with 14 home runs in 135 games for Peoria, before being recalled to Salt Lake City. Starting at shortstop for the Bees in 1924, Lazzeri batted.285 with 16 home runs. However, Lewis gave the starting role to Pinky Pittenger, and sent Lazzeri to the Lincoln Links of the Western League. Returning to Salt Lake City under new manager Oscar Vitt in 1925, Lazzeri batted.355 with 60 home runs and 222 runs batted in, the most RBIs in professional baseball history. That year he became one of what are today four Pacific Coast League hitters to have had a 30 home runs,30 stolen bases season, along with Joc Pederson, Frank Demaree, and Lefty ODoul. Though Salt Lake City had an agreement with the Chicago Cubs. The Cincinnati Reds passed on Lazzeri as well, bill Essick, a scout for the New York Yankees, convinced Ed Barrow, the Yankees general manager, to sign Lazzeri. Barrow agreed after receiving reports from other scouts, including Ed Holly and Paul Krichell
10.
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
11.
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
12.
Waite Hoyt
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He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. Hoyt was born in Brooklyn, New York to Addison and Louise Benedum Hoyt, despite being a Dodgers fan, he was signed to a professional contract by New York Giants manager John McGraw when he was but 15. Because of his youth, he was immediately nicknamed The Schoolboy Wonder. After a brief stint with the Giants, McGraw sent Hoyt to the minors for refinement, Hoyt soon returned to the majors, this time with the Boston Red Sox. His performance there attracted the attention of the Yankees, who acquired him in 1920. In his finest years with the Yankees,1927 and 1928, during his 21-year career, he won 10 or more games 12 times,11 of them consecutively. Hoyt pitched for eight years after leaving the Yankees in 1930, Hoyt finished his career with a win-loss record of 237–182 and an ERA of 3.59. By the time he retired in 1938, he had pitched the most victories in World Series history, as a vaudevillian, he appeared with many of the most well-known performers of the day, including Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, George Burns, and others. He kept in shape during the off-season by playing semi-pro basketball and he added to his repertoire by becoming an accomplished painter and writer. On August 16,1948, Hoyt paid tribute to Babe Ruth and he was well known as the pre-eminent authority on Babe Ruth, who for nearly 10 years was his teammate and in Ruths small inner-circle of friends. A longtime member of Alcoholics Anonymous, during the 1978 Old-Timers Day game, after joining A. A. he remained sober for more than 40 years. After retiring as a player, Hoyt went into broadcasting and he was heard on WMCA in New York City but left that station to begin a nightly quarter-hour program of sports news and commentary on WNEW in New York, beginning October 17,1938. During a stint as the host of Grandstand and Bandstand on WMCA, he tried to audition for the Yankees, the common view at the time was that former players did not have enough of a vocabulary to be successful broadcasters. However, Hoyt was well known for dressing down umpire George Moriarty when he missed a call by saying and you should be a traffic cop so you could stand in the middle of the street with a badge on your chest and insult people with impunity. Dodgers voice Red Barber, however, thought more of Hoyts abilities and hired him as color commentator and host of the pre-, after two years, he became the play-by-play voice of the Cincinnati Reds, a post he held for 24 years. He became as much a celebrity with the Reds as he was while a player and he was well known for calling games exclusively in past tense, which was and still is unusual for sportscasting. Where most baseball announcers would say, Heres the pitch, Hoyt would say, There was the pitch. He told author Curt Smith that he felt using past tense was accurate because as I speak to you, Hoyt shared radio play-by-play duties for the 1953 All-Star Game on the Mutual Network and the second 1960 All-Star Game on NBC
13.
Kiki Cuyler
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Hazen Shirley Kiki Cuyler was a Major League Baseball right fielder from 1921 until 1938 who later was inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Cuyler established a reputation as a hitter with great speed. He regularly batted.350 or higher and finished with a.321 lifetime batting average, in 1925 Cuyler hit 18 home runs and 102 RBI. Cuylers Pirates won the World Series that year, the time in his career that he contributed to a World Series winner. Cuyler was born in Harrisville, Michigan on August 30,1898 and he was one of six children born to George and Anna Cuyler. His father had come to the United States from Canada, Cuyler started his professional baseball career with the Bay City Wolves in 1920. He appeared briefly in the leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates over the next three seasons, but still spent the majority of each season in the minor leagues. He hit.340 in 1923 for the Nashville Vols of the Southern Association and he was promoted to the Pirates for his first full major league season in 1924. Two explanations have been given for the origin of Cuylers nickname, in the first version, he had been known as Cuy for a long time. When a fly ball was hit to the Nashville outfield and it was judged to be Cuylers play, the shortstop would call out Cuy, the echoed name caught on with Nashvilles fans. In the second explanation, Kiki Cuyler came from the players stuttering problem, in August 1925, Cuyler hit two inside-the-park home runs in a single game at Baker Bowl, the very compact baseball stadium in Philadelphia. Cuyler led the 1925 Pirates to a World Series title, the one of his career. In 1927, Cuyler was benched for nearly half the season because of a dispute with first-year manager Donie Bush, the Pirates again went to the World Series, but Cuyler did not play. That November, Cuyler was traded to the Chicago Cubs for Sparky Adams, between 1926 and 1930, the 1927 season was the only time that Cuyler did not lead the league in stolen bases. Between 1931 and his retirement in 1938, Cuyler never stole more than 16 bases in a season, though he hit for a.338 batting average and a league-leading 42 doubles in 1934, Cuyler was made a free agent by July 1935. He signed with the Cincinnati Reds, hitting.326 in 1936 and he was released after the 1937 season and signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers for his final season in 1938. Cuyler finished his career with a.321 batting average,128 home runs,1065 RBI and 328 stolen bases. He was a coach for the Cubs and Boston Red Sox during the 1940s and his remains are interred in Harrisville, Michigan, and the bar he owned still operates under his name
14.
Pie Traynor
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Harold Joseph Pie Traynor was an American professional baseball player, manager, scout and radio broadcaster. He played his entire Major League Baseball career as a third baseman with the Pittsburgh Pirates and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1948. Following the Second World War, Traynor was often cited as the greatest third baseman in MLB history, Traynor was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, to parents who had emigrated from Canada. He received his nickname as a child in Somerville, Massachusetts, because he frequented a grocery store, the store owner called him Pie Face, which was later shortened to Pie by his friends. Traynor began his baseball career in 1920 as a shortstop for the Portsmouth Truckers of the Virginia League. He was asked by a Boston Braves scout to work out with the team at Braves Field, Stallings ran Traynor off the field, telling him not to return. Traynor made his league debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the age of 21 on September 15,1920. He appeared in 10 games for the Pirates in 1921, and he posted a.336 batting average in 131 games for the Barons, but he committed 64 errors as a shortstop. Traynor became the Pirates regular third baseman in 1922, hitting for a.282 batting average with 81 runs batted in, following the advice of Rogers Hornsby, he began using a heavier bat in 1923 and blossomed into one of the best hitters in the National League. He hit above.300 for the first time with a.338 batting average along with 12 home runs and 101 runs batted in, with tutoring provided by teammate Rabbit Maranville, his defense also began to improve, leading National League third basemen in putouts and assists. In 1925, Traynor posted a.320 average with six runs,106 runs batted in. In the 1925 World Series, he hit.346 including a run off future Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson as the Pirates defeated the Washington Senators in a seven-game series. Traynor ended the season eighth in Most Valuable Player Award balloting and his 41 double plays in 1925 set an NL record for third basemen that stood for 25 years. The Pirates won the pennant again in 1927 with Traynor hitting.342 with five runs and 106 runs batted in. In November of that year, members of the Baseball Writers Association of America selected him as the third baseman for the 1927 all-star major league team. Traynor hit.337 and produced a career-high 124 runs batted in during the 1928 season despite hitting three home runs and finished in sixth place in the NL MVP Award balloting. He continued to be a cornerstone for the Pirates, posting a.356 batting average in 1929, Traynor hit for a career-high.366 average in 1930. A different baseball was used in MLB in 1931, and Traynors batting average decreased to.298, in 1933 MLB held its inaugural All-Star Game and, Traynor was selected as a reserve player for the NL team
15.
Lloyd Waner
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Lloyd James Waner, nicknamed Little Poison, was a Major League Baseball center fielder. His small stature at 5 ft 9 in and 132 lb made him one of the smallest players of his era, along with his brother, Paul Waner, he anchored the Pittsburgh Pirates outfield throughout the 1920s and 1930s. After brief stints with four other teams late in his career, Waner retired as a Pirate, Waner finished with a batting average over.300 in ten seasons. He earned a selection to the MLB All-Star Game in 1938, Lloyd and Paul Waner set the record for career hits by brothers in MLB. He was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1967 and he worked as a scout for the Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles after retiring as a player. Waner was born on March 16,1906 in Harrah, Oklahoma, the two worked from dawn to dusk every day, and baseball was their only form of entertainment. Influenced by their father, who was a league player in Oklahoma City, Paul and Lloyds love. The Waners learned to hit against corncobs and cut down saplings in the woods to use as bats, Lloyd graduated from McLoud High School and attended three semesters at East Central State University in Ada, Oklahoma before going into professional baseball. Waner started his baseball career in 1925 with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. He was offered a tryout for the Pirates at the urging of his brother, in 1926, he batted.345 in the Class B South Atlantic League. He also won the leagues most valuable player award, Waner broke into the major leagues with the Pirates in 1927 and quickly built his reputation as a slap hitter with an astute sense of plate discipline. In his rookie campaign, he batted.355 with 223 hits while striking out 23 times. As the leadoff hitter of the powerful Pittsburgh offense, he led the National League with 133 runs scored, the runs scored mark set an MLB rookie record. Al López said that infielders of the era played deep at their positions, the Pirates won the 1927 NL pennant, Waner then batted.400 in his first and only World Series, but the New York Yankees won in four games. He continued to bat well early in his career and he earned a record-setting 678 hits over his first three seasons. Waner finished in the top ten in MVP voting 1927 and 1929, coming off a.353 season in 1929, he missed most of the next year due to appendicitis. He had surgery for the condition in the winter, Waner had difficulty recovering from the surgery and re-entered the hospital in May. The Pittsburgh Press reported the fear that he might have to retire and he returned in 1931 and led the NL with 214 hits and 681 at-bats while hitting.314
16.
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
17.
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
18.
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
19.
Phillips Carlin
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Phillips Carlin was a radio broadcaster and television executive. Carlin started his career with the New York radio station. He teamed up with Graham McNamee to announce the 1926,1927 and 1928 World Series and he later announced The Atwater Kent Hour, The Goodrich Hour and The Palmolive Hour. Afterwards, he served as the Eastern program manager and vice president in charge of programs for NBC, Carlin conceived the idea for Queen for a Day, a prize giveaway television show that served as the forerunner to reality television. Afterwards, he worked as a production representative for advertising agencies. Carlin served in the U. S. Navy during World War I. Phillips Carlin,77, Television Executive
20.
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
21.
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
22.
1928 World Series
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In the 1928 World Series, the New York Yankees swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games. This was the first time a team had swept consecutive Series, babe Ruth hit.625 as the Yankees demolished their opponents by a combined score of 27 to 10. Unlike 1926, however, it occurred in the game of a Series won by the Yanks. Lou Gehrig also had a good Series and he drove in as many runs by himself as the entire Cardinal team combined. Bill McKechnie became the manager to lead two different teams to the World Series, and like Pat Moran, won one and lost one. AL New York Yankees vs. NL St. Louis Cardinals The Cards led 2–1 in the top of the seventh, quick pitches were legal in the National League, but not in the American League or the World Series. So NL plate umpire Cy Pfirman called no pitch, touching off an argument with the Cardinals they couldnt win. Ruth then took two balls to even the count at 2–2 before homering to tie the game at two apiece, gehrigs ensuing back-to-back home run, his fourth of the Series, gave the Yanks a lead they never relinquished. They scored twice more in the seventh, and Ruth capped things off with his third homer of the game in the two-run Yankee eighth. But Ruth merely kept running right into the dugout, holding the ball in the air, in 1930, Ruth called this game the biggest thrill of his career. 1928 World Series, New York Yankees over St. Louis Cardinals Cohen, Richard M. Neft, the World Series, Complete Play-By-Play of Every Game, 1903–1989. Archived from the original on 2008
23.
National League
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Both leagues currently have 15 teams. The two league champions of 1903 arranged to compete against each other in the inaugural World Series, after the 1904 champions failed to reach a similar agreement, the two leagues formalized the World Series as an arrangement between the leagues. National League teams have won 48 of the 112 World Series contested from 1903 to 2016, the 2016 National League champions are the Chicago Cubs. By 1875, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was dangerously weak, additionally, Hulbert had a problem—five of his star players were threatened with expulsion from the NAPBBP because Hulbert had signed them to his club using what were considered questionable means. Hulbert had a vested interest in creating his own league. After recruiting St. Louis privately, four western clubs met in Louisville, Kentucky, Boston Red Stockings, the dominant team in the N. A. Hartford Dark Blues from the N. A. Mutual of New York from the N. A. St. Louis Brown Stockings from the N. A, the only strong club from 1875 excluded in 1876 was a second one in Philadelphia, often called the White Stockings or Phillies. The first game in National League history was played on April 22,1876, at Philadelphias Jefferson Street Grounds, 25th & Jefferson, the new leagues authority was tested after the first season. The National League operated with six clubs during 1877 and 1878, over the next several years, various teams joined and left the struggling league. By 1880, six of the eight members had folded. The two remaining original NL franchises, Boston and Chicago, remain in operation today as the Atlanta Braves, in 1883 the New York Gothams and Philadelphia Phillies began National League play. Both teams remain in the NL today, the Phillies in their original city, the NL encountered its first strong rival organization when the American Association began play in 1882. The A. A. played in cities where the NL did not have teams, offered Sunday games and alcoholic beverages in locales where permitted, the National League and the American Association participated in a version of the World Series seven times during their ten-year coexistence. These contests were less organized than the modern Series, lasting as few as three games and as many as fifteen, with two Series ending in disputed ties, the NL won four times and the A. A. only once, in 1886. Starting with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1887, the National League began to raid the American Association for franchises to replace NL teams that folded and this undercut the stability of the A. A. Other new leagues that rose to compete with the National League were the Union Association, the Union Association was established in 1884 and folded after playing only one season, its league champion St. Louis Maroons joining the NL. The NL suffered many defections of star players to the Players League, the Brooklyn, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New York franchises of the NL absorbed their Players League counterparts. The labor strife of 1890 hastened the downfall of the American Association, after the 1891 season, the A. A. disbanded and merged with the NL, which became known legally for the next decade as the National League and American Association
24.
American League
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The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League, is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a league based in the Great Lakes states. It is sometimes called the Junior Circuit because it claimed Major League status for the 1901 season,25 years after the formation of the National League. At the end of season, the American League champion plays in the World Series against the National League champion. Through 2016, American League teams have won 64 of the 112 World Series played since 1903, the 2016 American League champions are the Cleveland Indians. The New York Yankees have won 40 American League titles, the most in the history, followed by the Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland Athletics. Originally a minor league known as the Western League, the American League later developed into a major league after the American Association disbanded, in its early history, the Western League struggled until 1894, when Ban Johnson became the president of the league. Johnson led the Western League into major league status and soon became the president of the newly renamed American League, babe Ruth, noted as one of the most prolific hitters in Major League Baseball history, spent the majority of his career in the American League. The American League has one notable difference versus the National League, in 1902, the Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis and were renamed the St. Louis Browns. In 1902, The Cleveland Bluebirds were also renamed the Cleveland Broncos, in 1903, the Broncos were renamed the Cleveland Naps. In 1915, the Naps were renamed the Cleveland Indians, in 1903, the Baltimore Orioles moved to New York and were renamed the New York Highlanders. In 1913, the Highlanders were renamed the New York Yankees, in 1904, the Chicago White Stockings were renamed the Chicago White Sox. In 1908, the Boston Americans were renamed the Boston Red Sox, in 1954, the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and were renamed as the Baltimore Orioles. In 1955, the Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City and were renamed as the Kansas City Athletics, in 1961, the league expanded and added two teams as the Los Angeles Angels and the Washington Senators, expanding the league to 10 teams. The original Senators team moved to Minneapolis/St, Paul in 1961 and were renamed as the Minnesota Twins. The Angels team name changed to the California Angels in 1966, then to the Anaheim Angels in 1997, the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Pilots were added to the American League, expanding the league to 12 teams. In 1970, the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee and were renamed the Milwaukee Brewers, in 1972, the Washington Senators relocated to the Dallas/Fort Worth area and were renamed the Texas Rangers. In 1977, the league expanded to fourteen teams, when the Seattle Mariners, in 1998, the Tampa Bay Rays was added to the American League and at the same time, the Milwaukee Brewers were switched to the National League, leaving the American League with 14 teams
25.
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
26.
Bob Meusel
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Robert William Meusel was an American baseball left and right fielder who played in Major League Baseball for eleven seasons from 1920 through 1930, all but the last for the New York Yankees. Meusel, noted for his strong throwing arm, batted fifth behind Baseball Hall of Famers Babe Ruth. In 1925, he became the second Yankee, after Ruth, to lead the AL in the offensive categories, home runs, runs batted in. Meusel ended his career in 1930 with the Cincinnati Reds and he hit for the cycle three times, and was the second of four major leaguers to accomplish this feat as many as three times during a career. His older brother, Emil Irish Meusel, was an outfielder in the National League during the same period. Meusel was born in San Jose, California, the youngest of Charlie, at an early age he moved to Los Angeles, where he attended Los Angeles High School. Meusel started his career with the Vernon Tigers of the Pacific Coast League in 1917 and he joined the US Navy during World War I and played for the Navy baseball team. He went back to the Tigers for the 1919 season, batting.330 and he also played third base in the minors. On December 14,1921, Meusel married Edith Cowan, with whom he had one daughter, Meusels contract was purchased by the New York Yankees in early 1920. After a productive spring training, Meusel replaced future Hall of Famer Frank Baker at third base and he played his first game on April 14,1920. In his rookie season, Meusel had a.328 batting average with 11 home runs and 83 runs batted in over 119 games and he finished fourth in the league in doubles with 41 while sharing time with Duffy Lewis in left field. In the 1921 season, Meusel started in 149 out of 154 games and he batted.318, finishing second in the league in home runs with 24 and third in the league with 136 runs batted in. He hit for the cycle in a win against the Washington Senators on May 7, in the second game of a September 5 doubleheader, he tied a major league record for outfielders by recording four assists. He broke a record and tied Jack Tobin of the St. Louis Browns for the league lead in outfield assists with 28. Meusels brother, Irish, was acquired by the New York Giants from the Philadelphia Phillies mid-season, the two brothers played against each other in the 1921 World Series, where the Giants faced their tenants. Bob Meusel stole home in Game 3 of the Series and he doubled in Babe Ruth for the winning run in Game 5 for a one-game lead, but the Yankees lost the next three games and the Series. His batting average in eight games was a mere.200. At the same time, Meusel, Bill Piercy, and Ruth signed up to play in a barnstorming tour and it was a violation of baseball rules at the time, and Meusel and Ruth had previously been warned about playing with the tour
27.
Urban Shocker
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Urban James Shocker, born Urbain Jacques Shockcor in Cleveland, Ohio, was a Major League Baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Browns from 1916 to 1928. As a prelude to his league career, Shocker spent most of the 1916 season demoted by the Yankees to Toronto of the International League for seasoning. Shocker posted a marvelous 15–3 and strung together 54 consecutive scoreless innings and his scoreless inning streak and 1.31 ERA for the campaign both still stand as International League records. He was called up by the Yankees and played with them through the 1917 season and that winter, Miller Huggins engineered a trade to the Browns that he came to regret. Shocker rejoined Huggins and the Yankees in 1925, the right-handed hurler had four consecutive 20-win seasons with the Browns in the early 1920s, during which he was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. Urban was the last Yankee pitcher to throw a spitball, as he. Shocker lived with a heart condition so severe that some say that he had to sleep either sitting or standing up. By the early fall of 1927, he was too ill to maintain his place in the starting lineup, after his release from the Yankees in 1928, Shocker entered an exhibition tournament in Denver. He pitched in one game on August 6,1928 against a team from Cheyenne, Wyoming, around this time, he contracted pneumonia and was hospitalized shortly thereafter. He died in Denver as the result of heart failure exacerbated by the disease
28.
Dutch Ruether
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Walter Henry Ruether was an American baseball player who pitched for five different Major League teams. In his 11-year career, Ruether played for the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Brooklyn Robins, the Washington Senators, and the New York Yankees. He appeared in the 1919 World Series with the Reds, in the 1925 World Series with the Senators, Ruether was also a member of the 1927 Yankees. Though that team played in the 1927 World Series, Ruether did not participate in any of the games, on March 10,1913, St. Ignatius participated in an exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox. Ruether, a left-hander, pitched in the game for St. Ignatius, in the ninth-inning, White Sox shortstop Buck Weaver hit a 3-run home run off Ruether. This secured the victory for the White Sox, and Ruether lost the contest 4–2, Ruether parlayed his strong outing into a try-out with the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League. After reporting to Hot Springs, Arkansas for the Pirates training camp, the contract stated that Ruether could opt out if the Pirates attempted to assign him to a Minor league farm team. The Pirates did just that, and consequently, Ruether left the organization, after he left the Pirates, Ruether went to play in the Northwest League. He spent the 1914 season and the 1915 season with the Vancouver Beavers, in 1916, Ruether moved to the Spokane Indians. That team went on to win the pennant, in 1917, Ruether signed with the Chicago Cubs. He made his Major League debut in April of that year, after he had appeared in 10 games for the Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds selected Ruether off waivers on July 17,1917. After finishing the 1917 season, Ruether enlisted in the United States Army due to the out of World War I. In 1919, Ruether rejoined the Reds and he won nineteen games that season and the Reds made the 1919 World Series. Though Cincinnati won the series, it has become infamous for the Black Sox Scandal, Ruether spent the 1920 season with the Reds. On December 15 of that year, the Reds traded Ruether to the Brooklyn Robins in exchange for Rube Marquard and he spent the next four seasons as a pitcher for the Robins. During the 1924 season, Ruether suffered from arm problems, after an apparent dispute with Charles Ebbets, the Robins owner, the Washington Senators purchased Ruether from the Robins. Ruether spent the year and a half with the Senators before the team traded him to the New York Yankees on August 27,1926 While with the Senators. Although he was a pitcher, Ruether did not pitch in the series, instead, he was used as a pinch hitter and recorded one at-bat
29.
George Pipgras
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George William Pipgras was an American right-handed starting pitcher and umpire in Major League Baseball. Known as The Danish Viking, he spent most of his career with the New York Yankees. He spent the 1925 and 1926 seasons in the minor leagues, Pipgras lead the American League in wins with a 24–13,3.38 ERA record for the following years 1928 repeat champions. After ending his 11-year career with the Boston Red Sox, he became an AL umpire from 1938 to 1946, greenberg convinced him that he could still see the ball, so the game proceeded. The next pitch was hit over the fence and the Tigers won the pennant and his younger brother Ed pitched briefly for the 1932 Brooklyn Dodgers. Pipgras was born in Ida Grove, Iowa, and served in World War I with the 25th Army Engineers and he started his major league career with the Yankees in the 1923 season after being acquired from the Red Sox, making 17 appearances in his first two years. Louis Cardinals as New York swept the NL champions for the second straight year and he was 18–12 as the Yankees slipped to second place in 1929, and 15–15 in 1930 with an AL-leading 3 shutouts. After a 7–6 season in 1931, he bounced back with a 16–7 mark for the 1932 AL champions, in that game, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig each hit a pair of home runs, including Ruths renowned Called Shot. In May 1933, Pipgras contract was sold back to the Red Sox, in an eleven-season career, he posted a 102–73 record with 714 strikeouts and a 4.09 earned run average in 1488-1/3 innings. In 1938 Pipgras joined the American League umpiring staff, on Opening Day at Yankee Stadium on April 20,1939, Pipgras worked as the third base umpire during a Red Sox-Yankees contest. Pipgras was the pitcher for the Yankees in 1929s Opening Day. According to historians, the feat set by Pipgras is a case unique in major league history. He went on to umpire in the 1944 World Series, as well as the 1940 All-Star Game and he also worked as a scout for the Red Sox. Pipgras died in Gainesville, Florida at the age of 86 and he was survived by his wife, Mattie Mae, who passed in 2013 at the age of 99
30.
Glenn Wright
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Forest Glenn Buckshot Wright, was a professional baseball player. He played all or part of seasons in Major League Baseball between 1924 and 1935, primarily as a shortstop. Wright played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Chicago White Sox, Wright was a standout minor league player for the Independence Producers in 1921, and for the Kansas City Blues in 1922-23. In his major league year, he set the record for most assists in a season which stood for 56 years. On May 7,1925, he recorded a triple play against the Cardinals, tagging out Jimmy Cooney and future Hall of Famers Jim Bottomley. That same year he came in 4th in NL MVP voting behind Hornsby, Kiki Cuyler and he was a member of the 1925 World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates, homering off Hall of Fame spitballer Stan Coveleski in Game Two. In 1927, Wright and the Pirates returned to the World Series but were swept in four games by the New York Yankees. In eleven career World Series games, Wright had only seven hits in 40 at-bats, Wright was traded to the Brooklyn Robins in 1928 and named team captain the following season. His tenure in Brooklyn coincided with the change from Brooklyn Robins to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1932. Considered a premier shortstop of his generation, Wright suffered an injury to his shoulder in 1929 which plagued him from then on. Despite his injury, Wright put up numbers in 1930, reaching career highs in batting average, runs batted in. He was released by the Dodgers after the 1933 season and rejoined the Blues for a season, in 1935, he was purchased from Kansas City by the White Sox, but was let go after hitting.120 in nine games. He continued to play in the leagues until 1939, mostly with the Wenatchee Chiefs of the International League. Wright finished his career with 1219 hits,94 home runs,723 runs batted in and he spent the years after his playing days ended as a scout working for the Boston Red Sox until his retirement in 1974. Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference 1923 Kansas City Blues SABR interview with Glenn Wright
31.
Joe Harris (first baseman)
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Joseph Joe Harris, nicknamed Moon, was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball. He was born in Coulter, Pennsylvania, in 1918, he was drafted into the United States Army. He served during World War I and was in an accident while serving. He suffered 2 broken legs,3 broken ribs, and a fractured skull and he did need plastic surgery to help fix his facial injury. In 1919, he was discharged due to injury from the army, at seasons end, he played for an industrial team, which offered him money and a business. Harris played with the team for the 1920 and 1921 seasons, by violating the reserve clause in his 1919 contract, Harris automatically was placed on organized baseballs ineligible list. Prior to the 1922 season, Harris applied for and was granted reinstatement by baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Harris died at age 68 in Plum, Pennsylvania. Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference
32.
George Grantham
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George Farley Boots Grantham was a Major League second baseman who played for the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Giants between 1922 and 1934. He attended Flagstaff High School and Northern Arizona University, after making his debut for the Cubs in the final week of the 1922 season, Grantham became their everyday second baseman in 1923, playing in a career-high 151 games and stealing 43 bases. Grantham hit over.300 every season from 1924 to 1931, during the same span, his on-base percentage was.408. He was traded by the Cubs after the 1924 season to the Pirates in a swap that sent future Hall of Famer Rabbit Maranville to Chicago. With Pittsburgh, he appeared in the 1925 and 1927 World Series and he hit.364 in the 27 Series against what some consider the greatest Major League team of all time, the 27 Yankees. In 1930 he hit.324, setting highs in hits, RBIs. In 1,444 career games, Grantham had 1,508 hits with a average of.302. Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference George Grantham at Find a Grave
33.
Clyde Barnhart
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Clyde Lee Barnhart was a right-handed outfielder and third baseman in Major League Baseball who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He attended Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, where he participated in college baseball, Barnhart made his major league debut on September 22,1920, with the Pirates at age 24. That year, Barnhart had an average of.326 in 46 at bats in 12 games. In 1921, Barnhart was promoted to a starter and that year he hit.258 in 449 at bats in 124 games. The Pirates, however, were not satisfied with his statistics, in 1922, Barnhart hit.330 in 209 at bats in 75 games, giving him the third highest batting average on the team. With those statistics, Barnhart was again promoted, in 1923, he hit.324 in 327 at bats in 114 games. Barnharts success continued, especially in 1925, when he had 114 runs batted in, in 1928, Barnhart was plagued with injuries, he recorded a.296 batting average in 196 at bats in 61 games. Barnharts last game was on August 23 of that year, at the time of his retirement, Barnhart had a career batting average of.295. He finished with 2673 at bats in 814 games and he drove in 436 runs during his career. Barnhart hit 27 home runs over the course of his career, Barnhart is the only major league player to get hits in three games in one day. He collected hits in game of a rare triple-header played on October 2,1920. He did this just 10 days after making his league debut. Career statistics, Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference
34.
Johnny Gooch
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John Beverley Gooch was an American professional baseball player, coach, minor league manager and scout. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1921 to 1933, born in Smyrna, Tennessee, Gooch began his professional baseball career in 1916 at the age of 18 with the Talladega Tigers of the Georgia–Alabama League. Gooch was also called into service and was aboard a train heading to the service when news of the Armistice broke. In 1918, Gooch tried out to play for the New Orleans Pelicans, despite this setback, the eager Gooch continued to show up for the teams practices. His eagerness to play finally convinced the Pelicans to sign him to a contract and he was sent to play in Cleveland and then to Mobile, where he was released. The Birmingham Barons then signed him after The Barons’ manager, Carlton Molesworth and it was in Birmingham where Gooch first played with future Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, Pie Traynor, and the two men developed a lifelong friendship. In 1920, he posted a.288 batting average in 136 games for the Barons, Gooch made his major league debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 9,1921 at the age of 22. Gooch had his best season offensively in 1922 when veteran catcher Walter Schmidt, held out for more pay and he posted a career-high.329 batting average in 105 games, and collected an extra-inning six-hit game, two four-hit games, and eight three-hit games. He also had 102 assists defensively, third best in the league, in 1925, he played as a backup catcher to Earl Smith while posting a.298 batting average along with 30 runs batted in to help the Pirates win the National League pennant. The Pirates then went on to defeat the Washington Senators in the 1925 World Series and he appeared in three games of series and went hitless in 3 at bats. Gooch played in 101 games in 1927 and had a career-high 48 runs batted in, however, they faced the powerful New York Yankees led by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the 1927 World Series and were defeated in four straight games. In 1928, the Pirates acquired future Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, Burleigh Grimes, Pirates manager, Donie Bush chose Gooch to be Grimes personal catcher, due to his previous experience at catching the tricky spitball. It was also reported that he had out of favor with the Pirates because of a salary dispute during the off-season. News reports surfaced in January 1929 that Gooch wasnt happy in Brooklyn after having spent so many years in Pittsburgh and that April, he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for Val Picinich. He experienced a rejuvenation by hitting for a.300 batting average in 92 games for the seventh-place Reds, after one more season with the Reds where his batting average dropped to.243, he was traded to the Nashville Volunteers in the Southern Association for Joe Cicero. He posted a.334 batting average in 117 games during the Volunteers 1932 season, in January 1933, he returned to the major leagues when his contract was bought by the Boston Red Sox. Goochs playing time was diminished when the Red Sox acquired catcher Rick Ferrell in May and he appeared in 37 games for the Red Sox and played in his final major league game on September 12,1933 at the age of 37. He had a fielding percentage of.973
35.
Lee Meadows
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Henry Lee Specs Meadows was a professional baseball player. He was a pitcher over parts of 15 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies. He was the National League wins leader in 1926 with Pittsburgh, for his career, he compiled a 188–180 record in 490 appearances, with a 3.37 ERA and 1063 strikeouts. Meadows played on two National League pennant winners with the Pirates, winning the 1925 World Series and he opposed future Hall of Famer Walter Johnson as the Game 1 starting pitchers of that 25 Series. He finished 0–2 in two appearances with a 6.28 ERA. Meadows currently ranks sixth in Pirates history with a.629 winning percentage, Meadows was one of the few players in the early 20th century who wore glasses in the field, earning him the nickname Specs. He was born in Oxford, North Carolina and ldied in Daytona Beach, list of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
36.
Ray Kremer
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Remy Peter Ray Kremer was a professional baseball player. He was a pitcher over parts of ten seasons, all with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kremer had a remarkable beginning to his big-league career. He posted an 18-10 record as a rookie in 1924, then followed that with seasons of 17-8, 20-6 and he was third in the vote for the National Leagues most valuable player in 1926. The Pirates won a pair of pennants during that stretch and he also made one start in the 1927 World Series, chosen to pitch Game 1 against a New York Yankees team thought by many to be the greatest baseball team of all time. He led the National League in ERA in both 1926 and 1927, Kremer put up some of the most impressive numbers of his career in 1930, leading the league in wins, games started and innings pitched. For his career, he compiled an 143–85 record in 308 appearances, kremers 143 wins with Pittsburgh rank him eighth in franchise history, his.627 winning percentage ranks seventh, and his 1, 954 2⁄3 innings pitched rank tenth. He was born in Oakland, California, and later died in Pinole, California, at the age of 71
37.
Carmen Hill
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Carmen Proctor Hill born in Royalton, Minnesota, was a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. He helped the Giants win the 1922 World Series, the Pirates win the 1927 National League Pennant, in addition, Hill won 202 minor league games over 14 seasons with 7 teams. Hill died in Indianapolis, Indiana at the age of 94, career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference Carmen Hill at Find a Grave
38.
Vic Aldridge
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Before his playing career he was a schoolmaster, hence his nickname. After his retirement from baseball, he served as a senator in the Indiana General Assembly. Aldridge is a member of the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame, born in the small country town of Cale, Indiana, Vic Aldridge attended the Tempy primary school in Cale, Indiana which was a short walk from his home. He attended high school in Trinity Springs, Indiana where he played baseball on the Trinity Springs team and he graduated from Trinity Springs, Indiana. He then attended Central Normal College in Danville, Indiana, in 1914–1915 he taught school at the Pea Ridge School in Trinity Springs, Indiana. He also taught school in Miami County Indiana and he was married to Cleta B. Wadsworth of Indian Springs, Indiana. Aldridge was a second or third starter throughout most of his career. He was known for his curveball and pinpoint accuracy and he began his pro career by signing a contract with Indianapolis of the American Association in 1915, but first played for Denver of the Western League and then Erie of the Central League. He played for Indianapolis in 1916 where he was scouted for the Chicago Cubs and he was sold to the Cubs on August 28,1916. Aldridge spent 1917 and 1918 with the Chicago Cubs, serving in the bullpen, in 1917 Aldridge played in thirty games, winning six games and losing six, with a 3.12 earned run average and two saves. In 1918 he played three games, pitching only twelve innings, before joining the United States Navy during the final year of World War I. After returning from the war, he played for the Los Angeles Angels, Aldridge returned to the Cubs for the 1922 season. He played the three years for Chicago, with consistent performances. In 1922,1923 and 1924 he played 36,30 and 32 games respectively, during this time his son Vic Aldridge, Jr. served unofficially as the Cubs batboy and even had a uniform donated by Mordecai Brown so he would look the part. In 1923 he was ejected from a game, Vic Aldridge was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates after the 1924 season on October 27,1924, along with George Grantham and Al Niehaus, for Wilbur Cooper, Charlie Grimm and Rabbit Maranville. The next year, Aldridge won fifteen games and lost seven and his finest moments were in the postseason that year when he pitched two complete game victories against the Washington Senators as the Pirates won the World Series. He won Game 2 of the series 3–2 on October 8, and Game 5 by a score of 6–3, Aldridge used the money from the World Series to buy a home in Terre Haute, Indiana. Aldridge also started the game on October 15
39.
Forbes Field
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Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28,1970. It was the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball team, and the first home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The stadium also served as the football field for the University of Pittsburgh Pitt Panthers from 1909 to 1924. The stadium was named after British general John Forbes, who fought in the French and Indian War, the US$1 million project was initiated by Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss, with the goal of replacing his franchises then-current home, Exposition Park. The stadium was made of concrete and steel in order to increase its lifespan, the Pirates opened Forbes Field on June 30,1909, against the Chicago Cubs, and would play the final game that was also against the Cubs on June 28,1970. The field itself featured a playing surface, with the batting cage placed in the deepest part of center field during games. Seating was altered multiple times throughout the life, at times fans were permitted to sit on the grass in the outfield during overflow crowds. The Pirates won three World Series while at Forbes Field and the original tenant, the Pittsburgh Panthers football team had five undefeated seasons before moving in 1924. Some remnants of the ballpark still stand, surrounded by the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, in 1903, Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss began to look for ground to build a larger capacity replacement for the teams then-current home, Exposition Park. Dreyfuss purchased seven acres of land near the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, adjacent to Schenley Park, with assistance from his friend, the low-priced land was selected so Dreyfuss could spend more on the stadium itself. Dreyfuss signed a contract that he would make the ballpark, of a design that would harmonize with the other structures in the Schenley Park district. The site was initially labeled Dreyfusss Folly due to its long distance—a 10-minute trolley ride—from downtown Pittsburgh, official Pirates records show that Forbes Field cost US$1 million for site acquisition and construction, however some estimates place the cost at twice that amount. Charles Wellford Leavitt, Jr. was contracted to design the stadiums grandstand, a civil engineer, Leavitt had founded an engineering and landscape architecture firm in 1897. He had gained experience in steel and concrete constructs while designing the Belmont, based on Dreyfuss architectural requirements, Leavitt presented a plan for Forbes Field—the only ballpark he would design. Initial work on the land began on January 1,1909, nicola Building Company built the stadium in 122 days and play began less than four months after ground was broken, on June 30. The facade of the stadium featured buff-colored terra cotta spelling out PAC for the Pittsburgh Athletic Company, the light green steelwork contrasted with the red slate of the roof. Some members of the press urged Dreyfuss to name the stadium after himself, however, the owner decided on Forbes Field, in honor of General John Forbes, who captured Fort Duquesne from the French in 1758 and rebuilt a new Fort Pitt at the site. In 1935, after Dreyfuss death, there was renewed media interest in renaming the stadium Dreyfuss Field, however, a monument to Dreyfuss was placed in center field just in front of the wall
40.
Yankee Stadium (1923)
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Yankee Stadium was a stadium located in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. It was the home ballpark of the New York Yankees, one of the citys Major League Baseball franchises, from 1923 to 1973, the stadium hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the home of the New York Giants football team from 1956 through the first part of the 1973–74 football season. It has also known as The Big Ballpark in The Bronx, The Stadium. The stadium was built from 1922 to 1923 for $2.4 million, Yankee Stadium opened for the 1923 MLB season and at the time, it was hailed as a one-of-a-kind facility in the country for its size. Over the course of its history, it one of the most famous venues in the United States, having hosted a variety of events. The stadium went through many alterations and playing surface configurations over the years, the condition of the facility worsened in the 1960s and 1970s, prompting its closing for renovation from 1974 to 1975. The renovation significantly altered the appearance of the venue and reduced the distance of the outfield fences, in 2006, the Yankees began building a new $2.3 billion stadium in public parkland adjacent to the stadium. The price included $1.2 billion in public subsidies, the design includes a replica of the frieze along the roof that was in Yankee Stadium. Monument Park, a Hall of Fame for prominent former Yankees, was relocated to the new stadium, Yankee Stadium closed following the 2008 baseball season and the new stadium opened in 2009, adopting the Yankee Stadium moniker. The original Yankee Stadium was demolished in 2010, two years after it closed, and the 8-acre site was converted into a park called Heritage Field, the new Yankee stadium opened in 2009 and is currently used by the NY Yankees. The Yankees had played at the Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan since 1913, however, relations between the two teams were rocky, with the Giants harboring resentment towards the Yankees. For the 1920 season, the Yankees acquired star slugger Babe Ruth and in his first year with his new team, by the middle of 1920, the Giants had issued an eviction notice to the Yankees, which was soon rescinded. In 1921, the Yankees won their first American League pennant and this exacerbated Giants owner Charles Stonehams resentment of the Yankees and reinforced his insistence that the Yankees find another place to play their home games. The Giants derisively suggested that the Yankees relocate to Queens or some other out-of-the-way place, tillinghast LHommedieu Huston and Jacob Ruppert, the Yankees owners since January 1915, decided to build their own stadium. They did so at considerable financial risk and speculation, Baseball teams typically played in 30, 000-seat facilities, but Huston and Ruppert invoked Ruths name when asked how the Yankees could justify a ballpark with 60,000 seats. The total bill for construction of the stadium was $2.5 million, Huston and Ruppert explored many areas for Yankee Stadium. Of the other sites being considered, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, consideration was also given to building atop railroad tracks on the West Side of Manhattan and to Long Island City, in Queens
41.
Eastern Time Zone
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Places that use Eastern Standard Time when observing standard time are 5 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. Eastern Daylight Time, when observing daylight saving time DST is 4 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, in the northern parts of the time zone, on the second Sunday in March, at 2,00 a. m. EST, clocks are advanced to 3,00 a. m. EDT leaving a one-hour gap, on the first Sunday in November, at 2,00 a. m. EDT, clocks are moved back to 1,00 a. m, southern parts of the zone do not observe daylight saving time. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 ruled that daylight saving time would run from the last Sunday of April until the last Sunday in October in the United States, the act was amended to make the first Sunday in April the beginning of daylight saving time as of 1987. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended daylight saving time in the United States beginning in 2007. So local times change at 2,00 a. m. EST to 3,00 a. m. EDT on the second Sunday in March, in Canada, the time changes as it does in the United States. However, a handful of communities unofficially observe Eastern Time because they are part of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area – Phenix City, Smiths Station, Lanett, and Valley. Florida, All of Florida is in the Eastern Time zone except for the portion of the Florida Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River, as the Eastern–Central zone boundary approaches the Gulf of Mexico, it follows the Bay/Gulf county line. Indiana, All of Indiana observes Eastern Time except for six counties in the Chicago metropolitan area. Kentucky, Roughly, the half of the state, including all of metropolitan Louisville, is in the Eastern Time Zone. Historically the entire state observed Central Time, when daylight saving time was first introduced, the Lower Peninsula remained on DST after it formally ended, effectively re-aligning itself into the Eastern Time Zone. The Upper Peninsula continued to observe Central Time until 1972, when all, Tennessee, Most of the eastern third of Tennessee is legally on Eastern Time. Eastern Time is also used somewhat as a de facto official time for all of the United States, since it includes the capital and the largest city. Major professional sports leagues also post all game times in Eastern time, for example, a game time between two teams from Pacific Time Zone will still be posted in Eastern time. Most cable television and national broadcast networks advertise airing times in Eastern time, national broadcast networks generally have two primary feeds, an eastern feed for Eastern and Central time zones, and a tape-delayed western feed for the Pacific Time Zone. The prime time is set on Eastern and Pacific at 8,00 p. m. with the Central time zone stations receiving the eastern feed at 7,00 p. m. local time. Mountain Time Zone stations receive a separate feed at 7,00 p. m. local time, as Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, during the summer months, it has its own feed at 7,00 p. m. local time
