1.
1939 Major League Baseball season
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The 1939 Major League Baseball season. April 20 – The Boston Red Sox show off their prize rookie Ted Williams before 30,278 in Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, after striking out twice, Williams collects a double off pitcher Red Ruffing, who wins 2–0. Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig makes an error, goes hitless, other notables in what will become a historic box score include Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey, Jimmie Foxx, Joe Cronin, Bobby Doerr, Red Rolfe, and losing pitcher Lefty Grove. The Yankees score their first run on a run by Dickey. Boston has baserunners in each inning, but Ruffing tosses just the opening day shutout in Yankees history. Four umpires work the game including third base umpire George Pipgras, april 21 – Ted Williams plays his first game at Fenway Park, scoring the first run for the Boston Red Sox on a Frankie Hayes passed ball, in a Boston 9–2 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics. April 23 – In a Philadelphia Athletics 12–8 win over the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees lose the game and DiMaggio will miss the next 35 games. April 30 – Lou Gehrig goes hitless in four at-bats against the Washington Senators and is now hitting just.143 this season and he had just played his 2, 130th consecutive major league game. No one knew it would be the very last of his career, may 4 – The mother of Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller watches her son pitch for the first time, against the Chicago White Sox. Chicago player Marv Owen fouled a pitch into the stands which knocked her out and she recovered, but would need stitches to close the wound. July 4 – Lou Gehrig day was held at Yankee Stadium, numerous people, including many from other major league teams, came forward to give Gehrig gifts and to shower praise on the dying slugger. The Yankees retired his uniform number 4, the first player in league history to be afforded that honor. Babe Ruth even showed up and ended their feud by giving his old teammate a hug. After the presentations, Gehrig approached the microphone, and addressed the crowd, Fans, yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been to ballparks for seventeen years and I have never received anything but kindness, july 25 – Yankees pitcher Atley Donald sets a league record for consecutive wins by a rookie, bringing his record to 12–0 with a 5–1 victory over the St. Louis Browns. July 26 – The New York Yankees tied a league record by scoring in every inning against the St. Louis Browns. Bill Dickey hit three home runs in the 14–1 win, august 9 – Red Rolfe of the New York Yankees started a streak of 18 consecutive games in which he scored at least one run. During those games, he scored a total of 30 runs, august 26 – The first Major League game to be televised occurs, when WXBS-TV broadcasts the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field
2.
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
3.
1876 in baseball
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After a tumultuous five-year existence, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players folded following the 1875 season. One of the new rules put into place by the new league was that all teams had to be located in cities that had a population of 75,000 or more. The initial NL season began with eight teams, and they were asked to play seventy games between April 22 and October 21, the NL is considered to be the first major league, although it has been argued that the NA can make that claim. National League, Chicago White Stockings Champions of the West, St. Louis Brown Stockings Four premier semi-professional teams were in play in 1876 and they were the Binghamton Crickets, the Columbus Buckeyes, the Pittsburgh Alleghenys and the Syracuse Stars. In competition against NL clubs these 4 semi-pro teams played 32 games – winning 16, losing 14, of the 60 players on these 4 semi-pro teams no fewer than 50 of them wound up playing in the National League over the next 5 seasons. Chicago White Stockings signed Cap Anson as a free agent, hartford Dark Blues signed Candy Cummings as a free agent. Boston Red Caps signed George Wright as a free agent, august 10,1876 – The New York Mutuals loaned Nealy Phelps to the Philadelphia Athletics. Phelps returned to the Mutuals on the same day, bryces Base Ball Guide General Ginsburg, Daniel E. The Fix Is in, A History of Baseball Gambling and Game Fixing Scandals, reiss, Steven A. Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Clubs, Volume 1. Specific 1876 season at baseball-reference. com Charltons Baseball Chronology at BaseballLibrary. com Year by Year History at Baseball-Almanac. com Retrosheet. org
4.
Braves Field
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Braves Field was a baseball park in the Northeastern United States, located in Boston. Today the site is home to Nickerson Field on the campus of Boston University, the stadium was home of the Boston Braves of the National League from 1915–1952, prior to the Braves move to Milwaukee in 1953. The stadium hosted the 1936 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and Braves home games during the 1948 World Series, the Boston Red Sox used Braves Field for their home games in the 1915 and 1916 World Series since the stadium had a larger seating capacity than Fenway Park. Braves Field was the site of Babe Ruths final season, playing for the Braves in 1935, from 1929 to 1932, the Boston Red Sox played select regular season games periodically at Braves Field. On May 1,1926, Braves Field hosted the longest baseball game in history –26 Innings, the game ended in a 1-1 tie. Braves Field was also home to professional football teams between 1929 and 1948, including the first home of the National Football League franchise that became the Washington Redskins. C. Located on Commonwealth Avenue at Babcock Street, the field was aligned northeast. Most of the stadium was demolished in 1955, but significant portions of the structure still stand. While built for baseball and having a baseball history, Braves Field briefly served as host for football teams. Braves Field was one of two homes of the Boston Bulldogs of the first American Football League and the Boston Shamrocks of the second AFL, the National Football Leagues Pottsville Maroons were sold and relocated to Braves Field in 1929 as the Boston Bulldogs. In 1932, Braves Field became home of the football Boston Braves, the next year, after a 4-4-2 season, the Boston Braves Football franchise moved to Fenway Park and changed its name to the Redskins. In 1937 the franchise relocated and become todays Washington Redskins, later, the Boston Yanks played a few games at Braves Field when Fenway Park was unavailable. Before the Braves became the first modern-era franchise to relocate, in 1952, before Braves Field, the franchise had played at South End Grounds, with play at Congress Street Grounds in 1894 while South End Grounds was rebuilt following the May 5,1894 Roxbury Fire. Shortly after the Boston Red Sox opened Fenway Park in 1912, Braves owner James Gaffney purchased the former Allston Golf Club, construction of the $600,000 Braves Field began on March 20,1915 and was completed before the end of the 1915 season. The park was constructed entirely of steel and an estimated 8 million pounds of concrete, Braves Field officially opened on August 18,1915 with 46,000 in attendance to see the Braves defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1. Braves Park was the largest stadium built in that era, with 40,000 capacity, Braves Field was nicknamed The Wigwam by fans. Later it was nicknamed The Bee Hive and the changed to National League Park, from 1936–1941. The renaming of the team and stadium were both eventually dropped, during this span, it hosted the fourth Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1936
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Boston
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies
6.
Casey Stengel
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Charles Dillon Casey Stengel, nicknamed The Old Perfessor, was an American Major League Baseball right fielder and manager. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, Stengel was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and originally nicknamed Dutch, a common nickname at that time for Americans of German ancestry. In the 1950s, sportswriters dubbed him with yet another nickname, The Old Professor, for his sharp wit, although his baseball career spanned a number of teams and cities, he is primarily associated with clubs in New York City. Between playing and managing, he is the person to have worn the uniforms of all four of New Yorks major league clubs. He was the first of four men to both the New York Yankees and New York Mets. Like Joe Torre, he managed the Braves and the Dodgers. Stengel ended his career as the beloved manager for the then expansion New York Mets. Stengel was born on July 30,1890, in Kansas City and he played sandlot baseball as a child, and also played baseball, football and basketball at Central High School. His basketball team won the city championship, while the team won the state championship. Stengel had no vision of sports as a long-term profession. As described in his autobiography, on pages 58 and 75–76 and he had some problems due to the lack of left-handed instruments and the training was a struggle. Stengel signed a contract with the Kansas City Blues of the Class AAA American Association, considered the best minor league and he struggled as a pitcher, leading manager Danny Shay to play Stengel as an outfielder. Kansas City optioned Stengel to the Kankakee Kays of the Class D Northern Association and he had a.251 batting average with Kankakee when the league folded in July. He spent the remainder of the 1910 season with the Shelbyville Grays / Maysville Rivermen of the Class D Blue Grass League, Stengel attended Western Dental College in the offseason, which provided Stengel with enough negotiating leverage to receive a raise from Kansas City for the 1911 season. The Blues assigned Stengel to the Aurora Blues of the Class C Wisconsin–Illinois League and he led the league with a.351 batting average. Brooklyn Dodgers scout Larry Sutton noticed Stengel, and the Dodgers signed Stengel in 1911 and they assigned Stengel to the Montgomery Rebels of the Class A Southern Association for the 1912 season. Playing for manager Kid Elberfeld, Stengel batted.290 and led the league in outfield assists and he also developed a reputation as an eccentric player. Scout Mike Kahoe referred to Stengel as a ballplayer
7.
WVEI (AM)
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WVEI is an AM radio station in Worcester, Massachusetts, operating on 1440 kHz with 5,000 watts. The station is owned by Entercom Communications, and has an all-sports format, most programming is provided by Boston sister station WEEI-FM. The station that now operates as WVEI originated in Boston as WBET, the station of the Boston Evening Transcript. The station was authorized with 100 watts on 780 kHz, however. The city of license was changed to Medford in February 1928, the new owners moved the station to Lexington and transferred the WLEX call letters from its new sister station. On March 20,1930 the station moved to 1410 kHz and was still time-share, by 1938, WAAB studios were located at 21 Brookline Avenue. On January 26,1937, the ownership of WAAB and WNAC was consolidated under the Yankee Network, as a result of the NARBA frequency shift, WAAB moved to 1440 kHz on March 29,1941. In late 1942, Shepard moved WAAB to Worcester to avoid anti-duopoly rules, though this gave Shepard his long-desired Worcester station, ownership of the two stations was broken-apart in 1943. On June 15,1961 it started an FM sister station, WAAB-FM, as early as 1948, the station was broadcasting with 5,000 watts. In the 1950s and 1960s 14-40 WAAB was a Top-40 radio station and my first air name, in fact, Stephen Kane. Best of all I was given plenty of latitude, at this point I was so engrossed in my new work I was completely oblivious to the upheaval going on across the country and indeed in radio. A progressive music show—Cream, The Doors, The Mothers of Invention—premiered at night hosted by Jeff Starr while we continued our Ron Landryesque comedy in the A. M and it seems that just like almost all of my gigs the good times werent to last. In the early 1970s, WAAB began to shift to a talk format, a local sports talk show, Sportsbeat, was added in the evening with former Boston Bruins TV voice, Don Earle. Bob Merman, who later had a laryngectomy from throat cancer, in the fall of 1971, WAAB replaced the Don Earle show with an ambitious nightly news block to 7,00 pm, anchored by Ron Parshley and Mike Cabral. A news correspondent for this program was Paul Del Colle, a senior at Holy Cross, who assumed news anchor duties for the Bob Mermans talk show, which ended at 11,00 pm. Bob Merman was later replaced by the Wizard of WAAB, the above-named Parshley, Paul Del Colle eventually became a professor of communications and earned his Ph. D. at New York University. Mike Cabral left WAAB to become the News Director at WGNG in Pawtucket, R. I. about 1972 or 73, WAAB switched to a full-time news/talk format with the All News Morning Journal and the All-News Afternoon Journal during drive times. In the newsroom were Forest Sawyer, Bob Parlante, Aviva Diamond, John Sterns, Dave Brown, the stations emphasis shifted to news programming, with the entirety of the stations staff being news staff
