1.
1955 World Series
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The 1955 World Series matched the Brooklyn Dodgers against the New York Yankees, with the Dodgers winning the Series in seven games to capture their first championship in franchise history. It would be the only Series the Dodgers won in Brooklyn and this Series also marked the end of a long period of invulnerability for the Yankees in World Series. It was the Yankees first loss in a World Series since 1942, while the Yankees were 15–2 in Series appearances during that time, they would lose again in 1957,1960,1963, and 1964, for a record of 4–5 in World Series over the next decade. NL Brooklyn Dodgers vs. AL New York Yankees The Yankees took Game 1 behind two homers from Joe Collins and one by rookie Elston Howard in his first World Series at bat. Carl Furillo homered for Brooklyn and Duke Snider hit his first of the Series, Jackie Robinson stole home, but Whitey Ford won with relief help in the ninth from Bob Grim. Tommy Byrne tossed a complete game victory and singled in New Yorks final run during the Yanks big four-run fourth inning, putting New York up 2–0. Johnny Podres went all the way and won with home run help from Roy Campanella, a limping Mickey Mantle hit his only home run of the Series. This was the last World Series game to place in the month of September. Brooklyn evened the Series at 2–2 as Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, sunday, October 2,1955, at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York Duke Snider hit two home runs and Sandy Amorós helped the Dodgers beat the Yankees for the third straight day. Dodgers rookie Roger Craig won in his first World Series start, Bob Cerv and Yogi Berra hit Yankee homers off Craig and reliever Clem Labine. Snider became the player from either league with four home runs in two different Series. Whitey Ford held the Dodgers to four hits and a run while striking out eight as the Yankees evened the series at 3–3. New York scored all five runs in the first inning, led by Bill Skowrons three-run blast, the Dodgers scored one run in the fourth and sixth innings on a single and sac fly, both by Gil Hodges. Amorós then threw to Pee Wee Reese and Reese relayed to Gil Hodges and this stymied possibly the Yankees best chance of the day. Elston Howard grounded out to Reese for the out, the two shared the dubious record for playing in the most losing World Series. This would be the time in Jackie Robinsons career when he did not play in his teams World Series game. Don Hoak replaced Robinson in the line-up, and played third base, for the first time in Series history, an MVP was selected—Johnny Podres. He was 2–0, with two games and an ERA of 1.00, Game 7 was a shutout
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.
Ebbets Field
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Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City. It is known mainly as the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League, from 1913 to 1957, Ebbets Field was demolished in 1960 and replaced by apartment buildings. Ebbets Field was bounded by Bedford Avenue on the east, Sullivan Place on the South, Cedar Street on the west, and Montgomery Street on the north. The land included the site of a garbage dump called Pigtown, because of the pigs that once ate their fill there and the stench that filled the air. Construction began on March 4,1912, and the cornerstone, a piece of Connecticut granite that held newspapers, pictures of players, cards, telegrams. At the cornerstone laying ceremony, Ebbets said that the ballpark was going to be ready for play on September 1, when the park was opened, it was discovered that the flag, keys to the bleachers, and a press box had all been forgotten. The press box level was not added until 1929, the seating area was initially a double deck from past third base, around home plate, and all the way down the right side. There was an open, concrete bleacher stand extending the rest of the way down the base side to the outer wall. The right field wall was high due to the short foul line necessitated by the street immediately beyond it. The ballpark was built on a piece of ground. The right field wall made up the difference, as the right corner was above street level. The left field corner was below street level, and there was an incline or terrace running along the field wall. Ebbets Field was the scene of early successes, as the Robins. The seating area was expanded in the 1920s, a time for baseball when many ballparks were expanded. By the 1940s, a big scoreboard had been installed in right field, however, additional rows of seating across left field reduced that area by about 15 feet, to the delight of right-handed sluggers. The parks first night game was played on June 15,1938, johnny Vander Meer of the visiting Cincinnati Reds pitched his second consecutive no-hitter in that game, a feat that has never been duplicated in Major League Baseball. It was also in 1938 that Hilda Chester, one of the earlier sports superfans became a regular attendee when Larry MacPhail brought Ladies Days to Ebbets Field, after the early successes of the Dodgers, the team slid into hard times. The Dodgers won pennants in 1941,1947,1949,1952,1953,1955 and 1956, Ebbets Field also hosted the 1949 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
4.
Brooklyn
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Brooklyn is the most populous borough of New York City, with a Census-estimated 2,636,735 residents in 2015. It borders the borough of Queens at the end of Long Island. Today, if New York City dissolved, Brooklyn would rank as the third-most populous city in the U. S. behind Los Angeles, the borough continues, however, to maintain a distinct culture. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves, Brooklyns official motto, displayed on the Borough seal and flag, is Eendraght Maeckt Maght which translates from early modern Dutch as Unity makes strength. Since 2010, Brooklyn has evolved into a hub of entrepreneurship and high technology startup firms. The history of European settlement in Brooklyn spans more than 350 years, the neighborhood of Marine Park was home to North Americas first tidal mill. It was built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today, however, the area was not formally settled as a town. Many incidents and documents relating to this period are in Gabriel Furmans early compilation, what is today Brooklyn left Dutch hands after the final English conquest of New Netherland in 1664, a prelude to the Second Anglo–Dutch War. The English reorganized the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island as Kings County on November 1,1683 and this tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a later expansive idea of Brooklyn identity. On August 27,1776 was fought the Battle of Long Island, the first major engagement fought in the American Revolutionary War after independence was declared, and the largest of the entire conflict. British troops forced Continental Army troops under George Washington off the heights near the sites of Green-Wood Cemetery, Prospect Park. The fortified American positions at Brooklyn Heights consequently became untenable and were evacuated a few days later, One result of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 was the evacuation of the British from New York City, celebrated by residents into the 20th century. The New York Navy Yard operated in Wallabout Bay for the entire 19th century, the first center of urbanization sprang up in the Town of Brooklyn, directly across from Lower Manhattan, which saw the incorporation of the Village of Brooklyn in 1817. Reliable steam ferry service across the East River to Fulton Landing converted Brooklyn Heights into a town for Wall Street. Ferry Road to Jamaica Pass became Fulton Street to East New York, Town and Village were combined to form the first, kernel incarnation of the City of Brooklyn in 1834. Industrial deconcentration in mid-century was bringing shipbuilding and other manufacturing to the part of the county. Each of the two cities and six towns in Kings County remained independent municipalities, and purposely created non-aligning street grids with different naming systems and it later became the most popular and highest circulation afternoon paper in America. The publisher changed to L. Van Anden on April 19,1842, on May 14,1849 the name was shortened to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, on September 5,1938 it was further shortened to Brooklyn Eagle
5.
Walter O'Malley
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Walter Francis OMalley was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. For this, he was vilified by Brooklyn Dodgers fans. However, Pro-OMalley parties describe him as a visionary for the same business action and he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to and influence on the game of baseball amidst allegations that his family donated money to get him into the Hall of Fame. OMalleys Irish father, Edwin Joseph OMalley, was politically connected, first, he became an entrepreneur involved in public works contracting, and then he became an executive with the Dodgers. He progressed from being a lawyer to being both the Dodgers owner and president, and he eventually made the business decision to relocate the Dodgers franchise. Although he moved the franchise, OMalley is known as a businessman whose major philosophy was stability through loyalty to, OMalley ceded the team presidency to his son, Peter, in 1970 but retained the titles of owner and chairman of the Dodgers until his death in 1979. He bequeathed the team to his children Peter OMalley and Therese OMalley Seidler upon his death in 1979, Walter OMalley was the only child of Edwin Joseph OMalley, who worked as a cotton goods salesman in the Bronx in 1903. Edwin OMalley later became the Commissioner of Public Markets for New York City, OMalley grew up as a Bronx-born New York Giants fan. He frequently attended Giants games at the Polo Grounds with his uncle Clarence, OMalley was a Boy Scout who rose to the rank of Star. OMalley attended Jamaica High School in Queens from 1918 to 1920, at Culver, his baseball career was ended with a baseball that hit him on the nose. Later, he attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1926 as the senior class Salutatorian, at Penn, he was initiated into Theta Delta Chi, and he also served as president of the Phi Deuteron Charge. Upon his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and he was also Junior and Senior class president. Edwin OMalleys dry goods business was failing and Walter had to run the business. On September 5,1931, he married Katherine Elizabeth Kay Hanson and they had two children, Therese OMalley Seidler and Peter OMalley. Kay had been diagnosed with cancer in 1927 before the engagement and had to have her larynx removed. She was unable to speak above a whisper the rest of her life, Edwin OMalley encouraged Walter to break off his engagement, and after Walter refused his parents did not attend the wedding. OMalley was a smoker, who golfed occasionally, but more commonly gardened for recreation, in 1944, he remodelled his parents summer house in Amityville, New York and relocated his family there from Brooklyn. The house was next door to the house Kay had grown up, as a family man, he attended church regularly, attended Peters football games at LaSalle Academy, chaperoned his daughters dances
6.
Buzzie Bavasi
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Emil Joseph Buzzie Bavasi was an American executive in Major League Baseball who played a major role in the operation of three franchises from the late 1940s through the mid-1980s. He was previously a key figure in the integration of minor baseball in the late 1940s while working for the Dodgers organization. His sons Peter Bavasi and Bill Bavasi have also served as big league general managers, born Emil Joseph Bavasi in Manhattan, New York City, his sister Iola nicknamed him Buzzie because his mother said he was always buzzing around. Bavasi was raised in Scarsdale, New York by Joseph and Sue Bavasi, Joseph, his immigrant father, was a newspaper distributor. He went to school at Fordham Preparatory School, in the Bronx, with Fred Frick. He attended DePauw University, in Greencastle, Indiana, where he was a catcher, at DePauw he roomed with Fred Frick, and Ford Frick recommended Bavasi for office boy position for the Dodgers to Larry MacPhail. In 1941 he moved to Durham, North Carolina Class B team of the Dodgers and married his wife, after being drafted, he won a Bronze Star Medal in the Italian Campaign of World War II as machine-gunner in the United States Army. In late 1945, after serving 18 months, Staff Sergeant Bavasi returned to Georgia to rest with his family, if that was the case, the Dodgers needed a low-level minor-league team outside the American South to which to assign these players. Ultimately, Bavasi chose Nashua, New Hampshire, with fewer than 35,000 people, Nashua would be the smallest market in the New England League, and fewer than fifty African Americans resided in the community. Additionally, Nashua was home to the relatively new Holman Stadium, in March 1946, Bavasi received word that Brooklyn had signed former Negro League ballplayers Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, and that they would be sent to Nashua for the season. Bavasi also publicly linked the team to Clyde Sukeforth, who had scouted Campanella, Newcombe, and Jackie Robinson for Rickey and he promoted the teams French Canadian connection through his teams Quebec-born players, and even attempted to hire Frenchy Bordagaray to manage the team. The 1946 season was a successful one, the Nashua Dodgers placed second in the league and won the Governors Cup, defeating the Lynn Red Sox. In terms of attendance, Nashua also proved successful, in part because of Bavasis imaginative promotional skills, the league saw few racially motivated incidents, with two exceptions. Campanella has claimed that Manchester Giants catcher Sal Yvars threw dirt in his face during a game at Manchester Athletic Field, but the incident was resolved on the field. On one occasion, Bavasi was so enraged by the comments of the Red Sox that he met Lynns manager and players in the Holman Stadium parking lot, players restrained Bavasi and the Lynn manager, and the Lynn team boarded their bus without further incident. As a result of their success in Nashua, Bavasi, Campanella, and Alston all were promoted to teams in leagues in 1947. In 1948, Bavasi became general manager of the Montreal Royals, Bavasi chose a site outside Vero Beach, Florida, at which to establish Dodgertown, anchored by the newly constructed Holman Stadium. The Dodgers continued to train there virtually without interruption through 2008 before moving to a new facility in Glendale, Arizona
7.
Walter Alston
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Walter Emmons Alston, nicknamed Smokey, was an American baseball player and manager in Major League Baseball. He is best known for managing the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers between 1954 and 1976, Alston signed 23 one-year contracts with the Dodgers. He had a calm, reticent demeanor, for which he was also known as The Quiet Man. Alston grew up in rural Ohio and lettered in baseball and basketball at Miami University in Ohio, though his MLB playing career consisted of one game and one at-bat with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1936, he played and managed for several seasons in minor league baseball. His service included a stint as manager of the Nashua Dodgers and he was promoted to manage the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954 after several successful seasons in Brooklyns Class AAA minor league teams. As a major league manager, Alston led Dodgers teams to seven National League pennants and his 1955 team was the only World Series championship team while the club was in Brooklyn, they clinched the NL pennant earlier in the calendar year than any previous pennant winner in league history. Alston retired with more than 2,000 career wins and managed NL All-Star teams to seven victories and he was selected as Manager of the Year six times. Alston was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983 and he suffered a heart attack that year, was hospitalized for a month and was unable to attend his Hall of Fame induction ceremony. He never fully recovered and he died at a hospital in Oxford, Alston was born in Venice, Ohio. He spent much of his childhood on a farm in Morning Sun, when Alston was a teenager, the family moved to Darrtown, Ohio. He attended Milford Township High School in Darrtown and he received the nickname Smokey as a high school pitcher, owing to the speed of his fastball. He graduated from school in 1929 and married longtime girlfriend Lela Vaughn Alexander the next year. In 1935, Alston graduated with a degree in arts and physical education from Miami University in Oxford. He said that finances were a challenge in college and that he had paid his way through school by playing pool and he lettered three years in both basketball and baseball. Alston played minor league baseball as an infielder for the Greenwood Chiefs and Huntington Red Birds in 1935 and 1936, for the 1936 Huntington team, he hit 35 home runs in 120 games. Alstons only major game was with the St. Louis Cardinals on September 27,1936. He later described his major league playing career to a reporter by saying, Well, I came up to bat for the Cards back in 36 and he also committed one error in two fielding chances at first base. Alston returned to the minor leagues after his brief MLB appearance and he split the 1937 season between the Houston Buffaloes and Rochester Red Wings, hitting for a combined.229 batting average
8.
WWOR-TV
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WWOR-TV, channel 9, is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, and serving the New York City television market. It is owned by the Fox Television Stations division of 21st Century Fox as a station to Foxs flagship station. Its transmitter is located atop the Empire State Building, channel 9 signed on the air on October 11,1949 as WOR-TV. It was owned by the Bamberger Broadcasting Service, which also operated WOR radio, exactly ten months earlier, Bamberger launched Washington, D. C. s fourth television station, WOIC, also on channel 9. WOR-TV entered the New York market as the last of the citys VHF stations to sign on, on WOR-TVs opening night, a welcome address was read by WOR radios morning host, John B. However, the portion of the speech was not heard because of a technical glitch. The problem was fixed and Gambling repeated the later that evening. That first broadcast and other early WOR-TV shows emanated from the New Amsterdam Roof Theatre, for a short time, the stations transmitter operated from WOR TV Tower in North Bergen, New Jersey and was later moved to the Empire State Building. In 1949, the station moved uptown to the newly constructed 9 Television Square facility on West 67th Street, at the start of 1950, Bamberger Broadcasting changed its name to General Teleradio. Later that year, WOIC was sold to a joint venture of the Washington Post and CBS, in 1953, WOR-TV began operating a separate studio for news and special events programming located on the 83rd floor of the Empire State Building. The subsidiaries were brought together under the General Teleradio name. The main impetus for the merger was to give General Tire a controlling share in Mutual Radio Network, the merger also raised speculation that Mutual would launch a television network, plans that were discussed since before WOR-TV went on the air but ultimately did not come to fruition. During the early years of RKO General ownership, WOR-TV moved back to Times Square, channel 9s studios were co-located with WOR radio at 1440 Broadway for several years. During the 1950s and early 1960s, all three of New Yorks independents struggled to find competitive and acceptable programming, the field would increase by one in 1956 when former DuMont flagship station WABD became an independent. Until 1990, the station had a tradition of showing King Kong, Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young on Thanksgiving, in 1962, nostalgia maven Joe Franklin moved his daily talk program to WOR-TV, after a 12-year run on WABC-TV. The Joe Franklin Show ended on August 6,1993, making it one of the programs in television history. In 1968, the continued to maintain offices at 1440 Broadway. By the early 1970s, WNEW-TV evolved into the station for cartoons and sitcoms
9.
WEPN (AM)
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WEPN is a 24-hour Hispanic sports talk formatted radio station in New York City featuring national and local sports talk programs and live broadcasts of sports matches. It is the New York affiliate for ESPN Deportes Radio, owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company and its transmitter site is located on the border of Secaucus and North Bergen, New Jersey, and its studios are on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It is the home for the Spanish language broadcasts of the New York Jets of the NFL, the New York Rangers of the NHL, the New York Mets of MLB. The 1050 frequency has a history prior to this format. Starting in the 1920s as WHN, it played a diversified format and it was renamed WMGM in the late 1940s, continuing the same format until a switch to rock & roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As WHN again, it played adult standards in the 1960s, in the late 1980s as WFAN it was the original frequency for the very successful first of its kind all-sports station. Then began a truly convoluted set of ownership, call letter, and format changes from the Spanish language WUKQ to WEVD, a low-rated brokered station in the 1990s, to todays incarnation as WEPN. Originally owned by the Ridgewood Times newspaper, WHN was one of the first radio stations in New York City, going on the air on March 18,1922, a court case in the 1920s against AT&T established some of the early legal principles for American broadcasting. The station played jazz and contemporary music, including Sophie Tucker, Fletcher Henderson. In 1928 the station was bought by the Loews Theatre Organization, during the 1920s the stations frequency changed to 830,760, and then 1010. In the 1930s it broadcast the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, which was picked up by the CBS Radio Network. In 1933, WHN became a station when it acquired the licenses of WRNY and WQAO-WPAP with approval by the Federal Radio Commission on January 31 and February 3. WHN made its final change to 1050 in 1941. During the 1940s the programs Radio Newsreel and Newsreel Theater were prototypes for what would become the all-news radio format. The station broadcast Brooklyn Dodgers games with Red Barber as well as the New York Giants, on September 15,1948, the station changed its call letters to WMGM, reflecting Loews then-ownership of movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The station had a format that included pop standard hits, drama, talk, and sports. In the mid-to-late-1950s the station switched to playing Top 40 rock and roll hits, the 50s brand of Top 40 played by WMGM and its competitors included what might today be considered rhythm and blues and country music, in addition to popular instrumentals. Playlists were narrower and more predictable than mainstream MOR stations, wMGMs deejay lineup included morning man Ted Brown and the Redhead, Jerry Marshall, Peter Tripp, Norm Stevens, Dick Shepherd, Bob Lewis, Ed Stokes and Bob Callen
10.
Vin Scully
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Vincent Edward Vin Scully is a retired American sportscaster. He retired in 2016, ending his run as their play-by-play announcer. In his final season behind the microphone, Scully announced most Dodger home games on SportsNet LA television and he is known for his dulcet voice, lyrically descriptive style, and signature introduction to Dodger games, Its time for Dodger baseball. Hi, everybody, and a pleasant good to you. He is considered by many to be the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time, according to fan rankings, Bleacher Report, born in The Bronx, Scully grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. He worked delivering beer and mail, pushing garment racks, and his father Vincent Aloysius was a silk salesman, his mother Bridget was a Roman Catholic homemaker of Irish descent from whom her son inherited his red hair. His biological father died of pneumonia when Scully was 4 and his mother married an English merchant sailor named Allan Reeve. Scully attended high school at the Fordham Preparatory School in The Bronx. Scully discovered his love of baseball at age 8 when he saw the results of the game of the 1936 World Series at a laundromat. Since Scully lived near the Polo Grounds and because he was a member of the PAL and CYO, he was able to attend games for free. Scully decided at eight years old that he wanted to become a sports announcer when he became fascinated with the broadcasts on the radio. After serving in the United States Navy for two years, Scully began his career as a student broadcaster and journalist at Fordham University and he received only one response, from CBS Radio affiliate WTOP in Washington, D. C. which made him a fill-in. Scully was then recruited by Red Barber, the director of the CBS Radio Network. Expecting an enclosed box, Scully had left his coat and gloves at his hotel. Barber mentored Scully and told him if he wanted to be a successful sports announcer he should never be a homer, never listen to other announcers. In 1950, Scully joined Red Barber and Connie Desmond in the Brooklyn Dodgers radio, when Barber got into a salary dispute with World Series sponsor Gillette in 1953, Scully took Barbers spot for the 1953 World Series. At the age of 25, Scully became the youngest person to broadcast a World Series game, Barber left the Dodgers after the 1953 season to work for the New York Yankees. Scully eventually became the Dodgers principal announcer, Scully announced Dodgers games in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles
11.
Al Helfer
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George Alvin Al Helfer was an American radio sportscaster. Nicknamed Mr. Radio Baseball, Helfer worked seven World Series, ten All-Star Games, and regular season broadcasts for several teams and he also did the broadcast of the Army–Navy Game during the 1940s and 1950s, and several Rose Bowl games. Helfer was born in Elrama, Pennsylvania and he started working on broadcasting recreations of baseball games in 1933 for Pittsburgh Pirates games. He joined Red Barber as the regular broadcast team of the Cincinnati Reds in 1935 and he left Cincinnati to join CBS in 1937, working a few baseball games and a lot of football games. Helfer was reunited with Barber on the Brooklyn Dodgers broadcasts in 1939 and they worked together until 1941, when Helfer joined the U. S. Navy during World War II. When he returned the Dodgers job was no longer available, so Helfer started doing Game of the Day broadcasts for Mutual and he was paired with Dizzy Dean on the networks broadcasts in the early 1950s, though the two men often argued and never got along. He did eventually rejoin the Dodgers for their last years in Brooklyn, calling their home game. He worked a number of teams after that, including the Houston Colt. 45s, Denver Broncos and his second wife was vaudeville performer Ramona, they married on 14 June 1944, and stayed together until her death in December 1972. The following June, he married Sacramento resident Margaret Grabbe, to whom he remained married until his death and he died, aged 63, in Sacramento, California. Major League Baseball All-Star Game World Series Catfish Hunters 1968 perfect game Excerpt from Baseballs 101 All-Time Best Announcers book Baseball Library bio The Golden Voices of Baseball book
12.
WZRC
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WZRC, on 1480 kHz, known on-air as, is a radio station owned by Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, Inc. and serves the New York City area by running Cantonese programs. It is one of two Cantonese radio stations serving in the area, the other is Chung Wah Chinese Broadcasting Company. This station started out as WHOM and was founded in 1930 by the New Jersey Broadcasting Corp, the call letters stood for owner Harry OMelia. In the 1940s the station aired ethnic brokered programming and was owned by Generoso Pope, the Popes had a media empire, including, The National Enquirer, Il Progresso Italo-Americano, Il Bollettino della Sera, Il Corriere dAmerica, and the Philadelphia daily LOpinione. Pope used his influence through his empire to secure the vote of the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1960, it evolved to mostly Spanish, in 1975 the station was sold to SJR communications along with WHOM-FM. WHOM AM was renamed WJIT and went from diversified Spanish to Spanish contemporary music, in the late 70s WJIT was the leading salsa and merengue station on the New York dial. The format changed to Spanish Adult Contemporary and the station was sold, along with WKTU92.3, in 1989, Infinity decided that with a new Spanish station on 97.9 that it should move 1480 WJIT to an English format. So it shut down the Spanish format that spring and made the station WZRC and it took a heavy metal based satellite rock format and named the station Z Rock. The call letters WZRC, were used in Chicago by the flagship station for the network. In December 1992, WZRC switched to classic country through a satellite delivered service and this would be short lived, in February 1993, WZRC switched to Korean brokered programming. Infinity continued to own the station until after its merger with CBS. At that point, it owned 92.3 WXRK,101.1 WCBS-FM,102.7 WNEW-FM,660 WFAN,880 WCBS,1010 WINS, and 1480 WZRC. While it was not required to sell WZRC, it opted to anyhow, Multicultural kept the Korean format but after a few years, in 2002, switched to Chinese and now in Cantonese
13.
Buck Canel
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Eloy Buck Canel was an American Spanish language sportscaster of Major League Baseball games. Canel was born in Argentina when his father was working for the Spanish consulate in that country, Canel achieved international renown and became a household name in Latino communities when he joined in the late 1940s the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports. By then, the Cavalcade was aired through NBC Red Network and extended their Spanish programming activities to Latin American countries, on there Canel shared duties with Spanish-language broadcasters such as Pancho Pepe Cróquer, Omar Lares, and Felo Ramírez. During the opening presentation, Canel habitually introduced Cróquer as La Voz Deportiva de América, Canel announced the New York Mets and New York Yankees games in Spanish during the 1970s over radio station WHOM, which was then a Spanish radio station in New York City. The feeds were occasionally broadcast to Latin American radio stations, Canel was given the Ford C. Frick Award by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985 and he began his career in journalism. He died on April 7th 1980 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, the call letters of WHOM are now used for an easy listening station in Portland, Maine. Baseball Hall of Fame - Frick Award recipient
14.
History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
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The teams name derived from the reputed skill of Brooklyn residents at evading the citys trolley streetcar network. The team is noted for signing Jackie Robinson in 1947 as the first black player in the major leagues. Brooklyn was home to numerous clubs in the mid-1850s. Eight of 16 participants in the first convention were from Brooklyn, including the Atlantic, Eckford, Brooklyn helped make baseball commercial, as the locale of the first paid admission games, a series of three all star contests matching New York and Brooklyn in 1858. The Excelsiors no longer challenged for the championship after the Civil War. The Eckfords and Atlantics declined to join until 1872 and thereby lost their best players, the Eckfords survived only one season and the Atlantics four, with losing teams. When the Mutuals were expelled by the league, the Hartford Dark Blues club moved in, changed its name to The Brooklyn Hartfords and played its home games at Union Grounds in 1877 before disbanding. Byrne arranged to build a grandstand on a lot bounded by Third Street, Fourth Avenue, Fifth Street, and Fifth Avenue, the Grays played in the minor Inter-State Association of Professional Baseball Clubs that first season. Doyle became the first team manager, and they drew 6,431 fans to their first home game on May 12,1883 against the Trenton team. The Grays won the title after the Camden Merritt club disbanded on July 20. The Grays were invited to join the American Association for the 1884 season and they lost the 1889 World Series to the New York Giants and tied the 1890 World Series with the Louisville Colonels. Their success during this period was partly attributed to their having absorbed skilled players from the defunct New York Metropolitans, in 1899, the Grays merged with the Baltimore Orioles, as Baltimore manager Ned Hanlon became the clubs new manager and Charles Ebbets became the primary team owner. The team name, Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, was coined in 1895, the nickname was still new enough in September 1895 that a newspaper could report that Trolley Dodgers is the new name which eastern baseball cranks have given the Brooklyn club. Some sources erroneously report that the name Trolley Dodgers referred to pedestrians avoiding fast cars on street car tracks that bordered Eastern Park on two sides, however, Eastern Park was not bordered by street-level trolley lines that had to be dodged by pedestrians. The name was shortened to Brooklyn Dodgers. Other team names used by the franchise that finally came to be called the Dodgers were the Grooms, the Bridegrooms, Wards Wonders, the Superbas, and the Robins. All of these nicknames were used by fans and newspaper sports writers to describe the team, the teams legal name was the Brooklyn Base Ball Club. However, the Trolley Dodgers nickname was used throughout this period, along with nicknames, by fans
15.
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
16.
Major League Baseball postseason
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The Major League Baseball postseason is an elimination tournament held after the conclusion of the MLB regular season. The winners of the American League Championship Series and the National League Championship Series play each other in the best-of-seven World Series, Major League Baseball is the oldest of Americas major professional sports organizations, with roots dating back to the 1870s. As such, it is steeped in tradition, the final series to determine its champion has been called the World Series as far back as the National Leagues contests with the American Association starting at the beginning of the 1880s. This single-tiered approach persisted through 1968, even with the expansions of 1961–1962 that expanded both leagues to 10 teams. In 1969, both expanded to twelve teams, which made it more difficult to compete for a league championship because there were more teams competing for the AL. This created a new round, which was dubbed the League Championship Series. In 1985 the LCS was expanded to a best-of-seven series, under this system, it was possible for one of the best teams in a league to be left out of the postseason if it didnt win its division. Most notably, in 1993, the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants finished with the two best records in the majors, with 104 and 103 wins, respectively. However, since both teams played in the National League West, the Giants missed the postseason by a single game, the baseball players strike of 1981 uniquely—for this era—added another round to the postseason. Because the strike split the season into two equal halves, the division winners of each half of the 1981 season first met in a Division Series. The winners of the series then progressed to the league championship series. By 1994, further expansion was making it difficult for any individual team to make the postseason. Major League Baseball went through a realignment, expanding to three divisions in each league, however, only allowing divisional winners in the postseason would make an odd number of teams in each league, three. To rectify the odd number of teams, the added a wild card to each league. The wild-card team would be the team with the best record in league of all the teams that did not win their division. Splitting the leagues three divisions, plus the addition of a wild-card team, doubled the postseason contenders in each league from two to four, and from four teams overall to eight. This system assured that the team with the second-best record in its league would make the postseason if it wasnt a division champion. The addition of a wild card spot would come in 2012
17.
New York Yankees
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The Essendon Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League, the sports premier competition. Formed in 1871 as a club and playing as a senior club since 1878. It is historically associated with Essendon, a suburb in the north-west of Melbourne, dyson Heppell is the current team captain. A founding member club of both the Victorian Football Association, in 1877, and the Victorian Football League, in 1896, the club claims to have over at least one million supporters Australia wide. Essendon has won 16 VFL/AFL premierships which, along with Carlton, is the most of any club in the competition, the club was founded by members of the Royal Agricultural Society, the Melbourne Hunt Club and the Victorian Woolbrokers. The Essendon Football Club is thought to have formed in 1872 at a meeting it the home of a well-known brewery family, the McCrackens, whose Ascot Vale property hosted a team of local junior players. Robert McCracken, the owner of several city hotels, was the founder and first president of the Essendon club and his son, Alex, Alex would later become president of the newly formed VFL. Alexs cousin, Collier, who had played with Melbourne, was the teams first captain. The club played its first recorded match against the Carlton second twenty on 7 June 1873, Essendon played 13 matches in its first season, winning seven, with four draws and losing two. The club was one of the junior members of the Victorian Football Association in 1877. During its early years in the Association, Essendon played its matches at Flemington Hill. In 1878, Essendon played in the first match on what would be considered by modern standards to be a field at Flemington Hill. In 1879 Essendon played Melbourne in one of the earliest night matches recorded when the ball was painted white, in 1883 the team played four matches in Adelaide. In 1891 Essendon won their first VFA premiership, which they repeated in 1892,1893 and 1894, one of the clubs greatest players, Albert Thurgood played for the club during this period. Essendon was undefeated in the 1893 season, at the end of the 1896 season Essendon along with seven other clubs formed the Victorian Football League. Essendons first VFL game was in 1897 was against Geelong at Corio Oval in Geelong, Essendon won its first VFL premiership by winning the 1897 VFL finals series. Essendon again won the premiership in 1901, defeating Collingwood in the Grand Final, the club won successive premierships in 1911 and 1912 over Collingwood and South Melbourne respectively. The nickname first appeared in print in the local North Melbourne Advertiser in 1889 and it was known firstly as Essendon Town and, after 1905, as Essendon
18.
Baltimore Orioles
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The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball as a member of the American League East division, Louis, Missouri to become the St. Louis Browns. After 52 often-beleaguered years in St. Louis, the franchise was purchased in November 1953 by Baltimore business interests led by Clarence Miles, the franchise officially moved to Baltimore for the 1954 season and adopted the historic Orioles name in honor of the official state bird of Maryland. The Orioles name had also used by several previous major and minor league baseball clubs in Baltimore. Nicknames for the team include the Os and the Birds, the Orioles experienced their greatest success from 1966 to 1983, when they made six World Series appearances, winning three of them. The franchise has won a total of nine division championships, six pennants. The Orioles are also known for their successful stadium, the trend-setting Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The modern Orioles franchise can trace its roots back to the original Milwaukee Brewers of the minor Western League, the Brewers were there when the WL renamed itself the American League in 1900. At the end of the 1900 season, the American League removed itself from baseballs National Agreement, two months later, the AL declared itself a competing major league. As a result of several shifts, the Brewers were one of only two Western League teams that didnt fold, move or get kicked out of the league. In its first game in the American League, the team lost to the Detroit Tigers 14–13 after blowing a lead in the 9th inning. To this day, it is a league record for the biggest deficit overcome that late in the game. During the first American League season in 1901, they finished last with a record of 48–89 and its lone Major League season, the team played at Lloyd Street Grounds, between 16th and 18th Streets in Milwaukee. The Miles-Krieger -Hoffberger group renamed their new team the Baltimore Orioles soon after taking control of the franchise, the name has a rich history in Baltimore, having been used by a National League team in the 1890s. In 1901, Baltimore and McGraw were awarded a franchise in the growing American League. After a battle with Ban Johnson, the Head of the American League in 1902, McGraw took many of the top players including Dan McGann, Roger Bresnahan and Joe McGinnity to the New York Giants. As an affront to Johnson, McGraw kept the black and orange colors of the New York Giants, which San Francisco wears to this day. In 1903, the rest of the team was transferred to New York where they were nicknamed the Highlanders until circa 1912, as a member of the high-minor league level International League, the Orioles competed at what is now known as the AAA level from 1903 to 1953
19.
Billy Cox (baseball)
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William Richard Cox was a Major League Baseball third baseman. He played for the Newport Buffaloes high school team, Cox was the third baseman of a Dodgers infield in the 1950s that included Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese. In the 1953 World Series, Cox had a double in Game 2. He batted.304 for the Series and led Brooklyn in runs batted in with six. Cox was a starter and leadoff hitter for the Baltimore Orioles for the first half of 1955. Cox, however, would not report to his new team, even after a meeting with Indians manager Al López, Cox resolved to retire and did so on June 17. After Cox retired, the Orioles never settled on a third baseman until Brooks Robinson won the job in 1957. The Orioles used 13 third basemen in 1955, howell was the local district justice and long-time president of the Newport Baseball Association. Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference Billy Cox at Find a Grave
20.
Preacher Roe
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Elwin Charles Roe, known as Preacher Roe, was a Major League Baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Brooklyn Dodgers. Roe was born on February 26,1916, in Ash Flat, Arkansas and grew up in Viola, the nickname Preacher came at age 3 when an uncle asked his name and Roe responded preacher because of a minister who would take him on horse-and-buggy rides. At Harding, in a game in 1937, Roe gained national attention by striking out twenty-six batters. In the summer of 1938, Roe was signed by Branch Rickey, Roe pitched in one game for the team that season, giving up six hits, two walks and four runs in 2⅔ innings. As a fastball pitcher with the Pirates, Roe had a record of 13-11 with a 3.11 earned run average in 1944 and his 148 strikeouts in the 1945 season led the National League and he was selected for the 1945 All-Star Game. While coaching high school basketball after the 1945 season, Roe fractured his skull in a fight with a referee, ralph Kiner, he said, stood in a hole in the outfield. He caught balls hit to his hole but otherwise did not field, one can get a great flavor of Ole Preach, as he was called, by reading Roger Kahns book The Boys of Summer. Branch Rickey, the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, remembered Roe from Rickeys time in the Cardinals management. On December 8,1947, the Dodgers got Roe, and infielders Billy Cox and Gene Mauch in exchange for pitchers Hal Gregg and Vic Lombardi and outfielder Dixie Walker. With his health improving and with the now in his repertoire, Roe had much success with the Dodgers. Roe finished the 1948 season with a record of 12-8 and an ERA of 2.63, selected to play in the 1949 All-Star Game, Roe pitched in the ninth inning, retiring all three batters he faced. He improved further in the 1949 season, finishing with a 15-6 record and he posted an exceptional 22-3 won-loss record for the Dodgers in 1951, becoming only the fifth pitcher since 1916 to begin the season 10-0. Roe was a pitcher, but notorious as a poor hitter. In 1953, he hit a run at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Dodger broadcaster Red Barber told his audience, Well, old Number 28 has hit a home run. Preacher was still pitching in the majors at age 39, unusual at the time, when asked to explain his longevity, he replied Clean livin and the spitball. He described his methodology in a 1955 article in Sports Illustrated, The Outlawed Spitball Was My Money Pitch, after being taken out of a game in the second inning, Roe commented that, Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you. S. 160 north of the US63 bypass until the city rerouted U. S.160, U. S. Route 160 still runs as Preacher Roe Boulevard south of U. S.63
21.
Roy Campanella
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Roy Campanella, nicknamed Campy, was an American baseball player, primarily as a catcher. The Philadelphia native played for the Negro leagues and Mexican League for several seasons before entering the minor leagues in 1946 and he made his Major League Baseball debut in 1948. His playing career ended in 1958 when he was paralyzed by an automobile accident, widely considered to be one of the greatest catchers in the history of the game, Campanella played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s and 1950s. After he retired as a player, Campanella held positions in scouting and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. Campanellas father John was the son of Sicilian immigrants and his mother Ida was African American. Therefore, he was prohibited from MLB play before 1947. Campanella began playing Negro league baseball for the Washington Elite Giants in 1937 after dropping out of school on his sixteenth birthday, the Elite Giants moved to Baltimore the following year, and Campanella became a star player with the team. In 1942 and 1943, Campanella played in the Mexican League with the Monterrey Sultans, lázaro Salazar, the teams manager, told Campanella that one day he would play at the major league level. Campanella moved into the Brooklyn Dodgers minor league system in 1946 as the Dodger organization began preparations to break the MLB color barrier with Jackie Robinson, for the 1946 season, Robinson was assigned to the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers affiliate in the Class AAA International League. Meanwhile, the team looked to assign Campanella to a Class B league, the Nashua team thus became the first professional baseball team of the 20th century to field a racially integrated lineup in the United States. Campanellas 1946 season proceeded largely without racist incidents, and in one game Campanella assumed the managerial duties after manager Walter Alston was ejected and this made Campanella the first African-American to manage Caucasian players of an organized professional baseball team. Nashua was three runs down at the time Campanella took over and they came back to win, in part due to Campanellas decision to use Newcombe as a pinch hitter during the seventh inning, Newcombe hit a game-tying two-run home run. Jackie Robinsons first season in the major leagues came in 1947 and he played for the Dodgers from 1948 through 1957 as their regular catcher. In 1948, he had three different uniform numbers before settling on 39 for the rest of his career, Campanella played in the All-Star Game every year from 1949 through 1956. His 1949 All-Star selection made him one of the first four African-Americans so honored and he hit home runs in five straight games in 1950, the only other Dodgers to homer in five consecutive games are Shawn Green, Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez, and Joc Pederson. Campanella received the Most Valuable Player award in the National League three times, in 1951,1953, and 1955, in each of his MVP seasons, he batted more than.300, hit more than 30 home runs and had more than 100 runs batted in. His 142 RBI during 1953 exceeded the record of 130. Today it is the second most in history, Tommy Davis breaking it with 153 RBI in 1962
22.
National League Most Valuable Player
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The Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award is an annual Major League Baseball award, given to one outstanding player in the American League and one in the National League. Since 1931, it has been awarded by the Baseball Writers Association of America, MVP voting takes place before the postseason, but the results are not announced until after the World Series. The BBWAA began by polling three writers in each city in 1938, reducing that number to two per league city in 1961. The BBWAA does not offer a definition of what most valuable means. First basemen, with 34 winners, have won the most MVPs among infielders, followed by second basemen, third basemen, of the 24 pitchers who have won the award,15 are right-handed while 9 are left-handed. Walter Johnson, Carl Hubbell, and Hal Newhouser are the pitchers who have won multiple times. Barry Bonds has won the most often and the most consecutively, jimmie Foxx was the first player to win multiple times,9 players have won three times, and 19 have won twice. Frank Robinson is the player to win the award in both the American and National Leagues. The awards only tie occurred in the National League in 1979, there have been 18 unanimous winners, who received all the first-place votes. The New York Yankees have the most winning players with 22, the award has never been presented to a member of the following four teams, Arizona Diamondbacks, Miami Marlins, New York Mets, and Tampa Bay Rays. The most recent recipients are Mike Trout in the American League, in recent decades, pitchers have rarely won the award. When Justin Verlander won the AL award in 2011, he became the first pitcher in league to be named the MVP since Dennis Eckersley in 1992. Verlander also became the first starting pitcher to win this award since Roger Clemens had accomplished the feat in 1986. The National League went even longer without an MVP award to a pitcher—after Bob Gibson won in 1968, the 1910 race for best average in the American League was between the Detroit Tigers widely disliked Ty Cobb and Nap Lajoie of the Cleveland Indians. On the last day of the season, Lajoie overtook Cobbs batting average with seven bunt hits against the St. Louis Browns, American League President Ban Johnson said a recalculation showed that Cobb had won the race anyway, and Chalmers ended up awarding cars to both players. The following season, Chalmers created the Chalmers Award, a committee of baseball writers were to convene after the season to determine the most important and useful player to the club and to the league. Since the award was not as effective at advertising as Chalmers had hoped, in 1922 the American League created a new award to honor the baseball player who is of the greatest all-around service to his club. Winners, voted on by a committee of eight baseball writers chaired by James Crusinberry, received a bronze medal, voters were required to select one player from each team and player-coaches and prior award winners were ineligible
23.
Center fielder
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A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record plays, the center fielder is assigned the number 8. Outfielders must cover large distances, so speed, instincts and quickness to react to the ball are key and they must be able to catch fly balls above their heads and on the run. They must be able to throw the ball accurately over a distance to be effective. Amateur players may find it difficult to concentrate on the game, emphasizing the correct position will give outfield players something to concentrate on at each pitch. As well as the requirements above, the fielder must be the outfielder who has the best combination of speed. The center fielder covers more grass than any player and, most likely. The center outfielder is the captain of the outfield and has the authority to call off the corner fielders when she or he has a chance to catch the ball. A center fielders vision and depth perception is a coveted skill, because the position requires a good arm and fast legs, center field is generally where the team puts its best all-around athletes, as a result, center fielders are often fine hitters as well. Many center fielders are renowned as excellent batters and base runners, Baseball Hall of Fame Outfield Baseball positions
24.
Duke Snider
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Edwin Donald Duke Snider, nicknamed The Silver Fox and The Duke of Flatbush, was an American professional baseball player. He was named to the National League All-Star roster eight-times and was the NL Most Valuable Player runner-up in 1955, in his 16 out of 18 seasons with the Dodgers, he helped lead the Dodgers to six World Series, helping them win two championships in 1955 and 1959. Snider was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980, born in Los Angeles, Snider was nicknamed Duke by his father at age five. Growing up in Southern California, Snider was a gifted athlete, playing basketball, football. He was a quarterback, who reportedly could throw the football 70 yards. Spotted by one of Branch Rickeys scouts in the early 1940s and he played briefly for the Montreal Royals of the International League in 1944 and for the Newport News Dodgers in the Piedmont League in the same year. After serving in the U. S. Navy in 1945 and part of 1946, he back to play for the Fort Worth Cats that year. Snider earned a tryout with the Brooklyn Dodgers during their training in 1947. He got to bat in the game on April 17. He played in 39 more games that season and became a friend of Jackie Robinson before he was sent to the St. Paul team in early July, Snider returned to the Dodgers at the end of the season in time for the World Series against the New York Yankees. Snider started the 1948 season with Montreal, and after hitting well in league with a.327 batting average, he was called up to Brooklyn in August. In 1949, Snider became a major leaguer hitting 23 home runs with 92 runs batted in. Snider also saw his average climb from.244 to.292, often compared with two other New York center fielders, fellow Baseball Hall of Famers, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, he was the reigning Duke of Flatbush. But when his average slipped to, Snider recalls I went to Walter O’Malley and told him I couldn’t take the pressure, Duke says. I told him I’d just as soon be traded, I told him I figured I could do the Dodgers no good. Of course the trade did not happen.320 batting average, the Dodgers won the World Series in 1955 and in 1959. Sniders career numbers declined when the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958, coupled with an aching knee and a 440-foot right field fence at the cavernous Coliseum, Snider hit only 15 home runs in 1958. However, he had one last hurrah in 1959 as he helped the Dodgers win their first World Series in Los Angeles
25.
Run batted in
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A run batted in, plural runs batted in, is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored. For example, if the batter bats a base hit, then another player on a base can go home. Prior to the 1920 Major League Baseball season, runs batted in were not a baseball statistic. Nevertheless, the RBI statistic was tabulated—unofficially—from 1907 through 1919 by baseball writer Ernie Lanigan, common nicknames for an RBI include ribby, rib, and ribeye. The plural of RBI is generally RBIs, although some commentators use RBI as both singular and plural, as it can stand for runs batted in. The official scorers judgment must determine whether a run batted in shall be credited for a run that scores when a fielder holds the ball or throws to a wrong base. The perceived significance of the RBI is displayed by the fact that it is one of the three categories that comprise the triple crown, in addition, career RBIs are often cited in debates over who should be elected to the Hall of Fame. This implies that better offensive teams—and therefore, the teams in which the most players get on base—tend to produce hitters with higher RBI totals than equivalent hitters on lesser-hitting teams, totals are current through October 8,2015
26.
Home run
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In modern baseball, the feat is typically achieved by hitting the ball over the outfield fence between the foul poles without first touching the ground, resulting in an automatic home run. There is also the home run, increasingly rare in modern baseball. When a home run is scored, the batter is credited with a hit and a run scored. Likewise, the pitcher is recorded as having given up a hit, a batted ball is also a home run if it touches either foul pole or its attached screen before touching the ground, as the foul poles are by definition in fair territory. A batted ball that goes over the wall after touching the ground is not a home run. A fielder is allowed to reach over the wall to attempt to catch the ball as long as his feet are on or over the field during the attempt. If the fielder successfully catches the ball while it is in flight the batter is out, however, since the fielder is not part of the field, a ball that bounces off a fielder and over the wall without touching the ground is still a home run. A home run accomplished in any of the above manners is a home run. This stipulation is in Approved Ruling of Rule 7.10, an inside-the-park home run occurs when a batter hits the ball into play and is able to circle the bases before the fielders can put him out. Unlike with a home run, the batter-runner and all preceding runners are liable to be put out by the defensive team at any time while running the bases. This can only happen if the ball does not leave the ballfield, with outfields much less spacious and more uniformly designed than in the games early days, inside-the-park home runs are now a rarity. They are usually the result of a ball being hit by a very fast runner, either way, this sends the ball into open space in the outfield and thereby allows the batter-runner to circle the bases before the defensive team can put him out. The speed of the runner is crucial as even triples are relatively rare in most modern ballparks, all runs scored on such a play, however, still count. An example of an unexpected bounce occurred during the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco on July 10,2007, by the time the ball was relayed, Ichiro had already crossed the plate standing up. This was the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history, Home runs are often characterized by the number of runners on base at the time. A home run hit with the bases empty is seldom called a one-run homer, with one runner on base, two runs are scored and thus the home run is often called a two-run homer or two-run shot. Similarly, a home runs with two runners on base is a three-run homer or three-run shot, the term four-run homer is seldom used, instead, it is nearly always called a grand slam. Hitting a grand slam is the best possible result for the turn at bat
27.
Jackie Robinson
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Jack Roosevelt Jackie Robinson was an American professional baseball second baseman who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era. Robinson broke the color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15,1947. The Dodgers, by signing Robinson, heralded the end of segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, Robinson had an exceptional 10-year baseball career. Robinson played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers 1955 World Series championship, in 1997, MLB universally retired his uniform number,42, across all major league teams, he was the first pro athlete in any sport to be so honored. MLB also adopted a new tradition, Jackie Robinson Day, for the first time on April 15,2004. Robinsons character, his use of nonviolence, and his unquestionable talent challenged the basis of segregation which then marked many other aspects of American life. He influenced the culture of and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement, Robinson also was the first black television analyst in MLB, and the first black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock full oNuts. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, in recognition of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom. Robinson was born on January 31,1919, into a family of sharecroppers in Cairo and he was the youngest of five children born to Mallie and Jerry Robinson, after siblings Edgar, Frank, Matthew, and Willa Mae. His middle name was in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt, after Robinsons father left the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena, California. The extended Robinson family established itself on a residential plot containing two small houses at 121 Pepper Street in Pasadena, Robinsons mother worked various odd jobs to support the family. Growing up in poverty in an otherwise affluent community, Robinson. As a result, Robinson joined a gang, but his friend Carl Anderson persuaded him to abandon it. In 1935, Robinson graduated from Washington Junior High School and enrolled at John Muir High School, recognizing his athletic talents, Robinsons older brothers Mack and Frank inspired Jackie to pursue his interest in sports. At Muir Tech, Robinson played several sports at the varsity level and lettered in four of them, football, basketball, track and he played shortstop and catcher on the baseball team, quarterback on the football team, and guard on the basketball team. With the track and field squad, he won awards in the broad jump and he was also a member of the tennis team. In late January 1937, the Pasadena Star-News newspaper reported that Robinson for two years has been the athlete at Muir, starring in football, basketball, track, baseball
28.
Pee Wee Reese
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Harold Peter Henry Pee Wee Reese was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop for the Brooklyn, a ten-time All Star, Reese contributed to seven National League championships for the Dodgers and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984. Reese is also famous for his support of his teammate Jackie Robinson, Reeses nickname originated in his childhood, as he was a champion marbles player. Reese was born in Ekron, Meade County, Kentucky, and raised there until he was eight years old. In high school, Reese was so small that he did not play baseball until senior year, at time he weighed only 120 pounds. He graduated from duPont Manual High School in 1937 and he worked as a cable splicer for the Louisville phone company, only playing amateur baseball in a church league. When Reeses team reached the championship, the minor league Louisville Colonels allowed them to play the championship game on their field. Reese impressed Colonels owner Cap Neal, who signed him to a contract for a $200 bonus. By 1938, Reese was the Colonels regular shortstop and one of the top prospects in the minors, Evans and owner Tom Yawkey both knew that the Red Sox regular shortstop, Joe Cronin, was nearing the end of his career. However, Cronin was also the Red Sox manager, and still thought of himself as a regular shortstop, when Yawkey sent Cronin to Louisville to scout Reese, Cronin realized that he was being asked to scout his own replacement. Cronin deliberately downplayed Reeses talent and suggested Reese be traded and it took a while to find a buyer, since the other teams assumed something had to be wrong with Reese if the Red Sox wanted to get rid of him. However, on July 18,1939, Reese was sent to Brooklyn for $35,000 and this trade is now considered one of the most lopsided deals in baseball history. As it turned out, Cronin was only a player after 1941. Reese stayed in Louisville for the rest of the 1939 season, in an ironic twist, he walked into a situation where his manager was also the regular shortstop—in this case, Leo Durocher. Unlike Cronin, however, Durocher was willing to give up his spot in the lineup to Reese, Reeses rookie season in 1940 was curtailed by a broken heel bone that limited him to 84 games in what had looked to be a promising season. He had a moment that year, hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the New York Giants. In 1941, he hit.229 and led the league with 47 errors, even playing in the World Series that year was a forgettable experience for Reese, as he batted.200 and made three errors in the five-game Yankee win. Like many players of his era, he missed three seasons due to military service, Reese enlisted in the United States Navy in 1943 and shipped out to fight in the Pacific theater of World War II
29.
Gil Hodges
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Gilbert Ray Hodges, ne Hodge was an American Major League Baseball first baseman and manager who played most of his 18-year career for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. He was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1982, Hodges is generally considered to be the best defensive first baseman in the 1950s. He was an All-Star for eight seasons and a Gold Glove Award winner for three consecutive seasons, Hodges and Duke Snider are the only players to have the most home runs or runs batted in together during the decade with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hodges was the National League leader in double plays four times and in putouts, assists and fielding percentage three times each. He ranked second in NL history with 1,281 assists and 1,614 double plays when his career ended, Hodges also managed the New York Mets to the 1969 World Series title, one of the greatest upsets in Fall Classic history. In 2014, Hodges appeared for the time as a candidate on the National Baseball Hall of Fames Golden Era Committee election ballot for possible Hall of Fame consideration in 2015. He and the candidates all missed getting elected. The Committee meets and votes on ten selected from the 1947 to 1972 era every three years. Hodges was born in Princeton, Indiana, the son of coal miner Charles and he had an older brother, Robert, and a younger sister, Marjorie. The family moved to nearby Petersburg when Hodges was seven and he was a star four-sport athlete at Petersburg High School, earning a combined seven varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball and track. He declined a 1941 contract offer from the Detroit Tigers, instead attending Saint Josephs College with the hope of becoming a collegiate coach. Hodges spent two years at St Josephs, competing in baseball, basketball and briefly in football and he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, and appeared in one game for the team as a third baseman that year. Hodges entered the United States Marine Corps during World War II after having participated in its Reserve Officers Training Corps program at Saint Josephs. He served in combat as a gunner in the battles of Tinian and Okinawa. Hodges only appearance in the 1947 World Series against the New York Yankees was as a hitter for pitcher Rex Barney in Game seven. As a rookie in 1948, he batted.249 with eleven home runs, on June 25,1949, he hit for the cycle on his way to his first of seven consecutive All-Star teams. For the season, his 115 RBI ranked fourth in the NL, defensively, he led the NL in putouts, double plays and fielding average. Facing the Yankees again in the 1949 Series, he batted only.235 but drove in the run in Brooklyns only victory
30.
Carl Furillo
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Carl Anthony Furillo, nicknamed The Reading Rifle and Skoonj, was a right fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. Furillo was born in Stony Creek Mills, Pennsylvania and he left school in the eighth grade, and often felt awkward among his teammates as a result, they would later recall that he rarely socialized with players who were better-educated. His other nickname, Skoonj, came from the Italian word scungilli, arriving in the major leagues in 1946, he batted.295 for the 1947 NL pennant winners, finishing the year ninth in the league with 88 runs batted in. In 1950 he batted.305 with 18 home runs,106 RBI, in that year he set a team record with 667 at bats, exceeding Ivy Olsons 1921 total of 652, Maury Wills broke his mark with 695 in 1962. On August 27,1951, he threw out Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Mel Queen by two feet at first base after Queen had apparently singled into right field, Furillo batted only.247 for the 1952 pennant winners, though he was selected to his first All-Star team. Diagnosed with cataracts, he had surgery in the offseason and returned with perhaps his best season, winning the batting title and collecting 21 home runs and 92 RBI with a career-best 38 doubles. His.344 average was the highest by a right-handed Dodgers hitter since Oyster Burns hit.354 in 1894 and he was again named an All-Star, ending the year fifth in the league in slugging, and finished ninth in the MVP balloting. Furillo got Durocher in a headlock, and in the brawl, Monte Irvin of the Giants stepped on Furillos hand. For the 1955 champions he was seventh in the league with a.314 average, along with 95 RBI and a career high of 26 homers. With the 1956 team which repeated as NL champions, earning the teams seventh pennant in ten years, he slipped to a.289 average but maintained solid power totals with 21 homers,83 RBI and 30 doubles. He hit.306 in the Dodgers last season in Brooklyn in 1957, with the 1959 pennant team, his playing time was reduced to only 50 games, with just 25 of them in the outfield. He would later maintain that he was blackballed as a result and was unable to find a job within the sport – a charge denied by Commissioner Ford Frick. Furillo played in seven World Series with the Dodgers, six of them against the New York Yankees, winning in 1955, in the 1953 World Series he hit. In the victorious 1955 Series he started the scoring with a home run in his first at bat of Game 1. The two runs held up for a 2–0 victory, and Brooklyn earned the first World Series title in franchise history, in the 1959 Series he was limited to four pinch-hitting appearances and his 2-run single in the seventh inning of Game 3 broke a scoreless tie. Los Angeles held on for a 3–1 win, as an outfielder, he had 3322 putouts,151 assists,34 double plays and 74 errors for 3547 total chances and a.979 fielding percentage. If he had one hit in his career, he would have statistically had a.300 batting average. After retiring, Furillo left the sport for good, while writing his 1972 book The Boys of Summer about the 1952 and 1953 pennant-winning teams, author Roger Kahn located Furillo installing elevators at the World Trade Center
31.
Don Newcombe
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Donald Newcombe, nicknamed Newk, is an American former Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher who played for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians. In 1949, he became the first black pitcher to start a World Series game, in 1951, Newcombe was the first black pitcher to win twenty games in one season. In 1956, the year of the Cy Young Award, he became the first pitcher to win the National League MVP. Newcombe compiled a batting average of.271 with 15 home runs and was used as a pinch hitter. Newcombe was born in Madison, New Jersey, and was raised in Elizabeth where he attended Jefferson High School, after playing one season with the Newark Eagles in the Negro Leagues, Newcombe signed with the Dodgers. With catcher Roy Campanella, Newcombe played for the first racially integrated baseball team based in the United States in the 20th century and he continued to play for Nashua in 1947 before moving up through the minor leagues. He debuted for Brooklyn on May 20,1949, effa Manley, business manager for the Eagles, agreed to let the Dodgers Branch Rickey sign Newcombe to a contract. Manley was not compensated for the release of Newcombe and he immediately helped the Dodgers to the league pennant as he earned seventeen victories, led the league in shutouts, and pitched 32 consecutive scoreless innings. He was also among the first four players to be named to an All-Star team, along with teammates Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella. Newcombe was named Rookie of the Year by both The Sporting News and the Baseball Writers Association of America, in 1950, he won 19 games, and 20 the following season, also leading the league in strikeouts in 1951. He had an even greater 1956 season, with marks of 27–7,139 strikeouts, and he was named the National Leagues MVP, and was awarded the first-ever Cy Young Award, then given to the best pitcher in the combined major leagues. Following the Dodgers move to Los Angeles, Newcombe got off to an 0–6 start in 1958 before being traded to the Reds for four players in midseason and he posted a record of 24–21 with Cincinnati until his contract was sold to Cleveland in mid-1960. He finished with a 2–3 mark in Cleveland before being released to end his major league career, Newcombe acknowledges that alcoholism played a significant role in the decline of his career. In his ten-year major league career, Newcombe registered a record of 149–90, with 1129 strikeouts, in addition to his pitching abilities, Newcombe was a dangerous hitter, hitting seven homers one season. He batted.271, with 15 home runs,108 runs batted in,238 hits,33 doubles,3 triples,94 runs scored and 8 stolen bases, on May 28,1962, Newcombe signed with the Chunichi Dragons of Japans Nippon Professional Baseball. Doby would join him the same year, Newcombe played one season in Japan, splitting time as an outfielder and a first baseman, only pitching in one game. In 81 games, he hit.262 with 12 home runs and 43 RBI, Newcombe rejoined the Dodger organization in the late 1970s and served as the teams Director of Community Affairs. In March 2009 he was named special adviser to the chairman of the team, Newcombe has maintained sobriety since 1967
32.
Johnny Podres
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John Joseph Johnny Podres was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who spent most of his career with the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers. He led the National League in earned run average and shutouts in 1957, Podres helped the Dodgers win World Series championships in 1955,1959,1963 and 1965, although he did not pitch in the 1965 World Series itself. In the 1955 series, after the Dodgers lost the first two games to the New York Yankees, Podres pitched a game, seven-hit victory on his 23rd birthday in Game 3. In the climactic Game 7, Podres pitched a 2–0 shutout to bring Brooklyn its only World Series championship, Podres was given the first-ever World Series MVP Award by Sport magazine and presented with a red two-seater Corvette. Later he was honored as the Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine, in his 15-season career, Podres compiled a 148–116 record with 1435 strikeouts, a 3.68 ERA, and 24 shutouts in 440 games. He was at his best in the World Series, losing his first Series game, in six Series games, he allowed only 29 hits in 38⅓ innings, with a 2.11 ERA. Among the pitchers he worked with were Frank Viola and Curt Schilling, in 2002, Johnny Podres was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame. He later settled in Queensbury, New York and died at age 75 in Glens Falls, New York, after being hospitalized for heart and kidney ailments and a leg infection. Podres was survived by his wife of 41 years, the former Joni Taylor of Ice Follies fame and he is interred at Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in Moriah, New York, which is in the Adirondack Park
33.
Baseball Writers' Association of America
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The Baseball Writers Association of America is a professional association for baseball journalists writing for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying websites. The forty-three founding members of the Baseball Writers Association first met in mid-October 1908 and they included Joe S. Jackson, who became the associations first president. At that time, Jackson was the editor of the Detroit Free Press. Also selected as officers were Irving E, the slate of officers was ratified, and anyone who wrote about baseball in major league cities was eligible for membership. This policy changed, however, in December 1913, at time it was decided that minor league baseball writers could also become members. Then, Jackson became a dominant force in the years of the baseball writers. Jackson finally retired in 1919, while Sanborn returned to assume the position of president, after that, Jackson became a member of the BBWAA Board of Directors. The organizations primary function is to work with Major League Baseball and individual teams to assure clubhouse, in addition, BBWAA members also elect players to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which is the organizations most public function. All writers with 10 continuous years of membership in the BBWAA, the Hall of Fame also empowers the BBWAAs Historical Overview Committee, made up of 11 or 12 veteran BBWAA members, to formulate the annual ballot for the Veterans Committee. The BBWAAs most public function is to vote on candidates for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. From 1953 to 1962, the BBWAA presented a Sophomore of the Year Award in each league, in 1997, a 36-member BBWAA panel selected the Major League Baseball All-Time Team. The annual J. G. Taylor Spink Award is the highest award given by the BBWAA, the award is open to both BBWAA members and nonmembers, but only one winner—Roger Angell of The New Yorker, the 2014 recipient—had never been a BBWAA member in his career. Despite having written on baseball for more than a half-century, Angell never worked a specific baseball writing beat, in 2007, the BBWAA opened its membership to web-based writers employed on a full-time basis by websites that are credentialed by MLB for post-season coverage. For information about the chapter and its officer, see footnote. In 1947, the became an official MLB award, with Jackie Robinson as its first recipient. In July 1987, the award was renamed the Jackie Robinson Award, for the list of presidents and secretaries from 1908 to the present, see footnote. During the 2012 World Series, the Association elected its first female president, Susan Slusser, names of members are followed by the name of the organization for whom they write. Note, New York Times, Washington Post and Baltimore Sun writers have stated that they are no longer permitted to vote by their employers, the Los Angeles Times has a similar policy, though it appears to be negotiable
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