Baseball History | The Baseball Zealot

Rare Baseball Volumes Found

Well, case closed. The rare volumes of baseball publication Collyer’s Eye, which were discovered stolen earlier this week, were found Tuesday. The periodicals were found the day after the story of the loss hit the press. Apparently, they were “found on a table”. A guilty thief? I guess. ”I was really pumped up,” said Schmidt, the … Continue reading “Rare Baseball Volumes Found”

Well, case closed. The rare volumes of baseball publication Collyer’s Eye, which were discovered stolen earlier this week, were found Tuesday.

The periodicals were found the day after the story of the loss hit the press. Apparently, they were “found on a table”. A guilty thief? I guess.

”I was really pumped up,” said Schmidt, the UI associate university librarian for collections.

I’ll bet she was. You don’t always get so lucky. The library is already discussing digitizing the volumes so “that anyone can view the works without further damaging them”.

The story made all the way to ESPN. Hat tip to the Little Blog on the Prairie for the link. LBOTP is a local blog covering the gamut of issues. Anyway, she questions “Why is it that the UI Library is always making news for losing things?”. I have to admit that was my first thought too. They said they don’t want to dust for fingerprints for fear of damaging the volumes. Whatever.

Finally, just so we know what we’re talking about, here’s what Collyer’s Eye looks like:

Vic Power

Vic Power, RIP

Senor Waited Long Enough

They say sometimes older people wait until important events like holidays to occur before they pass on. It’s almost like they are holding on that much longer so they can experience them. You gotta wonder if this was true with Al Lopez and this year’s World Series. Lopez, the oldest member of the Hall of Fame, … Continue reading “Senor Waited Long Enough”

They say sometimes older people wait until important events like holidays to occur before they pass on. It’s almost like they are holding on that much longer so they can experience them.

You gotta wonder if this was true with Al Lopez and this year’s World Series. Lopez, the oldest member of the Hall of Fame, died on Sunday because of complications of a heart attack.

Lopez who one week ago was known as the manager of last Chicago White Sox World Series winner in 1959. That was the year of the Go-Go Sox. In addition, he led the Indians to the World Series Championship in 1954. That was the only year between ’49-’58 that the Yankees did not win the AL pennant.

I had the honor of being in Cooperstown when Lopez was inducted. Yes, I was there to see Ernie Banks but Lopez’ accomplishments were not lost on me and I’ve always appreciated his efforts more because of it. Lopez is probably one of the more under-rated managers of all time. Considering he managed at the same time as the tough New York Yankees, he fared pretty well. In addition to his two first place finishes, he placed second ten times.

Lopez lived a full life at 96. I’m sure wherever he is, he’s glad it was long enough to see the Sox win it all.

Lee Elia- Motivational Speaker

The article I referenced in my previous post mentioned Lee Elia and his famous rant while he was a manager with the Cubs.

Elia was not a very successful manager. Overall, he was 238-300 with the Cubs and Phillies. But mention his name to any Cub fan and without a doubt, his rant will come up. Among my baseball friends, he has been raised to an hero/anti-hero status for his chat with the media on April 29, 1983.

On that day, the Cubs suffered a one-run loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers giving them a record of 5-14 for the season. The Wrigley crowd had been especially hard on the team, booing and heckling them throughout the game.

To see the mainstream media print his rant is laughable because every other word is censored. Here is the complete text of his tirade to the press that day.

Before I link the audio, let me say on the outset that this is definitely not safe for work, kids or anyone sensitive to harsh language. Listen to it here.

No Minor Loss- Joe Bauman

Joe Bauman passed away today. Fans will know that this name belongs to the minor league home run record holder who banged 72 dingers in 1954 for the Roswell Rockets of the Longhorn League. He was 83. Bauman won the Triple Crown that year. Along with his 72 homers, he batted .400 with 224 rbis. … Continue reading “No Minor Loss- Joe Bauman”

Joe Bauman passed away today. Fans will know that this name belongs to the minor league home run record holder who banged 72 dingers in 1954 for the Roswell Rockets of the Longhorn League. He was 83.

Bauman won the Triple Crown that year. Along with his 72 homers, he batted .400 with 224 rbis. He also led the league with 150 walks.

Here are some of his career stats:

Games	1019
Batting Average	.337
Homeruns	337
RBIs	1057

Sum-Up of the Hall of Fame Weekend

The Baseball ThinkFactory has a good wrap-up of the goings on at the Hall of Fame weekend this past month. It’s a good read for those of us who wished we could have been there. For those too lazy to click, here are some juicy samples: ( Prior to the big weekend, the Hall of … Continue reading “Sum-Up of the Hall of Fame Weekend”

The Baseball ThinkFactory has a good wrap-up of the goings on at the Hall of Fame weekend this past month. It’s a good read for those of us who wished we could have been there.

For those too lazy to click, here are some juicy samples:

( Prior to the big weekend, the Hall of Fame pretty much guaranteed that there would be an induction in 2006 by announcing that a special election of Negro Leagues greats would take place over the winter. Knowing full well that the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will post a goose egg in January (Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage, and Jim Rice will all fall short of the 75 per cent needed for election), and with no Veterans Committee vote scheduled until 2007, Hall of Fame officials decided to stage the special election in February of ‘06. Several Negro Leaguers are considered strong candidates for Hall of Fame enshrinement, with catching great Biz Mackey considered the most likely to win election. With the exceptions of Buck O’Neil and Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe, most of the eligible Negro Leagues greats are deceased, increasing the likelihood that there will not be a living inductee in 2006… The Hall of Fame did excellent work in putting together a committee of qualified historians for the Negro Leagues election. The committee features most of the leading experts on black baseball, including SABR members Dick Clark and Larry Lester, and author Robert Peterson, who penned the hallmark book, Only The Ball Was White…

Amazingly, none of Wade Boggs’ former teammates in Boston, New York, or Tampa Bay bothered to attend the weekend festivities in Cooperstown this year. Although Boggs was never known for his warmth toward other players or the media, it boggles the mind that all of his retired teammates decided to become no-shows at the induction ceremony. Not surprisingly, Boggs didn’t mention a single teammate by name during his induction speech…

The weekend did not come and go without some controversy. Hall of Fame infielder Rod Carew was supposed to participate in a Monday morning roundtable with the Class of 2005, Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg, but failed to show for the event, which was broadcast by ESPN on a tape-delayed basis. According to a Hall of Fame source, Carew was angered by a video shown during Sunday’s induction ceremony. The video, which was narrated by ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian, referred to the newly inducted Boggs as being like “Rod Carew, only better.” Not appreciating the negative comparison, Carew decided to make himself unavailable for the ESPN roundtable with Boggs and Sandberg…

Read the article though… it’s worth a look.

Longest Game

I was on the phone with my buddy Brando today. Turns out he’s back east in Boston. He told me he’s there for his girlfriend’s daughter’s wedding. I was like yeah, yeah, but are you going to a Red Sox game while you’re out there? Well, no but he’s going to see their Triple-A team, the … Continue reading “Longest Game”

Well, no but he’s going to see their Triple-A team, the Pawtucket Red Sox play.

I told him the one piece of trivia I can remember about the Pawsox is that they played in professional baseball’s longest game. That spurred me to look up the info on the web. One quick Google search and the info wasn’t hard to find.

It was a game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings on April 18th, 1981 in Pawtucket. The game was completed 2 months later on June 23. Ironically, from that point, it took only 18 minutes for the PawSox to win the game. Interestingly, losing pitcher Steve Grilli wasn’t even with the Red Wings when the game started in April.

Some of the players whose names may ring a bell include:

Cal Ripken
Wade Boggs
Dave Valle
Rich Gedman
Manny Sarmiento
Bruce Hurst
Bob Ojeda

Some of the records set:

• MOST PUTOUTS – one team – 99 (Pawtucket)
• MOST PUTOUTS – both teams – 195 TIME – 8:25
• MOST AT BATS – one team – 114 (Pawtucket)
• MOST STRIKE OUTS – one team – 34 (Rochester Batters)
• MOST AT BATS – both teams – 219
• MOST STRIKE OUTS – both teams – 60
• MOST ASSISTS – both teams – 88
• MOST “CHANCES ACCEPTED” – one team – 142 (Rochester)
• MOST “CHANCES ACCEPTED” – both teams – 283
• MOST INNINGS – 33 PITCHES THROWN – Rochester 423, Pawtucket 459, Total 882
• MOST AT BATS – Dave Koza, Lee Graham, Chico Walker – 14 (Pawtucket)
• MOST PLATE APPEARANCES – Tom Eaton, Cal Ripken, Dallas Williams – 15 (Rochester)

Two of my favorite quotes (check out this web page for more):

“When we walked off the field at 4 o’clock in the morning, it was like, ‘You mean we’re not done with the game yet?'”
–Pawtucket catcher Rich Gedman

“A lot of people were saying , ‘Yeah, yeah, we tied it, we tied it!’ And then they said, ‘Oh, no, what did you do? We could have gone home!'”
–Pawtucket’s Wade Boggs on his game-tying hit in the 21st inning

Check out Pawtucket’s web site for the box score.

A Night of Baseball

Last night I got together with my buddy Brando for the first time in weeks. It was six hours of total baseball. The Shot Heard ‘Round the World We sat down and watched The Shot Heard ‘Round the World. That’s the HBO Sports movie about Bobby Thomson’s homerun against Ralph Branca. Very good documentary. I’m … Continue reading “A Night of Baseball”

Last night I got together with my buddy Brando for the first time in weeks. It was six hours of total baseball.

The Shot Heard ‘Round the World

We sat down and watched The Shot Heard ‘Round the World. That’s the HBO Sports movie about Bobby Thomson’s homerun against Ralph Branca. Very good documentary. I’m a sucker for watching any footage about baseball’s past and this one didn’t disappoint. Check it out if you get a chance.

By the way, I never heard about the controversy regarding the Giants stealing signs during the 51 season and playoffs. That charge was levied by NYG catcher Sal Yvars and denied by everyone else. Anyway, that was new to me.

For those interested, here is the box score of that game.

Cubs/Cards game

After that we settled down to watch the Cubs defeat the Cardinals. The Cubs managed to eke a victory out. Up by a run, Demster managed to force Pujols to ground out with a runner on second.

Far be for me to spit at success but Brando and I got into a discussion about whether it was the right move to pitch to Pujols. Brando felt strongly that Pujols should have been walked intentionally. I’m not a big advocate of the intentional walk especially when it puts the winning run on base. But as an APBA league manager who has had Albert on his team since he was a rookie, I knew what Brando was getting at. A.P certainly should not have gotten any good pitches to hit and the second Dempster pitch looked pretty juicy.

For what it’s worth, Bleed Cubbie Blue felt the right decision was made to pitch to Pujols.

Hindsight is 20/20 and the Cubs went 3-1 for the series.

Sandberg to the Hall!

Today Ryne Sandberg is in Cooperstown, NY. He’s had a long journey but his induction is well-deserved. I hope he’s enjoying himself. It’s like a party being thrown in your honor. A very big party. With thousands of people.

As a Cub fan, I’m thrilled. I remember vividly Ryno’s selfless play without the ego we see so much of today. The kind of attitude we need more of now.

As most baseball fanatics do, let’s break his career down by the stats:

Games	2164
AB	8385
Runs	1318
Hits	2386
RBI	1061
Doubles	403
Triples	76
HR	282
Walks	761
Strikeouts	1260
Stolen Bases	344
Batting Average	.285
Slugging Average	.452
On Base Percentage	.344
Gold Gloves	9
All-Star Selections	10

… and one MVP in 1984.

Which leads me to a trivia question. Who was the last NL non-pitcher to win the MVP without hitting 20 homers? The answer of course, is Sandberg. Terry Pendleton came close in 1991 with 22.

If we look at Sandberg’s stats in a vacuum, they look pretty awesome. However, consider that:

Sandberg hit these numbers not as a firstbaseman or leftfielder but as a secondbaseman, a much more demanding position.
His play at second base was clearly superior (hence, 9 Gold Gloves).
and probably most importantly, Sandberg was one of the best if not the best secondbaseman of his era.

So, Cub fans rejoice! We have one more in the Hall.

BILLY PIERCE – THE FORGOTTEN MAN

The White Sox Interactive Website (WSI link here) is currently featuring a baseball card of Billy Pierce because he was named starting pitcher for the AL in the 1959 All Star Game. Jon Garland was named the starting pitcher for the 2005 All Star Game. The website mentions what a magical season 1959 turned out to be and how it would be cool if this year’s Sox could go all the way.What it doesn’t mention is that the winningest pitcher in White Sox history didn’t get to start a game against the Dodgers in the 1959 World Series. Al Lopez is in failing health and seems to be the only one who knows for sure. But here is an interesting article about it that appeared last month (link here).Teddy Ballgame

The White Sox Interactive Website is currently featuring a baseball card of Billy Pierce because he was named starting pitcher for the AL in the 1959 All Star Game. Jon Garland was named the starting pitcher for the 2005 All Star Game. The website mentions what a magical season 1959 turned out to be and how it would be cool if this year’s Sox could go all the way. What it doesn’t mention is that the winningest pitcher in White Sox history didn’t get to start a game against the Dodgers in the 1959 World Series. Al Lopez is in failing health and seems to be the only one who knows for sure.

Here is an interesting article about it that appeared last month.