Baseball History Thread

[TruffleShuffle]

most racist trade in mlb history?

 

June 14, 1936: Ben Chapman traded by the New York Yankees to the Washington Senators for Jake Powell.

 

It was in New York that the extent of Chapman's bigotry first surfaced. He taunted Jewish fans at Yankee Stadium with Nazi salutes and disparaging epithets. In a 1933 game, his confrontation with the Washington Senators' Jewish infielder, Buddy Myer, caused a 20-minute brawl that saw 300 fans participate and resulted in five-game suspensions and $100 fines for each of the players involved.

 

In April 1947, Brooklyn called up Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals and made him their regular first baseman: he was the first African-American to play in the major leagues in more than sixty years. Chapman's Phillies were not the only NL team to oppose integration – several Dodger players had allegedly tried to petition management to keep him off the team – but during an early-season series in Brooklyn, the level of verbal abuse directed by Chapman and his players at Robinson reached such proportions that it made headlines in the New York and national press. Chapman instructed his pitchers, whenever they had a 3-0 count against Robinson, to bean him rather than walk him.

 

On July 29, 1938, in a pregame radio interview, Chicago White Sox broadcaster Bob Elson asked Powell what he did in the offseason. He replied (falsely) that he was a police officer in Dayton, Ohio. When Elson asked what Powell did to stay in shape, Powell responded that he "cracked [expletive] over the head with [his] nightstick."

[OleMissCub]

Definitely wasn't aware of this

 

in 1967 the Yankee's traded Maris to the Cards. As part of the signing bonus, August Busch Jr. gave Maris the sole rights to distribute Anheuser Busch products in an 8 county territory in/around Gainsville, FL. Maris played only two years for the Cards. In 97 Busch had enough and tried to get out of it, but Maris' family seemingly came out pretty good:

 

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20050825/LOCAL/50825017

 

According to the SEC filing, Anheuser-Busch agreed to pay the $120 million in cash, and therefore had to pay a $105 million pretax charge. The document identified both Anheuser-Busch and its outside insurance companies as parties in the settlement with the Maris company.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Reddit poster's great grandfather's invitation to 1909 Cubs Spring Training. http://imgur.com/a/LEHJO

[Guest]

Reddit poster's great grandfather's invitation to 1909 Cubs Spring Training. http://imgur.com/a/LEHJO

 

 

132 Ashland Boulevard

City

[ConstableRabbit]

Reddit poster's great grandfather's invitation to 1909 Cubs Spring Training. http://imgur.com/a/LEHJO

 

 

132 Ashland Boulevard

City

I LOVE that.

[Mark Priors Calves]

Reddit poster's great grandfather's invitation to 1909 Cubs Spring Training. http://imgur.com/a/LEHJO

How cool to sign with the defending World Series Champions.

[Gmoney08]

Love the end of the letter.

 

Cubs management is excited to get started, possibly more so than ever because they have a chance to win a 4th consecutive pennant which had in their own words had never been done in the 33 year history of the organization.

[OleMissCub]

Old Expos park from 69-76 used to have the bullpens on top of extended dugouts:

 

http://i.imgur.com/F4oH1Jz.jpg

[Clem Fandango]

Amazing photo of Willie Davis sliding into second base by Neil Leifer. He rigged a camera underneath the base to get the shot.

 

http://i.imgur.com/68Xg9gs.jpg

[OleMissCub]

That's a beautiful shot

[Banedon]

He looks a mile away from the base.

[Gmoney08]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkqz3lpUBp0

 

 

A ride around NYC with a crazy taxi driver in 1928 featuring Babe Ruth.

 

 

I'm assuming the special effects of this guys driving were just merely driving slow and then speeding up the frame rate (sorta like fast forward?). Although I dont know much about movies, I'm sure if that were to be taken in real time about 10 people would be dead..

[UMFan83]

Awesome color photo taken at Wrigley in 1950 posted on Reddit. Unfortunately its posted on Flicker so I can't post directly, but he's the link:

 

[Banedon]

Awesome color photo taken at Wrigley in 1950 posted on Reddit. Unfortunately its posted on Flicker so I can't post directly, but he's the link:

 

 

Click the pic, choose the size, the right click and copy url...

 

Ricketts on the rooftop across the street.

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7367/11396815156_cf9b79c925_b.jpg

[rocket]

if you want to see something you'll never unsee, click below to see babe ruth's penis flapping after a swing

 

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/199hfh3zbs2dngif/ku-medium.gif

[Gmoney08]

if you want to see something you'll never unsee, click below to see babe ruth's penis flapping after a swing

 

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/199hfh3zbs2dngif/ku-medium.gif

 

Those kind of things happened before STEROIDS!

 

 

RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE, OLD TIME BASEBALL, RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE

[Banedon]

Colorized pic of Willie Mays.

 

http://i.imgur.com/LZjNPKP.jpg?1

[rocket]

This is great

 

http://deadspin.com/researcher-uncovers-rare-film-of-the-first-game-of-lou-1551975957?fb_action_ids=10152063456558668&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B1402877493315613%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

 

Love Babe's reaction to grounding out. Take about 5 half-assed steps to first then proceed to the dugout. Could you imagine if some latino player did that today?

[jersey cubs fan]

This is great

 

http://deadspin.com/researcher-uncovers-rare-film-of-the-first-game-of-lou-1551975957?fb_action_ids=10152063456558668&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B1402877493315613%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

 

Love Babe's reaction to grounding out. Take about 5 half-assed steps to first then proceed to the dugout. Could you imagine if some latino player did that today?

 

He went at least halfway to first.

[Clem Fandango]

His mechanics look so awful by today's standards.

[Sammy Sofa]

His mechanics look so awful by today's standards.

 

The whole thing looks bizarre; everyone looks like they're wearing trash bags, Ruth's mechanics are hideous and he's basically lunging out of the batter's box and the catcher is practically standing up.

[jersey cubs fan]

His mechanics look so awful by today's standards.

 

The whole thing looks bizarre; everyone looks like they're wearing trash bags, Ruth's mechanics are hideous and he's basically lunging out of the batter's box and the catcher is practically standing up.

 

Can you imagine the "go back to your mother's basement with this mechanics talk" mentality that had to be prevalent at some point?

[Cubswin11]

His mechanics look so awful by today's standards.

They look awful by beer league softball standards, let alone todays MLB standards.

[rocket]

This is great

 

http://deadspin.com/researcher-uncovers-rare-film-of-the-first-game-of-lou-1551975957?fb_action_ids=10152063456558668&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B1402877493315613%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

 

Love Babe's reaction to grounding out. Take about 5 half-assed steps to first then proceed to the dugout. Could you imagine if some latino player did that today?

 

He went at least halfway to first.

 

well apparently it was actually a pop out, so nevermind.

[J.R.]

Random historical note: I count eight ballparks still in use in which Harry Caray worked:

 

(1) Fenway Park

(2) Wrigley Field

(3) Dodger Stadium

(4) Angel Stadium

(5) Oakland Coliseum

(6) Kauffman Stadium

(7) U.S. Cellular Field

(8) Coors Field

 

Turner Field was open in his last year, but I believe Josh Lewin worked all the games in Atlanta.