Professional athletes are forced to live up to legacies. Retired uniform numbers, highlight films, and statues of icons from past eras remind them of the giant footprints to fill. Or at least in which they must tread. Such was the burden for the Miami Dolphins on December 2, 1985 in a Monday Night Football game against the Chicago Bears. The former had a legacy of perfection to protect—the 1972 Dolphins squad had 17-0 record; the latter compiled a 12-0 record, theretofore.
During the same year that Marty McFly went back to the future, the Bears had an aura of celebrity transcending popular culture. A spat concerning quarterback Jim McMahon wearing an Adidas headband became a matter of national debate—NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle fined McMahon $5,000 for endorsing a product during a game. McMahon responded the following week—during the NFC Championship—by wearing a headband with Rozelle’s name written on it.
William “Refrigerator” Perry transformed from a defensive back into a fullback—but only with the end zone in sight. This tactic may have seemed to be a gimmick because of Perry’s size, but it did result in touchdowns, as well as guaranteed prominence on national and local sportscasts.
Head Coach Mike Ditka had Bears blood running through his veins—he played for the team in the 1960s; Walter Payton’s graceful running garnered cheers from and catharsis for Chicagoans; Buddy Ryan’s 46 Defense alignment protected leads; and Mike Singletary’s single-mindedness set a model for defensive players to be aware of every twitch, movement, and indicator of their opponents.
There was a scent of destiny surrounding these Monsters of the Midway. With each victory came a certain inevitability that the Bears would go to their first Super Bowl. When pre-game shows mentioned Chicago, eyes and ears narrowed their focuses to ingest the latest information about the personalities, performances, and progress of the Bears.
Marching towards perfection, the Bears took the field at the Orange Bowl on December 2nd; a perfect season was a sustainable reality. Miami would not allow that to happen. Tension tighter than a prospector’s clutch on his gold pervaded the stadium. And it pored through television screens tuned to the game, from Puget Sound to Passaic, New Jersey.
Larry Csonka and other members of the ’72 Dolphins stood watch on the sidelines, with arms folded and sober visages. Theirs was a mission of intimidation, steadfastness, and pride—Miami’s perfect season will not be matched. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Not ever. It was an event made for the moment—ABC’s Monday Night Football was the only national telecast of NFL games; CBS and NBC aired games regionally.
The Dolphins beat the Bears 38-24. Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino had an outstanding game:
- Completed 14 of 27 passes
- Threw for three touchdowns
- Total yards: 270
Chicago Tribune sports columnist Bernie Lincicome tried to put things in perspective.
“So much for immortality,” wrote Lincicome.
“Not to underrate history, but the Bears did not lose a season in the Orange Bowl Monday night, they merely lost a game, and they already have so many.”
The day after, the Bears recorded “The Super Bowl Shuffle”—this rap song became a signature of the Bears’ brashness. When the music video aired, it showed the Bears wearing their jerseys and singing in a studio. If cockiness bled through the song’s lyrics, confidence poured. Perhaps it was the right time for a diversion; the Bears won the remaining games in the schedule, dominated the playoffs, and beat the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on January 25, 2017.
Tags: '72 Dolphins, 1972, 1972 Dolphins, 1985, 46 Defense, ABC, ABC's Monday Night Football, Adidas, Bears, Bernie Lincicome, Buddy Ryan, Buddy Ryan's 46 Defense, CBS, Chicago, Chicago Bears, Chicago Tribune, Commissioner Pete Rozelle, Dan Marino, December 2, Dolphins, Head Coach Mike Ditka, Jim McMahon, Larry Csonka, Miami, Miami Dolphins, Mike Ditka, Mike Singletary, Monsters of the Midway, NBC, New Jersey, NFC, NFC Championship, NFL, NFL Commissioner, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, Orange Bowl, Passaic, Pete Rozelle, Puget Sound, Super Bowl Shuffle, The Super Bowl Shuffle
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Chicago Bears, the Miami Dolphins, and the Legacy of Perfection
For fans of the Boston Bruins, there are two types of hockey players—Bobby Orr and everyone else. A product of Ontario—Parry Sound in Georgian Bay, to be precise—Orr ignited his hockey destiny the moment he laced up his first pair of skates. Bostonians, fiercely loyal, welcomed Orr in 1966 with a storm of applause, adoration, and acclaim. Hockey writers, too, noted Orr’s excellence with the Calder Memorial Trophy—the award for the “most proficient in his his first year of competition in the National Hockey League.”
Orr, he of the destructible knees and indestructible fortitude, soon became a legend. When #4 took the ice, the Boston Garden shook with promise of victory; in his first season, Orr helped lead the Bruins to the Stanley Cup against the Philadelphia Flyers. It resulted in a loss; nevertheless, the Bruins won hockey’s greatest honor twice during the Orr era, which ended after the 1975-76 season. Orr shot the winning goal in overtime against the St. Louis Blues to capture the Stanley Cup for the 1969-70 season.
After two seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, Orr retired after the 1978-79 season with 264 career goals, 624 career assists, and a collection of trophies marking excellence. Orr’s boyish grin off the ice and steely exterior on it imprinted the kid from Parry Sound with a stamp reading “legend” in hockey annals.
When a legend gets injured, fans worry.
When a legend gets disparaged, fans defend.
When a legend gets mistreated on the field of play, fans react. Violently, sometimes. Such was the case on January 24, 1974 in a Bruins-Blackhawks game. With less than a minute to go, defenseman Bill White stuck out his stick, tripped Orr, and began a wave of protest not seen since the nation’s forefathers dumped tea into Boston Harbor. White’s action was purposeful, as clear as a cloudless sky on a spring day at Fenway Park. At least it was, according to the Boston Garden crowd.
Orr, in a protest that could be heard in the parking lot, confronted referee Wally Harris, who acted promptly—he ejected Orr from the game for a 10-minute misconduct penalty. White received no penalty. Bruins fans, in turn, showed their displeasure by throwing garbage onto the ice—it took a little more than 30 minutes to clean the ice, cool tempers, and resume the game. “I’ve been through a few things like that,” said Blackhawks centerman Stan Mikita, whose views were documented in the media, including, of course, the Chicago Tribune and the Boston Globe. “But never as bad as this. I never thought it would happen in Boston. But it shows how people can get when the big man (Orr) gets flattened. They want blood.”
Chicago sportswriter Bob Verdi posed a whiff of indictment against Orr in the Tribune. “On the particular play, White dropped to the ice and knocked the puck away from Orr with a reaching stick sweep,” wrote Verdi. “Orr’s momentum then carried him into contact with White’s right arm and stick. There’s no way to prove it, but it looked as tho [sic] Orr was trying to force the penalty; he looked like Stan Mikita taking one of his famous swan dives. Mikita, tho [sic], is more convincing.”
Alas, the Boston press felt differently about the penalty. A Globe editorial stated, “Television reruns of the play made it clear what ignited the violence, but surely no one can believe that it was worth endangering the physical safety of the men on both teams or the officials to vent that fury.”
If a game has less than 10 minutes before completion, the player’s time off the ice for the 10-minute misconduct “Orr’s momentum then carried him into contact with White’s right arm and stick. There’s no way to prove it, but it looked as tho [sic] Orr was trying to force the penalty; he looked like Stan Mikita taking one of his famous swan dives. Mikita, tho [sic], is more convincing.”
If a game has less than 10 minutes before completion, the player’s time off the ice for the 10-minute misconduct penalty amounts to time served—the outstanding time will not be carried over, either to the next game on the schedule or the next game against the opponent.
The Blackhawks beat the Bruins 2-1. But it was not the score that exhausted the crowd wearing Bruins paraphernalia to indicate their chosen team of worship, a trait designed by geography during one’s formative years, except in occasional instances. It was treachery against a favorite son responsible, in Jupiterian fashion, for two Stanley Cups—treachery that pierced the hearts of college students in Cambridge; of cultured millionaires on Beacon Hill; of nature lovers in Boston Common; of civil servants at the Massachusetts State House; of gardeners in Brookline; of contractors in South Boston; of cab rivers ushering passengers to and from an airport named Logan; and of MBTA subway conductors.
A victory unites Bostonians of every stripe in society. A betrayal, even more so.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on January 24, 2017.
Tags: 1966, 1974, 1975-76 season, Beacon Hill, Blackhawks, Blues, Bob Verdi, Bobby Orr, Boston, Boston Bruins, Boston Common, Boston Garden, Boston Globe, Boston Harbor, Bruins, Calder Memorial Trophy, Cambridge, Chicago, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Tribune, Fenway Park, Flyers, Georgian Bay, January 24, Jupiter, Logan, Massachusetts State House, MBTA, National Hockey League, Ontario, Parry Sound, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Flyers, South Boston, St. Louis, St. Louis Blues, Stan Mikita, Stanley Cup, Wally Harris
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Hell Hath No Fury Like A Bruins Fan Scorned
It was the best of baseball. It was the worst of baseball.
On the 9th day of the 10th month of the 66th year of the 20th century, it ended—the subject being the World Series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Baltimore emerged as champions, triggering elation throughout the metropolis named for Cecil Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore—the first Proprietor and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland. It was not supposed to happen. At lest it was not supposed to happen the way it did, with the Orioles blanking the vaunted Dodgers squad for a 4-0 sweep—three games were shutouts:
- Game 1: 5-2
- Game 2: 6-0
- Game 3: 1-0
- Game 4: 1-0
In turn, the Orioles elevated their status in Baltimore’s sports hierarchy. “This season’s feats of the Orioles, who leaped from crisis to crisis and still won the pennant, and who brought the exciting Frank Robinson to the city as a counter attraction to the demigod Johnny Unitas, balanced the ledger more than a bit. The Colts may not have lost their eminence, but the city’s fans and newspapers have learned that there is another team in town,” wrote Shirley Povich, whose words in the Washington Post started the day for sports fans in the Baltimore-Washington corridor.
Ushered to Baltimore in a trade with Cincinnati after the 1965 season, Robinson swatted his way through American League pitching in his first year as an Oriole:
Led Major Leagues
- Runs Scored (122)
- Home Runs (49)
- Slugging Percentage (.637)
- On-Base + Slugging Percentage (1.047)
- Total Bases (367)
Led American League
- RBI (122)
- Batting Average (.316)
- On-Base Percentage (.410)
- Sacrifice Flies (7)
Robinson won the American League Most Valuable Player Award and the World Series Most Valuable Player Award. It was a vindication, of sorts. “I wanted to have a good year especially to show the people in the front office there [in Cincinnati] that I wasn’t washed up, and I wanted to show them by having a good year,” said Robinson in an Associated Press article published in the Baltimore Sun on October 10th.
“And I wanted to show the people, the officials, the city of Baltimore they were getting a guy who still could play baseball.”
For the Dodgers, blaming and shaming arrived with gusto. Los Angeles Times sports columnist Jim Murray, for example, lobbed verbal grenades spiked with sarcasm, as was his wont. Murray’s piece titled “The Dodger Story: A Classic Case of Ineptitude” brought forth a wheelbarrow full of bon mots.
On the Dodgers’ hitting woes: “Their batting average cannot be seen with the naked eye or figured under the decimal system. Guys who weigh that little get to ride horse races.”
On Don Drysdale: “He deserved better, but the Dodgers’ invisible attack, the worst exercise in offensive futility since Mussolini’s invasion of Greece, left him like a guy who thinks his whole platoon is crawling through the brush with him until he whispers and gets no answer back. The Dodger ‘attack’ would have to be twice as loud to be dignified as ‘whispering.’ They hit the ball as if it was a cantaloupe.”
On the Dodgers’ post-season Japan trip: “They are now taking the act to Japan where, when the Japanese get a load of them, they may want to reopen World War II.”
Stocked with blue chips nearly as strong as the Dow 30, the Dodgers suffered a downturn that was unavoidable, arguably—Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Tommy Davis, Ron Fairly, Maury Wills, Wes Parker et al. faced an opponent that needed to be quashed before taking on the O’s. In his 2006 book Black and Blue: Sandy Koufax, the Robinson Boys, and the World Series That Stunned America, Tom Adelman posited that exhaustion—or something close to it—affected the Dodgers after a merciless pennant race. “Unlike the Orioles, they’d [sic] had no chance to adjust to the idea of a post-season contest—to catch their breath, raise their sights, and ready themselves for a fight,” wrote Adelman, who interviewed several players from both squads. Ron Fairly, among others, confirmed the toll created by the quick turnaround from the end of the season to the beginning of the World Series.
That is not to take anything away from the Orioles, managed by Hank Bauer, who knew a thing or two thousand about winning—he played for the Yankees during the Mantle era, which saw World Series titles in:
- 1949
- 1950
- 1951
- 1952
- 1953
- 1956
- 1958
American League pennant flew unaccompanied in the Bronx in 1955 and 1957.
Bauer won the Associated Press Manager of the Year Award and the Sporting News Manager of the Year Award in 1966.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on January 23, 2017.
Tags: 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1965, 1966, 2006, 20th century, American League, American League Most Valuable Player, American League Most Valuable Player Award, Associated Press, Associated Press Manager of the Year, Associated Press Manager of the Year Award, Baltimore, Baltimore Orioles, Black and Blue, Cecil Calvert, Cincinnati, Colts, Dodgers, Don Drysdale, Dow 30, first Proprietor and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland, Frank Robinson, Greece, Hank Bauer, invasion of Greece, Jim Murray, Johnny Unitas, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Times, Manager of the Year, Manager of the Year Award, Maryland, Maury Wills, Most Valuable Player, Most Valuable Player Award, Mussolini, Oriole, Orioles, Province of Maryland, Ron Fairly, Sandy Koufax, Second Lord Baltimore, Sporting News Manager of the Year Award, Tom Adelman, Tommy Davis, Wes Parker, World Series, World Series Most Valuable Player, World Series Most Valuable Player Award
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Baltimore, Frank Robinson, and the Year of the Orioles
They say the third time’s a charm. And so it was with Lefty Grove’s 300th victory, which occurred on July 25, 1941, against the Cleveland Indians. “Here the hundreds of fans who had been waiting for this moment ever since it became possible for Grove to reach his goal here in Boston refused to be denied,” wrote Gerry Moore in the Boston Globe. “They rushed onto the field and undoubtedly would have mobbed the veteran they have come to idolize except for half a dozen policemen who finally managed to escort Lefty into the runway leading to the clubhouse.”
Grove’s landmark achievement—which was also his last victory in a 17-year major league career—reflected output that defined excellence.
- Led the major leagues in ERA five times (four time consecutively)
- Led the American League in ERA nine times
- Led the major leagues in victories three times
- Led the American League in victories four times
- Led the major leagues in Win-Loss percentage five times
- Led the American League in strikeouts in his first seven seasons
- Led the major leagues in strikeouts four times
- .680 career Win-Loss percentage.
The Baseball Hall of Fame inducted Grove in 1947. His plaque highlights being an integral part of the Athletics’ squad that won three consecutive American League pennants—1929, 1930, 1931.
While Grove inched towards the pitcher’s plateau of 300 wins with a 7-7 record in 1941, Red Sox teammate Ted Williams slugged towards a hitter’s benchmark—.400 batting average. It was a lock on the last day of the season—with a .39995 batting average, Williams would have benefited from the simple mathematics of rounding up if he sat out the season-ending Athletics-Red Sox doubleheader. Instead, despite an endorsement from Red Sox player-manager Joe Cronin to lay low, Williams grabbed his bat, went six for eight, and marked .406 for the year. Nobody to date has hit .400 in the major leagues.
In a 1986 Sports Illustrated interview with Williams, Wade Boggs, and Don Mattingly about hitting, Williams explained his strategy at the plate. “Now, if I could give you any advice, it would be that the tougher the pitcher, the tougher the situation, the tougher the count, the worse the light, the worse the umpires, the tougher the delivery, the single most important thing to think about is hitting the ball hard through the middle. You’ll never go wrong with that idea in your mind. As long as you hit, and especially as you get older, hang in there and be quick.”
1941 was a solid year for the Boston Red Sox:
- Joe Cronin (Shortstop): .311 batting average, 95 RBI
- Jimmie Foxx (First Base): .300 batting average, 105 RBI
- Bobby Doerr (Second Base): .282 batting average, 93 RBI
- Jim Tabor (Third Base): .279 batting average, 101 RBI
Championship glory was not to be, however. With an 84-70 record, the Red Sox trailed the New York Yankees by 17 games. Joe DiMaggio—the Yankee Clipper—scored a 56-game hitting streak in ’41, another achievement that has not been matched since. The Yankees defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in five games to win the 1941 World Series.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on January 22, 2017.
Tags: 1929, 1930, 1931, 1941, 1941 World Series, 1947, 1986, Athletics, Baseball Hall of Fame, Bobby Doerr, Boston, Boston Red Sox, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Dodgers, Cleveland, Cleveland Indians, Dodgers, Don Mattingly, Gerry Moore, Globe, Hall of Fame, Indians, Jim Tabor, Jimmie Foxx, Joe Cronin, Joe DiMaggio, July 25, Lefty Grove, New York, New York Yankees, Red Sox, Sports Illustrated, Ted Williams, Wade Boggs, World Series, Yankee Clipper, Yankees
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Lefty Grove, Ted Williams, and the 1941 Red Sox
1975 was a year of shocks in popular culture. M*A*S*H killed off Henry Blake, the lovable, goofy, and semi-competent lieutenant colonel in charge of Mobile Army Surgical Hospital 4077; Jaws injected fear into filmgoers thinking about going to the beach for summer recreation, lest they be shark attack victims like the ones portrayed on screen; and the Boston Bruins traded Phil Esposito to the New York Rangers.
Esposito going to New York was not, to be certain, a global event. Or even a national one. For Bostonians whose devotion to sports knows no boundaries of faith, though, it was an upset of the natural order of things. Sure, Esposito started his career with the Chicago Blackhawks, but he flourished in Boston—milestones include two Stanley Cup wins, a perennial NHL All-Star selection, and two-time winner of the Hart Memorial Trophy, which honors the player most valuable to his team. Not since the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees after the 1919 season had betrayal pervaded the city, from Beacon Street to Boston Harbor.
“I’m crushed. I thought I had found a home in Boston,” lamented Esposito, quoted by Tom Fitzgerald in the Boston Globe.
Esposito emerged as a New York City icon, much like his fellow Boston transplant.
Boston sent defenseman Carol Vadnais to the Rangers with Esposito, who played center. In return, New York let go defenseman Brad Park, center Jean Ratelle, and Joe Zanuss—a defenseman for the Providence Reds, the Rangers’ American Hockey League affiliate.
Boston Globe sports columnist Leigh Montville ascribed the term “garbageman” to Esposito because he scored goals that were neither flashy nor dramatic, thereby igniting a touch of scorn. But when Esposito journeyed down I-95 toward his new home, scorn gave way to unease. “One difference already has surfaced here,” wrote Montville. “The people—the same people who were cold toward Esposito and his records—now seem worried. They see a big hole in the scoring totals. They see a lot of goals that aren’t going to be scored. They see a lot of things that might not be done.
“That is the way it is with a garbageman. You never miss him until he’s not around.”
Esposito led the Rangers to the 1979 Stanley Cup—the marauders of Madison Square Garden lost to the Montreal Canadiens in five games.
Still, decades later, the trade causes angst for Esposito. Toronto Sun sports columnist Steve Simmons chronicled Esposito’s viewpoint in 2013: “I didn’t choose to leave Chicago. I didn’t choose to leave Boston. I signed a contract in Boston for less money than I could have gotten from going to the WHA. I could have made millions doing that. And you know how they repaid me? Three weeks later, they traded me (to the New York Rangers).”
Retiring after the 1980-81 season, Esposito transitioned to being an assistant coach for the Rangers—his post-retirement duties also included general manager, head coach, and analyst for televised games on MSG Network.
Esposito spearheaded the founding of the Tampa Bay Lightning, along with his brother, Tony, a fellow NHL standout; in 1992, the Lightning débuted in a 7-3 victory against the Blackhawks. Phil Esposito and Tony Esposito are members of the Hockey Hall of Fame, inducted in 1984 and 1988, respectively. Notably, the former’s biography page on the Hall of Fame web site depicts him in a Boston Bruins uniform. And so it is in the memories, imagination, and Bruins lore for fans of a certain age.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on January 18, 2017.
Tags: 1919, 1975, 1979, 1979 Stanley Cup, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2013, Babe Ruth, Beacon Street, Blackhawks, Boston, Boston Bruins, Boston Globe, Boston Harbor, Canadiens, Chicago, Chicago Blackhawks, Hall of Fame, Henry Blake, Hockey Hall of Fame, Jaws, Leigh Montville, Lightning, M*A*S*H, Madison Square Garden, Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, Mobile Army Surgical Hospital #4077, Montreal, Montreal Canadiens, MSG Network, New York, New York City, New York Rangers, NHL, NHL All-Star, Phil Esposito, Rangers, Red Sox, Stanley Cup, Steve Simmons, Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay Lightning, Tom Fitzgerald, Toronto, Toronto Sun, WHA, Yankees
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Trade That Shocked the Hockey World
Baseball—like any other living organism—evolves, adjusts, and adapts with beauty emerging from minutiae, memory, and, in some cases, masochism reinforced by decades of unrequited love. See Red Sox Boston; 1919-2003. See Cubs, Chicago; 1909-2015. On January 11, 1973, baseball’s overseers added what New York Times scribe Joseph Durso called “a radical step…to put more punch into the game.” The Designated Hitter.
The American League embraced the idea. The National League, not so much. Quoted by Durso, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn extolled, “Pitchers bat around .120 collectively and pinch-hitters around .220. That’s automatically going to raise team batting averages. Besides, if you decide to rest a Willie McCovey or Harmon Killebrew and use him as the designated pinch-hitter one day, he’s going to be better than the average pinch-hitter. And he’ll go to bat four or five times, and that’ll improve his eye, too.”
While conventional wisdom highlighted the possibility of more runs with a slugger at the plate instead of a pitcher, White Sox skipper Chuck Tanner pointed out that a DH benefited a team’s defense. In the Chicago Tribune, Tanner said, “Part of the game is forcing the other club to put that relief pitcher in the game after a pinch hitter replaces a pretty good starter in a low-scoring game. But now the Angels, for instance, will be able to keep Nolan Ryan in there all the way. Or, we can let Wilbur Wood go the route without sending him to the plate. And this should keep the score down, too.”
Ron Blomberg earned the distinction of being the first Designated Hitter when he batted in a Yankees-Red Sox game in April. Of his 338 plate appearances in 19783, that first one in the DH slot secured his name in the annals of baseball trivia. Blomberg walked in his first time at the plate, went 1-for-3, and notched one RBI; Red Sox hurler Luis Tiant pitched a complete game, leading his fellow Bostonians to a 15-5 victory.
New York Times sports writer Murray Chass showed the irony of Blomberg’s output: “He broke his bat on the single, which means the first two bats he used today wound up in contrasting places—the first in the Hall of Fame, the second in the trash can.”
Purists argued against the DH, as they had argued against a 162-game schedule, Astroturf, and domed stadia. It was an argument against quantifiable evidence showing the cause and effect of the new position. In the May 7, 1973 issue of Sports Illustrated, William Leggett wrote, “In three short weeks the DH has put more punch and excitement and scoring into the game—a hallowed game, agreed, but one that was being smothered by the excellence of the pitching. Heavily criticized by some before it was given a chance to see the sunglight—a phony rule it was called, desperate, Mickey Mouse, a rewriting of Beethoven—the designated hitter is doing only what it was intended to do.”
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on January 11, 2017.
Tags: 1909, 1919, 1973, 2003, 2015, American League, April, Astroturf, baseball, Beethoven, Boston Red Sox, Bostonians, Bowie Kuhn, Chicago, Chicago Tribune, Chuck Tanner, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Cubs, Designated Hitter, DH, domed stadia, Harmon Killebrew, January 11, Joseph Durso, Luis Tiant, May, May 7, Mickey Mouse, New York, New York Times, Nolan Ryan, Red Sox, Ron Blomberg, Sports Illustrated, White Sox, Wilbur Wood, William Leggett, Willie McCovey, Yankees
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Birth of the Designated Hitter
As San Francisco morphed into the headquarters for counterculture, with the intersection of Haight and Ashbury becoming as well known to hippies as that of Hollywood and Vine to fans of show business, Juan Marichal fired fastballs for the Giants, a team transplanted from a ballpark approximately 3,000 miles eastward. The “Dandy Dominican” constructed a Hall of Fame career, boosted by a lineup of fellow Cooperstown-bound teammates Willie McCovey, Willie Mays, and Orlando Cepeda.
In a Hall of Fame Strat-O-Matic matchup of pre-1960 American Leaguers and post-1960 National Leaguers, Marichal notched nine strikeouts in a 9-5 victory for the senior circuit players. The lineups were:
Pre-1960 American League
Ty Cobb, LF
Goose Goslin, CF
Hank Greenberg, 1B
Babe Ruth, RF
Home Run Baker, 3B
Charlie Gehringer, 2B
Joe Sewell, SS
Bill Dickey, C
Walter Johnson, P
Post-1960 National League
Lou Brock, LF
Joe Morgan, 2B
Hank Aaron, RF
Willie Mays, CF
Johnny Bench, C
Ernie Banks, SS
Eddie Mathews, 3B
Frank Chance, 1B
Juan Marichal, P
Each team was allowed to have one player from outside the time parameter. The American League kept within it; the National League used Frank Chance.
Marichal gave up solo home runs to Gehringer and Johnson, respectively, in addition to a Greenberg two-run dinger with Goslin on base, courtesy of a rare error by Mr. Cub. And the pitcher known as the “Dandy Dominican” helped his own cause, singling in the bottom of the second inning, moving to second when Morgan walked after Brock flied out to right, and scoring on an Aaron double.
On July 19, 1960, Marichal first appeared in a major league game, scoring 12 strikeouts in a two-hit, 2-0 victory; the righty’s initial three games—against Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee—contributed as many wins to the Giants’ 79-75 season record. Milwaukee skipper Charlie Dressen lobbied the umpires during the third inning of the Braves-Giants game, complaining that Marichal broke the rule regarding a pitcher’s position on the mound. Marichal planted himself on the rubber’s location closest to first base, though he told Curley Grieve of the San Francisco Examiner that umpires had never raised the issue. “I’m used to that position and I think it helps my curve ball, especially against right-handed hitters,” said Marichcal in Grieve’s article “Marichal Delivery Illegal?”
Dressen wanted Marichal to pitch from the middle of the rubber, insisting after the game that his argument was sound.
Marichal, all of 21 years old in his rookie year, received accolades from teammate—and fellow Dominican—Felipe Alou after the troika of games indicating future greatness: “Juan used to throw harder. We played for the same team. Escogido in the Dominican winter league, and he burned them in. Every year he learns a little more, he gets a new pitch. Now he’s more clever with curves and sliders to go with his fast ball.” Art Rosenbaum of the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Alou in his article “Juan Marichal a Baseball ‘Phee-nom,'” which also encapsulated Marichal’s minor league career in Class D (Midwest League), Class A (Eastern League), and AAA (Pacific Coast League).
Marichal ended his rookie year with a 6-2 record. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983, Marichal compiled a 243-142 win-loss record in his 16-year career. An ignominious mark on an outstanding career occurred when he came to bat in a 1965 contest against the Dodgers, highlighted by Sandy Koufax and Marichal hurling brushback pitches; when Dodgers catcher John Roseboro threw the ball back to Koufax, it came too close for comfort—Marichal claimed it nicked his ear. Retaliation erupted with Marichal bashing Roseboro’s head with his bat. Roseboro left the game with several stitches and Marichal received a 10-game suspension, a $1,750 fine, and a settlement of litigation with Roseboro amounting to $7,500.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on January 7, 2017.
Tags: 1960, 1965, 1983, American League, Art Rosenbaum, Ashbury, Babe Ruth, Bill Dickey, Braves, Charlie Dressen, Charlie Gehringer, Curley Grieve, Dandy Dominican, Eastern League, Eddie Mathews, Ernie Banks, Felipe Alou, Frank Chance, Goose Goslin, Haight, Haight and Ashbury, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame Strat-O-Matic, Hank Aaron, Hank Greenberg, Hollywood, Hollywood and Vine, Home Run Baker, Joe Morgan, Joe Sewell, John Roseboro, Johnny Bench, Juan Marichal, July 19, Lou Brock, Midwest League, Mr. Cub, National League, Orlando Cepeda, Pacific Coast League, San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Sandy Koufax, Strat-O-Matic, Ty Cobb, Vine, Walter Johnson, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Dandy Dominican
Victory, it is said, has a thousand fathers. Baseball, too.
Daniel Lucius “Doc” Adams is, for reasons passing understanding, without tangible recognition in Cooperstown, despite being a highly significant contributor to baseball’s genesis. It is not an uncommon tale, of course. The specter of Gil Hodges, an evergreen topic for debate about Hall of fame inclusion, stands on the sidelines of 25 Main Street as thousands trek yearly to this bucolic village in upstate New York, pay homage to baseball’s icons, and gander at plaques honoring Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and several other boys of summer. This, regardless of membership on seven consecutive National League All-Star teams, seven consecutive years of 100 or more RBI, and a managerial career noted for turning around the woes of the New York Mets—his efforts culminated in the 1969 World Series championship.
Charles Ebbets, the Brooklyn Dodgers owner who conceived Ebbets Field—and sacrificed half his ownership to finance the ballpark—does not have a plaque at the Hall of Fame. Quincy Trouppe, a standout from the Negro Leagues, often occupies a spot in Hall of Fame debates.
Adams’s denial, to date, contrasts the honor given to some of his 19th century brethren. In his 2011 book Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s Official Historian, wrote that the Mills Commission’s report, which, inaccurately, credited Abner Doubleday with a primary role in baseball’s creation, failed to highlight “William Rufus Wheaton or Daniel Lucius Adams, recently revealed to be larger figures in baseball’s factual beginnings than either [Alexander] Cartwright or Doubleday.”
Adams has been “recently revealed to be larger figures in baseball’s factual beginnings than either [Alexander] Cartwright or [Abner] Doubleday.”
Indeed, Adams’s role in baseball’s ur-phase, emerging through the dedication of Thorn and other baseball archaeologists, remained, until the latter part of the 20th century, mostly obscured by Cartwright’s vaunted position as the father of the National Pastime and the legend, long since debunked as myth, that Doubleday designed the game’s blueprint.
It was Adams, however, who set the 90-foot length between bases.
It was Adams, however, who helped shape baseball’s rules as president of the Knickerbockers, a team with historical prestige for playing in what was, seemingly, if not concretely, the first organized baseball game—it took place in Hoboken in 1846.
It was Adams, however, who set the number of players at nine.
It was Adams, however, who conceived of a game lasting nine innings.
Teetering on the edge of Cooperstown, Adams is becoming decreasingly enigmatic and increasingly valuable in determining baseball’s genesis, evolution, and governance. In 2015, the Hall of Fame’s Pre-Integration Committee disclosed that Adams received 10 votes of 16—two votes short of the 12 needed for membership; the Society for American Baseball Research Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legends Committee named Adams its 2014 legend.
Adams’s effect manifested in a 2016 auction for his handwritten “Laws of Base Ball,” which SCP Auctiosn sold for $3.26 million.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on January 3, 2017.
Tags: 1969, 1969 World Series, 25 Main Street, Abner Doubleday, Baseball in the Garden of Eden, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Dodgers, Charles Ebbets, Cooperstown, Daniel Lucius Adams, Doc Adams, Dodgers, Ebbets Field, Gil Hodges, Hall of Fame, Jackie Robinson, John Thorn, Main Street, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball's Official Historian, Mets, Mills Commission, Negro League, Negro Leagues, New York, New York Mets, Pee Wee Reese, Quincy Trouppe, upstate New York, William Rufus Wheaton, World Series
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Hall of Fame Case for Doc Adams
Imagining Don Drysdale playing for a team other than the Dodgers is like imagining Hershey’s making products without chocolate. Drysdale, he of the cannon disguised as a right arm firing baseballs through National League lineups in the 1950s and the 1960s, spent his career as a Dodger—first in Brooklyn, later in Los Angeles, where he grew up on the San Fernando Valley. But the communal aura of Ebbets Field and the sun-soaked environs of Chavez Ravine might never have been blessed with Drysdale had Branch Rickey’s brethren signed him in Pittsburgh; Rickey served as the Pirates GM after notching four World Series titles for the Cardinals and leading baseball’s integration by signing Jackie Robinson to a contract with the Dodgers organization.
Rickey’s 1954 scouting report on Drysdale—nestled in the pitcher’ file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown—indicated prescience bordering on psychic. The 18-year-old Drysdale impressed Rickey with his fast ball and his curve ball, both of which “needs no coaching.” Rickey also expressed confidence that Drysdale could take down the speed on his change-up. In short, Drysdale was “a definite prospect” with “an unusual amount of perfection.”
As a comparison, Rickey mentioned Don Dangleis, a minor league hurler who never made it out of the Pittsburgh farm system; Drysdale had faster pitches but Dangleis was more well-rounded. The sticking point for Rickey was money, as is often the case with a team’s front office—Rickey wanted to keep Drysdale’s salary at a maximum of $4,000. Although Rickey acknowledged that Drysdale was worth “whatever it takes,” he wanted to avoid singing Drysdale under a “bonus baby” rule, which mandated an immediate vault to a major league tenure of at least two years for a salary exceeding $4,000. It was a tempting option establishing a new financial plateau for the player and eliminate a stopover in the minor leagues. If a “bonus baby” needed seasoning before going to “the show,” however, the then the rule could be a detriment.
In his 1990 autobiography Once a Bum, Always a Dodger, Drysdale revealed that Rickey actually offered $6,000 while proclaiming an evasion of the rule’s tentacles without disclosing his methods to the pitcher or his dad, Scott, an ex-minor leaguer advising the young pitcher on what came to be a joyous choice for fans of the Dodgers. There were other options—Drysdale received pitches—no pun intended—from the White Sox, the Yankees, and the Braves. Drysdale’s father offered a view based in value. “Look, if you’re going to get a lot of money—like Billy Consolo, a $60,000 bonus baby—then it makes sense to take it and go to the major leagues and take your chances,” recalled Drysdale of his father’s opining. “But if you’re not going to get a lot of money—and $2,000 isn’t a lot of money—then why not go where you have the best chance to learn?”
And so, the definite prospect from Van Nuys, California joined the Dodgers farm system. Drysdale remembered that he signed in “the first week of June 1954” but Rickey’s scouting report was dated June 15th. Either Drysdale’s memory was incorrect or Rickey was unaware of the signing. The latter is a reach, considering Rickey’s legendary attention to detail. At the bottom of Rickey’s missive is a handwritten postscript: “Signed with Brooklyn. Father is a bird dog for them.”
Drysdale played for the Bakersfield Indians, a Class C team in the California State League for the 1954 season; he went 8-5, then played for Montreal in 1955, where he compiled an 11-11 record. On April 23, 1956, Drysdale made his first appearance with Brooklyn, unleashing the supremacy with which he taught master classes in intimidation, control, and reliability throughout his major league career, which ended in 1969. In this game against the Phillies, Drysdale struck out the first three batters, notched nine strikeouts for the day, and showed “big league poise,” according to United Press, when he got out of a bases loaded jam in the second inning by inducing Murry Dickson to fly out.
Drysdale found a home in Brooklyn before voyaging back to the Los Angeles sunshine when the Dodgers left Brooklyn after the 1957 season. “There was an intimacy about Ebbets Field that you don’t forget,” wrote Drysdale. “If you are a starting pitcher, you warmed up in front of the dugout before the game, not in the bullpen. You felt as though the fans were right on top of you, because they almost were. It was a carnival atmosphere, small and always jumping.”
Rickey’s analysis of Drysdale proved correct:
- 1962 National League Cy Young Award
- Led the major leagues in strikeouts three times
- 2,486 career strikeouts
- Led the major leagues in games started for four consecutive years
- Led the major league in innings pitched twice
- Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on December 16, 2016.
Tags: 1950, 1950s, 1954, 1956, 1960, 1960s, 1962, 1962 National League, 1962 National League Cy Young Award, April, April 23, Bakersfield, Bakersfield Indians, Baseball Hall of Fame, Billy Consolo, Branch Rickey, Braves, Brooklyn, California, California State League, Cardinals, Chavez Ravine, Class C, Cy Young, Dodgers, Don Dangleis, Don Drysdale, Ebbets Field, Hall of Fame, Hershey's chocolate, Indians, Jackie Robinson, Los Angeles, Montreal, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, National League, National League Cy Young Award, Pirates, Pirates GM, Pittsburgh, San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys, White Sox, World Series, Yankees
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Don Drysdale: Once a Bum, Almost a Pirate
Wichita, by virtue of its service as a site for leading manufacturers in the aviation industry, owns the label “Air Capital of the World”—Cessna, for example, has operations there. The Kansas Historical Society web site details Clyde Cessna’s journey to aviation king, which turned the corner in Wichita after a stint at Queen Airplane in New York—an apprenticeship of sorts, so Cessna could “learn aircraft construction.”
Determination overcame setbacks. “Cessna soon began to build his own monoplane, the Silverwing,” explains kshs.org. “He crashed on his first attempt at flight in Alfalfa, Oklahoma. Cessna was not discouraged and made a successful flight in June of 1911. He continued to build monoplanes from 1912 to 1915.
“During the winter from 1916 to 1017 Cessna moved his operations to Wichita.”
Learjet, the company for which Pete Campbell left his advertising brethren in the final episode of Mad Men, has its home base in Wichita—yet another example of an iconic aviation name grounded in this Midwestern metropolis.
Wichita was also the launching pad for Pizza Hut. In 1958, Wichita State University students—and brothers—Dan and Frank Carney founded their enterprise at the corner of Kellogg and Bluff. The Carney brothers “borrowed $600 from their mom and set out to change the way the world experience pizza,” states the Pizza Hut web site.
For baseball fans, Wichita offers the Wingnuts, so named in honor of the city’s rich, prestigious, and famed aviation heritage; the label’s alliteration has a mellifluous sound, akin to other teams in sports history, e.g., Boston Braves, San Francisco Seals.
Other team name possibilities conjure images of air power—Jets, Pilots, Skies. The Wingnuts moniker does not enjoy this status, however—wingnuts are unsung but crucial elements to a plane; without wingnuts to fasten parts of the body, a plane will fall apart.
On November 7, 2007, the team débuted its name and logo at a press conference; Wichita entered the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. Nate Robertson, a former major leaguer who has a part-ownershyip in the Wingnuts, embraces a team philosophy. “You see guys who have a bad at-bat and they are running around ranting, tearing up the locker room, and the team is winning 5-0,” said Robertson in a 2015 article for minorleaguesportsreport.com. “That is a guy who cares only about himself, and other guys on the team see that. No one likes to be around a person like that because they can tell that guy doesn’t care about the team.”
The Wingnuts ball club plays its home games in Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on November 19, 2016.
Tags: 2007, Air Capital of the World, Alfalfa, American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, Bluff, Boston, Boston Braves, Braves, Cessna, Clyde Cessna, Dan and Frank Carney, Kellogg, Kellogg and Bluff, Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, Learjet, Mad Men, metropolis, Midwest, Midwestern, Nate Robertson, New York, November 7, Oklahoma, Pete Campbell, Pizza Hut, Queen Airplane, San Francisco, San Francisco Seals, Seals, Wichita, Wingnuts
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Wichita: Home of Aviation, Pizza Hut, and the Wingnuts