Via the good folks from Cooperstown today:

Today’s Date in History: 1993 – Peanuts character Charlie Brown hits a game-winning home run – his first round tripper in 43 years. Almost ten percent of the nearly 18,000 Peanuts strips created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz focus on Baseball.

A nice history of the balls used by Major League Baseball:

Brief History on Major League Baseballs

Some time around 1876, Albert G. Spalding and his brother, J. Walter Spalding, obtained the right to produce the official National League baseball, which they would continue to produce for the next 100 years.

The American League, formally the American League of Professional Baseball Clubs combined with the National league in 1901 to form Major League baseball. Alfred James Reach, owner of The Reach sporting Goods company, sold his company to Spalding in 1889. Spalding continued to use the Reach label to produce American League baseballs beginning in 1901.

NOTE: American League baseballs with the Reach Trademark had Red & Blue stitching, and the National League Spalding Trademark baseballs had Black & Red stitching up until about 1934 when in both league started using only red stitching.

Spalding along with the Reach label was producing Major league baseball for about 100 years until Rawlings took over in 1977, and Rawlings have been making major league baseballs ever since.

Baseball made before 1974 were made with Horsehide covers. In 1974 Major League baseball switched to Cowhide covers.

Rawlings first started to make World Series baseballs in 1978 that features The World Series logo.

One baseball for both leagues. Rawlings introduced the newly designed official Major League baseballs for the 2000 season that also features the MLB Silhouetted Batter logo. Changing from the Official American League, and Official National League baseballs, the Official Major League baseball replaced both balls that were used.

This Date in Baseball History (1973): A’s owner Charlie Finley introduces his newest innovation, the Alert Orange Baseball, in an exhibition game between Oakland and Cleveland. Despite Finley’s claim that the ball will be easier for players and fans to see, it is never used again.

These would have been great in the Homerdome – and maybe useful at Tropicana Field today.

…you tell me.

Who was the first great player from the Dominican Republic who opened to doors for talent from that country the way that Jackie did for his race and Roberto did for players from Puerto Rico?

Was it Felipe Alou, Juan Marichal, Rico Carty or Cesar Cedeno?

Or, was it someone like Pedro Guerrero in the late ’70′s or Julio Franco in the late ’80s – because then, after them, you really started to see a lot of players from the D.R. showing up in the majors?

What do you think?

I would guess, without seeing the data, that at least 10% of the players in the majors today are from the Dominican Republic.  And, I seem to recall once hearing that 25% of the players in the minor leagues are from there as well.

Do you think we’ll ever see a day where more than 25% of the players in  the big leagues were from the D.R.?  And, when that happens, how will it impact the game?

…since a base runner is base runner – whether you allow him to reach via a walk or a hit. Therefore, it makes sense that it’s OK to walk a lot of batters, relatively speaking, as long as you don’t allow a lot of hits at the same time.

Via the Chicago Times -

The Chicago woman whose near-fatal 1949 shooting of former Cubs first baseman Eddie Waitkus inspired the book and movie “The Natural” died with the same anonymity with which she lived for more than half a century.

The 19-year-old’s crime, which put a spotlight on stalking crimes, nearly killed Waitkus, 29, and temporarily sidetracked his career. The incident also helped to draw attention to “baseball Annies” — young, hero-worshipping groupies who would pursue major league ballplayers, often relentlessly.

However, from the time that Ruth Ann Steinhagen left Kankakee State Hospital in 1952 after undergoing nearly three years of psychiatric treatment, she disappeared into near obscurity — so much so that one of her final next-door neighbors said he lived there for more than 15 years before learning her history.

Steinhagen, who never spoke publicly about the Waitkus incident after her release from the hospital, spent much of her final 42 years living in a modest house on the Northwest Side with her parents and sister.

She died Dec. 29 at Swedish Covenant Hospital of a subdural hematoma caused by an accidental fall in her longtime home, a Cook County medical examiner spokeswoman said. She was 83.

Her death had gone unreported and was only discovered when the Tribune was searching death records for another story.

“She was never social,” next-door neighbor Chris Gentner said. “I talked to her and we knew each other, but she really wasn’t the type of person who would sit down and talk to you.”

Gentner said it was only recently that he learned of Steinhagen’s notorious past.

“I was amazed. I then looked her up and saw all that stuff. Interestingly, where I grew up in New York was real close to where they made parts of ‘The Natural.’”

Born Ruth Catherine Steinhagen in Cicero on Dec. 23, 1929, Steinhagen was the daughter of die-setter Walter Steinhagen and his homemaker wife, Edith, both of whom had emigrated from Berlin in their early 20s, according to Chicago author John Theodore’s 2002 Waitkus biography, “Baseball’s Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus.” She spent two years at Waller High School before earning a diploma from Jones Commercial High School, now Jones College Prep.

At some point in her teens, Steinhagen, who had begun using the middle name Ann, became obsessed with Waitkus, who then was a first baseman for the Cubs. After the Cubs traded Waitkus to the Phillies before the 1949 season, Steinhagen’s obsession with him intensified.

“Ruth has a place in Chicago crime history because of the good old-fashioned moxie she used to carry out her plan — to kill Eddie Waitkus,” Theodore said via email Thursday. “Here’s a 19-year-old girl, living by herself in a tiny apartment on Lincoln Avenue, in 1949. She builds an Eddie Waitkus shrine in her apartment: photos, newspaper clippings, 50 ticket stubs, scorecards. She knows he’s from Boston so she develops a craving for baked beans. … He’s Lithuanian, so she teaches herself the language and listens to Lithuanian radio programs.”

It all came to a head June 14, 1949, when the Phillies were in town to play the Cubs. Steinhagen, then a typist for the Continental Casualty insurance company in the Loop, attended the game that day. After the game, she sent Waitkus an unsigned note summoning him to a 12th-floor room in the now-demolished Edgewater Beach Hotel, where the Phillies were staying. When Waitkus arrived at 11:30 p.m., Steinhagen told Waitkus from behind the door, “I have a surprise for you,” and then used a .22-caliber rifle that she had purchased at a pawnshop to shoot him just below the heart.

After shooting Waitkus, Steinhagen called the hotel operator and soon was taken into custody as he was rushed to Illinois Masonic Hospital. The bullet had torn through his right lung and lodged in back muscles near his spine, and he underwent two blood transfusions while in critical condition.

After about two weeks, Waitkus was transferred to Billings Memorial Hospital at the University of Chicago. He had six operations before doctors finally removed the bullet.

Waitkus made an impressive recovery and helped the Whiz Kid Phillies to the National League pennant in 1950. He was a regular for two more seasons and played through 1955, though he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and retired from baseball at 35. He died in 1972.

After the shooting, Steinhagen told authorities that she wasn’t sorry and that she “just had to shoot somebody.”

“Only in that way could I relieve the nervous tension I’ve been under the last two years,” she was reported to have told the Cook County state’s attorney. “The shooting has relieved that tension.”

Today, she would have tweeted about it and shared an instagram, seconds after pulling the trigger…

Classic.

This is brilliant.

I had no idea the dog pile started in 1982. But, I often wondered…

MARCH 13, 1960 — The Chicago White Sox become the first major league team to feature players’ names on the backs of their uniforms. Creative owner Bill Veeck put the innovative idea in motion so it will make it easier for viewers watching games on television to identify the players.

I sincerely pray that the Yankees never put the names of their players on their uniforms. And, I hoping wish that less teams did…

Great story.

(more…)

How many of these have you seen?

Great story:

In 1936 Bill Salkeld was a young catcher with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League when he suffered a severe spike injury to his right knee as he dove to tag a base runner in a run down play and his knee got caught in the runner’s spikes. An infection set in and he was hospitalized for three months. For a time there was concern about his leg having to be amputated, and he was told his playing days were over. Bill was out of baseball for over two years and selling furniture when he returned to play.

After six years in the minors, five with the San Diego Padres he was acquired by the Pittsburgh Pirates and hit .311 with 15 home runs as a 28 year old rookie. In a game against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 4, 1945, he hit for the cycle. After two more years with Pittsburgh, Bill was traded to the Boston Braves and shared receiving duties with Phil Masi for the 1948 National League champions. Although the Cleveland Indians won the 1948 World Series in six games, Salkeld would appear in five of the six, and homer off of Bob Feller in game five.

Bill would remain with the Braves in 1949, hit for a .255 average with 5 home runs, but on September 26, 1949 he was sold by the Braves to the Chicago White Sox. Bill appeared in only one game for the White Sox in 1950 and finished up his major league run with a .273 average with 132 RBIs and 31 home runs. Salkeld would spend three more seasons in active baseball, all in the minors, and finish up a 13 year minor league run with a career .257 average and 77 home runs.

As ballplayers often do Bill spent two years in managing, one in 1939 with the Tucson Cowboys of the Arizona-Texas League where along with Mike Simon the club finished last with a 49-80 record. Bill tried it again in 1953 with the Stockton Ports of the California League where the team finished third with a 70-68 record. After baseball Bill became a sales representative for a steel company in Los Angeles, CA, where he died on April 22,1967, at age 50.

Salkeld’s grandson, Roger Salkeld, who was a first round draft choice of the Seattle Mariners in 1989, pitched in the majors in the mid 1990s, first with the Mariners and then later with the Cincinnati Reds.

His grandson didn’t have the same luck. The Mariners gave up on him and traded him to the Reds. After he washed out there, he tried to make it with the Astros, Marlins and Indians. But, he was toast by the time he was 29-years old.

This never gets old.

Here are the teams since 1916 to have 140+ games in a season started by a pitcher who was 26-years old or younger:

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That 1968 A’s staff was interesting:

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There’s some interesting background stories and/or career events for most of these guys.

The goal here is to identify baseball’s all-time best “all-around” non-pitchers with respect to batting, running and fielding.  To that end, I used the following career cut-offs on this sort:  300+ Batting Runs, 75+ Fielding Runs and 30+ Runs from Base Running.  And, here is the final result:

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Without seeing the result, I could have guessed at the first four here. But, I am not sure, at first blush, if I would have named Kaline without seeing the data. And, for sure, I would have been hard pressed to name Walker – but, the data supports his inclusion. As good as Walker was as a player, perhaps, in a sense, one could suggest that he is under-rated (and would have been considered an all-time elite great if he had more playing time)?

Lastly, I think that Rickey Henderson and Roberto Clemente deserve some honorable mention here. See the following:

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These two just sorta/kinda missed the cut here – so close that a good case could be made for their inclusion and expanding this group from six to eight.

Oh, and, if you want to make it a “Prime Nine” then I would throw in this guy as well:

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And, a great case can be made, if not for the courage of Jackie, then most of the guys on the above lists would not have been able to play down the line. And, we’d probably be talking about guys like this here, below, instead (in terms of baseball’s best “all-around” players):

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With no disrespect to any of the above, I am glad that Robinson did make it possible for guys like Bonds, Mays, Aaron, Henderson, et al, to play and the major leagues – and for us to be able to witness their greatness.

Rickey rocks.

Brewers vs. Brewers:

It’s from a Brewers/Royals game that took place in Milwaukee on June 12, 1977 (the box score can be found here). Most of the Royals’ uniforms and equipment were stolen prior to the game, forcing most of the Kansas City players to wear Brewers road uniforms.

You don’t see that everyday!

On this date in 1920, the Chicago Cubs give his unconditional release to Lee Magee after having learned from him a week ago that he has been betting against his team. Magee will sue the Cubs for his salary of $4,500, charging that his livelihood as a ballplayer was destroyed through the sudden canceling of his contract. The Cubs will ask for a dismissal of the suit, saying that “previous to the making of the contract the plaintiff was guilty of betting against the team of which he was a member, and sought to win bets by intentional bad playing to defeat said team.”

More on Magee. It’s some story.

This is a select group of players:

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Which of these players will ever get into Cooperstown?  Which ones should?

Kirk Gibson and Tony Phillips were teammates on the 1993 Tigers.   Tony Phillips and Tim Salmon were teammates on the 1995 Angels.  And, this trio is the top three of “Retired Batters Who Played From 1933 to 2012 Who Were Never an All-Star“:

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Here is the batters list -

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And, he is the pitchers list -

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The team had 3 Hall of Famers:  Red Faber, Ray Schalk and Eddie Collins.  And, maybe it could have been as many as five – if not for the fix.

I wonder what the record is for most eventual Hall of Famers on a team that lost a World Series?  It couldn’t be more than five or six, could it?

They were all on the road to close out the season.  (They went 14-10 in those games.)

I cannot find any mention of why the played they month of September, sans one game, on the road.

Worse, they played three double-headers in a row during this stretch.  Yikes.

The dude could hit.

And, he was colorful.

Dead at forty.  Shame.

Via the Star-Ledger:

George Herman “Babe” Ruth was born on Feb. 6, 1895. While baseball fans are well-versed in the both Babe’s statistical and hot dog-eating accomplishments, here are some lesser-known facts about one of the original five inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ruth was one of eight children . Only he and his sister, Mamie Ruth Moberly, survived infancy.

By the age of 15, Ruth’s talents as both a pitcher and hitter had become known to Baltimore Orioles manager Jack Dunn. The minor league team’s manager scouted talent for the Boston Red Sox. By 19, Ruth wanted to play professionally, but needed a legal guardian to sign a contract for him. Dunn became Ruth’s guardian, and teammates began to refer to Ruth as “Dunn’s new babe;” the nickname stuck.

Ruth and his illustrious teammate, Lou Gehrig, did not speak to each other for years, with clubhouse talk tracing the dispute to Ruth’s wife having once criticized Gehrig’s mother. When the two stars did speak, it was often in fluent German. Both were sons of German immigrants.

Ruth ended his career bitter with the New York Yankees because he felt they should have named him manager. No other team gave him the opportunity either. The only on-field position he ever held following his playing days was as a first-base coach for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938.

I never knew that Ruth and Gehrig talked to each other in German. And, how about The Babe and Donnie Baseball? Both wanted to manage the Yankees and both ended up as a coach with the Dodgers instead. (Of course, Mattingly later became the Dodgers skipper.)

Last, Hank Aaron was born on February 5th and the Babe was the 6th.  How cool would it have been if they both had been born on the same day?  Man, they just missed….

That’s the number of Plate Appearances that Ken Griffey Jr. had in his career at Safeco Field.

I’m just saying…

By the way, the dude had a career .998 OPS when playing in the Kingdome. Also, 198 of his career homeruns came there too.  From 1993 through 1998, “The Kid” was good for 20 to 30 homeruns a year at the Kingdome.

Here is the list -

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Greg Maddux, from 1992 through 2000, may just be the greatest run by a starting pitcher in the history of baseball.  Only Lefty Grove and The Big Train come close to it.

Via Ken Davidoff today with a h/t to BBTF -

In 2006, Jerome Holtzman, a legendary Chicago baseball writer who became MLB’s official historian in 1999, told Selig that he thought the reaction to the “Steroid Era” had been overblown. That the game had been filled with this sort of stuff from its inception. Selig responded with an assignment: Put something on paper for me. Give me some context to what we’re seeing now.

Holtzman responded with a document that went back to the start of the 20th century. It mentioned gamblers and segregation, corked bats and scuffed balls, amphetamines and steroids. Selig still has it in his office today.

Holtzman died in 2008. His successor as MLB historian, the great John Thorn, said this to me on Friday: “No number is pure, and no number can be given a rich understanding absent context. Every number has a virtual asterisk alongside it.”

He added this: “I believe that the average fan looks at numbers like 511 (Cy Young’s wins) or 714 (Ruth’s homers) or 755 (Aaron’s homers) or 762 (Bonds’ homers) as a royal road to understanding. There is no royal road. There is no short cut. They are imperishable remains of events that are vanished. This is all we have. That’s why we venerate them.

“We look at the numbers differently than other sports in part because baseball is a stop-action game. The memories adhere. That’s one of the reasons that baseball is the great game of memory and conversation.

“Statistics help, but sometimes they get in the way of understanding.”

I dunno. I still think that stats, in context, are useful – when you look at them in terms of relativity to the era of play and the body of work a player has crafted. And, if someone who was always “just” a 30-homer guy all of a sudden starts hitting 50-long balls a year, and it’s not the result of his park, then you have to look at the rest of the league. And, if he’s only one of a few doing it, then something is wrong. And, that’s worth noting.

Larry Bigbie with the game-winner!

A lot of people think the Super Bowl today will be a close one – with three or four points being the difference between winning and losing. And, it seems to be pretty close to a split on who people are picking to win. So, it seems like it’s anyone’s game.

Me? I am predicting that Harbaugh will be the winning coach. Other than that, I got nothing…

Enjoy the game!

And, the minute it’s over…good-bye to football until training camps…and, hello baseball!

It’s a short list which should get shorter very soon:

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Is there ever any chance that Kaat, John, Moyer or Tanana ever make the Hall of Fame?