

# Baseball; the Last Great American Pastime

### By Edward Drobinski

Copyright 2016 Edward M. Drobinski

All rights reserved

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### Contents

### #1- Purported Pundits Proclaim It's Passé

Don't tell me. You've seen another magazine article which says that football is America's favorite pastime. If you look closer, it's not the writer of the article who says so. It's the recapitulation of some poll he supposedly took of 1,500 people; the place, time, and precise question undisclosed. In certain circles this is quietly called poor journalism. In football mags, either available at Wal-Mart or "exclusively" on-line, it is called "wishful thinking" and the easiest way for a no-name writer to get his name on something other than an overdrawn checking account. The mag claims a monthly circulation of 50,000; and is not compelled to disclose that that one time occurrence happened only during the "Deflategate" scandal and the following celebratory festivities of the last exciting Super Bowl week, including poor St. Louis. Every year they sit there on Super Bowl Sunday quietly trying to enjoy their constipation and irritable bowel ads, only to be subjected to something truly bleak; like a stiff Dorito's attempt at an "amusing" Boogaloo.

Baseball is no longer the "Great American Pastime." No, I didn't say that. Never would. In fact, initially, no one of any note did. It had to have been some sort of a surreptitious terrorist attack. It was those people nobody ever heard of who were supposedly polled by the "sportswriter" nobody ever heard of. The hidden assailants must have hated the people who have idolized Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Albert Pujols. Yet they wouldn't dare say it out loud. Using concealed identities they must have esoterically networked on the immense vat of misinformation; sometimes kindly referred to as the Internet. They were angry that we baseball fanatics did not worship their gods of deflation and short term pan flashes.

I can't recall when it kicked in. Most likely there was no kick whatsoever; just another slow fadeout. It wasn't as if anyone had the nerve to out and out say or even deny it. It was merely alluded to in omission of anything personal. Just as in the most subtle of misinforming hints; it was just less and less overtly said.

Like when the pneumatic door closes behind you in Manhattan, the silence becomes noticeable. Addicted to the uniformity of the jackhammer level street noise, you race to the nearest available button and push it in hopes of restoring the blatant heavy metal. Instead you are greeted with a wearied panel discussion regarding whether or not Tom Brady deflated the football. To some anticipated audience, it seems of the highest importance to determine why Tom was fooling with the ball to begin with and whether or not this is standard quarterback operating procedure. Who in fact is responsible for supplying the game ball? How much footage would be lost at a deflation which departs from the standard of ten percent? Five percent? Why do referees not use some measuring device to check significant game equipment? Would this interfere with their film watching? Whether or not there was some malfeasance did it have a significant effect on the game's outcome? Did the allegedly flaccid football remain in the game; or did someone then blow it up or replace it? Did the ball respond? ...................

If you're anything like me, you could not help but think of early springtime in Florida and Arizona; another resurrection in the sun. If this is where your mind wanders, you must be familiar with baseball's long held position as "The Great American Pastime." If not, there are zillions of other sports books and magazines you would much more prefer.

If you're still there; as a true baseball fan you were already versed in the subject of dead balls and required little further degree of explanations. But all the hoopla coupled with Tom's strained face on the back cover of the quarter gobbling, metal newsstand in the lobby, reminded you that you were again hearing the stillness of the death knell of your passion; "The Last Great American Pastime;" baseball. Every bone in you rebelled at the thought of the un-thinkable. Discussions of corked bats had given way to discussions of flat footballs. No, it couldn't be so. Like a display of pecuniary perspicacity or penile proportions, no proper person previously presumed to say it out loud.

Until recently. This is a difficult subject. It would border on unsociability to overtly say that one could care less about Tom Brady's relationship with the game ball. ......... I'll confess my personal bias. I really don't. Further; Tom and the allegedly flaccid ball have an importance position on my priority list one step above the aftermath of Lee Sedol's April 2015, four out of five game "Go" loss to IBM's algorithmic concoction named "AlphaGo." For the uninitiated, "Go" is a board game with some stretched similarities to Chess, which has been predominately played in the Orient for centuries. "AlphaGo" is the first machine to beat one of the best human players of the static game. Once placed, pieces cannot be moved. Yeah, it's that interesting. It didn't exactly make headlines in the US. Correction; Tom's placement on my priority list is one step below that of Lee. Neither Tom's ball nor Lee's manual dexterity have the cachet of a Walter Johnson- Smoky Joe Wood pitching duel. I dare someone to argue with the popular significance of a series of events which drew standing-room-only fans to the lines.

Christ; football has willingly evolved to become the nickel and diming corporate game. Joe Namath and Dan Fouts are long gone. The "management" has taken their places. Their career records have been superseded by guys who throw the safe short ones hoping the receiver can run. Just take a look at the list of highest quarterback passing yardage. You will note that it is dominated by recent players who have yet to demonstrate a consistent ability to throw the ball more than twenty yards. Management says that's too risky.

Football is team sport in every sense of the word. Baseball is very individual in many respects. If you had the best quarterback who ever lived and put him on a team with a poor offensive line, he would without a doubt do poorly. Conversely a middling quarterback with a great line will always do well. Contrast that with baseball, where a good hitter will hit well on any team. A good pitcher will pitch well on any team. It's one of baseball's fascinations. We can speak about individual performance. ........... Is that still allowable?

Put Peyton Manning or Tom Brady on a last place team and you'll never hear of them again. Put Ralph Kiner and Johnny Mize on bad teams and they have proven that they can still hit well. Put Walter Johnson on a perennial second division team and he won more games than anyone other than Cy Young. .......... Hmmn. Maybe that unsettles some people. Many people believe in their excuses. Who are we to disturb them with the time dependent vagaries of individualized accomplishments?

Other more experienced writers have broached baseball's supposed demise and have quickly retreated after getting a foot-long, short feeler article wet. Witness Jonathan. There are a number of real difficulties in saying that which is obvious and simultaneously unpopular as an ignored euphemism. The game in which statistics have more validity than any other, does not easily lend itself to what is ultimately a value judgement which might be easily gathered from a properly conducted poll. ...... I know. We know. There is no such thing as a properly conducted poll. The game is played on the field by names like Ruth, Cobb, Wagner, Johnson and Mathewson; not Nielsen, Fox News, or Huff post. Moreover, we baseball lovers don't really give a damn about the polls. It's their free choice, their slow-news-day "contribution," and ultimately their loss. But, for a few hours let's pretend that we can sociably relate to their game and its degree of flaccidity.

Much too optimistic some say. "Absolutely abhorrent;" say others. "What the fuck?" say my people. "Let's celebrate the greatness of King Kelly and his game." Yes and a sigh. It's a "Catch-22" as then we would have been successful in recalling the things we've been doing our bests to forget.

But, then they sent out the heavy hitters.

None other than The New York Times made it official hunting season, when they used their prominence to finally say it out loud. It might be fair to say that within their long term policy of; "All the news that's fit to print," they allowed it to be said. They carried the pronouncement on October 3, 2013. It was later affirmed in a confirmation issued in the National Sun Times of April 16, 2015. The original article was written by the well esteemed author of The New York Times notable book of 2007; no cozy collusion aspersions cast; "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City," which was released March 21, 2006. The writer, Jonathan Mahler, is rightly commended for his choice to render into words the extremely interesting baseball time in Yankee baseball. The days of Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Thurman Munson, Billy Martin, and George Steinbrenner provided plenty of material to entertain those without a timely seat behind first base; as well as those who did. The title is a mouthful, but popular taste shortened it to "The Bronx is Burning."

Jonathan has been covering sports for Bloomberg and the Times for a while now, periodically showing an interest in certain conspiracy theories including the possible non-death of Osama Bin Laden. While I am prevented from showing the article as it was written, suffice to say that Mr. Mahler put his considerable weight behind opining that baseball was now number three in America; trailing both football and basketball; whether the sports played with the cockeyed bouncing ball or the one which is capable of a true bounce but is more often carried, were played at the pro level or not. That adds insult to injury. Mr. Mahler may have been merely the messenger who brings the bad news. But some baseball aficionados can't help but consider him some sort of traitor.

Below are letters, some supportive and some not, written to the Times just subsequent to the essay, which might give you some idea of Mahler's take on the matter and the reasoning behind it.

**To the Editor:**

Jonathan Mahler, in "Is the Game Over?" Sunday Review, Sept. 29, (irrelevant minor conflict) seems to confuse the status of Major League Baseball with the standing of the game of baseball in American society.

While he correctly observes that professional baseball is enjoying good times even as television ratings fall far behind professional and collegiate football and basketball, he doesn't mention more important barometers of baseball's continuing vitality and popularity among the American people.

These include the millions of boys and girls who join thousands of youth, scholastic, collegiate and American Legion baseball teams, along with the men and women who play baseball and softball in industrial and semiprofessional urban and rural leagues, and the continuing interest in the history and cultural meaning of baseball, as measured by the sale of baseball books, the popularity of baseball films like "The Natural" and "Field of Dreams," and the public's continuing fascination with the origins of the sport.

Major League Baseball may indeed rank a poor third to football and basketball in television ratings, but the game remains the national pastime because it resonates more deeply in the country's soul than any other sport.

Name Withheld  
Hackensack, N.J., Sept. 29, 2013

_Name Withheld above is the author of a number of baseball books, apparently most interested in the baseball times before 1900._

**To the Editor:**

Jonathan Mahler's points about baseball's decline are valid; much work awaits the new commissioner. But saying baseball is no longer our national pastime ignores important facts:

Football teams play once a week, often in cold weather, obviating competing outdoor diversions, yet baseball attracts fans to stadiums daily for six months. Football enjoys free minor leagues (otherwise known as college); baseball subsidizes dozens of professional minor-league teams.

People constantly play baseball trivia, not football trivia. True, Madden video games and fantasy football have millions of fans, but baseball has fantasy leagues, too, and baseball cards are far more valuable.

Trade card shows showcase retired baseball stars. Most linemen play in obscurity. Baseball drafts from high school, so naturally they're unknowns. But only baseball's Hall of Fame elections provoke yearly debates.

Indeed, too few African-Americans play baseball, but fewer Hispanic or Asian-Americans are in football. The World Series can go seven games; the Super Bowl, with two weeks of endless hype, is one win-or-lose event, televised in the homebound winter. Both are great, but baseball still rules!

Name Withheld  
New York, Oct. 2, 2013

_The writer, a movie critic, has co-written four baseball books and has done color commentary for the Boston Red Sox Spanish Radio Network._

**To the Editor:**

It seems almost incredible that Jonathan Mahler doesn't explicitly state the obvious reason baseball is fading from the national discussion: too many games that simply go on too long.

Who is willing to spend more than three hours watching a ballgame in May when the drama is, shall we say, less than urgent?

I'm a lifelong fan of the game, and even I can't take it anymore. Its pastoral tempo is out of sync with our high-tech country. Because of that, professional baseball needs to cut its schedule, even in the postseason, and enforce rules that will speed up each game.

A little N.F.L.-like precision and discipline will go a long way toward reviving what is the most joyous of all games.

Name Withheld  
Block Island, R.I., Sept. 29, 2013

**To the Editor:**

Jonathan Mahler, in his astute essay about the growing irrelevance of baseball in America, asserts that football is able to capture the public's excitement because "it's louder, faster and more violent ... better in tune with our cultural moment." I guess that's precisely why baseball will always be the sport of choice in our home.

Maybe watching runners move around the bases is a bit like watching the face of a clock. But my 7- and 9-year-old sons play Little League, keep up with the stats, and still collect ever-mounting piles of baseball cards. They call me over to watch a game on television when a player runs to first base and starts chatting warmly with the opposing player.

They love that moment best of all, and of course when the Mets occasionally manage to win.

Name Withheld  
Scarsdale, N.Y., Sept. 29, 2013

**To the Editor:**

Jonathan Mahler's essay about the decline in baseball's popularity did not mention the most important factor: the price of tickets.

Going to a baseball game, once a family activity, is now unaffordable for the average family.

Name Witheld  
New York, Sept. 30, 2013

The writer would like to note that while it may well put a dent in some pockets, the prices of tickets to major sporting events have to be viewed on a relative basis. In 2015-6 the average price per seat was $85.83 for the National Football League, $55.88 for the National Basketball Association, and $31.00 for Major League Baseball. Even tickets for the National Hockey League doubled that of MLB at $62.18. Jeez; inflation has been around since about 1970, continuing to the Dubya declining reversal and the immediate Barack continuation and intensification. This extremely brief foray into politics aside; only one line is price-level-necessary for a book about Baseball and America.

With a relatively small caveat this diminutive grouping of opinions seems to suggest that the few "experts" are in opposition to Mr. Mahler's essay; while the more abundant "fans" register substantial agreement. The quicksand sinks with each step when one forgets that Twain was quoted as saying; "When you find yourself on the side of the majority it is time to re-assess." To make matters worse for the "experts," the Huffington Post and the National Sun Times published baseball's obituary on 4/16/15, and made it a blaring headline. It seems to have been written by one Kevin O'Brien; the name too common to find any substantiation. But no matter. What was said is crystal clear; no matter the postulated source.

Football Has Taken Over Baseball as the True National Pastime

Certain things in sports may never be settled: Brady vs. Manning, did Babe Ruth actually call the shot? However, others are just known and accepted to be true; particularly that baseball _is_ the national pastime.

Or is it?

Turns out, a new poll from the good people of Bloomberg Politics may throw everything we hold dear and true about baseball into question. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said that football is America's pastime, while only 28 percent said baseball is.

However, the numbers aren't all that surprising, Bloomberg's Will Leitch writes. In fact, despite headlines of concussions and domestic abuse surrounding football and steroid use still plaguing baseball, it's actually media that is the biggest factor to baseball's dwindling grasp on Americans' hearts, and more importantly, their interest.

It has been a long, long time since baseball was truly America's pastime, and it has nothing to do with anything baseball has done wrong. It has been since ... television. ... The NFL is terrific to watch on television in a way baseball isn't and never was, and we are a nation of television watchers. The minute people realized how easy football was to follow on television – even if it tells you very little of actually what's actually going on – was the minute baseball stopped being America's pastime.

Leitch says those figures might actually serve as a wake-up call for baseball, which he (not incorrectly) notes has been stuck in the past and resisting to adapt to a contemporary, modern audience and their consumption habits. One big criticism (by some) has been the length of play, which (some) say is slow and dull. To combat this "snooze fest," the league implemented new rules ahead of the 2015 season, which followed the creation of — wait for it — the Pace of Game Committee.

Let's just throw in some sharks hopping through rings of fire while we're at it, no? Now _that_ screams _America_ to me.

Personally, I would take the thoughts as well considered; though from a similar viewpoint as the fan of Jean Claude VanDamme action movies. I prefer Jean Renoir. Not in any attempt to make baseball sound like the intellectual, art-house game which it clearly is not, it is clear to me that one enjoys the game more when one is aware of all the little things which go on between pitches. That is not to say that there are no mental aspects to football and basketball. However, I will tell you that more than one ex-football player has told me that the game is decided "on the line," yet this aspect of the game loses out to the quarterbacks, the pass receivers, and the running backs. For the fan who has no interest in becoming a maven on the game, football and basketball provide constant movement the eye can follow without any need for strategical nuances.

I would like to know a bit more about that Bloomberg poll, though. How many people were polled? Where do they live? And perhaps most importantly, was the poll taken near or during the Super Bowl? ........... As always, the devil has a habit of hiding in the details.

On a less circulated, but still distinguished blogsite operated by Dr. Gerald Stein, baseball's total death was announced on August 21, 2013. It is interesting to note that Dr. Stein's article pre-dated Jonathan Mahler's article by a month and frankly, had more interesting things to say. Here it is.

Death Notice: The Great American Pastime

The Great American Pastime has passed away. I am here to announce it. You won't find it on the obituary pages, but it is true all the same.

Yes, I know they still play baseball in Chicago, New York, St. Louis, and San Francisco. But, if the pastime lives anywhere, it is away from the great stadiums and the big cities. Indeed, perhaps only in more modest venues might an old-time baseball experience now exist.

But, you say, what am I talking about? The rules haven't changed. It still takes three strikes for an out and three outs to end each team's turn at bat. The bases are still 90 feet apart.

You are right, but I'm not talking about the game as it is played on the field. Rather, I mean the game as it is experienced by a fan in the stands.

In the baseball of my youth, the Great American "Pastime" was a leisurely way to "pass the time" on a summer afternoon. The lyrical pulse of the match drew your eyes to the field, except when the beer-man approached or your neighbor asked you a question. A day at the ball park was usually easeful. Moments of tension fueled by the drama of the contest were framed by many others that allowed you to relax; kind of like the rhythm of the tide, rushing in and then receding, rising and falling.

For much of the game, when nothing remarkable was happening on the field, one heard the low-frequency hum of the fans talking. As the play became animated — only then did the cheers and boos crowd out conversation. Other than that, the auditor heard barking vendors, with an occasional public address announcement about who was at bat; and perhaps the sound of the stadium organ from time to time. It was all relatively peaceful except when something exciting happened on the baseball diamond.

No more.

The fan is no longer safe. He is targeted for an electronic bombardment from the moment he enters the stadium, just as surely as Dresden was targeted for real (and equally unnecessary) bombs during World War II. The acoustic experience is one of non-stop, high volume noise. If it is not the loudspeaker's musical blast that has replaced a simple stadium organ, it is the repeated announcements:

Jim Jones Jeep Dealership's sales team is here along with Jim in Section 5. Let's give them a hand. Now turn your attention to the scoreboard for a quiz on Cubs history. But before you do, check under your seat to see if you have won a Cadillac from Cathy's Cadillac of Crown Point, Indiana.

Even so, the announcements are clearly insufficient for the fan who requires hyper-stimulation. He needs to keep his eye out for the dance moves of the paid customers that are being broadcast on the scoreboard screen, just in case he wants to exhibit a few of his own. He needs to keep a sharp eye for T-shirts of his favorite team being shot into the seats by stadium employees on the field between innings.

Most importantly, when the "kiss-cam" moment occurs, he must be sure to kiss whomever he is with, so that thousands of others attending the game can vicariously experience the thrill of his five seconds of relative fame as they watch that image on the Jumbotron. Then, when it is over, the "sausage race" begins, and several alleged adults dressed as a hot dog, a bratwurst, a Polish sausage, a chorizo, and an Italian sausage run around from foul-pole to foul-pole to the cheers of the Pavlov-trained fans who root them on. Surely, this is a comment on the extent to which baseball believes you can be easily entertained, and how desperate the "sausages" must be to make a living.

Before the Great American Pastime died, it was a game without a clock. You took your time and so did the game. Now watching a major league contest is fueled by the impatience of the audience for stimulation at every moment, useless information at every other moment, and blasting sonics without end. If you do try to bond with your little girl — the cutie you've brought to her first game — you just might find yourself hoarse before the end of the day. The most used phrase at your average big-league contest today has changed from "Hey, beer-man" to "What did you say?"

The only good thing about any of this is that you can probably use attendance at a Major League baseball game as a diagnostic tool to find out whether you are ADHD. If you love the multi-pronged assault on your senses, you should immediately call your doctor and get a prescription for Ritalin.

What has happened? I'll tell you what I think. First, watch all the people in the grandstand whose heads are turning from side to side, from a blinking light to a dancing bear — from one call for their attention to another. But then look at those who tire even of this. And what are many of them doing? They are checking their iPhones, texting, tweeting, reading email, or surfing the web. The baseball moguls have decided that the game is not enough. Clearly, they believe that they must use every opportunity to gain advertising income from people like Jim Jones Jeep and Cathy's Cadillac of Crown Point while, at the same time, drawing your eyeballs away from your cell phone.

If you were at a baseball game in my youth (aka the 1950s and '60s) there was one thing you did in addition to watching the contest and talking to your neighbor: you kept a sharp eye on the pretty girls walking by. Nothing captures the grotesque deformation of the current experience of attending a ballgame better than the knowledge that healthy young men in their seats now spend more time looking at their hands (and the cell phone in them) than any anatomical feature of the highly attractive members of the opposite sex who are dressed to be seen.

If you are young enough, you probably think I'm foolish — old and foolish at that. And, if you are closer to my age, you might have hardly noticed the change in the game because it crept up on you and me gradually. But think back and you will not fail to agree with me. My buddies Ron and Jim and Rock and Tom and Jeff and Steve and Cliff will vouch for me.

Once upon a time there was nothing that I found more prospectively enjoyable than the idea of going to a ballgame, no matter how bad the home team was (which, as a Cubs fan, was normally quite bad, indeed). Now, unfortunately, my emotions are much more mixed. I've seen Major League Baseball played in 15 different arenas over a period of almost 60 years. The change has spread everywhere.

Something has been lost here, my baseball loving friends. And I don't think we are getting it back.

The writer would possibly feel less bullshitted if someone would just admit their preference for football was the result of it being easy to follow. All you have to know is "ball moving toward opponent's end zone – good; ball moving toward your end zone – bad. End of required prerequisites."

### #2- Sumthin' Changed; The Sixties and Seventies

Now that we have heard many of the learned opinions; may we be sufficiently brave to examine a few facts?

That it is widely said by the older set that baseball is no longer "The Great American Pastime," and that the younger set has never even heard that it was once thus so named seems all too obvious in 2016. But, just in case, like me, you weren't paying attention lately I figured I'd write that anyhow. For the purposes of this book I'll assume that the oldies were at least somewhat correct in their memories and take the newcomers at their word or lack thereof. This may well result in a fruitless quest to find the legitimacy of a throne never granted in any official coronation. Any purported invisible crown is inherently difficult to find; though its absence is quite easy to not see. This may make about as much sense as the official story of how the 1919 Chicago Black Sox did the unthinkable and threw the World Series, which they were heavily favored to win. That is, until Eliot Asinof's 1963 book, "Eight Men Out," put forward a logical story of what may have happened behind the scenes. Eliot, a former minor league baseball player, was later rewarded with the charge of having taken liberties with the "facts." His impetus may have been that the official facts led nowhere plausible or comprehensive in forty-four years. I suspect that he cried all the way to the bank when it became a movie in 1988. In that vein, the writer has chosen to present an un-filmable book, often straying from and other times making use of the "facts" available on respected Wikipedia, in an attempt to convey that which has thus far escaped the limitations induced by ambiguous words and polls. The issue here is baseball's primacy, dammit, not the changing titles and dates they were granted to Napoleon. In baseball we have our own kings; one the Sultan of Swat.

It seems logically possible that the popular repositioning of baseball may have begun in the 1970's; a time when pitching came to overshadow hitting. Fans had become accustomed to seeing the 1950's and 1960's blasts of Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Ernie Banks, and Harmon Killebrew. By the 70's they were either gone or playing out their last strings. While Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt did their best to carry the torch, they were overwhelmed by the pitchers. In attempts at compensating, the mounds were twice moved back, first in 1969, and the strike zone was reduced. The effects were not instantaneously noticeable.

Baseball fans and the country for that matter were divided on this departure from tradition, much as they were divided about the war, officially termed a "police action," in Viet Nam. The US involvement in the Korean civil war which began in 1950 and ended with its settlement in 1953 was a showing of the budding US concern with world affairs. After unsuccessful attempts to stay out of both World Wars One and Two, early intervention was deemed the better route and it was thought to be essential for the protection of our new ally, Japan. The US populace raised no meaningful objections and it was over in three years.

But, things were different regarding the Viet Nam War. The US had "advisors" there since its 1950 inception. The frustrated French decided to pack it in in 1954 and the US stepped up to the plate. President John Kennedy increased troop levels and President Lyndon Johnson sent them through the roof, despite formerly having been a vocal critic while in the Senate. False reports of "winning the war" were distributed to the public under the auspices of General William Westmoreland. Their absurdity was easily determined when the daily enemy kill reports were totaled at three times more than Viet Nam's population. Exacerbating the public rejection of the "one shooter" Warren Report; for the first time it was apparent to all capable of addition that our government was very capable of lying to the citizenry. This time there were no "protecting our allies" issues as in Korea; but rather the war was "justified" by the now discredited domino theory. And the damn thing kept dragging and dragging and dragging; until our inglorious departure in 1975. Vocal citizen opposition grew by the minute. Sharp divisions of opinion drove wedges between North-South, Coast-Interior, doves-hawks, and young-old. More and more people abandoned being the strong silent type and were speaking up. The others identified with Agnew's "silent majority," as opposed to his "nattering nabobs of negativism." A phrase was made popular; "Don't trust anyone over thirty." Baseball was okay as 27 of the 34 players on the NY Yankee 1968 roster were under 30; the most senior at 37; and that was Mickey Mantle. Unlike other professions, baseball kicks you out well before senility.

Paralleling the lack of "progress" in Viet Nam, the growing discord between the man throwing the ball and the man with the stick, and the resultant lack of baseball hitting gave rise to various discussions which attempted to explain what was obvious to some. Paid pundits cited the increase in night games, the larger gloves, the possibility that some excellent hitters never got to the majors because of a lack of home run power; and the increased use of relief pitchers; my personal favorite. In bygone days most boys would not consider pitching unless they were unable to make it as a hitter. It was less glamorous and it paid less. It's difficult to pick the exact date when thinking changed, but by the 1970's most pitchers had been pursuing that path since childhood and they were bigger. It was not unusual to see a game where the pitcher was bigger than any hitter he faced.

They rightly have said that baseball is a game of inches; so picture what happens when a 6'5" pitcher strides toward the hitter and releases the ball utilizing a front leg stride twelve inches longer than what a batter is accustomed to seeing. No surprise. He seems 'close' and the hitter has less time to see the ball. What may be surprising cannot be mathematically calculated using 12 inches; as to the batter it appears to be anywhere between three and ten feet. An average major league fastball carries a speed of about 92 miles per hour. Couple that with control which two-thirds of the time puts the ball where the batter has the most difficulty hitting it mixed with at least one wicked breaking pitch. The next time you think of saying that some pro hitter stinks, put yourself in his place. You wouldn't have a prayer. That's not to make excuses for the hitters, as they are well paid to do their job. Just sayin' it's not an easy one.

The 1970's saw a coastal shift. Not only did the premier teams less originate in the "declining" cities of the east, but they flourished where the country was moving in search of the endless summer; California. The fact that pitching took a temporary upper hand is of no significance to a true baseball fan. It only affects those who can only appreciate distance travelled; quantity versus quality.

Still, it required an adjustment for many to maintain interest at the Mendoza line; the term coined during Mario Mendoza's 1974-1982 term in the majors. Actually, Mario laughs it off as he was not the worst and could play the integral shortstop position well. He just somehow wound up with the dubious batting distinction of being the boundary line of incompetence.

At the time the pundits said that there will never again be a home run hitter who could simultaneously bat .300.

During one game I watched on TV, the announcers had this discussion.

"If Ted Williams was playing today, do you think he could hit .300?"

"Nah, more like .270-.280."

"Williams?"

"Well, yeah. Don't forget that if Williams was playing today he'd almost be sixty years old."

It was half a joke.

At least five teams of the era will be memorable; the Reggie Jackson Oakland Athletics; the Sandy Koufax Los Angeles Dodgers; the Jim Palmer Baltimore Orioles; the Johnny Bench Cincinnati Redlegs; and the Billy Martin-Reggie Jackson New York Yankees. People may have been temporarily distracted by the interesting, daily show and there were some great World Series'. But by the 1980's it was apparent that sumthin' changed, and not for the better. Other forms of entertainment expanded and baseball cards began to be sold by the bushel. Previously kids bought them in packs of five and "flipped" them to get others; but now it was possible to just buy the entire set; much less fun. They even lost the pleasant smell of bubble gum.  
The 70's had its stars. As it is relative, there are always stars. However, this time they were disproportionately pitchers. My father, who played some ball just before and after World War Two, told me that back then one's goal was to be an "everyday player." With the exception of the few biggest stars, pitching was not valued anywhere near as much as the other eight men on the field; both in stature and remuneration. Many big league pitchers were paid the league minimum.

That changed in the 70's, as a standby phrase became; "Good pitching beats good hitting." And for a while, it did. The Baltimore Orioles' starting rotation Of Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, and Doyle Alexander was described by opposing hitters as an; "0 for 16 four game series," a "reason" for an inability to bat .300. Not mentioned was Brooks Robinson on third, Mark Belanger at short, and Paul Blair in center field as candidates for the defensive best to have ever played their positions. Frank Robinson, acquired from Cincinnati, provided the offense.

American League competition came from the West, in the name of Charles Finley's Oakland Athletics. Check this rotation; Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, and Ken Holtzman; with Rollie Fingers in the bullpen in case anyone needed help. Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi, clutch Gene Tenace, and Bert Campaneris supplied the necessary offense.

The less competitive AL teams had pitchers like Nolan Ryan, Tommy John, and Jim Kaat.

On the other side of the aisle there was one lone remnant of offensive tradition. And one of them was about as offensive as one could get on the diamond. The Cincinnati Reds; the "big red machine;" provided an assault, proportionately reminiscent as being as far ahead of its peers as the 1960's New York Yankees. Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, George Foster, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Dan Driessen, Davey Concepcion, Ken Griffey Sr., and others made the lineup sufficiently nightmarish for opposing pitchers to call in sick on their scheduled dates. On the mound they sported Don Gullett; as good as any when his arm wasn't sore; Jack Billingham, Pedro Borbon, Clay Carroll, and Rawley Eastwick.

If any criticism was possible, it would be that the Reds were absolutely fascistic in their efficiency. This corresponded to an era in which the US continued their democratic, leftward drift. Outside of Cincinnati, many just wanted to see the Reds beaten in some sort of egalitarian posture consistent with the time; and one year at their height; the very underdog Boston Red Sox almost did it in the World Series.

A few of the greatest pitchers of all time toiled in relative National League obscurity. Steve Carlton, nicknamed "Lefty" as in "The Lefty," Phil Niekro, Ferguson Jenkins, Don Sutton, Gaylord Perry, Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Juan Marichal. Bob Gibson had already gotten some fame as his Cardinals got to the series three times in the 1960's. He posted a 7-2 record with a 1.89 ERA there. His 1968 regular season of a 1.12 ERA is the lowest ever in the live ball era, only surpassed three times in the dead one.

The temporarily outmatched American League still boasted Frank Robinson by way of Cincinnati, and Reggie Jackson in New York by way of AL Oakland, though they had trouble in supplying a .300 hitter who wasn't Rod Carew tiki-tiki; and managed to lose about ten consecutive All-Star games in their embarrassment. Palmer was on the mound, along with Kaat, Tanana, Hunter, Holtzman, Blue, and Ryan. It was abundantly clear, that like the nation as a whole, the game of baseball had entered a period in which those who initiated the action were at the forefront. The questions of Woodward and Bernstein resonated more than the replies of the man who used to be in charge of things.

Pittsburgh's Willie Stargell seems to have been later viewed as a more powerful, but at the time was considered an inferior substitute for Roberto Clemente. The slugger's story is a subject to itself, and leads one to the times' offensive star of stars; the aforementioned Reggie Jackson. Michael Jordan is called basketball's greatest of all time for many reasons, but primarily because his team won six titles in eight years. It is largely forgotten, if in fact ever noticed, that Reggie Jackson's teams won five World Series in seven. Outside of his lifetime home run accumulation, you may not be impressed with his statistics. But, remember that he played during one of baseball's lightest hitting eras; and that he got the nickname of "Mr. October," for coming up clutch at the most important of times; the World Series.

At the time, I was in my early twenties, married to the love of my life, and living either in the unattractive safety of NYC commutable, "family protected" New Jersey or affordable, remote suburbs. Diane had no previous interest in sports, no matter the specific genre, but somehow got interested in the time's sports headlines; those of Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin, Catfish Hunter, Thurman Munson, George Steinbrenner, etc., etc., usually engaged in some sort of dispute; usually either some manifestation of defiance of those traditionally in power or the displaying of a penchant to say things which are not customarily said in baseball. The sportswriters had it easy. Asked about Jackson, teammate Mickey Rivers once said something like; "He's all fucked up. His middle name (Martinez) is Spanish; his last name is black; and his first name is regal white. He don't know who he is." Unprovoked, when Reggie Jackson once remarked to a reporter that he had an IQ of 160, Rivers responded, "Out of what, a thousand?"

For a detailed and accurate view of the time, one can see Jonathan Mahler's "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning," a book, followed by a television series that focuses on 1977 in New York City. At its best, it is said to weave political, cultural, and sporting threads into one story. At its worst it was an eleventh hour reflection. For those not there, suffice to say that it was a time of internal strife, police stations under siege, fires, and firemen attacked for doing their jobs. The Bronx was indeed burning; and at the times not always meaning the smoke generating conflagrations; but rather those which it was interesting to watch.

In an attempt at crystallization or perhaps distillation; in the Bronx they were playing game two of the 1977 World Series. It was on a Wednesday, October twelfth at Yankee Stadium. The twelfth was traditionally that of Columbus Day; the calendar date upon which he and the Pinta, Nina, and Santa Marie allegedly landed in the allegedly new world. However, thanks to a 1970 edict the "holiday" had been re-calculated as being "the second Monday in October," celebrated or not that year two days prior on a Monday; ostensibly to provide a three day weekend. Chris Columbus and his day would come under further scrutiny and questioning in years to come. The artificially lit night game conjured to obtain maximum viewership proved to be a tad redundant that year in its seeking of darkness as the day was marked by the rarity of a total solar eclipse. So, there's the scene. Now for the professional coverage.

Cameramen working the game cut to a helicopter shot of the surrounding neighborhood where a large fire was shown raging out of control at a Bronx Public School. The following exchange occurred between ABC announcers Keith Jackson and Howard Cosell:

Jackson: "That is a live picture, obviously a major fire in a large building in the south Bronx region of New York City. That's a live picture, and obviously the Fire Department in the Bronx have there, a problem. My goodness, that's a huge blaze."

Cosell: "That's the very area where President Carter trod just a few days ago."

About nine minutes later the camera again panned to the scene of the fire, with Cosell saying: "That's a live shot again, of that fire in the South Bronx that Keith called to your attention just a few moments ago. Wonder how many alarms are involved, but as Keith said, the fire department really has its work cut out for it."

Altogether the two men spoke about the fire on five separate occasions. Television viewers were repeatedly assured that no one had been hurt, but were told mistakenly that the site was a vacant apartment building. According to the "New York Post," the phrasing used by the two broadcasters during the game was afterwards "spun by credulous journalists" into the now ubiquitous phrase "Ladies and Gentleman, the Bronx is burning" without either of the two announcers actually having phrased it anything near that way.

While accurate, that may be a bit picky as the main point; the game; was still going on at that time. However, you will later see how the significance of the precise phrase, "Great American Pastime,"

At that un-nerving time the City of New York's finances were rock bottom and the place was considered unmanageable. I know this has been stated in more polite terms, but hindsight is 20-20. What can you accurately call a "rescue" which required a Big Mac Band-Aid? For those sight challenged; less than halfway through bureaucrat Beam's term as mayor the city was "careening toward bankruptcy." The newspapers even noticed it. There were signs that the "petty rebellion" had manifested itself on the most important communications device of the time; the TV. Or did it? In 1972, "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" had moved from Midtown Manhattan to Burbank, California, in mostly insignificant ways being an analogous equivalent of the Brooklyn Dodgers move to Los Angeles. Carson belittled his old home with script writer jokes like; "Some Martians landed in Central Park today ...... and were immediately mugged." Before anyone draws any conclusions from that he also more often spoke of "beautiful downtown Burbank." Whatever Carson's "real" feelings was irrelevant. The mid-country viewers were watching on a TV placed in their bedroom, living room, or highway saloon and didn't really think too much about where the filming took place. For the vast majority of the country New York was hated in multiples of Burbank's cute nonsense; though it is rarely openly stated.

As seems to be always true in baseball since Babe Ruth, what is done by the New York Yankees is the news for the entire country. The California migration has been duly noted. But California migrants find newspapers difficult in the beach breezes. They're more interested in checking out bodies, hanging ten, or saying things like; "Psilocybin?" Don't you wish that you could be there too?

In the 1976 World Series, the Yankees had been beaten by the impossibly dominant Cincinnati Reds. It was no surprise. But NY fans were elated that the Yankees had won their first pennant since 1964, the year of the CBS corporate purchase. George Steinbrenner had become principal owner in 1973 and seemed determined to restore the winning tradition. The fans were even cheering the feisty manager; Billy Martin; finally back in New York after an eighteen year banishment to the desert, just because he was supposed to have been a bad influence on Mantle. At 47 he still had some time left to influence some others and they played "Billy Ball." Many pros didn't like it, but that's the way it was. Billy would call out to some dugout squatter; "Hey, Patterson. What's the count?" Either Patterson knew the correct answer or he paid $500. Billy believed in paying attention. It may have arisen from his playing experience. He was not a person blessed with abundant physical skills, though he never lost a fight, but through his knowledge of and concentration on the game he was able to play at the highest level. Those physically blessed specimens who were nonchalant about it probably pissed him right off.

While many debate great managers, there is room for disagreement. But Billy gets my vote because he had already demonstrated that whenever he went to a new team, that team immediately got better, and he repeated that in New York. Billy's problem was that after being some place a while he thought that he owned it, to the chagrin of General Managers and the audacious people with greenbacks.

On slow news days the winter 1976 papers speculated about how the Yankees' off season acquisition of the colorful star Reggie Jackson would get along with Thurman Munson, the Yankees catcher and captain. Munson was a moody, no-nonsense person and Jackson was extravagant; once saying that if he played in New York they'd name a candy bar after him. And they quickly did. However, it didn't last too long. Jackson was more powerful, and basically he and Munson did not get along. As it would turn out, Jackson didn't get along with any of his new team mates, except one.

But, what does that matter? Some of the greatest teams of all time did not like each other; including the 1906 Cubs and the 1919 White Sox. The new Yankee dynasty was forming in '77: Mickey Rivers, Willie Randolph, Reggie ... and those close to Martin; Catfish Hunter, Lou Piniella, Graig Nettles. Fran Healy, the backup catcher, was Jackson's only friend on the team. Maybe Jackson was a Healy fan because Munson's chicken-armed throws to second base either arrived on the long hop or wound up in right center field. And let's face it. On top of that the guy was a singles hitting slapper to right who insisted on batting cleanup. "Tools of ignorance," indeed. These were tools of over-estimation.

As early as the first signs of May lust, Jackson, after going yard, ignored his teammates and manager, who had gathered at the dugout entrance for the high fives. Reggie had already had enough of the politics and didn't care who knew it. While perfunctory politics as usual may have been better for all involved, the sixties would not officially end for two more years.

For the first time in the twentieth century, player free agency, which had its deliverance through the volunteered sacrifice of Curt Flood in the 1960's came to fruition, when Andy Messersmith cashed in in the 1970's. In 1976, he became the first true free agent. Andy was perhaps the perfect beneficiary. His injury plagued career showed signs of greatness when in good health; and though not widely known his lifetime ERA of 2.86, posted in his injury shortened career, is fifth on the all-time list for players playing during the live ball era.

It was disparagingly said by the money people that the game would never be the same. It was joyously said by the employees that the game would never be the same. It was perhaps the only time when the two sides could agree to something; if only on paper.

Time would show that few players would play their entire careers for one team. Some would see this as a turn from the traditions they liked to something transitory caused solely by the greed of the players. At the outset of free agency the players were getting contracts for six times over what they were previously paid. Some would conclude that they were previously cheated, and if their original team would have paid them a fair wage they would have stayed with them. Old timers said; "They're being made millionaires and not one of them can even hit better than Hack Wilson." And everybody figured that ticket prices were going up. Orange ball contrarian that he was, Oakland owner Charles Finley commenced a throwback to the old days of Connie Mack, and began selling his players for money before they could seek a market wage. All seemed to be up in the air, but they kept playing the "National Anthem" before every game, though sometimes now the Hendrix version. Yogi said that the fat lady always sings at the end, but frankly I never heard or saw her.

As if there wasn't enough for some people to agonize over, someone came up with a new idea intended to increase the lousy hitting. The Designated Hitter created another division. The American League adopted the rule which essentially replaced the at bats of a zero for four with three strikeouts pitcher with one who could add something other than a sacrifice bunt to the offense. In practice it extended the baseball lives of ageing or injured, competent hitters, and no doubt added to the offense. However, it also added to the split between the two confederations as the National League adamantly opposed it. Their adherence to tradition seemed to note a conservative stance in the innovative group which once successfully dared to welcome Jackie Robinson to white America. Perhaps they were resting on their laurels. All in all it would prove to extend some careers, serve as a bailiwick for otherwise quiet office managers to negotiate the ramifications for the World Series, and inspire public discussion; which centered on the young versus old opinion about the value of tradition. Whether or not it produced more runs was and is debated by statisticians; though the conclusion does seem a trifle obvious.

For some, in hindsight, the harsh judgement was that the decade that had created such excitement annihilated the game itself. This does seem to ignore the time's aforementioned stars and its great teams; the A's, the Reds and as again what was usual after a brief hiatus, the Yankees. Despite the plasticity producing ground ball singles on Astro-Turf, cookie cutter stadiums named things like "Pratt's Medicated Suppositories," the designated hitter, and free agency, the game again survived; this time with a US version of a cannabis induced sense of humor.

2016 requirements for political correctness are always an issue; making racial observers into walkers on very thin ice. However, since these considerations have always been a part of the country and a part of baseball I feel it appropriate to point out a few facts.

The US is now 64% White, 12% Black, and 16% Latino. Major League Baseball's figures are 64% White, 8% Black, and 27% Latino. Hmnnn.

White representation is precisely what one would expect. Black representation is low, especially when considering its peak of 19% in 1981; a steady decline since. Latino representation has been steady at approximately 27% for all of the 21st century.

Any attempt to explain the anomalies is the protracted work of a sociologist-mathematician; and the writer is neither. At the risk of being out and out wrong, it seems to me that fans now appreciate anyone who plays the game well. Indeed, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey, Jr., Jose Canseco, and Sammy Sosa had as many fans as Mark McGuire; and likely more than Jim Thome. Owners are logical, business minded people who want to fill seats primarily through having a winning team.

The "disparities" might well reflect preferences in a society, more free than it was previously. I could well be wrong about that. This book, however, is an effort to explore the possibilities for the Great American Pastime's alleged demise. Insofar as that is concerned, it would take much greater sociological insight than this baseball fan has to make a case that Baseball does not reasonably reflect the population of America.

Baseball's racial segregation ended in 1947 with Jackie Robinson. That same season, Larry Doby ended the color line in the American League. Jackie is the closest thing to a baseball saint I know of. He tolerated abuse from all sides to open up possibilities for others.

There is no doubt that baseball has had its racists. Hall-of-Famer "Cap" Anson adamantly refused to have his team play against a team with a black member, and in later years used his influence to maintain segregation.

The fact of the matter is that twenty-first century baseball is not becoming whiter. It is becoming more Latino, as is the country.

#3- The Black Sox

This chapter was placed here (early) as it seemed to fit in the flow of problems the "Great American Pastime" has overcome. For those not familiar; the "Black Sox" is the name given to the 1919 White Sox. It was either the result of their having thrown the World Series; or the minority opinion which says that they had been given that name prior to the Series as they stopped having their uniforms cleaned when the owner started charging them for it.

One huge reason the story of the Chicago White Sox throwing the 1919 Series became as big and memorable as it did was that in 1919 America there was still something sacred about the World Series in particular and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Illiterate Joe was a hero to many kids, and he put up the third highest lifetime batting average of .356, behind only Cobb and Hornsby. Perhaps more importantly, once when Babe Ruth was asked where he got his swing he replied; "I copied it off Shoeless Joe Jackson."

Near the entrance to the Roaring Twenties the average American would have spat into the collection tray before considering taking money to lose the hallowed World Series. The story, as it originally unfolded, contained contradictions which were the source of baseball's biggest mystery, not only at the time, but for years to come.

According to the 1963 book and 1988 movie; when the notion of the possibility of the series being thrown, primarily due to the under-compensation of the White Sox stars got in the air, even fabled gambler Arnold Rothstein wanted no part. It was known that on occasion, during the regular season, White Sox first baseman Chick Gandil did a bit of a dance around the bag and made it appear as if the throw was bad. There were no instant replays then. These are a few of Eliot Asinof's unprovable contentions in my favorite baseball book, then film; "Eight Men Out." His "unprovable" ideas tied the whole thing together in a logical way it might have happened. He further suggested that without authorization, one of Rothstein's subordinates poorly arranged the fix; and then scammed the players; working through Gandil. Acting on his own he didn't have access to the funds necessary to do the job right. His failure to deliver on his promises made the Sox players not deliver on theirs at times, resulting in a confusing-to-the-outsider back and forth.

To confuse my ostensible point, what is generally not known today, but was common knowledge back then was that regular season baseball games were often thrown. In an attempt to restore baseball's good name Commissioner Landis not only banned for life eight of the Sox players, but several others who were "known" to frequent with gamblers, and do some strange failing things on the field at key times.

So, what we have here is a mass morality or religion which in essence said; "It's all right to sin from Monday to Saturday, but never on Sunday."

It has been said of the 1919 Chicago White Sox; "No team played better and few teams were paid as poorly or got along as badly." Players deliberately crossed each other on the field. During infield practice no one threw the ball to Hall of Fame second baseman Eddie Collins, Chicago's highest paid player, all season long. Teammate Chick Gandil had not spoken to Collins since 1915. Owner Charles A. Comiskey was a former middling player but was now among the game's most stingy executives.

Eddie Collins said; "I thought you couldn't win without teamwork, until I joined the White Sox. Yet somehow we won a hundred games and the pennant that year."

One thing I always found questionable was the way it was presumed that the White Sox talent was so superior that they could just turn it on and win anytime they chose to. Statistics do not bear this out. Maybe Collins' quote sheds some incalculable light on the matter.

In the vein of trying to keep with fresh impressions articulated, here are some more circumstances and quotes from those present at the time.

"There was a marked difference between owners and players; as the latter was viewed as expendable. If one got hurt, they had as much chance as a truck flattened dog. There was no pension or benefits. And they saw people making money by the bushel. Comiskey owned the ballpark. He bottled his own soda in the basement. He was making money on everything that moved in that ballpark and the players got little more than they might have in an unskilled factory job. They were nicknamed the Black Sox before they threw the 1919 World Series because one year Comiskey started charging them for laundering their uniforms. So the players stopped laundering them, and they got dirtier and dirtier until the sportswriters named them the Black Sox. Then Comiskey said; 'Okay, I'll launder your uniforms.' He then proceeded to take the cost out of their World Series bonus." - Chicago Sun Times, newspaper

"First baseman Chick Gandil, a former hobo and one-time club fighter, now near the end of his career, let it be known that, for the right money, he would be willing to talk some of his teammates into throwing the series. An ex-boxer, Abe Attell, and Sleepy Bill Burns, a one-time White Sox pitcher, connected Gandil to New York's most notorious gambler, Arnold Rothstein.

'Who is he, anyhow? An actor?' 'No.' 'A dentist?' 'No. He's a gambler.' Gatsby hesitated, and then added coolly, 'He's the man who fixed the World Series back in 1919.' 'Fixed the World Series?' I repeated. The idea staggered me. It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe. 'How did he happen to do that?' I asked after a minute. 'He just saw the opportunity.' 'Why isn't he in jail?' 'They can't get him, old sport, he's a smart man.'" - F. Scott Fitzgerald; writer, "The Great Gatsby"

"The proposition to throw the World Series was first brought to me in New York City in front of the Ansonia Hotel. Chick Gandil came to me and said he wanted a conference. He asked me if anybody had approached me on the 1919 World Series with the purpose of fixing. I told him, not yet. He asked me if it was fixed would I be willing to get in and go through with it. I told him I would refuse to answer right then." - Lefty Williams, White Sox pitcher

"Gandil recruited six teammates: pitcher Claude 'Lefty' Williams, outfielder Oscar 'Happy' Felsch, third baseman 'Buck' Weaver, shortstop 'Swede' Risberg, right-handed pitcher Eddie Cicotte, and outfielder Joseph Jefferson Jackson. Reserve infielder Fred McMullin later demanded in on the fix, making eight. The smart ones insisted on their money up front.

The meeting was held about eight o'clock in the evening. I said, there's so much double crossing stuff, if I went in the series I wanted the money put in my hand. I went back to my room at eleven thirty and the 10 grand was under my pillow." \- Eddie Cicotte, White Sox pitcher

"Shoeless Joe Jackson, a South Carolina country boy, had learned to bat from a Confederate veteran who had learned his baseball from Union soldiers in a northern prison camp. He had hoped to be a pitcher until he broke a batter's arm with a wild pitch. Jackson could neither read nor write, but he could hit; .408 in his rookie year, .356 lifetime; the third highest average in history. His home runs were called Saturday Specials because most of the textile workers' games in which he got his start were played on Saturdays, and he hit them with a special 48 ounce bat, Black Betsy, made for him by a local lumberman from the north side of a hickory tree and darkened with coat after coat of Jackson's tobacco juice. As for the nickname; he was said once to have been spotted in the minors playing in his socks when new shoes proved too tight. The greatest natural hitter I ever saw." - Ty Cobb, Tigers center fielder

"In two years he had risen from a poor mill boy to the rank of a player in the major leagues. The ignorant mill boy had become the hero of millions. Out on the hot prairies teams of Joe Jacksons battled desperately with the Ty Cobbs. There came a day when a crook spread money before this ignorant idol, and he fell. For a few dollars he sold his honor." - New York World, newspaper

"There is no alibi for Cicotte. He pitched a great game, a determined game, and one that would have won nine times out of ten, but he brought the defeat crashing down upon his own head by trying to do all the defensive work. He made the wild throw that gave the Reds their opening, the only real one they had, and he followed that up by grabbing a ball thrown from the outfield and deflecting it past the catcher. A high fly to left blown by the wind over the head of Jackson, who was playing close in, followed, and Chicago was beaten." - Hugh Fullerton, sportswriter on Game 4

"After the game was over I went up to my room; I was ill. I was sick all night. Felsch was in the room with me. I believe I discussed the matter with him and said, 'Happy, it'll never be done again.' I don't believe he even answered me." - Eddie Cicotte, White Sox pitcher

"They aren't hitting. I don't know what's the matter. But I do know that something's wrong with my gang. The bunch I had fighting in August for the pennant would've trimmed this Cincinnati bunch without a struggle. The bunch I have now couldn't beat a high school team." - Kid Gleason, White Sox manager

"Game 8 would be held in Chicago and Lefty Williams was scheduled to pitch. Humiliated by his poor play, and angered at not being paid all the money he was owed, he was now determined more than ever to win. But the night before the game, gamblers sent by Arnold Rothstein came to his room and threatened to harm his wife if he did not cooperate. The Cincinnati Reds are the champions of the world. There'll be a great deal written about the World Series; there'll be a whole lot of inside stuff that never will be printed. The truth will remain that the team that was the hardest working won. The team which had the ability and individuality was beaten. The fact is the Series was lost in the first game." - Hugh Fullerton, sportswriter

Winter 1919. Before anything was publicly known, in an article written for the "New York World," Hugh Fullerton suggested that the Series had been fixed and that the baseball establishment was outraged. American League President Ban Johnson, who hated Charles Comiskey, pursued the case for almost a year. Comiskey said; "There's always some scandal of some kind following some big sporting event like the World Series. These yarns are manufactured out of whole cloth and grow out of bitterness due to losing wagers. I believe my boys fought the battles of the recent World Series on the level, and I would be the first to want information to the contrary. I would give $20,000 to anyone unearthing any information to that effect."

The writer doesn't believe that he made good on this promise either.

September 1920; eight players are indicted by a grand jury. Eddie Cicotte and Joe Jackson give sworn confessions. All are suspended, ending the White Sox' 1920 pennant bid. Rothstein is exonerated of any blame.

October 7, 1920. "Fix these faces in your memory. These are the White Sox players who committed the astounding and contemptible crime of selling out the baseball world. They will be remembered from now on only for the depths of depravity to which they could sink." - "The Sporting News," a newspaper

"Professional baseball is in a bad way, not so much because of the Chicago scandal, as because that scandal has provoked it to bringing up all the rumors and suspicions of years past. The general effect is to wrinkle the noses of fans, who will quit going to ball games if they get the impression that this sort of thing has been going on underground for years." - "New York Times," a newspaper

"Baseball is something more than a game to an American boy. It is his training field for life work. Destroy his faith in its squareness and honesty and you have destroyed something more: You have planted suspicion of all things in his heart." - Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Baseball Commissioner

"You know, they needed a commissioner and they looked down the first base line and there was this old guy who was always sitting there so they decided to give him the job." - Will Rogers, comedian

March, 1921; Landis places all eight players on the ineligible list for the 1921 season. August, 1921; all eight players are acquitted of conspiracy charges by a jury after the transcripts of Cicotte's and Jackson's confessions mysteriously vanish from the court file. Commissioner Landis immediately bans the eight men for life. "Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball." - Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Baseball Commissioner

Joe Jackson played outlaw baseball in south Georgia for a time, then ran a liquor store in Greenville, South Carolina. Ty Cobb once came in for a fifth of bourbon. Jackson did not seem to recognize his old rival. Cobb finally asked; "Don't you know me, Joe?" "Sure, I know you," Ty, Jackson answered, "I just didn't think anyone I used to know up there wanted to recognize me again."

Arnold Rothstein moved on to bootlegging, drug peddling and labor racketeering, and was eventually shot to death by a rival gambler whom he had accused of fixing a poker game.

"A game of baseball is a clean, straight game, and it summons to its presence everybody who enjoys clean, straight athletics." - William Howard Taft, US President, 1910

I believe that the aforementioned adequately describes the mood of the times from varying viewpoints. With the benefit of hindsight the only small discrepancy is in whether or not Rothstein himself was involved in the fix. It strikes me as rather inconsequential. The pertinent dynamic didn't involve what was behind the scenes. It involved what went on on the field. If it was a farce, at best the game would likely become an early incarnation of pro wrestling. At the worst it would become disdained and totally ignored. It would have been difficult for baseball to find a more dire situation.

It is worth mentioning that Shoeless Joe Jackson led all players with a .375 batting average in the Series; and hit the only home run.

### #4- The Babe and the Roaring Twenties

Like when just in the nick of time E.T. soared, elevating our hearts and dreams with him, a hero arrived. Actually he had to have had a clairvoyant power, as he was already there waiting for the opportunity; only one raised in an orphanage might fully understand.

Responding in defiance against being subjected to Prohibition, enacted in 1920, the US went on a drinking splurge which dwarfed the minor dalliance the authorities were seeking to abolish. The official version was a sham with eighteen different interpretations; bringing people like Al Capone to power and popularity. "So let's ignore all the crap and have a big party," they said. "The money spigots have been opened if you know where to go."

So too, in baseball, fans were ready for a bash never previously seen. And it was ushered in by one man and one man alone; Babe Ruth. Ruth had been a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox since 1914; and quite the left handed pitcher he was. Through 1919 he had compiled an 89-46 won-loss record with an ERA of 2.19. During this period he led the league in a few seasonal categories and established a still standing World Series record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched. Continuation of this performance ensured Hall of Fame credentials as a moundsman, but what was becoming apparent was that he was out and out revolutionary with a stick.

The corporate induced ticky-ticky, "let's not risk a mistake," nickel and diming, pre-info overload mindset made a few tepid excursions into the unfamiliar waters of change. The initially promising results of that "boldness" resulted in a logical short term decision of "Sell." What do they know? It has been effectively argued by conspiracy theorists that the Boston Red Sox only exist as a farm team to serve the New York Yankees.

By way of background it should be noted that in 1918 some bright person in the Red Sox organization noticed that the boy could not only pitch, but that he could hit a bit. Babe was put in the lineup for 2/3 of the games and responded with 11 home runs. He followed that in 1919 by setting the all-time record of 29 in his 130 games. Despite some good seasons the Boston Red Sox were basically broke and sold off their best players. Babe went to the rival New York Yankees and they boldly ended his pitching career and made him a full time right fielder. The Babe more than returned the favor by hitting 54 home runs in 1920, which almost doubled the previous record; his own. He followed that with 59 in 1921, and no one ever again had any questions about the success of the "experiment." In fact the "Black Sox" were quickly relegated to the status of an overly long story with no current significance. Nobody in Chicago hit many home runs anyway. Sure, Joe Jackson's and Eddie Ciccote's wallets and long term recognitions deserved more than to be cut down in their slightly passed primes. They never got to play out the inevitable, common decline. Time would show that their notoriety got them more fame than most of those inducted into the hall of Fame could attain and Shoeless' bat; "Black Betsey" would one day sell for more than the canvas of a nineteenth century European impressionist. Shoeshine boys were leading their future IT brothers to the bank with millions. All in all, despite the few perfected, head-office, hand wringing acts which no one was paying to see, nobody was worried anymore.

Certainly not the fans. They were loaded. Loaded with the revolutionary blasts of this young man from Baltimore as well as the nourishment taken from their silver flasks. Then there were those "flappers" with their untied flapping boots. ........ But back to baseball, by the end of the decade the fans had increased their attendance by 50%. Buffs in the other league cities attended the games when New York's Babe was in town more than they did any other time. The Twenties were roaring and, Ruth was more than just baseball's greatest player. He had become baseball itself. Any worry over repercussions from the 1919 Black Sox scandal was forgotten in the greatness of this one charismatic and extremely skilled man.

"The Bambino" never showed a concern for consistency. He struck out more times than he homered. He led the league in dingers an unprecedented twelve times, but also led it in whiffs five. Whatever his momentary predilections it was news. As Ruth went, so went the Yankees, even though the team seemed more than adequately skilled to win the pennant without him. Murderers' Row' was the nickname given to the New York Yankee baseball teams of the late 1920s, often considered the best in the history of the game. The 1927 version which many consider the pinnacle best had a lineup of Earle Combs, Mark Koenig, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel, and Tony Lazzeri. Koenig and Meusel are the non-Hall of Famers in the group though Meusel's stats are a bit better than Lazzeri's. His nonchalant laconic attitude may not have endeared him to the sportswriters, but they were an asset at the plate. Once when asked about some particularly hard throwing pitcher he was soon to face, he said; "I don't care if he shoots it out of a cannon. The only question is how fast I have to start my bat." Had we not been graced with Ruthian wallops some of us might be speaking of Meuselian nonchalant whacks.

The 1927 season was virtually un-paralleled for the Yankees; or anyone else for that matter. The prior year they lost the World Series in seven games to a rather lackluster St. Louis Cardinal team headed by hated player-manager Rogers Hornsby, which won the pennant at 89-65, two games ahead of the Reds. The offense was led by a sub-par Hornsby campaign, Jim Bottomley and otherwise not-much-noticed, 1926 league MVP Bob O'Farrell, who batted .293, with 7 home runs and 68 RBIs. Led by RBI champion Jim Bottomley, the offense scored the most runs in the NL, aided by career seasons from a few people not deemed memorable. The pitching staff boasted 39 year old Grover Cleveland Alexander, who was playing on his third team of the year, going 9-7, with a 2.93 ERA for the Cards. To make things more ironic the deciding 3-2 game seven ended in the ninth inning when Babe Ruth was thrown out trying to steal second base. The 1926 championship Cards had to have been a true "team effort" spiced with a bit of good fortune.

After having been embarrassed in the 1926 World Series, the Yankees went on a tear in 1927, going 110-44 during the regular season, winning the AL pennant by 19 games, and sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1927 World Series. Their regular season team batting average was .307. They slugged .489, scored 975 runs, and outscored their opponents by 376 runs; all records at the time and still high on the all-time list; the most significant "runs scored" category having the 1931 Ruth-Gehrig Yankees on top at 1,067. Center fielder Earle Combs had a career best year, batting .356 with 231 hits; left fielder Bob Meusel batted .337 with 103 RBIs; and second baseman Tony Lazzeri drove in 102 runs. Lou Gehrig batted .373, with 218 hits, 52 doubles, 18 triples, 47 home runs, a then record 175 RBIs, slugged at .765, and was voted American League MVP. Ruth amassed a .356 batting average, 164 RBIs, 158 runs scored, walked 137 times, and slugged .772. Perhaps, most notably, Ruth's 60 home runs that year broke his own record and remained the Major League mark for 34 years. Oddly, after the initial cheers, little note was made of it at the time. Presumably people just assumed that the Babe would just break it again in another MVP year.

If the run producing machine didn't make things tough enough for opponents, the pitching staff added insult to injury by giving up the fewest runs. The hillers led the league in team ERA at 3.20; and included Waite Hoyt who went 22–7; Herb Pennock who went 19–8; and rookie Wilcy Moore, in his best season at 19-7, and a league leading ERA of 2.28. The 1927 Yankees would eventually send six players along with manager Miller Huggins and President Ed Barrow to the Hall of Fame. Only the 1928 Yankees had more with 9. Three other Yankee pitchers had an ERA under 3.00 that season. After sweeping the Pirates in the Series, the Yankees again made things look easy by wiping out the Cardinals in the 1928 World Series. The 1927-28 Yankees were the first team to ever sweep the World Series in consecutive years; to be later duplicated by the DiMaggio Yankee teams of 1938-39 and the Jeter-Rivera versions of 1998-99.

When Ruth was having a Ruthian year, the Yankees were at the top of the heap, winning six pennants and three World Series in the twenties. When he gave indications of being mortal, the whole team faltered. It was as if none of the other stars would dare to step up and carry the team, though their numbers strongly suggest that a few of them had the ability. But, maybe they were the ones who knew him best and couldn't get over their awe.

Ruth could not have timed his emergence to immortality any better. Some might say that he knew precisely when to quit pitching. The Twenties were roaring and the game's offense was helped by an accelerated refresh rate of virgin white baseballs. Some mention the outlawing of the spitball as a factor. While this no doubt was of long term significance, its immediate effect seems doubtful as the new law was like all law, subject to "grandfathering" considerations. Pitchers who had previously spit on the ball were allowed to keep doing so. It was just no longer an option for newcomers.

Taking Ruth as a model more sluggers stepped to the plate. Rogers Hornsby, Lou Gehrig, George Sisler, Paul Waner, Henry Heilmann, Al Simmons, and Hack Wilson showed flashes of brilliance which might have been better remembered if the Babe was not there. But there he was ahead of them making use of a baseball that was as clean in the ninth as it was in the first.

The hitters' gain was of course the pitchers' loss. Before 1920 an ERA of 4.00 would have had a pitcher worrying about his job. While that same number was nothing to brag about after 1920, it was no indication of an unwanted trip to Podunk. Ducking became an art form. In the power insatiable stands, the pitchers found few friends.

In an attempt to put the chronology of relatively low home run matters in some perspective for a modern fan, what follows is the evolution of single season leaders in highest single season home run totals:

1) In 1876 George Hall of the Athletics hit 5.

2) In 1879 Charley Jones of the Red Caps hit 9.

3) In 1883 Harry Stovey of the Athletics hit 14.

4) In 1884 Ned Williamson of the White Stockings hit 27. This merits the first asterisk. Ned's home field that year had fences of 186 feet in left field, 300 feet in center and 190 feet in right. 25 of his 27 were hit there. It is not known if the design of this field was an experiment to determine the effects of greater offense. However, it was abandoned the following year. This is meant as no disparagement of Ned, as he was one hell of a ballplayer, no matter where the fences were located.

5) In 1919 Babe Ruth of the Red Sox hit 29.

6) In 1920 Babe Ruth of the Yankees hit 54.

7) In 1921 Babe Ruth of the Yankees hit 59. Many consider this the best single season anyone ever had. Babe led the league in runs scored with 177, runs batted in with 168, as well as five other categories. His .378 batting average was second to Rogers Hornsby's .397.

8) In 1927 Babe Ruth of the Yankees hit 60.

9) In 1961 Roger Maris of the Yankees hit 61.

10) In 1998 Mark McGwire of the Cardinals hit 70.

11) In 2001 Barry Bonds of the Giants hit 73.

In an attempt to again give a more accurate feel of the time here are some quotes from people who were there.

"Who is this 'Baby Ruth?' And what does she do?" - George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, critic and polemicist, which basically means one who likes to argue and proceeds to make little sense.

On Babe Ruth: "He was a parade all by himself; a burst of dazzle and jingle; Santa Claus drinking his whiskey straight and groaning with a bellyache. Babe Ruth made the music that his joyous years danced to in a continuous party. What Babe Ruth is comes down one generation, handing it to the next, as a national heirloom." - Jimmy Cannon, sports journalist

"It is impossible to watch him at bat without experiencing an emotion. I've seen hundreds of ballplayers at the plate, and none of them managed to convey the message of impending doom to the pitching that Babe Ruth did with the cock of his head, the position of his legs, and the little gentle waving of the bat feathered in his two big paws." - New York Daily News, newspaper

"I saw it all happen, from beginning to end. But sometimes I still can't believe what I saw. This nineteen-year-old kid, crude, poorly educated, only slightly brushed by the social veneer we call civilization, gradually transformed into the idol of American youth and the symbol of baseball the world over; a man loved by more people and with an intensity of feeling that perhaps has never been equaled before or since. I saw a man transform from a human being into something pretty close to a god. If somebody had predicted that back on the Boston Red Sox in 1914, he woulda been thrown into a lunatic asylum." - Harry Hooper, right fielder for Red and White Sox

"Babe Ruth joined us in the middle of 1914, a nineteen-year-old kid. He was a left-handed pitcher and a good one. He had never been anywhere, didn't know anything about manners or how to behave among people. Just a big, overgrown green pea. [...] Lord, he ate too much. He'd stop along the road when we were traveling and order half a dozen hot dogs and as many bottles of soda pop, stuff them in one after another, give a few belches and then roar, 'Okay, boys, let's go!'" - Harry Hooper, right fielder for Red and White Sox

"Off the field he was bigger, louder, more excitable than his teammates. He used other people's toothbrushes, ran the elevator up and down, and got married to Helen Woodford, a sixteen-year-old coffee shop waitress he met on his very first day in Boston. Everybody called him Baby, then just the Babe." - Rogers Hornsby, second baseman

"Somebody asked me if my club was for sale. What a ridiculous question! Of course it is for sale! So is my hat and my overcoat and my watch. Anyone who wants them can have them, at a price. I will dispose of my holdings in the Red Sox at any time, for my price." - H. Harrison Frazee, Red Sox owner

"Harry Frazee became the owner of the Red Sox and then before long he sold off all our best players and ruined the team. Sold them all to the Yankees. Ernie Shore, Duffy Lewis, Dutch Leonard, Carl Mays, Babe Ruth. I was disgusted. The Yankee dynasty of the Twenties was three-quarters the Red Sox of a few years before. Frazee was short of cash and he sold the whole team down the river to keep his dirty nose above the water. What a way to end a wonderful ball club." - Harry Hooper, right fielder for Red and White Sox

"It matters not what branch of mankind the player sprang from with the fan, if he can deliver the goods. The Mick, the Sheeney, the Wop, the Dutch and the Chink, the Cuban, the Indian, the Jap or the so-called Anglo-Saxon — his "nationality" is never a matter of moment if he can pitch or hit or field. In organized baseball there has been no distinction raised except tacit understanding that a player of Ethiopian descent is ineligible, the wisdom of which we will not discuss except to say that by such a rule some of the greatest players the game has ever known have been denied their opportunity." - The Sporting News, magazine, 1923

"It is my object to provide the North's growing black population with professional baseball of their own, to do something concrete for the loyalty of the race, and to eventually challenge the major leagues." - Rube Foster, owner-manager, Negro National League, 1920

"...a very successful operation, actually. Probably the third biggest black business in the world." - Buck O'Neil, first baseman

"When the big games shall have become history there will stalk across the pages of the record a massive figure, and its name will be Andrew Foster. The master of the show, who moves the figures on his checkerboard at will. The smooth-toned counselor of infinite wisdom and sober thought. Cold in refusals, warm in assents. Known to everybody, knows everybody. That's Rube." - The Pittsburgh Courier, newspaper

"If you play the best clubs in the land; white clubs, as you say; it will be a case of Greek meeting Greek. I fear nobody." - Rube Foster, owner-manager, Negro National League

"We'd play a whole game with one ball if it stayed in the park. Lopsided and black and full of tobacco juice and licorice stains. Pitchers used to have it all their way then; spitballs and emory balls and whatnot. Until 1921 they had a dead ball. The only way you could get a home run is if the outfielder tripped and fell down. The ball wasn't wrapped tight and lots of times it'd get mashed on one side, come bouncing out there like a Mexican jumping bean. They wouldn't throw it out of the game, though. Only used three or four balls in a whole game. Now they use sixty or seventy." - Sam Crawford, outfielder

"On August 16, 1920; Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman was struck in the temple by a high, inside pitch thrown by the Yankees' Carl Mays. He died the next day; big league baseball's first fatality. Thereafter, as soon as a ball got dirty, the umpire had orders to substitute a spotless white new one, and the ball itself had been made livelier by winding more tightly the yarn within it. Overnight the balance shifted from the pitcher's mound to the batter's box. The era of the home run hitter was about to begin." - Anonymous

"Babe Ruth revolutionized baseball. He changed it. Judge Landis came in and gave baseball its integrity. Ruth began hitting home runs and gave baseball its excitement. They changed everything from the ball itself, the construction of the bats, the philosophy of hitting, the philosophy of pitching .... Babe Ruth changed it. We don't realize it today, but the game of baseball has never been the same since Babe Ruth began to hit home runs." - Red Barber, sports announcer and commentator

"I got a letter the other day asking why I didn't write about baseball no more, as I used to write about nothing else, you might say. Well, friends, I may as well admit that I have kind of lost interest in the old game. A couple of years ago a ballplayer named Babe Ruth, that was a pitcher by birth, was made into an outfielder on account of how he could bust them, and the masterminds that control baseball says to themselves that, if it is home runs that the public wants to see, why, leave us give them home runs!" - Ring Lardner, sports columnist and short story writer

"Starting the Cardinal farm system was no sudden stroke of genius. It was a case of necessity being the mother of invention. We lived a precarious existence. Other clubs would outbid us. They had the money and the superior scouting system. We had to take the leavings or nothing at all." - Branch Rickey, baseball man, 1921

"Given the proper physical equipment, which consists solely in the strength to knock a ball forty feet farther than the average man can do it, anybody can play big league ball today. In other words, science is out the window." - Ty Cobb, center fielder

"Baseball on the radio (which started in 1921) is part of the background music of America. That's basic! In a small town in a barbershop on a Saturday there's a ballgame in the background, it goes without saying. You may be having a discussion of somebody's herd of cattle or some professor talking, where I grew up, about the exam he's going to give, and the barber telling vaguely dirty jokes, but in the background of all that is a ballgame. That's basic. Of course." - Charles McDowell, writer and columnist

"Don't tell me about Ruth. I've seen what he did to people. I've seen them! Fans driving miles in open wagons from the prairies of Oklahoma to see him in exhibition games as we headed north in the spring. I've seen kids, men, women with a dirty piece of paper or hoping for a grunt of recognition when they said Hiya, Babe. He never let them down, not once. He was the greatest crowd pleaser of them all." - Waite Hoyt, pitcher

"He lived fast and loose. He didn't live too long, but he lived while he did." - Milt Gaston, pitcher

After his pitchers held Ruth in check during the 1921 World Series; (Babe hit .313 with 1 HR in a losing effort.) "We pitched only 9 curves and 3 fastballs to Ruth during the entire series, and of those 12, 11 set him on his backside." - John McGraw, third baseman, manager

Ruth defies orders and barnstorms. He is suspended.

"Who does that big monkey think he is? In this office he's just another player." - Kenesaw Mountain Landis, commissioner

In a suit somewhat related to its 1890's predecessor and 1960's antecedent it is unanimously decided by the Supreme Court that MLB does not constitute interstate commerce under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

"The business is giving exhibitions of baseball, which are purely state affairs. It is true that, in order to attain for these exhibitions the great popularity that they have achieved, competitions must be arranged between clubs from different cities and states. But the fact that, in order to give the exhibitions, the Leagues must induce free persons to cross state lines and must arrange and pay for their doing so is not enough to change the character of the business. The transport is a mere incident, not the essential thing. That to which it is incident, the exhibition, although made for money, would not be called trade of commerce in the commonly accepted use of those words. As it is put by defendant, personal effort not related to production is not a subject of commerce. That which in its consummation is not commerce does not become commerce among the states because the transportation that we have mentioned takes place." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Supreme Court member

Babe Ruth is again suspended after having thrown dirt in an umpire's eyes, stormed into the stands to chase a heckler, and when the home crowd booed him, stood on the dugout roof shaking his fist and shouting, 'You're all yellow.' Weeks later the Babe was again suspended for using vulgar and vicious language to an umpire.

"Your conduct was reprehensible to a great degree, shocking to every American mother who permits her boy to go to a game. A man of your stamp bodes no good in the profession. It seems the period has arrived when you should allow some intelligence to creep into a mind that has plainly been warped." - Ban Johnson, Commissioner and executive

On the Babe after he hit .118 in the World Series, capping a suspension plagued year.

"Just pitch him low curves and slow stuff and he falls all over himself." - John McGraw, third baseman, manager

"This has been a tough epoch for kings, but not even those harassed crown-heads of Europe ever ran into greater grief than the once-reigning monarch of the mace fell heir to this week. He hit the ball out of the infield just three times, and during the remainder of the engagement he spent most of his afternoons tapping dinky blows to the pitcher or first. In his last 12 times at bat the once mighty Bambino from Blooeyland failed to hit the ball hard enough to dent the cuticle of a custard pie." - Grantland Rice, sportswriter

"I'll get back in shape, concentrate on the game again. I've had my last drink until next October. I'm going to my farm. I'm going to work my head off, and maybe part of my stomach, and then you watch me break that home run record." - Babe Ruth, right fielder

"Only one more thing was in demand, and Babe Ruth supplied that. The big slugger is a keen student of the dramatic, in addition to being the greatest home run hitter. He was playing a new role yesterday: not the accustomed one of a renowned slugger, but that of a penitent trying to come back after a poor season and a poor World Series. Before the game he said that he would give a year of his life if he could hit a home run in his first game in the new stadium. The Babe was on trial, and he knew it better than anyone else. The ball came in slowly, but it went out quite rapidly, and as Ruth circled the bases he received probably the greatest ovation of his career; the biggest crowd rose to its feet and let loose the biggest shout in baseball history. Ruth, jogging over the home plate, grinned broadly, lifted his cap, and waved to the multitude." - New York Times, newspaper

"Mr. Rogers Hornsby (after batting .424) is the greatest right-handed hitter in baseball. If consistency is a jewel, then Mr. Hornsby is a whole rope of pearls. He has led the National League hitters for so many years that the name of the man he succeeded is lost to the memory of the oldest inhabitant." - Joe Williams, New York World-Telegram

"Baseball is the only thing I know." - Rogers Hornsby, second baseman

"His name is in the record books more times than any other pitcher, in more different categories than any other pitcher. And he was a lovable person. In a sense the whole nation knew that Walter Johnson was doomed to play with the Washington Senators, rooted for him to get into a World Series, which he finally did." - Shirley Povich, sports commentator

On Babe Ruth's 1925 relapse and "the belly ache heard round the world. "It is doubtful that Ruth again will be the superstar he was from 1919 through 1924. Next year Ruth will be 32, and at 32 the Babe will be older than Eddie Collins, Walter Johnson and Ty Cobb at that age. Babe has lived a much more strenuous life." - Fred Lieb, sportswriter

"He (Lou Gehrig) was the most valuable player the Yankees ever had, because he was the prime source of their greatest asset: an implicit confidence in themselves." - New York World-Telegram, newspaper

Christy Mathewson died of tuberculosis at age 45. His lungs had never recovered from exposure to poison gas in World War II.

"Why should God wish to take a thoroughbred like Matty so soon, and leave some others down here that could well be spared?" - Kenesaw Mountain Landis, commissioner

On 39 year old Grover Cleveland Alexander's coming in to relieve in the seventh game of the 1926 World Series. He had won two series games for the Cardinals after having been given up on midseason by the Cubs. "I can see him yet, walking in from the left field bullpen through the gray mist. The Yankee fans recognized him right off, of course, but you didn't hear a sound from anywhere in that stadium. They just sat there and watched him walk in. And he took his time. He just came straggling along, a lean old Nebraskan, wearing a Cardinals sweater, his face wrinkled, that cap sitting on top of his head and tilted to one side. That's the way he liked to wear it." - Les Bell, third baseman

This was truly one of baseball's most memorable moments.

Hornsby, playing manager, met Ol' Pete on the mound. Alexander told him he planned to pitch Lazzeri hard and inside, Hornsby objected; saying; "You can't do that. Lazzeri is sure to hit it out of the park." Alexander was unconcerned and said; "If he swings at it he'll most likely hit it foul. Then I'm going to come outside with my breaking pitch." Hornsby backed off. "Who am I to tell you how to pitch?" - Grover Cleveland Alexander, pitcher and Rogers Hornsby, second baseman and playing manager

"My father, because baseball is dynastic, always said that his saddest moment in life was that famous 1926 last game of the World Series when a drunk and much superannuated Grover Cleveland Alexander was brought in with the bases loaded and Tony Lazzeri almost hit a home run that went foul by a couple feet and then struck out, thereby winning, ultimately, two innings later, the game for the Cardinals." - Stephen Jay Gould, essayist

On the 1927 New York Yankees, a solid candidate for the best team of all time, with the second coming of "Murderer's Row."

"When we got to the ballpark we knew we were going to win. That's all there was to it. We weren't cocky. I wouldn't call it confidence, either. We just knew. Like when you go to sleep, you know the sun is gonna come up in the morning." - George Pipgras, pitcher

"The combination of Ruth and Gehrig was not only wonderful in baseball terms, but it was aesthetically pleasing because they were so different in character. Lou Gehrig was a good man, a family man, a steady fellow. The exact opposite of Babe Ruth, who was out of control all the time. They both batted left-handed but Ruth's swing was nothing like Gehrig's swing. But think of the pitchers in those days, who had to face Babe Ruth, then Lou Gehrig!" - Roger Angell, sportswriter, et al

"The first Zachary offering was a fast one which sailed over for a called strike. The next was high. The Babe took a vicious swing at the third-pitched ball and the bat connected with a crash that was audible in all parts of the stands. While the crowd cheered and the Yankee players roared their greeting the Babe made his triumphant, almost regal tour of the paths, and when he embedded his spikes in the rubber disk to officially homer 60, hats were tossed in the air, papers were torn up and tossed liberally, and the spirit of celebration permeated the place." - New York Times, newspaper

"Sixty! Count 'em, sixty! Let's see some other sonofabitch match that!" - Babe Ruth, right fielder

On Ty Cobb's retirement at age 41.

"It will be a long time before the game develops a second Cobb, and then it will be just that: a second Cobb. You've seen the first and only." - Joe Williams, New York World-Telegram

"If ever there were a source for rueful memories, at least for me, it's baseball. A World Series game I could have seen and missed, and it was a memorable one. Nineteen twenty-nine. My friend Jimmy O'Hare says, Let's go, it's the Cubs playing against the Athletics. The Athletics have Lefty Grove, that fireball pitcher; was gonna face Hornsby and Tyler and Stevenson, and Charlie Grimm, Gabby Hartnett — the sluggers! Speedball against the sluggers. Connie Mack puts in a guy he didn't use all season, an old guy named Howard Ehmke, with a ball that's slower than slow. Howard Ehmke strikes out 13 Cubs; they broke their backs swinging at his slowball. I missed that game; Jimmy saw it. A rueful memory of loss." - Studs Terkel, author, historian

### #5- A Wave of Big Bashers - The Thirties

Babe Ruth has been previously discussed, so I won't add too much about him here; other than to reiterate that he was still there after having had revolutionized and possibly saved the game, as no one could or did in any sport. He was still potent in the early part of the decade, and as his onetime thought unbreakable records are broken, the numbers really don't matter, as no one has nor ever will approach his stature. At his baseball end he near carried the country through the worst, initial part of the Depression shock; and then his advanced age, exacerbated by his wild lifestyle inevitably set in.

Once the Babe had single handedly converted the game from one of speed to one of power, he got quite a few imitators. No longer could a fast center fielder play ten feet behind second base and in effect be a fifth infielder. These guys were smacking it.

And of huge significance to everyone, the stock market crashed in 1929, leading to the protracted first Depression. The shoeshine boys who had become millionaires in the Twenties were again paying more attention to feet and what was on them. Though not yet officially measured, it is now thought that the currently estimated unemployment rates fluctuated between 15 and 25 percent. "Don't buy it today. It'll be cheaper tomorrow" became an orthodox saying, and the nation languished.

Entertaining the kids at the knotholes, the guys with the dough, and the ones in the bleachers, there were more and bigger guys waving bats menacingly. Standardized adjustments became the order of the day. Fielders moved back. Pitchers on teams not yet blessed with big sticks struggled to find a way to not lose the game on one swing of the bat. A previously decent ERA of 3.08 was now sufficient to lead the league. Most important to the owners and their hierarchy, fans flocked to the stadiums more than they ever did before, even though many of them got in by climbing fences or by gazing through the knotholes in the pine. What's a kid to do? Dream of the day they'll become a well-paid star.

While I was very impressed with the long ball artists, I couldn't help wondering why it took so long for the inevitable Ruth clones to show up and why they didn't put up numbers even reminiscent of Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx.

Well, the answer is kind of simple. They didn't have the abilities of Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx. Hack Wilson took a run at Ruth's record of 60 home runs in 1930 and ended with 56. After that he played four more years, through age 34, hitting one more, a total of 57 home runs, than he did in that fabulous record setting RBI year of 1930. Fans would have to wait until 1938 before another basher named Hank Greenburg came close with 58. The pitchers learned how to pitch more carefully to Hack, and coupled with his irreverent approach to the game, Hack faded. That is almost too simple to say. Hack Wilson's story deserves much more space than this book's intent allows.

What did happen in the thirties was that many hitters were hitting 20-40 home runs per season, and simultaneously registering more extra base hits and higher slugging averages.

Mel Ott, Babe Herman, Mickey Cochrane, Al Simmons, Joe Medwick, and Pepper Martin became memorable and great, but still secondary stars, as long as the Babe was in mind.

"Great is baseball. The national tonic, the reviver of hope, the restorer of confidence." - The Sporting News, magazine, 1931

"It was an even bet that Babe (Herman) would either catch it (the fly ball) or get killed by it. His general practice was to run up when the ball was hit, and then turn and run back, and then circle about uncertainly. All this time the ball was descending, the spectators were petrified with fear, and Mr. Herman was chewing gum, unconcerned. At the proper moment he stuck out his glove. If he found the ball there he was greatly surprised and very happy." - Collier's Magazine

"You couldn't hit him (Dazzy Vance) on a Monday. He cut the sleeve of his undershirt to the elbow, and on that part of it he'd use lye to make it white, and the rest he didn't care how dirty it was. Then he'd pitch overhand out of the apartment houses in the background of Ebbets Field; between the bleached sleeve of his undershirt waving and the Monday wash hanging out to dry; the diapers and undies and sheets flapping on the clothesline; you lost the ball entirely. He threw balls by me I never even saw." - Rube Bressler- pitcher, outfielder and first baseman

"I saw so many great pitchers, and maybe it's because of an early impression, but of all the pitchers I saw; thinking in terms of their control of themselves spiritually, as well as their ability to throw the ball, to manipulate the pitch; I would say... Let's put it this way; if I had a ball game to be pitched and my life hung on the balance, I'd want Carl Hubbell to pitch it." - Red Barber, sports announcer and commentator

"I came to feel that if I, as a Jew, hit a home run, I was hitting one against Hitler." - Hank Greenberg, first baseman, outfielder

"After 30 years of continuous services (1932), John Joseph McGraw has resigned as manager of the Giants. At the age of 59 Mr. McGraw steps down because of ailing health, with his Giants in last place. Mr. McGraw was a product of the old school of baseball, when fistfights were common, when red liquor was sold at all the parks, when only ladies of questionable social standing attended the game. To the end he was faithful to his truculent creed. The last official act he performed as manager of the Giants was to file a protest with the league against Bill Klem, the umpire." - Joe Williams, New York World-Telegram

1932 World Series; Babe Ruth's called shot.

"One of the things about baseball is the imagination of people, and something remarkable happens. I was there! In their imaginations. When Babe Ruth allegedly pointed to right field bleachers before hitting his home run there against the Cubs, in that World Series; I've had at least, maybe a hundred people tell me, I was there! If everybody who said they were there really were there, Cubs park would seat a half million people." - Studs Terkel, author, historian

"If he had (pointed to center field), I'd have put one in his ear and knocked him on his ass." - Charlie Root, pitcher

"What do you think of the nerve of that big monkey? Calling his shot and getting away with it?" - Lou Gehrig, first baseman

"It's in the papers, isn't it? Why don't you read the papers?" - Babe Ruth, right fielder

"Anything new has to establish itself and gain its own credentials. When radio came along some of the entrenched conservative owners said, Wait, wait a minute. Why give away something that you're trying to sell for your living, to try to keep your enterprise afloat? And especially on days of threatening weather, when people will say, Well, it looks like it may rain, I'll just listen to the radio and I won't go. They did not realize at that time that it would be creating new fans, that it would be making families of fans. Before radio, by and large, the people who came into a ballpark were men. Once radio came along and came into the homes women began to understand the game. They didn't have to have somebody explain it to them; the play-by-play broadcaster was doing it. And attendance visibly went up when you had families coming instead of single members of the family. And that's the beginning of the impact of radio. Radio made new fans." \- Red Barber, sports announcer and commentator

On the St. Louis Cardinals A/K/A Gashouse Gang. "They don't look like a major league ball club, or as major league ball clubs are supposed to look in this era of the well-dressed athlete. Their uniforms are stained and dirty and patched and ill-fitting. They don't shave before a game and most of them chew tobacco. They spit out of the sides of their mouths and then wipe the backs of their hands across their shirt fronts. They're not afraid of anybody." - Frank Graham, New York Sun

"I was in the top ten percent of my class in law school. I'm a doctor of jurisprudence. I'm an honorary doctor of laws. And I like to believe I'm an intelligent man. Then will you please tell me why in the name of common sense I spent four mortal hours today conversing with a person named Dizzy Dean?" - Branch Rickey, baseball executive

On the 1934 World Series. "This American League is a pushover. I think if they pitched me the whole four days I'd win all of them." - Dizzy Dean, pitcher

"The Babe's big bulk today blotted out such unimportant things as international squabbles over oil and navies." - New York Times, newspaper

"We like to believe that countries having a common interest in a great sport would rather fight it out on the diamond than on the battlefield." - Sporting News, magazine

"But how could you manage a team when you can't even manage yourself?" - Jacob Ruppert, Yankee owner, to Babe Ruth

"From then on, until the day he died, he sat by the telephone waiting for a call to manage that never came." - Claire Ruth, Babe's wife

"My father and mother brought me up. I knew where the stakes were set, and I concentrated on my game. I was very conscientious; good night's sleep, good nutrition. I practiced hard, worked hard, I did, as a kid on the farm, and my baseball career was number one. So I just didn't exactly, say, fall off the turnip truck." - Bob Feller, pitcher

"We went to the World Series in 1934 in St. Louis and saw the Gashouse Gang. And I thought right then and there that; I was only 15; that major league baseball wasn't that far away. And, not being cocky, I had a lot of confidence. My father gave me a lot of confidence. I never was afraid of a batter on the mound. They may hit me, hit me well, but I was never afraid of them." - Bob Feller, pitcher

"Baseball stories are so various, and they swap characters in 'em, but the way I heard it, Lefty Gomez, himself a pitcher, faced an 18-year-old Bobby Feller. The first one came over and the umpire called a strike, and the second one came over, called a strike, and the third one came over and the umpire called a strike and Gomez said; 'I thought that last one sounded a little low.'" - Shelby Foote, historian

"I keep in shape during the off-season by cracking niggers over the head while serving as a policeman back home in Ohio." \- Jake Powell, outfielder

"The older newspaper men sit in the chicken coop press boxes around the circuit and watch Lou Gehrig go through the laborious movements of playing first base, and wonder if they're seeing one of the institutions of the American League crumble before their eyes. They watch him at the bat and note he isn't hitting the ball well. They watch him round the bag and it's plain he isn't getting the balls he used to get. They watch him run and they fancy they can hear his bones creak and his lungs wheeze as he lumbers around the bases. On eyewitness testimony alone the verdict must be that of a battle-scarred veteran falling apart." - Joe Williams, New York World-Telegram

"To whom it may concern: This is to certify that Mr. Lou Gehrig has been under examination at the Mayo Clinic from June 13 to June 19, 1939. After a careful and complete examination it was found that he is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This type of illness involves the motor pathways and cells of the central nervous system. The nature of this trouble makes it such that Mr. Gehrig will be unable to continue his active participation as a baseball player." - Dr. Harold H Habian

"The road may come to an end here. Seems like our backs are to the wall. But there usually comes a way out. Where and what I know not. But who can tell that it might lead right on to greater things?" - Lou Gehrig, writing to his wife

"It is our belief that baseball is loved by an entire nation, that it is the very backbone of America itself." \- Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis

"For the past two weeks you've been reading about a bad break. Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. That I might've been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you." - Lou Gehrig, first baseman

#6- The Negro Leagues

In conjunction with Major League Baseball's hopes and travails of the 1930's, it should be noted that this was also when the Negro Leagues came into prominence. Still young, the two best known stars met in 1932, both members of the Homestead Grays team, pitcher and catcher, Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson.

What we sometimes refer to as the Negro Leagues was deemed to have started in 1920 and called the Negro National League. However, well prior to that in 1885 the Cuban Giants formed the first black professional baseball team. Finances precluded a long history and they were followed by other attempts similarly destined.

Baseball statisticians are still working on compiling the records. A few facts seem to have been verified, but far from all. Another complication is that the Negro leagues generally found it more profitable to schedule relatively few league games against "pro" competition, and allow the teams to earn extra money through barnstorming against semi-professional and other non-league teams. From what they have been able to determine in what seems like a half century effort, the statisticians have come up with little record of league play, while making note of the importance of distinguishing between records for all games played and records in league games, which they have not. For example, against all levels of competition Josh Gibson hit 69 home runs in 1934; the same year in league games he hit 11 home runs in 52 games. Unlike all others, with the possible exception of Satchel Paige, his records have been scrutinized because of his gigantic stature.

It might be interesting for the fan of today to be aware, that unlike today, many areas of the country had their own quite competent leagues, and sometimes they would host a game with Negro League contingents, and the record compilers find an apparent difficulty in differentiating opponents' abilities. This is further discussed in the next chapter titled "Barnstorming." Complicating any comparisons one more step some non-league games were played against barnstorming teams from Major League Baseball; such as the Babe Ruth All-Stars. It doesn't seem likely that we'll ever be able to measure the players with any degree of exactitude. But, in and of itself, that is probably no more relevant than the inability to measure the "official" professionals from one era to another; though in the case of Negro League players, even a reasonable approximation is severely hindered, if not precluded.

What is available and of most unsatisfactory, practical importance is that the world now has a general idea of who the black stars were and what they did. Negro League baseball was in its heyday during the Depression. While there was likely no financial surge, things are relative; and in the thirties, the Negro League players were better off than many Americans. On the field Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson were in their primes and doing some wonderful things that would not be "officially" noticed for 30 more years. Organized white baseball suffered in the midst of the Depression, while black baseball flourished. Successful black entertainers sponsored their own teams. Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson made investments. Black communities all over the country took pride in their teams and that may have helped local finances. Pioneer Rube Foster's old dream of a separate but athletically equal league finally came true.

Hear their own words.

"We were worked like the mule that plows the fields all week and then drives the carriage to church on Sunday." - Satchel Paige, pitcher

I would like to note that Satch was often photographed in fine duds with a very expensive car and that he regularly had a private plane to take him to the next town.

"Back in those days we rode all night in the buses. Sometimes we played four games in one day. Nobody ever heard of that before. We'd play nine forty-five in the morning, one o'clock a double header, then go fifty, sixty miles at night and play a game. And traveling all night in those buses. That's the thing: I traveled in those buses 31 years, was turned over four times and you know what? Somebody upstairs liked me 'cause I never got a scratch." - Double Duty Radcliffe, pitcher and catcher

"We played in a rough league. When I say a rough league... I notice nowadays every time a youngster get a sprain; 15 days on the disabled list; and all this. Uhh, we didn't go on the disabled list. Unless we were broken and in a wheelchair and on two crutches. If we get hurt, we played. We don't have no relief pitcher. You go out there, you go for nine. That's it. You were paid for nine and that's the way they wanted you to pitch. Nine innings." - Riley Stewart, likely a pitcher (Due to the inadequacies of Negro League records this is unclear.)

"Spitballs, shine balls, emory balls... I never knew what the ball would do once it left the pitcher's hand." - Roy Campanella, catcher

"Some pitchers used a bottle cap hidden in their gloves to scuff up the ball to make it break more sharply. As a result, Negro league batters learned how to hit everything. For years major leagues had scorned the bunt, but black players turned it into an art." - Roy Campanella, catcher

"They had a sizable following, especially among their fellow blacks, but also some white people who used to turn out to watch them. They were always sort of scrappy affairs. Seldom had a grandstand or anything else. And they were not often offered the use of the stadium, you see, so they had to play in all kinds of sandlot situations. I really don't see how they played baseball traveling the way they did in those ramshackle buses without any sleep and bone-jarring trips over those bad roads." - Shelby Foote, historian

"It's a trade-off. I think that the Negro leagues were a wonderful institution in American life, but they had the stigma of reminding black people that they were separated from and not a part of American life. That was a problem with all segregated institutions that we had; they were important in enriching the black community's life on one level, but they were stigmatized in telling us that we could not be a part of everything else that was going on. So you're talking about a very limited kind of life, on the whole." - Gerald Early, essayist, culture critic and college professor

"How to stay young: 1) Avoid fried meats, which angry up the blood. 2) If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts. 3) Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move. 4) Go very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society. A social ramble ain't restful. 5) Avoid running at all times. 6) Don't look back — something might be gaining on you." - Satchel Paige, pitcher

"Satchel Paige had a good arm. A strong arm with no muscles. Like a slingshot." - Connie Johnson, pitcher

"I never got a sore arm because I had no muscles to get sore." - Satchel Paige, pitcher

"On the mound, Satchel Paige threw fire. He had a whole arsenal of distinctive pitches: his Bee Ball, Jump Ball, Trouble Ball, Long Tom, Hesitation Pitch... Number one, that's a fastball, he'd call that his Midnight Rider. The changeup, he'd call that Four-Day Creeper." - Sammie Haynes, catcher

"People only saw the major leaguers in the big cities. I believe people got a chance to see me everywhere. I played all over. Farm fields, penitentiaries. Anyplace in this whole country where there was a baseball diamond, they know me, and see me." - Satchel Paige, pitcher

"We were the attraction. In our baseball the Kansas City Monarchs were like the New York Yankees in major league baseball. Very tops, very tops. We had the stars, and so to make a living we showed it to the world." - Buck O'Neil, first baseman

"There is a catcher that any big league club would like to buy for $200,000. His name is Gibson. He can do everything. He hits the ball a mile. He catches so easy he might as well be in a rocking chair. Throws like a rifle. Too bad this Gibson is a colored fellow." - Walter Johnson, pitcher

"Cool Papa (Bell) could snap off the light, get into bed and pull the covers up before the room was dark." - Satchel Paige, pitcher

"Not only do I get more money playing here, but I live like a king. I've found freedom and democracy here, something I never found in the United States. Here in Mexico, I am a man." - Willie Wells, shortstop

"Black and white in Cuba suffered that the blacks could not play in the big leagues, because we had many Cuban stars who were black. And we said, what a waste. It was the feeling, what a waste. And when the black athletes came to play in Cuba they were lionized. They were heroes, and they felt very comfortable in Cuba." - Manuel Marquez-Sterling, Cuban politico

"By the seventh inning we were a run behind, and you could see Trujillo lining up his army. It began to look like a firing squad. In the last of the seventh we scored two runs. You never saw old Satch throw harder than that. I shut them out that last two innings and we won. I hustled back to our hotel and the next morning we blowed out of there in a hurry. We never did see Trujillo again, and I ain't sorry." - Satchel Paige, pitcher

"Satchel Paige always thought he was the greatest pitcher in the world, and Josh Gibson thought he was the greatest hitter in the world and we did too. And Satchel and Josh in this World Series ballgame. Satchel's pitching, and we got a ballgame won — the Kansas City Monarchs. With two out in the ninth inning, the first-place hitter, he tripled off Satchel. We got two outs, so that didn't bother us at all. So, Satchel called me, said, Hey, Nancy, come here. I said, What do you want, Satchel? He said, Let me tell you what I'm fixing to do. I said, What are you fixing to do? He said, I'm going to walk Howard Easterling, I'm going to walk Buck Leonard, I'm going to pitch to Josh Gibson. I said, Man, don't be facetious. He said, That's what I'm going to do. I said, Time! I called the ump, I called the manager, who was Frank Duncan — great ballplayer himself — I said, Frank, you got to listen to what Satchel said. And so Satchel told him what was going to happen. And so, in walking Easterling and walking Buck Leonard to fill the bases — now, when he was walking Buck, Josh was in the circle, you know, and he's talking to Josh all the time, said, Josh, do you remember the day when we were playing on the same team and I told you that one day we were gonna meet and see who was the best? He said, Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Satchel said, All right, said, Now is the time to prove this thing. So when Josh comes up to the bat — listen, let me tell you what this man did. He said, Time! He called the trainer. Our trainer was Jew-Baby Floyd — and I don't know why they called him Jew-Baby, 'cause he was black as me — but anyway, when Jew-Baby comes out with his, you know, like the smock that the doctor would wear, and he's got a concoction in a glass. He's got a glass, he's got some water, and he puts this — I guess Alka-Seltzer or something — he pours this in that water and it fizzes and Satchel drinks it down. He lets out a belch — I can hear it, but nobody else heard it. And so, he said, Now I'm ready. So, the fans, now they know what's happening now, everybody — we got to have 40,000 people — they're standing, and here comes Satchel. Satchel said, You know, Josh, I'm going to throw you some fastballs. I'm going to throw you a fastball belt-high. Boom! Strike one. Josh didn't move the bat. He said, Now, I'm going to throw you another fastball, but this is going to be faster than the other fastball. Boom! Strike two. He said, Now, Josh, I've got you two strikes and no balls. You know, in this situation I'm supposed to knock you down, you know, brush you back, he said, but, uh-uh, I'm not gonna throw any smoke at your yoke, I'm gonna throw a pea at your knee. Boom! Strike three. And when he struck him out — you know, Satchel must be 6' 5" — Satchel stretched out, looked like he was 7 feet tall, and he walked off the field and walked by me and said, You know what, Nancy? Nobody hits Satchel. That was the end of that story." - Buck O'Neil, first baseman

"This week the 100th anniversary of our; pardon us; national pastime is being celebrated. During this century of diamond-doings, however, Negro baseballers, in spite of their undoubted ability to bat, run, pitch, snare gargantuan flies, cavort around shortstop and the keystone sack and think baseball, haven't reached first base insofar as getting into the big leagues is concerned." - Amsterdam News, newspaper

"Every known nationality, including Indians, Cubans, Filipinos, Jews, Italians, Greeks; with the lone exception of the American black man; have played in both the National and American Leagues. The white sporting public wants to see a good ball game. They do not raise the question of the nationality of a player who can knock a home run or can pitch a good game. There was no Hitler movement created in America when John McGraw of the New York Giants put Andy Cohen, a Jew, on second base. It was up to Cohen to make good or go. What is the matter with baseball? The answer is: plain prejudice, that's all." - Chicago Defender, newspaper

Below is a listing and a few words about the greatest players of the Negro Leagues. This is a tad in excess of this book's subsequent treatment of MLB stars of their eras, simply because, despite a few earlier attempts, the "successful" Negro Leagues covered three decades from 1920-1951, and other than a handful, there is still so little known of its great stars.

Leroy "Satchel" Paige requires little introduction. He was a great showman and possibly the best pitcher who ever lived. Some say that he won 2,000 games. Much of this, as is all of Negro League statistics, is questioned as many games have no record and some were not played against professional level competition. Suffice to say that in 1948, when Satch was listed at being 41 years of age; a number many consider to be under-stated, he was finally allowed to pitch in white MLB. He proceeded to put up a 2.48 ERA; when 2.43 was the best in the league. In 1952, at a baseball absurd age of listed 45, he was 17th in MVP voting.

Josh Gibson never got to white MLB. In early 1943, he fell into a coma and it was determined that he had a brain tumor. He refused surgery and lived the next four years with recurring headaches. He died of a stroke in Pittsburgh in 1947 at age 35 just three months before Jackie Robinson broke the color lines. It is estimated that he hit 800 lifetime home runs, including 70 in one season, to complement an undisputed career .359 batting average. In some circles he was called "The Black Babe Ruth." In others, Ruth was called "The White Josh Gibson."

James "Cool Papa" Bell was called the fastest man to ever play the game. Stories abound about his base stealing abilities, and how pitchers tried their best to strike him out, as if he hit the ball anywhere he would likely get to first base before the ball did.. He batted .337 lifetime.

Oscar Charleston was an intense, focused, and a markedly intelligent man. He was both a power and contact hitter and one of the finest defensive center fielders of all-time. His career batting average was .353. He regularly finished among league leaders in both home runs and stolen bases. He was also known for his combative nature, getting into many brawls, including at least one memorable fight with a band of Cuban soldiers, drawing some analogies to Ty Cobb.

John Henry "Pop" Lloyd was a shortstop and manager. He is generally considered the greatest shortstop in Negro league history, and Babe Ruth reportedly believed Lloyd to be the greatest baseball player ever. He was a heavy hitter, but also knew how to play "inside baseball." Known for his gentlemanly conduct, Lloyd batted .343.

Walter "Buck" Leonard batted .320 and spent the best part of his career batting fourth behind Josh Gibson. At age 40 he led the Negro leagues in batting average in 1948 with a mark of .395. He usually either led the league in home runs or finished second to teammate Gibson. Since Gibson was known as the "Black Babe Ruth" and Leonard was a first baseman, Buck Leonard was called the "Black Lou Gehrig." Together, the pair was known as the "Thunder Twins" or "Dynamite Twins".

Andrew (Rube) Foster (1879–1930) was a pioneer of early black baseball. Though his playing days were too early for any records to be yet found, it is said that he was the best black pitcher of the first decade of the 1900's. He managed and perhaps most notably, he organized the Negro National League, the first long-lasting professional league for black players, in existence from 1920 to 1931.

Willie (The Devil) Wells was a rarity; the flawless shortstop. In 1926 he hit 27 home runs, a Negro League single-season record. He played in Mexico in 1940 and 1941, where he said that for the first time he experienced democracy, acceptance, and freedom. Wells was a fast baserunner who hit for both power and average. He was at his finest with his glove, committing almost no errors and having the speed to run down anything that came in his direction. It is also said that taught Jackie Robinson how to turn a double play. .319 lifetime with 100 dingers.

Norman "Turkey" Stearnes batted over .400 three times and led the Negro leagues in home runs seven times. He is credited with 176 home runs in his Negro league career, the all-time Negro league record. Since Negro league seasons were very short, sometimes lasting fewer than 30 games, it is unclear how many more home runs Stearnes might have hit in a 154 game MLB season; though the number is obviously substantial. He ended at .344 with 176 homers in the official Negro Leagues.

Martin Dihigo's career record in twelve seasons in the Negro leagues was a .307 average and .511 slugging percentage. As a pitcher, he went 26–19 with a 2.92 ERA, with 176 strikeouts and 80 walks in 354 innings. He played all nine positions and Al Campanis called him the greatest to play the game, Clemente second.

William (Judy) Johnson is still somewhat in the shadows. In addition to his late placement in baseball's Hall of Fame, there seem to be few specifics available concerning his performance. It is said that Johnson was a good fielder, and he was considered one of the greatest third basemen of the Negro Leagues. Curiously, BaseballReference.com lists him, but leaves 98% of the numbers blank. ?????????

Leon Day is another case of lack of information. He is noted for pitching a perfect season in 1937 of 13-0, and for his fastball. Day was also a good hitter, batting .320 in 1937. From 1935 through 1946 he appeared in a record seven East-West All-Star Games, and set an all-star record by striking out 14 batters. He died six days after his election to Baseball's Hall of Fame.

Raleigh (Biz) Mackey pre-dated Josh Gibson by a bit. Mackey came to be regarded as black baseball's premier catcher in the late 1920's and early 1930's. His impeccable defense and rifle throwing arm were complemented by a batting skill which ended up at .322 for his career.

William (Willie) Foster was an enigma in retrospect, and the probable subject of a book devoted entirely to him. For the purposes of this one, suffice to say that in aggregate he ended his career with an outstanding 2.40 ERA. Add to that the fact that in 1926, he won 23 games in a row during the regular season; then went on to star in the Negro League playoffs. Needing to win both games of a doubleheader, Foster hurled complete game shutouts in both games of a doubleheader against Bullet Joe Rogan. In 1931 he threw his fastball past a major league all-star team composed of such legendary men as Babe Herman, and both of the Hall of Fame Waner brothers, Lloyd and Paul.

Monte Irvin transversed both leagues. After an established, successful term in the Negro Leagues, he followed Jackie Robinson to MLB and continued his stellar performance there. Some of his Negro League stats, both in terms of batting average and power, were off the charts. His MLB performance was hindered by contractual disputes, yet still placed him among league leaders, sometimes an MVP candidate.

Cristobal Torriente played in Cuba as well as the Negro Leagues. Cuba considers him their greatest. Torriente played on the great Chicago American Giants teams of 1918–1925. He led the American Giants to Negro National League pennants from 1920 to 1922 while batting .411, .338, and .342. He won the batting title in 1920 and again in 1923 with a .412 average. He retired from the Negro leagues with a career .331 batting average.

"Cannonball" Dick Redding's early appearance in the game apparently precludes statistics, no matter the degree of doubt about them. It is said that against all levels of competition he threw seven no-hitters in one year and approximately thirty in his career. Basically, he relied solely on his fastball. In 1914 he was 12-3 against official competition and 31-9 in barnstorming. He has not yet been put in Baseball's Hall of Fame.

Louis Santop is another of those who played so early that records are not fully available or believable. Some estimate that he was a .406 lifetime hitter. In 1911 he hit an astonishing .470 and then, three years later, hit .455 for the Lincoln Stars. The 6'4", 240 pound giant was noted for his outlandishness and his confidence while playing. He was reported to have called home runs while in the batter's box. In a 1912 game, he was credited with a tape-measure 500 foot bomb; a remarkable feat in the "Deadball" era.

Cumberland (Cum) Posey Jr. did not become a baseball great in the usual manner. He was born into the Negro elite, and the family lived in a palatial Italianate mansion. In that seemingly inescapable cauldron of race discrimination, he began to excel as a young athlete. In football, Cumberland Jr. was a star player and manager for semi-pro sandlot teams in the Pittsburgh area prior to 1910. He was also the best African American basketball player of his time, playing from the early 1900's through the mid-1920's. During the mid-1910's, Posey formed, operated, and played for the Loendi Big Five, which became the most dominant basketball team of the Black Fives Era through the mid-1920s, winning four straight Colored Basketball World Championship titles. In baseball, Posey played with the Homestead Grays in 1911, was manager by 1916, and became owner in the early 1920's. In a quarter-century running the team, he built it into one of the powerhouse franchises of black baseball, winning numerous pennants, including nine consecutively from 1937-45. Posey was the principal owner of the Homestead Grays, spent 35 years (1911–1946) in baseball as a player, manager, owner and club official. He built a strong barnstorming circuit that made the Grays a perennially powerful and profitable team, one of the best in the East. No records of his early, on-field, baseball performances survive.

Effa Manley was an American sports executive, and the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. She co-owned the Newark Eagles baseball franchise in the Negro leagues with her husband Abe Manley from 1935 to 1946 and was sole owner through 1948 after his death. Throughout that time, she served as the team's business manager and fulfilled many of her husband's duties as treasurer of the Negro National League.

J. L. Wilkinson, a white man, was an American sports executive who founded the barnstorming All Nations baseball club in 1912, and the Negro league baseball team Kansas City Monarchs in 1920.

Ernest (Jud) Wilson was a third baseman, first baseman, and manager. One of the most powerful hitters, his batting average of .351 ranks him among the top five players. During the 1920's, Wilson also enjoyed success playing winter baseball in the Cuban League. His career batting average there was the highest in league history.

John (Buck) O'Neill was a first baseman and manager, batting .288; five times over .300. He later worked as a scout, and became the first African American coach in Major League Baseball. He also became a popular and renowned speaker and interview subject, helping to renew widespread interest in the Negro leagues, and played a major role in establishing the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.

Hilton Smith was pitcher who often alongside Satchel Paige for the Kansas City Monarchs between 1932 and 1948. His league record was 71-31, with an unbelievable 1.68 ERA.

Dick Lundy was a shortstop for numerous teams. In 1921 his batting average was reportedly .484. Lundy became the player-manager of the Bacharach Giants from 1925 through 1928, leading the team to two Eastern Colored League pennants. His lifetime average was .305. He is not in the Hall of Fame.

William Augustus (Gus) Greenlee parlayed the purchase of the Collins Inn in 1924 into becoming one of the most influential black business owners in Pittsburgh, making his reputation as a numbers runner and racketeer, as well as the owner of the Crawford Grill nightclub and the Pittsburgh Crawfords baseball team. Despite the rough figure suggested by terms such as "racketeer," Greenlee was known as a philanthropist who helped fellow blacks with scholarships for schooling and with grants to buy homes. Such opportunities were otherwise impossible to come by through white-controlled financial institutions.

Larry Doby in 1940 at 17 years of age began professionally playing baseball with the Newark Eagles. After a WWII stint in the Navy he returned to baseball in 1946, and along with teammate Monte Irvin, helped the Eagles win the Negro League World Series. In July 1947, Doby joined Jackie Robinson in breaking the MLB racial ban. He became the first black player in the American League. Doby was a seven-time All-Star and with teammate Satchel Paige were the first black players to win a World Series championship with the Indians in 1948. In MLB he batted .283 with 253 home runs.

Ted (Double Duty) Radcliffe was one of the few pros to both pitch and catch. Negro League records have minimal information about him. One estimate is that he compiled a .303 batting average, 4,000 hits and 400 homers in 36 years in the game.

Ben Taylor started as a pitcher in 1908, but migrated to first base. In partnership with a brother, he managed and owned, the Indianapolis ABCs. He starred in 1916's championship series, going 11 for 18 and stealing three bases in five games. He batted over .300 in 15 of his first 16 seasons, and was considered an excellent fielder. His contemporaries voted him the second best first baseman to play in the Negro Leagues.

Jose Mendez established most of his glory in Cuba, but ended his career in the Negro Leagues. He pitched 43 consecutive scoreless innings against barnstorming US MLB teams. Méndez became the star of the first Negro League World Series in 1924, winning two games including a shutout victory in the finale.

His career Cuban League record was 76–28, and he ranks first in all-time career winning percentage with .731.

Sol White played from the late 1880's to the early 1900's; the very beginnings of the Negro Leagues. It is reported that he was a consistent .300 hitter, and an organizer-manager. He is now most remembered for managing the Philadelphia Giants to four straight black baseball championships from 1904 to 1907 and having written the first book about black professional baseball; "Sol White's History of Colored Base Ball" in 1907, which was sold primarily at ballparks.

John Beckwith was primarily a third baseman, described as no more than a competent fielder; though shaky records put him among the all-time Negro League leaders in batting average, home runs, RBI and slugging percentage. He played from 1916-38 and is not a member of the Hall of Fame.

Newt Allen played from 1922-48. He was one of the fastest runners of his time, and his most remarkable season was 1929, in which he batted .330 while stealing 23 bases. Also considered a brilliant fielder, he is not in the Hall of Fame. His few known statistics include a .293 career batting average and 16 home runs in 640 games.

Sam Jethroe, "The Jet," concluded his Negro League career in 1948, having played on many winning teams, and having a .296 lifetime average. After time in the minors he entered the big leagues in 1950, and was voted "Rookie of the Year" at age 32. In a four-season major league career, he was a .261 hitter with 460 hits, 49 home runs, 280 runs, 181 RBI and 98 stolen bases in 442 games. He is not in the Hall of Fame.

Quincy Trouppe was a switch-hitting power guy in the Negro Leagues, catching from 1930-49, Cuba, Canada, and Mexico; making the all-star team for 17 of his 24 campaigns; after having been an amateur boxing champion. His extremely limited time in MLB, which aggregated ten at bats made him one of the oldest rookies at age 39. He seemed to be erratic at the plate; registering many .300+ seasons as well as some on the .200's, though it is noted that many of the seasons were well short of 162 games. He is not in the Hall of Fame.

Bruce Petway was a thin, 159 pound, catcher in the early twentieth century, who was known for his arm. He is said to have been one of the first to have thrown to second base without coming out of the squat. Petway left a career in medicine to pursue baseball, playing for a number of Negro League teams. While playing in Cuba in 1910, he reportedly threw Ty Cobb out three times, in three attempts to steal. That year he also batted .390. He is not in the Hall of Fame.

Elwood (Bingo) DeMoss is considered the finest fielding second baseman of the 1910's and 1920's Negro Leagues. He was the captain of the 1926 Negro League Champion Chicago American Giants. At the plate, he is known as a great bunter. Though there is some discrepancy with the reported statistics, he batted .247, including a high of .314. As mentioned DeMoss was a proficient bunter and hit-and-run man, making him an ideal second-place hitter. Jelly Gardner, who batted ahead of DeMoss said of his teammate, "If he thought you'd be out trying to steal, he'd foul off the pitch if he couldn't hit it well." He is not a member of the Hall of Fame.

You might have correctly inferred that these players did not play recently. If you did you were right. That's because the acceptance of blacks into the previously all white major leagues was ironically one of the factors which ended the Negro Leagues. In addition, you might have concluded that this chapter is deficient. It sadly is. The writer pleads "lack of information" in the age of information. What could be more absurd?

### #7- Barnstorming

In the context of baseball, barnstorming was the name given to professional baseball players off season attempts to make some more money by playing baseball. Unlike today, only a few made huge salaries during the regular season. Salaries were sufficiently lackluster that many players, some with impressive performances, quit the "big leagues" and went back home to play in the local leagues. Some cited a wish to not be away from home for so long as well as an ability to make more money through local endorsements.

Before television this barnstorming practice was the only way for most people living outside of the eastern based city teams' area to see the stars they read of in their newspapers. Rather than the economics, the reason it is mentioned here is that many of the small town teams were competitive with "Babe Ruth's Travelling All-Stars." It should be noted that "Babe Ruth's Travelling All-Stars," "Pepper Martin's Aces," and other barnstorming teams were not truly all-star teams. Most often they had one marquee name and filled out the roster with everyday pro players.

At the same time other teams were formed with the integral purpose of barnstorming; much like "The King and his Court" softball team of today. The Israelite House of David played competitive baseball and were barnstorming by the middle 1910's. They toured rural America through the 1950s, playing amateur and semi-pro teams in exhibition games. Perhaps anticipating the 1960's they wore long hair and beards. The money helped sustain their Michigan colony.

The salaries, if paid at all in the financially shaky Negro Leagues were low. So barnstorming tours were always scheduled between league games to provide more money; often the owners' taking the best cut. This took a few different forms, and has served to provide debates about "official" Negro League statistics. Teams played non-league games against other clubs in their Leagues, and also played professional teams, semipro teams, other barnstorming teams, local town teams, industrial league teams, and pretty much anyone else. At the height, games were played between the likes of "Satchel Paige's All-Star Team" and "Bob Feller's Major League All-Star Team." These games were often sold out.

The "off season" was not so "off" in prior times as players from different leagues also played winter ball where the climate allowed; mostly out of the continental US. It's readily apparent that though the salaries were meager by today's standards; a lot of baseball was being paid for without the benefit of a TV contract.

In those days the fact that interest in baseball was so rampant that it resulted in locally based teams able to compete with a major league one demonstrates a love for the game not existent today. If barnstorming was still going on it would be an embarrassment and no fans other than the player's families and those in need of a good laugh would attend the farce. There used to be a lot more competitive players and consequently a lot of fans interested in seeing their local best go against the guys in the headlines.

The history of MLB barnstorming is confusing. People commonly believe that Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned it in his famous altercation with Babe Ruth. He did not. He merely chose to enforce a clause which was written into every players' contract; which had previously been ignored or resulted in a slap on the wrist; much like a $100 fine of today. What follows is the radically condensed version of white MLB barnstorming and its legal ramifications.

The first formal barnstorming tour likely took place in 1860 when the Brooklyn Excelsiors played games around the state of New York. By the 1880's, postseason barnstorming became the norm.

When the first World Series was played in 1903, players found it lucrative to "re-play" the fall classic during the off season. Suddenly, without any written executive level action in 1910, this prohibiting clause appeared for the first time in every player contract.

"The party of the second part (the player) will not be permitted at any time, either during the playing season or before the commencement or after the close thereof, to participate in any exhibition baseball games, indoor baseball, basketball, or football, except that the consent of the party of the first part (the club) has first been secured in writing."

Ban Johnson, the American League president at the time, was quoted as saying, "It doesn't look good for a professional baseball player to be beaten by an amateur or a semi-professional. It discredits the league players, and if they are defeated causes remarks to be made about their inability to beat a town nine. Now an owner is not going to stop the player from earning a little extra money in a legitimate way after the season is over, but the owner has a right to protect the good name of his club. Barnstorming doesn't help baseball. Now, when the new clause is thoroughly understood, it will be a benefit to the game and the players as well."

Finally, in 1916, the "Baseball Players' Fraternity" objected, saying, "The fraternity cannot recognize the right of organized baseball to fine players for taking part in games after the season." Simultaneously not much was happening.

Still somewhat fresh off his "cleaning up" of the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis forbade Babe Ruth from barnstorming in 1921, after the Yankees had lost the World Series. The two men clashed. Ruth barnstormed and Landis suspended him until May 20, 1922; essentially the first month of the season. It is said that Ruth did get verbal permission from Yankee management, but was told to talk to Landis. Ruth took his time.

Despite all of that off season barnstorming went on, Ruth included. One of the more interesting tours was in 1946, just before Jackie Robinson's arrival in Brooklyn, when Bob Feller's All-Stars played against Satchell Paige's All-Stars. The results of the series, like so much of the history of the Negro Leagues is shrouded in mystery; with a bit of wiggle room. Bob Feller said; "I always tell Buck O'Neil that we broke even."

The tours still sporadically go on today. The old style is gone, and they now take the form of things like exhibitions in Japan. It's distinctly possible that today's pros just don't need the money or the potential hassle.

### #8- The Forties- Game Interrupted

The news that there was trouble in Europe actually started to be heard in the US in the 1930's. The official date for the start of the war was 1939, but most Americans paid it no mind. It had as much significance to those of the time as news of a war in Africa has to us today; something to keep newspaper reporters occupied. Under peace oriented Woodrow Wilson, the US had taken plenty of financial hits and human casualties the last time it had deemed it necessary to intervene overseas. We listened to Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats were told that prosperity was right around the corner. This was again "Europe's War" and we were the isolationist sleeping giant; and liked it that way.

One significant baseball player from this time is not much remembered, though he entered the Hall of Fame posthumously. Ernie Lombardi was primarily a catcher and the power of the 1939 and 1940 pennant winning Cincinnati Redlegs. His lifetime batting average of .306 is a testimony to his hitting prowess; as he never got any "leggers." He is called the slowest man to ever play Major League Baseball; and as a consequence; the infielders played him on the grass in short right and left fields. It was rumored that he could be thrown out a first base if he hit a one hopper to the right fielder, but there is no evidence of this having happened. Though listed at 230 pounds he weighed in the vicinity of 300 by the end of his career. Being a gentle giant and a legitimate star, he was extremely popular with Cincinnati fans. The Reds were truly a strange team at that time. They really didn't have any clear cut leaders with the bat or on the mound. But a number of them did well and they won in what was truly a team effort.

"Lombardi's Big Snooze" became his single most well-known play. The Reds were already down 3-0, and playing the fourth game of the 1939 World Series. In the tenth inning, with the score tied and runners on first and third, Joe DiMaggio singled. One run scored and Reds outfielder Ival Goodman misplayed the ball. Coming all the way from first base, Charlie "King Kong" Keller beat the throw to catcher Lombardi and hit the "The Schnozz" in his groin. Unfortunately, Lombardi didn't wear his protective cup that day and he was in pain and dazed. DiMaggio came all the way around and scored while the ball was just a few feet away from the dazed Lombardi. So, instead of 6-4, the final score was 7-4. But, the press jumped all over Lombardi because of this and it came to be known as "Lombardi's Big Snooze". The sensitive big man was also voted the series goat.

In 1953, while battling depression, he attempted suicide. He survived. He died in 1977 at the age of 69, and was put in the Hall of Fame in 1986 by the Veteran's Committee.

The decade of the 1940's started out where the 1930's left off. Ruth was gone, Foxx was playing out a short string, and Gehrig would be stricken early; but DiMaggio and Williams stepped to the plate, hit them out, and the Yankees were in the World Series. Midway the holocaust decimated the troops as the big stars went off to war. Encouraged by the President of the US, the intrepid game of baseball continued on to the point where it had to use players who ordinarily would have never come anywhere close to the majors.

One armed St Louis Browns outfielder Pete Gray batted .218 in 1945, his only season. While that number is not staggering, I always wondered if he would have hit .436 with two good arms. While in the minors he did put up some unbelievable statistics, batting .381 in one short season and .333 with five home runs in a long one, the year prior to his being called up to the big show.

The decade returned to some semblance of normality at the end. The stars were back and the Yankees were again in the World Series. But the saint came marchin' in and stole the entirety of the show in 1947 when Jackie Robinson integrated baseball. Not enough can be said of this man as has been demonstrated in numerous books and at least four movies. For here suffice to say that not only did he easily have Hall of Fame credentials as a baseball player; he also endured virtual daily abuse from teammates, opponents, and frankly from some of his own race. He was told that if he fought back, that would be the end of the "experiment." He didn't and made it possible for those to come later. "Wow" is all I can say.

The 1940's were already an unusual decade by baseball standards. Though the game continued through the Second World War, numerous players missed part or all of multiple seasons. Most odd, as a result of the stars being gone, the St. Louis Browns won their only pennant in 1944, but returned to form by losing the series in six games. The Browns rival the 1969 New York Mets for being the most surprising pennant winners in history. In nine out of the previous ten seasons, they had finished in the second division. However, 1944 was the peak of wartime baseball. The shortage of players dragged the talent level of the entire league down, which benefitted the Browns team in particular. The 1944 Browns were relatively untouched by the military draft as nine players on the roster were 34 years of age or older. Their otherwise codger infield included 23 year old shortstop Vern Stephens, who led the league in RBI's with 109 and was second in home runs with 20. Nels Potter pitched well, putting up some excellent numbers as he did for the Browns from 1943-45, contradicting an otherwise dismal twelve year career.

St. Louis started the 1944 season with nine straight wins and continued to hang tough in a four-team race with Detroit, Boston, and the Yankees. It came down to the final week, when the Browns defeated the Yankees five times, winning the pennant by one game over Detroit.

The aforementioned Pete Gray would join the squad next year. Continual shuffling was a norm; and the Browns traded an 89-65 first place record in 1944 for an 81-71 third place in 1945.

The chart below of 1940's World Series results speaks of the relative, pre-playoff era, degree of relative diversity, if one ignores the existence of the Mount Olympus residing New York Yankees.

Dismissing the aberrations caused by war, no matter who was on the baseball field and who was on the fields of battle, once again the Yankees won the most pennants and World Series. Names like Joe DiMaggio, Allie Reynolds, and Vic Raschi either jump out or are recognized herein, as opposed to elsewhere, as well complemented by a star studded lineup.

In the older, currently inconsequential league, the Cardinals with Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, and Mort Cooper; and the Dodgers, with a host of stars including Jackie Robinson and a virtual all-star team in Brooklyn, at decade's end took over in blowing the big game, from the Reds in the NL.

The 1940's baseball decade was a time which produced many memorable events; just like the Allies on an international scale. In 1941 Ted Williams, recorded baseball's last .400 batting average, and perhaps even of more significance, became the only power hitter other than Rogers Hornsby to hit the fours. Over 150 players from the major and the minor baseball leagues lost their lives during the conflict. Many leagues shut down operations during the War. Ted missed three prime years, from 1943-45 in the military. The details of that circumstance can get rather convoluted and can be gleaned elsewhere, but suffice to say that if Ted wanted to avoid serving, he could have. Further, years later, he served during the Korean conflict, missing another two years in which his baseball skills showed no sign of erosion. The point is, had he played these five years, even assuming a less than average Williams' performance, his lifetime numbers would be in the stratosphere; the power-average spectacle only rivalled by Ruth, Gehrig, and Bonds.

A unique league did start up in the middle of this period, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. It was founded in 1943, as women filled a professional baseball gap when so many male players went to War, just as they did in the defense plants where "Rosie the Riveter" became a national icon. Typically, not that much is known of this short-lived league. The movie made most people aware, and yet that movie is said not to be entirely accurate. It existed in some form from 1943 to 1954. Its popularity peaked in the war years and ended, as did some other baseball related norms, with the coming of television.

After the war ended in 1945, there were a couple of power plays which challenged the status of US major league baseball. Mexican League owners signed US major league players like Max Lanier, Sal Maglie and Bobby Estalella, the top Cuban players of the era and some Negro League stars to form a strong challenge to US MLB supremacy. Legal entanglements predictably surfaced. The primary result of that was that those white players who jumped contracts were legally blacklisted as they were "legal property of the US team" and barred from the possibility of return for a number of years; a hard slap for a situation in which the player could have fulfilled all the obligations of both contracts. On a market basis, the Mexican talent level and drawing power was not as high as they had seen in 1940-1941, when people like Satchell Paige, Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell were playing, and still in their glorious primes.

Despite all those distractions, relevant as they were, it can never be first forgotten that the baseball event of the decade was Branch Rickey's signing of Jackie Robinson. It was a bold un-popular move, which also was intended to better his team, which integrated baseball forever; perfectly and selflessly executed by Jackie, despite his many vocal and physical detractors. While Jackie encountered significant hostility from all sides, Robinson eventually won the stubborn support of teammates and of Commissioner Happy Chandler. For the most part of possibility, by the end of the season, the American League had also been integrated, with Larry Doby being the ground-breaker, while a number of other black players had also made their Major League debuts. The change was so rapid that by the end of the decade, the Negro Leagues were on the verge of collapse, as all of its prominent players had been signed to contracts in organized white baseball. It should be fairly noted that this time was also one which was on the cusp of the proliferation of the one-eyed monster; often referred to as TV.

Feast and famine was never more clearly defined within baseball than in the 1940s. After a few glorious years to start the decade, the major leagues had to play it lean, leaner and leanest through 1945 as America diverted all of its resources to the winning of World War II. So important the cause, baseball offered to temporarily depart, only to be encouraged by Roosevelt to keep on as best as possible. The majority of major leaguers became absent from the game, enlisted or drafted into the armed forces to aid in the war effort. In their place, ballplayers, who under normal circumstances might had been laughed out of spring training—low-level minor leagues, semi-pros, and some older men not quite up to the usual MLB standard of competition; in a few cases those hampered by physical handicaps, joined the popular, scarce supply of veterans technically unfit for service and provided the nation with a brand of baseball that was far removed from the glamour days which began the 1940's, though the wonderful fans who temporarily took their minds off war to watch them seemed to appreciate their efforts and understand. Some will forever remember them.

On a technical level, World War II stripped many of the game's greats of up to four years of their prime in baseball. If not for armed conflict, Ted Williams; arguably the best pure hitter the game has ever seen might well have finished his career with 3,200 hits and 650 home runs. Warren Spahn, already the game's most productive southpaw and perhaps the most forgotten, quite possibly would have topped 400 wins. Bob Feller, armed with a consistent 104 MPH fastball, could have easily won 300 games and struck out 3,500. Hank Greenberg might have joined the 500 home run club, while Washington's Mickey Vernon could have made it to 3,000 hits. But from the heart and to a man, every ballplayer would have considered such a relatively trivial loss of statistics as a small sacrifice when compared to helping America defeat the Axis powers.

When peace returned and the stars suited back up for baseball in 1946, the game enjoyed a fertile period lasting the rest of the decade that may have made for the most satisfying time of its long existence, if not the most award winning of individual efforts. Despite the harbingers of a Depression which had not yet truly ended, the fans filled all the aisles to see the return of their glorious heroes.

Attendance boomed from its wartime-depression low, as the game once again took its place in the sun, basking in a highly popular postwar glow. As wonderful as that may sound, once again and never too often, the pinnacle came in 1947 with Jackie Robinson. White baseball's monumental breaking of the color barrier would have failed to the delight of many; if not for the gigantic ability, temperament, and willingness to sacrifice, natural to this man. Time would show that his number of 42 would be so sought by players in varying sports, that to avoid conflict, it was permanently retired. His book is yet to be written.

The Brooklyn Dodgers brought on Jackie, he having to endure the painful litmus test of peacefully overcoming the racism so long inherent within the majors. Robinson's level swings did not evolve into the sky scraping shots of the Babe. It was more like a lot of one hoppers against the wall. Popular opinion seems to say that he didn't become an American sports hero. But, what do they know of the thoughts and feelings of those sharing Jackie's skin? Regardless, it is unquestioned that his Hall-of-Fame performance opened the door for a slow but sure stream of fellow American blacks who would filter into the majors later.

The spoils of victory and the foresight of integration fueled the majors' resurgence, making the sport as popular as ever. Now it was up to the lords of baseball to maintain and grow within the ever-changing vision of postwar America's new frontier.

The biggest stars were Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Hal Newhouser, Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, and Ted Williams. It's kind of sad and unfair to try to be honestly compelled to say that Williams was the best.

Modern Day Dis, Out of Context, or Sheer Stupidity?

This 65 year, time travelling excursion may not initially appear to have any relevance to Jackie or anything else for that matter; but I thought it did at the time. So, the following article was printed August 24, 2016 on NESN's website. The acronym refers to an entity which is defined as; "An American regional sports cable and satellite television network that is owned by a slew of yadda yadda corporate configurations as a joint venture between other yadda yadda corporate entities. Headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, the network is primarily carried on cable providers throughout the New England area who seek to provide their customers with the Red Sox and Bruins games no one else wants to show; interspersed with ill-considered interviews. To complete the interesting programming repertoire, it seems essential to note that NESN also carries minor league baseball games, regional college sports events, various outdoor and sports talk shows, and tape delayed broadcasts of Premier League soccer games."

David Ortiz Skeptical Of Ted Williams' "Unhuman" Red Seat Home Run **  
**

Have you ever looked at the red seat located in the right field bleachers at Fenway Park and thought, "How the heck could someone hit a baseball that far?" If so, you're not alone. The red seat — in Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21 — is stationed 502 feet from home plate and marks the longest home run in Fenway history, struck by Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams on June 9, 1946. The problem is the feat seems so unbelievable that some, including Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, can't help but question the story's validity. "You see how strong ballplayers are today" Ortiz said Monday, according to the Boston Herald. "And I'm not saying Mr. Ted Williams wasn't. But you see how far guys are hitting balls today. And none of them can do it? "That red seat? I've been hitting bombs for years and I haven't come close. No disrespect. Mr. Ted Williams was a great hitter. But as far as being strong, I don't know if he was stronger than me and (former Red Sox first baseman) Mo (Vaughn) ... That red seat is unhuman." It's pretty crazy to think Williams' tape-measure blast hasn't been topped, especially when the record books essentially were rewritten during the height of the Steroid Era. No one even came close to reaching Williams' red seat during the 1999 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby, which Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. won. "I go with an aluminum bat and I'm not even close to it," Ortiz told the Herald. "When players come to Fenway, they say, 'What is that red seat all about?' I tell them, 'They say Mr. Ted Williams hit a ball out there.' And they're like, 'Yeah right.' Players. Power hitters. Guys who hit bombs. They say there's no way. You can barely see it from second base. Adding to the mystique of Williams' legendary homer is there's no video evidence to support the notion that it actually happened. Instead, we're left to rely on witness testimony and newspaper records. And for a skeptic like Big Papi, that just isn't enough despite his immense respect for Teddy Ballgame." "How come there's no video of it? I've seen videos of him everywhere," Ortiz asked, according to the Herald. "It was in a major league baseball game where he hit it. You're going to tell me there's not one video of it? Not one? I've seen videos of Ty Cobb. He played way before that. I don't understand. I'm not saying it didn't happen. ... But what if I told you, 'OK, this white bat is black but used to be green.' Are you going to believe it? Or are you going to want a picture. Bottom line, you've got to show me something. It's a long way. It's like if I tell you I walked from here to Miami. You're going to be like, 'OK, but want to see it.' " The Red Sox are planning several changes for Fenway in 2017, like the replacement of the famous Pesky's Pole located in right field. But the red seat figures to remain in place and probably will until someone hits a ball further ..... if that's possible."

Ostensibly that was the end of a conversation Mr. Ortiz had with another organization which NESN attempted to somewhat copy for their own article; the wrong and confused references to who was speaking at any given moment were corrected herein so far as logic might suggest.

If the context and quotes are correct in their attribution to Mr. Ortiz, here is a list of longest home runs ever hit; most exceeding 502 feet. One might note that the hitters were not necessarily fat, but rather had a general appearance of being tall and skinny. A few, either overtly or "with nuances" admitted to being performance-enhancing-drug users. Whether the muscle was gained down on the farm, at the gym, or through pills or injections, in this context it seems most relevant to point out that twelve of them went over the 502 Ortiz says cannot be reached. The first list only includes fifteen home runs, the evidence for which all appear on documented tape, which has not been altered.

Following is a table of the longest home runs ever hit by just one player; "The Tape Measure Kid," Mickey Mantle. Films of the alleged blasts do not exist, presumably because back then all games were not taped, and even if they were they were either not saved or were lost in the warehouse. What does exist is plenty of anecdotal evidence.

To add to it, I offer my own anecdote and its inference. I was at the stadium one day, when Mantle was batting lefty, and had two strikes on him. He was completely fooled by the off speed outside curveball, and out on his front foot. Disaster? No. He then proceeded to use only his arms to hit it 425 feet into the left center bleachers. In his prime, "The Mick" weighed 198 pounds, and steroids had not yet been invented.

Regarding Mr. Ortiz alleged remarks, it should be noted that everyone acknowledges what a great player he has been. He would do well not to jeopardize that with silly, incorrect remarks. On the other hand, I suppose that it is difficult to not allow one's self to be misquoted by a secondary at best dispenser of "information."

Ted Williams was 6'3" and 205 pounds. He may have been the first to recognize what is now commonly accepted; that the distance a ball travels is most affected by the speed of the bat through the strike zone. The speed of the pitch and the weight of the hitter are also factors, but not as significant. Mel Ott hit 511 home runs, at one time the most in the National League. He was listed as 5'9", and a generous 170. Some say it was more like 155.

Sadaharu Oh, who hit 868 dingers in Japan was listed at 5'10", 173. There are many more long ball artists who carry less weight than David Ortiz. Ignoring the success of Babe Ruth's forty or more ounce bat, Mickey Mantle used a light 29 ouncer, well known to Little League eight and nine year olds. He whipped it and it is said that he did something like this.

Besides a certain degree of perhaps misplaced disrespect for what was previously quoted, the preceding information serves a larger purpose. It clearly indicates the degree to which the advent of continuous filming has tarnished the value of eye witness reports which cannot be verified on film. At the very least the belief in this practice ensures a reverence for anything done in the era of multi cameras, fabricated footage a reality not herein discussed, though reserved.

Quotes used herein and attributed to star players of the time may be the concoction of some crud writer who wants to tell an attention grabbing story, either for financial gain or self-importance. One who wants to pursue the facts must treat all un-verifiable information with a common sense approach, hopefully finding some consistency within slightly differing renditions. There seems little choice in the matter in 2016. If we do not do that we basically have to say that baseball did not exist before television invented it and diligently saved and stored the information without compensation.

A double "Duh," does not suffice.

### #9- The Fifties- I Like Ike and Mickey

As early as I can recall I had an avid interest in baseball. I had children's games with wooden bats-on-a-spring, marbles and holes indicating results, as well as games which required the more professional performance based playing cards with dice determined outcomes on the carded possibilities. The earliest memory I have of the real pro game was when our black and white television showed Yogi Berra jumping all over Don Larsen after he got the last called strike to complete the only World Series perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers on October 8, 1956. As I was already seven years old at the time, it could not possibly have been the first game I saw, but I don't have anything other than hazy memories of any of the preceding ones. I suppose that it's difficult for me to find something to be more noteworthy, as to this day it is the only time a World Series perfect game has been done. Larsen has said that on that day he had the best control he ever had; as opposed to speed or movement; of his life that day. Mom and I were somewhat together in that she was diddling with something of concern to only her in the kitchen and I was in the adjacent room, though potentially visible to each other. My guess was that for her, I was the equivalent interest of her black kettle stove; and that was all right. As usual at that time of fall, my Dad was off travelling somewhere, playing softball for a team which always managed to blow the big play and come in second.

"Mom, how unusual is a perfect game?"

"I don't know. You'll have to wait until your father comes home."

Yes. And yes again from a different direction. Back then the World Series games were almost always televised during the day. At the time the marketing professionals had not yet sunk their hooks in entirely. All weekday Series games started in the early afternoons when kids were at school and their fathers were at work. The kids could get home to see about half of it on a black and white TV, but poor old dad would have to wait for the weekend; unless he was again on the road, in which case the waiting time was most inaccurately measurable, with nothing daring to claim better, through permutations of 1949 Miller's "Death of a Salesman."

Don Larsen had a spotty, fifteen year, big league career. He was traded around the league and played for seven teams (Baltimore twice) before the days of free agency when a player was team property. His lifetime record was 81-91, with a 3.78 ERA. The latter figure is quite respectable and is lower than I expected to find. At 6'4", 215 he was a big pitcher for his time, and had a style which went against type; as he used a lot of off speed stuff.

The 1950's was marked as a New York time. The American League New York Yankees continued their dominating tradition well established in the twenties, thirties, and forties; and more than ever before with the rock called DiMaggio. On the other side of the aisle, now the once laughable National League Brooklyn Dodgers-Bums were consensus pre-season favorites to win every pennant. Hell, they had the all-star team. As is their nature, people would argue which of the teams and which players were superior; and they'd be arguably wrong eighty percent of the time; the results ostensibly inadmissible evidence. The unanimity of baseball experts said that it was the Dodgers who were the best. I suppose that it would be rude to say that betting results were contrarian.

But, despite having the virtual National League all-star lineup, the Dodgers had a bad habit of blowing it at the last minute and consequently their old clown name was resurrected and they were again termed "The Bums," especially in Brooklyn. The other New York team; the National League's New York Giants were generally not in the debate; only the favorite of my obstinate father; despite having Willie Mays and pennant winning 1951 "Shot heard round the world" Bobby Thompson on the roster. Bobby has been quoted as saying; "In New York, after that famous home run, they expected me to be up there every year. That homer raised me to a high level, with the top guys in the game. It was a pretty fierce rivalry. I'm just speaking for myself, but I think it was general through the clubs. We didn't like them, and they didn't like us."

The baseball fan of today would do well to keep in mind that expansion had not yet come, and there were only a total of sixteen teams. With no inter-league, regular season games, the teams played each other 23 times, and fierce rivalries were the result. Sometimes familiarity does breed external contempt and simultaneously and to some ironically, internal respect. Either way, it's always fun to watch.

At the time and for a bit more the US got most of its news in paper format. The land of "I like Ike" and "Baseball and Ballantine" was a different country than the times of the internet and video games, in more ways than the "Grand Theft Auto VI" addicts can imagine. You'll note that I did not say "better;" I said "different." It's much too easy to fall into the trap which many do. You know the one. It's when the old timers perennially say how much better things used to be; when in truth it's a personal statement formed merely because it was better for them; solely due to the fact that they were young and hopeful at the time.

I would have a personal, irrelevant difficulty in attempting to argue with the word often used; "simpler." The men would make an evening ritual of going to the center of town to buy the evening edition from the forty-five year old paperboy. Then they'd hang around and make one line comments to each other; such as; "Ah, they should have pinch hit for Lockman; for Chrissakes Mize was on the bench," or "Durocher must have been pie-eyed drunk to do that." They always read the paper from the back forward. No, most didn't read Hebrew. It's that the papers were set up in a strange way. It was duplicitous. The news of the world started on the front and moved toward center. The sports news started on the back and moved toward the center. You guessed it. The bulk of the advertising was in the middle. The people I saw never read much of it as it was a sign to quit as the world news was on the black and white horizon.

Both in the country and in the world of baseball expansion had begun. People were moving west, and they took some of the old eastern teams with them. There are still some who moan about the Dodgers and Giants having moved to California, most of them now articulating that through the orificial wobbles well known to the sometimes disinterested residents of nursing homes. Whatever. It was undeniable that the moves were formerly indeed nasty. There was no warnings given and one day they just dropped the bombs.

You might say that New York still had one home town team. But if you said that you would not be aware that a Brooklyn Dodger fan would be a New York Yankee fan under absolutely no circumstances. I've heard that countless testimonies of water boarding torture did not even result in one conversion.

A Giant fan is another story. The only one I knew was my father, and he just lost interest in the San Francisco version, and just lived to be one who always made fun of the Yankees. He had the comradery of an established and disgruntled group. Now, I sometimes think of that as negative behavior; but the ensuing enlightenment of "New Age" was a term that was still twenty years away. And besides, not only did they have to go west to expand; they had to take our stuff with them? Jeez. That's adding insult to injury.

We say that time heals all wounds. It is polite to say that. Whenever we hear bad news about California, Arizona or Colorado we secretly ..............

That was some of what was going on when I first became addicted to baseball. But, somewhere in there I started to hear names like Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx. At the time they were all among the lifetime top ten home run hitters. I never got to see them and I felt cheated. So, I did the next best thing. I got a bunch of baseball books; some with pictures. I also collected baseball cards; acquiring them all through games of chance I always seemed to win. One year someone put out a series of all-time great cards nobody else but me cared about. Somehow I got the money to buy 90% of them; five at a time; and read the year-by-year lifetime stats on the back of the black and white card. I was forever hooked to the past.

Back in the 1950's, I learned that every malcontent who did what they "righteously" did, did what would come to be, and were pre-cursors of the 1960's anti-hero thing. This is getting a few years ahead of the chapter title, but the thought seems to better fit this here.

Like my contrarian and abandoned father; many New Yorkers hated the potent New York Yankees, culminating in the slight jumping ahead of the worship of the hapless 1962 National League expansion team called the New York Metropolitans, shortened to Mets. In their initial year, they were perhaps the worst team to ever play professional baseball, registering a season record of 40-120. It may be substantiated that the teams who had lost games to the Mets became the victims of obscene taunts and genitally encoded derision. The Chicago Cubs of that year were fortunately camouflaged, as they made inroads into being a candidate for the worst of all time, and played the Mets even at 9-9; the only team not to win the season series. The fans had little choice than to accept the subsequent League apology for having granted continued "order" through their rules established during the drafting process.

It is somewhat amazing to look back at the 1962 Mets opening day lineup of;

The players were not shabby in the least. What was telling was that they were all well past their primes; that generally being 28-32 in baseball. The average age of the lineup was 33. The Mets had tried going for a good team from day one as opposed to a younger, to-be-proven team, and failed in the American penchant for instantaneous success. In future years it would be rumored that old timers traded or sold to the Mets would announce their retirement rather than suffer the indignity of playing for the joke of the league.

The New York fans, in possible reaction to the Yankees' perennially winning "fascism," and the others' abandonment, reacted with a perversity broken out which rivalled the intensity of "The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff." A kind spirited overture of something like; "Love the cute, hapless losers" was the only possible explanation. Actual Met performance also no doubt contributed to the occasional fan perception as Ron Swoboda dove for a single he should have taken on one hop, missed it, and turned it into an inside-the-park home run; Choo Choo Coleman became the only catcher in the league to be as proficient in catching and throwing the ball with his off hand as he was in catching and throwing it with his strong one; teen-aged, local high school phenom, Ed Kranepool settled into his pro .261 disappointment thanks to an ending flourish, which elevated his batting average and his home run yearly average to 6.5; and worst of all every fourth day to see the glum-faced presence of 41 year old and all-time great Warren Spahn trudging to the mound in full expectation of breaking the single season record for losses to add to his record of having established the lifetime modern National League record for wins with the Braves of Boston and Milwaukee. Perhaps it was viewed as the inevitable demise of the great one brought about by the mere addition of age and no sense at all of when to quit. More likely, it was a heroic worship of failure, virtually simultaneous with copycat Xerox.

Heavily in the New York area and less so beyond, stories like these were practically the only way to comprehend a fan's reaction to predictable and expected success. Like that of the country at the same time seeing itself as being afflicted with privilege, many were out and out revolted by the manner in which ability consistently defeated illogical hope anytime it chose to step down on the gas pedal. The Yankees anywhere else but first place? The New York Yankees? Not a chance. New Yorkers had become accustomed to those competently fascist Yankees showing up out of shape, drunken and joking, and consequently trailing by a few games midway; only to get a bit in excess of half serious and run away with the pennant in the second half of the season.

If there ever was a need for parity in baseball, the American League of the 1950's exemplified it more than any other time. The Yankees coasted to eight pennants during the decade; while the Indians and the White Sox competed for the right to claim second place, of some seeming relevance to habitues of Cleveland and Chicago. But what can one do in the face of commanding, raw talent. This was before free agency and the possible "charge" of being "the best team money can buy." They had Billy Martin, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Bill Skowron, Whitey Ford, Elston Howard and a strong supporting cast. This was at a time consensus experts consider to have been the best players as Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Mathews, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Whitey Ford, Robin Roberts, Warren Spahn, and Ted Williams; Mantle the best of them in the 1950's. The Yanks were so good, that they couldn't find Siebern, Howard, Cerv, Simpson, and Blanchard a permanent place in the lineup. The overloaded Yankees traded away players who would become the best hitters on their new teams. The pillars became my "reasonable" expectations.

The Yankee dominance coincided with the 1950's world view of the US; primarily vis-à-vis striving Moscow and the occasional recognition of how many people were in Mao's allegedly disinterested China. The earliest of "conspiracy theories" arose in seeming ignorance of simple finance. There was a certain false logic to the minority opinion that ball clubs such as the Washington Senators, and the Philadelphia-Kansas City Athletics were merely secondary franchises rumored to exist only to be a subsidiary of the Yankees, viewed as such only due to much later 20-20 hindsight perceptions of their penchants for sales or sham trades for players conducive to Yankee interests; those players substantially a one year help near the end of their playing careers, in return for those with many year potential good time. Despite being chastised for the procedure, this was when the Yankee dynasty began to crumble.

The Yankees, along with their two other league brothers in New York baseball; the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants, owned major league baseball for all of the 1950's. Through the decade's first seven years, every World Series winner represented "The Big Apple;" as did five of its losers. There has been great debate over what era of baseball is most rightfully represented as the game's Golden Age, but if you were devotees of an analogy to the US place in the world or loyalists for any one of the three New York-based teams, it was easy to believe this particular period was it. All the largest-in-the-country, New York based newspapers and TV stations correctly said so.

A Golden Age outside of New York's city limits was questioned in speculation stemming from the few iconoclasts sufficiently defiant to buck the overwhelming weight of the information machine. At some parks, attendance actually dropped. Not to be overtly against the grain, the blame was placed on things ranging from aging ballparks, to a somewhat premature citing of decaying inner cities, to television, to rock n' roll. Absurd desperation for any answer even mentions teams mentally resigned to lose starting on opening day.

Prima facie evidence suggests that the postwar transitioning of America into more modern times gave many teams on baseball's bottom rung a chance to climb to more prosperous heights. The Boston Braves made the initial experiment in 1953 when they moved to Milwaukee and instantly became MLB's attendance leader. Yes, even more than the Yankees. Despite an excellent 92-62 season they were never in the pennant race, finishing second, thirteen games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers. Still, this was a dramatic improvement over their 64-89, next to last place finish the prior season. Other suffering franchises followed suit and made geographic moves, leaving the bad end of their two-team markets. The St. Louis Browns went east to Baltimore, and were re-named the Baltimore Orioles. The Philadelphia A's were more traditional moving west to Kansas City, while keeping their name.

This was the first time baseball had a major team in Baltimore since 1901. The Wilbert Robinson, Wee Willy Keeler, and Dan Brouthers led team which almost dominated 1890's baseball was known by some as dirty players and by others as the inventors of the "inside" or "scientific" game. Both assessments are likely incorrect. It was sold, was moved, and curiously became the New York Highlanders, who changed their name to the Yankees in 1913.

But, the boom of falling of the first Twin Towers was heard around the baseball world in 1958. Two of New York's very own, the Giants and the Dodgers, never known as poor franchises, picked up stakes, just like the people, and headed to California. Must have had something to do with the weather or getting tired of playing second fiddle. Millions of Yankee hating, disillusioned, hardcore fans were left in the lurch. Brooklyn still hates the Bum Dodgers.

**Welcome to my nightmare strike zone.** In a decade where baseball as a tradition, as one small symbol of the country's traditions, is being questioned by the first of America's emerging counter culture, called Beatniks, Major League Baseball saw its biggest problem to be, of all things, an overabundance of offense in the game. In actuality the number of runs scored in the fifties almost mirrored the forties. So, those in charge prescribed the traditional remedy for the misdiagnosed disorder; an increased strike zone, further contributing to a downward spiral in hitting, and greatly aiding an already talented batch of pitchers. By the next decade runs-per-game will drop by almost a gigantic, non-sarcastic one.

### #10- The Sixties- The Ball Got Dead and Nobody Was Grateful

Substantially due to the previously mentioned adjustments made by the bossing baseball buffs and the ageing or departure of the best big bashers, the average amount of runs scored per game nosedived to pre-Ruth, pre-1920 levels. It was actually a bit below 1910-19 production and fans were not grateful to return to the productivity of the "Dead Ball" era. How excited can one get while watching a mid-level team which has third and fourth place hitters who bat around .220 and battle each other for team leadership in home runs at the teen level. If you weren't there, take my word on this one. Watching the drawn out futility is worse than words or numbers could indicate.

I think it was not pure chance that 1968 was the time some investors pushed in an attempt to establish professional soccer as a major sport in the US. A winning New York team was established and in 1975 a triple-teamed, 34 year old Pele played for them, but soccer was not to take hold in the US until much, much later.

For the first few years of the sixties, baseball seemed to be repeating the fifties. The Yankees won pennants; and the M&M boys of New York had the whole nation watching their pursuit of Babe's single season home run record; Roger Maris breaking it on the last day of the season. Ted Williams and Stan Musial were beyond the typical baseball prime years of 28-32, but were still producing well.

But, conservative baseball like conservative America, took a few years to get into the changing spirit of the sixties; and most fans didn't like it much when it did. The anemic averages, culminated in Carl Yastrzemski's 1968 American League leading .301. His effort alone saved the institution the embarrassment of for the first time having a leader in the two's. If I remember correctly, it took a three hit day in the last game of the regular season to do it. In MLB the counterculture was big on the mound and 1968 was called; "The Year of the Pitcher."

Forced to answer to great pressure, each league reluctantly expanded from eight teams to ten early in the decade. The reluctance was no doubt one indicated by presumed business interests, as expansion usually produces wider skewing of statistics, as the players, in this case, were one-quarter of the time batting against and pitching to players who would otherwise have been in the minor leagues. More amenably, baseball added two more in 1969 to bring the total to twelve in each league. By the end of the decade, the Northeast had to relinquish its stronghold grip on pro baseball. As previously mentioned, some old teams left and the new ones sprouted up in places like San Diego, Seattle, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Oakland, Houston and even Montreal.

Just at what hindsight shows to have been precisely the wrong time, Commissioner Ford Frick, decided to cut down the offense by enlarging the strike zone in 1963. Some said it was due to his displeasure at seeing the record of his old friend, Babe Ruth, exceeded. Much too successfully it immediately drove down hitting. The majority of the fans like offense, and the results produced groans and complaints.

After the AL batted .230 in 1968, for 1969 the strike zone was put back where it was in 1963. However, something had fundamentally changed as there was little immediate effect. Marked improvement didn't set in until 1973. Below is a chart which tells the story better than words.

But for that minority who liked their baseball low in scoring, there was a plethora of pitching brilliance throughout the decade to please them. Most memorable ranged from the superb dominance of the Dodgers' Sandy Koufax, to the fiery fastball of the Cardinals' Bob Gibson, to the spitball theatrics of Giants' Gaylord Perry, and to—at-the-decade's-end arrival of the Mets' Tom Seaver, who led his upstart youngsters to a stunning World Series triumph that captivated America's interest and gave the "Great American Pastime" a much needed shot in the arm as is colloquially said; but might more accurately be described as a spacey buzz.

Below is a listing of 1960's Series opponents.

A glance at the above chart makes things obvious. Strong hitting teams went to the Fall Classic through 1963. 1964 was the pivotal year, in that the LA, pitching Dodgers took over from the remnants of a Yankee batting powerhouse. For the rest of the decade every team to get to post season play was known most for their pitching. The only exceptions were the 1965 Twins and to a lesser extent the 1967 Red Sox; and both lost.

The story which most encapsulates what was going on came at the very end, and was that of the 1969 New York Mets. Despite miserable on field performance since their 1962 inception, the team was taken to by New York fans. They were seen as a bunch of cute failures, which was apparently quite a refreshing change from those capable, much too successful, domineering Yankees from the other borough. The Mets located in Queens, as opposed to the long lasting Yankee dormitory in the gritty Bronx. Then in 1969 the Mets surprised the hell out of everybody including themselves, and won the whole enchilada after a shaky start. The simple reason was that they could pitch like a sunuvabitch and field almost as well as a pro. Their pitching prevailed despite 1969's return to the old, smaller strike zone, a decrease in mound height from 15 to 10 inches, and the first year of the playoff system.

Previously, the franchise's peak performance was a few ninth place finishes in their ten team league. As a new expansion team, they put up a 40–120 won-loss record in 1962. That is still the most losses by any Major League baseball team in one season. The good news is that their .250 winning percentage is only third on the list of worst post-1900 teams, and almost doubled the "winning" percentage of one of the six nineteenth century teams to do worse.

To add some perspective to the Mets' short history, their winning percentage had never previously been over .500 after the ninth game of any season. Yet, here was the Revolution of 1969. Only seven years after their disastrous debut, "The Amazin' Mets," as nicknamed by previous manager Casey Stengel, were to be re-named "The Miracle Mets" by their fans as they proceeded to win the World Series, the first expansion team to do so.

With great pitching and decent defense, but not much offense, the Mets started at 18–23. At that point very few baseball men could predict what was to come, though early signs were there. That .439 winning percentage was better than the Mets had done in all seasons but one. Starting with their forty-second game, they beat all the odds, by winning their next eleven games and went 82–39, a phenomenal .678 winning percentage for the rest of the season.

Despite their record performance they were behind the Cubs most of the season. As late as August thirteenth the Mets were 9.5 games back. Their 38-11 finish propelled them into first place and they won by a comfortable margin of 8 games.

All of a sudden they found their bats while defeating the Atlanta Braves 3-0 in the first NLCS ever played. The World Series was much what one would expect. Scores were low as the Baltimore Orioles pitted their four starters of Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally and generally reliever Dick Hall against the unbelievable Met staff consisting of Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Gary Gentry, and Nolan Ryan. The Mets won in five and their New York fans were delirious for about two weeks.

### #11- The Seventies- Freak Out in a Moon Age Daydream

Oh yeah. Please forgive the reference to the July 26, 1969 excursion of the Apollo 11 being placed here. The borders between the two decades are rather porous. In fact the sixties didn't start until 1964 and ran until about 1977 when disco sucked and loud mouth punk rockers rivalled their baseball counterparts in raucous rhetoric, though not ability. The vastly most entertaining part of the baseball decade can be summed up as; "Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin, Thurman Munson and Catfish Hunter; all of the late seventies Yankees."

Leading up to the crescendo was that baseball owners were finally legally obliged to negotiate with free agents, who for the first time in baseball history had the almost equal platform of a certain degree of choice. After satisfying certain provisos they could sell their services to the highest bidder, rather than having the historic "choice" of signing what their owner offered or not play. The advancement made was reminiscent of "Roots" Chicken George's purchase of his economic freedom. Fearing that they'd fall behind if they didn't spend on free agents, the owners cracked open their checkbooks, while they bitched to the media. Complicating matters, some fans sided with the owners. This is another story which is rooted in the 1960's, which did not come to fruition until the 1970"s, when many, but not all, of the players were "allowed" to be paid their market value. Here's a history, as brief as possible.

The age of labor dissent in baseball roughly equals the American inception of the sport. Owner insistence upon the binding "reserve clause" is the center of the matter. In an effort to escape it, in 1885 player-lawyer John Montgomery Ward and eight other players formed the first players union in baseball, as well as establishing a rival league. Subsequent failed attempts to organize players and end the "reserve clause" included the attempts of 1900, 1912, and 1946.

All-Star, Curt Flood unsuccessfully challenged the "reserve clause" in late 1969. Funded by his fellow players, Flood sued Major League Baseball privately. After winning preliminary court decisions, Flood lost his battle in the U.S. Supreme Court, during which time he sat out a few seasons, essentially ending his career at the age of 31.

The laying of the groundwork for Flood's bold move has been attributed to Marvin Miller. In 1965 the players sought outside help. They decided on this economist of the United Steelworkers Union. In 1968, Miller helped players negotiate the first ever collective bargaining agreement in professional sports, which raised the minimum salary from $6,000 to $10,000.

In 1975 Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally once again challenged the reserve clause. This time an independent arbitrator heard the case, and the players finally won the right to free agency, when arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled that the reserve clause bestowed the owners with only one additional year of service, putting an end to the perpetual renewal rights.

Owners unsuccessfully tried to overturn the decision, before they took matters more covertly into their own hands. Despite constant growth they conspired not to pursue free agents in 1985, 86, and 87. Only four of 35 available free agents were signed in 1985.

Put those numbers in some perspective. The 26 team league had approximately 650 players. Under the rules which still restricted free agency, 5% were eligible and less than 1% got contracts.

The Major League Baseball Players Association filed grievances claiming collusion in 1986, 1987, and 1988. Interim favorable decisions were compiled into a final 1990 verdict which awarded the players $280 million in damages.

I think it pertinent to note that the owners always cry poverty to justify their actions. At the same time they refuse to open their books to substantiate their claims; and they have escaped the legal obligation to do so.

So, there was more strife in a 32 day lockout by owners in the spring of 1990 and a 232 day strike in 1994-95, prompted by the owner's refusal to make their contractual pension payments, while implementing unilaterally decided pay cuts. Owners even tried hiring replacements.

While Major League labor difficulties have been stifled since 1995, the action has turned to the Minor Leagues. A 2014 class action lawsuit which claims among other things that the players receive less than the minimum US wage was recently dealt a legal blow. On 7-24-16 a US Magistrate Judge ruled that the individual circumstances of the players precluded the class action approach, effectively ending the suit. Excluding the high draft picks of the Major League, the players' salaries are said to range from $3,000 to $7,500 for a six month season.

And the beat goes on.

Backing up a few steps, the 1975 advent of free agency destroyed one possible dynasty when Oakland A's owner Charles Finley refused to bid on anyone. Economic karma reared its head when he lost his best players; four to the Yankees; three through free agency, making the Yankees the next potential dynasty.

Baseball's NL dynamo of the decade basically avoided the issue, neither being helped nor hurt, by the hazards of free agency, until the decade was coming to a close. The Cincinnati Reds were with one exception, consistent winners throughout, averaging 95 victories a year. They won six divisional titles, four National League pennants and World Series championships in 1975 and 1976; and they did it all defiantly, right in your face. No cutesy-cutesy stuff here. Perhaps the last bastion of tradition, the Reds pounded the fences while under orders to maintain the "military cut," clean shaven look, while others made inroads into the "hippy" appearance first adopted by Finley's Oakland Athletics.

The Reds' throwback super offense, called the Big Red Machine, was comprised of a bunch of major talents. They virtually had the majority of the potential NL All-Star team with Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Ken Griffey Sr., Dave Concepcion, and George Foster. The Reds commanded heavy duty respect from opponents. The Yankees of the fifties were the real deal and the Reds reflected them in synthetic apparel.

Below is their regular season performance for the decade. "GB" is "Games Behind" the leader; a dash indicative of a first place finish. "P" is "Place" finished. The year 1969 is included to show how much Red attendance increased in the seventies, as 1969 was typical of their sixties gate.

The visual basis, which in some cases also had their effects on the actual manner in which baseball is played, went through numerous adjustments in the seventies. Stadiums apparently took some hints from Mount Palomar and saw retractable roofs as a way to end the inconvenience of rainouts and poor weather. The sun-blocked, climate controlled models of modern efficiency lent itself to an abandonment of archaic grass and made artificial turf more of a necessity than just another cost-efficient monstrosity. By decade's end, nearly half of the games were being played on it. Fielders adjusted to the hundred foot hops and infield scoot cheap hits; but speed merchant base stealers had a bit of difficulty in handling the wicked carpet burns gathered by going for the mere chance at one more lousy base. Hell; let the home run hitters do their jobs and allow us trot home in dignity, without a red or purple ass.

The colorless, baggy old uniforms became an issue for the stylists. The "new hip" generation was wearing bells, in every color, tight up top, and only flared down below. It was high time for baseball players to stop looking like they were in those bargain basement floppies your mother made you wear to grammar school. After a history of home teams wearing good-guy whites and visitors wearing almost-bad-guy grays, baseball underwent a revolution of color in the seventies. The Astrodome housed Houston Astros took the fashion considerations to a temporary extreme when in 1975; they wore uniforms which included a horizontal rainbow of bright warm colors.

With the change to tight, double-knits, the bold, multi-colored uniforms introduced in the seventies had baseball's new millionaires resembling something out of Tom Wolfe's "Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers."

### #12- Run Like Hell- A Look Behind- 1900-09

Baseball was a roughneck game at the turn of the twentieth century. Pitchers threw beanballs; runners tried to knock over fielders, and theft was as integral to the sport as redeye. They say that Ty Cobb played with the fury of a madman. He was far from alone in that regard; probably just more famous. Toward the end of the "dead ball" era Europe too did its best to imitate one demented. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand set off an unresolvable diplomatic crisis, which activated secret treaties, quickly broke into a war consuming all of Europe; then spread further. Some historians will pretend to say that this makes sense. It does. It makes as much sense as the shooting of a US Mayor culminating in a replay of the Civil War.

Nonetheless the whole mess started full tilt in 1914 and Woodrow Wilson and the US wanted no part of it. Wilson was reelected in 1916 while his supporters emphasized "he kept us out of war". But by 1917 the peaceable young country was pulled into the brawl. Despite having gotten off with a promise not to do it again the Germans resumed sinking US ships. To add insult to injury they offered to finance Mexico in a war against the US. For the US, it was a short strategic involvement which commenced in 1917 and was over by 1918. As battlefield bombs and poison gas were common weapons used, many soldiers returned home with fewer limbs and a disease which killed over a few years. Star pitcher Christy Mathewson was one who had gotten gassed. He died of tuberculosis in 1925 at the age of 45. Some say the deformed characters played in silent movies with Lon Chaney were inspired the common sight of bomb victims. Despite the horrors, the nation and the ballplayers exuded a confidence. Hell, they could take care of all of Europe in a year. What was the big deal about knocking over a second baseman?

With that mind set one might reasonably ask; "Why were home runs so few prior to Babe Ruth?" There are a number of possible answers, but the simplest one is that nobody tried to hit any. The very thought must have been vulgar to a "scientific" hitter. Besides, the outfield fences in some of the old ballparks were so far off that only Mickey Mantle would have had a shot at reaching them. Besides, at important games fans were standing out there. Besides, consensus says that the ball was dead or beaten up and not replaced or soggy or something.

John Franklin Baker was nicknamed "Home Run," because he led the league in that category four times, the highest total 12. In a 13 year career he amassed 96, and added 3 more in six World Series appearances. I'm not making any fun of Mr. Baker, as he is a legitimate Hall of Fame resident. But sometimes I wonder if the nickname wasn't a source of amusement to some; as home runs were not the main objective. I've read that Ty Cobb said that triples were the best hit one could get in normal circumstances. He added that home runs were a freak event. I suppose J. F. could have answered him by saying; "I suppose it would have met your standards if I stopped at third base the 99 times."

It must be visualized that in those days a home run was not usually a towering golf shot which landed in the stands. They were actually inside-the-parkers; a current rarity. Most often it was a line drive to left or right center which got between the fielders. Outfield grass was not regularly mowed back then. Usually, the one which the fielders could run down resulted in a triple; and the one they couldn't find became the home run. So, maybe irascible old Ty had a good point, but displayed his customary way with words to convey that.

Ty is a mystery of greatness, psychosis, or both which will never be solved until someone actually invents a time machine. He was seen as the "crazy" violent man who wanted to win at all costs. However, there is some evidence to the contrary. But, the witnesses are now all dead and the story will have to stand as already presented. A writer named Al Stump had the last chance to spend time with Cobb. He wrote or co-wrote a number of books about Cobb; which have now been discredited as "sensationalized" and "proven to be entirely fictional." Worse, in the one which was turned into a movie the writer wrote mostly of himself, apparently confusing the stars.

Cobb, himself was quoted as saying; "In legend I am a sadistic, swashbuckling despot who waged war in the guise of sport." Perhaps the key word is "legend." Cobb did a number of wonderful things for some old baseball players in dire straits and at one time the entire league went out on strike when he got suspended, saying; "If he can't play, neither can we." This doesn't seem a logical gesture toward someone hated. But, there is also a quote from a Cobb contemporary, Hall-of-Famer Sam Crawford, who said; "Cobb didn't have a friend in the game." I suppose we'll never really know the truth, but the majority opinion is that he was some kind of nut.

Another of the original five inductees into the Hall of Fame was a Cobb contemporary. Honus, or Hons Wagner was a National League Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop, whose stats would have been the best of his time if not for those generated by Ty Cobb, Wee Willie Keeler, Napoleon Lajoie and Eddie Collins in the upstart American League. In addition, Wagner played the most integral position on the field; shortstop;, and he did it in a manner which was exemplary.

Just as in pre-merger pro football, the baseball National League was considered much more competitive than the newer American League, which was founded in 1901. Unlike the AFL-NFL competition, the baseball American League wooed players away from the National League with better pay, which somewhat equalized the talent level. Like the time of the original Super Bowl, the teams never played each other during the regular season. The World Series was born of the fan desire to see who was the best and the gamblers' interest in a big pay day; the first held in 1903. Boston of the American League won the best of nine encounter after falling behind 3-1. Wagner's Pirates represented the National League, who were said to be heavily injured. Among the injured was Wagner with a bad leg and Doheny, who was committed to a mental institution. Things were a bit different from today; mostly because of pain killers and that they've now closed almost all of the mental institutions.

Wagner was terrible and embarrassed. He batted only .222; going 6 for 27 in the Series and committed six errors in eight games. The shortstop was deeply distraught by his performance. The following spring, Wagner, who in 1903 led the National League in batting average, refused to send his portrait to an early attempt at a "Hall of Fame," actually a bit of a pre-cursor, made only for batting champions. "I was too bum last year." Hons wrote. "I was a joke in that Boston-Pittsburgh Series. What does it profit a man to hammer along and make a few hits when they are not needed only to fall down when it comes to a pinch? I would be ashamed to have my picture up now." Can you imagine anything like that being said by Alex Rodriguez?

The game had entered the new century with relative stability in rules, and relative instability of players; and for that matter; fans. The pattern was set for all sports to eventually realize the interest and money in post season play.

For baseball there still remained a few goals. One was to get rid of the drunken rowdyism in the stands and attract proper people to the game. A second was to get rid of the drunken rowdyism on the field. The third was to get the pitchers to stop "doctoring" the one game ball in hopes that it wouldn't become as gray and lopsided as a rotten egg in the ninth inning.

It was fortunate that back then no one had criticized the game for having stars and ordinary players who were not suitable "role models" for their children; as they generally were not. If warned against them, the kids would probably have liked them even more.

The just departed 1890's are sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade" because of the discovery of the process by which that essentially light purple color could be reproduced. Like most "new" discoveries it quickly became popular in fashion. The more commonly used term, "The Gay Nineties", referred not to someone's likely first interpretation in 2016, but to the belief that it was full of merriment and optimism. It may be telling to note that the phrase, "The Gay Nineties," was not coined until the 1920's.

This period was also part of the "Gilded Age," defined as 1870-1900, a phrase sarcastically made up by Mark Twain in 1873, referencing the seemingly profitable era which was actually riddled with crime and poverty. Use of the term "Gilded Age" did not become popular until the 1920's. In the United States, the 1890's were marked by an economic depression sparked by the Panic of 1893, as well as several huge strikes by the industrial workforce.

The decade was rife with internal conflicts. Some follow;

1) The Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota.

2) The Chilean Civil War.

3) The Tobacco Protest, which went through a set of deals leading to the first fatwa known in the US.

4) The Johnson County War; a range war in Wyoming

5) The Leper War in Hawaii

6) The End Pond Creek Railroad War in the Oklahoma territory.

7) The Philippine Revolution which eventually tied in quite nicely with the Spanish-American War.

8) The Lattimer massacre

9) The Battle of Sugar Point

Is it any wonder that the game of baseball resembled a sneaky ferocious battle? "Gay Nineties?" Someone's bustled ass.

"The idea of going to the ballpark, say in 1900, was that the urban masses would get a taste of country pastoral air, that their lungs would expand by cheering, and nonsense like this. Baseball grew in the cities. It is an outgrowth of gambling, it's an outgrowth of crookedness, it's an outgrowth of drinking. It's a roistering, boisterous event. It is as wild as the Wild West." - John Thorn, sports historian, author

"What's the matter with these National League magnates? What a shame it is that the greatest of sports should be in the hands of such a malodorous gang as these magnates have proven themselves to be on more than one occasion. League meetings are characterized by mudslinging, brawling, corruption, breaches of confidence, dishonorable conspiracies and threats of personal violence." - Sporting News, magazine, 1899

"Sunday would come and the little park would be packed way before game time, everybody wanting to see the great Rube Waddell pitch. Nowhere to be found! Manager'd be having a fit. And then just a few minutes before the game time there'd be a commotion in the grandstand; you'd hear people laughing and yelling, 'Here comes Rube! Here comes Rube!' And there he'd come right through the stands. He'd jump down onto the field, cut across the infield to the clubhouse, taking off his shirt as he went, and in about three minutes; he never wore any underwear; he'd run back out in uniform and yell, 'All right let's get 'em!'" - Sam Crawford, outfielder

On Waddell; "He began that year (1903) sleeping in a firehouse in Camden, New Jersey, and ended it tending bar in a saloon in Wheeling, West Virginia. In between those events he won 22 games for the Philadelphia Athletics, played left end for the Business Men's Rugby Football Club of Grand Rapids, Michigan, toured the nation in a melodrama called The Stain of Guilt, courted, married and became separated from May Wynne Skinner of Lynn, Massachusetts, saved a woman from drowning, accidentally shot a friend through the hand, and was bitten by a lion." - Lee Allen, sportswriter, historian

"At the turn of the century, major league veterans often refused to even speak to new players. Once, early in his career, a shy young infielder dared compliment a New York Giant for hitting a home run. 'Nice hit,' he said. The veteran answered, 'Go to hell.' The young player was Johannes Peter Wagner; Honus Wagner; on his way to becoming the greatest player in the National League."

"And it turned out that ol' Honus was the best third baseman in the league. He was also the best first baseman, the best second baseman, the best shortstop and the best outfielder. That was in fielding. And since he led the league in batting 8 times between 1900 and 1911, you know that he was the best hitter too. As well as the best baserunner." - Tommy Leach, infielder and outfielder

"Matty was without a peer. He had a greater variety of stuff than any pitcher I ever knew or handled. His fastball was the equal of Walter Johnson's, or Amos Rusie's. He had the fadeaway down to perfection, and he used his knowledge of batsmen to greater effect than any twirler in the game. He possessed wonderful control, remarkable fielding ability, and was one of the finest sportsmen the game has ever known." - John McGraw, third baseman, manager

"Mathewson was the greatest pitcher who ever lived. It was wonderful to watch him pitch, when he wasn't pitching against you." \- Connie Mack, catcher, manager, owner

"The fallaway, (screwball) which I have used, if I may be pardoned for saying so, with greater effectiveness than any other pitcher, is an exceptionally slow ball and calculated to deceive the greatest batter. As it rushes toward him it looks like a fast high ball. Six feet from him when it begins to drop it has the appearance of a slow drop ball. And then as he swings, it is traveling in two directions at once." - Christy Mathewson, pitcher

"Christy Mathewson was Frank Merriwell in the flesh. He was so virtuous he would not give interviews to sportswriters who he heard cheated on their wives." - Studs Terkel, author, historian

"If we had waited for the National League to do something for us, we would have remained a minor league forever. The American League will be the principal organization of the country within a very short time. Mark my prediction." - Ban Johnson, Commissioner and executive

"Ban Johnson never missed an opportunity to make a speech. It was always the same speech, all about how he, singlehanded and alone, had made baseball a gentleman's sport, and it must be kept forever clean because sportsmanship spoke from the heart of America, and he would lay down his life to save our beloved nation. At which he would begin to cry." - Baseball Digest, magazine

"It was an important part of McGraw's great capacity for leadership that he would take kids out of the coal mines and out of the wheat fields and make them walk and talk and chatter and play ball with the look of eagles." - Heywood Broun, journalist

"You couldn't come around and second guess McGraw's players in his presence without having a fight on your hands. He stood up for us at all times. We always called him Mr. McGraw, never John or Mac, always Mr. McGraw." - Chief Meyers, catcher

"McGraw's very walk across the field in a hostile town was a challenge to the multitude, and the ferocity of McGraw's teams aroused such resentment on the road that he routinely demanded police protection against irate fans." - Grantland Rice, sportswriter

"The main idea is to win." - John McGraw, third baseman, manager

"Baseball is the most popular sport in this country. In every hamlet, town and city may be the future Rube Fosters. Romping over corner lots, batting, pitching, and learning how to play the game. Organize your team!" - W. E. B. Du Bois, various including social activist

"That was probably the wildest series ever played. Arguing all the time between the teams, between the players and the umpires, and especially between the players and the fans. That's the truth. The fans were part of the game in those days. They'd pour right out onto the field and argue with the players and the umpires. It was sorta hard to keep the game going sometimes, to say the least. I think those Boston fans actually won that series for the Pilgrims. We beat them three out of the first four games, and then they'd start singing that damn Tessie song. You could hardly play ball they were singing Tessie so damn loud. Only instead of singing 'Tessie, I love you madly', they'd sing special lyrics, like when Honus Wagner came to bat they'd sing, 'Honus, why do you hit so badly?' Sort of got on your nerves after a while, and before we knew what had happened we'd lost the series." - Tommy Leach, infielder and outfielder

"Baseball is something like a war." - Ty Cobb, center fielder

"The greatest ball player of all time? I'd pick the Detroit man. Because he is, in my judgment, the most expert man of his profession, and is able to respond better than any other ballplayer to any demand made upon him. He plays ball with his whole anatomy, his head, his arms, his hands, his legs, his feet. I have never seen a man who had his heart more centered in the sport than Cobb has when he's playing. I believe Cobb would continue to play ball if he were charged something for the privilege, and if the only spectator were the groundskeeper." - Charles Comiskey, owner

"Baseball is a red blooded sport for red blooded men. It's no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It's a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the fittest." - Ty Cobb, center fielder

"My father had his head blown off when I was eighteen years old by a member of my own family [his mother]. I didn't get over that. I've never gotten over it." - Ty Cobb, center fielder

"Every rookie gets a little hazing but most of them just take it and laugh. Cobb took it the wrong way. He came up with an antagonist attitude which, in his mind, turned any little razzing into a life and death struggle. He always figured everybody was ganging up on him. He came up from the South and he was still fighting the Civil War. As far as he was concerned, we were all damn Yankees before he even met us." - Sam Crawford, outfielder

"Sure I fought. I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me. Tried every dirty trick to cut me down, but I beat the bastards and left 'em in the ditch." - Ty Cobb, center fielder

"If I hadn't been determined to outdo the other fella at all costs, I doubt I would've hit .320. In other words, my lifetime batting average has been increased at least fifty points by qualities I'd call purely mental." - Ty Cobb, center fielder

"The cruelty of Cobb's style fascinated the multitudes, but it also alienated them. He played in a climate of hostility, friendless by choice in a violent world he populated with enemies. He was the strangest of all our sports idols. But not even his disagreeable character could destroy the image of his greatness as a ballplayer. Ty Cobb was the best. That seemed to be all he wanted." - Jimmy Cannon, sports journalist, who is actually too young to have seen much of Cobb

1905 World Series; Christy Mathewson, who had won 31 games that season, easily deceived the hitters on the [Philadelphia] Athletics in the series, pitching a record three shutouts in six days. Twenty-seven innings and not a single run; the greatest pitching performance in World Series history. - Unattributed

1906; John Henry "Pop" Lloyd debuts with the Negro league Cuban X-Giants at shortstop. Called by his fans the "black Honus Wagner", the authentic Wagner said he was honored by the comparison. - Unattributed

"The 1906 Chicago Cubs are believed by many to have been the best team in baseball history. They moved smoothly to the pennant that year, winning 116 games and losing just 36. One key to the Cubs consistency was their infield, the celebrated double play combination of Tinker to Evers to Chance. Chicago fans loved them but they did not much like each other, or anyone else for that matter. First baseman and manager Frank Chance, once called the greatest amateur brawler in the world, fined his players ten dollars if they so much as shook hands with an opposing player. Second baseman Johnny Evers was so touchy that his teammates called him the Human Crab, and he missed one entire season after suffering a nervous breakdown. Shortstop Joe Tinker was ordinarily a cheerful man, but even he refused to speak with Evers for two whole seasons after a quarrel over cab fare." - Unattributed

" _These are the saddest of possible words:  
Tinker to Evers to Chance.  
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,  
Tinker and Evers and Chance.  
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,  
Making a Giant hit into a double —  
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:  
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."_ \- "Baseball's Sad Lexicon" by Franklin P Adams

1906 World Series; AL Chicago White Sox, called the "Hitless Wonders" because the team averaged just .230 and hit only 7 home runs all season, upset the heavily favored NL Chicago Cubs.

"No one had counted on the superb pitching of White Sox ace, Eddie Walsh, master of the spitball. Big Eddie Walsh, oh brother! You talk about spitballs. I think that the ball disintegrated and got back together when the catcher got hold of it. I think when it went past the plate it was just spit going by." - Sam Crawford, outfielder

1907. Walter Johnson debuts with the AL Washington Senators.

"On August second, 1907, I encountered the most threatening sight I ever saw on a ball field. He was only a rookie and we licked our lips as we warmed up. Evidently, manager 'Pongo' Joe Cantillon had picked a rube outta the cornfields of the deepest bushes to pitch against us. He was a tall, shambling galoot, with arms so long they hung far out of his sleeves and with a sidearm delivery that looked unimpressive at first glance. One of the Tigers imitated a cow mooing and we hollered, 'Get the pitchfork ready, Joe! Your hayseed's on the way back to the barn!' The first time I faced him I watched him take that easy windup, and then something went past that made me flinch. The thing just hissed with danger. We couldn't touch him. Every one of us knew we'd met the most powerful arm ever turned loose in a ballpark." - Ty Cobb, center fielder

"There's only one way to time Johnson's fastball. When you see the arm start forward, swing." - Birdie McCree, baseball executive

"New York writers are determined to make Christy Mathewson the best pitcher, the pitcher-hero of all time. And in that sense they tended to ignore Walter Johnson. They couldn't do this because Walter Johnson surpassed Mathewson in so many ways. If Walter Johnson were pitching for a team that had the winning percentage of Mathewson's Giants there would have been no contest." - Shirley Povich, sports columnist

But for all Johnson's skill and speed there was one hitter whom he could not seem to intimidate. A young Georgian playing for Detroit, who soon found a way to get hits off Johnson. "Walter Johnson was a kindly man, and never really wanted to hurt anybody. It was useless to try for more than a single off Johnson. You had to poke and try to meet the ball. If you swung you were dead. After he told me he was afraid he might kill a hitter, I used to cheat. I'd crowd the plate till I was actually sticking my toes on it, knowing he'd be so timid that he'd pitch me wide. Then with two balls and no strikes he'd ease one up to get one over. That's the Johnson pitch I hit." - Ty Cobb, center fielder

1907 World Series; Chicago Cubs come back from their collapse in the previous year's series to defeat Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers four games to none.

September 23 1908; The Merkle Boner. With the National League pennant on the line between archrivals Chicago Cubs and New York Giants, Giant Al Bridwell drives in what would have been the winning run, but baserunner Fred Merkle fails to touch second, believing the game to be over as hundreds of fans rush the field, and is subsequently forced out, ending the game in a tie. The Cubs go on to win the pennant. "Merkle never lives it down. It is criminal to say that Merkle is stupid and to blame the loss of the pennant on him. We were robbed of it, and you can't say Merkle did that." - John McGraw, third baseman, manager

"I wish I'd never gotten that hit. I wish I'd struck out instead. If I'd done that, then it would have spared Fred a lot of humiliation." - Al Bridwell, shortstop

1908 World Series; Chicago Cubs defeat Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers a second year in a row. They have not won a World Series since.

1909 World Series; NL Pittsburgh Pirates v. AL Detroit Tigers. "For the first time, Ty Cobb would have to face his great rival and near opposite in all things, Honus Wagner."

They met today for the first time, these Cobb and Wagner. It was an interesting study in contrasts. On the one hand was the Georgia boy, lithe and trim as a greyhound, his build speaking the athlete in every line. And on the other, the enormous, heavy-bodied German, the picture of strength and stability, without, however, any apparent suggestion of quickness or movement. Honus Wagner completely outplayed Ty Cobb, and Pittsburgh won. Cobb had led the Tigers to three consecutive World Series and lost all three." He never played in another. - The Detroit News, newspaper

"That's the way it is in baseball. It's a tough racket. There's always someone sitting on the bench just itching to get in there in your place. Thinks he can do better. Wants your job in the worst way. Back to the coal mines for you, pal! The pressure never lets up. It doesn't matter what you did yesterday — that's history. It's tomorrow that counts. So you worry all the time. It never ends. Lords, baseball's a worrying thing." - Stanley Coveleski, pitcher

"They have work to do, and they should be sleeping or eating, but they would rather do without sleep, or without a square meal deliberately eaten, than miss a minute of a ball game, even if they go on their night turn in the mill or factory, minus the rest that should be theirs. Baseball has been a passion of immigrants because it is a way into the United States; it's a kind of citizenship perhaps more authentic than anything which can be on a piece of paper. Sometimes it was the youngster's rebellion against his father — becoming less Polish, more American by taking up baseball — but it became an enormously important part of the American identity." - Donald Hall, poet

### #13- Keep Running Until You Drop- 1910-1919

Interrupted by a war the nation tried to stay out of, the decade started with the Titanic and ended with another sinking; the latter on the baseball playing field.

Major League Baseball in the 1910's was a rowdy proposition. The first inklings of management and ownership's desire to fill seats with guys who had manners and ladies not dressed in mauve were seen. But this was still a small minority. Irate fans still left the stands to yell at or fight with a player when that player did something particularly stupid. And of course the umpires remained fair game for anyone disgruntled.

Aside from the big stars, players were paid salaries most would trade for, but not enough for them to quit their off season jobs. In 1914-15 the Federal League operated. As was intended, the competition of another better paying league caused players' salaries to increase temporarily, giving an inkling of player market value for the first time. Pioneer of the 1890 Players League, John Montgomery Ward became an official in the short-lived Federal League in 1914, acting as the business manager of the Brooklyn Tip-Tops.

So too were the rest of America's workers trying to flex their muscle; and the game was even rougher in their ballpark. Striking and unionizing workers were shot and killed and some retaliated by bombing factories.

In news of the time the 1910 Accident Reports Act was passed and a 10 hour work day and standardization of rates of pay and working conditions were won by the Railway Brotherhoods.

Union membership topped 8 million workers in 1910.

The Los Angeles Times bombing killed twenty people and destroyed the building. Calling it "the crime of the century," the newspaper's owner Harrison Gray Otis blamed the bombing on the unions, a charge denied by unionists.

A dynamite bomb destroyed a portion of the Llewellyn Iron works in Los Angeles, where a strike was in progress. In April 1911 James McNamara and his brother John McNamara, secretary-treasurer of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, were charged with the two crimes. James McNamara pleaded guilty to murder and John McNamara pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the dynamiting of the Llewellyn Iron Works.

Two men were shot dead by police during the Llanelli Railway strike of August 1911, leading to rioting. The Llanelli riots of 1911 were a series of events precipitated by the National Railway Strike of 1911. Mass picketing action at Llanelli railway station was brutally suppressed by the police, resulting in the deaths of two men, shot dead by troops. Rioting followed and magistrates' homes were attacked and railway trucks were set on fire, resulting in an explosion which killed a further four people.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was the largest single, loss of life in New York City up until 9-11-01. The Triangle Shirtwaist Company, occupying the top three floors of a ten-story building in New York City, was consumed by fire. One hundred and forty-six people, mostly women and young girls working in sweatshop conditions, died.

The National Guard was called out against striking West Virginia coal miners at the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, West Virginia mines.

Striking members of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers and supporters are involved in an armed confrontation with the Galloway Lumber Company and supporters in the Grabow Riot, resulting in four deaths and 40 to 50 wounded.

Police shot three maritime workers, one of whom was killed, who were striking against the United Fruit Company in New Orleans.

"The "Ludlow Massacre." In an attempt to persuade strikers at Colorado's Ludlow Mine Field to return to work, company "guards," engaged by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and other mine operators were sworn into the State Militia just for the occasion, and attacked a union tent camp with machine guns, then set it afire. Five men, two women and 12 children died as a result.

And the decade was not yet half over when we entered World war Two.

"I will not tolerate profanity, obscene language or personal insults from my bench. I will always insist as long as I am manager of the club that my boys be gentlemen. There is room for gentlemen at any profession." - Connie Mack, catcher, manager, owner

"He (Connie Mack) could be as tough as rawhide and as gentle as a mother, reasonable and obstinate beyond reason, and courtly and benevolent and fierce. He was kindhearted and hard-fisted, drove a close bargain and was suckered in a hundred deals. He was generous and thoughtful, and autocratic and shy, and independent and altogether completely lovable." - Red Smith, catcher, coach

"It is more profitable for me to have a team that is in contention for most of the season but finishes about fourth. A team like that will draw well enough for the first part of the season to show a profit for the year. And you don't have to give the players raises when they don't win." - Connie Mack, catcher, manager, owner

In 1911 Addie Joss died after a secret battle with meningitis at age 31. His grieving teammates simply skipped town and staged a benefit game to aid his widow. Walter Johnson, Smoky Joe Wood, Napoléon Lajoie and Ty Cobb were there and raised $12,931.

"The employer tries to starve out the laborer, and the laborer tries to ruin the employer's business. They quarrel over a bone and rend each other like coyotes. And we are free born Americans with a Constitution and public schools! Our business philosophy is that of the wolf pack." - Walter Johnson, pitcher

In 1912 the players went out on strike after Ty Cobb was suspended indefinitely for going into the stands to beat up a heckler.

"Everybody took it as a joke. I was only kidding that fella and I frightened him to death. But I would not take from the United States Army what that man said to me, (called him a half nigger) and the fans in New York cheered me to the echo when I left the field. I don't look for applause but for the first time in my life I was glad that the fans were with me." - Ty Cobb, center fielder

1912 World Series. "Write in the pages of World Series baseball history the name of Snodgrass. Write it large and black — not as a hero, truly not. Put him rather with Merkle, who was in such a hurry that he gave away a National League championship. Snodgrass was in such a hurry that he gave away a world championship." - New York Times, newspaper

On The construction of Ebbets Field. "There is no greater optimist in baseball than president Charles Hercules Ebbets of the Brooklyn club. For thirty years he's been in baseball, and all that time he has had confidence in the Brooklyn fan. Through many seasons of losses and disappointments he has carried the Trolley Dodgers, losing money year after year, when those about him lost faith in the game as a paying proposition. But the confidence of Mr. Ebbets has never been shaken. He believed years ago, as he does today, that Brooklyn is a major league city and that it would support a good team." - New York Times, newspaper

"I've made more money than I ever expected to, but I'm putting all of it, and more too, into the new plant for the Brooklyn fans. Of course it's one thing to have a fine ball club and win a pennant, but to my mind there's something more important than that about a ball club. I believe the fans should be taken care of. A club should provide a suitable home for its patrons. This home should be in a location that's healthy, it should be safe and it should be convenient." - Charles Hercules Ebbets, owner

"Hitting alone will not win ball games. I want speed on my team, and I also want every man on the squad to know how to slide. I intend to have my players taught how to run. I don't say we will win any pennants, but I do think that my systematic training will be laying the foundation of a pennant winner. If this is theory, it is blamed good practical theory." - Branch Rickey, baseball executive

"No ballplayer can learn to steal bases by practicing sliding in the sand pits. I wouldn't ask a veteran to slide into a pit. I don't think much of this theory stuff." - Miller Huggins, crosstown manager of Cardinals at the time

In 1915; Federal League owners sued organized baseball in federal court in Chicago, charging that the American and National Leagues constitute a monopoly. The presiding judge was Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Landis permitted the case to drag out while the Federal League collapsed under financial strain. Ban Johnson rescinds his promises of better pay. "Do you realize that a decision in this case may tear down the very foundations of this game, so loved by thousands? Any blows at the thing called baseball would be regarded by this court as a blow to a national institution." - Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis

"Dear Sir; I don't give a damn to be in the big leagues unless I get something for my work. I see you want to give me a good fucking, but I'll pick shit with the chickens before I play for any less." - Fred Toney, pitcher, returning an unsigned contract, 1916. Belated cheers, Fred.

1916 — "The Red Sox celebrated Columbus Day in their hometown by wresting the World's Championship banner free from the trembling, nerveless fingers of the Brooklyn Superbas and throwing it wide to the wind that swept Braves Field, theirs for another year." - New York Times, newspaper

1917-1918; "America's entry into World War I was very near in the spring of 1917. Millions had died in battlefields in Europe and Americans could no longer stand by. Baseball was eager to show that it was ready to do its part. Ban Johnson ordered teams to learn close order drill, and the Washington Senators showed off their marching skill lead by the athletic young Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But baseball had become one of the biggest entertainment industries in the country, and when war actually came in April the owners saw no reason to stop playing. They argued that baseball should be declared an essential wartime industry so that players would be exempt from the draft. It didn't work. With an astonishing disregard for the new proprieties and new decencies, the so-called magnates of baseball have proclaimed in both leagues their unswerving adherence to the wretched fallacy of 'business as usual.' That policy is not calculated to make us proud of baseball as an American institution." - New York Times, newspaper

1918 — "Baseball received a knockout wallop yesterday when Secretary Baker ruled; Players in the draft age must obtain employment calculated to aid in the successful prosecution of the war or shoulder guns and fight." - Washington Star, newspaper

"The Red Sox won the World Series in 1918. The series' star was young Babe Ruth, who had won both his starts, including a one to nothing shutout." - Common knowledge

On Shoeless Joe Jackson. "The greatest natural hitter I ever saw." - Ty Cobb, center fielder

How the 1919 Black Sox threw the World Series is one of baseball's most significant stories and a previous chapter of this book is devoted to sketching it.

### #14- They Played Even Before That

Yes, sir. Even Mark Twain may have even seen a game or two. In fact it is virtually certain that he did. It is also certain that he expressed a certain degree of displeasure with what may have been his first experience. On May 20, 1875 this open letter appeared in the Hartford Courant newspaper:

"To the Public

TWO HUNDRED & FIVE DOLLARS REWARD--At the great baseball match on Tuesday, while I was engaged in hurrahing, a small boy walked off with an English-made brown silk UMBRELLA belonging to me, & forgot to bring it back. I will pay $5 for the return of that umbrella in good condition to my house on Farmington avenue. I do not want the boy (in an active state) but will pay two hundred dollars for his remains."  
Samuel L. Clemens

Apparently on the eighteenth day of May, 1875 the man called "the greatest American writer" attended a locally played game and unfamiliar with the turf, was sufficiently enraptured by the play on the field that he lost awareness of his surroundings. This mind consuming fascination specifically resulted in inadequate attention being paid to his well-loved, imported umbrella. Its five dollar 1875 return reward equates to $111 in 2016 and the carcass $4,440, which exceeds current "legal" value. The fate of the umbrella and its thief are still unknown.

Of more significance Temper-Challenged-Sam watched the Hartford Dark Blues play the Boston Red Stockings. Boston won the game 10-5, which is sufficient cause for a local boy to not be in the best of moods. Boston's pitcher that day was future Hall of Famer and all-time record holder for the endorsing and autographing of baseballs; Al Spalding.

America's entrée into baseball is popularly said to have begun when Alexander Cartwright and a committee established a rulebook in 1845 for their Knickerbocker Club of New York. Like most old stories, this is disputed. In fact, Cartwright, a Hall of Famer, may have the all-time record for dead men disputed with.

The game called Rounders had been long played in England, with the earliest written reference to it being in 1744 book titled; "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book" in which it was called "base-ball" by John Newbery. In 1828, Londoner William Clarke published "The Boy's Own Book," which included the rules of Rounders; and also included a description of a bat and ball game. There seems little doubt that various bat and ball games were played on fields in the US and the UK, but something inevitably becomes "official," though usually temporary, and these events seem to be good candidates for that honor.

To get back to Twain, his birthplace of Florida, Missouri was a long horse ride from New York. Though he was given 38 miles of eastward help through his family's move to Hannibal when he was four, the US Civil War proved to be a setback to any possible Twain baseball invasion at age 25. Travelling difficulties hindered the rapid growth of the sport. After the war, the game resumed that growth through its westward march.

In 1869, the benchmark New York Times printed 126 stories concerning "Base ball," and by 1876, that number had risen to 189. In 1887, the Times commenced spelling the sport "Baseball" and the number of stories written topped 500.

Published posthumously, sometime around 1876 while staying in Elmira, NY Twain wrote in what has been called "Letters from the Earth," of the violence aimed at baseball umpires. He ended that particular segment with; "But in the fullness of time was he more fortunate, and did lay the Umpire dead."

In the summer of 1887, again in Elmira, some say Twain umpired at least one game; while as is usual, it has been contested by others. However, the event was widely reported in newspapers across the country. The following story appeared in the local Elmira paper.

Elmira Daily Advertiser; Saturday, July 2, 1887:

"A number of distinguished people will be on hand to-day to see the old-fashioned game of baseball at which Mark Twain will be one of the umpires, between the Alerts and Unions. These two clubs were the leaders in the sport in southern New York twenty one years ago, and were reorganized for this one game. The players are all prominent business and professional men. Mark Twain, who is at his summer home at Quarry Farm, consented to be one of the umpires on condition that a chair, a fan, an umbrella and a pitcher of ice water be furnished him. Colonel D. C. Robinson assured him that they would be supplied, and the engagement was made. .........................

The game to-day will begin at 4 p.m., and five innings only will be played. Permissions will be given the players to carry umbrellas into the field for protection from the sun if they see fit. The rumor that messenger boys will be employed to carry the ball is emphatically denied. Tricycles will also be barred out.

Two or three of the old rules will be observed:  
1. The ball will be pitched, not thrown as now.  
2. The umpiring conclave are not required to call balls or strikes unless they choose.  
3. Any boy who "Haw-haws" at a muff by his parent may be disciplined behind the grand stand, but not in it.  
4. In case of violent disagreement among the umpires the question at issue shall be decided by a majority vote of the triumvirate, and not by noise in the grand stand or the teams.  
5. Players will not be allowed to receive flowers while running bases.  
6. The audience is required not to say "Hi," "Hi," to members of either team who weigh over 200 pounds while such players are making second base. ................... "

On Sunday, July 3, the Elmira Sunday Telegram also reported on the baseball game. This report was paraphrased with quotes in the Mark Twain Society Bulletin of February 1981:

"The rules followed were those of 1866 when the two teams were first organized right after the Civil War. 'Baseball was then in its infancy, so to speak, and only the fundamental principles are now displayed. Pitched balls were the rule, bound catches were considered out, there was no calling of strikes and balls, and all the modern features of the game were unknown. Still it was immensely popular with the public and those who participated as well.' The Unions beat the Alerts in the old timers contest, 23 to 10. According to the Telegram, "Samuel L. Clemens and T. K. Beecher, the advertised umpires were on hand early, but after looking at the heated appearance of things around home plate decided to occupy a cool seat elsewhere and left their important duties to John R. Joslyn"

The Washington Post of July 3, 1887 further clarified in bold headlines:

Washington Post, July 3, 1887.  
Mark Twain Didn't Umpire.

ELMIRA, N.Y., July 2. - Mark Twain and the Rev. Thomas K. Beecher were advertised to umpire an old-fashioned game of baseball in this city this afternoon. The Mayor and other representative men of the city played in the game, but neither Clemens nor Beecher acted as umpire. Twain said he could not make a martyr of himself, notwithstanding the fact that he would be glad to perish in a good cause, and took a seat by Mr. Beecher in the grand stand. Twain used a big fan in a vigorous manner, and said that he would encourage the players with his presence, but he must refuse to go out in the sun.

The Elmira Daily Advertiser chose to provide a follow-up story:

Elmira Daily Advertiser; Monday, July 4, 1887.

"Mark Twain's effort to umpire a game of old-fashioned base ball on Saturday afternoon at the Maple avenue park, was not unmixed with an element of good natured humbuggery. The humorist rode to the grounds behind General Langdon's spirited team, and after an innocent visit to the ice water tank he sauntered slowly upon the diamond. The large audience thought that Twain and Mr. Beecher would stand behind the bat or at a reasonably safe distance therefrom and tell humorous stories while they called the batmen out or remonstrated gently but firmly with the kickers. But this was not to be, for the two umpires contemplated the game from a cool seat in a far-off pavilion, and the audience was not given an opportunity to see how dexterously Twain could wield his serviceable horn-handled cane, in a case of necessity. He is a decided reformer in base ball umpiring. He does it by proxy, like a statesman supplies autograph letters to signature-hunters."

Are there other takes on Mr. Twain's activities on that fateful day? You bet your Eddie Gaedel autographed baseball that there are. But, I'm going to skip them as this book is not only about Mark Twain's disputed activities and contributions to the Great National Pastime. However, there are excerpts from a speech he gave I'd like to include. The reference to not being a native is the result of a likely coordinated, joking introduction.

The Boston Daily Globe; April 9, 1889

"Though not a native, as intimated by the chairman, I have visited, a great many years ago, the Sandwich Islands; that peaceful land, that beautiful land, that far-off home of profound repose, and soft indolence, and dreamy solitude, where life is one long slumbrous Sabbath, the climate one long delicious summer day, and the good that die experience no change, for they but fall asleep in one heaven and wake up in another.

And these boys have played baseball there! Base ball, which is the very symbol, the outward and visible expression of the drive, and push, and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century! One cannot realize it, the place and the fact are so incongruous; it's like interrupting a funeral with a circus. Why, there's no legitimate point of contact, no possible kinship, between baseball and the Sandwich Islands; baseball is all fact, the Islands all sentiment. In baseball you've got to do everything just right, or you don't get there; in the islands you've got to do everything just wrong, or you can't stay there. ..............

Everybody there is educated there, from the highest to the lowest; in fact, it is the only country in the world where education is actually universal, and yet every now and then you run across instances of ignorance that are simply revolting-simply degrading to the human race. Think of it; there, the ten takes the ace, but let us not dwell on such things; they make a person ashamed. Well, the missionaries are always going to fix that, ..............

Well, it is refreshment to the jaded, water to the thirsty, to look upon men who have so lately breathed the soft airs of those islands of the blest and had before their eyes the inextinguishable vision of their beauty. No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one, no other land could so longingly and so beseechingly me, sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done. .......

And so I drink long life to the boys who ploughed a new equator round the globe, stealing bases on their bellies!"

Despite its infancy baseball was already termed the very symbol of the booming nineteenth century by the man who invented the great American novel. Considering his popularity it seems likely that his views were adopted by many others. Or maybe he just told them what they already knew. For the purposes of this book, I'd have liked it if Twain was quoted as precisely naming baseball as the Great American Pastime. It would have provided an excellent starting point. I like to think that when he said; "Baseball, which is the very symbol, the outward and visible expression of the drive, and push, and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century!" that phrase was subsequently "borrowed" and ultimately converted to the shortened version.

As we all know by now this game predated 1900 in varying formats, though that date was picked as the beginning of "modern" baseball. I suspect that some of you are amused. I am too. It wasn't my call. I'd have started modernity with "Babe" myself. The only "logic" I can draw from this other determination is that rules became more or less constant by the turn of the last century. What is certain is that when one compares accounts of the 19th century events one gets the same consistency as whether or not and under what circumstances Mark Twain umpired that game in Elmira.

Until Babe Ruth, a 2016 person transported back in time might not easily see Wee Willie Keeler's era nickname of "Hit 'Em Where They Ain't" as the same game played by Chris Davis, Nelson Cruz, Albert Pujols, and Clayton Kershaw. At 5'4", 140 pounds Willie put up a .341 lifetime average which straddled the old and the determined as being new; 1892-1910.

However, if we went back to the pre-1900 era Of Cap Anson, Dan Brouthers and Cy Young, it would be even more difficult.

Some early notable commentaries follow.

Walt Whitman, 1846

"In our sundown perambulations of late, through the outer parts of Brooklyn, we have observed several parties of youngsters playing 'base', a certain game of ball. Let us go forth a while and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our close rooms. A game of ball is glorious."

Apparently still a big fan 43 years later in 1889, Walt Whitman added;  
"It's our game. That's the chief fact in connection with it. America's game has the snap, go, fling of the American atmosphere. It belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our Constitution's laws; is just as important in the sum total of our American life."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1824

"Ball playing communicated such an impulse to our limbs and joints, that there is nothing now heard of, in our leisure hours, but ball, ball, ball. I cannot prophesy with any degree of accuracy concerning the continuance of this rage for play, but the effect is good, since there's been a thorough-going reformation from inactivity and torpitude."

Henry Chadwick, (1824 –1908)

He was an English born American sportswriter, baseball statistician and historian, and is often called the "father of baseball." He invented the box score, the statistics of batting average and earned run average, as well as the designation "K" for strikeout. He is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. "Americans do not care to dawdle over a sleep-inspiring game, all through the heat of a June or July day. What they do they want to do in a hurry. In baseball all is lightning. Thus the reason for the American antipathy to cricket can readily be understood."

This is likely amusing to some sports fans of 2016, as the movement in baseball seems slow when compared to basketball, hockey, or football. Recall, his comparison is with cricket. But, also keep in mind that the baseball he saw was not the game we see. It was a game of speed. More motion was involved. A runner on first wanted to steal second. A runner on second wanted to steal third. The "hit and run" play was commonly used. And with many games officiated by only one umpire, players tried to use every advantage they could when he was distracted.

On Dec 5, 1856; The Sunday New York Mercury referred to baseball as "the national pastime". That would be a nice starting point; despite not exactly saying "The Great American Pastime." But, there are other considerations. Mercury was the first newspaper to regularly cover baseball, starting in 1853. One game was covered by the Herald in 1845. In 1858 Henry Chadwick was hired by Mercury. Be that as it may; of more significance is the fact that this Mercury phrasing was unknown until it was mentioned in a book which came out in 2000. No replica of the alleged article was posted. Though many people will say that this was the first incarnation, their source is the secondary book, not the allegedly primary newspaper.

So, believe what you will. I like correct birthdays. What can I say? Astrology signs and all that. Rather than detailing the old rule changes and going into the "professional" status of the players, I thought I might just share some stories of the time.

Michael Joseph "King" Kelly was an outfielder, catcher, and manager in various professional American baseball leagues. He played from 1878-1893, compiling a .308 lifetime average and earned his nickname. He was the most popular and most notorious star of the 19th century and the trickiest player who ever handled a baseball. His aggressive base running inspired the hit song, "Slide, Kelly, Slide."

He sometimes cut across the field, going from first to third by skipping second altogether when the umpire was not looking. Kelly liked his liquor as much as he liked competing.  
One day he was sitting on the bench, and the rule at the time was that if you wanted to substitute for a player all you had to do was call it out. A foul ball came in his direction. Kelly stood up and yelled out; "Kelly now catching for Boston!" He caught the ball and the batter was out. He was trickster, a villain, and sometimes a fool. He was also a great player and all the rage.

In 1888; "Casey at the Bat" was written by Ernest Thayer.

John Montgomery Ward was a Major League pitcher, shortstop and manager. Yes, he was a pitcher who also played the field. He was also an attorney. He played from 1878-1894; batted .275 with 2,104 hits; had a 164-103 won-loss record, and a 2.10 ERA.

In 1885 he founded the Brotherhood of Professional Base-Ball Players, the first players' union. He led the formation of a new baseball league; called the Players' League; which only lasted one year. The Players' League was short-lived but star-studded. The League included most of the best players of the National League. Led by John Montgomery Ward, they left the National after failing to change the one sided player-management relationship in existence there.

The Players League lasted just the one season of 1890, and the Boston franchise won the championship. The league was well-attended, at least in some cities, but was underfunded, and its owners lacked the confidence to continue beyond that one season.

John Montgomery Ward is quoted as having said; "There was a time when the National League stood for integrity and fair dealing. Today it stands for dollars and cents. Once it looked to the elevation of the game and an honest exhibition of the sport. Today its eyes are on the turnstile. Players have been bought, sold, and exchanged as though they were sheep instead of American citizens. There is now no escape for the player. If he attempts to elude the operation of the rule he becomes at once a professional outlaw, and the hand of every club is against him. Like a fugitive slave law, the Reserve Clause denies him a harbor or a livelihood, and carries him back bound and shackled to the club from which he attempted to escape. We have, then, the curious result of a contract, which on its face is for seven months, being binding for life."

That sounds sufficiently precocious and universal, like it could have been written anytime later in baseball history, until Curt Flood came along. The man was well ahead of his time.

Albert Goodwill Spalding was a pitcher, manager and executive in the early years of baseball, and the co-founder of A.G. Spalding Sporting Goods Company. He played between 1871 and 1878. A popular myth is that Spalding became the first player to use a fielding glove in 1877 as such gloves were among the items sold at his sporting goods store. However, field gloves were regularly used in the mid-1870s. He was President and part owner of the Chicago White Stockings. With William Hulbert, Spalding organized the National League.

A.G Spalding responded to Ward with;

"I am for war without quarter. I want to fight until one of us drops dead. From this point on it will simply be a case of dog eat dog, and the dog with the bulldog tendencies will live the longest."

In 1890; The Brotherhood was crushed and the National League absorbed both the Players' League and the Beer & Whiskey League, securing a monopoly on major league baseball. The Reserve Clause remained intact.

Spalding then said; "The Players' League is deader than the proverbial doornail. When the spring comes and the grass is green upon the last resting place of anarchy, the national agreement will rise again in all its weight and restore to America in all its purity its national pastime: the great game of baseball."

Cy Young recorded 511 career wins between 1890 and 1911, a record never even approached by any other pitcher. It should be noted that during part of his career it was not uncommon for a pitcher to pitch virtually all of his team's games. Having said that he put up a pre-1900 record of 267-151; and 244-165 after the official announcement of the coming of modernity. His record number of career wins was countered by his record number of career losses. His lifetime 2.63 ERA is sixtieth on the all-time list and his 2,803 strikeouts is twentieth. The man had to have had a rubber arm.

Early on, Young established himself as one of the harder-throwing pitchers in the game. His regular catcher, Chief Zimmer often put a piece of beefsteak inside his baseball glove to protect his catching hand from Young's fastball.

Two teams dominated the 1890s: the Boston Beaneaters and the Baltimore Orioles. Boston was led by Billy Hamilton and Hugh Duffy, and pioneered what would be called the "Inside Game;" sacrifice bunts, squeeze plays, double steals. They fought and struggled for every run. In an era of dirty baseball the Orioles delighted in being the dirtiest. The Orioles were one of the greatest teams ever assembled and later continued their tradition through evolving into being the New York Yankees.

"Baseball was mighty glamorous and exciting to me, but there's no use in blinking at the fact that at that time the game was thought by solid, respectable people to be only one degree above grand larceny, arson and mayhem, and those who engaged in it were beneath the notice of decent society." - Connie Mack, catcher, manager, owner

Dan Brouthers, Orioles' first baseman, was the greatest power hitter of the 1880s, bettering .300 in 14 seasons".

"Wee Willie" Keeler, Orioles' right field, was "the game's preeminent place hitter." Asked for the secret of his success, he answered, "Keep your eye clear and hit 'em where they ain't." He once managed at least one hit in 44 consecutive games; a record for a while.

Hughie "Ee-Yah" Jennings, Orioles' shortstop, hit .401 in 1896, stole 70 bases, and set a record in his specialty. He managed to get hit by pitched balls 49 times. Between seasons he practiced law.

John McGraw, Orioles' third baseman, was the most pugnacious Oriole of them all. The toughest of the toughs, and an abomination on the diamond; a rough, unruly man, he used every low and contemptible method that his erratic brain could conceive to win a play by a dirty trick. Referring to McGraw; "The one true American." - George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, critic and polemicist, which basically means one who likes to argue and proceeds to make little sense.

"The great lesson in sports is supposed to be that you not only learn the elation of winning, but you learn how to lose. There's a lot of emphasis on that in the British attitude toward sports, and Americans have it, too. But there's something very American about being a poor loser, refusing to shake the other fella's hand. He says, 'He's a scoundrel, he always was a scoundrel, and he's even more of a scoundrel now that he's beat me.' There's something likable about that in people ... it's bad sportsmanship." - Shelby Foote, historian

### #15- The Steroid Era; 1980's to Present

The aforementioned dates are far from "official" after 2005 or so.

Enough people said that the 1970's lack of offense was such a disappointment, that many believed them. If one is not a baseball fanatical aficionado of the subtleties going on between pitches it looked as if nothing was happening; much like huddles and commercial breaks in rival football. Still, this baseball dynamic can be quite the snooze button, even for a SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) member, when with two outs and nobody on base a ticky-ticky hitter is at the plate. Time to refresh the bowl of chips.

By the eighties it was becoming unusual to hear the phrase; "The Great American Pastime." Football, basketball, and hockey had become competitors; and understandably so. "Bigger, stronger, faster," was the simplistic put-down phrase emanating from the young steroid addicts. The casual sports watcher had a hard time relating to the standard baseball visual from behind the mound, not that I would suggest a replacement. But the guessing game going on between the pitcher and hitter, which has been described as the most interesting, mental aspect of any sport, is completely meaningless to someone who has not played the game at a competitive level. The local teams which once could play decently against Major League and Negro League barnstorming teams were all but gone, their peak prior to the days of television. Some slow pitch softball leagues for older gents still existed; but it's like comparing a Model T to a Ferrari. Conversely, it takes no training to see that the basketball, football, and hockey team is moving and might just score any second.

Just as certain actors bring in fans, so is that true for sports. Basketball had Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, soon to be followed by Michael Jordan. Football had Joe Montana and Lawrence Taylor. Hockey had Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Baseball countered with Brett, Boggs, and once-in-the-World Series, Schmidt.

In comparison to the other major team sports, 1980's baseball was a bit of a throwback to the pre-1920 "dead ball" era. Speed, pitching, and defense obliterated power. Only 10 players hit more than forty home runs in a season, and no one made fifty. Speed on the base paths became the most exciting offensive display with Rickey Henderson, Vince Coleman, Willie McGee, Willie Wilson, and Tim Raines running at will. This would also be the last stand for complete games and four-man rotations.

The fans demand for offense is the demonstrated rule of the road. Perhaps in keeping with that, late 1980's hitters got bigger and at times seemed to add on twenty pounds of muscle and three shoe sizes during the off season. Whereas, previously, a good team had two legitimate home run threats in the lineup and an excellent one three or more; all of a sudden, by 1990 virtually everyone in the lineup could hit one; even the shortstop.

Hey, if octogenarian Reagan could chainsaw a tree, at least on the camera take, it didn't seem outrageous for one to ask these young, suddenly muscular, baseball playing men to hit the goddam ball a lousy 350 feet. Thanks to free agency they were getting paid thirty times better than the President. It was embarrassing. Had Carl Yastrzemski not had a big day the last of the 1968 campaign, the American League would have had its first batting average leader with a season below .300. Though there has been worse in modern times, Willie McCovey's National League home run title that same year with 36 dingers was nothing to write home about. Who wanted to see that again? Having said that, lower season totals have been "winners." Someone keeps saying that it's all relative.

However, in some sort of confusing, mixed message, when it was determined that some of the late eighties desired, offensive resurgence might well be the result of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), many fans registered their verbal disapproval. The loosely defined "Steroid Era" ran from about the late 1980's to about the mid 2000's; though subsequent testimony has indicated that it started well before that, though to a lesser degree. The continuation seems to be likely, enhanced through the difficulty in clearly determining the bodily existence of some of the advanced PED's, though the pitchers have one again caught up with and have gone ahead of the sluggers in the 2010's. But for the late eighties, nineties , and early 2000's; despite the two decade old adage that there would never again be a power hitter who could bat .300, all of a sudden a bunch of them came out of hiding.

It is suspected that steroid use continues to this day. As one college player told me; "Everyone wants that competitive advantage." Major League Baseball finally imposed stiff penalties and random testing in 2006; but science again stepped up and provided "undetectable" concoctions. "Better living through chemistry" was a simplification of what Americans had been hearing on TV commercials since 1935. It is a variation of the very well-known DuPont advertising slogan, "Better Things for Better Living ... Through Chemistry." It was abandoned in 1999; perhaps because Du Pont didn't want to be associated with any of the blame soon to be bandied about.

There are a number of PEDs and banned substances, some of which seem to merely keep the player awake, which no doubt is helpful to performance, but kind of expected. But, in addition to No-Doz, there are others which increase size and muscularity. For an extreme of what is now technologically possible, just look at pro wrestlers. There were those who defended the players in a few ways; some of them interesting;

1) The old "not yet proven" defense. It should be noted that it was not until 2003 that players were randomly tested; and the testing was consensual until 2006.

2) That the effect of PED usage was less than the effect of changing the dead ball to a live one; yet no one belittles or even asterisks Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx.

3) The pitchers took them too; so it balanced out.

4) Drugs were everywhere; so why not in baseball?

5) Taking steroids in 2000 was no different than the baby boomers taking vitamins their parents did not and becoming bigger.

6) If all you need are steroids and size to excel at professional baseball, why aren't all the pro wrestlers on the 500 Home Run list?

7) Some people are born bigger. Why should they have an advantage over those who were not?

8) Everybody else is taking them. Why should I be at a disadvantage?

It is probably not unexpected that pharmaceutical use was practiced in baseball by the 1980's. Drug use had become a regular part of the repertoire of the general population since the 1960's. The use of marijuana and LSD were first derided as illegal stupidity done by "dropouts," and it was even indirectly tied to being un-American. Things began to get gray when the 1980's business community adopted cocaine as a way to "work hard" and its high price gave it a cachet of success. No dropouts here. Things grayed more when pharmaceutical companies made use of the human genome discovery. Computers were of particular use in this new world of drug design, and their power and capabilities increased dramatically during the 1980s. The increased computational power of computers enabled researchers to work through the complex mathematics that describe the molecular structure of idealized drugs. Drug designers, in turn, could use the increasingly powerful imaging capabilities of computers to convert mathematical protein models into three-dimensional images. Gone were the days when modelers used sticks, balls, and wire to create models of limited scale and complexity. In the 1980s, they used computers to transform mathematical equations into interactive, virtual pictures of elegant new models made up of thousands of different atoms. There would soon be a cure for all your ills, including the lack of hitting. Perhaps best of all, the new designer concoctions were legal; as the law is required to precisely define what is illegal; and the change of a molecule or two put the designers at a distinct advantage.

These changes all competed for attention in the breakthrough 1980's. Many biotech companies went public, their starters becoming multi-millionaires. This was fine, even with the general public not in possession of escalating shares, as soon they expected that they would be able to live forever; ostensibly a desirable goal.

In the world of baseball fans, the sudden size increases of the players initially seemed not to cause overt concern about PED's. Some fans used inferences as a reason to disparage a player they didn't like, but it was not a great effort. Not until things got ridiculous. The annoying users continued to extoll their generation for being bigger, stronger, and faster; conveniently ignoring concepts of smarter, skilled, or competent. Many liked to believe that this was just due to some sort of evolution or de-evolution, and at least the "nattering nabobs of negativism" of the 1960's suddenly appeared to be tiny.

In the history of baseball only 27 people have hit more than 50 home runs in a season. It took until 1938 to get the fourth one and until 1947 to get the fifth. Yet in both 1998 and 2001 four people reached that height. While Maris' record of 61 lasted 37 years, it was broken twice in 1998, twice in 1999, and twice more in 2000; Barry Bonds 73 the peak.

While I personally believe that Bonds was the best offensive player of his era, and that if anyone from it should have the record, it should be him, it was becoming all too obvious to almost all fans that things had been ridiculously cheapened. Baseball has a revered, long history, and this artificially induced aberration had to be stopped, even if that meant less scoring. Drugs can often produce reactions which one might not otherwise have considered. It is also a shame that under current thinking some great players will never be inducted into the Hall of fame. You see, there is a large contingent of sportswriters who will never vote for anyone from the steroid era.

Drugs have a long history in America as does the quest for making money through sensationalism. Many of the drugs which are now included as illegalities in Schedule 1 of 1970's Controlled Substances Act were available in the early twentieth century without prescription at the institution which came to be known as the drug store. There are five schedules in the Act, and Schedule 1 substances are those that are considered the most dangerous. They include LSD and marijuana; the latter a secret player favorite. The defined characteristics of Schedule 1 are as follows;

A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.

B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

It is further stated that; "No prescriptions may be written for Schedule I substances, and such substances are subject to production quotas which the DEA imposes." DUH!!!! If no prescriptions may be written for the substances, why is ANY production allowed?

With the exception of stimulants, none of the performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) appear on any of the law's five schedules. It should be noted that Schedule 5 includes cough suppressants and anti-diarrheals.

While some officials have paid lip service to the un-prescribed use of some PEDs being illegal there has been no enforcement. Dr. Dragos Roman, who leads a team at the FDA that reviews drugs in endocrinology, said; "The F.D.A. doesn't regulate off-label uses of Human Growth Hormone (HGH). Sometimes it's used appropriately. Sometimes it's not."

The prior assertions are not intended to start a drug debate. It is stated because the US is in some kind of contradictory relationship with drugs; prescribed or not; legal or not; war or not; and this complication no doubt has its place in the mere delineation of the popular array of attitudes toward PED's.

Back a bit I also mentioned the propensity of some to attempt to make money from sensationalism. I mentioned that because there have been many stories told, which tend to have the subjects as the indiscretions of baseball's biggest stars; including the pre-1900 injections of dog semen. I have chosen not to glorify such assertions; but include some which seem to have more substance. Their like may easily be seen and purchased near the checkout line of your local supermarket.

Off the field, it is said that during World War II, both the Allied and Axis powers systematically provided amphetamines to their troops, in order to improve soldiers' endurance and mental focus. After the end of the war, many of those returning troops attended college, and when they did, they applied their knowledge of the benefits of amphetamine use first to college sports, and then in some cases to professional baseball. While this seems plausible; it is also true that my father was under Patton, in Europe during much of WW2. He said that their "stimulant" was coffee. Regardless, the belief, right, wrong or most likely somewhere in between establishes its own reality.

Early in the drug game, very forgettable pitcher Tom House, active in MLB from 1971-1978, admitted to using "steroids they wouldn't give to horses" during his playing "career." One can only conclude that had he not taken PED's, his performance would have been AA level, with a 3.79 ERA in his light hitting time. According to House, the use of performance-enhancing drugs was widespread at that time. He estimated that "six or seven" pitchers on every team were at least experimental users of steroids or human growth hormone, and says that after losses, players would frequently joke that they'd been "out-milligrammed" rather than beaten. To contradict himself, he added that his personal experience was one which was not enhanced. It would have been difficult to suggest otherwise. He stressed the attendant physical problems.

Of much more note, typically reserved Mike Schmidt, who played from 1972-1989, admitted that he had used amphetamines "a few times." He said that amphetamines were widely available in major league clubhouses during his career. He added that; "Amphetamine use in baseball is both far more common and has been going on a lot longer than steroid abuse."

Another great; relief pitcher Goose Gossage; active from 1972-1994, also admitted to using amphetamines during his playing career. He also voiced the opinion; with which I concur; that amphetamines are not a PED, though using them was illegal at the time.

The primary popular objection is to the size and muscle building pills and injections commonly called steroids, which were placed on baseball's banned substance list in 1991. However, the ban was essentially an "on your honor" dictum, as testing did not begin until 2003. While prohibition of steroids began, the usage did not stop. Sounds like the all too familiar political bull; doesn't it?

Shades of Jim Bouton's 1970 "Ball Four;" in 2005 the major event took place in the name of retired Jose Canseco's book; "Juiced." Jose was active from 1985-2001. During that time many thought it was obvious that he appeared to be on steroids. But, perhaps since he was not setting any major league all-time records it was not a huge issue, and he helped fill the hitting gap. He and early Oakland A's team mate Mark McGwire, who was active from 1986-2001 were called "The Bash Brothers." In the book, Canseco confessed and also named several other players as PED users. The names included Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Jason Giambi, Jorge Delgado, Damaso Moreno and Manuel Collado. He also stated that up to 85% of major league players took steroids. The book opened the floodgates, and, not surprisingly, most of these players have at least initially said the charges are false. McGwire and Giambi have since admitted to using PEDs, McGwire in a 2010 book in which he and his brother, a professional football player, both admitted to using them. Palmeiro spared everyone another book and just tested positive for them.

The US Congress also got involved in 2005, during which time Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Ryan Franklin's names were mentioned. Bonds had an outstanding career between 1986 and 2007. The most curious aspect of it was his increase in power from 2000-2004; in 2001 setting the record of 73 home runs. After that the numbers were in the 40's as he was regularly walked, one time with the bases loaded. These prolific years came at ages 35-39; when most exhibit a decline. His career home run total is also a record of 762, seven more than Hank Aaron.

In 2008 Canseco released another book curiously titled "Vindicated," in which he added Alex Rodriguez and Albert Belle to his list. Rodriguez admitted it in 2009.

There is more; much more. But, for the purposes of this book what has been already written is more than sufficient. My point is perhaps not the usual one. It seems apparent that since the 1960's drug use in America has gotten to be increasingly acceptable. Some would insist that these medications only be given under the supervision of a doctor; and the doctors now can prescribe legal substitutes for "treatments" which were once illegal. More or less, the general public accepts this; but not for their athletes; still considered a role model for their children. This possible notion is undoubtedly one which would contribute to baseball's no longer being termed the Great National Pastime. The other possibility is that perhaps the public would be more accepting of PED's if statistics generated during a time of their use carried something akin to the Roger Maris 61 home runs asterisk.

What strikes me as most strange about the public's attitude requires an historical viewpoint. Fans clearly like to see more home runs and scoring; but apparently not too much. There are invisible limits.

It may be possible to produce a mental vision which would put the changes brought on by PEDs into some context. In one possible way to equalize the eras, picture that the fences were brought in 100 feet from the 30's to some of those established in the 80's. Then view old game films and see those long fly outs as home runs.

The early 1980's started the decade with a dearth of power. After the show which was the late seventies Yankees, the eighties were rather boring and is kindly referred to as an "overlooked" era. The game featured speed and relief pitching.

The St. Louis Cardinals began to focus on speed; with Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, Lonnie Smith, and Vince Coleman; winning three pennants. Other teams followed suit. Most notably Tim Raines and Andre Dawson with the Montreal Expos; and Tony Gwynn and Alan Wiggins played "small ball" in San Diego.

Ben Oglivie, an occasional All-Star, who retired after 16 seasons with a .273 batting average and 235 home runs may have spoken a bit soon when he said; "The long ball has become the thing to be enamored with, even with guys who can't do it. The home run is pretty much a mistake thing. Pitchers don't want to give up the home run. It is a glorified hit. It isn't the goal to shoot for in this game. It happens when the guys are fundamentally doing the right things. It is almost like winning the lottery. The hitter wins the lottery when a pitcher makes a mistake. Nobody can go up and hit home runs every at bat. Scoring runs is the name of the game, no matter how you get them. So if you are drafting guys who can run, it makes a lot of sense. It was geared toward speed."

Another factor in the low scoring was the rise of relief pitching. The role became highly noticed in the seventies with the successes of Rollie Fingers and Goose Gossage, but spread in the eighties to where most teams had a dominant closer. Bruce Sutter, Gossage, Willie Hernandez, Mark Davis, Steve Bedrosian, Lee Smith, Dennis Eckersley, and Dan Quisenberry began to confound hitters.

Oglivie explained; "Now, they don't face the starters as long. When I played, we might see a starter the whole game. Baseball is evolving. It was tougher for the hitters in that way. Now, starters pitch five, six, or seven innings. It gave the hitters time to make the adjustments. If you had faced a pitcher one or two times around, usually by the third time, you have a bead on that pitcher. Now, someone comes in in the sixth inning and he can pitch in the high nineties. Good pitchers, you might see them a fourth time, but three times is a lot today. After the third time, you have a new pitcher and it is like you start over again. And you see a closer one time."

Despite the fear of free agency doing otherwise, in the 1980's winning teams were spread around a bit and if not for Atlanta's pitching would have continued into the late nineties. Hitting stars were quiet like Cal Ripken Jr., Robin Yount, Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg, Dale Murphy, Eddie Murray, Ozzie Smith, and Andre Dawson. No more Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Clemente; not even a Hank Greenberg.

Then came the lone call of the "Bash Brothers;" Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. As a rookie in 1987 McGwire hit 49 dingers and Canseco chipped in with 31. The A's ended at 81-81. But in 1988, they added the pitching of Bob Welch, and the A's ran away with the pennant at 104-58 and went to the Series', with Canseco hitting 42 to McGwire's 32. Power fans finally had something to watch.

The next decade brought to prominence Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Jim Thome, Rafael Palmeiro, Manny Ramirez, and Gary Sheffield. After spending a decade clean, the fans overdosed on home runs. Power hitters returned to the fore as a result of their bashes and eventually the controversies off the field. Something "new" was going on, and by the time leadoff hitters hit fifty, the fans wanted more information.

Another possible view is that the thing initially went well until the fans got disgruntled with the players for "their 1994-95 strike," not having many bad words for the owners who cried poverty and refused to make their contractually obliged pension fund payments. It is said that this was baseball's lowest point since the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. But, this time there was no single Babe Ruth to save it. PED's had produced eleven of them.

The round-tripping orgy reached a fever pitch in 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both obliterated Roger Maris' 37 year old single season home run record, with McGwire topping out at 70 to Sosa's 66. Baseball owed its comeback to the pair. Even Senator Ted Kennedy was compelled to congratulate them, though he mispronounced Sammy's last name.

So, for a while baseball entered the new century on a popular note. But, while the skies were again blue, it became apparent that many of the players performing under it were playing under threatening clouds. Scrutiny became so intense as more and more damning testimonies were given, that the question ultimately became not who had taken PED's, but who hadn't. The books, admissions, and testimonies eventually confirmed Canseco, McGwire, Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds. Initially, MLB and the Player's Union tried to ignore the pending storm, assured that the sky was not falling.

The rosters reflected an increasing amount of world-wide talent. The usual sources of the Caribbean and Latin America were challenged by an influx of others, especially the Far East, just like the country as a whole. Leading the way was Ichiro Suzuki, who has hit .313 with over 3,000 hits in the 16 years from 2001 to mid-season 2016.

The globalization helped smaller-budget teams who couldn't compete for the big ticket power guys. Perennial contenders like the Yankees and Red Sox found themselves challenged by overachievers from Oakland, Florida, Minnesota and, even Tampa Bay. The Yanks did acquire a 38 year old Suzuki for the 2012-14 seasons, but his best days were over by then.

For some time, major league pitchers saw their ERA's soar as they struggled to pitch to synthetically enhanced sluggers, in shrinking ballparks, and unwillingly pleasing the lovers of the long ball.

The 2010's have thus far proved to be a different story.

While it is popularly said that the change stemmed from baseball's crackdown on PED's, there are other factors involved. The guys who were putting up the unbelievable numbers in the 2000's were either gone from the league or on their last legs. In addition, pitchers have a way of learning how to adjust to offensive threats. With the likely exceptions of Ted Williams and Barry Bonds, all hitters have some weakness. Pitchers eventually find it, and when their execution is at a peak, they handle things well. Strikeouts reached epidemic proportions. The new starting mound merchants, like Clayton Kershaw, weren't only the biggest stars. Even when opposing teams "got into the bullpen" they were faced with fresh arms, many throwing in the high nineties, some adding a baffling array of off speed stuff.

The business end of the game took another upswing in massive television contracts which in and of themselves justified the purchase price of the team. The Los Angeles Dodgers were sold in 2012 for a record $2.15 billion, and immediately got a long-term, local TV deal averaging over $300 million a year to add to their league shared MLB Advanced Media which is said to be worth well into the billions. Investors had a better than market rate return before selling one ticket or one line of advertising. And some still said that football was "The Great American Pastime." Gimme a break. And this is a time when it was the hurlers, not the hitters, in the limelight. Gimme a double break.

2010 temporarily marked an all-time high for strikeouts, with 14.12 per game; eclipsing the record set the previous year. Home run totals have declined every year since 2006. Some cite a reversal of young player's goals. While pitching was virtually always an afterthought for young people who couldn't hit well through the mid-sixties, things gradually changed as pitchers importance was acknowledged, and their salaries went up. It has now gone a full 180 on the spectrum, as now many youngsters who might have made excellent hitters, have concentrated on their pitching skills from their earliest years.

"I believe if you took 20 really athletic guys that could make a choice, maybe 12 to 15 might be choosing pitching versus a position. They're open to coaching and want to learn new grips and pitches. Young hitters, in contrast, seem to lack approach at the plate. Many big hitters are coddled from youth. By the time they reach the big leagues, they lack the necessary discipline to consistently succeed in the majors." - Tony LaRussa, infielder and manager

"I don't see that many hitters making adjustments. Rookies should be standing closer to the plate and take the curve ball away from the pitcher. The curve ball is the everlasting thing. Pitchers change. And you got to see them change and you got to change with them. It's a constant game of chess, but you got to be able to think." - Ralph Kiner, outfielder, announcer

"It's easier to coach pitchers because they're willing to try anything, what finger pressure to get movement. They, by their nature it seems like, want to be coached. Hitters on the other hand, usually are not open-minded until they fail." - Dave Duncan, catcher, pitching coach, consultant

The best players of 1980-1989 were Wade Boggs, George Brett, Rickey Henderson, Dale Murphy, Tim Raines, Cal Ripken Jr., Mike Schmidt, and Robin Yount; Brett the best in a close call.

From 1990-1999 Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Greg Maddux, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Mike Piazza, and Frank Thomas made their presences known; McGwire the most.

From 2000-2009 there was Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Albert Pujols, and Johan Santana; Bonds the leader; Rodriguez a marvelous second.

### #16- Relief Pitching

Unless you are approaching or have gone beyond 70 years of age, your baseball viewings have probably taken for granted that all those relief pitchers of 2016 were always a part of baseball. But maybe you've chanced across some statistics which made you wonder why the records for complete games were all set a long time ago by names you've never heard. Believe it or not, the value of a relief pitcher is essentially a very modern concept, by baseball standards.

Obviously prior to 1950 every starter did not finish the game. However the people who came in to wrap things up were not the essential specialists of today. The "bullpen" acquired its name as a result of its residents; old bulls. Many were pitchers past their primes who would be called in when the game was lost and the starter was too embarrassed or drunk to finish. That has more truth in it than most would like to admit. But there were also a number of other possibilities;

1) The aforementioned "mop up" men were there to save the starter's arm for the next game; rather than have him wear it further down in a lost cause.

2) A young, prospective starter is sometimes tested in a lost game.

3) The reliever is someone able to warm up quickly if the starter is injured, ejected, or pinch hit for.

4) The reliever could be an ace starter who might finish up an important game down the stretch.

Almost all pitchers did make some relief appearances, but with the exceptions of situations 3 and 4, not much was expected of them. Prior to 1950 there were only 29 seasons in which a pitcher appeared in relief 50 or more times. Contrast that with the specialist 2000's in which it is a common event for 125 relief pitchers to appear in 50 or more games in each season. Before, anyone put in a non-lost-game, relief role was primarily a starter temporarily out of character.

The first clear exception was Firpo Marberry. He was one who seemed to have been blessed with an arm capable of throwing virtually every day, posted one of the lowest ERA's of his big hitting time, and was used as a starter one day and a reliever the next. Over his career he started 33% of the time and relieved 67%. He was the first pitcher to relieve more than 50 times in a season and the first to record 20 saves; though that statistic did not yet exist during his 1923-36 career. Relief pitching was seen as a lesser position and Firpo was put in an odd place as he had no competitors one could compare him with. His record as a starter was an enviable 94-52.

The beginnings of recognized relief value waited for Joe Page. Page was brought to the big leagues by the New York Yankees in 1944, after having spent four years in their farm by the New York Yankees in 1944, after having spent four years in their farm system. He began his career as a starter. That is until 1947 when the innovative NY Yankees converted a good starter with arm difficulties to almost exclusive relief status.

In his rookie season he started 16 games, relieved in three, and made the All-Star team. The next season, Page suffered a shoulder injury, started nine, and relieved in eleven, ending with a 2.82 ERA. Again in 1946 Page split his time. In 1947 Page spent the season in the bullpen, appeared in 56 games while starting only two; and was once again an All-Star. 1948 and 1949 were similar. He acquired the nickname of "Fireman," now synonymous with reliever or closer. Page won the first Babe Ruth Award for his performance in the 1949 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, winning game three; after having finished third in the American League Most Valuable Player voting. With increasing arm trouble, in 1950, Page was sent back to the minors and was released in 1951. His arm may have given out in 1950, but his performance changed the game forever.

His mantle was taken up for one season by Jim Konstanty of the 1950 pennant winning, "Whiz Kids," Philadelphia Phillies. In a somewhat revolutionary gesture, Jim was granted the MVP that year. He did not duplicate his performance. Nor did the Phillies until 1980.

Batters used to openly say that they could count on getting one at bat per game against a tired pitcher. With the gradual increased use of relief pitchers this became less and less true. When computer aided statistical analysis became available it was noted that a pitcher's performance severely deteriorated after 100 pitches and the bullpen gates were replaced with revolving doors. Pitchers still doing well were yanked at 100.

As teams increasingly recognized the value of relief pitchers more and more were added to the roster. While at one time there was only one "Fireman" in the entire league, now each team has a minimum of five. Typically, one is a lefty who usually comes in to try to get out one particularly dangerous lefty hitter. Second, third, and fourth are the "set up men" who might pitch the seventh and eighth innings. And third is the ace; the "closer," the one to shut things down in the ninth.

The "Save" statistic which applies only to the closer was first used in 1969. Its definition has changed a few times, and it is still regarded by some as a measurement which needs improvement. The relief pitcher became considered so essential that teams added more and more of them. The term "Hold" was defined for the "set up men" in 1986, though it is not considered an "official" baseball statistic; whatever that means. At any rate, a typical game now goes something like this;

1) The "starter" pitches 6 innings.

2) The "sat up man" or "men" pitch 2.

3) The closer pitches the last 1.

Below are some decade to decade pitching statistics which swing more wildly than home run production in the years of the Babe.

The numbers bear out what has been obvious to the long term fan. Though he may not have been aware of the precise numbers, the current usage of relievers is nine times that of the 1950's; which was itself three times more than the 1940's. Starters have consistently become less and less finishers.

Can't a hitter get a break once a game from a tired pitcher? Not anymore. A good athlete will adapt to most any situation. Quasi-legal pharmaceuticals have been sought to cure ills in the rest of America. Why not its great pastime?

Below is a listing of various awards won by relievers. You will note that excepting Jim Konstanty in 1950, the first reliever to win any award was in 1974; though the "modern game" was already well into its senior citizen years. Of special note there was a time when a reliever would really not be considered for the Cy Young Award; and it was almost anathema to call one the Most Valuable Player.

The definitive commentary about relievers is yet to be written, as this aspect of the game has been drastically changing since the middle of the twentieth century, and is continuing to do so. Statistics and measurements are more difficult to come by than in any other baseball area. If you've been watching the game for a while, it has to be clear that the trend is heavily toward more pitchers, who are used less time each per game.

This is yet to be seen, but if current trends continue baseball fans may soon be witnessing the biggest change in the game since Babe Ruth invented the home run.

To date, the studies have been done with small samplings as at this time some of the pertinent information has not yet been standardly or easily available, and is quite time consuming to construct. Initial indications seem to make logical sense, in that the numbers confirm what we have been seeing. There are more relief pitchers in each game. Starters consistently go shorter distances. There have been more frequent outings for relievers, and better performances are calculated for pitchers used briefly; even prior to the accepted 100 pitch line of demarcation. The suggestion is to use all pitchers for shorter, more frequent outings. Relievers tend to optimize performance, and one of the purposes of starters is to put up a lot of innings. The latter was always the case.   
At this point the starter role is underperforming, yet still traditional. Some starters cannot make frequent outings, because their arms require four days of rest even after pitching two innings. So, that would mean that too many pitchers would be required on a staff.

But, what is "too many?"

Baseball teams have generally had a 25 man roster, and generally a 40 man one when all players under contract are taken into consideration. Astute management can juggle their rosters in a host of ways. That was said as a prelude to the following chart. I took the New York Yankees list of how many played for them in various years, and how many of those were pitchers. It's telling with an aberration in 1939.

I don't think anyone should have any more questions about why many young people have turned to pitching.

#17- The Best Teams

If you're the least bit objective you say the New York Yankees are the best team of all time. That's such an easy question, pardon me for almost asking it. I know that all the Yankee haters are now calling me all sorts of rude names and many will be returning this book to Amazon. Ah well, it's the truth. And nyah, nyah, nyah; the Yankees are the best team ever. Deal with it.

Why that is so is less easy to answer. "Why?" is a much better topic to debate. Since 1920 the Yankees have purchased the best talent available; and their critics say this is the reason in a derisive, sort of anti-commercial sniff. Well, it's true that the Yankees purchase the best talent available; but they also manage to get even more home grown. Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson, and overage Alex Rodriguez came by way of greenbacks; but Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Bob Meusel, Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Keller, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris, and Derek Jeter found their ways to the Bronx without initial wads of cash. Nyah, nyah, nyah once more.

Back stepping a bit, they have been in 40 World Series, winning 27 of them. To put that in some sort of perspective a total of 111 Series have been played through 1915, in a league which has ranged from 16 to 30 teams. If things were equal every team would have appeared in about 10, winning 5. Let me put this in further perspective. If the runner up won the pennant, playoffs, and World Series every year and the Yankees never won anything again, the runner up would pass the Yankee record in 2037. Do yourself a favor, and don't argue with me until then.

The St. Louis Cardinals, who represented the NL for the 19th time in 2013, have won 11 championships, which is the second most among all 30 Major League teams as well as most among NL teams. Only the Giants have been NL champions more times, appearing in 20 World Series, with eight Series victories, second most in the National League, including their most recent in 2014.

The long view well in place, let's give some of the lesser competitors a chance and look at things by decades. It has been often said that the Chicago Cubs make their fans cry, and it is easy to see why. They started out as the best team in baseball; and then despite showing reason for hope here and there, completely fizzled by the end of World War II. They had won 11 pennants before the Yankees achieved their first; and gave some signs of their knack for folding down the stretch by winning only two World Series; 1907 and 1908. We'll skip the first six pennants won and six World Series not played prior to 1900 and deal with modern day baseball's best teams of each decade.

1900-1909 Chicago Cubs

The 1900's stabilized the "Great American Pastime's" operation, bringing, among other things the first World Series, and the creation of the American League. The best of the decade is undoubtedly the National League's Chicago Cubs. The Cubs went 914-619, good enough to get them a phenomenal regular season winning percentage of .677 and to win them two World Series titles in 1907 and 1908, the first to win the championship back to back. In 1906, when they lost the World Series in six, they established what is still the best single season record of 116-36, a .763 winning percentage.

Fielding and pitching were their strongpoints. From 1902 through the rest of the decade they had Joe Tinker on short, Johnny Evers on second, and Frank Chance on first; each so great at fielding they inspired a poem. This no doubt complemented their superb pitching, including Mordecai (Three Finger) Brown and Jack Pfiester. In 1907 the Cubs had an unbelievable team ERA of 1.52.

This decade would prove to be their last reign of glory, many somewhat facetiously say because of the Curse of the Billy Goat. In fact that "curse," were it the cause of the Cubs' demise would had to have been a retroactive one as it was not put in place until 1945. "Billy Goat Tavern" owner, Billy Sianis, was asked to leave game four of the 1945 World Series against the Detroit Tigers at the Cubs' home ballpark of Wrigley Field because the odor of his pet goat, Murphy, was bothering other fans. He was outraged and allegedly declared "Them Cubs, they ain't gonna win no more." The Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908 or played in one since 1945.

Nap Lajoie, Christy Mathewson, Rube Waddell, Honus Wagner, and Cy Young are considered the best players of the time; Wagner above the rest.

1910-1919 Boston Red Sox

Boston is a close call over the Philadelphia Athletics who also won four pennants in the ten years covered, despite their decade ending abdication. It's unfortunate that they would soon decide to be a Yankee farm team. A lineup which included outfielders Tris Speaker, Duffy Lewis, and Harry Hooper; with Smokey Joe Wood and Eddie Cicotte on the mound cannot be denied; even in the face of an Athletics' squad which boasted John Franklin "Home Run" Baker, Eddie Collins, and Stuffy McInnis patrolling the infield; with the unbelievable array of hillers; Chief Bender, Jack Coombs, Stan Coveleski, Herb Pennock, and Eddie Plank. Relievers need not apply; outfielders desperately wanted.

Baseball again got more popular in the 1910's, and Babe Ruth debuted with the Red Sox in 1914. He successfully pitched the Sox to the pennant in 1915, 1916, and 1918 after a pre-Babe 1912 victory. The Babe also set a post season, World Series consecutive scoreless innings record which still stands today at 29 and two thirds. He convincingly displayed his all-around genius when he set the single season home run record of 29 in 1919; in part time play surpassing the supposedly tainted, fence friendly efforts of Ned Williamson, who hit 27 in a 112 game season 35 years prior. In Williamson's day the establishment of the ground rules of each park rested entirely with the home team. In 1884, team captain, on-field manager, and future Hall of Famer Cap Anson decided that balls hit over the fence were to be home runs, no matter how they got there including on a hop or two. Anson's unofficial status and implied credentials prevailed. Williamson became the first major league baseball player to hit three home runs in one game.

In retrospect, seemingly to be stupidly contrary, and after the Babe made the name Williamson a thing of the past while putting up Hall of Fame pitching numbers at the same time; the Red Sox then sold yet-to-see-his-prime Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Come on; this elicits one more "DUH!!!!" written in this book. Damn.

Off speculation and second guessing, the majority say that this resulted in "The Curse of the Bambino." Though Babe Ruth, himself, was never quoted on the matter, the Red Sox, though not as cursed as badly as the Cubs, would go on to attain a well-earned reputation for losing the big games. Despite having many great players, they would not win another World Series for 85 years; after having won four in the 1910's to complement an 857-624 regular season. That showed 'em how just one stupid decision has a habit of hanging around.

The era's greats were Grover Cleveland Alexander, Ty Cobb, Eddie Collins, Joe Jackson, Walter Johnson, and Tris Speaker; Cobb the central force.

1920-1929: New York Yankees

The Yankees took the league by storm and emblazoned their name into baseball forever with an exclamation point. It was 1920 when the roar began; bellowing to appreciative fans who knew they were watching baseball's most interesting and successful team; both parties further enthused by their hip flasks. The future would prove to show that the wonder of the towering shots was no 1914 Boston Braves, National League, flash in the pan; it would become a longstanding tradition. This was the American League, Great American, just like the pastime's nickname. The feisty franchise threw off their original tag of the Highlanders in 1913. With the acquisition of Babe Ruth and the home growing of Lou Gehrig, they were off to the races. Yankee Stadium, often called "The House that Ruth Built," opened in 1923, after the team endured the indignity of sharing the Polo Grounds with the New York Giants the previous 10 years. The Yanks won three World Series' titles in six attempts during this decade. The 1927 Yankees is often considered the best team of all time. It was a year when Babe Ruth broke his own single season home run record with 60 and Lou Gehrig hit 47 home runs and broke the single season RBI record with 175. The simple fact of the matter was that the Yankee franchise was firmly established at the top.

The best players were Grover Cleveland Alexander, Harry Heilmann, Rogers Hornsby, Babe Ruth, and Dazzy Vance; Ruth undeniably the best.

1930-1939: New York Yankees

The Yankees established themselves in the American League as the team to beat in the 1920's, and continued their colorful success in the 1930's. Babe Ruth was baseball's greatest player, and Lou Gehrig would have had that honor if Ruth was not there. And here they were, batting third and fourth in the lineup; a pitcher's nightmare. As an aside their numbers, Ruth three and Gehrig four, were taken from their position in the batting order; baseball players not having any numbers until 1929; after a few abandoned false starts. They won five World Series, including four consecutively, becoming the first and only team to have yet done that. It would take another Yankees team of twenty years later to exceed that. In those days the entirety of post season play was that the AL pennant winner met the NL pennant winner in a seven game World Series. Consequently, with varying playoff systems in place since 1969 it is unlikely anyone will top this; but that's been said before about some records which have passed. They were unquestionably MLB's best team, and by the start of the 1940's, the Yanks had eight World Series titles, three ahead of their closest competitor, the Philadelphia Athletics.

Most notable were Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Charlie Gehringer, Lefty Grove, Carl Hubbell, Mel Ott, and Arky Vaughan; Gehrig the king.

1940-1949: NY Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals

There are some who select only the Cardinals, and some who call it a toss-up. However, any objective examination leads to choosing the Yankees again. However, I'll also confess to trying not to be redundant, or seen as biased.

Let me paraphrase one Cardinal supporter. The Cardinals won three World Series and had one of the greatest baseball players of all-time; Stan Musial. He was a twenty time All-Star and a three time MVP. In addition to their having won three World Series titles to go with four pennants, they became the elite team in the National League.

Pretty damn good. Wouldn't you say? Now let's talk better. During the forties the Yankees won five pennants and four World Series. They had a fairly memorable center fielder named Joe DiMaggio, who some were compelled to write songs about. He also won three MVP's, but was an All-Star only thirteen times. It would have been difficult to do any better, as he played only thirteen seasons. He spent three of the WWII years in the military. The Yankees retained their place as premier American League team.

Head to head matchups were only two, both in the war years. The Cards won their first World Series meeting four games to one in 1942. The Yankees returned the precise favor in 1943. It's really hard to make a good case for the Cards.

While the Card's Stan Musial main name was supplemented by those of Joe Medwick, Johnny Mize, Pepper Martin, and Enos Slaughter; Joe DiMaggio was not alone in a crowd which included Bill Dickey, Lefty Gomez, Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich, Yogi Berra, and Phil Rizzuto.

Come on Cards fans. We know you love your contenders. But, get a little bit serious.

The best players of the time were Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Hal Newhouser, Stan Musial, and Ted Williams; Williams a tie with DiMaggio.

1950-1959: New York Yankees

There is no competition for the Yankees in this decade. The Dodgers who started the 1950's in Brooklyn and ended it in Los Angeles might have had a shot any other time; but not this one. The Bronx Bombers won eight pennants and six World Series; including the last four of their five in a row record. The Yankees started with Joe DiMaggio in center and ended with Mickey Mantle there. Add Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Bill (Moose) Skowron and every decent player the Kansas City Athletics, rumored to be a Yankee farm team, could sell.

The Dodgers, who some said was really the National League All-Star team won five pennants and two Series. Most fans thought they should have done much better and their old nickname of "The Bums" was reinforced. Hear these names. On the field were Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Carl Furillo, and Frank Howard. The mound had Don Newcombe, Johnny Podres, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Ralph Branca. Jeez, how could they ever lose?

Ralph Branca is best remembered for one unfortunate relief appearance in a 1951 NL playoff game. The Dodgers and the Giants both ended the season at 96-58, necessitating a best of three series. At the Polo Grounds Branca entered the third game in the bottom of the ninth inning with two on base and one out. He surrendered a walk-off home run known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" to Bobby Thomson, giving the Giants the pennant. Branca was normally a starter. He was only put in the game at this clutch time because he was an excellent one, having led the league in a few categories. After that appearance he played five more very lackluster years. I think he was depressed.

The guys to watch were Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Mathews, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Robin Roberts, Warren Spahn, and Ted Williams; Mantle the one and only.

1960-1969: New York Yankees

There will be some disagreement here. Baseball was expanding both in terms of number of teams and the diffusion of any single power. In fact, as discussed elsewhere, the temporary, post "deadball" era decline in power and hitting began here after a strong opening. Thanks to a severe tail end slump, the Yankees fell off from their 1950's eight pennants and six World Series victories to five and two. Despite the decline in their performance, no one else matched it. Second place went to the pitching led, big ballpark, Los Angeles Dodgers at three and two. Their best claim for fame was made in 1963 when they swept the Yankees in the series; their only head to head meeting.

The 1961 Yankees are a candidate for the best team of all time. They won the pennant handily over a Detroit Tiger team, led by Norm Cash, Rocky Colavito, Al Kaline, and Frank Lary, who posted a record good enough to win any pennant or division nine times out of ten. However the Yanks outmatched them with Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, Johnny Blanchard, and Bill Skowron's combined 207 home runs, part of the team's then record setting 240. The year's biggest news was Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle's pursuit of the Babe's single season home run record of 60. The Mick tailed off at the end and finished with 54, but the press-hounded "Rajah" hit his 61st on the last day of the regular season. He was a nervous wreck, as in those days people were not as accustomed to media scrutiny as they are now. Stupid questions like; "Do you think you're better than Babe Ruth?" took their toll. It seemed that more people resented his performance than appreciated it. The asterisk was invented. Grudgingly Maris was put on top of the list, with the note that the season was 162 games long as opposed to the Bambino's 154. Despite a sub-par Bob Turley year, the mound was propelled by Whitey Ford, Ralph Terry, and Luis Arroyo. They won the series in five.

I suspect that, perhaps out of sheer boredom, some think that the best team of the decade was the Los Angeles Dodgers. Their offense was provided through the speed of Maury Wills, and the abilities of the two non-related Davises, Tommy and Willie, to hit the ball more than 300 feet. But, that pitching staff of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Claude Osteen took ten points off everyone's batting average every four game series.

Up and coming were the Frank and Brooks Robinson led Baltimore Orioles with Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, and Dave McNally throwing the ball.

The stars were Hank Aaron, Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, and Frank Robinson; Mays one step in front of Aaron.

1970-1979: Oakland Athletics and Cincinnati Reds

See. I'm not a total Yankee zealot. It only took me fifty years to get them off the list. In 1964, probably around their near term peak market value, the Yanks were sold to CBS, and their competition became Nielsen adjusted risk-reward ratios rather than anything done between the painted lines. After being run into the ground, in 1973 the franchise was sold to a group headed by George Steinbrenner, which seemed to actually like baseball. By 1976 the Yankees were again contenders. They get only an honorable mention here, as despite being one of the most winning, argumentative, and interesting teams to ever play the game, that was only at the end of the decade. Their biggest on-the-field stars; Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter; were obtained through free agency after having been integral in establishing the winning ways of the almost-as-interesting Oakland Athletics. In NY, Reggie became known as "Mr. October," as a result of coming up big in the World Series. He was also one who had extreme difficulties with managers and team mates. It started with Thurman Munson, the Yankees catcher, captain, and star before Jackson's acquisition and continued with his run-ins with feisty manager, Billy Martin. The supporting cast included Mickey Rivers, Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Lou Piniella, and Roy White. Hunter was aided by Ron Guidry and Sparky Lyle. It was a great show, and the subject of a book and TV movie.

In an effort to compensate for the weak hitting, the designated hitter was established in the American League, while the National maintained some semblance of tradition in continuing to make the pitcher remain a virtually automatic out. Aging, but healthy, Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's lifetime home run record, having eight times hit forty or more. His efforts were cheered by many after the Maris debacle. But Hammerin' Hank caught much of what Roger did and then some; the icing supplied by the racist brigade, inclusive of death threats.

Oakland won three consecutive pennants and World Series' from 1972-74. The offense was supplied by Joe Rudi, Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Bert Campaneris, Rico Carty, and Gene Tenace. The first three starters were memorable; Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, and Vida Blue. And if they didn't getcha Rollie Fingers would.

If anyone thinks that they were not the greatest baseball team of this decade, they'd have to admit that they were certainly very interesting. They were sometimes called the Swingin' A's; as unlike other conservative teams they had adopted the styles of the "hippie" generation and were often quite outspoken. They were the team with the mustaches and long hair, starting with Rollie Fingers. Whether by sale, trade or free agency most of them were elsewhere by 1977.

The Cincinnati Redlegs were "The Big Red Machine," and quite a machine they were. The only criticism might come from a sarcastic person saying; "A machine which often broke down for the biggest games."

Whereas the Athletics won three pennants and three World Series, the Reds won four and two. One might wonder how a lineup like theirs could ever lose anything, but they did. Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion, Dan Driesen, George Foster, and Ken Griffey, Sr. dominated the NL All Star team. Pitching was a bit suspect and really only had a star in arm-troubled Don Gullett. One might think that a supporting cadre of mediocres might be enough for this offense, but maybe not.

Again, the Baltimore Orioles were almost there, but not quite winning three pennants and one Series. A revolving cast which included one year of Reggie Jackson surrounded the mainstays of Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, and Brooks Robinson.

The 1960' and 1970's were a tumultuous time in America, and as always, baseball was no different.

The best players were Johnny Bench, Rod Carew, Joe Morgan, Jim Palmer, Pete Rose, Tom Seaver, Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, and Willie Stargell; Jackson and Morgan the calls.

1980-1989: Kansas City Royals

Things got fragmented. The diversity expected after the establishment of the playoff system in 1969 came to full fruition in the 1980's. MLB champions fluctuated as much as those of the National Football League. It could also have something to do with a balancing of individual talent. Dominating teams need dominating players. No?

The Los Angeles Dodgers were the only team to win two pennants and two World Series. I wouldn't argue with anyone who disagreed with me here, but my pick for best team of the decade is the Kansas City Royals. They won two pennants and one series, and were competitive the majority of the time. They also had possibly the best hitter of the time at third base. However, George Brett didn't get to the Hall of Fame with devastating power statistics. The most home runs he hit in a season was 25. The Royal offense was aided by Hal McRae and Steve Balboni. Bret Saberhagen won two Cy Young Awards and Dan Quisenberry was effective in the bullpen.

The most notable players were Wade Boggs, George Brett, Rickey Henderson, Dale Murphy, Cal Ripken Jr., Mike Schmidt, Robin Yount, and Tim Raines; Brett at the center and Schmidt just a little off.

1990-1999: Atlanta Braves

A level of leadership stability returned in the nineties. The Atlanta Braves won five pennants and only one World Series in 9 seasons due to the strike's elimination of one. Despite the chronic last minute letdowns they were the best of their time with the best regular season record of all. The mound had a devastating trio of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz. They got sufficient offense from Chipper Jones, David Justice, and Ryan Klesko.

The Yankees again were a legitimate contender winning three World Series in three attempts. Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, and Paul O'Neil bolstered by an array of aging stars acquired provided the bats. Andy Pettitte, John Wetteland, and Mariano Rivera, the last two relievers, kept the opposition runs reasonably down.

Primarily because they never get a mention, the Toronto Blue Jays get an honorable one here. They won two World Series in two tries. John Olerud, Roberto Alomar, Paul Molitor, and Joe Carter did the hitting; and Pat Hentgen was good on the mound.

People worried about the game's image and it got a lot of verbal barbs from angry fans. Some vowed to abandon baseball just as they felt abandoned by it during the 232 day long strike which cancelled the 1994 World Series. I suppose it would be tough to substitute "Grand Theft Auto" and the "X Games," but that's what they said they were going to do. It seems to be fair to say that the events were triggered by the owners' cry of poverty and their refusal to make required payments into the players' pension fund. After that more complexities surfaced, but the odd thing to me is how the fans blamed the players.

Toward the end of the decade people started to notice that there were only about three good starting pitchers left and some people began to put up outrageous home run numbers for the first time since the mid-1960's.

Outperformers were Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffey Jr., Greg Maddux, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Mike Piazza, and Frank Thomas; McGwire getting the nod.

2000-2009: New York Yankees

It has often been said that the Boston Red Sox were the team of this decade. It was another period of many different pennant and series' winners, likely due to an active free agency market and a longer playoff system. At the most bottom of lines the Red Sox won two pennants and prevailed in both World Series visits. It seems likely that some people got a bit over-excited about them as they may have finally broken the Curse of the Bambino which was born in 1919. There is no question that the offense was formidable. Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were pitcher's nightmares, and Mike Lowell helped out here and there at the end of his career. Few rivalled Pedro Martinez' abilities on the mound. Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett chipped in too.

However, the Yankees virtually doubled the Sox production, winning four pennants and two World Series. It's kind of amazing how they did it, with what was an essentially patched together and changing lineup. The mainstays of the batsmen were led by Derek Jeter and an aging Alex Rodriguez, while starter Andy Pettitte and closer Mariano Rivera steadied the hill. All four are shoo-ins for the Hall of Fame; and Rivera is a serious candidate for best relief pitcher of all time. Still, there were no M&M boys. Like some said in the Ted Williams era, the Red Sox looked better on paper, but didn't quite measure up on the field. There are certain traditions which repeat in baseball, and maybe Yankee pride is one of them.

The era's best were Barry Bonds, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, and Johan Santana; Bonds in a class by himself.

2010-Present: San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants have won their three World Series' appearances. This is excellent as there have only been six years. Their closest competitor is the Texas Rangers who appeared in and lost two.

The Giants are truly a team effort. Pitcher Madison Bumgarner is a clear cut star. Buster Posey propels the offense with .300 averages and home runs in the low 20's. In 2010 they won their first Series since moving to San Francisco in 1958, after having lost three sporadic attempts.

The Yankees have fallen on hard times. Their biggest stars, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera have retired, and they have not even appeared in a World Series game in the 2010's. At this point it is the third longest such streak since their acquisition of Babe Ruth in 1920.

I'll have to believe that many of you think I have a Yankee bias. I admit to being a fan. But, below, take a short look at the numbers. There can be no rational argument about the best performer, despite their having a slow start. You might debate numbers two, three and four, but number one is so far ahead that it would take a better team than there has ever been until 2046 to equal them. The total number of appearances of numbers two and three combined are one shy of the Yanks. This ain't a close call.

#18- When Was Baseball's Crown Bestowed?

I was hoping that I might find a clear reference to the first time baseball was called "The Great American Pastime," but found none. It would have been nice to see who coined the term along with their reasoning. The closest quote I could find was that contained in the aforementioned 1889 speech given by Mark Twain, where he said; "Baseball, which is the very symbol, the outward and visible expression of the drive, and push, and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century!" I must note that the speech concerned a possibly metaphorical reference and visit to the Sandwich Islands, now termed Hawaii, though prior to statehood.

One reason it may well have been popularly called "The Great American Pastime" was that during the late 19th and early 20th century it was the most widely played sport in the country. At that time baseball was what video games, the net, and television are now. Before television, cyberspace, and androids, baseball was just what kids did after school, on weekends, and during summer breaks from academe, in seeming imitation of what their fathers and some mothers did when work permitted. It was literally how America passed the time.

Before 1950's television, 1980's DVD's, 1990's internet, and the increased popularity of football, basketball, NASCAR, and the genre based marginalizations of American cultural icons; baseball was one of the few enjoyable things that most Americans knew something about and could discuss with anyone. In all its importance the weather report went just so far. Baseball was the nation's pastime off the field as well as on it.

I don't think, in this day and age, that we have just one "national pastime" anymore. Culture is simply too splintered. American football may be the most popular sport according to some polls taken, but allegedly being the most popular sport does not make something the "national pastime." Nor, have I seen any mention of the methodology the polls use. Those I have seen usually result from a small sampling used in conjunction with a magazine article. They often seem to have as much relevance as asking 2,500 Seattle residents their favorite sport right after Seattle won the Super Bowl.

Yet, though we've all heard the phrase many times; perhaps it was infrequently spoken by fans as it was just common sense.

One thing which has undoubtedly changed since the advent of TV and professional teams going west is a decline in non-professional baseball adult participation. Discussed at more length in the chapter titled "Barnstorming" most areas once had adult teams and leagues which could occasionally outplay a team of professional barnstormers. No more.

Imagine. The many daddies who now come home from work exhausted grab a beer and flop in front of the TV. There was a time when many of them wolfed down their dinner, put on a uniform, and went to the ballfield.

### #19- Errors

Within the confines of the "Great American Pastime," an error is an act, in the judgment of the official scorer, of a fielder misplaying a ball in a manner that allows a batter or baserunner to advance one or more bases or allows an at bat to continue after the batter should have been put out. Excepting unusual circumstances the batter is charged with an at bat, and a pitcher's ERA is calculated as if the play was properly made.

Though theoretically, in and of itself, today, errors should not have a huge effect on batting statistics; fielding averages should be briefly mentioned and discussed. At first glance one might think that it doesn't really matter in hitting statistics, as errors are treated as if the batter made an out and home runs are not playable anyway. The confusing part is that that is true as far as it goes. However, the nuance lies in the definition itself; more specifically the phrases "misplaying" and "in the judgment of the official scorer." Back when the ball was dead and the "Inside Game" was played by all the smart cookies, it was the object of the hitter to get on base, no matter the means, including getting on by an "error." If the opposing team had an infielder who was shaky, either through drunkenness or the inability to field a ball, sometimes due to his refusal to wear a glove or the wearing of a tiny one, often a batter would try to hit it his general direction. Therefore the most significant number to the players was "on base percentage," (OBP) though confusingly not as it is officially defined in a seemingly illogical way.

The definition matters less in post 1920 baseball than it does prior to that as the strategy of hitting the ball toward a weak fielder became virtually nil with the advent of the power game and larger fielder's gloves. OBP is sometimes referred to as on base average (OBA), as the statistic is rarely presented as a true percentage. It is defined as a measure of how often a batter reaches base for any reason other than a fielding error, dropped-uncaught third strike, fielder's obstruction, fielder's choice or catcher's interference. Cather's interference is actually scored as a catcher's error. So, the main point is that it includes walks but not errors, and there is no statistic kept for pre-1920 players which reflects their primary objective; getting on base.

In actuality, though the home run hitters who often get walked 100 times a year would seem to have an advantage, the highest OBP's have been logged by a fairly even mixture of long ball hitters and players from the "dead ball" era. At the end of this chapter is a list of the highest lifetime and single season OBP's on record.

The entire concept of "error" was actually invented by Henry Chadwick, who also invented the box score, batting average and ERA concepts still used. Had he not come up with this "error" concept, early batting averages and ERA's would have been higher; though with the use of larger gloves, it probably wouldn't matter much in today's game.

In practice "misplaying" a ball entails one physical fact and one judgement. The physical "fact" centers around the fielder's ability to get to the ball, as a ball not gotten to cannot be misplayed. Therefore if the fielder has a range of two feet, a ball hit three feet away from him is a clear hit. One second baseman, who will remain un-named consistently led the league in positional fielding average for precisely this reason. On the other side of the coin you have Brooks Robinson. Nicknamed "The Human Vacuum Cleaner" or "Mr. Hoover", he is considered one of the greatest defensive third basemen in major league history. He could actually throw out hitters at first from deep third when the ball cut the bag and wound up in foul territory. He won 16 consecutive Gold Glove Awards during his career, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983, not as a result of his hitting prowess. During this time he did not once lead the league in fielding average. Sharing the same place is the greatest fielding shortstop I've ever seen; Ozzie Smith. He routinely got to balls hit "up the middle" on the second base side of the bag and threw the batter out. He won thirteen consecutive Gold Glove Awards. Despite a powerless .262 lifetime average he was inducted into baseball's Hall of fame at the first opportunity. Like Brooks, he never won a positional fielding average crown.

"So, what's the point?" you reasonably inquire. I sigh and answer "It seems like there should be a valid measure of OBP, and that it should be given some credence. The game has not changed enough to disregard a batter's OBP. That's the point." The long answer is that if one were to merely accept the compiled statistics in comparing and contrasting players from differing eras, this is another area in which there are inherent deficiencies in the currently accepted, simple, and inadequate approach. It would seem eminently reasonable to think that a sharply hit two hopper would be "misplayed" if not handled by a large gloved fielder, but not considered reasonably playable by one who is bare handed or less to this quasi-point, short of range. The result is a reasonable explanation for the high batting averages recorded in "dead-ball" era, its own topic, which existed alongside low ERA's, and a less than reasonably expected deficiencies in runs scored. It makes some sense.

Consider this. The steady rise in fielding averages from .935 in 1900 to .983 in 2000 is too large a change to ignore the dynamics behind them. Players didn't consistently become more able to catch ground balls, make accurate throws and securely capture fly balls. What happened was simply that the gloves got consistently larger and more capable. In fact you would find it strange if you witnessed a 1900 big league game and saw that many of the fielders wore no glove at all. It was considered a "macho" thing to do, though it couldn't have been very good for the team. It was a similar dynamic as not wearing a batting helmet. At least in the latter case if a hitter wanted to risk having his brains scrambled that may well be viewed as his business alone. But to attempt catching a hard hit baseball barehanded is a detriment to everyone else on the team. Imagine yourself trying to field a Pujols two hopper barehanded. Ole at best and a very unhappy pitcher and manager is the likely result.

Here are those lifetime and single season On Base Percentage leaders. I suspect there are a few surprises.

You might note that Ty Cobb, generally now considered the best hitter of his time, was exceeded by three others in the "Deadball" era, and barely exceeded another who played at virtually the exact same time.

### #20- Overlooked by Baseball's Hall of Fame

In addition to the many Negro League stars previously noted in the "The Negro Leagues" chapter, as well as those somehow forgotten by the annals of baseball, here is a succinct list of white MLB players who seem to have been short changed in posterity.

Lefty O'Doul

O'Doul began his professional baseball career as a left-handed pitcher with the minor-league San Francisco Seals of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. Later this same team would be noted as the one which spawned Joe DiMaggio. He had little major league success as a relief pitcher. In fact he got the distinction of setting the record, since equaled but never exceeded, of having once given up sixteen runs over three innings of relief, with fourteen of those runs coming in the sixth inning alone. Following that season, O'Doul developed a sore arm, which forced him to give up his pitching vocation.

After the 1923 season, the New York Giants returned O'Doul to the Pacific Coast League, where he was converted to a power-hitting outfielder. In 1927 he became one of what are today four Pacific Coast League hitters to have had a 30 home run, 30 stolen base seasons. O'Doul returned to the majors in 1928, where he batted .319 in part time play. In 1929, he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies and, teaming up with Chuck Klein, had one of the best offensive years in baseball history, leading the league in batting at .398 with 254 hits, 32 home runs, 122 runs batted in, and 152 runs scored. His hit total broke the previous National League record of 250 by Rogers Hornsby of the 1922 St. Louis Cardinals and still stands. After batting .383 with 22 homers during the 1930 season, O'Doul was traded to the Brooklyn Robins. In 1932, he batted .368 for Brooklyn to win another league batting title. After a slow start in 1933, when he batted just .252 through 43 games, O'Doul was again traded, this time back to the Giants. He rallied to hit .306 the rest of the way that season, but played just one more year before ending his career in 1934.

Lefty seems to have been the beneficiary of having played for owners and general managers who did not make the brightest of decisions. His lifetime .349 batting average is fourth on the all-time list, behind only Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Christ, how much better is one required to be?

O'Doul returned to the Pacific Coast League as manager of the San Francisco Seals from 1935 to 1951, later managing several other teams in the circuit and becoming the most successful manager in PCL history. One of his outstanding accomplishments while managing the Seals was developing the young Joe DiMaggio, who went on to a Hall of Fame career with the New York Yankees. O'Doul refused to take credit for DiMaggio's success, saying "I was just smart enough to leave him alone." How many other managers are that smart?

Lefty was instrumental in spreading baseball's popularity in Japan, serving as the sport's goodwill ambassador before and after World War II. The Tokyo Giants, sometimes considered "Japan's Baseball Team", were named by him in 1935 in honor of his longtime association with the New York Giants; the logo and uniform of the Giants in Japan strongly resemble their North American counterparts.

O'Doul was inducted into the San Francisco Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. It is about time that the official US Baseball Hall of Fame shows as much good judgment.

Gavvy Cravath

Clifford Carlton "Gavvy" Cravath played primarily for the Philadelphia Phillies. He was the sport's most prolific power hitter of the dead ball era. In the seven years from 1913 to 1920 he led the National League in home runs six times, in runs batted in, total bases and slugging average twice each, and in hits, runs and walks once each. He led the NL in several offensive categories in 1915 as the Phillies won the first pennant in the team's 33 year history. However, he played his home games at Baker Bowl, a park that was notoriously favorable to batting statistics.

The Phillies had a short right field porch 272 feet from home plate at the Baker Bowl. It should be fairly noted that the right field fence in "the house that Ruth Built" was 297 feet from home, and served as no detriment to Ruth, Gehrig, Berra, and Mantle's induction into the Hall. If anything Cravath was at a relative disadvantage to them as he batted right handed.

In 1913 he enjoyed a career season, leading the NL in hits (179), home runs (19), RBI (128), total bases (298), and slugging (.568); he also placed second in batting with a career-high mark of .341. He placed second in the voting for the Chalmers MVP Award behind Jake Daubert. He repeated as home run champion in 1914, while again sharing the league lead in assists indicative of his superb outfield abilities, and finishing second in RBI and slugging.

1915 saw his best season as he hit 24 home runs, leading the Phillies to their first pennant. He had a three run home run in the pennant-clinching game on September 29. He also led the league in runs (89), RBI (115, leading the NL by 28), total bases (266), walks (86), on-base percentage (.393), and slugging (.510, leading the NL by 53 points), and led the NL in assists for the third time. His 24 home runs were the most in the major leagues since Buck Freeman hit 25 for the 1899 Washington Senators.

Cravath had a career .287 batting average with 119 home runs, then the fourth most in history, and 719 RBI in 1220 games.

In a June 27, 2004 interview with the seven time Jeopardy champion Tom Walsh, who set the record for wins on the program in January 2004, Walsh said, "I feel like 'Cactus Gavvy' Cravath. Do you know who that is? Right. Nobody does. He's the guy who had the home run record before Babe Ruth came along."

It would get ugly to drag up the names of some less qualified who are in the Hall.

Bob Meusel

Ignoring Bob Meusel is an out and out travesty of justice. Meusel's stats are better than many Hall members. One can only suppose that his nonchalant, laconic attitude may not have endeared him to the sportswriters, but this is not supposed to be a popularity contest.

He played for the Yankees during the Ruth "Murderer's Row" times and once in 1925 led the league in home runs. Typical of his attitude, once when asked about some particularly hard throwing pitcher he was soon to face, he said; "I don't care if he shoots it out of a cannon. The only question is how fast I have to start my bat." Had we not been graced with Ruthian wallops some of us might be speaking of Meuselian nonchalant whacks.

He played 11 seasons from 1920-30, all but the last for the Yankees. It was a time when not many other than Ruth were hitting them out. He hit 156 while batting .309.

Simply, his credentials include;

1) Hitting home runs when few did.

2) Being a significant member of a winning team.

3) Having a lifetime batting average above .300.

He and his brother may well be the only .300 hitters not in the Hall. This has to be some sort of joke. The perversely funny one is that Bob wouldn't have cared in the least.

Emil "Irish" Meusel

Three years older than Bob, "Irish" spent ten years in the National League from 1918-27. His lifetime average was .310 with 106 home runs. He played in four World Series with the New York Giants, and seems to be even more forgotten than Bob. This is totally absurd.

#21\- The Stats

Following, you will find a series of tables. No, I really do not want to inundate you with statistics which will necessitate glasses; but this is about baseball. Right? The numbers are hard to completely avoid; as they have more relevance than they do in other major team sports. So scan them briefly and go back to them whenever the urge strikes; or use it to decide a bet.

A commentary on the most salient and surprising aspects follow the charts. The abbreviations seem obvious in most cases. In one chart "AvgRPG" is Average Runs per Game. "AvgHRPG" is Average Home Runs per Game.

Very honorable mention is made of Lou Gehrig who was tragically stopped at 494. You will note that 12 of the 27 in the club played during the "Steroid Era."

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In conjunction with the presumed relationship between offensive display and popularity, I was amazed at the relative run production during the "Deadball" era which is said to have ended around 1920. That the ball was indeed dead is the overwhelming expert opinion; though there is a minority case which could be the subject of a book by itself; a small one anyway. But look at the average runs per game recorded in the 1910's and 1920's. Yes, they are lower than most decades, but not as much as I expected. Especially on the high end, the 5.21 RPG of the 1910's is second only to the 5.55 of the 1930's. Look at the numbers from the 1890's Pitcher's ERA's just above 2.00

As a curiosity I'll merely mention that the highest number of runs per game occurred in 1871. The 10.47 average was recorded in the same season as one of the lowest recorded average home runs per game of .19; .10 being the lowest. That means there was one home run hit every ten games which involved twenty teams.

In addition the hitting slowdown did not occur in the 1970's. It started in the 1960's when Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Frank Robinson and Killebrew were still in their good years and aging Ted Williams and Musial were still around. There is another conclusion which surprised me. Run production has some degree of a relationship with home runs; but it is a weak one. Yeah, I know; try telling that to the GM who wants to outbid everyone for the free agent with power.

As park attendance is a better gauge of the true baseball zealot, below is the yearly attendance.

Major Sports per game attendance

Following is the average attendance at professional sporting events. I was personally surprised at two of them. I'm ignoring TV viewing. It is not irrelevant to the financial aspect of the games, but it is too easy to do. It is one thing to watch a sporting event at home, not much different than watching "Empire." It is another to get off your butt, travel to the stadium and pay more than the monthly cable premium for the privilege. I'm looking for the fanatics.

1) National Football League- 67,604- 16 game season.

2) Major League Baseball- 30,514- 162 game season.

3) Canadian Football League- 28,193- 18 game season. - This was a surprise for a few reasons, one being I didn't know it was a professional sport.

4) Major League Soccer- 21,574- 34 game season.

5) National Hockey League- 17,455- 82 game season.

6) National Basketball Association- 17,407- 82 game season. - I thought this would be higher on the list.

To put this in another perspective, while baseball attendance averaged 30,514 in 2015, the attendance for the much awaited 1903 first World Series ranged from a high of 18,801 in game three to a low of 7,455 in the game eight finale.

For one more bit of context, the total baseball attendance is five times that of US professional football; which is also 25% exceeded by both the NHL and NBA. In fact baseball attendance is roughly equal to the total of the other top five. This is not too shabby for a sport which has supposedly lost its claim to being the national pastime.

So, who is it who says that baseball is no longer the Great American Pastime? Everybody who speaks. The silent majority just enjoy.

Hmmnnn. Could this be a matter of semantics? Or is some other non-sporting competitor quietly worming its way into the foundation of American life?

### #22- The Hall of Fame

The Baseball Hall of Fame was founded in 1936 in beautiful, Cooperstown, New York. At one time it was thought that the site was chosen because the first US baseball game was played there. The matter is now in dispute, as, and the current "expert" consensus is that it had to have been played elsewhere. No matter. Cooperstown is where the baseball greats are commemorated. It is substantially made up of players, but also honors managers, umpires, executives, and those who made significant contributions to the game.

The election of the first five is considered a special honor as their competition spanned more than thirty modern and approximately sixty years of baseball in total. There are various rules governing election, perhaps the most significant being the approval of 75% of the designated sportswriters. Generally, one has to be retired from the game for at least five years to be eligible; and being voted in at that time is also considered a special honor. Of 312 Hall members, only 51 were elected the first time eligible. After the first five the next two who were elected first eligibility were Jackie Robinson and Bob Feller in 1962.

In the chart following their names are in bold. Actually, there are 14 or so that probably should have not been granted this status, but sportswriters got particularly more liberal than usual as the millennium approached. "PIO" stands for pioneer.

#23- A Dead Ball?

Allow me to start this subject with the recognition that while they were playing, if you asked any of the players in the "dead ball era" if they were playing with a dead ball they wouldn't know what you were talking about. The ball became officially dead only in retrospect.

I was amazed at the relative run production during the "Dead ball" era which is said to have ended around 1920. That the ball was indeed dead in some manner, shape, or form, is the overwhelming expert opinion; though there is a minority case; a small one anyway. Just re-consider the average runs per game recorded in the 1910's and 1920's. Yes, they are lower than most decades, but not as much as one might have expected. Especially on the high end, the 5.21 RPG of the 1910's is second only to the 5.55 of the 1930's. Look at the "Decade Highs and Lows of Runs and Home Runs" chart in the "The Stats" chapter, and you'll see that average runs scored in the 1890's is higher than any other decade.

What happened? Nobody was hitting home runs; yet more runs were scored in this "Dead ball" decade than in any other, and by a handsome margin. The low pitcher's ERA's of the time have to have more to do with the "errors" scored, which was previously discussed, than the actual run production.

As a curiosity I'll merely mention that the highest number of runs per game occurred in 1871. The 10.47 average was recorded in the same season as one of the lowest recorded average home runs per game of .19; .10 being the lowest. That means there was one home run hit every ten games which involved twenty teams.

In addition the later hitting slowdown did not occur in the 1970's. It started in the 1960's when Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Frank Robinson and Killebrew were still in their good years and aging Ted Williams and Musial were still around. There is another apparently inescapable conclusion which surprised me. Run production has some degree of a relationship with home runs; but it is a weak one.

Compounding matters, there is a legend which says that a 38 year old Ty Cobb, forgotten in the power of Babe Ruth, said; "There's not a lot to hitting home runs. Practically anyone can do it." He then proceeded to hit five over his next two games, on May Fifth and Sixth, 1925; a record which has not been eclipsed, though it has been tied. On May 7 he reverted to being the king of scientific form. The record is documented. The verbiage is conjecture, and has been quoted in different ways.

Once when asked to evaluate Ruth; Cobb said; "He doesn't run too bad for a fat man." Though that statement may be viewed as harsh, it is also consistent with someone evaluating what is to come in terms of what they have experienced.

So what is this "dead ball?" What is its truth and relevance in the Great American Pastime? Let me begin this by saying that no baseball ever found has been proven to be more "dead" than its 2016 counterpart. Sure, there are differing rates of wear and tear, but there are no meaningful differences which can be clearly attributed to the original state of the ball. Yet, the overwhelming preponderance of expert baseball opinion has concluded that prior to 1920 the ball was "dead."

The believers in simple answers have what they consider an open and shut case in the fact that so few home runs were hit before the magical date of 1920. Succinctly worded attestations to that would provide a compelling bumper sticker. However, a minority opinion suggests that the only change made was in how often an umpire threw a ball out of the game. Coupled with the humanly demonstrated desire to be social, players comported themselves toward the "scientific" game of chop-chop, as it preceded them; and no doubt entered their minds as the most significant of the bases upon which they would be evaluated prior to and during pro play.

Then along came the Babe. Initially, he was a pitcher with serious Hall of Fame credentials. As a pitcher he wasn't expected to hit much, so he took the swing which he preferred; wailing and totally unscientific. When, in later years, he was asked where he came up with the swing, he said; "I copied it off Shoeless Joe Jackson."

All of a sudden towering shots were leaving the parks. ............... Hmnnnn. Either, this "dead ball" had suddenly developed a propensity for lengthy voyages, thereby newly adopting the moniker of Lazarus, or it was just waiting for some innovator to give it a little bit of giddyup.

Factually, the ball got its cork center in 1910; and in the "magic" year of 1920, it is said that the umpires started to throw beat up balls out of the game. However, playing in 130 games, the Babe hit 29 beat up balls out of the park in 1919, establishing a new record.

I'm no expert, but here is my best shot at an explanation of the "Dead ball" phenomenon. Prior to 1920 the balls were changed infrequently. A nick or a scuff on a ball will increase its movement, but will not have any effect on its ability to travel long distances. In all sports, the styles of play evolve from era to era. In a more recent past, football was once almost entirely a running game, and pro basketball disdained breaking, and played a "set-up" offense. So too, pre-1920 baseball played this running, "inside" game. Fans like scoring and after peaking in the 1890's scoring was falling off in the next two decades. At 215 pounds, as opposed to a "big guy" of the time weighing in at 175, Babe just bashed 'em and they went out when he got the sweet spot of the bat on them. Fans loved it. It's hard to say if they more loved the temporarily increased scoring or watching the long smashes fly; but I strongly suspect that it was the latter. So, they did what they could to encourage more home runs by more frequent changes of the ball, which likely had minimal effect; as at first Ruth and Gehrig had virtually zero competition. Most likely the "Dead ball" Era was based on strategy, style of play, and player size; not the ball. Few were hit out because no one was trying to. A home run hitter's swing is markedly different from that of a contact hitter.

Having said that, in fairness, here are other opinions. I believe that the most significant come from the people who were actually there at the time.

Christy Mathewson describes the objectives of the "inside game" in detail throughout his book, "Pitching in a Pinch." He differentiates between "good" and "smart" ballplayers.  
In his book, "My Thirty Years in Baseball," John McGraw said "I do not like the lively ball. I think the game far more interesting when the art of making scores lies in scientific work on the bases." His use of the word "lively" seems to clearly indicate that some type of change had been made; though it is possible that the word relates to the results rather than the source of them. It certainly seems more efficient, if not interesting to McGraw, to hit a home run if one could, rather than hit a single, steal second, and try to score on another batted ball.

John McGraw was truly one of baseball's greats, more than most people know today. He excelled at playing and managing, and is sometimes called "the best player to become a great manager." As a manager he successfully handled baseball's "change." I guess he just preferred the older, "dirty" method of play of his earliest years, which he helped define.

Ty Cobb was usually not specific about the matter other than his few evaluations of Ruth. But, what he is quoted as saying, post retirement, implied agreement with McGraw; in that he did not like the style of baseball being played. No specific comments regarding the deadness of the ball are known.

An un-named baseball maven of 2016 sort of addresses the issue thusly.

Question. "Was the Dead ball era based on necessity due to the composition of the ball?

Response. "Not necessarily the pure composition of the ball, but the fact that a single ball was used throughout the game (Contradicts player testimony regarding 'single.' The more commonly used words were 'A few.') until it was nothing more than a chewed up pieced of oblivion. It ties into another of your questions, 'How significant were doctored pitches?' It's difficult to quantify the degree of movement added by doctoring a pitch because every pitcher does so differently with different substances in different amounts. However, the fact that baseball felt the need to ban the practice and the success of the spitball was banned of (sic) pitchers who excelled in the art ought to be an indication of the significance of a doctored ball."

Writer's note: The spitball was banned in two stages. In the winter of 1919–1920, managers voted to partially ban the spitball, allowing each team to designate at most two pitchers who would be permitted to legally throw spitballs. Then, following the 1920 season, the spitball was banned league wide, except for existing spitballers who were grandfathered in and allowed to keep throwing the pitch legally until they retired, the last of which didn't hang it up until 1934. The spitball is known by a host of other names including "shineball" and its most successful user was Eddie Walsh; who retired with the all-time lowest ERA of 1.82. Of course, pitchers seeking advantage, still throw them today, but with the co-operation of their catcher, have gotten much better at hiding that they are.

Question. "Was the era (Dead ball) markedly different than those surrounding it?

Response. "The differences lie in the scoring environment and the players themselves. By 1904, the average runs per game dipped to below 4.0 and continued to remain below 4.0 until 1920. Prior to this, the average runs per game was rarely ever below 5.0. The advent of a fielding glove as well as other subtle changes to the actual gameplay (number of balls for a walk, fair-foul rule, foul-strike rule, bunting strikes) formed a higher scoring game to baseball's ancestor, test cricket, whose matches can last days and scores can run in the hundreds.

Furthermore, the typical player was no longer Irish. It was so common for a player in the 1880s to be of Irish descent (and perhaps an Irish immigrant) that Irishmen playing baseball was a stereotype. In 1882, the number of Southern and Eastern European immigrants spiked. The total number of immigrants reached a then record 5.2 million for the decade. The increased talent pool, which began extending to more rural areas of the country (particularly with the formation of the AL) heightened the talent. The game continued its overall trend of professionalism. The gap between an average person and a professional player widened. This is a heavily scandalous era as far as gambling and alleged game-fixing. It was noticed as early as 1920, when writer Irving Sanborn discussed the relationship between gambling and scoring. The lower-scoring environments of the 1910s, in which corrupting a pitcher could secure a certain outcome, led to higher rates of gambling. The article is called 'Consider the Pitchers: They Shine Not Neither Shall They Spit.' I do not have it, as I am going off what is told in 1921 by Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg."

Question. "Did relief pitching begin to change things?"  
Response. "No. Baseball witnessed 1911 as the first season where 1,000 games were finished (a starter doesn't receive a GF). Relief pitching remained of little importance in decades before WWII, as most ace starters were relied upon to finish a game. The fact that pitchers were expected to go the distance in the higher scoring environment only hurt them further.  
Seems to me there was a great evolution to the sport in the first two decades of the 20th century. If we categorize the Deadball Era from say 1901-1920, how do we account for the multiple changes in the ball during that time? The style of play? Rule changes?  
One interesting tidbit I have come across relates to WWI. The end of the war meant higher importation of Austrian wool by the end of the 1910s, allowing for a ball more tightly wound. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of information for this particular question."

Well, we digressed there a bit, though in a sense all these things seem to be related. Like with much of history, we will likely continue to revise our outlooks, based on new discoveries or a new logic, it is unfortunate that we will never have any more testimony from those who were on the field at the time. We do have some quotes; which some say many have been fabricated. What can one do? Whatever any revisions come, I will think that the reason ballplayers did not hit many home runs before 1920, was primarily because they weren't trying to.

### #24- The Rules of the Game

Now that we have viewed some of the statistics applicable to baseball and their nuances of imperfection, allow me to complicate that more than a little with the underlying rules which affected them. This could be a long subject; but suffice to say that I'll do my best to minimize the many details. The "modern" game of baseball is virtually unanimously considered to have started in 1901. That is not to say that if one had a time machine and could view a 1901 game it would look anything like a 2016 game. It would not. However, the rules by which the game is played now are substantially those, but not necessarily identical to, those that came into effect that year. Many consider them sacred; especially John McGraw.

My intent in mentioning what came before is merely informational and is as brief as possible. When one sees a pre-1901 number or record which seems out of line, it is almost always the result of a rule change put in effect that year or the result of some other temporarily lived experiment which would be today considered an abnormality; coupled with its attendant scorekeeper co-operation, as well as the apparent current numerological-approach dis-interest in re-stating all numbers on a common foot ground; possibly the present. For one example; the average runs per game of 10.47 recorded in 1871 was the result of the rule which said that the team to win would be the first to score twenty-one runs. Judging by the averages recorded; either all games were shut-outs, or at some point everyone went home out of boredom. This may well have been when Americans sought a total break from British cricket. For another, there was a high batting average year in 1887 in which walks were counted as hits; sometimes nine balls necessary for that honor. For perspective on the subject and hopefully some humor a few of the old rules will follow after a bit of Twentieth Century modernism.

The Official Baseball Rules have been substantially consistent since 1901. The most notable exceptions to that took place during the previously mentioned low hitting 1970's when the mound was twice moved back and the strike zone decreased. Sometime later during the "Steroid Era" it became punishable for a pitcher to deliberately throw at a hitter. It might surprise you to know that some of baseball's greatest pitchers were known as "beanball artists." Imagine a Nolan Ryan or Roger Clemens 100 mile per hour fastball coming at your head. You have a fraction of a second to move or to decide to hang in there to see if it will break. It will regularly break forearm bones. It might also surprise you to know that a seasoned pro can tell with about a 90% degree of certainty when the pitch was intentional and when it was accidental. Fans can make a fairly accurate assessment based on whether or not a brawl breaks out.

In 1872 the nine inning format was put in place. No longer was it necessary to score 21 runs. The following year called strikes were recognized for the first time; meaning that previously, if a batter did not swing no strike was possible. Simultaneously it was decided that a batter was out if a ball, fair or foul, was caught on the fly or after one bounce. So, if the batter hit the ball sufficiently high in fair territory, he could get to first base before it came down. Interspersed with the aforementioned, starting in 1867, the batter was given the right to call for a high or low pitch. I take this as a strong indication that the powers that be always recognized that fans have a predilection for offense.

What has evolved to be the National League which we still have today was not formed until 1876. It then proceeded to make yearly rule changes until 1901. In its defense there were other leagues and other rules which confused comparisons, even in their time. In 1880, a batter was out if the catcher caught the third strike; otherwise the batter got four strikes. Prior to 1883, pitchers were required to throw pitches with their hand below their hips. Apparently this was an attempt to make it easier to hit; but it gave rise to the difficult to hit, "windmill" style now used only in softball, outlawed by baseball. This was legal until that pivotal year of 1920 when Ray Chapman was beaned and killed by a "windmill" delivery from Carl Mays; though the pros already using that style could continue to do so. Grandfathering is a respected legal concept. As a bit of an aside in 1915, Mays played for the Boston Red Sox. He was instigating a confrontation with Ty Cobb by throwing at him each time he came to bat. Toward game end after a close pitch, Cobb threw his bat in Mays' direction, calling him a "no good son of a bitch." Mays answered saying; "yellow dog." On the next pitch, Mays hit Cobb on the wrist. The incident cemented Mays' reputation as a "head hunter." While this kind of reputation is conducive to a pitcher's effectiveness, it did nothing for Mays' posterity. In fifteen years Mays compiled statistics better than some people in the Hall of Fame; 207 wins, 126 losses; and an ERA of 2.92. But he was not invited to immortality.

In 1884 the rule was changed to allow, though not require, shoulder-high deliveries from the pitcher; essentially adding side-arming to their under-handed repertoire. Until 1887, batters could call for either a high or low pitch, and the strike zone was either above or below the waist, to be determined by the batter. In 1885, perhaps mimicking cricket, it became legal to use a flat bat. That is until 1893, when they were required to be round. I completely do not understand the relevance of this rule, and have found nothing the least bit helpful.

Starting in 1887, batters could no longer call for a pitch; and the strike zone was defined as over the plate, from the batter's shoulders to the batter's knees. The pitcher's mound was ten feet closer to home plate than it is now. Foul balls were not counted as strikes. Batters were allowed four strikes. And get this one. The number of balls necessary for a walk, which at times included foul balls, progressively slid from nine to the four we came to know in 1889. In that same year, the number of strikes required to be out declined from 4 to 3.

There is more, but I'll cut it here. I'm sure you get the idea. If you got in a time machine, and took your son to an 1888 baseball game; when he asked you what was going on; you'd have to honestly answer; "I don't know. Just see if he gets on base."

In 1910, cork centers were added to balls; throwing a bit of a shadow on the "dead ball" theory. In 1925, the minimum distance for a home run was made 250 feet to prevent cheap homers in anticipation of fan interest. Pitching mounds were moved back a few times in the anemic hitting late sixties and seventies. In 1973, the American League adopted the designated hitter rule, still not utilized by the National League. Inter-league play began in 1997; and no doubt turned down the fire on some old rivalries. You notice the gap provided by stability.

It is generally thought that the relatively consistent nature of baseball's "modern" rules has been a source of the sport's appeal. It allows comparisons to be drawn between players and teams of different eras. No matter how implausible these comparisons may be in the closest of calls, it provides baseball fans with an endless supply of debates. These long term comparisons have much less significance in sports in which the rules have either been "recently" changed or have been altered to further enable a marquee name.

The relative constant nature of the rules in the modern era allows a contemporary fan to somewhat follow an account of a game played long ago. As a result, baseball has more of a "history" than any other American sport.

### #25- The All Time Greatest Team

No baseball book would be complete without an all-time great team. I thought that I'd make it easier on myself by supplying four teams instead of one. This did help some, but there are always those great guys right at the margins, whichever you choose. It seems a travesty not to have included Nolan Ryan, Dizzy Dean, Greg Maddux and Rollie Fingers on the mound. The field has been similarly cheated, especially the outfield, where the greatest hitters congregate when they're not on First Base. Playing in the dead ball era, Tris Speaker hit almost as well as Cobb and may well have been the best defensive center fielder ever. While Ozzie Smith is here for his outstanding fielding, Brooks Robinson is not, though he was a better hitter. It doesn't seem fair. Alex Rodriguez belongs someplace. Ted Williams may have been the best hitter ever, as he hit for both average and power during a low hitting era. But his AL outfield competition is two candidates for the greatest player ever and a man they wrote songs of. I wish there were four outfield positions in the AL.

I don't know. These are what interesting arguments are made of. The biases that I know of include somewhat of a disregard for statistics as they exist. While important, the balance between hitting and pitching has shifted over the years and I try to view them in the context of their time. A pitcher with a 2.65 ERA in 1910 has nowhere near the ability of the pitcher who did it in 2001. The hitter who put up 500 homers in the Steroid Era is less significant than one who did it any other time. I also favored players who were considered the tops of their time, often perennial MVP candidates. While maybe I shouldn't I favor players from contending teams.

Okay, here they are. Please don't throw anything, especially if you're reading this in e-format.

---  

#26- Conclusion

So, what happened to the Great American Pastime? In substance, on a professional level, basically nothing other than increased fan interest. Baseball is still going strong. Attendance, revenues, and salaries continue to rise.

However on a semi-pro and population participation basis there has been a marked decline. The barnstorming teams which were prevalent and competitive in the 1930's were all but gone by the early 1950's. Major Leaguer's abilities to participate in these barnstorms is a tale of changing dictums and lawbreakers. Coupled with the 1947 breaking down of the color barrier, fans could now see their favorite teams right at home through the flick of a switch. This same switch flick provided people with easy access to other entertainment not previously available. "The Great American Pastime" had competition and through their TV contracts became in essence, oddly became part of that competition.

Cable TV, the subsequent Internet, and Video Games multiplied the possible sources of entertainment by a gigantic, incomputable factor. Despite this major league baseball, whether watched at the park or at home, continued to thrive, though the opening of the entertainment league brought many more challengers. Somewhere in that period the phrase; "The Great American Pastime" became less and less spoken. As the trend continues it will eventually be something only for museums.

While the rules and technologies serve as strong suggestions of a changing society, I cannot help but wonder if this phenomenon could be adequately explained by the appearance and disappearance of one person; the Babe. Baseball's popularity jumped when he arrived; and became subject to competition just a bit after he departed. Can you imagine the interest that would be generated if someone brought up in an orphanage arrived on the scene today, never took PED's, led the league in pitching while simultaneously breaking all the hitting records? Second place would be five miles behind. Then add to that a guy who loved kids and spent time talking with them, visiting children's hospitals, and signing baseballs. Then add to that. Then add to that. Then add ............. Now, you've almost got the essence of Babe Ruth. Any game he played would be soon called "The Great American Pastime." Like everyone else; Babe, we all wish we could have seen you just once.

So, I ask again; "What happened to 'The Last Great American Pastime?'" The game has had its share of changes and controversies; just like the US and everything else. But, it's still alive and getting more popular every year. Nothing has yet taken away its throne. It's still "The Last Great American Pastime," and it looks like it is going to last. By any measure known, baseball is still at the top. The "competitors" have no case other than a silly fleeting one measured in nanoseconds and polls with undisclosed methodologies. And even if the polls have some validity, it doesn't really matter. No claim for the crown can be legitimate until the claimant can demonstrate having been on top for at least a century.

I don't know. Maybe everybody just feels compelled to question all the leaders, concocting spurious history re-writes, and "conspiracy theories" these days. It's popular.

### The End

