Category Archives: Baseball

1955 World Series The Brooklyn Dodgers Win Game 3 Behind Johnny Podres

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Johnny Podres, The Birthday Boy, Wins A Critical Game 3

This news photograph’s caption reads as follows:

NEW YORK; SEPT. 30 — VICTORY ON HIS BIRTHDAY

Johnny Podres kicks, fires and follows through — with eyes on ground — during third World Series game against New York Yankees at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn today. Johnny celebrated his 23rd birthday with an 8-3 victory over the American League champs. Slender lefty thus put Dodgers back into contention for Series. (AP wirephoto)

The New York Yankees looked like they were on their way to beating their crosstown rivals the Brooklyn Dodgers once again in another World Series. The Yankees had taken the first two games of the 1955 World Series by scores of 6-5 and 4-2. Continue reading →

Billy Martin, Mickey Mantle Prepare For The 1952 World Series

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Martin, Mantle Prepare Series Strategy

60 years ago, the World Series started on the first day of October. This year the World Series will begin October 24!

Here is another one of these great baseball news photographs. This one is from UPI dated September 30 1952. The caption reads: Continue reading →

Lou Sleater, Detroit Tigers 1957

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Getting Ready For The Game

Lou Sleater turns 86 on September 8, 2012. The St. Louis native pitched for some very bad teams such as the Browns, Senators and Athletics during a major league career which stretched intermittently from 1950 until 1958. His career record was 12-18.

In this photograph, Sleater is warming up before a game at a virtually empty Tiger Stadium in May of 1957 when he was with Detroit.

One personal highlight in his career came on May 30, 1957. Sleater pitched an inning of  Continue reading →

The Best Baseball Card Error – EVER

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Something Even Babe Ruth Couldn’t Do

I stopped collecting baseball cards in 1981 after it became speculative and was more about card values rather than flipping, trading and completing sets.

This was one of my favorite baseball cards simply because of the obviousness of the mistake and the fact that it was never corrected.

The Dave Bennett – Rick Wise rookie card from the 1964 Topps set is nothing extraordinary on the front. But on the back of Dave Bennett’s very short biography is this astounding piece of information:

“Dave is the younger brother of the Phils’ ace, Dennis Bennett. The 19-year-old righthanded curveballer is just 18 years old!”

Now that is some feat!

Nellie Fox In A Strange Pose

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Hey Nellie, Will You Please Lay On The Tarpaulin? 

I sometimes wonder if every photo of Nellie Fox shows him with a chaw of chewing tobacco bulging out of his cheek. Was he born with the chewing tobacco permanently attached inside one cheek?  This photograph of Nellie Fox shows that ballplayers were much more accommodating for publicity photographers back in the 1950’s, as Nellie lies on his stomach on a tarpaulin in an empty ballpark. Continue reading →

Arena and Stadium Names – Stupid As Ever

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Is Every Arena Owner A Corporate Whore?

Looking at Rush’s upcoming concert tour of North America I noticed something interesting.  Take a look at this schedule:

Sep -7

Sep -9

Sep-11

Sep-13

Sep-15

Sep-18

Sep-20

Sep-22

Sep-24

Sep-26

Sep-28

Sep-30

Oct-10

Oct-12

Oct-14

Oct-16

Oct-18

Oct-20

Oct-22

Oct-24

Oct-26

Oct-28

Oct-30

*Nov-1

Nov-3

Nov-13

Nov-15

Nov-17

Nov-19

Nov-23

Nov-25

Nov-28

Nov-30

Dec-2

Manchester,NH

Washington, DC

Pittsburgh, PA

Indianapolis, IN

Chicago, IL

Detroit, MI

Columbus, OH

St. Louis, MO

Minneapolis,MN

Winnipeg, MB

Saskatoon, SK

Edmonton, AB

Bridgeport, CT

Philadelphia, PA

Toronto, ON

Toronto, ON

Montreal, QC

Newark, NJ

Brooklyn, NY

Boston, MA

Buffalo, NY

Cleveland, OH

Charlotte, NC

Atlanta, GA

Tampa, FL

Seattle, WA

San Jose, CA

Anaheim, CA

Los Angeles, CA

Las Vegas, NV

Phoenix, AZ

Dallas, TX

San Antonio, TX

Houston, TX

Verizon Wireless Arena

Jiffy Lube Live Amphitheater

CONSOL Energy Center

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

United Center

Palace of Auburn Hills

Nationwide Arena

Scottrade Center

Target Center

MTS Centre

Credit Union Centre

Rexall Place

Webster Bank Arena

Wells Fargo Center

Air Canada Centre

Air Canada Centre

Bell Centre

Prudential Center

Barclays Center

TD Garden

First Niagara Center

Quicken Loans Arena

Time Warner Cable Arena

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre

KeyArena

HP Pavilion

Honda Center

Gibson Amphitheatre

MGM Grand Garden Arena

US Airways Center

American Airlines Center

AT&T Center

Toyota Center

Out of 34 venues only one arena is not named after some corporation (The Palace in Michigan).

No arena except The Palace has the name of the city it is located in or attaches the local sports team to its name. Virtually every arena has sold its “naming rights.” Yes, arenas today still have unique names if you consider auto companies, airlines, tech companies, mega-banks and their ilk to be representative of the city.

If someone asked me where The Quicken Loans Arena, The Jiffy-Lube Live Amphitheater or The Honda Center was I’d be hard pressed to tell you. What do these corporate names say about the cities and the arenas they stuck their names on?

Up until the 1970’s most arenas and stadiums were clearly defined: The Boston Garden; Detroit Olympia; The Montreal Forum; Memorial Stadium in Baltimore; The Spectrum in Philadelphia; Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto; Buffalo Memorial Auditorium; Pittsburgh Civic Arena – and on and on it went for traditional names. The Buffalo Bills were one of the first to do a naming rights deal with Rich Stadium in 1972 and the practice picked up steam in the 1990’s to the point of obliterating almost all historic stadium and arena names. Corporate naming rights are now expected if a new facility opens up. Continue reading →

Honoring Lou Gehrig, His Monument Unveiled – 1941

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The Day The Yankees Paid Their Final Tribute To The “Iron Horse”

This monument ceremony seen below was supposed to take place July 4 1941, on the two year anniversary of Lou Gehrig Day in 1939.

Many baseball fans know that the New York Yankees began the tradition of Old-Timers Day with a ceremony on July 4, 1939 to honor Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Horse.” On that day, the Yankees brought together Lou’s old teammates to show their deep admiration for a man who exemplified everything the Yankees were about. At the last minute Gehrig was asked to say something to the packed house at Yankee Stadium.

The words he said, now known as, “The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth” speech, live on in immortality because it was completely spontaneous and from the heart.

What you may not know, is that you really have never heard or seen that speech.

You have only seen or heard small portions of Gehrig’s speech, because believe it or not, there is not one extant movie or audio recording of Gehrig’s complete speech. Only snippets.

As incredible as it sounds with all those newsreel cameras present to record the activities at Yankee Stadium, no complete version of the speech has surfaced in all these years. Continue reading →