Category Archives: Baseball

Jackie Robinson Packs Up And Retires

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A Classy Man Calls It A Career – January 7, 1957

55 Years Later- Remembering The December 13, 1956 Trade That Shocked New York

In this January 7, 1957 photograph Jackie Robinson packs up the contents of his locker from Ebbets Field, his home for his entire ten year major league career.

After the 1956 season Jackie Robinson’s legs were gone. He was no longer the player he once was and he knew it. He batted a respectable .275 with ten homers.  But rather than continue playing with eroding skills, Robinson would retire at the age of 37.

One problem: except for his family and future non-baseball employer, Robinson didn’t tell anyone of his decision.

The Trade

The Dodgers shocked everyone including Robinson, with a December 13, 1956 trade to the New York Giants for Dick Littlefield and $35,000 for the Dodger legend.  After the trade announcement, fans of the Dodgers were outraged. Brooklynites believed that Robinson would retire rather than play for the hated crosstown rival Giants. But they did not know Robinson had already decided before the trade that he was retiring.

All Robinson would publicly say was he would “inform the Giants by January 14, if he would play in 1957.”

The reason Robinson couldn’t announce his retirement was because he had signed a contract to write an exclusive article for Look magazine, about his retirement in December which would not hit the newsstands until January 8.

Announcing his retirement on January 7, many Dodger fans were happy Robinson would not be playing for the Giants.  Robinson said he had decided to take a position with Chock full O’Nuts as Vice President of personnel rather than play baseball.

Whether Robinson would have played for the Giants had he not retired is open to speculation.

click to read Robinson’s letter

Robinson’s January 14, 1957 letter to Giants owner Horace Stoneham takes the high road. Robinson says he appreciates being offered the chance to play for the Giants, but he has “decided to devote his full time to business opportunities.”

Additional Baseball Playoff Wildcard Is An Abomination

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New Watered Down Playoff System Brings Lesser Teams New Hope

In 2011 the team that tied for the tenth best record in major league baseball won the World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals were a good team at 90-72, but were they the best team in baseball? If your measurement is winning the World Series the answer is yes. Using any other criteria the answer is definitely not. They were a team that got hot at the end of the year and that carried over throughout the postseason.

The real question is: should a team that has the tenth best record in baseball have the right to play in the World Series? Continue reading →

The Agony of Defeat

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The Day After The Yankees Were Swept in a Late Season Doubleheader – 1954

The day of September 13, 1954 was not a happy one for Yankees fans as can be seen above. Reality sank in for eleven-year-old Walter Golle as he sat in front of Yankee Stadium. The dejection shown in Walter’s face reflected the fact that the Yankees would not be in the World Series for the first time since 1948 when Walter was five-years-old. The Yankees had won five consecutive World Series from 1949-1953.

The day before, on September 12, the Cleveland Indians had swept the Yankees in a doubleheader in Cleveland. The games were witnessed by 86,563 fans, the largest crowd to ever see a baseball game in the cavernous Municipal Stadium.

September 12, 1954 Municipal Stadium Filled

Bob Lemon won the first game 4-1 for his twenty-second win of the year and Early Wynn triumphed 3-2 in the second game for his twenty-first victory. The Yankees ended the day being 8 and a half games behind the Indians, reducing Cleveland’s magic number for clinching the pennant to three games.

The Indians would go on to win an American League record 111 games. They finished the season eight games ahead of the Yankees.  Miraculously the New York Giants defeated the heavily favored Indians four games to none in the World Series.

Walter eventually got over the Yankees 1954 failure. Maybe that is an assumption.

Here is what Walter looked like 46 years later in 2000 featured in The Norwood News Inquiring Photographer section.

Mickey Mantle After Retirement

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3 Photographs of Yankees First Base Coach – Mickey Mantle

 

 

 

 

And Bobby Murcer gets playfully pushed away after reaching first base

Mickey Mantle announced his retirement March 1, 1969. In 1970, Mickey Mantle was an announcer on the NBC Game of the Week, but left in late August and  joined Yankee manager Ralph Houk’s coaching staff for the remainder of the season.

Mantle’s first game coaching was on August 30 against the Minnesota Twins. Bobby Murcer walked to lead off the fourth inning. When Murcer came over to talk with Mantle, who would coach first base only for the middle three innings, Mantle kiddingly pushed Murcer back to first base. The Twins first baseman is Rich Reese. The Yankees won this game 5-2. Continue reading →

And Here’s The Batter’s Box…

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Gil McDougald Needs to Be Reminded Where He Can Stand

Photo © Bill Nehez

New York Yankee third baseman Gil McDougald had one of the most unorthodox batting stances of all time.  He would face the pitcher with both feet pointing towards the mound in an open stance.

At Municipal Stadium on June 12, 1953 the Cleveland Indians were upset with where McDougald was standing, claiming his right foot was over the line of the batter’s box. Continue reading →

You Can’t Go Out Unrecognized, Can You?

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Babe Ruth Signing Autographs

The Yankees won’t be in the World Series this year. The Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees three games to two in the American League Divisional Series last night. So we won’t be hearing God Bless America at Yankee Stadium during the 7th inning stretch for the rest of 2011 at the ballpark in the Bronx.

In 1936, after Babe Ruth retired, he did not show up to many ball games as a spectator.   He grew disillusioned with not being given the chance to get a management job in the game he loved and tended to avoid baseball parks. Of course it was always hard for Babe to go out in public without being besieged by autograph seekers. But he signed for everyone. That was the Babe. Continue reading →

Vintage Photos – Stealing Home

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Or Jackie Robinson Makes Stealing Home Look Easy

One of the most famous film highlights of a baseball game is from September 28, Game 1 of the 1955 World Series where the Brooklyn Dodgers star Jackie Robinson stole home against the New York Yankees. The photograph above captures the bang-bang action. The play was incredibly close and you could look at the film 100 times and still not be sure of the outcome. Robinson was called safe by umpire Bill Summers. To this day, Yankees catcher Yogi Berra vehemently Continue reading →

Lou Gehrig Beats The Throw Home

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Solving A Photographic Mystery

People have asked where we get the photos for this web site.  Mostly the online resources at various libraries and eBay have been used.  Sometimes they are part of the contributors photo collections.

This phenomenal photo of Lou Gehrig sliding into home plate is one of millions of photographs available at the Library of Congress web site.  In the old days the photographers were allowed to be on the field during baseball games. There were no Continue reading →

Babe Ruth Catches A Baseball From An Airplane

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Babe Ruth, Out Standing In His Field, 1926

Yes, I know that is a terrible pun.

Here is an apocryphal story about Babe Ruth and this little known feat.

In this rare news photograph, Babe Ruth  has just caught a baseball dropped from an airplane on July 22, 1926 at Mitchel Field (an early New York airport) in Garden City, Long Island.  The New York Times reports Ruth donned an army uniform to drum up publicity for the Citizens Military Training Camps.

Six times, baseballs were dropped from the airplane and Ruth was sweating up a storm, Continue reading →