Category Archives: Baseball

The First Baseball Strike – May 18, 1912

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An Unlikely Catalyst Causes a Baseball Strike – Other Players Rally Around the Unpopular Ty Cobb

On Wednesday May 15, 1912 The Detroit Tigers were playing the New York Yankees at Hilltop Park in upper Manhattan when one of the most infamous incidents in baseball history occurred.

Ty Cobb, the star outfielder for the Tigers was incited by a fan to go into the stands and pummel him.

The fan, Claude Lucker (alternately spelled by contemporary papers as Lueker or Leuker) worked as a page in the office of Tammany boss “Big Tom” Foley.  From the onset of the game Lucker was being particularly obnoxious according to all accounts. Cobb and Lucker exchanged nasty barbs and Cobb warned Lucker to stop calling him names or he would come into the stands to take care of him personally. By the fourth inning Cobb had had enough and he jumped into the left field stands and started administering a beating and no one seemed to interfere.

Sticks and stones were probably not as harmful to Cobb as the names which could hurt him – especially when the racist outfielder was called a “half-nigger” by Lucker, which was what apparently drove him over the edge.

It should be noted that Lucker had a machine press  accident when he was younger and was missing one hand and had Continue reading →

How to Win the World Series – Don’t Hit! Presenting the 1906 White Sox

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Nicknamed The “Hitless Wonders”: The 1906 Chicago White Sox.

Portrait White Sox catcher Billy Sullivan 1909 Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Courtesy of Chicago History Museum

This dour looking man shared the team lead for the Chicago White Sox in home runs in 1906. His name was Billy Sullivan. He was the team’s catcher. He batted .218.

Billy Sullivan in 1910 Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Courtesy of Chicago History Museum

Billy Sullivan and Joe Sugden in 1901 Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Courtesy of Chicago History Museum

The other slugger to lead the team in home runs was outfielder / playing manager Fielder Jones. He batted .230.

fielder Jones at South Side Park 1905 Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Courtesy of Chicago History Museum

Fielder Jones & Frank Isbell 1907 Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Courtesy of Chicago History Museum

Fielder Jones Base Hit vs. Cubs Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Courtesy of Chicago History Museum

Sullivan and Jones each had two home runs.  This is the shared record with the 1907 Cubs for fewest amount of home runs for an individual team leader on a modern (post 1903) world championship team. Let’s give the 1907 Cubs some credit they walloped nearly double the number the White Sox did in 1906 by hitting 13 home runs.

The White Sox hit a total of seven home runs in 1906. Count them, seven.

The White Sox batted collectively .230. They did not have one .300 hitter who had more than ten at bats. Pitcher Frank Smith had a higher batting average  (.293)  than any other regular starter. They did finish in first place with a 93-58 record.

In the 1906 World Series against the crosstown rival Chicago Cubs the Sox  hit even lower, batting a collective .198.

1906 World Series West Side Grounds Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Courtesy of Chicago History Museum

1906 World Series fans Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Courtesy of Chicago History Museum

The Cubs had won a record 116 games, which is still the modern National League record for victories.

Yet the White Sox whipped the heavily favored Cubs four games to two and even managed to score eight runs in each of the last two games!

Babe Ruth – Lou Gehrig Film Footage – Identified

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An Iowa Family Recognizes Their Family In Recently Discovered Film Footage Of Babe Ruth And Lou Gehrig In 1927.

As this story continues unfolding, the film footage of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig that was recently found was recognized by a family member as being their family with the two Yankee greats.  The New York Times reports the family of one of the men seen in the film has identified the little boy shown in the film. He is Phil Donohue and he was 9-years-old when the film was shot. Donohue is now 92, but he remembers that day very clearly. He is also the only person in the film that is still alive.

The Donohue family also had what they thought was the original copy of the film. But R.C. Raycraft who had purchased the film containing Ruth and Gehrig’s meeting with the Donohue family is sure he has the original.

One thing is certain parts of the film footage have been seen before in two HBO documentaries in the 1990’s.  This means one thing- this new old footage, is not so new.

Babe Ruth (Again) And Lou Gehrig – Recently Discovered Film Footage

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Babe Ruth And Lou Gehrig On Film

The New York Times reports more film footage of the mighty Babe Ruth has been unearthed, this time from 1927 showing Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig up close and personal in a barnstorming tour.  The article goes on to say that in the Major League Baseball archives there is less than an hour’s worth of film footage of Ruth!  The majority of film footage that probably still exists resides in attics across the country waiting to be discovered. This film was found in a cellar in Illinois and shows Ruth and Gehrig in or around Sioux City, Iowa on October 18, 1927.

Gehrig and Ruth were good friends, had a presumed falling out (over mysterious circumstances) and eventually made up when Gehrig was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis which ended up taking his life at the age of 37.

The public perception via film of Ruth and Gehrig together is not really when they are together at all.

Hollywood accomplished that trick with The Pride of the Yankees, the 1942 movie depicting the life of Lou Gehrig ,who is played by Gary Cooper. Babe Ruth plays himself in the picture.  No mean feat as Babe was already 46 years old and was significantly heavier than in his playing days.  Ruth would not be embarrassed.  Before the movie started shooting, Babe went on a diet and dropped a significant amount of pounds so he could play the part himself.

While the picture is embellished for the silver screen, it still covers a fair portion of Gehrig’s baseball accomplishments while telling more Lou’s devotion to his family and the love story between Eleanor Twitchell (the future Mrs. Gehrig) and Lou.  The movie almost never got made.  Producer Samuel Goldwyn knew nothing about baseball and knew from experience that baseball movies were never “big box office.” But Goldwyn had been shown a newsreel of Gehrig’s farewell speech at Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day by Niven Busch, a Goldwyn screenwriter. Busch was confident a movie about Gehrig would be a success. By the end of the newsreel Goldwyn was crying and had made up his mind to acquire the rights to Gehrig’s story. The end result was a success, with the picture being nominated for 11 academy awards, including best picture.

Here are some photos of The Babe and Lou together. (click to enlarge)

Gehrig and Ruth in a posed publicity photo

Ruth and Gehrig 1927

Babe Ruth Scores ahead of a Lou Gehrig Home Run

Four Greats- Lou Gehrig, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth 1928

Babe Ruth pays his respects at Lou Gehrig’s funeral June 4, 1941

Babe Ruth As You’ve (Probably) Never Seen Him Before

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Ask people to visualize Babe Ruth and some standard images of the Sultan of Swat might come to mind and look something like…

Have you ever seen Babe Ruth doing any of the following things?

The Babe practicing his bunting –

Babe Ruth practicing his right-handed hitting–

The Bambino sliding into home plate-

The Babe about to field a fly ball in the outfield-

Babe Ruth Pitching for the Yankees 1933 –

Babe Ruth smokes in the dugout-

When The Record Books Are Wrong

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The New York Yankees Actually Hold The MLB Record For The Largest Attendance In A Regular Season Game.

Bleachers at Yankee Stadium September 9, 1928

Records are made to be broken…that is if anyone knows about them.

If you look up the largest attendance during the regular season to see a major league baseball game, the Sporting News Baseball Record Book and many online sources claim that the paid attendance on September 12, 1954 of 84,587 at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium is the largest ever.  The Yankees were visiting the Indians that day for a doubleheader. The rivals were battling for a pennant that Cleveland would eventually go on to win. The Yankees finished in second place with 103 wins (there was no wild card in 1954).

But is the 1954 Indians-Yankees game the regular season record?

Probably no one cares, with the possible exception of the members of SABR, but the official record books are wrong.

The Largest Attendance Ever

On September 9, 1928 The New York Yankees and Philadelphia Athletics were in a tight battle for first place, a half game separating Continue reading →