Bob struck out 11 and tripled in what turned out to be the GWRBI; Doby scored an 8th-inning insurance run. St. Louis fell a full game behind the Yankees.
"I was never bitter because I believed in the man upstairs. | continue to do my best. I let someone else be bitter. If | was bitter, I was only hurting me. I prefer to remember Bill Veeck, Jim Hegan, and Joe Gordon, the good guys. There is no point in talking about the others."-Larry Doby
Dan Bankhead struck out 9 Indians and regained a share of first place for St. Louis. Josh Gibson broke out of an 0-13 slump and knocked in the GWRBI. Dean got the save.
Give the Giants a decent starting pitcher, and suddenly they look like a first-division team. New York dominated as Bob Romby held the Phillies to just 5 hits.
In 1949, Bob Romby's Baltimore Elite Giants took up residence in the NAL -- the NNL having folded. What team did they defeat in the playoffs for the league championship that year?
I remember seeing an interview with Mays where he talked about what it was like for the Giants to play the Dodgers in the early '60s. It always seemed to be Drysdale and Koufax. "Don't you guys have anyone else?"
Just in under the wire! Joe Black, purportedly a normal human being, somehow became a demigod in 1952, winning 15 games for the Brooklyn Dodgers and saving 15 more.
He also had an era of 2.15, and only missed winning the ERA championship because he was 8 innings short for qualification.
Boston, winner of 7 straight, is the hottest team in the league at the moment; they send Warren Spahn (6-7, 3.52) to the mound to face Luis E. Tiant (8-7, 2.95). Pirates aiming to halt a 4-game losing streak.
Braves keep right on rolling as Spahn evens his record at 8-8 with a two-hit shutout. Boston has won eight in a row. Tiant's quality start goes to waste.
#1947League preview: Braves aim for ninth straight win!
Ace of the Boston staff Red Barrett (6-2, 2.04) faces off against "42" antagonist Kirby Higbe (5-7, 3.23), about and at whom I rail at length in my play. :-)
Pirates have something at stake, too. They aim to stop a 5-game losing streak. #baseball
You are correct, sir. Kirby Higbe was, objectively speaking, a douchebag, and among the reasons for this was his decision to attempt a boycott against Jackie Robinson during spring training, 1947.
And the third (but no means last) instance of douchebaggery was Kirby Higbe's habit of boasting about strengthening his pitching arm while growing up by throwing rocks at Black schoolchildren.
On the weekend I made the road trip to see D-Backs/Rox (who share a spring training facility).
After the game starts, a couple arrives, her with a t-shirt that says “Trump 2024, No More Bullshit”.
So I look up the ballpark rules and it says that they will not let anyone in wearing profanity.
After a couple of innings of reflection I went to the information booth and let them know that someone is violating their policy and gave the details of her shirt and seat.
After returning, nothing happened.
So I’m kind of soured on the D-Backs and thinking about switching my NL team.
Sorry to disappoint though, if I do switch, it’s the Jynts.
Last year I had a work trip and I was co-ordinated a long weekend to go to SF to see a game.
Getting seated, I see that in the outfield they are not only flying the pride-progress flag, they are flying the trans flag below that.
It was overwhelming.
Then I did my usual “new-to-me stadium tour”, walking around, mostly to see McCovey cove and wave to the kayaker. Then everyone stands up, it’s time for the song. They had a trans woman sing the anthem.
After I returned to my seat, I was overwhelmed with the thought of “what it this place that is so welcoming and why do I not cheer for them?
I thought, I can’t change teams mid-season.
The experience with the t-shirt has me re-thinking that.
Thank you for that, Yakyu. I almost felt like leaving, mid-game, but wanted to stay to see what happened with the t-shirt.
Normally I wouldn’t have an interest in a team from TN, but Dave Stewart has a role with the ownership group. He’s a solid guy, probably with the most experience of anyone across all levels of a baseball organization.
... and by #TracyChapman, with what I consider the only cover of that classic tune that can hold a candle to the Animals' version. #HouseOfTheRisingSun
His brother, Turner, was the sales rep for the company that sold the pliers and wrenches that were used by the sprinkler maintenance specialists of the grounds crew at Ebbet’s Field.
#YIAY how #1947League Dodger star Johnny "Needlenose" Wright was connected to the real-life Brooklyn club. Answer: He was the second Black player Branch Rickey signed, after Jackie.
Gentry Jessup allowed a third-inning home run to Jackie Robinson... and that was it in the base-hit department. Cards take 3 out of 4 from Brooklyn at home, winning a pitching-heavy series.
In 1946, Gentry Jessup was the pitcher of record in a 3-3 tie game between the Chicago American Giants and the Indianapolis Clowns. Within three innings, tell me: How many innings did he pitch?
The 20-inning pitcher's duel between Gentry Jessup and Peanuts Davis is further proof-- as though any were needed-- that you and I only got half of America's #baseball history growing up. The least interesting half.
Today's #1947League game has been brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Commissioner, and by ... wait for it .... #TOTO, in honor of the opening of a certain film based on a Frank Herbert novel....
The Senators, last seen lugging a 20-62 record into a game against Detroit, appear to have claimed their destiny as #1947League's most consistently awful team.
Name the NNL's equivalent--the team cofounded by Bill "Bojangles" Robinson that finished dead last for six straight seasons.
I read an interview once where Gibson pointed out that the whole "look how mean he is, he just hates people" legend somehow never attached itself to similarly intense WHITE pitchers who played the same kinds of mental intimidation games.... and hit many more batters.
It'd be smarter to teach every young pitcher who catches crap for not being a headhunter about the career line of Sandy Koufax. 18 HBP. Total. Sandy wasn't intimidated by a hitter.
Here is that superb video about the toxic brawl ignited by John #Roseboro and Juan #Marichal (make no mistake, they collaborated on it) ... and also about the inspiring story of their reconciliation.
"Peanuts" Davis got Minoso, the potential go-ahead run, to line out to Edsall Walker in RF on the final play. Davis: CG win. Tigers' win streak was snapped at 7.
So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to share reasons TO be an #Oakland#Athletics fan in 2024, because that's what the Good Lord GAVE ME! The choice of living in POSSIBILITY!
Esteury Ruiz missed a month of play in '23, had an OBP of just .309, and STILL led the league in SBs (67). Rickey is a mentor. Watch out!
Detroit cruised to the easy win at the Coyle, as Fred Hutchinson picked up his 12th win and Cool Papa Bell went 4-6 with 3 RBI. Tigers aim for three out of four on the road tomorrow.
Today's #1947League game brought to you by @YakyuNightOwl, Vince Guaraldi, and a tune that captures, in 189 perfect seconds, the full range of human joy and wonder.
Thanks to Charles Schulz, Guaraldi's trio was surely the only jazz combo to make huge inroads into the elementary-school set.
Our #1947League hero, Cool Papa Bell, really did once score from first on a bunt. He also appears to have scored from second on a sac fly...multiple times.
But was he faster than the speed of light? What's the truth behind the story of him flicking a lightswitch and being in bed before the room went dark? One guess.
This doesn't so much debunk one man's speed as shine a light on another man's (often-overlooked) gift for marketing and narrative. Two geniuses, but the real genius in this particular story is Satchel Paige.
That whole damn article about Cool Papa Bell is amazing, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Here is the link again if you want to do a deeper dive:
The kind of line score that drives managers nuts. Detroit wins, despite Senators outhitting Tigers 12-6. Three unearned runs in 6th make the difference. Trout gets the W, Newberry the SV.
DET (43-40) 000213000 6 6 0
WAS(21-64)100020200 5 12 3
Today's #1947League game brought to you by Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers.
Calloway: sui generis.
As Josh Gibson was to Babe Ruth, the Nicholas Brothers were to Gene Kelly/Fred Astaire. AL/NL wasn't the only place where excellence didn't mean you made the big time.
Dean blew a 2-run lead and the SV in the 9th, which basically led to another game. Rusty Peters stroked the walk-off GWRBI with a single in the bottom of the 16th for St. Louis. Booker McDaniel got the W.
Chuck Berry and the Beautiful Shufflers celebrate the Browns' extra-inning walk-off. The win puts them half a game in front of the Yankees in the seemingly endless game of LeapFrog that is the American division of #1947League.
The thrill I feel watching newly unearthed color footage of Teddy Ballgame hitting in 1941 is roughly equivalent to the thrill I feel watching the Beatles bounce ideas off each other in the Peter Jackson documentary GET BACK.
All I'm going to say is that Dune 2 was magnificent and well worth waiting for, whether you've been waiting since, say, 1975 -- or since Dune 1. I fall into both categories.
BROWNS CAPITALIZE ON SLOPPY FIELDING, TAKE 3RD STRAIGHT
St. Louis pulled a full game ahead of the Yankees, thanks to a Cleveland defensive meltdown in the 8th. Ford Smith logged his 11th win against 5 defeats. He also doubled in the go-ahead run.
Bombs away! The Pittsburgh offense, long dormant, exploded: HRs from Cox, Mauch, Marshall, and Kiner gave starter Wilmer Fields plenty of breathing room. He logged his 10th win. Braves win streak stops at 9.
You DO want to see footage of Babe Ruth hitting a stand-up triple, and Lou Gehrig launching a grand slam, as the Yankees destroy the Senators, 21-1, in 1927. I just know you do.
Barney Brown struck out 17 (!), including 6 in a row, walked nobody, and knocked in a run in Pittsburgh's win at Braves Field. Johnny Sain took the loss.
His technique really took her out of this world. Same goes for Barney Brown's mastery of the screwball today. Pirates fans with little to cheer for in recent weeks consider Brown a real gone guy.
Boston took a 1-0 lead into the 6th, then Willard Brown doubled and scored on Clark's single. In the 8th, Brown singled, stole 2nd, scored again on a Clark single.
Spud K'd 8. Joe D robbed P Dave Barnhill of a HR in B9.
The other day, I asked you to name BOTH starters of each of 1946's East-West games. Trick question, but our buddy Cliff saw right through it. Barney Brown started both games and went 1-0; he pitched three scoreless innings in each.
Poll: How many people here think genius Cliff should join Mastodon?
While we wait for the wheels of democracy to turn, here's Cliff's victory song for getting the right answer on the #1947League trivia question. Cue up #JimmyBuffett. And I like my #dog too.
Great guess, but I've got Brown in Puerto Rican winter league in '52-'53 season, Aaron there the following year. As far as I can tell, unless you have receipts the contrary, their paths did not cross. Anyway, it wasn't what I had in mind. Reluctantly, then, I'm going to call this a swing and a miss.🤔
So I'm going to give it to you, @YakyuNightOwl ... although another correct answer is that they were both batboys. Willard Brown was a spring training batboy for the KC Monarchs, for whom he would later star. They played in Shreveport before the season started.
NY fell to a full game behind the Browns, as Joe Dobson held the Bronx Bombers to four hits and K'd 7, going the distance. Dave Barnhill, now in RF when he doesn't start, went 2-3 and scored.
In the late '30s, Buck Leonard saw today's hero, Dave Barnhill, play -- and urged the Homestead Grays to sign him. What reason did the Grays' brass give for choosing not to?
Yesterday I asked why the Homestead Grays' front office overruled Buck Leonard and declined to sign Dave Barnhill. It was because he was too small for their liking. At 5' 6", Barnhill wasn't a typical Grays "big man."
Their loss. In '48 he posted a 2.95 ERA and hit .343 for the New York Cubans.
Boston took the deciding game of the big three-game series. Lino Donoso -- who finally seems to be finding his groove -- got the W; Denny Galehouse got the save. Dave Barnhill got the GWRBI, tripling in Ted Williams.
I threw that question over to Cliff, who got it instantly. The major rock bassist who is also (like yours truly) a NNL/NAL baseball geek is Geddy Lee of #Rush. (Cal Ripken Jr. is, too!)
Lee donated his collection of autographed #baseball s to #NLBM in 2008, bless his heart.
It keeps on not being Opening Day yet. Fortunately, I found a compelling four-minute documentary of an era long past that bears repeated viewing. Suspect it will get me through til Thursday.
This 9/30/67 game between the Twins and Sox captures a late-season contest from one of the most famous pennant races of all time ... is the oldest surviving complete color broadcast of a #baseball game ... and features cameos from VP Humphrey and Sen Kennedy.
If you try to tell me you've already seen footage of Babe Ruth legging out a triple, and Casey Stengel hitting an inside-the-park HR in the same game, I'm afraid I'm going to need a signed affidavit.
Looks like Brown had a Nuke Laloosh-style setback in the 6th.
From the movie, after Nuke’s first appearance:
Manager Joe “Skip” Riggins and coach Larry Hockett talk about it after the contest ends.
Skip: “He walked 18.”
Larry: “New league record!”
Skip: “He struck out 18.”
Larry: “Another new league record. In addition, he hit the sportswriters, the public-address announcer, the bull mascot — twice — also new league records. But, Joe. This guy’s got some serious s—.”
Following up on my D-Backs experience last week, I thought that I would make another trek to the Cactus League and try a Giants home game.
The experience was… okay. Nine mostly-strangers on the field. I suppose with effort I could get to know them. But the 40-man roster has five catchers, all of them anglo: what tango foxtrot is up with that????
On the bright side, I got to see Pablo Sandoval bat (Orlando Cepeda was unavailable)
It was interesting to compare the souvenir shops with the respective ML stadium.
Neither Cactus venue had any rainbow-theme merch. Not surprising for the D-backs: the only thing they have at Chase Field is a fridge magnet.
For the Giants it was disappointing to see zero after seeing lots of pride merch at Oracle Park.
One other thing: before the game starts they announce that they are about to play the song. The Giants tell everyone to stand but the D-backs they tell “those who can” to stand, which I think properly acknowledges the differing abilities.
Add comment