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Unit4.pptLecture 4
The Next Decades
The Age of the Bambino
Traded by Harry Frazee to the Yankees in 1918 from the Boston Red Sox where he starred as a left-handed pitcher and led the team in home runs.
He soon became baseball’s most prodigious home run hitter and, with Lou Gehrig, established the greatest dynasty in the history of the game, one that with some interruptions along the way, continues even until the present day…well, not quite!
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The Babe
- The Reasons for Ruth’s popularity:
- His incredible talent
- His lavish and insatiable appetites
- His physical appearance as an “everyman”
- He was an antidote to the Black Sox scandal.
The Advent of Radio
The broadcast of baseball games, pioneered in 1921 by station KDKA in Pittsburgh with Harold Arlin at the mic, made the game accessible to millions of Americans who lived in areas without professional teams.
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KDKA’s Harold Arlin
For all intents, Harold Arlin created the concept of the sports broadcaster. That he was little known at the time was because in the early days of radio, announcers were forbidden by their employers to identify themselves lest they become too popular and too difficult to control.
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Radio
“The real activity was done with the radio – not the all-seeing, all-falsifying television – and was the playing of the game in the only place it will last, the enclosed green field of the mind. There, in that warm, bright place, what the old poet called Mutability does not so quickly come.”
- Bart Giamatti, from “The Green Fields of the Mind”
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The Great Broadcasters
Over the years there have been many great radio play-by-play announcers who brought baseball to the millions of Americans who loved the game but were unable to attend in person. Ernie Harwell of the Tigers, Mel Allen of the Yankees, Curt Gowdy of the Red Sox, Harry Caray of the Cubs, Red Barber of the Dodgers, Russ Hodges of the Giants, and more recently, Vin Scully of the Dodgers and Joe Castiglione of the Red Sox. Across the country, children would hide transistor radios under their pillows and go to sleep to the sounds of these broadcasters bringing them the games of their favorite teams.
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The Great Broadcasters
Red Barber
Mel Allen
Ernie Harwell
Harry Carey
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Radio and Advertising
With radio came the advent of paid advertising which enriched the coffers of the broadcast stations as well as the teams whose games were broadcast. Today this is a billion dollar business, and by our standards, radio advertising in those early days was primitive. But click the icons and listen to some of the earliest ads for such products as Colgate shaving cream and Wheaties.
Radio and Advertising
With radio came the advent of paid advertising which enriched the coffers of the broadcast stations as well as the teams whose games were broadcast. Today this is a billion dollar business, and by our standards, radio advertising in those early days was primitive. But click the icons and listen to some of the earliest ads for such products as Wheaties (with Lou Gehrig at right) and Ballantine Beer.
Scully and Castiglione
Vin Scully and Joe Castiglione are the deans of the modern play-by-play announcers, and listening to them call games through the green fields of our minds reminds us of the deeply personal and intuitive nature of the game and our participation in it as fans.
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Harry and Whitey
And let’s not forget the memorable pair from the Philadelphia Phillies, Harry Kalas and Richie (Whitey) Ashburn.
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The Great Depression
While initially attendance grew because millions of Americans were out of work and had time on their hands, gradually the depression hit baseball, taking some franchises to the brink of disaster. Happily, the same 16 teams that formed the two leagues in 1903 survived and remained in place for another quarter century.
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Van Lingle Mungo
Mungo was wild and mean, a high-kicking fireballer with a fierce temper. He was known as a drinker, and was involved in some bizarre off-the-field incidents. He once had to be smuggled out of Cuba to escape the machete-wielding husband of a nightclub dancer with whom he'd been caught in bed.
Branch Rickey and Larry MacPhail
Two baseball geniuses who were a study in opposites: MacPhail, the flamboyant, hard-drinking, hard-living innovator; Rickey, the sober, calculating, and hardworking developer.
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Larry MacPhail
- Innovator of night baseball
- Developer of give-a-ways and other fan-attracting incentives
- Successful general manager of the Cincinnati Reds, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the New York Yankees.
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Branch Rickey
- Developer of the “farm system” that forever changed minor league baseball.
- Integrated baseball by signing Jackie Robinson in 1945.
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The Negro Leagues
Faced with the inability to play in either the National or American League, Negro ballplayers formed their own leagues which flourished from the mid-1920’s until Jackie Robinson integrated the Major Leagues after signing with the Dodgers in the fall of 1945.
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The Negro Leagues
The Negro League teams differed in the quality of their players, in their fan support, and in the stability of their management. Among the best and longest lasting teams were the Kansas City Monarchs, the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords.
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The Kansas City Monarchs
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The Homestead Grays
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The Pittsburgh Crawfords
The Crawfords and other Negro League teams played in major leagues stadiums as well as barnstormed around the country playing white teams, many with established major leaguers.
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Negro League Stars
Satchel Paige (above right) and Josh Gibson were among the greatest players in the history of the game and would have excelled in the majors if allowed to have played there. Paige did pitch for the Cleveland Indians late in his career.
Paige was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1971, Gibson in 1972.
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Cool Papa Bell
“I’m not looking back at the past; I’m looking ahead to the future. I’m not angry at Mississippi or anyplace else. That’s the way it was in those days. I pray we can all live in peace together.”
From Donald Honig’s “When the Grass Was Green.”
Bell was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.
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The Native American Mascots
While Native Americans were allowed to play the game even when African-Americans were not, they were ridiculed by being used as mascots by the Boston/Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves and by the Cleveland Indians whose Chief Wahoo is little more than a comic book character.
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Louis Sockalexis
Perhaps the most distressing incident involving Native Americans in professional baseball was the case of the Penobscot Indian Louis Sockalexis who is purported to be reason for the name of the Cleveland team mascot. This seems improbable since the gifted Sockalexis who had been an all-American baseball player at Holy Cross had a very short tenure with Cleveland. Unable to endure the ridicule he suffered because of his race, he quit baseball and retired to Maine where he lived in relative obscurity for the rest of his life.
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Jewish Ballplayers
Though there have been relatively few Jewish players in professional baseball, many of those who have played have had outstanding careers. The pioneer was Detroit’s legendary Hank Greenberg whose accomplishments both on and off the field paved the way for such later players as Sid Gordon, Al Rosen, and the incomparable Sandy Koufax.
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Jewish Ballplayers
Though there have been relatively few Jewish players in professional baseball, many of those who have played have had outstanding careers. The pioneer was Detroit’s legendary Hank Greenberg whose accomplishments both on and off the field paved the way for such later players as Sid Gordon, Al Rosen, and the incomparable Sandy Koufax.
Hank Greenberg
“Come Yom Kippur - holy fast day wide-world over to the Jew -
And Hank Greenberg to his teaching and the old tradition true
Spent the day among his people and he didn't come to play
Said Murphy to Mulrooney, 'We shall lose the game today!
We shall miss him in the infield and shall miss him at the bat,
But he's true to his religion - and / honor him for that!”
By Edgar Guest
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Hank Greenberg
“Come Yom Kippur - holy fast day wide-world over to the Jew -
And Hank Greenberg to his teaching and the old tradition true
Spent the day among his people and he didn't come to play
Said Murphy to Mulrooney, 'We shall lose the game today!
We shall miss him in the infield and shall miss him at the bat,
But he's true to his religion - and / honor him for that!”
By Edgar Guest
World War II
Franklin Roosevelt urges Commissioner Landis to continue playing baseball.
Nevertheless, many players, including Ted Williams, Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, and many other all-stars volunteer for the armed services.
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball Association is formed
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Moe Berg – Catcher and Spy
Among the most curious of Major League baseball players who volunteered to join the war effort was Moe Berg (below)who caught for the Chicago White Sox, and then, after a serious injury, was a bench player for Cleveland, Boston and Washington. He then became a spy during World War II, though his career in the spy service was so shadowy that it’s almost impossible to separate fact from fiction.
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All American Girls Professional Baseball League
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AAGPBL
The League was formed in early 1943 to provide added baseball entertainment for fans as increasing numbers of major league players joined the armed forces. Teams were located in the Midwest and the league’s greatest years were from 1943-1945, though the league continued to exist until 1954.
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AAGPBL
The 1943 league consisted of the Kenosha Comets, The Racine Belles, The Rockford Peaches, and the South Bend Blue Sox. By 1946, additional teams were added in Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Peoria and Fort Wayne. Players wore skirts and make-up and were expected to maintain a feminine decorum at all times.
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A League of Their Own
The story of the AAGPBL was made into a very successful film starring Geena Davis and Madonna, with Tom Hanks as their reluctant and often inebriated manager.
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Incredible Moments
As the war ended, the popularity of baseball soared to record highs. While the game was dominated by the New York teams, there are many who believe that the post-war period was baseball’s “golden age.”
Bobby Thompson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World”
The Dodgers finally win the World Series
Johnny Pesky holds the ball and Enos Slaughter scores
Willie Mays makes baseball’s greatest catch
Mantle and Maris chase the Babe
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