The AAGPBL. Ozzie & Garry. The Yankee Clipper. The Seals. The Iron Horse.
This is a kind of cool (and kind of sexist) video capturing the All American Girls Professional Baseball League during Spring Training. The AAGPBL was founded by Chicago Cubs owner and chewing gum king Philip K. Wrigley and operated from 1943 until 1954. Most people associate the film “A League Of Their Own” with the AAGPBL as it does capture the league properly in some ways but from what I have read lots of the players and people involved with the AAGPBL were unhappy with certain aspects of the film. While I understand that Women’s Baseball may not be of interest to some people, however if you have the slightest curiosity about it I suggest researching it the AAGPBL online or reading some of the books written about it such as “A Whole New Ball Game: The Story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League” by Sue Macy.
On February 11th, 1982 The San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals swapped Shortstops Ozzie Smith for Garry Templeton. Both players had almost identical careers in regards to offensive production at that point but given time that would change drastically. Templeton did have a mighty fine career with the Padres as he was an All-Star in 1985, won a Silver-Slugger in 1984 and was actually the Padre’s team captain from 1987 to 1991 until he was traded to the Mets where he finished his career. However, Smith on the the other hand had a Hall of Fame career and if you’re reading this blog you need no introduction to his accomplishments of his career. Just know that he was one of, if not the best Defensive Shortstop of all time. Let’s just say the trade didn’t really pan out accordingly for SD. Nothing against Templeton as I loved him when he was with the Friars, but you get what I am saying.
Joltin’ Joe looking like he got under a pitch and popped out. You got to admit this though: He even made getting out look good.
The 1935 San Francisco Seals.
Lou Gehrig. It’s kind of crazy that this photo has to be from the 1920’s or 1930’s and is so clean and crisp. It captures the Iron Horse perfectly, I love it.
ninety feet of perfection. 