Seals Stadium. Leo & The Babe. Kroon. The First Black PCL Player. Nate The Great.
April 15th, 1958. A great aerial view of Seals Stadium on Opening Day of the ’58 MLB season. This day marked the first time that the Giants squared off against the Dodgers on the West Coast as both organizations recently chose to abandon New York and move out to California.
The Giants shut out the Dodgers 8 to 0 that day while future member of the Hall of Fame Don Drysdale uncharacteristically lasted only 3.2 innings while giving up 6 earned runs. Click HERE for the recap of the game.
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A great photo of Leo Durocher and Babe Ruth which had to be taken in 1925, or between 1928 and 1929 as those were the only stints Leo “The Lip” had with the Yankees. I will say it was probably taken in 1929 as the Babe looks prety weathered in the photo.
Durocher and Ruth supposedly didn’t have the greatest relationship and during their playing days Ruth dubbed Leo the “The All-American Out” which probably didnt sit well with him on any level. I have heard about this forever but today I came across an article which told a story of Ruth accusing a young Durocher of stealing money from him at some point. Maybe Ruth’s name calling was a reaction to this?
Another story I have heard about these guys happened in 1938 when Ruth was hired by Brooklyn to be their First Base Coach. Supposedly at some point during the season Ruth got into a fist fight in the clubhouse with the Dodgers’ All-Star Short Stop who was none other then Leo Durocher. I wish I could remember what book or website I read this in but I can’t seem find it anywhere.
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Some people may remember Marc Kroon from his short stints with the Padres, Reds and Rockies but probably not as he made little to no impact on those teams. However from 2005 to 2010 Kroon came into his own while playing in Nippon Professional Baseball (aka. Japanese Professional Baseball) with the Yokohama BayStars and the Yomiuri Giants. In 2011 the San Francisco Giants signed him to a Minor League contract and so far he has spent the season in AAA with the Fresno Grizzlies. Supposedly he is featured in the show “The Franchise” which chronicles the Giants 2011 season. I haven’t seen it but I would like to check out whatever episodes Kroon is featured in.
To finally get to the point, I follow Kroon on twitter (HERE) and he always posts interesting stuff. Back in May he posted this great photo of him in a Homestead Grays uniform as the Grizzlies and Memphis Redbirds played in a “Salute To The Negro Leagues” game. That’s how you wear a god damned Baseball uniform.
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Here we have former San Diego State, Negro League and Pacific Coast League Baseball star, John Ritchey. Why everyone should know the name John Ritchey is due to the fact that in late 1947 he signed a contract with the San Diego Padres and officially integrated the Pacific Coast League.
Ritchey drew interest of both MLB & PCL clubs after the 1947 season where he led the Negro American League by hitting .369 as a member of the Chicago American Giants. After signing with San Diego, he made his PCL debut in March of 1948 and finished the season with a .323/.405/.442 batting clip. He played in the PCL for a total of 7 seasons, also spending time with the Portland Beavers, Sacramento Solons, and San Francisco Seals.
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August 18th, 2008. Nate Schierholtz of Team USA decided to take matters into his own hands against Team China after being plunked in the back earlier in the inning. The game was full of good ole’ fashioned Baseball drama as there were 3 ejections, 7 batters who were hit, 2 injured players and lots of yelling from both sides. To read about the game, click HERE. To watch video of the brutal collision, click HERE.
ninety feet of perfection. 
Great photo of Seals Stadium. It’s strange to think I buy my coffee from Peet’s which would be somewhere in short left in this photo.
The story of the Ruth/ Durocher fight is in Peter Goldenbock’s great oral history of the Brooklyn Dodgers called Bums. Little known, but true