“Baseball? It’s just a game – as simple as a ball and a bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. It’s a sport, business – and sometimes even religion.” – Ernie Harwell
“The trouble with baseball is that it is not played the year round.” – Gaylord Perry
“It never ceases to amaze me how many of baseball’s wounds are self-inflicted.” – Bill Veeck
“You should enter a ballpark the way you enter a church.” – Bill Lee
“I never had to cheat, I get them with what I got.” – Dave Winfield
“The base paths belonged to me, the runner. The rules gave me the right. I always went into a bag full speed, feet first. I had sharp spikes on my shoes. If the baseman stood where he had no business to be and got hurt, that was his fault.” – Ty Cobb
1927. Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees slides safely into home plate in a game against the Washington Senators.
A great photo of Minnie Minoso of the New York Cubans. Minoso played with the Cubans from 1945-1948 before leaving the Negro Leagues. During his long and illustrious Baseball career which (kinda) ended in 1973, Minoso also spent time in the Pacific Coast League, Major Leagues and also spent several seasons playing in the Mexican League. He is known as the only player to appear in a professional Baseball game in 7 different decades. This is due to a publicity stunt in 1980 by the Veeck family who owned the Chicago White Sox at the time and due to another publicity stunt in 1993 at age 67 when he made an appearance with the St. Paul Saints of the Independent Northern League. While those 2 stints are not to be taken too serious, what is awesome is that prior to the Veeck’s publicity stunt in 1980 in Chicago, they brought him back 3 years earlier in 1976 and he appeared in 3 games as a Pinch Hitter. He saw 8 at-bats in those games and hit a single…..at age 50.
Ken Griffey Jr. I remember jumping on my bed flying through the air like this as a kid with my glove on while imagining I was Junior. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he was the best.
1996. Fernando Valenzuela, Tony Gwynn, and Ken Caminiti of the San Diego Padres appeared on the cover of TV Guide as part of their September 28th-October 4th Baseball Playoff Preview issue. TV Guide took each post-season team and put 3 star players on collector’s covers. The Padres ended up being beat by the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS while the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees eventually met in the World Series.
1947. The Pacific Coast All-Star Team, such an awesome find. Take note of Casey Stengel in the middle as Manager of the Oakland Oaks. Lots of Padres and Seals in there also. Tonight I know what I will be doing: googling all of these players that I am not already familiar with.
It’s been over 4 years now since Buck O’Neil passed away at the age of 94. I remember the day like it was yesterday, waking up and checking ESPN in the morning and seeing the heartbreaking article on the Baseball page. I remember feeling two things: I couldn’t believe he was no longer alive as it really seemed like he was going to live forever and the other feeling was extreme disappointment that he passed away without being elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame. At his advanced age he was still a huge ambassador for the sport and meant so much to so many people. From 1994 when he appeared in Ken Burns Baseball documentary which in some ways made him a household name until the day he died in 2006, Buck O’Neil spread the word of Baseball, life and love to fans around the globe. However his importance and relevance goes back far beyond 1994 as this was who he was and what he did for a lifetime.
Buck O’Neil started his career in Baseball by playing with semi-pro and barnstorming teams in 1934 until he was signed by the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro Leagues in 1937. He only had 8 at-bats in 2 games at the end of the season and was sold to the Kansas City Monarchs that following off season. He spent the next 17 seasons with the Monarchs with the exception of a 2 year military stint in 1944 & 1945. In 1955 he resigned from the Monarchs and in 1956 he became a scout for the Chicago Cubs. By 1962 he had become a coach for the Cubs, thus making him the first Black coach in Major League history. He stayed involved with the Cubs until the 1988 which lead him full circle to the city of Kansas City, where he spent the majority of his playing career as he became a scout for the Kansas City Royals. O’Neil worked with the Royals organization on various levels up until his death in 2006.
While that is his career in Baseball in a nutshell, it barley touches upon his influence to the game as it is is still felt today on many levels. He brought a voice to the Negro Leagues to an entire generation and taught love and understanding on a human level to people. It is hard in one blog post to capture his importance to the game of Baseball but I hope to hit the tip of the iceberg of the importance of Buck O’Neil.
One thing that was great about O’Neil is that he was a great story teller and when he started talking you listened with every ounce of attention that you had. This is exactly why he became so hugely popular after the Burns documentary as the evidence is right there in front of you while you watch his parts in the film. This man spent over 70 years of his life involved in professional Baseball and without a doubt this lead to so many experiences and stories that it’s almost mind boggling to think about what he could bring to a conversation about Baseball . This little exert regarding Bo Jackson, Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson which I took from the Burns PBS documentary (it may be familiar to some of you) is one of the coolest Baseball stories I have ever heard:
I heard Ruth hit the ball. I’d never heard that sound before, and I was outside the fence but it was the sound of the bat that I had never heard before in my life. And the next time I heard that sound, I’m in Washington, D.C., in the dressing room and I heard that sound of a bat hitting the ball — sounded just like when Ruth hit the ball. I rushed out, got on nothing but a jockstrap, I rushed out — we were playing the Homestead Grays and it was Josh Gibson hitting the ball. And so I heard this sound again.
Now I didn’t hear it anymore. I’m in Kansas City. I’m working for the Cubs at the time, and I was upstairs and I was coming down for the batting practice. And before I could get out there I heard this sound one more time that I had heard only twice in my life. Now, you know who this is? Bo Jackson. Bo Jackson swinging that bat. And now I heard this sound… And it was just a thrill for me. I said, here it is again. I heard it again. I only heard it three times in my life.
But now, I’m living because I’m going to hear it again one day, if I live long enough.
In 1997, O’Neil published his autobiography “I Was Right On Time” which chronicles his time spent in the Negro Leagues. It is a great book that is sure to appeal to anyone who loves great Baseball stories/books and to anyone who likes to read up on individuals who dealt with with civil rights issues & racial segregation in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. It is a quick and very interesting read that you are sure to blaze through in no time. What’s great about “I Was Right On Time” is that you almost feel like Buck is talking directly to you while reading. You can almost hear his charismatic and gentle voice in your head as you go over his the stories of Negro League Baseball. O’Neil dealt with both negative and positive experiences during his time in the Negro Leagues and for the most part used his good natured positivity to deal with them equally which comes to no surprise to anyone familiar with him and his outlook on life.
I encourage everyone who reads this blog who is not already familiar with Buck O’Neil to research him online, watch the Ken Burns Baseball documentary or any of the various films on the Negro Leagues which he appears in, read his books, and if you happen to be in Kansas City check out the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum which has tons of great info on him and actually features a really cool statue (featured above). Unfortunately I have not been there yet but its on my things to do list in the next few years along with a visit to Cooperstown finally. With that said, I leave you with a mp3 of him from July 29, 2006 at the Baseball of Fame introduction ceremony that I found on his wiki page. For a man who would pass away a little over 2 months after this, he was so full of life and love. Listen to this and you will quickly learn to admire Buck O’Neil on so many levels. While it’s hard to deny that there is a lot wrong with Major League Baseball today and in the last 20 years or so, Buck was and is everything that was right with the game and is still sorely missed by all:
1958. Willie Mays stands in front of old Seals Stadium during the Giants inaugural season in San Francisco. The Giants played their first 2 seasons in Seals Stadium which was located on the corner of 16th Street and Bryant in San Francisco until Candlestick Park was completed in 1960. I am completely obsessed with anything related to the old Pacific Coast League and Seals Stadium was the mecca of PCL glory as it was the home of the San Francisco Seals, San Francisco Mission Reds (commonly known as the “Missions”) and even the Oakland Oaks for one season. I am working on a Bay Area PCL post in the near future so keep an eye out for that!
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May 25, 1935. Babe Ruth crushes his 2nd to last career home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates as a member of the Boston Braves. He hit 3 home runs against the Pirates that day and never hit another home run in his career. He retired 5 days later after injuring his knee in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies. He went 0 for 1 with a strikeout.
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June 18, 1977. Yankees Manager pulls Reggie Jackson from Right Field during a nationally televised game against the Boston Red Sox. Martin believed that Jackson failed to hustle to catch a ball hit by Jim Rice which allowed the Boston Slugger to reach 2nd base on a shallow pop fly. Once Jackson arrived into the dugout he and Martin verbally sparred as video cameras caught it all including Martin having to be physically restrained from attacking his Right Fielder.
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I found this photo online and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A VERY early Baseball game, from the late 1800’s is what I am thinking. Notice the lack of gloves being used by the fielders and no pitchers mound. Such an incredible photo.
(UPDATE: I found out this photo is from 1887)
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March 24, 1949. (From L to R): Luke Easter, Artie Wilson, and John Ritchey of the PCL San Diego Padres. Such an awesome photo!
Congratulations to Buddy Black of the San Diego Padres for winning National League Manager of the Year award. I don’t think there was someone more deserving, although Dusty Baker also did a great job this last season.
With more proof that Don Zimmer has literally been around Baseball forever, I came across this photo of Zim from when he played in Cuba’s winter league from 1951-1953 for the Cienfuegos and Marianao teams. He later made his Major League debut in 1954 for the Brooklyn Dodgers and is currently the last living member of the Brooklyn Dodgers who is still affiliated with a Major League team’s operations on or off the field.
The 2008 NLCS had the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers in a battle for National League supremacy until game 4 when Matt Stairs crushed a pinch hit homerun against Jonathon Broxton and pretty much single handedly put a nail in the Dodgers World Series hopes by giving the Phillies a 3-1 lead in the series. It was one of the more incredible post-season moments in recent years and arguably in overall Baseball history. Matt Stairs is the all-time career leader in pinch-hit home runs as of the end of the 2010 season in addition to holding the record for most teams played for in a career by a non-pitcher (12 teams)…..Also, he has one of the sweetest quotes that he uses to approach his role as a pinch hitter: “Swing like you live — hard” and he certainly does. I hope to see him in a uniform again in 2011, preferably the Padres again.
1976 All-Star game. Mark “The Bird” Fidrych of the Detroit Tigers and Randy “The Junkman” Johnson of the San Diego Padres were the starters for the mid-season festivities in Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium . There probably has never been a weirder combination of individuals to face-off against each other in a All-Star game before or since then.
Roger Maris (left) and Mickey Mantle (right) jog off the field during a game in 1961; a season which showcased both New York sluggers pursuing Babe Ruth’s single season home run record.
ninety feet of perfection. 
