"...Yankees will have to build a park in Queens or some other out-of-the-way place. Let them go away and wither on the vine." - John McGraw, Manager of New York Giants 1902-1932.
Uh...no.
The Stadiums were close enough that a young rookie from Oklahoma asked for directions to the ballpark. He found himself at the Polo Grounds, which was a problem, because the rookie was a Yankee. He merely walked across the Macombs Dam bridge and reported to Yankee Stadium... embarrassed. But Mickey Charles Mantle stayed for 18 years. And in 1958, two years after the Mick won the Triple Crown (52 HR 130 RBI .353 BA), it was the New York Giants who went away and withered on the vine.
*Actually - according to Baseball Reference.com, the Mick won at least a Septuple Crown, since he also paced the American League in Runs (127), Slugging (.705), On Base-plus-Slugging (1.169), and Total Bases (376).
"Never shoulda happened." Muses a Giant centerfielder named Dutch Stengel. "You just tell the tenants that times are tough and you gotta collect a little more rent. Then every time that big son-of-a-battleship bombs another home run, you count your money while he counts his."
The big 'battleship' of course, with 41 HRs, 131 RBIs and a .393 batting average, was George H. Ruth. That also would have been good enough for a triple crown except for Hall of Famer Harry Heilmann dialing it up at .403 in 1923. However, the Babe, like the Mick, basically led the American League in 'baseball'... a 'Nonuple' Crown: Runs(151), HRs(41), RBIs(131), Walks (170) On Base Pct (.545), Slugging (.764), On Base-plus-Slugging Pct (1.309), Total Bases (399) and Strikeouts (93)! In leading the AL in On-Base, Slugging and OPS, Ruth was in the middle of an incredible seven year run (1918-1924) where he led in On Base Pct. five times and in the other two categories all seven years. Bear in mind also that during the first two years of this reign the Babe still managed to go 22-12 with a 2.55 as a starting left-hander for the Red Sox.
When the Yanks opened their new baseball palace in 1923 there was actually talk of calling it Ruth Field. Officially christened Yankee Stadium, nature did take its course, as the ballyard on 161st and River Avenue was soon and forever nicknamed 'The House That Ruth Built'. And sage Casey Stengel was right. I have often thought that had the Giants been willing to work things out with their tenants, the Giants would still be in New York. Eventually the Polo Grounds would have worn out, as it did, and the Giants could have moved over to Yankee Stadium while a new park was being built for Willie Mays and company in the late fifties. Instead the ghosts of Mathewson, McGinnity, Ott, and McGraw wander aimlessly, looking for home... or at least home plate.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Coming Attractions!
As I have said, 2011 will bring a lot of dream match-ups between all-time great baseball squads of yesteryear. A lot of them... most of them... okay, damn near ALL of them will involve Yankees teams. For one thing, I am an unabashed, unapologetic Yankee fan. For another, the Yanks have a lot of history... mostly successful history. History I've read about, been told about, but for the most part have never seen. Thus the pinstriped time-travel. I will try to branch out. I mostly want to see legends, Hall of Famers, and the many 'near' greats who perhaps have been forgotten and deserved to be resurrected and remembered.
To give credit where credit is due, the games are played with MLB Sim Matchup, an excellent game simulator put out by What-IF-Sports. I simply pick the two teams, arrange the line-up as closely as possible to the way the teams played during their respective seasons, and play a full season. The teams play 5-game series, at alternating home fields. When the 1927 Yankees play the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers, it's actually 1927 when they play at New York and 1953 when they play at Ebbet's Field. Occasionally the two teams will play at a neutral site, but primarily, it's home-and-home.
Further 'rules' explanations will be interwoven into the actual seasons, rather than all listed here, as this post is already getting wordier than even I would like. I will say that although I find myself 'rooting for the Yanks on most occasions, I do not try and slant things in their favor!
Some of the Matchups?
Try these:
The 1921 New York Yankees vs The 1921 New York Giants
An all Polo Grounds affair and a rematch of the actual 1921 World Series. John McGraw's men beat Miller Huggins' Murderer's Row 5 games to 3. How will the two teams fare over a full 154 game tilt? Besides the 59 HR hitting young Bambino, the Series (and season) feature two brothers, Emil and Bob Meusel, on opposite sides.
The 1932 New York Yankees vs The 1954 New York Giants
An older Babe Ruth leads '32 Champs against the '54 Champs... The man with the 'Called Shot' plays the man who made 'The Catch' over a full season!
The 1946 Red Sox vs. The 1937 New York Yankees
Teddy Ballgame meets Joe DiMaggio one more time! Not only do two loaded offensive teams square off, but we get to see what might happen if these two baseball immortals DO get to play half a season in each other's ballparks. Does either slugger threaten Ruth's record?
The 1921 Yankees vs the 2002 San Francisco Giants
Babe Squares off against Barry!
Plus two old time teams time travel to Coors Field and play an entire season there, just to see what the excitement is all about. And excitement is what they get!
Stay tuned!
To give credit where credit is due, the games are played with MLB Sim Matchup, an excellent game simulator put out by What-IF-Sports. I simply pick the two teams, arrange the line-up as closely as possible to the way the teams played during their respective seasons, and play a full season. The teams play 5-game series, at alternating home fields. When the 1927 Yankees play the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers, it's actually 1927 when they play at New York and 1953 when they play at Ebbet's Field. Occasionally the two teams will play at a neutral site, but primarily, it's home-and-home.
Further 'rules' explanations will be interwoven into the actual seasons, rather than all listed here, as this post is already getting wordier than even I would like. I will say that although I find myself 'rooting for the Yanks on most occasions, I do not try and slant things in their favor!
Some of the Matchups?
Try these:
The 1921 New York Yankees vs The 1921 New York Giants
An all Polo Grounds affair and a rematch of the actual 1921 World Series. John McGraw's men beat Miller Huggins' Murderer's Row 5 games to 3. How will the two teams fare over a full 154 game tilt? Besides the 59 HR hitting young Bambino, the Series (and season) feature two brothers, Emil and Bob Meusel, on opposite sides.
The 1932 New York Yankees vs The 1954 New York Giants
An older Babe Ruth leads '32 Champs against the '54 Champs... The man with the 'Called Shot' plays the man who made 'The Catch' over a full season!
The 1946 Red Sox vs. The 1937 New York Yankees
Teddy Ballgame meets Joe DiMaggio one more time! Not only do two loaded offensive teams square off, but we get to see what might happen if these two baseball immortals DO get to play half a season in each other's ballparks. Does either slugger threaten Ruth's record?
The 1921 Yankees vs the 2002 San Francisco Giants
Babe Squares off against Barry!
Plus two old time teams time travel to Coors Field and play an entire season there, just to see what the excitement is all about. And excitement is what they get!
Stay tuned!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Greetings to both of our readers!
The post date is Jan 21st. That means we are 1/3 the way through Winter! Do you know what Rogers Hornsby did in the winter time? By his own testimony...
"I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."
(From baseball-almanac.com)
Perhaps if the Rajah were around today he'd watch football. He was a Texan, after all. But his point is well taken and his spirit remains alive among those of us who rejoice in the fact that pitchers and catchers report in a mater of DAYs (14-16 depending on which team and how you count the days).
What I resolve to do in 2011 is publish the results of Mac's Legendary Baseball (MLB), a series of head to head competitions I've staged between the legendary Yankee teams of yesteryear against the great non-Yankee teams of years gone by. I've staged thousands of games, compiled a lot of 'stats' and filled in the gaps occasionally with thoughts of some of the participants as well as one of the spectators (me).
Stay tuned!
The post date is Jan 21st. That means we are 1/3 the way through Winter! Do you know what Rogers Hornsby did in the winter time? By his own testimony...
"I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."
(From baseball-almanac.com)
Perhaps if the Rajah were around today he'd watch football. He was a Texan, after all. But his point is well taken and his spirit remains alive among those of us who rejoice in the fact that pitchers and catchers report in a mater of DAYs (14-16 depending on which team and how you count the days).
What I resolve to do in 2011 is publish the results of Mac's Legendary Baseball (MLB), a series of head to head competitions I've staged between the legendary Yankee teams of yesteryear against the great non-Yankee teams of years gone by. I've staged thousands of games, compiled a lot of 'stats' and filled in the gaps occasionally with thoughts of some of the participants as well as one of the spectators (me).
Stay tuned!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Happy Boxing Day!
Jack Johnson! The winner! And NEW Heavyweight Champion of the World!
I say this or something like this every year. One hundred two years ago, a referee (0r somebody) said it in Australia when Jack Arthur Johnson pummeled champion Tommy Burns into a stupor. Burns' share of the purse was 30 or 35 thousand dollars or something like that... I don't recall the exact amount. He would later say it wasn't worth it, a heavyweight statement, since $30000 was a fortune on Dec. 26, 1908.
Jack Johnson's take? A handshake from his corner men... and the biggest prize in boxing, the Heavyweight Championship of the world. Jack was paid nothing, and reputedly chased Burns around the world, trying to goad the champ into a fight for the title. Until the day after Christmas 1908, Burns was wise enough not to pick up the challenge.
Boxing Day is a minor holiday in the British Commonwealth. It has nothing to do with fisticuffs. It is a day that citizens remember, thank and gift the public servants who deliver packages ('boxes') to the rest of us. Not a bad idea, given that in many parts of the globe it is the busiest and hardest time to be a mailman, due to the holidays and the horrible holiday weather.
But ironically it was on Boxing Day that Johnson caught up with Tommy Burns, in 1908. As a Canadian, Burns knew of Boxing Day. I don't know if he caught the significance of the irony or if he just decided that the running from Johnson had to finally stop. Anyway, Burns granted Johnson an audience, and of course paid dearly for it. Johnson, a skilled boxing technician with power, speed and strength, toyed with the smaller Burns for 14 rounds, telling Burns, "Hit me here, Tahmy!" repeatedly, pointing to various spots on his own body. Finally in the 14th Johnson tired of the shenanigans and pummeled the helpless champ relentlessly. In a display of how things went in those long ago days, police stepped into the ring, shut off the cameras, and then stopped the bout. IN other words, they were more distressed that the world might SEE a Negro pummeling a white man than the actual pummeling itself.
To Burns' credit, he did not quit. I don't think he even went down, though we would have to ask the witnesses in those long ago, pre-ESPN days.
Regardless, Johnson was crowned the winner and new champion. He subsequently made and squandered a fortune or two. Of course he was also the first Negro Heavyweight Champion (that is the vernacular of 1908). Much has been made of this, as it should be. But it is interesting... boxing actually was the first major sport to grudgingly allow this kind of pioneering change, far ahead of say, baseball, football and basketball, sports which refused integration of black and white peoples for decades to come. And it also must be noted, that Jack Johnson himself refused, for his own seven year reign, to allow another Negro to challenge him for the title.
Anyway, congrats, Lil Arthur! Whatever happens today you are champeen. And like Abe Attell, the crooked ex-champ and bag man for gambler Arnold Rothstein (in Eight Men Out) says, "Ain't nothin' ever gonna take that away"...
I say this or something like this every year. One hundred two years ago, a referee (0r somebody) said it in Australia when Jack Arthur Johnson pummeled champion Tommy Burns into a stupor. Burns' share of the purse was 30 or 35 thousand dollars or something like that... I don't recall the exact amount. He would later say it wasn't worth it, a heavyweight statement, since $30000 was a fortune on Dec. 26, 1908.
Jack Johnson's take? A handshake from his corner men... and the biggest prize in boxing, the Heavyweight Championship of the world. Jack was paid nothing, and reputedly chased Burns around the world, trying to goad the champ into a fight for the title. Until the day after Christmas 1908, Burns was wise enough not to pick up the challenge.
Boxing Day is a minor holiday in the British Commonwealth. It has nothing to do with fisticuffs. It is a day that citizens remember, thank and gift the public servants who deliver packages ('boxes') to the rest of us. Not a bad idea, given that in many parts of the globe it is the busiest and hardest time to be a mailman, due to the holidays and the horrible holiday weather.
But ironically it was on Boxing Day that Johnson caught up with Tommy Burns, in 1908. As a Canadian, Burns knew of Boxing Day. I don't know if he caught the significance of the irony or if he just decided that the running from Johnson had to finally stop. Anyway, Burns granted Johnson an audience, and of course paid dearly for it. Johnson, a skilled boxing technician with power, speed and strength, toyed with the smaller Burns for 14 rounds, telling Burns, "Hit me here, Tahmy!" repeatedly, pointing to various spots on his own body. Finally in the 14th Johnson tired of the shenanigans and pummeled the helpless champ relentlessly. In a display of how things went in those long ago days, police stepped into the ring, shut off the cameras, and then stopped the bout. IN other words, they were more distressed that the world might SEE a Negro pummeling a white man than the actual pummeling itself.
To Burns' credit, he did not quit. I don't think he even went down, though we would have to ask the witnesses in those long ago, pre-ESPN days.
Regardless, Johnson was crowned the winner and new champion. He subsequently made and squandered a fortune or two. Of course he was also the first Negro Heavyweight Champion (that is the vernacular of 1908). Much has been made of this, as it should be. But it is interesting... boxing actually was the first major sport to grudgingly allow this kind of pioneering change, far ahead of say, baseball, football and basketball, sports which refused integration of black and white peoples for decades to come. And it also must be noted, that Jack Johnson himself refused, for his own seven year reign, to allow another Negro to challenge him for the title.
Anyway, congrats, Lil Arthur! Whatever happens today you are champeen. And like Abe Attell, the crooked ex-champ and bag man for gambler Arnold Rothstein (in Eight Men Out) says, "Ain't nothin' ever gonna take that away"...
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