30 Saturday May 2015
Posted in Boston Braves (1912 - 1935)
Babe Ruth – Boston Brave
What an amazing player Babe Ruth was. And it would all end in Boston as a Brave.
On May 30, 1935, at the Baker Bowl, Babe Ruth of the Boston Braves plays his final major league game, going hitless in a first inning at-bat against the Phillies. On June 2, the former Yankees superstar will announce his retirement from baseball.
29 Friday May 2015
Posted in Boston Red Caps (1876 - 1882)
Harry Wright – Boston Red Caps – 1879
Harry Wright, the Braves manager (then known as the Red Stockings and Red Caps) had a stunning run of success. Four straight National Association pennants from 1872-75. Then the National League formed and he won the first 2 out of 3 championships. Quite a run for sure.
Then in 1879 things began to go south for him and the Boston Red Caps. But it didn’t only affect him. It affected major league baseball for a long time to come. It was the year the “reserve clause” was created due to problems created by Harry and his brother’s George problems.
The Reserve Clause’s inception was in 1879, when it was proposed as an unofficial rule known as “the Five Man Rule.” It would allow teams to reserve players for each season, unless a player opted out of his contract and did not play in the league for a year. While the rule was not secret, teams started to sign other teams’ “reserved players,” thus encroaching the rule. These controversies caused the National League to instate the rule officially on December 6, 1879
And so, in 1879 the Braves, under Harry Wright, ended up 54-30 in second place, 5 games behind the champions.
25 Monday May 2015
Posted in Milwaukee Braves (1953 - 1965)
Tags
1957, Billy Muffett, Fred Haney, Hank Aaron, Johnny Logan, Lew Burdette, Milwaukee Braves, Milwaukee County Stadium, New York Yankee, September 23, St. Louis Cardinals, World Series
Hank Aaron – 1957
1957 was Fred Haney’s second year as Manager. The Braves really turned it on that year. They were the NL champions with a 95-59 record, ending up 8 games ahead. This was the year that the team won its first and only World Series championship while based in Milwaukee. They faced the New York Yankees. Pitcher Lew Burdette was the star and Most Valuable Player, winning three games, including the crucial seventh game played in New York City.
So what was Hank Aaron’s most memorable home run? It was number 109 which he hit on September 23, 1957. At the time, he wasn’t even thought of as a home run hitter. No one even imagined he would break the Babe’s record. Even though he would eventually hit 646 more home runs, this was the one he remembers most.
It was tied up 2-2 at home. St. Louis was hanging in there with the Braves. Johnny Logan was on first. There were two outs. Billy Muffett threw a “fat” one. Out it went over the center-field fence in County Stadium. All of Milwaukee seemed to celebrate. The Braves won the NL championship on that home run. Aaron was mauled at home plate. He was carried off the field by his team mates.
24 Sunday May 2015
Posted in Boston Bees (1936 - 1940)
During the 3-2 loss to New York on October 2, 1938, in the season finale at the Polo Grounds, Bees (Braves) outfielder Vince DiMaggio strikes out four times, extending his major league record to a season total of 129.
It is something to be known as Joe’s older brother. During a 10-year baseball career, Vince played for the Boston Bees (1937–1938), Cincinnati Reds (1939–1940), Pittsburgh Pirates (1940–1945), Philadelphia Phillies (1945–1946), and New York Giants (1946). Vince was the older brother of Joe and Dom DiMaggio.
In September, Dom and Joe’s older brother had surpassed Gus Williams’ major league mark of 120 whiffs established by the Browns’ outfielder in 1914.
23 Saturday May 2015
Billy Martin (1961 Braves)
Billy Martin is very famous. More as a Manager than a player. Sometimes players are just passing through for a few days.
After playing just playing six games with the Milwaukee Braves, on June 1, 1961, Billy Martin is traded to the Twins for Billy Consolo.
The fiery infielder will finish his 11-year career in the Twin Cities, spending the next eight years with the organization in various capacities, that includes managing the club to a first-place finish in 1969.
As a small footnote, there was another Billy Martin (William Gloyd Martin) who played for the Boston Braves in 1914. He only played one game and in 3 at bats, had no hits.
22 Friday May 2015
Posted in Boston Braves (1941 - 1952)
Tags
1948, Boston Braves, Boston Post, Gerald V. Hern, Johnny Sain, September 14, St. Louis Cardinals, Stan Musial, Triple Crown, Warren Spahn
Spahn and Sain – Pray for rain
How long would the Braves wait patiently under Billy Southworth for a pennant? 1948 was the year. The Braves finished in first with a record of 91-62, 6 & 1/2 games ahead.
The reward came to “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain.” It was a long draught. Not since 1914 had they come in first. And, it was almost an all-Boston World Series.
Sain won 24 games against 15 losses in 1948 and finished second in the voting for the Most Valuable Player Award behind the St. Louis Cardinals’ Stan Musial, who had won two legs of the triple crown. Sain and teammate Spahn achieved joint immortality that year when their feats were the subject of sports editor Gerald V. Hern’s poem in the Boston Post which was eventually shortened to the epigram, “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain.”
According to the Baseball Almanac, the original doggerel appeared in Hern’s column on September 14, 1948:
First we’ll use Spahn
then we’ll use Sain
Then an off day
followed by rain
Back will come Spahn
followed by Sain
And followed
we hope
by two days of rain.
21 Thursday May 2015
Posted in Boston Braves (1941 - 1952)
Billy Southworth
Billy Southworth was considered a “genius on the diamond”.
He lived a long life. At age 76, in 1969, he died in Columbus, Ohio. He had emphysema. What is said at the funeral is always a tribute. One of Billy’s former players on the 1948 Braves was there. He was Clint Conatser. Here is his tribute.
“He just had a gut feeling about the right thing to do in a situation,” Conatser recalled. “The moves he would make would work for him — all the time, not occasionally. Leo Durocher was the same way. It’s like some guys can pick horses out of nowhere. Southworth was a genius like that on the diamond.”
20 Wednesday May 2015
Tags
1877, 1904, 1968, Billy Hamilton, Boston Beaneaters, Grover Cleveland, Irving Young, Jerry Koosman, July 21, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, September 13
Irving Young
Jerry Koosman ties the National League rookie record on September 13, 1968 when he hurls his seventh shutout of the season, blanking Pittsburgh on just three singles.
The left-hander’s 2-0 victory, the Mets’ 67th win of the season – a franchise high, equals the mark shared by Irving Young (Boston Beaneaters, 1905) and Grover Cleveland Alexander (Phillies, 1911).
Irving Young played six seasons from 1905 to 1911 for the Boston Beaneaters/Doves, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago White Sox.
Irving Melrose “Cy the Second”/“Young Cy” Young was born on July 21, 1877, and raised in Columbia Falls, Maine, 16 miles west of Machias. At age 17, Irv and his family moved to Concord, New Hampshire, so that he could find employment as a fireman on the Boston & Maine Railroad. Although working 60 hours a week on the railroad, Irv managed to find time to pitch for the YMCA and other local amateur clubs on weekends. In 1904, at the rather advanced age of 27, he turned pro, joining Concord in the New England League. There he won 18 games and caught the eye of scout Billy Hamilton. Hamilton strongly recommended him to the Boston Beaneaters (later the Braves)… who bought his contract for $500. Source: SABR Biography Project
19 Tuesday May 2015
Posted in Boston Braves (1941 - 1952)
Billy Southworth
Billy Southworth had a good contract. In 1950 it had 3 years left on it. He would get $50,000 per season. 1949 had not been a good season. Yet, there was no doubt Billy would return as manager in 1950. And he did. The Braves finished fourth, 8 games back.
They did try to reformulate the team. Shortstop Al Dark and second baseman Eddie Stansky were sent packing. We got four players from the Giants for them. Only left fielder Sid Gordon made a difference. Where did the trade to the Giants get them? The Giants were contenders in 1950 and penant winners in 1951. Dark and Stansky help them get there. Thanks to the generosity of the Braves.
18 Monday May 2015
Posted in Boston Red Caps (1876 - 1882)
Harry Wright – Boston Red Cap manager
Imagine your brother being the manager? Well, Harry Wright managed his brother George for the Boston Red Caps (now known as the Atlanta Braves) in 1878. He decided to move him back to short stop from second base. He moved Ezra Sutton from short to third base. The move paid off, as sometimes they do. George led the league in team fielding at .947 for the only time in his Hall of Fame career.
The Red Stockings led the league in double plays with 48. They also placed second in ERA with 2.32 to Cincinnati. Their move to end up in first was real. It was Harry’s third season and he would have his second championship in a row.
And he had his brother with him.
17 Sunday May 2015
Posted in Atlanta Braves (1966 - Present)
Hank Aaron
At Crosley Field on May 17, 1970, Braves’ outfielder Hank Aaron collects his 3,000th hit when he scratches an infield single off of Reds’ pitcher Wayne Simpson.
‘Hammering Hank’ becomes the ninth player in major league history, and the first with 500 home runs, to reach this milestone.
16 Saturday May 2015
Tags
1893, 1913, 1929, 1969, 2008, Billy Southworth, Boston Braves, Hall of Fame
Billy Southworth
Billy Southworth was born William Harrison Southworth. The year was 1893 and that was in Harvard, Nebraska. He died in 1969. He saw a lot of baseball for sure. He played the game and managed. He was a right fielder and center fielder. He was a player in 1913, 1915 and from 1918 to 1929. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He was a player for the Boston Braves from 1921 to 1923.
Southworth turned to managing in 1929. He then took a break until 1940 and kept going until 1951. He managed for the Boston Braves from 1946 to 1949 and then again from 1950 to 1951.
He was finally inducted into the hall of fame in 2008.
Unlike me, he decided to play baseball against his father’s wishes. He didn’t do too bad. He batted .300 three times in his career.
08 Friday May 2015
Posted in Boston Braves (1941 - 1952)
Tags
1944, April 27, Boston Braves, Home Run, Jim Tobin, June 22, Knucleball, New York Giants, No Hitter, Philadelphia Phillies
Jim Tobin
The Braves have had some great knuckleballers over the years. The story of the 1944 season was the 31 year-old knuckleball expert Jim Tobin. His nick name was Abba Dabba. He was also a pretty good hitter. But clearly he became one of the most un-hittable pitchers of his time. If you have ever faced a decent knuckleballer, you know how a great one could lock you out.
So let’s take nine days in April of 1944. Tobin on gave up 4 hits. So how many games did he win? How about 2 of 3. Here is how it worked out. It started with a 3 hitter he lost against the Giants. So, back to mound on his next start. He beat Philadelphia this time. It was a one-hitter. So, four days rest and back at it on April 27, 1944, when he beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-0. So oh my goodness, the sixth no-hitter in the Braves history. It hadn’t happened since 1916. He allowed 2 walks. Here is the kicker. In the eight inning he hit a home run. He was the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter and hit a home run. Not a bad day.
His second, semi-official no-hitter was a five-inning game on June 22, 1944, in which the Philadelphia Phillies fell 7-0 (officially, this game is no longer considered a true no-hitter, as it lasted fewer than nine innings).
07 Thursday May 2015
Posted in Atlanta Braves (1966 - Present)
Tags
2011, Atlanta Braves, Dan Uggla, Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward, July 15, Livan Hernandez, Martin Prado, Washington Nationals
Box Score July 15 2011
There is baseball history and then there is HISTORY. 10,000 wins counts as HISTORY. On July 15, 20011, the Braves got their 10,000th win as a franchise, Martin Prado returned to the lineup with two hits, including a homer, the Washington Nationals committed five errors, and Livan Hernandez was the losing, humiliated pitcher. All in all, a good night and 10,000 wins to boot.
The Nats actually opened the scoring off of Tim Hudson, two singles and a groundout in the first making it 1-0. But that was all they would get, all, night, as they rarely even threatened from then out. In the bottom of the inning, Jordan Schafer reached and went to second on a pair of errors. With one out, Jason Heyward walked, and Freddie Freeman singled in Schafer to tie it. Dan Uggla doubled home Heyward, and another error, off the bat of David Ross (who is apparently now Hudson’s personal catcher, don’t ask me) scored Freeman. Nate McLouth‘s single to score Uggla made it 4-1, but Ross was Snitkered on an Alex Gonzalez single to more or less end the threat.
In the third, Hudson singled in Ross to make it 5-1. Prado homered leading off the fourth, Livan’s last inning. The Braves put it away in the sixth. Hudson doubled over the right fielder’s head leading off, then went to third on a wild pitch. Schafer walked, then Prado and Heyward singled to make it 8-1. Uggla reached on an error to make it 9-1, but the Braves wound up leaving the bases loaded. Freeman doubled in two in the seventh to make it 11-1.
Scott Linebrink pitched the eighth, loading the bases before getting out of it. George Sherrill threw a perfect ninth. I guess the situation was just too high-leverage for Scott Proctor.
06 Wednesday May 2015
Posted in Boston Braves (1912 - 1935)
Tags
1934, 1954, Bill McKechnie, Boston Braves, Hall of Fame, March 28, New York Yankee, Rabbit Maranville
Rabbit Maranville
It was a so so season for the Braves in 1934 but the worst part of it was losing Rabbit Maranville. They had a 78-87 record finishing 16 games behind in fourth place. It was Bill McKechnie’s 5th season but this went the way most of them did during his tenure.
Rabbit Maranville, even at age 42, was playing some pretty good ball so there was hope as the season started. It was his 24th season and he had become a Boston and National legend.
“When Rabbit Maranville breaks a leg right at the start of the opening of the season, that constitutes America’s greatest crisis, and if anybody reading this had to ask who Rabbit is, then you should be made to show your citizenship papers.” — Will Rogers
So, on March 28th, Rabbit’s career came to an end when he broke his leg sliding home on a double steal during an exhibition game with the Yankees. The leg was set on the field while Rabbit smoked a cigarette. He didn’t play that year at all. Maranville was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1954 in his 14th year of eligibility. His election came just months after his death at age 62.
05 Tuesday May 2015
Posted in Boston Braves (1912 - 1935)
Tags
1907, 1924, Bill Cunningham, Billy Southworth, Brooklyn Robins, Casey Stengel, Dave Bancroft, Fred Tenney, Joe Oescher, New York Giants, Philadelphia Phillies
Dave Bancroft – Boston Braves
Is there a club for managers who loose 100 games? Probably not and if there is, you don’t hear a lot about it.
Loosing 100 games as a manager is devastating. Doing it twice in row is inviting disaster. Somehow Fred Tenney did it as the Boston manager in 1907. Fred Mitchell, however, couldn’t do it after 1922 – 23.
So, in came Dave Bancroft in 1924. How did he do? Lost 100!! Yep, he was 53-100 finishing eight and 40 games behind. Go figure.
Dave was known for being a pretty bright guy. He came to us from the Giants. Who did he bring with him? Well, a pretty eccentric outfielder. Casey Stengel was the man. Bill Cunningham came with Casey. Out went Billy Southworth and Joe Oeschger.
Nicknamed “Beauty” for his penchant for calling good pitches “beauties”, he played from 1915 to 1930, for the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Giants, Boston Braves, and Brooklyn Robins.
