Now You Know Baseball. Doug Lennox

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      Brown had been serving time in a prison in Ohio for breaking and entering convictions, and he played on the prison baseball team. His coach was so impressed with his abilities that he brought him to the attention of major league scouts. The Tigers eventually signed Brown after a bidding war for his services. Though never a major part of the starting lineup, Gates was strong off the bench, batting .370 off the pines in 1968.

      Ron LeFlore was an even bigger success, after his prison years. LeFlore had had drug problems as a youth and was eventually imprisoned after he and a group of friends held up a bar in Detroit, making off with $35,000. While in prison, LeFlore played for the prison ball team, and though he was never a fan of the sport, he excelled. He was given a tryout with the Tigers after another inmate contacted a friend who knew then-Tigers’ manager, Billy Martin. LeFlore made the team and proved to be a valuable contributor. Ironically, he was especially adept at stealing bases. He led the league in stolen sacks twice, including 97 swipes in 1980.

       They Said It …

      “Happy left office for reasons of health; that is, the owners got sick of him.”

       Sportswriter Red Smith on the departure of commissioner Happy Chandler.

       How many players have played in both the Little League World Series, the College World Series, and the Major League Baseball World Series?

      Only two players have pulled off the unlikely triumvirate of World Series appearances.

      Ed Vosberg was the first. Vosberg’s Little League World Series performance included a one-hitter in the semi-finals of the 1973 tournament. Later, he was a member of the 1980 NCAA champions, the University of Arizona. Finally, he pitched three innings of relief for the Florida Marlins in the 1997 World Series.

      The other veteran of the three different World Series is Jason Varitek. His Little League World Series performance was less impressive — he went zero for seven in 1984. He later helped Georgia Tech win the 1994 College World Series. As a pro, he was part of the curse-breaking 2004 World Championship won by the Boston Red Sox.

      Varitek actually did Vosberg one better; in addition to the three World Series, he also played on the U.S. team in the 1992 Olympics.

       How long was the 1989 World Series delayed by the Bay Area earthquake?

      The 1989 season was an unhappy one for baseball. It was the year that Pete Rose was banned for life and commissioner Bart Giamatti died suddenly of a heart attack. But the misfortune that befell the World Series that year went far beyond baseball — a massive earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay area, killing 63 people and injuring thousands.

      The scope of the disaster made the disruption of the series — which featured the two Bay Area teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics — a minor inconvenience.

       Quickies

       Did you know …

      • that Cal Ripken has the lowest career batting average of all members of the 3,000 hit club? His .276 lifetime average is just a shade below Rickey Henderson’s .279.

      The quake occurred during the opening ceremonies of Game 3 on October 17, and forced the suspension of the series. Play resumed 10 days later, on October 27. The Athletics went on to sweep — the only World Series win for a team that many thought had “dynasty” written all over it.

       How many times did the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees meet in the World Series?

      World Series showdowns between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees were starting to feel like annual events in the 1940s and 1950s, with the Yankees having the better of the Dodgers year after year before the Bums finally triumphed in 1955.

      In the history of the rivalry, the two teams faced each other in the Series seven times: 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956. In fact, aside from appearances in the Fall Classic in 1916 and 1920 (at a time when the team was known as the Robins), the Brooklyn squad never played a World Series against a team other than the Yankees.

      After the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, the teams did not meet in October again until 1963. They later renewed their rivalry in three memorable World Series confrontations in 1977, 1978, and 1981.

       Who was the fi rst team to have a permanent spring training home?

      Spring training had existed since the 19th century, but teams would generally move around from state to state, and sometimes their spring training would take place near (or even in) the city they represented in the regular season.

      While spring training is, nowadays, played in Grapefruit League (Florida) or Cactus League (Arizona) locations, the first “permanent” spring training base was the New York Giants’ camp in Marlin Springs, Texas. The Giants trained there from 1908 to 1918.

       Quickies

       Did you know …

      • that in the 1890s, American baseball teams played soccer in the off-season in order to keep their stadiums operating through the winter months? Often the same players who were on the baseball teams would also play soccer. The first American soccer championship was won by the moonlighting Baltimore Orioles of baseball’s National League. (Not the same Orioles who would later become the New York Yankees.)

       Why did the Seattle Pilots only last one season?

      Long before the Mariners entered the American League in 1977, the Seattle Pilots got the city on the Major League map in the 1969 season. The Pilots were one of four expansion franchises that year, the others being the San Diego Padres and Montreal Expos in the National League, and the Kansas City Royals in the American League.

      The Pilots were rushed into existence. The original plan was that they, and their expansion partners, would not play until 1971, but folks in Missouri — particularly Senator Stuart Symington — were making noise about scrapping baseball’s antitrust exemption. They were hot over the decision to allow the Kansas City Athletics to move to Oakland, and weren’t prepared to wait two years.

      So, the Royals — and the Expos, Padres, and Pilots — began life in 1969. The Pilots were not financially prepared, nor did they have an adequate stadium. Their home field was a converted minor league facility that seated 17,000 fans. Worse, they were barely able to cover the expansion fee.

      Though they outdrew four other major league teams, their attendance was woeful and it was clear the Pilots would not last long enough for a new domed stadium to be built. So, when a group led by Bud Selig emerged with a plan to buy the Pilots and move them to Wisconsin, the nail was in the coffin for Seattle baseball for the time being, and the Milwaukee Brewers were born.

       Which team played out of two home stadiums in 2003 and 2004?

      The Montreal СКАЧАТЬ