Now You Know Baseball. Doug Lennox

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      Sometimes you can keep on winning without winning it all. Gene Mauch had a successful career managing some outstanding ball clubs. In a career that spanned the years from 1960 to 1987, he skippered the Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins, and California Angels, capturing division titles in 1982 and 1986, both times with the Angels. Sadly, his teams were unable to win in the playoffs, and Mauch never appeared in a World Series as manager.

      He did come close. In 1986, the Angels were one strike away from winning the American League Championship Series in five games, but reliever Donny Moore gave up a home run to Boston’s Dave Henderson; the Sox went on to win that game, and the next two games after that. Mauch lasted only one more season as a manager.

       Who was the fi rst team to sport an identifying logo?

      Merchandising was not a consideration for early baseball teams. The purpose of uniforms was to distinguish one team from another. And so, logos served little purpose.

      The first team to incorporate a logo into their uniforms were the Detroit Tigers, who stitched a small, red tiger on their caps in 1901.

       How many women played in the Negro Leagues?

      The Negro Leagues not only provided an opportunity for black men to play baseball at a professional level, it also provided an opportunity for three women to play with the men.

      Toni Stone was the first of these. She made her professional debut in 1949 with the San Francisco Sea Lions. She went on to play for the New Orleans Black Pelicans and the Indianapolis Clowns, finishing her career with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1954. Stone had a female teammate on the Indianapolis squad — Marnie “Peanut” Jackson pitched for the Clowns from 1953 to 1955, going 33–8. Finally, Connie Morgan played for the Clowns, replacing Stone after she left the team.

      Ironically, though they played in a league that existed because racial intolerance would not allow black players in the major leagues, the women faced discrimination because of their gender. Toni Stone may have had the worst experience — she received almost no playing time after moving from the Clowns to the Monarchs, and was hated by her teammates.

       What was the name of the professional baseball league for women that began play during World War II?

      In 1943, Philip K. Wrigley founded a professional league for women. The goal of the league was to maintain a profile for baseball during the war years, when many of the top male stars were overseas and public attention was drifting away.

      For convenience and clarity, the women’s league is generally referred to as the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, but it actually went by several names during its history. Between the founding of the league in 1943 and its demise after the 1954 season, it went by the names All-American Girls Professional Softball League, All-American Girls Baseball League, All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and American Girls’ Baseball League.

       Was the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League actually a softball league?

      The women’s baseball league actually began its existence playing a game that more closely resembled softball. The original ball was 12 inches in diameter, and the pitchers threw underhanded from a mound only 40 feet from home plate. Bases were 65 feet apart.

      The ball became smaller over the years, shrinking five times between 1944 and 1954. The distance between base paths was lengthened several times, topping out at 85 feet in 1954. Pitchers were still required to throw underhand, or, by 1946, sidearm, but overhand pitching was not permitted until 1948. Even then, the mound was only 50 feet from home plate and would not move to 60 feet until the last year of the league’s existence.

       Who competed in the fi rst known organized game of baseball?

      The first team to play using modern rules were the New York Knickerbockers, who played by what was known as the Knickerbocker Rules (developed by their founder, Alexander Cartwright). The first organized game was played between the Knickerbockers and a team known as the New York Nine. Despite inventing the rules for the game, the Knickerbockers were trounced, 23–1, in a game played at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey.

       Who is known as “The Father of Baseball”?

      While it’s impossible to credit any individual with inventing baseball, many are comfortable with saying the modern game of baseball was invented by The Father of Baseball, Alexander Cartwright. Cartwright took what was, until then, a crude stick-and-ball game and established rules that created a game that would look familiar to fans of the sport that is played today. He set the distance between bases at 90 feet, established that each team should have nine players, and forbade the former method of getting runners out by throwing the ball at them.

       Besides the New York Yankees, what franchise has won the most American League pennants?

      The New York Yankees have won an astonishing 40 American League Championships in their history. To put it in context, you could add together the number of pennants won by any three other American League teams and still not come up with a number that beats the Yankees’ total.

      The nearest competitor to the Yankees is the Athletics franchise, which has divided pennants between two cities: Philadelphia and Oakland. (The team also played in Kansas City, but had no first-place finishes there.)

      If we limit our search to the number of pennants won in one city, the Boston Red Sox top the list with 12 American League flags.

       What is “the Buckner Ball” and where is it today?

      The ball that went between the legs of Bill Buckner in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, crushing the dreams of Red Sox fans, was subsequently named The Buckner Ball. The ball was put on auction in 1992 and went to actor Charlie Sheen for $93,500. Sheen later put the ball on auction in 2000, and songwriter Seth Swirsky was the top bidder, though Swirsky refers to it as “the Mookie Ball” (the groundball that Buckner misplayed was hit by Mookie Wilson). Sheen lost money on his investment, as the ball only sold for $63,500.

       Was the 1919 World Series the fi rst to be fi xed?

      Though suspicions were never proven, there was plenty of speculation that three World Series were thrown prior to the famous Black Sox Scandal of 1919.

      The first suspected tanking of a series took place in 1914. The heavily favoured Philadelphia Athletics were inexplicably swept in four games by the Boston Braves. Conspiracy theorists believe that the players were angry with owner Connie Mack, who paid them poorly, and decided to let the Braves win the series.

      In 1917, many pointed fingers of suspicion at Heine Zimmerman, third baseman for the New York Giants, who held onto the ball during a rundown, allowing the series-winning run to score. (Zimmerman may have been unfairly accused, as there was no one to throw the ball to, but he was later implicated in another gambling scandal.) And then, in 1918, rumours were swirling that the Chicago Cubs had intentionally thrown the World Series against the Boston СКАЧАТЬ