By Edwin Cooney
Fifty seasons ago, Major League Baseball celebrated its centenary. Thus, this year, 2019, is its 150th anniversary. Before you say “so what!,” the fact of the matter is that whether many modern sports scribes like it or not, the golden thread that weaves baseball into our national and cultural fabric is an American tradition. (Don’t tell anybody, but Americans love tradition, baseball, and American history in that order!
The year 1969, no matter how you look at it, was filled with events that were very significant. Here’s a brief list:
Richard Nixon became president on Monday, January 20th;
Mickey Mantle announced his retirement from baseball and headed for the Baseball Hall of Fame on Saturday, March 3rd;
Ted Williams, to everyone’s surprise (including his), agreed to become manager of the Washington Senators;
Bowie Kuhn became the new Baseball Commissioner that spring;
Baseball celebrated its centenary at the White House during the week of July 6th;
The All Star Game was rained out on the night of Tuesday, July 8th and played at RFK Stadium on Wednesday afternoon, July 9th. The National League won the game 9 to 3;
On July 20th, as Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin were setting foot on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit a home run. He had hit the last one in 1963 and had predicted that America would put a man on the moon before he’d hit another one;
As three astronauts were headed toward the moon aboard Apollo 11 thereby fulfilling his late brother’s moon mission, Ted Kennedy was involved in an accident on Chappaquiddick Island which ended the life of Mary Jo Kopechne and ended Teddy’s dream to succeed his brother Jack as president;
Stan Musial and Roy Campanella were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame;
Vice President Spiro Agnew talked about “impudent snobs” who characterize themselves as intellectuals;
Finally, deeply but joyously shocking and gratifying to most baseball fans, 1969 was the year that the New York Mets, under manager Gil Hodges, not only won the National League East and the NL pennant, they handily defeated manager Earl Weaver’s heavily favored Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 1.
A pattern of sorts jumps out at me as the 2019 baseball season gets under way. Remember, 1869, professional baseball’s first season, had to be historic because it assured the continuance of professional baseball. However, just a glance at baseball history reveals that other years ending in the numeral 9 would have special significance.
In 1879, owners instituted the “reserve clause” which originally bound five of their top players to their team until they were released by the team owner.
In 1889, the “four ball walk” was institutionalized.
The year 1899 found baseball owners, some of whom owned two clubs, transferring players to the club that could draw the highest attendance. The owners of the Cleveland Spiders transferred their best players to the St. Louis Browns as the Spiders only drew a total of 6,000 plus fans to their home games. Their record was an abysmal 20 wins and 134 losses leaving them 84 games behind the first place Brooklyn Superbas 101 to 47 record. At the end of the season, the Spiders was one of four teams dropped from the National League, bringing the league down from twelve to eight teams. Expansion was just around the corner in the name of the American League.
The year 1919 was made infamous by the “Black Sox scandal” which saw eight White Sox players who were consorting with gamblers throw the World Series game against the Cincinnati Red Legs. This would result in a gentleman named Kenesaw Mountain Landis being appointed as the first permanent Baseball Commissioner and the lifetime suspension of the players involved.
All baseball was saddened in 1939 by the fatal illness of Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig. However, baseball fans were joyous over the opening of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Casey Stengel managed the Yankees for the first time in 1949 and a new era in Yankee dominance was born. Even more significant was the choice of Jackie Robinson as the National League’s MVP.
The year 1959 saw two significant events. First, major league owners instituted two All Star games which would last through 1962. The idea was to use the popularity of the All Star game to raise money for the players’ pension fund. In addition, the first West Coast World Series was played as the Los Angeles Dodgers played and defeated the Chicago White Sox in six games.
The year 1969 was, of course, the centenary year.
The year 1989 saw the lifetime suspension of Pete Rose by Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti and, later that year, Giamatti’s sudden death. Those two dramatic events were followed by the “earthquake World Series.”
As I see it, all of these events had a major effect on the culture of the game just as much as with the results of play.
A few more words are in order regarding the development of the original Reds. Back in November 1866, a group of Cincinnati, Ohio investors decided to create a professional baseball team. In 1867, they hired Englishman Harry Wright, originally a cricket instructor, to manage the Cincinnati Red Stockings. Every player was to be paid for his services. In 1869, the team played 67 games from coast to coast and won them all. Thus, they entered the 1870 season with a record of 67 and 0. Their star was Harry Wright’s younger brother and shortstop, George. Young George was paid $1,400 and according to everyone was worth every bit of his salary. Batting leadoff, Wright ended the season with 49 homers, 304 hits (about six per game), scored 339 runs and batted
.629. As truly spectacular as this was, remember that George was a professional up against amateur players. One other fascinating factor about George Wright was his physical stamina. In the early 1860s, Wright, originally a catcher, moved to shortstop having been hit in the throat by a foul tip. He played shortstop barehanded and, even after breaking his leg in 1871, came back in 1873 to bat .388. The Reds almost immediately folded following their eleven inning loss to the Brooklyn Atlantics on Tuesday, June 14th, 1870 with a score of 8 to 7. Harry and George, however, would not follow their fellow Reds management into despair. As for the Cincinnati ownership, their profit was exactly $1.39 after it was all over. The Wrights were Boston-bound and Boston was ready to receive them.
The question ultimately is what’s ahead in 2019, one hundred fifty years after baseball’s Wright brothers and the Reds, and fifty years after Gil Hodges’ New York Mets? How can we possibly get even more glory out of baseball?
The answer to that is simple if not exactly directive. Baseball will matter so long as we’re willing to insist that it matters. The fact is that you and I invariably create our own glory. It’s our special genius. It’s just there awaiting the sustenance we’re willing to put back into it in the wake of the energy and the excitement it provides you and me!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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