billsportsmaps.com

July 6, 2024

1971 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’71 World Series champions the Pittsburgh Pirates & AL and NL Stats Leaders.

Filed under: Baseball,Baseball-1971 MLB season,Retro maps — admin @ 1:55 pm

mlb_1971_map-of-mlb-1971_24-teams_ws-champions-pittsburgh-pirates_1971-mlb-attendances_1971-mlb-stats-leaders_post_c_.gif
1971 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’71 World Series champions the Pittsburgh Pirates & AL and NL Stats Leaders



By Bill Turianski on the 6th of July 2024; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-1971 MLB season (en.wikipedia.org).
-1971 MLB (baseball-reference.com).
-Year in Review: 1971 American League (baseball-almanac.com).
-Year in Review: 1971 National League (baseball-almanac.com).
-1971 MLB logos (sportslogos.net).

1971 MLB Location-map with jersey-logos with 1971 attendances, featuring the 1971 World Series champions: the Pittsburgh Pirates.
This is my fifth in a series. Here are links to the first four posts in this series:
1967 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’67 World Series champions: the St. Louis Cardinals;
1968 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’68 World Series champions: the Detroit Tigers.
1969 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos and Attendances, featuring the ’69 World Series champions: the New York Mets.
1970 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the 1970 World Series champions: the Baltimore Orioles.

The map shows the locations of the 24 MLB teams of 1971.
On the map, next to each MLB team’s location-dot there are 3 things: their cap-logo, one of their 1971 jersey-logos (either home or away jersey), and a rectangular box (listing: ballpark, win total in 1971, and home average attendance in ’71). All but one of the jersey-logos are from photos of the old jerseys (see 23 photo credits at the foot of this post); one jersey-logo – the Detroit Tigers’ 1971 away jersey-logo – I drew myself.

The jersey-logo: sized to reflect that team’s 1971 average attendance. The larger the jersey-logo, the higher their attendance. Any other logos on the team’s uniforms in 1971 are also shown. Specifically, shoulder-patch-logos, of which there were 9 of such in 1971: the White Sox [in 1971-75 colors: red-white-powder blue], the Angels, the Astros, the Braves, the Cubs, the Royals, the Indians, the Mets, and the Twins.

1971 Team Average Attendance: shown at the right-hand side of the map-page. For the third straight year, the best-drawing MLB team in 1971 was the New York Mets, who drew 27.9-K per game at the then-8-year-old Shea Stadium in Queens, New York City, NY. This year was the peak of the Mets’ outdrawing the then-moribund New York Yankees: 1971 was the second-straight year the Mets were drawing double that of the Yankees (Mets at 27.9-K-per-game, the Yankees at a meagre 13.2-K). From the mid-Sixties to the mid-Seventies, the Mets ended up outdrawing the Yankees for 12 seasons (1964 to ’75). Second-best drawing ball club in 1971 was the Los Angeles Dodgers, at 25.4-K-per-game. Two other teams drew above 20-K: the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs.

The worst drawing clubs in 1971 were the Padres, the Indians, the Senators, and the Brewers, all of whom drew below 10-K. It was worrying that two of these poor-drawing teams were only two or three years, old (Padres, est. 1969; Brewers est. 1970). And the twelve-year-old Washington Senators (II), who drew 8.0-K in 1971, would depart the nation’s capital after the ’71 season, and move to Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, as the Texas Rangers (est. 1972). On the map-page here, I have shown the 1972-franchise-shift of Washington Senators (II) to Texas Rangers, using a long pale-gray line-segment with arrows pointing to their new location in Arlington, Texas.

Section for the 1971 MLB champions, the Pittsburgh Pirates: at the top of the map-page. I featured photos of the 13 players on the ’71 Pirates with the highest WAR [Wins Above Replacement], plus the their manager, Danny Murtaugh. Photo credits are at the foot of this post. The players are: Willie Stargell (LF & HoF), Roberto Clemente (RF & HoF), Manny Sanguillén (C), Bob Robertson (1B), Steve Blass (RHP), Al Oliver (OF/1B), Gene Clines (OF/PH), Dave Cash (2B/3B), Nelson Briles (RHP), Richie Hebner (3B), Dock Ellis (RHP), Rennie Stennett (2B/PH), Milt May (C).

1971 MLB Statistical Leaders: at the foot of the map. (In both the American League and the National League.) Leaders in the following categories: ERA, Wins, WAR for Pitchers; Batting Average, Home Runs, RBIs, WAR for Position Players. A photo of each player is shown, with stats; photo credits are at the foot of this post.



    1971 World Series – Pittsburgh Pirates beat Baltimore Orioles in 7 games.

The Baltimore Orioles, the reigning MLB champs, had just completed their third straight AL playoff series sweep (twice over the Minnesota Twins, and then in ’71 over the Oakland A’s). And the Orioles had just finished their third straight season with over 100 wins. The O’s were tied with the NY Mets for the best team-ERA in 1971 (at 2.99), and featured four pitchers who were 20-Game Winners: Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, and future-Hall-of-Famer Jim Palmer (10th-best ERA in ’71 at 2.63). Baltimore scored the second-most Runs in 1971, and their offense was powered by two sluggers: future-Hall-of-Famer Frank Robinson (OF), and Boog Powell (1B). In 1971, two Orioles were in the top 7 of American Leaguers for WAR [Position players]: Frank Robinson and OF/PH Merv Rettenmund. And the Orioles had a solid defensive unit, with future-Hall-of-Famer Brooks Robinson at Third Base, and 8-time Gold Glove-winner Mark Belanger at Shortstop. Baltimore’s manager was the wily Earl Weaver (who managed the Orioles for 17 years (1968–1982; 1985–86). The Baltimore Orioles were the heavy favorites to win the ’71 World Series.

The Pittsburgh Pirates had last won the World Series in 1960 (in an upset win over the NY Yankees). In ’71, Pittsburgh won the NL East by 7 games over St. Louis; in the playoffs they beat San Francisco 3 games to 1.

On September 1 1971, the Pirates had fielded the first all-minority line-up (Rennie Stennett, Gene Clines, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Manny Sanguillen, Dave Cash, Al Oliver, Jackie Hernandez, Dock Ellis and Bob Veale). Which was a long 24 years after Jackie Robinson had first broke the color barrier, back in 1947. This came as a result of the fact that Pirates front office and General Manager Joe L. Brown ignored the de-facto rule of the day, of racial quotas. MLB teams put a few black and Latin players in starting roles, leaving benches of MLB teams full of white players. In the MLB in the 1950s and the ’60s, teams had two or three or four minority players, maybe five or six, but almost always, never more than six (an exception being the NL-pennant-winning San Francisco Giants of 1962, who had 8 minority players on their roster, including Willie Mays, Felipe Alou, Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda, and José Pagán, all 5 of which were in the SF Giants top-12-for-WAR that year).

In The Team that Changed Baseball – Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, Bruce Markusen writes, ‘In general, very few African-American and Latino players made major league rosters as utility players. It was clear that most teams in the fifties and the sixties were operating under another unwritten rule: an African American or Latino had to be considered a star, or at least good enough to make it as a starter, to be included on the roster – at all.”

The Pirates refused to follow that vestige of segregation. The Pirates scouted extensively in the Caribbean and in Central America for black and Latin players to fill any role (including leadership roles), and at any position, and not just as marquee players. Joe L. Brown was Pirates GM from 1955 to 1976. Brown took over the General Manager’s job in Pittsburgh from Branch Rickey, in November 1955, when Rickey retired. Branch Rickey is the man who was the most instrumental in breaking the color barrier, by convincing the Brooklyn Dodgers Board of Directors to start looking for a black ballplayer to sign (this was in 1943), and then signing Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946.

In 1971, the list of the 12 top players on each MLB team (as measured by WAR), showed almost all MLB teams having 3 or 4 minority players in their top-12-for-WAR. Two teams had 5 minority players in their top-12-for-WAR: the Minnesota Twins and the San Francisco Giants. The Pittsburgh Pirates had 8 minority players in their top-12-for-WAR.

The 1971 Pirates were not especially dominant in terms of pitching, with the 11th-best ERA (5th-best in the NL). They featured 19-game winner Dock Ellis, 15-game winner Steve Blass (2.85 ERA) and closer Dave Giusti (with the most Saves in the NL, 30). The real strength of the ’71 Pirates was in their offense: they scored the most Runs and had the best Slugging Percentage. They featured three sluggers: future-Hall-of-Famer Willie Stargell in Left Field (.295, 48, 125), Bob Robertson at 1st Base (.271, 26, 72) and Richie Hebner at 3rd Base (.271, 17, 67). And they featured 3 who could hit for average: future-Hall-of-Famer Roberto Clemente in Right Field (.341, 13, 86), Al Oliver in Center (.282, 14, 64), and the Panama-born Manny Sanguillen behind the plate (.319, 7, 81). On the 1971 Pirates’ roster were two players who remained from their 1960 championship team, Roberto Clemente, and, in a utility role, the 1960 World Series MVP Bill Mazeroski (2B) [inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001]. The 1971 Pirates’ manager was the same who had led the team in 1960 – the Chester, Pennsylvania-born Danny Murtaugh, who was well liked by players. Murtaugh would serve for 15 seasons, in 4 stints, as the Pirates’ skipper (the gap-years being for health reasons) (1957-64, 1967, 1970-71, 1973-76).

1971_world-series_pittsburgh-pirates_v_baltimore-orioles_pirates-win-in-7-games_three-rivers-stadium_e_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Aerial shot of Three Rivers Stadium [circa 1970], photo by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at post-gazette.com/sports. -Exterior shot of Baltimore’s Municipal Stadium, 1971 NBC World Series broadcast, screenshot from video uploaded by Stephen Alexander at youtube.com. -Merv Rettenmund, screenshot from video uploaded by Stephen Alexander at youtube.com. -Jim Palmer, screenshot from video uploaded by Stephen Alexander at youtube.com. -Bob Robertson, photo unattributed at ebay.com. -Bruce Kison, screenshot from video uploaded by Stephen Alexander at youtube.com. -Nelson Briles, photo by Focus on Sport via Getty Images via gettyimages.com. -Brooks Robinson, photo by Tony Triolo/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images via gettyimages.com. -Steve Blass, photo from National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at baseballhall.org. -Roberto Clemente, photo unattributed at bucsdugout.com. -Pirates players celebrating after the final out, screenshot from video uploaded by Stephen Alexander at youtube.com.

Game 1: Orioles win, 5-3.
Merv Rettenmund hit a 3-run HR in the 3rd inning, and Dave McNally pitched a 3-hit, 3-run Complete Game. Win: Dave McNally.

Game 2: Orioles win, 11-3
The Orioles pounded the six Pirates pitchers w/ 14 hits (all singles). Jim Palmer went 8 innings, the first 7 scoreless. Win: Jim Palmer; Save: Dick Hall.

Game 3: Pirates win, 5-1
Bob Robertson hit a 3-run HR in the 7th inning, and Steve Blass pitched a 3-hit, 1-run Complete Game. Win: Steve Blass.

Game 4: Pirates win, 4-3
First-ever World Series night game. O’s scored 3 in the 1st; then Bruce Kison pitches 6⅓ scoreless innings. Game-winning-RBI by backup-C Milt May. Win: Bruce Kison; Save: Dave Giusti.

Game 5: Pirates win, 4-0
Nelson Briles pitched a 2-hit shutout, and had an RBI. Bob Robertson hit his 2nd HR of the Series. Win: Nelson Briles.

Game 6: Orioles win, 3-2 (10)
The Orioles win it in 10 innings, on a sacrifice fly by Brooks Robinson, with Frank Robinson scoring on a close play at the plate. Win: Dave McNally (2-0).

Game 7 Pirates win, 2-1, and win the Series 4 games to 3
A pitcher’s duel between the Orioles’ lefty Mike Cuellar, and the Pirates’ Steve Blass. In the 4th inning, Series MVP Roberto Clemente hit his 2nd HR. In the top of the 8th, Pirates backup-3B José Pagán doubled to score Willie Stargell. In the bottom of the 8th, the O’s got their only run, on a ground-out-RBI by Don Buford. Winning Pitcher: Steve Blass, who went all 9 innings, again, and finished the Series at an MVP-worthy 2-0, 18 IP, 1.00 ERA.

Roberto Clemente: 1971 World Series MVP
12-29, 3 R, .414 BAvg, 2 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 1.210 OPS.




Jersey-logo photo credits -
-Atlanta Braves 1970 home jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Baltimore Orioles 1971 jersey, photo from customthrowbackjerseys.com.
-Boston Red Sox 1971 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-California Angels 1971 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Chicago Cubs 1970 road jersey, from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Chicago White Sox 1970 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Cincinnati Reds 1970 home jersey photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Cleveland Indians 1970 home jersey, photo from worthpoint.com.
-Houston Astros 1971 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Kansas City Royals 1971 road jersey, photo from goldinauctions.com.
-Los Angeles Dodgers 1971 road jersey, photo from lofty.com.
-Milwaukee Brewers 1970 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Minnesota Twins home jersey circa 1968-71, photo from lelands.com.
-Montreal Expos 1970 road jersey, photo from goldinauctions.com.
-New York Mets 1970 jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-New York Yankees road jersey circa 1967-71, photo from customthrowbackjerseys.com.
-Oakland A’s road uniform-logo, photo from worthpoint.com.
-Philadelphia Phillies 1971 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Pittsburgh Pirates 1971 home jersey, photo from robertedwardauctions.com.
-San Diego Padres 1970 road jersey, from lelands.com.
-San Francisco Giants 1970 home jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-St. Louis Cardinals 1971 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Washington Senators 1970 home jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.


1971 Pittsburgh Pirates players: photo and image credits…
-1971 Pittsburgh Pirates home jersey, from robertedwardauctions.com. 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates road jersey, from mlbshop.com/pittsburgh-pirates. -Willie Stargell, photo by Focus on Sport via Getty Images via gettyimages.es. -Roberto Clemente, photo unattributed at cowlatinamerica.voices.wooster.edu. -Manny Sanguillén, photo by Focus on Sport via Getty Images via gettyimages.com. -Bob Robertson, photo by Focus on Sport via Getty Images via gettyimages.com. -Steve Blass, 1971 Sports Illustrated cover via mbird.com. -Al Oliver, unattributed at pinterest.com. -Gene Clines, photo unattributed at history.pittsburghbaseball.com. -Dave Cash, 1971 Topps card via vintagecardprices.com. -Nelson Briles, photo from Pittsburgh Pirates via oldbucs.blogspot.com. -Richie Hebner, photo unattributed at pinterest.com. -Dock Ellis, photo unattributed at gameusedonly.com. -Rennie Stennett, photo unattributed at pinterest.com via usdaynews.com. -Milt May, photo unattributed at ebay.com. -Danny Murtaugh (manager), photo by Focus on Sport via Getty Images via gettyimages.in. -1971 Pittsburgh Pirates uniforms [illustrations], by Marc Okkonen at exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines.


Photos of 1971 MLB leaders on map page…
-Vida Blue, photo unattributed at dglsports.ca.
-Tom Seaver, 1971 Topps card, at pinterest.com.
-Mickey Lolich, photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images via gettyimages.com.
-Ferguson Jenkins, August 20 1971 Sports Illustrated cover, via gettyimages.com.
-Wilbur Wood, photo by Diamond Images/Getty Images via southsidesox.com.
-Tom Seaver, photo by Malcolm Emmons/USA Today Sports via amazinavenue.com.
-Tony Oliva, photo by SPX/Diamond Images via Getty Images via gettyimages.com.
-Joe Torre, 1972 Street and Smith’s Baseball magazine, photo by Sporting News via Getty Images via gettyimages.com.
-Bill Melton, photo by Doug McWilliams/National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at baseballhall.org.
-Willie Stargell, photo by Tony Tomsic/Getty Images via gettyimages.com.
-Harmon Killebrew, photo unattributed at baberuthmuseum.org.
-Joe Torre, photo unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Graig Nettles, photo unattributed at pristineauction.com.
-Willie Stargell, August 2 1971 Sports Illustrated cover, from sicovers.com.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Base map, by US federal government employee at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StatesU.svg.
-Baseball-Reference.com.
-1971 Major League Baseball season (en.wikipedia.org).

April 7, 2024

MLB: Paid-Attendance Map for 2023 (home/regular season average tickets-sold), including change from 2022 and percent-capacity figures.

Filed under: Baseball,Baseball >paid-attendance — admin @ 6:50 pm

http://billsportsmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/mlb_2023_map_attendance_tickets-sold_with-percent-capacity-figures_post_b_.gif
MLB: Paid-Attendance Map for 2023



By Bill Turianski on the 7th of April 2024; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-Official site…mlb.com.
-Teams, etc…Major League Baseball (en.wikipedia.org).
-Attendance figures (2023 home regular season tickets sold), baseball-reference.com/2023-misc.

The map…
The circular-cap-logos on the map page are all each MLB teams’ 2023 home cap logo. That is, except with respect to Baltimore’s circular-cap-logo, which is of their all-black road cap, because the Orioles wear their white-paneled cap at home, and I wanted to maintain a uniformity to all 30 of the circular-cap-logos on the map. The circular-cap-logos were then sized to reflect crowd size, utilizing a constant gradient (the larger the team’s average paid-attendance, the larger their circular-cap-logo is on the map). If you are unsure about the term “paid-attendance”, my post on MLB paid-attendance from 2015 can clear that up for you {here, 2014 MLB paid-attendance map}. The chart at the right-hand-side of the map page shows 5 things: Attendance-Rank, Average Paid-Attendance, Numerical Change in Average Paid-Attendance from Previous Season [2022], Venue Capacity, Percent-Capacity.

-From MLB.com, Attendance up, game time down in record-setting ’23 season (by David Adler at mlb.com on Oct. 2 2023).

Attendance was up 9.1% in 2023. In 2023, Major League Baseball saw average attendance increase of 2,452 per game – an increase of 9.1% over 2022. No less than 26 of the 30 MLB teams increased their attendance {see the top 5 teams in this category, further below}. And 17 teams drew above 30,000 per game. That was the highest percentage of teams drawing above 30-thousand-per-game, ever. Total attendance numbers would have been even higher, had not the Oakland A’s become a lame-duck franchise with negligible home-fan-support (due to the A’s ownership’s intention of moving the team to Las Vegas).

Quicker games drew more fans to the ballpark in 2023… Almost certainly, the biggest influence on the attendance increase was the shortening of game times, following rule changes designed to speed up games (most notably, a 15-second pitch clock). In 2023, games finished 24 minutes faster, compared to 2022! MLB games have not ended that quickly since 1985. See list below…
MLB average time of game by season
9-inning games only

2015 — 2:56:14
2016 — 3:00:42
2017 — 3:05:11
2018 — 3:00:44
2019 — 3:05:35
2020 — 3:07:46
2021 — 3:10:07
2022 — 3:03:44
2023 — 2:39:49

There were other factors in the attendance increase. Runs per game were up 0.6 per game, from 8.6 runs-per-game in 2022, to 9.2 runs-per-game in 2023. There was a more balanced schedule, which saw all teams play each other at least once. And there were a whole lot of teams that were in contention for playoff spots, right up until the last day. In fact, some of the teams with the biggest attendance increases did not even make the postseason – like Cincinnati, Cleveland, and San Diego.




Top 10 teams with the highest average attendance in 2023…
1. Los Angeles Dodgers: 47,371 per game (at 84.5-%-capacity). The Dodgers have had the highest attendance in MLB for 10 straight seasons (2013 to 2023, w/ the COVID-affected 2020 season excluded).
los-angeles-dodgers_highest-drawing-team_2023_b_.gif
Photo: unattributed at rugoodet.live.

2. San Diego Padres: 40,390 per game (at 95.1-%-capacity [best percent-capacity in MLB/see further below]).
3. New York Yankees: 40,358 per game (at 86.7-%-capacity).
4. St. Louis Cardinals: 40,013 per game (at 90.1-%-capacity).
5. Atlanta Braves: 39,401 per game (at 94.9-%-capacity [2nd-best percent-capacity in MLB]).
6. Philadelphia Phillies: 37,686 per game (at 87.8-%-capacity).
7. Houston Astros: 37,683 per game (at 91.5-%-capacity [3rd-best percent-capacity in MLB]).
8. Toronto Blue Jays: 37,307 per game (at 89.8-%-capacity).
9. Chicago Cubs: 34,261 per game (at 82.2-%-capacity).
10.Seattle Mariners: 33,215 per game (at 69.3-%-capacity).




Top 5 teams with the highest average attendance increase in 2023…
1. Philadelphia Phillies, up 9,579 per game (PHI drew 37.6 K per game [6th best].)
philadelphia-phillies_up_9579-per-game_in-2023_d_.gif
Photo: Getty Images via sportsbusinessjournal.com.

2. Cincinnati Reds, up 7,932 per game (CIN drew 25.1 K per game [18th best].)
cincinnati-reds_up-7932-per-game_in-2023_b_.gif
Photo: Aaron Doster/AP Photo via local12.com/sports/reds.

3. Baltimore Orioles, up 7,018 per game (BAL drew 23.9 K per game [21st best].)
baltimore-orioles_up-7018-per-game_in-2023_b_.gif
Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images via sportico.com.

4. Cleveland Guardians, up 6,644 per game (CLE drew 22.6 K per game [23rd best].)
cleveland-guardians_up-6644-per-game_in-2023_c_.gif
Photo: unattributed at sportskeeda.com/baseball.

5. Texas Rangers, up 6,441 per game (TEX drew 31.2 K per game [16th best].)
texas-rangers_up-6641-per-game_in-2023_b_.gif
Photo: unattributed at cbsnews.com/texas.




The team that filled their ballpark the best in 2023 (highest Percent-Capacity figure)…
1. San Diego Padres. Drew 40,930 per-game [which was 2nd-best in MLB], at their 42,445-capacity Petco Park. That is an impressive 95.1 percent-capacity. And this included 59 sellout games. The Padres increased their crowds by 3,507-per-game in 2023. The Padres drew better despite losing 7 more games than in 2022. Although in 2023, the Padres were coming off a 2022 postseason which saw them defeat their SoCal rivals the LA Dodgers (in the NLDS), which certainly increased local fan interest in 2023. And the Padres are the only MLB team that plays in a city without any other major-league representation in either the NFL, the NBA, or the NHL.
san-diego-padres_best-at-filling-their-ballpark_in-2023_d_.gif
Photo: unattributed at espn.com/mlb/[san-diego-padres].
___
Thanks to NuclearVacuum for the blank map, File:BlankMap-North America-Subdivisions.svg (commons.wikimedia.org).
Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com for attendances, baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2023-misc.
Thanks to Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos.net, for several (~17) of the cap logos, sportslogos.net.
Thanks to the contributors at en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball#Current_teams.

June 30, 2023

Billsportsmaps’ 15th anniversary throwback: Major League Baseball, 1903 to 1952 [Hand-drawn map].

Filed under: 15th anniversary maps,Baseball,Hand Drawn Maps,Retro maps — admin @ 9:20 pm

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Major League Baseball, 1903 to 1952 [Hand-drawn map]





By Bill Turianski on the 30th of June 2023; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Billsportsmaps.com had its 15th year anniversary, on the 17th of August 2022. So I am posting a series of maps from the early days of this blog. This hand-drawn map was originally posted in November 2007.

Major League Baseball, 1903 to 1952 [Hand-drawn map]
Between 1903 and 1952, there was no franchise movement among the 8 National League and 8 American League baseball clubs. This map shows all the 16 MLB clubs from that time period, with emblems, cap crests and uniform details. Included is an inset map of the Greater New York City area. In the inset map, the locations of Yankee Stadium (NY Yankees), the Polo Grounds (NY Giants), and Ebbets Field (Brooklyn Dodgers) are marked. The evolution of these three NYC clubs’ crests and the evolution of the three ball clubs’ colors are also shown here.

This map would not have been possible without the incredible book “Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century” {at Amazon, here}. That book was researched, written, and illustrated by Marc Okkonen. His artwork for this book can now be found as the main uniform database (from 1900 to 1994) for the Baseball Hall of Fame site “Dressed to the Nines – A History of the Baseball Uniform”…{exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/database}

I made this map in early 1993, after my brothers had given me, for Christmas, the now-out-of-print “Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century” by Marc Okkonen. I used Caran d’Ache watercolor pencils and graphite pencil, on Bienfang semi-transparent paper. In 2023, I added the banner at the top of the map.

May 1, 2023

Billsportsmaps’ 15th anniversary throwback: The American League, established in 1901 as a major league. [Hand-drawn map from 2005.]

Filed under: 15th anniversary maps,Baseball,Hand Drawn Maps,Retro maps — admin @ 4:39 pm

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The American League, established 1901 as a major league [Hand-drawn map from 2005]



By Bill Turianski on the 1st of May 2023; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Billsportsmaps.com had its 15th year anniversary, in August 2022. So I am posting a series of maps from the early days of this blog. This map was originally posted in October 2007.

The National League was established in 1876. It had competition from other pro baseball leagues, most notably the American Association (1882-91). Then for several years at the close of the Nineteenth Century, the National League was the sole major league. That changed in 1901: The Western League had renamed itself the American League for 1900, while it was still a minor league. But the next year – 1901 – the American League broke from the National Agreement, and declared itself a major league. So starting in 1901, there were once again two major leagues in pro baseball, and that has not changed since then. And since 1903, the winner of each league has gone on to play in the best-of-7-game World Series.

I hand-drew this map in 2005. The media I used were Caran d’Ache watercolor-pencils, graphite pencil, and Sharpie markers. Featured on this map are caps, logos, and cap crests from the past, with the ball clubs’ years of existence listed. I usually selected the oldest distinctive logos of each team. The text-box overlays, for each team’s formation-dates and for the logos’ time periods, were done on the computer in 2007. Franchise shifts are also noted. The map was updated and tightened up in 2023. And I added a banner at the top showing the 8 charter members of the 1901 American League, which includes any name-changes or franchise-shifts of those 8 ball clubs {info gleaned from this page at Wikipedia…American League: Charter franchises}.

The map lists every ball club that has played in the American League, since its inception as a major league in 1901. The main map is focused on the Northeast and the Midwest of the United States, which, of course, is the area where all of the original teams of both the National League and the American League were located. There are also 5 inset-maps. One inset-map is of Greater New York City (the New York Yankees), and the other four inset-maps are for areas where the American League expanded to, or moved into: California (the Los Angeles Angels and the Oakand Athletics), the state of Washington (the defunct Seattle Pilots, and then the Seattle Mariners), Texas (the Texas Rangers, and the Houston Astros [who switched over from the N.L. in 2013]), and Florida (the Tampa Bay Rays).

The logos and cap designs were primarily sourced from Sportslogos.net and from Marc Okkonen’s drawings found at the HoF site Dressed to the Nines.




In the 18-year interim between when I made this map [2005], and now [2023], there have been 5 changes. These following five things I have added to the information on the map…There have been two changes in the names of teams in the American League, there has been one league-status change, and there will be another change – a franchise-shift – after the 2024 season, plus there is one change in the way that the history of the A.L. is officially reported.

A). The two team name changes: 1) in 2008, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays changed their name to the Tampa Bay Rays; 2) in 2022, the Cleveland Indians changed their name to the Cleveland Guardians. B). The league-status change: in 2013, the Houston Astros switched from the National League to the American League. C). The change soon to happen: the Oakland A’s will leave Oakland, CA after 2024, and will move to Las Vegas, Nevada. D). The recent ‘change’ in the history of the American League: according to Baseball-reference.com and official Baseball Hall of Fame baseball historian John Thorn, the New York Highlanders [the present-day New York Yankees] were actually an expansion team, and the franchise has no links to the defunct Baltimore Orioles of 1901-02.

The Baltimore Orioles (II, A.L., 1901-02) went bankrupt in the mid-summer of 1902, following ex-Orioles’ manager John McGraw defection to the New York Giants of the National League. And so the American League took over the operations of the 1902 Orioles for the remainder of the season. Following the 1902 season, the American League, under the directive of commissioner Ban Johnson, placed a franchise, under new ownership, in New York City. The team would turn out to be called the New York Highlanders, and they would play at Hilltop Park, about a mile south of the old Polo Grounds in northern Manhattan Island. (That team would change its name to the New York Yankees in 1913, move into Yankee Stadium in The Bronx in 1923, and then go on to become the most successful ball club in the history of Major League Baseball.) Five players from the 1902 Baltimore Orioles joined the roster of the new 1903 New York Highlanders. There are several reports in the news media, during the August-1902-to-March-1903 time frame, that the defunct 1902 Orioles’ franchise was transferred to new ownership in New York City {see 2 paragraphs below}.

And it is even more complicated than that, as described in this July 2014 article from the NY Yankees fan-site called The Captains’ Blog, Yankees Lose Their Oriole Way: BR.com Removes Baltimore Years From Franchise History. Here are some excerpts from that article…“American League President Ban Johnson endeavored to place a team in New York, which, not surprisingly, the incumbent Giants of the National League did everything possible to thwart. Although Johnson wasn’t able to establish a franchise in New York when the A.L. ramped up in 1901, his ultimate plan was to eventually move an existing team into the Big Apple. By many accounts, the Baltimore Orioles were that team.”…“John McGraw was selected to manage the Orioles in 1901, and, he believed, eventually shepherd the team to New York. However, when he learned that Johnson’s plan to reach Gotham didn’t include him, McGraw decided to write his own ticket. Not only did the fiery manager jump ship to the New York Giants in the middle of the 1902 season, but he helped his new bosses gain a majority ownership stake in the Orioles, which he then used to sabotage the franchise. This subterfuge eventually put the Orioles on the brink of collapse, and only by Johnson seizing the reigns was the team able to complete the 1902 season. Then, after negotiating a peace settlement with the National League during the offseason and securing a site for a new ballpark, Johnson folded the tents in the Baltimore and brought his show to the big top in New York.”…“…it could be argued that Johnson was the de facto owner of both the 1902 Orioles and 1903 Highlanders because the A.L. president was largely responsible for constructing their rosters and determining where they played. Who knows, if not for the inhospitable political climate in New York, which forced Johnson to award the franchise to owners backed by the powerful Tammany Hall, the A.L. might have retained control of the team in its early goings. In Yankees Century, baseball historians Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson go so far as to say Johnson was basically extorted out of the franchise by Tammany big wig Joseph Gordon, who forced the sale to a syndicate led by cronies Frank Farrell and Bill Devery in exchange for being able to build a ballpark within the city. “To make it happen,” Stout and Johnson wrote, “all Johnson had to do was say yes – and hand the franchise over to Tammany.” [New paragraph]…“Stout and Gordon’s research also showed that the American League footed some of the bill for the construction of the new ballpark, giving further credence to the notion that the league was a “part owner” of the new franchise in New York. Finally, the commissioner’s lawyers directly advanced a legal argument asserting Johnson’s status as owner. In response to a lawsuit filed by the remnants of the Baltimore American League Baseball Club, which asked for a judge to place the team’s assets in receivership, the New York Times wrote, “Mr. Johnson’s attorney…claims that Mr. Johnson, as President of the American League, is continually acting not only as owner of the Baltimore club, but all other clubs of the American League.”…“…[Ban Johnson]‘s mission was to land a franchise in New York, with or without nominal ownership, meaning only one asset had real value: the right to operate as a franchise. This asset was retained by Johnson and eventually conferred to new owners. Had McGraw not instigated a coup, it’s likely that the transition would have preceded more smoothly and with legal blessing. That it did not shouldn’t erase the clear ties that bind the Baltimore Orioles of 1901 to 1902 to the Yankees of the present day.” [Excerpts written by William Juliano / twitter.com/williamnyy23.]

Via the Wayback Machine, here is a fascinating thread from Baseball-Reference.com…1901-02 Orioles Removed from Yankees History [76 Responses to “1901-02 Orioles Removed from Yankees History”.] In this thread, you can see that John Thorn never addresses the issue, raised by irate commenters, that there is media evidence of a franchise transfer. Here are two, plus a screen-shot of the newspaper article quoted in the second comment. Comment #54…[via the Cleveland Leader from Aug. 27 1902]: “The players, it is said, were given to understand that the franchise of the Baltimore club would be transferred to New York and all hands signed by the Baltimore management switched over there.” Comment #63…[via the Philadelphia Inquirer from March 10, 1903]: “Baltimore franchise will be formally transferred to Gotham and all details announced”. Comment #74: {screenshot of Philadelphia Inquirer from March 10 1903}.

Here’s one more link, from the Reddit.com/Orioles page, posted by u[deleted] on the 22nd of July 2014, On the nonsense that is BBRef trying to strip the 1901/1902 Orioles from the Yankees history.


April 4, 2023

1970 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the 1970 World Series champions the Baltimore Orioles & AL and NL Stats Leaders.

Filed under: Baseball,Baseball-1970 MLB season,Retro maps — admin @ 5:29 pm

mlb_1970_map-of-mlb-1970_24-teams_ws-champions-baltimore-orioles_1970-mlb-attendances_1970-mlb-stats-leaders_post_b_.gif
1970 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’70 World Series champions the Baltimore Orioles & AL and NL Stats Leaders




By Bill Turianski on the 4th of April 2023; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-1970 MLB season (en.wikipedia.org).
-1970 MLB (baseball-reference.com).
-Year in Review: 1970 American League (baseball-almanac.com).
-Year in Review: 1970 National League (baseball-almanac.com).
-1970 MLB logos (sportslogos.net).

1970 MLB Location-map with jersey-logos with 1970 attendances, featuring the 1970 World Series champions: the Baltimore Orioles.
This is my fourth in a series.
Here are links to the first three posts in this series:
1967 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’67 World Series champions: the St. Louis Cardinals;
1968 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’68 World Series champions: the Detroit Tigers.
1969 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos and Attendances, featuring the ’69 World Series champions: the New York Mets.

The map shows the locations of the 24 Major League Baseball teams of 1970.
On the map, next to each MLB team’s location-dot there are 3 things: their cap-logo, one of their 1970 jersey-logos (either home or away jersey), and a rectangular box (listing: ballpark, win total in 1970, and home average attendance in ’70). All but one of the jersey-logos are from photos of the old jerseys (see 23 photo credits at the foot of this post); one jersey-logo – the Detroit Tigers’ 1970 away jersey-logo – I drew myself.

The jersey-logo for each team is sized to reflect that team’s 1970 average attendance: the larger the jersey-logo, the higher their attendance was that year. Any other team logos on the team’s uniforms in 1970 are also shown (specifically, shoulder-patch-logos, of which there were 8 of such in 1970: Angels [new State-with-halo logo (1971-85)], the Astros, the Braves, the Cubs, the Royals, the Indians, the Mets, and the Twins).

1970 Average Attendances are shown at the right-hand side of the map-page. Best-drawing MLB team in 1970 were the reigning champions, the New York Mets, who drew 32.8-K per game at the then-7-year-old Shea Stadium in Queens, NYC. For this time period, that was a rather impressive figure, as it was slightly more than ten thousand per game better than any other big league club that year. Second- best draw were the NL pennant-winners, the Cincinnati Reds, who drew 22.2-K per game in the 1970 season, half of which they played at their old Crosley Field, and half at their then-new venue Riverfront Stadium. Three other teams drew above 20,000 per game in 1970: the LA Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs, and the St. Louis Cardinals.

At the top of the map-page is a section for the 1970 MLB champions, the Baltimore Orioles. I featured photos of the 13 players on the ’70 Orioles with the highest WAR [Wins Above Replacement], plus the their manager, Earl Weaver. Photo credits are at the foot of this post. The players are: Jim Palmer (RHP & HoF), Paul Blair (CF), Boog Powell (1B & 1970 AL MVP), Frank Robinson (RF/1B & HoF), Merv Rettenmund (OF/PH), Don Buford (LF/Infield), Dave MacNally (LHP), Brooks Robinson (3B & HoF), Davey Johnson (2B), Pete Richert (LHP/Reliever), Mike Cuellar (LHP), Mark Belanger (SS), Elrod Hendricks (C/PH).

At the foot of the map-page are 1970 MLB Statistical Leaders (in both the American League and the National League), in the following categories: ERA, Wins, WAR for Pitchers; Batting Average, Home Runs, RBIs, WAR for Position Players. A photo of each player is shown, with stats; photo credits are at the foot of this post.

In 1970, there was an MLB franchise-move… after only one season, the just-formed Seattle Pilots of 1969 (AL) moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. This strange affair resulted in two things. First it gave the city of Milwaukee a big-league ball club once again, after the city had lost their Milwaukee Braves to Atlanta, Georgia (following the 1965 season). Second, the abrupt departure of the Seattle Pilots resulted in the city of Seattle suing Major League Baseball for breach of contract. {See this, Seattle Pilots: Lawsuit (en.wikipedia.org).} The lawsuit was finally settled out of court 6 years later, when MLB awarded Seattle another expansion franchise: the Seattle Mariners of 1977. On the map-page here, I have shown the 1970-franchise-move of Seattle-Pilots-to-Milwaukee-Brewers, using a long pale-gray line-segment with arrows, and with the Pilots’ old gear shown in gray-tone.



    1970 World Series – Baltimore Orioles beat Cincinnati Reds in 5 games

The Baltimore Orioles were the dominant team in the American League in 1970, winning the AL East by 15 games. The 1970 Orioles featured no less than three 20-game-winners in their pitching rotation (Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally). Baltimore’s offense was powered by a couple of sluggers in Frank Robinson (OF) and the 1970 AL MVP Boog Powell (1B), plus Gold Glove winner Brooks Robinson (3B). In the playoffs, the O’s swept the Minnesota Twins 3-0 (again), and so Baltimore was headed back to the World Series, hoping to make amends for losing to the underdog NY Mets in the previous year’s Fall Classic.

The Cincinnati Reds were likewise the dominant team in the National League in 1970, winning the NL West by 14.5 games, and then sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates in the playoffs. Compared to the Orioles, the Reds boasted more offensive firepower (with Johnny Bench, Lee May, Tony Pérez, and Pete Rose), but the Reds had a less commanding, and somewhat disabled, pitching staff.

Game 1. The Reds took a 3-0 lead with 1 run in the 1st inning, and 2 in the 3rd. But Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer settled down, and did not allow any more runs in his 8.2 innings. The Orioles evened up the 3-0 deficit, starting with a 2-run HR by Boog Powell in the 4th inning, and a solo shot by catcher Elrod Hendricks in the 4th. Then there was a huge fielding play by Brooks Robinson in the 6th inning: a back-handed grab of a hard grounder down the line by the Reds’ Lee May, with Robinson spinning to throw him out. It was one of several spectacular plays Brooks Robinson would make in the series. Also in the 6th inning there was a missed call by the home-plate umpire {see photo and caption below}, which prevented the Reds from reclaiming the lead. (Replays showed that in the collision at the plate, Orioles’ catcher Hendricks tagged Reds’ baserunner Bernie Carbo with an empty mitt.) The Orioles claimed the lead for good in the 7th, on a Frank Robinson HR. Orioles won 4-3; Win: Jim Palmer; Save: Pete Richert.

Game 2. Again the Reds took a lead, and again the Orioles rallied back. The Reds chased O’s starter Mike Cuellar after 2.1 innings. Trailing 4-0, the Orioles got one back in the 4th, on a Boog Powell HR. Then in the 5th inning, Baltimore scored 5 runs…the O’s hit 5 consecutive singles, followed by a 2-run double by Elrod Hendricks. The Reds got one back in the 6th, but Baltimore’s bullpen kept the lead. Orioles won 6-5; Win: Tom Phoebus [in relief]; Save: Dick Hall.

Game 3. Dave McNally and Brooks Robinson were the heroes of the day for the Orioles. Brooks Robinson made three spectacular fielding plays. In the 1st inning, he made a leaping grab of a Tony Pérez hopper, stepped on third and fired to first for the double play. In the 2nd, Robinson snagged a slow grounder by Tommy Helms, and threw him out. And in the 6th, he made a diving catch off a liner by Johnny Bench. With Baltimore leading 4-1, Brooks Robinson then led off the bottom of the 6th, and received a standing ovation from the home crowd; he then doubled. Three batters later, with the bases full, pitcher Dave McNally stepped up, and hit the ball out of the park. McNally became the first (and only) pitcher to hit a World Series grand slam. McNally pitched a complete game, and the O’s coasted to a 3-0 lead in the Series. Orioles won 9-3; Win: Dave McNally.

Game 4. The Reds avoided a Series sweep. Cincinnati came back from a 4-2 deficit, thanks to fine relief pitching by both rookie Don Gullett (2.2 innings), and veteran Clay Carroll (3.2 innings). The Reds won it on a game-winning 3-run HR, by Lee May, in the 8th inning. Reds won 6-5; Win: Clay Carroll.

Game 5. Mike Cuellar gave up 3 runs in the 1st inning, but settled down and shut the door, going the whole 9 innings. The Orioles scored 2 runs in each of the first three innings. Frank Robinson and Merv Rettenmund each hit homers, and both had 2 RBI, as did Davey Johnson. The Orioles won 9-3, and claimed their second World Series title in 4 years. Orioles won 9-3; Win: Mike Cuellar. Orioles won the World Series in 5 games.

Brooks Robinson won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award, thanks his clutch fielding, but also thanks to his offensive contributions: he hit .429, and he broke the record for total bases in a five-game series, with 17.

So in 1970, the Baltimore Orioles (established 1954) won their second World Series title in 4 years (they had swept the LA Dodgers in 1966). The Orioles would go on to their third straight World Series appearance in the following year of 1971 (losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 7 games). The Baltimore Orioles [as of 2022] have won 3 World Series titles (their third WS title was won in 1983, when they beat the Philadelphia Phillies in 5 games).

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1970 WS photo and image credits -
-Memorial Stadium (Baltimore), aerial photo unattributed at eutawstreetreport.com. -Orioles’ 1st Baseman Boog Powell holds the Reds’ Pete Rose at 1st, photo unattributed at twitter.com/[@sigg20]. -Orioles’ Catcher Elrod Hendricks tags out Reds’ Bernie Carbo at home (Game 1), photo unattributed (Sports Illustrated/Getty Images) at pinterest.com. -Brooks Robinson fielding a grounder, photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images via gettyimages.com. -Dave McNally, pitching in game 3 of 1970 WS, photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images via gettyimages.co.jp. -Frank Robinson, photo by SPX/Diamond Images/Getty Images via gettyimages.com. -Mike Cuellar hugs Brooks Robinson as Davey Johnson rushes to the mound in celebration, photo from Baltimore Orioles via pressboxonline.com.



___
Jersey-logo photo credits -
-Atlanta Braves 1970 home jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Baltimore Orioles 1970 jersey, photo from mitchellandness.com.
-Boston Red Sox 1970 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-California Angels 1970 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Chicago Cubs 1970 road jersey, from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Chicago White Sox 1970 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Cincinnati Reds 1970 home jersey photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Cleveland Indians 1970 home jersey, photo from customthrowbackjerseys.com.
-Houston Astros 1970 home jersey, photo from lelands.com.
-Kansas City Royals 1970 jersey, photo from worthpoint.com.
-Los Angeles Dodgers 1970 jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Milwaukee Brewers 1970 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Minnesota Twins home jersey circa 1968-71, photo from lelands.com.
-Montreal Expos 1970 road jersey, photo from goldinauctions.com.
-New York Mets 1970 jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-New York Yankees road jersey circa 1967-71, photo from customthrowbackjerseys.com.
-Oakland A’s 1970 home (gold) jersey, photo from worthpoint.com.
-Philadelphia Phillies 1970 road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Pittsburgh Pirates 1970 home alternate jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com
-San Diego Padres 1970 road jersey, from lelands.com.
-San Francisco Giants 1970 home jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-St. Louis Cardinals road jersey circa 1967-71, from scpauctions.com.
-Washington Senators 1970 home jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.

Baltimore Orioles players: photo and image credits – 1970 Baltimore Orioles road jersey, from goldinauctions.com.1970 Baltimore Orioles home jersey, from mitchellandness.com. -Jim Palmer, photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images via camdenchat.com. -Paul Blair, photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images via gettyimages.com. -Boog Powell, photo by Getty Images via camdenchat.com. -Frank Robinson, photo unattributed at pinterest.com. -Merv Rettenmund, photo unattributed at pinterest.ie. -Don Buford, photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images via camdenchat.com. -Dave McNally, photo unattributed at twitter.com/[@Orioles]. -Brooks Robinson, photo by Focus On Sport/Getty Images via gettyimages.ca. -Davey Johnson, photo unattributed at ebay.com. -Pete Richert, photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images via gettyimages.co.uk. -Mike Cuellar, photo by Focus On Sport/Getty Images via gettyimages.in. -Mark Belanger, photo unattributed at pinterest.com. -Elrod Hendricks, Topps 1970 card, from psacard.com. -Earl Weaver (manager), photo unattributed at mlb.com.
-1970 Baltimore Orioles uniforms, illustration by Marc Okkonen at exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines.

Photos of 1970 MLB leaders on map page…
-Diego Seguí, photo unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Tom Seaver, photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images via nytimes.com.
-Mike Cuellar, photo unattributed at alchetron.com.
-Dave McNally, photo unattributed at whentoppshadballs.blogspot.com.
-Jim Perry, photo unattributed at classicminnesotatwins.blogspot.com.
-Bob Gibson, photo by Diamond Images/Getty Images via nytimes.com.
-Gaylord Perry, photo unattributed at lastwordonsports.com.
-Sam McDowell, photo by the Stanley Weston Archive/Getty Images via gettyimages.com.
-Bob Gibson, photo by Walter Iooss, Jr at si.com.
-Alex Johnson, photo unattributed at ebay.com.
-Rico Carty, photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images via gettyimages.co.uk.
-Frank Howard, photo unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Johnny Bench, photo by Diamond Images/Getty Images via gettyimages.com.
-Frank Howard, Topps 1971 card, from pinterest.com.
-Johnny Bench, Sports Illustrated cover [July 13, 1970] at sicovers.com.
-Carl Yastrzemski, photo unattributed at ebay.com.
-Johnny Bench, photo by SPX/Diamond Images via Getty Images via gettyimages.com.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Base map, by US federal government employee at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StatesU.svg.
-Baseball-Reference.com.
-1970 Major League Baseball season (en.wikipedia.org).

February 25, 2023

Billsportsmaps’ 15th anniversary throwback: Negro League Baseball, 1920-1950 (hand-drawn map) [first posted 26 November 2007].

By Bill Turianski on the 25th of February 2023; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Billsportsmaps.com had its 15th year anniversary, on the 17th of August 2022. So I am posting a series of maps from the early days of this blog. This hand-drawn map was originally posted in November 2007. I have re-posted now, for Black History Month [February].

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Negro Leagues map



Denied entrance into Major League Baseball by the color barrier, black ballplayers organized leagues of their own. These were the Negro Leagues, which existed between 1920 and 1957. The primary leagues were the Negro National League (1920-31; and 1933-48); the Negro Southern League, a minor-league (1920-40);  the Eastern Colored League (1923-28); and the Negro American League (1937-57). [For purposes of this map, records will only go to 1950, after which the Negro American League, the last negro league, essentially played exhibition games.] 

There were many standouts in the Negro Leagues, and 37 Negro League players (as of 2022) have been elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame. The first five elected were Satchel Paige (the legendary right-handed pitcher);  Josh Gibson (catcher, and home run king); James ”Cool Papa” Bell (center fielder, and base-stealer extroardinaire);  Buck Leonard (first baseman, slugger); William “Judy” Johnson (third baseman, with a .349 lifetime batting average); and Oscar Charleston (outfielder, and slugger, with a blend of power and speed; and a .376 lifetime batting average). More information about the Negro Leagues can be found at www.blackbaseball.com, and at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum at nlbm.com, among other good sites.

Negro League baseball was characterized by fleet-footed action, and hi-jinks, ranging from tomfoolery to deadly serious one-upsmanship. There was more base-stealing than in Major League Baseball, and there was a sense of “playing to the crowd.” The teams knew the fans (particularly the significant portion of white customers) were there to see a show, and the players didn’t disappoint. An example of this was the barnstorming (traveling) club called the Indianapolis Clowns, an outfit similar to the Harlem Globetrotters. But that did not mean that Negro League baseball was an inferior product. During this era, negro baseball squads often defeated white MLB squads in exhibition games. Seasons were generally around 60 to 70 games long. There were no real standardized schedules, and teams operated on a shoe-string budget. 

The Golden Age of the Negro Leagues can be seen as the period from 1933 to 1947. The Washington-Homestead Grays regularly outdrew the Major League Baseball team the Washington Senators in Griffith Park in Washington DC, as they racked up 9 straight Negro National League titles. The Chicago American Giants played in old Comiskey Park, home of the MLB team the Chicago White Sox. The Pittsburgh Crawfords played in the first entirely black-owned ball park, Greenlee Field, and traveled the country in style, in their custom-made bus. The Newark Eagles won the 1946 NNL title, under Effa Manley (the first woman owner-operator to win a championship; she became the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 2006). And the Kansas City Monarchs toured the continent with their state-of-the-art portable lighting system. The Kansas City Monarchs would set up shop most anywhere, playing to thousands on a nightly basis. The Monarchs began using lighting for night games in 1930, five years before MLB teams first did. The KC Monarchs ranged throughout the midwest, the upper midwest and Canada. The Monarchs ended up sending more players to Major League Baseball than any other Negro League team. Their star pitcher, Satchel Paige, made more money than most major leaguers. It was an amazing phenomenon, that only ended when blacks were finally able to play in the Major Leagues. In 1947, Jackie Robinson, of the Brooklyn Dodgers, broke the color barrier, and the Negro Leagues days were numbered. Owners saw their star talent go to the white ball clubs, with no financial compensation. By the mid 1950s, the few surviving Negro League clubs were basically playing exhibition games, and the whole era faded away under the public radar. But the legacy of the Negro Leagues cannot be overstated.

I drew the main map in 2001, using Swiss-made Caran d’Ache watercolor pencils and Rapidograph pens. In 2007, after scanning it, I added the flanking segments. I have included the 17 most prominent Negro Leagues ball clubs.




___

April 21, 2022

1969 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’69 World Series champions: the New York Mets; & AL and NL Stats Leaders.

Filed under: Baseball,Baseball-1969 MLB season,Retro maps — admin @ 12:56 pm

mlb_1969_map-of-mlb-1969_24-teams_ws-champions-new-york-mets_1969-mlb-attendances_1969-mlb-stats-leaders_post_f_.gif"
1969 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’69 World Series champions the New York Mets & AL and NL Stats Leaders




By Bill Turianski on the 21st of April 2022; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-1969 MLB season (en.wikipedia.org).
-1969 MLB (baseball-reference.com).
-Year in Review: 1969 American League (baseball-almanac.com).
-Year in Review: 1969 National League (baseball-almanac.com).
-1969 MLB logos (sportslogos.net).

1969 MLB Location-map with jersey-logos with 1969 attendances, featuring the ’69 World Series champion New York Mets.
This is my third in a series.
Here are links to the first two posts in this series:
1967 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’67 World Series champions: the St. Louis Cardinals;
1968 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’68 World Series champions: the Detroit Tigers.

The map shows the locations of the 24 Major League Baseball teams of 1969.
At the foot of the map-page are 1969 MLB Statistical Leaders (in both the American League and the National League), in the following categories: ERA, Wins, WAR for Pitchers; Batting Average, Home Runs, RBIs, WAR for Position Players. A photo of each player is shown, with stats; photo credits are at the foot of this post.

At the top of the map-page is a section for the 1969 MLB champions, the New York Mets. I featured photos of the 12 players on the ’69 Mets with the highest WAR [Wins Above Replacement], plus the their manager, Gil Hodges. Photo credits are at the foot of this post. The players are: Tom Seaver (RHP & 1969 Cy Young Award winner), Cleon Jones (LF), Tommie Agee (CF), Jerry Koosman (LHP), Jerry Grote (C), Tug McGraw (LHP/reliever), Gary Gentry (RHP), Bud Harrelson (SS), Art Shamsky (OF/1B/PH), Ron Taylor (RHP/reliever), Don Cardwell (RHP), Ken Boswell (2B).

On the map, next to each MLB team’s location-dot there are 3 things: their cap-logo, one of their jersey-logos (either home or away jersey), and a rectangular box (listing: ballpark, win total in 1969, and home average attendance in ’69). The jersey-logos are either from a photo of the old jerseys (see 22 photo credits at the foot of this post) or illustrations of such: one (California Angels) from sportslogos.net; one (Detroit Tigers) that I drew myself. The jersey-logo for each team is sized to reflect that team’s 1969 average attendance: the larger the jersey-logo, the higher the attendance that year. Any other team logos on the team’s uniforms in 1969 are also shown (specifically, shoulder-patch-logos, of which there were 6 of such in 1969: for the Astros, the Braves, the Cubs, the Mets, the Padres, and the Twins).

Speaking of shoulder-patch logos, there was another thing going on in Major League Baseball in 1969: the 100th anniversary of the first professional touring baseball club: the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869. A special red-white-&-blue modernist logo was created – reputedly using the formidable silhouette of Minnesota Twins’ slugger Harmon Killebrew. {See this: MLB logo looks like Harmon Killebrew at bat (from 2011, by Pioneer Press/news@pioneerpress.com via twincities.com). Also see this: Who is that silhouetted man? (from 2008, by Paul Lucas at espn.com).} So anyway, this logo, in the form of the Centennial patch, was worn by almost all the MLB teams in 1969 (on at least one of their jerseys that year), except for the Pittsburgh Pirates (I have no idea why, and neither does this baseball card blogger, at wrigleywax.blogspot.com). {To get a quick glance at all those uniforms, here are links to the Baseball Hall of Fame website’s ‘Dressed to the Nines’ database’s 1969 pages: 1969 AL; 1969 NL (illustrations by Marc Okkonen).} If you are wondering about the Cubs, in the illustration in the preceding link, the logo is not visible, as it is located on the raised shoulder that is holding the bat. But I included an image of the logo on the Cubs’ road jersey on the map here. I included several of the MLB-100th-anniversary-logos on the map, on the jerseys of the A’s, Astros, Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Indians, and Mets. This MLB-100th-anniversary logo, in a very slightly altered form, has become the official MLB logo to this day. And each MLB team wears a version of this logo on the back of their ball caps, done in team colors.



    1969 MLB expansion & Divisional re-organization…

mlb_1969-expansion_re-org_d_.gif
Major League Baseball’s 1969 season was the first season of the Divisional Era.
1969 also saw a 4-team expansion – MLB’s third expansion of the decade. The Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Pilots joined the American League; the Montreal Expos and the San Diego Padres joined the National League. [Note: the Seattle Pilots relocated to Milwaukee, WI as the Milwaukee Brewers just one year later (in 1970); the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, DC as the Washington Nationals 36 years later (in 2005).] So in 1969, the now-12-team AL, and the now-12-team NL were divided into two 6-team divisions each, with those divisional winners playing in a best-of-5-series, the winners, of course, advancing to the World Series.

Brief re-cap of the 1969 regular season
The American League saw no real divisional title-races in 1969. The Baltimore Orioles, with an MLB-best record of 109-53, won the AL East easily, by 19 games, and then, in the new playoffs, swept the AL West champion Minnesota Twins in 3 games. In the National League East, the once-hapless New York Mets, who had never had a winning record in their 7 seasons, came back from 9 games behind the Chicago Cubs, going 37-11 down the stretch. In their relatively new, 5-year-old venue, Shea Stadium (which they shared with the NFL’s New York Jets), the Mets drew the biggest crowds in all of baseball that year, drawing 26.5 K per game. The Mets went 100-62, and beat out the faltering Cubs by 8 games to win the NL East title. The NL West saw an unusual 5-team divisional race, with the Astros dropping out first, then the Dodgers and the Reds fell off, while the Giants and the Braves battled it out until the second-to-last day. The Atlanta Braves won the NL West, but then were swept by the Mets in the playoffs. But going into the Fall Classic, the Baltimore Orioles were the oddsmakers’ choice, and were heavy favorites to win the World Series over the New York Mets…



    1969 World Series: New York Mets beat Baltimore Orioles in 5 games…

The “Amazin’ Mets” beat the heavily-favored Orioles, in a huge upset. The 8th-year Mets became the first expansion-team to win the World Series. There were spectacular catches by two Mets outfielders (Tommie Agee & Ron Swoboda – see below). The Mets’ Donn Clendenon hit 3 HRs, and was the MVP. Tom Seaver, Gary Gentry, and Jerry Koosman all pitched effectively for the Mets, with Koosman winning twice, including the Game 5 clincher (see below).
-Here is a 9-minute video of the 1969 WS, 1969 World Series – Baltimore Orioles versus New York Mets (video uploaded by Scott Gordon at youtube.com).
-Here is a 40-minute video on the ’69 Mets (with much sharper video images), 1969 World Series Film New York Mets (video uploaded by Sports Revisited at youtube.com).
new-york-mets-1969_ws-champions_h_.gif
Photos and Images above – 1969 NY Mets/Shea Stadium WS pin-logo from sportslogos.net. Aerial shot of Shea Stadium (circa late 1960s, and probably taken during the 1969 WS), photo unattributed at flickr.com. Tommie Agee’s two catches (game 3)…1st catch: photo unattributed at centerfieldmaz.com; 2nd catch: unattributed at thisdayinbaseball.com. Ron Swoboda catch (game 4), unattributed at slicethelife.com. Donn Clendenon in ’69 WS, photo by Herb Scharfman/Getty Images at gettyimages.com. Jerry Koosman pitching in ’69 WS, photo unattributed at mets.tumblr.com. Nolan Ryan & Jerry Grote celebrate on the mound, photo unattributed at centerfieldmaz.com. View from 3rd-base-side box seats as Mets (and their fans) begin their celebration, photo by AP via nydailynews.com.




Photos of Mets players on map page…
-Tom Seaver, photo unattributed at theathletic.com.
-Cleon Jones, photo by AP via newsday.com.
-Tommie Agee, photo unattributed at sabr.org.
-Jerry Koosman, Topps 1969 card via amazon.com.
-Tug McGraw, photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images via risingapple.com.
-Jerry Grote, photo unattributed at metsinsider.mlblogs.com.
-Bud Harrelson, photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images at gettyimages.in.
-Gary Gentry, photo unattributed at posterazzi.com.
-Art Shamsky, photo unattributed at twitter.com/[@artshamsky].
-Ron Taylor, photo unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Don Cardwell, photo by Eric Sckweikardt/Sports Illustrated via gettyimages.in.
-Ken Boswell, Topps 1969 card via picclick.com.
-Gil Hodges (manager), photo unattributed at metsmerizedonline.com.
-1969 NY Mets uniforms, illustration by Marc Okkonen at exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines.


Photos of 1969 MLB leaders on map page…
-Dick Bosman, 1970 Topps card via tcdb.com.
-Juan Marichal, photo unattributed at twitter.com/[@sfgiants].
-Denny McLain, photo unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Tom Seaver, photo by Neil Leifer at si.com.
-Denny McLain, photo unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Bob Gibson, photo unattributed at lehmansbaseball.wordpress.com.
-Rod Carew, photo by Neil Leifer at si.com.
-Pete Rose, photo unattributed at cardboardmemories.com.
-Harmon Killebrew, photo unattributed at twinstrivia.com.
-Willie McCovey, photo unattributed at first-draft.com.
-Harmon Killebrew, photo by Neil Leifer at si.com.
-Willie McCovey, photo unattributed at cooperstownexpert.com.
-Rico Petrocelli, Topps 1969 card at ebay.com.
-Henry Aaron, Sports Illustrated cover [Aug. 13 1969] at sicovers.com.
-Willie McCovey, photo by Diamond Images/Getty Images via gettyimages.de.

Photos of jersey-logos used on the map-page…
-Tom Seaver 1969 NY Mets road jersey, from worthpoint.com. -Tom Seaver 1969 NY Mets home jersey, from greyflannelauctions.com.
-Atlanta Braves 1969 home jersey, from customthrowbackjerseys.com.
-Baltimore Orioles 1969 road jersey, from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com
-Boston Red Sox home jersey-logo, photo from sports.ha.com.
-Chicago Cubs 1969 road jersey, from mitchellandness.com.
-Chicago White Sox 1969 road jersey, from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Cincinnati Reds 1969 road jersey, from mitchellandness.com.
-Cleveland Indians 1969 road jersey, from lelands.com via nallhal.top.
-Houston Astros 1969 road jersey, from mitchellandness.com.
-Kansas City Royals 1969 road jersey, from worthpoint.com.
-Los Angeles Dodgers 1969 road jersey, from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Minnesota Twins home jersey circa 1968-71, from lelands.com.
-Montreal Expos 1969 road jersey, from customthrowbackjerseys.com.
-New York Mets 1969 home jersey, from mitchellandness.com.
-New York Yankees road jersey circa 1967-71, from customthrowbackjerseys.com.
-Oakland A’s 1969 road alternate jersey, from customthrowbackjerseys.com. -Philadelphia Phillies 1969 home jersey, from worthpoint.com.
-Pittsburgh Pirates ca. 1967-69 road jersey, photo from lelands.com.
-1968 St. Louis Cardinals jersey-logo, photo from scpauctions.com.
-San Diego Padres 1969 home jersey, from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-1969 San Francisco Giants road jersey, photo from Heritage Auctions at sports.ha.com.
-Seattle Pilots 1969 road jersey, from scpauctions.com.
-Washington Senators 1969 road jersey, from mlbcollectors.com.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Base map, by US federal government employee at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StatesU.svg.
-Baseball-Reference.com.
-1969 Major League Baseball season (en.wikipedia.org).

October 5, 2021

1968 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’68 World Series champions the Detroit Tigers & AL and NL Stats Leaders.

Filed under: Baseball,Baseball-1968 MLB season,Retro maps — admin @ 7:22 pm

mlb_1968_map-of-mlb-1968_20-teams_ws-champions-detroit-tigers_1968-mlb-attendances_1968-mlb-stats-leaders_post_d_.gif
1968 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’68 World Series champions the Detroit Tigers & AL and NL Stats Leaders




By Bill Turianski on the 5th of October 2021; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-1968 MLB season (en.wikipedia.org).
-1968 MLB (baseball-reference.com).
-Year in Review: 1968 American League (baseball-almanac.com).
-Year in Review: 1968 National League (baseball-almanac.com).
-1968 MLB logos (sportslogos.net).

-Baseball: 1967 map w/ jersey-logos & attendances (billsportsmaps.com).

1968 MLB Location-map with jersey-logos with 1968 attendances, featuring the ’68 World Series champions the Detroit Tigers & AL and NL stats leaders.
The map shows the locations of the 20 Major League Baseball teams of 1968. On the map, next to each MLB team’s location-dot there are 3 things: their cap-logo, one of their jersey-logos (either home or away jersey), and a rectangular box (listing: ballpark, win total in 1968, and home average attendance in ’68). Any other logos on the team’s uniforms in 1968 are also shown (specifically, shoulder-patch-logos, of which there were 5 of such in 1968: for the Astros, the Braves, the Cubs, the Mets, and the Twins).

The jersey-logos are either from a photo of the old jerseys (see 16 photo credits at the foot of this post) or illustrations of such (mainly from sportslogos.net). The jersey-logo for each team is sized to reflect that team’s 1968 average attendance: the larger the jersey-logo, the higher the attendance that year.

There was one new Major League team in 1968: the relocated Kansas City Athletics, who moved from Missouri to Oakland, California, as the Oakland Athletics (four years later in 1972, the Oakland A’s would be champions). I included both the Kansas City A’s and the Oakland A’s locations on the map. Here is the logo history of the Oakland Athletics.

The best drawing MLB team in 1968 were the eventual champions, the Detroit Tigers, at 25,085 per game. Second-best drawing ball club in 1968 were the NL pennant-winning St. Louis Cardinals, who drew 24,8291 per game. The Cardinals had been the top-drawing ball club the year before in 1967, when they had won the title. Worst-drawing ball club in 1968 were the eventually-relocated Washington Senators, who drew an abysmal 6,749 per game, and in three years’ time would be leaving Washington, DC. (The Washington Senators (II) franchise, est. 1961, moved to Arlington, Greater Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX in 1972, as the Texas Rangers.)

The whole list of 1968 attendance-figures – by-team – is found at the far right-hand side of the map-page. Also listed there are each team’s Win total for that year, as well as their Numerical Change-in-average-attendance from the previous season (of 1967).

At the top-left of the map-page are the 1968 AL and NL final standings. Then there is a section which shows the 1968 World Series result (Tigers defeated Cardinals in 7 games), and features shots of Tiger Stadium, and some photos from the ’68 Series, including shots of ’68 World Series MVP Mickey Lolich. Below that are listed the 1968 major award-winners (the MVP award winners, the Cy Young award winners, and the Rookie of the Year award winners).

At the foot of the map-page are 1968 MLB Statistical Leaders (in both the American League and the National League), in the following categories: Wins, ERA, WAR for Pitchers; Batting Average, Home Runs, RBIs, WAR for Position Players. A photo of each player is shown, with stats; photo credits are at the foot of this post. There are 14 photos there, featuring 10 players: Luis Tiant (CLE), Bob Gibson (STL), Denny McLain (DET), Juan Marichal (SF), Carl Yastrzemski (BOS), Pete Rose (CIN), Frank Howard (WAS), Ken Harrelson (BOS) Willie McCovey (SF), Roberto Clemente (PIT).

And at the top of the map-page is a section for the 1968 MLB champions, the Detroit Tigers. I featured photos of the 12 players on the ’68 Tigers with the highest WAR [Wins Above Replacement], plus World Series MVP Mickey Lolich and the Tigers’ manager, Mayo Smith. Photo credits are at the foot of this post. The players are: Denny McLain (RHP/ ’68 AL MVP & ’68 AL Cy Young winner), Bill Freehan (C), Jim Northrup (RF), Dick McAuliffe (2B), Willie Horton (LF), Mickey Stanley (CF/SS), Norm Cash (1B), Earl Wilson (RHP), Al Kaline (CF/1B), Gates Brown (OF/PH), Pat Dobson (RHP), John Hiller (LHP), Mickey Lolich (LHP/ ’68 WS MVP).




    The 1968 Detroit Tigers

detroit-tigers_1968_ws-champions_d-mclain_b-freehan_j-northrup_m-lolich_w-horton_mayo-smith_n-cash_d-mcauliffe_m-stanley_al-kaline_earl-wilson_g-brown_p-dobson_j-hiller_n_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – -Denny McClain 1968 Tigers home jersey, photo from sports.ha.com. -Al Kaline 1968 Tigers road jersey, photo from amazon.com. -Denny McLain [1968 Sports Illustrated cover], from sicovers.com. -Mickey Lolich [photo from 1968 WS], unattributed at vintagedetroit.com. -Mayo Smith (manager) [photo fom 1968 WS], photo by Walter Iooss, Jr./Getty Images (unattributed) at pinterest.com. -Bill Freehan [photo circa 1966], unattributed at notinhalloffame.com. -Jim Northrup [photo circa 1967], unattributed at ebay.com. -Dick McAuliffe [1967 Dexter Press card], from tcdb.com. -Willie Horton [photo circa 1968], unattributed at vintagesportsimages.com. -Mickey Stanley [1968 Topps card], from amazon.com. -Norm Cash [photo circa 1968], unattributed at bestsportsphotos.com. -Al Kaline [1967 Sports Illustrated cover], from sicovers.com. -Earl Wilson [photo from 1968 WS], photo by Focus on Sports/Getty Images via gettyimages.com. -Gates Brown [photo circa 1969], unattributed at detroitcitysports.com. -Pat Dobson [photo circa 1968], unattributed at sportscollectibles.com. -John Hiller [1969 Topps card], from kronozio.com.

Detroit Tigers – 1968 World Series champions.
1968 was known as “the Year of the Pitcher”. Pitching was absolutely dominant, to the point where only one batter in the entire American League hit over .300, and the overall batting average in the AL was an all-time low .230. Meanwhile in the National League, Bob Gibson had the lowest ERA (1.12) since 1915 (which was during the dead-ball era). The pitching dominance stemmed from the enforcing of a larger strike zone (top of armpit to bottom of knee), that had begun in 1963. In both leagues, the Cy Young winner was also the MVP (Denny McLain & Bob Gibson). Major League Baseball responded to this offensive drought by introducing two measures to be implemented the following season of 1969: the pitching mound was lowered from 15 to 10 inches, and the strike zone was shrunk (to the area over home plate between the armpits and the top of the knees).

So in 1968, the year of the pitcher, it was appropriate that the Tigers won the title on the strength of two exemplary pitching performances. In the regular season, righthander Denny McLain became MLB’s last 30-game winner (and the first since Dizzy Dean in 1934), and the Tigers won the AL pennant by 12 games over the Orioles. And in October, lefthander Mickey Lolich won all three of his starts, gave up just 5 runs in 27 innings (1.67 ERA), and became the last pitcher to have 3 complete game victories in a World Series.

The 1968 Detroit Tigers season was the team’s 75th season in Detroit, Michigan, and its 68th season in the American League. In the season before (1967), the Tigers had narrowly missed out on the pennant, finishing one game behind the Red Sox. Then in 1968, the Tigers started out at 9-1, and on the 10th of May, they moved into first place and never lost the lead.

In this year of the pitcher, the Tigers had the offensive clout to stand out. The Tigers had the most home runs in 1968 (185 HR), and led that category by a considerable margin of over 50 HR. Home run leaders for the Tigers were OF Willie Horton (35 HR), 1B Norm Cash (25 HR), and C Bill Freehan (25 HR). And the Tigers had the knack for comeback wins, winning 40 games from the 7th inning on. The ’68 Tigers won 30 games with their final at bat, with many of those game-winning RBIs by their clutch pinch hitter Gates Brown (who went 34 for 92, with a .685 SlPct).

The 1968 Tigers were a tight crew: the starting lineup had been mostly intact since 1965, and several of those starters had grown up in Michigan, as Tigers fans. Willie Horton was from inner city Detroit; Bill Freehan grew up in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak; Jim Northrup was from the small town of Holly, 54 miles (87 km) NW of Detroit, and Mickey Stanley was from the city of Grand Rapids (140 mi/225 km west of Detroit).

Below: 1968 World Series: Detroit Tigers beat St. Louis Cardinals in 7 games.
Down 3 games to 1, the Tigers win the last 3 games. Mickey Lolich pitches 3 complete games, wins game 7 on two-days-rest, and is the MVP.
1968_world-series_detroit-tigers_mickey-lolich_c.gif
Photos and image credits above –1968 WS program (Tigers), from baseball-almanac.com/[1968 WS]. -Exterior view of Tiger Stadium prior to 1968 WS game 3, screenshot from video uploaded by Sports History Channel at youtube.com. -Freehan tags out Brock, unattributed at hourdetroit.com. -Mickey Lolich, photo from USA Today Sports via baseballprospectus.com. -Lolich and Freehan celebrating right after final out, photo by Focus On Sport/Getty Images via gettyimages.com/[1968 Detroit Tigers]. -Tigers players and coaches run out of dugout to congratulate players on field, photo unattributed at hourdetroit.com.



Photos of jersey logos used on the map-page…
-Denny McLain 1968 Tigers home jersey, photo from sports.ha.com.
-Al Kaline 1968 Tigers road jersey, photo from amazon.com.
-1968 Atlanta Braves home jersey-logo, photo from customthrowbackjerseys.com.
-1968 Baltimore Orioles road jersey-logo, photo from robertedwardauctions.com.
-1967 Boston Red Sox home jersey-logo, photo from sports.ha.com.
-1967-68 Chicago White Sox road jersey-logo, photo from sports.ha.com.
-1968 Chicago Cubs road jersey-logo, photo from robertedwardauctions.com.
-1968-69 Cleveland Indians road jersey-logo, from lelands.com.
-1968 Houston Astros road jersey-logo, photo from greyflannelauctions.com.
-1968 Minnesota Twins home jersey-logo, from lelands.com.
-ca. 1967 NY Yankees road jersey-logo, photo from customthrowbackjerseys.com.
-1968 NY Mets road jersey-logo, photo from sports.ha.com.
-1968 Oakland A’s road jersey-logo, photo from robertedwardauctions.com.
-1968 Philadelphia Phillies home jersey-logo, photo from sports.ha.com.
-1967-68 Pittsburgh Pirates road jersey-logo, photo from lelands.com.
-1968 St. Louis Cardinals jersey-logo, photo from scpauctions.com.
-1967-68 SF Giants road jersey-logo, photo from sports.ha.com.
-1968 Washington Senators home jersey-logo, photo from mearsonlineauctions.com.

Photos of Tigers players on map page…
-Al Kaline ’68 road jersey, photo from amazon.com.
-Denny McLain [photo circa 1969], unattributed from amazon.com.
-Bill Freehan [photo circa 1966], unattributed at notinhalloffame.com.
-Jim Northrup [photo circa 1967], unattributed at ebay.com.
-Dick McAuliffe [1967 Dexter Press card], from tcdb.com.
-Willie Horton [photo circa 1968], unattributed at vintagesportsimages.com.
-Mickey Stanley [1968 Topps card], from amazon.com.
-Norm Cash [photo circa 1968], unattributed at bestsportsphotos.com.
-Earl Wilson [photo from 1968 WS], photo by Focus on Sports/Getty Images via gettyimages.com.
-Al Kaline [1967 Sports Illustrated cover], from sicovers.com.
-Gates Brown [photo circa 1969], unattributed at detroitcitysports.com.
-Pat Dobson [photo circa 1968], unattributed at sportscollectibles.com.
-John Hiller [1969 Topps card], from kronozio.com.
-Mickey Lolich [photo from 1968 WS], unattributed at vintagedetroit.com.
-Mayo Smith (manager) [photo fom 1968 WS], photo by Walter Iooss, Jr./Getty Images (unattributed) at pinterest.com.
-1968 Detroit Tigers uniforms: illustrations by Marc Okkonen at exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/[1968 Detroit].


Photos of 1968 MLB leaders on map page…
-Luis Tiant [photo circa 1968], unattributed at lavidabaseball.com.
-Bob Gibson [photo circa 1968], unattributed at msblnational.com.
-Denny McLain [1968 Sports Illustrated cover], from sicovers.com.
-Juan Marichal [photo circa 1968], unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Bob Gibson [photo circa 1968], from Major League Baseball via upi.com/Sports_News.
-Carl Yastrzemski [photo circa 1967], unattributed at theathletic.com.
-Pete Rose [photo circa 1968], unattributed at redlegnation.com.
-Frank Howard [photo circa 1968], photo by Focus on Sports/Getty Images via gettyimages.com.
-Willie McCovey [photo circa 1969], unattributed at baseballhistorycomesalive.com.
-Ken Harrelson [photo circa 1968], unattributed at royals.mlblogs.com.
-Willie McCovey [photo circa 1966], AP file photo via denverpost.com.
-Carl Yastrzemski [photo (Sports Illustrated poster) from 1968], from worthpoint.com.
-Roberto Clemente [photo circa 1967], unattributed at apkfunkyb.com.
___
Thanks to all at the following links…
-Base map, by US federal government employee at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StatesU.svg.
-Baseball-Reference.com.
-1968 Major League Baseball season (en.wikipedia.org).

April 3, 2021

1967 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’67 World Series champions the St. Louis Cardinals & AL and NL Stats Leaders.

Filed under: Baseball,Baseball-1967 MLB season,Retro maps — admin @ 2:35 pm

http://billsportsmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/mlb_map-of-mlb-1967_20-teams_ws-champions-st-louis-cardinals_1967-attendances_stats-leaders_post_e_.gif
MLB: 1967 season – Location-map with cap-logos and uniform-logos, plus 1967 team-attendances, stats leaders, and final standings; World Series champions – the St. Louis Cardinals



By Bill Turianski on the 3rd of April 2021; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-1967 MLB season (en.wikipedia.org).
-1967 MLB (baseball-reference.com).
-Year in Review: 1967 American League (baseball-almanac.com).
-Year in Review: 1967 National League (baseball-almanac.com).
-1967 MLB logos (sportslogos.net).

1967 MLB Location-map with Jersey-logos & Attendances, featuring the ’67 World Series champions the St. Louis Cardinals & AL and NL Stats Leaders.
The map shows the locations of the 20 Major League Baseball teams of 1967. On the map, next to each MLB team’s location-dot there are 3 things: their cap-logo, one of their jersey-logos (either home or away jersey), and a rectangular box that lists the team’s ballpark back then, plus their win total for the 1967 season, as well as their home average attendance that year. Any other logos on the team’s uniforms that year are also shown (specifically, shoulder-patch-logos, of which there were 5 of such in 1967: for the Astros, the Braves, the Cubs, the Mets, and the Twins).

The jersey-logos are either from a photo of the old jerseys (see photo credits at the foot of this post) or illustrations of such (mainly from sportslogos.net). The jersey-logo for each team is sized to reflect that team’s 1967 average attendance: the larger the jersey-logo, the higher the attendance that year. The best drawing MLB team in 1967 were the eventual champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, at 25,804 per game. Second-best drawing ball club in 1967 was the AL pennant-winning Boston Red Sox, who drew 21,331 per game. Worst-drawing ball clubs in 1967 were the Cleveland Indians, and the soon-to-be relocated Kansas City Athletics (both drew below 9,000 per game).

The whole list of 1967 attendance-figures-by-team is found at the far right-hand side of the map-page. Also listed there are each team’s Win total for that year, as well as their Numerical Change-in-average-attendance from the previous season (of 1966).

At the far left-hand side of the map-page are the 1967 AL and NL final standings. Then there is a section which shows the 1967 World Series result (Cardinals defeated Red Sox in 7 games), and features a photo of the 1967 World Series MVP (Bob Gibson, seen striking out a Red Sox player at Fenway Park). Below that are listed the 1967 major award-winners (the MVP award winners, the Cy Young award winners, and the Rookie of the Year award winners).

At the foot of the map-page are 1967 MLB Statistical Leaders (in both the American League and the National League), in the following categories: Wins, ERA, WAR for Pitchers; Batting Average, Home Runs, RBIs, WAR for Position Players. A photo of each player is shown, with stats; photo credits are at the foot of this post.

And finally, at the top of the map-page is a section for the 1967 MLB champions, the St. Louis Cardinals. I featured photos of the 11 players on the ’67 Cardinals with the highest WAR [Wins Above Replacement], plus the their manager, Red Schoendienst. Photo credits are at the foot of this post. The players are: Orlando Cepeda (1B), Tim McCarver (C), Lou Brock (LF), Curt Flood (CF), Dick Hughes (RHP), Nelson Briles (RHP), Roger Maris (RF), Steve Carlton (LHP), Bob Gibson (RHP), Julian Javier (2B), Dal Maxville (SS).




St. Louis Cardinals – 1967 World Series champions.
The 1967 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team’s 86th season in St. Louis, Missouri, and its 76th season in the National League. 1967 was the Cardinals’ first full season at Busch Memorial Stadium. (Busch Stadium was a 49,000-capacity multi-purpose facility that the Cardinals first played in on May 12, 1966. The Cardinals played there from 1966 to 2005, sharing it with the St. Louis football Cardinals for 22 years (1966-87), until the football Cardinals moved to Arizona. Busch Memorial Stadium’s distinctive 96-arch “Crown of Arches” echoed the Gateway Arch nearby that had just been completed in early 1966 {you can see the crown of arches in the Orlando Cepeda photo at the foot of the map-page}. Busch Stadium’s playing surface was originally grass, but it was changed to artificial turf in 1970 to better survive the punishment that pro football gave the turf; in 1995, following an extensive renovation, the grass returned. Here is a nice illustrated article on Busch Memorial Stadium from the site called This Great Game.com… Busch Memorial Stadium – St. Loui, Missouri.)

Prior to the 1967 season, Cardinals owner August “Gussie” Busch, Jr. hired former outfielder (and future Hall of Famer) Stan Musial as general manager. The ’67 Cardinals team featured four future Hall of Famers: speedster Lou Brock, righty Bob Gibson, lefty Steve Carlton and first baseman Orlando Cepeda. The Ponce, Puerto Rico-born Orlando Cepeda, who nicknamed the team “El Birdos”, led the NL in RBIs and was voted the league’s MVP. The Cardinals survived a mid-season knee injury to their pitching ace, Bob Gibson. Gibson missed about one-third of his starts that year, but was ably filled in by Dick Hughes. And St. Louis led the National League comfortably for most of the season. The Cardinals went 101–60, and won the NL pennant by 10½ games over the San Francisco Giants. Then they faced the Boston Red Sox in the 1967 World Series, in early October.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, reached the post-season after one of the wildest and most tightly-contested pennant-races in Major League history. In September of the 1967 AL season, no fewer than 4 teams could have won the American League pennant. On September 7th, the Minnesota Twins, the Detroit Tigers, the Chicago White Sox, and the Boston Red Sox were all tied for first place. The White Sox fell off the pace near the end of September, but on the final day of the season (Oct. 1), the Red Sox and Twins were tied for the lead, with the Tigers one-half-game behind. The Red Sox beat the Twins 5-3 that day, and the Tigers won only the first game of a doubleheader against the Angels. And so the Red Sox, led by Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski and AL Cy Young winner Jim Lonborg, won the ’67 AL pennant by one game over both the Tigers and the Twins. Here is a great article from SABR.org, The 1967 AL Pennant Race: The 30,315,229 to 1 Possibility, by Andy Andres at sabr.org.

The 1967 World Series went to 7 games. Although the Cardinals had lost games 5 and 6, they won the seventh thanks to a third rock-solid outing by Bob Gibson. In the 1967 Fall Classic, Bob Gibson gave up only 3 earned runs and 14 hits in 27 innings, pitching three complete games, striking out 26, and walking only 6. Needless to say, Bob Gibson was voted the MVP of the Series.

After the 1967 season, the Kansas City Athletics moved to Oakland, California as the Oakland A’s. The following season of 1968 was the last to feature only one division per league. Then in 1969, Major League Baseball would undergo a four-team expansion (to 24 teams), with both the American and National Leagues split into two 6-team divisions.




___
Photos of jersey logos used on the map-page…
-1967 St. Louis Cardinals road jersey (Orlando Cepeda #30), photo from scpauctions.com.
-1967 Chicago White Sox road jersey logo , photo from sports.ha.com.
-1967 Cincinnati Reds home jersey logo, photo from amazon.com.
-1965-69 Cleveland Indians road jersey (vest) logo, photo from sports.ha.com.
-1967-68 Pittsburgh Pirates road jersey (vest) logo, photo from lelands.com.
-1967-68 SF Giants road jersey logo, photo from sports.ha.com.
-1959-69 LA Dodgers road jersey logo, photo from customthrowbackjerseys.com.
-1965-70 California Angels road jersey logo, photo from sports.ha.com.
-ca. 1967 NY Yankees road jersey logo, photo from customthrowbackjerseys.com.
-ca. 1967 NY Mets road jersey logo, photo from robertedwardauctions.com.

Photos of Cardinals players on map page…
-Orlando Cepeda [photo circa 1967] , photo of the cover of Street & Smith’s 1968 Baseball magazine, from art.com.
-Tim McCarver [photo from 1967], photo of the cover of Sports Illustrated (Sept. 4 1967) by John G. Zimmerman/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images via sicovers.com.
-Lou Brock [photo from 1967], photo of the cover of Sports Illustrated (Sept. 4 1967) by Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated via Getty Images via sicovers.com.
-Curt Flood [photo circa 1968], photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images via calltothepen.com.
-Dick Hughes [1969 Topps card], from amazon.com.
-Nelson Briles [photo from 1967], by Herb Scharfman/unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Roger Maris [photo circa 1968], unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Steve Carlton [photo circa 1967], unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Bob Gibson [photo circa 1966], photo from si.com.
-Julian Javier [1967 Topps card], from amazon.com.
-Dal Maxvill [photo circa 1968], photo from Bettman Archive via gettyimages.com.
-Red Schoendienst, Cardinals manager [photo circa 1964], unattributed at pinterest.com.
-1967 St. Louis Cardinals uniforms: illustrations by Marc Okkonen at exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/[1967 St. Louis].
-Bob Gibson [photo from 1967 WS], photo by Walter Iooss Jr, at si.com[/Bob Gibson photo gallery].

Photos of 1967 MLB leaders on map page…
-Phil Niekro [photo circa 1967], unattributed at asupervip.top.
-Joel Horlen [photo circa 1967], unattributed at twitter.com/[@super70ssports].
-Mike McCormick [photo circa 1965], unattributed at bleacherreport.com.
-Jim Lonborg [photo circa 1967], unattributed at galleryofchampions.com.
-Earl Wilson [photo circa 1968], unattributed at vintagedetroit.com/blog.
-Jim Bunning [photo circa 1967], unattributed at si.com.
-Jim Merritt [photo from 1967], photo by Diamond Images /Getty Images via gettyimages.com.
-Roberto Clemente [photo circa 1968], unattributed at espn.com.
-Carl Yastrzemski [photo from 1967 WS], photo by Getty Images/Focus on Sports via newsday.com/sports.
-Hank Aaron [photo circa 1966], unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Carl Yastrzemski [screenshot image circa 1969], from video uploaded by Butch From the Cape at youtube.com.
-Harmon Killebrew [photo circa 1969], unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Orlando Cepeda [photo circa 1968], unattributed at archcity.media.
-Carl Yastrzemski [Sports Illustrated cover Aug 21 1967], unattributed at pinterest.com.
-Ron Santo [photo circa 1968], photo by Luis Requena MLB/via Getty Images via gettyimages.com.
-Carl Yastrzemski [photo circa 1967], unattributed at geni.com.

Thanks to all at the following links…
-Base map, by US federal government employee at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StatesU.svg.
-Baseball-Reference.com.
-1967 Major League Baseball season (en.wikipedia.org).

July 4, 2020

1929 Major League Baseball: map with crests & uniforms, final standings and stats leaders; champions: Philadelphia Athletics. With illustrated article: The 1929 and 1930 Philadelphia Athletics: the most overlooked team in baseball history.

Filed under: Baseball,Baseball-1929 MLB season,Retro maps — admin @ 12:00 pm

mlb_al_nl_1929-map_w-uniforms_logos_standings_stats-leaders_1929-ws-champs_philadelphia-athletics_post_f_.gif
1929 Major League Baseball: map with crests & uniforms, final standings and stats leaders; champions: Philadelphia Athletics



By Bill Turianski on the 4th of July 2020; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
Sources…
-Baseball-Reference.com, 1929 AL season; 1929 NL season.
-SportsLogos.net.
-Baseball Hall of Fame’s Dressed to the Nines (uniforms illustrated by Marc Okkonen), exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/database.htm.
-Most logos: sportlogos.net.
-US cities’ populations (1920 figures), biggestuscities.com/1920.
-Lost in History [the 1929-31 Philadelphia Athletics] (by William Nack from Aug 1996 at si.com/[vault]).
-Connie Mack’s Second Great Athletics Team: Eclipsed by the Ruth-Gehrig Yankees, But Even Better (by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte, from 2013, at sabr.org).

Links to the other 4 maps in this category (MLB retro maps from the 1920s)…
-1925 MLB map (Pittsburgh Pirates, champions; w/ an article on MLB attendance, by team, circa the 1920s).
-1926 MLB map (St. Louis Cardinals, champions; w/ a chart of 1920s US city populations & cities with MLB teams).
-1927 MLB map (New York Yankees, champions; w/ an illustrated article on the 1927 NY Yankees).
-1928 MLB map (New York Yankees, champions; w/ an illustrated article on the 1928 NY Yankees).

    The 1929 and 1930 Philadelphia Athletics: the most overlooked team in baseball history

The 1927 and 1928 New York Yankees are remembered as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, teams of all time. But in 1929, the Yankees finished a distant 18 games behind the Philadelphia Athletics of owner-and-manager Connie Mack. The Yankees also failed to win the AL pennant in the next two seasons of 1930 and ’31. So, not to take anything away from the “Murderer’s Row” Yankees, but something is going on here that needs to be put into perspective. Let me ask you this…if the 1927 and ’28 Yankees, led of course by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, were the greatest team of all time, then why didn’t the Yankees of the late-1920s-and-early-1930s win more World Series titles? Because Gehrig was still young and healthy, and Ruth was still in his prime.

It may surprise some to know that the Yankees of Ruth and Gehrig won only 4 World Series titles in the 12 seasons the two played together (in 1923, in 1927, in 1928, and in 1932). And that first Yankee title in 1923 was won when Gehrig wasn’t even a starter. So what stood in the way of the “Murderer’s Row” Yankees from winning more titles? The answer is the Philadelphia Athletics, who won 3 straight American League pennants, from 1929 to 1931. The Yankees finished 18 games behind the A’s in 1929. Then the Yankees finished 16 games behind the A’s in 1930. Then the Yankees finished 13.5 games behind the A’s in 1931. Heck, in 1930, the Yankees didn’t even finish in 2nd place (the Washington Senators did).

There are a couple of reasons why the dominant 1929-30 Philadelphia Athletics are so forgotten. First of all, the 1929-30 Philadelphia A’s have always been overshadowed by the 1927 and ’28 New York Yankees, and the long-ball legacy of the Ruth-&-Gehrig-led Bronx Bombers. And the second reason? It also has to do with New York…the largely New York-based sports media that basically ignored how great the 1929 (and 1930) Philadelphia Athletics actually were. As famed sportswriter Shirley Povich said, “The A’s were victims of the Yankee mystique. Perhaps the 1927 Yankees were the greatest team of all time. But if there was a close second, perhaps an equal, it was those A’s. They are the most overlooked team in baseball.”

The core of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1929 and ’30 was four Hall of Fame players…the slugging threesome of outfielder Al Simmons, catcher Mickey Cochrane, and 1st baseman Jimmie Foxx, plus pitcher Lefty Grove. Grove was one of the hardest-throwing left-handers ever (so said another great flamethrower, Walter Johnson). Lefty Grove had the best ERA in the AL for 4 straight seasons (1929-32). In 2001, Lefty Grove was named the second-best pitcher of all time, by Sabermetrics-founder Bill James. This foursome all came together in a 2-year span (1924-25), under Connie Mack (aka the Tall Tactician), who had a keen eye for talent, and an extensive scouting network.

Granted, if you want to talk pure hitting numbers, circa 1926 to 1932, the Philadelphia Athletics, for all their considerable offensive clout, were no match for New York Yankees. But no team was (and no team has been, ever). The Yankees absolutely dominated offensively between 1926 and 1932, leading not just the AL, but all of MLB, in scoring, in 6 of those 7 years. {You can see more on 1927 Yankees offensive stats in my 1927 map-&-article, here.} But home runs might get the headlines, but pitching and defense are ultimately the keys to a successful ball club. And the Philadelphia Athletics were a much more complete team, because their fielding – and especially their pitching – was superior. The 1929-to-’31 Athletics committed 137 less errors than the Yankees did in that same time period {see this, from en.wikipedia.org/[History of the Philadelphia Athletics]}. And the Athletics’ pitching from 1926 to 1932 was simply in a class by itself. In those 7 years, the Athletics had a total Pitching WAR (Wins After Replacement) that was 142.5, or a yearly average of 20.3 Pitching WAR. The Yankees in the same time period of 1926-32 had a total Pitching WAR of 65.2, or a yearly average of just 9.3 Pitching WAR. That is 11.0 less Pitching WAR, per year, from the Yankees, compared to the Athletics. It must be conceded that, in 1929 and ’30, the Yankees’ pitching staff was transitioning from the aged Herb Pennock and Waite Hoyt, to the young Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez, and the Yankees’ Pitching WAR in 1929 and ’30 was dead-last in the AL. But in all those 7 years (of 1926 to 1932), the Athletics pitchers had a better Pitching WAR than the Yankees in all but one season, in 1927, and that was by only 0.4 WAR {this data was found in this article at SABR.org, which is also linked to below}. It wasn’t just the A’s ace southpaw Lefty Grove, with a 7.1 Pitching WAR in 1929, that was so effective for the Philadelphia Athletics, there were two other standouts: Rube Walberg (6.1 Pitching WAR in 1929), and George Earnshaw (5.2 Pitching WAR in 1929). Grove and Walberg, using WAR, were among the 5 best pitchers in the AL from 1926 to ’32. From 1928 to ’32 (5 seasons) Lefty Grove had an astounding .795 winning percentage, with 128 wins and just 33 losses.

And there is this…“no New York Yankees team over any five-year period— not with Ruth, not with Gehrig, not with DiMaggio, not with Mantle, not with Jeter—ever had as high a winning percentage as the 1928–32 Philadelphia Athletics.” {Quotation from article by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte at SABR.org, which is linked to in the next paragraph below}. In the 5-year-span of 1928-32, the Philadelphia Athletics went 505-258 (.657). The Philadelphia A’s of that time-period also were the first ever team to win 100 games in a season for 3 consecutive seasons (1929-31).

Some flat out proclaim that Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics of the late-’20s/early-’30s were simply better than the Yankees of Ruth & Gehrig…
-Connie Mack’s Second Great Athletics Team: Eclipsed by the Ruth-Gehrig Yankees, But Even Better (by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte, from 2013, at sabr.org).

-Lost In History – From 1929 to 1931, the Philadelphia A’s were the best team in baseball, with four future Hall of Famers and a lineup that dominated Babe Ruth’s legendary Yankees. So why hasn’t anyone heard of them (by William Nack from Aug 1996 at si.com/[vault]).

(Note: the above article by William Nack at Sports Illustrated is an absolute gem, but there is one discrepancy that I need to point out. Nack says, in reference to the New York-vs-Philadelphia rivalry that “In the early days of the 20th century Philadelphia was the nation’s second city, and its teams’ most memorable clashes on baseball diamonds–first against the Giants and later against the Yankees–expressed the city’s aspiration to reclaim its place as the nation’s center.” However, Philadelphia was definitely not the nation’s second city back then…Chicago was. Philadelphia was supplanted by Chicago as the second-most populous city in the USA as early as the 1890s {see this, from en.wikipedia}. I have 1920 US city populations listed on the map-page (at the upper-left-corner of the map), and they are US Census Bureau figures. Here are the 1920 city population figures from the US Census Bureau…Top 3 US cities’ populations in 1920, New York City: 5.6 million; Chicago: 2.7 million; Philadelphia: 1.8 million {source: census.gov/[Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1920]. I know it is a small point, and it does not diminish the author’s underlying theme, namely, that Philadelphians had (and certainly still have) a deep-rooted chip on their shoulders about the preeminence of New York City, and Philadelphia’s lost status as the former largest city in the country.)

I think there is another reason why the 1929-30 Philadelphia Athletics have been effectively banished from the collective memory of baseball fans. And that is this: the Philadelphia Athletics all but ceased to exist when the franchise moved to Kansas City, in 1955. Then the franchise moved again, 13 years later, in 1968, to Oakland, California. There was a diminished interest for the old team, back in Philly. After all, Philadelphia still had a major league ball club (the Phillies), so there never was that culture of loss and nostalgia that defines the Brooklyn Dodgers’ hallowed place in baseball history. There are many, many books written about the Brooklyn Dodgers. There are hardly any books written about the Philadelphia Athletics. Only the old-timers who had seen the greatness of the 1929-30 Athletics first-hand, there in Philadelphia, were keeping the flame alive, so to speak. The following generations of baseball fans in Philadelphia (and elsewhere) never were adequately told about the great Athletics teams in Philadelphia.

Even the Oakland A’s themselves have ignored, and still ignore, the greatness of the 1929-30 Philadelphia Athletics…
If you go to an Oakland A’s game at the Oakland Coliseum, the only vestige you will see of the 5-time-World-Series-title-winning-/-9-time-AL-pennant-winning Philadelphia Athletics is in the present-day team’s uniforms: the Athletics’ Gothic-A cap-logo and their shoulder-patch elephant-logo (which dates to 1902). Because sadly, the Oakland A’s do not, in any way, acknowledge their own franchise’s 5 World Series titles that were won in Philadelphia. Here is the Oakland A’s World Series-titles banner outside their ballpark…it only shows the 4 World Series titles that the franchise won in Oakland. In other words, the Oakland Athletics themselves do not even acknowledge the greatness that was the Philadelphia Athletics.

And if you think no other transplanted MLB teams do this, well, here is what the Los Angeles Dodgers have at their Dodger Stadium…a set of banners showing every Dodgers World Series title, including the 1955 WS title won when the team was still in Brooklyn. Also at Dodger Stadium are giant murals of Dodgers MVPs and Cy Young winners [both of which include Brooklyn Dodgers players]. There is also a giant World Series-ring sculpture of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers there at Chavez Ravine {here /here is where I found the last three images: The Artful Dodgers (at bryanhg.wordpress.com).} Remember, this is an MLB franchise (the Dodgers) that is a class act, but still…all this tribute to their former location (in Brooklyn), and yet the Brooklyn Dodgers only won ONE TITLE. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Athletics won 5 TITLES…and the Oakand A’s, the MLB franchise that originated as the Philadelphia Athletics 120 years ago, shows absolutely no tribute – at all – to where they came from (Philadelphia), and how great they were, way back then. Pathetic. Well, at least one fan in the Bay Area agrees with me…{Concept for a new banner at the Coliseum – 4/21/2020 (from the A’s Fan Radio site, asfanradio.com).

    The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Chicago Cubs 4 games to 1, to win the 1929 World Series

Before Game 1 (on October 8 1929 at Wrigley Field in Chicago), the big question was how the Cubs’ right-handed sluggers would fare against the Athletics’ ace pitcher, the southpaw Lefty Grove (Grove was one of the the best pitchers in 1929, with a 20-6 record, and an MLB-best 2.81 ERA). But Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack shocked everyone, by keeping Lefty Grove on the bench, and starting the unheralded, and seemingly washed-up 35-year-old side-arm junk-ball hurler Howard Ehmke. (In August, after the A’s had clinched the Pennant, Ehmke had stayed in Philadelphia during an A’s late-season road trip, with the job of scouting out the Cubs hitters when they came to town to play the Philadelphia Phillies. So Connie Mack had planned on this surprise move for some time.)

The Cubs right-handed power hitters were nullified by the soft-throwing right-hander Ehmke. Howard Ehmke struck out 13 (a World Series record that stood for 24 years), and allowed just one unearned run. The Athletics’ slugger Jimmy Foxx broke the scoreless game in the 7th inning with a solo HR, and the Athletics won Game 1 by the score of 3 to 1. {Here is a nice 2:28 video on Howard Ehmke, Philadelphia Athletics Howard Ehmke, Hero of the 1929 World Series, uploaded by Philadelphia Sports History at youtube.com.}

In Game 2 (also at Wrigley Field in Chicago), the Athletics broke ahead with a 6-run lead, with HRs by Jimmy Foxx and Al Simmons. In the bottom of the 5th inning, A’s starter George Earnshaw got into trouble, and Connie Mack put Lefty Grove on, in relief. Grove pitched 4 and 1/3 innings of scoreless ball, and the Athletics won Game 2 by the score of 9 to 3. (And the A’s pitchers struck out 13 Cubs, again.)

In Game 3 (at Shibe Park in Philadelphia), the Cubs beat the Athletics 3 to 1. The Cubs won on the strength of Pitcher Guy Bush, who allowed 1 run in 9 innings. The Cubs scored 3 runs in the 6th inning, with 2 runs driven in by a Kiki Cuyler single, and one run driven in by a Rogers Hornsby single. Athletics Pitcher George Earnshaw gave up just 1 earned run in 9 innings for the loss.

In Game 4 (at Shibe Park in Philadelphia), Connie Mack stuck to his right-handed pitchers policy, starting another journeyman, Jack Quinn. But Quinn gave up 7 runs in 6 innings. The Cubs had an 8-0 lead when the Athletics came to bat in the 7th inning. 13 batters later, the Cubs found themselves trailing 10-8. {Via Old-Time Baseball Photos on twitter, here is a photo of Mule Haas sliding into home for his Inside-the-park HR, which pulled the A’s to within one run at 8-7.} That 10-8 score stood, as Lefty Grove pitched two innings of perfect relief to clinch the victory. The eight-run comeback by the Philadelphia Athletics on October 12, 1929 is still the greatest comeback in MLB post-season history. In the illustration below, you can see a batter-by-batter re-cap of the legendary 7th inning 8-run comeback by the Philadelphia A’s (which featured 15 batters, 10 runs, and two balls lost in the sun by beleaguered Cubs Center Fielder Hack Wilson). {Here is a brief article at baseball-reference.com/blog on the greatest comebacks in MLB regular season & post-season history, Biggest Comeback Wins in Baseball History (by Alex Bonilla at sports-reference.com/blog on Jan 29 2019).}

Game 5 (at Shibe Park in Philadelphia). Connie Mack started Howard Ehmke again, but this time Ehmke was ineffective, and was replaced by Rube Walberg in the 4th inning, with the A’s down 2-0. That score stood until the 9th inning, with the A’s down to their last two outs. Then, for the second straight game, the Athletics produced a comeback rally. Max Bishop singled, then Mule Haas’ HR made it 2-2. Cochrane grounded out, but Al Simmons doubled, and after an intentional walk to Jimmie Foxx, Bing Miller doubled, to score Simmons and clinch the Series.

Below: 1929 World Series: Philadelphia Athletics beat Chicago Cubs 4 games to 1; the Series included the greatest comeback in MLB post-season history (A’s come back from 8 runs down to win Game 4, 10-8)...
philadelphia-athletics_1929_worldseries-champions_athletics-4-games_cubs-1_wrigley-field_shibe-park_athletics-have-greatest-comeback-in-mlb-postseason-history_h_.gif
Photo and Image credits above – Logos from
sportlogos.net. Segment of 1929 Philadelphia Athletics WS program cover, from amazon.com. Segment of 1929 Chicago Cubs WS program from goldinauctions.com. Shibe Park [aerial photo from 1929 photo], unattributed at twitter.com/[@MLBcathedrals]. Wrigley Field [aerial photo from 1929], AP Photo via gladishsolutions.com. Mickey Cochrane, Connie Mack and Lefty Grove [photo circa 1929], AP Photo via ftw.usatoday.com. Small illustration of segment of 1929 Philadelphia Athletics road jersey, by Marc Okkonen at exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/database. Howard Ehmke [photo from 1929], photo by George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images at gettyimages.com. Jimmie Foxx [photo from 1928], photo unattributed at pinterest.com. Al Simmons [photo from 1928], photo unattributed at bleacherreport.com. Photo segment of 1929 Philadelphia Athletics home uniform, from auction.lelands.com. 1929 WS Shibe Park unauthorized temporary bleachers atop neighboring row houses, colorized photo unattributed at twitter.com/[@BSmile]. Guy Bush [photo from 1929], photo by Sporting News via Rogers Photo Archive via gettyimages.co.uk. Kiki Cuyler [photo from 1929], unattributed at imagekind.com. Rogers Horsnby [photo circa 1929], unattributed at ebay.com. Al Simmons, Jimmie Foxx [photo from 1930], unattributed at baseballhistorycomesalive.com. Jimmy Dykes, Joe Boley, Max Bishop [photo from 1929], photo by Hank Olen/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images at gettyimages.com. Mule Haas [photo from 1928], from National Baseball Hall of Fame at njmonthly.com. Bing Miller [Fleer retro-trading card from 1960; photo circa 1929], from psacard.com. A’s players storm the field to congratulate for his Series-winning RBI, photo by National Baseball Hall of Fame Library/MLB via Getty Images via gettyimages.com.

Post-script to the 1929 World Series title won by the Philadelphia Athletics…
Fifteen days after the Philadelphia Athletics’ thrilling World Series victory, the bottom dropped out of the US economy, with Black Tuesday. That was October 29, 1929, when the Stock Market crashed, ushering in the decade-long Great Depression. For the Philadelphia Athletics, this led to the eventual dismantling of their championship team. While the Athletics would go on to win the World Series again, in the following year of 1930 (beating the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to 2), and then win the AL pennant for a 3rd straight time in 1931, the Depression put an end to any further glory for the Philadelphia Athletics. To avoid financial ruin of the ball club, owner/manager Connie Mack was forced to sell off his prize players for cash (and mediocre players). In 1932, Al Simmons went to the Chicago White Sox. In 1933, Lefty Grove went to the Boston Red Sox, and Mickey Cochrane went to the Detroit Tigers. And in 1935, Jimmie Foxx also went to the Red Sox. The Philadelphia Athletics never contended for another AL pennant. Connie Mack continued on as owner and manager, slipping into dementia. But none dared challenge him, and the Philadelphia Athletics declined to the point where it became inevitable that the franchise would move. Some people say the wrong baseball team moved out of Philadelphia, and I could not agree more.

1929 MLB stats Leaders.
ERA: Lefty Grove, Philadelphia Athletics. Wins: George Earnshaw, Philadelphia Athletics. Batting Avg: Lefty O’Doul, Philadelphia Athletics. HR: Babe Ruth, New York Yankees. RBI: Hack Wilson, Chicago Cubs. OPS: Rogers Hornsby, Chicago Cubs. Wins Above Replacement (WAR) for Position Players: Rogers Hornsby, Chicago Cubs. WAR for Pitchers: Willis Hudlin, Cleveland Indians.

Photo credits on map page…
Banner (Philadelphia Athletics, 1929 World Series Champions)…Photo segment of 1929 Philadelphia Athletics home uniform, from auction.lelands.com. 1929 Philadelphis Athletics WS winners’ ring, unattributed at pinterest.com. 1929 Philadelphia WS press pin, from robertedwardauctions.com/1929-philadelphia-athletics-world-series-press-pin. 1929 WS ticket [to 1929 WS game 5 at Shibe Park], from sports.mearsonlineauctions.com/1929-philadelphia-athletics-chicago-cubs-game-5-world-series-ticket-and-stub. 1929-34 Philadelphia A’s cap, from mlbshop.com. 1929 Philadelphia Athletics uniforms, by Marc Okkonen at exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/[al_1929_philadelphia]. 1929

Connie Mack [photo circa 1929], unattributed at pinterest.com. Al Simmons [photo circa 1928], 1961 Golden Press Card via baseball-almanac.com. Jimmy Foxx [photo circa 1932], colorized photo unattributed at pophistorydig.com. Lefty Grove [US Postal Service Stamp; original image circa 1930], from mysticstamp.com. Rube Walberg [photo circa 1929], photo by Getty Images via gettyimages.dk. George Earnshaw [photo from 1928], unattributed at sports.mearsonlineauctions.com. Mickey Cochrane [photo circa 1930], unattributed at pinterest.como. Jimmy Dykes [photo circa 1927], unattributed at baseball-fever.com/[thread: Philadelphia Athletics 1928-32].
1929 MLB Stats leaders…
Lefty Grove [photo circa 1929], photo by Getty Images via si.com. George Earnshaw [photo circa 1929], photo unattributed at phillysportshistory.com. Lefty O’Doul [photo from 1930], photo unattributed at digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org. Babe Ruth [photo circa 1928], photo unattributed at m.mlb.com/player. Hack Wilson [photo circa 1929], photo by AP via espn.com. Rogers Hornsby [photo from 1929], colorized photo unattributed at ebay.com. Willis Hudlin [photo from 1928], photo unattributed at letsgotribe.com/[top-100-indians-34-willis-hudlin].

Thanks to all at the following links…
Sources:
-University of Texas at Austin online archive (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection), legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states.html.
-Baseball-Reference.com, 1928 AL season1928 NL season.
-Baseball Hall of Fame’s Dressed to the Nines (uniforms illustrated by Marc Okkonen), exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/database.htm.
-US cities’ populations (1920 figures), biggestuscities.com/1920.
-Attendances. Source: baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/1928-misc.shtml.
-Lost in History [the 1929-31 Philadelphia Athletics] (by William Nack from Aug 1996 at si.com/[vault]).
-Connie Mack’s Second Great Athletics Team: Eclipsed by the Ruth-Gehrig Yankees, But Even Better (by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte, from 2013, at sabr.org).
Most logos from:
-SportsLogos.net, sportslogos.net/[MLB logos].
1929-34 Philadelphia A’s cap, from mlbshop.com. Photo of 1929 NY Giants jersey from Alamy at alamy.com/stock-photo/new-york-giants-baseball. Photo of Detroit Tigers 1929 road ball cap from vintagedetroit.com. Segment of Philadelphia Athletics 1929 home jersey, from worthpoint.com.

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