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1928 Major League Baseball: map with crests & uniforms, final standings and stats leaders; champions: New York Yankees
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By Bill Turianski on 27 April 2020; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
Sources:
-Baseball-Reference.com, 1928 AL season; 1928 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.
-Most logos. Source: SportsLogos.net, sportslogos.net/[MLB logos].
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Aspects of the map-and-chart:
A). 1928 location-map of the 16 MLB teams. Home cities listed, then franchises listed in smaller text below the home-city name. Each team (franchise) has at least one logo from that year (in this case, 1928); the logos are sized to reflect average attendance from that season: the higher-drawing teams have larger logos-and-or-multiple-logos. In this case, that applies to the top-drawing teams in the NL in 1928 (the Chicago Cubs and the NY Giants, as well as the Brooklyn Robins [aka Dodgers], and the St. Louis Cardinals), and it applies to the top-drawing teams in the AL in 1928 (the New York Yankees, as well as the Philadelphia Athletics). Similarly, the lower-drawing teams in MLB that season have much smaller logos on the map (in this case, such as the Boston Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies).

In my first MLB retro map, I took a look at attendance figures – by team – in this era…{here, 1925 MLB retro map [Pirates win WS].}

B). Population of US cities (1920 figures). A small chart showing the 25-then-largest cities of the USA in 1920 is shown at the upper-left-hand side of the map. MLB representation-by-city is noted there. In my 1926 and 1927 retro MLB maps, I took a look at Populations of US Cities (1920 figures), with a small expanded chart of the one on the map…{1926 MLB retro map [Cardinals win WS].} {1927 MLB retro map [Yankees win WS].}

C). Attendance {data from baseball-reference.com}. 1928 MLB team average attendances are shown at the upper-right of the map. Two paragraphs above is a link to an article I wrote about MLB attendance team-by-team, circa the 1920s.

D). World Series champions (for 1928, the New York Yankees). World Series champions are represented by a prominent section at the top of the map. A photo of the manager of the WS winner is shown (Miller Huggins), along with 7 photos of the top players on the WS-winning Yankees of 1928 (Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Herb Pennock, Waite Hoyt, Tony Lazzeri, George Pigras, Earle Combes). The players shown were determined by WAR [Wins After Replacement]. Players who have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame [HoF] are noted, by a bronze-colored square with year of HoF election listed.

E). Top players in MLB for 1928 are shown at the foot of the map. Photos of stats leaders in several categories are shown…for Pitchers: ERA, Wins, and WAR (Pitchers); for Position-Players: Batting Average (BAvg), HR, RBI, OPS, and WAR. Again, HoF players are noted.

1928 MLB stats leaders…
ERA, Dazzy Vance (Brooklyn). Wins: [joint-best] Larry Benton (NY baseball Giants) / Burleigh Grimes (Pittsburgh). WAR (for pitchers), Dazzy Vance (Brooklyn). BAvg, Rogers Hornsby (Boston [NL]). HR, Babe Ruth (NY [AL]). RBI, Lou Gehrig (NY [AL]). OPS, Babe Ruth (NY [AL]). WAR (for position players), Babe Ruth (NY [AL]).

F). MLB team sections: flanking sections, in alphabetized chart-form, show the 8 NL franchises (of 1928) on the far-left of the map, and the 8 AL franchises (of 1928) on the far-right of the map. The sections include several things…In each franchise’s rectangular box is shown their uniforms from that season, and at least one of their primary logos from that season, along with a narrow bar that is in the team’s colors that season. A photo of the present-day-franchise’s home ball cap is shown [2020 ball caps]. And franchise info is shown for each team, including: years of existence [seasons in NL or AL], location(s), league-titles [Pennants] and MLB titles [WS titles], plus any franchise movements. Standard abbreviations for each team are used. As far as former teams go, to avoid any confusion, I used baseball-reference.com’s abbreviations. {Here: baseball-reference.com/about/[team_IDs](MLB team abbreviations).}

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1928: New York Yankees win their second straight World Series title, with another Series-shutout…

In 1928, the American League’s New York Yankees won their second consecutive (and then-3rd overall) World Series title. Coming off the heels of the legendary 1927 Yankees (when they swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in 4 games), the 1928 Yankees repeated, by sweeping the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals. The Yankees beat out the Philadelphia Athletics by 2.5 games for the 1928 AL pennant; the Cardinals beat out the Cubs (by 2 games) and the Giants (by 4 games), for the NL pennant.

The Yankees used only 3 pitchers in the 1928 World Series: Waite Hoyt, Tom Zachary, and George Pipgras {see photo below}. Between them, they pitched 4 Complete Games. In the 1st game, RHP Waite Hoyt held the Cardinals to just 3 hits. Hoyt went the distance, and the Yankees won 4-1, with Bob Meusal hitting a HR. In the 2nd game, RHP George Pipgras also went the full 9 innings, as the Yanks won 9-4. Lou Gehrig hit a 3-run HR in the 1st inning. Pipgras gave up just 4 hits.

Two days later (Oct. 7 1928) in St. Louis, Missouri, the Yankees won their 3rd straight complete-game-win. This time, the pitcher was journeyman LHP Tom Zachary. (Zachary was picked up off waivers from Washington in August, replacing the injured Herb Pennock.) The Yanks won 7-3, on the strength of Lou Gehrig’s 2 HRs. In the 4th and final game, Waite Hoyt again threw a complete game. The Yankees hit 4 HRs…3 HRs by Babe Ruth, and one HR by Lou Gehrig (his 4th of the Series). The final score, again, was 7-3. The Yankees had swept, and they had avenged their 1926 Fall Classic loss to the Cardinals.

1927 / ’28 was the first time a team had ever swept back-to-back World Series contests. No other ball club in Major League Baseball has accomplished the feat of back-to-back World Series sweeps…but the New York Yankees have gone on to do it two more times…in 1938 / ’39, and then in 1998 / ’99.

Below: 1928 New York Yankees: the first team to ever sweep back-to-back World Series titles…

Photo and Image credits above -
Photo from right-field bleachers at Yankee Stadium [opening game of 1928 World Series], from a screenshot from a video uploaded by New York Yankees at youtube.com. Waite Hoyt, Tom Zachary, George Pipgras [photo taken before game 1 of the 1928 WS]: photo from gettyimages.com. Gehrig and Ruth [circa 1928], photo from Wikimedia Commons via pinstripealley.com.

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Photo and Image credits on the map page…
1928 World Series champions New York Yankees…
Babe Ruth [colorized photo from 1928], photo unattributed at twitter.com/[@baseballincolor]. Lou Gehrig [photo circa 1927], from Bettman-Corbis/Getty Images via si.com. Herb Pennock [photo circa 1928], unattributed at cmgworldwide.com. Waite Hoyt [photo circa 1928], unattributed at baseballhall.org. Tony Lazzeri [photo from 1929], photo unattributed at mearsonlineauctions.com. George Pipgras [photo circa 1928], unattributed at fold3.com. Earle Combs [photo circa 1927], unattributed at pinterest.com. Miller Huggins [colorized photo circa 1929], photo unattributed and colorized by Don Stokes at baseballhistorycomesalive.com. “Murderers Row”, featuring Gehrig, Ruth, Combes, Lazzeri [colorized photo from 1929], photo unattributed at flickr.com/[Willie Brown]. Photo of 1928 World Series Game 1 ticket, from hugginsandscott.com.

1928 MLB stats leaders…
Dazzy Vance (BRO) [photo circa 1928], photo unattributed at sabr.org. Larry Doyle (NYG) [photo circa 1928], trading card from vintagecardprices.com. Burleigh Grimes (PIT) [photo circa 1929], photo unattributed at oldbucs.blogspot.com. Dazzy Vance (BRO) [photo circa 1924], photo unattributed at mearsonlineauctions.com. Rogers Hornsby (BSN) [photo from 1928], photo from the cover of Time Magazine via File:Rogers Hornsby 1928.jpg (commons.wikimedia.org). Babe Ruth (NYY) [photo circa 1927], unattributed at huntauctions.com. Lou Gehrig (NYY) [photo circa 1928], unattributed at sabr.org. Babe Ruth (NYY) [photo circa 1927], from Bettman-Corbis/Getty Images via si.com.

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 season; 1928 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.
Most logos from:
-SportsLogos.net, sportslogos.net/[MLB logos].
-1928 Detroit Tigers home jersey script- logo, illustration from flickr.com/photos/heritagesportsart.
-1928 NY Giants road cap logo, photo from sportscards.com.

1927 Major League Baseball: map with crests & uniforms, final standings and stats leaders; champions: New York Yankees
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By Bill Turianski on 14 October 2019; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
Sources:
-Baseball-Reference.com, 1927 AL season; 1927 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/1927-misc.shtml.
Most logos. Source: SportsLogos.net, sportslogos.net/[MLB logos].

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From 1903 to 1952 (50 seasons), there were no franchise-shifts in Major League Baseball. The 16 MLB teams from this 50-year period played in only 9 American cities…New York City (3 teams), Chicago (2 teams), Philadelphia (2 teams), Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis (2 teams), Boston (2 teams), Pittsburgh, Washington, and Cincinnati.

Below: a chart of 1920s USA city populations, with 1927 MLB teams noted…
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1927 MLB champions: the New York Yankees, perhaps the greatest team in MLB history

Many observers consider the 1927 New York Yankees to be the greatest team ever. The ’27 Yankees featured seven future Hall of Famers: pitchers Herb Pennock and Waite Hoyt, infielders Lou Gehrig (1B) and Tony Lazzeri (2B), outfielders Babe Ruth and Earle Combs, and manager Miller Huggins. After losing to the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to 3 in the 1926 World Series, the 1927 Yankees went 110-44 (.714). Only 4 other teams have won more games than that…the 1906 Chicago Cubs and the 2001 Seattle Mariners won 116, the 1998 Yankees won 114 and the 1954 Cleveland Indians won 111. But the 1906 Cubs and the 1954 Indians and the 2001 Mariners did not win the World Series in those years. Also, the 1998 Yankees, though they did win the World Series that year, played in the era of the modern-day 162-game season [154-game season until 1960/162-game season in American League since 1961; 162-game season in National League since 1962].

The 1927 Yankees won the American League by 19 games, the most to that point in AL history. (Note: the Chicago Cubs won the National League in 1906 by 20 games.)

Let’s look at the numbers. The 1927 Yankees had a .307 BAvg, a .489 slugging percentage, and scored 975 runs, outscoring their opponents by a record 376 runs. That .489 Slugging Pct. the ’27 Yankees had – as a team – was surpassed by only 5 other individual players on all the other teams in the AL that season. Babe Ruth’s record-setting 60 homers, when added to Lou Gehrig’s 47 HR, accounted for over 25% of all HRs in the AL that season! Gehrig had a then-record 173 RBIs, while Ruth had 165 RBIs. Gehrig hit .373, Ruth hit .356. Plus Ruth drew 137 Walks, while Gehrig drew 109. Tony Lazzeri had 18 HR & 102 RBIs & and hit .309. Lead-off hitter Earle Combs hit .352. Standout pitchers were Waite Hoyt (22-7, 2.63 ERA), Herb Pennock (19-8, 3.00 ERA), and Wilcy Moore (19-7, 2.28 ERA, 19 Saves). But the thing is, once you get past the sublime accomplishments of Ruth and Gehrig that year, as well as the excellent seasons of Lazzeri, Combs, Hoyt, Pennock, and Moore, there were a lot a mediocre players on the 1927 Yankees. As Robert Creamer of Sports Illustrated pointed out, “it may cause raised eyebrows to realize that such journeymen as Gazella, Wera, Durst, Thomas, Paschal, Giard, Grabowski, Morehart and Collins made up almost 40% of that great team’s roster.” {-excerpt from the August 26, 1958 issue of Sports Illustrated, here.}

The 1927 Yankees swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in 4 games to win the ’27 World Series. It was the 24th World Series, and it was first time that an American League team swept a National League team in the competition. (Note: NL Teams had swept their AL opponents 3 times previously: the Chicago Cubs swept the Detroit Tigers in the 1907 WS; the Boston Braves swept the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1914 WS; and the New York Giants swept the Yankees in the 1923 WS.)

And then, the 1928 Yankees would go on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1928 World Series. That was the first time a team had ever swept back-to-back World Series contests. No other MLB team has accomplished that feat of back-to-back World Series sweeps…but the New York Yankees went on to do it two more times…in 1938 & ’39, and in 1998 & ’99.

And those two Yankee teams, along with, of course, the 1927-28 Yankees, show up on many, if not all, lists of greatest-ever MLB teams…such as:
{Bleacher Report’s Official Rankings of the 50 Greatest Teams in MLB History, by Joel Reuter at BleacherReport.com, from March 2014},
{Tom Verducci’s Top 10 Teams of All Time, by Tom Verducci at si.com},
{Determining the Best Major League Baseball Team Ever From 1902-2005, from Baseball-Almanac.com},
{The Best MLB Teams Of All-Time, According To Elo, by Reuben Fischer-Baum at FiveThirtyEight.com, from May 2016}…
(For the record, the first 3 of the 4 lists above rank the 1927 Yankees as the best MLB team ever; the list at the 538.com ranks the 1927 Yankees the second-best ever, giving the nod to the Joe DiMaggio-led Yankees of 1939.)

Below: the 1927 New York Yankees & Babe Ruth’s record-setting 60 Home Run season…

Photo and Image credits above – 1927 NY Yankees road jersey script logo, from mitchellandness.com. “Murderers Row”, featuring Gehrig, Ruth, Combes, Lazzeri [colorized photo from 1929], photo unattributed at flickr.com/[Willie Brown]. Babe Ruth, photo unattributed at sabr.org. Ruth crosses the plate and is congratulated by teammate Bob Meusel, after hitting the historic 60th Home Run, photo by NY Daily News at nydailynews.com. New York Daily News front page from Oct. 1 1927 [Babe Ruth hits historic 60th HR), via Baseball by B Smile [twitter.com/@bsmile]. Game 4 of the 1927 World Series, Oct. 6 1927 – NY 4, Pittsburgh 3: photo from the stands at Yankee Stadium…action from the 1st-inning, as Babe Ruth (who later hit a HR in the 5th) has just singled; Earle Combs rounds 3rd to tie the game up 1-1. The Yankees swept the Pirates in 4 games, for their second WS title. This was the first sweep of a National League team by an American League team…photo unattributed at Old Time Baseball Photos twitter.com/[@OTBaseballPhoto].

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1927 MLB stats leaders…
ERA, Wilcy Moore (NYY). Wins, Charlie Root (CHC). WAR for pitchers, Tommy Thomas (CHW). BAvg, Harry Heilmann (DET). HR, Babe Ruth (NYY). RBI, Lou Gehrig (NYY). OPS, Babe Ruth (NYY). WAR, Babe Ruth (1927).

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Photo and Image credits on the map page…
1927 WS champions New York Yankees…
1927 NY Yankees road jersey script logo, from mitchellandness.com. Babe Ruth [photo from 1927], photo from Getty Images via biography.com. Lou Gehrig [photo circa 1927], unattributed at fineartamerica.com. Earle Combs [photo circa 1926], unattributed at ebay.com. Tony Lazzeri [photo circa 1927], from Baseball Hall of Fame via si.com/all-time-yankees-lineup. Waite Hoyt [photo circa 1927], photo from National Baseball Hall of Fame Library via Getty Images via gettyimages.com. Wilcy Moore [colorized photo circa 1929], colorized photo unattributed at pinterest.com. Bob Meusel [photo circa 1927], unattributed at espn.com. Manager, Miller Huggins [photo circa 1924], unattributed at pinterest.com.
1927 WS G4 ticket, from pixels.com.
1927 WS press pin, from may16.hugginsandscott.com.
“Murderers Row”, featuring Gehrig, Ruth, Combes, Lazzeri [colorized photo from 1929], photo unattributed at flickr.com/[Willie Brown].
1927 MLB stats leaders…
Wilcy Moore (NYY) [photo circa 1928], unattributed at pinterest.com. Charlie Root (CHC) [photo circa 1927], unattributed at sabr.org. Harry Heilmann (DET) [photo from 1927], unattributed at quora.com. Tommy Thomas (CHW) [photo circa 1927], photo by Sporting News and Rogers Photo Archive via Getty Images via gettyimages.co.uk. Babe Ruth (NYY) [photo circa 1927], McMahon Archive at amazon.com. Lou Gehrig (NYY) [photo circa 1928], unattributed at mondoudinese.it. Babe Ruth (NYY) [photo circa 1927], from Bettman-Corbis/Getty Images via si.com.
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Colorized photo of Philadelphia Athletics 1925-27 elephant-logo jersey, photo unattributed and colorized by Natalia Valiukevich/mediadrumworld.com via dailymail.co.uk/article.

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Thanks to all at the following links…
Sources:
-Baseball-Reference.com, 1927 AL season; 1927 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/1927-misc.shtml.
Most logos. Source: SportsLogos.net, sportslogos.net/[MLB logos].

1926 Major League Baseball: map with crests & uniforms, final standings and stats leaders; champions: St. Louis Cardinals
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By Bill Turianski on 29 May 2019; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Sources:
-Baseball-Reference.com, 1926 AL season; 1926 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].
-US cities’ populations (1920 figures), biggestuscities.com/1920.
-Attendances. Source: baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/1926-misc.shtml.

Links…
-An article on the St. Louis Cardinals circa 1926 to 1934…1926-34: The St. Louis Cardinals Were as Dominant as the Great Yankees Teams (by Harold Friend at bleacherreport.com).
-An article on Rogers Hornsby, who has the 2nd-best all-time Batting Average in MLB history (at .358, which is second only to Ty Cobb’s .367 BAvg)…Rogers Hornsby (by C. Paul Rogers III at sabr.org). {Excerpts: ‘Any conversation about the greatest hitter in baseball history must include Rogers Hornsby…’ …‘Although the assessment seems rather harsh given the competition, Bill James has characterized Hornsby as perhaps the biggest “horse’s ass” in baseball history, ahead of even Ty Cobb’.}
-An article on Grover Cleveland Alexander…Alexander provides ultimate relief for Cardinals in 1926 World Series (by Craig Muder at baseballhall.org).

-Here is a link to my map-and-post of 1925 MLB: 1925 Major League Baseball: Map with logos & uniforms. Including final standings, top players, and attendance + 1925 World Series winners: Pittsburgh Pirates. That post (from April 2019) also contains descriptions of the map template used there (and here), as well as a city-by-city look at Major League attendance from the 1920s.

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From 1903 to 1952 (50 seasons), there were no franchise-shifts in Major League Baseball. The 16 MLB teams from this 50-year period played in only 9 American cities…New York City (3 teams), Chicago (2 teams), Philadelphia (2 teams), Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis (2 teams), Boston (2 teams), Pittsburgh, Washington, and Cincinnati.

Below: a chart of 1920s USA city populations, with 1926 MLB teams noted…

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In 1926, led by player/manager Rogers Hornsby, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the New York Yankees in 7 games, to win their first World Series title. The Cardinals have won the second-most World Series titles, 11 (their last being in 2011). Those eleven World Series titles won by St. Louis are second only to the 27 titles won by the New York Yankees.

1926 MLB stats leaders…
ERA: Lefty Grove (Philadelphia Athletics).
Wins: George Uhle (Cleveland Indians).
BAvg: Heinie Manush (Detroit Tigers).
HR: Babe Ruth (New York Yankees).
RBI: Babe Ruth (New York Yankees).
OPS: Babe Ruth (New York Yankees).
WAR: Babe Ruth.(New York Yankees)
WAR for pitchers: George Uhle (Cleveland Indians).
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Photo and Image credits on the map page…
1926 WS champions St Louis Cardinals (banner)…
Shoulder-patch crest, from hofmwholesale.com. 1926 STL cap, from dugout-memories.com. 1926 STL WS ring, from pinterest.com. 1926 WS [Sportsman's Park] program, from baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1926.
Rogers Hornsby [photo circa 1926], unattributed at rogershornsby.com. Rogers Hornsby [1961 Golden Press card] from amazon.com. Les Bell [photo from 1926], gettyimages.com. Bob O’Farrell [photo circa 1926], unattributed at sabr.org. Ray Blades [photo circa 1930], photo by Sporting News and Rogers Photo Archive via gettyimages.com. Jim Bottomley [photo circa 1925], unattributed at baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/bottomley-jim. Bill Sherdel [photo from 1929], photo by Sporting News and Rogers Photo Archive via gettyimages.com.

1926 MLB stats leaders…
Lefty Grove (PHA) [photo from 1925], photo by Charles M Conlon via sports.mearsonlineauctions.com. George Uhle (CLE) [photo from 1926], photo by George Rinhart/Corbis via gettyimages.ca. George Uhle (CLE) [photo from 1927], photo by Sporting News and Rogers Photo Archive via gettyimages.co.uk. Heinie Manush (DET) [photo circa 1924], unattributed at findagrave.com. Babe Ruth (NYY) [photo circa 1925], unattributed at pinterest.com. Babe Ruth (NYY) [colorized photo circa 1926], unattributed/colorized by Jecinici via reddit.com/r/yankees.

-Colorized photo of Philadelphia Athletics 1925-27 elephant-logo jersey, photo unattributed and colorized by Natalia Valiukevich/mediadrumworld.com via dailymail.co.uk/article.
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Thanks to all at the links below,
-University of Texas at Austin online archive (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection), legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states.html.
-Baseball-Reference.com, 1925 AL season; 1925 NL season.
-Major League Baseball (en.wikipedia.org).
-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.
-MLB.cm/shop.
-US cities’ populations (1920 figures), biggestuscities.com/1920.

1925 Major League Baseball: map with crests & uniforms, final standings and stats leaders; champions: Pittsburgh Pirates
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By Bill Turianski on 12 April 2019; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Sources
-Baseball-Reference.com, 1925 AL season; 1925 NL season.
-Major League Baseball (en.wikipedia.org).
-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.
-MLB.cm/shop.
-US cities’ populations (1920 figures), biggestuscities.com/1920.

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This is a new template and category: MLB retro maps. I plan on posting maps of MLB, from 1925, on into the 1930s.

Aspects of the map-and-chart:
A). 1925 location-map of the 16 MLB teams. Home cities listed, then franchises listed in smaller text below the home-city name. Each team (franchise) has at least one logo from that year (in this case, 1925); the logos are sized to reflect average attendance from that season: the higher-drawing teams have larger logos-and-or-multiple-logos. In this case, that applies to the top-drawing teams in the NL in 1925 (the Pirates, the NY Giants, the Brooklyn Robins [aka Dodgers], and the Cubs), and it applies to the top-drawing teams in the AL in 1925 (the Philadelphia Athletics, the White Sox, the Senators, the Tigers, and the Yankees). Similarly, the lower-drawing teams in MLB that season have much smaller logos on the map (in this case, such as the Red Sox and the Phillies).

B). Population of US cities (1920 figures). A small chart showing the 25-then-largest cities of the USA in 1920 is shown at the upper-left-hand side of the map. MLB representation-by-city is noted there. Populations of MLB cities in the 1920s, and drawing-power of the 16 MLB teams from this era, is discussed below.

C). Attendance {data from baseball-reference.com}.  1925 average attendances are shown at the upper-right of the map. They are also shown below. Further below is an article about MLB attendance team-by-team, circa the 1920s.

D). World Series champions (for 1925, the Pittsburgh Pirates). World Series champions are represented by a prominent section at the top of the map. Shown are uniforms and logos, and World Series winners’ rings (or jeweled stick-pin, in this case). Also shown is photo of a ticket from one of the WS games that year (or maybe a souvenir program from the WS that year, or a Press pin). A photo of the manager of the WS winner is shown, along with 5 or 6 or 7 photos of the top players on the WS-winning team that year. (Top players are determined by WAR [Wins After Replacement].) Players who have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame [HoF] are noted, by a bronze-colored square with year of HoF election listed.

E). Top players in MLB for that season are shown at the foot of the map. Photos of stats leaders in several categories are shown…for Pitchers: ERA, Wins, and WAR (Pitchers); for Position-Players: Batting Average (BAvg), HR, RBI, OPS, and WAR. Again, HoF players are noted.

F). MLB team sections: flanking sections, in alphabetized chart-form, show the 8 NL franchises (of 1925) on the far-left of the map, and the 8 AL franchises (of 1925) on the far-right of the map.

(Note: all 16 of the MLB franchises from this era still exist, although, of course, some franchises [9 franchises] have moved to different cities.) In each franchise’s rectangular box is shown their uniforms from that season, and at least one of their primary logos from that season, along with a narrow bar that is in the team’s colors that season. A photo of the present-day-franchise’s home ball cap is shown [2019 caps]. And franchise info is shown for each team, including: years of existence [seasons in NL or AL], location(s), league-titles [Pennants] and MLB titles [WS titles], plus any franchise movements. Standard abbreviations for each team are used. As far as former teams go, to avoid any confusion, I used baseball-reference.com’s abbreviations. {Here: baseball-reference.com/about/[team_IDs](aka abbreviations).}

G). NL and AL final standings and the World Series result, for that year, are shown in the lower-right-hand side of the map, in a rectangle which is the approximate color of a faded old newspaper. I used a Times Roman font in this section to further evoke the newsprint style of that era.

I tried to make the map look like it was printed in a newspaper from ninety years ago, but then inlaid with full-color logos.

I will post my 1926 MLB map (featuring 1926 WS champions the St. Louis Cardinals), in late May 2019.

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A look at MLB attendance, circa the mid-1920s, by city

(There were 10 cities with MLB teams back then)…

1925 MLB Average Attendance
PHA 11.2 K
CHW 10.8 K
WSH 10.7 K
DET 10.6 K
PIT 10.4 K
NYG 10.2 K
NYY 8.8 K
BRO 8.5 K
CHC 8.0 K
CIN 6.1 K
SLB 5.9 K
CLE 5.4 K
STL 5.3 K
BSN 4.1 K
PHI 3.9 K
BOS 3.5 K
Source:
baseball-reference.com/[1925/MLB/attendance+misc.].

Overall, MLB attendances from the 1920s are rather low by modern standards. But this was in an era before night games, and A-shift workers were at work when most MLB games were played back then (in other words, the working-class baseball fan in the 1920s would usually only be able to get to the ballpark on weekends). Circa 1925, a high-drawing MLB team would be defined as one who drew as little as 10-to-13 K. When the Yankees started dominating in the 1927-28 time period, they were still playing to a whole lot of empty seats at Yankee Stadium, drawing only 15.1 K per game in 1927, and 13.9 K in ’28. It wasn’t until after World War II that MLB teams began drawing in the 15-to-25-K range, and even into the 1950s, the attendances seem pretty low compared to modern figures. For example, 30 years after 1925, in 1955, the top-drawing MLB team was the Milwaukee Braves at 23.1 K per game, while the New York Yankees, then at the peak of their domination of Major League Baseball, were drawing 2nd-best at just 19.3 K.

Generally speaking, the three biggest influences on crowd-size were (and still are): the size of the city itself, the success of the ball club at that point in time, and the quality of the venue.

New York, NY (this city had 3 MLB teams in 1925): The 3 New York City-based teams generally had higher attendances than, say, teams from much smaller cities, like Cincinnati: that’s just logical [NYC had about a 5.6 million population in 1920].

Brooklyn Dodgers: In 1925, the Brooklyn National League ball club was then known as the Robins, although many Brooklynites did also call them the Dodgers. Brooklyn was pretty bad for long periods of time in both the 1920s and the ’30s, and in 1925 they finished in second-to-last (7th place), but Brooklyn still drew a decent 8.1 K per game at Ebbets Field.

New York Giants: The New York baseball Giants, at the Polo Grounds in northern Manhattan, were good enough for 2nd place in the NL in 1925, and the Giants drew a solid 10.2 K per game. The Giants were a dominant team of the early 1920s, coming off of 4 straight NL Pennants and 2 WS titles (in 1921 & ’22).

New York Yankees: A mile east of the NY Giants, across the narrow Harlem River, in the Bronx, were the then-upstart New York Yankees, at their new palace of baseball, Yankee Stadium. The Yankees had been renters of the Giants at the nearby Polo Grounds from 1913 to 1922, but the Giants kicked the Yankees out when they started stealing their media-attention and drawing better than them. (The original Yankee Stadium had opened in April 1923.) The Yankees had won their first AL pennants in 1921 and ’22, and were first-time World Series champions in 1923. The Yankees drew 13-to-15-K per game through these 3 years (1921-23). The Yankees had an off-season in 1925, and finished in 7th in the AL, and their gates reflected that, with an average crowd of 8.8 K (down about 7 K per game, from four years earlier).

Chicago, IL (this city had 2 MLB teams in 1925): America’s second-city back then was Chicago, IL [Chicago had a population of 2.7 million in 1920]. Chicago’s 2 MLB teams – the White Sox and the Cubs – drew well, especially when they fielded competitive teams, but even when losers, both still drew better than most (similar to the 3 NYC teams). Both teams had been successful earlier on, but by the mid-1920s had fallen into mediocrity.

White Sox: At the old Comiskey Park on the South Side of Chicago, the AL’s White Sox drew 10.1 K per game as a 5th place team in 1925.

Cubs: The Chicago Cubs finished in last in the National League in 1925, yet still drew 8.0 K per game at Cubs Park [which was re-named Wrigley Field in 1926].

Philadelphia, PA (this city had 2 MLB teams in 1925): Third-largest city in America in 1920 was Philadelphia, PA [1.8 million population back then]. And there, it was a case of one Philly ball club with very strong drawing power (the Philadelphia Athletics), and one Philly ball club which was a perennially poor-drawing basement-dweller (the Philadelphia Phillies).

Philadelphia Athletics: The Athletics were successful (6 AL pennants and 3 WS titles up to that point), and they had an excellent venue back then (Shibe Park). In 1925, as a 2nd-place team, the Athletics drew best in MLB, at 11.2 K per game.

Philadelphia Phillies: The Philadelphia Phillies played at the bandbox that was the Baker Bowl; in 1925 they drew 2nd-lowest in 1925, at 3.9 K per game, and finished in 6th.

St. Louis, MO and Boston, MA (both these cities had 2 MLB teams each in 1925): Of the 5 cities with multiple MLB teams in this era (New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston), the two smallest of those cities, St. Louis and Boston, had teams that very often struggled at the gate, especially when they were lousy. (Both St. Louis and Boston only had about .75 million people back in 1920.)

Boston, MA: The Boston Red Sox were bad in the 1920s, and averaged sparse crowds at Fenway Park, in the abysmal 3-to-4 K-per-game range; ditto the Boston Braves, at Braves Field.

St. Louis, MO: St. Louis had a big-team/small-team-dynamic like the one in Philadelphia: one very-often-competitive team (the St. Louis Cardinals) that drew generally much better than the local basement-dwellers (the St. Louis Browns). Ironically, the better-drawing and more successful team in St. Louis – the Cardinals – were renters to the sad sack Browns, at the old Sportsman’s Park there.

Detroit, MI and Cleveland, OH: In the 1920s, there were two cities that only had one Major League team (an American League team), yet were slightly larger than the two-team cities of St. Louis and Boston. Those two cities were Detroit, MI [the 4th-largest city in the USA in 1920 with a .99 million pop], and Cleveland, OH [at .79 million, the 5th-largest in 1920].

Detroit Tigers: At Navin Field [Tiger Stadium], Detroit could draw strong crowds: they drew 10.6 K per game as a mediocre .513 Pct/4th place team in 1925. The Tigers remained a top-5-drawing team through most of the 1920s.

Cleveland Indians: Cleveland had less drawing power; they drew 5.4 K in 1925 at League Park, as a 6th place team. The following season of 1926 saw the Indians in a pennant-race, yet they drew an underwhelming 7.8 K.

(Note: the 8th-largest city circa the 1920s was Baltimore, MD [.73 million], but Baltimore, which had a very successful NL franchise in the late 1800s [Baltimore Orioles (I) (1882-99)], was shut out of the Majors from 1903 to 1953. Baltimore had had an AL team in the American League’s first two seasons [Baltimore Orioles (II) (1901-02)], but that franchise moved to New York in 1903, to become the NY Highlanders [then changed their name to the NY Yankees in 1913].) Baltimore would have to be content with a minor league ball club for five decades, before the city lured the struggling St. Louis Browns AL franchise to move to Baltimore and become the Baltimore Orioles (III) in 1954.)

Pittsburgh Pirates: Ninth-largest city in America in the 1920s was Pittsburgh, PA [.58 million]. The Pirates played at Forbes Field from 1909 to 1970. Pittsburgh drew well when they were winning (like in the 1925-29 time period). And the Pirates had the highest NL attendance, and the 5th-highest attendance in all of MLB in 1925, at 10.4 K per game. Under manager Bill McKechnie, the 1925 Pirates were the Major League champions, defeating the reigning champs, the Washington Senators, 4 games to 3, in the 1925 World Series.

Washington, DC and Cincinnati, OH: That covers 14 of the 16 MLB teams circa 1925. The other two MLB teams back then came from considerably smaller cities: Washington, DC [14th-largest US city in 1920 at .43 million], and Cincinnati, OH [16th-largest US city in 1920 at .40 million]. Back then, Washington, DC and Cincinnati, OH, both with populations of around 400,000, were almost half the size of cities like St. Louis or Boston. So it’s not surprising that both MLB teams from these two smaller cities generally drew low crowds.

Washington Senators: But in 1925, the Washington Senators were reigning World Series champs (the Senators won their only WS title in 1924). And in 1925, the Washington Senators were en route to a second-straight AL pennant title, and consequently had some of the largest crowds that year (the Senators drew 3rd-best in all of MLB in 1925, at 10.7 K per game at Griffith Stadium). But to give you an idea of how unusual that was for the often hapless Senators, that 10.7 K per game that Washington drew in 1925 would not be surpassed by the team until 21 years later, in 1946.

Cincinnati Reds: As for Cincinnati, they could maintain somewhat decent crowds when marginally competitive. In 1925, the Reds finished in 3rd in the NL, 7 games above .500, and drew 6.1 K. Which is not bad at all for the team from the smallest MLB city of the 1920s. The Reds played at Crosley Field (1912-1970).

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1925 MLB stats Leaders.
ERA: Dolph Luque, Cincinnati Reds.
Wins: Dazzy Vance, Brooklyn Robins.
Batting Avg: Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals.
HR: Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals.
RBI: Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals.
On Base+Slugging Pct (OPS): Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals.
Wins Above Replacement (WAR):
(Position Players): Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals.
(WAR for Pitchers): Herb Pennock, New York Yankees.

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Photo and Image credits on the map page…
Base map: Outline map of USA from University of Texas at Austin online archive (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection), legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states.html; legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/usa_blank2.jpg.

Banner: 1925 WS champs, Pittsburgh Pirates…
1925 WS ticket, from hugginsandscott.com. Ticket-stub segment, from sports.ha.com/1925-world-series-game-seven-full-tickets-sheet.1925 Pirates uniforms, illustrations by Marc Okkonen at exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/[1925-PIT]. 1925 Pirates jersey [original], from sports.mearsonlineauctions.com. 1925 Pirates jeweled pin (1925 WS champions pin), from tjscollectiblesinc.com. Bill McKechnie [photo from 1925 WS], unattributed at wilkinsburghistory.wordpress.com. Kiki Cuyler [photo from 1925], unattributed at sabr.org. Max Carey [photo circa 1922], unattributed at sportsecyclopedia.com. Glenn Wright [colorized photo from 1925], photo unattributed/colorized by Baseball In Color at twitter.com/@BaseballInColor; unattributed at pinterest.com. Vic Aldridge [photo from 1925], unattributed at amazon.com. Pie Traynor [colorized photo from 1925], photo unattributed/colorized by Baseball In Color at twitter.com/@BaseballInColor. Lee Meadows [photo from 1927], from Detroit Public Library digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org.
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1925 MLB Stats leaders…
Dolph Luque [photo circa 1923], photo from twitter.com/[@Reds]. Dazzy Vance [photo from 1925], photo unattributed at ebay.com. Rogers Hornsby [photo from 1925], photo by Sporting News and Rogers Photo Archive via Getty Images at gettyimages.com. Rogers Hornsby [US Postal Service stamp from 2000], from mysticstamp.com. Herb Pennock [photo circa 1926], photo unattributed at 1927-the-diary-of-myles-thomas.espn.com/herb-pennock.
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Colorized photo of Philadelphia Athletics 1925-27 elephant-logo jersey, photo unattributed and colorized by Natalia Valiukevich/mediadrumworld.com via dailymail.co.uk/article.
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Thanks to all at the links below,
-University of Texas at Austin online archive (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection), legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states.html.
-Baseball-Reference.com, 1925 AL season; 1925 NL season.
-Major League Baseball (en.wikipedia.org).
-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.
-MLB.cm/shop.
-US cities’ populations (1920 figures), biggestuscities.com/1920.