Today former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca passed away at the age of ninety. Branca played for three teams during his 12-year major league career. He will be best remembered as the pitcher who gave up the homerun to Bobby Thomson (the shot heard around the world) in a 1951 play off game vs the…
There were two Eastern Carolina Leagues. Both operated in the Eastern part of North Carolina. The first run lasted from 1908 through 1910, the second lasted two years: 1928-1929. In both cases the league got a class D classification. 1908-1910 cities represented: Fayetteville, NC: Fayetteville Highlanders 1909-1910 Goldsboro, NC: Goldsboro Giants 1908-1910 Kinston, NC: Kinston…
Through the decades there have been six editions of the East Texas League. The first edition was founded in 1916 and lasted only a part of the 1916 season. The second run lasted from 1923 through 1926. The 1931 edition was very short lived as it lasted only one week. The fourth edition lasted five…
The Coastal Plain League was a class D league between 1937 and 1952. It grew out of a semi-pro league that ran from 1935 through 1936 and that carried the same name. Through the years it appeared to be a rather stable league as no team moved during a season. Only in 1951, the Tarboro…
I bumped into an interesting short article about the Norwich Reds. The team played in the Connecticut League from 1901 through 1907. The league was also known as the Connecticut State League and lasted until 1913 as it renamed itself the Eastern Association when many teams from outside the state of Connecticut joined the league….
Sixty years after Walter O’Malley traded Robinson to the arch rival of the Dodgers, the New York Giants, the Los Angeles Dodgers will erect a statue to honor Jackie Robinson. California-based sculptor Branly Cadet will create the Robinson statue ,which will be ten feet tall, around the theme, “Leveling the Playing Field.” With the help…
Today 111 years ago, John McGraw, manager of the New York Giants, announced that if the Giants would win the NL pennant, they would not play the American League champion. The Boston Americans/Pilgrims/Red Sox won the pennant of the Junior Circuit and the World Series were not played. What was the reason for this behaviour by the…
Ever wondered how the New York Yankees came into exsitence? Believe it or not, but the club that would become the New York Yankees has it’s origin in Baltimore. In 1900 the National League contracted from twelve teams to eight. Together with the Washington Senators, Louisville Colonels, St. Louis Perfectos, the Baltimore Orioles were dissolved….
I love the pic shown above. It shows Hank Aaron on the left and Willie Mays on the right. This is a picture with some historic significance. It shows two players with uniforms of the towns they started their career at, but uniforms of two totally different clubs. The picture also shows something that I…
After the Germans invaded Western Europe, the Netherlands surrendered after five days of fighting. During the German occupation baseball in the Netherlands went through a hard time, just like the Dutch people. Many supplies were claimed by the Germans for their army and war industry. So wood and leather were materials that were hard to…
