Month: March 2014

This day in baseball: The first professional league

March 17, 2014

The National Association of Professional Baseball Players was formed on March 17, 1871 at a convention held in New York City.  The convention, called by Henry Chadwick, marked the formation of baseball’s first official professional league.  Although the league only lasted until 1875, it outlined rules for championship series, player compensation, and paved the way for the formation of the National League.  The new National Association included the following new professional teams: Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Troy Unions (New York), Cleveland Forest Cities, New York Mutuals, Philadelphia Athletics, Fort Wayne Kekiongas (Indiana), Rockford Forest Cities (Illinois), and Washington Olympics.

The Boston Red Stockings were baseball’s first professional team and members of the NAPBBP (19c Base Ball)

Opening Day countdown

March 14, 2014

Only 8 days remain until Major League Baseball’s opening series in Australia!

mlblogs.com

 

If you want to add a little spice to your wait — or you’re just feeling antsy — you can visit the MLB’s Opening Day blog for a fun look at some of baseball’s great Opening Day performances.  As the countdown continues, the number of days remaining are matched up with the jersey number of one of history’s players.  It’s a great way to learn about some baseball while waiting for the season!

“First Time At Third,” by Jacqueline Sweeney

March 13, 2014

This poem by Jacqueline Sweeney is quite amusing. Anyone who’s ever played third base can sympathize with the protagonist of this piece. It’s a position where you need to be on your toes, and over-excitement can cause this in anyone.

*

First time at third
nothing but nerves.
He fist-whomps his glove,
tucks in his shirt,
kicks up the dirt
for the twenty-fifth time.

Gets in position
pumped up to win,
ump sweeps the plate.
Will it ever begin?

A quick-line drive!
He leaps for the sky.
His body’s an arrow,
glove aimed high.

What’s this?
He stumbles,
he tumbles to earth.
His glove is still empty,
face red as his shirt.

The game hasn’t started?
“Play Ball!” can be heard
and he’s tried to snag
a lowflying bird;
fastflying, linedriving
feathers and all.

How could he think
that a bird was a ball!

Quote of the day

March 11, 2014

I know full well that baseball is a boy’s game, and a professional sport, and that a properly cultured, serious person always feels like apologizing for attending a baseball game instead of a Strauss concert, or a lecture on the customs of the Fiji Islanders. But I still maintain that, by all the canons of our modern books on comparative religion, baseball is a religion, and the only one that is not sectarian but national.

~Morris R. Cohen

Mrcohen1 1.jpg

This day in baseball: Rose-y beginnings

March 10, 2014

In his debut as a Cincinnati Red, rookie Pete Rose went 2-for-2 in an exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox on March 10, 1963.  That spring, Rose went on to become the Opening Day second baseman and was name the National League’s Rookie of the Year at the end of the season.

Pete Rose with the Cincinnati Reds walking out onto the field during a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1970s (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)

“Gathering Crowds,” John Scott

March 9, 2014

Opening Day for Major League Baseball is less than two weeks away, the weather is steadily getting warmer, and I’m developing spring fever.  In celebration, here is the closing theme song of that old show, “This Week in Baseball,” called “Gathering Crowds,” composed by John Scott.  There are no lyrics, just an orchestra.  Relax and enjoy…. baseball is upon us!

This day in baseball: The first batting “helmets”

March 7, 2014

On March 7, 1941, during Spring Training, Brooklyn Dodgers Pee Wee Reese and Joe “Ducky” Medwick both slipped plastic inserts inside their caps during an exhibition game.  The previous year, in 1940, both men had missed playing time do to injury after being hit by pitches.  This is believed to be the first instance of players wearing protective headgear when going up to bat.  Major League Baseball would not make helmets mandatory until 1971.

Sports Illustrated

Quote of the day

March 6, 2014

If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base.

~Dave Barry

DaveBarry.com