Quote of the day

As far as sleeping goes, you’re up and ready to go at six in the morning. Spring training was always a combination of relaxing and working, and I missed that quite a bit. I missed being around the ball field. A baseball. A bat. The smell of the uniform, you might say. Talking baseball. Seeing opponents as well as the Cubs.

~Lou Boudreau

 

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Lou Boudreau (Bowman)

 

This day in baseball: Commissioner Hoover?

The post of Commissioner of Baseball was offered to J. Edgar Hoover in March of 1951. However, in spite of being a fan of the game, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation turned down the job.  Several owners had been dissatisfied with the direction of Commissioner A.B. “Happy” Chandler and hoped Hoover would bring the type of leadership they were looking for.  Hoover opted, instead, to stay with the FBI until his death in 1972.  Chandler would remain baseball commissioner until July 1951, and was eventually replaced by Ford Frick.

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New York Times, March 10, 1951

Infographic:What to Eat at the Ballpark

If you’re like me, you make an effort to keep an eye on your health and overall well-being.  (Well, most of the time.  I do have my eat-all-the-junk-food-in-sight days, too.)  When it comes to ballpark food, obviously, the healthiest (and cheapest) option is to not touch the stuff.  But I’ve had those days when I’ve gone straight from work to the stadium with no chance to snag a healthy, pre-game meal.  Fortunately, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center was good enough to create this infographic to help us make better choices when faced with this dilemma.

UPMC_BallparkFoodSafe_FINAL4

This day in baseball: Marvin Miller elected

Marvin Miller was elected as the first full-time executive director of the Major League Players’ Association by the player representatives on March 5, 1966.  Miller, who had served as assistant to the President of United Steelworkers, led the MLBPA until 1982, and under his direction, the players’ union became one of the strongest unions in the United States.

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Marvin Miller, 1981 (New York Times)