Month: May 2019

Road grays

May 19, 2019

When you turn on a Major League Baseball game, you can often tell within moments which team is the home team and which is the away team.  The common practice by teams in the MLB is to wear white (or mostly white) uniforms at home and to wear gray (or mostly gray) unis when on the road.

While this is a regular exercise now, baseball legend has it that this tradition began due to the fact that visiting teams had no access to laundry facilities, and so the players were not able to clean their uniforms. The darker uniforms, or the “road grays,” could conceal the dirt and grass stains better than white uniforms.

Not every team does this today, of course.  And given better access to laundry facilities, they don’t need to.  But it’s an interesting story and practice, all the same.

Road jerseys gray

Quote of the day

May 17, 2019

To give one can of beer to a thousand people is not nearly as much fun as to give 1,000 cans of beer to one guy. You give a thousand people a can of beer and each of them will drink it, smack his lips and go back to watching the game. You give 1,000 cans to one guy, and there is always the outside possibility that 50,000 people will talk about it.

~Bill Veeck

bill veeck

This day in baseball: First presidential pass

May 16, 2019

Though he wasn’t exactly the game’s biggest fan, on May 16, 1907, the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues issued the first presidential lifetime pass to President Theodore Roosevelt.  Roosevelt preferred sports that were “more vigorous,” though he later admitted that he enjoyed watching his son Quentin participate in baseball.  Nevertheless, Roosevelt never attended a major league baseball game.

Roosevelt Presidential Pass
Baseball Almanac

This day in baseball: Philadelphia’s first win

May 14, 2019

The Philadelphia Quakers (later known as the Phillies) won their first game in franchise history on May 14, 1883 against the Chicago White Stockings (later known as the Cubs).  The Quakers had lost their first eight games of the season, but then proceeded to pound the White Stockings 12-0 at Chicago’s Lake Front Park.  The Quakers would finish the season with a depressing 17-81 (.173) record, putting them in last place in the National League.

lake front park chicago
Lake Front Park (projectballpark.org)

“Move Over Babe (Here Comes Henry),” by Bill Slayback

May 12, 2019

The singer of this tune, Bill Slayback, was a Major League pitcher himself, though his career was short-lived. Slayback appeared in 42 games, 17 as a starter, for the Detroit Tigers, culminating in a 6-9 record with a 3.84 ERA.

Slayback co-wrote this song with Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell in 1973. The tune chronicles Hank Aaron’s journey to overtake Babe Ruth for the all-time home run record.

“Gum Based Good Times,” by David S. Pointer

May 10, 2019

As a kid, chewing bubble gum always seemed to me as much a part of baseball as wearing a baseball cap.  Published in 2010 in Spitball magazine, this piece seems to agree with me.

*

The antique gumball
machine tech patted
his little globe dispenser
saying it was “the gum”
that really got each
baseball game started
and helped a fastball
burn hot as a fireplace
front or brought out a
cartridge box boom
at the crack of the bat
or helped the coach
keep up maintenance
on all our game gear
stored in that Nicaraguan
coffee gunny sack
season after season,
so in baseball’s brief
little league time line
it’s the chewing gum
that may be going down
into history with the
chomping rest of us.