Baker: Pete Rose and baseball’s 1969 centennial celebration

From SABR member Jim Baker at Baseball Nation on May 3, 2013:

Baseball has had a number of 100th anniversaries. There was the one in 1939 that celebrated the fake centennial of the founding of the sport by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York. (That should probably read the “real centennial of the fake founding…”)

There was the centennial of the National League in 1976 where all the teams trotted out old-timey headwear. (The ‘70s being the way it was, they weren’t exactly replicas.)

And then there was the centennial of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first all-professional” baseball team. Just like in 1939, everybody got patches – you can see the one on Pete Rose’s sleeve in this picture, the negative for which is for sale. Pete is standing over a celebratory on-deck circle while a giant birthday cake hovers in the background.

Read the full article here: http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/5/3/4297192/pete-rose-says-happy-birthday-pro-baseball



Originally published: May 3, 2013. Last Updated: May 3, 2013.