Although a contingent of minor-league presidents and would-be AA magnates were in attendance, conspicuously left uninvited to the gatherings was Ban Johnson, head of the American (née Western) League, with the snub viewed in the press as an omen of a baseball war in the offing.1

National League Winter Meeting
December 10 to 14, 1900, Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York City

The competition menace was addressed at a session of the Board of Arbitration (club bosses John I. Rogers/Philadelphia, chairman; John T. Brush/Cincinnati; James A. Hart/Chicago; Frank Robison/St. Louis, and Arthur H. Soden/Boston, with National League President Nick Young, nonvoting ex-officio member).2 In a stratagem designed to frustrate the territorial ambitions of the American League without expressly acknowledging the nascent rival circuit, the board declared Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Kansas City venues protected by the National Agreement (and thus protected from any AL move into them without National League acquiescence).3 In its other business, the board disposed of a typical array of now-forgotten NL/minor-league wrangles.

The subject of player contract demands received a hearing before the just-minted Committee on the Players Association (Soden, Brush, and Rogers, members). A lengthy and cordial audience was granted to Harry Taylor, one-time Louisville first baseman-turned-lawyer and now legal counsel for the new Players Protective Association, accompanied by union leaders Hughie Jennings and Chief Zimmer.

Speaking on behalf of the association, Taylor presented no player salary demands. Rather, his clients sought modification of the standard National League player contract so that: (1) a player could not be reserved by his club for more than three to five seasons; (2) the practice of farming out players to affiliated minor leagues was discontinued; and (3) players could not be bought, sold, traded, assigned, or drafted without their consent.

As pointed out by Rogers, these proposals were similar to those presented by then-union leader John Montgomery Ward but rejected by NL owners in 1888. Notwithstanding that, the committee appeared somewhat receptive to Taylor’s arguments, asking him to summarize his points in writing and then submit them with a sample player contract containing the proposed modifications. These documents would then be reviewed by the club owners sitting en banc.4

A day later, Taylor’s written submissions received a hostile reception from the owners, with Brush and Rogers indignant about sample contract provisions expanding player contract rights that had gone unmentioned by Taylor during his appearance before the Committee on the Players Association.

Of the 10 to 12 previously undisclosed propositions inserted into the sample contract, perhaps most galling to the owners was one that conferred upon the player the unilateral right to adjudge his club to be in breach of their contract and declare himself to be a free agent.5 In Brush’s estimation, the Taylor contract proposal, “if we were to undertake to operate under it, would destroy the National League.”6

In addition to registering his own disapproval of the sample contract, Rogers, himself an experienced and distinguished Philadelphia attorney, bristled at the bait-and-switch nature of Taylor’s oral presentation versus Taylor’s written submissions. If tried in court, Rogers thundered, such tactics would lead to Taylor’s disbarment. Meanwhile, the Taylor contract was quickly being disavowed by the players, with a letter from union leader Jennings informing the owners that their goals were confined to the three objectives espoused in Taylor’s oral presentation to the committee.7 The association was not seeking the additional rights and benefits contained in the sample player contract submitted by Taylor. To no avail. The players’ proposals – all of them – were summarily rejected by the magnates.8

In other business, the owners focused on cutting expenses. To that end, they agreed to discontinue costly preseason trips to the South for training purposes. Players would henceforth report to their clubs on April 1 and work out in or near their home ballparks until the regular season started.

After considerable discussion and disagreement, club roster sizes were reduced to 16 players after May 15.9 A vote on whether the NL would retain the one-umpire system sharply divided the owners, and the matter was ultimately put over to the coming February 1901 meeting.10 But the magnates were near-unanimous in their disdain of umpire conduct and performance during the past season. And in a direct swipe at NL umpire Tim Hurst, also a noted boxing referee, the magnates entertained a resolution barring employment of any umpire “who is engaged professionally in any vicious sport as either participant, referee, umpire, or official.”11 Recast as a character disqualification, the magnates incorporated the anti-boxing sentiment into a directive to be followed by league President Young in his selection of NL umpires for the coming season.12

In matters of league administration, the incumbent Board of Arbitration was returned to office for another term. But in keeping with the downsizing of the National League itself, the Board of Directors was reduced from six members to four. For the next 12 months, the directors would be Soden (Boston) and New York owner Andrew Freedman from the East, while Brush and Pittsburgh co-owner/President Barney Dreyfuss would represent the West.13

As the meeting wound down, the magnates found themselves once again scrambling to placate Freedman, following a blistering, profanity-sprinkled tirade by the Giants boss that expressed his continued dissatisfaction with league assistance to his efforts to obtain quality players for the New York club.14 To mollify Freedman this time, Rogers (Philadelphia), Hart (Chicago), and Robison (St. Louis) each offered to make player deals with New York. And the magnates placed the Giants at the head of the line in the coming January player draft.15

The meeting’s final day provided occasion for another indirect assault on the American League. President Thomas J. Hickey of the minor-league Western Association was authorized to adopt the abandoned name Western League for his circuit, and given National Agreement rights over the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Kansas City territories, two of which had hosted clubs in Ban Johnson’s American League during 1900.16 Shortly thereafter, the proceedings adjourned, with unsettled business (like the length of the 1901 playing schedule and the one- vs. two-umpire system) to taken up again in February.

Special Meeting: National League Board of Arbitration
January 19, 1901, Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York City

A special meeting of the NL Board of Arbitration was convened in the run-up to the regularly scheduled February gathering of the magnates. With Chairman Rogers confined to his home in Philadelphia by illness, Boston Triumvir Arthur Soden moderated the proceedings. Also in attendance were Board members James A. Hart (Chicago) and Frank Robison (St. Louis), while New York club boss Andrew Freedman exercised the proxy of John T. Brush (Cincinnati). The sole matter on the meeting agenda was consideration of a petition for recognition and protection under the National Agreement submitted by the American Association.

This just-organized circuit bore the name of the erstwhile major league of 1883-1891 and was mostly created to co-opt the competition threat posed by the American League. To that end, the American Association would consist of franchises located in American League venues like Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Washington, as well as in Louisville and Indianapolis. That the new AA had pledges of financial backing from Brush and various other NL magnates was an ill-kept secret.

Once the new circuit’s proposed constitution was presented by club representatives Harry Pulliam (Louisville) and William Watkins (Indianapolis), the Board admitted the remainder of the AA contingent present (A.H. Koch/Detroit;17 Arthur Irwin/Boston; Charles Havenor/Milwaukee; and, belatedly, Harry Quin/Milwaukee) into the meeting room.18 Principal spokesman Watkins thereupon informed the Board that, upon recognition and admittance to the protection of the National Agreement, the AA would seek designation as a league classified below the NL but superior to all minor-league circuits. The AA would also petition for the right to draft players from minor-league clubs once the NL player draft was completed.19

When asked by Soden to propose an assessment for the rights sought, Watkins asked for free admission and NA protection for the AA’s first year of operation (as the National Agreement was due to expire at the end of 1901). Nor did AA clubs desire to contribute the $1,000 faithful-performance guarantee required of NL clubs by Section 6 of the National Agreement. Rather, each AA club president would demonstrate the bona fides of his intention to field a team by depositing the lease to his ballpark grounds with the AA league president.20

This prompted the concern of Freedman, as two proposed AA clubs did not yet have leased grounds. To remedy the situation, Freedman suggested that those two clubs be obliged to secure ballpark leases within 10 days. Otherwise, sufficient cash collateral would have to be posted by the club ownership with the AA league president.21

Regarding personnel, the AA wanted first call on all players discarded by the National League. With NL rosters limited to 16 players for the 1901 season, those who did not make the grade would be available for draft by the AA (rather than optioned to a minor-league club or released outright).22 Finally, the American Association expected to start regular-season play on April 26 or 27.23

Once the AA reps had been excused from the proceedings, Freedman moved to grant the American Association application for recognition and National Agreement protection – on condition that each AA club owner either surrender his lease for ballpark grounds or deposit $1,000 cash as security for performance with the AA league president within the next 12 days.24 The motion was promptly seconded by Hart and carried by unanimous Board vote.25

Upon receipt of the good news, the American Association men repaired to Manhattan’s Marlborough Hotel to conclude a three-day gathering of AA club investors. There, temporarily-appointed league President-Secretary Watkins announced that, in addition to official recognition and NA protection, the new circuit had been accorded special classification above all leagues in Organized Baseball save the NL, and that AA clubs would have the right to exempt five of their own team members from future NL player drafts – provisions not embodied in the official minutes of the Board of Arbitration proceedings but widely reported in the press.26

But AA spirits were quickly dampened by John I. Rogers, the absent Board of Arbitration chairman and influential co-owner of the NL Philadelphia Phillies. Apprised by telephone of the Board’s decision on the AA’s application, Rogers immediately informed the AA investors that their Philadelphia club would have to lease his ballpark rather than build one of their own. With the AA’s Philadelphia franchise already headed by Rogers factotum Hezekiah Niles, the AA men despaired that their Philadelphia club would be viewed as no more than a “second nine” farm team of the Phillies.27

This prospect so “disgusted” league investors that all except Milwaukee’s Havenor were reportedly disposed to abandon the venture. Only the looming expiration of the National Agreement and the potential for renegotiation of the Philadelphia ballpark situation in December was said to have kept disgruntled investors in the American Association fold.28 But the survival of this new circuit was now clearly in peril.

National League Winter Meeting
February 25 to 28, 1901, Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York City

Preceding the late-February regathering of the magnates was persistent rumor of oncoming change in the National League executive suite. According to the most widely published report, longtime league President Nick Young was to be removed from office, supplanted by mercurial New York Giants boss Andrew Freedman.29 Young downplayed any threat to his position while Freedman brusquely dismissed the report, informing the press that he had neither interest in being NL president nor the time for it.30 Whatever the substance of the rumor, nothing came of it and Young was back in place when the meeting commenced, lending his low-key presence to the proceedings.

The first substantive business undertaken by the magnates was responding to a request to appear before them received from Chief Zimmer on behalf of the Protective Association of Professional Baseball Players (PPA).31 Club bosses John T. Brush (Cincinnati), James A. Hart (Chicago), and Arthur Soden (Boston) were thereupon deputized to parley privately with Zimmer.32 Although events – particularly the emergence of the new American League as a credible rival major-league circuit – had greatly strengthened the union’s hand, the demands conveyed by Zimmer were relatively modest.

The union dropped the player contract proposals that the magnates had earlier found so objectionable. Nor did the PPA plan a challenge to the reserve clause. Indeed, the PPA had already issued a directive instructing members to re-sign with the club that had reserved them.33 Rather, the union’s primary goal was elimination of an NL club’s right to sell, trade, option, lend, or otherwise dispose of a player without the player’s consent.34

The magnate delegation received this demand with perhaps surprising equanimity, but the meeting foundered on Zimmer’s reluctance to commit the PPA to acceptance of the magnates’ reciprocal demand for expulsion of any union member who defied the PPA’s re-signing edict and jumped his contract (as so modified) or reserve with a National League club.35 After more than five hours of back-and-forth, Zimmer withdrew to consult with his membership regarding club owner demands.

While the magnates waited on Zimmer, the depleted state of the league treasury was exposed when Freedman demanded the recompense previously agreed upon for his paying the rental that kept Manhattan Field unavailable to rival leagues.36 The NL was then $2,600 in arrears due Freedman, and without the cash on hand to pay him. According to President Young, the only liquid funds in the league treasury were the $1,000 performance guarantees posted by each NL franchise.37 Happily, the not-always-obliging Freedman agreed to accept credit against the New York club’s annual league assessment in lieu of immediate payment of the debt.38

The gathering then moved on to changes proposed by the Playing Rules Committee, almost all of which were designed to spur the National League pace of play, roundly derided as slow and plodding compared with the snappier game played in the AL.39

The most efficacious time-saver was adoption of the foul strike rule, whereby foul balls hit by a batter would be counted as strikes unless he already had two strikes. Previously, only foul bunts counted as strikes. In addition, the pitcher was prohibited from throwing a warm-up toss to anyone other than the catcher, lest the upcoming batter start his at-bat with a one-ball count. A one-ball penalty would also be imposed if the pitcher did not deliver a pitch within 20 seconds of the batter taking his stance at the plate. The catcher, meanwhile, could take a position no deeper than 10 feet behind the plate when receiving a pitch.40 According to Philadelphia co-owner (and one-time star player) Al Reach, being close to the plate would afford the catcher a better chance of catching game-quickening two-strike foul-tip strikeouts.41

About midway through the gathering, the owners received a formal statement from Zimmer on behalf of the PPA. In return for the contract concessions sought from the magnates, the Zimmer statement declared that “all National League and Eastern League players who may sign American League contracts will be suspended pending action by the Players Protective Association as a body.”42

With dozens of PPA members having already jumped to the AL and more likely to do so, the prospect of suspension of AL-bound players from the union acting “as a body” was largely illusory. The Zimmer communiqué, however, gave the magnates a face-saver and, as noted by such unlikely champions as Andrew Freedman and Arthur Soden, represented the best deal with the union the magnates were apt to get. By a 7-to-0 vote (Chicago temporarily absent), the National League accepted the PPA player-contract proposal.43

The discipline of unruly players was the next matter on the agenda. Still bristling from the outcome of the 1898 Ducky Holmes affair,44 Freedman proposed giving management of the home team the power to remove from the game any player whose conduct violated decorum standards. His fellow magnates were all for better player behavior, but were disposed to leave on-field player discipline to the umpire. When his proposal was rejected by a 6-to-2 vote, Freedman angrily stormed out of the meeting.45

The by-now terminal condition of the American Association was addressed by Indianapolis front man William Watkins. In the weeks after the John I. Rogers intrusion into the Philadelphia ballpark issue, disenchanted investors had withdrawn their backing of the circuit’s Boston, Baltimore, and Washington franchises, resulting in the collapse of the Eastern half of the AA. The withholding of promised financial aid from NL owners had also undermined the venture. With the American Association as originally envisioned no longer feasible, Watkins sought continued National Agreement protection for its Western venues while he tried to affiliate them with the minor-league Western Association or reorganize the surviving clubs into a new independent minor-league operation.46 Bitter recriminations between Brush and Rogers over the Philadelphia situation preceded official interment of the AA and the covering of its funeral expenses.47

The meeting concluded with ratification of amendments to the National Agreement needed to conform the pact to the contract agreement that the NL owners had just made with the players union.48 The magnates also unanimously adopted the 1901 playing schedule crafted by President Young.49 With all-out war with the new American League now plainly on the horizon, the NL magnates then headed for home.50

Notes

1 See, e.g., the Baltimore Sun and Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 15, 1900.

2 The transcript of the December 1900 meeting is preserved in a single volume denoted herein as T.

3 See T2-6 to 11. The National Agreement afforded the league little legal protection as the new American League was not a party to it.

4 See generally, T43-4 to T65-17. Aside from a brief statement made at the end of the proceedings by Zimmer, attorney Taylor did the talking for the union.

5 As noted by Brush at T79-25 to T80-6.

6 T82-1 to 2.

7 T103-16 to T104-2; T232-19 to T233-7.

8 Per parliamentary procedure, the player association proposals were originally tabled. See T106-14 to 16. But when the Jennings letter was brought up later in the meeting, the magnates unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by Rogers that condemned the players’ association proposals as “prejudicial to individual club interests … and destructive of organized base ball.” T235-14 to T236-1.

9 T117-14 to T130-12. During the season this date was modified to June 15.

10 See T164-15 to T179-11.

11 T162-14 to 20. Ironically, the resolution proposer was New York club owner Andrew Freedman, a man notoriously given to resolving disputes with his fists.

12 See T164-8 to 14.

13 T106-21 to T110-23.

14 T211-19 to T217-6.

15 See T217-7 to T223-19. In another hostile gesture toward the American League, several magnates made explicit mention of American League players being available for the draft.

16 T241-20 to T243-23. The American League of 1900 included the Kansas City Blues and the Minneapolis Millers. The former Western League club in St. Paul, meanwhile, had relocated to Chicago and won the American League pennant in 1900, the circuit’s only season as a minor league.

17 Koch, a successful promoter from Milwaukee who wanted the AA’s Philadelphia franchise, had been branded a “carpetbagger” by the powerful Rogers and blocked from assuming control of AA fortunes in Philadelphia. See the Philadelphia Inquirer, January 21 and 23, 1901. Koch then agreed to assume the AA operation in Detroit.

18 See the single-volume transcript of the Board of Arbitration proceedings (hereinafter TBA)1-15 to TBA2-10; TBA9-1.

19 TBA2-17 to TBA3-11.

20 TBA3-16 to TBA6-14.

21 TBA6-15 to TBA8-25.

22 TBA9-11 to TBA11-2.

23 TBA9-15 to 19.

24 TBA11-9 to TBA12-16.

25 TBA12-17 to 18.

26 See, e.g., the Boston Herald, Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Leader, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Washington Post, January 20, 1901.

27 As reported in the New York Times, January 20, 1901.

28 Ibid.

29 See, e.g., the Washington Evening Star, February 25, 1901, and Dallas Morning News and Pawtucket (Rhode Island) Times, February 26, 1901.

30 See the Washington Evening Star, February 26, 1901. By now, baseball club ownership was losing its charm for Freedman, and he would sell his interest in the Giants to John T. Brush at the end of the 1902 season. Perhaps more important, Freedman had already become immersed in the myriad responsibilities of overseeing the massive NYC subway construction project and now had little time for the game.

31 According to Zimmer, all but two National League players were PPA members. The union also represented most, but not all, of those who had signed with the American League, as well as players in the Eastern League. See transcript of February 26-28, 1901 NL owners meeting (hereinafter 2T) 35-4 to 2T36-17.

32 2T1-19 to 2T4-11.

33 See 2T71-18 to 2T73-4.

34 See 2T45-12 to 2T46-13. See also the Washington Post, February 26, 1901.

35 This earned Zimmer an extended lecture on the fabric and structure of Organized Baseball from an impatient John T. Brush. In the midst of his remarks, Brush, a department-store owner, informed Zimmer that he and most of the other club bosses made little or no money from their investment in baseball. Their livelihoods came from business interests outside the game. To them, owning a baseball team was largely a “diversion.” See 2T93-10 to 2T94-13.

36 Manhattan Field (née the New Polo Grounds) was the former home field of the New York Giants and still an active venue for college football, harness racing, track meets, and other sporting events. The lease on the grounds to Manhattan Field cost Freedman $10,000 annually.

37 2T100-10 to 2T101-9.

38 2T101-10 to 2T104-1.

39 The average NL game was now estimated to take 2 hours 45 minutes to complete.

40 2T108-23 to 2T127-17. See also, the Boston Herald and Kansas City Star, February 28, 1901. Another rule change would have eliminated awarding first base to a batter hit by a pitch, but was later rescinded by the owners via a preseason mail ballot.

41 Reach’s argument was enthusiastically endorsed by Brush, a neighborhood game catcher himself in his pre-Civil War youth. Or so he claimed. See 2T118-17 to 20.

42 See 2T127-17 to 2T128-17. The transcript of the meeting did not memorialize the content of the Zimmer statement but its full text was widely reprinted in the press. See, e.g., the Boston Journal, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and Washington Post, February 27, 1901.

43 2T144-1 to 2T145-22.

44 During a July 1898 game at the Polo Grounds, ex-Giants outfielder Holmes had directed an anti-Semitic slur at Freedman. The disciplinary action subsequently undertaken by the National League against Holmes was deemed inadequate by the much-offended Freedman, whose displeasure visited dire financial consequences upon NL for the next two seasons. For a fuller account of events, see “The Ducky Holmes Game” in Bill Felber, ed., Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the Nineteenth Century (Phoenix: SABR, 2013), 268-269.

45 2T154-7 to 2T189-10. Only St. Louis owner Frank Robison voted in favor of the Freedman proposal. An angry Freedman’s immediate departure went unnoted in the meeting minutes but was duly reported in the press. See, e.g., the Boston Herald and Canton (Ohio) Repository, February 28, 1901.

46 See 2T199-3 to 2T254-6.

47 Among other things, the magnates voted to reimburse newly installed AA President Charles B. Power (who had resigned his post as sports editor for the Pittsburg Leader to take charge of AA affairs) $300 in expenses incurred. See 2T300-5 to 2T307-22.

48 2T293-3 to 2T296-6.

49 2T290-6 to 2T291-12.

50 The holdover issue of one umpire versus two was not addressed at the late-February meeting. During the 1901 season, the National League used a combination of one- and two-man umpiring crews.

Roy Mack affixes his signature to an agreement selling the Athletics to the Philadelphia syndicate on October 17, 1954—a commitment Roy would betray just a day later in a backroom deal with Arnold Johnson. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

AL STANDINGS, JUNE 24, 1954

Notes

1. Johnny Gray made his MLB debut for the A’s on July 18, 1954. Gray was a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, where the A’s did their spring training.

2. Phone interview with Spook Jacobs, September 27, 2010. Jacobs played 14 seasons in the minors, finishing with a .300 career batting mark. Jacobs retired after his 1960 season with Chattanooga. He got four hits in his first MLB game, on April 13, 1954, in the first, third, sixth, and eighth innings (retired in the fifth on pop fly). Jacobs was playing winter ball in Cuba when the A’s selected him. He represented Cuba in the February 1954 Caribbean Series hosted by Puerto Rico and played against Vic Power’s Caguas team. Jacobs was inducted into the Cuban (pro) Baseball Hall of Fame in January 2009, along with Negro Leagues stars Josh Gibson and James “Cool Papa” Bell. He was also inducted in Baseball Hall of Fames of Delaware, South Jersey, the Eastern Shore (Delaware, Maryland and Virginia), and the Columbus (Ohio) Jets.

3. Lee MacPhail—a classmate of the author’s mother at Swarthmore College (Philadelphia area)—in his autobiography, page 49, stated that Vic (Power) was “making his presence felt by 1954 … was an outstanding fielder at first base—I am not sure I have ever seen anyone any better—and a good right-handed hitter with power. He was an aggressive player with an aggressive attitude, and the latter had caused a few problems in the clubhouse. (George) Weiss and (Dan) Topping wanted to be certain that the first black player to play for the Yankees would be a role model. We thought we had the ideal man in (Elston) Howard.” Power hit .328, with 101 doubles, 32 triples, and 38 homers in his three AAA seasons—Syracuse (1) and Kansas City (2).

4. Dr. Bobby Brown, in a phone interview, recalled the A’s—late 1940s—had a very good pitching staff with Kellner, Joe Coleman, Phil Marchildon et al plus solid position players: Buddy Rosar behind the plate, Ferris Fain (1B), Pete Suder (2B), Hank Majeski (3B), Eddie Joost (SS), Barney McCoskey, Ben Chapman, Elmer Valo, and Wally Moses in the outfield.

5. Bobby Shantz won eight Gold Gloves: four in the AL, 1957–60, with the Yankees, and four in the NL, 1961–64. Vic Power earned seven AL Glove Gloves with Cleveland, Minnesota, and Los Angeles, 1958–64. Bobby told me his career highlight was a 14-inning, 2–1 win over the 1952 Yankees where Mickey Mantle hit a third-inning homer. Dykes tried (unsuccessfully) to take Shantz out of the game a few times and Bobby related: “I told Dykes that our bullpen wasn’t that good and if I’m going to lose it, will lose it myself. Threw 300 pitches.” Shantz echoed Bobby Brown’s remarks about earlier A’s teams with two-time AL batting champion Ferris Fain.

6. Marilyn Monroe posed for several publicity shots, in high heels, with Zernial, at the 1951 Chicago White Sox training camp in Pasadena, California, prior to a trade which sent Zernial to the 1951 Philadelphia A’s. Joe DiMaggio first noticed Monroe when he saw footage of those shots and wondered why Zernial was so lucky. Zernial suggested that DiMaggio contact the press agent who coordinated these publicity photos (and he did).

7. Lou Limmer, via a phone interview, related how he left Aguadilla on December 18, 1950, at 3:30 a.m . on a jitney from the town plaza to San Juan. Limmer caught a flight to New York before Island police made it to the airport. Limmer was suspended from winter ball for two years due to his fugitive stunt but returned to Puerto Rico five years later and helped Caguas (led by league MVP Vic Power) win the title. Limmer recalled earning a lifetime supply of single-edged razor blades by hitting for the cycle in the 1950–51 Puerto Rico season. His 244 career homers in the minors culminated with 30 for the 1958 Birmingham Barons in the AA Southern Association. Limmer’s World War II-era shoulder injury was documented by Peter Epross with Martin Abramowitz in their 2012 book: Jewish Major Leaguers in Their Own Words.

8. Frank Fitzpatrick, Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer, shared this on April 14, 2011. Eddie Joost helped spark a final revival for the A’s, who had won five World Series (1910–11, 1913, 1929–30) earlier in the century. The ’47 A’s drew a franchise record 911,566 fans. With Mr. Joost as their acknowledged leader, Mack’s fourth-place team went 84–70 the following year and again broke its attendance mark with 945,076 fans. Joost his .263 with 23 homers and 81 RBIs in 1949. He was an AL All-Star in 1949 and 1952. The San Francisco native died in California at age 94.

9. Bill Renna phone interview February 11, 2013. Renna noted it took a good clout to hit it over center field (447 feet from home), and it was 363 feet to left-center (published data: 358 feet to left-center, 355 feet to right-center at Connie Mack Stadium). Renna, in right field, was near the scoreboard that was 400 feet from home plate, 50 feet high, and once had a 60-foot Ballantine Beer sign attached to it. Bobby Brown recalled it was 330 feet down the right-field line (329). The left-field foul line measured 334 feet. This was the first concrete-and-steel stadium in MLB history. William Steele and Sons built it in less than a year, and had it ready for 1909. The land cost $141,918.92. Stadium building costs totaled $315,248.60. Seating Capacity (1954) was 33,608.

10. Marc Aaron’s SABR bio of Gus Zernial stated this injury was the result of the left fielder’s foolishness and competitiveness. It was 17–0, and Zernial was tired of the team taking a beating.

11. Hemsley’s first major-league coaching job came with the 1954 A’s. He also coached the 1961–62 Washington Senators. His best MLB playing seasons were with the 1934–35 St. Louis Browns, managed by Rogers Hornsby. He hit .304 for the 1934 Browns with 31 doubles, and .290 with 32 doubles in 1935. Hemsley was an AL All-Star with the 1935–36 Browns, 1939–40 Cleveland, and 1944 Yankees. He managed against Rogers Hornsby during the 1950–51 Puerto Rico season, when Hornsby’s Ponce Lions played Hemsley’s San Juan Senators. Hemsley passed away in Washington, D.C. at age 65.

12. The Philadelphia A’s lost 100 or more games in 11 seasons: 1915–16, 1919–21, 1936, 1940, 1943, 1946, 1950, and 1954. They finished 50–59 games behind the first-place team in six seasons: 1915–16, 1919–20, 1939, and 1946. The 1939 St. Louis Browns (43–111) finished 64.5 games behind the New York Yankees. The 1932 Boston Red Sox (43–111) trailed the Yankees by 64 games at season’s end. The 1935 Boston Braves (38–115) finished 61.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs in the NL, in Babe Ruth’s last season as a major leaguer. Ruth’s 1927 Yankees (110–44) finished 59 games ahead of the last place Boston Red Sox (51–103). In 1961, the Yankees won 109 and Detroit won 101, while Kansas City and Washington lost 100 games each. The 1962 San Francisco Giants (103–62) and Los Angeles Dodgers (102–63), along with the 59–103 Cubs and 40–120 Mets expansion team accomplished this feat in the NL.

During the years following World War II, the minor leagues evolved to a formal affiliated status with the American and National Leagues. This was especially true in the American Association. The Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints became affiliated with the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, respectively. St. Paul began its affiliation with Brooklyn in 1944. In 1945, the St. Paul staff included 19-year-old Ralph Branca, who went 6–5 with a pair of shutouts for the fourth-place Saints. The following season, Minneapolis began its affiliation with the Giants, and for 12 seasons, the rivals in Minnesota fed players to the New York teams fighting for National League supremacy.

In 1946, St. Paul had the early lead in the American Association. Their shortstop was Gene Mauch, the Dodgers farmhand who would gain notoriety as a major-league manager. The Saints faltered in July and August, finishing the season in third place, four games ahead of the fourth-place Millers.

Wes Westrum joined Minneapolis in 1947. The catcher had served three years in the military during the war and, after a season at Jacksonville in the Class A South Atlantic League, batted .294 with 22 home runs and 87 RBIs for the Millers in 1947, getting a late season call-up to the Giants. Duke Snider had started that season with the Dodgers but needed more seasoning. He joined the Saints in July, put together a 15-game hitting streak, and batted .316 before heading back to Brooklyn in September.1 On August 16, Westrum and Snider each homered as Minneapolis defeated St. Paul, 16–7.2 In his last appearances with the Saints in a doubleheader on September 3, Snider belted two homers, two triples, and a single.3 One of his victims was Marv Grissom, who posted a 9–16 record for the Millers, but had greater success later in the big leagues, winning 47 games and saving 57 in a 10-year career, mostly as a reliever and mostly with the New York and San Francisco Giants, with brief stops with the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox, and St. Louis Cardinals. He went 10–7 with a 2.35 ERA and 17 saves in 56 appearances for the Giants in 1954, when they won the World Series.4

In 1948, the Saints improved to 86–68, finishing third and earning a playoff berth. In the postseason they defeated Indianapolis and Columbus to claim the league title. They advanced to the Junior World Series, which was an all-Dodgers affair, Brooklyn’s International League affiliate, Montreal, defeating the Saints, four games to one.

One month into the 1948 season, the Saints became the first team in the American Association to break the color barrier. Roy Campanella, who had started the season with the Dodgers and had played in only three games, joined St. Paul on May 18.5 He was with the Saints for 35 games and made a remarkable contribution to the team, hitting 13 homers and batting .325, a performance that earned him a promotion on July 1. He would never return to the minors.

In 1949, the Millers acquired two players from the New York Cubans of the Negro American League. Ray Dandridge, who would be elected to the Hall of Fame in 1987, batted .362 in his first American Association season at the age of 35. In his four seasons with the Millers, he batted over .300 on three occasions, but never got a call-up. His age worked against him. Dave Barnhill was another player who never got a promotion. In three seasons with Minneapolis, he went 24–18, but, like Dandridge, he was 35 when he first put on a Minneapolis uniform. Despite the presence of Dandridge and Barnhill, the Millers posted a 74–78 record, good for fourth place.

St. Paul integrated further in 1949 with the acquisition of Jim Pendleton from the Chicago American Giants. Although Pendleton performed well in St. Paul, batting .300 or more in two of his three seasons with the Saints, the Dodgers did not have an opening in their outfield for him. Brooklyn traded him to the Braves prior to their first season in Milwaukee, 1953, and he spent parts of eight seasons in the National League.

With Pendleton in the lineup, the 1949 Saints finished first in the league with a 93–60–1 record. Walter Alston was the manager and standouts included infielder Danny O’Connell, who batted .314, and pitcher Clem Labine, who posted a 12–6 record in 64 appearances. After the season, the Dodgers were hungry for cash and the Pirates sent $50,000 to Brooklyn as part of a deal for O’Connell. Labine made it to Brooklyn in 1950 and, after a couple of seasons splitting his time between the minors and majors, was with the Dodgers to stay in 1952. In 13 big-league seasons, he was 77–56 with 94 saves.

The 1950 Millers were the class of the American Association, posting a 90–64 record and finishing in first place. 27-year-old Hoyt Wilhelm went 15–11. Barnhill, in his second year in the Twin Cities, posted an 11–3 record with 128 strikeouts in 140 innings. Davy Williams led the league in runs scored and joined the Giants during their pennant-winning 1951 season. Dandridge was MVP. The Saints also put a good team on the field in 1950, finishing in fourth place in the eight-team league with an 83–69 record. Their lineup included George Shuba, who rotated between St. Paul, Montreal, and Brooklyn. The lineup also featured All-Stars Jim Pendleton and Lou Limmer.

In 1951, two players destined for a Rookie of the Year Award spent part of the season in the Twin Cities. Willie Mays started the year with Minneapolis and tore up opposing pitchers. His average stood at .477 in 35 games when he joined the Giants in May. Pitcher Joe Black played a portion of the year with St. Paul. The following season, he joined the Dodgers and won the NL Rookie of the Year Award.

St. Paul’s Don Hoak found success once he left the Dodgers organization. He batted only .257 in 126 games with St. Paul in 1951 but would go on to play a part in two World Series titles. After playing a supporting role in Brooklyn’s 1955 win, he earned himself another ring with the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates. The durable third baseman did not miss a single game in 1959 and 1960 with Pittsburgh.

Sandy Amoros exploded for the Saints in 1952. He batted a team-high .337 and led St. Paul with 19 home runs. Patrolling the outfield with Amoros was Gino Cimoli, who batted .319. The third outfielder was Bill Sharman, better known today for his exploits as a player, coach, and general manager in the NBA. Bob Wilson, who had played in the Negro Leagues, was at third base for the Saints, batting .334. He finally earned a cup of coffee with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958. The Saints finished in third place that year, a game ahead of the Millers.

Neither team was in contention in 1953, but they each featured players who would advance to their parent clubs. Ray Katt was in his third season with Minneapolis and batted .326 in 114 games behind the plate. He was part of New York’s championship team in 1954. Don Zimmer was at shortstop for the Saints in 1953 and batted .300 in 81 games. On July 7 at Columbus, his season ended abruptly when an errant pitch struck him in the head, breaking his skull.6 The following season, after batting .291 in 73 games, he joined the Dodgers.

A couple of newcomers were in the lineup for the Saints in 1954. Charlie Neal was at second base and played in 146 games, batting .272. Dick Williams, who had played briefly with Brooklyn in each of the three prior seasons, played 49 games with St. Paul in 1954, batting .247. His major-league playing career lasted for parts of 13 seasons. He joined the managerial ranks in 1967 and led the Boston Red Sox to the American League pennant that year. His Hall of Fame credentials were earned in Oakland, where he led the A’s to three straight division titles and two American League pennants in 1971–73, as well as the World Series title in the last two of those years.

In early August 1954, the Dodgers optioned Bob Milliken to St. Paul. He had posted a modest 13–6 record in two years in Brooklyn, and the Dodgers wanted him to get more work. Besides, they wanted to look at one of their Montreal pitchers, Tommy Lasorda.

Although the Giants had a great 1954, their Minneapolis affiliate could do no better than third place and a first-round loss in the playoffs. They had few players who would succeed at the major-league level. Ramón Monzant (11–7) led the pitching staff. In parts of six big-league seasons, he was 16–21.

The Millers put things into high gear in 1955, finishing in first place in the regular season (92–62–2) and sweeping through the playoffs to the American Association title. In the Junior World Series, they defeated Rochester, champions of the International League.

A couple of players who had earned great fame during their time in New York were finishing their careers in Minneapolis. Monte Irvin, who’d started his career with the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League in 1938, batted in 121 runs for the 1951 Giants as they won the National League pennant. In his last full season with the Giants in 1954, he was part of their championship team. In 1955, Irvin batted .352 with the Millers. The other Minneapolis player that year with ties to the Giants-Dodgers rivalry was Branca, back in the Twin Cities 10 years after he’d pitched for the Saints. He had won 21 games with the Dodgers in 1947. He went 3–3 for the Millers in 1955.

St. Paul’s 1955 roster included first baseman Norm Larker, a three-year standout for the Saints. He batted .302 in 1955 and followed that up with averages of .309 and .323. But he never got to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. By the time he made it to the majors, the Dodgers were in Los Angeles. His best year there was 1960, when he batted .323.

Willie Kirkland arrived in Minneapolis for a handful of games in 1955. He blossomed in 1956, batting .293 with 37 home runs and 120 RBIs. He also stole 15 bases. He was slated for bigger things in 1957 but got his draft notice and missed the entire season. He finally caught up with the big-league team in 1958, when he joined the Giants in San Francisco.

In 1956, the Millers moved into Metropolitan Stadium, located south of Minneapolis. On April 25, Kirkland hit the first Millers home run at the new ballpark. Bill White homered the following day. White joined the Giants a month into the season and hit 22 home runs and batted .256. His best years were with in St. Louis. In his time with the Cardinals, he played in eight All-Star games and was a key player on the Cardinals’ 1964 championship team.

The last year the Twin Cities teams would be affiliated with Brooklyn and New York was 1957. That season, St. Paul featured power hitting Don Demeter, who had 28 home runs to go with a .309 batting average. Demeter never caught on with the Dodgers, and they traded him to Philadelphia early in 1961. In 1962 with the Phillies, he had 29 home runs, 107 RBIs, and a .307 batting average. St. Paul finished in fourth place and won the first round of the playoffs before losing the league championship series.

The Millers lineup included four players who joined the Giants the following season, but not in New York. In August 1957, the Giants announced that they were moving to San Francisco the next season, and it was in San Francisco where Orlando Cepeda, Jim Davenport, Felipe Alou, and Bob Schmidt became starters in 1958. The Millers finished the season with an 85–69 record.

In 1958, the Giants switched their Triple-A affiliation to Phoenix and Minneapolis became a Red Sox affiliate. The Saints continued their affiliation with the Dodgers through 1960 and sent the likes of Jim Gentile, Ron Fairly, and Bob Aspromonte to Los Angeles. But with the migration and expansion of the big leagues, the era of Triple-A rivalries grabbing the headlines in newspapers in the Twin Cities was drawing to a close. And the door was slammed shut when the Twins debuted in 1961, displacing both the Millers and the Saints. Instead of watching prospects like Snider, Campanella, and Mays develop and move on, Minnesotans could cheer for the likes of Killebrew, Oliva, and Carew during their prime.

ALAN COHEN chairs the BioProject fact-checking committee, and is a datacaster (MiLB stringer) with the Eastern League Hartford Yard Goats. He also works with the Retrosheet Negro Leagues project and serves on SABR’s Negro League Committee. His biographies, game stories, and essays have appeared in more than 70 baseball-related publications. He has four children, nine grandchildren, and one great-grandchild, and resides in Connecticut with his wife Frances, their cats Zoe and Ava, and their dog Buddy.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the endnotes, the author used Baseball Reference, and

Johnson, Lloyd and Miles Wolff, eds. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd ed. Durham, NC: Baseball America, 2007.

Thornley, Stew. “Twin Cities had True Rivalry in Early 1900s.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 25, 1999: C11.

Notes

1 Tom Briere, “Seeger Says Club is Still for Sale,” Minneapolis Daily Times, July 30, 1947, 11.

2 “Millers Take a Batfest,” Kansas City Star, August 17, 1947, 24.

3 Bob Beebe, “Hurling Slips, Millers Falter,” Minneapolis Star, September 4, 1947, 37.

4 Save totals prior to 1969, when the rule was adopted, have been calculated retroactively by baseball researchers. see “Save,” Baseball Reference, undated, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Save.

5 “St. Paul Gets Campanella, Negro Ace, from Brooks,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, May 18, 1948, 15.

6 “Zimmer Beaned, Saints Fall 7–4,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, July 8, 1953, 21.

Few pennant chases in the game’s history had ever matched the drama brought by the final pitch of the last complete campaign, when the Toronto Blue Jays’ Joe Carter crushed a dramatic three-run home run against the Philadelphia Phillies’ Mitch Williams in the bottom of the ninth inning of the 1993 World Series, to deliver Toronto’s second consecutive world championship.

But even as Carter’s heroics were still reverberating throughout the sport, storm clouds of rancor and mistrust were forming which would lead to one of the most ignominious events in baseball history — the only cancellation of a World Series in the game’s annals.1

Volumes have been written about the 1994 baseball strike and its aftermath; the reader will find nothing new here. What’s significant for the purposes of this essay, however, is to recall that the cancellation of the strike in the spring of 1995 and the subsequent shortened regular season failed to bring about labor peace. After all, the owners hadn’t gotten what they wanted, namely a salary cap, and they’d been denied in their efforts to field replacement players. Therefore, while the owners’ resentment still simmered, the 1995 season was played without a new collective-bargaining agreement, and the games simply resumed under the old contract, which had expired at the end of 1993.

In 1996, the game finally returned to normal … to a degree. On the field the New York Yankees won their first pennant in 15 years, but on the business side, nothing had changed, with the season again having been played without a new CBA. And as the offseason commenced, many owners, still agitated, proposed to prolong the labor dispute until the institution of a salary cap. Eventually a majority of the owners realized that it was better to negotiate a new agreement than to continue to play under the old one.2 Thus, with the conclusion of the playing season, the two sides returned to the bargaining table and tried once again to hammer out something that was agreeable to both sides.

Nothing that took place during that offseason — not a blockbuster trade, a spectacular free agent signing, or even a rookie phenom in the winter leagues — could possibly have been as important to the game’s long-term health as a new CBA. Yet at first it appeared negotiations were going to proceed as they had over the previous four years: intransigence that would result in both sides leaving the table. But then, finally, came a glimmer of good news: In the first week of November, Randy Levine, the owners’ chief negotiator, and Don Fehr of the players union announced they had finally reached a tentative agreement. Levine took it to the owners … and they summarily rejected it, citing their dissatisfaction with a few of the provisions.3 Levine and Fehr steadfastly returned to discussions.

It took several more weeks, but ultimately a deal was done. After four years of acrimony, name-calling, and alienation of the fans, the owners agreed on November 27, in Chicago, to a revised deal, “contingent on resolution of several minor issues,”4 notably, how to divvy up $2.5 million in postseason bonus money and agreeing upon the qualification dates for 14 players who would gain their rights to free agency. Now, all that remained was for the players to ratify the agreement at their executive-board meeting, to be held in Dorado, Puerto Rico. It would be up to the Players Executive Council to bring an end to the labor dispute.5

On December 5, after several last-minute changes to the agreement, and by a unanimous vote, the Major League Baseball Players Association ratified the agreement.6 With the lengthy ordeal finally resolved, the principals in the negotiations were each, quite naturally, relieved. “With this unfortunate period behind us,” proclaimed an exhausted Fehr, from Puerto Rico, “my fellow players and I can once again focus on the game on the field. We are confident that baseball’s best days lie ahead.”7

Likewise, Levine, expressed gratification with the agreement, noting the efforts of all those involved in the process. “I want to congratulate Don Fehr, the other lawyers and the players on this new contract. It was a lot of hard work by people. Now the owners and players have a chance to work in a real partnership. And that’s good for baseball.”8

Lastly, acting Commissioner Bud Selig offered a thankful but cautionary sentiment as well, noting, “One has to be satisfied that we’ve made progress. But there is much to be done. The concerns people have about the game are legitimate. When you think back to everything that has happened, this deal reflects a lot of the activity and hopes by both sides. Now it’s up to us all to move forward.”9 (Reportedly, Fehr believed that the best way to move forward would be without Selig. At least one newspaper reported that “Fehr called on Selig to resign as quickly as possible to allow for a permanent successor.”10 Little could Fehr have realized that by the time Selig finally left the game in January 2015, Fehr would already be four years into his tenure as executive director of the NHL Players Association, and he would also lead those players into a work stoppage.)

The 1994 strike had been the eighth in 23 seasons. While there was nothing to prohibit future labor actions, the ratification of the new CBA at least precluded any through the year 2000. It also ushered in a radical change on the field, which would take place the following season. Beginning on June 12, 1997, baseball would introduce interleague play on an experimental basis when four National League West Division teams would visit four American League West parks. In the initial version of the CBA, the deal allowed for interleague play only in 1997. However, in the final ratified version, it was stipulated that if the owners agreed to a limit of up to 16 games per team in 1997, the players would then agree to extend interleague play into the 1998 season as well.11 During interleague games the lineups would be configured according to the rules of the home team, meaning that the designated hitter would be used in American League parks, and pitchers would bat when the National League club was at home. If the owners wanted to expand the schedule beyond 16 games in 1998, though, they would have to allow the designated hitter in all interleague games.

If the introduction of interleague play was going to produce a new look on the field, most of the CBA’s other provisions were undoubtedly written in sentences that contained numerous dollar signs. In an effort to address the payroll disparity by increasing revenue-sharing among all teams, the high-revenue teams agreed to forfeit a higher percentage of the profits they generated from local broadcast and ticket money. Also, a 35 percent luxury tax was imposed on the portion of payrolls that exceeded $51 million for the five teams spending the most on players.12 (In what was seen by his fellow owners as the epitome of hypocrisy, on November 19, before an agreement was reached, Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox, one of the owners most opposed to the players union, signed power-hitting free-agent outfielder Albert Belle to a five-year, $55 million contract, which drew the ire of many of Reinsdorf’s fellow owners. That size contract, they railed, was just the type of salary they were trying to eliminate.) In a corresponding gesture by the players, they agreed to reduce their share of money awarded from the first three games of each first-round playoff series from 80 percent to 60 percent, the difference to be deposited into an escrow account. Their minimum salary, however, would increase from $109,000 to $150,000 in 1997.

By the time the CBA was ratified, the free-agent filing period had ended. One provision, though, added 14 free agents to those who had already filed. Those 14, who included such well-known players as left-handed pitcher Jimmy Key, right-hander Alex Fernandez and outfielder Moises Alou, were given credit for service time during the 75 regular-season days that were canceled by the strike, an action that made each one a free agent. And all three went on to sign rich new contracts. Key left the Yankees for a two-year, $7.8 million deal with the Orioles, while Fernandez and Alou signed with Miami. Fernandez got $35 million over five years to leave the White Sox, and Alou agreed to leave Montreal for $25 million over five years.13 Much to the chagrin of the owners, the players’ salaries just kept climbing.

While in the fall of 1996 the CBA ratification in Puerto Rico grabbed the lion’s share of the headlines, there was still other baseball business taking place. On Friday, December 6, at Boston’s Hynes Convention Center, the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, the minor-league association, began their 95th annual winter meetings (which ran through December 10). Initially, in keeping with the prohibition instituted after the 1992 meeting by acting Commissioner Selig, no major-league participation was expected. However, after aggressive lobbying by Boston Red Sox CEO John Harrington (whose team was co-hosting the event), Selig reversed his decision and allowed major-league general managers to attend the winter meetings. “It’s an individual club decision,” Selig said of his reversal. “It’s only if they want to.”14 Only the Orioles, Red Sox, Pirates, and Blue Jays confirmed that they would be in attendance.

With major-league representatives few and far between, minor-league business came to the forefront, with 219 clubs, representing 19 minor leagues, converging on the Hynes Center. Of the 219 clubs, 155, members of 15 leagues, were affiliated with a major-league club. With the Professional Baseball Agreement scheduled to expire after the 1997 season, “movement [was] under way to put all 219 teams under the major league umbrella.”15

Minor-league business was booming. The labor turmoil of the past three seasons had, understandably, cut into major-league attendance, but in 1996 the minors had drawn 33 million fans, their highest total since 1949, when 448 teams represented 59 cities. Now, as part of a planned Eastern League expansion, several cities sought franchises and arrived in Boston to eagerly present their case. Eventually the finalists were winnowed to Austin, Texas; Lexington, Kentucky; Springfield, Missouri; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Erie, Pennsylvania, and officials chose the latter two to join the Double-A Eastern League, beginning with the 1999 season.16

If, as the press suggested before the event, the lack of major-league participation had made the “Winter Meetings just not what they used to be,”17 the NAPBL gathering had still undoubtedly been a rousing success.

*****

Since some very important business remained to be completed, one final meeting took place after the 1996 season. On March 9, 1995, in West Palm Beach, Florida, the owners had voted unanimously to make the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays the 14th and 15th expansion teams in major-league history. The two teams were slated to begin play in 1998 and now, as the owners met in Scottsdale, Arizona, during the second week of January 1997, it was time to decide which league each team would join.

The process turned out to be more difficult than was probably expected. Coming into the meetings, the anticipated plan was for Arizona to join the National League, with Tampa Bay going to the American. And on Tuesday, January 14, the ruling executive council voted to recommend that plan. However, as a preliminary to the council’s official vote, in a straw poll taken the next evening, the American League owners surprisingly voted 8 to 6 to reject the proposal, threatening to block the league assignments. That decision set off a lengthy round of debates.18

The following day, the owners met jointly for nine hours. As the proceedings got underway, the reason for the AL’s negative vote soon became clear. If Tampa Bay joined the American League, it was noted, the Devil Rays would be the only team in the Southeast. That raised concerns among some AL teams that they would have to play additional games outside their own time zone, a prospect that would “cause early and late TV starts that would decrease ratings and revenue.”19

As the talks progressed, AL owners repeatedly broke away and huddled. With interleague play scheduled to begin in 1997, some teams suggested that the proposed interleague schedule might be modified for 1998. Currently, that schedule called for each NL East team to play three games against each AL East team;each league’s Central Division teams to do the same; and for NL and AL West teams to play a two-game home-and-home series. Once the expansion teams joined, it was further suggested, the NL East teams might play either the AL Central or West; the NL Central could play either the AL East or West; and the NL West might play the AL East or Central.20

It was also suggested that more interleague games might be designated in each time zone, resulting in annual games between, for example, the New York Mets and Yankees, the Chicago Cubs and White Sox, the San Francisco Bay-area teams, and other natural rivalries. This called for scheduling creativity, which had never before been an option.

In short order, the AL owners who had vetoed the earlier proposal came around to endorse the plan. Early on Thursday the Yankees, Blue Jays, and Anaheim Angels — among the eight clubs that had voted originally no — changed their votes; later that afternoon, the Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners, and Oakland A’s also voiced their approval.21 The impetus for those teams to change their votes had been an agreement among the owners to establish a committee, to be chaired by Red Sox CEO John Harrington, that would examine realignment and the schedule format for 1998. Potentially, a recommendation could be made for some teams to switch leagues, too, although the league constitutions prohibited any club from being forced to switch leagues against its will. The committee agreed to report back to the group by June 30, with the owners casting a vote by September 30.22

In the end, with 11 votes in each league needed to approve the league assignments for the two new teams, the National League voted 14 to 0 to put Tampa Bay in the American League and Arizona in the National League. The AL vote was 12 to 2, as Kansas City and Texas remained in opposition. In 1998, major-league baseball would, for the first time, have 30 teams.

While the fate of the expansion teams had absorbed much of the owners’ time that week in January, the meetings had also produced one other notable discussion. In September 1992, the owners had forced the resignation of Commissioner Fay Vincent. Since then, the sport had been without a permanent commissioner, with Milwaukee Brewers’ owner Bud Selig serving as the acting commissioner. So as the meetings began on Tuesday night, January 15, the search for a replacement commissioner had been one of the main items on the agenda. Selig reportedly wasn’t interested. Perhaps the other owners could change his mind.

Notes

1 There was no postseason series in 1904, but this was not a cancellation. The first of what we now know as the World Series was played in 1903 between the Boston Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates, by agreement between the two pennant-winners. The Americans won the American League pennant again in 1904, but the New York Giants, who won in the National League, refused to play them in a postseason series.

2 Larry Whiteside, “Players’ Ratification Brings Baseball Peace,” Boston Globe, December 6, 1996: E7.

3 Ronald Blum, Associated Press, The Capital (Annapolis, Maryland), December 6, 1996.

4 Whiteside.

5 Ibid.

6 Associated Press, The Capital (Annapolis, Maryland), December 6, 1996.

7 Whiteside.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Blum.

11 Whiteside.

12 Ibid.

13 Blum.

14 Associated Press, Lawrence (Kansas) Journal World, December 3, 1996.

15 Whiteside.

16 Ibid.

17 Associated Press, Daily Herald Suburban (Chicago), December 1, 1996.

18 Associated Press, Burlington (Iowa) Hawkeye, January 17, 1997.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid.

21 Associated Press, Joplin (Missouri) Globe, January 17, 1997.

22 Ibid.

Click here to read Part II of this article on Roberto Clemente’s Puerto Rico winter league career.

Jim “Junior” Gilliam and Roberto Clemente with Santurce. (Photograph courtesy of Jorge Fidel López Vélez.)

In 1952 Pedrín Zorrilla, a native of Manatí, one of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities and the owner of the Santurce Crabbers, a team in the Puerto Rico Winter League (PRWL), received a tip from Roberto Marín, a salesman for Sello Rojo Rice Company. Marín had discovered 14-year-old Roberto Clemente four years earlier, hitting empty tomato cans with sticks – hitting them a long distance.1 Clemente played on Marín’s softball team prior to suiting up with the Juncos Mules, an amateur team in Puerto Rico’s Double-A League. Zorrilla watched Clemente in an exhibition game for Juncos, at Manatí. He was impressed with Clemente’s skills and offered him a $40-a-week contract and a $400 signing bonus for the 1952-53 PRWL season.2 Zorrilla liked Clemente’s solid upbringing, as a Baptist, and his support of the ideals of Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rico’s first elected governor in 1948. Muñoz ran on the Partido Popular Democrático’s mantra of Pan, Tierra, Libertad (Bread, Land, Liberty) as a US Commonwealth.3

This essay focuses on Clemente’s 4½ winter seasons with Santurce, his late-December 1956 sale to the Caguas Criollos, and his brief tenure with Caguas, 1956-57 and 1957-1958. It showcases his fine play in the memorable February 1955 Caribbean Series in Caracas, Venezuela, alongside Santurce teammate Willie Mays, and his all-star performance in center field for Caguas in the February 1958 Caribbean Series in San Juan. Part II covers his seasons with the San Juan Senators, who acquired him via a trade with Caguas before the 1959-60 season.

A 1952-53 ROOKIE SEASON WITH LINKS TO TED WILLIAMS AND JACKIE ROBINSON

An 18-year-old Clemente wore uniform number 39 for the 1952-53 Crabbers, a mostly veteran club dotted with some big-league prospects. Player-manager Buzz Clarkson defended shortstop and third base, part-time; a crowded outfield included spot starter Bob Thurman in right field, Billy Bruton in center field, and Willard Brown in left and center field, with left fielder Alfonso Gerard and Johnny Davis (pitcher-left fielder) in the mix. Island baseball fans bestowed colorful nicknames on players: Ese Hombre (The Man) was Willard Brown’s sobriquet; Thurman was El Múcaro (The Owl) for his fine night vision displayed at Sixto Escobar Stadium, home of the Crabbers and archrival San Juan Senators; El Gaucho became Johnny Davis’s moniker – his mannerisms were like Argentine cowboys. Rubén Gómez was El Divino Loco (Divine Crazy) for the way he drove his sports car to away games. Billy Hunter, Santurce’s shortstop, recalled, “Clemente was just a kid. I don’t think he got much playing time.”4

Clemente looked up to 35-year-old Thurman for his elegance, professionalism, and calm demeanor. Both homered in an October 11 preseason game against a visiting team from the Dominican Republic, in Clemente’s first appearance wearing Crabbers flannels.5 A regular-season highlight was being summoned to pinch-hit for Thurman against Caguas left-handed pitcher Roberto Vargas, a.k.a. the “Joe Page of Puerto Rico,” in a game tied 2-2. Clemente doubled down the left-field line to give the Crabbers a 4-2 win on November 30, 1952.6

Some of Clemente’s 77 at-bats in the 72-game season came against the San Juan Senators, who featured a rotation of Harvey Haddix, Cot Deal, Diómedes Olivo, and Don Liddle. Haddix later joked around with Clemente as a Pittsburgh Pirates teammate but did not recall facing him in Puerto Rico. “I remember Willard Brown, from that [Santurce] team,” said Haddix,7 – the first professional pitcher Clemente faced – after he replaced left fielder Gerard, on Tuesday, October 21, 1952.8 Haddix retired Clemente en route to a 4-0 shutout. Clemente’s 18 hits during the season included three doubles and a triple; he scored five runs and drove in five.9 Santurce’s most consistent hitter was second baseman Jim Gilliam. When Gilliam played in 1952 for the Montreal Royals of the International League, he contacted Bobo Holloman,10 who pitched for Syracuse, and put him in touch with Zorrilla, who signed the pitcher. Each PRWL team was allowed eight “imports,” normally stateside players. Quality imports could make the difference between winning a title or not qualifying for the postseason.

Clemente’s first outfield start was at Escobar Stadium against the visiting Mayagüez Indians on October 22. From left field, he watched Ted Williams throw out the first pitch from the mound, next to Zorrilla and starting pitcher Holloman. Williams was available for the occasion during a break from doing joint maneuvers between Vieques and Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Ceiba.11

Holloman (15-5) and Rubén Gómez (13-9) accounted for two-thirds of Santurce’s wins in the team’s second-place (42-30) finish, three games behind San Juan. Santurce beat the Ponce Lions in three straight semifinal series contests before defeating San Juan, four games to two, in the finals. Clemente sat on the bench throughout these playoffs but met Jackie Robinson prior to Game Five of the final, when Robinson was in San Juan, and attended this February 14 contest.12

Santurce team officials left Clemente off the February 1953 Caribbean Series 22-player roster for the Havana round-robin event. Clemente was replaced by Caguas star Vic Power. “Roberto was still in high school [then],” recalled Power. “I was 25 and had been in the PRWL six seasons.”13 Santurce overwhelmed its opponents – the Havana Reds, Caracas Lions, and Panamá’s Chesterfield Smokers – in winning all six games, scoring 50 runs and committing two errors.14

FIRST-TO-WORST (1953-54)

Guigo Otero Suro, Zorrilla’s right-hand man with Santurce, tried to sign Ernie Banks and Ted Williams for the 1953-54 Crabbers. The Chicago Cubs did not allow Banks to play winter ball.15 Guigo attended the 1953 All-Star Game in Cincinnati and saw Williams throw out the first pitch before both took the same flight out of Cincinnati. Guigo asked Williams – back from his tour of duty in Korea – if he would consider playing for Santurce (1953-54) to stay sharp. “Williams asked me if there were good golf courses and fishing in Puerto Rico,” said Otero Suro. “I said yes to both … spoke with Fred Corcoran, Williams’s agent, by phone, in Pittsburgh.… Later that summer, a Pittsburgh radio station announced that Williams might play winter ball with Santurce!”16 The price tag for signing Williams would be $30,000, an unheard-of sum in the PRWL. Williams hit .407 with Boston (37-for-91) during August-September 1953 and did not sign a Santurce contract.

So Clemente earned the left-field job and appeared in 66 of Santurce’s 80 games. He batted a respectable .292 with 2 home runs and 27 RBIs.17 Santurce (32-48) finished fifth of five teams, 14 games behind first-place Caguas (46-34), which featured 19-year-old Hank Aaron. The Crabbers hit 20 homers in 80 games.18 Aaron and teammate Jim Rivera tied for the league lead with nine home runs apiece.19 Tom Lasorda (7-6, 3.60 ERA) and Rubén Gómez (5-6, 2.86) were Santurce’s best hurlers. Lasorda noted that “Clemente had a great attitude and was not hesitant to seek out the veterans’ advice.”20

Mickey Owen, the Caguas player-manager, wanted Clemente in his Caguas outfield. Owen’s left fielder, Juan “Tetelo” Vargas, was 47 years old, with Luis Olmo in reserve. “Aaron and Clemente would have been something else,” mused Owen. “We had the veteran Olmo as trade bait for Clemente, but a deal [with Santurce] couldn’t be worked out.”21 After Caguas emerged as playoff champion, the team’s management considered adding Clemente to its February 1954 Caribbean Series roster when Aaron departed to the States. Instead, the Criollos added Mayagüez’s Carlos Bernier. Owen vouched for Clemente but was overruled by Caguas’s owner and GM.22

Caguas (4-2 W-L) won the four-team event at Escobar Stadium. First baseman Vic Power and a San Juan reinforcement, second baseman Jack Cassini, produced for Caguas, as did series MVP Jim Rivera. Cassini, Clemente’s teammate with the 1954 Montreal Royals, opined that “Clemente had the makings of a future big-league star, as a 19-year-old, with Santurce.”23 Coincidentally, Clemente began wearing number 21 in the PRWL in 1953-54, as a gesture to honor his parents, Melchor Clemente and Luisa Walker.24 Roberto Clemente Walker has 21 letters; it is a common practice in Puerto Rico to list paternal and maternal surnames.

Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Buster Clarkson, Bob Thurman, and George Crowe on a winter league dream team. (Courtesy of Jorge Colón Delgado.)

Roberto Clemente in action at Caguas in the 1956-57 season. (Courtesy of Jorge Colón Delgado.)

• Related Link: Click here to read Part II of this article on Roberto Clemente’s Puerto Rico winter league career.

That’s an outlandish statement to make about a team that won just 40 of 160 games.

But even among baseball historians, few realize that nearly a quarter of those precious few victories came during a two-week burst in May in which the Mets won nine of 12.

Subtracting that run, they were actually 31-117.

Even the human symbol of the ’62 Mets’ futil­ity, Marv Throneberry, has had his very rough edges dulled by time and nostalgia. Many have heard of the day Throneberry was called out for not having touched first on a triple, and of how a coach’s pro­test was muted when the umpire mumbled, “He also missed second.” But the anecdote has blunted the true terror of Throneberry’s performance in that game, the first of a doubleheader against the.Cubs at the Polo Grounds on June 17.

Throneberry drove in two runs with his first-inning should-have-been-a-triple, but conceivably cost the Mets another, since Charlie Neal followed his not­ so-fancy footwork with a solo home run. But in the top of the inning, during a rundown play, he had also committed that most rare and foolish of errors, field­er’s obstruction-when the player without the ball in a rundown play just stands there in the base path and lets the runner slam into him. That Throneberry gaffe led directly to four unearned Chicago runs.

Just to top it off, in a game that theoretically could have been 8-4 Mets, New York rallied to score two runs in the bottom of the ninth to trail 8-7. They got the tying run to first with two men out before their last batter struck out — Throneberry, of course.

If the agonies he caused were not enough, there was pitcher Craig Anderson. The “3” in his 3-17 won­ lost record seems to preserve for him a shred of digni­ty. It doesn’t. Anderson was not only 0-11 as a starter, but his last two relief victories came in one double­header — on May 12.

At that point Anderson’s record stood at 3-1.

For the next four and a half months Anderson and the blighted Bob Miller would combine to go 0-28 — until Miller won his only game of the year, on the sea­son’s penultimate day, September 29.

The next day, of course, saw the ignominious fare­ well of Mets catcher Joe Pignatano. In what would be his last major league at-bat, Pignatano lined into a triple play. Less well remembered is that both the base runners in the play, Richie Ashburn and Sammy Drake, were also in their final big league games. Hall of Farner Ashburn’s career, in fact, ended at that moment — Drake would replace him in the field for the bottom of the eighth inning.

So the Mets were bad. However bad you think they were, they were worse.

But why?

The clue may have been contained in that career­ evaporating triple play into which Pignatano hit. He, Ashburn, and Drake were hardly the only men to sing their finales with the ’62 Mets. Of the 45 players who stumbled through all or parts of the season, 19 of them would never play another season in,the majors — and 10 of those guys were under the age of” 30.

The players were bad.

The men who chose the players were worse.

Though there was little criticism of it at the time, Met management’s obsession with bringing in former Dodgers and Yankees as gate attractions has forever after been blamed. The Houston  Colt .45s, born in the same expansion draft, went for more of a mixture of middle-level veterans and prospects, and won 24 more games than did the Mets, to finish a fairly respectable eighth.

The Mets, under the control of future Hall of Famers George Weiss and Casey Stengel, seemed instead to go for players they had heard of during their much more successful tenure across the Harlem River with the Yankees. Their Opening Day line­up featured no fewer than four former Brooklyn Dodgers (Roger Craig, Gil Hodges, Charlie Neal, and Don Zimmer). Clem Labine was in the bullpen, and Pignatano would be added before season’s end — as would ex-Yankees Throneberry and Gene Woodling. The original Met plan for ’62 had called for two more familiar faces, the ex-Dodger pitcher Billy Loes, and the former Giant ace Johnny Antonelli. The latter even rode on the Mets float in the 1961 Thanksgiving Day parade. Antonelli had the presence of mind to retire before spring training began, and Loes was so ineffective in early practices that he was returned to San Francisco, and then released.

But surely even a Rotisserie-like fascination with guys Weiss and Stengel might have “remem­bered from a couple of years ago” can’t explain the continuing death march of the ’62 Mets. The worst teams always get slightly better as veterans fade and get moved out, and Weiss certainly wasn’t loath to unload some of the disasters: Zimmer, Labine, Gus Bell, Jim Marshall, Hobie Landrith, Joe Ginsberg, Bobby Gene Smith, and Herb Moford were all gone before summer.

It may have been the transactions the Mets didn’t make that doomed them to the modern record for futility.

This is dangerous territory for the researcher. Just because Team A obtains Player X doesn’t mean that Team B should, or could have, nor that Player X would have produced as well as he did with Team A. But the pattern of the roster moves the Mets made concurrently with those by other major league teams in 1962 suggests that, at best, Weiss and Stengel were asleep at the switch.

A column in the April 27, 1962, edition of the New York Times quotes an unnamed Mets spokesman about the decision not to bid for a player just released by a local rival. “If he couldn’t help the Yankees,” the spokesman asked rhetorically, “how could he have been any help to us?”

“He” was Robin Roberts, cut loose in the Bronx after having not even pitched in the first two weeks of the Yankees season. To be fair, Roberts had seemingly bottomed out the year before in Philadelphia, when he struggled with a knee injury to a 1-10 record.

Ignored by the Mets — not deemed worthy of more than an anonymous quote — Roberts instead went to Baltimore, where he managed to win 37 games over the next three seasons, and would continue to pitch solidly if not spectacularly in the majors until 1966. As the Times noted, on the same day they passed on Roberts, the Mets picked up pitcher Dave Hillman from Cincinnati. Hillman managed to produce a 6.32 ERA in 13 appearances in New York, the last of his major league career.

Having eschewed one National League ace of the ’50s, the Mets promptly went out and traded for another one: Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell. The cost wasn’t great-they got him even-up for third-string first baseman Jim Marshall. But while the Mets were making that move on May 6, the Colts were preparing to obtain reliever Don McMahon from Milwaukee in a straight cash deal (it was consummated the same day the Mets traded for Throneberry). Weiss and Stengel should have remembered McMahon-he pitched against them six times in the World Series of ’57 and ’58.

Mizell was a robust 0-2 with a 7.34 ERA in New York, dropped into long relief after just two calami­tous starts. These were his last games in the majors. By contrast, McMahon pitched until 1974.

At about the same time, the Reds were giving up on a left hander who had bounced back and forth between Cincinnati and Triple-A. His name was Mike Cuellar, and he had 185 wins ahead of him with four pennant winners, but the Mets couldn’ t be bothered with his sudden free agent status — they were too busy coaxing the Indians into trading them catcher Harry Chiti for a player to be named later (who, as most everyone knows, would prove to be himself).

The then traditional May 15 cut-down date could  have been a shopping day for the talent-starved Mets. But, of course, they’d just traded for Throneberry and had no roster room to sign, say, the pitcher released outright by the L.A. Angels — Joe Nuxhall. Nuxhall  had also been released six weeks earlier by Baltimore (while the Mets were trying to decide whether or not to hang on to Butterball Botz, Aubrey Gatewood, or Howie Nunn). The Mets passed again; Nuxhall instead went back to Cincinnati, where, after a brief rehab stint in the minors, he managed a 20-8 record over the next season and a half, and a 46-28 mark over the last five years of his career. 

Stengel and Weiss did, however, give a long look to another pitcher released by the A’s — ex-Yankee Art Ditmar. Ultimately, they didn’t sign him, either. 

Soon after, the Mets got rid of the rapidly aging 33-year-old outfielder Gus Bell. But on June 15, they replaced him with 39-year old outfielder Gene Woodling, a Stengel favorite from a decade before.

The missed bargain-basement opportunities continued at a rate of about once a month. The Mets bought Pignatano — their seventh catcher of the season — from the Giants on July 13. A few days later, the Phillies released veteran pitcher Frank Sullivan. The Mets passed. Sullivan finished the year 4-1 with a 3.24 ERA for Minnesota. Pignatano finished the season (and his career) by hitting into a triple play in his last major league at-bat.

In August, Cincinnati gave up on former Cubs starter Moe Drabowsky, and waived him out of the National League — the Mets again passing — to Kansas City. Drabowsky was no superstar, but he did pitch until 1972, going 54-50 with 51 saves over the rest of his career. Instead, the Mets managed to buy minor league pitcher Larry Foss from the Pirates. He’d make five September appearances with New York (0-1, 4.63) and vanish from the majors.

Hindsight is a wonderful and unfair tool with which to criticize the always dicey business of trying to improve a moribund ball club. But we’re not blaming Weiss and Stengel for failing to swap for the serviceable veterans who were traded that season, like Bob Buhl, Charlie Maxwell, Pedro Ramos, or Bobby Shantz, or even prospects like Don Lock and Steve Hamilton. We’re not even questioning how their expansion cousins signed amateurs in that pre-draft summer like Joe Morgan, Rusty Staub, Jerry Grote, and Jim Wynn, while their own scouts came up with Ray Apple, Paul Deem, and Ed Kranepool. We’re not even noting that Grote, Staub, and Wynn had already made it to Houston’s 1963 spring camp, while Weiss and Stengel auditioned instead the likes of more ’50s Yankee flash-in-the-pans like Bob Cerv and Johnny Kucks.

We’re talking about buying Dave Hillman instead of signing Robin Roberts.

KEITH OLBERMANN joined SABR in 1984. He hosts MSNBC’s primetime newscast Countdown and co-hosts an hour of the Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio. His latest book, The Worst Persons in the World, is published by John Wiley & Sons.