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History Headlines
As the Baseball Hall of Fame's chief curator for 28 years, Ted Spencer experienced history every day. But one day in the early 1990s, he was amazed to discover just how strong the tie is between baseball and America's history.
Spencer had seen a Currier & Ives lithograph– an original of which resides in the Hall's collection – several times before, but it wasn't until that day that it piqued his curiosity.
Even for the greatest players baseball has ever known, Opening Day is something special.
And though this year features an unusual Thursday opener, the butterflies will be floating for every player – even those on their way to Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame.
"You always get a special kick on Opening Day, no matter how many you go through," said Yankees legend and Hall of Fame center fielder Joe DiMaggio. "You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen."
There are condominiums where the Ramada Inn once stood in Winter Haven, Fla. There are a couple of new fast food restaurants, and a strip mall with a Chili's is across the street where orange trees once stood back in 1974.
In the back of that Ramada Inn was a single tennis court, and in March 1974, a good three dozen fans watched an unusual match. On one doubles team was Ted Williams; on the other, Carl Yastrzemski.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – As history is made at the 2010 World Series, the Hall of Fame will be there to document every moment. It's a tradition that dates back to the beginning of the Fall Classic at the turn of the 20th Century.
During the winter of 1902-03, the National Commission was formed in agreement with the upstart American League and the established National League to preside over organized baseball.
“East Side, West Side, all around the town
The tots sang "ring-around-rosie," "London Bridge is falling down"
Boys and girls together, me and Mamie O'Rourke
Tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York”
-- From “The Sidewalks of New York,” by lyricist James W. Blake and vaudeville actor and composer Charles B. Lawlor, 1894
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – After four war-torn years, the citizens of the United States could finally envision peace. A return to pre-World War II life, however, was much less certain – even for the best athletes of the era.
Enter Hank Greenberg, 65 years ago today.
The Paul Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3d ed., defines a perfect game as “a no-hitter in which all 27 opposing batters fail to reach first base, either by a base hit, base on balls, hit batter, fielding error, or by any other means.” The entry also stipulates that the first use of the term ‘perfect game’ occurred on Jan. 10, 1909 when the Washington Post reported that “[Ed] Walsh congratulated Addie Joss on the latter’s feat of pitching a perfect game [on October 2, 1908].”
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – When Hank Aaron Stadium opened in Mobile, Ala., in 1997, the staff never could have imagined seven Hall of Famers gracing the field before a Mobile BayBears Double-A minor league baseball game.
But that is exactly what happened at the BayBears home opener on April 14 when the team opened the Hank Aaron Childhood Home and Museum at the stadium – honoring the legacy of legendary Hall of Famer Henry Aaron.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – It was an idea born almost the moment the incandescent light bulb became a reality. Its execution, however, required more than five decades of perseverance – as technological advances, economic necessity and a few brilliant men finally wore down the opposition.
Today, baseball fans born after 1935 have grown up knowing almost nothing but night baseball. But until 75 years ago, big league baseball was played exclusively during the day.
What do Frank Sinatra, Liberace, Stan Musial, Harpo Marx, LL Cool J, Harry Caray and Carly Simon have in common? They’ve all recorded baseball’s anthem, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” the third most frequently played song in American culture, after “Happy Birthday” and “The Star-Spangled Banner."
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This Day in Baseball History
On June 18, 1972, colorful Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley holds baseball’s first ever "Mustache Day." Finley agrees to pay $300 to each of his players for growing mustaches by Father’s Day. Reggie Jackson had started the trend by reporting to spring training with a mustache - the first major leaguer to do so since Wally Schang in 1914.