The Ghost of Josh Gibson

Josh Gibson, one of the greatest hitters of all time, dreamed of breaking baseball's color barrier.  It may be that he nearly got his wish.  It's rumored that at least two teams, the Pirates and the Senators, pursued Gibson during his prime in the late 1930s and early 1940s.  Sadly, the powers that kept black players out of the Majors were very strong and neither team could get the deal done.  Some say the team owners caved to pressure from the Commissioner's Office.  Others speculate that the influential Negro Leagues boss Cum Posey had his hand in delaying integration, knowing that it would be the beginning of the end for his lucrative franchise.  Several popular white sports figures of the day, such as pitcher Walter Johnson and journalist Shirley Povich, opined for Gibson's inclusion in the MLB - along with other talented black players - but to no avail.  Years after Gibson's death, Larry Doby (the player who integrated the American League) said "One of the things that was disappointing and disheartening to a lot of the black players at the time was that Jackie [Robinson] was not the best player.  The best was Josh Gibson.  I think that's one of the reasons Josh died so early.  He was heartbroken."

The History of Baseball Diplomacy Part II: Cuba

Through the first half of the 20th Century, Major League Baseball enjoyed a healthy fellowship with the Cuban leagues.  Cuba hosted MLB spring training games, the U.S. hosted traveling Cuban teams, and for a few years the Cincinnati Reds incorporated the Havana Sugar Kings into their minor league system.   In 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers held their Spring Training in Havana to make life a little easier for Jackie Robinson (who was about to break MLB's color barrier).  But the fellowship came to a grinding halt shortly after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.  It would be 40 years before an American baseball team returned to the island nation.

The History of Baseball Diplomacy Part I: Japan

It has been called by many names - Baseball Diplomacy, Diamond Diplomacy, Home Run Diplomacy - but the concept is always the same.  By exchanging ball-players instead of politicians, and competing on athletic fields instead of battlefields, two countries can bypass complex government relations and generate a sense of good will among the people.  And it's not just baseball.  Basketball, soccer, ping pong and pretty much any sport you can think of has served this purpose at one point or another over the past several decades.

Finding Baseball in the Philippines

Baseball has a long and interesting history in the Philippines, dating back to 1898 and its introduction by U.S. soldiers.  In the 1910s and 20s, the Philippines had regular exchanges with the United States and Japan.  Well known stars such as Tris Speaker, Red Faber, and John McGraw toured the islands, while Filipino players barnstormed through America.  In 1934, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth hit the first two home runs at the newly constructed Jose Rizal Memorial Stadium - a ballpark in Manila that still hosts games to this day.  The sport's popularity declined after World War II, but experienced a brief resurgence in the 1950s, culminating in 1954 with a first place finish at the Asian Baseball Championships.  Even today there are active little league systems and collegiate circuits, and the national team slowly comes closer to qualifying for the World Baseball Classic.  There's only one problem with baseball in the Philippines... nobody knows about it!  Not even people in the Philippines!

Babe Ruth and Leon Day

Ever since their playing days, baseball followers have been comparing Babe Ruth and Negro Leagues slugger Josh Gibson.  In some ways, it's a fair comparison.  Both men were the defining home run hitters in their respective leagues and generations.  I could go on for a long time about Josh Gibson's athletic accomplishments, as I intend to in a future article, but in my opinion a better comparison would be Babe Ruth and hall-of-fame pitcher Leon Day.  Ruth and Day both grew up in Baltimore.  They were both child prodigies and initially signed as teenagers by Baltimore teams.   Both were great pitchers who  also became known for their hitting prowess.  Both played professional ball for 22 years.  And the similarities don't stop there.  Ruth's last full season as a player was the same year as Day's first season in the Negro Leagues (1934).  At the beginning of that year, Ruth's New York team (the Yankees) offered him a position as the manager of the Newark Bears (he declined).  Two years later, Day's New York team (the Eagles) left New York and moved to Newark, where they shared a stadium with the Bears.  But my favorite similarity is how both men are honored and remembered in the Baltimore area.

The old Eastern Shore League in a Day

Despite producing four Hall of Famers and numerous other major league talents, very little is written about the Eastern Shore Baseball League (defunct since 1949).  A quick Google search gets you only a few relevant hits, interspersed among a plethora of links for present-day little league and high school teams.  Amazon.com boasts two books (one of which is in stock), while the Wikipedia page consists of a terse paragraph followed by a quick list of teams.  In other words, you can't find much on the Eastern Shore League through the internet or books.  If you want to learn about it, you need to go see it for yourself... or at least what remains.  Once you're in the area, you can pretty much do it all in one very full day.

Road-Tripping the 1903 World Series

A few days ago, Giants' ace Madison Bumgarner capped off a historically impressive World Series performance, bringing the Commissioner's Trophy to San Francisco for the third time in five years.  In doing so, he added his name to an elite list of legendary big-gamers in the fall classic.  The list goes all the way back to Denton True "Cy" Young, who pitched in the very first World Series 111 years ago.  Today, inspired by the Bumgarner's recent heroics, I'd like to take you on a virtual road trip to October of 1903, when the mighty Cy Young and his Boston Americans took on Honus Wagner and the rest of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first championship series between the American and National leagues.

Back To Beginnings

It was a bright September morning and I was driving up I-95 towards New York.  New York is a great baseball state:  two major league (and several minor league) teams, the sport's national Hall of Fame, and the final resting place for such legends as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, plus countless others.  Yes, I was heading TOWARDS New York... but that's not where I was going.  My destination for the weekend was a little closer to my starting point.  A state with no MLB teams; I was looking forward to a baseball-themed weekend in New Jersey.

Elbow to Elbow

I hadn't planned on writing this article. I prefer to focus on topics and personal anecdotes that don't receive a lot (if any) of press. Besides that, what the heck do I know about the ulnar collateral ligament? But with the need for Tommy John surgery reaching epidemic proportions, I've come to understand that these players don't need more experts... they need advocates.

Dear Mr. Niese,

Dear Mr. Niese,

I am not writing this letter to chastise you.  To the contrary, I'd like to set your mind at ease.  I am a Mets fan.  I've been one for as long as I can remember.  I'm just old enough to recall the final out of the 1986 World Series, on the day of your birth, joyfully jumping up and down with my parents in our Long Island home.  I stuck it out during 1992's "worst team money could buy" and through all 103 losses in 1993.  I continued to support the Mets when I left New York in 2000, eventually relocating to Washington, DC.  Even after DC acquired a team of its own, I stayed true to the orange and blue.