Reading Between the Lines

Welcome to another irregular feature on the Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary blog: Reading Between the Lines.

In the Hall of Fame Bookstore there were tons of books on baseball that one doesn't see at the local Barnes and Noble. On such a rare chance to browse this store, I came upon the following:

This book is fascinating. I haven't been able to put it down. Not only does Thorn cover the well-worn territory of de-bunking Abner Doubleday, but also reducing the roles of Alexander Cartwright and Henry Chadwick as the fathers of baseball ... tracing the history of baseball was as much about the myth that had been built up around its creation as about the factual evidence of its many sources and authors.

The game of baseball as we know it today is the result of a whole host of incremental changes to the early game and was dominated by outsized egos and characters of questionable moral standing just as it is today.

If you are a fan of baseball with an interest in history and mystery and myth, I can't recommend this book enough. The material is great, and the icing on the cake is that John Thorn is able to convey this mountain of information in an easily digestible and thoroughly enjoyable way.

Check it out!

P.S. - the Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago contest is still open - I'm telling you right now, the winner will be pretty happy with the haul... If you guessed before, you can guess again today...  We have a Winner!

Cards Found in Cooperstown

Alous!

Can't forget Jesus. At the Hall of Fame, I was able to visit their research library and they pulled their files for each of the Alou brothers for me to browse. Lots of talk about Jesus being the most talented of the three. There was also an article written by Felipe Alou in a 1964 issue of Sport Magazine about Latin American players needing their own Bill of Rights. Apparently in the 60s, players could be fined for playing against Cuban players, or even just playing in Winter Ball. Felipe wrote a very strong argument against the fine and explained why Latin American players would want / need to play at home during the Winter.

Rip Repulski, in addition to having a great name, is from Sauk Rapids, MN.

I also got the pleasure of digging through Minnie Minoso's files at the Hall of Fame - I didn't know about him being beaned while playing for St. Louis in the early 60s. There were several articles that wondered if he would play again, or if he did whether he'd be same player he was. There were several photos of him in the hospital bed, with his wife by his side. There were also several articles from the early 1990s about his attempt to get one more at bat for the White Sox - different editorials that took both sides of the issue.

The more things change - the more they stay the same. Gene Conley had the same photo used for both 1954 and 1956. At 6 foot 8 inches, he was for a time the tallest player to ever play Major League baseball. He's since been surpassed by the soon to be inducted to the Hall of Fame Randy Johnson, and 6'11" Jon Rauch. The Twins also had an even taller pitcher in their minor leagues recently, Loek Van Mil, who stands 7'1". He might still be playing professionally somewhere, but he's not in the Twins org anymore. (The Angels, maybe?)

The oldest card I own! This card is even older than the Hall of Fame itself!

and the Title for oldest card changes hands again! This is a 1919 Strip Card. The Jefferson Burdick designation is W514. The card is roughly the size of a Tobacco card (think T206), and originally came in an uncut strip that was sold at candy stores. Cactus Cravath (aka Gavvy Cravath) was the one I specifically wanted. Cravath's T206 card features him as a member of the minor league Minneapolis Millers.

From an Article for SABR by Bill Swank:
In an era when "inside baseball" ruled supreme, Cravath bucked the trend and preached what he practiced. "Short singles are like left-hand jabs in the boxing ring, but a home run is a knock-out punch," he asserted. "It is the clean-up man of the club that does the heavy scoring work even if he is wide in the shoulders and slow on his feet. There is no advice I can give in batting, except to hammer the ball. Some players steal bases with hook slides and speed. I steal bases with my bat." 

That's really cool.

I found all of these (and some more) at one store in Cooperstown. Most of the stores were marked up heavily for the tourist crowd, and most of the prices on the cards under glass were well beyond what I would expect to pay for cards at local shows. In spite of that, This store had very reasonable prices on vintage singles and I was able to negotiate a little mark down on price for buying in bulk.

Day One at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Part Two: Twins Stuff

One thing that happened many many times to me during my trip to The Hall Of Fame was seeing things that reminded me of fellow bloggers. There were ticket stubs from the "War Bond Game," written about so eloquently by Bob Lemke on his blog,  There was a display for Hoyt Wilhelm and some other White Sox from the late fifties. Nick from the Dime Boxes blog probably already knew this, but I learned Wilhelm hit a home run in his first Major League at bat, his only career long ball.

There was this display for the 80s Dodgers, which should remind you all of a certain Dodger themed blog:

It's the wrong order, Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey makes no sense at all, but you get the idea...

And of course Ken Griffey, Jr. is not enshrined in the Hall yet, but he just has a little time to wait. The Junior Junkie will appreciate this shot of Griffey's bat from his 3 homer day in Cincinnati:

There's something here for every fan of baseball, there were some especially cool Twins items:

The ball that won the 1991 World Series - there was another ball from the game signed by Jack Morris.

A ball from the Spring Training game managed by Hall of Famers Paul Molitor and Ryne Sandberg, signed by the two skippers.

Rod Carew's 3000th hit ball and batting gloves. He was a California Angel at the time, but it still counts as a great Twins moment to me. And actually, it was against the Twins that Carew collected the hit! Frank Viola was pitching.

The only mention of Harmon Killebrew I could find in the entire museum was his plaque:

Hopefully there are more Killebrew items in storage. I know the Twins have a lot of things on display at Target Field.

Day Two at the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Nothing too clever to say, so here are a few more things I photographed while I toured the museum:

 The cornerstone from Ebbets Field

 Ty Cobb's Spikes

A Statue for Buck O'Neil

Some of my favorite plaques of the inductees:

Effa Manley, the only female inductee

"Ducky Wucky"

 What could have been the best pitcher of his generation...

I did not know he had a no-hitter!

I think the copy writers had fun writing up the plaque for Bert. Glad he kept the beard for the plaque.

Day One at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Part One

The building sits right on Main Street in Cooperstown. It looks smaller on the outside.

The Hall of Fame Gallery has the Charter Members featured prominently at the far end of the gallery.

The recommendation from the box office was to start on the second floor. At the top of the stairs there are a series of lockers under glass (one for each team)

The infamous ball from the last out of the 2004 World Series that Doug Mientkiewicz held on to for quite a long time before turning it over to the Red Sox.

One of the oldest items in this section came from the Houston Astros. The Helmet shown was from the 1965 edition of the Astrodome grounds crew.

The Dodgers show of the batting gloves worn by Orlando Hudson the day he hit for the cycle.

Everything in that section was a showcase for the recent past.

The next room completely flipped the script. I can't really show much from that room, the light was very low (presumably to preserve the delicate artifacts) and I didn't want to use a flash on my camera to try to capture images of the things in the room.

There were 1880s / 1890s baseball cards, scorecards, a baseball from the first game that charged admission, and lots of other treasures. A curator was taking some high rollers through the museum right behind me, so I tried to respectfully eavesdrop on several of the inside tips he provided. 

One thing he mentioned was in relation to an interactive kiosk they put in that early history of baseball room. In it, you can select a baseball rule and watch a video that explains it. One was regarding a hit by pitch. They filmed modern players re-enacting the old version of the rules. He didn't tell the batter that he was about to get hit - so it was much more interesting the watch the video. He explained that he didn't tell the batter what was going to happen because he didn't want the batter to flinch before the ball came in. He told the pitcher he only had one chance to hit the batter. The video showed that in the old version of the rules a hit by pitch was just a ball instead of granting the batter first base. 

Next up there was a nice exhibit on African Americans in baseball - it covered more than just the Negro Leagues.

Cool Papa Bell's sunglasses

Satchel Paige's St. Louis Browns uniform

I think I'll leave it there for now, and add some more tomorrow.