Grab-bag
A little of this, a little of that…
Bygone baseball
By C. Philip Francis
---THIS ITEM CAME FROM THE MINISTER OF A UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST IN DEARBORN HEIGHTS, MICHIGAN, “Leith Anderson, a pastor, shared an experience that throws light upon this truth. As a boy, he grew up outside New York City and was an avid fan of the old Brooklyn Dodgers. One day his father took him to a World Series game between the Dodgers and the Yankees. He was so excited, and he just knew the Dodgers would trounce the Yankees. Unfortunately, the Dodgers never got on base, and his excitement was shattered. Years later he was engrossed in a conversation with a man who was a walking sports almanac. Leith told him about the first major league game he attended and added, ‘It was such a disappointment. I was a Dodger fan, and the Dodgers never got one base.’ The man said, ‘You were there? You were at the game when DON LARSEN pitched the first perfect game in all of World Series history?’ Leith replied, ‘Yeah, but uh, we lost.’ He then realized that he had been so caught up in his team’s defeat he missed out on the fact that he was a witness to a far greater page of history.”
Author’s note: A perfect example of not being able to see the trees because the forest was in the way.
*
---LUTHER “BUD” THOMAS WHO HAD PITCHED TO BOTH BABE RUTH AND TED WILLIAMS DIED LAST MAY (2001) AT THE AGE OF 90. The journeyman hurler was with the Senators twice, Philadelphia A’s, and Tigers from 1932 to 1941. THE BABE homered on one of the two occasions they faced, and it was Bud who gave up the first of TED’S 521 home runs on April 23, 1939.
Author’s note: Hey, he did hit one homer of his own during his career.
*
---MANY SUPERSTITIOUS BOSTON RED SOX FANS SWEAR TO THE “CURSE OF THE BAMBINO” THAT WAS PUT ON THE SOX WHEN BABE RUTH WAS TRADED TO THE YANKEES IN 1920. Whether you believe it or not, the Bosox has not won a World Series since Ruth wore a Red Sox uniform. Then there is the jinx placed on the Chicago Cubs by a local tavern owner when officials at Wrigley Field would not allow him to sit and watch a Cubs game while accompanied with his pet billy goat. Again, the Cubbies have not flown a Championship pennant for many years. The Cleveland Indians have their own misfortune called “The curse of the Rock” when fan favorite ROCKY COLAVITO was traded to the Detroit Tigers in 1960. No World Series victory there, either. And could there also be a fourth major league evil eye at work called “The Cissell Curse?
In 1928 the Chicago White Sox paid the then exorbitant amount of $123,000 for shortstop BILL CISSELL, a native of Perryville, Missouri. He had six hits in his first 11 at-bats, but it was then downhill as he struggled throughout his four years with the Sox. Bill later summed up his Chicago experience saying, “The ballyhoo I got when Portland sold me for that sum was the greatest burden any player ever carried to the majors.” The pressure helped drive him to drink that added to the problem, and after the four years of mediocre play, BILL was sent to Cleveland. He had three more short stints with Red Sox, A’s, and Giants before he left the game in 1938. The White Sox did hire CISSELL, also called SPIDER BILL, one more time – this time as a maintenance man for Comiskey Park. BILL repaired the lights atop the Chicago ball field, and in a way he did finally make it to the top.
CISSELL was destitute when he died in March of 1949 of malnutrition at the age of 45 with SPIDER BILL’S funeral expenses paid by CHUCK COMISKEY, JR. Some say there was a “haunting presence” in the first Comiskey Park, and, if so, could it have been the “Cissell Curse?”
Author’s note: I am NOT superstitious in any way, but then why tempt the fates by walking under a ladder or breaking a mirror?
*
---JOE NUXHALL BECAME THE YOUNGEST MAJOR LEAGUER WHEN HE PITCHED TWO-THIRDS OF AN INNING FOR THE WAR-TIME CINCINNATI REDS IN 1944 AT THE AGE OF 15. It took him eight years before he could get that third strike when the Reds again called him up for the second time. NUXHALL is not the youngest player in professional baseball, however, as JOE RELFORD, a 12-year-old black batboy in the Georgia State League was penciled in the lineup on July 19, 1952 with his team losing 13-0 and the crowd chanting, “Put in the batboy! Put in the batboy!” JOE grounded out as a pinch-hitter, and “made a sensational catch” in center field.
SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research, has reported that a nine-year-old played for the Concord, NH team on June 25, 1904 when regular catcher DIGGINS was unable to perform due to illness in the fourth, and the second baseman thumbed out in the sixth. GEORGE DIGGINS, the team mascot and son of the ailing catcher, was put in the game in order to avoid a forfeit, but did not handle the ball as the right fielder, and struck out in his only time at bat. There is no knowledge of either boy ever playing professional baseball again.
Author’s note: Seems the lads must have been the first Little Leaguers.