FR Canteen: "Play ball! A salute to baseball firsts" March 30, 2006

Colonel_Flagg

[trussell]

Serving the best troops in the world - welcome to the FR Canteen!

Welcome to all who support our troops!

Play ball!

It’s time to put on your caps and get ready for America’s true national pastime – despite what the NFL would have you believe. It’s baseball season, and with it we see the coming of spring! And in the part of the nation where I live, spring is a godsend!

Former Pittsburgh Pirate great Willie Stargell achieved a measure of fame when he observed, “The umpire doesn’t say “Work ball”. So let’s get ready to play – and enjoy the coming of spring!

Today’s thread will focus on openings and firsts … who is your favorite to win it all this year? Tell us who, and why!

But first, some baseball tunes …

King Curtis - Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Carly Simon - Take Me Out to the Ball Game

National Pastime Orchestra -You Better Play Ball With Me (1936)

Les Brown and His Orchestra - Joltin' Joe Dimaggio

The Treniers - Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)

National Pastime Orchestra - If You Can't Make A Hit In The Ballgame, You Can't Make A Hit With Me (1912)

National Pastime Orchestra - The Curve Ball Blues (1987)

Nancy Faust at the Comiskey Park Organ – Take Me Out To The Ball Game (1973)

Okay, now on to the good stuff, courtesy of baseball-almanac.com … enjoy!

June 19, 1846
Alexander Cartwright

The first baseball game using the Cartwright Rules is played. The first baseball game between two different teams was played on June 19, 1846 at Elysian Field in Hoboken, New Jersey. The two teams, the 'Knickerbockers' and the 'New York Nine,' played with Cartwright's 20 rules. Cartwright’s team, the Knickerbockers, lost 23 to 1 to the New York Nine club in four innings. Some say that Cartwright's team lost because his best players did not want to make the trip across the river. Cartwright was the umpire during this game and fined one player six cents for cursing. Don’t believe anyone who tells you Abner Doubleday invented the Great American Game – as the famous saying goes, “the only thing Abner Doubleday ever started was the Civil War.” Doubleday fired the first Union shot at Fort Sumter, as a matter of historical record.

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1871
Baseball’s second statistic (right after the final score) is invented – the batting average, after a game between Boston and Cleveland.

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May 12, 1876
Ross Barnes

Baseball’s first great hitter, secondbaseman Ross Barnes, hits the first home run in the history of the National League. Barnes was a lifetime .359 hitter whose career was cut short due to illness.

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September 10, 1881
Roger Connor of Troy hits the first grand slam in National League history off Worcester's Lee Richmond.

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May 1, 1884
Moses Fleetwood Walker

Moses Walker becomes the first African-American player to appear in a major league game with the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association. His brother Weldy also played in the major leagues, 63 years before Jackie Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

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September 10, 1885
A gentleman named Joe Harrington becomes the first big-leaguer ever to homer in his first at-bat.

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June 6, 1892
Benjamin Harrison

President Harrison makes history by becoming the first Chief Executive to attend a major league game.

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April 17, 1901
The first game in the history of the American League sees the White Sox win 8-2. The Sox take the first AL flag that season with a record of 83-53.

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May 1, 1920
Let’s play three: Brooklyn’s Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger of the Boston Braves duel to a 1-1 tie in the longest game in big league history – 26 innings.

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August 5, 1921
The first radio broadcast of a baseball game is heard on Pittsburgh’s KDKA radio. The Pirates beat the Phillies 8-5.

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March 5, 1922
Babe Ruth

The Bambino becomes the first ballplayer in history to make $50,000 per year. How times have changed!

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June 9, 1946
Let’s play none: Nearly 100 years to the day after Alexander Cartwright fined a player six cents for cursing. New York Giants manager Mel Ott becomes the first manager ever to be thrown out of both ends of a doubleheader. Cartwright might have been perturbed.

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April 15, 1947
Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson re-breaks the color barrier in major league baseball. He goes on to win the 1947 Rookie of the Year award and changes the game forever.

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September 8, 1965
Bert Campaneris

Kansas City’s Bert Campaneris becomes the first player to play all nine positions in a single game.

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June 15, 1976

The “Eighth Wonder of the World”, the Houston Astrodome, makes history as the first domed stadium ever to host a rainout. The roof didn’t leak – but the roads leading to the park were impassable after torrential rains.

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July 17, 1990
My beloved Minnesota Twins become the first and only team to turn two triple plays in the same game, at Fenway against the Red Sox. Gary Gaetti is the lucky thirdbaseman who started both triple killings. The next season they became the only team ever to go from last place in one season to World Series champs the next.

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The evolution of the baseball salary
Upthread we saw that Babe Ruth became baseball’s first $50,000 man in 1922. Since the advent of free agency in the 1970s, however, the top salaries have zoomed higher and higher. How many of these players do you remember, and how many were worth the money?

First $500,000 player – Mike Schmidt, Philadelphia, 1977
First $1 million player – Nolan Ryan, Houston, 1979
First $5 million player – Roger Clemens, Boston, 1991
First $10 million player – Albert Belle, White Sox, 1996
First $15 million player – Kevin Brown, Los Angeles Dodgers, 1998
First $20 million player – Manny Ramirez, Boston, December 11, 2000
First $25 million player – Alex Rodriguez, Texas, later that same day (he’ll make $27 million in 2007)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, Nate, for your service to our country.
Prayers for your safety and success of mission.

[Allegra]

Baseball firsts?

My ***HOUSTON ASTROS*** won their first EVER pennant last fall!

Excitement!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, Bilbo, for your service to America.
Prayers for your safety and success of mission.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good afternoon, Allegra.

Are things calming down yet?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thank you, Kevin, for your service to our country.
Prayers for your safety as you prepare for your mission.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thank you, Victor, for your service to our country.
Prayers for your safety and success of mission.

[Kathy in Alaska]

[Pusterfuss]

Good morning Kathy.

[Allegra]

Good (wee hours of the morning there?), Kathy! What a cute little Astros bear.

We've been getting quiet days and turbulent days here. Unfortunately, today is one of those days where the bad guys are somewhat busy around Baghdad. We're hearing a lot of alerts for suspicious things around town, but I haven't gotten any data on actual incidents yet.

It's all going to work, though. ;-)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good morning, Pusterfuss...((HUGS))......Another nice day, but tonight the temps dropped below freezing and the lake at the end of my street is now an ice skating rink. Some slip and slide on the way home, unexpected. Did your car enjoy its first outing of the year?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Yep, the wee hours....12 hours behind you...almsot 2am and I need to be finding my pillow and blankie.

We, of course, only get the bad news.....and believe not much of it. Glad to hear that it's going to work. R & R coming up for you....do you get to come back to the states this time?

[E.G.C.]

((HUGS))Good morning, Kathy. How's it going?

A very pleasant good morning to everyone at the Canteen and to all our military at home and abroad. Thanks for your contuined service to our country.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning SandRat. How's it going?

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Tonk. How's it going?

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good morning , E..((HUGS)) Did I hear that you were getting more much needed rain?

[E.G.C.]

((HUGS))Good morning Trussell. How's it going?

[E.G.C.]

Yep, we may have some weather here later this morning so I'll be on and off the computer.

There's also a Red Flag Alert out for fire danger for parts of Western Oklahoma.

[Allegra]

R & R coming up for you....do you get to come back to the states this time?

I'm just going to England this time. I have a sister there and we're going to hang around London for a few days and head over to Dublin for a few. I'm just not up to that exhausting halfway-around-the-globe slog this time.

I plan to go home in September when I can go to an Astros AND a Texans game. ;-)

Get some sleep, girl! Good night!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Our National Anthem

Kate Smith ~ God Bless America