National Pastime a REVIEW of BASEBALL HISTORY
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THE National Pastime A REVIEW OF BASEBALL HISTORY CONTENTS La Tropical Park, Then andNow/ ; .. Bill Nowlin & Kit Krieger 3 The Positive Grip Baseball Bat Ken Tillman. ................... .. 9 August 31,1932: Day ofthelneligible Player Lowell Blaisdell 11 The Nugent Era: Phillies Phlounder in Phutility John Rossi ; 15 Ty Cobb, Master Thief; Chuck Rosciam ................ .. 19 The Odyssey of Carlton Hanta Robert K. Fitts. ................ .. 24 The Best (and Worst) St. Louis Cardinal Trades Lyle Spatz. .................... .. 30 The Face of Baseball .............................•.•.... Steve Steinberg ................ .. 38 Baseball Notables at Arlington National Cemetery David Vincent 47 Forfeits James Forr 53 World Series Final Plays Joseph Elinich 63 Carl Erskine Jim Sargent 66 Anson on Broadway Robert H. Schaefer 74 Early ERA Titles Dan Levitt .................... .. 82 Bobby Doerr in 1934 James D. Smith III 86 No Stars vs. All Stars Timothy Connaughton 89 Jackie Robinson in Film Frank Ardolino ................ .. 99 The Joy of Foul Balls Tim Wiles. ................... .. 102 Reuben Berman's Foul Ball David Mandell 106 Old Hoss , .. Jim Foglio 108 Dubuque-Chicago, 1879 Brian Cooper. ................ .. 112 Point Men Larry DeFillipo ............... .. 116 Sisler Confronts the Evil Empire Roger Godin ................. .. 123 More About the K"!-nsas City Baseball Academy ......•....... Charlie Metro & Tom Altherr. .. .. 127 Editor: James Charlton Copy Editor: John Paine Designer: Glenn LeDoux Designated readers and peer reviewers: Phil Birnbaum, Clifford Blah, Joe Dittmar, Rob Edelman, Ed Hartig, CliffHo:ft,BiH·Nowlin, Stew Thornley, Lyle Spatz, DickThbmpson THE NATIONAL PASTIME Number 25. Published by The Society for American Baseball Research, Inc., 812 Buron Road, Suite 719, Cleveland, OB 44115. Postage pai!iat Kent, DB. Copyright ©2005, The Society for American Baseball Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. A Note from the Editor The National Pastime for 2005 has a number ofentertaining stories from beginning to end. At the beginning is Bill Nowlin and Kit Krieger's engaging cover story about discovering a worn and faded commemorative plaque in Havana's La Tropical park. The bronze memorialized a game played there between two teams ofAmerican all-stars in 1930. The discovery of the plaque in 2001 came about during a Cubaball trip led by Kit. There were about a dozen SABR members along, including myself, so I was delighted when Kit and Bill wrote up the story. What makes the account even more inter esting is the addition of photos from an album given to each of the all stars who played in the 1930 game by their generous Cuban host Blanco Herrera. Lance Richbourg was one of the touring stars and his son, the artist Lance Richbourg, Jr., graciously lent the album to us. Tom Altherr and Charlie Metro, the former manager and coach, pro vide thejournal's last article, a short explanation and addition to Richard Puerzer's fine cover story in the last issue ofTNP. Puerzer's piece, readers may recall, was on the Kansas City Royals short-lived baseball academy. One of my favorite writers is Bob Schaefer, a formidable researcher, who has turned his attention to Cap Anson's stage career in A Runaway Colt. The play opened in Brooklyn in 1895 at the new 1,700-seat Montauk Theatre, which was later moved around the corner when Flatbush Avenue was expanded as a result ofbuilding the Manhattan Bridge. The play moved to Broadway several months later, and then on to Chicago. It appears that Cap Anson was more successful on the diamond than trod ding the boards. There are two articles on foul balls, two that discuss Ole Hoss Radbourn, and two that are interviews with former ball players. The lat ter includes Jim Smith's article, based on talks with Bobby Doerr, discuss ing his PCL career as a teenage infielder beginning with the Hollywood Sheiks. When that team shifted to San Diego, Bobby became an original Padre before going on to star for the Boston Red Sox. Jim Sargent shares with us Carl Erskine's reflections on the Boys of Summer. Both former stars come off as remarkable men. David Vincent takes us on a tour of Arlington National Cemetery and discusses the nearly two dozen baseball notables buried there. From Abner Doubleday to SABR founder Bob Davids (not the only SABR member buried at Arlington), the list includes Lu Blue, Doc Lavan and less-known Major and Negro Leaguers. Jim Charlton May 2005 La Tropical Park, Then and Now by Bill Nowlin and Kit Krieger n February 2001, more than a dozen members Gibson, and Cristobal Torriente roamed the grounds. of The Society for American Baseball Research Our itinerary was adjusted to seize the opportunity to I ~oined the first Cubaball Tours visit to enjoy a visit this historic site. week of baseball in Cuba. Most tour participants We climbed down from our bus and entered La felt the weeklong tour was one of the best travel Tropical (now called Pepe Marrero, named after a experiences they'd ever enjoyed. The group, led by hero ofthe revolution) through gates along what had Kit Krieger and Peter Bjarkman, saw five ball games been left field. If the fences are placed as they were in four stadiums, met with Connie Marrero, visited in 1930, it was clear that the stadium was a pitcher's a baseball academy, joined Havana's daily outdoor park, save for a short porch in right field. The center baseball discussion group, paid homage at Martin field fence was well over 500 feet distant from home Dihigo's final resting place, and talked a lot of base plate, and left field was more than 400 feet away. ball for the whole week. As everyone was looking around, one or two tour We didn'tgetto meet Fidel, butthis was a dedicated members noticed a couple ofworn and faded plaques group of baseball fans, and it amused participant affixed to a wall inside the stadium. They looked like Peggy Engle that we were so wrapped up in talking they'd been there a long time, and the heavy patina with Marrero that almost no one but her noticed the made the inscriptions difficult to read. topless tourist bythe "Havana Libre" hotel swimming Suddenly, Krieger shouted, "Holy shit!" and we pool just on the other side ofthe plate-glass window crowded around to see what caused the commotion. from the room in which we were meeting. Working to make out the wording on the plaque, At one point, on February 23, on the way back it became clear that in 1930 a touring group of from a seminar on Cuban baseball history at the major league ballplayers had come to Havana and Institute for Friendship Among the Nations, ourjifes played what was truly an all-star game at Tropical. A had the tour bus stop at a former baseball stadium commemorative plaque featured the two rosters and known as La Tropical. This interested Bill Nowlin in facsimilesignalures of lhe slars. As lhe names ofthe particular because he'd visited Havana's Biblioteca participants were deciphered and read out loud, it Nacional the day before, researching two games that was clear that the game included quite a number of Ted Williams and the Red Sox had played in Cuba future Hall of Famers. in 1946. A visit to La Tropical, initially built in 1930 On Saturday morning, Bill Nowlin returned to the for the Pan American Games, was not on the original library and flashed his newly acquired library card tour itinerary. A Krieger query about the location of from the day before, requesting the October 1930 run the stadium revealed that it was currently used as a ofthe newspaper Diario de la Marina. It turned out track and field facility and was little altered from the that this was not just one game, but a seven-game days when Martin Dihigo, Oscar Charleston, Josh series between Las Estrellas de Davey Bancroft and Las Estrellas de Jewel Ens: Bancroft's Stars versus BILL NOWLIN has written extensively on the Red Sox, most Ens's Stars. The Ens team won five games, while recently Blood Feud (Rounder Books) and is currently Vice Bancroft took two. President qf SABR. KIT KRIEGER pitched three innings for the Pacific Coast League Vancouver Mounties in 1968 and About 20,000 attended the opening ceremonies at currently opemtes Cubaball Tours. whal was lhen named. Stad.ium Cerveza Tropical. A REVIEW OF BASEBALL HISTORY 3 In all there were nine future Hall ofFamers in the present the box score for game seven. series. They were Davey Bancroft, Heinie Manush, Even though our discovery was made in the year Rabbit Maranville, PaulWaner, AI Lopez, Pie Traynor, 2001, one of the players who participated was still Chuck Klein, Carl Hubbell, and Bill Terry. The scores alive and well in Tampa: AI Lopez. Born in 1908, ofthe games were as follows: Lopez broke in with the Dodgers in 1929. The receiver hit .309 in his first full season (1930) and Game 1: Ens 1, Bancroft 0 (this game took only 1 was invited to join the touring party. hour and 9 minutes to play-not much time Soon after returning to the States, Nowlin phoned for TV ads in 1930!) Lopez and found that he remembered the visit well: Game 2: Bancroft 4, Ens 2 Game 3: Bancroft 5, Ens 4 There was a lot offine ballplayers that went Game 4: Ens 3, Bancroft 2 on that tour. We stayed at the Biltmore. It was Game 5: Ens 1, Bancroft 0 (a two-hitter thrown by very nice. It was during the Machado regime Tiny Chaplin) and I think there was a lot ofrumbling and dissatisfaction among the people there.