Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 36 of the 2006 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 2 week of July.
July 9, 1942
Boston Brave Paul Waner singles off Pirate Rip Sewell to collect 3000 hits becoming the seventh major leaguer to accomplish this feat and the first to do it since 1925.
Paul Glee Waner was born April 16, 1903 in Harrah, Oklahoma. He and his brother Lloyd, starred in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ outfield in the 1920s and 1930s. Nicknamed “Big Poison,” he led the National League in batting on three occasions and accumulated over 3,000 hits in his career.
Waner’s merchant father wanted him to be a teacher, but he dropped out of college to join San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League. He began his professional career as a pitcher in the minors, but his proficiency as a hitter convinced his manager to move him to the outfield where he compiled batting averages of .369, .356, and .401. In 1926 the Pirates purchased his contract in a $100,000 deal that included $40,000 for Waner and $60,000 for second baseman Hal Rhyne. Paul broke into the National League with a .336 batting average and led the league in triples with 22. The next year, he was joined by his brother Lloyd in the Pirate outfield. Together they paced Pittsburgh to the 1927 pennant. Right fielder Paul led the National League in hitting batting .380 with 237 base hits, 17 triples, and 131 Runs Batted In and was named National League Most Valuable Player; centerfielder Lloyd hit .355 and led the league in runs scored with 133. Between them, the Waners totaled 460 hits.
They starred for the Pirates throughout the 1930s, continuing their yearly assault on pitchers. Paul led the league in hitting again in 1934 with a .362 batting average and again in 1936 at .373. Both were speedy outfielders, and Paul possessed perhaps the strongest arm seen in a Pittsburgh outfield until Roberto Clemente arrived.
He and his younger brother Lloyd, nicknamed “Little Poison,” hold the career record for hits by brothers, outpacing Joe DiMaggio and his two brothers Dom and Vince, and the three Alou brothers Felipe, Matty and Jesús, among others. One popular story on the brothers claims that Paul and his brother’s nicknames reflect a Brooklyn Dodgers fan’s pronunciation of “Big Person” and “Little Person”; however, given that Lloyd was actually taller, this would seem unlikely. For most of the period from 1927 to 1940, Paul patrolled right field at Forbes Field while Lloyd covered the ground next to him in center field.
After playing the first fifteen years of his career with the Pirates, he ended his career playing for the Dodgers in 1941 and again in 1943-44, Boston Braves in 1941-42 and New York Yankees in 1944-45.
Famous for his ability to hit while hung over, it is said that Paul hit doubles and triples during games and drank them after. Nonetheless, he amassed 3,152 hits with good power. One year he announced he was on the wagon, but when his batting average hovered around .250, his manager personally shepherded him to his nearest watering hole. Within a few weeks, he was back over .300.
Waner found steady employment as a hitting coach after his retirement as a player, but his distaste for discipline made him an inappropriate candidate for managing.
Paul Waner was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952
He died at the age of 62 on August 29, 1965, in Sarasota, Florida.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: B
baseball card
A piece of cardboard depicting a baseball player, a group of players, or a team; a trading: card with a baseball motif. Approximately the size of a playing card, most feature a picture of a baseball player, past or present, on one side and appropriate biographical data and career statistics on the other side. Baseball cards are collected and traded, and many are collectors’ items. They have been included as a premium with tobacco and chewing gum, as well as such widely diverse products as soft drinks, bread, potato chips, candy, and breakfast cereals. They have been produced in many shapes and sizes.
There are no rules as to what can or cannot appear on a baseball card, but the established format is to feature a portrait or action photograph of the player on one side of the card and statistics and biographical information on the flip side. The growing variety of baseball cards is suggested in these lines from a Topps Chewing Gum Inc. press release: “The 1988 card series will consist of 792 cards. This will consist of 700 regular cards, 26 team cards, 26 manager cards, 22 All-Star cards, 7 record-breaker cards, 6 checklists and 5 Turn-Back-The-Clock cards. Included among the 700 regular player cards will be five cards designated as ‘Future Stars’ and ten cards designated as ‘Topps All-Star Rookie.’”
And now for the ninth inning…
Continuing our trip around baseball cities…
The Bakersfield Blaze.
This team is a single A affiliate of the Texas Rangers and plays their home games at Sam Lynn Ballpark in Bakersfield, CA. The Bakersfield team is a charter member of the California League.
Sam Lynn Ballpark is probably best remembered for being built backwards, with the sun setting in the hitters eye, and the shallow 354 foot centerfield, perhaps the shallowest in professional baseball.
A question often heard around Sam Lynn Ballpark is “Who is Sam Lynn?” Sam Lynn was the owner of the Coca-Cola Bottling plant in Bakersfield during the 1930′s. His sponsoring and backing of the Bakersfield Coca-Cola’s, a semi-pro baseball team, along with other youth leagues, helped bring baseball popularity back to the San Joaquin Valley.
San Francisco Seals President Charlie Graham became interested in the resurgence of baseball in Bakersfield and in 1938 he teamed up with Sam Lynn on an idea for a new league, the California League.
The California League’s inaugural season was in 1941. Sam Lynn realized his dream of bringing a minor league team to Bakersfield, but never saw it in action. He passed away just months before the first pitch.
Taking over for Sam Lynn as the head of the corporation owning the new Bakersfield team was a fellow named E. Lee Keyser, the “Pioneer of Night Baseball.”
After an agreement with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended following the 1955 season, the Bakersfield franchise was in jeopardy and for a time seemed like the city would be forced to drop out of professional baseball.
But civic-minded businessmen and fans came to the rescue, subscribing $28,500, at $100 per share establishing a locally-owned corporation that sustained the club and saved minor league baseball for the city of Bakersfield. In 1956 the ball team took the nickname of that corporation and were known as…the Bakersfield Boosters.
For those of you that want to stick around, here’s an
Extra Inning
You can email me at baseballhistory@gmail.com. Transcripts of the game can be found at baseballhistorypodcast.blogspot.com. Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
TWIBH- Paul Waner,
Baseball Dictionary- Baseball Cards,
Tour- Bakersfield Blaze
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