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 70 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 November.
November 12
1923 Giant manager John McGraw trades outfielders Casey Stengel and Bill Cunningham along with shortstop Dave Bracroft to the Braves for pitchers Joe Oeschger and Bill Southworth.
John Joseph McGraw was born April 7, 1873 in Truxton, New York. He was nicknamed “Muggsy” and “Little Napoleon.” He was both a Major League Baseball player and manager.
McGraw made his major league debut in 1891 in the American Association with the Baltimore Orioles. After the Orioles moved to the National League a year later, he remained with the team until 1899. McGraw established himself as an astute batsman with a keen eye and was an excellent third baseman. He walked over 100 times three times, scored over 100 runs five times, batted .320 or higher in every year from 1893 on, and also posted an on base percentage of .400 or higher in every year from 1893 on, including a career high mark of .547 in 1899. McGraw also took on managerial duties for the 1899 Oriole team and posted an 86–62 record.
For many years John McGraw was the dominant figure in American baseball. He was an excellent player, yet his success derived from more than athletic talent. He had a profound understanding of the game and was alert to all the opportunities each inning offered.
His personality was indeed that of a “Little Napoleon,” arrogant and abrasive. He outgeneraled his opponents while abusing them verbally and, sometimes, with his fists. As a manager, his players suffered his tyranny as the price of victory.
McGraw’s rise to prominence was swift. A scrawny youngster from Truxton, New York, he began his professional career at Olean in 1890 and within a year had jumped to the American Association’s Baltimore club. When the American Association collapsed after 1891, Baltimore was absorbed into the National League and McGraw became a member of the soon-to-be-legendary Orioles.
A lefthanded batter, he was an adroit bat handler who could hit for average, batting over .321 nine consecutive seasons. He twice led the league in runs and walks and stole 436 bases. He and Willie Keeler were experts at the hit-and run play.
McGraw was notorious for blocking, tripping, or otherwise obstructing the baserunners while the lone umpire watched the flight of the ball. Some say his shenanigans prompted the stationing of additional umpires on the basepaths.
There then began a period in which he successfully opposed the baseball “establishment” at every opportunity. Barely 26 in 1899, he refused to be shifted to Brooklyn, which the Baltimore club partially owned and wanted to strengthen. While manager Hanlon and five Orioles starters led Brooklyn to the championship in 1899 and 1900, McGraw and catcher Wilbert Robinson remained behind in Baltimore, where they owned a profitable saloon together. McGraw was named manager of the leftover Orioles and led them to third place.
The Orioles were disbanded when the National League reduced to eight teams in 1900, and McGraw and Robinson were sold to St. Louis. They agreed to go only on the condition that the reserve clause be removed from their contracts, an unheard-of concession.
In 1901 he became player-manager of the new American League’s Baltimore franchise, but after frequent run-ins with league president Ban Johnson, a man as intractable as himself, he jumped in mid-1902 to the National League’s New York Giants.
With the ample financial resources of new owner John T. Brush, McGraw quickly turned a floundering second-division team into a contender, winning a then-record 106 games and the pennant in 1904.
McGraw and Brush refused to allow the club to meet the American League champion Red Sox in the World Series, the first Series having been played the year before. In 1905 McGraw’s Giants won a second consecutive National League pennant, finishing 105-48, and this time they did play the World Series. They beat the Athletics in five games.
McGraw’s managerial style was reminiscent of his antics as a player. He swaggered through every city in the league, battling opposing teams, managers, owners, umpires, and league officials. He had a nack for inciting crowds and the Giants quickly became the most despised team in the league, often dodging rocks and bottles as they left enemy ballparks. In 1906 McGraw arrogantly had “Champions of the World” emblazoned across the front of the team’s jerseys.
Strategically, McGraw favored the hit-and-run and disdained the sacrifice bunt. He had a sharp eye for playing talent and traded daringly, getting useful work from players other clubs had given up on. With tips from his many friends in bush leagues across the country, he found bright young stars to replace fading older ones.
McGraw’s Giants won three consecutive pennants from 1911 to 1913, but lost the World Series all three years, twice to the Athletics and once to the Red Sox. McGraw lost another World Series to the White Sox in 1917, then rattled off four consecutive pennants beginning in 1921. By then, the Yankees were emerging as an American League dynasty, but the Giants beat their Bronx rivals in 1921 and 1922, before the Yankees returned the favor in 1923.
In 1932 McGraw surrendered the manager’s reins, retiring with 2,840 victories, second all-time. His teams won 10 National League pennants, 3 World Series championships and had 11 second place finishes while posting only two losing records.
McGraw led the Giants to first place each year from 1921-1924, becoming the only National League manager to win four consecutive pennants.
He returned in 1933 to manage the National League squad in the inaugural All-Star Game.
John McGraw died February 25, 1934, in New Rochelle, New York.
He was elected to Hall of Fame in 1937.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: R
reserve clause
A traditional provision in a player’s contract that bound, or “reserved,” the players services for the following season. It gave the club the right to invoke the expired contract for an additional year even if the player and the team had not come to terms on a new contract by a specific date. It amounted to a “perpetual contract” under which the player was the property of the club, which could elect to keep, trade, or sell his contract. Team owners long insisted that this was needed to keep the leagues from being wrecked in bidding wars. The reserve clause was twice upheld by the Supreme Court in1922 and again 1971.
Until the 1970s, owners and players alike behaved as though the reserve clause gave a club perpetual rights to all players it had under contract. After the 1975 season, pitchers Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith, who had never signed contracts for 1975, argued before an arbitrator that the reserve clause gave teams only the right to renew their contracts for one season, after which the club lost its exclusive rights to their services and they were free to negotiate with any club. The arbitrator agreed. The reserve clause was finally overturned by a series of court decisions at lower levels. Its destruction ushered in the free-agent era in baseball. In subsequent Basic Agreements, the players agreed to reinstate the reserve clause, but in a more limited form, which now allows all players with six years of major-league experience to become free agents when their contracts expire.
And now for the ninth inning…
Continuing our trip around baseball cities…
No tour for this game. I would, however, like to invite you to listen to Exhibition Game #??. The game is about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
For those of you that want to stick around, here’s an
Extra Inning
Last month I attended the Portable Media Expo in Ontario CA. I am a member of the OC Podcasters group. At the Expo our group had a booth and members took turns recording from the booth. On the first day of the show, I had the opportunity to record as a part of a history segment. Jason Watts from History Podcast and Matt Dattilo from Matts Today in History and I spent about an hour discussing history and podcasting. It was a real pleasure for me because I regularly listen to Jason and Matt’s shows.
Keep in mind that the segment is about history and podcasting not about baseball. So, if it is baseball that you want, ignore that show and go on to the next one.
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- John McGraw,
Baseball Dictionary-Reserve Clause
Tour- Invitation
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