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 72 of the 2006 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 4 week of November.
November 27
1950 Former Cleveland shortstop standout Lou Boudreau signs a two-year contract with the Red Sox for $150,000.
Louis Boudreau was born July 17, 1917 in Harvey, Illinois.
He won the 1944 American League batting title with a .327 batting average and also led the league in doubles in 1941, 1944, and 1947. He led American League shortstops in fielding 8 times. After his playing and managing career, he was a long-time radio color commentator for the Chicago Cubs of the National League.
Lou was captain of the basketball and baseball teams at the University of Illinois when he signed an agreement to join the Cleveland Indians following graduation. Big Ten officials ruled him ineligible for amateur participation for the remainder of his college career.
Free to work to work with the pros, Boudreau made his Major League debut on September 9, 1938 for the Cleveland Indians when he appeared in one major-league game as a pinch-hitter.
In 1939 he started with the Buffalo Bisons of the International League. Originally a third baseman/catcher, Boudreau was moved to shortstop where he gained attention for solid batting and adept fielding, particularly in turning double plays. He was called up to Cleveland in the second half of the season.
Boudreau quickly became regarded as one of the best all-round shortstops in the game, combining solid fielding with a good batting average and run production.
In 1940, Boudreau’s first full season, he was named to the American League All-Star team and hit .295 with 101 RBIs. Cleveland struggled through a lackluster 1941 season, and in 1942 Boudreau was named player-manager. At 24, he was the youngest ever to manage a major-league team from the outset of the season.
The innovative Boudreau oversaw the transformation of Bob Lemon from an infielder to a pitcher.
He was also the inventor and most ardent practitioner of the “Williams shift” or sometimes referred to as the “Boudreau shift.” He would stack all but one defensive player on the right side of the field when Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox would come to bat in certain situations.
However, Boudreau but was unable to lift the Indians out of the middle of the pack.
One key moment came on a July night in 1941, when his young ballclub put the stopper on Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. Boudreau himself fielded the ground ball that DiMaggio hit in his last at-bat in that game.
His shortstop play continued to win plaudits. He compensated for limited range by intelligent positioning and sure hands, and he led AL shortstops in fielding eight times.
In 1944 he led the American League in batting with a .327 batting average and 45 doubles. He was second in the league with a .406 on base percentage and scored 91 runs.
Each year from 1946-48 he was the most difficult ballplayer in the league to strikeout, striking out only 9 times in 560 at bats in ’48.
When Bill Veeck purchased the Indians in 1946, he planned to replace Boudreau as manager. When word leaked out, a public clamor arose and Boudreau was retained.
In 1948, he had a .355 batting average and a .454 on base percentage, both 2nd in the league, behind Ted Williams. He hit 18 homers, batted in 106 runs, and scored 116. He was voted that year’s American League Most Valuable Player.
On August 8, 1948, he was sidelined with an ankle injury for a doubleheader with the Yankees before 73,484 Indian fans at Municipal Stadium. With the Tribe trailing 6-4, he limped to the plate and delivered a game-tying single. Cleveland swept the twin bill.
He led the Indians to a first-place tie with the Boston Red Sox. He then got 4 hits in an easy win in a one-game playoff at Fenway Park. The Indians went on to defeat the Boston Braves 4 games to 2 win the World Series.
After being traded to Red Sox in 1951, Boudreau played one more season and then became full-time manager of the Red Sox the next year. Unfortunately, the Sox were a team in decline. After three uneventful seasons in Boston, and three downright miserable seasons trying to skipper the hapless Kansas City Athletics, Boudreau hung up his managerial cap for good, or so he thought, and latched on as a color announcer for his hometown team, the Cubs.
A month or so into the 1960 season, P.K. Wrigley, the owner of the Cubs coaxed Boudreau out of the announcers booth to manage the ever-struggling Cubs. After the season Boudreau went back to the booth for good, and Wrigley began his famous, or perhaps infamous, 5-year experiment called the College of Coaches.
One of the greatest shortstops in Cleveland history, Boudreau saw his number 5 retired and the street bordering Municipal Stadium renamed Boudreau Boulevard.
He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970. That same year Boudreau had his # 5 retired by the Cleveland Indians.
Lou Boudreau died August 10, 2001, in Frankfort, Illinois.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: P
Pickle
a play in which a base runner is trapped between bases with fielders tossing the ball back and forth and usually ending with the runner being tagged out.
And now for the ninth inning…
Continuing our trip around baseball cities…
Japanese Professional Baseball
Baseball has been a popular sport in Japan for over a century since its introduction in 1872. It is played at all age levels but most widely in junior high schools and senior high schools.
The highest level of competition is the professional league, started in 1920.
Baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 by Horace Wilson, and its first formal team was established in 1878. For almost 30 years, until 1906, a game could be viewed freely, as it was considered shameful to take money for doing something the players liked. In 1907, the first game was held that had a fee to watch. From 1908, several U.S. professional teams made tours and had a match against amateur teams made up mostly by university students.
Realizing that a professional league was necessary to improve, two professional teams were established in 1920. The first professional league disintegrated in 1923 for financial reasons, and after repeated attempts to revive a professional league, it formally disbanded in 1929.
In 1936, seven teams formed the Nippon Professional Baseball League. Briefly forced to stop playing for a year beginning in 1944, it restarted on November 6, 1945, and a full season was played the next year. In 1950, the league split into the Central and Pacific Leagues.
The first American players came to Japan in 1959. Pitcher Glenn Mickens and catcher Ron Bottler signed with the Kintetsu Buffaloes. Bob Alexander, a pitcher, joined Mickens and Bottler later the same season. Mickens had refused to sign a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers for 1959 when the club assigned him to the minor leagues. Under the reserve clause, Mickens had to choose between the minors or retirement. Unable to become a free-agent in the United States, Japan proved to be an alternative to returning to the minor leagues for Mickens. He would play five seasons in Japan, through the 1963 season, going 45-51 with a career 2.50 ERA.
The professional season starts in Japan in late March or early April and ends in October with two or three all star games in July. The best teams from each league go on to play in the Japan Series.
In later BHP games I will focus in on individual Japanese professional teams.
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- Lou
Boudreau,
Baseball Dictionary-Pickle
Tour- Japanese Baseball
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