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 77 of the 2006 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 5 week of December.
December 31,
1966 After fifteen years with the Braves, Eddie Mathews along with Sandy Alomar, Sr. and Arnie Umbach, is traded to the Astros in exchange for outfielder Dave Nicholson and right-hander Bob Bruce. The future Hall of Fame third baseman is the only person to play for the Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves.
Edwin Lee Mathews was born October 13, 1931 in Texarkana, Texas. Eddie was six years old when his family moved to Santa Barbara, California where he developed into a star high school player. Signed by the Boston Braves in 1949, he continued to shine in their farm system as a left-handed power-hitting third baseman who hit towering home runs. A natural athlete blessed with tremendous power, a rifle arm, and a durable body, Mathews was the premier third baseman of his era and a key member of the Braves teams of the late 1950s.
Heavily scouted in high school, Mathews signed with the Boston Braves in 1949 on the night of his high school graduation. He and his father had scouted major league rosters and had decided that Boston’s Bob Elliott was the third baseman most likely to be replaced in a few years. In less than three years Mathews was starting at third for the Braves; he kept the job for fifteen years and two franchise shifts. Ironically, Mathews played for minor league teams in Atlanta and Milwaukee on his way up.
Mathews’s ascension in the majors coincided with the decline of the Boston Braves. A shy twenty-year-old, he grew up quickly in the empty confines of Braves Field, and while the team slumped to seventh place, he provided one of the few bright spots for the future along with shortstop Johnny Logan and pitcher Lew Burdette. Mathews’s 25 Home Runs in 1952 included tape measure shots in Philadelphia, St. Louis and Cincinnati, plus three homers on September 27 in Ebbets Field.
In his second year the franchise moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he batted for a .302 season average, hit 47 home runs, and drove in 135 runs. He became a star virtually overnight. The Braves shot to second place and were contenders through the rest of the decade.
The fast start enjoyed by Mathews is still unsurpassed in baseball history. He hit 190 home runs in his first five seasons, putting him far ahead of Ruth at age 25, and piled up impressive Runs Batted In totals, although his average remained below .300 in most seasons.
After losing the pennant to the Dodgers by a single game in 1956, the Braves came back the following year with a seven-game World Series triumph over the Yankees. Mathews won Game Four with a 10th-inning home run and his backhanded grab of Bill Skowron’s shot down the line closed off the Yankees in Game Seven. Despite hitting only .227, four of Mathews’s five hits were for extra bases. His .292 average, 32 homers and 94 Runs Batted In contributed greatly to the Braves’ regular season success.
In 1958 Mathews suffered through a subpar season at the bat, hitting only .251, and the Braves’ one-year reign as World Champions ended with a Yankee win in seven games. Mathews could only manage a .160 average and struck out 11 times. Although he rebounded to a career high of .306 with a league-leading 46 Home Runs and 114 Runs Batted In in 1959, the Braves were beaten by a rejuvenated Los Angeles Dodgers team in a two-game playoff series.
From 1959 on, Mathews’s home run totals steadily declined. With the one exception of 1965, when he belted 32 – they dropped from 46 down to 10 in his last season as a regular. He continued to play third base regularly but he reflected the Braves team as a whole: respectable, but not good enough to contend.
A final 1966 season with the Braves permitted Mathews to play in Atlanta, thus becoming the only three-city ballplayer with the same franchise. After Mathews hit .250 with 16 Home Runs he was traded to Houston. He had little success in the Astrodome and in July 1967 he was traded to Detroit, which hoped he would regain his former power down the short right-field line in Tiger Stadium, but Mathews produced just nine homers in a year and a half.
In 1967, Eddie Mathews became only the seventh player to hit 500 career home runs. When he retired he was seventh in all-time home runs. Over his seventeen-year major league career, he was named to the All-Star team nine times, hit 512 home runs, played in three World Series, and drove in 100 or more runs five times. As the one-two punch for the Milwaukee Braves, from 1954 to 1966 he and teammate Hank Aaron hit 863 homers, moving ahead of the duo of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the Yankees as the all-time leaders in major league history.
Mathews retired as a player after the 1968 season with final appearances in two post-season games for the World Series champion Detroit Tigers but came back to manage the Atlanta Braves from 1972 to 1974. He was the manager when Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run.
In 1978 Eddie Mathews was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
Mathews died February 18, 2001 at age 69 in La Jolla, California.
In this inning instead of the Baseball Dictionary I’d like to share these three little tidbits of trivia about Eddie Mathews.
On September 11, 1966, Mathews was Nolan Ryan’s first-ever strikeout victim.
He is the only player to play for the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta.
He is also the only player to play, coach, and manage for the same baseball team.
As one of 1954′s superstars in American sports, Eddie Mathews was chosen for the cover of the first-ever issue of Sports Illustrated magazine.
And now for the ninth inning…
Continuing our trip around baseball cities…
This team from history was a part of the Negro Baseball Leagues.
The Homestead Grays club is, perhaps, black baseball’s most storied franchise. Formed in 1912 by Cumberland Posey, the Grays would be in continuous operation for 38 seasons.
Favoring independent play to the constraints of a league structure Posey abstained from participation in league play until 1932 when he himself organized the ill-fated East-West League. Reflecting the economic plight of the nation at that time the league collapsed before completing its first and only season.
Ultimately recognizing the financial benefits of affiliating with a strong league organization, Posey entered his Grays in the Negro National League in 1935. While the all-star lineup of the Pittsburgh Crawfords kept the Grays well out of pennant competition during their first two seasons in the NNL, the tide turned in 1937.
With the near collapse of the Crawfords, Josh Gibson returned to the Grays in 1937 and combined with slugger Buck Leonard to power the Grays to nine consecutive Negro National League championships and three Negro World Series titles.
After the collapse of the Negro National League after the 1948 season, the Grays struggled to continue as an independent club, but ultimately disbanded at the close of the 1950 season.
During the late 1930s through the 1940s the Grays played their home games at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, during this same period the club adopted the Washington, D.C. area as its “home away from home” and scheduled many of its “home” games at Washington’s Griffith Stadium, the home park of the Washington Senators.
For those of you that want to stick around, here’s an
Extra Inning
Well, this is the last game of the 2006 baseball season. I’ve enjoyed recording this first season of BHP. What’s to come for 2007? Well, a new numbering system. I’m not sure what it will be but will find out with Game 1 of the 2007 baseball season.
For those of you that care, Game 0068, Sandy Koufax, just recently surpassed Game 0009, Roberto Clemente, as the most listened to show. Two all time great ball players and true sports heroes.
I’d like to invite you to check out a new baseball podcast. It’s called Just Baseball Podcast and can be found at justbaseballpodcast.com. It’s hosted by Dennis Cheatham of StarStruck, The Houston Astros Podcast and by me. It’s long distance friends and baseball fans talking baseball, just baseball. Check it out.
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- Eddie
Mathews,
Baseball Dictionary- Mathews Trivia,
Tour- Homestead
Grays
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