Entering May, the Pacific Coast League had already completed more than 30 games, while the Major Leagues had played only a maximum of with Detroit having completed 8 games due to rainouts etc.
The PCL standings through April 30 were:
Portland 21 12
Oakland 17 15
Sacramento 18 16
LA 17 16
Seattle 17 16
Hollywood 14 17
San Diego 14 17
San Francisco 12 31
Hollywood will be hosting Oakland for a series this week, while the Angels will be travelling to San Francisco for a series with the Seals.
Meanwhile, in the Big Leagues the standings are as follows:
National League
Boston 10 5
St. Louis 6 3
Brooklyn 8 5
Philadelphia 7 6
Chicago 5 5
Pittsburgh 5 5
Cincinnati 4 7
New York 3 12
American League
Cleveland 7 3
Washington 7 3
New York 8 4
Boston 7 4
Chicago 6 4
Detroit 3 5
St. Louis 4 8
Philadelphia 1 12
On April 30, 1951 the only game scheduled was at Ebbets Field. The Giants beat the Dodgers 8-5 in front of 33,962 fans. The game took 3 hours and 10 minutes to play. The Dodgers used a total of 6 pitchers and needed 3 pitchers just to get out of the first inning, the Giants scoring 6 runs in the first and 2 more in the second.
The reason that there was only one game on April 30th is that it was a Monday. The Dodgers and Giants were completing a 3 game series that ran Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
To give you an idea of the importance of the Dodger-Giant rivalry in New York in the 1950s, the Dodgers averaged 28,000 for the 3 game series against the Giants at Ebbets Field in April. For the rest of their home games in April they averaged about 17,000. The Giants averaged about 12,000 for their home games in April at the Polo Grounds against the Braves, but 32,000 for the Dodgers. The capacity of the Polo Grounds was about 55,000 and Ebbets Field about 32,000.
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The PCL in 1951
Opening Day for the1951 season is only 2 days away. There will be only one game on April 16th: the Cincinnati Reds will host the Pittsburgh Pirates at Crosley Field for the traditional opener. The rest of the Major League teams will open on April 17th, more than two weeks later than the opening of the 2011 season.
Meanwhile, on the west coast, the Pacific Coast League (PCL) season was already under way. So here is a brief introduction to the 1951 Pacific Coast League.
In 1951, the Pacific Coast League was a AAA league, the highest minor league classification at the time. However, baseball had become big time on the west coast, and the PCL was petitioning Organized Ball to achieve Major League status. The league was never a Major League, but in 1952 they were declared an “Open League” putting them above the other AAA leagues. They maintained that classification through the 1957 season when it was announced that the Brooklyn and New York National League franchises would be moving west to become the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants respectively.
The eight teams that comprised the PCL in 1951 were the Hollywood Stars, Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Oaks, Portland Beavers, Sacramento Solons, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Seals, and Seattle Rainiers. They were all truly Pacific Coast Teams.
You probably recognize that six of those eight cities now have Major League teams. The 2011 version of the Pacific Coast League has 16 teams from Sacramento and Tacoma to Iowa and New Orleans. There are still vestiges of the 1951 PCL with a team in Sacramento, the Tacoma Rainiers, and the Tucson Padres. The Portland Beavers were replaced this year by the Omaha Storm Chasers.
Three of the ballparks that were used in the 1951 PCL season eventually became Major League ballparks, if only briefly:
The Los Angeles Angels of the PCL played at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, which became the home of the 1961 Los Angeles Angels of the American League (the next year they were tenants at Dodger Stadium and played there until Anaheim Stadium was ready for action in 1966);
For two seasons, in 1958 and 1959, the Giants played in San Francisco’s Seals Stadium, longtime home of the San Francisco Seals;
The third old PCL ballpark to be used as a Major League field was Seattle’s Sick’s Stadium (try to say that without spraying) home of the Rainiers. No, it wasn’t the original home of the Seattle Mariners. It was the home of the 1969 Seattle Pilots of the American league, an expansion team that was bankrupt by the end of the season, sold to a group headed by current baseball commissioner Bud Selig, and moved to Milwaukee to become the Brewers.
The other ballparks in the 1951 PCL included:
Gilmore Field, home of the Hollywood Stars and now the site of CBS Television Studios
Oaks Ball Park, home of the Oakland Oaks. Oaks Ball Park was demolished in 1955 to make room for a Pepsi bottling plant which was later torn down to build Pixar Animation Studios.
Lucky Beavers Stadium, home of the Portland Beavers.
Edmonds Field, home of the Sacramento Solons
Lane Field, home of the San Diego Padres and the field where Ted Williams first played professional baseball.
There were a number of big time baseball names among the managers of the PCL teams in 1951:
Hollywood – Fred Haney, who managed the Milwaukee Braves to a World Series victory over the Yankees in 1957;
Seattle – Rogers Hornsby, a Hall of Famer whose lifetime batting average of .358 is second only to Ty Cobb;
Oakland - Mel Ott, a Hall of Fame player with 511 career homeruns;
San Francisco – Lefty O’Doul a San Francisco native who began his career as a pitcher, but a sore arm turned him into an outfielder. In 1929 he hit .398 with 254 hits (still tied for the all-time National League record), 32 homeruns, 122 rbi, and 152 runs.
There will be more about the Coast League teams, their managers and ballparks as the season progresses and the Stars and Angels host, and visit, the other cities of the 1951 Pacific Coast League.
Meanwhile, on the west coast, the Pacific Coast League (PCL) season was already under way. So here is a brief introduction to the 1951 Pacific Coast League.
In 1951, the Pacific Coast League was a AAA league, the highest minor league classification at the time. However, baseball had become big time on the west coast, and the PCL was petitioning Organized Ball to achieve Major League status. The league was never a Major League, but in 1952 they were declared an “Open League” putting them above the other AAA leagues. They maintained that classification through the 1957 season when it was announced that the Brooklyn and New York National League franchises would be moving west to become the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants respectively.
The eight teams that comprised the PCL in 1951 were the Hollywood Stars, Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Oaks, Portland Beavers, Sacramento Solons, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Seals, and Seattle Rainiers. They were all truly Pacific Coast Teams.
You probably recognize that six of those eight cities now have Major League teams. The 2011 version of the Pacific Coast League has 16 teams from Sacramento and Tacoma to Iowa and New Orleans. There are still vestiges of the 1951 PCL with a team in Sacramento, the Tacoma Rainiers, and the Tucson Padres. The Portland Beavers were replaced this year by the Omaha Storm Chasers.
Three of the ballparks that were used in the 1951 PCL season eventually became Major League ballparks, if only briefly:
The Los Angeles Angels of the PCL played at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, which became the home of the 1961 Los Angeles Angels of the American League (the next year they were tenants at Dodger Stadium and played there until Anaheim Stadium was ready for action in 1966);
For two seasons, in 1958 and 1959, the Giants played in San Francisco’s Seals Stadium, longtime home of the San Francisco Seals;
The third old PCL ballpark to be used as a Major League field was Seattle’s Sick’s Stadium (try to say that without spraying) home of the Rainiers. No, it wasn’t the original home of the Seattle Mariners. It was the home of the 1969 Seattle Pilots of the American league, an expansion team that was bankrupt by the end of the season, sold to a group headed by current baseball commissioner Bud Selig, and moved to Milwaukee to become the Brewers.
The other ballparks in the 1951 PCL included:
Gilmore Field, home of the Hollywood Stars and now the site of CBS Television Studios
Oaks Ball Park, home of the Oakland Oaks. Oaks Ball Park was demolished in 1955 to make room for a Pepsi bottling plant which was later torn down to build Pixar Animation Studios.
Lucky Beavers Stadium, home of the Portland Beavers.
Edmonds Field, home of the Sacramento Solons
Lane Field, home of the San Diego Padres and the field where Ted Williams first played professional baseball.
There were a number of big time baseball names among the managers of the PCL teams in 1951:
Hollywood – Fred Haney, who managed the Milwaukee Braves to a World Series victory over the Yankees in 1957;
Seattle – Rogers Hornsby, a Hall of Famer whose lifetime batting average of .358 is second only to Ty Cobb;
Oakland - Mel Ott, a Hall of Fame player with 511 career homeruns;
San Francisco – Lefty O’Doul a San Francisco native who began his career as a pitcher, but a sore arm turned him into an outfielder. In 1929 he hit .398 with 254 hits (still tied for the all-time National League record), 32 homeruns, 122 rbi, and 152 runs.
There will be more about the Coast League teams, their managers and ballparks as the season progresses and the Stars and Angels host, and visit, the other cities of the 1951 Pacific Coast League.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
1951 - The Cities
1951 - The Cities
In 1951, only 10 American cities could boast Major League Baseball franchises. Sure there were 16 teams, but New York had 3 teams, and Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis each had 2.
I was curious about the population of those great American cities in 1950 and how they grew during the second half of the 20th Century to become the cities that they are today. I found more than a few surprises.
It was no surprise that the Major League cities in 1950 were among the largest cities in the U.S. However, Los Angeles and San Francisco were ranked in there as well.
The smallest of the Major League cities was, and continues to be Cincinnati. In 1950, the city of Cincinnati, Ohio had a grand total of 504,000 inhabitants, compared to 7.9 million in the Big Apple and nearly 2 million in Los Angeles. By 2010, Cincinnati had declined to 297,000. However, the Cincinnati metropolitan area has more than doubled in that time, from 813,000 to 2.1 million residents.
The populations of the 10 Big League cities in 1950:
New York 7.9 million
Chicago 3.62 million
Philadelphia 2.1 million (Los Angeles had 1.97 million)
Detroit 1.85 million
Cleveland 915,000
St. Louis 857,000
Washington 802,000
Boston 801,000
Pittsburgh 677,000
Cincinnati 504,000
In the 60 years since the 1950 season, some of the cities have grown, as have all of the metropolitan areas of those cities. But many of the cities themselves have declined in population, some of them substantially.
The gainers, cities whose populations have grown since 1950:
New York – today the population is 8.175 million, a 3.5% growth since 1950.
Yes, surprisingly, of the cities with Major League teams in 1950, only one, New York has had the city’s population increase in 60 years, and even then only by 3.5%.
Not so surprising is the fact that both Los Angeles and San Francisco had their populations grow during those six decades; Los Angeles grew by more than 92% and San Francisco by about 4%.
The decliners – Big League cities whose populations declined between 1950 and 2010:
Chicago – down 25%
Philadelphia – down 27%
Detroit – down 61%
Cleveland – down 56%
St. Louis – down 62%
Washington – down 25%
Boston – down 23%
Pittsburgh – down 55%
Cincinnati – down 63%
That seems to be a pretty bleak report card for major cities in the U.S. However, when you look at the growth in their metropolitan areas, the picture is much brighter.
The metropolitan areas of all the major league cities grew mightily in the 60 years since 1950:
New York metro area grew by 75% from 1950 to 2010
Chicago metro area grew by 85%
Philadelphia metro area grew by 97%
Detroit metro area grew by (yes, even Detroit) 79%
Cleveland metro area grew by 97%
St. Louis metro area grew by 87%
Washington metro area grew by 546% (big surprise that DC has grown more than anywhere)
Boston metro area grew by 217%
Pittsburgh metro area grew by 75%
Cincinnati metro area grew by 158%
And Los Angeles metro area grew by 323% - Welcome to Hollywood!
In 1951, only 10 American cities could boast Major League Baseball franchises. Sure there were 16 teams, but New York had 3 teams, and Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis each had 2.
I was curious about the population of those great American cities in 1950 and how they grew during the second half of the 20th Century to become the cities that they are today. I found more than a few surprises.
It was no surprise that the Major League cities in 1950 were among the largest cities in the U.S. However, Los Angeles and San Francisco were ranked in there as well.
The smallest of the Major League cities was, and continues to be Cincinnati. In 1950, the city of Cincinnati, Ohio had a grand total of 504,000 inhabitants, compared to 7.9 million in the Big Apple and nearly 2 million in Los Angeles. By 2010, Cincinnati had declined to 297,000. However, the Cincinnati metropolitan area has more than doubled in that time, from 813,000 to 2.1 million residents.
The populations of the 10 Big League cities in 1950:
New York 7.9 million
Chicago 3.62 million
Philadelphia 2.1 million (Los Angeles had 1.97 million)
Detroit 1.85 million
Cleveland 915,000
St. Louis 857,000
Washington 802,000
Boston 801,000
Pittsburgh 677,000
Cincinnati 504,000
In the 60 years since the 1950 season, some of the cities have grown, as have all of the metropolitan areas of those cities. But many of the cities themselves have declined in population, some of them substantially.
The gainers, cities whose populations have grown since 1950:
New York – today the population is 8.175 million, a 3.5% growth since 1950.
Yes, surprisingly, of the cities with Major League teams in 1950, only one, New York has had the city’s population increase in 60 years, and even then only by 3.5%.
Not so surprising is the fact that both Los Angeles and San Francisco had their populations grow during those six decades; Los Angeles grew by more than 92% and San Francisco by about 4%.
The decliners – Big League cities whose populations declined between 1950 and 2010:
Chicago – down 25%
Philadelphia – down 27%
Detroit – down 61%
Cleveland – down 56%
St. Louis – down 62%
Washington – down 25%
Boston – down 23%
Pittsburgh – down 55%
Cincinnati – down 63%
That seems to be a pretty bleak report card for major cities in the U.S. However, when you look at the growth in their metropolitan areas, the picture is much brighter.
The metropolitan areas of all the major league cities grew mightily in the 60 years since 1950:
New York metro area grew by 75% from 1950 to 2010
Chicago metro area grew by 85%
Philadelphia metro area grew by 97%
Detroit metro area grew by (yes, even Detroit) 79%
Cleveland metro area grew by 97%
St. Louis metro area grew by 87%
Washington metro area grew by 546% (big surprise that DC has grown more than anywhere)
Boston metro area grew by 217%
Pittsburgh metro area grew by 75%
Cincinnati metro area grew by 158%
And Los Angeles metro area grew by 323% - Welcome to Hollywood!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Introduction to 1951 Season Blog
I am making a major project of following the 1951 baseball season.
Inspired in part by the song “Talkin’ Baseball” with a chorus which includes “Willie, Mickey, and the Duke”, I was looking for a season with those three Hall of Famers on the field at the same time in New York. I was also looking for a season to compare the New York teams (Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees, with the Los Angeles teams (Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels) of the Pacific Coast League (PCL). It needed to be a season when Minor League Baseball was still a major deal.
1951 was a season with one of the greatest numbers of minor leagues in the history of Organized Baseball. In fact, the PCL was such a big deal that it was petitioning Organized Ball to be considered a Major League. While that didn’t happen, in 1952 the PCL was promoted to “Open” status, basically removing it from the restrictions imposed on the other AAA leagues.
As it turns out, 1951 was also my first baseball season: I was born in Los Angeles on December 1, 1950. Duke Snider was patrolling center field in Brooklyn. It was the Rookie Year for Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, and the final year for the great Joe DiMaggio. It was also a season with great drama.
There were a total of 57 minor leagues in 9 classifications: 3 Class AAA leagues, 2 Class AA leagues, 4 Class A, 9 Class B, 13 Class C, 19 Class D leagues, 3 Foreign leagues, 3 Independent leagues, and the Negro American League.
Today there are 28 minor leagues including 7 Independent leagues not affiliated with Major League Baseball. The classifications have changed as well. Gone are the B, C, & D classifications and replaced with classifications like Rookie league. In addition to the 7 Independent leagues, there are 3 AAA leagues including the Mexican League, 3AA leagues, 3 Advanced A leagues, 2 A leagues, 2 Short Season A leagues, 4 Rookie leagues, 2 Foreign leagues (Japan), and 2 Foreign Rookie Summer leagues in the Caribbean.
In 1951, the Brooklyn Dodgers had 19 minor league teams, the Yankees had 16, and the Giants 15. Today the Dodgers have 7 minor league affiliates including the Dominican Summer League.
Inspired in part by the song “Talkin’ Baseball” with a chorus which includes “Willie, Mickey, and the Duke”, I was looking for a season with those three Hall of Famers on the field at the same time in New York. I was also looking for a season to compare the New York teams (Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees, with the Los Angeles teams (Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels) of the Pacific Coast League (PCL). It needed to be a season when Minor League Baseball was still a major deal.
1951 was a season with one of the greatest numbers of minor leagues in the history of Organized Baseball. In fact, the PCL was such a big deal that it was petitioning Organized Ball to be considered a Major League. While that didn’t happen, in 1952 the PCL was promoted to “Open” status, basically removing it from the restrictions imposed on the other AAA leagues.
As it turns out, 1951 was also my first baseball season: I was born in Los Angeles on December 1, 1950. Duke Snider was patrolling center field in Brooklyn. It was the Rookie Year for Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, and the final year for the great Joe DiMaggio. It was also a season with great drama.
There were a total of 57 minor leagues in 9 classifications: 3 Class AAA leagues, 2 Class AA leagues, 4 Class A, 9 Class B, 13 Class C, 19 Class D leagues, 3 Foreign leagues, 3 Independent leagues, and the Negro American League.
Today there are 28 minor leagues including 7 Independent leagues not affiliated with Major League Baseball. The classifications have changed as well. Gone are the B, C, & D classifications and replaced with classifications like Rookie league. In addition to the 7 Independent leagues, there are 3 AAA leagues including the Mexican League, 3AA leagues, 3 Advanced A leagues, 2 A leagues, 2 Short Season A leagues, 4 Rookie leagues, 2 Foreign leagues (Japan), and 2 Foreign Rookie Summer leagues in the Caribbean.
In 1951, the Brooklyn Dodgers had 19 minor league teams, the Yankees had 16, and the Giants 15. Today the Dodgers have 7 minor league affiliates including the Dominican Summer League.
Monday, August 2, 2010
What This Blog Is About
Baseball...duh!
I will be talking about baseball, especially commenting on the history of the game, how it has changed, and how it should be changed. I am a baseball traditionalist, but also practical. I am fascinated by some of the marvelous and crazy things that have happened in the American National Pastime, the characters, stadiums and teams. I can remember attending games at Gilmore Field in Los Angeles, home of the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League, when it really was the Pacific League. I was a charter member of the Junior Angels Fan Club when the Angels joined the American League in 1961. I saw my first major league game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and was one of the 93,000 at the Coliseum on the night that the Yankees and Dodgers played an exhibition game to benefit Dodger Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campenella who had been paralyzed in an auto accident in the winter between the '57 and '58 seasons. I also had a great uncle, my father's uncle who was a major league player with a career .333 average: 1 for 3 with the Cleveland Indians at the end of the1928 season.
I bought my first two baseball cards from a machine in front of a liquor store near my grandmother's house in what is now the city of West Hollywood, California, in 1957, the year before the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. One of the cards was of Pee Wee Reese, the Brooklyn Dodgers' Hall of Fame shortstop and captain. The other card was either Bob Miller, a right-handed pitcher for the Phillies, or Robin Roberts, also a right handed pitcher for the Phillies and a Hall of Famer at that. I don't remember which Phillie pitcher's card I got that day, but I vividly remember what the baseball card looked like (I can remember what a lot of players cards looked like back in the day, when kids collected cards because they liked collecting cards; who knew that they would be worth money some day). For years I thought that it was Robin Roberts, and I thought how unbelievable it was to have my first two cards be Hall of Famers. It may have been Roberts, but years later, at a baseball card show, I saw the 1957 baseball cards and Roberts and Miller had identical poses. I will never know which one I had in 1957, but I have them both now.
Future posts will include commentary on collecting baseball cards in the late 50s and early 60s, my first awareness of Hank Aaron, how the All Star Game should be changed, and how the game has changed. I hope to make a major project of commentary on the 1951 baseball season, beginning with Opening Day in 2011, the 60th anniversary of the 1951 season, and focusing on the New York teams and the Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League.
If you are a fan of baseball who loves the history of the game as well as the day to day angst of following your favorite team, I hope that you will enjoy this blog.
I will be talking about baseball, especially commenting on the history of the game, how it has changed, and how it should be changed. I am a baseball traditionalist, but also practical. I am fascinated by some of the marvelous and crazy things that have happened in the American National Pastime, the characters, stadiums and teams. I can remember attending games at Gilmore Field in Los Angeles, home of the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League, when it really was the Pacific League. I was a charter member of the Junior Angels Fan Club when the Angels joined the American League in 1961. I saw my first major league game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and was one of the 93,000 at the Coliseum on the night that the Yankees and Dodgers played an exhibition game to benefit Dodger Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campenella who had been paralyzed in an auto accident in the winter between the '57 and '58 seasons. I also had a great uncle, my father's uncle who was a major league player with a career .333 average: 1 for 3 with the Cleveland Indians at the end of the1928 season.
I bought my first two baseball cards from a machine in front of a liquor store near my grandmother's house in what is now the city of West Hollywood, California, in 1957, the year before the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. One of the cards was of Pee Wee Reese, the Brooklyn Dodgers' Hall of Fame shortstop and captain. The other card was either Bob Miller, a right-handed pitcher for the Phillies, or Robin Roberts, also a right handed pitcher for the Phillies and a Hall of Famer at that. I don't remember which Phillie pitcher's card I got that day, but I vividly remember what the baseball card looked like (I can remember what a lot of players cards looked like back in the day, when kids collected cards because they liked collecting cards; who knew that they would be worth money some day). For years I thought that it was Robin Roberts, and I thought how unbelievable it was to have my first two cards be Hall of Famers. It may have been Roberts, but years later, at a baseball card show, I saw the 1957 baseball cards and Roberts and Miller had identical poses. I will never know which one I had in 1957, but I have them both now.
Future posts will include commentary on collecting baseball cards in the late 50s and early 60s, my first awareness of Hank Aaron, how the All Star Game should be changed, and how the game has changed. I hope to make a major project of commentary on the 1951 baseball season, beginning with Opening Day in 2011, the 60th anniversary of the 1951 season, and focusing on the New York teams and the Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League.
If you are a fan of baseball who loves the history of the game as well as the day to day angst of following your favorite team, I hope that you will enjoy this blog.
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