In an era long ago, Republicans had a majority in the New York State Assembly. But Democrats were better at baseball. [Read more…] about Some 1896 Lighter Side of Political History Anecdotes
Brooklyn Dodgers
Bear Mountain Dodgers: Spring Training in the War Years
After the cold, and snowy winter we experienced this year in the Empire State, it is difficult to imagine a major league ballclub preparing for the season by holding Spring Training in upstate New York.
Many contingencies emerged from the privations which occurred on the home front during World War II. [Read more…] about Bear Mountain Dodgers: Spring Training in the War Years
Breaking Baseball’s Color Barrier at Bear Mountain State Park
In 1997, Major League Baseball (MLB) took the unprecedented step of retiring Jackie Robinson’s number 42 across the entire league – except for one day a year. On every April 15, the number is everywhere as all MLB teams take the field and all players and managers wear 42 to commemorate the day that the “color barrier” was broken and remember the extraordinary man who broke it.
Since the end of the 1800s, Black players had been barred from Major League Baseball and its antecedents through an unspoken but stringently enforced agreement. Several unsuccessful attempts had been made to integrate the league, but by the 1940s momentum started to swing. [Read more…] about Breaking Baseball’s Color Barrier at Bear Mountain State Park
Sunday Baseball and the Titanic Game
Through the nineteenth century in the Empire State a system of “blue laws” at every civic level were enforced, prohibiting all types of activities on the Christian Sabbath. As the twentieth century began, these “blue laws” prevented Sunday baseball.
The sport of baseball had swept the nation, and was popular since the Civil War; played anywhere a bat and ball could be put in use. Americans were baseball mad, they had the fever, and had it bad. [Read more…] about Sunday Baseball and the Titanic Game
October 8, 1953: Jackie Robinson Banned From Playing Interracial Baseball
On October 8, 1953, in Birmingham, Alabama, Police Commissioner Theophilus Eugene Connor (1897-1973), known as Bull Connor, announced that a planned All-Star baseball game organized by Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) — almost a decade after he integrated Major League Baseball — would not be permitted to play in the city. [Read more…] about October 8, 1953: Jackie Robinson Banned From Playing Interracial Baseball
Opening Day at Ebbets Field: Making Baseball History in Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a historic place, but a special history-making event took place on April 5, of 1913: Opening Day at Ebbets Field.
By the end of the 19th century, baseball had become a very popular sport in New York State as well as elsewhere in the nation. There were organized amateur or semi-professional teams in just about every New York city. Thousands of people attended games. Big cities had professional teams. [Read more…] about Opening Day at Ebbets Field: Making Baseball History in Brooklyn
Nice Guys Finish Last: The Baseball Classic by Leo Durocher
The history of baseball is rife with colorful characters. But for sheer cantankerousness, fighting moxie, and will to win, very few have come close to Leo “the Lip” Durocher. Following a five-decade career as a player and manager for baseball’s most storied franchises, Durocher teamed up with veteran sportswriter Ed Linn to tell the story of his life in the game.
The resulting book, Nice Guys Finish Last (University of Chicago Press, 2009), is baseball at its best, brimming with personality and full of all the fights and feuds, triumphs and tricks that made Durocher such a success—and an outsized celebrity. [Read more…] about Nice Guys Finish Last: The Baseball Classic by Leo Durocher