One of my earlier posts talked about Jackie Robinson and Leo Durocher and how things might have been different for Jackie if he had the bold and brash Leo Durocher leading interference for him back in 1947…
We Made It! Happy Opening Day!
For old-time baseball fans like us, if there’s a better day of the year than Opening Day, I’m not sure what it is!
Baseball’s First Professional Championship…Sort Of!
oday Ron Christensen returns with an interesting account of one of the first precursors to the modern playoff series: the Brooklyn Atlantics vs. the Philadelphia Athletics, played in 1866. As you read Ron’s essay, you’ll get the sense of how popular baseball was even back then, as it developed over the ensuing decades into the National Pastime…
![A “Promising Young Rookie” Fills in for Bobby Thomson! [Hint: Initials “H.A.”]](https://www.baseballhistorycomesalive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/1-aaron5.jpg)
A “Promising Young Rookie” Fills in for Bobby Thomson! [Hint: Initials “H.A.”]
Yesterday was the anniversary of a significant day in baseball history, but it’s safe to say nobody knew it at the time. Seventy-two years ago yesterday, March 14, 1954, a promising 20-year-old from Mobile, Alabama – fresh from the Negro Leagues – started his first game in a Braves’ uniform, filling in for Bobby Thomson, who had broken his ankle the day before…
Cubs Spring Training on Catalina Island!
How many baseball fans are aware that for over 30 years, the Cubs held Spring training on their own private paradise? The spot was Santa Catalina Island, located in the Pacific Ocean, 25 miles off the coast of Los Angeles.
Ted Williams Injured on the First Day of Spring Training, 1954!
oday is the anniversary of an important date in the career of Ted Williams, but one that I’m sure, if he were alive, he’d rather not talk about. I recently learned that on March 1, 1954, seventy-two years ago today, Ted broke his collarbone on the first day of spring training when he stumbled in the outfield shagging a line drive during batting practice. This unfortunate injury, coming after surviving two plane crashes and after flying thirty-nine combat missions during the Korean War, kept Ted out of action for the first four weeks of the 1954 season…
