After finishing the 1984 season second only to the Chicago Cubs in the NL East, the Mets front office felt that a veteran catcher who could hit as well as he performed behind the plate was in order. That’s where Carter stepped in. Frank Cashen, the general manager of the Mets at the time, was convinced that Carter would be the missing piece for a franchise anxious to return to the glory days of the late nineteen-sixties and early seventies. In Cashen’s mind, acquiring an All-Star catcher with a million-dollar smile would be the solution that would knock some of the rust off his team caused by a near-decade of irrelevance.

In Carter’s first game as a Met, on April 9, 1985, he hit a tenth inning walk-off home run on Opening Day against, none other than, Neil Allen. Maybe Cashen and the Mets were on to something, I thought. Frankly, as a young Mets fan, I probably didn’t even realize the ramifications of what Carter had just accomplished. At nine, the only thing I’d check the newspaper for was the box score not what had actually gone on during the game. Understanding the dramatics of baseball had not quite sunken in for me yet. Really, I passed out during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Don’t worry I was lucky enough to wake up in time to see the ball go through Bill Buckner’s legs.

Oh, those were the days when Carter’s bushy red-orange locks would be bouncing up-and-down as he rumbled into second base standing up, clapping his hands after smacking an RBI double. “Great days, indeed,” if you don’t mind me stealing a line from John Lennon. And I was just a bright-eyed little kid back then in Queens, NY, who was proud to call the Mets, his team to beat. I thought these guys would live forever. Carter as well as other players during that amazing World Series run of 1986 will always be immortalized in the minds of Mets fans. There’s no denying that. Carter was definitely an integral part if not the catalyst for the team’s success that year. However, believing that now pains me to read of the unfortunate turn that Carter’s health has taken of late. Being such a well-liked player in his day, then as a coach, it does not seem fair.

I’ve been reading Kimmy Carter’s blog, Gary’s daughter. The situation has gone from bad to worse. I’m hoping for the best for him. But however her father comes out of this, as Mets fans, we will always remember those fond memories of the mid-eighties. How her father’s enthusiasm and passion not only led his team into baseball’s record books but ignited a city in the process. There has been a lot of debate among Mets fans on whether the Mets organization should retire Carter’s uniform number eight. If they do decide to go for it, they’d better get cracking. I believe they should. It’s the least they could do to appease what has become a very disgusted fan base. I think it may bring Mets fans together in a positive light.

Here’s to you Gary, the Expos’ greatest Met. Wish you well and hope you get better soon.

AC – Mets Public Record

The Winter Issue and Convention Guide is available for FREE download here:

http://gothambaseball.com/GB006_WINTER2011.pdf

Gotham Baseball covers the past, present and future of New York baseball, and in this latest issue, which features a pair of aces; New York Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia and New York Mets southpaw Johan Santana. Gary Armida profiles Sabathia’s return in “The Big Man is Back”, while Healey opines that for the Mets, “The Ace is The Whole”.

Also in the issue:

The Catcher Says Bye – Yankees catcher Jorge Posada is retiring. Armida takes a look at his great career.

The Magic is Back? – Joseph M. Lara tries to make some sense of the current Mets by looking at the past Mets.

Reading By The Hot Stove – Jerry Milani reviews some of his top choices for offseason reading.

The issue also includes a comprehensive guide to the three-day event, which will once again feature some of the world’s top baseball instructors in a range of settings, including new Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, New York Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long, pitching guru Rick Peterson and softball star Jennie Finch.

Baseball Digest’s online editor Mark Healey, who is the founder of Gotham Baseball, will also be in attendance, manning BD affiliate Gotham Baseball’s booth with GB Co-Publisher Joseph M. Lara.

The Winter Issue and Convention Guide is available for FREE download here:

http://gothambaseball.com/GB006_WINTER2011.pdf

For more info visit the official site for the event or call 860.674.1500

The greatness and prestige begins with Cornelius McGillicuddy, Sr, who after spending more than a decade as a player in the National League,  managed the minor-league Milwaukee Brewers for four seasons. With the advent of the American League in 1901, “Connie Mack” became manager, treasurer, and part owner of the new Philadelphia Athletics. He would go on to win – and lose – more games than any manager in major league history. Mack would also build, break down, and rebuild World Series-winning teams before settling into a nearly two-decade long routine of losing games and cashing dividend checks. A team that got off to a good start, but finished fourth, he once said, would be the best kind of team to have.

“A team like that will draw well enough during the first part of the season to show a profit for the year, and you don’t have to give the players raises when they don’t win.” – Connie Mack

Still, Mack won. From 1901-1914, the A’s won three World Series, six pennants, posted two second place finishes and had just one losing season. After getting swept 4-0 in the 1914 World Series, by the “Miracle” Boston Braves, an angry Mack dealt or sold away all of his best players. After a decade of losing, the franchise enjoyed another remarkable stretch from 1925-1933, including two World Series titles, three AL pennants and four second place finishes.

Sadly, the Mack club would never again rise to prominence after 1933, and would only post two seasons with winning records (1949-50) before the club was sold to Arnold Johnson in 1954 and he moved it to Kansas City.

The team’s shift from Philadelphia is long forgotten for most of today’s baseball fans, and predated the Dodgers and Giants shift from New York to the West Coast by three years. There have been no songs, books or poetry written to mourn the loss of the Philadelphia A’s, so we won’t attempt to do so here. However, despite all of the years that they occupied the second division of the AL, Connie Mack’s White Elephants also fielded some of the best nines ever to play the game.

Despite efforts to keep the club in the City of Brother Love, the Mack heirs finally sold the club to Arnold Johnson who would move the A’s to Kansas City to serve as a glorified farm team to the New York Yankees. It would be an insurance salesman named Charlie O’ Finley who would move the franchise to Oakland, change the A’s forever.

As defacto GM, O’Finley would build baseball’s last “real” dynasty. He would also open the door to a baseball future that would drive him from the game.  Finley finally got out in August of 1980, selling the club to Walter J. Haas, who controlled the Levi-Strauss empire. The club had finished 54-108 in 1979, so Finley had hired Billy Martin to run the whole operation. At first, the move was genius. Martin, the Oakland native, was 83-79 in his initial season, and followed it up by winning a share of the division title in the strike-shortened 1981 season. But the winning came with a price, because as the returning hero, Martin filled his front office and scouting department with cronies rather then the best people he could find. The result was chaos, and the new ownership group started giving more and more responsibility to young executive Sandy Alderson, a Dartmouth grad and ex-Marine.

When the bubble burst after a 68-94 season in 1982, Alderson would take over in 1983. It had been a three-year roller-coaster ride with Martin, who was also the club’s GM for the 1981 and 1982 seasons, but there was more to come.

Alderson would preside over four straight losing seasons while he rebuilt the A’s, finish at exactly .500 in 1987, and would win three pennants and one World Series during 1988-1990. Five losing seasons would follow before he gave way to his young assistant, who would become of the most talked about GMs in baseball history.

Billy Beane’s “Moneyball” fame has led to a change in the game of baseball we see being played today, surely, but for all of the praise, Hollywood treatment and near-Messiah status among the new baseball intelligencia, the pennants and World Series titles are non-existent. The franchise may eventually move to San Jose, a move that many feel would create the kind of revenue streams that would allow Beane to finally build a winner. But until that happens, to mention Beane in the same sentence as Connie Mack, Charlie Finley – or even Sandy Alderson – isn’t remotely fair.

And now, here are the All-Time Athletics:

Franchise Player – Rickey Henderson

“The only thing I wish I could figure out is how I got misunderstood regarding the type of person I really am and what I accomplished … Just because I believed in what I was doing on the field and dedicated myself to playing the game, does that mean I’m cocky? Does that mean I’m arrogant? People who played against me called me cocky, but my teammates didn’t.  I brought attention, fear.” — Rickey Henderson, Baseball Digest (Feb. 2003)

Let’s put a couple of things in perspective in regards to Rickey Henderson. Yes, he could be churlish and indifferent, a showboat whose “snatch catches” drove managers and teammates insane. But he was the best leadoff hitter in baseball history and a lethal weapon for nearly every one of the 3081 career games he played in. He was the last of Finley’s great players, signed as a high schooler from the Oakland streets, and made his debut in 1979. From 1979-1984, he stole over 100 bases three times, scored more than 100 runs four times, and did not have a an OBP lower than .398 in any of those seasons, save for his rookie year. He would return after a stint for the Yankees, where would score almost 300 runs in his first two seasons there, and arrived back in Oakland in time to help them win the 1989 World Series against the Giants. Of his 25 seasons, Henderson would play 14 of them in an Oakland uniform. He is the franchise leader in walks, runs scored and stolen bases. Only Bert Campaneris has more hits and games played in team history.

1B – Jimmy Foxx

Like Henderson, economics caused the exile of this homegrown HOFer to Boston in 1934, but before he left, “Double-X” proved he was the best first sacker in A’s history. He played 11 years for the Philadelphia A’s, in a town where the Phillies were an afterthought. From 1925-27, he would have three unremarkable cups of coffee with the big club, if you consider getting big-league at-bats at the ages of 17, 18, 19 unremarkable. As a 20-year old in 1928, he hit .328 with 13 Home runs and 79 RBIs with a .416 OBP in a little over 400 at-bats. The next year, he would hit at least 30 homers, drive in at least 130 runs and hit over .300 every year except 1931. Some of the seasons contained within that stretch are some of the most incredible years ever put together by a single player.

2B – Eddie Collins

As a GM, Eddie Collins helped delay the breaking of baseball’s color barrier in Boston. As a player with the 1919 “Black Sox”, he is best-known among today’s fans as they player who “ratted” out the eight men who would ultimately be banned for life by Judge Landis. But in 13 years as an Athletic, Collins would hit .337 with a .423 OBP. Though he made more than his fair share of errors, he also posted impressive fielding numbers during his career, and is considered more than just a passbale defensive player. Comparatively, when the Oakland A’s website decided to put together it’s All-Time “Oakland A’s” team, the best 2B they could come up with was Mark Ellis, who hit .265 with a .331 OBP in his A’s career.

3B – Sal Bando

Carney Lansford (10 seasons, .288/.343/.404 with 201 HRs and 548 RBIs) is a popular pick among many contemporary A’s fans, and if we cared about being contemporary, we might have picked him over Bando. But Bando (.259/.359/.418 with 212 HRs and 796 RBIs) was the captain of the team that won three straight World Series. Arguably, As far as the postseason goes, Bando’s numbers are remarkably similar to his career numbers, as are Lansford’s, with the former hitting more postseason home runs and the latter hiting for a higher average. Still, while Lansford was a very good player, and often underestimated, there are no ties in baseball, our pick is Bando.

SS- Bert Campenaris

“Dagoberto” is the all-time franchise leader in games played and hits. Bruce Markusen writes an excellent quick bio here. In an era where we judge players by their size and/or by the numbers that they post, “Campy” might not even get a chance to play at the minor league level, least of all the bigs. Traditional scouts would probably look at the 150-160 pound frame he carried throught his career as far too frail, but he stole a lot of bases, and scored a lot of runs and played on three straight World Series winners. Miguel Tejada will get some votes here as well, but like Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, Tejada’s Oakland career — while worth discussing — can’t truly be considered as “All-Time” player until evidence of PEDs can be truly measured. Outside of Tejada, Mike Bordick had some decent years in Oakland, and Chick Galloway did as well in Philadelphia from 1919-1927, but we’ll take Bert.

C- Mickey Cochrane

When people talk about the best catchers of all time, Yogi Berra, Roy Campenella and Johnny Bench are often the most mentioned, and rightfully so. All three are Hall of Famers, World Series champions and won multiple MVPs. Mickey Cochrane is as well known for being the player that Mutt Mantle named his son for as he is for winning the AL MVP in 1934 for Detroit in 1934. Yet when you look at his nine seasons in Philadelphia, wjere he hit .321/.412/.490 with an OPS of .902, he has to be in the conversation.  Terry Steinbach, despite a few good offensive years in Oakland, is just not the player Cochrane was.

LF- See Henderson, Rickey

CF- Dwayne Murphy

Unlike many of our picks here, Murphy did not play for a winner. His lone appearance in the postseason was 1981, and he subsequently played for losing teams thereafter. For his A’s career, spanning 10 seasons, he hit .247 with 153 homers, 563 RBIs and played a very good defensive CF as well. In 1984 he hit 33 homers with 88 RBI, his best season ever.

RF – Reggie Jackson

Most fans think of Reggie Jackson as “Mr. October” of the “Bronx is Burning” Yankees and his wars with Billy Martin. But Reggie was another of Charlie Finley’s HOFers who played nine seasons for the A’s before playing his five-year stints at New York and California. During those nine-years, he fought with hks teammates, won three World Series, including winning both the AL MVP and World Series MVP in 1973. That year, he hit .310 with six RBIs against the Mets, who should have selected him in the 1966 MLB draft, but according to rumors, declined to pick him because he was dating a white woman. Instead, Charlie Finley picked him, and a Hall of Fame career started. His A’s totals are 269 HRs and 776 RBIs over 10 seasons. His final season, fittingly, was played in Oakland, in which he still managed to hit 13 homers and 43 RBIs.

RHSP – Chief Bender

Tim Hudson has pitched longer for the Atlanta Braves now then he did for the Oakland A’s, and as much as we’d like to put him or Catfish Hunter into this spot, it’s hard to argue that anyone but Bender would be the top right-handed starter for any All-Time A’s club. His 38.1 WAR is higher than either Hudson or Hunter, and while Eddie Rommell and Rube Waddell’s WAR numbers are higher than Bender’s, he was a more valuable pitcher to the A’s during his career than Rommell. Waddell only pitched six years in an A’s uniform, and Bender — who was the right-handed complement to Eddie Plank — ranks only behind Plank and Lefty Grove in all-timer wins by an A’s pitcher.

LHSP – Lefty Grove

This is perhaps the hardest decision on the list; Eddie Plank or Lefty Grove? Plank is the franchise leader in WAR, post a 63.9 mark over 3860.2 innings and posting a 284-162 record with a 2.39 ERA. Grove (195-79, 2.88 ERA) is second all-time in WAR among A’s starters, a 59.6 mark over 2401 IP. Each won a pair of World Series with the A’s, and each was sent packing by Connie Mack once their prices went up. Ultimately, the decison comes down to this; Grove, in our opinion, was more dominant during his career. He didn’t pitch as long, but had better individual seasons against his peers than Plank.

Closer – Dennis Eckersley

“Eck”  is in the Hall of Fame because he revolutionized the closer position, aided and abetted of course by Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan. His ridiculous numbers are evidence alone. In 1989 he threw 57.7 innings, struck out 55, walked only 3.  The next year, he posts a 0.60 ERA over 73.3 innings, 72 strikeouts ant issues just 4 walks.  Sure, Rollie Fingers pitched more innings in his A’s career, and won three World Series with the “Swingin’ A’s” and gets major points for that, but Eck was more than just dominant, he was virtually unhittable for a few years.

Manager – Connie Mack

For of his faults, and he had many, Mack simply was better at his job than any other A’s manager. He beat Yankees teams that had Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and he beat Red Sox teams that had dominated the AL for years. Had he been a tad more visionary, could have begun another dynasty that would have saved AL baseball in Philadelphia, but that reality doen’t obscure his accomplishments. Dick Williams was incredible, but couldn’t work for Finley. Perhaps if he had stayed, maybe the A’s win four straight titles instead of three. As impressive as La Russa’s run as A’s manager was, his teams should have won more. Losing to the 1988 Dodgers and the 1990 Reds while boasting the array of talent he had at his disposal hurts his case.

For information and reservations call 914.668.9580 or log onto www.bgcmvny.com.

Singleton is in his 10th season as a New York Yankees analyst for the YES Network alongside Michael Kay, and also handles play-by-play duties for the network.

“We are delighted to honor Ken Singleton at our 100th Anniversary Gala,” said Boys & Girls Club President Danny Sawh, and Executive Director Lowes Moore in a joint statement. “His outstanding career on the baseball diamond and in the broadcast booth have distinguished him as a true champion. The Boys & Girls Club of Mt. Vernon has been a bulwark against delinquency and a recreational outlet for youngsters for a century, and we hope today’s youngsters will follow in his giant footsteps.”

Raised in Mount Vernon, Singleton played both baseball and basketball in high school, and also played baseball in the Bronx Federation League at Macombs Dam Park, across the street from Yankee Stadium. After receiving a basketball scholarship to Hofstra University and playing baseball as well for one year, Singleton was drafted by the Mets in 1967.

Denzel Washington

In April 1972, he was traded to the Expos and, in 1974, was traded to the Orioles. His .438 on base percentage (in 1977), 118 walks (in 1975) and 35 switch-hit home runs (in 1979) are all still Orioles single season records.

Singleton is one of only six players in Major League Baseball history to hit 35 or more switch-hit homers in a season. During his career, Singleton was named to the American League All- Star Team in 1977, ’79 and ’81. He was named Most Valuable Oriole in 1975, ’77 and ’79.

Singleton received the Roberto Clemente Award from Major League Baseball — the highest off-the-field honor in baseball — in 1982. The award recognizes the player who best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team.

He retired after the 1984 season as a three-time All-Star with a 1983 World Championship ring.

Before joining YES, Singleton divided his time calling play-by-play and providing commentary on Yankees telecasts on the MSG Network. In 1998, he was part of MSG’s production team that won four New York Emmys for its Yankees coverage.

Singleton joined the MSG Network in 1997 from The Sports Network (TSN), where he served as analyst for the Montreal Expos from 1985 to 1996. From 1991-96, he also called play-by-play and served as analyst for CIQC Radio, the Expos’ flagship radio network. In 1996 and 1997, he was named by FOX Sports as a lead analyst for Saturday afternoon baseball broadcasts. In 1997 and 1998, he worked as an analyst for Major League Baseball International.

I was the first player drug-tested in baseball, and I am the one who asked for it.” – Babe Dahlgren

The recent news that 2011 MVP Ryan Braun is appealing a failed “banned substance” test wasn’t expected, but after hundreds of failed tests for recreatiional or performance-enhancing drugs for baseball players, even the fact that a reigning MVP not thought to be the strerotypical behemnoth wasn’t all that’s shocking.

Let’s face it, we live in an era where its hard to imagine people choosing integrity over the millions that can be made with the popping og a pill or the injecting of a needle. Ryan Braun may indeed be innocent, and if he is, he will have the power, resources and platform to defend himself.

Some other players never got that opportunity.

There was another player who once took a drug test, the first one in known baseball history. It was paid for by then-MLB Commisioner Judge Kenesaw Moutian Landis, and it came back clean. For some reason, Landis and several of the commisioners that followed him, refused to make the results public, or provide ther player with some level of justice.

Instead, Babe Dahlgren, once considered the best fielding first baseman in baseball, was sentenced to a life as a baseball vagabond,  and even after his playing days, plagued with the inaction of a baseball industry that turned it back on him a long time ago.

The whole story is chronicled in the book, Rumor In Town: A Grandson’s Promise to Right a Wrong, written by Dahlgren’s grandson, Matt Dahlgren.

Sadly, two of the most respected figures in baseball history played a large role in Dahglren’s misery, and it is perhaps that reality which is responsible for the lack of coverage and discussion of these events.

From Gotham Baseball’s Spring 2011 Issue, “Going Nine: The Other Babe”

“The guy can do everything, and I have a hunch that he invents plays as he goes along. If an old-timer were to swear to me on a stack of testaments that there was every a greater defensive first baseman than Ellsworth ‘Babe’ Dahlgren of the Yankees I wouldn’t believe him.” John Lardner, The New Yorker, June 13, 1940

According to Matt Dahlgren, Babe was also the victim of a vicious rumor, that he was a marijuana smoker. Mike Lynch of Seamheads.com summarized it best, stating that the rumor was “started by a Hall Of Fame manager, perpetuated by a Hall of Fame executive, and buried by a Hall Of Fame Commissioner.”

Dahlgren started his career in the Boston Red Sox system and was poised to become the team’s first baseman until the Bosox got Philadelphia A’s slugger Jimmie Foxx. Babe hoped for a trade and got one, to the Yankees, where Lou Gehrig was entrenched. Determined to prove that he belonged, Dahlgren took his game to the Yankees’ top farm team in Newark in 1937, where he hit. 340 for the Bears, one of the greatest minor league champions in baseball history.

He would make the Yankees in 1938 as a utilityman, but played in just 27 games, mostly as a pinch-hitter. In 1939, he would make the most of an opportunity he desperately wanted, he just hated the way it happened.

Replacing Gehrig, Dahlgren hit a home run, a double off the top of the fence and two drives that were caught against the fence in a 22-2 rout over Detroit. “I especially admired Gehrig because he was a first baseman like me,” Dahlgren told Newsday’s Joe Gergen in 1988. “I never dreamed one day I’d be in New York to take the man’s place.”

He would hit only .235 that year for the Yanks, but he would hit 15 home runs and drive in 89 runs batting seventh or eighth in a powerful lineup. In the World Series that year, Dahlgren would hit his only World Series home run, helping the Yankees sweep the Reds. The future looked bright for the 27-year old Dahlgren. Then he went home to San Francisco, and his life would never be the same.

Local legend Lefty O’Doul hated the fact the Joe McCarthy, and not he was the manager of the New York Yankees, telling anyone who would listen that “Ol’ Marse Joe” was a bush-button manager and that anyone could manage the Yankees. An Associated Press photographer took a picture of Dahlgren receiving batting tips from O’Doul at a off-season (the reality was that they barely talked that day). Combine the cracks that O’Doul made that day, “The Yankees have to send me their players to learn how to it.” a thin-skinned heavy drinker in McCarthy, and a now-veteran first baseman who was well-liked by his teammates and the local press, and you had the makings of a very bad situation.

Dahlgren had another solid year in 1940, hitting .263 / 12/ 73, and played a brilliant first base, but when the Yankees did not win the pennant. McCarthy seemed to blame Dahlgren, citing a key error down the stretch that cost the Yankees a ball game.

He was sent to the Boston Braves in 1941, and was dealt midway in the season to the Cubs, where he really played well, hitting .263 / 23/ 89 for the season. While he was having the best year of his career to date, McCarthy was telling the New York sportswriters – who all liked Dahlgren, thought he was a superb first baseman, and were watching Johnny Sturm hit just .235 with no power and nowhere near the glove – that Dahlgren’s arms were too short to play first base.

Really.

The longer the season wore on, the longer it looked like McCarthy had had a personal beef with Dahlgren, and the writers pressed McCarthy on the trade. Now, remember, it was the 1941 season, and Joe DiMaggio was setting his magical streak and Ted Williams was hitting .406 for the Red Sox. Dahlgren was happy in Chicago, playing well and finally getting the accolades he deserved.

Then, almost instantly, Dahlgren would spent the rest of his career, from 1942, getting traded from Chicago to St. Louis to Brooklyn (where Branch Rickey would accuse him of smoking marijuana, the first time Dahlgren would hear of the rumor) to Philadelphia (where he became an All-Star) to Pittsburgh (where he would drive in 101 runs and hit .289 in 1944) and finally back to St. Louis, where he would finally be discarded.

In the midst of the incredulous rumor, Dahlgren informed then-Commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis of the rumor, and the Judge, according to the book, paid all the expenses for what would prove to be a “clean” drug test for Dahlgren. But Landis and every subsequent Commissioner – up until his death in 1996 – failed to address Babe’s cause.

Dahlgren also died not going who had started the rumor. He had always assumed that it was Rickey, because of the way the situation had played out. It wasn’t until his grandson Matt, who wanted to write the manuscript that would become “Rumor in Town” (Babe’s original manuscript, as well as a letter from Landis proving the rumor existed, were lost in a fire at Babe’s home in 1980), that the origin of the rumor surfaced.

Dahlgren was doing research for his book when someone suggested the aforementioned Marty Appel, arguably the preeminent Yankees historian, for stories about his father.

Appel told him about a conversation he had with New York Times sportswriter John Drebinger in 1973, recalling McCarthy talking to a small group of baseball insiders at the end of the 1940 season. McCarthy, Appel remembered Drebinger telling him, noted that the Yankees would have won the pennant in 1940 had it not been for an error that Dahlgren made in a late-season game against Cleveland. “Dahlgren doesn’t screw up that play if he wasn’t a marijuana smoker.”

Tired of being made a fool for suggesting that the obviously proportionally-limbed Dahlgren’s arms were more than long enough, McCarthy decided to spread a rumor so incredible, so scandalous that few would ever repeat it. But the ones that did cost a good man his career.

“Rumor in Town” might be a promise by a grandson to his grandfather to right a terrible wrong, but one would hope that it also motivate Major League Baseball to right a terrible injustice. To date, the case is one that MLB doesn’t feel needs to be reopened.. And that is a big a tragedy as was the rumor that cost Babe Dahlgren his career.

Diana Munson, Thurman’s widow, will attend her 32nd straight benefit, having been involved since its inception, raising nearly $10 million to assist children and adults who have intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Thurman Munson Awards are presented for success on the fields of play and philanthropic works off the field

The AHRC New York City Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that supports programs enabling children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to lead richer, more productive lives, including programs of AHRC New York City.  AHRC New York City is one of the largest organizations of its kind, serving 11,000 children and adults who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injuries and other disabilities.

photo courtesy Yogi Berra Museum

The  list of notable athletes to previously receive the Munson Award reads like a sports “Who’s Who,” and includes: Yankees – Yogi Berra, Don Mattingly, Mariano Rivera, Willie Randolph, Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada, Robbie Cano, Bernie Williams, Bobby Murcer, Joe Torre, Joe Girardi and Nick Swisher; Mets – Tom Seaver, John Franco, Darryl Strawberry, Mike Piazza, Ron Darling, David Wright, Carlos Beltran,  Keith Hernandez, Rusty Staub and Gary Carter;  Basketball – Willis Reed, Oscar Robertson, Dave DeBusschere,  Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe, “Dr. J”  Julius Erving, Sen. Bill Bradley, Mark Jackson, Charles Oakley, Allan Houston and John Starks.

The Legend Award has been presented periodically and its previous recipients have included: Ralph Branca and Bobby Thomson (2001) in celebration of the 50th anniversary of “Shot Heard ‘Round the World”; former Mets ace relief pitcher and native New Yorker John Franco (2004) in recognition of his community service in his hometown; and former Yankee and Thurman teammate Lou Piniella (2010) upon the 30th Anniversary of the Munson Dinner.

We caught up with then-FA, now Texas Ranger Joe Nathan at the dedication of “Joe Nathan Field” at Stony Brook University, chatted with MLB.com’s Jay Berman about the Hot Stove, and I ranted about the lack of inclusion of African-Americans in ther MLB managerial interview process.

As always, we had the the Mazer Moment, voiced by legendary broadcaster Bill Mazer, recalls the 1961 HR chase between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

Watch Episode 2 Here

Each year, MLB celebrates “Jackie Robinson Day“, rightfully commemorating the moment that changed baseball — and America — forever.  Each year, the “Civil Rights Game” is played, to further honor those who fought for civil rights on and off the field.

The declining number of black players is a troubling issue, but it’s becoming clear — especially during this offseason — that opportunities for a black man to manage a baseball team is getting harder as well.

When it came time to hire five new managers this offseason, only one qualified black candidate was even contacted; DeMarlo Hale, who received a phone call from new Cubs GM Jed Hoyer, who was instructed to do so from new Cubs President Theo Epstein.

“He kind of falls into the Terry Francona category, where we know each other so well that we don’t need to put him through the entire process,” Epstein said. “Jed interviewed DeMarlo because he hasn’t been with him for a couple years, and I know him really well. DeMarlo’s a great coach and grew up in Chicago, and it was worthwhile hearing from him.”

Five vacancies. Dozens of interviews. One phone call.

Epstein revealed the Hale interview call on Nov. 14, 2011. The date of the so-called “interview” was not revealed, but I think it’s safe to say that it was conducted after I wrote this on Nov. 4:

Yes, there have been reports that Theo Epstein could “consider” bringing in Hale for an interview, but no commitment has yet been made. Even if it is, most feel he has little chance. So, there is a very good chance that with five managerial openings, only one African-American candidate will be interviewed.

Frank Robinson was MLB's first black manager

I recently spoke with a former baseball executive, whose identity I will keep to myself, who admitted that while the inclusion of qualified minority candidates (Sandy Alomar, Jr. and Dave Martinez), was a “good thing”, the lack of interviews for qualified black candidates like Bo Porter, Terry Pendelton and Willie Randolph was “troubling”.

“Willie should definitely be considered for another manager job,” he said. “He’s a great baseball guy, with plenty of experience and had some success in New York.”

Randolph spent the 2011 season on Buck Showalter’s staff in Baltimore, after two years as bench coach in Milwaukee. His tenure in New York as Mets manager had some highs (2006 NL East title) and some lows (2007 stretch drive, Tony Bernazard), but it’s hard to argue with his record (302-253, .544). He hasn’t been interviewed for a managerial opening since. Yet, Gene LaMont got two interviews and was a finalist for the Red Sox job.

Gene LaMont.

“It’s almost like a curse for a manager, because once you’ve had a taste of that — I’m not saying I can’t do what I’m doing, but it’s tougher, because you still have your own ideas, you still have your own mind-set, you still have a feel of how you would do things,” Randolph told the New York Times this past summer. “You’re loyal to the people you work for, but you still itch and burn.

“I’ve always been a competitor, and I talk to my guys about competition and how you want to be the best. For me, you want to get back to that, because I know I’m going to be better, and I know that I’ll be able to get more out of my players than I did the first time because of the experience.”

Perhaps if Terry Pendelton were white, he’d be considered a career baseball guy who’s ready to take the next step, rather than a guy who just gets mentioned as a “minority” candidate every few years or so. A former MVP who won Gold Gloves, played in five World Series and was an All-Star, Pendelton was also considered a leader wherever he played. He didn’t get any calls this offseason either.

The Cardinals interview former Cardinal supersub Joe McEwing and Hall of Fame Cubbie Ryne Sandberg for the job that eventually went to Mike Matheny, but Pendelton didn’t get a call. He’s coached for 10 years in the majors, and with the exception of pulling out of the Nationals manager race a few years ago, hasn’t gotten an interview.

As bad as the omissions of Randolph and Pendelton are (and remember, we are talking about interviews, not hires), the lack of any interest in the up-and-coming Bo Porter seems the most inexcusable.

The worst part about this whole situation is the lack of concern shown by my fellow journalists. With the exception of Jim Duquette (MLB Network Radio / SiriusXM) and Doug Glanville (ESPN.com), not a single national media scribe even had the decency to respond to my direct inquiries. A few local guys, like Steve Popper (a very decent guy who’s been supportive) aren’t sure how to fix the problem. But at least they acknowleged it as a problem.

Teams are free to hire who they deem fit, but to ignore qualified black candidates seems contrary to everything baseball is trying to accomplish.  And people who have the platform to cultivate change need to start doing so.

Five managerial openings. Dozens of interviewa. One phone call.

This cannot happen again.

Every now and again, you come across something truly special.

When you work for Baseball Digest, it doesn’t take much more than seeing our name to grab my attention.  As Grant Brisbee waxed poetic about growing up and his memories of the magazine, it grabbed my attention.  When he went into detail about what he learned from an old Baseball Digest, it captured me.

Grant writes:

Is there anything that Google can’t do? Now there are old copies of “Baseball Digest” floating around on the internet.

Follow @sbnbaseball on Twitter, and Like Baseball Nation on Facebook.

Nov 11, 2011 - When I was growing up, my dad used to bring home copies of Baseball Digest for me from the newsstand. There was something about the magazine that was appealing. Probably all of the baseball stuff. It was more than that, though — the half-size printings made it feel like a magazine that was made just for me. It’s stillavailable in print form, and when you subscribe you get a link to 67+ years of their back issues. Quite nice.

There are also a couple of issues on Google Books, too. The first one I came across was one from 1974, and it blew my mind. Not because it had nifty articles like an argument against the DH, or a first-person narrative from Willie Mays about his four-homer game, but because there was so much I didn’t realize about 1974 and baseball. Here are some of the things I learned:

It was harder to look up baseball information before there was an internet
Obvious, sure, but it’s easy to take for granted. I can look up Luis Tiant’s home and away splits in five seconds right now. I can do it on my phone if I want. Back then, though, it wasn’t so easy. This is from the “Fans Speak Out” section:

Of all the talked-about ballplayers, you always hear names like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams, but I’ve never heard anyone talk about Mel Ott.He was an active major leaguer at the age of 17 and played for the New York Giants. I would like to know of any records Mel has made. Please also give me his major league statistics.

If you ever need to know what the world was like before the internet, there it is. This information-seeking strategy doesn’t work quite as well these days. I’ve tried it.

You can read the rest of Grant’s article by clicking here.

Thanks for the shout-out, Grant and thanks for your thoughts, they are much appreciated.

Bill Ivie is the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com and the founder of i70baseball.com, an official Baseball Digest website covering the Cardinals and Royals.

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A ball signed by Ruth and other members of the 1928 World Series champions, wire-to-wire winners who validated what essentially the same squad had accomplished the year before, is one of the highlights among the 400+ pieces available.  Slices of bricks from the Monument Park “retired numbers”  of Ruth and Gehrig, authentic bats and ball signed by DiMaggio and Mantle and game-used items by Jeter and Rivera in their record-setting games are also among the more interesting pieces.

There is even a full, game-used uniform of David Price, the Tampa Bay Rays hurler who surrendered Jeter’s 3,000th hit, for bidders looking for a less glamorous piece of history, but valuable in its own right.

I am all grown up now and sit in my very own big boy chair to watch the games these days.  Tears have been replaced by held breath and fear of a heart attack.  As game six of the 2011 World Series played out before my eyes, the story I was to write today changed rapidly.

There was a play at first base early on that involved Rangers starter Colby Lewis missing the bag.  At full speed, it almost seemed that the Cardinals received a call very similar to the one that Don Denkinger made in favor of the Royals in 1985.  In fact, Lewis missed the bag and the correct call was made.  The image it created in my mind made the night feel a little more magical already.

As the game came to the end of the ninth inning, I have to admit, I lost faith in my team.  I have never left a game early nor do I turn the television off, but the discussion that I had was centered around whether or not we could bare to watch the Rangers celebrate at Busch Stadium.  I wanted to continue watching, interested to see how Albert Pujols would handle walking off the field for possibly the final time as a Cardinal.  Interested as a baseball fan to see who would be named the World Series Most Valuable Player.  Willing to agonize that it was not my team, because I love this game.

Since the end of August, fans of the Cardinals have learned that this team simply will not die.  However, there has been this consistent uneasy feeling that the wheels could fall off of this thing at any given time.  It simply feels like the team is playing with fire, and the old adage goes, you’re going to get burned.  The Rangers took the lead in the 10th inning and the Cardinals came back to the plate.  More specifically, the Cardinals would send Daniel Descalso, Jon Jay, and the pitcher’s spot to the plate.  The situation was bleak.

But Descalso beat one out in the infield and Jay delivered his first hit in the World Series, allowing Kyle Lohse to approach the plate and bunt the runners over.  A run scoring ground out by Theriot yielded my immediate response “Albert is about to be walked”.  In baseball, if the other team’s best player wins the game, someone got out-managed.  If the guy behind him wins the game, that’s part of the game.

As Lance Berkman came to the plate, I honestly had hope.  At the same time, the discussion in the house turned to comments like “I really can’t say that I hate the Rangers” and “if you were going to lose, I cannot think of a better team to lose to.”  Ranger manager Ron Washington employed a “no doubles defense” for the Berkman at bat ensuring that a bloop single would tie the game.  Berkman delivered just that.  As Joe Buck stated about the Cardinals “they just won’t. Go. Away.”

Jake Westbrook put the Cardinals in line to win the ballgame by holding the Rangers scoreless in the eleventh inning.  It set the stage for David Freese to work his own brand of magic.  A hometown kid that grew up in St. Louis and had once walked away from the game completely stood in front of 50,000+ screaming fans with the opportunity to do something very special.  Then he did.

Magic led to more magic.  As the ball cleared the center field fence, goosebumps coming to surface all over my body, I heard Joe Buck channel his father.  In 1991, Kirby Pucket hit a walk off home run in game six of the World Series in front of the hometown Minnesota crowd.  Jack would make the call that day in an excited but deliberate delivery, “We will see you tomorrow night”.  Twenty years later, one day removed from the anniversary of that call, Joe Buck sat next to the same man who was in the booth for his father’s moment and delivered the exact same line.

As game six came to a close, David Freese touched home plate and was mobbed by his teammates.  I sat on the couch, unable to speak.  The only sound in the house came from the television.  The only words I could mutter for more than a few minutes were “one more game”.  It seemed to be the way most fans felt about the entire 2011 season.  One More Game.

As Joe Buck’s iconic call echoed through my mind, as I realized the historic moment I just witnessed, I sat speechless.

Just like that little kid in 1985, a tear rolled down my cheek.

Bill Ivie is the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com and the founder of i70baseball.com, an official Baseball Digest website covering the Cardinals and Royals.

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So who better to capture the essence and flavor of the game than broadcasters, and who better to collect and organize them than Curt Smith, the former Presidential speechwriter who has studied baseball’s mikemen (and women) probably more than anyone else on earth.

His latest work, A Talk in the Park (Potomac Books, 308 pps.), is a set of “as told to” stories of 116 Voices past and present, from Kenny Albert to Bob Wolff, impressively including several notable Hispanic broadcasters.  Even die-hard fans will likely find that most of the stories are new to them, and even the one’s they’ve heard are those that demand retelling.

Figuring out how to place the hundreds of interviews must have been a monumental task, and doubtless there were many others that didn’t make the book.  But Smith’s system works, separating pieces on players, managers, umpires and owners, but also dedicating chapters to comments on Ernie Harwell, to minority broadcasters and to stadia.

Smith draws mainly from his own interviews, borrowing a few from other sources.  Though ostensibly the words of each broadcaster, the passages have Smith’s distinct style: no one uses the colon quite as often.  But the stories are worth fighting through the sometimes jarring technique, and the great diversity of voices, from internationally known Frick Award winners to local names from coast to coast provide plenty of flavor, even a few reminiscences back to the likes of Dizzy Dean, and Wolff taking it back to the turn of the 20th century with thoughs on Clark Griffith.

There is lots of good Bob Uecker and Jon Miller material, and of course Wolff and Vin Scully contribute significantly.  But equally interesting are the stories by Pat Hughes, Ken Korach, Denny Matthews and others who epitomize what a local baseball broadcaster means to a team’s fandom.

And while each of those movies has its virtues, there still has not been a defining film that accurately depicts life in the Negro Leagues.

It’s not that award-winning producer and writer Joe Cacaci (“The Trials of Rosie O’Neill,” “The Hoop Life”) hasn’t wanted to produce such a movie.  For 20 years, the Hollywood studio system had turned his efforts away.

“At first, I pitched the idea as a TV movie, miniseries or series, telling the story week to week,” says Cacaci of Invisible Men, a planned new original film.  “But no one was remotely interested.”

More than a decade later, the dream seemingly put to rest, Cacaci met with Maura Dunbar of Odyssey, with whom he had worked on other projects.  When Dunbar happened to mention the acquisition of the rights to Invisible Men, Donn Rogosin‘s definitive 1983 book on the Negro Leagues and the stories of the men who played, Cacaci almost couldn’t believe it.

“She said they’d like to make the movie, and would I be interested in something like that,” remembered Cacaci.

Needless to say, that request was met with an enthusiastic yes.  There was only one problem.

“I wanted to make it a fictional story based on real characters,” he explained.  “Now I had to figure out how to fit it into a two-hour movie.”

Inspiration came not just from the text of Rogosin’s seminal work, but from a chance invitation to hear the stories of two octogenarian former players speaking to an audience in Hartford, Conn.  Cacaci, then living in California, flew cross-country and heard the story that would shape his screenplay.

Oscar Charleston

“One of the guys talked about how he’d never forget that his mother didn’t want him to go off and play, while his father was enthusiastically behind it,” said Cacaci.  “The mother finally agreed, with the stipulations that he write home every day and go to church every Sunday.  That sense of family is a central part of the movie.”

The hook for the story in place, Cacaci wrote the screenplay, also incorporating elements from extensive research, including lengthy discussions with Rogosin, to enahnce the realism.

The story of Invisible Men centers on the fictitious Clarke family… brothers, Leon and Sam, who play in the Negro Leagues, their sister, Mae and their hard working and very hands-on parents, Henrietta and Charles.  Along with Nat Holmes, a reporter for the Pittsburgh Courier, they are the heart and soul of the movie.  Real life characters who figure into the story include many Negro League luminaries, like star players Paige, Josh Gibson, Buck O’Neil, Buck Leonard, Oscar Charleston, Willie Wells, Jimmy Crutchfield and Cool Papa Bell, and the legendary Negro Leagues owner and organizer, Gus Greenlee.

“Odyssey is delighted to be involved with Invisible Men,” said Dunbar, EVP/Chief Content Officer for Odyssey, who will serve as Executive Producer, along with sports industry veteran Joe Favorito.  “This is very much a film in the Odyssey tradition of television that touches hearts and minds.  It tells a vital chapter not just in sports history but in the American story itself.  People are hungry for heroes today and they are sure to find them in these forgotten giants of the Negro League.”

The film is being billed as the “first-ever feature film account of the personalities that made up the Negro Leagues, and their stories before the integration of Major League Baseball.”  But with baseball movies a tough sell (the international market is limited because of lack of connection with the game overseas), and the dual strikes of it being a period piece and having a mostly black cast working against it in the studio system, it may take a situation similar to that of Eight Men Out, with Hollywood notables getting behind it because of their love of the theme.

Cacaci also believes the movie should be made because the story is about more than baseball.

“This is such an important part of the civil rights struggle,” he added.  “These guys were civil rights activists without carrying signs.  Nothing would be the way it is without them.”

See the new issue of Gotham Baseball at http://www.gothambaseball.com/GB005_FALL2011.pdf

With two teams stacked with pitching and offense, the World Series has offered one of the most compelling match ups in recent years.  Aside from the lopsided 16-7 score of Game 3, the two teams remaining have combined for a total of 18 runs in the other 4 games of the series.  Much of this can be attributed to the great pitching that has kept both of these teams in the series.  There are a pair of players, one of each team, that emphasis the importance and evolution of pitching, and they’ve played for both teams during their careers.

Darren Oliver has held the middle innings together for the Texas Rangers all season long.  Oliver’s dominance in the middle innings was not an overnight discovery, and his career is a terrific example of how the Rangers have evolved over the years.  When Darren Oliver’s career began in Texas during the early 1990′s, he was inserted into the rotation and had moderate success. Like many of the Texas Rangers rotations during the 1990′s, Oliver filled the role as an adequate innings eater supporting an offensive juggernaut that had lineups that included Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez and Dean Palmer.  In his(and the franchise’s) first postseason appearance, he threw 8 innings of 3 run ball in an ALDS loss to the New York Yankees in 1996.

In a July 2004 article in Baseball Digest, Troy Renck of the Denver Post wrote about pitchers like Darren Oliver reviving their careers by adding to their pitching repertoire. Click here to check it out!

Within two years of the postseason appearance, Oliver’s ERA rose to 6.73 during the 1998 season and he was shipped off to the St. Louis Cardinals, which started an seven team(eight, if you include his second tour in Texas) odyssey that lasted a decade and included missing the entire 2005 season. Upon his return to the big leagues in 2006, Oliver became a full time reliever and immediately became a huge component to bullpens in New York and Anaheim.  After three seasons in the Angels bullpen, Oliver joined the Rangers for his third tour. His season ERA has remained below 3.00 during his first two years in Texas, and for the last four years straight.

Darren Oliver’s transformation from mid-rotation starter to bullpen ace has played a role in shedding the long held theory that pitchers can’t succeed in the Texas heat. Despite giving up a home run during Game 3, Oliver remains a key factor in the series. For a half-season Cliff Lee continued to dispel the theory of pitching in Texas as well, helping the Rangers in 2010 to their first World Series berth. Despite Lee’s departure for Philadelphia, C.J. Wilson anchors a new era of pitchers who are defying the Texas heat and pushing the Rangers to the brink of their first title. Derek Holland, Colby Lewis and Alexi Ogando rounded out the rotation with regular season ERAs that sank below 4.00.

The St. Louis Cardinals know all to well about the importance of the relief pitcher, especially with Tony LaRussa at the helm. Aside from his Game 5 bullpen issue involving reliever Jason Motte, LaRussa has mixed and matched his bullpen like he has for his entire career, arguably being the first manager to make a bullpen a focal point of his roster.  One such key component of LaRussa’s bullpen is a player who has been around nearly as long as LaRussa, 42 year old Arthur Rhodes.

Rhodes was a long time member of the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners before becoming a journeyman reliever, logging time with 7 different teams over the last 8 years which included missing the entire 2007 season due to Tommy John surgery. Though he has spent 2 decades in the big leagues and reached the postseason four times before joining the St. Louis Cardinals, the 2011 World Series is a career first for the well traveled lefty.

In a June 2001 issue of Baseball Digest, Bob Finnigan of the Seattle Times wrote about pitchers like Arthur Rhodes dealing with injuries and playing through pain.  Click here to check it out!

His 2011 season may prove to be the most fascinating of his career. He began the season as a member of the Texas Rangers, and struggled mightily in July. He was put on waivers and passed through in mid-August. Just days later, the St. Louis Cardinals scooped up the veteran, who rebounded with a strong finish in August and September. He has seen action just twice, but has rose to the occasion for both batters he faced.  Tony LaRussa has used Rhodes primarily as a left handed specialist since he was acquired, and the choice has paid off nearly perfectly.

With Game 6 pushed back a day, there is little doubt that both Arthur Rhodes and Darren Oliver could see action as the Texas Rangers try to seal their first franchise championship against the St. Louis Cardinals, a team that looks to even the series and prove the pre-season critics wrong in the best way possible, by extending the season by one more game.

Michael Maher is a senior writer for BaseballDigest.com.  He can be reached at MinorLeagueSpotlight@Gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter @BD_Maher and check out his blog.

One hundred thirty-four of the 295 members of the Hall of Fame can be associated with training, playing, visiting or otherwise being in Hot Springs, many from the late 19th Century. Five respected baseball historians have painstakingly documented the Hot Springs connection to what became known as the sport’s spring training.

In Spring 2012, coinciding with MLB spring training, Hot Springs will officially inaugurate The Historical Baseball Trail that documents Hot Springs: The Birthplace of Spring Baseball.

“What began as our curiosity about why there are so many photos of Babe Ruth at various locations in Hot Springs wound up unearthing a treasure trove of historic associations between the world’s most famous baseball players and Hot Springs, Arkansas,” said Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs.

“Things really got rolling in the spring of 2011 when we were able to document that Ruth hit the first 500-foot-plus home run while playing spring baseball at Whittington Park,” Arrison continued. “Bill Jenkinson, one of the pre-eminent baseball historians in the world, came to Hot Springs and helped us authenticate Babe’s legendary 573-foot shot that zoomed over Whittington Park’s fence, across Whittington Avenue and into the Arkansas Alligator Farm.”

After that ceremony, Arrison said, Jenkinson collaborated with Tim Reid from Florida, Don Duren from Dallas, Mark Blaeuer from Hot Springs, and Mike Dugan of Hot Springs to study spring baseball in Hot Springs. The further they dug, the more they began to be amazed by the documented accounts of baseball legends who had come to Hot Springs to play or to relax.

Jenkinson, Reid, Duren and Blaeuer determined that A. G. Spalding and Cap Anson brought the Chicago White Stockings (aka Colts; now called the Cubs) to train and play spring games in Hot Springs in 1886.  The field where they played, known as The Hot Springs Baseball Field and The Hot Springs Baseball Grounds, was located on Ouachita Avenue behind the current site of the Garland County Courthouse.  Other famous names from that original group included are Mike “King” Kelly, John Clarkson and Billy Sunday. Anson’s exploits at this locale on March 28, 1887, included hitting three home runs playing against a team from Des Moines, Iowa.

Tris Speaker

The research turned into a treasure hunt as the historians dug deeper into newspapers across America that contained dispatches about the increasing popularity of spring baseball in Hot Springs.

Eventually, they were able to document more than 300 players, managers, owners, journalists and other famous names associated with baseball in Hot Springs. The city’s importance with the old Negro League was part of their historical documentation.

“The idea emerged that we needed to let the people of America know about the people, places and events that made Hot Springs a key element in the growth of America’s pastime,” Arrison said.

“What we decided to do was gather as many names as could be historically authenticated and try to locate the places where these legends played or relaxed in Hot Springs. We determined to call it the Historical Baseball Trail of Hot Springs: The Birthplace of Spring Baseball.

“We plan to have a starting point in Hill Wheatley Plaza that will have plaques documenting Hot Springs’ role in baseball history and the 300-plus names of those we have been able to authenticate as having been in Hot Springs.

“From there we will have a brochure plus a digital tour guide that will work on smartphones to explain other plaques that denote places throughout Hot Springs where the various legends played or visited. These will include these locations:”

• The old Fogel Field behind the Alligator Farm
• Whittington Park
• Majestic Field
• Old Eastman Hotel location
• Majestic Hotel
• Arlington Hotel
• Oaklawn Park
• Hot Springs Country Club
• Southern Club/Ohio Club
• Bathhouse Row
• Cy Young site (present-day Transportation Depot)
• Sam Guinn Field
• National Baptist Hotel
• Jackie Robinson site at the old Jaycee Field
• Rogers Hornsby (site of Boys and Girls Club)
• Honus Wagner (site of old Elks Club)
• Buck Ewing site (near the Grand Promenade)
• Walter Johnson at the old Hot Springs High School
• Happy Hollow, site of a world-famous amusement park
• Sam (Wahoo) Crawford near the Weyerhaeuser Headquarters
• Smoky Joe Wood at the old Ostrich Farm
• Rabbit Maranville across Central Avenue from Hill Wheatley Plaza
• Mickey Mantle (site to be determined)
• Mel Ott at Whittington Park
• Tris Speaker at the site of the old Masonic Temple at Exchange and Court
• Hank Aaron at Jaycee Field

Baseball changed the rules in 1969.  After years of two leagues and a World Series being played between the winner of each, the game evolved and adopted two divisions in each league.  At the conclusion of the 1969 season, the leagues would each play the first League Championship Series with the winners advancing to the World Series.

The League Championship Series was a best-of-five series from 1969 until 1984 when baseball would make another adjustment, moving it to a best-of-seven.  That change would remain in effect until 1994 when the current format of playoffs would be introduced.  Under the current format, there are three divisions in each league and the winner of each division, as well as the team with the best record of any of the other teams in that league, advance to the postseason.  The first round is a best-of-five series known as the League Division Series and is followed by the best-of-seven League Championship Series and then the World Series.

The history lesson on the postseason now over, let me examine why all of that was important.

On Friday night, the Cardinals and the Brewers advanced to the National League Championship Series by defeating the Philadelphia Phillies and the Arizona Diamondbacks, respectively.  Both League Division Series would need to go the distance, all five games, before a winner was determined.

Normally, as exciting as it is to see your favorite team advance in the postseason, when they have to go the distance in a series, it tends to handicap them going into the next round of the playoffs.  When a team plays a fifth or seventh deciding game, it can wreak havoc on the pitching rotation, the bullpen and even the bench players.  When the opponent also has to go the distance in their series, the advantage is seemingly erased.

The postseason has had multiple rounds since 1969 (see: history lesson, above).  Over the course of the 42 years in which it was possible to play multiple rounds, how many times have two teams faced off after both of them had to go the full distance in the previous round?  Glad you asked…

1972 World Series
Our first occurrence came just a few years after the expansion of the playoff system.  The Oakland A’s would need the full five games to put the Detroit Tigers on the shelf in the American League.  Meanwhile, in the National League, the Cincinnati Reds would take five games to dispose of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The World Series would offer no rest as it took Oakland the full seven games to emerge victorious, overcoming the Reds home field advantage.

1973 World Series
It would not take long for history to repeat itself as the following season would see the Oakland A’s, this time with home field advantage, defeat the New York Mets in another seven game World Series.  The path to that one was also a long one with the Baltimore Orioles stretching Oakland out for five games and the Cincinnati Reds forcing the Mets to go the distance before they were allowed to advance.

1981 National League Championship Series
This was the strange one on the list.  The league’s first League Division Series was introduced due to a strike-interrupted season in 1981.  Due to the strike, the owners elected to declare a first half and second half division winner and a wild card from each division as well.  The League Division Series would be played prior to the League Championship Series and it produced an addition to our list.  The Montreal Expos would defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in this extra playoff round, though it would take them the full five games to do so.  Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers would also need the full spectrum to remove the Houston Astros names from contention.  By the time these two teams faced off, it would take the Dodgers a full five games to move past the Expos.  (Coincidentally, after going the full five in both rounds, the Dodgers would go on to defeat the New York Yankees in the World Series).

2001 American League Championship Series
After a twenty year gap in our pigeon-holed statistic, it would reemerge in the American League.  This time, the New York Yankees would need the full five games in the Division Series to dispatch the Oakland A’s while the Seattle Mariners would go the full five against the Cleveland Indians.  This time would see the Yankees victorious and move on to the World Series where they would lose to the Diamondbacks, in seven games.

2003 World Series
It did not take long for the series to be drawn out to full capacity again.  Once again we find the New York Yankees making our list, advancing to the Fall Classic by beating the Boston Red Sox in seven games in the American League Championship Series.  Not to be outdone, the Marlins would take the Senior Circuit Pennant by defeating the Chicago Cubs in seven games as well.  When the dust settled, it was the Marlins who would take the crown in six games over the Bronx Bombers.

2004 World Series
The very next season, the National League’s most victorious club (as measured by World Championships), the St. Louis Cardinals, would find themselves in the World Series after defeating the Houston Astros in the League Championship Series after seven games.  The tables were turned in the American League Championship Series this time as the Boston Red Sox would take the New York Yankees to a seventh and final game and win.  It would be a shame to not mention the fact that the Red Sox lost the first three games of that series before winning the next four, and the first four of the World Series to win a World Title.

So, there you have it.  Six times in history a series has been played by two teams that had to go the distance in the series before it.  What has history taught us that we can take away from all of this?  Not a whole lot, I am afraid.  I suppose you can take away the fact that in half of the series examined, the teams would have to play the entire series against each other as well.  That simply leaves a 50/50 chance of that happening again, however.

Sometimes, we don’t need to learn the future by reading the past.  Sometimes, we just need to know that it has happened before.

Class dismissed.

Bill Ivie is the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com and the founder of i70baseball.com, an official Baseball Digest website covering the Cardinals and Royals.

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I spoke with Bernie Williams about his new book “Rythyms of the Game”, got to know Bellville, NJ Little Leaguer Alex Luna. I also weigh in whqt the new playoff system should look like.

Though admittedly not an avid baseball fan, Port displayed his most recent work, a collection of five pieces done from famous shots by noted baseball photographer Charles Conlon.  Port’s paintings were hung alongside prints of Conlon’s beautiful originals at Openhouse Gallery in New York on Sept 19.

“I partnered with John Rogers, who owns the collection of photographs from Charles Conlon, and we put together this event to promote the collection as well as my artwork based off the collection,” said Port.  “We brought in Ronald McDonald House of New York to help raise some money for them as well.”

Port sees Conlon’s timeless works as obvious subjects for his treatment.

“I was in awe of what [Conlon] captured, especially in the time period that he did it in,” added Port.  “He had an incredible eye, and there are some amazing photographs that still stand up today.”

The process for Port involves selecting an appropriate photograph, drawing from it to illustration board, building up the colors and layers with acrylic paint, then tightening it up with colored pencils to add final details.

From seeing a photograph he likes until it is hanging on the wall, the general process takes about 50-100 hours total, which, according to Port, varies from a week to two.

“For this project, I did five in six weeks,” he noted.  “So, it was pretty tight.”

The first five commissioned pieces are of five of Conlon’s most famous photographs, including shots of Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.  And Port hopes there will be many more.

“From my understanding, he has 8,400 photographs.  I hope it will be 100.”

Baseball Hall-of-Famer Cal Ripken Jr. will give the keynote address at the Hutch Award Luncheon on Feb. 1, 2012. Proceeds will benefit early cancer detection research at the Hutchinson Center .

This year’s Hutch Award nominees are:

• Billy Butler, Kansas City Royals
• Tony Campana, Chicago Cubs
• Michael Cuddyer, Minnesota Twins
• Curtis Granderson, New York Yankees
• Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers
• Torii Hunter, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
• Justin Masterson, Cleveland Indians
• Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves
• Jake Peavy, Chicago White Sox
• Josh Willingham, Oakland Athletics

The Hutch Award recipient will be selected this fall through a vote of all surviving former awardees. A total of 46 players have been honored since 1965, when Mickey Mantle accepted the inaugural award. Baseball’s Sandy Koufax, Carl Yastrzemski, Willie McCovey and Lou Brock all received the Hutch Award; in recent years Jamie Moyer, Craig Biggio, Jon Lester, Mark Teahen and Tim Hudson have joined their ranks.

The Hutch Award is given annually to a Major League Baseball player who best exemplifies the honor, courage and dedication of legendary baseball player and manager Fred Hutchinson. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center – founded by Fred’s brother, Dr. Bill Hutchinson, after Fred succumbed to cancer at age 45 – is an independent, nonprofit research institution dedicated to the understanding, treatment and prevention of cancer and related diseases.

For more information about the Hutch Award, including a full list of past recipients, or to learn more about the luncheon, visit www.fhcrc.org/hutchaward.

At the “Going to Bat for B.A.T. Fundraising Dinner,” fans are given the opportunity to interact with Baseball Hall of Famers, and former and current Major League Baseball players while raising money to assist members of the Baseball Family who have fallen on hard times. The night’s festivities include a cocktail hour in which attendees have the opportunity to meet and obtain autographs from players. Players are seated with guests at each table during the dinner and all proceeds go to B.A.T.

“The New York Mets brought National League baseball back to New York in 1962, and since then, have won two championships and created some of baseball’s most indelible moments,” said B.A.T. Executive Director Joseph Grippo. “The organization has been an incredible supporter of B.A.T. over the years, and we are thankful for their generosity in helping members of the Baseball Family. The Mets have one of the most passionate followings in the game, and we are happy to give those fans an opportunity to rub elbows with some of their baseball heroes while raising money for B.A.T.”

“We are honored that the Baseball Assistance Team is saluting the Mets 50th anniversary,” said Dave Howard, Mets Executive Vice President, Business Operations. “This will be an Amazin’ experience for our fans to meet some of the greatest players in our history and raise money for B.A.T.’s mission of helping members of the Baseball Family in need.”

Special awards are presented at the Dinner each year: the Big BAT/Frank Slocum Award, which goes to an individual who provides financial support and generosity to the B.A.T. organization; the Bart Giamatti Award, which goes to the individual who displays a dedication to giving back to the community; and the Bobby Murcer Award, which is presented to the team in both the American League and National League whose players contribute the most amount of money to B.A.T. through the B.A.T. Payroll Deduction Program that previous year.

B.A.T. was founded by former Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, a group of former players and Major League Baseball. In addition to assisting former Major League players, B.A.T. also offers support to former Major League managers, coaches, scouts, umpires, athletic trainers, front office personnel, Minor League players, Negro League players, players from the Women’s Professional Baseball League, and spouses and children. All aid provided by B.A.T. is strictly confidential allowing those in the need to receive help discreetly.

Entering its 27th year, B.A.T. is a unique organization within the sports industry dedicated to assisting members of the Baseball Family who are in need. Through charitable contributions from corporations, foundations and individuals, B.A.T. strives to provide a means of support to people with financial, medical or psychological burdens. B.A.T. is a 501-(c) 3 charitable organization.

For more information about B.A.T., to purchase tickets for the Dinner or to make a donation please call 212-931-7821 or visit http://www.baseballassistanceteam.com.