Archive for the ‘late 20th century baseball history’ Category

 

George Harlan Cummings

Cummings was born in March 1872 in Hennepin in Putnam County, Illinois to William C. and Emma Cummings. William, an Ireland native, was a Minister. Emma was born in Illinois.

Siblings: Frank, Adelbert, Lula

George was either born deaf and mute or became so at a young age. He is listed as such in the 1880 US Census. The family moved to the villiage of National in Farmersburg in Clayton County, Iowa in 1878 or ‘79. He attended the Deaf and Dumb Institute at Council Bluffs, Iowa through high school. The school had 153 students in 1879 when George entered.

Cummings later attended Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C. for two years. While there he played football and baseball. The following depict the 1893 Gallaudet football team and the 1894 baseball squad: (notice coach Reuban Stephenson in the back row of the baseball pix)

Cummings on far right in uniform, Stephenson second from right on top row

Cummings married another Council Bluffs’ alum, Mary Mikish. They had two sons, Cyril and Adolph.

Baseball

Cummings, a pitcher, was playing semi-pro ball by 1890 at the latest, at age 18. The Atlantic Daily Telegram dated 19 June 1890 shows him playing for a club known as the Iowas, pitching a 15-6 win over the Atlantic club. He played for various clubs in Iowa through 1892. The latter season he pitched for Council Bluffs.

After heading east to D.C. he played a couple of years for Pennsylvania clubs:

• 1893 Royersford
• 1893 Reading, Pennsylvania State League
• 1894 Royersford
• 1894 Easton, PA State League, 6/15 to 6/29
• 1894 Reading, 7/3 to 7/27
• 1894 Philadelphia, PA State League, 8/1 to 8/7

Baseball-reference.com pages:

• http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=cummin002geo
• http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=cummin002— (not loading properly, Unknown Morris 1893-1894)

He joined Waterloo of the Eastern Iowa League for spring training in 1895 and played with the club through June 5. On July 4 he pitched one game for Clinton of the same league.

Other Possibilities

The are two other possible Cummings that may be George in the baseball-reference.com files:

• 1893 Savannah, Southern Association
• 1897 Reading, Atlantic League

Added later: It appears the southern Cummings was named William (Sporting Life, 3/26/1892, page 3)

SOURCE LIST

• Atlantic Daily Telegram, Iowa, 19 June 1890
• Baseball-reference.com
• Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, 29 May 1895
• Gallaudet alumni cards
• Genealogytrails.com: Putnam County, Illinois Marriages, 1870s
• HeritageQuest.com
• Omaha World Herald, 10 April 1892
• Philadelphia Inquirer, 23 July 1893, 6 August 1893, 26 May 1894
• The Silent Worker, November 1893, May 1911
• Waterloo Daily Courier, Iowa, 1895
• Wilkes-Barre Times, Pennsylvania, 29 December 1893

 

Lee-Ho-seong, Mass Murderer

Lee-Ho-seong was born in South Korea in 1967. He attended and played baseball at Gwangju Jeil High School and Yonsei University. He also competed in numerous international competitions and matches.

After college in 1990 Lee, an outfielder, joined the Haitai (now Kia) Tigers of the Korean Baseball League. The team was based in Lee’s hometown of Gwangju in southwestern South Korea.

As a rookie, Lee batted .304 to finish seventh in the league. In 1991 he posted career highs with 21 home runs, 84 RBI and 98 runs.

Haitai became the top Korean team of the 1990s, winning the championship in 1991, 1993 and 1996-97. During the team’s latter two championships, Lee was the club’s clanup hitter. He was named captain in 1999, a post he held until accepting the presidency of the league’s players’ union, the Korean Professional Baseball Association in 2001. Lee retired from baseball after the 2001 season.

AFTER BASEBALL

After retiring from baseball, Lee started a wedding business in Gwangju which went bankrupt in 2005. Two years later, he was arrested for investment fraud involving a real estate venture. He spent two months in jail before being released on bail. The resulting upheaval fueled a separation from his wife and son.

Lee then tried to get a gambling business off the ground, a virtual horse racing arcade. He was also known to frequent the race track, probably racking up extensive debts.

In 2006 Lee became involved with Kim Yeon-suk, a 44-year-old sushi restaurant owner. She had a husband and three girls: Jeong Seon-ah, 18, Jin-ah, 17 and Hae-ah, 11.

MURDER

Lee became heavily indebted due to his business and legal troubles and probable gambling losses. He began to borrow money from Kim, perhaps as much as $250,000. Lee, Kim and family decided to take a vacation in the middle of February 2008. Lee somehow talked Kim into loaning him $177,000 in the middle of the month. She may have been pressing for its return, because on the night of February 18 Lee strangled Kim and her two younger daughters to death in their Seoul apartment. He also bashed in the oldest daughter’s skull.

Lee then packed them into large, black travel suitcases and buried them on the 19th. He gave some laborers $200 to dig a pit next to his father’s cemetery tomb on the pretext that he was relocating a headstone. Lee then put the women into the pit and covered them.

The family was not reported missing until March 3 because Lee had orchestrated their murders at the onset of the family vacation.

INVESTIGATION

Police found witnesses stating that Lee was seen on the night of February 18 hauling large suitcases out of the apartment. They also located a video tape of him doing the same. Late on March 9, police released Lee’s name and photo to the press and offered a reward of $3,108 for information leading to his arrest.

In the afternoon of March 10 Lee, in a dark suit and no apparent injuries, swam into Han River and drowned, committing suicide. He had previously sent a letter to his brother asking him to care for his son and to the head of the baseball federation apologizing.

That day after the news circulated, a man came forward after realizing that it was Lee who asked his coworkers to build the pit in the cemetery. The bodies were quickly found.

The police then opened two more investigations:
1) Into the death of a man named Cho, a former business partner of Lee’s. Cho, last seen with Lee, had disappeared in August 2005 but at the time it was suspected that he merely went into hiding after serious financial losses.
2) Into the death of Kim’s husband in February 2007 which had been previously ruled a suicide

 

Manuel Joseph Rivera 

Manuel Joseph Rivera, later known as Jim, was born to Puerto Rican immigrants in Brooklyn on July 22, 1922. Growing up in a New York ghetto, Rivera spent over ten years in an orphanage. 

After World War II kicked off, he joined the Army. Rivera ran into trouble when an officer’s daughter accused him of rape. A medical exam showed that the young lady was still a virgin, so charges were amended to attempted rape. Rivera was tried, convicted and court marshaled at Barksdale Field, Louisiana. He served over four years in an Atlanta penitentiary. 

Gainesville (Class-D Florida State League) owner Earl Mann negotiated Rivera’s release from jail so he could join the club in 1949; at age 26, Rivera became a professional baseball player. The rookie outfielder did well, leading the league in runs with 142 and making the All-Star team. 

Rivera opened 1950 with the Class-AA Atlanta Crackers of the Southern League. Over the winter, he met Rogers Hornsby while both were in Puerto Rico for winter ball. Hornsby copped Rivera for $2,500. Hornsby and Rivera would later declare a strong bond for each other. The orphan would be quoted as saying Hornsby “adopted” him and was like a step-father. 

In 1951 he stepped up to the Triple-A Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League. He had a breakout year for manager Hornsby and the club won the league’s championship by six games and via the playoff system. 

Rivera’s strong season attracted the Chicago White Sox who purchased his contract on July 23, 1951 for $65,000, though they allowed him to remain with Seattle through the season. Winning the league’s MVP award, Rivera lead the league in batting average (.352), runs scored (135) and hits (231). He also posted 20 homers and 120 RBI. 

Bill Veeck hired Hornsby at season’s end to manage his American League St. Louis Browns. Hornsby talked Veeck into trading for Rivera. On November 28 a deal was completed. The Browns gave up catcher Sherm Lollar, pitcher Al Widmar and shortstop Tom Upton (quickly traded to Washington for Sam Dente). In exchange they picked up Rivera, first baseman Gordon Goldsberry, pitcher Dick Littlefield, catcher Gus Niarhos and infielder Joe DeMaestri from Chicago. 

The key to the trade for the White Sox’s general manager Trader Lane was Lollar, who provided a potent bat for a backstop. Hornsby, on the other hand, was delighted to have his Seattle protégés Goldsberry and Rivera. He strongly believed that Rivera was one of the game’s foremost budding stars and a top-candidate for Rookie of the Year in 1952.

 The following quotes describe Hornsby’s delight in Rivera: 

I’d rather watch him play than anybody else. He does everything to beat you. He’ll beat you with his bat. He’ll bunt, drag or knock the ball out of the park. He’ll beat you with his outfielding and throwing, and he’ll steal any base most any time. 

They tried to brush him back in the coast league and the more they threw at him, the tougher he got. He can take care of himself, too. Don’t forget, he’s 192 pounds and was a professional prize fighter. An infielder named Pavolic got rough with Rivera in Seattle last summer and only two punches were landed. He knocked Pavolic half way to third base and won that argument.

In a reversal Rivera was shipped back to Chicago on July 28, 1952. 

Rivera was arrested in the White Sox clubhouse on September 29, just after the club’s final game of the season. Mrs. Janet Gater, the 22-year-old wife of an Army statistician stationed at the Fifth Army headquarters in Chicago. She alleged that Rivera raped her in her apartment the night before. Rivera had just approached her after she dropped some books while walking her dog. 

Rivera admitted to having relations with Gater but insisted it was consensual after she invited him into her apartment. Rivera was released on $3,000 but booked in Felony Court the following day. Rivera then insisted on taking a lie detector test and was released again with a $5,000 bond. 

On October 14 the grand jury voted against indicting Rivera. On October 20 Rivera was called into commissioner Ford Frick’s office to account for himself in the incident and his entire history. 

Despite the grand jury ruling, baseball commissioner Ford Frick, in a rare move, sanctioned Rivera for the incident. In Frick’s words: 

To the best of my knowledge, after making a check of the records, this is the first time a commissioner ever had to make a decision on a morals charge. As concerns criminal charges, he has been completely exonerated by the courts, and the commissioner cannot place himself in the position of going over the heads of an American grand jury. At the same time, the commissioner recognizes, as does the Chicago American League club, that they have an obligation to the public to maintain the highest standards of morality among all men who are connected with the game.

With that the commissioner placed Rivera on probation for one year with the requirement that the White Sox report all incidents concerning the center fielder to his office immediately. Chicago was also prohibited from trading or releasing (through waivers) Rivera for that period.

 

Barbaro Garbey

Righthander, 5’10”, 170 lbs. 

Barbaro Garbey, the youngest of nine siblings, was born on December 4, 1956 in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. 

The Garbey family produced one of the finest crops of athletes in Cuba. Barbaro’s brother Rolando, a light-middleweight boxer, won the country’s first international gold medal in boxing at the Pan American Games in 1967. He also won a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics in Mexico City. He added a bronze medal to his collection at the Montreal Olympics eight years later. In 2004 he coached the national boxing team at the Athens Olympics. 

Their sister Marcia placed fourth in the long jump at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. At the time it was the highest a Cuban woman ever placed in a track and field event.

BASEBALL IN CUBAN 

Barbaro started playing baseball at age 8. When he was eleven years old in 1968, he was recruited into what he terms as “a school for sports.” He took classes in the mornings and played ball in the afternoons. 

From there, he joined the Havana Industriales and played in amateur international tournaments as a member of the Cuban national squad at the end of each season (Castro had outlawed professional baseball back in 1961). In 1976 he won the batting title with the Industriales with a .328 mark. He played on the Cuban national team in both 1976 and ’77. 

In 1978 Garbey was one of ten players banned for accepting cash in a run-shaving scam. He took money to keep scores close; though, he said he never actually threw any games which is highly questionable. He wasn’t conciliatory about it either declaring, “I know I did right. A lot of people say it was wrong. I say it was right. Garbey claimed the 95 peso a month stipend that he received was much too insignificant for him to live on, stating flatly “I can do nothing in Cuba with 95 pesos. I believe no one in the world can live on 95 pesos.” He needed the money for his family. 

LEAVING CUBA 

In 1980 Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro temporarily lifted his no-exit edict. Between April and October 1,700 boats brought 125,000 Cubans refugees to the United States during the Carter Administration in what is known as the “Mariel Freedom Flotilla.” Many of the deportees were dubbed gusanos, worms, by Castro, men and women that were undesirable for one reason or another. Many had been incarcerated; many were political dissidents. 

Garbey was none of the above; he was a mere ballplayer who was shunned by the national power brokers. He wanted to play ball, so he borrowed a friend’s immigration papers and attempted to sneak on a flotilla; however, he was easily recognizable in the baseball ravenous country. He was turned away on three separate occasions. Finally, he was permitted to board on his fourth try, despite the fact that the official recognized him. The man blustered, “Okay, you want to go, get the hell out of here.” The refugees weren’t permitted to take anything with them, no jewelry or watches, not even eyeglasses. They were permitted the clothes they were wearing and a hat if they had one. The price was even higher for Garbey; he had to leave his wife and two daughters behind. 

Garbey arrived in Key West, Florida with 200 other passengers in May. He was then taken to a refugee camp at Fort Indiantown Gap in East Hanover, Pennsylvania. It was initially opened in 1931 as a training camp for the National Guard. 

Orlando Pena, a well-traveled major leaguer from 1958-75 and currently a scout for the Detroit Tigers, heard that Garbey was residing at Fort Indiantown Gap and tracked him down. He had to wait for twelve hours to be cleared for the visit. Pena was unimpressed, the supposed ballplayer was way too skinny with “blue jeans rolled up to his knees and an old T-shirt.” Pena just shook his head and asked Garbey if he could hit. He promised he could if he could eat some solid meals to regain his weight. 

Garbey signed with the Tigers on June 6 as a non-draft free agent for a $2,500 bonus with a promise of another $7,500 if he made the majors. As Garbey later lamented, “Not much money, but I was happy to get it.” He became the first Cuban to rise through their baseball system since Castro took over to sign with a pro club in the U.S (There wouldn’t be another until Rene Arocha in 1991). 

BASEBALL IN THE UNITED STATES 

Garbey was assigned to Lakeland in the Class-A Florida State League in 1980. He appeared in 26 games, hitting .364. He played the whole season in Double-A in 1981 for Birmingham in the Southern League, batting .286 in 107 games. He then joined the Triple-A Evansville club (American Association) for four games at the end of the season. 

Nineteen Eighty-Two was spent at Double-A again. He hit .298 with 99 RBI. The following year brought a promotion to Triple-A and a .321 batting average in 101 games. The year 1983 also brought a good deal of trouble. 

On May 21 he admitted to a Miami reporter that he was banned in Cuban for game-fixing. The Tigers were unaware. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and American League president Lee MacPhail discussed the matter with minor league president John H. Johnson. As a result, Garbey was placed on probation pending an investigation. 

While on probation, Garbey made matter worse. He got into a fight with a fan. He was immediately suspended after allegedly striking a heckler in Louisville with a bat on June 28. Supposedly the fan made some comment about Garbey’s starving wife and kids. The ballplayer picked up a fungo bat and attacked the individual. 

Evansville general manager saw little hope that Garbey would play out the year, stating, “This may very well be it for Barbaro…” Luckily, he was reinstated on July 26 with a $500 fine. 

Garbey never did unite with his wife and daughters. He was treated by a therapist for depression over the matter. The Tigers gladly picked up his medial expenses. Garbey would later say that Tigers general manager Bill Lajoie was like a father to him. Eventually, the couple divorced and Garbey remarried. 

Garbey made the Tigers’ roster in 1984 just in time to help the club to a 35-5 start and the world championship. He was delighted with his $41,000 salary and, of course, the $7,500 bonus (And don’t forget the World Series check). On May 15 his probation was lifted. In 110 games (mostly at 1B, 3B and DH) he batted .287 and knocked in 52 runs. In the World Series he failed to get a hit in twelve at bats. Nevertheless, he earned a ring in his rookie season. 

Garbey’s output dropped off in 1985 (.257 BA and 29 RBI in 86 games) Added that to the fact that they just didn’t know where to play him because of his mediocre fielding, the Tigers traded him to the Oakland A’s for Dave Collins on November 13. 

OUT OF THE MAJORS 

The A’s outright released him before Opening Day 1986, stating flatly said they didn’t need another DH-outfielder type with questionable fielding skills. Garbey played ball in 1986 and ’87 in Mexico and Venezuela. 

On November 27, 1986 Garbey was arrested for possession of cocaine. He was pulled over for speeding in Miami. While being questioned, he attempted to toss a dollar bill with cocaine in it under the car to hide it from the officer. When caught, Garbey asked them to give him a break since he was a pro ballplayer and this could potentially ruin his career. The arresting officer was Frank Irvine, a former Cubs’ farmhand, wasn’t sympatric, stating “I told him I played baseball but I never used cocaine.” He was held over with $5,000 bail and arraigned in December. 

On December 13, 1987 Garbey was signed as a free agent by the Texas Rangers. He began 1988 with their Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City (of the American Association). He hit .289 in 67 games and was brought up to the parent club in June to replace Oddibe McDowell. In thirty games he batted .194 to finish his major league career. 

In 1989 he appeared in 67 games for Double-A Jacksonville, an Expos affiliate. In 1990 he appeared in one game in the Dodgers’ system with Albuquerque (Dodgers system) of the Pacific Coast League. 

During the baseball strike of 1994-95, Garbey was one of the replacement players for the Cleveland Indians. On March 2, 1995 he was traded to the Reds with four others for future considerations. It was the first ever trade of replacement players. 

After retiring, Garbey went into coaching. In 2003 he was hitting coach for the West Michigan Whitecaps, a Class-A Tigers affiliate. In 2006 he worked for the Cubs at Peoria then joined the Tennessee Smokies, a Cubs Class-A club, in 2007. He is with the team in 2008. 

He was remarried to Kimberly Garbey. They have three children and live in Wixom, Detroit. He gives private hitting lessons at $80 an hour during the off-season.

 

Williamsport catcher Dave Bresnahan pulled on old trick on August 31, 1987. He threw a potato over the head of the third baseman supposedly trying to pickoff a Reading runner. When the runner trotted home, the catcher tagged him with the real ball.

The act wasn’t recieved well. The umpire rules the runner safe, the league fined the catcher and Williamsport released him. It was his last game in organized baseball – at age 25.

Washington Post 9/2/1987

New York Times 9/3/1987

The spud is preserved to this day:

 

Work Stoppages

There were seven general work stoppages in major league baseball during the 20th century:

• 1972 – player strike, 13 days
• 1976 - owner lockout in spring training, 17 days
• 1980 - player strike in spring training, 7 days
• 1981 - player strike, 50 days
• 1985 - player strike, 2 days
• 1990 - owner lockout in spring training, 32 days
• 1994-1995 – player strike ends season on August 12th, postseason is cancelled, 1995 season is also shortened to 144 games, 232 days

 

Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith, the Death of the Reserve Clause

For a period of ten years, Dave McNally was one of the finest lefthanded pitchers in baseball. In his first major league start in September 1962, he pitched a shutout against the Kansas City A’s. He joined the Baltimore Orioles rotation the following year. What followed were 184 victories, two world championships, four pennants and five American League East titles, forming one of the great dynasties of the post-war era. From 1969-71 the Orioles joined a short list of teams that have won 100+ games in three consecutive years.

McNally went 13-6 in 1966 and shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers to complete the World Series sweep. In 1968 he posted his first of four straight 20+-victory seasons, at one point winning fifteen in a row. From 1968-71 he won 87 games with 644 strikeouts and a 2.82 ERA. The slugger homered in Game 5 of the World Series loss to the Miracle Mets of 1969.

In 1970, he led the league with 24 wins and 40 starts. The 3-time All-Star won Game 3 in that year’s World Series defeat of Cincinnati, adding a grand slam of his own. The following year McNally was one of four Baltimore pitchers to win 20+ games, a feat matched only one other time in history. The southpaw won two more games in the World Series versus the Pirates; though, Pittsburgh, led by Roberto Clemente, won in seven.

In mid-1971 McNally began experiencing arm trouble which eventually led to retirement in 1975. A tiff with Baltimore management concerning the arbitration process prompted the Orioles to trade him to Montreal in December 1974, a coup for the Orioles that brought over Ken Singleton and Mike Torrez.

In 1975, McNally planned retirement because he felt that the Expos had reneged on promises they made him, his arm was hurting and to focus on his car dealership. Before he left, though, he made baseball history.

Los Angeles Dodger righthander Andy Messersmith, a wholly underrated pitcher, and McNally played the 1975 season without signing their contracts. Management wasn’t concerned because they had just won the Curt Flood case and, simply, relied on their ever binding reserve clause. Marvin Miller, head of the Major League Baseball Players Association, thought otherwise.

Arbitrator Peter Seitz reviewed the case over the winter. In December Seitz declared the two players free agents. It was the players union’s greatest victory. Now, ballplayers could enjoy the right that every other American worker, in theory, shared – the ability to negotiate for the best wage and circumstances of employment.

Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, management’s point man, immediately fired Seitz but it was too late, baseball was forever changed. The reserve clause was found to be non-binding. Seitz did what the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Congress could not; he eliminated a hundred years of perpetual player servitude to a major league club. (Actually the reserve system was merely modified through collective bargaining and survives today.)

All one had to do was play a year without signing his contract and he could attain free agency. Marvin Miller had to step up. He realized that if only few attained free agency each year, all would benefit. The larger the number that declared free agency, the weaker their position during negotiations. If there were a lot of free agents, few would gain substantial contracts.

Messersmith immediately capitalized, signing a $1.5 million, 5-year contract with Ted Turner’s Atlanta Braves. Many would follow. McNally retired as planned, ending with an impressive 184-119 record, 3.24 ERA and 1,512 Ks. The lefthander poured it on in the postseason, notching a 4-2 record, 2.34 ERA in four World Series and a 3-2 record, 2.68 ERA in five American League Championship Series.