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

 

Tommy John’s left elbow
 

On 9/23/1972 Tommy John took the mound against the Giants at Dodger Stadium. In the 3rd he singled and moved to 2nd on a Davel Lopes walk. Bill Buckner singled to right but John was thrown out at home, tagged by TSN’s NL Rookie of the Year Dave Rader. Sliding home, John banged his left elbow, jarring loose a bone fragment. John pitched into the 5th inning but that was it. He had surgery on the 28th.

John returned for 1973, posting 16-7-record.

On 7/17/1974 John faced the Expos in LA. After giving up a lead-off single to Willie Davis in the 3rd and a walk to Bob Bailey, John felt something snap in his left elbow. He had ruptured a ligament and was done for the season with a 13-3-record, missing the Dodgers’ pennant run.

The 31-year-old had surgery on 9/25/1974. Dr. Frank Jobe performed the two-hour surgery at Centinela Valley Hospital. Jobe removed a tendon from John’s right forearm and used it to reconstruct his left elbow.

Washington Post 9/26/1974

John’s arm remained in a splint for six weeks and was unsure he’d ever pitch again. He startedto consider coaching a college club. He returned to the majors in 1976.

Los Angeles Times 7/17/1975

Los Angeles Times 4/27/1976

Interestingly, it was not the first time such a radical surgery was performed on a MLer. 24-year-old, Boston Braves pitcher Harry Hulihan had a tendon from his thigh implanted into his pitching shoulder in 1923. The surgery wass deemed successful from a medical standpoint, as Hulihan’s pain was relieved; however, the pitcher lost velocity and his career. 

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Cal Drummond 

Calvin Troy Drummond was born on June 2, 1917 in Ninety-Six, South Carolina. Outside the baseball season, he lived his whole life in and around the area. His parents, James and Fannie, were both South Carolina natives, both born circa 1893. Calvin had at least six siblings, five brothers named Theodore, Alvin, John, Peter and Lewis and a sister named Velora. Calvin and Alvin were twins. James Drummond supported his family working at the local cotton mill.

Sports attracted Cal from his earliest ages. He played three sports, baseball, basketball and football, at the local Ninety-Six High School. Cal then played for a local Ninety-Six baseball club in a Textile League from 1937-38. After five years in the infantry during World War II, Drummond rejoined the Textile League with a nearby Greenwood club from 1946-47. 

In 1948, Cal attended Bill McGowan’s Umpire School and was then assigned to the Class-D Alabama State League for the remainder of the season. Drummond left baseball for three years, returning with the Class-D Georgia State League from 1952-53. He then ascended to the Class-A South Atlantic League from 1954-56 and the Triple-A International League from 1957-59. 

In 1960, Drummond landed in the majors, calling American League games until June 10, 1969. In Baltimore that day Drummond worked behind the plate for an Orioles and Angels game. Similar to an on-the-field injury sustained by Mike Powers in 1909, Drummand’s injury wasn’t noticed by the fans, players or even his fellow umpires. No one came to his aid nor was there a break in the action. 

As best as colleague Larry Barnett could recall, Drummond took a foul ball to the mask late in the game. He shook it off at the time and finished the game. In the dressing room Barnett noticed that Drummond was stressed but didn’t fully realize how much so. Barnett and a couple of the other umpires retired to their hotel only to be telephoned by crew chief Ed Runge who had taken Drummond to Mercy Hospital. Runge was particularly alarmed with Drummond’s slurred speech. 

At the hospital, Drummond lost consciousness and remain in that state for over a week. He awoke and felt well enough to fly home to Greenwood, South Carolina on June 22. Drummonds condition, however, worsened over the weekend of the 28th and he was admitted to a nearby Greenville hospital on the 30th. 

On July 1, 1969, Drummond had surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. Once again, he failed to regain consciousness, for two weeks this time. Another surgery was performed to ease the pressure on his brain and Drummond did well recuperating through the fall and winter. 

When spring hit, so did baseball fever. Drummond claimed he felt well enough to make a comeback. He contacted American League president Joe Cronin and petitioned for his job. Cronin insisted on a doctor’s release. Drummond exercised and called some games for nearby Erskine College. He then made his way for spring training and worked a dozen major league preseason games. In late April he even threw out the ceremonial first pitch to kick off the hometown Greenville Braves’, of the Single-A Western Carolinas League, season. 

Attaining his doctor’s permission, Drummond talked Cronin into returning him to the bigs. Cronin relented but sent Drummond to umpire two games in the Triple-A American Association before rejoining his American League crew on Sunday May 3 in Boston. 

On Friday May 1, Drummond worked the first two innings of a game in Des Moines between the Iowa Oaks and Oklahoma City 89ers before dizziness forced him to retire from the game. Drummond phoned Cronin on Saturday and assured him that he felt well enough to continue. 

On May 2, Drummond was behind the plate during a night game when he began feeling dizzy again with a general numbness near his previous injury. Some reports suggest that he walked to the Oklahoma dugout feeling ill. Other reports say he was sitting there for three innings. Either way, the umpire passed out in the seventh inning. He did regain semi-consciousness in the dressing room but faded again in the ambulance on the way to Des Moines General Hospital. 

Drummond died there four hours after his arrival in the wee hours of May 3. He was 52 years old. An autopsy confirmed that he died from a cerebral hemorrhage in the area of his June 1969 injury. On May 4, Cal Drummond’s body was flown home to Greenwood to be laid to rest.

 

End of 1966 World Series

 

Frederick News-Post (Maryland) 4/20/1965

 

The Sunset Lodge

Local resident Tom Yawkey of Georgetown, South Carolina was rumored to own a piece of the Sunset Lodge, a brothel.

Excerpt from the Boston Globe on 4/6/1989 by Susan Trausch titled The Woman who owns the Reds Sox keeps her private Life Private:

Tom Yawkey was brought up to be low-key about money in a pre-Donald Trump America. He was born in Detroit in 1903, and raised by an uncle after his father died. During the summers of his years at Yale he learned the family timber and mineral business by working in the field with lumberjacks and miners. He always carried with him a feeling for the working man.

He was known to give people jobs in Georgetown, help them out in tough times, and give to all charities. He and Jean would load a truck with toys on Christmas morning and play Santa Claus. They never had children of their own. They gave money to build a wing on the Georgetown Memorial Hospital. They built Tara Hall, a home for boys from troubled families. Tom willed more than 15,000 acres of land to the state to be used as preservation areas.

In the 1930s Tom Yawkey even financed a bordello for the town, setting up the Sunset Lodge, which became internationally famous.

“Go to Europe and say ‘Sunset Lodge’ and the person you’d be talking to would say ‘Georgetown, South Carolina,’ ” recalled one resident. Georgetown remembers the madam, Hazel Weiss, “Miss Hazel,” fondly as someone who “ran her girls with an iron hand, never let them come into town in shorts, didn’t allow drunks or rough characters in her place, and always paid her bills.” The town also remembers the Red Sox visiting there on the way to spring training. It was a different America then. Discreet. Nobody went on television with the play-by-play.

“This wasn’t a case of a millionaire setting up his girlfriend,” recalled one resident who asked not to be identified. “This was a well-run business, respected, if that’s the right word. It was a lot like the place in the play ‘Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.’ “

Sunset Lodge was closed by the sheriff in 1969. Politics, they say, and they sound sorry. Miss Hazel is long dead. Who knows what Elise must have thought about the place or what Jean Yawkey thought. “I heard Tom Yawkey drove Jean there once and she was furious,” said one man. But he also said that Jean Yawkey was with her husband in whatever he did. Hard-drinking, known as “a man’s man,” tough, a racist by some lights, not the easiest guy to live with, but a person with the proverbial heart of gold. She understood all that.

Read Kimberly Duncan’s story about the Sunset Lodge.

 

Bonus Babies

It was ruled in 1949 that anyone signed to a bonus contract exceeding $6,000 had to be assigned to the major leagues.  Baseball’s executives were trying to limit their own payouts for unproven talent. In effect, the owners were trying to reign themselves in – a losing proposition.  Like today, the push for the spending limits was introduced by the small market clubs.

The new rules did nothing but bring an element of fraud and secrecy to the business and ruined many a young ballplayer in the process.  Scouts just signed players for the maximum amount and slid the rest under the table.  The rule was later amended to $4,000 in 1953. The fraud continued.

The young players were usually 18 or 19 years old, coming out of high school or maybe college.  They had no business going right to the majors; in fact, they needed seasoning in the minors. 

Once on a major league roster, bonus babies often just sat on the bench and amassed the ire of teammates who were both jealous of their signing bonus and ticked because of the roster spot the unproven player was needlessly taking up. 

Sandy Koufax is the classic example. He worked out in the end but others were huge disasters, and highly publicized ones at that.  The first was Heisman Trophy winner Vic Janowicz who coaxed $25,000 from the Pittsburgh Pirates.  He left baseball after 83 major league games to enter the NFL. 

Another was Paul Pettit who appeared in only one major league game, despite a $100,000 bonus from the Pirates.  Billy Joe Davidson received $125,000 from the Indians but never even made it to the show.  Ted Kazanski, a $100,000 Phillies bonus baby, lasted only 400 games.

Some players did pan out of course.  Lefthander Johnny Antonelli was one of the few to have a long, successful major league career.  Ray Sadecki and Dick Wakefield also shined in the majors.  Bonus Babies Koufax, Al Kaline and Harmon Killebrew are all in the Hall of Fame.

Teams eventually abandoned the process after repeatedly getting stung.  Officially, the Bonus Baby Era ended with the free agent amateur draft in 1965.  Rick Monday would be the first selected by the new procedures.

Later, teams began paying exorbitant bonuses to sign their draftees.  The New York Yankees parted with $1 million in 1991 to sign young, lefthanded speedballer Brien Taylor.  He never appeared in the bigs.

   

Collusion is nothing new in baseball history; owners have doing it at least since the advent of the reserve clause.  Near the end of 1892, National League team owners, en masse, released all their players.  They had just merged with the American Association and wanted to cut payroll costs at the onset of the depression of the 1890s. Plus, the cost to buyout several AA owners would take several years to payoff.

Over the winter, officials set salary limits and cut player income across the board.  The talent was forced to accept the new terms. Even after the AA owners were paid off, National League owners refused to budge on the salary limit issue. This infuriated several inclusing Clark Griffith who was the most vocal. Griffith began pushing for a unionizing movement  as early as 1897.

After the NL refused to deal with the players in early 1901, Griffith swayed union members to begin signing with the American League.

Again, all players were released after the 1918 season with a gentleman’s agreement not to touch each other’s property.

After taking office, new commissioner Peter Ueberroth watched in amazement during his first post-season, 1984-85, as the owners upped each other’s cost for free agents.  The signings would later be used against the owners in arbitration cases, causing an upward spiral of player costs.  (This process has proved extremely beneficial to the talent.)

Ueberroth, a businessman, felt his main purpose as commissioner was to increase Major League Baseball’s revenue while cutting its costs.  He suggested that the owners refrain from entering into bidding wars for free agents the next time around.  They did.

In fact, following the 1985 season, free agents averaged a scant 5% pay increase with two thirds of them getting only one-year deals.  Previously, many men received multi-year contracts with substantial raises.  The same happened in 1986-87 and to a lesser extent in 1987-88.

Players found that other teams were not interested in their services.  The owners operated on the principle ‘you don’t sign my players and I won’t sign yours.’  Even the renegade Yankees owner backed off Carlton Fisk when called by White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.

Andre Dawson handed the Cubs a blank contract and sat in their camp until an embarrassed Dallas Green finally inked the superstar.  Dawson went on to win the MVP award. 

The ultimate symbol of collusion was Jack Morris’ case.  The righthander was the victory leader of the 1980s, but found no takers when he gained free agency.  In order to play at all, he was forced to re-sign with Detroit.

The players union filed a grievance that was to be heard by arbitrator Thomas Roberts.  In turn, the owners fired Roberts – but it was determined that they could not do so and he was reinstated.  Roberts ruled in the players’ favor in September 1987 and was promptly fired again by the owners.

The players actually charged three counts of collusion, that is, after the 1985, ‘86 and ‘87 seasons, separately.  Their case was based on Article XVIII(h) of the Basic Agreement.  It read, “Players shall not act in concert with other players and clubs shall not act in concert with other clubs.”  Oddly, the clause was inserted at the owners’ request after Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale teamed together to obtain more money from the Dodgers in 1966.

Arbitrator George Nicolau later found the executives guilty on counts two and three in July 1988 and July 1990, respectively. 

A settlement was reached on December 21, 1990 requiring the owners to pay $280 million, the largest fine in sports history, and granting “new look free agency” to fifteen players. 

An immediate payment of $120 million was given with installments to pay off the balance by April ‘92.  Each club was responsible for just under $11 million.  Some owners joked that in the end they still made out financially. 

Seven players were awarded over $1 million, including more than $2 million to Jack Clark.

The jokes subsided when the average salary jumped from $598,000 in 1990 to $851,000 the following year, a 42% increase.  By 2001, the average salary hit $2 million and was still climbing. It’s over $3 million now.