A Simpler Time
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by user LouGehrig
by Harold Friend
It was a simpler time and it was an anomaly. There were 48 contiguous states, Chevrolet, Ford, and Chrysler were the automotive industries' "Big Three," television stations broadcast "over the air," television screens were rarely larger than 12 inches, and AM radio was dominant. Phonographs played records that rotated at 78 RPM and needed a new needle after a few plays. Children started school at the age of about 5 and were taken to their neighborhood school by their mother, who did housework and returned three hours later to pick them up. There were six teams in the National Hockey League, ten in the National Basketball Association, and twelve in the National Football League. All three leagues were considered lightweights when compared to baseball, which had two leagues, each with eight teams. Being a sports fan was simple. Baseball started in the middle of April and ended in early October, when football took over until Christmas. The NHL season started in early October, the NBA started about one month later, but most fans paid only casual attention to either sport. February was the most difficult month because little was going on in sports while March marked the beginning of the next sports season. Baseball was the king that had structure and stability.
Each team had 25 players, which meant that there were only 400 players to follow. The first half of the baseball season was not in competition with the NBA and NHL playoffs. It required little effort to learn every baseball team's players, and since players changed teams only if they were traded or their contracts were sold, rosters were stable. Almost every team, certainly the better ones, had players set at each position. There were almost no radical roster changes from one season to the next, with the possible exception of teams such as the Pirates, Cubs, A's, or Browns, which were constantly "rebuilding," usually with a five year plan.
The 1952 National League Champion Brooklyn Dodgersadded only one player, Tommy Holmes, during the entire season. The Boston Braves only transaction during the 1952 season involved sending Willard Marshall to the Cincinnati Reds. Changes were meaningful because they would be evaluated with the passage of time. When the Braves traded shortstop Alvin Dark and second baseman Eddie Stanky to the New York Giants in 1949 for Sid Gordon, Willard Marshall, Buddy Kerr, and Red Webb, the traded players stayed with their new team for a substantial time period.
Dark and Stanky helped the Giants to the 1951 National League pennant, Marshall did little to help the Braves, but Gordon had some fine seasons in Boston. Player trades created excitement which led to discussions that would be resurrected each season. In June, 1954, the Indians traded pitcher Bob Chakales to the Orioles for first outfielder-first baseman Vic Wertz. It was a steal for the Indians and a trade that created much discussion. When Willie Mays made his historic World Series catch off Wertz' drive a few months later, most fans knew how Wertz had become a Cleveland Indian.
No major league team was farther west than St. Louis, and four cities -- Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and St. Louis -- had a team in each league, but New York topped them all with the Dodgers and Giants in the senior circuit and the Yankees in the junior circuit. Almost 20 percent of the major leaguers played in New York.
The regular season was 154 games long and it meant something. Each team played the other teams in its league 11 times at home and 11 times away. There were pennant races. The team with the league's best record won the pennant. Second place means second best. The only time a playoff occurred was when two teams finished the season with identical records. The top four teams in each league were "first division" teams that shared in the World Series money. Both leagues had the same rules. Rivalries were real since five cities had at least one team in each league. Teams had one set of broadcasters who usually worked both radio and television. In New York, Mel Allen WAS the Yankees, Red Barber WAS Brooklyn, and Russ Hodges WAS the Giants. The World Series broadcasters usually came from the pennant winning teams.
The stability allowed fans to "debate" the merits of their team's players with the assurance that if they lost the "debate," there would be another one when the season ended. The "hot stove" league lasted the entire off season, when besides talking, fans read Baseball Digest, The Sporting News, Sport Magazine, Street & Smith's Baseball Annual, and Who's Who in Baseball. The Yankees' first baseman was Joe Collins, Brooklyn's first baseman was Gil Hodges, and Whitey Lockman played first base for the Giants. It was no contest. Hodges was clearly the best, but it wasn't that simple because there was always the World Series. From 1947-1956, the Yankees played Brooklyn in the World Series six times and they played the Giants once. Hodges was the best New York first baseman, but Collins and Lockman were forces to be reckoned with in the Series. The best player didn't always have the best World Series.
When a veteran lost his job to a youngster, it was a noteworthy event. Gil Hodges played first for Brooklyn until they were no longer the Brooklyn Dodgers. When the Giants needed outfield help after sweeping the 1954 World Series, they brought up youngster Gail Harris and moved Whitey Lockman back to the outfield. Yankees' manager Casey Stengel platooned players, a strategy he learned from John McGraw. In 1954, young right handed hitter Bill Skowron shared first base with lefties Joe Collins and Eddie Robinson. It was Brooklyn's Carl Furillo against the Yankees' Hank Bauer, Brooklyn's Roy Campanella against the Yankees' Yogi Berra, Brooklyn's Pee Wee Reese against the Giants' Alvin Dark and the Yankees' Phil Rizzuto, and of course, the Duke of Flatbush against Willie and Mickey. But the most vehement arguments involved Stan Musial against Ted Williams, both of whom were acknowledged, at the time, to be the two best players in the game.
Ty Cobb was considered the game's greatest player, with Babe Ruth next in line. Cobb had a .367 lifetime batting average, which was later corrected to .366. Ruth's was "only" .342. Ruth hit home runs, but he struck out too much and didn't steal bases. Cobb didn't strike out much and he did steal bases. As the years have passed and power has become deified, Ruth is now considered better than Cobb by most, but what is interesting is that neither has played a game since Cobb was considered better than Ruth.
Ted Williams and Stan Musial were the heir apparent to Cobb and Ruth. It was a given, and when Mantle and Mays arrived in 1951, many predicted that they would succeed Williams and Musial as the best players in their league. Those predictions turned out to be true. Of course, Henry Aaron and Roberto Clemente were pretty good.
References:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/
