Bravews stay in Milwaukee; Bartholomay buys White Sox

Braves stay in Milwaukee; Bartholomay buys White Sox

Had time during the season to put this short little thign together, and I hope you enjoy. Whoever said they wanted to see one where the Braves stayed, mMerry Christmas :cool:


Part 1: Slippery As an Eel

“Slippery as an eel” was the way Bill Veeck described Chuck Comiskey and a number of other people associated with the Chicago White Sox in the late ‘50s.

The cast of characters didn’t just include Chuck Comiskey. Veeck was upset at him for lowballing his own sister, Dorothy, and refusing to pay a proper amount for her shares of the Chicago White Sox in the late ‘50s. Veeck tried to buy Dorothy’s share - and would have. He decided to first approach Chuck, though. Something troubled him about the situation. If he bought Dorothy’s share and couldn’t get anything from Chuck, then Chuck Comiskey would remain the majority shareholder. Then, Veeck would incur over a million dollars more in taxes.

Veeck was no rich man, though. He hesitated, and another of those eels slipped in, a man named Bill Bartholomay. Veeck was negotiating with Comiskey before buying Dorothy’s share, and suddenly, Bartholomay made an even better offer to Dorothy. By this time, it was 1959, and the White Sox were in a pennant race.

Dorothy held onto her share to watch the Sox win the pennant. They drew fans, but not many. Veeck had ideas to draw fans like an exploding scoreboard, but not only did the White Sox have few promotions, the legal battle between Dorothy and Chuck, entering its fourth year since Grace Comiskey died in 1956, was a major drain on the team. It’s said that when the league president presented the championship trophy to them, they refused to even look at each other, and each staked a claim to having been “the driving force” behind it.

Bill Veeck had found possible owners to buy the team – the Allyn brothers. However, Bartholomay talked Dorothy into selling her shares to him, now that the club was at its height. He could provide a better offer than Veeck, and even managed to top the Allyns’ potential bid. He bought Dorothy out, and Chuck Comiskey sold his share to the man early in 1961.

Bartholomay was excited. He thought putting a team in the Deep South would be a great investment, and quickly began talking to people in Atlanta. White Sox attendance was not very good despite that pennant, and the legal battle had drawn away lots of revenue without many fans coming through the turnstiles. Attendance had dropped over half a million from the 1960 season. So, Bartholomay went to the A.L. owners late in 1961 and announced he was moving the White Sox to Atlanta.

Owners were furious. Veeck – recovering now from serious health problems - was, too. He pointed out that he’d tried to find local buyers and even to be one himself, but that owners had approved this sale with no concern for the city’s welfare. Owners were inclined to agree, but Bartholomay - who had promoted Ed Short, a longtime White Sox employee, to replace Bill Rigney as GM – announced the club would move for the 1962 season. He also instructed Rigney beforehand, and Short after the promotion, to, “Make sure you get a good interracial club, I want this to be a groundbreaking club.”

Chicago sued to keep the White Sox in Chicago. Meanwhile, Lou Perini was looking for someone to buy the Braves. Bill Veeck noted that they could move to Chicago if the N.L. didn’t mind two teams in one city. “Maybe you can even move to the American League and have Mr. Aaron battle Babe Ruth in the man’s own league,” he suggested.

Chicago had other ideas as well, including that man out in Kansas City who had begun to threaten to move his club – Charlie Finley wanted to move to Dallas for the 1963 season. Owners refused to allow this, as well.

However, they were especially nervous about this suit by Chicago, which they had joined as plaintiffs. A.L. owners didn’t want to lose Chicago, it was an incredibly large market which would be guaranteed to draw fans; even with the legal wrangling the White Sox had drawn decently. Not only that, but if they lost, Finley would be able to move anywhere with his club, and their entire ability to regulate what clubs moved and what didn’t could vanish.

Veeck also wanted to keep the White Sox in Chicago. However, failing that, he suggested that A.L. owners suggest that Finley move his Athletics to Chicago. It would be perfect, Finley was from there. Veeck said. He couldn’t buy a team at present with his poor health, but he knew Finley would be good for the city. He would draw fans, and in due time, perhaps the Allyns or even Veeck could come back and buy the club from him.

So, late in 1962, with Chicago’s injunction soon to expire and the A.L.’s success at suing Bartholomay in doubt, American League owners approved the deal. Bartholomay could move his team to Atlanta, where they would become the Atlanta White Sox. In return, Charlie Finley would be allowed to move the Athletics, but not to Texas; only to Chicago.

Finley didn’t mind much – he could make lots of money. He could also fix up Comiskey Park – and yet, if he failed to draw well, he could use the excuse of an old ballpark with sagging attendance to move again. The move of the White Sox would impact the near futures of baseball, and of three teams in general – the Sox of course, the Athletics, and the Braves, in ways that weren’t totally expected..

Several key trades, including one with Baltimore, made headlines in the winter of 1962-3, as the team one writer said “will at least now never be dubbed the ‘AtSox’” built to try to dethrone the incredible New York Yankee dynasty.

(Okay, when i cut and paste it gets that really small Times New Roman font, but a change back tot he board's default straights it out.
 
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Hmmm, let's see what happened with that font.

Part 2: Darn Yankees

Bill Bartholomay being delayed by a year actually helped – Atlanta hurried up the building of Fulton County Stadium, which was approved in 1961 after Bartholomay had begun discussions about moving the White Sox to Atlanta. Their first game in the new ballpark was a sellout. They played the 1963 season with lots of fanfare, as the club participated in a very good pennant race. The integrated club’s stars were generally loved.

There was just one problem – those Yankees.

New York had won their fourth straight pennant, and seeing them get swept by the Dodgers didn’t help any. Atlanta, a century after the Civil War, had a burning desire to defeat that club known as the Yankees any way they could.

They took a few steps toward that as Bartholomay ordered GM Short to “trade for today and forget about tomorrow.” He didn’t care that the club had won 95 games with some excellent hitting; better than they’d ever had in Comiskey, it seemed. They’d only finished 7 behind the Yankees, but Bartholomay wanted more. He sensed that the fans wanted to go for broke.

One major trade that Bartholomay pushed for was the acquisition of Rocky Colavito. The Athletics weren’t as interested, now that they would be in a great pitchers’ park; in fact, Charlie Finley was taking that to an extreme to attract fans in comical ways.

So, the White Sox acquired Colavito in a three-way trade with the Tigers and Athletics, in which promising young Dave Nicholson, who had just had a great year in ’63, was sent away. Other deals were made, and with stars such as Don Buford having excellent years and veterans like Bill “Moose” Skowron – a former Yankee himself – and the recently re-signed Minnie Minoso, the White Sox seemed unstoppable.

However, the Yankees couldn’t be stopped, either. The pennant race went back and forth all summer, captivating the region (and the nation) as Bartholomay had hoped it would. The White Sox won their last 10 games of the season, but they still finished in a flat-footed tie with New York at 100-62. Whitey Ford would start a playoff game in Atlanta versus the Sox’ ace.

Ford didn’t have his best stuff that day. Floyd Robinson, who was an instant hero in Atlanta, smacked two homers, Colavito added another, and in the end, the White Sox won, 7-4.

The fans were ecstatic. As Bartholomay said, “Today, history has been reversed. Atlanta’s White Sox accomplished the most important goal for this franchise, which was to beat a bunch of Yankees with an integrated ball club that will show Southerners how to go forward in the second half of the 20th century.” He told an interviewer some months later, “It should be noted that were it not for the incredible performance of MVP Elston Howard in 1963, we might have won two straight – further testimony that baseball has helped the South,a nd the nation, in its integration attempts, just as I’d hoped we could.” Whie Bartholomay’s attempts to paint himself as a civil Rights pioneer were clearly very over the top, it was true that the Atlanta White Sox’ win was very important to Southerners.

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the White Sox in 7 games. They won game 1 5-4 in 10 innings in St. Louis, and won 2 of 3 in Atlanta; white Atlanta rallied to win Game 6, Bob Gibson shut down the White Sox 4-2 to take Game 7 and the Series. He wound up striking out Rocky Colavito with a man on first after the Sox had already scored one in the top of the 9th.

Atlanta fans were happy, but the White Sox would not win another pennant for a long time. They didn’t realize it, but their GM’s work in the early part of the decade would produce another good team in ’65 and one in ’67, but overall, it would only bring disaster. Colavito going back to Cleveland for Tommy John – with others also involved – was a good trade, but not a lot of others were. The White Sox would be miserable by 1970, finishing over 50 games out of first.

While a parade to celebrate the pennant winners and their defeat of “a bunch of Yankees” might have seemed over the top, it was at least an understandable attempt to bond with the Southern culture. It was an attempt which bore fruit, just as when they first arrived on Opening Day in 1963. But, even if it had been a little much, it was nothing compared to what Finley was doing in Chicago with the club now called the A’s.
 
Part 3: Livening Things Up in Chicago

The White Sox had done well in 1959, but their pennant hadn’t excited fans near to the extent Bill Veeck would have; it wasn’t as prolonged without Veeck owning the team. Charlie Finley came in and the first thing he promised was to do something about the scoreboard. It was not the exploding one that Bill Veeck had envisioned if he’d bought the team.

Finley promised to liven things up by adding his own special blend of entertainment and zaniness to the ordinary dullness of baseball.

First, he redid Comiskey Park in green with gold on the rails and atop the walls, just as he retooled the Athletics’ uniforms. Except, they weren’t just green and gold and white – they were “St. Patrick’s Day Green, Leprechaun Gold, and Snow White,” the first two to honor the rich Irish heritage of the area, the last because of Chicago’s fierce snowstorms. He deadened the baseballs for a few years, though he stopped once he called up Rick Monday, proclaiming him Chicago’s first superstar slugger. (Actually, that would be Reggie Jackson.) Finley invited old White Sox back, and promised to end the “curse” of the Black Sox.

He also moved the fences back and – by necessity, it seemed – the bullpens were moved back to foul territory. The fences to start 1963 were 362 feet down the lines and an incredible 445 feet to center, with the walls over nine feet high - over 20 in center. “He’s trying to prevent anyone from hitting home runs,” many complained. The fences would be moved back to where they had been – though still deep – by 1968, once Reggie Jackson was in his second year. 1968 would be the first time they reached .500.

“Comiskey hurts me, sure, but I specialize in long home runs,” Reggie said once, “so it hasn’t been too bad. Besides, I get to play a couple series a year in Atlanta, and that almost evens it out, it’s so easy to hit the ball out in that park.”

Having to face Atlanta White Sox pitching much of that time also played a part; regardless, he had his highest batting average at Atlanta of any park of the ones he played in; though even in Comiskey it did seem that he tried a little harder to hit for average at times.. (Note: Baseball-reference.com shows that his highest average of any park in our timeline is at Comiskey, as well as his highest on-base percentage. It’s a smaller sample, yes, but he might have tried a bit harder there, too. Overall, he’d probably have around the same stats as in OTL.)

Back to the Chicago A’s in the mid-‘60s, though, they were a mess. Since they had the first overall draft pick in 1965 and 2nd in 1966, they were dubbed a “team in the wrong century” by some. However, Finley took that to heart by starting the tradition of throwback games; through he hadn’t really meant to do it. It was just one of those things, like the designated hitter rule, he happened upon that worked, unlike orange baseballs and other things.

Still, till his team contended, he did draw fans. One writer noted, “He made baseball at Comiskey fun, he was always trying new concessions to honor the ethnic flare, and there were a lot of different ethnic groups. You think of the Irish because of his color names, but he brought Polish sausages to the ball park and a bunch of other things. Part of that was competing with and at times copying his neighbor to the north, the Milwaukee Braves, but part of that was also just the fact that the Cubs weren’t doing as well and he wanted to draw fans from anywhere.”

Still, Comiskey wasn’t in as good of a location, and he started to complain about needing a stadium. Had the A’s not started winning in ’68, when Catfish Hunter pitched his perfect game and things really looked up – especially because the South Siders were suddenly in a pennant race! – it’s not certain what would have happened. However, they began to draw fans in droves despite the success of the Cubs in the 1967-1972 period and of the Braves and their super slugger, who was advertised to the hilt because of the influence of one man.

It seems Lou Perini needed a buyer for the club in 1961, and some interesting things came together to keep the club in Milwaukee, and to help Hank Aaron.
 
You are keeping the White Sox name?

I think that Atlanta would have changed the name.

I'm presuming it stays becasue of the Browns being the only one of all the clubs not to change int he '50s (though the Senators would in 1961, it's true) and because Bartholomay didn't change the Braves' name in OTL.

While it's also true that the "white" in White Sox might make him wonder if it would mean it was jsut for whites, the time to worry about that is not when they are winning right away; the '60s were not a time when changing a name because of racial stigma was even considered. After they've been lousy for a decade, perhaps. I'll consider amending with Ted Turner changing the name when he buys the club in '76. After all, he'd be buying not a club that had a winning season in '74 and had just had the all-time home run king, but a club which will have been truly abyssmal for a while.
 
Part 4: Home of the Braves

Lou Perini had need of a buyer in 1961. But, the man he’d expected to sell to now owned the White Sox and was thinking of moving them already. But, what could he do? He was already having trouble competing.

Enter a man who had a little less stress than he would have owning the White Sox for a couple years, and who also had over a million dollars more, thanks to not having bought the White Sox and ending up owing a lot of taxes on them.

“Now, wait,” Perini cried as Bill Veeck proposed his deal, “I am not selling to a man who would turn the Braves into a side show!”

Veeck coughed; he was already in declining health, but he wanted to be back in baseball. His friends the Allyns, together with a man named Bud Selig, could always take over if things got too bad. However, he wanted to keep things going if he could. “Look, you don’t even have a TV deal. You aren’t making money because you aren’t trying!”

“I won’t if trying means hiring a midget,” Perini balked.

“Getting a TV deal is not the same; you are not looking ahead. Baseball’s future is TV,” Veeck complained as he hacked a little. “Look, baseball is a sport, but it’s also entertainment. We want to draw fans, you’ve declined in attendance the last couple years, and your ticket sales for ’61 so far are lame; sure it’s only been a few weeks, but…” He coughed again. “Look, I promise no midgets. Who needs midgets when we’ve got a man who can break a record, either Ty Cobb’s or Babe Ruth’s.”

Perini nodded, the reference to Cobb was lost on him because of early talk about Ruth’s record that year. “Mantle’s looking quite good this year, he should break the single season mark, especially with 8 more games.”

“Single season? I’m talking about career home runs!”

Perini gasped; it only now registered that Veeck had put Cobb in there, too. “Are you kidding me?! Nobody’s going to touch 714!”

“Wanna bet? If Foxx don’t get drunk he’s there; if Gehrig don’t get sick he might have been there, though admittedly he was a little older. Look, your Aaron’ kid’s healthy, he’s a proven slugger, and I don’t even know if he’s the top candidate, it might be Matthews. But, look, baseball has a history and it’s our job to sell the game; if it’s history we can sell, we should do it.” He finally turned to Selig. “Right, Bud?”

Selig, still quite young then, admitted that, “I know Mr. Veeck isn’t the prototype owner, and the sale might not be as sellable to the other National League owners. But look at his health; maybe he’ll be forced to sell, I don’t know. The Allyns are good, and they’d be his second in command, so to speak.”

Perini sighed. He had to have an owner soon; he could tell he wasn’t going to make much money with this club anymore. He hadn’t found many others, though, and this was the top offer; these were Chicagoans except for Selig, but they at least were committed to keeping the club in Milwaukee, unlike that Bartholomay who had recently bought the White Sox.

“All right; but I’m still defending this grand old game. I’m putting a clause in your contract that you can’t hire midgets or any other stunt that belongs in a circus!”

---------------------

“We’re not clowns,” Hank Aaron protested to the club’s new owners after the sale was complete later in 1961.

“We know you don’t want to be looked at as clowns,” one of the Allyn brothers said. “But, powder blue uniforms aren’t that bad for the road. And, with television making such an impact now, and being in color soon, we have to liven the place up a little.”

Veeck, now looking a little pale, would be taking a break, one which would last through 1962 in fact, a year when he would let the Allyns make the decisions and watch as Aaron hit 42 home runs, a career high to that date. Still, he had a vision, which he described to Aaron. “Mr. Aaron, I’ve talked to people who know you. You’re a proud man, one who wants to better the image of your race. I can think of no better way than for you to become the all-time home run king. I’m not talking in a season like that Maris-Mantle battle right now; I’m talking in a career. I know you told someone once you could maybe break Ty Cobb’s mark, but come on, what’s more popular with fans, hits or home runs?”

Aaron admitted, “Home runs, by far.”

“Look, the Allyns are going to run this team for a little while, but I’ve got promotion ideas, I can be the silent majority partner and give them to them, and see what happens. I want people outside of Milwaukee to know the name Henry Aaron, even when you’re not playing in the World Series.” He turned to Eddie Matthews and said the same thing, but emphasized that his focus was on Aaron.

Aaron hummed. This was more about publicity than the other good which would come of his breaking the all-time home run record. However, he remembered the words of Frederick Douglass, who had once said that he would unite with anyone to do good. Aaron didn’t always like the publicity, but if he could help his own cause, and that of all the others in his segregated section of his home town, then it would be for the best.

He still wasn’t sure about the all-time home run record, feeling more comfortable talking about hits. However, after he hit 42 in 1962, he realized it would probably work.

For the 1963 season, Veeck made a big show of moving the fences in, but he could only bring the left field one in 10 feet in the power alley, 20 feet at the foul pole, because the right field one had to be out as long as it was because the Packers might play there some Sundays, maybe even during baseball season with a Braves’ game the next day. So, the configuration was kept the same in right, though even center could be moved in a few feet.

He also had more sane promotions such as bringing the Lone Ranger and Tonto – a “world famous Brave from the West” as Veeck called him - to the stadium a few times, and having horse shows and rope tricks like one would see in the Old West after games.

It didn’t help a lot the next season, but Aaron would eventually become the all-time home run king, just as Veeck had projected.

However, Veeck would tire of being in the National League, wishing to be in the more familiar and expanding American League. So, despite the fact he was unable to secure an expansion team – in either league – he left the Braves after a few years. However, his work had provided County Stadium with an exploding scoreboard, Wisconsin TV viewers with exciting Braves baseball, and baseball with a solid if unspectacular team in the Milwaukee Braves, which would remain there. As Lou Perini said shortly before his death, “I wondered at the time, but when they advanced where I didn’t feel the need, the Braves proved that they could survive, even in this changing world. And, even Bill Veeck was a good idea.”

The world was changing, and so was baseball. Because, only a short time after expanding, the leagues were going to wind up expanding again.
 
Part 5: We’ll Get You a Ball Team

Kansas City fans were furious, and so was Senator Stuart Symington. There were bigger fish to fry in Washington in 1963, or the sudden acceptance of Charlie Finley’s moving of the A’s might have brought Congressional action in ‘63. However, the Civil Rights debate tabled that for a while, with the Civil Rights bill finally being signed in 1964.

That put baseball on the hot seat, though. American League owners protested that they had tried to find other buyers for the A’s and couldn’t; something which Symington admitted was difficult, but he also said, “You could have found someone less slimy than Finley; he was threatening to move almost from the moment he bought the club!”

Talks on expansion occurred through the end of 1964, and while it didn’t look likely for 1965, there was always the possibility. The American League originally pledged to expand to Kansas City and to Seattle - the latter of which had recently just failed to land the Cleveland franchise – in 1963, but dragged their heels. As 1964 ended, Seattle actually had more of an ownership group than Kansas City, thanks to the people who had offered to buy the Indians.

In the National League, meanwhile, the league president was excited about expansion, but wanted to take his time. In mid-1964 he established a committee that would look into “possible expansion” by 1967 or, if two sides really wowed them, 1966. They noted that San Diego would have a nice new stadium, Jack Murphy Stadium, by 1967, and the city was growing quite well. It would be great to have three clubs on the West Coast.

Then, Bill Veeck chimed in, one of his few appearances at the N.L. meetings. He suggested that two divisions of six teams each be created. He sold the idea to the Mets by noting that two teams which looked very promising in ‘64, the Reds and Phillies, would be in the East, while his Braves would go as a unit with the Cubs and Cardinals to the West. The Mets certainly didn’t want to have to go with the Dodgers and Giants, winners of the two previous pennants.

The Wrigleys weren’t that enthralled with going to the West and having so many games ending too late for their reporters. However, the Allyns and especially Bud Selig helped here, as they convinced the Cubs that the rivalry with them was just as important now as the rivalry with the Cardinals. In fact, Selig went a step further – what about expanding to three divisions. The AFL had 2nd place teams in the playoffs, after all. Or, the top club could get a bye.

Everyone balked at this, and said it was no wonder Selig was only a minority owner, even below the Allyns. However, Houston’s owner acknowledged that they, too, would rather be in the East than in the West, and if an Eastern team was to be added along with San Diego, it would be better for the Braves, Cubs, and Cardinals to be in the West than for Astros, Reds, and Pirates. Pittsburgh wholeheartedly agreed, they would hate to go out West – the Reds were more ambivalent, as they wanted to go where they could compete the best. And, that might be the West, they weren’t sure. However, they would be most willing to go either way, with the Astros a close second as far as divisions.

This worked out nicely, as it was also possible that a Western team would enter along with San Diego. If that happened, the Astros and Reds would go into the West and the Mets, Phillies, and Pirates would be joined by the group now called the Wrigley Trifecta, as the Braves’ ownership had convinced Wrigley they should be joining him and Augie Busch wherever they wound up.

As 1964 became 1965, a few purists argued that they should go back to a 154-game schedule, which would work perfectly in a 12-team league. Everyone cried foul at this. “Nobody wants to finish twelfth!” was the cry. In the A.L., Finley promised to field a club full of midgets if that happened, “To show how short we are on chances to contend.”

One of the biggest critics of the idea of a 12-team league without divisions was the Yankees, ironically. Yes, they’d lost a league playoff, and that playoff had boosted ratings through the roof, but that wasn’t the main reason. They could sense their talent pool was running low, with the draft coming. While their fiercest opponents – the Orioles and White Sox – would be in the East, overcoming five other teams would be better than overcoming eleven.

That, of course, brought to mind the question of who would be in what divisions. Kansas City, Seattle, the Angels, and Minnesota were clearly meant to be in the West. Putting Finley in the West was actually better than the East since his club would have to travel more within the division. The Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, and Senators were clearly meant for the East. While the owners would like to stick it to the owners who wished to move, Bartholomay couldn’t be placed in the West easily because the closest rivals would be Chicago or Kansas City. They would actually be better against the Orioles and Senators, who were at least close to the South.

Cleveland and Detroit were therefore the question marks. The problem was that the Indians were in trouble. They looked ready to move. Sure, they had been bought now, but how long would it be before they moved to Denver or Dallas – a city which Houston was blocking from getting an N.L. franchise but which looked more than ready to get an A.L. one, and would have if it hadn’t been for Seattle.

Therefore, it was decided that the Indians would settle in the A.L. West, while the Tigers would be in the East. The Seattle Pilots and Kansas City Royals – owned by Ewing Kauffman – would enter the A.L. West in 1966. This would actually set the stage for a very thrilling pennant race in the A.L. West in 1968, as the Twins would not automatically dominate as people thought. Neither would the Angels; though they had an excellent battle themselves in 1967 for a while, overshadowed by a brilliant race between the Red Sox, Tigers, and White Sox, won when Carl Yastrzemski hit two home runs against Detroit on the final day of the season in a game that would decide the division winner. Boston ended up beating the Twins for the pennant that year.

The National League, meanwhile, dithered between the Toronto Maple Leafs’ offer and that of the Denver Bears. Both presentations were very good, but Veeck made a passionate speech about expanding baseball’s boundaries, which the club president supported wholeheartedly. He loved the idea of placing a team in Canada; it would be a shot at the “more dormant” A.L., which the league president always tried to encourage the N.L. to beat decisively in All-Star Games and the World Series.

So, in Veeck’s last meeting as head of the Braves, in mid-1965, the National League approved the following divisions:
East: Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Toronto Maple Leafs (Renamed the Blue Jays after the Labatts people bought them.
West: Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Braves, San Diego Padres, and San Francisco Giants, and St. Louis Cardinals.

Both leagues had featured incredible pennant races in 1964, among the best ever it was said. Though the races were quite as fantastic in 1965 – the N.L. was good, the A.L. not so much – some said baseball was hurting itself. However, Bud Selig believed it was important for baseball to expand and that there might be four great pennant races this year.

The divisions would have some good years and some bad for a while, with the expected clubs for the most part, except for the Red Sox’ surprising A.L. East in 1967, and the two clubs that stunned the baseball world by engaging in a knock-down, drag-out battle in 1968’s A.L. West. It didn’t matter that the loser fell to Detroit in 4 games; it was a sign that baseball had made a wise choice by doing something which would capture the public consciousness and some said save baseball in 2 cities – Chicago (at least American League baseball) and Cleveland.
 
Thanks for catching that. Anyway, putting the rest up now so I don't have this to deal with as real life stuff has come up. I might get after the late '90s someday.


Part 6: Daffiness in the Divisions

The 1966 season provided reassurance that the best teams would win pennants, as the Dodgers repeated in the N.L. after a tough fight with the Giants, then beat the Pirates, who had survived a good divisional race with the Phillies, the hoped-for Pennsylvania showdown. The Dodgers then lost the World Series to the Orioles, who played in a tougher division and won a game more than the Twins, who nearly ran away with the A.L. West.

It also saw the Yankees finish with the worst record in the league for the first time in decades, helped partly by the fact they were in the tougher division; though they would have been last anyway, with the club they had.

1967 was when purists saw that great pennant races could still occur within divisions. The Red Sox won the aforementioned battle with the Tigers and Atlanta, while the Twins managed to outlast the Angels after a tough fight into early September, then the Sox beat the Twins. Meanwhile, the Cardinals won an anticlimactic West battle while the Reds nearly blew a big lead to the Phillies first, then the Pirates, before holding on. Milt Pappas had an excellent season, at least partly redeeming himself for being traded for 1966 A.L. MVP and Triple Crown winner Frank Robinson. However, while he battled Bob Gibson into the 10th in Game 1 of the NLCS, he lost that game, and the Cardinals swept the Reds. They then beat the Red Sox in 7.

So, now purists were happy. The top teams would usually win the pennant (they would the next three years, too, though the Twins had won a game more than Boston because they were in an easier division in ’67, which the purists figured would have evened out in a “traditional season.”) and teams in great divisional races would likely go on to win the pennant. Not only that, but the divisional races could still captivate the nation.

The pennant races had been good otherwise, but not spectacular, with only a couple blowouts. There was still a little uncertainty about how well the weaker divisions could draw fans’ attention with great races, but in the Year of the Pitcher, before the mound was raised a little, the race in the A.L. West, and a slightly less zany one in the N.L. East, would convince people that fans would love it.

The Twins were the heavy favorites going into the 1968 A.L. West campaign, with them and the Tigers expected to clash for the ALCS. A few scattered people picked the Angels (who would fall flat) or Indians; nobody picked the A’s. While Yaz was leading the league with a .300 batting average (some wondered if he’d have hit .300 without the expansion) the A.L. West was showing the extremeness of the Year of the Pitcher in other ways.

The Twins wound up doing well, and were in first a few times in the early summer, but then they fell out of contention. It was much the same way with a really stunning team in the N.L. East.

One reason that the Mets accepted the division with the Reds and Pirates was that these two had done so well in 1965, and either could have won the pennant with some breaks. They thought that would mean a great race and the chance for first place sooner, and that the Reds had the chance to really have a great offensive club that could draw fans in New York.

On June 14th, 1968, the Mets were in first for the first time ever, as well as being over .500 for one of the only times that season (which was the first season they had managed that.) It didn’t last, but they didn’t finish last, either.

The Reds battled the Phillies and, to a lesser extent, the Pirates for a while, and were the only team above .500 for a few days at a time on a couple different occasions. However, they started on a winning streak that saw Cincinnati finally 7.5 games up after games of August 28; with 32 games left, they appeared to be ready to take their second straight divisional crown.

However, while Milt Pappas was not the only goat, he bore the brunt of the blame, as the hero from the previous year still wasn’t as good in a year when pitchers had to be great. The Reds wound up falling to the Mets once and the Phillies 3 straight times, then tumbling more. A sweep of the Astros kept them from falling too fast, but the Pirates kept winning, and by the end of the season, Pittsburgh had finished a game ahead of the Reds. Pappas was traded after the season.

This pennant race began a series in a rivalry that would see the clubs match wits in another great race in 1969 before the Mets burst ahead of both of them that summer en route to their first pennant, then the Reds and Pirates would vie for the best record in the league the whole season in 1972, before a final game wild pitch in the last inning of the season’s last regular season series gave the Reds the division by a game; Cincinnati would go on to win the pennant.

While the rivalry died down some as far as meaning till 1978, it would still be one that would continue to excite fans in both cities and be one of the symbols of baseball’s appeal.

In the 1968 A.L. West, on the other hand, some might have called it a “small market versus large” battle, or remembered the 1959 pennant race, but the one betweent he Chicago Athletics and Cleveland Indians took on a flavor all its own.

It was ironic that Charlie Finley had finally moved the fences in to what one writer termed “more lively-ball era levels,” though still only at their 1959 levels. The Indians and Athletics played one game in Cleveland that lasted 25 innings and ended up being suspended after 23 innings at 1:32 in the morning. It was continued at 7:05 that night Cleveland time, with the night’s regularly scheduled starting pitcher taking the hill for Chicago. Catfish Hunter pitched 2 innings, got the win 3-2 when the Athletics scored in the top of the 25th, then was used as the starter for the regularly scheduled game and got the win.

The Indians, for their part, beat the Athletics 1-0 in 22 innings later that season.

Hunter got a perfect game in 1968, but the Indians rose out of a 3-team tussle with the A’s and Twins in early summer, with the Twins falling back. However, the A’s then rose to challenge them, and managed to remain within a few games of the Tribe all year.

In the end, it was Chicago’s 12-6 record against Cleveland that gave them the win by a couple games over Cleveland, 85 wins to 83. Chicago got swept by Detroit, while the Indians just fell fast, starting so poorly they traded Tommy Agee in May to the Mets, as he was enjoying his best season; he would end up as a World Series winner for the Mets. Cleveland would make up for it in later years, but for now, they would sink back into mediocrity. However, the pennant race would truly be considered to have saved Cleveland baseball; although it’s quite likely that they’d have remained in Cleveland, anyway.

As for the Chicago Athletics, they would lose to the Twins in two battles that were only decent before winning the 1971 pennant, defeating the Orioles – who had been two-time defending league champions and 1970 World Champions – in 1971 and starting a string of 3 straight pennants of their own. “Divisional baseball is a great success,” Bud Selig would proclaim after buying the Allyns’ share of the Braves in 1970.

Before this, the Allyns would see the Braves and Cubs in a titanic pennant race which excited the whole region, as fans spot of a Cubs or Braves’ Series against the Twins or Athletics. “This proves that this region can support four clubs,” Selig said, “the two in Chicago, the Twins, and the Braves. Why anyone ever thought of moving either the Braves or the White Sox – and did move the latter – is beyond me. Baseball should be committed to remaining competitive in the small markets which they occupy.”

They would be. But the era from 1969 to the mid-‘70s saw some moves which would greatly impact the baseball world.
 
Part 7: The Second Daffiness Boys and the Bigger Red Machine

The Chicago Athletics of 1971-4 were very popular, taking the lift from ’68 and turning it into a frenzy. It didn’t keep Charlie Finley from being a tightwad, but he was one who could afford a bit more – in fact, much like another Charlie in Chicago.

One writer noted that, “Finley was almost the same as Comiskey, but without the stench of scandal he showed how powerful a Chicago team could be.” Indeed, his club’s four straight divisions seemed huge, till the Reds won 5- straight from 1972-6.

The clubs played each other, too, the Athletics winning in 1972 to “correct 1919,” as one sage put it. They did so, which meant by 1990, when the cities faced each other again, there was no mention of it; though that was because, unlike what Finley claimed, it hadn’t even been the same franchise in Chicago. Be that as it may, the lead up to that and the season afterward were quite filled with the normal controversy that accompanied Finley.

First, there was 1971. Using a few good reserves like Curt Motton – obtained from the Royals, who had drafted him off the Orioles in the 1966 expansion draft – Oakland had an offense that just seemed to find ways to win. They also had a pitcher who won the A.L. Cy Young and MVP Awards, Vida Blue.

Blue was relieved by Rollie Fingers in the 8th inning of a game the A’s won 3-2 to open their ALCS against Baltimore, then after a Game 2 loss Blue Moon Odom won game 3 2-1. Baltimore won game 4 against Blue, but Catfish Hunter and some others put together a good game in game 5, Blue came in to get the last out on zero days’ rest, and the A’s managed to take the finale at Chicago, 3-2, to advance to their first World series in 40 years.

Once there, Roberto Clemente put on a show. Odom and then Fingers (in relief of Horlen, a late-season pick-up from Atlanta forced to start by the Game 5 mess) won the first two games of the ’71 Series. However, the Pirates won the next three in Pittsburgh. Catfish Hunter came gback to win Game 6 after a Game 3 loss, but Steve Blass outdueled Odom 2-1 and the Pirates were the 1971 World Champions.

Blue and Finley had a contract hassle, and so did the Dodgers and Dick Allen. They wanted to trade Allen for a lefthanded pitcher, but Allen refused to go to Atlanta. Finally, the A’s knew they needed offensive help alongside Reggie Jackson, after having traded Rick Monday. So, the A’s took on Dick Allen, with the Dodgers paying them $75,000 and also giving up Claude Osteen, as well as Doug Rau and other minor leaguers. In return, the A’s sent Blue to the Dodgers rather than send him to the minors, which Commissioner Kuhn would have vetoed. The Dodgers got a couple minor leaguers, also.

The Dodgers, still desiring some pitching after this, sent Joe Ferguson and a couple others to Atlanta for Tommy John in June, as Blue struggled at first to learn the new league before settling in to the place he’d call home for years after that. As he said, “After my days with Finley, it’s impossible to describe how much I appreciate being with a class organization like the Dodgers.

The final piece to a 1973 pennant was in place when the Dodgers, at the 1972 winter meetings, acquired Mike Marshall in a trade. “We were so close in ’72,” their manager, Walt Alston, said. “We really felt if we’d had better relief, we could have helped Blue get accustomed to the new league where he wouldn’t have had to pitch so much. We probably would have waited till we’d been in contention to pull it otherwise, but we were only a couple games behind the Cubs at the end of the year.”

Osteen was made by the A’s to take a pay cut, with the argument that he’d had very poor ERAs the last two years (between 3.50 and 4.00, but bad for that era in a pitchers’ park.) That was okay with Osteen, who said he was glad to help a winner. Indeed, Hunter, Osteen, Odom, and Holtzman would form one of the best pitching staffs of the era. Baltimore missed out on a couple trades but still came up with 3 20-game winners in 1971. However, Chicago’s A’s managed 4 in 1972, because Finley asked the manager to push for it when it became clearly possible, and because of Allen’s offense.

The fact that they beat the Reds, too, was extra special; Finley touted it as “Reversing the insult of 1919.” It had been 65 years since their last world title, and Finley proudly proclaimed that “This team is free from any problems.” One player rolled his eyes upon hearing that and said, “Except clubhouse chaos and a crazy owner.”

Dick Allen was the A’s second straight MVP in ’72; he nearly won the Triple Crown. He clashed with Finley at times, but he enjoyed tremendous support in Chicago, and seemed equal to Reggie in star status despite Reggie Jackson’s presence there for six years through 1972. When Jackson went down with an injury in Game 5 of the ALCS, Allen was expected to fill the void.

He did well in the World Series, which the A’s won over the Reds as mentioned. However, it was Gene Tenace who stole the show with his clutch home runs; he ended up as the starting catcher for the last few games.

This didn’t sit well with Allen. Reggie Jackson, a native Pennsylvanian like Allen, had been asked to take Allen under his wing. Reggie was able to get through some to Allen during the ’72 season, and Allen’s MVP Award took some of the sting out of his frustrations at Finley’s many antics. However, when Finley refused to give him more than a $10,000 raise, claiming that the Dodgers had paid part of his contract so Finley was already paying him a lot more, Allen was furious. He refused to report to spring training till the A’s increased his contract. When the A’s considered trading him for Willie Davis, now in Atlanta with the White Sox, Allen threatened to quit. “That man,” Allen said of Finley, “is not fit to own a baseball team.”

San Francisco, meanwhile, was struggling, but now they were unsure of their future. With Willie Mays gone, and Willie McCovey getting older and not hitting as many longballs, they weren’t drawing as well, even without another team in the Bay Area.

On the other hand, the Milwaukee Braves had a first baseman in Mike Lum who was not that great offensively; Finley thought perhaps he could use him and get a few players to platoon like the Orioles did with success. He even hired a sprinter as a pinch-runner after his designated hitter idea was approved. Hank Aaron had played a lot of first the last few years, but maybe he could be moved to the outfield once more for 1973.

So, Chicago once again revamped their club, sending Allen to the Milwaukee Braves, in return for Lum and a number of other players; a trade which would cause the Braves to sink far enough in ’73 that, despite Aaron’s 40 home runs, caused them to earnt he right to draft Robin Yount in the first round; Allen was injured and only played half a season, though he would come up very big once more in 1974.

Allen enjoyed Milwaukee, and wound up staying with the same club for more than a year for the first time in quite a while. He stayed three years in fact, and put up good numbers. He celebrated with Hank Aaron when Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record in 1974. He hit the only ball (later matched by Willie Stargell) out of County Stadium, in fact. He also appeared in the NLCS with the Braves, who used rookie shortstop Robin Yount, third baseman George Scott, and others to surprise the Dodgers in a great divisional race.

As for the A’s, players like Lum and Mike Epstein were very good role players, though Davey Johnston stole the show when he was moved to first; he would play first and second for the team and hit 33 home runs. Chicago’s Athletics wound up beating the Dodgers in the World Series 1973. Los Angeles had beaten Cincinnati in 5 games, but lost the Series to Oakland in 7. Reggie Jackson was MVP of the World Series as well as the regular season in the American League, and many thought the A’s would keep on wining.

They didn’t. They’d seen Odom fall flat in 1973 after an injury, so they tried to use a few of their minor leaguers to pry some of Atlanta’s only good players loose. The White Sox kept doing very poorly. In 1971 Tommy John and Wilbur Wood were their only good pitchers, so they refused to let go of Wood, who was pitching an incredible amount with his knuckleball skills. And, players like Darrell Evans their only good offense.

So, Claude Osteen got old, and Doug Rau was only starting to be good after being in the bullpen all of ’72 and ’73 for the A’s, with a few spot starts in ’73. Chicago was saved by the rest of the division being down; that’s the only reason they won the division. Still, a starting staff of Cy Young winner Hunter, Holtzman, Rau, and an aging Osteen – who would be out of the league by ‘76 – was not enough to beat the Yankees.

New York had less pitching, too, but they had an excellent offense, thanks to outbidding the Dodgers for Jim Wynn of the Astros. Los Angeles hadn’t been in quite as big of a hurry to get him because they’d just won the pennant. Instead, the Dodgers suffered with Vida Blue not having quite the year he had in 1973. They would come back, thanks to him bouncing back to have excellent years in 1975 and ’76, and win the division each year, but the Reds would sweep them in each NLCS. Amazingly, only Blue being injured for part of the year and needing time to adjust in ’72 and the Braves’ surprising year in ’74 kept the Dodgers from facing the Reds in the NLCS 5 straight years.

As it was, the Big Red Machine beat the Cubs in 72 in 4 games, and the Braves in 5 in ’74.

Cincinnati’s Reds won 3 straight World Series from 1974-1976. First, they swept the Yankees in 4 straight; as noted, New York had had the offense but not the pitching. The Yankees signed Catfish Hunter as a free agent in ’75, but it didn’t help, as the Red Sox won that division, beating Kansas City in the ALCS before the Reds beat them in 7 games. Then, the Royals won Game 5 in 12 innings on Chris Chambliss’ double to win the 1976 A.L. pennant, before Cincinnati ultimately won the World Series.

Chambliss was almost a Yankee, in fact; however, they had given several of the players they might have given to Cleveland to Houston for Wynn. They were easily able to move Wynn to first in 1976, and he was a role player in ’77 when the Yankees beat the Dodgers in the World Series. Chambliss wound up in a few Series for the Royals, finally winning a World series ring as a role player in 1985.

Sparky Anderson was hailed as a managing genius, but the 1976 Reds would actually have some major challenges thanks to the Phillies. Dick Allen had been traded back to Philadelphia, as they showed signs of contention, and the Phillies came very close to ending the Reds’ string of four straight division titles. In the end, though, Allen was injured part of the season and they couldn’t quite get it done.

By this time, Chicago was only hanging on, and a lot of players were jumping ship because of Finley. He almost sold the team to out of state investors following his 1977 divorce, but the club was rescued by the man who almost lost over a million dollars on a Chicago team nearly 20 years earlier, except for his waiting.

It seems that Finley had made the club decline in value so much over the last few years they had almost no assets except for some great minor league prospects like Rickey Henderson in 1977. They had a few other good minor leaguers, too, of course. But, Bill Veeck was able to buy the Chicago A’s and keep them in Chicago. American League owners didn’t mind a bit; they wanted to see a team stay in the Windy City.

They had seen enough problems over the last few years.
 
Part 8: Winning Isn’t Everything, But Losing Isn’t Anything

Seattle and San Diego each had problems.

With San Diego’s, it was poor attendance alone. The hoped-for interests in the Padres just didn’t materialize, because they didn’t have a very good team. Whereas the Royals came close to contending earlier, and Toronto had the benefit of newness, San Diego fans had seen a team in Southern California; the Dodgers. These guys were anything but that. And, while they had Hank Aaron in their division, the fan interest just wasn’t that great.

Part of this was the Dodger-Brave rivalry; it had been strong for decades, and the Braves would come back and win a surprise division again in ’74 over them. The Padres had hoped to develop such a rivalry, but they had a problem – they couldn’t beat the Dodgers. It was, in the words of one sportswriter, “like a bunch of knights going up against a modern army. There was no way they could win, and thus they couldn’t sell a rivalry.”

Seattle, on the other hand, had a problem besides low attendance. Their stadium was sick in more than just the name. Sicks Stadium was supposed to be a temporary solution, to be replaced quickly. It wasn’t, and after a few years, the owners who would have brought the Indians there started dying off or losing interest.

Therefore, baseball was left with a couple big problems. Gene Autry insisted that a team had to be on the West Coast, but he couldn’t stomach the Pilots, either. After about five years, he, too, realized there was a problem. And, that Seattle probably couldn’t last as a major league town; fans had voted for a stadium, but politics prevented it from being built; or even a site from being chosen for the new Kingdome.

On the other hand, San Diego only lacked good ownership. Ray Kroc, who owned the rapidly growing McDonald’s fast food empire, was starting to get interested in baseball. When Bob Short moved the Senators to Texas after the 1971 season, there was talk of trying to move the Pilots or Padres there, but there were no good investors available. In fact, the Pilots had been propped up by a couple people to keep them in Seattle before the 1969 season. Interestingly, it was a close friend of Bob Short’s who had done so, leaving some to wonder if he was already eyeing the Dallas area, as that is where the Pilots would likely have moved. On the other hand, the other was a friend of Autry’s, who had a vested interest in keeping the club on the coast, so he wouldn’t have to help finance team travel to the West Coast.

After the 1971 season, though, it seemed like a lost cause. The Kingdome still hadn’t begun to be built, and the expanded Sick’s Stadium was beginning to draw comparisons to the old Baker Bowl in Philadelphia in the 1930s, it was so bad.

Finally, an idea was hit upon at the Winter Meetings. Let Kroc buy the Padres, and move them to the American League. The Pilots would then be allowed to move to the National League, to a place other than the West Coast.

Denver seemed like the perfect choice. They had been a part of the rumored Continental League, and they were a growing city. They would bring in a new region of the country, too.

So it was that the Denver Bears became part of the National League. Owners were a little concerned about Denver’s weather. However, aside from that, it made perfect sense. Montreal had some people interested, but they couldn’t put a stadium together fast enough; it would be hard enough for Arlington, Texas, to do so for the new Texas Ranger. At least they had some warning, and had begun already.

Washington fans were disappointed; they’d wanted their own team. And, there were some concerns about Denver; they had been given the 1976 Winter Olympics, but as 1972 wore on, it became increasingly clear they weren’t going to fund the Olympics, thereby forcing the IOC to go elsewhere.

However, the man behind the push to say “no” to the Olympics promised to support the Bears; he noted that the amount of construction needed for the Olympics would be immense, whereas Mile High Stadium was already where. It would be used much more often, perhaps increasing an already bad congestion problem; both with traffic and smog. However,

Therefore, the Denver Bears would remain in the N.L. West.

The Chicago Cubs would have preferred a move by the club to Montreal or Washington, thus putting Houston in the West and that franchise in the East. However, the games would only be one time zone behind them, and not two.

They had a decision to make, though. They had barely won two divisions after the 1972 season, and had a very good fan following, one which would remain as they became lovable losers over the next decade. However, the increased prominence of baseball meant they were under pressure to install lights at Wrigley Field. As of 1972, they seriously thought they had a chance to win for some time to come. If they did, they could get much better ratings on TV with night games in the playoffs; and, they could still play day games on weekends. With the great pennant races they could have even done so in 1972.

Therefore, they chose to install lights that wouldn’t interfere with the architecture of the park much, and only play 12 of their 81 games a year at night.

It would help them compete with the Athletics and Braves for TV revenue; and yet, they would maintain a close following on TV station WGN for all those day games. The day games also helped them to draw a famed slugger.

Meanwhile, Atlanta had been so woeful that had they not been bought by another TV man, Ted Turner, who would use them to push his new station, WTBS, they likely would have moved. They had been awful for the better part of ten years. 1970 had seen them finish over 50 games out of first, and they had very little to draw fan interest.

Turner decided to lure fans by changing the name to Bulldogs, after the Georgia football team. He changed the dominant color of the team to red, and would proceed to try and lure free agents in very lavish ways. While he’d never get the slugger he wanted in the ‘70s, he would have at least a decent team in the early ‘80s with Dale Murphy and Bob Horner. He would have to wait till 1990, however, for the man he dreamed of as a star.
 
Part 9: Milwaukee Braves, 1966 Onward; Phillies Beat A’s

Many Milwaukee fans hail 1966 as when Hank Aaron really started to look able to surpass Baber Ruth, which he did in June of 1974 against Los Angeles. Some say it was 1962, the year before the fences were moved in a little, others say it was 1963, not because the fences were moved in but because, being out of contention again, Veeck hammered home the idea of using Aaron’s power as the main drawing cars. 1966, however, is closer to the targe.

So, too, is 1969. After some injuries in ’68, and two straight years of poor play after the team nearly came in first in ’66, the Braves were in another pennant race. Aaron seemed rejuvenated, and as they fought the Cubs back and forth all summer, the entire area lived and breathed baseball. Then, they began having poor years again, with Aaron the only attraction beside the knuckleballing skills of Phil Niekro every fourth day; and even he wasn’t immune to poor play, as he’d arguably only have his best years in 1978-9.

The Braves’ GM began to wheel and deal. He acquired Allen, hoping to take advantage of a division that suddenly seemed winnable after 1972, as they finished below .500 but 3rd. It wasn’t to be, though. Poor years by hurlers and an injury to Dick Allen, among other things, meant Aaron was just about the only sure thing in ’73, and the Dodgers ran away with the division en route to the pennant, though the Giants hung close. The Cubs, with Bill North a very good leadoff man, battled the Cardinals for third, and Denver did well enough the Braves finished last and wound up lucking into Robin Yount, a future Hall of Famer.

In ’74, though, some more trades and Allen’s 38 home runs and very good batting average led to a division title, as Chuck Tanner – 5 years before leading the Pirates to a 1979 World Series win – in his second year became very well respected for figuring out how to handle Allen. One sportwriter noted, “They had the perfect mix there; all guys Allen could get along with for a while anyway, plus they made a run at a division, being the first club to go from worst to first, that won Allen more plaudits for his offensive prowess.”

Aaron’s leadership was also evident. However, he wanted to manage; and, of course, they couldn’t fire Tanner after he’d guided them to the division. Aaron bided his time, but 1975 did not start well. The Dodgers weren’t doing great, but Blue was, and the rest of the division was down, but the Braves still didn’t look ready to win. By June, they shipped Aaron to the Cubs, where he wanted to play all day games – which he said would be a real help at his age. He’d end up with 755 home runs.

The Braves, after that season, sent Allen back to the Phillies, and moved George Scott from third to first. He was now one of their top players. Niekro again struggled some, meaning that the Braves also got the chance for Paul Molitor.

Some of the trades they considered never panned out. Ben Oglivie remained a Tiger, one of their top sluggers in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, and a key spark on the 1984 Toger team that won the World Series, albeit not as a full-time player anymore. They were never able to swing deals for Pete Vukovich or others in 1981, but their farm system was good enough it wasn’t needed.

In 1978, the Braves had a super season, overcoming the Dodgers with a great outfield of Hisle, Thomas, and Lezcano, and with Phil Niekro winning 26. They then beat the Reds in a rematch of the 1974 NLCS. Finally, in the World Series, they downed the Yankees, who for the second straight year had Bill North as their leadoff man, as he’d come over from the Cubs in a trade. Bobby Murcer was now their full-time first baseman. New York had won with this team in ’77, but this time, the Braves won an extra-inning thriller in game 4 without the benefit of shoeshine, as some claimed in 1957. The Braves went on to win in 7.

The Braves won the division title again in 1979, thanks mostly to Niekro, but lost to the Pirates. Then, they finished around .500 in 1980 and 1981, as the Dodgers won, then the Phillies captured their first ever World Series.

It was great for Philadelphia fans, who had gotten so used to seeing their former club, the A’s, win by now. Chicago had pulled off a trade for Rollie Finger, in Veeck’s last big deal, as he knew that he’d be selling the team. The A’s had a very deep farm system, and an outfield of Rickey Henderson, Dwayne Murphy, and Harold Baines, with Tony Armas a DH; since baines was there as a lefthanded bat, Murphy was included in the Fingers deal.

The Phillies, for their part, had won the division in 1977, but nothing since, and had finished well behind Pittsburgh before ending up several games behind Houston in successive years. Feeling the bullpen was old, they kept Kevin Saucier, who would have a banner year, as he would platoon as relief ace with Tug McGraw, allowing Lyle and Reed to be setup men. Mike Schmidt took it up on himself to lead the club to victory – and he would gain his 2nd straight MVP.

First, though, they had to get by the Reds, who were having a banner year. They managed by a game and a half in the first half, then watched as the Reds got by the Astros in the 2nd half in the strike-shortened season. Houston was unable to find a quality lefty to trade for, though the Pirates offered Jerry Reuss they asked for way too much. San Francisco did, too, as bob Knepper was their only good lefty.

The Phillies beat the Reds in the Divisional Series in 4 games. Then, they played the Cardinals, whose Pete Vuckovich had a banner year.

The Dodgers had won the World Series in 1980, after a grueling NLCS versus Houston that saw so many pitchers used in Game 5, rookie Fernando Valenzuela – called up in August – had to start Game 1 versus the Royals. He won, and the Dodgers won the Series in 7 games.

In 1981, they had done well, but Vida Blue tailed off a little, and the Cardinals were able to beat him twice in the division series. However, they had nothing left for the NLCS, and the Phillies swept them. St. Louis would get them back by beating them in 1982, when they would win the Series over the Orioles.

St. Steve Carlton opened the World Series for the Phillies in Chicago in 1981, and managed a 3-1 win. Rickey Henderson ran wild versus Bob Walk in Game 2, giving the Athletics a win. Rollie Fingers earned the save. However, the Phillies won the next 3 at home to finally wint he Series; the Athletics wound up being shut out on their first return to Philadelphia.

Milwaukee came within a game of besting the cardinals in 1982, meaning they had high hopes for 1983. However, the Dodgers – who finished 3rd in a superb 4-team race – got off to a huge lead. The Braves clawed back, though, and managed to win thanks to the Dodgers’ lack of Vida Blue and Steve Howe, though some believed without the drug problems they still would have lost the divisional race. The Cardinals’ Pete Vuckovich lasted only a few games before injuries wrecked him.

1983 would see the Braves take the Orioles to 6 games before losing in the series. Phil Niekro had a better year in 1984, and won his 300th for the Braves in 1985. However, the Braes fell way out of contention, actually falling to fifth in 1984, with only San Francisco behind them. They would win a division in 1992, and contend a few other years, but Dave Winfield and theToronto Blue Jays would beat them and win their first World Series that year.

They would also win a division title in 1997. They would finally go back to the World Series, but beigna small market team, their history would be more of failure than success. However, they’d managed to keep the fans happy and have some great Hall of Famers ont heir team.

Atlanta’s Bulldogs, formerly the White Sox, would not be as fortunate, partly because they were in the American League East. They would not see the playoffs again till 1991, when they lost the ALCS to the Twins. However, they and San Diego would find success in the American League, as the 1980s ended, partly thanks to a Georgia native who dominated for the Bulldogs.
 
Part 10: Young Talent Gives Padres, Atlanta Wins

In the mid-1970s, once Commissioner Kuhn was sure of baseball’s financial stability and the labor situation was settled, Kuhn had envisioned that both leagues could expand; or at least one. Seattle’s Kingdome was finally ready, and Montreal had the Big Owe; however, the incredible cost of the 1976 Summer Olympics ad made them seriously question whether Montreal would be good for baseball. They didn’t have a dome like they’d planned and it was uncertain when the Big Owe would get one.

However, investors had been lining up for Washington to get a third team. While ideally Kuhn would have seen the city become a National League town, he supposed that he could accept it as an A.L. one. They had the stadium, and politicans were very good at urging baseball to act.

So, in 1979, Seattle moved into the A.L. West, and Washington the A.L. East. Both clubs quickly began to do very poorly. It had been nearly 15 years since baseball had expanded, and this time they had adopted a coherent timetable, but the only thing that it accomplished was to keep the Padres from being in last after a very good 1978 campaign that saw them finish in a tie for 2nd, after a similarly good 1976 that saw them just above .500 and in 4th. However, things went south after that, as Dave Winfield left via free agency.

The Padres, however, got a superstar hitter named Tony Gwynn. He won the batting title in 1984 (.355), with Wade Boggs winning in 1983, ’85, and ’86. Then, he won in a great race against Boggs by hitting .371, as the Padres built a contending team, helped by a young GM and a 4-time 20-game winner named Dave Stewart, who won his first of 4 in ’87.

The Padres won the pennant in 1988, ironically finally achieving that great battle with the Dodgers that they sought. Kirk Gibson’s home run off Dennis Eckersley gave the Dodgers the Game 1 win, and Los Angeles’ Dodgers captured the Series title in 5 games.

The following year, the Padres battled the Angels and Royals to the wire, winning the division and the pennant after beating Baltimore in the ALCS. Ray Kroc had learned his lesson in the ‘70s, and went with home grown talent, plus some major trades. He made one of them midway through 1989, getting Rickey Henderson from the Yankees; Henderson had left the Athletics as a free agent after 1984, having spent all of 1979 in the majors, and every day since, due to Veeck wanting to showcase his amazing talent. When they were out of contention in 1980, Henderson was stealing bases like crazy for the Chicago A’s, and even in 1982, when Fingers went down with an injury, and ’83, when Chicago ran away with the division and he could afford to. He stole 122 bases in 1982.

The Padres had shipped some superb young talent to the Yankees, such as Kevin McReynolds and a number of hurlers, for some of the Yankees’ youngsters in 1985. Now, they sent a few of the Yankees’ youngsters back to them for Henderson.

Henderson paid dividends in ’89, as San Diego swept the Giants in the World Series behind a great outfield of Rickey Henderson, Dave Henderson, and Tony Gwynn. However, the following year, the young Athletics and their excellent pitching beat San Diego, 96 wins to 95, in an excellent pennant race. Those Athletics eventually lost to the Reds in the Series.

Chicago’s Athletics would make one more Series, but not till 2005, when they won.

San Diego would still have a good team after this. Gwynn’s meeting with Ted Williams after the 1988 season, in which the Padres had played the Red Sox in the ALCS, helped him to become even more potent, hitting .405 in 1994 and .341 for his career.

However, it would be a force in the East, which had been weak for a few years, which would really start to dominate the ‘90s. It would also help keep African-Americans interested in baseball, thanks to WTBS and Ted Turner’s incredible promotional efforts with the great slugger Frank Thomas.

Turner made sure Thomas was everywhere, and proclaimed him the “great star Bill Bartholomay sought when he moved the Sox to Atlanta nearly 30 years ago. He sought to work in the South with an integrated team, and we had some good players, but never one like this man.”

Of course,t hey were the Bulldogs now, but the spirit of that great team lived on as they fought for pennants in the 1990s, trying to end the jinx that had seent hem not win a World Series since 1917 back in Chicago.

After Atlanta won the division in ’91, losing in the ALCS to the Twins (who beat the Pirates in the World Series), Frank Thomas led his club to a pennant in 1992. They lost to Toronto, but the next year, they won the pennant rather handily, downed the Athletics in 5 games, then waited to play the winner between the Phillies and the Denver Bears, and their stars such as Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, and hurlers like Dennis Martinez and Ken Hill.

The Bears had finished 2nd in 1987, the year after they started finally deadening the ball in Denver, which cut down on the numbers of men like Andre Dawson but which also allowed them to finally get good pitchers. The Bears had last come that close in 1979, when they came within a game of dethroning the Milwaukee Braves as division champs, and only missed when Gorman Thomas homered against them twice on the final day of the season.

This time, the Bears had acquired Bill Swift as a third starter and had Andres Galaragga hitting over .350 at first base. The ’93 Bears won 100 games and overcame a 9 game lead by the Giants. They then played a Phillies team which also won 100.

Runs were scored in bunches in this NLCS, with the clubs combining for 85 in 7 games. The Phillies had home field, though, and they escaped.

When Atlanta and the Phillies, played, while there were good pitchers on both sides, there was also incredible offense. Frank Thomas hit 3 home runs in one Series game in Game 4 in Philadelphia, and the Bulldogs won by an incredible 18-12 score. The Series lasted 7 games, but at the end, Atlanta had come out on top. This was the White Sox’ first World Series win since 1917, no matter what Charlie Finley said about the A’s replacing them in Chicago’s hearts.

The Atlanta Bulldogs would miss out on the Series in 1994 and 1995. In ’95, the Indians had an amazing year, beating the Reds in the Series. In 1996, Atlanta again lost to the Yankees, who beat the Denver Bears and their vaunted attack of Walker, Grissom, etc., along with Pedro Martinez, a superb pitcher who would be with Boston by the middle of 1999. The Yankees would also thwart Atlanta in 1998 – when the Yankees swept the Cubs in 4 straight – and 1999, as the Yankees downed the Mets.

However, along with 1992 and 1993, Frank Thomas’ Atlanta Bulldogs would win pennants in 1997 and 2000. In 1997, they would beat the Milwaukee Braves in the World Series. In 2000, they would lose to the New York Mets.

Frank Thomas would retire with 575 home runs, and the appreciation of many in the state of Georgia. Some wondered - what if Bartholomay had bought another club? Still, they managed to do very well with the one they got eventually – though it took almost 3 decades for them to really achieve the kind of greatness they’d hoped for.

Oh, and the Cubs? They did manage to win a pennant, in a down year for the N.L.; they got swept by the Yankees. But, at least they got there. Boston finally won a series in 2004, despite the Bulldogs breathing down their neck as the wild card team all year, and again in 2007 over the Phillies, before the Phillies won in 2008. So, anything can happen in baseball.

World Series

1959: Los Angeles over Chicago White Sox (A) in 6
1960: Pittsburgh over New York (A) in 7
1961: New York (A) over Cincinnati in 5
1962: New York (A) over San Francisco in 7
1963: Los Angeles (N) over New York (A) in 4
1964: St. Louis over Atlanta White Sox in 7
1965: Los Angeles (N) over Minnesota in 7
1966: Baltimore over Los Angeles (N) in 4
1967: St. Louis over Boston in 7
1968: Detroit over St. Louis in 7
1969: New York (N) over Baltimore in 5
1970: Baltimore over Cincinnati in 5
1971: Pittsburgh over Chicago Athletics (A) in 7
1972: Chicago (A) over Cincinnati in 7
1973: Chicago (A) over Los Angeles (N) in 7
1974: Cincinnati over New York (A) in 4: Chris Chambliss not traded to Yankees since they gave so much for Jim Wynn, had little pitching left over but enough to get to the Series; Atlanta White Sox floundering, solder to Ted Turner after season
1975: Cincinnati over Boston in 7
1976: Cincinnati over Kansas City in 6: Chambliss traded to Royals after John Mayberry had poor year in ’74, Indians in race for a while & acquired him to try to get over the top in ’74; Chambliss gets pennant-winning hit in extra innings here
1977: New York (A) over Los Angeles (N) in 6: Jim Wynn finally gets Series ring, Bobby Murcer still in OF for Yankees, too
1978: Milwaukee Braves over New York, (A) in 6; Braves back after 20-year wait, Phil Niekro gets Series ring, finally a clincher in Milwaukee.
1979: Pittsburgh over Baltimore in 7
1980: Los Angeles (N) over Kansas City in 7 (After Dodgers must use up quite a few pitchers in Game 5 win in ALCS, Fernando Valenzuela must start Game 1 as Rookie; he wins 5-3 as Dodgers win in 7, finally getting Vida Blue his Series ring
1981: Philadelphia over Chicago (A) in 5
1982: St. Louis over Baltimore in 7; Pete Vuckovich has really good year for Cardinals as in ’81, 2nd in Cy Young to Steve Carlton here, injury in April part of Cardinal downfall in ‘83
1983: Baltimore over Milwaukee Braves in 6; Vida Blue drug problem hurts Dodgers, as does loss of Steve Howe, Braves come from way back to beat Dodgers, continuing a rivalry that has existed for years.
1984: Detroit over Toronto in 5 (Phillies tied for lead before losing last 9, Blue Jays win division by 6, Dave Stieb wins games 1 and 4, also has only Series win versus Tigers in Game 2.)
1985: Kansas City over St. Louis in 7; Chris Chambliss (as a role player), George Brett, and a few other Royals finally get their Series rings
1986: New York (N) over Boston in 7
1987: Minnesota over St. Louis in 7
1988: Los Angeles (N) over San Diego in 5
1989: San Diego over San Francisco in 4 (Rickey Henderson to Padres for stretch run, finally in Series, will sign with Athletics where he broke in for 1990, though.)
1990: Cincinnati over Chicago (A) in 4
1991: Minnesota over Pittsburgh in 7
1992: Toronto over Atlanta in 7 (White Sox’ first Series appearance since 1964)
1993: Atlanta over Philadelphia in 7: White Sox’ first World Series win since 1917, thanks to great pitching and Frank Thomas’ hitting; Atlanta finally has its slugger that can draw crowds with incredible home runs, White Sox win first World Series since 1917)
1995: Cleveland over Cincinnati in 6
1996: New York (A) over Denver in 6
1997: Atlanta over Milwaukee Braves in 7
1998: New York (A) over Chicago (N) in 4
 
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