1951 – Detroit Tigers player representative Fred Hutchinson asks that players be allowed a say in choosing the new baseball commissioner.
Brooklyn signs a 21-year lease with the City of Vero Beach to use an abandoned naval base as their spring training facility, which will become known as Dodgertown. The site will be the team’s Grapefruit League home through the 2008 season, with exhibition games taking place at the 6,000-seat Holiman Stadium.
1951 – Commissioner Happy Chandler loses his bid to remain in office. Chandler is voted down, 9-7, in a tally of owners. Chandler, who started his term as commissioner in 1945, will be succeeded by Ford Frick.
Charlie Brown, who made his debut in Charles Schultz’s Peanut comic strip in last October, appears in his first baseball game. The perennial loser, who served as his team’s pitcher and manager, usually fielded the following lineup: first baseman – Shermy, second baseman – Linus, third baseman – Pig-pen, shortstop – Snoopy, right fielder – Lucy, center fielder -Patty, left fielder -Violet, and catcher – Schroeder.
1951 – The South Carolina House of Representatives introduces a resolution urging that Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was banished from baseball because of his part in the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, be reinstated.
1951 – The St. Louis Browns sign Satchel Paige, 45. He has been out of Major League Baseball since last pitching for the Cleveland Indians in 1949.
California governor Earl Warren denies the rumor that he is being considered to be baseball’s next commissioner. The former vice-presidential candidate, who was Thomas Dewey’s running mate on the Republican ticket in the last election, will be confirmed as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States in 1954.
1951 – Vern Ruhle is born in Midland, MI. Ruhle spends seven seasons as an Astro pitcher, best known for taking over a spot in the starting rotation in 1980 when J.R. Richard suffered a stroke and helping Houston win their first division crown. Later, he is a successful pitching coach in Houston under manager Larry Dierker.
1951 – Leon Roberts is born in Vicksburg, MI. The outfielder would bat .267 with seven home runs over parts of two seasons (1976 and 1977) in Houston.
1950 – Major League owners choose Lou Perini (Braves), Phil Wrigley (Cubs), Del Webb (Yankees) and Ellis Ryan (Indians) to select a new Commissioner as soon as possible. In a close vote, 9-7, Happy Chandler’s contract was not renewed three days earlier to serve a third term as baseball’s leader.
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