bill veeck

The New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, and Boston Red Sox retaliate at Bill Veeck, forcing the St. Louis Browns to play afternoon games to avoid sharing TV revenues. Veeck takes his plan to the American League office to make them pay. The plan is rejected.

ByThis Day in Baseball

1953 – The New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, and Boston Red Sox retaliate at Bill Veeck, forcing the St. Louis Browns to play afternoon games to avoid sharing TV revenues. Veeck takes his plan to the American League office to make them pay. The plan is rejected.

Walter O'malley

Walter O’Malley succeeds Branch Rickey as president of the Dodgers

ByThis Day in Baseball

Walter O’Malley succeeds Branch Rickey as president of the Dodgers. O’Malley, who had offered to buy Rickey’s share of the club to become majority owner, is forced to pay more money when ‘the Mahatma’, in a final act of defiance about being told to leave the organization, offers his share of the team to a friend for a million dollars, a deal the new president believes, but can’t prove, to be as “fraudulent as a four-dollar bill.”

Sam Breadon sells the St. Louis Cardinals empire to Robert Hannegan and Fred Saigh

Sam Breadon sells the St. Louis Cardinals empire to Robert Hannegan and Fred Saigh

ByTom

1947 – Sam Breadon sells the St. Louis Cardinals empire to Robert Hannegan and Fred Saigh. The price is in excess of $4 million with the new owners getting the Cardinal players, physical assets, 16 minor league franchises, $2.1 million in reserve funds and payment on a new ballpark site, four minor league parks, and the lease on Sportsman’s Park. Breadon had first acquired an interest in the Cardinals in 1917 and bought control in 1920 for an investment of $350,000.

tom yawkey

The owners hold a secret meeting lead by Tom Yawkey to defend color barrier

ByBaseball

1946 – At the Owners’ Meeting, a committee formed to study integration, which includes Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey, delivers its secretive report defending the covert color barrierwhich exists in professional baseball. The absurd reasons given why blacks shouldn’t be allowed to play in the big leagues include an absence of skills due to inferior training and lack of fundamentals as well as the need to respect existing Negro League contracts, but another lesser known motivation may have been profit, as revealed later in the report: “The Negro leagues rent their parks in many cities from clubs in Organized Baseball (and) Club owners in the major leagues are reluctant to give up revenues amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars every year” and the fear white fans would be driven away if black players attracted more minorities to the ballpark.

On January 25 1945 — Larry MacPhail, Dan Topping and Del Webb purchase the New York Yankees for $2.8 million from the heirs of previous owner Jacob Ruppert. The new owners announce that Ed Barrow will remain in place as general manager, but a month later they will install MacPhail as GM.

 Larry MacPhail, Dan Topping and Del Webb purchase the New York Yankees for $2.8 million from the heirs of previous owner Jacob Ruppert

ByTom

1945 – Larry MacPhail, Dan Topping and Del Webb purchase the New York Yankees for $2.8 million from the heirs of previous owner Jacob Ruppert. The new owners announce that Ed Barrow will remain in place as general manager, but a month later they will install MacPhail as GM.

Connie Mack announces he has acquired the controlling interest in the A’s

ByThis Day in Baseball

Connie Mack announces he has acquired the controlling interest in the A’s, a team he has managed for the past 40 years, for a reported $42,000. The Philadelphia skipper, who will celebrate his 78th birthday in three days, had shared the ownership with the heirs of Benjamin Shibe, who started the franchise on a joint basis in 1901.