Giants player-manager Mel Ott decides to stop playing and do only his dugout duties for the team. ‘Master Mel’s’ decision is prompted by a .048 batting average when the future Hall of Famer has collected just two hits in 48 at-bats this season.
A bus Traveling at dusk in a light rain on Washington’s Highway 10 en route to Bremerton, careens off a Cascade Mountain pass road, to avoid an oncoming car approximately sixty miles east of Seattle. The crash kill’s eight members of the Spokane (Western International League) club and there manager Mel Cole. Jack Lohrke, a young infielder, had gotten off the bus 15 minutes earlier at its last stop in at Snoqualmie Pass, before the accident, on orders to report to San Diego. The future Giant and Phil will be known ever after as “Lucky”. Ben Geraghty is also among the survivors.
On June 23, 1946, Eddie Waitkus and Marv Rickert of the Chicago Cubs hit consecutive inside-the-park home runs in the fourth inning against the New York Giants. The dual inside-the-parkers, which occur at the spacious Polo Grounds, don’t prevent the Cubs from losing the game, 15-10.
Bill Veeck heads a syndicate which purchases the Cleveland Indians. This launches Veeck on a long career as a lively promoter at the major league level, having already achieved success in the minors.
On June 21, 1946 A federal judge rules that the Seattle club does not have to play returning serviceman Al Niemiec but it does have to pay him his $720 a month contract through the season. At midseason, 143 players who had major league contracts when they went to war have been released or sent to the minors. Former major league…
On June 21, 1946, future Hall of Famer Bill Veeck purchases the Cleveland Indians. Veeck, the head of a group of new owners, will make headlines in 1947, when he signs Larry Doby as the first African-American player in the history of the American League.
On June 20, 1946 – A Fortune magazine story gives some rare details of baseball finances, showing the Yankees had a revenue of $1.6 million and profit of $306,000, cut to $201,000 after minor league losses, the previous season. Of the gross income, $896,000 is from home ticket sales.
On June 13, 1946, the Chicago Cubs famed double-play trio of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance are inducted into the Hall of Fame together. The poem was first published in the New York Evening Mail on July 12, 1910, under the title “That Double Play Again.” The day before, the Cubs had…
On June 11, 1946 The Red Sox clip the Indians‚ 10 – 5, behind pitcher Bob Klinger. The Sox have now won 12 in a row.
On June 9 1946, At Fenway Park, Ted Williams clouts the farthest home run ever hit at Fenway Park, a shot estimated to have traveled 502 feet before striking the straw hat of a fan sitting in seat 21 in the 37th row of section 42 in right field. The seat will be painted red…
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