1951 – Hall of Fame player/manager Eddie Collins dies in Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of 63. Collins batted .333 and stole 744 bases over a 25-year career, and batted .328 in six World Series with the Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Athletics.
1951 – The Brooklyn Dodgers sign a 21-year lease with the city of Vero Beach, Florida, for use of their spring training facilities there.
1951 – Pittsburgh Pirates left-handed first baseman Dale Long makes his first appearance as a catcher in an exhibition game against the minor league San Diego Padres.
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.
J. Edgar Hoover, longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, declines the post of baseball commissioner. President Calvin Coolidge appointed him in 1924, and the nation’s top cop remained in the FBI until his death in 1972.
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 – Cesar Cedeno is born in Santo Domingo, DR. Considered the franchise’s first superstar, Cedeno has twelve fascinating and sometimes frustrating seasons in Houston (1970-1981) and is a member of the 35th Anniversary All-Astros team.
1951 – Smokey Joe Williams dies in New York City at age 62. Williams has been considered by many historians to be one of the game’s greatest pitchers, even though he never played a game in the major leagues. He spent his entire 27-year career (1905-1932) pitching in the Negro Leagues, Mexico and the Caribbean, but his path to the majors was barred by the color line. During his stellar career, he defeated five Hall of Fame pitchers in exhibition competition: Grover Alexander, Chief Bender, Waite Hoyt, Walter Johnson and Rube Marquard. In 1999, after extensive research on the early years of black baseball reveal his outstanding numbers, Williams will gain Hall of Fame honors himself.
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