Before the Phillies’ home opener, the team dedicates a statue of Connie Mack as part of the Opening Day ceremonies

Before the Phillies’ home opener, the team dedicates a statue of Connie Mack as part of the Opening Day ceremonies

ByThis Day in Baseball

Before the Phillies’ home opener, the team dedicates a statue of Connie Mack as part of the Opening Day ceremonies. The eight-foot statue of the ‘Tall Tactician,’ which depicts the A’s long-time owner and manager with one foot in the dugout and one foot on the top step of it, waving his trademark scorecard to position his players, was created by well-known sculptor Harry Rosin. The ‘Tall Tactician’

U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower officially opens the season by tossing out the first ball at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. The ball is the 10 millionth Spalding baseball to be used in major league play.
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U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower officially opens the season by tossing out the first ball at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. The ball is the 10 millionth Spalding baseball to be used in major league play.

ByThis Day in Baseball

U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower officially opens the season by tossing out the first ball at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. The ball is the 10 millionth Spalding baseball to be used in major league play.

The Phillies trade five players, Ron Negray, Tim Harkness, Elmer Valo, Mel Geho, and Ben Flowers (the player to be named later), and send $75,000 to the Dodgers to obtain much-touted Cuban infielder Chico Fernandez. Philadelphia’s new shortstop plays three seasons in the City of Brotherly Love, batting just .242, before being traded to the Tigers.

ByBaseball

The Phillies trade five players, Ron Negray, Tim Harkness, Elmer Valo, Mel Geho, and Ben Flowers (the player to be named later), and send $75,000 to the Dodgers to obtain much-touted Cuban infielder Chico Fernandez. Philadelphia’s new shortstop plays three seasons in the City of Brotherly Love, batting just .242, before being traded to the Tigers.

Roberto Clemente

Kansas City and Pittsburgh battle through 18 innings to a scoreless tie in spring training

ByThis Day in Baseball

1957 – Called by Les Biederman of The Sporting News “one of the most unusual games in modern spring training history,” Kansas City and Pittsburgh battle through 18 innings to a scoreless tie “before probably one of the smallest crowds of the season anywhere, only 432 paid admissions.” Starting at 1:30 p.m., the game is called by mutual agreement at 5:27 because of impending darkness and high winds. Each team uses three pitchers, with the Athletics managing eleven safeties and the Bucs held to seven. Of the latter total, Roberto Clemente accumulates three, including the contest’s only extra-base hits, a leadoff double to begin the game and a one-out double in the top of the 18th. Clemente then saves the game in the bottom of the frame by gunning down Clete Boyer trying to go from first to third on Vic Power’s single with none out.

Willie Mays belts two home runs to lead the Giants to a 9 – 3 Cactus League win over the Cleveland Indians

Willie Mays belts two home runs to lead the Giants to a 9 – 3 Cactus League win over the Cleveland Indians

ByThis Day in Baseball

1957 – At Los Angeles’s Wrigley Field, Willie Mays belts two home runs to lead the Giants to a 9 – 3 Cactus League win over the Cleveland Indians. Giants general manager Bill Rigney fines Hank Thompson $150 for missing last night’s exhibition win over the Indians in San Diego.

Branch Rickey raves about Roberto Clemente In today’s issue of The Sporting News

Branch Rickey raves about Roberto Clemente In today’s issue of The Sporting News

ByThis Day in Baseball

1957 – In today’s issue of The Sporting News, former Pittsburgh Pirates GM – and current Pirate batting instructor (at least while George Sisler recuperates from a recent operation), Branch Rickey, – raves about Roberto Clemente, who will be seen as Rickey’s most illustrious Pirate hire. The article features a classic example of bandwagon-jumping, coming in the wake of Clemente’s dramatically improved sophomore showing, as Rickey radically revises his initial, considerably more pessimistic prognosis made in January but which won’t be made public until years later. Moreover, he shamelessly inflates his own role in acquiring Clemente, in effect stealing the credit from his longtime subordinate, pitching coach Clyde Sukeforth, the man who actually discovered Clemente last year while on assignment from Rickey to scout demoted Dodger hurler Joe Black. Ironically, just as Rickey has jumped on the bandwagon, Clemente, thanks to an off-season back injury which has somehow escaped the “Mahatma”‘s omniscient eye, is about to embark on the worst season of his career.

Hank Greenberg

Cleveland Indians reject the Boston Red Sox’ offer of $1 million for star pitcher Herb Score

ByThis Day in Baseball

On March 19, 1957, In what is believed to be the largest offer for a player to date, Cleveland Indians general manager Hank Greenberg rejected a million-dollar offer for left-handed pitcher Herb Score from Boston Red Sox GM Joe Cronin. Greenberg refuses, saying that Cleveland is interested in building for the future, not in selling…

1957 – New York Representative Emanuel Celler, whose committee investigated baseball, calls Ford Frick a “czar” who wishes to “gag” officials; Frick had cautioned Major League Baseball owners about commenting on the recent Supreme Court decision on professional American football coming under antitrust rules.

ByTom

1957 – New York Representative Emanuel Celler, whose committee investigated baseball, calls Ford Frick a “czar” who wishes to “gag” officials; Frick had cautioned Major League Baseball owners about commenting on the recent Supreme Court decision on professional American football coming under antitrust rules.