Chicago White Sox president Mrs. Dorothy Rigney agrees to sell the team to Bill Veeck for a reported $2.7 million. Chicago insurance broker Charles O. Finley allows that he can match the price. Charles Comiskey, Dorothy’s brother, will try to stop Veeck from buying the Sox, but will be unsuccessful.
1958 – The Dodgers officially become the “Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc.” in anticipation of playing their first season on the West Coast.
On February 7, 1949, New York Yankee superstar Joe DiMaggio signs a one-year contract worth $100,000, becoming the first American League player to earn a six-figure deal in major league history. Hank Greenberg was the first player to make six figures when he accepted the Pirates offer in 1947 after being waived by the Tigers….
1942 – The Cincinnati Reds stir the hometown fans by selling popular catcher Ernie Lombardi to the Boston Braves, where he will win the National League batting title this season with a .330 average.
1934 – Cincinnati Reds players and officials set sail from New York City to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a month of spring training. They will finish the grapefruit season in Tampa, Florida.
1926 – The Cincinnati Reds acquire catcher Val Picinich from the Boston Red Sox for cash.
1917 – Tim Murnane, a first baseman on the original Boston National League team of 1876, and later a leading baseball writer, dies in Boston at age of 64.
1916 – The Federal League’s year-old suit charging antitrust violations by organized baseball is dismissed by mutual consent in U.S. District Court in Chicago by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. No appellate decision is written and it will not be until 1922 when the courts rule on antitrust, in another suit stemming from the Federal League.
St. Louis Browns purchase future Hall of Fame pitcher George “Rube” Waddell from the Philadelphia Athletics
1905 – In Lynn, Massachusetts, Rube Waddell prevents a fire by carrying a burning stove out of a store and throwing it into a snow bank. Three days later he flees nearby Peabody to escape charges of assaulting and injuring his wife’s parents.
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