1953 – Braves owner Lou Perini announces he will seek permission from the National League to move his franchise from Boston to Milwaukee. The day will become known as “Black Friday” in Beantown.
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.
It’s True, Cy Young’s middle name is not Tecumseh, as sometimes listed, but the initial T stands for True. The Hall of Fame right-hander’s middle name mixup may be the result of his teammates calling him ‘The Chief,’ the English word for Tecumseh.
On March 13, 1943, the Spalding Company starts manufacturing a new kind of baseball for the upcoming season. The inside of the ball is made up of recycled cork and balata, instead of the usual combination of cork and rubber.
1943 – The major leagues approve a new official ball manufactured by the Spalding Company for the upcoming season. Instead of the usual combination of cork and rubber, the inside of the ball is made up of recycled cork and balata, materials not needed in the war effort. Officials insist the ball will have the resiliency of the 1939 ball, but the players will express dismay that they cannot drive the new ball and point out the dearth of runs and homers in 1942 even with the old ball.
1937 – Lou Gehrig signs with the New York Yankees for $38,000 and a $750 signing bonus.
March 13, 1930 Hall of Fame umpire Doug Harvey was born South Gate, CA. Nicknamed God (by MLB players), he was a NL umpire for 31 seasons (1962-1992). He umpired a total of 4,673 games, 3rd most in MLB history at the time of his retirement. He was elected to the Hall of Fame…
1917 – After hearing that Gabby Street had caught a ball dropped off the Washington Monument in 1908, Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson brags that he could catch a ball dropped from an airplane at spring training, even though he is in his mid-50s and well above his playing weight. Robinson circles unsteadily under the descending spheroid. Instead, a grapefruit was secretly substituted and it explodes on impact with his glove. Once he feels the ooze, Robinson thinks it is blood, and screams that he is dying, until he tastes the juice. He later concedes that he probably would have been killed if a real baseball had been dropped from the plane. Aviatrix Ruth Law dropped the grapefruit as outfielder Casey Stengel assumed culpability for the switch.
1887 – After a week of conditioning in Macon, Georgia, the Detroit Wolverines National League club team begins a six-week spring exhibition tour through the South and Midwest.
Frank Baker is born in Trappe, Maryland. A third baseman and left-handed hitter, Baker will guide the Philadelphia Athletics to three World Series championships. He will be nicknamed “Home Run” during the 1911 World Series, in which he will hit a go-ahead home run off Rube Marquard in Game Two and a 9th-inning game-tying home run off Christy Mathewson in Game Three. Baker will lead the American League in home runs for four consecutive seasons, twice lead the league in RBI, and bat .363 in six Series. Baker will earn Hall of Fame honors in 1955.
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