Most Important Non-Players/Managers In Baseball History
Submitted by podizz on Fri, 10/14/2011 - 07:04
- --Alexander Cartwright, Jr. In truth, there is no patient zero, no moment when the inspiration for baseball was beamed down from the heavens. For centuries, men had played cricket, rounders, and various other games featuring bat and ball. However, if you're going to point to one man who truly set the wheels of baseball in motion, that man is Alexander Cartwright. Cartwright was a bank teller and volunteer firefighter, who for many years had played various ball games around the parks in New York City. Though many of these games closely resembled what we now know as modern baseball, Cartwright arrived one day with some newfound inspiration. As his friend Duncan Curry recalls of that Spring day in 1845, "Cartwright came to the field...with his plans drawn up on a paper....He had laid out a diamond shaped field with canvas bags filled with sand or sawdust for bases at three of the points and an iron plate for home base. He had arranged for a catcher, a pitcher, three basemen, a short fielder and three outfielders. His plan met with much good-natured derision, but he was so persistent in having us try his new game that we finally consented more to humor him that with any thought of it becoming a reality." Cartwright would proceed to codify a set of accepted rules and engineering the first organized baseball game between his Knickerbockers and teh New York Club at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken New Jersey, June 19th, 1846. Three years later, lured by the California gold craze, Cartwright began trecking westward, along which he would would spread the gospel of baseball like a Johnny Appleseed. Barely twenty years since that day in Hoboken, there were thought to be over a thousand organized baseball clubs scattered across the country. Cartwright was declared the inventor of the modern game of baseball by the 83rd United States Congress on June 3, 1953.
- --Henry Chadwick-Often the best way of conferring legitimacy upon something is simply by committing it to paper. A British-born journalist in the mid nineteenth century, Chadwick was one of the first to cover the infant game, writing up game summaries for the New York Clipper. Chadwick originated the box score, giving berth to a national obsession with baseball statistics and records. He also penned the "Base Ball Manual" and "Beadle's Dime Base Ball Player," guide books in which he described rules, techniques, and star players of the game.
- --Harry Frazee- History has not been kind to Mr. Frazee. The infamous GM of the fledgling Boston Red Sox will forever be linked to the distrastrous transaction that sent Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, damning the Sox to nearly a century of futility. However, that may not be the only raw deal Frazee got. In truth, and this is coming from a die hard Red Sox fan, Frazee had his hands tied, making a move that almost any other general manager in his position would have made. For starters, Ruth was the ultimate diva of his day, a drunk, a womanizer, a hot head (at one point throwing a punch at an umpire) an ego-maniac, and the farthest thing from a team player. During the 1919 season, Ruth refused to continue pitching, continually undermined his manager, and even going 'Manny being Manny' on his teammates by pulling himself out of the last few games of the season. That year, the Sox would finish sixth in their league (in the two years following his departure, the Sox would actually climb a spot to fifth). After that season, Ruth demanded that his salary be doubled, an unheard of figure that Frazee simply could not pay. Ruth then proclaimed that he wouldn't play until his demands were met, all but forcing Frazee's hand to negotiate a trade. Due to an ongoing dispute with American League president Ban Johnson, Frazee was effectively banned from dealing with any team but the White Sox and Yankees, two teams that also defied Johnson's corrupt reign. (Johnson's hatred of Frazee in part stemmed from his belief that Frazee was Jewish, violating an unwritten rule within the game to keep Jews out of the ranks of ownership. Frazee was in fact Presbyterian.) It's hard to fathom that the only other offer on the table would actually have been more destastrous than the one that ultimately transpired, but that's exactly the case. The White Sox offered up superstar Shoeless Joe Jackson and cash, an intriguing offer were it not for the fact that just months later, Jackson would be suspended for life for his role in the infamous Black Sox scandal. At the time, the transaction was actually seen by many as a good deal from the Red Sox. In subsequent years, numerous inaccuracies were perpetuated about Frazee, many of which were motivated by the ongoing belief in his Jewishness and the notion that a cash-strapped Frazee selfishly sold Ruth to finance his landmark play No, No, Nanette. (which actually didn't come out till six years later) As we all know, Ruth would go on to transform the Yankees into a dynasty while the Red Sox would go championshipless for another 86 years. Whatever blame Frazee deserves, the impact of his decision on the future course of the game is impossible to deny. For more on Frazee's malignment, check out the illuminating Glenn Stout piece 'A Curse born of hate' http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2004/news/story?page=Curse041005
- --Kennesaw Landis-A former judge and Civil War hero, Landis served as baseball's first commissioner from 1920-1944. During this time in office, Landis restored integrity to the game with his banishment of the eight guilty players of the infamous Black Sox scandal. The ruling he established, (Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor had a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible) would go on to be the damning assertion used against Pete Rose several decades later.
- --Mel Allen/Red Barber-Known and beloved as the voices of the Yankees and Dodgers respectively, Melvin Israel and William Barber were the first truly iconic broadcasters in American sports history. Initially afraid that radio would discourage people from actually showing up to the park, owners soon found the medium to be an unparralleled promotional tool for their sport. (not to mention a great way to get sponsors)
- --Branch Rickey-Responsible for breaking baseball's color barrier with the signing of Jackie Robinson while serving as GM of the Dodgers. He also drafted the first Hispanic superstar in Roberto Clemente. In addition, he was instrumental in establishing baseball's modern farm system, developing such stars as Pepper Martin, Stan Murial, and Dizzy Dean for the Gashouse Gang Cardinals. Rickey is credited with popularizing the batting helmet, batting cage, and creating the first spring training facility. Finally, he was perhaps the earliest proponent of what we now call sabermetrics, valuing such things on-base percentage over average.
- --Marvin Miller-Today, the Major League Baseball Players Association is the most powerful union in all of sports, and no man deserves more thanks for that fact than Marvin Miller. Elected head of the MLBPA in 1966, Miller soon made his impact felt, negotiating the first collective bargaining agreement with owners, increasing minimum salaries, introducing the all-important independent arbitration practice, and eventually ushering in the age of free agency with the invalidation of the reserve clause. Under the reserve clause, players had been effectily married to their initial club, with that club retaining their rights not so unlike a piece of property. To make matters worse, those players unhappy with their compensation were forced to settle their disputes with the commissioner, who, having been hired by the owners, was naturally biased in his rulings. In 1974, after Cardinal's outfielder Curt Flood brought the issue of the reserve clause's inherent unfairness to the forefront, Miller encouraged pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally to refrain from signing a contract for the following year and instead enter arbitration. Peter Seitz, the arbiter, ruled that the players had no legal ties to remain with their clubs and were free to pursue other offers. The reserve clause had been killed and the era of free agency had begun.
- During Marvin's tenure that stretched from 1966-1982, the average player's salary rose from $19,000 to $241,000. His work on behalf of the players signified a colossol shift in the balance of power between player and owner.
- --Bud Selig Though a controversial figure forever linked to the steroid era, Selig made numerous changes to the game, including the introduction of the wild card and interleague play, the expansion of instant replay, and the creation of the World Baseball Classic. He also presided over an explosion of league revenue, brought baseball to Arizona and Tampa Bay, tightened testing and penalties for performance enhancing drugs and introduced revenue sharing among franchises.
- --George Steinbrenner- Before there was Jerry Jones, before there was Mark Cuban, there was George Steinbrenner. Loud, irreverant, controversial, and hyper-controlling, George Steinbrenner was the archetype for the larger than life sports franchise owner. Today, ballplayers earn more than the GDP of small countries, and perhaps no man is more responsible than the Boss. With it came unprecedented market inequality, as the Yankees payroll grew to such exorbitant levels that is exclipsed those of the 5, 6, and 7 of the small market teams combined. Contracts became bloated to the point of absurdity (see: Werth, Jason and Zito, Barry) as owners from around the league struggled to keep up with the Evil Empire.
- **
- **
- Abner Doubleday Though many think of Doubleday as the creator of baseball, history has all but proven this to be myth. In 1907, The Mills Commission, appointed to determine the origin of baseball, concluded that "the first scheme for playing baseball, according to the best evidence obtainable to date, was devised by Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown, New York, in 1839." However, Doubleday never claimed this distiction in any of his writings, and it was even determined that at the date of the alleged invention, Doubleday was a cadet at West Point, his family having moved away from Cooperstown a year prior. Adding furthor doubt is the fact that the primary testimony on behalf of Doubleday lay with a man named Abner Graves, who after shooting his wife two years later wound up spending the rest of his life in an insane aslylum. So yea, not the most credible of witnesses.
The off-the-field pioneers and personalities to built baseball into the game it is today. They broadened the game's reach and appeal, altered its complexion,