Baseball

G

The Impact of World War II

Baseball suffered during World War II (1939-1945), as hundreds of major league players were called to military service. Teams and fans also endured travel restrictions and limits on supplies. To overcome the shortage of players, some club owners began to recruit players from Latin American countries. More than 40 players from these countries joined the major leagues during the war.

The effects of World War II also contributed to an increased interest in women’s baseball. In 1943 Chicago Cubs owner Philip Wrigley founded the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, which featured teams from Midwestern cities. The league lasted until 1954.

After the war, baseball began to grow again. Veteran stars such as Bob Feller, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, Ted Williams, and Stan Musial returned from military service to the major leagues. Night baseball games resumed, and attendance at games climbed. In 1946 viewers in Boston observed the first television broadcast of a major league game.

H

The Integration of the Major Leagues

Jackie Robinson, the first black player in the modern major leagues, made his debut as a Brooklyn Dodger on April 15, 1947, bringing an end to baseball’s exclusion of blacks. In his first year, Robinson led the Dodgers to the National League pennant and was named rookie of the year. Although Robinson was often confronted with bigotry from the stands and on the field, his outstanding performance and composure on the field helped overcome racial prejudice.

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Robinson’s success as a player opened the door for other blacks to play professional baseball on previously all-white teams, but not all teams signed black players immediately. By 1950, only 5 of the 16 major league teams had integrated—the Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns, New York Giants, and Boston Braves. By 1953, blacks had played on 8 of the 16 teams. Not until 1959, when the Boston Red Sox acquired Pumpsie Green, had every major league team signed a black player.

Bill Veeck, president of the Cleveland Indians, was one major league executive who recognized the competitive advantage black stars brought to baseball teams. Noting that Robinson’s presence on the Brooklyn roster made the Dodgers a pennant contender and improved their attendance figures, Veeck signed a black baseball star to play for the Indians. On July 5, 1947, Larry Doby joined Cleveland and played his first major league game as a first baseman against the Chicago White Sox.

Few people welcomed Doby to the team, and two of his teammates refused to shake his hand. Eddie Robinson, the Indians’ regular first baseman, feared losing his job and refused to loan Doby his first baseman’s glove; the Indians borrowed a mitt from the Chicago White Sox for Doby. Fans shouted racial insults at Doby from the stands. Taunts and jeers also came from rival players on the field. When the Indians traveled, Doby had to stay in a separate hotel that catered to blacks. Doby found life in the major leagues isolated and lonely, and his experience was typical of what many black players encountered through the 1950s. Not until the United States Congress passed civil rights legislation in 1964 were blacks guaranteed the right to stay in the same hotels and eat meals in the same restaurants as their white teammates.

Besides Robinson and Doby, other players who became the first blacks on major league teams were Henry Thompson (St. Louis Browns, July 7, 1947), Monte Irvin and Henry Thompson (New York Giants, July 8, 1949), Sam Jethroe (Boston Braves, April 18, 1950), Minnie Minoso (Chicago White Sox, May 1, 1951), Bob Trice (Philadelphia Athletics, September 13, 1953), Ernie Banks (Chicago Cubs, September 17, 1953), Curt Roberts (Pittsburgh Pirates, April 13, 1954), Tom Alston (St. Louis Cardinals, April 13, 1954), Elston Howard (New York Yankees, April 14, 1954), Nino Escalera (Cincinnati Reds, April 17, 1954), Carlos Paula (Washington Senators, September 6, 1954), John Kennedy (Philadelphia Phillies, April 22, 1957), Ozzie Virgil (Detroit Tigers, June 6, 1958), and Pumpsie Green (Boston Red Sox, July 21, 1959).

In 1954 only 7 percent of all major league players were black. By 1980 the number of black players on major league rosters reached a high of 22 percent. In 1990, however, 17 percent of all major league players were black. An influx of Latin American ballplayers and growing opportunities for black athletes in other professional sports, notably basketball, are thought to be responsible for the decrease in black major leaguers.

In the 1980s, Major League Baseball (MLB) came under sharp criticism because few blacks filled jobs as team managers, coaches, umpires, and front office personnel. In response to this criticism, Major League Baseball began an affirmative action program in 1988 to increase the hiring of blacks and other minorities for managerial positions. In 1992 Cito Gaston became the first African American manager to win a World Series championship, as he led the Toronto Blue Jays to the title. Gaston and the Blue Jays repeated the feat in 1993.

I

League Expansion

Several major league clubs relocated during the 1950s. The first, the Boston Braves, moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1953. Other key changes occurred in 1958, when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, California, and the New York Giants moved to San Francisco, California, expanding baseball’s market across the United States. Professional baseball had become so popular that many cities began requesting permission to create new clubs.

During the 1960s, the National League and American League each added four new teams, creating a total of 12 teams in each league. Beginning in 1969, each league was divided into separate East and West divisions, the winners of which played each other in the league playoffs. Expansion proved successful, as millions of fans attended major league games across the country each year. Television networks also purchased the rights to broadcast major league games, which added to baseball’s growing popularity. In 1973 the American League adopted the designated hitter rule in an effort to increase scoring. The American League expanded to 14 teams in 1977.

Relations between players and club owners reached a crisis in the 1972 season, when the Major League Players Association called a strike protesting the owners’ unwillingness to improve player benefits. In that same year, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the reserve clause. But in its ruling, the court supported many of the players’ complaints, paving the way for free agency later in the decade. Relations with owners remained strained, however, and in 1981 the players staged another strike.

The major leagues expanded again in 1993, when the National League added two new teams: the Colorado Rockies and the Florida Marlins. Club owners and players agreed to a realignment of league structure in 1994. Under this realignment, each league grouped its 14 teams into three separate divisions. The leagues also added another series to their playoffs, enabling more teams to compete after the regular season. In 1994, however, no postseason play was held because major league players went on a season-ending strike in August. As the strike continued during the off-season, club owners threatened to field teams consisting of replacement players for the 1995 season, but in April 1995 the major league players ended their strike.

In an attempt to draw more fans, MLB instituted interleague play in 1997, matching AL and NL teams against each other in a limited number of regular-season games. These interleague matchups were previously confined to spring training and the World Series. Designated hitters appear in NL lineups in games held in AL ballparks, and AL pitchers bat during games at NL parks. Interleague play also was intended to foster local rivalries, such as by pitting the Chicago White Sox against the Chicago Cubs (teams that last met in the 1906 World Series) and the New York Mets against the New York Yankees.

Another expansion took place in 1995 as the major leagues capitalized on the growing population of baseball fans in the Sun Belt by establishing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Saint Petersburg, Florida, and the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix. The clubs began play in 1998. The expansion necessitated a minor realignment of the leagues and divisions, however. In a deal brokered by franchise owners and MLB, the Milwaukee Brewers left the AL and joined the NL Central Division before the 1998 season, thereby becoming the first team in modern professional baseball to switch leagues. In turn, the Detroit Tigers filled the vacancy in the AL Central Division, opening a spot in the AL East Division for the Devil Rays. The Diamondbacks joined the NL West Division.

J

Recent Developments

Baseball’s popularity surged during the 1998 season as sluggers Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals and Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs chased the single-season record of 61 home runs set by the Yankees’ Roger Maris in 1961. McGwire broke the record first, hitting his 62nd home run on September 8, 1998, off Steve Trachsel of the Cubs. McGwire finished the season with 70 home runs and Sosa finished with 66.

The outstanding play of the New York Yankees also drew attention to the 1998 baseball season. The club won 114 games during the regular season to break an AL record of 111 wins set by the Cleveland Indians in 1954. On the way to their World Series championship, the Yankees amassed a total of 125 regular-season, playoff, and World Series wins—the most victories in one season by any team in the history of the game. New York repeated as champions in 1999.

In the 2000 postseason, the Yankees and Mets renewed a hallowed baseball tradition when they met in an all-New York World Series—often referred to as a Subway Series. The meeting, won by the Yankees in five games, was the 14th World Series between two teams from New York City. It was the third straight championship—and fourth in five years—for the Yankees. In 2001 the Seattle Mariners won 116 regular-season games to break the Yankees' record and tie the major league mark, but the Mariners fell to New York in the AL Championship Series (ALCS). In the World Series, New York lost its crown to the Arizona Diamondbacks in a taut seven-game series. Also in 2001 slugger Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants broke McGwire’s record by hitting 73 home runs. Bonds and the Giants reached the World Series the following year but lost to the Anaheim Angels in seven games.

The Yankees returned to the World Series in 2003 but lost again, this time to the Florida Marlins. It was the second championship for the Florida franchise in just 11 seasons in the major leagues.

In 2004 Bonds became the third baseball player to hit 700 home runs, joining Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714). Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners broke George Sisler’s 84-year-old hits record with 262 base hits during the regular season. In the playoffs the Houston Astros won a postseason series for the first time in club history, while the Boston Red Sox pulled off a historic comeback by winning the last four games of the ALCS from the Yankees after losing the first three. In the World Series the Red Sox ended 86 years of frustration, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four straight games.

In 2005 another long championship drought ended, as the Chicago White Sox swept the Astros in the World Series. It was the first World Series appearance for Houston, and it was the first title for Chicago since 1917.

In March 2006 the inaugural World Baseball Classic (WBC) was held. The 16-nation tournament featured many professional stars representing their native countries, something that the Summer Olympics could never produce because of scheduling conflicts with the major league regular season. The star-studded United States squad did not advance out of pool play, losing to Mexico in the final game of the second round. Led by Ichiro Suzuki and legendary manager Sadaharu Oh, the Japanese team won the championship, defeating Korea in the semifinals and Cuba in the title game. The event is next scheduled for 2009.

The St. Louis Cardinals won their tenth World Series title in 2006, defeating the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 1. It was the third time the two teams had matched up in the World Series. The Cardinals won in 1934 and the Tigers in 1968. The 2006 victory was the Cardinals’ first world title since 1982. Cardinal manager Tony La Russa became only the second manager to win world championships in both the National and American leagues (Sparky Anderson was the first).

The Boston Red Sox repeated as world champions in 2007, sweeping the Colorado Rockies who made their first World Series appearance. Also in 2007 Bonds broke the career home run record set by Aaron. But a cloud hung over Bonds’s achievement because of his reported use of steroids.

K

Steroid Use

At the turn of the 21st century baseball was confronted with a growing controversy over the use of performance-enhancing drugs, particularly steroids. Some athletes have used these drugs to increase muscle mass and improve their performance, but steroids have been shown to pose serious long-term health risks. As early as 1971 Major League Baseball (MLB) prohibited players from taking a prescription medication without it being prescribed by a doctor. Then in 1991 MLB commissioner Fay Vincent specifically banned steroid use in a newly adopted drug policy. But unlike other professional sports, the 1991 policy failed to provide for mandatory drug testing. Drug testing was not implemented until after team owners and the players’ union reached a collective bargaining agreement in 2002.

In the second half of the 1990s the sport’s home run totals began to climb, culminating in 1998 when both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa broke the record for most homers in a season. Their record chase generated huge media coverage and fan interest, boosting the sport’s popularity.

Questions were raised, however, when McGwire admitted during the season that he had used a steroid-like compound known as androstenedione, a drug banned by the National Football League (NFL) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The suspicions increased when the 37-year-old Barry Bonds broke McGwire’s record with 73 home runs in 2001, 24 more than his previous career high.

MLB announced a new steroid testing program for the 2003 season, but many observers and sports officials criticized the policy as flawed and too lenient. More controversy ensued in early 2004 when Bonds’s personal trainer was among those indicted for illegally distributing steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to high-profile athletes. Bonds was called to testify before a grand jury, and details were later leaked to the media. In his testimony Bonds reportedly said that he had used a steroid-laced substance provided by his trainer, but he claimed that he was unaware of its contents at the time. Other famous athletes, such as baseball player Jason Giambi and sprinter Marion Jones, were also implicated in the scandal.

In January 2005 MLB and the Major League Players Association announced a new steroids policy that increased the frequency of testing and strengthened the penalties for violations. In February former major league star José Canseco released a book admitting that he had used steroids during his career. The book alleged that many other major league players took the drugs, including Canseco’s former teammate McGwire. A month later McGwire, Sosa, and MLB commissioner Bud Selig were among those who testified about the issue before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform. During the hearing the committee members urged Selig and the players union to adopt a more stringent policy toward steroids and other drugs.

In August 2005 Baltimore Orioles star Rafael Palmeiro was suspended for ten days after he tested positive for steroids. Palmeiro, who had collected his 3,000th career hit just two weeks before the suspension and was considered a strong candidate for the Baseball Hall of Fame, became the first high-profile major league player to be suspended for using performance-enhancing substances.

Three months later, under increasing pressure from Congress, Selig and the MLB players union agreed to strengthen the sport’s drug-testing program. Under the new rules, a player’s first positive test for steroids would result in a 50-game suspension—five times longer than the previous penalty—while a second violation would trigger a 100-game ban. A player testing positive for a third time would be banned from Major League Baseball (and affiliated teams), although he could apply for reinstatement after two years.

Another important aspect of the new agreement was the inclusion of testing for amphetamines and a number of other powerful stimulants. The penalties for using these drugs include mandatory follow-up testing for a first violation, a 25-game suspension for the second, and an 80-game ban for a third offense. Many players and baseball officials acknowledged that stimulants have been commonly used by major league players for decades to overcome fatigue and improve reaction time. Use of the stimulant ephedra was linked to the death of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler in 2003.

The full extent of drug use in baseball did not become apparent until December 2007 when former U.S. senator George Mitchell released the results of a 20-month investigation that named about 90 players as users of performance-enhancing drugs. The Mitchell report identified many of the sport’s top stars, including players who had won the most valuable player (MVP) and Cy Young awards and had been named to All-Star teams. The most prominent players named were Bonds and pitcher Roger Clemens, both of whom had been regarded as certain to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Among the American League MVP winners named in the report were Clemens, Frank Thomas, Mo Vaughn, Jason Giambi, and Miguel Tejada. Thomas and Giambi were the only players to actively cooperate with the investigation. Among the National League MVP players named were Bonds and Ken Caminiti.

The Mitchell report said that a “steroids era” had begun in baseball in the late 1980s and that the widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs threatened the integrity of the game. The report concluded that all parties involved, including team officials, MLB commissioners, players, and their union, bore responsibility for a “collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on.”

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