September 30, 1946: One of baseball's biggest postseason "barnstorming tours" begins. It is the end of one era, and the start of another.
Before World War II, Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians was the best pitcher in baseball -- in the all-white major leagues, anyway. Leroy "Satchel" Paige was the best pitcher in the all-black Negro Leagues.
Feller missed most of 4 seasons in the war, and came back strong. At the age of 28, was as good as any pitcher ever: In the 1946 season, he went 26-15, had a 2.18 ERA, pitched a no-hitter against the New York Yankees -- the 2nd of 3 he would go on to pitch -- and struck out 348 batters.
For a while, that was believed to be a major league record, as Rube Waddell was believed to have topped out at 343 in 1904. A later check of the records revealed that Waddell had actually struck out 349, but that wasn't found out until after Sandy Koufax with 382 in 1965, and then Nolan Ryan with 383 in 1973, had surpassed Feller's total. So when Koufax broke the record, everyone thought it was Feller's.
Also happening in that 1946 season was the debut of Jackie Robinson with the Montreal Royals, the top farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Feller had gone on record as saying that, if Robinson were white, he "would not be big-league material." He spent the rest of his life trying to make up for that misjudgment. As it turned out, in 1962, he and Robinson were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame together.
But he had already had an idea, before his discharge from the U.S. Navy, of having a tour of two opposing teams, one white, one black. In an interview with William Marshall, for his book, Baseball's Pivotal Era, 1945-1951, he said, “I knew what I was going to do, and I knew the people personally that I was going to have get the black clubs together: The Kansas City operator, Mr. Wilkinson, and Satchel Paige, and many others that I wanted to oppose us.”
It was in mid-July of Feller’s stellar comeback campaign that he announced plans for a coast-to-coast exhibition tour featuring an all-star squad made up of players from both the American and National leagues and a team of the nation’s finest Negro League players.
He obtained from Commissioner Albert B. "Happy" Chandler's permission to carry the tour beyond the 10-day barnstorming limit. And he contacted J.L. Wilkinson, owner of the Kansas City Monarchs, correctly thinking him the man to be the go-between with the other Negro League owners, who would let their players go on this tour.
The 27-game tour began on September 30, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, with the itinerary including stops in such outposts as Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Newark, New York, Columbus, Dayton, Louisville, Davenport, Des Moines, St. Paul. Omaha, Wichita, St. Louis, Kansas city, Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Vancouver, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and Tacoma. It ran concurrent with the World Series, which ran from October 6 to 15, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox in 7 games.
No Red Sox, including Ted Williams winning what turned out to be his only Pennant despite retiring 14 years later, and no Cardinals, including Stan Musial, winning what turned out to be the last of his 4 Pennants despite retiring 17 years later, were available -- at least at first.
Musial joined in mid-tour. Williams did not: According to Feller's memoir, Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey offered him $10,000 not to go, and Detroit Tigers owner Walter "Spike" Briggs offered his star, Hank Greenberg, a similar amount. Part of the issue was that Feller had rented planes, and the players would be flying, and the team owners didn't want their players dying in plane crashes. Feller, himself a licensed pilot understood the danger, and heavily insured the tour.
Because the Yankees did not win the Pennant, it made their players available, and left fielder Charlie Keller, shortstop Phil Rizzuto and pitcher Spurgeon "Spud" Chandler joined Bob Feller's All-Stars. So did Feller's Indian teammates, pitcher Mel Harder and Bob Lemon; Boston Braves pitcher Johnny Sain; and Washington Senators 1st baseman Mickey Vernon.
In his memoir, Buck O'Neil wrote. "I was excited to be chosen for the Satchel Paige All-Stars, along with guys like Hilton Smith, Gene Benson and Quincy Trouppe, because I knew I'd be making more money in one month than I had made in the last six. And I was excited to able to play against guys like Mickey Vernon, Phil Rizzuto, Johnny Sain and Stan Musial right after the big-league World Series.
"I also felt that, even though it was black against white, this tour was an event that could have a real effect on big-league integration, because it took place after Jackie had proven himself, and if a lot of us weren't that lucky, we could at least prove ourselves against big-leaguers in these games."
In addition to the preceding, Satchel Paige's All-Star included Negro League stars Max Manning, Barney Brown, Hank Thompson, Art Wilson and Howard Easterling.
The itinerary:
* September 30, Forbes Field, Pittsburgh: Paige 3, Feller 1.
* October 1, Idora Park, Youngstown, Ohio: Feller 11, Paige 2.
* Later on October 1, Cleveland Municipal Stadium: Feller 5, Paige 2.
* October 2, Comiskey Park, Chicago: Feller 6, Paige 5.
* October 3, Crosley Field, Cincinnati: Feller 3, Paige 0.
* October 4, Yankee Stadium, New York: Feller 4, Paige 2.
* October 5, Ruppert Stadium, Newark, New Jersey: Feller 13, Paige 10.
* October 6, Yankee Stadium: Paige 4, Feller 0.
* Later on October 6, Bugle Field, Baltimore: Paige 7, Feller 4.
* October 7, Red Bird Stadium (later renamed Cooper Stadium), Columbus, Ohio: Paige 4, Feller 3.
* October 8, Hudson Field, Dayton, Ohio: Feller 7, Paige 6.
* October 9, a day off.
* October 10, Municipal Stadium, Richmond, Indiana: Feller 7, Paige 5.
* October 12, American Legion Park, Council Bluffs, Iowa: Feller 3, Paige 2.
* Later on October 12, Lawrence Field, Wichita, Kansas: Feller 5, Paige 3.
* October 13, Kansas City Municipal Stadium: Paige 3, Feller 2.
* October 14, K.C. Municipal Stadium: Feller 4, Paige 1.
* October 15, a day off.
* October 16, Wrigley Field, Los Angeles: Feller 4, Paige 3.
* October 17, Lane Field, San Diego: Feller 2, Paige 0.
* October 18 to 22: Time off.
* October 23, Sam Lynn Park, Bakersfield, California: Feller 12, Paige 4.
Overall record: Feller 14, Paige 5. So while the argument that the best black players could play in the white major leagues held up, the argument that the Negro Leagues were the equal of the white majors does not.
Two years later, Indians owner Bill Veeck signed Paige, despite his age being apparently 42. He helped Feller and the Indians win the World Series.
In 1990, the Yankees visited Cleveland for their Old-Timers Day, and their old-timers' game was held between games of a doubleheader. Rizzuto, by this point, was the Yankees aging, quirky broadcaster, and had former Met ace Tom Seaver in the booth with him. He asked Feller to interview, and Rizzuto brought up the tour. As patriotic as Feller was, he was also honest, telling the WPIX-Channel 11 audience, "We did the tour for one reason: To make money. I'm not going to kid you about that. We lost a lot of money during the war."
And when former Commissioner Francis T. "Fay" Vincent wrote a book, he interviewed Feller for it. He wouldn't change his story: "We were interested in one thing, making money. I mean, what else is there? Yes we put on a good show. There was racial rivalry, not amongst the players, but amongst the fans. And we got a few laughs. They're great friends of mine. They love me dearly. I love them dearly. I know all the guys. We made more money in that month of October than we made all year round."
By the time the tour concluded, approximately a quarter of a million fans had witnessed this unprecedented tour.
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September 30, 1946 was a Monday. Baseball's regular season was almost over, and no games were played on this day. Nor in football: Monday Night Football was still 24 years away. And basketball and hockey were out of season. So there were no scores on this historic day.
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