October 25, 1947: The Suspension of the Chicago White Sox

Happy Chandler

October 25, 1947: Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler suspends the Chicago White Sox from the American League, in a dust-up that started when the Sox inked 17-year-old star pitcher George Zoeterman, in violation of a ban on signing high school players.

Sox general manager Leslie O'Connor argued that Zoeterman was a private school student (at Chicago Christian High School, now defunct), and therefore not covered under the ban. This position earned O'Connor a $500 fine. O'Connor refused to pay, resulting in the suspension.

Ironically, O'Connor had been the chief assistant to the previous Commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a former federal Judge for Chicago, who thus kept the Commissioner's office in the city. O'Connor was even Acting Commissioner between Landis' death on November 25, 1944 and Chandler's election on April 24, 1945.

On November 4‚ White Sox owner Lou Comiskey, son of team founding owner Charles Comiskey, paid the fine. In so doing, Lou allowed O'Connor to be seen as principled, but prevented his team from being harmed. A crisis was averted, and the AL was once again comprised of 8 teams.

What would have happened if Comiskey had backed his GM up? It could have meant a lawsuit. Chances are, before that case could reach court, the owners would have fired Chandler, and replaced him with a Commissioner more amenable to the Pale Hose's case.

It's highly unlikely that the AL would have played the 1948 season with a different ownership group getting the rights to play in Chicago, as they would have had to share Wrigley Field with the Cubs, because the aggrieved Sox surely wouldn't have let them use Comiskey Park, which they still owned. It was also very unlikely that a different team would have been invited to replace the White Sox (an early promotion to the AL for Baltimore or Kansas City, perhaps?), and even less likely that they would have gone with just 7 teams.

And what, you might ask, happened to the principals? O'Connor left the White Sox after the 1948 season, and later served 8 years as the president of the Pacific Coast League, including the difficult 1957-58 off-season in which the Dodgers and Giants came to California, and he had to replace the original Los Angeles Angels (with, as it turned out, the Spokane Indians), the Hollywood Stars (with the Salt Lake Bees) and the San Francisco Seals (with the Phoenix Giants). He died in 1966, at age 76. Because of the quick end to the situation, he is almost forgotten by baseball fans today.

And Zoeterman? A year later, he was signed -- by the crosstown Cubs. But he never reached the major leagues, not because he didn't have the talent, but because of his religious beliefs: He refused to play baseball on Sunday. And so, in 1951, after too many refusals of demands that he do so, the Cubs released him. He served in the Korean War, and, rather than return after his discharge, he quit baseball at age 23.

He went back to Chicago, and went into the glass business, working at, and then buying, the Beverly Glass Company on the South Side. After he died in 2001, at age 71, his son Timothy said he never spoke of what could have been in a major league career: "It wasn't worth it to him. I never once heard him say, 'I wish I'd stuck with it.'" He was survived by his wife, his son, 3 daughters, 12 grandchildren, and a sister.

*

October 25, 1947 was a Saturday. The baseball season had ended 19 days earlier, with the New York Yankees beating the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series.

But there was lots of college football action, including the following: 

* Number 1 Michigan beat Minnesota, 13-6 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines won the Big Nine Conference title. (It was the Big Ten until the University of Chicago dropped football in 1940, and took that name again with the addition of Michigan State in 1953.)

* Number 2 Notre Dame beat Iowa, 21-0 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. The Fighting Irish did not accept a bowl invitation.

* Number 3 Texas beat Rice, 12-0 at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas. 

* Number 4 California lost to Number 10 USC, 39-14 at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California. USC went on to win the Pacific Coast Conference title, but got crushed 49-0 by Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

* Number 6 Army were beaten by Columbia, 21-20 at Baker Field. It was Army's 1st loss in 4 years, and one of the greatest upsets in college football history. Although Baker Field is in Inwood, at the northern tip of Manhattan Island, the game is nicknamed "The Miracle at Morningside Heights," for the neighborhood that includes most of the Columbia campus. (I have a separate entry for this event.)

* Number 7 Georgia Tech beat The Citadel, 38-0 at Grant Field in Atlanta.

* Number 9 Penn State beat West Virginia, 21-14 at Beaver Field in State College, Pennsylvania. This was before Joe Paterno was involved with the program, and before Beaver Stadium was built.

* Number 12 Southern Methodist (SMU), led by running back Doak Walker, beat Number 16 UCLA, 7-0 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The following week, SMU welcomed Texas into the Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas, and beat them to win the Southwest Conference title. SMU and Penn State played to a tie in the Cotton Bowl Classic.

* Alabama beat Georgia, 17-7 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia. Neither team was ranked at the time. Although 'Bama did not win the Southeastern Conference title, they were invited to play in the Sugar Bowl, where they lost to Texas.

* Arkansas, then in the Southwest Conference, beat Mississippi, 19-14 on neutral ground, in neither team's State, at Crump Stadium in Memphis. Despite the win, didn't come close to the SWC title. Despite the loss, Ole Miss did win the SEC, and went back to Crump Stadium, and beat Texas Christian (TCU) in the Delta Bowl.

* Kansas, then unranked, had the week off. They went on to win the Bix Six Conference (forerunner of the Big Eight/Twelve), and lost to Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

The baseball season had ended 19 days earlier, with the New York Yankees beating the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series. And the NBA (or, rather, BAA, Basketball Association of America) season wouldn't start for another 18 days.

But there were 2 NHL games played that day. The Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-2 at the Boston Garden. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

Also, Arsenal and Everton played to a 1-1 draw at Highbury in North London.

September 30, 1946: The Feller-Paige Tour

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.

*

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.

April 9, 1947: Brooklyn Dodger Manager Leo Durocher Is Suspended

April 9, 1947: Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher is suspended for the entire season, for what Commissioner Albert B. "Happy" Chandler calls "conduct detrimental to the game" -- 6 days before Opening Day.

He was accused of consorting with gamblers, including organized crime figures. And gambling was the thing that scared the baseball establishment the most. He was also accused of a different kind of consorting, marrying actress Laraine Day, with both of them being previously divorced.

Both accusations were true. Brooklyn's Catholic Youth Organization threatened to cancel its ticket buys if Durocher were not removed. They seemed to care more about the fooling around with Day than with the connections with the Mob.

Team president Branch Rickey was a Methodist and a moralist, and didn't like Durocher on a personal basis. He knew that Durocher fooled around, that he drank heavily, and that he bet on racehorses. But Rickey tolerated Durocher, because he won. Well, once; A former shortstop, he managed the Dodgers to the National League Pennant in 1941, and lost Playoffs for the Pennant in 1942 and 1946. In other words, in the last 3 seasons that were not affected by the manpower drain of World War II, Durocher had put the team in position to win the Pennant all 3 times.

Rickey also knew that he did not need a distraction, 6 days before Opening Day, the day when his project, Jackie Robinson, was to become the 1st black player in modern baseball. Before his suspension, though, Durocher stood up for Jackie. Having faced anti-Catholic bigotry in his youth, he told the Dodger players who didn't want Jackie on the team that he was going to play, and that any player who wouldn't play with him would be traded. And Rickey was willing to back Durocher up on that.

Branch Rickey

But now, Durocher had been suspended for a full year, the longest suspension in baseball history to that point, short of a permanent ban. Rickey didn't want the fuss over Durocher to detract or distract from Jackie's debut. So on this issue, he did not stick up for Durocher. He chose not to fight the suspension.

He turned to Burt Shotton, one of his scouts. A former outfielder, Shotton had played for both the St. Louis Browns and the St. Louis Cardinals, and had coached the Cardinals, while Rickey was the general manager of those teams. Shotton had also managed the Philadelphia Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds. Rickey wanted Shotton to manage the Dodgers.

Shotton had promised his wife that he would never wear another major league uniform. Rickey reminded him that Connie Mack, owner and manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, wore a suit in the dugout, rather than a uniform. So Shotton wore a suit, a team jacket, and a Dodger cap.

Burt Shotton

He managed the Dodgers for the 1947 season. Durocher came back in 1948, but a deal between Rickey and New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham allowed Durocher to switch teams. Rickey brought Shotton back, and he managed the Dodgers through the end of the 1950 season. He led the Dodgers to the Pennant in 1947 and 1949, and nearly did so again in 1950. He and Mack were the last 2 managers to wear suits instead of uniforms.

*

April 9, 1947 was a Wednesday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Playoffs were between the Semifinals and the Finals. The Toronto Maple Leafs went on to beat the Montreal Canadiens in 6 games.

There was 1 score on this historic day: The Basketball Association of America, in its 1st season, 1 of 3 before it merged with the National Basketball League to form the National Basketball Association, played a 1st round Playoff game at the old Madison Square Garden. The New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Rebels, 93-71.

February 19, 1946: Baseball's "Mexican Jumping Beans"

Danny Gardella

February 19, 1946: Danny Gardella, an outfielder for the New York Giants, becomes the 1st Major League Baseball player to announce he is "jumping" to the Mexican League.

It is considered an "outlaw" league because, unlike the American League, the National League, and most of North America's minor leagues, it is not under the control of MLB and its Commissioner. The Commissioner is controlled by the MLB team owners. And if there is one thing a major league sports team owner values more than money, it is control.

Jorge Pasquel was the man infringing on their control. He and his brothers began their fortune with a cigar factory in the port city of Veracruz. Jorge and Bernardo Pasquel had the ML's Azules de Veracruz -- in English, the Veracruz Blues -- and minority ownership of some other teams among their assets.

Jorge Pasquel

In 1943, knowing that the ML had no "color line" like the American majors did -- given the racial makeup of Mexico, such a ban would have been both hypocritical and nearly impossible to enforce -- he signed several players away from the Negro Leagues, and some found success in the ML. Among them was Monte Irvin, a future Hall-of-Famer who said it was the best decision he made in baseball, and that he had never felt so free.

With World War II having ended, Pasquel began to offer high salaries to bring major league talent over to the Mexican League. He may have been driven by nationalism, and by a dislike for American imperialism, possibly spurred by the U.S. invasion of his hometown in 1914, when he was a child. (The year 1946 having been the 100th Anniversary of the start of the Mexican-American War also might have had something to do with it.) Pasquel further aided his family's fortune later in 1946, by getting his cousin, Miguel Alemán Valdés, elected President of Mexico.

A total of 22 players, including 8 Giants, moved to the Mexican League, becoming known as "the Mexican Jumping Beans." Commissioner Albert B. "Happy" Chandler banned all 22 players for life. In addition to Gardella, they included Mickey Owen, the catcher whose dropped 3rd strike cost the Brooklyn Dodgers Game 4 of the 1941 World Series; and Sal Maglie, a Giants pitcher who would go on to become the best-known of these players.

But Pasquel's plan didn't last long. Owen quickly returned to the U.S., citing poor playing conditions.  A long legal battle ensued, after which Owen was determined to owe Pasquel $35,000 for breach of contract. The league took large financial losses in 1947.

In 1948, Gardella filed a lawsuit against Chandler, and the League Presidents, Ford Frick of the NL and Will Harridge of the AL. He charged that they were engaged in interstate commerce, because the defendants had made contracts with radio broadcasting and television companies that sent narratives or moving pictures of the games across state lines.

This suit hit the team owners where it really hurt: Their money and their sense of control. If Gardella won his case, not only would it mean the end of the reserve clause, which would force them to pay much higher salaries than they wanted, but it would mean the end of their special antitrust exemption that had been granted in 1922, as fallout from their 1914-15 battle with the Federal League.

The team owners decided to save the reserve clause, save the antitrust exemption, and save face. They settled the case, offering all of the Jumping Beans amnesty. Their suspensions were ended, and all were free to return -- to the teams which had held their rights before they jumped.

Gardella and Owen barely played in the majors afterward, both having been traded by their teams. Both lived until 2005. The most successful returnee was Maglie, who became the Giants' ace, a key figure in their winning Pennants in 1951 and 1954. Knowing for having one of the best curveballs in the game, and nicknamed "Sal the Barber" because he threw close to batters' heads, giving them "a close shave," he went 119-62 in the major leagues, despite not becoming a regular starter there until he was 33. Had he not taken 2 years off to work in a defense plant during World War II (a sinus issue made him 4-F), and lost 4 years in the ML, he could have approached Hall-of-Fame-worthy career statistics. He lived until 1992.

Sal Maglie

Jorge Pasquel wasn't so lucky. Although his cousin the President enabled him and his brother Bernardo to make a great deal of money in the Mexican oil industry, the brothers lost a sizeable chunk of change in baseball. They sold their teams in 1952, but maintained ownership of Mexico City's largest ballpark, Parque Deportivo del Seguro Social (Social Security Sports Park), taking in rent from the teams' new owners. Jorge was killed in a plane crash in 1955. He was only 48 years old.

Founded in 1925, the Mexican League reached an agreement with MLB in 1955, becoming an official Class AA league. In 1967, it was promoted to Class AAA. Today, it has 20 teams, 10 each in a North Division and a South Division. The Diablos Rojos del México -- the Mexico City Red Devils, formerly simply the Mexico City Reds -- have won the most titles, 16 Pennants. (UPDATE: They have won again in 2024 and 2025, making 18 Pennants.)

*

February 19, 1946 was a Tuesday. Ill-fated corporate whistleblower Karen Silkwood was born on this day.

Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And no games were scheduled in the NHL. Therefore, there were no scores on this historic day.