October 21, 1887: Detroit Wins the World Championship -- For the National League

Charlie Bennett

October 21, 1887: The National League Champion Detroit Wolverines clinch the World Championship with their 8th victory in Game 11 of the series this afternoon, over the American Association Champions, the St. Louis Browns, 13-3 on neutral ground at Oriole Park in Baltimore.

With a rainout yesterday in Washington‚ this morning's rescheduled Game 10 sees the Browns pull off a triple play and win‚ 11-4‚ to delay elimination. But the Wolverines take Game 11 later in the day to clinch.

The Browns were managed by their 1st baseman, Charles Comiskey. Having become the 1st modern-style player at the position, he later became the founding owner of the American League's Chicago White Sox. Other Browns stars included 3rd baseman Walter Arlington "Arlie" Latham; outfielders Dave Foutz, Curt Welch and "Parisian" Bob Caruthers; and pitcher Charles "Silver" King.

But they were no match for the Wolverines, managed by Bill Watkins, a former 3rd baseman who was the greatest athlete ever to come from Brantford, Ontario, Canada -- until Wayne Gretzky came along. He had 4 players who would later be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame: Center fielder Ned Hanlon, right fielder Sam Thompson, 1st baseman Dan Brouthers and 3rd baseman James "Deacon" White. Pitcher Charlie Getzlen went 29-13.

But they will end up losing money, and fold at the end of the next season. Detroit will not return to major league ball until the American League and the Tigers arrive in 1901, and will not win another World Championship for 48 years.

The Browns will win their 4th straight AA title the next season, but will go 38 years before winning another Pennant. In 1892 they join the NL; by 1901, they will be named the Cardinals.

One more player of note for Detroit: Charlie Bennett was their starting catcher. He helped the Boston Beaneaters, later the Braves, win the NL Pennant in 1891, '92 and '93. In 1894, at age 39, his playing career came to an end when he lost his legs in a train accident in Kansas.

In 1896, the Detroit team of the Western League, which became the Tigers in 1901, opened a new ballpark. It was named Bennett Park in his honor. Wearing prosthetic legs, he caught the ceremonial first ball on Opening Day. He did this every year until 1926, dying early in 1927. He did this through 1911-12, when Bennett Park was torn down and replaced with a new ballpark on the site, named Navin Field for the Tigers' owner. He lived long enough to see Ty Cobb and Harry Heilmann star for Detroit.

In 1938, the ballpark was renamed Briggs Stadium, for the current owner. In 1961, another new owner renamed it Tiger Stadium. The Tigers are a charter American League franchise, and have won its Pennant 11 times, so it's hard to imagine the city being in the National League. But, from 1881 to 1888, it was. And, in 1887, they were National League Champions, and World Champions of baseball.

Detroit is in Michigan, and Michigan is the Wolverine State. The University of Michigan has always called its sports teams the Wolverines. There would be one more professional sports team known as the Detroit Wolverines, playing in the NFL in the 1928 season. Despite going 7-2-1 and finishing 3rd, they never played again: Tim Mara, the founding owner of the New York Giants, bought the Wolverines, and transferred their best players to the Giants. Apparently, at the time, that was within NFL rules.

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October 21, 1887 was a Friday. There were no other scores on this historic day. 

July 3, 1944: The Fire That Made Baltimore Major League

The 1914-44 Oriole Park. The photo is colorized, but otherwise real.

July 3, 1944: A fire burns down Oriole Park in Baltimore. No one knows it yet, but this disaster will ultimately benefit the city, and lead to it becoming "major league."

The 1st Oriole Park was at what is now the northwest corner of 25th Street and Greenmount Avenue, and was home to the Baltimore Orioles of the American Association from 1882 to 1888. A 2nd Oriole Park was built 4 blocks north, at 29th and Greenmount, and was used in the 1889, 1890 and early 1891 seasons.

In mid-1891, the Orioles moved back to 25th & Greenmount, into the new Union Park, which was usually called Oriole Park, and is often retroactively called Oriole Park III. In 1892, the Orioles moved into the National League, and won Pennants at Union Park in 1894, 1895 and 1896, and nearly another in 1897. But changes in NL ownerships meant that they were broken up, and were contracted out of the League in 1899.

Baltimore got a team in the American League in 1901, although it only lasted 2 years. These Orioles were disbanded, and replaced in the AL by the team that became the New York Yankees. Research has proven that they were 2 different franchises, not a single moved franchise.

In 1903, the International League, one of the top minor leagues, put a team in Baltimore, using the same Oriole Park (IV, or III, depending on how you count them) as the 1901-02 AL team. These Orioles won the IL Pennant in 1908, and were runners-up 3 other times while playing there. In 1914, this Oriole Park became the 1st professional home field of Babe Ruth.

Those Orioles were forced to sell Ruth to the major-league Boston Red Sox, and then to fold, because the Federal League had debuted the Baltimore Terrapins, who played at Terrapin Park, just to the north of Oriole Park II at 29th & Greenmount. In 1916, after the FL folded, the IL put a new Orioles team in Terrapin Park, and it was renamed Oriole Park, making it either Oriole Park IV or (the name more commonly used by baseball historians) Oriole Park V.

It seated about 14,000, with shape similar to many ballparks of the time, with close foul poles and a distance center field: Left, 290; center, 450; right, 313. It began hosting night games in 1930, 5 years before the major leagues began doing so. The Orioles dominated the IL, winning 7 straight Pennants from 1919 to 1925, contributing some of the players who led the Philadelphia Athletics to AL Pennants in 1929, 1930 and 1931.

On the night of July 3, 1944, a fire, believed to have been a started by a discarded cigarette, burned the ballpark to the ground, destroying every object the team had on-site, including uniforms and trophies. Ballpark fires had been common in the wood era, but not since the advent of concrete and steel ballparks in 1909. But Oriole Park was built on the cheap, of wood. So the Orioles had to think fast.

A few blocks away at 33rd Street and Ellerslie Avenue, was the 70,000-seat Municipal Stadium. It was built for football, a horseshoe open at the south end. They put home plate in the northwest corner, giving themselves a short right field fence, and made do. Amazingly, they won the Pennant, and then beat the Louisville Colonels, Champions of the American Association, in the Junior World Series, attracting crowds of over 50,000, records for minor-league ball.

That caught the attention of the major leagues, who began to view Baltimore as a viable major league city again. It also caught the attention of the city government. In 1947, the Baltimore Colts began playing football there. In 1950, as the Orioles were winning another Pennant, the conversion of Municipal Stadium began. It was rebuilt, piece by piece, until it was a 48,000-seat (later 52,000-seat) horseshoe, open at the north end, with home plate at the south end, 309-foot poles leading to 380 feet to straightaway left and right, making it a pitchers' park. Renamed Memorial Stadium, it opened in 1954, and the team formerly known as the St. Louis Browns moved in.

Memorial Stadium would host the Colts as they won the NFL Championship in 1958, 1959, 1968 and 1970; and the Orioles as they won the American League Pennant in 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979 and 1983, including winning the World Series in 1966, 1970 and 1983.

But it didn't have modern amenities, and it didn't have enough office space for one major league sports team, let alone two. In 1984, team owner Robert Irsay moved the Colts to Indianapolis. In 1987, a deal was made to built a new baseball stadium in the city's Inner Harbor neighborhood. Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened for the 1992 season. In 1996, the Baltimore Ravens began play at Memorial Stadium. In 1998, they moved to what's now M&T Bank Stadium, across the street from the successor to the old Oriole Parks.

Memorial Stadium was demolished in 2002, with the site having hosted football for 76 seasons, and baseball for 48 seasons. Senior citizen housing was built on the site. It is still fondly remembered. Few people are alive today to remember even the last of the old Oriole Parks. Housing and/or retail are on the site of all of them.

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July 3, 1944 was a Monday. Baseball was the only sport in season at the time, and no games were scheduled for this date.