Also in the Gazette Times 100 years ago today:

Hans Lobert and other members of the Philies enjoyed a good one at the expense of Pitcher Oldham, a recruit, on a train en route from Indianapolis to Philadelphia.

"Hey, Oldham, you're wanted on the telephone."

"Didn't know they had telephones on trains," grumbled the youngster as he swung his 'pajamad' form from the upper. They kept Oldham hunting for the phone through three Pullmans while the train raced through Ohio at 40 miles an hour.

That's ridiculous. How could you ever have a telephone without wires?

Pretty run of the mill Birthday Team, though the starting pitcher/first baseman's a keeper. He threw 72 complete games, 670.2 innings, won 52 games, and struck out 385 batters, and put up a 171 ERA+...and that was just in 1884.

Not too shabby.

C: Ryan Doumit
1B/SP: Guy Hecker
2B: Quilvio Veras
3B: Alex Grammas
SS: Mike Lansing
LF: Wally Moon
CF: Gary Pettis
RF: Jay Bruce

SP: Chris Bosio
SP: Art Ditmar
SP: Barry Moore
SP: Tim Conroy
RP: Tim Crews

GM: Mark Shapiro
Manager: Dave Miley

25 years ago today, was an extremely one-sided trade. Going one way was a first-ballot Hall of Famer about to enter his most famous stretch of his career. Going the other way were three lukewarm bodies. Can you figure out what the trade is before clicking on the link?

Great stuff as always Chris (and I got the trade!). Question though;

"1937 Dizzy Dean is in an ugly incident as he takes a swing at reporter Jack Miley. Diz’s brother Paul Dean and other Cardinals then attack him."

I don't know about the incident. Is the "him" in question Miley or did Paul and the Cards attack Diz as a way to stop him?

Had to Eckersley for thee guys who never made the majors.

Jose - I'm really not sure. I probably shouldn't have put it in because I couldn't quite figure out what my own entry meant.

Sounds like it was Dean and a number of other Cardinals vs. Jack Miley and Irving Kupcinet. In the ensuing chaos, Frankie Frisch ended up under a sand urn and a lamp.

Wow, an Irv Kupcinet sighting! I remember him hosting a talk show in the grainy, early days of UHF syndication.

Yesterday, Goefrey Tomlinson announced his retirement. A former 4th round draft pick of the Royals, Tomlinson spent the last eight seasons with my hometown team, les Capitales de Québec. He had a great career with the club.

I know indy baseball does not mean much for most primers, but for us baseball fans living 400 miles away from the closest MLB stadium (Boston in my case), it is meaningful.

Sometimes those indy league guys can be the most memorable. I'll never forget seeing Mike Arner throw a 14-inning complete game shutout in Game One of the '97 Frontier League championship series. Most amazing individual performance I've ever seen in any sport, at any level, ever. It was mindblowing. Utter dominance.

I couldn't blame anyone for not knowing who Arner is. He threw all of 22 innings (badly, I might add) above AA ball. For me, he's vividly and permanently seared into my memory.

Ubaldo Jimenez was suspended for five REAL games for his actions in an exhibition game? When has that ever happened before?

Also, when have exhibition games after the "start" of the "season" ever happened before?

Also, when have exhibition games after the "start" of the "season" ever happened before?

Every time teams play in Japan.

Ubaldo Jimenez was suspended for five REAL games for his actions in an exhibition game? When has that ever happened before?

I'm not certain but I think Al Nipper was suspended for plunking Darryl Strawberry and triggering a brawl in 1987. I think the Yankees and Rays might have gotten some suspensions from their 2008 hoo-ha in Spring Training.

Also, when have exhibition games after the "start" of the "season" ever happened before?

I think every season that has had a Japan opening series (2000, 2004, 2008).

And of course the in-season exhibition game used to be quite common. The Red Sox used to play one of their farm teams every year and I don't think that was unique to them. The Hall of Fame game used to feature two MLB teams and was played during the year. In 1986 the Red Sox and Mets played an exhibition game in September.

My mistake, I thought the previous Japan openings had been one or maybe two days before the real opening day.

And I thought the Hall Of Fame Game was like a pickup game of assorted major leaguers.

In 1986 the Red Sox and Mets played an exhibition game in September.

For the record, why did they play the Mets in September that year?

Intra-city exhbitiion games (such as the Mayor's Trophy Game in New York), games vs. farm teams and the Hall of Fame game (where I got my only foul ball in 1982) all make some sort of sense. But I never could figure out why the Sox and Mets played an exhibition that year.

Also, when have exhibition games after the "start" of the "season" ever happened before?

I think they stopped 10-15 years ago, but teams used to regularly play their top one or two minor league affiliates every year in the middle of the regular season.

Did you know that, since 1950, every year that Kentucky has won the NCAA BB championship, the Yankees have won the WS? (51,58,78,96,98, 2012?)

Quick question about MLBtv - I know they black out live games for your local team, but can you watch, say yesterday's game? When do games become available, if at all?

Yanks release 1B Jorge Vazquez

Braves sign P Chad Durbin

Rox claim P Adam Ottavino

Reds claim P Alfredo Simon

Quick question about MLBtv - I know they black out live games for your local team, but can you watch, say yesterday's game?

It's been a couple years since I subscribed, but when I did ('08? '09?), you could watch any game on demand whenever you wanted. The replays were generally up within a couple hours of the end of the game.

This came in extremely handy, as I slept in the evening and worked overnights at a desk job that was okay with me streaming games while I worked. The one drawback was paying $20 a month to watch the Indians get crushed every night.

I just saw Rany Jazayerli tweeted a get well wish to Joe Sheehan. Maybe I'm slow here... but what's wrong with Joe?

I just saw Rany Jazayerli tweeted a get well wish to Joe Sheehan. Maybe I'm slow here... but what's wrong with Joe?

I don't know, but it certainly sounds serious.

Vin Campbell was a pretty good player, but there's a lot of weird stuff about him. He quit baseball in 1911 after a solid rookie campaign, then when he wanted to come back in June (apparently to play with someone else) the Pirates refused to release him and he was forced to come back to Pittsburgh. He hit pretty well again as a part-timer, but was dumped in the off-season for Mike Donlin. After the trade, Honus Wagner was quoted as saying he was sorry to see Campbell go, but "a ballplayer who is dissatisfied is of no use to a club". Boston apparently was trying to get rid of Campbell almost as soon as he got there; there was a report that they'd offered him to St. Louis (his hometown team) for cash. After another decent season, he quit yet again.

Campbell was referred to as a "young society man" in one of the newspaper articles I found, and perhaps he gave the impression of being someone who was too good to be hanging around with all of those ballplayers.

-- MWE

If the 1898 NL anti-profanity campaign had worked, baseball wouldn't have had to do without the talents of well-bred effete fops like Vin Campbell.

(yes, I did listen to that podcast today)

John Lannan was optioned? Wow.

For the record, why did they play the Mets in September that year?

Apparently it was the first of a series to raise money for charity. I'm not sure if future games were played. I was 16 in 1986 and following the Sox with a frightening level of detail, I had a countdown of the magic number to the AL East title on a calendar in my bedroom but I don't remember this game.

The Marc Kroon timeline.

Awesome, thanks for posting that link about Kroon.

23:

Thanks. I was wondering why he didn't have more of a career. He certainly was no Cobb, but his stats show him to have been a good hitter.