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This Day In Baseball History: December 20th
By Administrator | December 20, 2009
In 1921, at the major league meetings, the AL voted to return to the best-of-seven World Series while the NL voted to keep it best-of-nine… Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis cast the deciding vote, and the best-of-seven format is reinstated.
In 1926, the world champion St Louis Cardinals traded Rogers Hornsby to the NY Giants for Frankie Frish and Jimmy Ring. The trade was complicated by the fact that the ‘Rajah’ refused to sell his 1,167 shares of the team stock back to the Redbirds at the asking price. Frisch, aka ‘The Fordam Flash’, would go on to play an integral role in the success of the Gas House Gang of the the 1930’s.
In 1940, A’s manager Connie Mack bought a controlling interest in the club from the Shibe family for a reported $42,000.
In 1980, the Brewers obtained future Cy Young winners Rollie Fingers and Pete Vuckovich in a deal with the Cardinals sending pitcher Lary Sorensen, outfielder Sixto Lezcano and minor league players Dave Green and Dave LaPointe to St. Louis.
Also in 1980, the Red Sox missed the deadline for tendering contracts to veteran all-stars Fred Lynn and Carlton Fisk, thus unwittingly permitting both players to become free agents. [Thanks, Haywood Sullivan!]
In 2001, free agent Hideo Nomo (13-10, 4.50) signed a two-year, $13.75 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers… Nomo had led the AL in strikeouts and pitched a no-hitter with the Red Sox in 2000.
Also in 2001, the Jean Yawkey Trust announced all the partners had unanimously voted to sell one hundred percent of the Red Sox, a family owned business since 1933, to a group of investors led by Florida Marlins owner John Henry. The price tag, in excess of $600 million, doubled the amount ever spent to buy a team.
In 2002, Japan’s most heralded player, outfielder Hideki Matsui, reached a preliminary agreement with the NY Yankees on a three-year, $21 million contract. ‘Godzilla’, the three-time Most Valuable Player of Japan’s Central League, rejected an offer from the Yomiuri Giant’s in order to play in the United States.
In 2007, Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon revealed in a newspaper interview that his bulldog, “Boss”, ate the ball used to record the final out of 2007 World Series.
Born Today: Branch Rickey (1881), Fred Merkle (1888), Cecil Cooper (1949)
Topics: MLB History |
