100 years of baseball

Image: back of Wheaties cereal package.

“The year 1939 marks the centennial of the game which was invented and christened by General Abner Doubleday.”

Excerpt from https://www.loc.gov/resource/spalding.00179/?sp=15 . Click on the link to read the whole story.

You can page through Spalding’s 1939 Official Baseball Guide here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/spalding.00179/?sp=1 .

No one from southern California was inducted into the Hall of Fame but you can see who was: http://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/past-inductions/1936-1939#1939 .

Read about the “Casey at the Bat” poem here: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_case.shtml .

Joe Louis, heavyweight champ

Image from http://www.fighttoys.com/Louis-Roper%20ticket.htm .

Joe Louis in his prime defended his world heavyweight title against Jack Roper in Los Angeles. Louis KO’d Roper in 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the first round. See the film at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5_2CcnYfBg .

Spring training with a dummy

“…the Cubs arrived at their Spring Training facility on Catalina Island in California. They were the defending National League champions. During the time the Cubs trained in California, in the years before a big league team had moved out west, the Cubs were the toast of Hollywood.

“Every year they were sure to get a visit from one big movie or radio star. In spring training of 1939, their visitor was the biggest dummy in America, Charlie McCarthy, along with his ventriloquist Edgar Bergen. There are three Cubs Hall of Famers in the picture. Can you spot them? Gabby Hartnett, Billy Herman, and Dizzy Dean. (Dizzy is the one right behind Charlie looking down on him).”

Excerpt and Acme file photo from http://www.justonebadcentury.com/todays-cubs-birthdays-march-3/ .

 

Football

Program: http://www.profootballhof.com/photos/gallery/pro-bowl-covers/

Patent: https://www.google.com/patents/US2182053

The first Pro Bowl was played in Los Angeles (at its Wrigley Field*, not the famous one in Chicago). Later in the year a patent was granted to a football with molded lacing and seams.

* http://la.curbed.com/2014/10/9/10038030/looking-back-at-five-of-los-angeless-longgone-old-stadiums — scroll down to see the history of the first field to bear the Wrigley name.