- This topic has 9 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1919/B10010CIN1919.htm
This is from Game One of the 1919 World Series between the Reds and White Sox. It has nothing to do with the scandal. Check out the box score. It says some players were making their DEBUT GAME!!!
Seriously?
In the World Series they make their debuts? How on earth could that have happened even back in 1919???
r/Esteemed Rat
It must mean world series debut. Ivey Wingo was the St. Louis catcher from 1911=1914 and caught over 300 games for them. Kopf and Reuther also had several years of major league service and imagine the other “Debut Players” did also. Check their names on the Baseball Reference site.
I noticed the box score says the game was played at Redland Field. It was built in 1912, and in 1934 renamed Crosley Field.
That is odd about the “debut game” being printed behind those Reds players. It makes sense that most of the Reds would be playing in their first post season game. But all those guys were with the Reds during the season, and many for seasons before 1919.
I looked at game one of the 1964 World Series, thinking the same designation would be listed behind most of the Cardinals players. But there is no comment about “Debut game”. Not sure why they have that for the 1919 Series. In looking further, it seems that retrosheet has that “Debut game” comment for players in the dead ball era making their first World Series appearance, then stops the practice starting in 1920.
I cannot think of a reason why it would be listed for those early World Series, and not after 1919.
Here’s another “explain this” item with a St Louis baseball connection, as in the Browns. If you go to the Dedham, Massachusetts Wikipedia page, you’ll see that one of its notable people is none other than Lefty Mills, pitcher for the St Louis Browns. It describes him as an “early American one-armed baseball player” with a link to his Wikipedia page. When you go to his Wiki page, you’ll see this picture, but yet no mention of him having just one arm:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lefty_Mills#/media/File:Lefty_Mills.jpg
Seeing that cracked me up. Before you think of me as an awful guy, I’m pretty sure ol’ Lefty always had two arms. In fact, here’s another pic of Lefty after he found his missing arm, but lost both of his legs, although not in the same photo chop league as the first picture.
Lefty Picture 2
Well back in the early days it was common to change stuff from season to season. In the early days of the world series it changed a lot far as how many games were played. My assumption about the debut thing and why it stopped would be because at first the world series was a bigger deal cause of the two leagues playing each other, a lot of excitement generated. Kind of like when they started having super bowls. You had competing leagues playing it all out for superiority. After a while the competing leagues went away because they were all under one official MLB banner so it didn’t make sense to keep up with some of the older ways. That’s my thought but it’s probably wrong.
Not sure on that Willie as inter-league play did not start until the 1990s, yet Retrosheet stops the “debut game” reference in 1920. I looked at the reference information on retrosheet but did not see anything about “debut game.”
Still a mystery – sort of like the one about Stan the Man wearing number 19. The one-arm pitcher, Lefty Mills, is an oddity as well. In that second picture he looks as if he only has one arm. Maybe someone took that and built a legacy around this “one armed pitcher”, and it had some traction.
Not exactly the same thing but in 2016 Kyle Schwarber played in two games in April then got hurt. His next appearance was in game one of the 2016 World Series. The difference is he appeared in 69 games in 2015.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.