Wednesday, May 23, 2007

February 26th, 1934 - News Item


Giants Great McGraw Dies
Long time skipper led team to 10 NL pennants in 31 years

John McGraw, the long time manager of the New York Giants and former baseball player, died last night at the age of 60 from cancer. McGraw played for Baltimore mostly from 1891 to 1902, when he became player-manager of the Giants. He held that dual role for four more years, when he retired as a player and continued to manage the Giants until two years ago when current player-manager Bill Terry took over. Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw called McGraw "the real and most authentic most remarkable man in America." Umpire Bill Klem, with whom McGraw often had furious rows, said "John McGraw off the field was a man in every old fashioned sense of the word." Klem said that McGraw was very charitable towards those in need, but shunned attention for his acts of kindness.

February 24th, 1934 - Transactions

Dodgers Name New Manager
Stengel Once Played for Brooklyn Club

The Brooklyn Dodgers announced yesterday that they were replacing manager Max Carey with former Dodger outfield Casey Stengel. Stengel played for the Dodgers from 1912 to 1917. During that period, the team was mostly known as the Robins. The team went back to the previous name "Dodgers" only two years ago. Dodgers had been the team's name in the 1911 and 1912 campaigns as well. "Darned if I don't know a few things about baseball, and I think I can teach baseball," Stengel told reporters yesterday.

February 22nd, 1934 - 1934 Cleveland Indians

The 1934 Cleveland Indians finished third in the American League at 85-69. They are managed by arguably the greatest pitcher of all time, Walter Johnson. Earl Averill (of) and Hal Trosky (1b) are their strongest hitters. Mel Harder is their star starting pitcher, with strong relief from Belve Bean and Lloyd Brown. The Indians are a steady team in the 1930s, finishing mostly in 3rd place, never higher, nor worse than 5th.

February 21st, 1934 - The 1934 Cincinnati Reds

The 1934 Cincinnati Reds finished at the bottom of the National League with a 52-99 record. The struggling Reds would go through three managers that season. Future Hall of Famer Chick Hafey, who had spent most of his career with the Cardinals, was in his third season as a Red and the best hitter on the 1934 Reds. Paul Derringer and Benny Frey were solid starters, and Dan Brennan was adequate out of the bullpen. No other Reds pitcher had a season worth mentioning. The Reds performance was no surprise. They had finished last in the previous three seasons. In 1938, Bill McKechnie takes the team over and turns it around, finishing fourth in 1938,and then winning the pennant in 1939 and the World Series in 1940.

February 15th, 1934 - Transactions

Brown Purchase Redbird Pitcher

The St. Louis Cardinals announced today that they were selling the contract of pitcher Bill McAfee today. Fortunately for McAfee, he won't have far to relocate. In fact, he won't even have a different home field. McAfee's new team is the St. Louis Browns. McAfee won't miss his former teammates much, though. In fact, he's never even met most of them since he played last season for the Washington Nationals and was only traded to the Cardinals in the off season. The University of Michigan grad through 61 innings in 27 games for the Nats last year, with a record of 3-2, but an ERA of 6.62