Bridgeport Baseball

2003-07

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book was made possible by the many fans of Bridgeport baseball . I received assistance from individuals across North America and as far away as England and Japan . I wish to express appreciation to my boss , Michael ...

Author: Michael J. Bielawa

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

ISBN: 073851201X

Category: History

Page: 128

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Bridgeport, Connecticut, owns a rich and diverse baseball history. People from varied backgrounds stepped up to the plate in Bridgeport's early years-sons of Irish immigrants, laborers and merchants, Asian and Latino players, and some of the first African Americans to play professional ball. Local baseball truly blossomed with "Orator" Jim O'Rourke, who returned from the big leagues and organized the Connecticut State Baseball League in 1895. Numerous Bridgeport teams evolved, including the Victors, Mechanics, Bolts, Americans, and Bears. Bridgeport Baseball traces the game from the post-Civil War era to today. Baseball beneath the roaring smokestacks of industrial Bridgeport included visits by barnstorming Major League and Negro League teams, future Hall of Famers, and a train wreck that almost killed the St. Louis Cardinals. The smokestacks are silent now, yet the legacy of Bridgeport baseball continues to evolve with the city's first professional club in nearly half a century-the Bridgeport Bluefish. The team, owners, staff, fans, and stadium have all contributed to restoring the living history that is Bridgeport Baseball.
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Connecticut Baseball

2008-09-11

Baseball's Best: The Hall of Fame Gallery. New York: McGrawHill Book Company, 1977. Bielawa, Michael J. Bridgeport Baseball. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2003. Bodendieck, Zack, and Tom Gatto. 2007 Baseball Register.

Author: Don Harrison

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

ISBN: 9781625843944

Category: History

Page: 160

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Whether Connecticut fans were cheering on Connecticut teams in baseballs major and minor leagues or watching their native sons participate in Americas favorite pastime all across the country, they have taken satisfaction in the contributions of the Nutmeg State. As former Commissioner of Baseball Fay Vincent notes in his foreword, Don Harrison has lovingly assembled the best selections from a lifetime spent covering Connecticuts corner of the game. Read twenty-five interviews from his own forty-three-year career and discover even older traditions that date back to Hartfords entrance into the majors in the 1870s. You might disagree with Harrisons choices for a Connecticut All-Time Teamthats half the funbut you will find it hard to resist the enthusiasm that has united so many fans of the sport.
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From Honolulu to Brooklyn

2022-09-16

Magner insisted that the Bridgeport nine could not afford to lose “easily the best third sacker in the league. ... Emphasizing their foreignness, it insisted that Bridgeport baseball lovers had taken to Lai and Yim from the start, ...

Author: Joel S. Franks

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

ISBN: 9781978829275

Category: Sports & Recreation

Page: 228

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From 1912 to 1916, a group of baseball players from Hawaiʻ i barnstormed the U.S. mainland. While initially all Chinese, the Travelers became more multiethnic and multiracial with ballplayers possessing Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiian, and European ancestries. As a group and as individuals the Travelers' experiences represent a still much too marginalized facet of baseball and sport history. Arguably, they traveled more miles and played in more ball parks in the American empire than any other group of ballplayers of their time. Outside of the major leagues, they were likely the most famous nine of the 1910s, dominating their college opponents and more than holding their own against top-flight white and black independent teams. And once the Travelers’ journeys were done, a team leader and star Buck Lai gained fame in independent baseball on the East Coast of the U.S., while former teammates ran base paths and ran for political office as they confronted racism and colonialism in Hawaiʻ i.
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Orator O Rourke

2006-01-13

The Life of a Baseball Radical Mike Roer. Bridgeport Post, January 15, 1916. The New Haven franchisee was James E. Canavan, who piloted a team to the Eastern Association pennant in 1902. In 1915 he had thrown in with the ill-fated ...

Author: Mike Roer

Publisher: McFarland

ISBN: 9780786423552

Category: Sports & Recreation

Page: 342

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As a player, manager, team captain, umpire, owner and league president, Hall of Famer Jim O'Rourke (1851-1918) spoke for the players in the emerging game of baseball. O'Rourke's career paralleled the rise of the game from a regional sport with few strategies to the national pastime. Nicknamed "Orator" for his booming voice and his championing of the rights of professional athletes, he was a driving force in making the sport a profession, bringing respectability to the role of professional baseball player. From contemporary sources, O'Rourke's own correspondence, and player files available through the National Baseball Library, a rounded portrait of Jim O'Rourke emerges. Quick to speak his mind, the outfielder played on nine pennant-winning teams, but his playing career was overshadowed by his work in organizing baseball's first union. After his playing days ended, O'Rourke attempted to establish the Connecticut League, becoming the circuit's president, secretary, and treasury. Though the league failed to fully materialize, his Bridgeport Victors did play several games and were one of the few racially integrated teams--a fact emblematic of O'Rourke's efforts to change the national pastime. In those efforts, he attempted to wrest control of the game from the owners and empower the players. A carefully researched account of O'Rourke's life and career, this biography also provides a behind-the-scenes look at the growth of the national pastime from the Civil War through the deadball era.
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George Weiss

2016-07-26

Bridgeport Telegram, March 13, 1925; CNN/ SI-Baseball-Neal Ball sportsillustrated.cnn.com; Neal Ball-BR Bullpen, baseball-reference.com; Neal Ball SABR sabr.org/bioproject. 97. Bridgeport Telegram, April 21, 1925. 98.

Author: Burton A. Boxerman

Publisher: McFarland

ISBN: 9780786472536

Category: Sports & Recreation

Page: 232

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"This book offers a unique perspective on the Yankees...and should not be missed if you want to complete your education of the New York powerhouse."--Gregg's Baseball Bookcase. The New York Yankees were the strongest team in the majors from 1948 through 1960, capturing the American League Pennant 10 times and winning seven World Championships. The average fan, when asked who made the team so dominant, will mention Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford or Mickey Mantle. Some will insist manager Casey Stengel was the key. But pundits at the time, and respected historians today, consider the shy, often taciturn George Martin Weiss the real genius behind the Yankees' success. Weiss loved baseball but lacked the ability to play. He made up for it with the savvy to run a team better than his competitors. He spent more than 50 years in the game, including nearly 30 with the Yankees. Before becoming their general manager, he created their superlative farm system that supplied the club with talented players. When the Yankees retired him at 67, the newly franchised New York Mets immediately hired him to build their team. This book is the first definitive biography of Weiss, a Hall of Famer hailed for contributing "as much to baseball as any man the game could ever know."
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The 1934 St Louis Cardinals

... latertold columnistEdward J.Shugrue ofthe Bridgeport Sunday Post.7 Unlike somany of his peers, Davis was prepared for post-baseball life. Already a partner inan accounting firm in hisnative Bridgeport beforehis playing days ended, ...

Author: Edited by Charles F. Faber

Publisher: SABR, Inc.

ISBN: 9781933599748

Category: Sports & Recreation

Page:

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The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals were one of the most colorful crews ever to play the National Pastime. Sportswriters delighted in assigning nicknames to the players, based on their real or imagined qualities. What a cast of characters it was! None was more picturesque than Pepper Martin, the “Wild Horse of the Osage,” who ran the bases with reckless abandon, led his team­mates in off­ the­field hi­jinks, and organized a hillbilly band called the Mississippi Mudcats. He was quite a baseball player, the star of the 1931 World Series and a significant contributor to the 1934 championship. The harmonica player for the Mudcats was the irrepressible Dizzy Dean. Full of braggadocio, Dean delivered on his boasts by winning 30 games in 1934, the last National League hurler to achieve that feat. Dizzy and his brother Paul accounted for all of the Cardinal victories in the 1934 World Series. Some writers tried to pin the moniker Daffy on Paul, but that name didn’t fit the younger and much quieter brother. The club’s hitters were led by the New Jersey strong boy, Joe “Ducky” Medwick, who hated the nickname, preferring to be called “Muscles.” Presiding over this aggregation was the “Fordham Flash,” Frankie Frisch. Rounding out the club were worthies bearing such nicknames as Ripper, “Leo the Lip,” Spud, Kiddo, Pop, Dazzy, Ol’ Stubblebeard, Wild Bill, Buster, Chick, Red, and Tex. Some of these were aging stars, past their prime, and others were youngsters, on their way up. Together they comprised a championship ball club. “The Gas House Gang was the greatest baseball club I ever saw. They thought they could beat any ballclub and they just about could too. When they got on that ballfield, they played baseball, and they played it to the hilt too. When they slid, they slid hard. There was no good fellowship between them and the opposition. They were just good, tough ballplayers.” — Cardinals infielder Burgess Whitehead on "When It Was A Game," HBO Sports, 1991
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Insiders Guide to Connecticut

2015-03-07

There are food concessions throughout the concourse, or you can walk underneath I-95 to Ralph and Rich's excellent Italian restaurant (see entry). BLUEFISH BASEBALL 500 Main St. Bridgeport, CT 06604 (203)345-4800 bridgeportbluefish.com ...

Author: Eric D. Lehman

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

ISBN: 9781493016181

Category: Travel

Page: 336

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Insiders' Guide to Connecticut is the essential source for in-depth travel information for visitors and locals to the Nutmeg State. Written by a local (and true insider), Insiders' Guide to Connecticut offers a personal and practical perspective of the state that makes it a must-have guide for travelers as well as residents looking to rediscover their home state.
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History of Bridgeport and Vicinity

1917

He also played on the Bridgeport baseball team in the Connecticut State League in 1903 and 1904 and played with the New York Nationals during a portion of 1902 , his position being in the outfield . In 1905 he turned his attention to ...

Author: George Curtis Waldo (Jr.)

Publisher:

ISBN: NYPL:33433081884789

Category: Bridgeport (Conn.)

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