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League Info |
League Date
September 1st, 1920
File Updated
April 17th, 1:00pm
Next Sim
April 18th, Noon
Available Teams
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Toronto Secures Final Expansion Franchise |
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Written by Sam Brylski
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Saturday, 21 November 2009 |
MAPLE LEAFS TO JOIN AMERICAN LEAGUE IN 1969; EXHIBITION STADIUM TO BE RENOVATED BY 1970
You may know the Toronto Maple Leafs as t he tremendously successful International League franchise. Not anymore - for Toronto has finally made the big leagues! Since the early 1950s, the city of Toronto has been looking to give their record setting crowds the best baseball that can be offered, baseball between major league franchises. Ownership was active in their attempts to bring a struggling major league club to the city, making offers on the Boston Braves before they moved to Milwaukee and the St. Louis Browns before they moved to Baltimore. At one point they even offered $5.2 million for the Detroit Tigers, but had no luck. In the early 60s, Toronto joined a weak movement to create a third major league circuit, but the plans were abondoned once the Brooklyn Dodgers announced they weren't leaving the New York market as speculated. In another attempt, the city nearly secured the American League expansion franchise that was eventually awarded to Los Angeles. At that point, the unaffiliated franchise lost hope in achieving major league status and took on a parent club, content to live with their status as one of the greatest minor league cities on the continent. But about two years ago, whispers started spreading the the major leagues were looking to expand once more. New Maple Leafs' owner Charles Tambeau, who had just purchased the team during the summer of 1967, knew he couldn't let another opportunity pass Toronto by - with four new teams slated to enter the league, it was their best chance yet. The first three of the four new franchises were awarded to San Diego, Montreal, and Kansas City once the Athletics announced their move to Oakland. At first it was considered a blow to Toronto's chances when another Canadian city was awarded a team, but American League officials were actually not thrilled to concede the Canadian market to their National League counterparts. Toronto was in a heated battle with Dallas, TX and Milwaukee, WI for the final expansion site.  The first to be eliminated from final consideration was Milwaukee. Although they had the best stadium of the three cities in the running, their market was slightly smaller and had already failed to hold the team they once had. The second of the options, Dallas, had designed their Turnpike Stadium so it was capable of expansion up to 50,000 seats, but it currently seated just 10,000. After failing to provide the league assurance that the stadium would be ready by opening day of the 1969 season, Dallas was eliminated from contention. Toronto has stadium issues of its own, but unlike Dallas, their current facilities were deemed acceptable for temporary occupancy. Yesterday, it was officially announced that the American League would be expanding to Toronto. For the inaugural season in the major leagues, the team will remain at Maple Leaf Stadium. The park seats just over 20,000, and has been one of the best minor league stadiums since its construction in 1926. However, their long term residence is to become Toronto's Exhibition Stadium, pending its conversion to a multipurpose structure. To convince American League officials of the city's capability to support a major league club, a $17 million proposal was crafted to renovate Exhibition Stadium into a nearly 40,000 seat baseball park. Asked if it could be completed by 1970, Charles Tambeau excitedly said yes, and the deal was done.
So welcome one of the four new major league baseball franchises - the Toronto Maple Leafs! Baseball in Toronto will live on, and better than ever! |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 21 November 2009 )
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Written by Sticky Steve
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Tuesday, 20 October 2009 |
 Sports Illustrated, June 1, 1966
A thick-bodied, pleasant-faced young man, carrying a bat, stood at home plate in Comiskey Park, turned the dark head on his bull's neck toward George Gray, a pitcher in the employ of the Detroit Tigers, watched intently the flight of the baseball thrown toward him, bent his knees, dropped his right shoulder slightly toward the ball, clenched his bat and raised it to a near-perfect perpendicular. Twisting his massive torso under the guidance of a magnificently tuned set of reflexes, Oscar Torriente so controlled the exorbitant strength generated by his legs, back, shoulders and arms that he brought his bat through the plane of the flight of the pitch with a precision which propelled the ball immensely high and far toward the right-field roof, so high and far that oldtimers in the crowd—thinking perhaps of John Harnden or Tommy Jeffords—watched in awe and held their breath.
For no one had ever hit a fair ball over the majestic height of the gray-green facade that looms above the two tiers of grandstand seats in this, The Baseball Palace of the World.
Indeed, in the 56 years since the Park was opened not one of the great company of home run hitters who have batted there—the list includes Chet Farnsworth, John Harnden, Darryl Grissom, Tommy Jeffords, Bull Norris, Glen Hallaway and about everyone else you can think of who visited or is visiting the ballpark including Grimm, Suozzi, Fender, Kleinschmidt, Medeiros, Fontana, Grimaldi, Heinz—had even come close to hitting a fair ball over the roof.
Oscar hit the ball over it. He came so close to making history that he made it.
The ball struck somewhere invisible to eyes, barely a foot or two beyond the edge of the roof. Ever since, as people come into the Palace and find their seats, almost invariably their eyes will wander to The Spot. Arms will point and people will stare in admiration. Then they will turn to the field and seek out Oscar.
On that same day that he hit the roof Torriente hit a second homer in the second game of a double-header. This one was his 18th of the season and it put him at that date (May 30) 17 games ahead of the pace Chet Farnsworth followed when he established his team record of 41 in 1950. Torriente, somehow, is changing all definitions of sluggers to wear the Pale Hose. He will set the team record for home runs, the only question is "when?" He may also surpass John Harnden's .445 OBP in 1954 while well-surpassing the home run mark. A park that more than hinders home runs cannot hold back the man known as The Shark.
The excitement surrounding Torriente goes beyond numbers, beyond homers hit and homers and games to go. His violent strength is held in a sheath of powerful, controlled grace. He makes home run hitting simple and exciting at the same time. The distance he hits his home runs (the approved cliche is "Tommy blast") takes away the onus of cheapness, a word often applied to the common variety of home run hit today, and leaves the spectator aghast, whether he roots for Torriente or against him. Fans are flocking from all-around, especially from St. Louis, to see the man most notably compared to the Best there ever was, Tommy Jeffords.
All this holds true despite the hard fact that heretofore in his three years in the major leagues the most home runs Torriente has hit in one season is 35, whereas Jeffords hit 40 or more 5 different times, and two dozen others have hit 40 or more at least once.
Yet where others impress, Torriente awes, and even the knowing professional speaks reverently of him. Warren-Leroy Allen, the third baseman of the Boston Red Sox and a topflight hitter in his own right, listened as Sportscaster Howard Cosell, an eyewitness, described the Memorial Day home run to him.
"Did he really hit it up there?" Allen asked, knowing but not believing. "Really?" He shook his head. "His strength isn't human," he said. "How can a man hit a ball that hard?"
Roy Jangerbacher, the unexcitable manager of the Seattle Pilots, described a homer Torriente had hit against the Pilots with two out in the ninth to tie a game the White Sox eventually won. "It went way up there," Roy said, with a wry little grin, pointing to the far reaches of the upper stands in deep right-center field. "Way up there. He swung just as easy and whup! It was gone. Way up there. I never saw nothing like it."
As for the nonprofessional, there is no question that Torriente is the new excitement, the new Jeffords. Like Jeffords, he is known to those who don't know baseball, magically, the way Tommy was. A 7-year-old boy, just on the edge of interest in baseball and in bed getting over the measles, watched part of a White Sox game on television. Later he was not quite sure what teams had been playing and he wasn't positive of the score, but when he was asked if he had seen Oscar Torriente bat, his red-speckled face lit up and he said, excitedly, "He hit a big one!"
Torriente isn't the only one to hit "big ones" in this year, though he is one of the few. Some say the 1966 version of the dead ball is responsible for the increasingly bearish market in home runs. Fans adore the home run... and Oscar Torriente does not disappoint |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 20 October 2009 )
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Jeffords Heads to the South Side |
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Written by Sticky Steve
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Friday, 17 July 2009 |
 March 1, 1962, Chicago, IL - In a somewhat stunning move, the St. Louis Cardinals have sent perennial Major League Baseball MVP Tommy Jeffords to the Chicago White Sox in a package deal involving last season's first overall pick, Mike Dalton. It was well-known that the Cardinals were pulling the plug on their dynasty: James Axler retired, Stanley Loudry and Matt Urban were dealt away. However, quite the question-mark hanged over the head of baseball's best-ever player. The possibility of Jeffords to the South Side first came up during a meeting between Ned Whitestone and Julius Budd, as they spoke over Scotch and cigars about each of the franchise's goals. Rumor has it the White Sox threw Jeffords' name out as more of a joke than anything, but Budd did not immediately disregard the idea. Jeffords, having just turned only 34 despite his years in professional baseball, was largely assumed to be off the market. Budd noted his interest in the top prospect of the White Sox, 18 year old starting pitcher Mike Dalton, who last season split time between A and AA.  Weeks later, a deal came to fruition when the Cardinals agreed to include last season's AAA MVP, outfielder Richard Boone, in the deal to the White Sox. Boone hit 49 homeruns at that level. He joined Jeffords and two-time Arch Murtaugh Award winner Sid Farkus in heading to the White Sox for two first-round draft picks, Harvey Noonan and the aforementioned Dalton. It's unknown exactly how Jeffords will fit into the mix. The White Sox are largely a young team that seems to still be a few pieces away from challenging the powerhouses of the American League. The acquisitions of Dan Huckstep and Bill Ramsey should help, but a lot will ride on the shoulders of young starter Cecilio Garza, who is expected to compete for a spot in the rotation. One thing is certain though... the best to ever play will have played for the White Sox. Management RumblingsIt is rumored that White Sox Manager Jack Bauer will be relieved of his duties. Bauer led the White Sox to the 1954 World Series, which they won, and since has overseen a rebuild that had a short hiccup with 100+ wins (and a third place finish) in 1957. It is rumored that long-time White Sox star John Harnden will be offered the position.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 17 July 2009 )
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