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It seems rather redundant to have a team named the Buffalo Bisons, really. I mean, do you know the difference between a buffalo and a bison? (Zoologists need not apply.) And yet to date there have been no less than 4 teams who have taken on this moniker.

Buffalo Bisons #1: The Players' League

Baseball is of course a relatively young sport, and even today Major League Baseball is only a de facto monopoly; though you would be hard-pressed to find 15-20 multimillionaires willing to compete against the MLB, the fact is a league could sprout up tomorrow, given the proper avenues. This scenario was much more likely in the 19th century - especially when baseball was still viewed as only a middling entertainment, and owners kept player salaries as barebones as they were allowed.

Reaction to this among players was, at best, heated, and in 1890, most of the superstars had had enough. They wanted higher salaries, and so they formed a league of their own: the Players' League. Essentially boycotting the National League and American Association, these players managed their teams and promised great things for their investors in exchange for proceeds from the profits of the box office and other considerations. Stars like Jake Beckley, Dan Brouthers, Silver King, and Hugh Duffy all took part in this experiment. And among the eight teams was the Buffalo squad. Now back in 1890 teams didn't have official nicknames or heavy handed marketing to coincide, but the Buffalo team was given the informal nickname the Bisons - presumably a play on their city's name. The team played at Olympic Park, which was owned by players Sam White and Jack Rowe.

Unfortunately for the Bisons, none of the aforementioned stars played for them - in fact, most of their players were simply castaways from the defunct Washington Nationals team from the NL. A few standouts like Sam Wise and third baseman John Irwin aside, the team was mostly roustabouts and bottom feeders. Perhaps the only worthwhile note on the team's lineup was their only future Hall of Famer - though 27-year-old catcher Connie Mack didn't earn his spot in Cooperstown for his on the field prowess.

With a league-worst 6.11 ERA, the team did not yield a single pitcher with a winning record. Irwin, who had batted .370 the year before with Washington, suffered unknown injuries early in the season and trotted in at the end of the year with a .234 clip. The rest of the team was slightly less anemic, but I stress slightly: deaf-mute centerfielder Dummy Hoy's .298 mark led the team in a year when Pete Browning captured the batting title with a .373 average. The team stole the least bases, batted the lowest, hit the least home runs, scored the least runs, gave up the most runs, hits, and walks, and finished, appropriately, dead last in the Players' League with a 36-96 record, a full 46 and a half games behind the league champs, the Boston Reds.

After the season ended, American Association owners wised up and bought out the league, giving the players salary increases to return to their team. Buffalo was mercifully disbanded, and the players for the most part disappeared into anonymity.

Buffalo Bisons #2: International League

The same year that the original Buffalo Bisons departed the city, a new came to replace it. This one was playing as a sort of minor league to the American Association, the International League. Owned by the flamboyant Jim Franklin, who spared no expense on his team or on entertaining his paying customers, the Bisons were the toast of Buffalo throughout the 1890's.

On opening day, Franklin hired a brass band and a stream of horse-drawn carriages to parade in his new team. His team earned the razzamatazz well, winning at a torrid pace throughout the season, so much so that by July, 4 of the teams in the small league had folded due to poor attendance - people would only come when Buffalo was in town! Led by pitcher Les German, whose 34 wins set a minor league record for nearly 30 years, and Ted Scheffler's 82 stolen bases (another long-time record), the team so dominated the league that at the end of the season, a draft was held, and most of their star players were plucked from their lineup.

From 1892 to 1899, the team had its share of ups and downs, and a number of stars passed through the team on their way in or out of the big leagues: Pud Galvin, Jimmy Collins, and Chick Stahl all played with the team. The team had a few wacky predicaments during the decade, including a brief rename to the "Hibernians" after they changed uniforms to a bright pastel green color; accusations in 1895 that they had deliberately lost games at the end of the season to ensure Providence would win the pennant; and having their 1897 all-redhead outfield be the subject of a Zane Grey short story, appropriately titled "The Redheaded Outfield." It no doubt helped that Grey's younger brother was 1/3 of that Irish trio.

Double Crossed

In 1899, the team ditched the IL and joined Ban Johnson's Western League, in hopes of better attendance and a longer schedule. Owner Franklin in particular had been losing money for years with the squad, and now hoped that would change. Soon enough, this Western League would rename itself to the American League. Franklin was so excited about the move that he went out and purchased Jake Gettman, a star outfielder, for the rather extravagant sum of $300, to which a newspaper replied, "He is spending money in a way that is astonishing to his friends." But Franklin, for all his spending, showed little prowess for running a baseball team. He fired manager Dan Shannon for "drunkenness" and then placed his 18 year old son Joe in charge of the team. The team finished in the cellar, but Franklin was optimistic: Johnson was planning on breaking away from the minor league system of the National League and become an independent league. When January 29, 1901 rolled around, the AL did become a new league: unfortunately, Buffalo wasn't part of the plan, and the eighth franchise was awarded to Boston instead. Franklin was rightfully shellshocked.

The team spent 1901 back in the Eastern League (the International League's old name) and changed its name to the Pan-Ams in honor of the Pan-American Convention being held there. When President William McKinley was assassinated at the convention, Franklin quickly changed the name back to the Bisons. The name changes didn't change Franklin's ineptitude, and the team finished near the bottom once again. Disgusted, Franklin sold the team at the end of the year; he died unexpectedly of a heart attack in November.

How To Get Unstalled

With Franklin's death, the original sale was ruled null and void, and the team was awarded to George Stallings, a former major league player. He scratched most of the original lineup and reworked it, signing major league talent at minor league prices, and by 1904, the team won their first pennant, with the help of Rube Kisinger, a part-time surveyor and coin collector who managed to win 24 games in the betweens. Shortstop Nattie Nattress provided the pop, batting nearly .400 for much of the season. In 1905 the team finished fifth, but injuries had rattled the team, and people expected a great comeback in 1906.

1906 began as a strange year for the squad: owner Stallings' wife handed him divorce papers before the season started, citing substantial evidence that he had been involved with "a blonde with glasses and good looking, and known by the defendant, affectionately, as ‘Nips'." Shortly thereafter, George sold the team, claiming to be done with baseball - though two years later he would return and lead the Newark, New Jersey club to another pennant. In the meantime, the Bisons continued to play good but not outstanding ball, and more big-timers came to play for the team throughout the oughts and tens: Mickey Corcoran, Joe Judge, Herb Pennock, and future Hall of Fame manager Joe McCarthy all spent time with the Buffalo squad. In 1911, outfielder Art McCabe made history when he hit one of the new "live balls" so hard that he knocked the innards out of it, a feat later dramatized in The Natural with Robert Redford.

A Fighting Chance

In 1916, the team won its first pennant of the renamed International League, behind the strong pitching of King Bader, Ty Tyson, and Pennock, while the rest of the league kept close at their heels, with the Bisons clinching victory on the last game of the season. It would be another 11 years before the team captured the pennant again. In 1921, work began on a new stadium after a major purchase by a large steel corporation in town. The team had also earned a reputation as a "fighting" team, and they upheld it on July 21, when first baseman Cowboy Tomlin got into an argument with the umpire that resulted in both men being arrested. Amazingly, despite the construction, the team continued to play in dilapidated Olympic Park even while its seats were being bulldozed.

Finally on Opening Day 1924, their brand new Bison Stadium was ready to be opened to the public. Capable of seating nearly 18,000 people, it was to be a red letter day for the city and the team. Unfortunately, Mother Nature intervened and the "Opening Day" game was postponed 5 times on account of snow and rain. Finally on May 6th the team played their first home game - but only 3,000 people showed up. In 1926, team captain Billy Webb was beaned by a baseball that bounced back to the shortstop, effectively ending his career. The following year, with Webb still coaching but no longer playing, the team signed Del Bissonette from Jersey City and several other stars. The team coasted to 112 victories, the most ever by any Buffalo team, and Bissonnette led the way with a .365 average, 31 home runs, and 167 runs batted in. In 1928, the team's pennant hopes came down to the last game of the season, but they finished second when Herman Bell, a journeyman pitcher for Rochester, managed to win both games of a doubleheader against Providence to propel his team to the top.

The Great Depression

From 1932 to 1940, the team, along with the rest of baseball, suffered through the Great Depression. Attendance was down significantly, and player salaries were slashed dramatically. New manager Ray Schalk, formerly of the Chicago White Sox, managed to lead the team to the "Little World Series" three straight years from 1933-1935. In 1935, team owner Frank Offerman died, and the team stadium was renamed Offerman Park in his honor. The team had several game highlights in this era, most notably Bill Harris' perfect game on June 3, 1936. Famous eephus pitcher Rip Sewell joined the squad in 1937, and went 16-16 before learning his famous nothing job. In 1939, they picked up future Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau. At this time, they became firmly entrenched as the Cleveland Indians farm team, but the system was not as well-integrated, and teams held on to their stars vigorously. When Boudreau and star shortstop Ray Mack were called up to the big league team in August due to a tight pennant, the Bisons lost any chance of winning their playoffs, and finished third in the league. The team quit its contract with the Indians and became a free agent in the minor leagues.

In 1942, the team released Ollie Carnegie, their all-time batting and home run leader. A huge ceremony took place at the stadium for all of his hard work. With he and Boudreau and others gone, the team languished at the bottom of the league over the next few years. In 1944, their good-looking player-manager Greg Mulleavy was replaced by Bucky Harris, who would later go on to a Hall of Fame career with the New York Yankees. The team moved from awful to merely mediocre, helped by centerfielder Mayo Smith's outstanding defense and .340 batting average. In '46 Harris moved into the front office and another Hall of Famer, Gabby Hartnett, came in to manage. By now the farm system had been somewhat stabilized, and the Bisons began taking on players for the Detroit Tigers, including future star Vic Wertz. Another important milestone occurred on Opening Day, when the visiting Montreal Expos started a young Jackie Robinson at first base - the first black player to play professional baseball in an integrated league. In 1949 the team won its 4th pennant of the century, led by hardnosed manager Paul "The Rapier" Richards.

The 1950s

As if fate was playing fair, "The Boys of 1950" became the only Buffalo Bisons team to go from first to worst in consecutive years. Ray Schalk had returned to manage the team, but they had won the year before on hitting, and most of their team had been picked up by their respective squads. Their pitching abysmal, they finished some 50 games below .500, for their worst finish in nearly 40 years. In 1951, the team was sold directly to the Detroit Tigers, and in 1952, Waco phenom and major league standout Schoolboy Rowe came up to manage. Not used to the cold New York weather, Rowe came down with so many illnesses he was called "Truant" Rowe by his players. That same year, Dick Marlowe repeated Bill Harris' feat from 16 years prior, throwing a perfect game against the Baltimore club.

1953 saw perhaps the strangest altercation in baseball history. On August 8, after a disputed home run call at Offerman Park, manager Jack Tighe and umpire Max Felerski got into an argument. Felerski reported later that Tighe had spit in his face, and Tighe was suspended for the rest of the year. Tighe argued that he had not spit, only "spluttered," and agreed to a lie detector test to prove his innocence. The machine's verdict was not guilty, and Tighe's suspension was lifted. Long-time hurler Frank Lary's rookie year saw him give a 17-11 performance, but the team finished third. The following year, Lary came one out short of a perfect game - and was called up to the majors the next week, never to return.

In 1955, the team played poorly, and due to losses at the gate, the Tigers announced they were going to fold up the team. However, the team had a first refusal clause, and used it against the Tigers to generate a public stock offering for the team. Several investors put up money, and the team was saved from the junk heap. In 1957, the team picked up Luke Easter, who dominated the league thoroughly (though his major-league success was mixed at best.) The team finished one game out of first in both '57 and '59, much to their chagrin.

Going, Going, Gone

Throughout the 60s, the team only finished above .500 twice, mostly due in part to their recent affiliation with the hapless New York Mets. Players like Marv Throneberry, Dallas Green, and Ferguson Jenkins all saw time in Buffalo, and they rarely helped the cause. In 1968, the team put up a bid to become one of the new major league franchises - but it fizzled out. Many of the players and fans knew the reason the owners had pumped so much money into the team was on the hopes of getting a major league team out of the deal, and some worried the team would simply be closed down. By the end of 1969, the team had lost nearly $100,000 and was running out of money.

In 1970, the worst was yet to come. Offerman Park was in shambles, and nearby Hyde Park was less than affectionately called "The Old Rockpile." The team tried to get a taxpayer referendum to build a new stadium, but it failed. With attendance nonexistent, the team was forced to fold, and on June 4, 1970, the team played its last game before being transferred to Winnipeg. Baseball would not return to Buffalo for 9 years.

Back From The Dead

In 1979, 90 Buffalo businessmen put up $1,000 each to fund the initial revamping of War Memorial Stadium, where the old Buffalo Bisons football team (more on them later) had played in the 20s. The team became an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and saw two stars in Rick Lancellotti and Tony Pena come to play for the squad. Lancellotti ended up MVP of the league, and though the team finished fourth, they had the highest attendance of all the teams.

The cheap spending Pirates in turn kept the Bisons from any chance of making the playoffs. Average players like Jose DeLeon and Dave Dravecky could do no better than put the team in seventh place. Finally, in 1983, Rich Marketing bought the team on the cheap and began to market them better. Attendance tripled, and palmballer Steve Farr won the Cy Young award in the IL with his 13-1 record and 1.61 ERA. In the offseason, The Natural was filmed at the park, generating more buzz for the team.

In 1984, the team bought up the AAA club from Wichita, Kansas and moved them up to Buffalo. In 1988, the team moved to the $50 million Pilot Field in downtown Buffalo, and reaffiliated with their old-time club, the Cleveland Indians. They sold out 50% of their games that season - including the All-Star Game held that year - ensured that the team would outdraw three major league clubs that year. Hopes for the new Major League expansion were high, but when the teams were awarded to Denver and Miami instead, the city was crushed. They still continued to play competitive ball, making the IL World Series three times in the 1990s. Current stars like Brian Giles, Jeromy Burnitz, Richie Sexson, and Bartolo Colon all had playing time up there, dominating the league and setting team records in home runs and stolen bases.

Today the team still represents the Cleveland Indians, and continues to perform well at Pilot Field, which has since been renamed North AmeriCare Park. Will they ever become a Major League team? Only time will tell.

Buffalo Bisons #3: American Professional Football Association

Shortly after World War I, a roving team of football all-stars was formed in Buffalo to compete against other teams in the area. The "Buffalo All-Americans" played against the APFA teams in Canton, Ohio, New York City, and Baltimore, crushing them all. The following year they were invited to join the league, where their talent was spread out amongst the other teams, and their domination ceased.

In 1924, the team (now affiliated with the burgeoning National Football League) renamed themselves the Buffalo Bisons and began playing at Bison Stadium, abandoning their old park of War Memorial Stadium (where the minor-league team would later pick up and move to) to play alongside the baseball squad. The team finished 1-6 in both seasons, and then quickly renamed themselves again to the Buffalo Rangers.

In 1928, the team shut down for a year due to financial constraints, but in 1929 they again rejoined the NFL as - you guessed it - the Buffalo Bisons. As if there were any doubt, Al Jolley coached the team to another one win season, and the team finally folded for good.

Buffalo Bisons #4: American Hockey League

In the older days of the National Hockey League, there were only six teams, guaranteeing that only the best players played at the top level. Most players then played in the AHL. The Buffalo Bisons were a member of this league, and saw many glory years before the demise of the AHL in the 60s and the addition of the Buffalo Sabres to the NHL in 1970.

The team began in 1928 playing for the Canadian Professional Hockey League, which was subsequently renamed the International Hockey League, and finally the American Hockey League in 1936. Though the team was incorporated in Buffalo, they played their home games in nearby Fort Erie, Ontario. Two time champions in 1932 and 1933, the Bisons were coached by three future NHL Hall of Famers Persey Leseur, Frank Nighbor, and Mickey Roach, and featured a future Haller on the ice in forward Carl Voss. However, in 1936 the team's arena roof collapsed unexpectedly, and the team, grappling with the Great Depression, could not afford to replace it. They folded up and did not return until 1940.

In 1940, Louis Jacobs (who also at the time owned the Buffalo Bisons minor league baseball team) purchased the Syracuse AHL franchise and moved them to Buffalo. Three years later, they acquired their first Calder Cup, a feat they repeated 8 times in their thirty year history. Led by such stalwarts as Jacques Plante, Terry Crisp, and Toe Blake, the team was a perennial league favorite. In 1950, the team was bought by the hometown company of PepsiCo, who marketed the team on its bottle caps (now treasured collector's items.) In 1970, the team won the final league championship, and then promptly merged with the Sabres for their new expansion NHL team.

In 1930, a new team was added to the National Hockey League in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when the team deserted its hometown of Pittsburgh (where it had been named the Pirates, like the champion baseball team) to move farther eastward. The team took on the name Quakers, a reference to the religious group that heavily populated Pennsylvania, and played two seasons of some of the worst hockey the league had ever seen. By 1932, the team was gone forever from the annals of the game.

This writeup, however, is about the baseball Philadelphia Quakers who entered the National League in 1883 and played ten years of middling baseball before becoming the team they are today, the Philadelphia Phillies.

Rocky Beginnings

Upon the team's founding in 1883, it was up to Bob "Death To Flying Things" Ferguson, former star second baseman of the now defunct Troy Trojans, to form the team. He went around the other teams in the league, scooping up whatever leftover talent he could muster. The best he could find was Buffalo Bisons holdout Blondie Purcell, a double threat as both pitcher and third baseman, and Jack Manning, a former pitcher turned outfielder coming off of several poor years of play. The rest of the team was a ragtag group of journeymen and rookies, including #1 pitcher John Coleman, a mere 20 years old. The team went a positively dismal 17-81, with Coleman himself going 12-48 for his effort.

In 1884, Ferguson was ousted and replaced by Harry Wright, former manager of both the Boston Red Sox and Boston Braves and 6-time league champion. Unfortunately, all of the managing talent in the world wouldn't help on the diamond, where Manning's .271 was tops on the team in a league where Chicago as a team batted .281. With such colorful personalities as fireballers Cyclone Miller and Sparrow Morton, and 24-year-old poker wizard named Tom Lynch, the team's 6th place finish with a 39-73 record was something of a sideshow to real entertainment. In the age of baseball as vaudeville, the Quakers were a standout team.

Getting Better All The Time

Luckily for the Quakers, Harry Wright meant business, and by 1885, the team had found two pitchers (in pre-1900 baseball, one or two pitchers did most of the dirty work for each team) who could do the job well, and do it well, and both only 22: Charlie Ferguson and Ed Daily. In relief they had Eddie "The Only" Nolan, who was so named because he only threw one pitch, a mean curveball in the age when the curve was considered deceptive and crude. With third baseman Joe Mulvey finally coming alive and Manning providing some decent pop, the team finished 56-54, good enough for third place in the watered down National League, where Chicago and New York dominated.

In 1886, the team lost Manning but gained yet another young mound phenom in Dan Casey. They also added a young catcher named Deacon McGuire, who spent the next 28 years playing pro baseball, and a strong centerfielder named George Wood. With all of this improvement, the team finished 71-43 - good enough for 4th place as other teams all improved their teams as well. How did they all get better at the same time? Well, seeing as baseball was only about 20 years old, the new talent had just now started growing up playing the sport and could grasp the fundamentals more firmly at a younger age.

In 1887, the team was blessed with a banner year from rightfielder Ed Andrews, who hit .325 and clubbed 4 homers (!), while Casey and Ferguson continued to shine. Unfortunately, Ed Daily got a case of "dead arm" (most likely tendonitis) and was replaced by Charlie Buffington, who proceeded admirably in his stead. With good seasons from Mulvey, Wood, and franchise long first baseman Sid Farrar, the team won 75 games, just 4 short of eventual league champions the Detroit Wolverines. It would be the closest to the top the Quakers ever reached.

Stranded

In 1888, it was to be expected that Wood, Andrews, and the others wouldn't be as good as they had been the year before. But nobody expected just how far the team would fall: Andrews, from .325 to .239; Wood, .289 to .229; Mulvey, .287 to .216. The team's addition of the ill-fated Ed Delahanty didn't prove useful, but luckily, last year's newcomer Buffington proved magnificent on the mound, going 28-17 with a 1.91 ERA in 400 IP. He was aided by another young pitcher named Ben Sanders, who topped Buffington with a 1.90 ERA and a 19-10 record! The team went 69-61, and finished in third place.

In 1889, the Quakers finally found themselves in the possession of a known product, a guaranteed star, in Detroit's Sam Thompson. Two years earlier he had batted .372 for them, and the Quakers hoped he could be a leader on their new team. They had no idea what he would do in this season.

Sanders and Buffington both had dropoffs but still managed winning seasons; Farrar, Mulvey, and Wood showed improvement over the year prior. Even young Delahanty batted .293 off the bench, on his way to a .346 career average. But it was Thompson who stole the show, batting .296 and hitting 20 home runs (the second most ever by a major-leaguer) while stealing 24 bases. The team finished fourth, but Thompson's 1889 season was one to remember, and the best ever in a Quakers uniform.

In 1890, the team dumped the Quakers moniker in favor of the more fan-friendly "Philadelphia Phillies." The name would lie dormant for forty years, until its good name was sullied by that one-shot pony in the NHL. Let's hope no one uses it again without living up to its original owners.

Team Index
Philadelphia Phillies | Pittsburgh Pirates

During the formation of the American League in late 1900, it was agreed that a team would need to be formed in Boston. With unofficial nicknames being thrown around like wildfire by fans, press, and clubs, it seemed fitting that this team, formed in the heart of New England, home of the American Revolution, would be named the Boston Americans. However, this generic title proved unfitting for the team, and by 1902, they had earned a new nickname: the Boston Somersets. (For those not in the know, somerset is just an archaic term for "somersault," but the team name came from owner Charles Somers.)

Despite the new name, little else changed from the team that had finished second in the new league the year before. Manager Jimmy Collins returned, along with most of the starting lineup, led by slugging outfielders Buck Freeman and Chick Stahl and their speed demon fieldmate Patsy Dougherty, along with the heavy hitting Collins manning third base and solid batters in Candy LaChance, Hobe Ferris, and Freddy Parent guarding the bases. The team's real strength, however, lay in its pitching staff, helmed by the greatest pitcher in Major League history, Cy Young. With him were two young phenoms, Bill Dineen and George Winter, and an untested greenhorn named Tom Hughes.

Before the season even began, the team made the headlines on January 26, when Stahl's ex-girlfriend Lulu Ortman showed up to his Fort Wayne, Indiana home and fired two shots at him, missing both times. On April 19, 1902, on Opening Day, the team won 7-6 behind the steady work of Young and the timely hitting of Dougherty. By July 1, the team was 33-26, in second place behind the Philadelphia Athletics and their outstanding hitting by Socks Seybold and Lave Cross. However, they couldn't keep the pace, getting shellacked 22-9 by the A's a week later and spending most of the season hovering around third place, and none of the teams could really catch the unstoppable Athletics. The squad finished 77-60, square in the middle of the second place St. Louis Browns and fourth place Chicago White Sox.

Freeman had had a banner year, with 283 total bases on .309 hitting; Collins had clubbed .322, and the team had finished second in the league in four baggers. Their team MVP, however, was the 35 year old Young by far: his 2.15 ERA was third in the league, and he was tops in the circuit with a 32-11 record and 41 complete games! Dineen was respectable with a 21-21 record, but the run support simply wasn't there to help the team.

By 1903, a new nickname had overtaken the team's media saturation: the geographically incorrect "Boston Pilgrims," which managed to finally bring the team its biggest successes.

Team Index
Boston Rustlers | California Angels

History

Fed up with constant battles with the New York Yankees for fans and ticket sales, both the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants made for a mass exodus from The Big Apple in 1958, and moved out West to California, where the markets had existed but no team had ventured out to. At the time, they became the first teams west of the Mississippi River, but they wouldn't be the last. Soon it became apparent to Major League Baseball that the market out west was more lucrative than they had imagined. They decided to take advantage of it in a most dramatic fashion - adding the first new franchise to the league since its inception in 1901.

Immediately, offers came in to begin a franchise in a number of cities in the West - Minneapolis, Seattle, and Los Angeles all had sensible reasons for wanting a new baseball team. In particular, baseball owner and all-around personality Bill Veeck and Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg led a group to try get the team formed in L.A. Another bidder was insurance tycoon Charlie Finley who offered nearly $10 million for a club in the City of Angels. However, this proposed new team became a problem, primarily because the Dodgers didn't want an American League franchise moving in on their market - it was why they had left New York City in the first place! Talks between the leagues became tenuous: when the AL pointed out that they had approved the creation of the New York Mets in 1962 to compete with the Yankees, the NL responded by saying it was different because no one had invited the AL into California!

In November of 1960, after the AL had passed the initiative to start the new LA franchise, they offered a compromise to the National League: join in on an inter-league play deal, and add one new team in 1961. The NL balked, saying neither of its 1962 franchises (the Mets and the Houston Colt. 45's) would be ready for major league play by the spring. So, the American League shrugged and created an L.A. club to be owned by legendary cowboy Gene Autry. Finley, who decided not to pursue the team further, instead bought a controlling interest in the Kansas City Athletics. All of this occurred despite strenuous objections from the senior circuit (the two act much less independently today.)

1961

In the offseason, an expansion draft was held, with the newly christened Los Angeles Angels and the re-formed Washington Senators selecting talent from their American League counterparts. The Angels took mostly rising stars, including shortstop phenom Jim Fregosi, pitcher Dean Chance, and former Rookie of the Year Albie Pearson. They also got some older but wiser players in third baseman Eddie Yost and former Reds slugger Ted Kluzewski. The team then went out and found talent the old-fashioned way: they bought it. With quality players like catcher Earl Averill, centerfielder Leon Wagner (who would become the 1961 All-Star Game MVP), and three young fireballers in Ken McBride, Eli Grba, and Tim Bowsfield (along with the 20-year-old Chance and another young gun, 22-year-old Ron Moeller), the Angels fielded a respectable team from the moment they stepped on the diamond. Managed by former Giants manager Bill Rigney, the team had a potential for success.

Opening Day saw the team come to life, with Grba throwing a strong eight innings and Big Klu slugging two home runs for the franchise's first victory and a 1-0 start. By the time they returned for their first home game at Wrigley Field LA, they were 1-7 and flailing for any benchmark of success. A mere 12,000 spectators showed up for the game, which they appropriately lost 4-2. On May 8, the front office made its most daring move, trading known commodity Bob Cerv to New York for their untested rookie Lee Thomas. Thomas would hit 24 home runs and .284 during the season, but it was simply never meant to be.

Summing up the season was a May 18 game against their fellow expansion team the Minnesota Twins: reliever Ryne Duren (also acquired in the trade for Cerv) entered the game in the 7th inning with the bases loaded - and proceeded to strike out the first three batters he faced! Unfortunately, on the third strike of the third strikeout, catcher Del Rice missed the ball, and what proved to be the winning run crossed the plate. The fact that Duren struck out the next batter, too (tying the major league record) was little consolation. Duren proved to be a strikeout phenomenon all his own when a month later he struck out seven straight batters to set an American League record; his 108 Ks in 99 IPs was good, but offset by his 5.18 ERA and 6-12 record. Averill, Wagner, Thomas, Ken Hunt, and Steve Bilko all hit 20 home runs in dinger-friendly West Coast Wrigley; the team finished 70-91, eighth place in the ten team league, but with opportunity for growth.

1962

In the offseason, the Angels continued to improve their roster, drafting pitcher Bo Belinsky from the Orioles and giving utility infielder Billy Moran the starting job at second base. Both Fregosi and Chance were given more important roles in the team, and the team moved into the spacious confines of Dodger Stadium, alternating with the Dodgers for home and away games.

After a rocky 9-9 start, the rookie Belinsky proved his worth by throwing a no-hitter against his old Baltimore squad. The following day, the Angels banged out 19 hits (led by Lee Thomas' 5) to again trump the Orioles. Despite a few contentious points, the team, led by the home run swatting Wagner, found itself in first place on Independence Day after a doubleheader sweep of the Senators. Unfortunately, a day later they lost the pennant lead, and never regained it. They clawed their way to a fight between the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees that lasted nearly the whole season, until Cleveland tailed off and the surprisingly consistent Twins finished in second place, five games ahead of the Angels' 86-76 record. Wagner finished with 37 home runs, tied for third behind Harmon Killebew and Norm Cash, while Dean Chance's 2.96 ERA was good enough for fourth in the AL. In only their second year they had almost fought their way into the pennant. Autry and his fellow owners couldn't be more pleased. Unfortunately, it would be the best finish of the team's short career.

1963

With Belinsky, McBride, and Chance returning, plus the addition of New York Yankees dynamo Bob Turley, the starting rotation looked solid. With Thomas and Wagner providing the punch and speedsters Pearson and Fregosi getting on base, the lineup looked fierce enough to compete.

The fates had other plans.

A middling 17-17 start put them in sixth place early in the season; it was their last view of .500. Belinsky fell apart completely, going 2-9 with a staggering 5.75 ERA; Thomas nursed a bad knee all season and managed to hit only .255 with 9 home runs. While Fregosi, Wagner, and Pearson contributed at the plate, hardly anyone else did, which made the Angels' pitching woes much more amplified. Beside Belinsky, new acquisition Turley found out the hard way that without pitching support, a 3.20 ERA got you a 2-7 record. For Chance, the story was similar: a 3.68 ERA earned him a 13-18 record. The team finished with a dismal 70-92 record and a ninth place finish. It appeared their growing pains weren't done just yet.

1964

On December 2, 1963, the team traded away their star slugger Wagner to the Cleveland Indians for a player to be named later - who turned out to be the stocky and aging home run king Joe Adcock. The team acquired rookie Willie Smith from the Detroit Tigers to replace Wagner (Smith becoming an interesting footnote in history as the last player to go from being a full-time pitcher to being a full-time fielder on a major league roster), and moved the slightly insane Jimmy Piersall into right. They also found a 97 mph hurler named Fred Newman, and moved him into the rotation at only 22.

As if on cue, by May 23 the team was in ninth place, despite stellar performances by Chance and Fregosi, a return to form by Belinsky (who had become something of a lothario, dating Ann-Margaret and Tina Louise during the off-season), and a solid start by Newman. Little else seemed to be going right for the team: Pearson struggled the entire season and batted .223, a full 80 points lower than the year before, while Ken McBride, the most reliable pitcher on the team the past 3 years, completely collapsed. On June 4, the team traded their other star hitter Lee Thomas to the Red Sox for Lu Clinton, a Band-Aid for the Pearson problem and the Angels' lackadaisical hitting in general. Then the team began a slow turnaround, moving above .500 by early June and culminating with Fregosi hitting for the cycle on July 28 as the team crushed the Yankees and moved into fourth place with a 54-51 record.

On August 8, a major decision was reached to relocate the team to Anaheim by 1966 and to change the team's name at the end of the season to the California Angels, to avoid confusion with the Dodgers. By now the team was beginning to flounder in fourth, and on August 14, Bo Belinsky - already certifiable according to his teammates - exploded. After a poor start the week before, a drunken Belinsky had told a reporter he was going to retire. When pressed for further details by an older reporter at his hotel room, Belinsky, the former New Jersey pool shark, punched him out. When he was fined and reassigned to the minor league club in Hawaii, he refused to report, and was suspended for the entire season. (He would be traded in December to the Philadelphia Phillies.)

The team itself finished 82-80, with strong performances by Fregosi (.277/18/72) and Adcock (/268/21/64) and their first ever 20-game winner in Chance, whose scorching 1.65 ERA marked the lowest ERA in the AL in twenty years, easily leading the league and capturing the Cy Young Award for his efforts.

By the following season, they were rechristened as the California Angels, and a new era of Rigney ineptitude was born. Ah, to be a Halo in the age lowered expectations!

Team Index
Kansas City Royals | Los Angeles Dodgers

Gino Bartali (1914-2000) Italian racing cyclist

Bartali was active as a professional between 1935 (when technical developments meant that road racing had more or less taken on its modern form) and 1954. He was an extremely strong climber and stage racer, winning his first Giro d'Italia in 1936. He won the Giro again in 1937 and ventured abroad (relatively rare for Italian riders at the time) to take the 1938 Tour de France.

In 1940 (just before Italy entered World War II) the by then established star Bartali was beaten in the Giro by his young Legnano team-mate Fausto Coppi; this rivalry was to captivate and divide the country for another decade or more. After Mussolini threw in his lot with Hitler, Bartali was (unlike Coppi) given a safe posting and was able to continue training and riding such races as there were; after 1943 when northern and central Italy became an occupied country, Bartali used training rides between his native Florence and Rome to carry messages for the resistance to the Vatican, where a number of Jewish refugees were being sheltered.

After the war Bartali resumed his career with both sporting and popular success, winning the first post-war Giro in 1946. His duels with Fausto Coppi, now riding for his own Bianchi team, split the country: pugnacious Gino "the pious", pure in word and deed and frequently photographed with religious figures (and Christian Democrat politicians) against the elegant, adulterous, chemically adventurous and (incorrectly) presumed Communist Fausto. In 1948 news coming over the radio of his epic ride (following a phone call from prime minister Alcide De Gasperi) in the decisive alpine stages of the Tour de France was enough to dampen down what appeared to be an imminent revolution following the attempted assassination of the Communist leader Palmiro Togliatti. It also won him his second Tour, ten years after the first, a record which lasts to this day.

After 1948 Bartali mostly had to play second fiddle to the younger Coppi, but he still managed to become Italian national champion for the fourth time in 1952. He rode a total of 988 races as a professional, finishing 960 of them (a notorious exception being the 1950 Tour where he and the entire Italian team pulled out because of threats, spitting and insults from the French crowds) and winning 184. After his retirement he was a private but popular figure who turned out for the Giro d'Italia every year until his death.