The Postwar Yankees: Baseball's Golden Age Revisited

7. Isn’t Anybody Going to Help That Game?

Given the Yankees’ continued success and its deleterious effect upon attendance, did the rival American League owners attempt any innovations to redress the imbalance? Woeful teams had access to an untapped source of playing talent: black players. The population shifts of the 1940s and 1950s made new cities attractive alternatives to the decaying eastern cities. Finally, poorer teams could push for new rules pertaining to players, especially amateurs. Which innovations did teams use, and how well did these efforts improve their fortunes? Integration The National League’s Brooklyn Dodgers and their general manager, Branch Rickey, demonstrated the potential gains from hiring black players. Jackie Robinson won the Rookie of the Year award in 1947 while helping the Dodgers to their first pennant since 1941. The team reported growth of over $100,000 in consolidated profits between 1946 and 1947.1 Yet Robinson did not bolster the Dodgers attendance much, which rose by about eleven thousand compared with the previous season. Unfortunately, the Dodgers did not list their ticket prices for 1946–47, so it is uncertain whether they raised ticket prices for Robinson’s debut. While attendance at Ebbets Field did not rise much, Isn’t Anybody Going to Help That Game? Baseball Attempts to Rejuvenate Its Popularity 7 182 t Isn’t Anybody Going to Help That Game? the league enjoyed a record-breaking attendance that would not be surpassed until 1960. The Dodgers did set a franchise road attendance record in 1947 by playing before 1.86 million fans.2 The Dodgers led the Major Leagues in road attendance for the decade 1946–55. The team attracted sixteen million fans on the road, while the St. Louis Cardinals had the second-best road record with only twelve million. Branch Rickey’s acumen paid off for the Dodgers, as they won six pennants in the ten years coinciding with Jackie Robinson’s Major League career. The Giants, another early proponent of signing black players, finished first in 1951 and 1954. The 1948 Boston Braves and 1950 Philadelphia Phillies would be the last two National League pennant winners without a black player. The Braves would sign Henry Aaron and Wes Covington and acquire Billy Bruton, and these three played key roles for the Braves’ pennant-winning 1957 and 1958 clubs. Certainly, the pioneer of integration in the American League, Bill Veeck, reaped immediate benefits, winning a title in 1948 and setting attendance records with the help of Larry Doby and an elderly, by baseball standards, Satchel Paige. Veeck had formulated an audacious wartime plan. In 1944 he attempted to buy the Philadelphia Phillies. He hoped to sign a number of black players in an attempt to win the pennant during the talent-starved 1944 season. He made the mistake of informing commissioner Judge Kenesaw Landis of his plan. Shortly thereafter, the Phillies owner sold the team to William Cox, and the integration plan died.3 The Indians attempted to exploit their connections with black baseball further by signing Luke Easter in 1949, and he had three solid seasons for them. The Indians were pioneers in signing black players, but they were also quick to trade or release them. They signed Sam Jones and Harry Simpson in 1951 but traded both of them by 1955. The Indians also signed Minnie Minoso, but he needed further seasoning before reaping his greatest fame with the Chicago White Sox. The Browns (1947), White Sox (1951), and Athletics (1953) had little success from their first few black players. The Washington Senators had been pioneers in signing players from the Caribbean, but they Isn’t Anybody Going to Help That Game? t 183 were slower in signing black players. Washington owner Clark Griffith was openly dubious of Branch Rickey’s integration plan: “Rickey’s busting up the Negro leagues. We ain’t ready for colored players.” Yet Robinson’s success changed Griffith’s mind, and he pursued such luminaries as Larry Doby.4 Washington signed Carlos Paula in 1954. Paula had a decent year in 1955, hitting .299, but his batting average and career plunged in 1956. Detroit signed Ozzie Virgil in 1958, while Boston waited until 1959 to play Elijah “Pumpsie” Green. Neither of these players became stars. The Red Sox’s problematic relationships with black players is well chronicled in Howard Bryant’s book Shut Out.5 Apparently, the Red Sox had opportunities to sign Jackie Robinson and...