Baseball of the 1950s

By: Jordan

Cosgrove, Shelbie Curtis, and Jon Killoy

Baseball: Where It Came From

• Based on and English game called Rounders

• “Townball”, “Base”, Baseball

• Small towns formed teams• Clubs formed in cities• Cartwright made list of

rules• First game in 1846• Nation Association of Base

Ball Players formed in 1858Alexander Cartwright

Lets Play Ball!• Decade full or enormous

social and cultural changes; baseball reflected and illustrated these changes

• Major league in Northeast and Midwest

• The games decade involved the most fundamental, startling and dynamic change of any in history

Race in Baseball

• Majority of racially inspiring events took place in the 1950s

• 1949 only 3 teams had players of color

• 1950 only nine players of color

• 1960 total of 52 players of color

Jackie Robinson

Where Things Were

Located!

• Entering 1950s no major league franchise had moved

• Before decade was over over a third of franchise had moved over the country

• MLB went nationwide for the first time

Technology in Baseball

• Air Jet transportation

• Installation of lights in fields

• Team travel went from trains to jets

• Traveling to parks by cars

• Games were now seen at home on televisions

League Structure

• 58 minor leagues

• Many semi-pro teams

• Watching games on television

• Fans were in love with home runs

The Game Stats

• Stolen base rates remained low

• Style of league changes• Home runs increased• Triples declined• Walks declined• Strikeouts increased

Decades NL MVPs

• Jim Konstanty – 1950• Roy Campanella – 1951• Hank Sauer – 1952• Roy Campanella - 1953• Willie Mays - 1954• Roy Campanella - 1955• Don Newcombe - 1956• Hank Aaron - 1957• Ernie Banks - 1958• Ernie Banks - 1959

Roy Campanella

Decades AL MVPs

• Phil Rizzuto - 1950• Yogi Berra - 1951• Bobby Shantz - 1952• Al Rosen - 1953• Yogi Berra - 1954• Yogi Berra - 1955• Mickey Mantle - 1956• Mickey Mantle - 1957• Jackie Jensen - 1958• Nellie Fox - 1959

Yogi Berra

Interesting Things of the

Decade

1950-Connie Mack retires-First “Opening Night”-TV provides $2.3million

1951-Bob Feller-Bob Nieman-Cleveland: three 20 game

wins1952

-Pirates loose 112 games-Fred Hutchinson is team

manager-Joe Black

Interesting Things of the

Decade

1953-Vic Janowicz

1954-no longer allowed to

leave gloves on field-sacrifice fly rule-18 player swap

1955-first African American

player for Yankees1956

-Reds vs MilwaukeeElston Howard

Interesting Things of the

Decade

1957-Giants and Dodgers final

game1958

-Giants and Dodgers move-Roy Campanella paralyzedGold Glove selection-Reds make 100 errors

1959-Two all star games-Ex player becomes AL

presidentRoy Campanella