In the pre-1900's days of professional baseball teams did not travel all that
far to play games which often were played on Sunday afternoon. By 1901 with the
birth of the American League, teams traveled by train and even by boat. No other
sport to this day has scheduled road trips like baseball. With a 162 game
schedule, players still leave home and go on the road for as long as 2 weeks.
Sportswriters no longer get to travel on the team plane as they once did on the
trains that would carry teams from city to city until air travel for MLB teams
became the standard in the last 1950's.
The writers and players had a very different relationship during the days of
train travel and some of the most quotable characters were baseball players
providing juicy nuggets for famous and aspiring sportswriters.
Yogi Berra, Dizzy Dean, and Ralph Kiner are just a few of the most quotable
players from the first half of the 20th century. Today of course it's all about
social media posts.
Thanks for listening and if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us
a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on
Twitter @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page.
Thu Dec 03 2020
