Cool baseball related photos

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Frank White is a former baseball player who spent 18 years with the Kansas City Royals.
A smooth fielder, White was a five-time All-Star. He won the Gold Glove Award eight times, including six consecutive seasons from 1977 to 1982. In 1977, he played 62 consecutive errorless games. In 1980, White was awarded the inaugural American League Championship Series MVP award in the 1980 ALCS against the New York Yankees, leading the Royals to their first World Series appearance.
Although in his early years he was a singles hitter who contributed little to the Royals' run column, White improved markedly as an offensive player during his career, hitting 22 home runs two years in a row, in 1985 and 1986. Since the 1985 World Series was played without the designated hitter, White hit cleanup during that series, in place of Hal McRae. Until White, the only other second baseman to hit cleanup in a World Series was Jackie Robinson. In the 1986 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, his solo home run in the seventh off Mike Scott was the deciding run in a 3–2 American League victory.
White retired as a player in 1990, after 18 seasons with Kansas City, having played 2324 regular season games with a .255 average, 160 home runs and 886 RBIs. Defensively, White posted a .984 fielding percentage at second base and .983 fielding percentage overall. He also hit for the cycle twice in his major league career, on September 26, 1979, in a 4–0 victory over the California Angels and on August 3, 1982, in a 6–5 win over the Detroit Tigers.
White set a major-league record jointly with teammate George Brett, by appearing in 1,914 games together. The record stood until 1995, when it was broken by the Detroit Tigers' Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker.
Frank White's career highlights and awards:
5× All-Star (1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1986)
World Series champion (1985)
ALCS MVP (1980)
8× Gold Glove Award (1977–1982, 1986, 1987)
Silver Slugger Award (1986)
Kansas City Royals No. 20 retired
Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame

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Today In 1960: "Home Run Derby" makes its TV debut! ~ Mickey Mantle vs. Willie Mays!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=355420760460509&__cft__[0]=AZVZRkkwrXYjF8gD_wZ2p05dmS9pe3YSlI-umZC_cDjzIVb5TVGbUWI2ym5bJ0m0CJHp8O-gGsynSKl1ZdQZi4pqN5O0Zb3XddjM9K_2kD_3s9BiIuPFEnchA 4RpNZMSBNjJ0z--le6rbme8oayN4KalURbFc3yfIytmmWbvRYXcctEu4pTjy0Ctfn F216WjwuA&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

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Jackie Robinson, Dan Bankhead, Don Newcombe, and Roy Campanella with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Each starred in the Negro leagues prior to their time with the Dodgers.

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Vin Scully in the WMGM booth calling a game at Ebbets Field, 1953

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Lou enjoys a beer and a cigarette after a game in Detroit in 1936

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In MEMORY of WILLIE STARGELL on his BIRTHDAY - (March 6, 1940 - April 9, 2001)
MLB career years: Pittsburgh Pirates (1962–1982)
Born Wilver Dornell Stargell, nicknamed "Pops" later in his career, American professional baseball left fielder and first baseman who spent all of his 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) (1962–1982) with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Among the most feared power hitters in baseball history, Stargell had the most home runs (296) of any player in the 1970s decade. During his career, he batted .282 with 2,232 hits, 1,194 runs, 423 doubles, 475 home runs, and 1,540 runs batted in, helping his team win six National League (NL) East division titles, two NL pennants, and two World Series championships in 1971 and 1979, both over the Baltimore Orioles. Stargell was a seven-time All-Star and two-time NL home run leader. In 1979, he became the first and currently only player to win the NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, the NL Championship Series MVP Award and the World Series MVP Award in one season. In 1982, the Pirates retired his uniform number 8. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.
Early life -
Stargell was born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma, but later moved to Florida with an aunt after his parents divorced. Later, he returned to Alameda, California, to live with his mother. He attended Encinal High School, where his baseball teammates included future MLB players Tommy Harper and Curt Motton. Stargell signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and entered minor league baseball in 1959.
Stargell played for farm teams in New Mexico, North Dakota, Iowa, Texas, North Carolina, and Ohio. While on the road with some of those teams, Stargell was not allowed to stay in the same accommodations as the white players. Lodging for black players was located in the poor black areas of those towns. While in Plainview, Texas, he was accosted at gunpoint by a man who threatened his life if he played in that night's game. Stargell played and nothing came of the incident. He might have quit baseball over the racial difficulties that he experienced, but he was encouraged by letters he received from friend and baseball scout Bob Zuk.
Later life -
After retirement, Stargell spent two years as a first base coach for the Atlanta Braves from 1986 to 1988, wearing his customary #8. He was the first minor-league hitting coach for Chipper Jones. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988, his first year of eligibility. He had an awkward interaction with the Pirates that season when the team wanted to schedule a Willie Stargell Night to honor his Hall of Fame election. Stargell refused to participate in the team's plans, still stinging from the team's refusal to even consider him for its managerial job that season.
In the 1985 trial of alleged cocaine dealer Curtis Strong, Stargell was accused by Dale Berra and John Milner (both former Pirates teammates) of distributing "greenies" (amphetamines) to players. Berra said that he obtained amphetamines from Stargell and Bill Madlock; he said he could get them from Stargell "on any given day I asked him for one." Stargell strongly denied these accusations. Commissioner Peter Ueberroth later cleared Stargell and Madlock of any wrongdoing.
Stargell returned to the Pittsburgh club in 1997 as an aide to Cam Bonifay, the team's general manager. He also worked as a special baseball adviser to Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy, who called Stargell "the ultimate class act". Stargell was hospitalized for three weeks in 1999 to treat undisclosed medical problems with one of his organs. A source close to the Pirates blamed Stargell's health problems on his gaining weight after retiring as a player. Stargell lost some of that weight, but gained weight again while working for the Pittsburgh front office.
After years of suffering from a kidney disorder, he died of complications related to a stroke in Wilmington, North Carolina. In his later life, Stargell had also suffered from hypertension and heart failure. A segment of Stargell's bowel was removed more than two years before he died. He had been in the hospital recovering from gallbladder surgery at the time of his death. On April 7, 2001, two days before Stargell died, a larger-than-life statue of him was unveiled at the Pirates' new stadium, PNC Park, as part of the opening-day ceremonies. As his death occurred on the same day as the official opening of the stadium against the Reds, the statue served as a de facto memorial for Stargell.

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Kirk Gibson as a Michigan State Spartan football player.

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The weirdest and wildest trade in all of sports took place on 3/5/1973 when New York Yankees pitchers and teammates Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson became the centerpiece of media attention after the two decided to publicly announce that they had swapped wives. Both players lived in New Jersey with their families and were good friends. The couples attended a BBQ hosted by Maury Allen, a New York Post sportswriter on July 15, 1972. Both couples arrived separately, but on the way out, Peterson’s wife, Marilyn, left with Kekich and Kekich’s wife, Susanne, got in a car with Peterson. Both couples met at a diner after the party before heading home. They had so much fun that they decided to do it again the next evening. Eventually, Peterson fell for Kekich's wife and Fritz fell for Kekich's. The couples were having so much fun with their newfound arrangements that they decided to make it permanent, thus officially swapping wives ahead of the 1973 campaign. To make the story even more bizarre, it was the men who would change addresses therefore not only swapping wives, but also houses, children, and even the family dogs!! According to New York Magazine, Mike Kekich was quoted as saying: "Don't say this was wife-swapping, because it wasn't. We didn't swap wives, we swapped lives."