The Sports Archives History Lesson – Hockey’s Multi-Goal Power Play

Posted on November 4, 2010 by thesportsarchives

Prior to 1956 in the NHL, a player taking a penalty was required to ‘do’ his time regardless of how many goals the opposing team scored while the player was in the box.

Teams of the 1940’s and 1950’s, such as the Montreal Canadians and Detroit Red Wings loved the power play. They would send out players like Maurice “The Rocket” Richard and Gordie Howe and they would excel on the power play, scoring many times before the penalty was over.

The league thought this to be unfair and mandated that the minor penalty expire if the opposing team scores a goal in the duration.

 

Maurice Richard

Maurice Richard

 

 

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The Sports Archives History Lesson – Baseball’s Infield Fly Rule

Posted on November 3, 2010 by thesportsarchives

Tommy McCarthy, selected to be a member of Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1946, is credited with establishing baseball’s Infield Fly Rule. When there are fewer than two outs and with base runners on first and second McCarthy would purposely miss an infield fly ball that was easily playable to start a double play. The Infield Fly Rule was established to prohibit this practice.

Tommy McCarthy, who played for the Boston Beaneaters and Philadelphia Quakers in the late 19th century is also known for being instrumental in establishing baseball’s hit-and-run play.

Tommy McCarthy

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The Sports Archives Greatest Moments – 2010 SF Giants win World Series!

Posted on November 2, 2010 by thesportsarchives

The San Francisco Giants have finally proved that they are a team to be reckoned with. Having never won the World Series while in San Francisco, the last time the Giants saw the trophy was when they were based out of New York in 1954.

The 1954 NY Giants team was composed of superstars, names such as Willie Mays, Dusty Rhodes and Hank Thompson. In comparison, this SF Giants team had a lineup of regulars in Cody Ross, Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowland.

Nevertheless, the SF Giants downed a high potent Texas Rangers offense 4 games to 1, out-dueling Rangers ace Cliff Lee and the rest of the Rangers pitching staff.

The time has finally come, 50 plus years later, for the ‘new’ Giants of San Francisco to separate from the ‘old’ Giants of New York. San Francisco can now say they have a winner of their own.

Say Hey Willie!

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The Sports Archives History Lesson – Baseball’s Batting Donut

Posted on November 1, 2010 by thesportsarchives

The batting “donut” is a heavy circular lead weight encased in rubber which is slid up to the barrel of the baseball bat. Before this invention, players waiting in the on-deck circle would swing 2 or 3 bats at a time to loosen up. Then, the bat of choice would feel lighter and easier to swing when it was time to step up to the plate.

This invention is credited to Elston Howard, a catcher who played with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox from 1955 to 1968. Howard is also noted for being the first to use the index and pinky fingers to communicate to the other fielders that there were two outs.

The Yankees retired Howard’s jersey number 32 in 1984.

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The Sports Archives History Lesson – Baseball’s Hit and Run

Posted on October 30, 2010 by thesportsarchives

The “hit and run” play originated in major league baseball back in the late 19th century.  It is officially credited to a couple of players who played for the Boston Beaneaters in the 1890s.

Tommy McCarthy and Hugh Duffy also known as the ‘Heavenly Twins” were most impressive in their day.  They helped Boston become a major contender during that time.

These two ballplayers introduced many new and different strategies that coaches still leverage today.  Batter to base-runner signals and other forms of silent communication between players took shape from this era.

Notably, the “hit and run” play which is usually executed with a runner on first.  The runner breaks as the pitch is thrown with the hope that the batter hits the ball to the spot left vacant by the fielder looking to cover second to tag the runner.  What normally would have been an easy put-out becomes a single and even if the ball is fielded, chances are the double-play is prevented.  Of course, the strategy backfires if the ball cannot be hit and the runner ends up tagged out at second.  Still, it’s harder for a catcher to throw out a runner from a ball pitched out of the strike zone.

McCarthy and Duffy were pioneers of this play which is now a widely used strategy by coaches at all levels.

Tommy McCarthy

Hugh Duffy

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The Sports Archives History Lesson – Hockey Goalie Mask

Posted on October 29, 2010 by thesportsarchives

On November 1, 1959, Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadians decided that he would protect himself by introducing the goalie mask. Today, with only a few rare exceptions, all goalies wear masks or some type of cage protection. Some goalies now even wear neck guards.

Can you blame these guys? Not only has the game picked up in speed, but shots are faster, harder and more accurate than ever before. You would have to be suicidal to defend a hockey goal without facial protection!

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The Sports Archives Greatest Moments – Spotlight on Bo Jackson

Posted on October 28, 2010 by thesportsarchives

Vince Edward “Bo” Jackson was really an amazing athlete in his day. Not only did he win the Heisman Trophy in 1985, but he also became the first athlete to be named an All-Star in two major American Sports, baseball and football.

He was so versatile, that in 1986, he was the #1 pick of football’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the fourth-round pick of MLB’s Kansas City Royals and the fifth-round pick for the Savannah Spirits of the Continental Basketball Association!

It seemed there wasn’t one sport that Bo could not learn to play…remember “Bo Knows”?

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The Sports Archives – Bidding for World Cup 2018 and 2022 Turns Ugly!

Posted on October 28, 2010 by thesportsarchives

There are 11 countries competing to host the next two World Cup tournaments and on December 2, in Zurich, 24 FIFA officials will make that decision.

I wonder if those 24 FIFA officials are being sequestered. The World Cup venue is worth billions in the sports world and the country to host sees a lot of that revenue. This potentially opens the door to major corruption and one does not have a lot of confidence that the selection is a result of fair play. We all remember the Olympics scandal of Salt Lake City.

The countries bidding for the 2018 World Cup are England, Russia, Belgium-Netherlands, Spain-Portugal and for the 2022 World Cup, the countries are the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Qatar.

Also accompanying the bidding is a little mud-slinging. The bid leader of Russia, ALexey Sorokin, challenged England’s bid by reportedly alleging that London has a youth drinking problem and a high crime rate. England is demanding an apology, however, Sorokin is arguing that his comments were mistranslated. Boys will be boys.

Wherever the World Cup venue is slated, you can count on it as being top class and something that everyone should attend at least once in their lives.

Read More.

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The Sports Archives Greatest Moments – Eyewear is for Horses

Posted on October 27, 2010 by thesportsarchives

Colonel Edward Riley Bradley,  1859-1946, was a horse owner, gambler and philanthropist.  He was also somewhat of an adventurist and accumulated great wealth.

One day, he attempted to enhance the vision of a nearsighted racehorse by fitting eyeglass blinkers over the horse’s eyes.  Well, that horse was not having anything to do with non-fashionable shades and promptly tossed his rider and galloped off!

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The Sports Archives – Andy Holmes, Olympic Rowing Gold Medalist, Dies Suddenly

Posted on October 27, 2010 by thesportsarchives

England’s Andy Holmes,  age 51,  rowing coach for the last two years, died in the hospital after feeling ill about a week before from what doctors think might have been leptospirosis, a waterborne bacterial disease.

Holmes earned the gold twice, one for the coxed four in 1984 and one for coxless pairs in 1988.  He teamed with five-time Olympic champion Steve Redgrave in both.  He also was the Commonwealth Games champion in 1986 for the same events.

England will miss Andy Holmes, a great man and a great athlete.

Credit: SI

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