Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself

Michalel Shapiro's marvelously documented story of conflict between the likes of Branch Rickey and Casey Stengel in the late '50s-early '60s, has been downplayed by baseball historians; until now. I suppose with all the furor going on in 1960 with the Presidential campaign, a wild and woolly World Series, and then one of the closest Presidential elections of all-time, this piece of folklore was largely overlooked by the media. That's understandable. Even back then, if it wasn't a compelling story, it received little attention. The election of JFK---that was a compelling story. Baseball was as stale as Ford Frick's imagination. Here was the most powerful person in the game, stubbornly refusing to take Branch Rickey's progressive idea of expansion under consideration; instead, clinging to the notion that baseball needed no modification, essentially tossed the concept out the window; and with it, baseball's dominance as the National Pastime. Frick's apparent motto: "Change is dangerous." In the meantime, as baseball's popularity languished, professional football took the ball and ran; by the end of the '60s, thanks to parity in the old NFL & AFL, a new generation of fans arose; many of them former diehard baseball fans. The story of how all this unfolded is as compelling as any historical perspective on baseball I've ever read. The twists and turns from all angles kept me engrossed. It's truly a remarkable Odyssey for any student of the game to follow.

In 1958, major league baseball was struggling. Attendance had dipped from 21 million in 1948 to 17 million. The average attendance for the National League was 16,000 and 12,000 for the American League. Part of the reason for the decline was the lopsided distribution of power and the dominance of the New York Yankees. This alienated many fans. Additionally, many ballparks were outdated. The Dodgers and Giants had abandoned New York for the West Coast, yet the National League refused to allow another National League team in New York. The Yankees had the Big Apple to themselves. In the fall of 1958, New York lawyer Bill Shea announced intentions of forming a third league, the Continental League. Baseball icon Branch Rickey was the brains behind the proposed league. His vision was of an eight-team league that would be competitively balanced, pool 90 percent of its TV revenue and split it equally. The league would have one television contract, unlike major league baseball where each team had a television contract. The league would pool playing prospects and conduct a draft three times a year, based on a draw. Everyone would have a shot at the best players, giving each team a chance to be competitive and win. Baseball commissioner Ford Frick was incensed at the thought of a third league. The key to the success of the Continental League would be the commitment of New York. Frick, however, wasn't going to be forced to put a team in New York because of the Continental League. Frick, along with the New York Yankees, was content with the status quo. Manager Casey Stengel, owner Del Webb and general manager George Weiss represented the old guard. Author Michael Shapiro presents interesting profiles of the three men and their role in combating the Continental League. Shapiro reveals the backroom politics of the battle and how major league baseball finally ended its resistance to expansion as a result. In October 1960, major league baseball announced it would add two American League teams in 1961--Los Angeles and Minnesota--and two National League teams in 1962--New York and Houston. In the end, seven of the eight proposed Continental League cities received major league franchises. Buffalo was the only city left out. Although baseball didn't accept the concepts of Rickey's Continental League, football did. And, parity is one of the reasons why football surpassed baseball as the national pastime. Shapiro does an excellent job of shedding light on the proposed Continental League and its impact. Very little has been written about the Continental League. Those interested in baseball history should be sure to read this book.

By the end of the 1960 World Series, two historic baseball figures were out of Baseball. Branch Rickey was trying to move baseball forward with the formation of a third major league. New York City was down to 1 franchise and the Lords of Baseball had not expanded in over 60 years. The US had gone through two world wars and the population had shifted dramatically from the Northeast to the South and West. In the 50's there had been several franchise moves but there was still only 16 teams and some major metro areas desired to have Major League Baseball. Branch Rickey's 3rd league would remedy that. This tells the story of what happened and why MLB finally expanded by adding 4 teams in 61/62 and then 4 more teams in 1969. It deals with how Congress and the Commissioner of Baseball did its best to kill the league. The parallel story dealt with the final years of Casey Stengel's rein with the Yankees. Casey is still the #1 manager in Yankee history. Sorry Joe you are only the 3 or 4th best. A great history of Baseball about the end of these two great Hall of Famers. Branch's last grasp to still be an influence in Baseball and Casey's march to old age. His big mistake was being 70 at the wrong time!

Bottom of the Ninth is a detailed history of baseball events on and off the field, baseball politics, and the characters involved in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The on-the-field and in-the-clubhouse tales are riveting. The scholarly recitation of events around the formation of the International League may be of interest to those New York baseball fans who were familiar with the key characters, and who were there to see events as they unfolded. Today, when I asked a few friends if they knew who Casey Stengel was, I was greeted with blank stares. Every New Yorker of fifty years ago, baseball fan or not, would have known Casey Stengel, former New York player, Yankees and then Mets manager. He was a player or manager for all of the New York major league teams. Branch Rickey, another major character in Shapiro's history, key organizer of the Continental League, is also little remembered. He may be completely forgotten except perhaps for his role as general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers in hiring Jackie Robinson to play for the Dodgers in 1947. Fifty years ago, major league baseball was the major occupation of New Yorkers. A person's key identification was by the team that he rooted for. Football and basketball were secondary. Not so today in New York or the rest of the nation. Baseball is on a downward spiral in the eye of the sports fan. Shapiro's history has crystallized some of the thoughts that I have had about major league baseball. As a result of a bizarre supreme court ruling that baseball is not a business subject to the rules of other businesses, and as a result of political lobbying to keep Congress from changing that status, major league baseball has been free to engage in self-destroying acts. Over the last half century, we have seen teams shifted from city-to-city in a chase for fresh money, players strikes, absurd ticket prices, the continued dominance of big-city teams, and of course, the growing drug-use revelations. You can add your own observations to the list. How do you feel about the designated hitter rule, the cost of tickets, not using replay for out/safe calls? Bottom of the Ninth is a great reminder to those of us who can remember when Stengel was the Yankees' manager. It will also serve as a great reference book for baseball fans as one more witness on how baseball got to where it is today. If you are not a baseball fan, then this history helps to explain why.

The forgotten history of a controversial period in Major League Baseball is unearthed by author Michael Shapiro and given a complete nine innings to deliver an all-star performance. The era is the 1950s; a time when a number of prominent businessmen wanted new seats at the exclusive table reserved for 16 members and the field of play was dominated by the New York Yankees. In one dugout is Branch Rickey, who is president of the new Continental League, a creation of New York City-based attorney William Shea to bring professional baseball to seven new markets and a "replacement" club in New York City for the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants. In the other dugout is Casey Stengel, who seemingly can do no wrong as the manager of the Bronx Bombers. But on the diamond is the power, prestige and caginess of the MLB owners and league officials. Shea announced his plans for a new professional league in November 1958, with play to begin in 1961. The franchises were slated for New York City, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Toronto, Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth and Buffalo. Businessmen involved in the league included Jack Kent Cooke, Bob Howsam and Wheelock Whitney, Jr. Rickey - who had been out of baseball since relinquishing his general manager's post with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1955 - had a number of cutting-edge ideas to level the playing field to make a more competitive game, including revenue sharing. Add to the mix a federal probe into MLB's antitrust exemption - the Supreme Court issued a ruling in 1922, which was upheld in 1953, that antitrust law did not apply to baseball, because games were local affairs , not interstate commerce - and it appeared that there was no getting out of the way of revolutionary change in the pro game. Antitrust law prohibits any action that unreasonably restrains competition and a number of businessmen were claiming foul by MLB for not even entertaining the prospect of expansion franchises. How MLB eventually seized control of the tenuous situation and commandeered a plan to knock Rickey and the CL out of the batter's box is fascinating, since it was a defensive shift that included the essential elements of divide and conquer, which completely switched the momentum of the game...and ultimately dragged on until 1993. But there was no question about who carried the momentum in the game, as the "Stengel era" was rewriting the record book. From 1949 to 1953, the Yankees won five consecutive World Series championships, along with the names of Mantle, Berra, Ford, Maris and Howard working their way into the iconic status reserved for DiMaggio, Gehrig, Gomez, Ruth and Meusel. Then - as now - Stengel was mostly viewed as a master of the quip who had all the advantages of deep-pocketed ownership and the lure of the Big Apple for any five-tool prospect. But "The Old Professor" had found success with a platoon system that included using pinch hitters when he deemed necessary and having defensive replacements for the