Baseball Jersey
The traditional baseball jersey can be seen just about on any player from the era of a generation ago. Following the success of the Boston Braves’ move to Milwaukee, another major-league franchise shift took place. The St Louis Browns, long suffering in the standings and at the gate, were sold to a syndicate that immediately moved the club to Baltimore, where they opened the 1954 season. Baltimore, an original American League city, had left the league in 1902, when its franchise moved to New York. Now big-league baseball was back, and like the Braves in Milwaukee, the Orioles in Baltimore were received by enthusiastic fans who came to the ball park in large numbers. In their final year in St Louis, the club drew fewer than 300,000 fans. In their first year in Baltimore, attendance shot up to over a million fans.
 |
|
These intoxicating numbers show the fanaticism of the traditional baseball jersey in Baltimore. They were like beckoning fingers to all restless and disenchanted club owners. The era of the unmoored franchise and ultimately of expansion in major-league baseball had begun. Despite all the clamor, Baltimore finished seventh in the eight-team league. The Orioles did have one highly-attractive piece of merchandise, a 23-year-old right-hander named Bob Turley. Turley was known for the speed of his fast ball. With a 14-15 record, he led in strikeouts with 185 and bases on balls with 181. All it would take to make a first-rank pitcher of Turley was to harness that speed and give it a semblance of control. Every club in the league was licking its lips in hopes of getting the opportunity to do just that.
Old Baseball Jerseys
Baltimore’s brand-new general manager Paul Richards had decided that the only way to give his struggling team a fast fix and keep those hordes of customers pointed in the right direction was to trade Turley for as many good players as he could, in this era of the traditional baseball jersey. There was another large movement of players made after this season—this time the entire club, as the owners of the Philadelphia Athletics received permission to move the club to Kansas City, citing the old bugaboo, declining attendance. With the A’s having finished in the second division for the 19th time in 21 years, more than a few of their fans were willing to help the club pack its bags. The 1954 World Series was a startling show, dominated by Willie Mays, whose sensational running catch in the opening game saved it for the Giants.
