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Steven Rosen

Dr. Blake

Final Research Paper

5/11/2015

The Technology that Saved America’s Pastime

The decision to move-across-country for the world-famous Brooklyn Dodgers in 1957

was bold one. On May 28th, 1957, National League owners unanimously voted to allow both the

New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers to move to California. The Giants, led by Willy

“the Say Hey Kid” Mays, were headed to the Golden Gate City, while Jackie Robinson and his

Dodgers were on the move to the City of Angels. The move came as a bit of a surprise to the

average baseball fan, which saw only rich tradition and storied success within the Dodgers

organization.

In the years leading up to 1957, the Dodgers had won five pennants and one World Series

in eight short years. The team carried a reputation as being one of the best in the business.

However, Ebbets Field remained the home stadium for the ball club, and Dodgers owner Walter

O’Malley understood his team’s future was in jeopardy if they continued to play there. O’Malley

asked the city of New York to allow him to build a brand new, state of the art facility, but he was

denied by New York City council on multiple occasions. O’Malley saw Ebbets Field’s

limitations, its inability to sell-out games due to its outdated amenities (even in the middle of a

pennant race), and lack of a future in Brooklyn. He threatened to make a significant change for

his organization if a new stadium was not built, but the city and league took his threats as bluffs.

In an effort to change that, O’Malley made a move that he felt could not be seen as any

type of bluff; in fact, it became the move that solidified his intentions to actually move the

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Brooklyn Dodgers. On January 4th, 1957 he took a trip to Los Angeles, where O’Malley

continued previous meetings that discussed the possibility of a Major League Franchise

relocating to Los Angeles. The even bigger move came a few days later, when O’Malley

purchased a 44-passenger airplane that had the ability to travel across country. The plane,

pictured in figure 1, cost the team $734,9008.96 and became the new number one means of

transportation. O’Malley was quoted in the Associated Press that day saying, “This is the first

time a major league club has bought an airplane,” he said, “We tried a plane once before

experimentally to transport our farm clubs but the DC-3 we used was too small. So, we decided

to get a bigger one” (Walteromalley.com).

The purchase of the plane and the constant trips to Los Angeles all but ended baseball in

Brooklyn. After ignoring O’Malley’s previous threats, New York City Mayor Robert Wagner

wrote a telegram to the Dodgers owner (see figure 2) in which he stated:

“The Dodgers are uniquely identified with this city. It would be a great loss to the

community if anyone of its three major league teams departed. I realize that the problem

of appropriate facilities poses serious problems for the Dodger management. As you

know I have been deeply concerned with the problem. I am hopeful that the city

administration will be able to aid in its solution.” (Walteromalley.com)

O’Malley no longer wanted to listen, and the Dodgers were off to Los Angeles on their brand

new, Convair 440 Metropolitain twin-engine plane. The City of Los Angeles anticipated the

teams’ arrival, as shown by the April 18th, 1958 front page of the Los Angeles Times (see figure

3) with the title, “L.A. Greets the Dodgers, 90,000 Fans Expected” (Los Angeles Times). The

Dodgers were in the middle of making one of the most influential and significant changes to the

development of professional sports in our country’s history.

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The Dodgers move across country shifted the entire landscape of Major League Baseball

and created a new era for the game. Prior to the move, the league was restricted to teams playing

solely in the Eastern and Mid-Western parts of the United States, but the move was the first to

allow for an extremely successful geographic transformation of the league. This transformation

allowed the league to grow and be represented in every region of he country. However, the move

was not possible without a number of monumental changes that took place in the early part of the

1950’s, both throughout the United States and as a result, within the game of baseball. No single

league in U.S. Professional Sports saw as much change and improvement to its respected game

as Major League Baseball did over the these years. Due to specific technological advances

within television production, broadcasting capabilities, and air travel, 1950s baseball became the

most significant era in the game’s history, and has remained that way for 60 years. In addition,

no other sport in the twentieth century went through as much of a transformation that baseball

went through in just those ten years, both on and off the field. In a time where the game was

recovering from a previous decade of hardship, the combination of these technological

advancements of the 1950s and the Brooklyn Dodgers now being able to move across country

because of them, created the decade that saved “America’s Pastime.”

Nine years earlier, after the 1941 season, Major League Baseball was at what seemed to

be its peak. In fact, it was a year where star players were performing at extraordinary levels. Red

Sox legend Ted Williams had a batting average over .400, and Yankee great Joe DiMaggio hit

safely for a record 56 straight games (esb.com - Elias Sports Bureau). But later that December

the mindset of almost every major leaguer changed in an instant, as the Japanese army attacked

the United States at Pearl Harbor, and baseball players were needed for something other than

their skill on the diamond. Gary Bedingfield, author of Baseball in World War II, writes that the

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rush of patriotism that hit our country at the time of the attack was no different within the Major

Leagues. According to Elias Sports Bureau, over 500 Major League Baseball players rushed to

trade their metal cleats for combat boots between 1941 and 1945. Hugh Mulcahy was the first to

be drafted, and others willingly chose to follow in his footsteps. Future Hall of Famer and the

1940 League’s Most Valuable Player recipient, “Hammerin” Hang Greenberg received his draft

call on May 7th, 1941. Greenberg chose to give up his salary of $55,000 a year for $21 a month to

serve his country (Bedingfield). “If there’s any last message to be given to the public, let it be

that I’m going to be a good solder,” Greenber told The Sporting News in their May of 1941

publication (Bedingfield).

The same star players that dominated the league earlier in the year now had to compete

for something far more serious than a World Series title. Williams, DiMaggio, World Series

legend Bob Feller, and Stan “The Man” Musial were just a few of the well-known names to enter

the line of duty, however Robert Weintrob, author of “Three Reichs, You’re Out” noted that

these players were intentionally kept off the front lines during the time they served (Weintrob).

Weintrob claimed many Americans raised the question, should baseball be played during a time

when our country is at war? 23 years earlier, in the midst of World War I, the league chose to

end the 1918 regular season. The public raised an interesting argument and the answer was up

for great debate. Everyone seemed to have an opinion, including President Roosevelt, who on

January 15th, 1942 wrote his famous, “Green Light” letter (see figure 4), in which he said, “I

honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. The quality of the

teams might be lowered with the greater use of older players replacing young men going into

military service, but this would not dampen the popularity of the sport” (Walteromalley.com). In

addition, in their April 1942 edition, Sporting News published a poll asking service men how

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they felt about the idea of continuing baseball through the years of the war. The results were

overwhelmingly in favor of playing on. Private John E. Stevenson, who was based in Fort Dix,

New Jersey, was quoted in the report stating, “Baseball is apart of the American way of life.

Remove it and you remove something from the live of American Citizens, soldiers and sailors”

(Bedingfield).

Both the President and Private Stevenson made great points, but their optimism was

quickly shut down by the harsh reality that a World War would have on a seemingly meaningless

game. Ted Williams giving 110% on every play of every game, and Joe DiMaggio refusing to

break his mental focus for a single day was what made baseball apart of the American way of

life, and when they were removed from the game, America lost interest. 500 of the greatest

players in the game were missing and over 4,076 minor leaguers were sent to battle. This

completely diminished the often praised, talent-loaded minor league system, originally composed

of 44 circuits, but down to just 12 at the time of the war (americanveteranscenter.org).

The lack of talent and star-power, something that was such a key component to the

league’s success in its earlier years, combined with the gruesome events filling America’s media,

made baseball no longer a priority to the general public. Frank Graham was a famous

sportswriter of the time, and wrote a weekly column for the Journal-American titled, “Graham’s

Corner” often later published in Baseball Digest. In this 1946 edition of the magazine (see figure

5) Graham was extremely critical of the league, and wrote that the game had become “the tall

men against the fat men at the company picnic” and added that the game was a shadow of the

real thing (Weintruab 1). According to Baseball Reference, league attendance reached as low as

9,000 fans in attendance per game in 1949. (baseballreference.com)

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With the surrender of the Nazi Army and the war coming to a close, players began

returning home. However, because of the long process and high number of players returning at

slow rates and different times, their return alone was not enough to bring the game back to where

it once was. The television set, once considered a novelty for the American family in the 1940’s,

but newly developed in the 1950s, would help baseball begin its resurgence as America’s

Pastime.

In his essay, “One Nation Under Television: Rise and Decline of Network TV” J. Fred

MacDonald wrote that televised sporting events were born when a baseball game between Ivy

League Universities, Columbia and Princeton aired on May 17th, 1939 (MacDonald 1). The first

major league game to be televised came shortly after in August of the same year, when the

Brooklyn (at the time) Dodgers hosted the Cincinnati Reds at Ebbets Field. According to Evan

Andrews, author of “Major League Baseball Makes Television Debut 75 Years Ago” an

estimated 33,000 fans were in attendance for the game, compared to the 3,000 that watched the

game live on television (Evans 1). While the potential was there, the future for baseball on

television was still a few years away.

It is estimated that a total of 7,000 television sets were in use in 1946, and Stanley Baran,

an author from the Museum of Broadcast Communications explained that this number displayed

the little interest Americans showed towards television in the 1940s (Baran). However, Baran

explains that the development of the television near the end of the 40’s and early 50’s, in terms

of accessibility, product quality, and price all were improving rapidly. He writes an estimated

190,000 sets were in use in 1948, just two years later (Baran). Additionally, he claims that just

12 years later this number reached an estimated 50 million sets in use by the end of 1960

(Baran). The television was no longer a novelty by any means, and more families than ever were

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gathering in the living room to watch their favorite shows. In fact, the number of households

with at least one television set increased from one million, to 44 million between 1949-1969,

according to Andrea Ryan, author of “A Brief Postwar History of U.S. Consumer Finance”

(Ryan 7).

Most people within the league and fans who followed the game failed to see the potential

future for sports and television, as they were more worried that television would have negative

effects on the attendance rates for games. On the other hand, broadcast companies such as NBC,

CBS, and ABC were able to look past this, and could see the unbelievable things television could

do for the game and for their companies.

First off, live sports were live entertainment, meaning the cost of production for sports,

and specifically baseball, was minimal. There were not sets to be made, no actors to pay, and no

writers to find, the entertainment and stage was provided for them, and little needed to be done

for production. Additionally, the time period did not provide much entertainment on television

that targeted as specific of an audience that live baseball did. The common baseball fan tuning in

to watch live games were white, upper-middle class (Bellamy 1). The target audience was a

dream come true for manufacturers of products looking to sell to the specific demographic, such

as shaving, alcohol, tobacco, and car companies. For example, a company like Budweiser used

the three hour time frame to market their beer to baseball fans with commercials such as the one

shown in figure 6, released in 1956 and aired during numerous live games.

The increased interest in advertising allowed television production companies to improve

their footage of live games, and increase the dollars spent towards television and film

technology. James R. Walker discussed these changes in his book, Center Field Shot: A History

of Baseball on Television. The first live game featured two cameras, according to Walker, one

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positioned in front of the visiting team dugout, and the other behind home plate. The fact that the

field was limited to only two different angles, combined with the sunlight during most day

games, made seeing the game in 1939 extremely difficult. By 1951, WCBS was televising it’s

first game in color, and by 1953 major technology changes began taking place within the

production of live sports. 1953 now had four, black and white cameras with fixed lenses, all

located on the Mezzanine level of the stadium (see figure 7). The cameras had improved lenses

and now included text-graphics on the screen and improved audio quality from the press box and

around the stadium, and both created a more interactive viewing experience for fans. By 1957, a

fifth camera was added to center field, and lenses now included zoom capabilities (Walker). The

overall viewing experience was improved so drastically that companies continued to produce

more and more live baseball. In 1955 fans saw the first televised World Series in color, and an

estimated 38 million viewers watched, a staggering number compared to the 3,000 that saw the

first televised game in 1939 (Walker). 1957 brought Saturday and Sunday “feature games”, and

1958 showed the first televised West Coast game. According to Baran, in 1962 ABC, NBC, and

CBS committed to over $80 million spent towards sports programming, a quarter of which was

committed to baseball (Baran 1). And as early as 1965, ABC was providing the country with the

first ever, nation-wide broadcasts on regional basis at a consistent rate. Local television

companies followed their team’s home and away schedule while national television companies

would offer prime-time games, and together the two increased the popularity of the game.

Not only was the technology becoming more advanced, but the television set allowed

Major League baseball to take advantage of the same thing it did prior to World War II, it’s star-

power. For the first time ever, highlight reels, interviews, footage of the game’s best players

could be exposed to fans like never before. The best players of the decade, such as Yogi Berra,

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Mickey Mantle, Harmon Killebrew, Jackie Robinson, Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, and Willie

Mays could all now be seen from the comfort of one’s own living room, rather than the few

occasional times throughout the year that a fan could go see the one iconic player on his most

local team live and in person. In addition, the league was able to televise the world-famous,

Major League All Star Game for the first time in 1957 (mlb.com). The television allowed Major

League Baseball to market it’s game with their best assets, the stars of the time.

While baseball clearly benefited from all of this, they were not the only ones. The

manufacturers of television sets also saw rapidly increased sells, mentioned above with the

extraordinary amount of televisions sold in the decade. The league used the television to sell

baseball, while companies used baseball to sell the television. For example, this can be seen in

figure 8, an advertisement for a Victor Television set featuring a baseball pitcher and a football

quarterback that read, “See them on COLOR TV.” This concept can be seen again in figure 9, a

second advertisement from 1950, this time for a Westinghouse television set with a headline that

read, “Reserve Seats to the Ball Game for Less than the price of a Hot Dog & Pop.” Baseball

was no longer just apart of the American way of life; it was now apart of the American home.

Now that the game had become a closer representation to what it was prior to the war, it

was time for the league to expand geographically. In 1950, the league consisted of 16 total

teams, represented by only seven states, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania,

Missouri, Ohio, and Michigan, as well as the Washington Senators, who played in Washington,

DC (see figure 10) (baseballreference.com). Between 1900 and 1950, not a single major league

franchise relocated, and the league was represented only in the Northeast and Midwest, which

limited just how much the league could be considered a national entity. (Treder 1)

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The difference between the 1950s and the years prior, was the advancement in air travel

technology. For as long as the game had been around, teams traveled to and from games, to and

from spring training, and to and from the ballpark by train. Because baseball has always had a

grueling schedule that consisted of so many games in so few days, the only reasonable solution

was to keep teams relatively close to each other, at least close enough to travel by train. Cost-

effective air travel was slowly starting to become more popular in the early parts of the 1950s,

and this concept made the dream of a Major League Baseball being represented throughout the

entire country a reality. Finally, teams were able to purchase jets at an affordable cost, as

O’Malley did in 1954, travel to and from ballparks by plain at an efficient rate, and could now

expand to new markets, some of which were better suited for a baseball franchise than even the

original cities were. Better weather, more interested fans in targeted areas, and the push

westward from many Americans had baseball following the same path as the rest of the country.

Before the end of the 1950s, nearly a third of the 16 original franchises relocated (Treder 1). Five

additional franchises were created, and the league was the biggest and covered a wider range

geographically it ever had before, including the Dodgers and Giants playing on the Pacific Coast.

The 1950s became the most significant geographic realignment of a sport in our nation’s history.

There is great irony in a discussion regarding baseball in this time period. A game that

prides itself on tradition, pastime and the discouragement of any change, needed exactly that to

survive. In 1950, 16 teams from only seven states represented Major League Baseball. By 1965,

there were a total of 20 Major League Franchises that represented 13 different states, three of

which played in California (baseballreference.com). Average stadium attendance rates reached as

high as an estimated 17,000 fans per game in 1966, almost doubling the 9,000 fans per game that

attended in 1950 (baseballreference.com). In addition, the top four teams to the lead the league in

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attendance that season were four expansions or relocated teams, as the Los Angeles Dodgers,

Houston Astros, New York Mets, and San Francisco Giants ranked one through four in

attendance per game that season (baseballreference.com). Walter O’Malley’s decision to move

the Dodgers proved to be a great one, as his team went on to lead the league in fan attendance for

six consecutive years, from 1960-1966 while playing in their state of the art Dodgers Stadium.

Not only did they sell the most tickets, but the Dodgers went on to win the World Series in 1959,

1963, and 1965, three out of their first nine seasons playing in Los Angeles. Their 1965 World

Series win was televised lived on NBC, as Dodger legend Sandy Koufax pitched his way to a

World Series Most Valuable Player Award, and the Dodgers beat the Twins in a game seven

matchup with over 50,000 fans packed into Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota

(baseballreference.com). An additional 50 million households were able to watch the series live

from their television set at home.

Most would argue that the best part of baseball is it’s tradition, it’s museum-like history,

and it’s legendary tales, and most would be absolutely correct. However, the 1950s show that as

times evolve, and the world around us does too, businesses and consumers living in it have to do

the same. The changes that the game of baseball went through during the decade accurately

represent what the rest of the country was experiencing at the same time. Whether it was

baseball, the Civil Rights Movement, or the Communist Scare, the world was adapting, and those

living in it were forced to do the same.

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Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane

Figure 2: Telegram from New York City Major Robert Wagner to Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley urging him not to move the Dodgers

Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane Figure 1: The Dodgers newly purchased, twin engine Convair plane

Figure 3: Front page of the Los Angeles Times expressing the anticipation from fans waiting for the arrival of the Los Angeles Dodgers

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Figure 4: President Roosevelt’s “Green Light” letter expressing his interest in keeping baseball running.

Figure 5: 1946 edition of Baseball Digest, including Frank Graham’s, “Graham’s Corner

Figure 6: A 1956 Budweiser commercial that often aired during live baseball games towards the end of the 1950shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpo1uGO28aM

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Figure 9: A Westinghouse television advertisement

Figure 8: A 1950 Victor TV advertisement that reads, “See them on Color TV”

Figure 7: NBC broadcasting a live game from the Mezzanine level of a ballpark

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Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950 Figure 10: A map of the cities represented in major league baseball prior to 1950

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