Another reason to hate the Yankees

[Boy Howdy]

I'm reading a lot of old articles in The Sporting News about the 1954 Orioles, and I never knew until now that Baltimore fans that year hated the Yankees passionately for a very good reason:

Apparently, the Yankees ownership fought vehemently to prevent the Baltimore from getting an American League franchise, even stopping the Bill Veeck from moving the StL Browns to Maryland a year earlier.

When the Yanks visited Memorial Stadium on 5/16/54, the press and O's officials reminded fans constantly of what the Yankees did. 46, 796 showed up for a double-header and drowned out the PA announcer with boos when he tried to introduce visiting Yankees owners Del Webb & Dan Topping.

You may recall that Memorial Stadium featured a flag for each AL team. Somebody even lowered the Yankees flag to half-staff! :D

Don Larsen, who became a Yankees hero years later, stepped up for Baltimore that night by holding New York hitless for 7 2/3 innings on his way to a 3-hit victory.

Man, I wish could go back in time for that!

[mikezpen]

The Yankees wanted to see baseball on the West Coast, a visionary idea for the time. They wanted the Browns out there.

But as I understand it from a Sunpapers article, then Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alessandro, a former Congressman, made it clear that he had powerful political friends. And he quietly added that they might just push to have baseball's antitrust exemption re-considered if Baltimore didn't get the Browns.

The West Coast had to wait till '58.

[RShack]

I'm reading a lot of old articles in The Sporting News about the 1954 Orioles, and I never knew until now that Baltimore fans that year hated the Yankees passionately for a very good reason:

Apparently, the Yankees ownership fought vehemently to prevent the Baltimore from getting an American League franchise, even stopping the Bill Veeck from moving the StL Browns to Maryland a year earlier.
It's my understanding that it was Veeck they were after, not Baltimore. Veeck was losing his shirt with the Browns, he decided he had to move the team, several owners hated Veeck because he wasn't in their social club, so they basically said, "Sure, we'll let the Browns move... provided you sell them to somebody else..."

However, if we can use this as another reason to hate the MFY's, that's fine with me ;-)

[bobmc]

The Yankees wanted to see baseball on the West Coast, a visionary idea for the time. They wanted the Browns out there.

But as I understand it from a Sunpapers article, then Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alessandro, a former Congressman, made it clear that he had powerful political friends. And he quietly added that they might just push to have baseball's antitrust exemption re-considered if Baltimore didn't get the Browns.

The West Coast had to wait till '58.

When they stole my beloved and similarly colored black and orange NY Jints! :(:(:mad::002_scry:

Thus began the demise of Coogan's Bluff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coogan's_Bluff)! :002_scry::002_scry::002_scry:

[mikezpen]

It had to be sad in New York among Giants and Dodgers fans in 1957, knowing the two teams were leaving the following year.

As terrible as it was in 1983 when the Baltimore Colts were spirited out of here in the middle of the night, that was better then sitting through an entire season knowing your team is leaving for good.

[Elrod]

This is ironic because the original Orioles team was moved to NY and eventually became the Yankees.