The MLB in the 50s had many memorable moments. Some of the standout events include the rash of franchise relocations for the first time since 1903, the “Shot Heard ‘Round The World” home run by Bobby Thomson, the emergence of the first generation of Black players who would become Hall of Famers, baseball coming to television and the dominance of the New York Yankees.

Five Relocations in One Decade

Major League Baseball has done better than many sports leagues at keeping teams in their current city. By 1950, no team had relocated since 1903, when the Baltimore club moved to New York to become the Highlanders (and later the Yankees in 1913). But the 1950s saw five relocations.

  • The Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Braves starting in the 1953 season (they moved to Atlanta in 1966)
  • The St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles starting in the 1954 season
  • The Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City and became the Kansas City Athletics starting in the 1955 season (they moved to Oakland in 1968)
  • For the start of the 1958 season, the New York Giants moved to San Francisco and the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, breaking the hearts of many New Yorkers

Why Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants Moved

The Shot Heard ‘Round the World

On Oct. 3, 1951, New York Giants third baseman Bobby Thomson hit a home run off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, winning the National League pennant for the Giants. The three-run home run came in the ninth inning in the final game of the three-game series. The Giants entered the inning trailing 4-1, and were behind 4-2 when Thomson hit the home run. Millions watched the game, which was televised nationally.

Emergence of Black Players

Jackie Robinson had become the first Black player in MLB history in 1947. In the 1950s, a host of great Black players followed his lead into the majors. Many of them became future Hall of Famers. They included Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby and Frank Robinson. Robinson set the rookie home run record in 1956. Aaron would go on to set the all-time home run record, breaking the record of Babe Ruth, in the 1970s.

Best Baseball Moments in the 1970s

Baseball on TV

Baseball is best when seen live in a ballpark on a summer afternoon or evening (of fall, if your team’s good). But a sport also can’t survive without being on TV in America. The 1951 “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” game showed the power of television. ABC began televising the “Game of the Week” in 1953 with announcers Dizzy Dean and Buddy Blattner. It became such a huge hit that CBS and NBC also started doing weekly games, giving Americans more access than ever to MLB.

 

Dominance of the Yankees

The Yankees’ dominance in the 1950s is something many young fans might find hard to believe. The team won five straight World Series from 1949 to 1953. Then, they came back and won two more in 1956 and 1958. Just to add a cherry on top, Don Larsen threw a perfect game (with Yogi Berra catching) in the 1956 series, the only perfect game in World Series history.

Yankees World Series Wins 1903 - Present

The great Joe DiMaggio retired in 1951. But the Yankee roster from the 1950s still reads like a list of elite players of the era: Berra, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Bob Turley, Billy Martin, Gil McDougald, Elston Howard, Bobby Richardson, Eddie Lopat and Hank Bauer, to name a few.

The Yankees came back to earth in the 1960s, but their 1950s greatness had already spawned one of the most memorable musicals in American history.

In the summer of 1954, long-suffered Washington Senators fan Douglass Wallop, a well-known author and playwright in his day, wrote a light-hearted novel in just a few weeks. Called “The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant,” it’s about a Senators fan who makes a deal with the devil to make his favorite team finally overcome the Yankees and win the pennant.

The Senators at that time had won a World Series just once, in 1924, and had won the American League pennant just two other times, in 1925 and 1933.

The novel became the basis for the hit musical, “Damn Yankees.” Wallop wrote 13 novels, but he’s best known for the one he wrote quickly that summer of ‘54, fueled by his frustration as a Senators fan.

Interestingly, 1954 turned out to really be the year the Yankees lost the pennant. The Cleveland Indians won the American League pennant that year, although they lost the World Series to the New York Giants.

Wallop died in 1985. The Senators, who had become the Minnesota Twins in 1961, finally won a World Series in 1987 and then again in 1991.

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