Baseball lifer George “Birdie” Tebbetts was born on this date in 1912. A catcher, he spent 14 seasons as an active player before taking of the managerial reins of the Cincinnati Redlegs, as they were called in the early 1950s during the Communist scare, as per this Wikipedia entry:
“Twice in the 1950s (the McCarthy era), the Reds, fearing that their traditional club nickname would associate them with the threat of Communism, officially changed the name of the team to the Cincinnati Redlegs.From 1956 to 1960, the club’s logo was altered to remove the term “REDS” from the inside of the “wishbone C” symbol. The “REDS” reappeared on the 1961 uniforms, but the point of the C was removed, leaving a smooth, non-wishbone curve. The traditional home-uniform logo was restored in 1967.”
Some younger fans might think the whole image-issue was just plain nuts. But, as I constantly tell my teenage daughter, you have to understand “what was there at the time.”
Anyway, back to Tebbets.
He was one of the first baseball cards I remember from my days as a carefree youth. And how many baseball figures — aside from the Mantles, Mays, and DiMaggios — have had their mug appear on the cover of a non-sports magazine?
Tebbetts published his memoir, Birdie : Confessions of a Baseball Nomad
is available on Amazon.com,
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