Baseball History -- January 24

Complete entry for January 24 is at BaseballLibrary.com HERE.

Highlighted entries:

1973
Warren Spahn is elected to the Hall of Fame in his first try on the BBWAA ballot, receiving 316 of 380 votes.

Spahn won 45 more games than he had votes to get into Cooperstown.

1962
The Southern Association, which lost New Orleans and Memphis in the last two years and with attendance lagging, suspends operation.

1913
In a story in the New York Times, Detroit Tiger President Frank Navin blames the length of the games on the "coachers boxes." Navin, reacting to American League President Ban Johnson's complaint that too many games the previous season had taken two hours to play, says the boxes should be moved back so that the catcher can give the pitcher his signals more quickly. From where they are now, he said, the coaching players can detect the catcher's signals unless he takes a lot of time to hide them. Navin said this slow signalling is the reason for the longer games (as noted by Lyle Spatz).

Emphasis mine.