This is the eleventh in a series of examinations of baseball-related legends and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of all the previous baseball legends.

This installment is a re-format edition, so these legends have already been posted on this site, just not in this format.

Let’s begin!

BASEBALL LEGEND: Major League Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick vetoed the fans on voting for two All-Stars in 1957.

STATUS: True

Ted (Big Klu) Kluszewski was a slugging first baseman for the Cincinnati Reds during the 1950s. A popular player, he was an All-Star in 1953, 1954, 1955 and 1956.

However, in 1957, Kluszewski was injured most of the season, so his back-up, George Crowe, became the everyday first baseman for the Reds, and it was Crowe who was on the All Star Ballot as the Reds’ First Base representative.

That’s notable only because, when the voting results were in for the 1957 All Star Game (to be held in St. Louis), Crowe was the ONLY one of Cicinnati’s EIGHT players on the ballot to NOT get elected to be in the All-Star Game!!!

Yep, Catcher Ed Bailey, Second Baseman Johnny Temple, Shortstop Roy McMillan, Third Baseman Don Hoak, Left Fielder Frank Robinson, Center Fielder Gus Bell and Right Fielder Wally Post ALL got elected by the fans to start for the National League in the 1957 All Star Game!

The 1957 Reds were a fun team to watch, as they WERE a good offensive team (and Robinson, of course, was a Hall of Famer), but SEVEN of the EIGHT positions?

As mentioned before, the only position that they did not take was First Base, where the replacement for the injured Klu, George Crowe, lost out to Hall of Famer Stan Musial, of the Cardinals (who, again, were hosting the All Star Game that year).

After an investigation, it turned out that HALF of ALL the votes cast for the All Star Game in 1957 came from Cincinnati. Cincinnati newspapers printed out pre-filled out ballots that fans just had to sign and mail in. Bars would make filling out a ballot a pre-condition to buying a beer.

Ultimately, Commissioner Ford Frick decided that while he couldn’t really mess with the other positions too much, he would at least replace two players, Gus Bell and Wally Post, with two of the most popular players in the National League in 1957, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.

Here are Post and Bell posed surrounding Kluszewski on a 1956 Sports Illustrated cover…

The ballot stuffing in Cincinnati had a problematic result for fans – Frick took the vote for the All Star Game out of the hands of the fans. They would not be allowed to vote for All Stars again until 1970.

Since Bell was already a three-time All Star at the time (and would go on to see both his son AND two of his grandsons play in the Big Leagues – his son, Buddy, even made it to one more All Star Game than his old man), Frick allowed him to make the team as a reserve. Post, though, had no such luck, and retired in 1964 having never made it to the All Star Game.

BASEBALL LEGEND:The White Sox once accidentally traded for the wrong player!

STATUS: True

James Baldwin broke in with the Chicago White Sox in 1995, coming in second in the Rooke of the Year balloting to Derek Jeter in 1996.

Baldwin was a decent pitcher for the White Sox. He was a prototypical “keeps his team in the game” pitcher, a guy who, while not dominant, does well enough to give his team a good chance of winning the game most times around. He usually stayed roughly around the league average for earned runs allowed. His best season was in 2000, when he won 14 games and lost 7, with an earned run average of 4.65, a little better than league average that season. He made the All Star Team in 2000, as the White Sox made the playoffs.

Baldwin was going to be a free agent after the 2001 season, and in 2001, the White Sox had an off year after making the playoffs in 2000. So they decided to trade Baldwin at the trade deadline in 2001 to a team (the Los Angeles Dodgers) who had a better chance of making the playoffs in exchange for a few low level prospects, rather than lose Baldwin as a free agent after the season and get nothing in return for him.

The prospects were nothing too notable: Jeff Barry, Gary Majewski and Onan Masaoka. Majewski, actually, was drafted by the White Sox and sent to the Dodgers earlier in 2001, so they were just getting him back.

Barry had played in the big leagues for a little bit in the late 90s, mostly for the Rockies…

Here’s the kicker, though.

The White Sox did not MEAN to acquire Barry!!!!

No, the White Sox meant to acquire young Dodger minor league pitcher Jonathan Berry!!!

The White Sox even issues a press release saying it was Berry that they had received, while it was not.

White Sox general manager Kenny Williams noted at the time:

There was a misunderstanding on reports. We were looking at a report on the pitcher and we didn’t have one on the guy we got. We’ll honor the deal.

Luckily for the White Sox, while Barry never made the major leagues for the White Sox, Berry never made the majors, either.

The best player in the deal turned out, most likely, to be Majewski, who the White Sox traded to the (then) Montreal Expos in 2004 along with pitcher Jon Rauch in exchange for Carl Everett, who helped the White Sox win the 2005 World Series.

Amusingly enough, Majewski was involved in ANOTHER trade snafu of sorts when he was traded from the Washington Nationals (that’s who the Montreal Expos became) to the Cincinnati Reds in 2006. At the time, Majewski was a 26-year-old reliever having a strong season after following two strong years as a reliever. So the Reds thought they were getting the tough relief pitcher than their bullpen needed.

However, the Nationals did not disclose that Majewski had just been given a cortisone shot for a sore arm. Majewksi went on to pitch poorly for the Reds, and he’s been a pretty mediocre to bad pitcher ever since. He is currently in the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system, presumably trying to regain arm strength.

BASEBALL LEGEND: Hank Aaron bailed out the young men who ran on to the field when he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record.

STATUS: False

Perhaps one of the more striking changes in the way sporting events are celebrated in 2009 as opposed to 30-40 years ago is how the fans treat the borders of the field (not typically on their own volition, of course, but rather because the security of the arenas/stadiums force them to).

When the Celtics seemingly won Game 5 of the 1975 NBA Finals in double overtime, the referees had to clear the court of all the fans who rushed on to it to play the last few seconds of the period (the Celtics’ opponents, the Suns, ended up tying the game and sending it to a THIRD overtime, which the Celtics did eventually win).

In 1976, when Chris Chambliss’ game-winning home run against the Royals sent the New York Yankees to the World Series, he was mobbed by fans so much that I don’t believe he ever actually touched home plate that night.

It was just a much different period back then (and notably, charging the court/field is still a prominent part of college sports).

On April 8, 1974, Henry “Hank” Aaron broke the all-time home run record in Major League Baseball, which was long held by Babe Ruth.

Aaron’s 715th home run was hit in his home park in Atlanta (which the Braves were certainly hoping for) against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bill Buckner actually was playing left field that day and he made a valiant effort of trying to keep the ball from becoming a homer, but pitcher Al Downing became a part of the history books that day.

As Aaron rounded the bases, a few fans ran on to the field…

While I wouldn’t say Aaron was ANGRY at the fans, you could tell he was not exactly thrilled to see them on his trip around the bases, and when one of them tried to pat him on the back while he ran the bases, he swatted the hand away (you can only imagine what Aaron was thinking, especially as the guy had been receiving death threats over the possibility of him breaking the record – but he also likely knew that the teens were not actual threats – Aaron has actually said as much in the years since).

The fans were 17 year old high school seniors, Britt Gaston and Cliff Courtney. They were both from Waycross, Georgia. When they tried leaving the field, they were arrested by the police and charged with disorderly conduct.

Hank Aaron was known for being a nice man, a really good guy, so a story sprung up that Aaron actually traveled to the jail later to bail the two teens out of jail.

I really do not know where said story came from, but I saw it repeated a few places.

In any event, no, the father of Britt Gaston was also at the game, and he bailed out both teens later that night (after the boys spent three hours in an Atlanta jail cell).

So while, yes, Hank Aaron was a good guy, but he wasn’t THAT good!

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

Tags: Al Downing, All-Star Game, Atlanta Braves, Babe Ruth, Baseball Hall of Fame, Bill Buckner, Britt Gaston, Buddy Bell, Carl Everett, Chicago White Sox, Chris Chambliss, Cincinnati Reds, Cliff Courtney, Don Hoak, Ed Bailey, Ford Frick, Frank Robinson, Gary Majewski, George Crowe, Gus Bell, Hank Aaron, James Baldwin, Jeff Barry, Johnny Temple, Jon Rauch, Jonathan Berry, Kansas City Royals, Kenny Williams, Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, New York Yankees, Onan Masaoka, Rookie of the Year Award, Roy McMillan, St. Louis Cardinals, Stan Musial, Ted Kluszewski, Wally Post, Washington Nationals, Willie Mays