Must Be The Name

With the rainout on Wednesday, I thought I'd "Google" myself for fun. Nowthat's just disgusting, because what I meant was I entered "Doormats of the National League" into Google search and checked the results. I was pleased to see that my Doormats blog was #1, one of my entries was #2, and my CafePress store was #3, out of 245,000 possible entries. I can only hope people search on that phrase, and stop by and read the blog entries, and buy the merchandise. But the purpose of this entry is actually to talk about the #4 entry in the results list, which is actually this website pointing out Pennsylvania historical markers, in this case, the old Baker Bowl. Here is an excerpt from that website:

"And another cloud named William F. Baker hung on the horizon. Haughty and imperious, the former New York City police commissioner became the Phillies’ president in 1913. During his seventeen years at the helm, the Phillies dropped from their position as a consistently competitive club to become a doormat of the National League."

And this :

"The Phillies won their only Baker Bowl pennant in 1915, then played the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. "

Later on, this (which is a bit longer):

"But this shining moment did not last long. Both the team and the ball park deteriorated precipitously on Baker’s penny-pinching watch, which lasted until his death in 1930. Bad teams meant low attendance, and low attendance led to red ink. To meet expenses without spending any of his own money, Baker sold off the Phillies' best players, including two future Hall of Famers. Baker sold Grover Cleveland Alexander to the Chicago Cubs for $60,000, and sent Dave Bancroft packing to the New York Giants for $100,000. To save a little money, Baker had his groundskeeper maintain two ewes and a ram to keep the grass down.
Baker’s disastrous ownership of the team was measured in ways besides the team's poor standings. During a game in 1927, the stands behind first base collapsed when people crowded under the grandstand’s pavilion roof during a rainstorm; killing one and injuring fifty. The city coroner deemed Baker Bowl “the worst constructed place I ever saw,” and ordered it closed for inspection. The press corps dubbed Baker Bowl the “Toilet Bowl,” and the Phillies referred to it sarcastically as “Baker’s Bowels.” Time and technology had clearly passed it by."

I wonder if William F. Baker and Dusty Baker are related? They both have had a similar adverse effect on the teams they ran - William with the Phillies, and Dusty with the Cubs.