New York Yankees QUIZ (Part I)

Love them or hate them - the Yankees are always in the news, always on the minds of baseball fans. They get the "ink" they deserve for being the most dynamic and depending on your point of view - at times - the most detested franchise in the history of baseball. See how much you know about the Bronx Bombers - -take the Yankee quiz. (no peeking)==========================================

1. What number did Don Mattingly wear when he first came up to the Yankees?
A. 16 B. 26 C. 36 D 46

2. Who caught Dave Righetti's no-hitter on July 4, 1983?
A. Butch Wynegar B. Cliff Johnson C. Yogi Berra

3. Name the four managers who have piloted both the Yankees and the New York Mets

4. In 1977, who nick-named Reggie Jackson "Mr. October"?
A. Willie Randolph B. Thurman Munson C. Goose Gossage D. Mickey Rivers

5. Who hit two homers in one inning in 1977.
A. Cliff Johnson B. Greg Nettles C. Reggie Jackson D. Chris Chambliss

6. Name the player Derek Jeter replaced in 1996 to become the regular shortstop.
A. Andy Fox B. Pat Kelly C. Alvaro Espinoza D. Tony Fernandez

7. What former Yankee was the first pitching coach for the New York Mets in 1962?
A. Joe Page B. Red Ruffing C. Vic Raschi D Johnny Sain

8. Who was nick-named Bulldog?
A. Jim Bouton B. Ron Guidry C. Joe Page D. Monte Pearson

9. Who pitched the first no-hitter in history against the Yankees?
A. George Foster B. Cy Young C. Bob Feller D. Hoyt Wilhelm

10 Who caught Dave Righetti's no-hitter on July 4, 1983?

11. Who caught Don Larsen's Perfect Game?

12. Who was the first major leaguer to hit two grand slams in the same game?
a-Babe Ruth b-Lou Gehrig c-Mickey Mantle d- Tony Lazzeri

13. Who was the last batter Larsen faced in that perfect game?

14. Elston Howard was the first black player on the Yankees in 1955. Who was second?

15. What number was retired by both the Mets (1965) and Yankees (1966)?
a-18 b- 37 c-22 d-16.



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Answers (hold you left mouse button and drag it across the space below to see the answers)
(1) From 1982 to 1983 -- Don Mattingly's first two seasons with the Yankees, he wore #46, while appearing in only 98 games
(2) A
(3) Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel,Joe Torre Dallas Green
(4) B
(5) A
(6) D
(7) B
(8) A
(9) B
(10) Butch Wynegar.
(11) Yogi Berra
(12) D
(13) Dale Mitchell
(14) Harry Simpson 1957
(15) 37, Casey Stengel's number
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Harvey Frommer is his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books. The author of 40 of them including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his acclaimed REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball."
The prolific Frommer is at work on REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK (2010).Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

Babe Ruth Passes

Coming back to "the House That Ruth Built" for the final time on June 13, 1948 to have his uniform number 3 retired, to help celebrate the famed edifice's 25th anniversary and the 25th anniversary of the 1923 Yankees, he was a sad shadow of his once vigorous self. Ruth wore his old uniform which was sizes too big for him. He mingled with his teammates from the 1923 team in the clubhouse. They played a two inning exhibition game against Yankees from other teams. The Babe looked on. The day was damp and rainy and somehow a camel's hair coat wound up over his shoulders.
The "Voice of the Yankees" Mel Allen introduced each of his 1923 teammates. Yankee Stadium was filled with applause and cheers. Then Allen introduced Babe Ruth. The ovation rocked the Stadium.

The camel's hair coat was doffed. Using a bat that he had borrowed from Bob Feller as a makeshift cane, he shuffled out slowly to home plate to a thunderous ovation and the sounds of the crowd of 49,647 singing "Auld Lang Syne." The Babe mentioned how proud he was to have hit the first homer in Yankee Stadium and said: "...lord knows who'll hit the last."

"Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen," the Big Bam spoke in a raspy voice. "You know how bad my voice sounds. Well, it feels just as bad. You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth. That means the boys. And after you've been a boy, and grow up to know how to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing themselves today in our national pastime."
Afterwards in the locker room with all the ceremonies completed, Joe Dugan poured a beer for the Babe.

"So, how are you?" his old buddy asked.
"Joe, I'm gone," the Babe said. And he started to cry.

All the years of smoking, chewing tobacco, dipping snuff, abusing his body finally caught up to him. Surgery and radiation treatments had done little to help him. When he had been released from the hospital on February 15, 1947, his wife Claire and his doctors did not reveal the fatal diagnosis of throat cancer to him.

Later that day back in the hospital the most famous personage in all the history of the national pastime, Babe Ruth tried to keep his sunny side up signing autographs and watching baseball on TV. Just some of the hundreds of letters that were sent to him each day were read to him by his wife. Visitors came. Visitors went. At 8:01 P.M., on August 16, 1948, after a two year battle, the Babe passed away in his sleep at age 53.

More than 200,000 over two days paid their final respects as he lay in state at Yankee Stadium. August 19th was one of those sweltering, humid New York City summer days. The funeral was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral where Francis Cardinal Spellman celebrated requiem mass before a packed house. The Babe was always a draw. Ruth's old teammates were pallbearers. In the streets, along Fifth Avenue and the funeral route tens of thousands lined up to say good bye to the man who had been Yankee baseball.

Waite Hoyt told Joe Dugan: "I'd give a hundred dollars for a cold beer."
"So would the Babe," Hoyt said.

The man many consider the greatest player in the history of baseball was laid to rest in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York, just about a half an hour from Yankee Stadium.
His tombstone reads: "May the Divine Spirit that motivated Babe Ruth to win the crucial game of life inspire the youth of America."

The Babe's gravesite is the most visited one of all baseball players and is always a place of notes and gifts and wishes from people from all over the world.

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Harvey Frommer is his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books. The author of 40 of them including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his acclaimed REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." The prolific Frommer is at work on REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK (2010).
Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

HARVEY FROMMER ON SPORTS (from the vault) THE HARMONICA INCIDENT:

AUGUST 20,1964 (Flashback)

Despite a string of four straight pennants, the Bronx Bombers were a bust throughout much of the 1964 season. Yogi Berra had succeeded Ralph Houk as skipper; there were reports that he got more laughs than lauds from his players. It was getting to be late August ; the Yankees were in third place behind Baltimore and Chicago. The Yankees were on the team bus heading to O'Hare Airport, losers of four straight to the White Sox, winless in 10 of their last 15 games.

A 5-0 shutout at the hands of Chicago's John Buzhardt had totally demoralized them. Phil Linz, #34, reserve infielder, a career .235 hitter was a tough, aggressive player who loved being a Yankee. But he was regarded by some to be un-Yankeelike along with teammates Joe Pepitone and Jim Bouton. "I sat in the back of the bus," Linz recalled. The bus was stuck in heavy traffic.

It was a sticky humid Chicago summer day. "I was bored. I pulled out my harmonica. I had the Learner's Sheet for 'Mary Had a Little Lamb.' So I started fiddling. You blow in. You blow out."An angry Berra snapped from the front of the bus: "Knock it off!" But Linz barely heard him. When asked what their manager had said, Mickey Mantle said, "Play it louder." Linz played louder. Berra stormed to the back of the bus and told Linz to "shove that thing." "I told Yogi that I didn't lose that game," Linz related." Berra smacked the harmonica out of Linz's hands. The harmonica flew into Joe Pepitone's knee and Pepitone jokingly winced in pain.

Soon the entire bus -- except for Berra -- was in stitches.

Another version has it that Linz flipped the harmonica at the angered Berra and screamed: "What are you getting on me for? I give a hundred per cent. Why don't you get on some of the guys who don't hustle?"Linz was fined $200 -- but as the story goes received $20,000 for an endorsement from a harmonica company. "The next day," Linz gives his version, "the Hohner Company called and I got a contract for $5,000 to endorse their harmonica. The whole thing became a big joke."Actually, the whole thing changed things around for the Yankees. The summer of 1964 was Linz's most productive season.

Injuries to Tony Kubek made the "supersub" a regular: Linz started the majority of the games down the stretch, and every World Series game at short.New respect for Yogi propelled the Yanks to a 22-6 record in September and a win in a close pennant race over the White Sox. A loss in the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games cost Berra his job. But there were those who said he was on his way out the day of the "Harmonica Incident."

---

Harvey Frommer is his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books. The author of 40 of them including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his acclaimed REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball."

The prolific Frommer is at work on REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK (2010).Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

Redux - Red Sox Vs Yankees: the Great Rivalry:

You do remember Don Zimmer being thrown down by Pedro, A-Rod cursed, the chants of "1918" and worse.

This weekend they will be at it again.

It is perhaps the oldest and strongest rivalry in American sports history - the Yankees of New York versus the Red Sox of Boston. Part of the rivalry is the stark contrasts in the images of the two teams.

In Boston, they scream: "Yankees suck! Yankees suck! "

And even when the Yankees are not playing in Boston you can hear those words at Fenway during a Tampa Bay, Mets or a Baltimore game.

The New York Yankees are the most successful of all franchises in baseball history, in sports history. A club of leaders and legends: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Lefty Gomez, Bill Dickey, Earle Combs, Joe McCarthy, Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson, Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi, Casey Stengel, Billy Martin, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Reggie Jackson, Ron Guidry, Goose Gossage, Don Mattingly, Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter . . . .

Through the years winning has been as much a part of the ethos of the Yankees as the pinstriped uniforms, the monuments and plaques. It was once said: "Rooting for the New York Yankees is like rooting for General Motors."

For the Red Sox and its fans, winning at times has not seemed as important as beating the Yankees and then winning. For through the years, the success of the Sox has been measured against Yankee success.

Item: In 1925, the Yanks sought to trade a first baseman even up to the Red Sox for Phil Todt. Boston passed on the trade. The first baseman Lou Gehrig became one of the great players of all time. Todt batted .258 lifetime with 57 home runs.

Item: Since shipping Babe Ruth to the Big Apple, the Sawks have lost a Game Seven in the World Series, lost the flag in a playoff in 1948 and 1978. The Sox lost game 7 of the World Series four times since selling Ruth: 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986.

Item: During a time of Yankee glory from 1919-1945, the Red Sox never placed first in the eight-team American League, finishing an average of thirty games behind in the standings. They came in last nine times, and had five 100-plus-loss seasons.

The Yankee-Red Sox competition involves much more than a baseball team representing Boston against a baseball team representing New York. It is, in reality, a competition between the provincial capital of New England and the mega-municipality that is New York City: the different life-styles of the residents of those areas, the different accents they speak in. The contrasting symbols are like guideposts to their cities. It's the Charles River versus the East River, Boston Common compared with Central Park.

History, style, culture, pace, dreams, self-images, bragging rights - all are mixed in, mixed up with the rivalry in one way or another. And the fact that both teams have been in the American League since the beginning of the last century doesn't hurt the competition either.

The late Bill Crowley, former Boston public relations director, said: "Red Sox fans hate the Yankees desperately. The pinstripes, the hoopla, the glamour - it is something that is very deeply resented. And when they win - especially over us - you can cast a pall over the entire area."

Red Sox territory comprises 5 states - Massachusetts Vermont, Maine., New Hampshire, Rhode Island and half of Connecticut.

The Sox give away Western Connecticut to the Mets and the Yankees, and there are pockets of resistance in Providence, Rhode Island and Worcester, Massachusetts. Most of the pockets are Italian. The people there were fans of Yankee stars like Crosetti, Lazzeri, DiMaggio, Berra, Rizzuto. And they transmitted their feelings on to their sons and grandsons.

Boston and New York attendance figures have ballooned through Yankee-Sox encounters. Historically, thousands have taken flights or motored or trained or bussed it between Boston and New York. Some have gone for a single game; others have stayed for an entire series. There have been times when the national television networks have been outdrawn in the ratings by local stations broadcasting the games between the ancient rivals.

On the field , inside the white lines, the rivalry has been characterized by some of baseball's wildest moments.

In all my years of covering the New York Yankees," notes New York Daily News sportswriter Bill Madden, "I can hardly remember a game at Fenway Park that was a normal game. I'm sure there were some but it seems like they have been low scoring, tension filled, white knuckle games or these 10-9 barn burners where no lead was safe. Players will never admit it but the intensity level is up whenever the Yankees and Red Sox meet."

In the first game ever played at Fenway Park, on April 12, 1912, the Sox trimmed the Yankees, 7-6 in 11 innings. The game was finally played after it had been rained out for two straight days.
On August 12, 1934, what was then the largest crowd in Fenway Park history, assembled to see Red Sox versus Yankees up close, going at each other. They split a doubleheader and Babe Ruth played his last game in a Yankee uniform in the Boston ballpark where he had begun his professional career.

On August 7, 1956 as 36,350 watched as the Sox defeated the Yankees, 1-0, in 11 innings. Ted Williams walked with the bases loaded to drive in the winning run. "Terrible Ted" was so infuriated, some would say, pissed off, at not being given a chance to swing his bat that he sprayed Fenway Park with saliva.

Odd, awesome and unpredictable rallies have contributed to the zany and wild mood - just part of the atmosphere in meetings between the Yanks and Sox. New York had a six-run eleventh inning in 1970, a seven-run ninth inning in 1940, an eight run ninth inning in 1937, a ten-run fourth inning in 1915, an 11-run seventh inning in 1952, a 13-run fifth inning in 1945.

In 1954, the Red Sox were up 5-1 lead over the Yankees in the first game of a doubleheader and lost. They were trailing 7-0 in the second game and won. The big Boston blow was a Jimmy Piersall home run off Johnny Sain.

On August 29, 1967, both clubs struggled through 19 innings until Boston went down to defeat in the 20th inning. The Yankees won the game, 4-3.

On September 19, 1981, Boston was able to pull out an,8-5, triumph with a seven run eighth inning rally.

Many still talk about the long summer of 1949 when the Yankees and the Red Sox battled for the pennant playing out their drama in jammed stadiums before rabid and enraptured fans. Each day was another time for the tension, the drama and the excitement to be recharged.

BoSox? Bombers?
Rivalry . . .
Let's get it on again!

-- Harvey Frommer is his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books. The author of 40 of them including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his acclaimed REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." The prolific Frommer is at work on REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK (2010).
Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.