Baseball Names - and How They Got That Way! Part XIII (F)

The words and phrases are spoken and written day after day, year after year - generally without any wonderment as to how they became part of the language. All have a history, a story. For those of you who liked Part I, Part II, Part III, X and all the others and wanted more, here is more. As always, reactions and suggestions always welcome.

F ROBBY ("THE JUDGE) Hall of Famer Frank Robinson played for the Cincinnati Reds (1956-1965), Baltimore Orioles (1966-1971), Los Angeles Dodgers (1972), California Angels (1973), etc. His nicknames indicated an abbreviation of his name and some deference to his forceful ways. fallaway slide Used to avoid a tag, a slide to one side of a base, catching the base with the foot of a bent leg. (fall-away slide, fadeaway slide, fadeaway) FATHER OF THE EMORY BALL Rookie right-hander Russ Ford posted a 26-6 record with 8 shutouts, 1910 FENWAY PARK The Boston Red Sox moved into their new home in 1912 on the property of the Fenway Realty Company at Landsdowne and Jersey streets. Although it was rebuilt in 1934, it is essentially the way it was at the time of its birth. Its "Green Monster"—the 37-foot-high wall extending from the foul pole in left field 315 feet from home plate to the flagpole 388 feet from home well past left-center—is its most distinctive feature.

FIREBALLER A fastball-throwing pitcher (HARD CHUCKER; FIREMAN Johnny Murphy, the first great relief pitcher, who put out fires. Joe Page picked up this nick-name for his top relief work later on.

FIVE O’CLOCK LIGHTNING Back in the 1920s to attract school kids and the Wall Street crowd, baseball games at Yankee Stadium began at 3:30 P.M. At five o'clock, a whistle from a nearby factory blew signaling the end of the workday and often a typical late-inning home team rally and triumph, earning the Yankees that colorful nickname

FIRST TELEVISED SPORTS EVENT On May 17, 1939, over station W2XBS, a 16-man NBC crew with equipment costing $ 100,000 sent out the first televised sports coverage. The subject was the Princeton - Columbia baseball game from Baker Field in New York. A single camera was used, and the total cost of transmittal was $3,000. There were no close-ups of action. The players on the television screen looked like white flies. The single camera was stationed near the third-base line, and it swept back and forth across the diamond. Instant replay, "slo-mo," split screen, Zoomar lens, hand-held cameras, instant isolates, overhead blimps, graphics, Monday Night Football, and Super Bowl were not even dimly perceived by the average fan, but on June 5, 1939, an editorialist for Life magazine showed some vision: No fuzziness (in the telecast) could hide what television will mean for American sports.... Within ten years an audience of 10,000,000 sitting at home or in the movie theaters will see the World Series or the Rose Bowl game.... Thousands of men and women who have never seen a big-time sports event will watch the moving shadows on the television screen and become excited fans...."

FIRST WORLD SERIES Back in the 1880s for a period of seven years there had been play-offs between the winners in the National League and the American Association. Once the play-offs went to 15 games - 1887 between St. Louis and Detroit. Pittsburgh won its third straight National League pennant in 1903. Boston won the brand new American League title by 14 l/2 games over the Philadelphia Athletics. The Pirates bragged about Honus Wagner whose .355 average earned him the batting title. Their swashbuckling manager Fred Clarke was runner-up with a .351 average. Boston boasted about two 20-game winners in Deacon Phillippe and Sam Leever.
The first modern World Series came about at the suggestion of Boston owner Henry J. Killilea and Pittsburgh's owner Barney Dreyfuss. It was called "Championship of the United States" and it was a five of nine games affair. The first game was October l, 1903 at Boston's Huntington Avenue Grounds before 16,242. Deacon Phillippe pitched Pittsburgh to a 7-3 win over Boston's Cy Young.

Throughout the game and the series Boston's rabid fans serenaded Pittsburgh players with a popular song of the day, "Tessie," but they substituted their own vulgar words for the regular lyrics. The routine definitely had a negative impact on the Pittsburgh players. "It was that damn song that caused us problems," grumbled Buc player Tommy Leach afterwards.

Deacon Phillippe won three of the first four games of the series for Pittsburgh but then faltered. Boston then swept the next four games. Bill Dinneen and Cy Young won all five games for Boston in the series On October 13, only 7,455 showed up - the smallest crowd of the series. Phillippe pitched his fifth complete game of the series but lost, 3-0 to Dinneen and Boston had the championship.

Right after the game ended players from both clubs lined up for a combination team photo. It was a remarkable display of good sportsmanship considering the bitterness that had existed between the junior American League and senior National League.

An oddity of the World Series was that the losing players received more money that than the winners. Owner Dreyfuss put his club's share of the gate receipts into the players' pool. Each Pittsburgh player netted $1,316 while each Boston player netted $1,182.

Deacon Phillippe - heroic in his efforts in the series with five decisions and 44 innings pitched, still World Series records, was given a bonus and 10 shares of stock in the Pirates.

FLORIDA MARLINS Named after the large fish, found off the Florida coast and also a minor league AAA team, the Miami Marlins. It was H. Wayne Huizenga, Blockbuster Video founder and owner of the team, who chose the name. “I chose Marlin,” he said, “because the fish is a fierce fighter and an adversary that tests your mettle.”

FLYING DUTCHMAN Honus Wagner played for the Pittsburgh Pirates for 21 years, winning eight batting titles, collecting 3,430 hits, and establishing team records for most doubles, triples, and extra-base hits. He played every position except catcher, but he earned his fame as a shortstop. Of Dutch origin, he was a speedy base runner, leading the National League five times in stolen bases and recording a career total of 722 stolen bases. His speed and his Dutch heritage blended together to form his nickname, the Flying Dutchman.

FORDHAM FLASH Former New York Giant stalwart, Frankie Frisch, was all of that.
FORDHAM JOHHNY Ace former Yankee relief pitcher Johnny Murphy attended Fordham University in the Bronx.

FOUR HOUR MANAGER A negative slap at former Yankee manager Bucky Harris, who put his time in at the game and was finished.

THE FRESHEST MAN ON EARTH ("Clown Prince of Baseball of 19th Century Baseball" Arlie Latham played 17 fun-filled major league seasons beginning in 1880? He delighted in setting off firecrackers and lighting candles in the dugout – a signal to the umpire of impending darkness.

FRIDAY NIGHT MASSACRE On April 26, 1974, Yankees Fritz Peterson, Steve Kline, Fred Beene, Tom Buskey, and half the pitching staff were traded to Cleveland for Chris Chambliss, Dick Tidrow, and Ceil Upshaw.

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Harvey Frommer is in his 34th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 40 sports books 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." Frommer's newest work CELEBRATING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION is next.
HARVEY FROMMER ON SPORTS (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

Frommer's newest work

Frommer's newest work an oral and narrative history of Fenway Park will be published in 2011.

Baseball Names - and How They Got That Way! Part XII (E)

The words and phrases are spoken and written day after day, year after year - generally without any wonderment as to how they became part of the language.
All have a history, a story. For those of you who liked Part I, Part II, Part III and all the others and wanted more, here is more.
As always, reactions and suggestions always welcome.

EBBETS FIELD On April 9, 1913, the Brooklyn Dodgers played their first game in their new ball park against the Philadelphia Phillies. An account of the event read: "A cold, raw wind kept the attendance down to about 12,000 but did not affect the players, who put up a remarkable battle. Both Tom Seaton (Philadelphia) and Nap Rucker (Brooklyn) pitched brilliant ball, the former just shading the noted southpaw in a I to 0 shutout. The opening ceremonies were impressive, the two teams parading across the field headed by a band. ... Casey Stengel made a sensational catch.... "

The site of the ball park was four-and-a-half acres on the lower slope of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, a filled-in tract of marshy land that the neighborhood people called Pigtown. Ebbets Field originally seated 18,000, with another 3,000 standees able to watch the games. The park had a double-decked grandstand that extended around the right-field foul line virtually to the fence in left field. A small, open bleacher section with concrete seats was located in left between the stands and the field. Beyond right field was Bedford Avenue. It was a confined, intimate, tiny, odd-shaped ball park--and it was a place that on the day it opened became obsolete and needed architectural and seating changes. The man the park was named for was Charles H. Ebbets, who moved from selling peanuts and scorecards to the presidency and primary ownership of the Brooklyn National League franchise. It was his vision that created the fabled ball park.

EEPHUS BALL (EEPHUS PITCH) A specialty of Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher Truett "Rip" Sewell, this pitch sort of sailed to the plate in a high, lazy arc that tantalized overeager hitters. With his trick pitch, Sewell won a grand total of 42 games in 1943 and 1944. Sewell explained that he developed the pitch after a war injury made him change his wind-up. He adopted an overhand delivery because he was no able to pivot on his right foot.

EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD On what was once Texas swampland and a wind-swept prairie, the Houston Astros once played baseball in the Astrodome, which many nicknamed the Eighth Wonder of the World. Built at a cost of $38 million, the colossal complex sprawled over 260 acres six miles from downtown Houston. The facility had the biggest electric scoreboard and the largest dome ever constructed. It was the largest clear-span building ever built and the largest air-conditioned stadium ever. The Astrodome had 45,000 plush opera-type seats, from which fans viewed athletic events in the additional comfort supplied by a 6,000-ton air-conditioning system that maintained the temperature in the stadium at 72 degrees. The inspiration for the Astrodome was the Roman Coliseum, built circa 80 A.D., which prodded Judge Roy Hofheinz, president of the Houston Sports Association, the owners of the team, to press for the creation of a domed stadium.

"I knew with our heat, humidity and rain, the best chance for success was in the direction of a weatherproof, all-purpose stadium," said Hofheinz. Buckminster Fuller, media-famed ecologist and inventor of the geodesic dome, served as consultant to the project. Hofheinz said, "Buckminster Fuller convinced me that it was possible to cover any size space so long as you didn't run out of money." They didn't run out of money and even had $2 million to spare for the 300-ton scoreboard, with 1,200 feet of wiring, that stretches 474 feet across the brown pavilion seats in center field.

"El Duque" Pitcher Orlando Hernandez, for his lordly ways.

"El Duquecito" Adrian Hernandez because of a pitching style similar to Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, the younger Cuban, is not related to his elder countryman.

"El Maestro" Martin Dihigo, played all nine positions well. The native of Cuba was a star in leagues in Mexico, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico as well as a 12-year veteran of the Negro Leagues.

"El Presidente" Dennis Martinez, pitcher, played For Baltimore Orioles (1976-1986), Montreal Expos (1986-1993). He had a commanding manner about him.
"El Tiante" Luis Tiant, a tribute to his Cuban roots and to him.

$11,000 LEMON In 1908, Rube Marquard was purchased by John McGraw of the New York Giants from the minor league Indianapolis team. The $11,000 paid for Marquard was a record sum paid for a minor leaguer at that time. Since Marquard's record during his first three years with the Giants was nine wins and 18 losses, McGraw's judgment was criticized and Marquard was labeled the "$11,000 Lemon." However, in l9l l the left-handed pitcher rewarded McGraw's patience and showed that the Giant manager's judgment was correct by achieving a record of 24-7. The next year his record l 9 consecutive victories powered the Giants to the National League pennant. And there were those who then called him the "$11,000 Wonder."

"Ellie" Affectionate abbreviation of former Yankee catching great Elston Howard's first name.

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Harvey Frommer is his 34th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 40 sports books 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." Frommer's newest work an oral and narrative history of Fenway Park will be published in 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.

The Book Review - “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend”

When I was researching and interviewing for my ”New York City Baseball,1947-1957, the Last Golden Age,” I naturally attempted to interview Willie Mays. He belonged in the book as one of the great figures in the national pastime in that era. To my dismay I made contact with him and learned he was not interested in being interviewed. He was surly, too.

I found out from other authors and sports journalists that he sometimes could be that way, especially if he did know the person who approached him. I did try a couple of times later to get Willie Mays for an interview for other baseball books I wrote. Same story, Same surliness.

Now there is “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend” by James S. Hirsch, (Scribner, $30.00, 624 pages), a book that proclaims on its cover “Authorized By Willie Mays.” I have never seen that before.

But the book does contain a mother lode of material covering many of the key events in the life and times of Willie Mays – although the territory is covered just as well in other books and with a less fawning approach. There are many interviews with most of the usual suspects (Monte Irvin as always is terrific) and even with Mr. Mays. A good deal of research is evident.

We get the hits and the runs. We get few errors. We get the great over-the-shoulder catch that Mays made in the ’54 World Series, almost eight pages on it although we still do not know much more about “the Catch” from this book than is already a matter of public record.

Ultimately, there’s a lot to like about “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend.” Plenty of baseball stories, lots of insights into his life off the playing field and time spent in various ventures. If you are a fan of Willie, this is the book for you.

For others, you make the call. For after forking over thirty dollars and spending a lot of time going through a book that tallies 624 pages and could have been half that length and worked as well – the man behind “The Life, The Legend” is still not captured in this authorized bio. What we ultimately wind up with is not a home run, but a solidly hit double.

Two interesting New York City sports centered books are "Summers in the Bronx" by Ira Berkow (Triumph, 235 pages, $15.95, paper) and Jeffrey Kroessler's "The Greater New York Sports Chronology" (Columbia University Press, $74.50 cloth, $24.95, paper, 336 pages).

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Harvey Frommer is his 34th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 40 sports books 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." Frommer's newest work an oral and narrative history of Fenway Park will be published in 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.

The Super, Super Bowl! Or “Who Dat?”

The triumph of the New Orleans Saints over the Colts of Indianapolis in Super Bowl 44 was watched by more than 106 million people, the biggest audience for a television event – ever.
The hype, the hoopla, histrionics and the attendance and global village on parade all underscored just how far the event has come from what now seems like a modest start on January 15, 1967.
The merger of the American Football League and the National Football League led to the need for a championship game. The Vince Lombardi Green Bay Packers squared off against the Kansas City Chiefs.

And, although the contest was officially known as the AFL-NFL World Championship, its unofficial name - the Super Bowl - was used in the media, the fans and the players, and the name stuck.
One theory for how the high flying name came about is that at an owner's meeting centered on what to call the game, one of the moguls had a "super ball" in his pocket that he had taken away from his youngster earlier in the day. The owner, not bemused enough by the long and ordinary sounding suggestions for what would become professional football's ultimate game, squeezed the bal and suggested the name Super Bowl. His suggestion was not greeted with much enthusiasm by the assembled group. Nevertheless, he mentioned the name to a reporter who loved it and, as they say, the rest is history.

The first Super Bowl witnessed the first dual-network, color-coverage simulcast of a sports event in history, and attracted the largest viewership to ever see a sporting event up to that time. The Nielsen rating indicated that 73 million fans watched all or part of the game on one of the two networks, CBS or NBC.

In actuality, the game was a contest between the two leagues and the two networks. CBS' allegiance was to the NFL. NBC's loyalty was to the AFL - a league it had virtually created with its network dollars.

From the start there were special features to the Super Bowl including its designation with a Roman numeral rather than by a year - a move on the part of NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle to give the contest a sense of class.

That first Super Bowl was played at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles before 61,946. Quarterback Bart Starr was the first Most Valuable Player, leading the Packers to a 35-10 victory over Kansas City. Starr completed 16-of-23 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns.
Max McGee of the Packers became an interesting footnote to Super Bowl history. "I knew I wouldn't play unless (Boyd) Dowler got hurt," he said in later years.

So McGee went out on the town the days (and nights) prior to the game. Curfews, it seems, were there for him to break. He stayed out until 7:30 a.m. on the day of the game. Then, the unimaginable happened. Dowler suffered a separated shoulder throwing a block on the opening series.

In came the 11-year veteran McGee who had caught only four passes all season. He snared 7 passes for 138 yards. McGee and Starr hooked up in the first quarter for a 37-yard score, and again at the end of the third quarter for a 13-yard touchdown. Elijah Pitts ran for two other scores. The Chiefs' 10 points came in the second quarter, their only touchdown on a 7-yard pass from Len Dawson to Curtis McClinton.

But Max McGee stole the show and set a pattern in that first Super Bowl that would be part of the ultimate game's history of unlikely heroes, strange twists of fate, footballs taking a wrong bounce for some teams and the right bounce for others. Witness what happened in Super Bowl last.

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Harvey Frommer is his 34th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 40 sports books 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." Frommer's newest work an oral and narrative history of Fenway Park will be published in 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.

From the Vault Harvey Frommer on Sports

Football Names and How They Got That Way

The words and phrases are spoken and written day after day, year after year, decade after decade - generally without any wonderment as to how they became part of the language. All have a history, a story. With another Super Bowl fast approaching, here’s the scoop on how that name can to be and the origins behind a few others.

SUPER BOWL The merger of the American Football League and the National Football League led to the need for a championship game. The first contest was played on January 15, 1967, and although officially it was known as the National Football League championship game, its unofficial name, the Super Bowl, was used in the media, by the fans, and by the players-and the name has stuck.

One theory for how the high-sounding name came about is that at an owner's meeting centering on a discussion of what to call the game, one of the moguls had in his pocket a super ball that he had taken away from his youngster earlier that day. The owner was not too taken with the long and ordinary-sounding suggestion for what would become pro football's ultimate game. Squeezing the ball, he suggested the name Super Bowl, but the name was not received with much enthusiasm. Nevertheless, he mentioned the name to a reporter and as they say in sporting circles, "The rest is history."

The first Super Bowl saw the first dual-network color-coverage simulcast of a sports event in history, and attracted the largest viewership ever to witness a sporting event up to that time. The Nielsen rating indicated that 73 million fans watched all or part of that game on one of the two networks, CBS or NBC. In actuality, the game was a contest between the two leagues and the two networks, for the CBS allegiance was to the NFL, and the NBC allegiance was to the American Football League, which it had virtually created with its network dollars.

The Super Bowl from the start has been designated with a Roman numeral rather than by year-a move on the part of NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle to give the contest a sense of class, and at the same time, of continuity.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS A group of New England sportswriters picked Patriots as a tribute to Patriot Day, which celebrates Paul Revere's ride. The team originally located in Boston, was named the Patriots because of the area's heritage as the birthplace of the American Revolution.

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES Bert Bell established his NFL franchise in Philadelphia in 1933 at a time the United States was suffering through the Great Depression. New president Franklin D. Roosevelt had introduced his "New Deal" program through the National Recovery Administration, which had the Blue Eagle as its symbol. Since Bell hoped his franchise also was headed for a new deal, he picked Eagles as the team name.

STEEL CURTAIN The term "Steel Curtain" was used to describe the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive unit for almost a decade, starting in the mid 1970s. Four players from those teams are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: "Mean" Joe Greene, Jack Ham , Jack Lambert and Mel Blount. Others linked in the public eye associated with the "Steel Curtain"include: L.C. Greenwood , Dwight White , and Ernie Holmes .

ROCKY Footbal star Robert Patrick Bleier was always better known as Rocky. The son of an Appleton, Wisconsin bar owner, Bleier explained how he got his nickname: "Our living quarters were in the back section of the ground floor, just off the dining room ... In my first few weeks, Dad would bring some of his customers back to the bedroom to take a peek at his son ... "' ... Son of a bitch looks like a little rock,' my dad would whisper proudly. "So I was Rocky before I ever departed the crib." Bleier was the 417th player drafted in the 1968 draft out of Notre Dame and went on to become Pittsburgh's inspirational leader and their "rock.

"TAXI SQUAD Art McBride, original owner of the Cleveland Browns, owned several Cleveland-area taxicab companies in the 1940s, a time NFL rosters were set at 33 players. Players cut by the Browns drove McBride taxis allowing him to replace injured players immediately with well-skilled taxi drivers. The term has become interchangeable for players on a reserve list.

TERRIBLE TOWELS Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers wave the golden "schmatas" celebrating their team and taunting opponents.

Harvey Frommer / Players
What's in an NBA Nick-Name? Part IV, A-D - Part IV, E-H
Harvey Frommer on Sports

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Harvey Frommer is his 34th 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."
Frommer's next work is an oral and narrative history of Fenway Park. 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.