Friday, June 24, 2011
SUMMER OF 1927 (Excerpt from Five O'Clock Lightning )
By Dr. Harvey Frommer
"It isn't a race in the American League, it's a landside."
-- John Kieran, New York Times
July would be the best of all months for the Yankees. They would win 24 of 31 games and stitch together their longest winning streak of the season, nine games, from June 13th through July 23rd.
In first place where they had been all season, flying, unstoppable, cocksure, determined and proud of what they were accomplishing, they played on.
And Gehrig and Ruth especially played on. Ruth played off Gehrig, and Gehrig played off Ruth. They both gave opposing pitchers fits and the fans delight. The pennant race was over. It had actually been over before it began.
But the "Home Run Derby" was in full throttle, mesmerizing more and more baseball fans day after day. Gehrig and Ruth, Ruth and Gehrig. Neither man could gain significant separation from the other as they took those mighty swings that baseball summer. And what separation there was, was never more than two home runs.
On the first day of July, the Yankees faced the hapless Red Sox. The Buster and the Babe were tied with 25 home runs each. Gehrig slammed a home run to pace the 7-4 Yankee win, the 13th straight defeat for Boston. That game was a marker moment for the "Bammer" the first time since 1922 that he trailed a rival on that date in the home run race.
"There's only one man who will ever have a chance of breaking my record, and that's Gehrig. He is a great kid," the King of Clubbers said.
Whenever Ruth hammered a homer, Gehrig waited at home plate to shake his hand as he rounded third and touched home plate. If Gehrig homered with Ruth on base, the two would trot around the bases. The Babe waited for Lou to touch home. Then the happy pair like two school kids, smiling all the way, would enter the Yankee dugout to the cheers of their adoring fans, to the congratulations of their teammates.
The younger Gehrig said: "There will never be another guy like the Babe. I get more of a kick out of seeing him hit one than I do from hitting one myself."
The older Ruth said: "Gehrig is one of the greatest fellows in the game and a real home run hitter."
And the self effacing Iron Horse said: "I'm just fortunate enough to be close to him."
But Tony Lazzeri, who knew the score all too well, noted: "They didn't get along. Gehrig thought Ruth was a big-mouth and Ruth thought Gehrig was cheap. They were both right."
Despite Lazzeri's comments, there was no public animosity, no obvious jealousy, no enmity evident between the pair. Ruth even had a kind of big brother, semi-paternalistic interest in Gehrig. "This college kid," the Babe said, "is one of the queerest ballplayers I ever knew. It seems he never feels the cold weather. The coldest day in winter he'll come swinging down Broadway without an overcoat, his coat open and no vest. Never wears gloves and half the time goes bare-headed. Some of the boys claim he never had an over coat on his shoulders until he joined the Yankees."
They were known in the media and by the fans as the "home run twins." But when it came to who was the favorite, it was no contest.
Ruth struck out in a game, and Gehrig followed with a homer. Afterwards at the exit gate kids swarmed all over the Big Bam with adoring looks and cheers, scorecards, pieces of paper, autograph books. Ruth obliged every one of them. No one paid Gehrig any attention. Seemingly content, he walked away and down the street.
"Babe and Gehrig were entirely different disposition-wise," Bill Werber said. "But they both had an intense desire to win. And you'd better have the same disposition on that ball club, or they were on your ass. Eating or drinking during the course of the game, you'd better not do that."
Their lockers were just a few feet from each other and like all the rest at Yankee Stadium, their names were printed in white chalk near the top:
"RUTH,"
"GEHRIG"
The Yankee first baseman's locker was orderly. The Yankee outfielder's locker was the opposite. Overflowing with telegrams, letters in the hundreds, salves and balms and toiletries, phonograph records of "Babe and You," the top of locker had a green gourd about five feet long on it. After games ended, Gehrig sat on a stool in front of his locker, dressed quickly and left. Ruth hung around. Sometimes he sat on a stool but most times he stood, enjoying the give and take with reporters.
2011 marks Harvey Frommer's 36th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 41 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 was published in 2008. Frommer's newest work is REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK - (http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/)
FOLLOW Harvey
on Twitter: http://twitter.com/south2nd.
on Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?locale=en_US
on the Web: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frommer
Get autographed, discounted copies of books directly from the author @ harveyfrommersports.com. He is available for speaking engagements. FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Spring Roundup (Part VI) SPORTS BOOK REVIEW
"Knuckler" by Tim Wakefield (HMH, $25.00, 274 pages) is a winner. The Red Sox vet (now age 44) flutterballer lets it all go in this up close and personal story of his life and times and of course his up and down moments with his favorite pitch. A wonderful idea for a book that mixes and matches Wakefield's life with the legend and lore of the knuckler. BUY IT
Another pitcher, another story - -"Nobody's Perfect" (Atlantic Monthly Press, $24.00, 246 pages). Most baseball fans recall the imperfect perfect game pitched on June 2, 2010 by Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers, the gem that was almost the 21st perfect game flubbed by home plate umpire Jim Joyce. Now like Torrez and Dent, or like Thomson and Branca - the pitcher and umpire linked together tell all about their roads to that momentous moment in baseball history. The book stretches to fill pages...but it has its moments.
"Evel" by Leigh Montville (Doubleday, $27.50, 378 pages) is a full blown bio with an attitude by one of the best sports authors around these days. The magnificent Montville touches all the bases in this evocative and provocative tome focused on the life and times of the high-flying Evel Knievel: American Showman, Daredevil and legend. HOME RUN
Another bio of Ernie Banks. And why not? Under the deft hand of Phil Rogers "Ernie Banks Mr. Cub and the Summer of '69 (Triumph, $24.95, 288 pages) goes over a lot of the same old territory but in such a winning way that engagement with this book makes for pleasant warm weather reading. The inspirational hard times to good times story and Banks' musing about people along the way is engaging.
Now in paperback "The Last Hero" by Howard Bryant (Anchor Books, $16.95, 600 pages, paper) is a winner based as it is on massive research and many interviews to bring forth "A Life of Hank Aaron."
"The Dickson Baseball Dictionary Third Edition (Norton, $25.00,paper) Is a mother lode of info on the language of the national pastime that includes more than 10,000 terms and 18,000 individual entries and 250 or so photos. Mother lode and load. Even two of my books are included in the bibliography - -"Sports Roots" and "Sports Lingo." If you into baseball and especially into words this terrific tome is for you.
2011 marks Harvey Frommer's 36th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 41 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 was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work is REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams).
He is available for speaking engagements. FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.
FOLLOW Harvey on Twitter: http://twitter.com/south2nd.
FOLLOW Harvey on Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?locale=en_US.
REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/
"Harvey Frommer's Fenway Park first captivates the reader with its visual beauty. They are all there, some in color some in black and white, Ted the Thumper, the matchless Yaz, Mysterioso Manny, even The Babe. And the people, yes the people, from all corners of New England. Add to these images Mr. Frommer's trenchant prose and you have one memorable book."
- Roger Kahn
"Daringly organized as a mosaic of Red Sox Nation, Remembering Fenway Park glitters with fond memories and delightful surprises. Anyone who has ever sat in Fenway, or longs to, will love this book. In his sure hands with oral history, Harvey Frommer is a treasure of our national pastime."
-John Thorn, Official Historian for Major League Baseball
*Autographed for FATHER'S Day REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/
Appearances BOSTON area
Thursday, June 16th 12:30p-2:00p SIGNING Borders 10-24 School Street, Thurs June 16th 6:00p-8:00 Boston Public Library EVENT Reading / 700 Boylston Street, Friday, June 17th (1:00p-3:00p SIGNING B & N 96 Derby Street, Hingham Friday, June 17th 7:00p-9:00p SIGNING B & N 98 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington Saturday, June 18th 2:00-4:00pm SIGNING Booksmith. 82 Central Street, Wellesley Saturday June 18th six PM Barnes & Noble 210 Andover St, Peabody
Another pitcher, another story - -"Nobody's Perfect" (Atlantic Monthly Press, $24.00, 246 pages). Most baseball fans recall the imperfect perfect game pitched on June 2, 2010 by Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers, the gem that was almost the 21st perfect game flubbed by home plate umpire Jim Joyce. Now like Torrez and Dent, or like Thomson and Branca - the pitcher and umpire linked together tell all about their roads to that momentous moment in baseball history. The book stretches to fill pages...but it has its moments.
"Evel" by Leigh Montville (Doubleday, $27.50, 378 pages) is a full blown bio with an attitude by one of the best sports authors around these days. The magnificent Montville touches all the bases in this evocative and provocative tome focused on the life and times of the high-flying Evel Knievel: American Showman, Daredevil and legend. HOME RUN
Another bio of Ernie Banks. And why not? Under the deft hand of Phil Rogers "Ernie Banks Mr. Cub and the Summer of '69 (Triumph, $24.95, 288 pages) goes over a lot of the same old territory but in such a winning way that engagement with this book makes for pleasant warm weather reading. The inspirational hard times to good times story and Banks' musing about people along the way is engaging.
Now in paperback "The Last Hero" by Howard Bryant (Anchor Books, $16.95, 600 pages, paper) is a winner based as it is on massive research and many interviews to bring forth "A Life of Hank Aaron."
"The Dickson Baseball Dictionary Third Edition (Norton, $25.00,paper) Is a mother lode of info on the language of the national pastime that includes more than 10,000 terms and 18,000 individual entries and 250 or so photos. Mother lode and load. Even two of my books are included in the bibliography - -"Sports Roots" and "Sports Lingo." If you into baseball and especially into words this terrific tome is for you.
2011 marks Harvey Frommer's 36th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 41 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 was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work is REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams).
He is available for speaking engagements. FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.
FOLLOW Harvey on Twitter: http://twitter.com/south2nd.
FOLLOW Harvey on Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?locale=en_US.
REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/
"Harvey Frommer's Fenway Park first captivates the reader with its visual beauty. They are all there, some in color some in black and white, Ted the Thumper, the matchless Yaz, Mysterioso Manny, even The Babe. And the people, yes the people, from all corners of New England. Add to these images Mr. Frommer's trenchant prose and you have one memorable book."
- Roger Kahn
"Daringly organized as a mosaic of Red Sox Nation, Remembering Fenway Park glitters with fond memories and delightful surprises. Anyone who has ever sat in Fenway, or longs to, will love this book. In his sure hands with oral history, Harvey Frommer is a treasure of our national pastime."
-John Thorn, Official Historian for Major League Baseball
*Autographed for FATHER'S Day REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/
Appearances BOSTON area
Thursday, June 16th 12:30p-2:00p SIGNING Borders 10-24 School Street, Thurs June 16th 6:00p-8:00 Boston Public Library EVENT Reading / 700 Boylston Street, Friday, June 17th (1:00p-3:00p SIGNING B & N 96 Derby Street, Hingham Friday, June 17th 7:00p-9:00p SIGNING B & N 98 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington Saturday, June 18th 2:00-4:00pm SIGNING Booksmith. 82 Central Street, Wellesley Saturday June 18th six PM Barnes & Noble 210 Andover St, Peabody
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Spring Roundup (Part IV) SPORTS BOOK REVIEW
The hits and runs and errors keep coming on the baseball field and the sports books (especially baseball) keep ushering forth on all types of topics. Most of these books are well worth reading.
Jonah Keri’s “The Extra 2%” (Ballantine Books, $26.00, 251 pages) is an up close and personal look at what once was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now just the Rays) and how former Goldman Sachs figures Stuart Steinberg and Matthew Silverman as owners of the team melded their Wall Street ways into a master plan for the team. Insightful, interesting, subtitled “How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First,” --“The Extra 2%” is a book you must read this season.
“Donnie Baseball”(Triumph, $24.95, 207 pages) is billed as “the definitive biography of Don Mattingly. While not quite up to its billing even with a loving and highly readable foreword by Joe Torre and lots of replays of the life and times of its subject, “Donnie Baseball” is highly recommended reading for Yankee fans, Dodger fans.
BACKLIST: Len Berman’s “The Greatest Moments in Sports” and “The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time” (Sourcebooks, $16.99, 136 pages, coffee table size) are two for your sports bookshelf. Penned one of the most affable and informed sportscasters of all time, the two tomes terrifically tell tales of players and moments that hold special places in sports history. For browsing, for research, for reading - these titles have what it takes.
Harvey Frommer is in his 36th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 41 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 was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work is REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams)
REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/
"Harvey Frommer's Fenway Park first captivates the reader with its visual beauty. They are all there, some in color some in black and white, Ted the Thumper, the matchless Yaz, Mysterioso Manny, even The Babe. And the people, yes the people, from all corners of New England. Add to these images Mr. Frommer's trenchant prose and you have one memorable book."
- Roger Kahn
"Daringly organized as a mosaic of Red Sox Nation, Remembering Fenway Park glitters with fond memories and delightful surprises. Anyone who has ever sat in Fenway, or longs to, will love this book. In his sure hands with oral history, Harvey Frommer is a treasure of our national pastime."
-John Thorn, Official Historian for Major League Baseball
http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.FOLLOW Harvey on Twitter: http://twitter.com/south2nd. He is available for speaking engagements.
Jonah Keri’s “The Extra 2%” (Ballantine Books, $26.00, 251 pages) is an up close and personal look at what once was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now just the Rays) and how former Goldman Sachs figures Stuart Steinberg and Matthew Silverman as owners of the team melded their Wall Street ways into a master plan for the team. Insightful, interesting, subtitled “How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First,” --“The Extra 2%” is a book you must read this season.
“Donnie Baseball”(Triumph, $24.95, 207 pages) is billed as “the definitive biography of Don Mattingly. While not quite up to its billing even with a loving and highly readable foreword by Joe Torre and lots of replays of the life and times of its subject, “Donnie Baseball” is highly recommended reading for Yankee fans, Dodger fans.
BACKLIST: Len Berman’s “The Greatest Moments in Sports” and “The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time” (Sourcebooks, $16.99, 136 pages, coffee table size) are two for your sports bookshelf. Penned one of the most affable and informed sportscasters of all time, the two tomes terrifically tell tales of players and moments that hold special places in sports history. For browsing, for research, for reading - these titles have what it takes.
Harvey Frommer is in his 36th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 41 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 was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work is REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams)
REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/
"Harvey Frommer's Fenway Park first captivates the reader with its visual beauty. They are all there, some in color some in black and white, Ted the Thumper, the matchless Yaz, Mysterioso Manny, even The Babe. And the people, yes the people, from all corners of New England. Add to these images Mr. Frommer's trenchant prose and you have one memorable book."
- Roger Kahn
"Daringly organized as a mosaic of Red Sox Nation, Remembering Fenway Park glitters with fond memories and delightful surprises. Anyone who has ever sat in Fenway, or longs to, will love this book. In his sure hands with oral history, Harvey Frommer is a treasure of our national pastime."
-John Thorn, Official Historian for Major League Baseball
http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.FOLLOW Harvey on Twitter: http://twitter.com/south2nd. He is available for speaking engagements.
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