(Excerpt from Remembering Fenway Park available in stores, on-line and autographed direct from the author)
DOM DIMAGGIO: The first time I walked into Fenway Park was a day in April 1940. It was before the season; there was ice on the field. Coming from California, it was a bit of a shock to me. I was wondering how we were going to start on time.
At the start of the new decade, Fenway Park featured new bullpens in place in right field in front of the bleachers. The distance to the right-center wall was cut from 405 feet to just over 380 feet. Bullpens had been moved from the foul lines to the front of the stands in center, creating the center-field triangle.
BOBBY DOERR: Ted Williams was one of the first hitters to go to light bats. In 1941, he had a batch of 32-ouncers brought to Fenway.
Some told him “Ted, you can’t get good wood with 32 ounce bats.”
Ted’s comeback was, “What good is wood if you can’t handle it?”
He wanted control of the bat to where he could hit the ball on the fat part. With a heavier bat he felt he couldn’t even though he was as quick and strong as anybody. But he still went from a 34 or 35 ounce bat to a 32 once bat.
We became close friends. We were around the same age; we both liked to go to movies and fish and talk fishing.. But the thing Ted especially liked was to talk baseball.
SAM MELE: I was going to New York University. My coach Bill McCarthy used to drive me up to Fenway Park to work out for the Red Sox scout Mahoney. One day, I get in the batting cage. Pitching to me was Herb Pennock who had been one of the great pitchers in history.
After a few warm-up pitches, he says "Are you ready now?"
I say, "Yeah." Now he throws a screwball, a change up and boy I had a tough time.
They tell me to take five swings. I took four and I did not swing at the fifth pitch.
"Why did you take that pitch?" a voice behind the cage says.
"Well, it was kind of low," I said.
"It was, but it was over the plate," the voice says.
The voice belonged to Ted Williams. He called me over and started talking to me about hitting. "You move your feet too far away from the plate,” he said. “You got to be able to cover the whole plate when you're batting." I never forgot that.
Throughout that 1941 season, the talk all over Boston was about Ted Williams who would be the last batter to hit .400.
"Number 9 did that"
"That's where Number 9 hit one"
“He got another hit today, Number 9.”
MONSIGNOR THOMAS J. DALY: In 1941, I was age 14 and started as Stile boy. I got paid $1.50 a day. About the second inning or third, inning you were free for the rest of the time and you could watch the ballgame. And if there was a doubleheader then you had a good day for yourself. Not too many people tried to sneak through into Fenway. There was, however, a note on the bulletin board that I still remember. “Sir, last week I sneaked into the ballgame and I’m sending money to pay for the ticket that I didn’t buy.” The writer was anonymous, of course.
There was no local TV, and radio was WAAB with Jim Britt and Tom Hussey. All games were in the daylight and lots of children were on hand. Prices of admission for the grandstands were $1.10, bleachers 55 cents, a reserved seat in the grandstand $1.40 and tickets for the box seats were $3.60. It was a pretty quiet environment. The only music was at the beginning of the ballgame when everybody stood for the national anthem. There was just the manual scoreboard.
BOO FERRIS: After my sophomore year at Mississippi State University, the Red Sox got me placed in the Northern League in Vermont. That was in ’41. My manager there was Bill Barrett, a former major-leaguer and a Red Sox scout. We had an open day. He took me and two players from the University of Oklahoma to our first big league ballgame.
Bill Barrett says, ”They’re playing the Cleveland Indians. I’ll take you in and you can meet the great Red Sox players.”
We drove down in Mr. Barrett’s car. When we first saw Fenway Park, we were all pretty bug-eyed, I’ll tell you that. We were just on cloud nine you might say—three southern boys. Bill Barrett told us that Lefty Grove was going for his 300th career win that day, July the 25th.
We walked in the clubhouse and Johnny Orlando the clubhouse guy told us to be quiet. We learned that Lefty Grove who was on the downside of his great career was in the trainer’s room. He always took a little nap before the ballgame.
And Orlando said, “He better not be disturbed or he’ll tear up the clubhouse.”
So we had to tiptoe by the training room and my gosh we got to meet Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Wagner and Joe Cronin, the manager of course.
We shook hands with Red Sox players. Bill Barrett, he knew them all. I didn’t think to ask for autographs. getting an autograph wasn’t a big thing back in those days. But I still have the program. It cost five cents.
I had a dream that maybe someday I might be back. We sat in box seats behind the dugout and had royal treatment. The ballpark was so compact with seats right down close to the field. The Wall was out there but it wasn’t painted green then. Some called it the Iron Monster.
Manager Joe Cronin had told Grove before the game: “Pop, this is a nine inning game. I’m not coming out to get you. Grove was behind 6-4 in the seventh inning, tied in the eighth at 6-6. Then Jimmie Foxx hit a three-run homer. Grove had given up 12 hits but he had his 300th and final win.
‘BOO’ FERRIS: He struggled but he made it. An unforgettable day, for sure, for three southern boys. That was my introduction to Fenway. We drove back home and the next day we were playing baseball.
DOM DIMAGGIO: The atmosphere heightened a great deal when the Red Sox and Yankees played. I felt that and enjoyed it.
In 1941, when my brother Joe had the hitting streak going, Ted would be talking to the guy in the scoreboard and the guy would keep him posted when Joe got a hit. You couldn’t do that at any other park.
There were times at Fenway when Joe would be coming in from centerfield and I would be coming out. I said very little to him on those occasions. What the hell was I going to do, stop in centerfield and have a conversation?
JOHNNY PESKY: Manager Joe Cronin let me play. That was how it all started in 1942. . We played the old Boston Braves, an exhibition City Series, one game at Fenway and one at Braves Field.
The first time I saw Fenway Park it was dark and dreary. I was mainly concerned about playing as well as I could and keeping warm. I made four errors in the exhibition game and felt just terrible about it. I thought Cronin was going to send me down to either Scranton or Louisville. But he didn't say anything to me.
Opening Day, Tuesday April 14th, at Fenway. I was 22 years old. I came up the runway, up the three steps and looked out from the dugout. It was an old park even then. But it was very well kept, clean and nice. And right in the middle of the city. I thought it was beautiful.
We lived on Bay State road just across from Kenmore Square and could walk across to the ballpark. I batted leadoff ahead of Dom and Ted.
(The Red Sox lineup that April 14, 1942 at Fenway)
6 Johnny Pesky SS
7 Dom DiMaggio CF
9 Ted Williams LF
3 Jimmie Foxx 1B
5 Jim Tabor 3B
12 Pete Fox RF
26 Skeeter Newsome 2B
11 Johnny Peacock C
28 Dick Newsome P
REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/
===================================================
"For Red Sox fans, this gem of a book about a jewel of a ballpark is
enough--well, almost enough- to banish from all thoughts of Bucky Dent and other disappointments. --George F. Will
===============================================
"Harvey Frommer has produced a book worthy of its sacred subject. Remembering Fenway Park is unforgettable." -Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
THIRTIES AT FENWAY PARK
Momentous events for Fenway Park and the Red Sox were on the horizon as the new decade dawned: new ownership, a major fire, significant renovations and the arrival of the greatest star in the history of the franchise.
Under manager Heinie Wagner, the 1930 BoSox were one of the worst teams in franchise history finishing dead last in the American League standings with a record of 52 wins and 102 losses. Just 444,045 fans came to their home games, an average of 5,767 a contest.
The 1931 season saw the introduction of players' uniforms with numbers. “The easier to find them and boo them,” a sarcastic fan noted. But Babe Ruth didn’t need a number to be identified. His return to Fenway on April 22, in a Yankee uniform, elicited cheers as well as jeers. Attempting to score from third base on a sacrifice fly, the Babe collided with Boston catcher Charlie Berry, an ex-professional football player. Ruth got the worst of it. He was carried off the field and rushed to a hospital.
Then on September 28th, he returned, this time as pitcher, a role that had earned him much early fame and glory at Fenway. He walked away with a 9-3 complete game triumph over his former team. But Lou Gehrig, positioned in the Sultan of Swat’s normal position in left field, saw his streak of playing first base for 885 games straight end.
Earlier that 1931 season when the Short-wave and Television Corporation offered to televise games from Fenway Park, owner Bob Quinn complained: "It has rained every Sunday and our team is in last place. And you want me to let the fans see the games at home? How do you suppose we are going to pay for our players?"
The request was premature. It would take another seventeen years before baseball from Fenway would be on TV. But Sunday baseball did debut that year on July 3rd (the Yankees ripped Boston 13-2). Actually, the Sox had received approval for Sunday games three years earlier, but since a church was close by the ballpark, Sunday games were played at Braves Field until conditions were right.
No matter the day, game attendance languished in the doldrums for the 1932 season with only 182,150 passing through the Fenway turnstiles, an average of 2,366 per game, a home low for the decade. It was the worst season for the Red Sox in history; they finished in last place, 64 games behind the first place Yankees. With 43 wins and 111 losses, a .279 percentage; they were the only team to have a winning percentage under .300. It was worst won-and-lost record in franchise history. What else could one expect of a team that scored 518 runs while allowing 915.
From 1924 to 1932, the Quinn years, the Red Sox were the sorriest team in the American League. They finished last or next to last in all but one of those seasons. He had borrowed $400,000 from the American League just to keep the team afloat.
It was no wonder, therefore, that a depressed and desperate Red Sox owner John Quinn called a press conference on the 25th of February, 1933. His announcement was not unexpected but nevertheless a shocker.
“I haven't got the money to continue,” he said. Then he informed the press that he had sold the Red Sox and Fenway Park. It was for the same amount of money he had paid almost a decade before for the entire operation - - $1.2 million
It was not the sale as much as the buyer that got the attention of Boston's newspaper men, a 30-year-old with a fortune estimated to be more than $40-million. They thought him too young to have that kind of money. "He's just a kid," wrote one wizened scribe.
The “kid” who at first would be called “Tom” and later on in his ownership tenure always “Mr. Yawkey,” would remain on the scene for 44 years. Heir to an enormous timber and mining fortune, Yawkey would never own a home in Boston. His time would be spent at Fenway Park, in a suite between May and October at Boston’s Ritz-Carlton, in an apartment at New York’s Pierre, or on a 40,000-acre South Carolina game preserve where he enjoyed hunting and fishing and entertaining guests between October and April.
Most thought that Yawkey had been taken, paying more than a million dollars for one of the worst teams in baseball and a decaying Fenway Park. “It was bad,” Yawkey conceded years later. ”I had to pay off Harry M. Stevens, the concessionaire. The Red Sox owed $150,000 to the League.” And there was also the mortgage held on Fenway Park by the New York Yankees – part of the deal that sent Babe Ruth to New York.
But Tom Yawkey had the courage of youth, a sportsman’s zeal, and the money to spare. He figured he could handle it all. And he did.
(Excerpt from Remembering Fenway Park: An Oral and Narrative History of the Home of the Boston Red Sox/Abrams 2011 - -now available in stores and on-line and direct from the author)
2011 marks Harvey Frommer’s 36th consutive 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 was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 2011. 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. Web: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frommer.
Under manager Heinie Wagner, the 1930 BoSox were one of the worst teams in franchise history finishing dead last in the American League standings with a record of 52 wins and 102 losses. Just 444,045 fans came to their home games, an average of 5,767 a contest.
The 1931 season saw the introduction of players' uniforms with numbers. “The easier to find them and boo them,” a sarcastic fan noted. But Babe Ruth didn’t need a number to be identified. His return to Fenway on April 22, in a Yankee uniform, elicited cheers as well as jeers. Attempting to score from third base on a sacrifice fly, the Babe collided with Boston catcher Charlie Berry, an ex-professional football player. Ruth got the worst of it. He was carried off the field and rushed to a hospital.
Then on September 28th, he returned, this time as pitcher, a role that had earned him much early fame and glory at Fenway. He walked away with a 9-3 complete game triumph over his former team. But Lou Gehrig, positioned in the Sultan of Swat’s normal position in left field, saw his streak of playing first base for 885 games straight end.
Earlier that 1931 season when the Short-wave and Television Corporation offered to televise games from Fenway Park, owner Bob Quinn complained: "It has rained every Sunday and our team is in last place. And you want me to let the fans see the games at home? How do you suppose we are going to pay for our players?"
The request was premature. It would take another seventeen years before baseball from Fenway would be on TV. But Sunday baseball did debut that year on July 3rd (the Yankees ripped Boston 13-2). Actually, the Sox had received approval for Sunday games three years earlier, but since a church was close by the ballpark, Sunday games were played at Braves Field until conditions were right.
No matter the day, game attendance languished in the doldrums for the 1932 season with only 182,150 passing through the Fenway turnstiles, an average of 2,366 per game, a home low for the decade. It was the worst season for the Red Sox in history; they finished in last place, 64 games behind the first place Yankees. With 43 wins and 111 losses, a .279 percentage; they were the only team to have a winning percentage under .300. It was worst won-and-lost record in franchise history. What else could one expect of a team that scored 518 runs while allowing 915.
From 1924 to 1932, the Quinn years, the Red Sox were the sorriest team in the American League. They finished last or next to last in all but one of those seasons. He had borrowed $400,000 from the American League just to keep the team afloat.
It was no wonder, therefore, that a depressed and desperate Red Sox owner John Quinn called a press conference on the 25th of February, 1933. His announcement was not unexpected but nevertheless a shocker.
“I haven't got the money to continue,” he said. Then he informed the press that he had sold the Red Sox and Fenway Park. It was for the same amount of money he had paid almost a decade before for the entire operation - - $1.2 million
It was not the sale as much as the buyer that got the attention of Boston's newspaper men, a 30-year-old with a fortune estimated to be more than $40-million. They thought him too young to have that kind of money. "He's just a kid," wrote one wizened scribe.
The “kid” who at first would be called “Tom” and later on in his ownership tenure always “Mr. Yawkey,” would remain on the scene for 44 years. Heir to an enormous timber and mining fortune, Yawkey would never own a home in Boston. His time would be spent at Fenway Park, in a suite between May and October at Boston’s Ritz-Carlton, in an apartment at New York’s Pierre, or on a 40,000-acre South Carolina game preserve where he enjoyed hunting and fishing and entertaining guests between October and April.
Most thought that Yawkey had been taken, paying more than a million dollars for one of the worst teams in baseball and a decaying Fenway Park. “It was bad,” Yawkey conceded years later. ”I had to pay off Harry M. Stevens, the concessionaire. The Red Sox owed $150,000 to the League.” And there was also the mortgage held on Fenway Park by the New York Yankees – part of the deal that sent Babe Ruth to New York.
But Tom Yawkey had the courage of youth, a sportsman’s zeal, and the money to spare. He figured he could handle it all. And he did.
(Excerpt from Remembering Fenway Park: An Oral and Narrative History of the Home of the Boston Red Sox/Abrams 2011 - -now available in stores and on-line and direct from the author)
2011 marks Harvey Frommer’s 36th consutive 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 was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 2011. 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. Web: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frommer.
Friday, February 04, 2011
SPORTS BOOK REVIEW
“Baseball How to Play the Game”
A sure sign of spring is the appearance from Universe/Rizzoli of “Baseball How To Play the Game” by Pete Williams ($29.95, 320 pages. 300 color illustrations and diagrams, paperback). Billed as the official playing and coaching manual of Major League Baseball, the handsomely produced tome has tips from 25 of the national pastime’s top players ranging from Albert Pujols to past greats like Tony Gwynn. Organized, informative, there are chapters focused on all the major aspects of the game like “Hitting Power,””Rule Book Basics,””Pitching Heat” and “Coaching Tips.” For those who want to play the game better, for those whom want to understand the game better, this is the book for you. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Another “inside sports” type book is “Scorecasting” by Tobias J. Moscowitz and L. Jon Wertheim (Crown Archetype, $26.00, 288 pages) is a fascinating look at some of the myths and misunderstandings that have surrounded game via the decades. Interesting themes include: the home field advantage exists; momentum does not exist in sports; the strike zone on a 3-0 count is larger than on a two strike one and more . . . Part Freakonomics, part Moneyball, part Sabrmetrics - “Scorecasting” is good stuff. PICK UP A COPY
“Mets Journal” by John Snyder (Clerisy Press, $24.95, 332 pages, paperback) is day by day with the Mets from 1962 on.
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 REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 20111. Read all about it: 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.
A sure sign of spring is the appearance from Universe/Rizzoli of “Baseball How To Play the Game” by Pete Williams ($29.95, 320 pages. 300 color illustrations and diagrams, paperback). Billed as the official playing and coaching manual of Major League Baseball, the handsomely produced tome has tips from 25 of the national pastime’s top players ranging from Albert Pujols to past greats like Tony Gwynn. Organized, informative, there are chapters focused on all the major aspects of the game like “Hitting Power,””Rule Book Basics,””Pitching Heat” and “Coaching Tips.” For those who want to play the game better, for those whom want to understand the game better, this is the book for you. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Another “inside sports” type book is “Scorecasting” by Tobias J. Moscowitz and L. Jon Wertheim (Crown Archetype, $26.00, 288 pages) is a fascinating look at some of the myths and misunderstandings that have surrounded game via the decades. Interesting themes include: the home field advantage exists; momentum does not exist in sports; the strike zone on a 3-0 count is larger than on a two strike one and more . . . Part Freakonomics, part Moneyball, part Sabrmetrics - “Scorecasting” is good stuff. PICK UP A COPY
“Mets Journal” by John Snyder (Clerisy Press, $24.95, 332 pages, paperback) is day by day with the Mets from 1962 on.
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 REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 20111. Read all about it: 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.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Baseball Names and How They Got That Way! - - S (Final Edition)
With spring training not to far away, the Hot Stove League will soon be over with and baseball talk will be in the air.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, XV and all the others and wanted more, here is more, just a sampling. As always, reactions and suggestions always welcome. And bear in mind - - this is by no means a complete list.
SPOT STARTER A pitcher called into action to start games as the team needs him, as opposed to a regular starting pitcher.
SPRAY HITTER A batter who is able to hit the ball to all fields.
SPRINGFIELD RIFLE Former star Yankee hurler Vic Raschi, after his birthplace Springfield, Massachusetts.
SPUD Nickname for Yankee star hurler Spurgeon Ferdinand Chandler, was easier for everyone.
SOUP Clarence Campbell who hit 3 home runs in the major leagues, died on Feb. 16, 2000. He played in 104 games for the Indians in 1941 and hit .250 with 3 home runs and 35 RBI.
STENGELESE The late and great Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel could say a mouthful. Herewith, a sampler:
“Butcher boy” =a chopped ground ball
“Embalmed” = sleeping
“Green pea” = rookie or unseasoned player
“He could squeeze your ear brows off” = a tough player
“Hold the gun” = I want to change pitchers
“Ned in the third reader” = naiveté
“Plumber” =a good fielder
“Road apple” = a bum
“Whiskey slick” = a playboy
“Worm killers” = low balls
A Stengelese Monologue -- Spring Training l955
"And now we come to Collins which may be an outfielder. He played centerfield at Newark and also played right field for me in the World Series. You can look it up, but he had Novikoff on one side of him and someone else whose name I have forgotten on the other but you can look it up. That should prove he's a great outfielder in order to do it with them guys on either side of him.
"There's a kid infielder named Richardson who was in our rookie camp which he doesn't look like he can play because he's as stiff as a stick--but whoosh--and the ball's there and he does it so fast it would take some of them Sunshine Park handicappers with the field glasses on to see him do it so fast does he do it. He never misses. As soon as he misses a ball, we'll send him back home
"We started out to get us a shortstop and now we got eight of them. We don't fool, we don't. I ain't yet found a way to play more than one man in each position although we can shift them around and make them maybe outfielders outa them or put 'em all at ketch like we done with Howard.
"You ask me what kind of ball club I want, one with power or one with speed, well a lot of power but not too much, and a lot of speed but not too much. The best club is the versatile club, the one that has a homer hitter here and a bunter there, a fast ball pitcher here and a change-of-pace pitcher there. That way, the other team never knows what's going to hit it next."
At the Congressional hearings on baseball's Reserve Clause, July 19, 1958:
"In Kankakee, Illinois or someplace like that, I tore my suit sitting in the stands. . . now they've got good seats.
“I got a little concern yesterday in the first three innings when I saw the three players I had gotten rid of, and I said when I lost nine what am I going to do and when I had a couple of my players I thought so great of that did not do so good up to the sixth inning I was more confused but I finally had to go and call on a young man in Baltimore that we don't own and the Yankees don't own him, and he is doing pretty good, and I would actually have to tell you that we are more the Greta Garbo type now from success.
"We are being hated, I mean from the ownership and all, we are being hated. Every sport that gets too great or one individual -- but if we made 27 cents and it pays to have a winner at home, why would you have a good winner in your own park if you were an owner?
"That is the result of baseball. An owner get most of the money at home and it’s up to him and his staff to do better or they ought to be discharged."
THE STORK Gangly George Theodore, reserve outfielder New York Mets in the early 1970s.
STRETCH (“Big Mac") Willie McCovey was a huge star for the San Francisco Giants. His size was the reason for one of his nick-names and the other was an abbreviation of his surname.
DR. STRANGELOVE First baseman Dick Stuart had some fielding issues.
SUB Former Yankee and Red Sox hurler Carl Mays, born in 1891 in Liberty, Kentucky threw to the plate with an underhanded or submarine motion.
SULTAN OF SWAT One of the nicknames given to Babe Ruth—Swat was once a principality but today is part of Pakistan (see BABE).
SQUIRE (or KNIGHT OF KENNETT SQUARE Herb Pennock came from historic Kennett Square, PA an area of horsemen and fox hunters. Pennock himself was an expert rider and a master of hounds.
STEADY EDDIE Trait of Eddie Murray who played For Baltimore Orioles (1977-1988, 1996), Los Angeles Dodgers (1989-1991, 1997), New York Mets (1992-1993), Cleveland Indians (1994-1996), before finishing his career with the Baltimore Orioles, Anaheim Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers (1996-1997)
New York Yankee broadcaster Mel Allen invented this rhyming name for pitcher Eddie Lopat. A hard-working, consistent performer, Lopat led the Yankee pitching staff five years in a row in earned-run average (see JUNK MAN).
STICK Long time baseball “brain” Gene Michael when at Kent State playing basketball had a lean and long appearance.
SUBWAY SERIES The term originated for New York City baseball when players and fans traveled by subway to games. Back in 1889 the New York Times observed: "The competition between Brooklyn and New York as regards baseball is unparalleled in the history of the national game."
The competition may have been unparalleled but it was also unequal. Throughout most of their history the Dodgers of Brooklyn were a sad sack team. The Yankees were the royalty of baseball.
It was not until 1941 that the rivalry between the two franchises reached fever pitch in the first Subway Series. The results were predictable. The Yankees won. There was another Brooklyn-New York Subway Series in 1947 - same result. In 1949 - same result. In 1952, in 1953 - same results.
The competition may have been unparalleled but it was also unequal. Throughout most of their history the Dodgers of Brooklyn were a sad sack team. The Yankees were the royalty of baseball.
It was not until 1941 that the rivalry between the two franchises reached fever pitch in the first Subway Series. The results were predictable. The Yankees won. There was another Brooklyn-New York Subway Series in 1947 - same result. In 1949 - same result. In 1952, in 1953 - same results.
In 1955, it was again a Subway Series - Dodgers versus Yankees. Brooklyn had lost all seven Series it had played - five of them to the Bronx Bombers. Casey Stengel's Yankees took the first two games. Since no team had ever won a seven-game World Series after losing the first two games, Yankee fans were getting ready to celebrate. And once again Dodger fans were trotting out their poignant slogan: "Wait 'til Next Year."
But 1955 was Next Year! The Brooks pushed the Yankees to a seventh game. And Johnny Padres threw a 2-0 complete game shutout to give the Brooklyn Dodgers their first and only World Championship.
The precise moment was 3:43 P.M. on October 4, 1955. Brooklyn streets were clogged with celebrating fans. Honking car horns, clanging pots and pans, and shredded newspaper all punctuated that one singular moment. There was joy in Flatbush. The hated Yankees had been defeated.
However, all the celebrating was short-lived and bittersweet. For in 1956,the last time there was a Subway Series, it was Yanks over Dodgers in seven games. And in 1957 the Dodgers of Brooklyn moved to Los Angeles.
Pretenders to the throne of "Subway Series" have sprung up since then - - Yankees versus Los Angeles Dodgers in transcoastal World Series. Even the "Shuttle Series" - - the World Series of 1986 between the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets. The name derived from the two cities that were linked by commuter air-shuttle routes and shameless commercialism by shuttle operators Eastern and Pan American.
The meeting between the Yankees and Mets in October 2000 was the last real Subway Series for purists.
SUKEY Working with Branch Rickey, Clyde Sukeforth went to scout Jackie Robinson as he played for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945. Robinson did not play in that game, but Sukeforth set up a meeting between Robinson and Rickey. And the rest led to the breaking of the color line in baseball.
“SUNDAY TEDDY Ted Lyons In 1939, White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes started to use Lyons, who was 38 years old, only on Sunday afternoons. This pattern was maintained through the '42 season, with the veteran starting 21, 22, 22 and 20 games each year. The veteran right-hander posted a fine 52-30 record for that span, with a 2.96 ERA (he led the AL in ERA at the age of 41 in 1942, with a 2.10 mark). Fans took to calling him "Sunday Teddy," and belying his age, Lyons completed 72 of his 85 starts over those years.
SUPERCHIEF Most major league baseball players of Indian descent somehow have been tagged with the nickname Chief. Allie Reynolds, whose glory years were 1947-54 with the New York Yankees, was no ordinary pitcher, but he was of Indian descent. Thus the man born in Bethany, Oklahoma, was nicknamed Superchief.
SUPERJEW Born April 4, 1943, in the Bronx, New York, Mike Epstein played for five different teams in an eight-year major league baseball career. His religion and his size (6'4", 230 pounds) were the roots for his nickname.
SUPER SUB Chico Salmon spent 9 years in the Major Leagues as a utility infielder. His first four seasons were with the Indians where he played several different positions.
SWAMP BABY Charlie Wilson, born in Clinton, South Carolina, appeared in 56 games over four seasons in the major leagues. Wilson supposedly earned the nickname, after he initiated a "prank" that flooded a baseball field so that he could get a day off. This prank was immortalized in the film, "Bull Durham." In 1931, Wilson hit 1 home run and drove in 11 runs for the Boston Braves.
In 2011, Harvey Frommer entered 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 REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 20111. Read all about it: 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.
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.
Monday, January 24, 2011
From the Frommer vault - The First Super Bowl Was a Thrill
The very long National Football League season is now over. The losers and their fans look to the ultimate game - - and the winners and their fans rejoice in the big compettiion. Hype, hoopla, histrionics and sometimes a great game is the result of all the activity.
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 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 was not too taken with the long and ordinary sounding suggestions for what would become professional football's ultimate game.
Squeezing the ball, he 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 as he led 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.
Now in his 36th year of writing sports books, Harvey Frommer is a noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of hundreds of articles and 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 REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 2011. He is available for speaking engagements.
http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/
FOLLOW him on TWITTER http://twitter.com/south2nd
Harvey Frommer/ "Dartmouth's own Mr. Baseball" Dartmouth Alumni Magazine
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 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 was not too taken with the long and ordinary sounding suggestions for what would become professional football's ultimate game.
Squeezing the ball, he 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 as he led 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.
Now in his 36th year of writing sports books, Harvey Frommer is a noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of hundreds of articles and 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 REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 2011. He is available for speaking engagements.
http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/
FOLLOW him on TWITTER http://twitter.com/south2nd
Harvey Frommer/ "Dartmouth's own Mr. Baseball" Dartmouth Alumni Magazine
Friday, December 31, 2010
TWENTIES - FIRE SALE TIME ... An Excerpt from
By Dr. Harvey Frommer
The Roaring Twenties would prove to be a dismal decade at Fenway Park. Wooden bleachers along the left field foul line would burn down and not be rebuilt. There would be seven last place finishes, and attendance would be at or near the bottom of the league. Talented men would take turns managing the flawed franchise: Ed Barrow, Lee Fohl, Frank Chance, Bill Carrigan, Hugh Duffy. All would feel the sting of failure. And Babe Ruth was gone.
But it was not only the Babe who was sold to the Yankees. Owner Harry Frazee sent a steady stream of talent their way: catcher Wally Schang, premier pitcher Waite Hoyt, shortstop Everett Scott, pitchers "Bullet" Joe Bush and "Sad Sam" Jones, third baseman Joe Dugan, pitchers Herb Pennock and George Pipgras and more.
"All Frazee wanted was the money," Harry Hooper said. "He was short on cash and he sold the whole team down the river to keep his dirty nose above water. What a way to end a wonderful ball club. I got sick to my stomach of the whole business. After the 1920 season I held out for $15,000. And Frazee did me a favor by selling me to the Chicago White Sox. I was glad to get away from that graveyard."
On Patriots Day, 1920, George Herman Ruth was back in town. "In all the years the writer has witnessed baseball in Boston," The Globe's Melville E. Webb Jr. wrote, "he never has seen a former home team player so 'ridden' by the normally friendly fans."
But it was not the Babe who was booed. It was his Yankee teammate, right-hander Carl Mays. Both players had led the Red Sox to victory in the 1918 World Series. Both Ruth and Mays became disenchanted with playing for the Sox. Both wound up as employees of Yankee owner Jake Ruppert.
Babe Ruth's first Fenway at bat as a Yankee was just a bit after 10:00 A.M before what The New York Times called: "a crowd of 6,000 early risers." There was a competing draw - - the Boston Marathon. Native Greek Peter Trivoulidas supposedly had trained on the course that had given the Marathon its name, and was the victor in what the Globe called "the greatest Marathon run ever staged in any land."
The Bambino got two hits in four at bats in a losing cause as the Red Sox won 6-0 the first game that day.
Mays was the Yankee starter in the post-Marathon game. "With a real holiday setting," Webb observed, Ruth and Mays drew a crowd that rivaled a World Series turnout.
Relentlessly chided and booed, Mays according to Webb, responded by "working every nerve and sinew ... to rub it into the fans who were so keenly showing their disapproval."
The Red Sox led 4-2 in the seventh. Mays heard loud catcalls as he left the field.
"Carl, standing the gaff, stopped near the Red Sox dugout and tipped his cap," Webb reported.
A four run eighth inning locked the game up for Boston. Ruth's single in the ninth led to a meaningless Yankee run. "The crowd was strong for Babe ... but they had the satisfaction of seeing the big fellow win no hero stripes on the occasion of his home coming," wrote Webb
Another who would go down as a baseball immortal showed up July 1 at Fenway. Surprisingly, only 3,000 fans, were in the stands despite Walter Johnson's being on the mound for the Washington Nationals. Those who were there were treated to a masterpiece – Johnson spun the only no-hitter of his 21-year career. After his 1-0 victory over the Sox some teammates in the soggy clubhouse slapped the broad back of Johnson and others yelled: "Speech!"
"Goodness gracious sakes alive, wasn't I lucky?" was Johnson''s reply.
New York versus first place Boston, four-game series. Game one was May 27th. Yankee Bob Shawkey walked in a run in the 4th inning and became so irritated that he began yelling at home plate umpire George Hildebrand. The agitated Shawkey then took 5 minutes to tie his shoe on the mound. He resumed pitching and was credited with a called 3rd strike on Harry Hooper. That prompted him to sarcastically tip his cap and bow low to Hildebrand who ejected him from the game. Shawkey's parting shot was a swing at the ump who banged him with his mask. The crowd loved it. Shawkey did not. A one week suspension and a $200 fine was the price the Yankee hurler paid for his temper tantrum.
In the sixth inning of that game, Babe Ruth smacked his first Fenway homer as a Yankee – a mighty blast to right-center. Then he launched another making it four homers in three days. The Sultan of Swat was the first 20th century player to accomplish that feat. A Yankee series sweep dropped the Sox out of first place, sending them into a downward spiral.
The bitter rivals met again in a September 4, 1920 twin bill. A record 33,027 fans crammed into Fenway. Another 10,000 were turned away.
"That was a once-in-a-lifetime day," former Fenway vendor Tom Foley recalled. "Two weeks before at the Polo Grounds he (Carl Mays) threw a ball at Ray Chapman's head and killed him. It was unintentional but people were riled. This was his first appearance back in Boston and everybody went to heckle him. I made $16 that day, all nickels and dimes."
Under Ed Barrow and then Hugh Duffy, the Red Sox finished in fifth place during the 1920 and 1921 seasons. Games at Fenway were not hot tickets. In 1920, the team had the sixth worst attendance in the American League. In 1921, they would draw 279,273 – lowest in the league.
Arthur Giddon, who lived in Brookline, was a batboy in 1922 and 1923 for the Boston Braves. He also kept on eye on the Red Sox.
ARTHUR GIDDON: I went to Fenway from time to time. Living right in Brookline, I'd take the subway and was down at Kenmore Square in ten minutes. You didn't need to buy tickets in advance; you could get all the tickets you wanted.
Tickets were easy. Long pokes for home runs were harder to come by at Fenway in 1922. Center field was 488 feet and the deepest corner, just right of center was 550 feet.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
Terrific hot stove reading or year end browsing of sports-related books is there for the taking. Herewith, a winning lineup. Enjoy!
A sure bet for fantasy baseball fans from Acta Sports is “Graphical Player” edited by John Burnson ($22.95, 285 pages, paper). Over 1,050 minor and major league players are featured in dashboards of stats and graphs. There are also 100 top prospects profiled with three expert opinions per profile. There are tables comparing each player to his competion at his position, four years of career stats for each player and so much more. If ever a book was worth the price - -“Graphical Player” - definitely is. OUTSTANDING
In 2011, Harvey Frommer will be in his 36th 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 was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 20111. 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. Web: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frommer.
A sure bet for fantasy baseball fans from Acta Sports is “Graphical Player” edited by John Burnson ($22.95, 285 pages, paper). Over 1,050 minor and major league players are featured in dashboards of stats and graphs. There are also 100 top prospects profiled with three expert opinions per profile. There are tables comparing each player to his competion at his position, four years of career stats for each player and so much more. If ever a book was worth the price - -“Graphical Player” - definitely is. OUTSTANDING
"Gay Talese Reader" (Walker, $14.95, 265 pages, paper) is worth the price spotlighting as it does some of the classic sports pieces by one of the classiest writers around. We are there with the talented Talese as he searches for and ruminates on Ernest Hemingway, the Joes - - DiMaggio and Louis, Muhammad Ali and more. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
"The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History" (Bloomsbury, $25.00, 223 pages) is the hoop game as viewed by FreeDarko and company. It is a view of roundball from all kinds of perspectives, some a bit dizzy for the conventional reader, but all entertaining. For example, the book has a section in living color on "Only the Ball Was Orange" about early barnstorming teams like the Rens, Original Celtics, et al, and another section on "The Hair Up There" from shaved (Slick Watts) to Afro (Wes Unseld) to Big Afro (Artis Gilmore). UNCOVENTIONALL BUT INTERESTING READING
"Lucky Me" by Eddie Robinson with C. Paul Rogers III (SMU Press, $23.95, 252 pages, 42b&w photos) is a memoir of 65 splendid years spent in baseball. Robinson, premier first baseman, nifty southpaw swinger, has tales to tell about players and others he played with (or worked) with and against like Babe Ruth, Bob Feller, Larry Doby, Casey Stengel, Brooks Robinson, George Steinbrenner . . . "Lucky Me" is what any reader will see reading this insightful, interesting, involving tome. NIFTY
In 2011, Harvey Frommer will be in his 36th 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 was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 20111. 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. Web: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frommer.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Baseball Names - and How They Got That Way! S (Part 2)
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, XV and all the others and wanted more, here is more, just a sampling. As always, reactions and suggestions always welcome. And bear in mind - - this is by no means a complete list.
SHEA STADIUM On October 17, 1960, the National League awarded a New York City baseball franchise to a team that would be known as the Mets. That October day was the culmination of the efforts of a special Mayoral Committee appointed to find a way to return National League baseball to New York. Attorney William Shea headed the committee. The Mets' stadium, located in Flushing Meadows, Queens, near the site of the old World's Fair, is named for the man who was instrumental in acting as the godfather of the New York Mets.
"SHOELESS JOE" Joseph Jefferson Wofford Jackson was born to a poor family on July 16, 1889 in Greenville, South Carolina. School was never a part of his life for at the age of six he was already working in the cotton mills as a cleanup boy. By the time he was 13 he was laboring a dozen hours a day along with his father and brother. His sole escape from the back-breaking work, the din and dust of the mill, took place out in the grassy fields playing baseball. He was a natural right from the start, good enough to be noticed and recruited to play for the mill team organized by the company.
One hot summer day Jackson played the outfield wearing a new pair of shoes. They pinched his feet, so he took them off and played in his stocking feet. A sportswriter who saw what he did dubbed him "Shoeless Joe." The name stuck even though that was the only time Jackson is reported to have played 'shoeless.'
He despised the name for he felt it reinforced his country-bumpkin origins, the fact that he could not read nor write.
Perhaps that was why when he played for the Chicago White Sox after stints with the Philadelphia Athletics and Cleveland Indians, he wore alligator and patent leather shoes - the more expensive the better. It was if he was announcing to the world: "I am not a Shoeless Joe. I do wear shoes. And they cost a lot of money!"
He was the greatest ball player ever from South Carolina, one of the top players of all time. His lifetime batting average was .356, topped only by Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby.
Four times he batted over .370. Babe Ruth copied his swing claiming Jackson was the greatest hitter he ever saw. Ruth, Cobb, and Casey Stengel all placed him on their all-time, all star team. He was such a remarkable fielder that his glove was called "the place where triples go to die."
In the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown one can find Jackson's shoes. His life size photograph is there. But he is not there even though others with far less credentials and far more soiled reputations are. Shoeless Joe had to leave the game in disgrace, one of the members of the "Black Sox" accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.
He was asked under oath at trial:
"Did you do anything to throw those games?"
"No sir," was his response.
"Any game in the series?"
"Not a one," Jackson answered. "I didn't have an error or make no misplay."
In fact, Shoeless Joe was under-stating his accomplishments which included the only series home run, the highest batting average, the collecting of a record dozen hits, while committing no errors.
It took the jury a single ballot to acquit all eight accused players of the charges against them. But the very next day baseball's first commissioner - Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis - issued a verdict of his own. He banned all eight players from baseball for life.
Landis was brought into organized baseball in the fall of 1920 with a lifetime contract and a mandate to clean up the game using whatever methods he saw fit. He had the reputation of being a vindictive judge, a hanging judge - and he was all of that.
Every baseball commissioner since Landis has refused to act on "Shoeless Joe's behalf."
Commissioner Faye Vincent said: "I can't uncipher or decipher what took place back then. I have no intention of taking formal action."
Commissioner Bart Giammatti said: "I do not wish to play God with history. The Jackson case is best left to historical debate and analysis. I am not for re-instatement."
Public pressure keeps increasing year by year. But the ban still remains. It is a story that won't go away, like a riddle inside a jigsaw puzzle inside an enigma. It is a story about a great baseball injustice - - - a talented player caught at a crossroad in American history who became a victim, a scapegoat so that the sport of baseball could offer up a cleaner image.
SHOESTRING CATCH The grabbing of a fly ball by an outfielder just as it is about to hit the ground.
SHORT-HOP To grab a batted ball by charging in at it and seizing it before it bounces high.
SHORT PORCH The right field stands in the old Yankee Stadium.
SHOT HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD (DAT DAY; MIRACLE AT COOGAN'S BLUFF) On October 3, 1951, at 3:58 P.M. in the Polo Grounds in New York City, in the last game of the play-off's last inning, Bobby Thomson pounded a one-strike fastball thrown by Ralph Branca. The ball went out on a low and curving line and landed 315 feet away from home plate in the stands. The Polo Grounds exploded with frantic fans and excited ball players. On the radio, New York Giant announcer Russ Hodges screamed out eight times in a row, "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!" Not only had the Giants come from 131/2 games back in mid-August to this moment, they had beaten their arch-rivals, the great Brooklyn Dodgers, by scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. On the streets of New York City, the word went out. In Brooklyn there was sadness, and comedian Phil Foster referred to the time as "Dat Day" in his best alliterative Brooklynese. Others called it the Shot Heard 'Round the World, while Giant fans were content to savor the moment as the miracle that took place at Coogan's Bluff, the geographical region the Polo Grounds was located in.
SILENT BOB Name given to former Yankee star Bob Meusel because of his aloofness.
SILENT ONE Name given by Howard Cosell to Chris Chambliss, for his taciturn manner.
SINGER THROWING MACHINE Bill Singer's time as a pitcher in the major leagues, from 1964 to 1973, saw him compile a record of 89 wins and 90 losses. His nickname was a play on words with the Singer sewing machine.
SLAMMIN' SAMMY Sammy Sosa, former Cub hero, for his power feats.
SLICK Whitey Ford used a spitter to strike out Willie Mays in the 1964 All-Star Game. That was just one of the reasons for the Yankee star's nick-name.
SLIDING BILLY He played from 1888 to 1901, and in that time stole 912 bases. A 5'6", 165-pounder, William Robert ("Billy") Hamilton three years in a row stole over a hundred bases. His steals and his slides earned him his nickname. His reputation coupled with a .344 lifetime batting average was good enough to get him admitted to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1961.
SLIP PITCH A dropping pitch that comes toward the plate with off-speed velocity.
SLOW Joe Doyle, Highlanders, because of his time consuming pace.
SOLID CITIZENS The name Hall of Fame manager Joe McCarthy gave to players he relied on.
SOONER WITH SPOONER In 1954, Karl Benjamin Spooner, left-handed pitcher, joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. He pitched two complete games, yielding no runs and a total of only seven hits, and amazingly, he struck out a grand total of 27 batters. The Brooklyn fans switched from their traditional slogan of "Wait 'til next year" to one that had more immediate promise, "Sooner with Spooner." Sadly, as has occurred with so many baseball phenoms, Spooner soon faded. In 1955 he won eight games and lost six, and by 1956 he was through as a major leaguer.
SOPHOMORE JINX The tendency for some players to follow a good rookie season with a less-spectacular one.
SOUTHPAW To avoid the sun shining into the eyes of a batter during the afternoon, ball fields were built with center field due east of home plate. A right-handed pitcher's throwing hand would thus point north as he faced a batter. That was how a left-handed hurler became a "southpaw".
SPACE MAN Bill Lee, former pitcher, always was a bit "spacey" but he could pitch.
"SPAHN AND SAIN AND PRAY FOR RAIN" The Boston Braves of the late 1940's were a pretty successful baseball team. A large part of their success resulted from the efforts of pitchers Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain. In 1947 the dynamic duo accounted for 42 wins between them. The following year they won a total of 39 games and powered the Braves to the National League pennant. "There was more than Spahn and Sain," remembers former Braves traveling secretary Don Davidson. "There were a couple of guys named Bobby Hogue and Nelson Potter, but hardly anybody remembers them." The "Spahn and Sain" slogan was actually a throwback to "Tyler, James, and Rudolph"--a slogan of the 1914 "Miracle Braves." George Tyler, Bill James, and Dick Rudolph were the winning pitchers in 69 of the club's 94 victories. Day after day for 60 straight games, the trio alternated as pitchers for that 1914 Boston Braves team (see MIRACLE BRAVES).
SPALDEEN The name of the bouncing rubber ball that is part of the memory of most Americans is a shortened or" sweetened" form of Alfred Goodwill Spalding's name (see SPALDING).
SPALDING Alfred Goodwill Spalding (1850-1915) is a member of baseball's Hall of Fame. In 1871 he won 21 games. Then he went on to post records of 36-8, 41-15, 52-18, and 56-5. At the age of 26, in 1876, Spalding managed the Chicago White Stockings to the pennant and helped his own cause by winning 46 games. In 1880 he packed it in as an active major leaguer and founded a sporting goods firm that made a fortune--and made his name part of the language. His rigid specifications for the manufacture of baseballs gave stability and uniformity to the balls used in the sport up to that time. His name became a synonym for a baseball (see SPALDEEN).
SOFTBALL The sport was originally called kittenball when it was played indoors with an oversized baseball in 1895. Lewis Robert, a Minneapolis firefighter, is credited with making the first softball--a softer and larger version of the ball used in baseball. It is alleged that firehouse spare-time inspired Lewis to innovate what was at first an indoor game that was played on a field with a diamond about two-thirds the size of the normal baseball diamond. By the turn of the century, the sport had moved outdoors and had a distinctive rule requiring that pitchers throw underhand. In 1933 the sport was given a new name, "softball," and was a featured part of the Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago. Its new name came from the softness of the ball and indeed, there are today those who refer to baseball as "hardball," to distinguish the two sports.
SPLENDID SPLINTER He was also nicknamed the Thumper, because of the power with which he hit the ball, and the Kid, because of his tempestuous attitude--but his main nickname was perhaps the most appropriate. Ted Williams was one of the most splendid players who ever lived, and he could really "splinter" the ball. The handsome slugger compiled a lifetime batting average of .344 and a slugging percentage of .634. Williams blasted 521 career home runs, scored nearly 1,800 runs, and drove in over 1,800 runs. So keen was his batting eye that he walked over 2,000 times while striking out only 709 times. In 1941 he batted .406 - the last time any player hit .400 or better. One of the most celebrated moments in the career of the Boston Red Sox slugger took place in the 1946 All-Star Game. Williams came to bat against Rip Sewell and his celebrated "eephus" (blooper) pitch. Williams had already walked in the game and hit a home run. Sewell's pitch came to the plate in a high arc, and Williams actually trotted out to the pitch, bashing it into the right-field bullpen for a home run. "That was the first homer ever hit off the pitch," Sewell said later.
"The ball came to the plate in a twenty-foot arc," recalled Williams. "I didn't know whether I'd be able to get enough power into that kind of a pitch for a home run." There was no kind of pitch Williams couldn't hit for a home run (see EEPHUS PITCH).
In 2011, Harvey Frommer will be in his 36th 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 was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 20111. 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. Web: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frommer.
SHEA STADIUM On October 17, 1960, the National League awarded a New York City baseball franchise to a team that would be known as the Mets. That October day was the culmination of the efforts of a special Mayoral Committee appointed to find a way to return National League baseball to New York. Attorney William Shea headed the committee. The Mets' stadium, located in Flushing Meadows, Queens, near the site of the old World's Fair, is named for the man who was instrumental in acting as the godfather of the New York Mets.
"SHOELESS JOE" Joseph Jefferson Wofford Jackson was born to a poor family on July 16, 1889 in Greenville, South Carolina. School was never a part of his life for at the age of six he was already working in the cotton mills as a cleanup boy. By the time he was 13 he was laboring a dozen hours a day along with his father and brother. His sole escape from the back-breaking work, the din and dust of the mill, took place out in the grassy fields playing baseball. He was a natural right from the start, good enough to be noticed and recruited to play for the mill team organized by the company.
One hot summer day Jackson played the outfield wearing a new pair of shoes. They pinched his feet, so he took them off and played in his stocking feet. A sportswriter who saw what he did dubbed him "Shoeless Joe." The name stuck even though that was the only time Jackson is reported to have played 'shoeless.'
He despised the name for he felt it reinforced his country-bumpkin origins, the fact that he could not read nor write.
Perhaps that was why when he played for the Chicago White Sox after stints with the Philadelphia Athletics and Cleveland Indians, he wore alligator and patent leather shoes - the more expensive the better. It was if he was announcing to the world: "I am not a Shoeless Joe. I do wear shoes. And they cost a lot of money!"
He was the greatest ball player ever from South Carolina, one of the top players of all time. His lifetime batting average was .356, topped only by Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby.
Four times he batted over .370. Babe Ruth copied his swing claiming Jackson was the greatest hitter he ever saw. Ruth, Cobb, and Casey Stengel all placed him on their all-time, all star team. He was such a remarkable fielder that his glove was called "the place where triples go to die."
In the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown one can find Jackson's shoes. His life size photograph is there. But he is not there even though others with far less credentials and far more soiled reputations are. Shoeless Joe had to leave the game in disgrace, one of the members of the "Black Sox" accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.
He was asked under oath at trial:
"Did you do anything to throw those games?"
"No sir," was his response.
"Any game in the series?"
"Not a one," Jackson answered. "I didn't have an error or make no misplay."
In fact, Shoeless Joe was under-stating his accomplishments which included the only series home run, the highest batting average, the collecting of a record dozen hits, while committing no errors.
It took the jury a single ballot to acquit all eight accused players of the charges against them. But the very next day baseball's first commissioner - Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis - issued a verdict of his own. He banned all eight players from baseball for life.
Landis was brought into organized baseball in the fall of 1920 with a lifetime contract and a mandate to clean up the game using whatever methods he saw fit. He had the reputation of being a vindictive judge, a hanging judge - and he was all of that.
Every baseball commissioner since Landis has refused to act on "Shoeless Joe's behalf."
Commissioner Faye Vincent said: "I can't uncipher or decipher what took place back then. I have no intention of taking formal action."
Commissioner Bart Giammatti said: "I do not wish to play God with history. The Jackson case is best left to historical debate and analysis. I am not for re-instatement."
Public pressure keeps increasing year by year. But the ban still remains. It is a story that won't go away, like a riddle inside a jigsaw puzzle inside an enigma. It is a story about a great baseball injustice - - - a talented player caught at a crossroad in American history who became a victim, a scapegoat so that the sport of baseball could offer up a cleaner image.
SHOESTRING CATCH The grabbing of a fly ball by an outfielder just as it is about to hit the ground.
SHORT-HOP To grab a batted ball by charging in at it and seizing it before it bounces high.
SHORT PORCH The right field stands in the old Yankee Stadium.
SHOT HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD (DAT DAY; MIRACLE AT COOGAN'S BLUFF) On October 3, 1951, at 3:58 P.M. in the Polo Grounds in New York City, in the last game of the play-off's last inning, Bobby Thomson pounded a one-strike fastball thrown by Ralph Branca. The ball went out on a low and curving line and landed 315 feet away from home plate in the stands. The Polo Grounds exploded with frantic fans and excited ball players. On the radio, New York Giant announcer Russ Hodges screamed out eight times in a row, "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!" Not only had the Giants come from 131/2 games back in mid-August to this moment, they had beaten their arch-rivals, the great Brooklyn Dodgers, by scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. On the streets of New York City, the word went out. In Brooklyn there was sadness, and comedian Phil Foster referred to the time as "Dat Day" in his best alliterative Brooklynese. Others called it the Shot Heard 'Round the World, while Giant fans were content to savor the moment as the miracle that took place at Coogan's Bluff, the geographical region the Polo Grounds was located in.
SILENT BOB Name given to former Yankee star Bob Meusel because of his aloofness.
SILENT ONE Name given by Howard Cosell to Chris Chambliss, for his taciturn manner.
SINGER THROWING MACHINE Bill Singer's time as a pitcher in the major leagues, from 1964 to 1973, saw him compile a record of 89 wins and 90 losses. His nickname was a play on words with the Singer sewing machine.
SLAMMIN' SAMMY Sammy Sosa, former Cub hero, for his power feats.
SLICK Whitey Ford used a spitter to strike out Willie Mays in the 1964 All-Star Game. That was just one of the reasons for the Yankee star's nick-name.
SLIDING BILLY He played from 1888 to 1901, and in that time stole 912 bases. A 5'6", 165-pounder, William Robert ("Billy") Hamilton three years in a row stole over a hundred bases. His steals and his slides earned him his nickname. His reputation coupled with a .344 lifetime batting average was good enough to get him admitted to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1961.
SLIP PITCH A dropping pitch that comes toward the plate with off-speed velocity.
SLOW Joe Doyle, Highlanders, because of his time consuming pace.
SOLID CITIZENS The name Hall of Fame manager Joe McCarthy gave to players he relied on.
SOONER WITH SPOONER In 1954, Karl Benjamin Spooner, left-handed pitcher, joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. He pitched two complete games, yielding no runs and a total of only seven hits, and amazingly, he struck out a grand total of 27 batters. The Brooklyn fans switched from their traditional slogan of "Wait 'til next year" to one that had more immediate promise, "Sooner with Spooner." Sadly, as has occurred with so many baseball phenoms, Spooner soon faded. In 1955 he won eight games and lost six, and by 1956 he was through as a major leaguer.
SOPHOMORE JINX The tendency for some players to follow a good rookie season with a less-spectacular one.
SOUTHPAW To avoid the sun shining into the eyes of a batter during the afternoon, ball fields were built with center field due east of home plate. A right-handed pitcher's throwing hand would thus point north as he faced a batter. That was how a left-handed hurler became a "southpaw".
SPACE MAN Bill Lee, former pitcher, always was a bit "spacey" but he could pitch.
"SPAHN AND SAIN AND PRAY FOR RAIN" The Boston Braves of the late 1940's were a pretty successful baseball team. A large part of their success resulted from the efforts of pitchers Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain. In 1947 the dynamic duo accounted for 42 wins between them. The following year they won a total of 39 games and powered the Braves to the National League pennant. "There was more than Spahn and Sain," remembers former Braves traveling secretary Don Davidson. "There were a couple of guys named Bobby Hogue and Nelson Potter, but hardly anybody remembers them." The "Spahn and Sain" slogan was actually a throwback to "Tyler, James, and Rudolph"--a slogan of the 1914 "Miracle Braves." George Tyler, Bill James, and Dick Rudolph were the winning pitchers in 69 of the club's 94 victories. Day after day for 60 straight games, the trio alternated as pitchers for that 1914 Boston Braves team (see MIRACLE BRAVES).
SPALDEEN The name of the bouncing rubber ball that is part of the memory of most Americans is a shortened or" sweetened" form of Alfred Goodwill Spalding's name (see SPALDING).
SPALDING Alfred Goodwill Spalding (1850-1915) is a member of baseball's Hall of Fame. In 1871 he won 21 games. Then he went on to post records of 36-8, 41-15, 52-18, and 56-5. At the age of 26, in 1876, Spalding managed the Chicago White Stockings to the pennant and helped his own cause by winning 46 games. In 1880 he packed it in as an active major leaguer and founded a sporting goods firm that made a fortune--and made his name part of the language. His rigid specifications for the manufacture of baseballs gave stability and uniformity to the balls used in the sport up to that time. His name became a synonym for a baseball (see SPALDEEN).
SOFTBALL The sport was originally called kittenball when it was played indoors with an oversized baseball in 1895. Lewis Robert, a Minneapolis firefighter, is credited with making the first softball--a softer and larger version of the ball used in baseball. It is alleged that firehouse spare-time inspired Lewis to innovate what was at first an indoor game that was played on a field with a diamond about two-thirds the size of the normal baseball diamond. By the turn of the century, the sport had moved outdoors and had a distinctive rule requiring that pitchers throw underhand. In 1933 the sport was given a new name, "softball," and was a featured part of the Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago. Its new name came from the softness of the ball and indeed, there are today those who refer to baseball as "hardball," to distinguish the two sports.
SPLENDID SPLINTER He was also nicknamed the Thumper, because of the power with which he hit the ball, and the Kid, because of his tempestuous attitude--but his main nickname was perhaps the most appropriate. Ted Williams was one of the most splendid players who ever lived, and he could really "splinter" the ball. The handsome slugger compiled a lifetime batting average of .344 and a slugging percentage of .634. Williams blasted 521 career home runs, scored nearly 1,800 runs, and drove in over 1,800 runs. So keen was his batting eye that he walked over 2,000 times while striking out only 709 times. In 1941 he batted .406 - the last time any player hit .400 or better. One of the most celebrated moments in the career of the Boston Red Sox slugger took place in the 1946 All-Star Game. Williams came to bat against Rip Sewell and his celebrated "eephus" (blooper) pitch. Williams had already walked in the game and hit a home run. Sewell's pitch came to the plate in a high arc, and Williams actually trotted out to the pitch, bashing it into the right-field bullpen for a home run. "That was the first homer ever hit off the pitch," Sewell said later.
"The ball came to the plate in a twenty-foot arc," recalled Williams. "I didn't know whether I'd be able to get enough power into that kind of a pitch for a home run." There was no kind of pitch Williams couldn't hit for a home run (see EEPHUS PITCH).
In 2011, Harvey Frommer will be in his 36th 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 was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 20111. 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. Web: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frommer.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
From Acta Sports Publishers - Winners
"Traded" by Doug Decatur ($19.95,189 pages) is as its sub-title proclaims "Inside the Most Lopsided Trades In Baseball History." We are there for Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi, Rick Wise for Steve Carlton, Dave Kingman for Randy Stein and the worst of the worst Babe Ruth for cash. Loaded with insight, stats, concise reporting - if inside baseball is your game, this is the tome to treasure.
More limited in its scope but still a worthwhile read is "Go-Go to Glory" edited by Don Zminda ($19.95, 247 pages). The focus is the 1959 ChiSox - a team that featured speed and pitching, the peripatetic owner Bill Veeck and the brilliant manager Al Lopez and players like Luis Aparicio, Larry Doby, "Jungle Jim" Landis, Billy Pierce and Early Wynn.
"The Fielding Bible, Volume II" by John Dewan ($23.95, 400 pages) is a mother lode of facts and figures, analyses and observations - all focused on defense, an overlooked area of baseball efficiency and importance. The statistical sports analyst is at the top of his game in "The Fielding Bible, Volume II." HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
"After Many A Summer" by Robert E. Murphy (Union Square, $24.95,418 pages) is a book that has much content that is strangely familiar as it re-tells one more time the tale of the leave-taking of the Dodgers of Brooklyn and the Giants of Manhattan from their long time residence as baseball teams in the Big Apple.
For those with an interest in football (soccer), for those with an interest in a well told tale, "Carlo Ancelotti" by "Carlo Ancelotti" with Alessandro Alciato (Rizzoli New York, $25.00, 264 pages, 35 photographs) fits the bill. The former star player, the famed coach of top teams in Italy and England, the outspoken Ancelotti touches all bases in this illuminating autobiography. There is something to learn on each page about "the beautiful game" and the man some call "the ordinary genius." TOP DRAWER.
More limited in its scope but still a worthwhile read is "Go-Go to Glory" edited by Don Zminda ($19.95, 247 pages). The focus is the 1959 ChiSox - a team that featured speed and pitching, the peripatetic owner Bill Veeck and the brilliant manager Al Lopez and players like Luis Aparicio, Larry Doby, "Jungle Jim" Landis, Billy Pierce and Early Wynn.
"The Fielding Bible, Volume II" by John Dewan ($23.95, 400 pages) is a mother lode of facts and figures, analyses and observations - all focused on defense, an overlooked area of baseball efficiency and importance. The statistical sports analyst is at the top of his game in "The Fielding Bible, Volume II." HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
"After Many A Summer" by Robert E. Murphy (Union Square, $24.95,418 pages) is a book that has much content that is strangely familiar as it re-tells one more time the tale of the leave-taking of the Dodgers of Brooklyn and the Giants of Manhattan from their long time residence as baseball teams in the Big Apple.
For those with an interest in football (soccer), for those with an interest in a well told tale, "Carlo Ancelotti" by "Carlo Ancelotti" with Alessandro Alciato (Rizzoli New York, $25.00, 264 pages, 35 photographs) fits the bill. The former star player, the famed coach of top teams in Italy and England, the outspoken Ancelotti touches all bases in this illuminating autobiography. There is something to learn on each page about "the beautiful game" and the man some call "the ordinary genius." TOP DRAWER.
Baseball Names and How They Got That Way! - - S (Part I)
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, XV and all the others and wanted more, here is more, just a sampling. As always, reactions and suggestions always welcome. And bear in mind - - this is by no means a complete list.
SAD SAM JONES The former pitcher earned the nickname "Sad Sam" or "Sad Sam the Cemetery Man," for his somber demeanor, SAILOR BOB Bob Shawkey spent most of 1918 in the Navy as a yeoman petty officer aboard the battleship Arkansas.
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS Originally, during the Gay Nineties, the St. Louis National League baseball entry was known as the Browns. Then they were known as the Perfectos. That was a misnomer, for in the years 1892-99 they finished 12th three times, 11th three times, tenth once, ninth once, and eighth once. In 1899 their owner, Chris Von Der Ahe, decided that perhaps a new look in uniforms might help. The team was outfitted in flashy new fabric accentuated with red trim and red stockings. From the new look came the new name--The Cardinals.
SAN DIEGO PADRES For the Spanish word for priest, inspired by the padres of the Roman Catholic Mission San Diego de Alcala.
SANITARIES Athletic hose.
SATCHEL The immortal pitcher Leroy Paige received his nickname when he was seven years old. Back then he carried passengers' small bags, known as satchels, at the local railroad station in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama. Paige was a long-time star in the Negro Leagues - there are estimates that he pitched for 33 years and won more than 2,000 games. Traveling all over the world to play baseball - by car, by bus, by train, some day also by horse and carriage - wherever there was a game the lanky hurler was there. His nick-name came from the fact that most of those years he lived out of his "satchel" or suitcase. Paige was proud of his nick-name and even wore it on his uniform.
A bone-thin 6'3" with size 12 flat feet, he billed himself as "The World's Greatest Pitcher." Paige claimed that his real secret of success stemmed from the fact that "even though I got old, my arm stayed 19." He was vigorously opposed to exercise. "I believe in training," he joked, "by rising up and down gently from the bench." Paige's rules for successful living were: 1-Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood. 2-If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts. 3-Keep your juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move. 4-Go very gently on the vices such as carrying on in society - the social ramble ain't restful. 5-Avoid running at all times. 6-Don't look back, something might be gaining on you. Through all the long and difficult years in the Negro Leagues, Paige Hungered for a shot at the majors. The Cleveland Indians needed extra pitching and their owner Bill Veeck was interested in Paige. As the story goes, Veeck wanted to test Paige's control before signing him to a contract. Allegedly Veeck placed a cigarette on the ground - a simulation of home plate. Paige took aim. Five fastballs were fired -all but one sailed directly over the cigarette. Paige got his contract! On July 9, 1948, Leroy Robert Paige arrived on the major league baseball scene as a rookie pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. He gave his official age as "42???" to owner Bill Veeck. His exact age was always clouded in mystery and rarely did he answer questions about it. And when he did, he quipped: "Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter But he definitely was the oldest rookie ever to play in the majors.
On 1948, Satchel won six games lost only one, compiled a fine 2.48 earned run average and helped pitch the Indians to the pennant and World Series victory that year. Three years later Veeck was re-united with Paige this time with the St. Louis Browns. Satchel passed the time away relaxing in his own personal rocking chair in the bullpen when he was not pitching. There were appearances in the All-Star games of 1952 and 1953. And then he was done - for a time.
In 1965, a year that would have made him 59 years old based on his "official birthday" ( July 7, 1906 Mobile, Alabama) - he pitched three shutout innings for the Kansas City Athletics to become the oldest man to pitch in a major league game. It was the last time he took the mound. In 1971, on what he called the proudest day of his life, Leroy "Satchel" Paige was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was the first player ever elected from the Negro Leagues.
Satchel Paige passed away on June 8, 1982 in Kansas City, Missouri. But stories of what he said and did have grown through the years, as the man has become both a myth and a legend. It is like the big fish story - the size of the fish caught grows bigger each time the teller of the tale speaks.
Nevertheless, Paige had the right stuff, hyperbole notwithstanding. Satchel reportedly began his professional career in 1926 and was an immediate gate attraction with his dazzling variety of pitches, and words for every occasion. He played baseball year round, often pitching two games a day in two different cities in the Negro Leagues. Joining the Pittsburgh Crawfords during the early 1930's, Satch was 32-7 and 31-4 in 1932 and 1933, respectively. But his time with the team was always interrupted by salary disputes. In those instances, Paige would go on barnstorming gigs for more money and compete against all levels of competition including top major league players.
He played in the Dominican Republic and then Mexico, where he developed a sore arm. In 1938, he signed with the Kansas City Monarchs and his arm was better than ever.
With the Monarchs, Paige had his complete pitching arsenal on display. He had a wide breaking curve ball, and his famous "hesitation pitch" that came out of a windup that looked like slow motion. He also had a "bee-ball," a "jump-ball," a "trouble-ball," a "long-ball" and other pitches without names that he made up as he went along. Satchel pitched the Monarchs to four-straight Negro American League pennants (1939-42), accentuated by a clean sweep of the powerful Homestead Grays in the 1942 Negro League World Series. Satchel won three of the games in that series. In 1946, he helped pitch the Monarchs to their fifth pennant during his time with the team. Satchel also pitched in five East-West Black All-Star games.
In his time he graced, and dressed up, the rosters of the Birmingham Black Barons, the Baltimore Black Sox, the Cleveland Cubs, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the Kansas City Monarchs, the New York Black Yankees, the Memphis Red Sox, and the Philadelphia Stars.
His career spanned five decades. In his time he was acknowledged as the greatest pitcher in the history of the Negro Leagues. It was a time when he had a string of 64 consecutive scoreless innings, and a stretch of 21 straight wins. It was also a time when some saw Paige bring his outfielders in and have them sit behind the mound while he proceeded to strike out the side, and when some commented on how he intentionally walked the bases loaded so that he could pitch to Josh Gibson, black baseball's best hitter.
It was a time when there were the "out-of-thin-air-you-had-to-be-there-" stories: Paige and his habit of striking out the first nine batters he faced in exhibition games; Paige and his firing twenty straight pitches across a chewing gum wrapper - a very mini-home plate; Paige throwing so hard that the ball disappeared before it reached the catcher's mitt.
The man they called "World's Greatest Pitcher" had a lot to say about his craft.
"I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while I would toss one that ain't never been seen by this generation. Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don't move."
"They said I was the greatest pitcher they ever saw...I couldn't understand why they couldn't give me no justice."
Joe DiMaggio called him "the best and fastest pitcher I've ever faced."
SAY HEY Both a greeting and a nickname--and also a condition--this term belonged to Willie Mays. Regarded by many as the greatest player baseball has ever known (and in 1979, voted into the Hall of Fame), Mays pounded 660 homers and over 3,000 hits (better than a hit a game), scored over 2,000 runs, drew nearly 1,500 walks, drove in nearly 2,000 runs, and compiled a lifetime batting average of .302. The image of Mays in a Giants uniform stealing a base, hitting the ball out of the park, racing back to make a sensational catch running out from under his cap--all underscore the verve of the man they called the Say Hey Kid. (Say Hey Kid) Willie Howard Mays was born on May 6, 1931 in Westfield, Alabama. The New York Giants called him up on the 15th of May in 1951 from Minneapolis in the American Association. He was bating .477 after 35 games.
Garry Schumacher, publicist for the Giants at that time, recalled the first time he ever saw Mays. "The Giants were on their way from Chicago to Philadelphia to conclude the last three games of a road trip," Schumacher said. "I was by the front door of the Giants' office on Times Square. Suddenly, this kid comes in. There were always a lot of kids coming around; some of them wanted tickets and some wanted tryouts. He was carrying a few bats in one hand and a bag in the other that contained his glove and spikes. He was wearing the most unusual cap I ever saw, plaid colored. When I found out who he was, we bought him some clothes and then sent him to Philadelphia to join the club. He was wearing the new clothes when he left, but funny thing - he refused to take off that funny cap.
He made his major league debut with the Giants on May 25, 1951. But his start in the majors after just 116 minor leagues games was a shaky one. He was hitless in his first 12 at-bats, cried in the dugout and said, "I am not ready for this". He begged manager Leo Durocher to send him back down to the minors.
But "Leo the Lip" refused to listen to the pleas of the rookie center fielder just as another Giant manager John J. McGraw had refused to send a youthful Mel Ott to the minors.
"You're my center fielder as long as I am the manager of this team," Durocher said. "You're the best center fielder I have ever seen."
Mays' first home run was off the great Warren Spahn. He hit it over the roof of the Polo Grounds.
"We had a meeting of the pitchers," Spahn recalls. "We knew Mays was having trouble. I'll never forgive myself. We might have gotten rid of Willie forever if I'd only struck him out."
In Pittsburgh's old Forbes Field, Rocky Nelson blasted a drive 457 feet to deep dead center. Galloping back, Mays realized as his feet hit the warning track that the ball was hooking to his right side. The ball was sinking and Mays could not reach across his body to glove the drive. So just as the ball got to his level, Mays stuck out his bare hand and made the catch. It was an incredible feat.
Durocher told all the Giants to give Mays the silent treatment when he returned to the dugout. But Pittsburgh's General Manager Branch Ricky sent the Giant rookie a hastily written note: "That was the finest catch I have ever seen ... and the finest I ever expect to see".
There is that catch and so many others. There are also the images of Mays playing stickball in the streets of Harlem with neighborhood kids, running out from under his cap pursuing a fly ball, pounding one of his 660 career home runs, playing the game with a verve, a gusto, and an attitude that awed those who were around him.
"Willie could do everything from the day he joined the Giants," Durocher recalled.
"Everybody loved him," notes his former teammate Monte Irvin. "He was a rare talent. Having him on your team playing center field gave us confidence. We figured that if a ball stayed in the park, he could catch it."
Mays was The Natural. He led the NL in slugging percentage five times. He won the home run crown four times. Twice, he won the NL MVP Award. "He lit up a room when he came in," Durocher said. The superstar of superstars, the man they called the "Say Hey Kid" was on the scene for 22 major-league seasons. He is all over the record book and in the memory of so many baseball fans.
SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE This often-repeated question, used frequently in song and story, had its origins in the emotions of a little boy. After the 1919 Chicago "Black Sox" World Series scandal, a lad walked up to Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the accused players. The boy posed the above question to his idol (see BLACK SOX and SHOELESS JOE).
SCHONOZZ His given name was Ernesto Natali Lombardi, but all knew him as. Ernie. The Hall of Fame catcher had a big nose and liked to play bocci.
SCHOOLBOY WONDER Waite Hoyt made his major league debut in 1918 when he was a teenager. He struck out two of the three batters he faced.
SCOOTER, THE Phil Rizzuto pedaled about at shortstop for 13 years as a member of the New York Yankees. His small stature (5'6", 150 pounds) and his agile ways in the field earned him his nickname coined by Mel Allen the first time he saw the little man run he said, "Man, you're not running, your scootin'." (see "HOLY COW" ).
SCRAP IRON Former Houston player and current manager, Phil Garner, for his feisty ways.
SCRATCH FOR RUNS To have difficulty in scoring.
SCRATCH HIT A questionable hit that barely enables a runner to reach base safely.
SCREWBALL A seemingly straight pitch which unexpectedly swerves to the right (when thrown by a right-handed pitcher) or to the left (when thrown by a left-handed pitcher) (SCROOGIE)., Also oddball player.
SEATTLE MARINERS The franchise name reflects the nautical heritage of Washington State.
SECOND PLACE JOE Joe McCarthy's three straight second-place finishes prompted the nickname before the Yanks won four consecutive world championships, 936-39. The name was also used when he was manager of the Cubs and had some disappointing second place finishes.
SENATOR Steve Garvey projected his Mr. Clean image to the nation in a TV interview before the 1974 World Series when he explained that his nickname, Senator, referred to his post-baseball political aspirations.
SAD SAM JONES The former pitcher earned the nickname "Sad Sam" or "Sad Sam the Cemetery Man," for his somber demeanor, SAILOR BOB Bob Shawkey spent most of 1918 in the Navy as a yeoman petty officer aboard the battleship Arkansas.
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS Originally, during the Gay Nineties, the St. Louis National League baseball entry was known as the Browns. Then they were known as the Perfectos. That was a misnomer, for in the years 1892-99 they finished 12th three times, 11th three times, tenth once, ninth once, and eighth once. In 1899 their owner, Chris Von Der Ahe, decided that perhaps a new look in uniforms might help. The team was outfitted in flashy new fabric accentuated with red trim and red stockings. From the new look came the new name--The Cardinals.
SAN DIEGO PADRES For the Spanish word for priest, inspired by the padres of the Roman Catholic Mission San Diego de Alcala.
SANITARIES Athletic hose.
SATCHEL The immortal pitcher Leroy Paige received his nickname when he was seven years old. Back then he carried passengers' small bags, known as satchels, at the local railroad station in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama. Paige was a long-time star in the Negro Leagues - there are estimates that he pitched for 33 years and won more than 2,000 games. Traveling all over the world to play baseball - by car, by bus, by train, some day also by horse and carriage - wherever there was a game the lanky hurler was there. His nick-name came from the fact that most of those years he lived out of his "satchel" or suitcase. Paige was proud of his nick-name and even wore it on his uniform.
A bone-thin 6'3" with size 12 flat feet, he billed himself as "The World's Greatest Pitcher." Paige claimed that his real secret of success stemmed from the fact that "even though I got old, my arm stayed 19." He was vigorously opposed to exercise. "I believe in training," he joked, "by rising up and down gently from the bench." Paige's rules for successful living were: 1-Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood. 2-If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts. 3-Keep your juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move. 4-Go very gently on the vices such as carrying on in society - the social ramble ain't restful. 5-Avoid running at all times. 6-Don't look back, something might be gaining on you. Through all the long and difficult years in the Negro Leagues, Paige Hungered for a shot at the majors. The Cleveland Indians needed extra pitching and their owner Bill Veeck was interested in Paige. As the story goes, Veeck wanted to test Paige's control before signing him to a contract. Allegedly Veeck placed a cigarette on the ground - a simulation of home plate. Paige took aim. Five fastballs were fired -all but one sailed directly over the cigarette. Paige got his contract! On July 9, 1948, Leroy Robert Paige arrived on the major league baseball scene as a rookie pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. He gave his official age as "42???" to owner Bill Veeck. His exact age was always clouded in mystery and rarely did he answer questions about it. And when he did, he quipped: "Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter But he definitely was the oldest rookie ever to play in the majors.
On 1948, Satchel won six games lost only one, compiled a fine 2.48 earned run average and helped pitch the Indians to the pennant and World Series victory that year. Three years later Veeck was re-united with Paige this time with the St. Louis Browns. Satchel passed the time away relaxing in his own personal rocking chair in the bullpen when he was not pitching. There were appearances in the All-Star games of 1952 and 1953. And then he was done - for a time.
In 1965, a year that would have made him 59 years old based on his "official birthday" ( July 7, 1906 Mobile, Alabama) - he pitched three shutout innings for the Kansas City Athletics to become the oldest man to pitch in a major league game. It was the last time he took the mound. In 1971, on what he called the proudest day of his life, Leroy "Satchel" Paige was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was the first player ever elected from the Negro Leagues.
Satchel Paige passed away on June 8, 1982 in Kansas City, Missouri. But stories of what he said and did have grown through the years, as the man has become both a myth and a legend. It is like the big fish story - the size of the fish caught grows bigger each time the teller of the tale speaks.
Nevertheless, Paige had the right stuff, hyperbole notwithstanding. Satchel reportedly began his professional career in 1926 and was an immediate gate attraction with his dazzling variety of pitches, and words for every occasion. He played baseball year round, often pitching two games a day in two different cities in the Negro Leagues. Joining the Pittsburgh Crawfords during the early 1930's, Satch was 32-7 and 31-4 in 1932 and 1933, respectively. But his time with the team was always interrupted by salary disputes. In those instances, Paige would go on barnstorming gigs for more money and compete against all levels of competition including top major league players.
He played in the Dominican Republic and then Mexico, where he developed a sore arm. In 1938, he signed with the Kansas City Monarchs and his arm was better than ever.
With the Monarchs, Paige had his complete pitching arsenal on display. He had a wide breaking curve ball, and his famous "hesitation pitch" that came out of a windup that looked like slow motion. He also had a "bee-ball," a "jump-ball," a "trouble-ball," a "long-ball" and other pitches without names that he made up as he went along. Satchel pitched the Monarchs to four-straight Negro American League pennants (1939-42), accentuated by a clean sweep of the powerful Homestead Grays in the 1942 Negro League World Series. Satchel won three of the games in that series. In 1946, he helped pitch the Monarchs to their fifth pennant during his time with the team. Satchel also pitched in five East-West Black All-Star games.
In his time he graced, and dressed up, the rosters of the Birmingham Black Barons, the Baltimore Black Sox, the Cleveland Cubs, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the Kansas City Monarchs, the New York Black Yankees, the Memphis Red Sox, and the Philadelphia Stars.
His career spanned five decades. In his time he was acknowledged as the greatest pitcher in the history of the Negro Leagues. It was a time when he had a string of 64 consecutive scoreless innings, and a stretch of 21 straight wins. It was also a time when some saw Paige bring his outfielders in and have them sit behind the mound while he proceeded to strike out the side, and when some commented on how he intentionally walked the bases loaded so that he could pitch to Josh Gibson, black baseball's best hitter.
It was a time when there were the "out-of-thin-air-you-had-to-be-there-" stories: Paige and his habit of striking out the first nine batters he faced in exhibition games; Paige and his firing twenty straight pitches across a chewing gum wrapper - a very mini-home plate; Paige throwing so hard that the ball disappeared before it reached the catcher's mitt.
The man they called "World's Greatest Pitcher" had a lot to say about his craft.
"I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while I would toss one that ain't never been seen by this generation. Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don't move."
"They said I was the greatest pitcher they ever saw...I couldn't understand why they couldn't give me no justice."
Joe DiMaggio called him "the best and fastest pitcher I've ever faced."
SAY HEY Both a greeting and a nickname--and also a condition--this term belonged to Willie Mays. Regarded by many as the greatest player baseball has ever known (and in 1979, voted into the Hall of Fame), Mays pounded 660 homers and over 3,000 hits (better than a hit a game), scored over 2,000 runs, drew nearly 1,500 walks, drove in nearly 2,000 runs, and compiled a lifetime batting average of .302. The image of Mays in a Giants uniform stealing a base, hitting the ball out of the park, racing back to make a sensational catch running out from under his cap--all underscore the verve of the man they called the Say Hey Kid. (Say Hey Kid) Willie Howard Mays was born on May 6, 1931 in Westfield, Alabama. The New York Giants called him up on the 15th of May in 1951 from Minneapolis in the American Association. He was bating .477 after 35 games.
Garry Schumacher, publicist for the Giants at that time, recalled the first time he ever saw Mays. "The Giants were on their way from Chicago to Philadelphia to conclude the last three games of a road trip," Schumacher said. "I was by the front door of the Giants' office on Times Square. Suddenly, this kid comes in. There were always a lot of kids coming around; some of them wanted tickets and some wanted tryouts. He was carrying a few bats in one hand and a bag in the other that contained his glove and spikes. He was wearing the most unusual cap I ever saw, plaid colored. When I found out who he was, we bought him some clothes and then sent him to Philadelphia to join the club. He was wearing the new clothes when he left, but funny thing - he refused to take off that funny cap.
He made his major league debut with the Giants on May 25, 1951. But his start in the majors after just 116 minor leagues games was a shaky one. He was hitless in his first 12 at-bats, cried in the dugout and said, "I am not ready for this". He begged manager Leo Durocher to send him back down to the minors.
But "Leo the Lip" refused to listen to the pleas of the rookie center fielder just as another Giant manager John J. McGraw had refused to send a youthful Mel Ott to the minors.
"You're my center fielder as long as I am the manager of this team," Durocher said. "You're the best center fielder I have ever seen."
Mays' first home run was off the great Warren Spahn. He hit it over the roof of the Polo Grounds.
"We had a meeting of the pitchers," Spahn recalls. "We knew Mays was having trouble. I'll never forgive myself. We might have gotten rid of Willie forever if I'd only struck him out."
In Pittsburgh's old Forbes Field, Rocky Nelson blasted a drive 457 feet to deep dead center. Galloping back, Mays realized as his feet hit the warning track that the ball was hooking to his right side. The ball was sinking and Mays could not reach across his body to glove the drive. So just as the ball got to his level, Mays stuck out his bare hand and made the catch. It was an incredible feat.
Durocher told all the Giants to give Mays the silent treatment when he returned to the dugout. But Pittsburgh's General Manager Branch Ricky sent the Giant rookie a hastily written note: "That was the finest catch I have ever seen ... and the finest I ever expect to see".
There is that catch and so many others. There are also the images of Mays playing stickball in the streets of Harlem with neighborhood kids, running out from under his cap pursuing a fly ball, pounding one of his 660 career home runs, playing the game with a verve, a gusto, and an attitude that awed those who were around him.
"Willie could do everything from the day he joined the Giants," Durocher recalled.
"Everybody loved him," notes his former teammate Monte Irvin. "He was a rare talent. Having him on your team playing center field gave us confidence. We figured that if a ball stayed in the park, he could catch it."
Mays was The Natural. He led the NL in slugging percentage five times. He won the home run crown four times. Twice, he won the NL MVP Award. "He lit up a room when he came in," Durocher said. The superstar of superstars, the man they called the "Say Hey Kid" was on the scene for 22 major-league seasons. He is all over the record book and in the memory of so many baseball fans.
SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE This often-repeated question, used frequently in song and story, had its origins in the emotions of a little boy. After the 1919 Chicago "Black Sox" World Series scandal, a lad walked up to Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the accused players. The boy posed the above question to his idol (see BLACK SOX and SHOELESS JOE).
SCHONOZZ His given name was Ernesto Natali Lombardi, but all knew him as. Ernie. The Hall of Fame catcher had a big nose and liked to play bocci.
SCHOOLBOY WONDER Waite Hoyt made his major league debut in 1918 when he was a teenager. He struck out two of the three batters he faced.
SCOOTER, THE Phil Rizzuto pedaled about at shortstop for 13 years as a member of the New York Yankees. His small stature (5'6", 150 pounds) and his agile ways in the field earned him his nickname coined by Mel Allen the first time he saw the little man run he said, "Man, you're not running, your scootin'." (see "HOLY COW" ).
SCRAP IRON Former Houston player and current manager, Phil Garner, for his feisty ways.
SCRATCH FOR RUNS To have difficulty in scoring.
SCRATCH HIT A questionable hit that barely enables a runner to reach base safely.
SCREWBALL A seemingly straight pitch which unexpectedly swerves to the right (when thrown by a right-handed pitcher) or to the left (when thrown by a left-handed pitcher) (SCROOGIE)., Also oddball player.
SEATTLE MARINERS The franchise name reflects the nautical heritage of Washington State.
SECOND PLACE JOE Joe McCarthy's three straight second-place finishes prompted the nickname before the Yanks won four consecutive world championships, 936-39. The name was also used when he was manager of the Cubs and had some disappointing second place finishes.
SENATOR Steve Garvey projected his Mr. Clean image to the nation in a TV interview before the 1974 World Series when he explained that his nickname, Senator, referred to his post-baseball political aspirations.
In 2011, Harvey Frommer will be in his 36th 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 was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION (Abrams) is set for March 2011.
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
Saturday, November 20, 2010
BOOK REVIEW: “Bill James Handbook” and Others for Hot Stove Reading
A sure sign of the baseball off-season is all of the moves – intelligent and ridiculous that take place. Case in point ESPN’s removal of two Hall of Fame broadcasters – Joe Morgan and Jon Miller. With all the C- types calling and analyzing sporting events in abundance (even on ESPN) Miller and Morgan were A+. Experienced, insightful, easy to love. Sunday nights during the baseball season will not be the same without them.
But we still have the worthy Bill James plying his trade. The newest “Bill James Handbook” (Acta Sports, $24.95, 500 pages plus, paper) is the essential annual wrap on all things baseball. James delivers the Fielding Bible award, Baseball Park indices, hitter and pitcher projections. A mother lode of national pastime material – go for it.
From Skyhorse Publishing comes yet another book on the old Yankee Stadium – “Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories” edited by Alex Belth ($19.95, 232 pages) with many of the usual suspects recounting their fav “House That Ruth Built” memories.
Still is a Yankee frame of mind is “Perfect” by Lew Paper (NAL, trade paperback reprint, $15.00, 421 pages). Larsen’s gem lives again in these pages.
“Rise of a Dynasty” ($24.95,293 pages) is another worthy from NAL. Penned by the esteemed Bill Reynolds, its focus is on the winning of the first banner by the 1957 Boston Celtics. Rewarding reading.
“The Greatest Game” by Todd Denault (McClelland and Stewart, $29.99, 336 pages) is nostalgic sports history at its best - -December 31, 1975, the Montreal Canadiens at the top o their game then matched against the touring Central Red Army team, most powerful entry from Russia. The game ended in a 3-3 tie, but more important triggered hockey’s global expansion. Must Read
For those with an interest in football (soccer), for those with an interest in a well told tale, “Carlo Ancelotti” by “Carlo Ancelotti” with Alessandro Alciato (Rizzoli New York, $25.00, 264 pages, 35 photographs) fits the bill. The former star player, the famed coach of top teams in Italy and England, the outspoken Ancelotti touches all bases in this illuminating autobiography. There is something to learn on each page about “the beautiful game” and the man some call “the ordinary genius.” TOP DRAWER
Harvey Frommer is in his 34th 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 (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.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.
But we still have the worthy Bill James plying his trade. The newest “Bill James Handbook” (Acta Sports, $24.95, 500 pages plus, paper) is the essential annual wrap on all things baseball. James delivers the Fielding Bible award, Baseball Park indices, hitter and pitcher projections. A mother lode of national pastime material – go for it.
From Skyhorse Publishing comes yet another book on the old Yankee Stadium – “Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories” edited by Alex Belth ($19.95, 232 pages) with many of the usual suspects recounting their fav “House That Ruth Built” memories.
Still is a Yankee frame of mind is “Perfect” by Lew Paper (NAL, trade paperback reprint, $15.00, 421 pages). Larsen’s gem lives again in these pages.
“Rise of a Dynasty” ($24.95,293 pages) is another worthy from NAL. Penned by the esteemed Bill Reynolds, its focus is on the winning of the first banner by the 1957 Boston Celtics. Rewarding reading.
“The Greatest Game” by Todd Denault (McClelland and Stewart, $29.99, 336 pages) is nostalgic sports history at its best - -December 31, 1975, the Montreal Canadiens at the top o their game then matched against the touring Central Red Army team, most powerful entry from Russia. The game ended in a 3-3 tie, but more important triggered hockey’s global expansion. Must Read
For those with an interest in football (soccer), for those with an interest in a well told tale, “Carlo Ancelotti” by “Carlo Ancelotti” with Alessandro Alciato (Rizzoli New York, $25.00, 264 pages, 35 photographs) fits the bill. The former star player, the famed coach of top teams in Italy and England, the outspoken Ancelotti touches all bases in this illuminating autobiography. There is something to learn on each page about “the beautiful game” and the man some call “the ordinary genius.” TOP DRAWER
Harvey Frommer is in his 34th 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 (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.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Baseball Names and How They Got That Way! - - R
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, XV and all the others and wanted more, here is more, just a sampling. As always, reactions and suggestions always welcome. And bear in mind - - this is by no means a complete list.
RAGIN’ CAJUN Ron Guidry, for temperament and Louisiana roots.
RAGS Dave Righetti, abbreviation for his name
RAJAH, THE Baseball Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby had a lifetime batting average of .358 and was one of the few men in baseball history to bat .400 three times. Hornsby gained his nickname through what some claimed was a contemptuous pronunciation of his first name—a less-than-appealing reference to his petulant personality. One of the greatest hitters of all time, Hornsby would not go to the movies or read newspapers for fear of straining his keen vision and thus marring his ability to select the right pitches to swing at. He was a regal and special talent and personality.
RAPID ROBERT Hall of Famer Bob Feller pitched for the Cleveland Indians for 18 seasons, winning 266 games. In his major league debut, on August 23, 1936, the Van Meter, lowa, farm boy, then 17 years old, struck out the first eight men to face him and then seven more, for a total of 15—one short of the then-league record. The blazing speed and power he was able to put on his fastball earned him his nickname. The 12 one-hitters and three no-hitters that Feller recorded in his career helped earn him his reputation as one of baseball's premier hurlers.
READING RIFLE, THE Carl Furillo played 15 years for the Dodgers and for most of those years was a virtual fixture in right field. He was born in Stony Creek Mills, Pennsylvania, close to Reading, and this, coupled with the power of his throwing arm, earned him his nickname. He was also known as Skoonj, a corruption of the word scungilli, which was a favorite dish of the Italian-American player.
RED ROOSTER Doug Rader, for red hair and rooster-like behavior.
REG-GER-00 name given by Howard Cosell to Reggie Jackson, an endearing reference.
RHINO Roy Hitt, a squat, 5-10, 200-pound pitcher for Cincinnati in the early 1900s, his shape reminded people of a rhinoceros
ROAD GRAYS Away uniform, non white these days.
ROAD RUNNER II Even nicknames have been protected by the law. The Atlanta Braves signed an agreement with Warner Brothers that granted the Braves the right to call one of their baseball players by this name after the cartoon character. The agreement made it illegal for any other athlete to use the name.
ROCKET Roger Clemens, for the speed and power of his fastball.
ROOF SHOT Home run that lands in the upper deck of a ballpark.
ROOT Yankee owner Jake Ruppert's way of (mis)pronouncing Babe Ruth’s surname.
RUBBERARM As a starter and reliever, 1915-1919, Alan Russell never turned his back on a chance to pitch.
RUPPERT RIFLE The Yankees in owner Jake Ruppert's tenure.
RUTHVILE Yankee Stadium beachers in right-center where Babe Ruth hit home runs
RHUBARD Noisy or heated argument on the field.
ROCK
Tim Raines, for his rock-solid build and dependability. Earl Averill earned this nickname for consistent play and a solid physical build. "Popeye," "Rockhead were other Averill nicknames for his physical appearance.ROLAIDS RELIEF MAN AWARD given to a relief pitcher in each league for outstanding performance; sponsored by Rolaids since 1976.
"ROOTING FOR THE NEW YORK YANKEES IS LIKE ROOTING FOR GENERAL MOTORS" During the 1950's the New York Yankees, powered by Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto, Allie Reynolds, Jerry Coleman, Yogi Berra, Eddie Lopat, Elston Howard, Bill Skowron, and others, won eight World Series. They seemed to get better, to acquire more and more talent each year, to win with amazing regularity—even monotony. This line attributed to an anti-Yankee—and perhaps an anti-corporate Giant— fan, underscored the mechanical, profitable winning ways of the New York team.
RUBE Rube Waddell earned the nickname "Rube" because he was a big, fresh kid, country kid as a rookie. That was a term used to refer to farmboys. The lefthanded hurler went on to become a Hall of Famer.
THE RUNNING REDBIRD Lou Brock earned this for his base stealing skills as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.
THE RYAN EXPRESS Nolan Ryan, star fastballer picked up the nickname from a movie of that name in his era. Strong fingers and wrists were part of the reason for Ryan's great success. A tremendous work ethic was another. Nolan had 992,040 votes to rank first among all pitchers on the All-Century team. He was followed by Sandy Koufax (970,434), Cy Young (867,523), Roger Clemens (601,244), Bob Gibson (582,031). That's elite company. One can only wonder what went through Nolan's mind out there on the field next to Bob Gibson, Hank Aaron, and Sandy Koufax. Aaron was one of Ryan's idols in his growing up years, and Koufax was a pitcher he truly admired.
"One Sunday between my junior and senior years in high school we went to see the Houston Colt .45's play the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sandy Koufax was pitching, and I was a big Koufax fan. It was the first time I had ever seen Sandy pitch. I was truly amazed at how fast he was and how good a curveball he had. I think he was the most overpowering pitcher I had ever seen."
The all time strikeout record belongs to Nolan now. But once upon a time, and for a long period, it belonged to Walter Johnson who finished in sixth-place in the voting for pitchers with 479,279 votes.
One day early in the 1969 season, Nolan was sitting in the Mets' dugout when Jim Bunning recorded his 2,500th strikeout. He asked Tom Seaver what the all-time record for strikeouts was and was told that it was 3,508 and held by Walter Johnson.
"That Johnson record will probably stand forever," Ryan told Seaver. Baseball fans know it didn't. Nolan broke it, and is the all-time strikeout leader with 5,714. That Ryan record will probably stand forever, as will a few other records Nolan picked up along the way.
He holds the record for most strikeouts in a major league season with 383, which he set while playing for the Angels in 1973. He struck out 100 in a season 24 times, another record. He also set the record for most consecutive seasons with 100 or more strikeouts, doing it 23 time in a row. He also holds the record for most career no-hitters with seven.
RYNO Ryne Sandberg, former star of the Chicago Cubs, an abbreviation of his given name and an acknowledgment of his grit.
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
"Bill James Handbook" and Others for Hot Stove Reading
BOOK REVIEW
A sure sign of the baseball off-season is all of the moves intelligent and ridiculous that take place. Case in point ESPN's removal of two Hall of Fame broadcasters Joe Morgan and Jon Miller. With all the C- types calling and analyzing sporting events in abundance (even on ESPN) Miller and Morgan were A+. Experienced, insightful, easy to love. Sunday nights during the baseball season will not be the same without them.
But we still have the worthy Bill James plying his trade. The newest "Bill James Handbook" (Acta Sports, $24.95, 500 pages plus, paper) is the essential annual wrap on all things baseball. James delivers the Fielding Bible award, Baseball Park indices, hitter and pitcher projections. A mother lode of national pastime material go for it.
From Skyhorse Publishing comes yet another book on the old Yankee Stadium "Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories" edited by Alex Belth ($19.95, 232 pages) with many of the usual suspects recounting their fav "House That Ruth Built" memories.
Still is a Yankee frame of mind is "Perfect" by Lew Paper (NAL, trade paperback reprint, $15.00, 421 pages). Larsen's gem lives again in these pages.
"Rise of a Dynasty" ($24.95,293 pages) is another worthy from NAL. Penned by the esteemed Bill Reynolds, its focus is on the winning of the first banner by the 1957 Boston Celtics. Rewarding reading.
"The Greatest Game" by Todd Denault (McClelland and Stewart, $29.99, 336 pages) is nostalgic sports history at its best - -December 31, 1975, the Montreal Canadiens at the top o their game then matched against the touring Central Red Army team, most powerful entry from Russia. The game ended in a 3-3 tie, but more important triggered hockey's global expansion. Must Read
For those with an interest in football (soccer), for those with an interest in a well told tale, "Carlo Ancelotti" by "Carlo Ancelotti" with Alessandro Alciato (Rizzoli New York, $25.00, 264 pages, 35 photographs) fits the bill. The former star player, the famed coach of top teams in Italy and England, the outspoken Ancelotti touches all bases in this illuminating autobiography. There is something to learn on each page about "the beautiful game" and the man some call "the ordinary genius." TOP DRAWER
Harvey Frommer is in his 34th 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 (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.
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
A sure sign of the baseball off-season is all of the moves intelligent and ridiculous that take place. Case in point ESPN's removal of two Hall of Fame broadcasters Joe Morgan and Jon Miller. With all the C- types calling and analyzing sporting events in abundance (even on ESPN) Miller and Morgan were A+. Experienced, insightful, easy to love. Sunday nights during the baseball season will not be the same without them.
But we still have the worthy Bill James plying his trade. The newest "Bill James Handbook" (Acta Sports, $24.95, 500 pages plus, paper) is the essential annual wrap on all things baseball. James delivers the Fielding Bible award, Baseball Park indices, hitter and pitcher projections. A mother lode of national pastime material go for it.
From Skyhorse Publishing comes yet another book on the old Yankee Stadium "Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories" edited by Alex Belth ($19.95, 232 pages) with many of the usual suspects recounting their fav "House That Ruth Built" memories.
Still is a Yankee frame of mind is "Perfect" by Lew Paper (NAL, trade paperback reprint, $15.00, 421 pages). Larsen's gem lives again in these pages.
"Rise of a Dynasty" ($24.95,293 pages) is another worthy from NAL. Penned by the esteemed Bill Reynolds, its focus is on the winning of the first banner by the 1957 Boston Celtics. Rewarding reading.
"The Greatest Game" by Todd Denault (McClelland and Stewart, $29.99, 336 pages) is nostalgic sports history at its best - -December 31, 1975, the Montreal Canadiens at the top o their game then matched against the touring Central Red Army team, most powerful entry from Russia. The game ended in a 3-3 tie, but more important triggered hockey's global expansion. Must Read
For those with an interest in football (soccer), for those with an interest in a well told tale, "Carlo Ancelotti" by "Carlo Ancelotti" with Alessandro Alciato (Rizzoli New York, $25.00, 264 pages, 35 photographs) fits the bill. The former star player, the famed coach of top teams in Italy and England, the outspoken Ancelotti touches all bases in this illuminating autobiography. There is something to learn on each page about "the beautiful game" and the man some call "the ordinary genius." TOP DRAWER
Harvey Frommer is in his 34th 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 (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.
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
Monday, November 01, 2010
BOOK REVIEW "Glory In The Fall," "When the Game Changed" and More . . .
Any book with the name Peter Golenbock on it has a special quality to it and "Glory In The Fall" is no exception (Union Square/Sterling, $22.95, 406 pages). The prolific Golenbock edited this collection of riveting reads by Roger Kahn, Eliot Asinof, Peter Gammons, Jim Murray and others on the greatest moments in World Series history. Timely, worth the price, historical and deserving of place on your sports bookshelf, "Glory In The Fall" homers.
Another worthy tome is "When the Game Changed" by George Castle (Lyons Press, $24.95, 327 pages). It is what the author calls "an oral history of baseball's true golden age." I would argue with him over that label but not over the contents of his book. Castle gives full disclosure acknowledging that some of his "testimony" goes back as far as 1994. "When the Game Changed" has a decided Chicago flavor Ferguson Jenkins, Bruce Sutter, Lou Piniella, to name a few. Highly recommended reading a time machine of a book.
"Jackie's Gift" by Sharon Robinson illustrated by E.B. Lewis (Viking, $16.99,coffee table sized and geared to Ages 3-5) is a grand slammer functioning as it does as a true story of Christmas, Hanukkah and Jackie Robinson. The author, the daughter of the man who broke baseball's color line, tells the story of her father getting ready for his first Christmas in Brooklyn in a house on Tilden Avenue that I knew well.
A couple of doors away from the Robinsons were the Satlows who befriended the new family on the block against the prejudice of other neighbors. To repay the kindness of that family, Jackie Robinson bought them a Christmas tree only to learn the Satlows didn't celebrate Christmas because they were Jewish. The Robinsons and the Satlows continue to maintain a lifelong relationship.That is the slim plot line of a book that is just perfect for the holiday season, one carefully crafted in its writing and expertly illustrated. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
WORTH CHECKING OUT:
"Irish Thunder" by Bob Halloran (Lyons Press, $24.95, 296 pages) is as its sub-title proclaims about boxer Mickey Ward's hard life and times.
"Staubach" by Carlton Stowers (Triumph, $24.95, 256 pages) is an depth look at the life and times of the Hall of Fame quarterback.
"A Passion to Win" by Lou Nanne with Jim Bruton (Triumph, $24.95, 296 pages) is the in depth autobiography of the celebrated hockey icon in his various and highly successful roles on and off the rink.
And also from Triumph "You Can't Catch Sunshine" by Don Maynard and Matthew Shepatin is all about the noted wide receiver and Hall of Famer.
Harvey Frommer is in his 34th 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 (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.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.
Another worthy tome is "When the Game Changed" by George Castle (Lyons Press, $24.95, 327 pages). It is what the author calls "an oral history of baseball's true golden age." I would argue with him over that label but not over the contents of his book. Castle gives full disclosure acknowledging that some of his "testimony" goes back as far as 1994. "When the Game Changed" has a decided Chicago flavor Ferguson Jenkins, Bruce Sutter, Lou Piniella, to name a few. Highly recommended reading a time machine of a book.
"Jackie's Gift" by Sharon Robinson illustrated by E.B. Lewis (Viking, $16.99,coffee table sized and geared to Ages 3-5) is a grand slammer functioning as it does as a true story of Christmas, Hanukkah and Jackie Robinson. The author, the daughter of the man who broke baseball's color line, tells the story of her father getting ready for his first Christmas in Brooklyn in a house on Tilden Avenue that I knew well.
A couple of doors away from the Robinsons were the Satlows who befriended the new family on the block against the prejudice of other neighbors. To repay the kindness of that family, Jackie Robinson bought them a Christmas tree only to learn the Satlows didn't celebrate Christmas because they were Jewish. The Robinsons and the Satlows continue to maintain a lifelong relationship.That is the slim plot line of a book that is just perfect for the holiday season, one carefully crafted in its writing and expertly illustrated. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
WORTH CHECKING OUT:
"Irish Thunder" by Bob Halloran (Lyons Press, $24.95, 296 pages) is as its sub-title proclaims about boxer Mickey Ward's hard life and times.
"Staubach" by Carlton Stowers (Triumph, $24.95, 256 pages) is an depth look at the life and times of the Hall of Fame quarterback.
"A Passion to Win" by Lou Nanne with Jim Bruton (Triumph, $24.95, 296 pages) is the in depth autobiography of the celebrated hockey icon in his various and highly successful roles on and off the rink.
And also from Triumph "You Can't Catch Sunshine" by Don Maynard and Matthew Shepatin is all about the noted wide receiver and Hall of Famer.
Harvey Frommer is in his 34th 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 (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.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.
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