Has It Really Been a Yankee Century?

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Has It Really Been a Yankee Century?
New Book Chronicles One of Sport’s Most Storied Teams

"Yankee fans who can't learn enough about their favorite team will think they died and went to heaven with all that Frommer offers on each page."
—Publishers Weekly

In the world of politics, the term is “polarizing.” It’s used for people and organizations that evoke strong feelings, both positive and negative. If you looked up that word in a sports dictionary, however, you’d find a picture of The New York Yankees. No other team in Sport is more simultaneously loved and hated than the embattled Yanks. But by the same token, no other team is more storied, more celebrated, or more woven into the fabric of American culture than the Bronx Bombers.

As far as baseball is concerned, the last hundred years have truly been a Yankee Century. So claims Harvey Frommer, author of Yankee Century and Beyond: A Celebration of the First Hundred Plus Years of Baseball’s Greatest Team (ISBN: 978-1-4022-1002-0; November, 2007; $17.00 US / $22.00 CAN).

Yankee Century captures 106 years of Yankee life in reflections, stats, facts, and historic images. From their beginning as the New York Highlanders, playing in Manhattan's Hilltop Park in 1903, to reigning over Major League Baseball as it entered a new millennium—with World Series Championships in '96, '98, '99 and 2000—the Yankees represent a century-long legacy of triumphs and defeats, legends and lore, as an enduring symbol of America's favorite pastime.

More than just an atlas of statistics, Yankee Century contains reflections, quotes and profiles from individuals who are at the heart of the Yankee Mystique. Personalities include: Mel Allen, Yogi Berra, Chris Chambliss, Don Larsen, and Bob Sheppard. It also includes tributes to the greats: From Mickey Mantle to Don Mattingly, Vic Raschi to Allie Reynolds and Joltin' Joe DiMaggio to Derek Jeter.

Destined to become the defining chronicle of the Yankees’ first hundred years, Yankee Century and Beyond is a must-have collector’s volume not only for Yankee fans, but for anyone who appreciates the history and relevance of American Sport.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Harvey Frommer is a noted sports journalist and historian, the author of thirty-eight books on sports, including Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball and The New York Yankee Encyclopedia, as well as autobiographies of legends Nolan Ryan, Tony Dorsett and Red Holzman. He has also written, along with his wife, hundreds of articles for newspapers, magazines and on the internet.

Frommer is a sought after public speaker, and a regular on radio and television sports shows. He is a professor at Dartmouth college and a long time Yankee fan who wrote for Yankees Magazine for sixteen years.

Yankee Century Cover

Yankee Century Cover

HOLY COW! REMEMBERING PHIL RIZZUTO

(Today's Rizzuto moment (courtesy of Phil Doherty) is from September 14, 1977 inthe midst of yet anotherheated pennant race with Boston. Here Phil's "Holy Cow" celebrates Reggiebeating Reggie-Jackson vs. Cleveland. WINS RadioClick here:

SCOOTER MOMENT

Back in the late 1980s I was working with Red Holzman on his autobiography "RED ON RED."and having a ball. He mentioned that during WW II he had become friends with Phil Rizzuto. They both were athletes, both originally from Brooklyn. Red and his wife Selma were invited to dinner with Phil and his wife Cora.

Red has his usual scotch or two to start things off. Then he asked for the menu and learned that it would be tomato juice, tomato soup, pasta with tomato sauce.

"And for dessert ­ tomato pie," Red smiled.
'No," Phil said, "huckleberry pie, you huckleberry!"

Under ordinary circumstances Red Holzman , lover of food that he was, might have left the room. But he dearly loved Phil Rizzuto. "That little guy," Red told me, "was one my favorite all time. Just a lovely and decent man."

Now with the passing of "the Scooter," it seems there are hundreds of thousands who shared the same feelings about him, including me.

I was at Yankee Stadium, hungry, with my tray of food in the press room restaurant, if one can call it that. Full house. Phil Rizzuto was there. He gestured that I come over and arranged for another chair at his table so that I could sit and eat. Kindness to a guy he barely knew.

Casey Stengel who rejected the 16-year-old Rizzuto at a Brooklyn Dodger tryout told him that he was too small, too skinny and that he should get a job shining shoes. Later Casey Stengel said: "He's the greatest shortstop I've ever seen. Honus Wagner was a better hitter, but I've seen this kid make plays Wagner never did."

The Dodgers turned him down. The Giants turned him down. But the Yankees did not. Ed Barrow said, "His signing cost me fifteen cents, ten cents for postage and five cents for a cup of coffee we gave him the day he worked out at the Stadium."

As a minor leaguer, the young Rizzuto was knocked down a couple of times by lightning, triggering some of his fears and superstitions like closing his eyes when passing a cemetery to insure getting a hit that day. He always stepped out of bed on the same side, always avoiding stepping on the baselines, was always on guard against insects who he feared. All through a Yankee 19-day winning streak, he kept a large wad of gum on the top of his cap. The smell got so bad, nobody would come near him on the field.

In 1941, Philip Francis Rizzuto replaced Frank Crosetti at shortstop for the Yankees and batted .307. "The Scooter," one of the littlest Yankees went on to be durable, driven, the glue on the Yankee teams he played on for 13 years that won nine pennants and seven World Series.

In what were the original "Subway Series" games for fans but bus rides for most players, the team bus of the Yankees in the 1952 World Series had a police escort to and from Yankee Stadium to Ebbets Field. At one moment a red sports car attached itself to the cavalcade going to the Stadium. A motorcycle cop pulled alongside the flashy auto set to shoo the driver away. It was Phil Rizzuto who had come along for the ride from his home in New Jersey.

Former Yankee batboy Joe Carrierri mused: "Phil Rizzuto was my favorite player. At one point I became his secretary. He would get hundreds of letters every day. He would ask me to answer them so I would take them home and send a postcard with his signature engraved on it just so the good will public relations kept going."

Down the home stretch of the 1956 season the Yankees picked up outfielder Enos Slaughter. They asked Rizzuto to go over the Post season roster with management at the Stadium to find the player to cut to make room for the ex-Cardinal. Each player the little shortstop suggested be cut, management gave reasons why that player should stay. On August 25, 1956, Rizzuto was given his release by the Yankees. The only expendable Yankee was the little shortstop.

Being released in Rizzuto's phrase "was like the end of the world" for him. But he picked himself up and began another career from 1957-1996 as a Yankee broadcaster. A natural at it, he spun the tales of Yankee baseball in a voice punctuated by Brooklynese. "He used to drive me crazy," his WPIX-TV director Don Carney said, his talking about people's birthdays, Italian food or some restaurant or who got married. Once he announced a funeral. He used to take off the 8th and 9th innings, saying he had to go to the bathroom. And that was it. Gone. One of the greatest turnarounds in the history of baseball was when Rizzuto returned around on the George Washington Bridge and came back to the Stadium to do extra innings. He was afraid of lightning. I used to record giant lightning flashes, and before a storm, I'd get out those tapes and scare him half to death.

One of his most famous calls was on WCBS radio, the Roger Maris 61st Home Run:
"They're standing, waiting to see if Maris is gonna hit Number Sixty-one. We've only got a handful of people sitting out in left field," Rizzuto continued but in right field, man, it's hogged out there. And they're standing up. Here's the windup, the pitch to Roger. Way outside, ball one...And the fans are starting to boo. Low, ball two. That one was in the dirt. And the boos get louder...Two balls, no strikes on Roger Maris. Here's the windup. Fastball, hit deep to right! This could be it!

"Way back there! Holy Cow, he did it! Sixty-one for Maris! And look at the fight for that ball out there! Holy cow, what a shot! Another standing ovation for Maris, and they're still fighting for that ball out there, climbing over each other's backs."

"I knew," the Scooter said, "every nook and cranny at Yankee Stadium, and we had the fans behind us. Being from New York, it meant a lot for me to play in my hometown."

It meant a lot for all of us to have Phil Rizzuto.

Check Out The NY Post Site

Or the newspaper as you can read about everyone's favorite sports author.

AUGUST 1927: THE NEW YORK YANKEES

(An excerpt from FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING: BABE RUTH, LOU GEHRIG AND THE GREATEST TEAM IN BASEBALL HISTORY, THE 1927 NEW YORK YANKEES to be published fall 2007).

The 1927 Yankees were an august presence throughout Major League Baseball as they began the eighth month of the year with a record of 73 wins just 23 losses and a gaudy .730 winning percentage.

Departing New York City on August 8th, Murderer's Row embarked on its most grueling stretch of the 1927 schedule: Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis. Back in New York on the 31st for one game against the Red Sox. Then they would take leave of the Big Apple again for seven more games in Philadelphia and Boston. Talk about living out of suitcases.

Hod Lisenbee, a 28-year-old rookie Washington pitcher from Clarksville, Tennessee, was having a season against the vaunted Yanks. On August 11, the submariner pitched a beauty, defeating the team from the Bronx, 3-2 in 11 innings. It was his fifth consecutive triumph over New York. That 1927 season 22 different pitchers won games against the Yankees, but no one had the success Horace Milton Lisenbee had who finished in 1927 with an 18-9 record including four shutouts for the 3rd-place Senators. He never, however, had another winning season.

Wilcy Moore pushed his record to 12-5 on August 13 in Washington nipping the home team 6-3. A wonder of wonders on the Yankee pitching staff he was almost untouchable away from Yankee Stadium where he would post a 1.77 ERA limiting the opposition to a .217 batting average. With the magnificent Moore on the mound as starter/reliever, the Yankees had a 36-13-1 record in 1927.

He was called a lot of names including the "Ambulance Man" for all the emergency work he performed out of the Yankee bullpen. Dubbed "Doc" by sportswriters, one scribe said: "He specializes in treating ailing ball games and putting them back in a healthy condition."
The best rookie in the league, the best relief pitcher in baseball, Moore's strong suit was his coolness under pressure. And, of course, that deadly sinkerball. Inducing mostly ground balls, Moore would be touched up for just two home runs in 212 innings pitched in 1927, lowest in the majors. Overall, he would wind up 19-7, the third best winning percentage (.731) in the league. He also would have a 2.28 earned run average, while holding opponents to a league-low .234 batting average. He won 13 games in relief, leading the league, and saved another 13, tying for the league lead.

On August l5, Gehrig was ahead of the Babe, 38-36, in the home run derby. There were more and more claiming that he would out-homer George Herman in 1927.

But the Buster would manage just nine more home runs the rest of the season. His beloved mother was ill and in the hospital. Anguish over her health had him fretting during games, at the hospital after each home game. The reckless abandon he once had that allowed him to sometimes play baseball until darkness in the streets of his neighborhood with a bunch of kids was no longer something he could do. His non-baseball playing moments were totally reserved for thinking about and being with his mom.

Gehrig faltered. The Babe forged on.

THE BOOK REVIEW: "Senior Year" and other Mid Summer Reads

Dan Shaughnessy is one of the most versatile authors around nowadays adept at nostalgia, commentary, big time sports moments and now "Senior Year" ((Houghton Mifflin, $24.00, 228 pages.) The book is a melding of memory and magic, of musings of baseball times, a re-telling of Shaughnessy's son Sam's "Senior Year" of high school. The book is a look at fathers and sons, baseball and boys and men and life's passages. A notable read.

"Love That Dirty Water" by Chuck Burgess and Bill Nowlin (Rounder, $14.95, 221 pages) is a terrific idea for a book and one that will greatly interest Red Sox fans and those who follow the story of the Standells. The book's general focus is music as it relates to the Old Towne team. And more specifically the song, the unofficial BoSox victory anthem - "Dirty Water" ("We'll love that dirty water Oh, Boston, you're my home oh, you're the number one place..."

There is much in the Burgess/Nowlin volume to savor - including the singing careers of Red Sox heroes Mickey McDermott and Tony Conigliaro and the ballpark organ of John Kiley, to cite just a couple of the very interesting music connections. Highly recommended
Rounder Books also brings us "No Greater Love" by Todd Anton ($18.95, 253 pages). With a foreword by Curt Schilling, the book is sub-titled "Life Stories from the Men Who Saved Baseball." And we are there with such as Ted Williams, Jerry Coleman, Johnny Pesky, Bob Feller, Vin Scully and others. Not exactly "Saving Private Ryan," but a moving and important collection of memories. Get it!

"The Kings of New York" by Michael Weinred (Gotham, $26.00. 286 pages) truly proves that a book can be written about any subject and any sport. This one is all about Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School where there are no teams no sports teams that is. But there is the Murrow Chess team and this book follows for a year the geeks, oddballs and geniuses who comprise the top high school chess team in the United States. Very interesting and unusual reading. A terrific read.

"The Fat Lady Never Sings" by Steve Reilly (iuniverse, $18.95, 117 pages) carries a hefty price for a slim paperback, but this is an appealing tome focused on the community of Derby, Connecticut and the true story of the 1992 Derby Red Raiders narrated by one of its assistant coaches. It is all about the little guy the smallest school in its league advancing to the championship game. A very nice summer read.

FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING: THE 1927 YANKEES BY HARVEY FROMMER (coming in October)

FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING By Harvey Frommer

Coming in October Five O'Clock Lightning
Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the Greatest Team in Baseball,the 1927 New York Yankees! Look for it!

YANKEE STUFF

This has not been a memorable year so far for the Yankees of New York.
Roger Clemens has taken the money and fizzled.
Reliever Scott Proctor carried his personal game equipment out to the field long after a 7-0 loss to Oakland and set it ablaze on the gravel outside the Yankees dugout,
And the fans are getting restless waiting to see who thankfully replaces Joe Torre or Brian Cashman or both.

But even with all of the bad news today yesterday (the great, the goofy and the grand) still keeps the Yankee legend aglow:

Babe Ruth Day Speech, April 27, 1947:

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. You know how bad my voice sounds. Well it feels just as bad. You know, this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth. That means the boys. And after you're a boy and grow up to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing clubs today in your national pastime. The only real game in the world, I think, is baseball. As a rule, people think that if you give boys a football or a baseball or something like that, they naturally become athletes right away. But you can't do that in baseball. You got to start from way down, at the bottom, when the boys are six or seven years of age. You can't wait until they're 14 or 15. You got to let it grow up with you, if you're the boy. And if you try hard enough, you're bound to come out on top, just as these boys here have come to the top now. There have been so many lovely things said about me today that I'm glad to have had the opportunity to thank everybody.

Yankees Manager Saga/Under George Steinbrenner In Chronological Order

Year(s) Name Won-Loss
1973 Ralph Houk 80-82
1974-1975 Bill Virdon 142-124
1975-1978 Billy Martin 279-192
1978 Dick Howser 0-1
1978-1979 Bob Lemon 82-51
1979 Billy Martin 55-40
1980 Dick Howser 103-59
1981 Gene Michael 48-34
1981-1982 Bob Lemon 17-22
1982 Gene Michael 44-42
1982 Clyde King 29-33
1983 Billy Martin 91-71
1984-1985 Yogi Berra 93-85
1985 Billy Martin 91-54
1986-1987 Lou Piniella 179-145
1988 Billy Martin 40-28
1988 Lou Piniella 45-48
1989 Dallas Green 56-65
1989-1990 Bucky Dent 36-53
1990-1991 Stump Merrill 120-155
1992-1995 Buck Showalter 313-268
1996 - Joe Torre


George Steinbrenner's "Seven Commandments" for judging Billy Martin
1. Does he win?
2. Does he work hard enough?
3. Is he emotionally equipped to lead the men?
4. Is he organized?
5. Is he prepared?
6. Does he understand human nature?
7. Is he honorable?


Misconceptions
That the day Gehrig replaced Pipp was the day the 2,130 game streak began. It actually began the day before when the man they could call the Iron Horse pinch hit for Pee Wee Wanninger who replaced shortstop Everett Scott who had the record for consecutive games played (1307) until Wanninger took his place.

That Billy Martin punched St. Louis catcher Clint Courtney. at St. Louis' Sportsman's Park on April 28, 1953 -- Yanks and the Browns was a close one, but in the top of the 10th, Gil McDougald broke the 6-6 tie by barreling into Courtney at home plate and jarring the ball loose.

"I'm going to cut the first guy I reach," Courtney promptly announced when he came to the plate in the bottom of the inning. Yankees hurler Allie Reynolds heard the declaration and tried to go up and in on Courtney, but missed. The St. Louis catcher lined the ball into right field and raced around the bases in search of a double, but was far behind the throw to the second base bag.
But Scrap Iron came through on his promise and slid into second with his spikes high. Phil Rizzuto, covering second on the play and was cut badly.

The Bronx Bombers immediately retaliated. Reynolds, McDougald and first baseman Joe Collins were on top of Courtney, the three of them swinging wildly. Both benches cleared as After a lot of flying dust and a lot of flying punches, the melee cleared. Umpire John Stevens emerged from the brawl with a separated shoulder The fines handed out totaled $850 then a major league record for a brawl. Courtney was docked $250. But the most mysterious fine was the $150 tagged on Yankee second baseman Billy Martin, who never threw a punch.

"The Pride and the Pressure: A Season Inside the New York Yankee Fishbowl" and Other Interesting Reads

The Book Review

There is an entire tradition of "inside baseball" books and now we have "The Pride and the Pressure: A Season Inside the New York Yankee Fishbowl" by Phillip Morrissey (Doubleday, $23.95, 288 pages). The "New York Post" baseball writer had unrestricted access throughout the 2006 season to all things Yankee - and he has written an insightful, steamy, sometimes sordid account of the happenings that year - what went wrong and why it did, being one of his main themes.
There is gossip galore, embarrassing accounts of grown men acting like teenagers. We have Joe Torre's feud with ESPN and YES. We have the struggles of perhaps the worst Yankee free agent signing ever - Carl Pavano and the enmity he engendered from his Yankee brothers. We have more info than we really need on George Steinbrenner's health condition. We have gossipy treatments of A-Rod vs. Jeter - their relationship and non-relationship on and off the field.

If you are into Yankee gossip, if you are one of those who wants a look at the game within the game - this is the book for you even though reading it in 2007 makes a great deal of the content which is from 2006, dated. .

"Reynolds, Raschi and Lopat: New York's Big Three and the Great Yankee Dynasty of 1949-1953 by Sol Gittleman (McFarland, paper, 230 pages) is not at all dated but a winning look back by the author, a history and literature professor at Tufts University. We are there in the glory days of the team and their workhorse hurlers through the momentous winning days and nights of Bronx Bomber baseball. This slim tome is a real treat.

FOR RED SOX FANS: "Big Papi! My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits by David Ortiz and Tony Massarotti (St. Martin's Press, $24.95, $16.95 Spanish edition) is the rags to riches story of the Boston strong boy slugger. For BoSox fans this is the book to go for - for the rest out there - optional reading.

NOTABLE: From Frank Deford comes "The Entitled" (Sourcebooks, $24.95, 318 pages) about Howie Traveler who had an 0.91 big league average and now has a shot as a manager of the Cleveland Indians. About a Willy Loman type character, a book Arthur Miller would have enjoyed, an inside look at the game today, "The Entitled" is the kind of tome one would expect from the man GQ dubs "the world's greatest sportswriter."

BACKLIST: There are two especially wonderful books for Yankee fans - by Joe Carrieri, former bat boy for the team - "Joe DiMaggio the Promise (Carlyn Publications, Inc., $22.00, 212 pages) and "Searching for Heroes (Carlyn Publications, Inc., $22.00, 214 pages). Both are wonderful reads detailing Carrieri's time with the Bronx Bombers from 1949-1955.

"THROUGH A BLUE LENS" and other Special Reads

Harvey Frommer on Sports
The Book Review

If you love a beautiful book, if you are a baseball fan, if you are a fan of prized archival photographs, if you have a special affection for the old Brooklyn Dodgers - if you are any of these "Through a Blue Lens" is just the book for you.
Sub-titled "The Brooklyn Dodgers Photographs of Barney Stein 1937-1957" by Dennis D'Agostino and Bonnie Crosby (Triumph Books, $27.95, 162 pages), the book is a real page turner. Ms. Crosby is the daughter of the late and great official photographer of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Mr. D'Agostino is a highly respected author and sports public relations executive especially know to many for his sparkling stint at Madison Square Garden. The two make a terrific team serving up words from such bleeding Dodger blue types as Vin Scully, Johnny Podres, Ralph Branca) and images (nearly 200 taken over 21 seasons by Barney Stein.
The result is a fabulous book, re-living the world and time of the Brooklyn Dodgers. For browsing, for gift giving, for treasuring -- make this your next sports book purchase.

" Ted Williams At War" by Bill Nowlin (Rounder Books, $24.95, 352 pages) is a sterling look in words and pictures focused on not only a terrific ball player but an authentic American hero. The "Kid" is the only Hall of Famer who served in two wars. A flight instructor with the Marines in World War II, Williams flew 39 combat missions in the Korean War. Nowlin, the author of 15 books and Vice President of the Society for American Baseball Research, knows his stuff and struts it in page after page in this important tome. The prolific and energetic Nowlin interviewed more than 40 pilots who flew with the Splendid Splinter and more than 100 who knew Williams during his military service.

This August Cal Ripken, Jr. will be officially inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. In anticipation of that event we have "Get in the Game" from the baseball legend and Donald T. Phillips (Gotham Books, $26.00, 247 pages). The major focus of the work are "eight elements of perseverance that make the difference" and that surely made the difference in Ripken's career as he honed in breaking the Lou Gehrig consecutive games played record and setting the new one at 2,632. If you are a Ripken fan, if you want some sage advice on getting into any game - this is the book for you.

From Thunder Bay Press comes two engrossing picture book: "Ballpark: Then and Now" by Eric Enders and "Chicago: Baseball in the City" by Derek Gentile. The former is a roundup of parks then and now in words and pictures; the latter focuses on the national pastime in the windy city.
Coming soon: "You're Still Away" by Robert Sullivan (Maple Street Press, $19.95) is a on the drawing board and coming to bookstores very soon. Father's Day? It is a delightful and ranging work about so many facets and thrills that the world of golf contains as seen by a man who is the editorial director of LIFE books and accepts the game for what it is, which is much more than a game. Go for it. Highly recommended for golfers and those who like a wonderful read.

BACKLIST: "Great Baseball Films" by Ron Edelman (Citadel Press) is still a page turner and still very relevant. If you are a movie buff and a baseball book lover - Edelman's effort is your cup of tea.

Coming in fall 2007 YANKEE CENTURY AND BEYOND

Coming in fall 2007 YANKEE CENTURY AND BEYOND - an updated and enhanced version of my book A YANKEE CENTURY. Look for it where all Yankee Books are sold.

The cover is the reprint for my A YANKEE CENTURY book new edition.

BABE RUTH, LOU GEHRIG AND THE 1927 YANKEES

(An excerpt from the forthcoming book FIVE O’CLOCK LIGHTNING (Wiley)

It was rare for more than two days to pass when a Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig home run was not being described in detail in one of the New York newspaper’s sports pages. Daily pools were organized in the press box by the reporters covering the Yankees. Nine slips of paper, each one with a number signifying an inning, were deposited in a hat. Nine dollars were collected, and then the slips were picked out of the hat.
Home run, Ruth!
Bam 'em, Babe!
Home run, Gehrig!
Bust 'em, Lou!
The entire pot would be collected by the happy scribe who had the correct home run inning. There would be cheering and grumbling. And the game would start out all over again.
"I’d rather see Babe Ruth than Lou Gehrig in a tight place," Manager Dan Howley of the Browns said.

"Sometimes you can figure out what the Babe is going to do. But you can never tell about Gehrig. He is likely too hit any kind of ball to any field." There were the casual and professional observations from such as Howley and there were the pseudo scientific comments made by such as Austen Lake in the Boston Evening Transcript: "The Bambino does not wave it (his bat) as others do when addressing the pitcher. He flicks it with a switching motion, in his hands it becomes as responsive as a baton. . .. "His combined leg, shoulders, arms and wrists motion is almost 100 per cent efficient as far as it concerns getting weight behind the swing. Ruth’s bat on a missed strike usually fills a full circle and three- quarters of another. … "Ruth also has that famous "brown eye" which oculists say is unrivaled for sharpness of vision. . . . And lastly comes his co-ordination of eye, mind, and muscle, and action that is so synchronized as to be instant and accurate. " The stride of Gehrig was short, out of a stance that was like a man standing at attention. Using a compact, tight swing, holding the bat down near the knob, swinging with much force, his homers were line drives straight to the seats or out of the park. Early in that magic season of 1927, he attempted to adjust his swing to make it similar to Ruth’s. But he gave up on that saying: "I’m going back to just try and meet the ball. " Gehrig’s was more a business- like swing, much less fluid than that of the "Colossus of Clout." Ruth’s swing was graceful, corkscrew-like. Pulling power came into it from the Babe twisting his skinny ankles. His home runs generally took a longer time to get out and had more air under them, making for high rising home runs.

"I use a golfing swing, loose and easy with a slight upward movement," the Babe compared his approach to that of his home run twin in Babe Ruth’s Own Book of Baseball. "Lou hits stiff-armed. Lou stands with his feet farther apart, and takes a comparatively short stride with his swing. I stand with my feet fairly close together, the right foot a little further in than the left, and take a long stride with the swing. Lou hits with his shoulders. I hit with my entire body coming around on the swing.

Swinging stiff arm, too, Lou usually hits a ball on a line. The hardest balls he hits are those which travel twenty or twenty-five feet above the ground and on a line to the outfield. Any time he lifts a ball into the air (a fly ball) he loses some of the power. The balls I hit most squarely and with most power are apt to go high into the air. My home runs, for the most part, are usually high flies that simply carry out of the park. That's because I take a loose swing with a slight upward angle.

"I’m paid to hit home runs," the Babe continued. "In a way that’s a handicap. I’ve got to swing from the heels with all the power in my body. Which isn’t a good batting style." The batting style of Ruth and Gehrig and the other Bombers was on display Memorial Day in Philadelphia. Connie Mack’s Athletics made a batch of money from that display in a doubleheader at 18-year-old Shibe Park, the major league’s first concrete-and-steel stadium. There was a morning game and a later game. Mack, always looking for the extra buck, charged separate admission prices for each game. The total attendance was 80,000.

Philly took the opener, 9-8. In that game chunky Walter Beall saw his only action of the year for the Yankees, one inning, pitching to four batters, giving up one run. The Yanks won the second game, 6-5, and the mighty Ruth, despite his claims that he did not have such a good batting style, swung with such gusto at a pitch that he ripped the horsehide cover off half of the baseball’s circumference.

NEW YORK YANKEES: BY THE NUMBERS (III)

We have got your number if you are a number cruncher, a stat guy, a fan or the Yankees or just into baseball trivia.
Single digits, double digist, triple digits and on and on - the world of baseball is one that lives and dies with numbers.

So for your perusal and reading pleasure . . .


1,995 - Most career RBI''s, Lou Gehrig.

2010 ­ Expiration year of Derek Jeter's contract.

2,120 ­ Number of games Babe Ruth played for the Yankees.

2,130 - The number of consecutive games Lou Gehrig played in.

2,401 - Most games played in by a Yankee, Mickey Mantle, 1951-1968.

2,584 ­ Career hits, Reggie Jackson.

2,597 - The record number of career strikeouts by Reggie Jackson.

2,721 - The Yankee record number of hits recorded by Lou Gehrig.

3,654 ­ The number of home runs Yankees hit at old Yankee Stadium,1923-1973

$6,595.38 - The amount payable in 1927 in bi-weekly checks to Babe Ruth that added up to the record salary he earned of $70,000.

$18,000 - Cost of purchasing the franchise of Baltimore and transferring it to New York City.

$50,000 The New York Giants offered that unheard of amount to the Yankees for Yogi Berra.

64,519 - The number of people in attendance at Yankee Stadium in 1956 when Don Larsen pitched the Perfect Game.

$65,000 ­ Gillette and Ford paid this amount for the exclusive sponsorship rights to the first televised World Series shown only in New York City, 1947. Liebmann Brewery had offered $100,000 for the rights, but baseball Commissioner Chandler rejected the offer claiming it wouldn't be appropriate having the Series sponsored by the producer of an alcoholic beverage.

211,808 -The New York Highlanders attendance, 1903

2,561, 123 - Shea Stadium attendance for Yankees, 1974-75

3,451,542 - Hilltop Park attendance 1903-1912

6,220,031 -Polo Grounds attendance 1913-1922

$12,357.143 ­ Annual salary of Bernie Williams in 2001, more than the entire Division play-off opposition Oakland infield and two of its outfieders.

$12.6-million - Annual salary of Derek Jeter that began in 2001.

64,188,862 -Yankee Stadium attendance 1923-1973

Keepers from Bison Books and other Reads

THE BOOK REVIEW:

The hits keep coming from University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books - fine sports books given a new package and a new life. There is much to savor, to enjoy and to definitely keep in your sports bookshelf. All are a bit pricey for paperbacks, but they are nicely produced.

"Invisible Men" by Donn Rogosin ($24.95, 283 pages) originally published in 1983 is still relevant, perhaps more relevant than ever as it recounts in telling detail life in baseball's Negro Leagues."

"Paper Tiger" by Stanley Woodward originally published in 1963 ($17.95, 286 pages) is not as relevant as the Rogosin tome but if you are into the sporting scene as recalled by an old sportswriter and editor of the "New York Herald-Tribune" - this is a book for you.

"Players and Pretenders" by Charley Rosen ($18.95, 324 pages), originally published in 1981, is as its sub-title states about "the basketball team that couldn't shoot straight." If you are into college sports and a well told humorous narrative, pick up this book.

And finally from University of Nebraska Press comes a new title "Level Playing Fields" by Peter Morris ($24.95, 184 pages). This slim volume focuses on the family Murphy, groundskeepers and their unique contributions to the shaping of the national pastime.

"Professor Baseball" by Edwin Amenta (University of Chicago Press, $25.00, 231 pages) is all about the competitive and insular world of softball as played for real in New York City's Central Park. The title is a tip of the cap to the author's status as a real life prof.

From Dutton there is "The Baseball Economist" by J.C. Bradbury ($24.95, 336 pages) a book that gives Bill James a run for his money and all of us new awarenesses and insights into baseball treating as it does "the real game exposed" and looking at the game behind the game.

Recommended reading.
MOST NOTABLE: Beautifully produced, carefully crafted, priced right for the package one gets, this is the ultimate gift book for the golfer - - "CLASSIC SHOTS: THE GREATEST IMAGES FROM THE UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION: by Marty Parkes (National Geographic Books, $35.00, 345 pages). Pulled from the USGA's archive of more than half a million images - the range and style and substance of the images is something to savor.

COMING FALL 2007

Coming in fall 2007 YANKEE CENTURY AND BEYOND - an updated and enhanced version of my book A YANKEE CENTURY. Look for it where all Yankee Books are sold.

Also Coming This Fall "Brand New"

FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING:

Harvey Frommer brings the perceptive eye of an historian to what was arguably the most feared batting order of all time. Add to that his contagious enthusiasm for classic baseball and you have a most enjoyable book. -- Roger Kahn

The 1927 Yankees may or may not have been the best team ever, but surely this is the best book about that wonderful concentration of talent. --George F. Will

A great eye for detail and a wonderful ability to bring his characters to life. Jonathan Eig, "The Luckiest Man"

Baseball's greatest team as recounted by baseball's greatest author. -- Seth Swirsky, "Baseball Letters" and "Something to Write Home About"

Engrossing and entertaining look at a mythical baseball team. --Leigh Montville, 'The Big Bam"
Home run. Sweet look back -- Dan Shaughnessy, "Senior Year"

The Book Review: "The Joy of Keeping Score" and Other Interesting Reads

It's not what one might call ideal baseball weather in many parts of the United States. In fact, reading and reviewing baseball books with the snow still on the ground and more coming down on my New Hampshire acreage - it seems like spring will never come.
But sources of consolation and interest are all the baseball books prolific publishers send for review. They come in all sizes and shapes with all kinds of subject matter and approaches but all in varying degrees have much to offer.

Paul Dickson's "The Joy of Keeping Score" (Walker, $14.95, 117 pages) is a slim but choice volume that definitely fulfills its sub-titles claim that the book is about "how scoring the game has influenced the history of baseball." From basic info on how to tend a scorecard to advanced scoring techniques to scoring and baseball history from A to Z and a unique section containing reproductions of scorecards of historic games - this book is the alpha and omega on this topic. Dickson has scored big here!

In "The Great Book of Inspiring Quotations" by Peter Klavor and Dave Chamber (Sports Books Publisher) there are over 1500 quotations - and many of them cover the gamut of advice and inspiration. So if you are looking for the right words for the right sports or life situation - this book should work for you.

BACKLIST BEAUTIES: From Rich Marazzi Productions comes the winner: THE DVD "Win With Ruleball" which educates players, coaches and fans about the rules. It focuses on commonly misunderstood rules and explains how players and coaches can utilize the rulebook to win games. User friendly with a 26 chapter menu, the DVD is priced at $25 including postage. (Rich Marazzi Productions, 105 Pulaski Highway, Ansonia, CT 06401)

"Baseball Players of the 1950s" by Rich Marazzi and Len Fiorito (McFarland & Co., Inc., $55, 450 pages) has over 200 photographs and chronicles the lives and playing careers of all 1,560 players who appeared in a major league box score between 1950-1959. It is the most definitive and exhaustively researched book of the halcyon decade of the 1950s.

"How About That" by Stephen Borelli (SportsPublishing, $24.95, 257 pages) truly belongs on your sports bookshelf filled as it is with all kinds of "inside information" based on solid research and illuminating interviews. This is a "Ballantine Blast" and a "White Owl Wallop" of a book. Pick it up.

"Baseball's Most Wanted" Floyd Conner (Potomac Books) is a few years past its pub date but one to look for dealing with as it does all types of oddities, asides, lists and info on the national pastime.

More than 300 pages, filled with eye popping photographs - archival, contemporary in color and black and white, "100 Years of Football" by Pierre Lanfanchi (Weidenfeld and Nielson/Sterling Publisher is a lavish celebration and retrospective on 100 Years of FIFA Football. The book is a collectible and still available, from Sterling @ (212) 532 7160.

FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING: BABE RUTH, LOU GEHRIG AND THE 1927 NEWYORK YANKEES, THE GREATEST BASEBALL TEAM EVER

COMING FALL 2007

FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING: BABE RUTH, LOU GEHRIG AND THE 1927 NEWYORK YANKEES, THE GREATEST BASEBALL TEAM EVER.

Harvey Frommer brings the perceptive eye of an historian to what was arguablythe most feared batting order of all time. Add to that his contagious enthusiasmfor classic baseball and you have a most enjoyable book. -- Roger Kahn

The 1927 Yankees may or may not have been the best team ever, but surely thisis the best book about that wonderful concentration of talent. --George F. Will

A great eye for detail and a wonderful ability to bring his characters to life. Jonathan Eig, "The Luckiest Man"

Baseball's greatest team as recounted by baseball's greatest author. -- SethSwirsky, "Baseball Letters" and "Something to Write Home About"

Engrossing and entertaining look at a mythical baseball team. --LeighMontville, 'The Big Bam" Home run.

Sweet look back -- Dan Shaughnessy, "Senior Year"

The Book Review: Jonathan Eig's "Opening Day" and other Fine Reads

April 15, 2007 marks the 60th anniversary of the breaking of the color line by Jackie Robinson (and Branch Rickey). And rightly so Major League baseball and book publishers have taken note of the significance of the time with activities and new publications."Opening Day" by Jonathan Eig (Simon and Schuster, $26.00, 323 pages) is the best of the lot as it explodes myths, creates new awareness, spins an almost hypnotic narrative arc from its first page:
"April 10, 1947, The telephone rang like an alarm, waking Jackie Robinson from a deep sleep" and its last page "...Given a chance to change the world, he never hesitated, He played hard and won. After that it was a whole new ball game."
Reading "Opening Day" we are transported back to another time, another place, another world by a master story-teller. Buy this book!

"Branch Rickey, Baseball Revolutionary" by Lee Lowenfish (University of Nebraska Press, $34.95, 686 pages) is a mother lode of info about the man who along with Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line. Lowenfish has done his homework here and it shows. We are with the man they called "the Mahatma" from cradle to grave. Scholarly, broad in its reach, this is the definitive book on the subject. A couple of small carps - the book is a bit pricey and also a bit repetitious. Scott Simon of NPR fame gives us "Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball" (Wiley, $12.95, 168 pages, paper). Originally published in 2002, this is one of those brought out as timely reading as the headline on its cover says: "Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Baseball's Integration."

For Red Sox fans especially - - a nice trip back in a kind of time machine is "Under a Grapefruit Sun" by Dan Valenti (Rounder, $27.95, 144 pages). This is a collection of photos and interviews and perception from the early 1980s when Valenti covered the Red Sox in spring training. This is a charming and enjoyable book, a look at much younger versions of Ted Williams, Roger Clemens, Yaz, Boggs and more.

Highly Notable: "The Voice: Mel Allen's Untold Story" by Curt Smith (Globe Pequot Press, $24. 956, 304 pages) is a book that belongs on your shelf. Detailed, definitive, dramatic - it is a splendid bio of the Hall of Fame Yankee broadcaster and "This Week in Baseball" superstar. Smith thankfully explodes some of the nasty myths about the man who was born in Alabama to Russian immigrants Anna Leibowitz and Julius Allen Israel. A lot of those genes went into the making of this man who had an impact on so many (Yankee) baseball fans. How about that!

DEADBALL STARS of the American League and other Spring Reads

The Book Review:

Even the nearly 600 foot winding driveway that leads to my home is becomingmore and more bearable as winter's bad weather memories recede and the "Boys ofSummer" books make their way up to the house by sometimes cheerful and carefulUPS and FedEx drivers."DEADBALL STARS of the American League" edited by David Jones (Potomac Books,$24.95, 812 pages, paperback) is a mother and father lode of data offeringnearly 140 bios of players and personalities from that long ago time. The wholedeal was put together by more than 85 members of SABR's Deadball Era Committee.

For fans of the Red Sox of Boston -here are two for you. The reissued "Fenway" by Dan Shaughnessy and Stan Grossfeld (Houghton Mifflin($29.95, 190 pages) hits a home run again! It is billed as a bio of the Fens inwords and pictures and that it is.

"The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox" edited by Bill Nowlin and Dan Desrochers(Rounder Books, 382 pages) is a fabulous collection of images and writing aboutthe 100-1 BoSox team that went all the way. Authoritative, entertaining,entrancing, this book belongs on your sports bookshelf.

From Yale University Press comes "Bart Giamatti A Profile" by Robert P.Moncreiff ($35.00, 219 pages with 22 black and white photos) which of coursefocuses on the life and times of the former baseball commissioner. Vivid,touching, perhaps not having as much baseball stuff in it as fans would like anda bit pricey - this nevertheless is a highly worthwhile read.

Highly Notable: "A Great Day in Cooperstown" by Jim Reisler (Carroll and Graf,$15.95, 241 pages, paper) is a splendid slice of Americana and baseball historytold by a writer who knows the score."The story of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a triumph ofpublic relations, organization and old fashioned persistence," Reisler writes.And from there on we are captivated by the twists and turns and politics of thetime and the event. Buy the book!