Reviews

Baseball Glimpse: Koufax Before Being Hit by a Ball, 2014

2/23/2014

Photo by Abe Schear

Last Friday Sandy Koufax was chatting with fans at the Dodgers' spring base in Glendale, Ariz.

This photo was taken by Abe Schear, the Atlanta attorney who has been interviewing baseball people for years.

Later, Koufax was hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Andre Ethier. He was conscious, with some blood on the side of his head, as he sat on a cart while being taken for treatment in the clubhouse. Koufax, who serves as an adviser and occasional tutor to young Dodger pitchers, assured reporters and players that he was fine. The story:

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/10496606/sandy-koufax-hit-head-foul-los-angeles-dodgers-spring-training

In another Brooklyn angle, MLB has come up with a video from spring training of 1945. Because of wartime travel restrictions, the Brooklyn Dodgers were training at Bear Mountain, above the Hudson River, north of New York City.

The video was sent to me by the former Mets pitcher, Bill Wakefield:

http://wapc.mlb.com/cutfour/2014/02/20/68015582/brooklyn-dodgers-spring-training-69-years-ago

Leo (The Lip) Durocher, the manager, candidly says in that brassy voice of his that the Dodgers can’t get much worse, since they finished seventh the year before. Leo always did have opinions. He fusses at his wartime players, perhaps knowing that the Dodgers have stockpiled players named Hodges and Snider when the players come back from war.

Spotted briefly on the scruffy looking diamond are Dixie Walker (wearing No. 14 instead of No. 11) and Tommy Brown, (No. 9), all of 17 years old.

Also on the roster is Ben Chapman, the old Yankee outfielder, who was hanging on – as a pitcher. Chapman would pitch 10 games for the Dodgers that year. In 1947, he would become infamous as the Phillies’ manager, for racial heckling of Jackie Robinson. I never knew, until now, that Chapman had passed through the Dodgers toward the end of the war.

In 1947, when Chapman was not directing vile words from the dugout, Chapman and Robinson posed for a photo. My friend the photographer, John McDermott, wonders if we should even look at a photo of Chapman. I mainly stuck it on here because I was intrigued upon learning Chapman pitched for the Dodgers in 1945. John has a point.,

Jackie Robinson and that former Dodger, Ben Chapman

Ed Martin

2/23/2014 08:45:18 am

Just seeing Sandy warms my heart and memory synapses. At his peak fans would expect not only a win, but a shutout each time he started, and maybe, a no-hitter.

The Dodger record was 7th, 3rd, 2nd (lost first-ever playoffs to Cardinals in 1946) and first in 1947 with Jackie a rookie. (Don't ask about the World Serious)

John McDermott

2/24/2014 06:52:04 am

Sorry, but that photo of Robinson and Chapman is hard to look at. If all that's been reported is accurate about Chapman's racist abuse of Robinson then maybe #42 should have been doing something else with the bat. I get that he had to pose for a picture with the guy, but he didn't have to look so happy and pleased about it, did he?

George Vecsey

2/24/2014 08:22:01 am

I had seen the photo before....Ray Robinson, the writer, my pal, who is 93, had a phone interview with Chapman 40 years ago or so. Chapman seemed to think it wasn't so bad, back in the day.
I wasn't looking to run the photo except that I noticed Chapman's name as a Dodger pitcher in 1945. He had been with the Yankees...so had Durocher...and Dixie Walker.
GV

Sam Toperoff

2/25/2014 12:38:14 am

Here goes...I've been saving this up for a while. I have a true question that I would really like answered truly. But first, let me give you my baseball bona fides. Born in Brooklyn and here's the sort of Dodger fan I was. Saw my first game with my mother in 1939 against the Boston Bees, Casey was the Boston mgr. I went to the playoff game of 1946 when the moon was still out and I wasn't the first kid in line at the gate. Carried Hodges bag from the players exit to his house, don't remember the year. Cut school many times to be at Ebbets, probably 20 times a year. Can match old time Dodger stories with anyone. Was at a Giants-Dodger 4th of July doubleheader at the Polo Grounds when a guy was shot by a sniper on Coogan's Bluff. Etc., etc. When O'Malley took Brooklyn's team away--and decimated the borough in the process--it began to occur to me that there was more to the game than was between the lines but I accepted the notion that what was between the lines was still baseball and that was all that mattered. (As an aside, the notion of taking the L'OM soccer team out of Marseille is inconceivable.) Then over the years I noticed that what was outside the lines--especially the power of TV to control schedules--began affecting what was inside, and more and more came to realize that the game itself was being corrupted. Examples: moving the fences, lowering the mound, messing with the strike zone, turning a blind eye to steroids...all to make the game more user friendly with home runs. Then came the ticket prices and a trip to the ball park wasn't what I remembered it to be...nor were the people in attendance. And what's with the jumbotron and ethnic music and getting your picture taken...hell, I'm a baseball fan, or used to be, not a consumer. When the big money began to ruin theatre and art and politics, I knew enough to begin to stay away. It has become the same for me with baseball, especially when the owners refuse the competitive imperative of a salary cap. (Don't worry, I'm getting close to my true question.) It's still true that when that first day of spring comes I do want to go out and have a catch with a kid, but when I read George and the rest of you guys waiting with bated breath for pitchers and catchers to report, when spring training and then the season starts, I slink away. Why? Because something in me can't trust the sport--not the game, the sport--that has bait-and-switched me for too many years. Now my question--What the hell is wrong with me? Why do you guys love the sport and its sweet nostalgia? Is it a way of measuring our lives? (I guess, finally, it's better than coffee spoons.) Tell me, what in me says no, not any more and never again? Seriously, I need help.

Ed Martin

2/25/2014 07:10:32 am

Sam, Saw my first games, Labor Day, 1939, doubleheaders with the Reds. (confession: I wanted to stay at Steeplechase, it was my birthday, but my father dragged me.). Your question, it seems to me may be a sign you have grown up and are living int the present, while I and some others, have what the drama critics call, "the willing suspense of disbelief." One might say to us in a line from The Thurber Carnival, "You are living in a Fool's paradise."

George Vecsey

2/25/2014 07:42:17 am

Everything Sam says is correct, but I do think team sports give some of us a framework. I associate events in life with what was happening in baseball at the time. I'm even willing to entertain the possibility that some people -- newer generations -- measure time by Jordan's dunk or Franco's catch or Donovan's goal in the 91st minute. I love thinking about Dixie Walker...and Newk and Campy....but I also have great recent memories of covering, for goodness' sakes, the Yankees -- Bernie, Jorge, Mariano, Jeter. Instant memories. We know all we know about owners and franchise shifts and tax dodges...but we also saw what we saw on the field. Better than some other stuff...GV

George Vecsey

2/26/2014 03:44:21 am

Seinfeld said this:
"Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify. Because the players are always changing, the team could move to another city…you’re actually rooting for the clothes, when you get right down to it. You’re standing and cheering and yelling for your clothes to beat the clothes from another city. Fans will be so in love with a player, but if he goes to another team, they’ll boo him. This is the same human being in a different shirt, they hate him now! Boo! Different shirt! Boo…"
— Jerry Seinfeld

Tags: Seinfeld standup material quotes

George Vecsey

2/26/2014 06:25:33 am

This just in. Abe describes his feelings of seeing Koufax in camp. And Abe is not from Brooklyn, either. GV

http://webforms.agg.com//SnapshotFiles/0a8ddce0-b74b-4f21-9aa4-f701b7b26484/Subscriber.snapshot?clid=abe2a873-c609-4e6a-8c65-3306002cfe0d&cid=acadd43c-34b0-4e24-92f8-fffdef993948&ce=D3lFejFiHr2zStRdlqQ3%2bCrjLNQFq2KM

Charlie Accetta

3/1/2014 01:32:45 am

Sam -
When I was growing up in the Sixties and Seventies, fathers and sons had different worldviews. For some of us it was a heated, and strained, relationship. It was baseball that kept Dad and I linked through the tough times, keeping things momentarily civil and finding us mostly in agreement, at least on the subject of the game and its playersl.

I can't speak for you and your loss. I was too young to mourn the Dodgers, but I understand that circumstances dictated their leaving. You won't see it that way for the same reason that my father and I viewed Viet Nam so differently: Perspective. I hope you find some inner peace after these nearly sixty years. It is still a religious rite for some of us, this Spring thing that calls to us from the South. Most of us would be pilgrims if permitted. I for one remain a faithful supplicant to the Cathedrals of Baseball.

Brian Savin

2/25/2014 11:03:10 am

Let me pay homage to an interesting 50 year old event: Clay/Liston. I was at the fight with my father, in a movie theater in New Jersey. He complained about the seating. I won a bet with a classmate. He paid me $15 - a fortune in those days for a kid. Although I was excited, I was suspicious then and remain so to this day. I think Listen took a dive.

George Vecsey

2/25/2014 12:00:05 pm

Brian, don't share your misgivings with your pal of 50 years ago. Keep the money. Other people thought Liston tanked.
The young Clay/Ali was surely worth some nostalgia. He was one of a kind. (And I am essentially an abolitionist toward boxing; but I love boxers.)
GV

Brian Savin

2/26/2014 12:16:37 pm

I hope my old friend doesn't subscribe to your blog. I offered to forget the debt next morning when he offered me the bills. He insisted I keep it. Good kid. It was a three to one odds bet; I had "only" put up $5. I think Clay/Ali brought in a lot of stuff to boxing that wasn't as good as he was. By the way, you have a disciple at the Times, a kid named Bishop, who I believe thinks similarly to you re boxing. I hope the kid sticks with it, because his articles capture the excitement of the events in a spirit that few can, and that I appreciate.

George Vecsey

2/27/2014 12:16:18 am

Brian, thanks. Unfortunately, Greg Bishop left the NYT a month or so ago, for SI.

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/greg-bishop-leaves-ny-times-for-sports-illustrated_b198952

good guy, talented, versatile. But the thing about the NYT is, there is always somebody else -- look at the work by Branch, Macur, Belson, Clarey at the Olympics. GV

Ed Martin

2/26/2014 02:31:44 am

George, your observation about a "framework" seems right on target to me. It may be why I"suspend my disbelief." Jackie Robinson stealing home, began the Civil Rights movement for me;on a pure baseball note, Koufax and Drysdale pitching back to back shutouts at Forbes Field marked the birth of our first son and my completion of graduate school, and so much more, including the US women's victory at Thessalonika, a game you covered.Ciao.

Brian Savin

2/27/2014 12:29:36 am

Bishop left the NYT for Sports Illustrated??! I can't imagine he looks any good in a bikini.

Michael Green

3/1/2014 11:18:09 am

As I recall the story, as told by Harold Parrott, when Chapman abused Robinson, Eddie Stanky, who had no use for Robinson, stood up and defended his teammate. Later, Chapman feared losing his job and asked about posing, and Parrott said Robinson agreed to do it--I suspect because of the agreement he had with Branch Rickey not to rock the boat. Parrott said that Dixie Walker watched with his jaw hanging and said he never expected to see Chapman "eat" something like that--and the something wasn't crow.

George Vecsey

3/2/2014 12:32:30 am

could ve. Walker and Chapman both came up with the Yankees. I think Walker was OK with Robinson by May 1, after seeing him play.

The night Slaughter stepped on Robinson's ankle at 1B, Hugh Casey, another southerner, told Slaugher, "He can't fight you - but I can." Slaughter took a wide turn from the mound. I got this from Joe McDonald, the old Mets GM, who was a batboy at EF that day.
Thanks for your always thoughtful postings. GV

Alan Rubin link

3/4/2014 07:43:31 am

I have a split personality when it comes to baseball. I try to separate the sport from the game.

I agree with Sam, and others, that the sport of baseball is not the comfort zone that we remember from our youth. It is a very loud and commercial departure from what used to be the baseball tradition.

I no longer follow baseball, as well the other professional sports, with the exception of soccer.

However, the joy and beauty of the game is a totally different matter. The memories and feel of playing never leave you. I have not played fast pitch softball since I was 35, but I still mentally scoop up ground balls while walking down the street. David Vecsey’s NYT’s softball piece brought back many memories.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/sports/yearning-for-the-fields-of-summer.html.

I’m not up enough on today’s players to comment in George’s "baseball is coming topics", but I relish the many that went down memory lane. One thread last year had over 60 posts.

I could never understand the attraction of attending spring training until someone posted the pleasure of being with the players in a relaxed and friendly environment. It is all about enjoyment.

I attended my first baseball game in 1937 at the age of two. Actually, I only heard the game. I lived at 141st Street between Broadway and Riverside Drive. My mother used to take me to the Polo Grounds to take in the games and the sun. I remember some excitement that once woke me up. As related to me many years later by my mother, she caught a ball and was swamped by people trying to get it. She received some bruises, but kept the ball.

I should have been a Giant fan since I lived in Manhattan until I was fourteen. When in the middle of Yankee-Giant-Dodger arguments in Washington Heights, the Dodger and Giant fans always said that you had to be sick to follow the Yankees. That was me. I was in bed for three months when I was four and could not move to change the radio station. Since my mother mostly listened to WINS, I would hear the Yankee games. Later in the summer when I was back on the streets, I had to declare a team loyalty—and I only knew the Yankees.

Baseball has a rich history going back to the late 1800’s. I had several books that covered baseball and its oddities from about 1890-1930’s. I lent them to the kid next door when I was older, but I made the mistake of not getting them back.

Baseball might be more interesting today if some of the older “traditions” were reinstituted.

Extra balls were piled in a mound behind the pitcher, which was often hit by a batted ball. Once, the shortstop and second baseman both threw to first to get the runner out. When the runner complained, the ump said that he was out with both balls.

My favorite is when Walter Johnson struck out the side without throwing a pitch. It was getting dark and the inning was needed to make it a valid game. The catcher told Johnson to go through the motions while he would make a big sound with his glove and show the ball to the ump.

What could be better than the older generations discussing their baseball past?

Baseball may or may not have been better than, but it was certainly much more colorful.

George Vecsey

3/4/2014 09:00:13 am

Alan, it's true, baseball was more colorful...meaning, the players did not make much money, did not have much education, and followed their instincts....Today the stakes are higher, and the athletes are bigger and in vastly better shape....but don't pay attention to details (see SI last week, Chen's article).....But the ritual is much the same. And there is time to let the mind wander, and assess the player, and compare with the past. I was just watching a Mets exhibition, comparing these people with the 1986 Mets....as we say in NY -- Oy! GV

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