I’m finishing up a four-day sabbatical from watching baseball – although not necessary from thinking about baseball, talking about baseball, writing about baseball. Fact is, two friends – former ball players, now faithful e-mail correspondents, have added to this missive – and a few family Mets fans pulled me back into the game when I was supposed to be resting my brain. I had made a conscious decision to avoid the All-Star Game on Tuesday, plus that gimmick called the Home Run Derby on Monday. Like many Mets fans, I had my fill of mood swings in the first half of the season – the Mets stunk, too many pitchers I never heard of, too many rumors that Pete Alonso would be scuttled. But then the Mets made a gallant run in the month or so before the All-Star Game, rushing into third place. I watched so much that I could justify ducking the all-star events. Plus, I cannot stand network baseball -- too much witless testosterone from old stars, too much born-yesterday overkill from the network booth. I wanted the terrific Mets commentators – Cohen, Darling, Hernandez, plus Good Old Howie Rose on the radio -- to rest their lungs, their eyes, their wits. And I would do the same. However, on Tuesday evening, I was listening to the dulcet tones and expertise of Terrance McKnight on WQXR-FM, when I heard my cellphone popping. It was a family member griping about the garish uniforms on the all-stars, a comment backed up by two family Mets fans upstate. I flicked on the tv, saw the ridiculous gear --convinced all over again that Commissioner Rob Manfred has no feel for the sport. Bad enough baseball is now in bed with gambling dens. Now it is hustling overkill uniforms. Back to classical music. However, two friends were still buzzing about the all-star uniforms. I heard from Bill Wakefield, who pitched for the Mets in 1964 and has saved up a lifetime of memories. (Pitching to Willie Mays! Running around New York with Hot Rod Kanehl! Studying Casey Stengel up close!) Now a retired businessman in the Bay Area, Wakefield proposed baseball switch to uniforms sported by barnstorming teams with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Good idea. Wakefield wrote about the first all-star game he remembered from his youth in Kansas City – a rain-shortened game in Philadelphia in 1952, won by diminutive lefty Bobby Shantz. Yes! I also heard it on the radio. Wakefield’s reverie triggered my memory of the first All-Star Game I attended – 1949, my father took me to Ebbets Field, great seats behind home plate. For whatever reason, one of my strongest memories is Andy Pafko of the Chicago Cubs, getting a hit, running the bases in the the Cubs’ traditional home uniform, with red logo. What a concept! I sent my Pafko memories to Wakefield, and also to my friend, Jerry Rosenthal, all-conference shortstop at Hofstra College in 1960, then two years as an infielder in the Milwaukee Braves farm system. Jerry – from Madison High in Brooklyn! – had the immense good fortune to study under farm-system coaches Andy Pafko (who had been traded to Brooklyn in 1951) and Dixie Walker (the Peepul’s Cherce in the mid 1940s.) Jerry, later a schoolteacher in Brooklyn, came through, as I knew he would, with his memories of Pafko and Walker. From Jerry Rosenthal: I was thrilled by seeing that Andy Pafko baseball card! I will never forget Andy ; one of the finest men I ever met! During the Braves' minor-league spring training camp of 1962, in Waycross, Ga., I got up the courage to asked Andy about "the shot heard round the world"! It was in the "rec" room, after one of our afternoon games. Somehow, I was one of Andy's favorites. That was partly because I was from Brooklyn and we could talk knowledgeably about the old Dodgers and the wonderful Brooklyn culture of the early 1950's! By the way, Dodger fans loved Pafko! Andy told me that he actually cried when when the Dodgers traded him to the Braves! He also said that his time in Brooklyn were his happiest years in baseball!” (Jerry recalled how he asked about Pafko’s moment in 1951, watching Bobby Thomson’s home run sail over his head into the lower deck at the Polo Grounds.)
Jerry wrote: "I finally asked him about Bobby's historic "shot." "I distinctly remember Andy saying: "I played many years with the Cubs, so I knew that that any hard-hit ball in the air that was pulled by a right handed hitter was going out! He added that "he could, at times, tell by "the crack of the bat" when the ball was gone"! He said he “heard it clearly." "Maybe that was because of the sparse crowd at the PG on that momentous day! "That iconic picture of Pafko looking up at the lower- left field deck is branded in the collective memory bank of even the casual baseball fan! "Most fans still think Bobby's homer was hit into the upper deck, maybe that was because it looked like Andy was looking high up! Andy told me that he always got this question: "Did you think you had a chance to catch the ball?" It was impossible to jump anywhere near a wall that was fifteen feet high! "Durocher actually commented on the rarity of homers being hit into the lower left field deck; most homers were hit into the overhang of the upper deck! Bobby hit a sinking line drive off a fastball! it quickly disappeared into the lower deck! "As fate would have it, Bobby Thomson was traded to the Milwaukee Braves and roomed with Pafko for a few years! They became close friends. At first, Bobby wore his number 23, the same number as when he was with the Giants, until he switched to 25 the next year. "I wore that hand-me-down number 25 jersey at Eau Claire. Wish I had that jersey today with "Thomson" embroidered in red thread on the inside. By the way, picture available.) "Here's a fact that most baseball fans never mention: Andy Pafko took over the third base position from Stan Hack in 1945 and played third base in the Cubs - Tigers World Series. "The Associated Press named Pafko to the All Star game as the starting third baseman, even though the game was not played in 45' because of the War. "So Andy was one of the rare major leaguers who made the All Star team playing two positions ( all told- Pafko played in five All Star games - one at third base and four as an outfielder ). "Pafko ended his wonderful ML career by being replaced in right field by Hank Aaron! Not a bad way to go out!" *** (Jerry, who was in several English classes with me at Hofstra, finished with a flourish:) "George, couldn't agree more about those beer-league uniforms worn by All Star players! It irritated me so much I watched part of the Republican Convention! "I took an antacid tablet and went to bed! " *** GV: I have the feeling baseball is going to come in handy in the months to come.
Alan D. Levine
7/18/2024 04:53:04 pm
George--I agree with all your criticisms and add that those uniforms make it just about impossible to see what team a person plays for. All you learn is what league his team is in. I grew tired of waiting for Pete Alonso to come in, so turned the game off after the sixth inning. I've spent my evenings since then watching some very interesting films on TCM. (The Jean Harlow film that made the Hayes Office get serious about the Production Code, a Martin Scorcese movie I had never heard of.) Is there a convention somewhere?
George Vecsey
7/18/2024 11:18:03 pm
Alan, good point. I lucked into a documentary on the 1936 Olympics the other night -- on WLIW, I think Great film I had never seen before I'd been in the stadium once -- during the 2006 World Cup. I was glad they mentioned how my friend Marty Glickman was cheated of a chance to run, because of the prejudiced US coach. And there was Greta Bergmann, a Queens neighbor of yours and mine, who also lost a chance to compete in 1936 because she was Jewish. She lived to be 103...in Jamaica Estates, very near some of our classmates. GV
Altenir Silva
7/18/2024 05:28:30 pm
Dear George: When things aren't going well on TV (whether it’s a movie, news, series, or sports), it’s worth remembering that we'll always have WQXR.
George Vecsey
7/18/2024 11:20:18 pm
Altenir, it is true, there is always WQXR--available to your in southern Brazil, via the web. I was listening to it tonight, a French opera I did not recognize, instead of whatever happened to be on the tube. In fact, I am writing these responses now, rather than wander near the tube.
Roy Edelsack
7/18/2024 05:38:25 pm
Born too late for the 1951 miracle, I became a NY Giants fan in 1957. Favorite player: Red Schoendienst. So of course he’s immediately traded to the Braves for, wait for it, Ray Crone, Danny O’Connell, and Bobby Thomson (!). Red then lead the Braves to two World Series, winning one. The Giants left town. And this after the Knicks traded my favorite player, Slater Martin to the Hawks.
George Vecsey
7/18/2024 11:22:39 pm
Roy, good to hear from you...Yes, sports teaches some bitter lessons
ED MARTIN
7/19/2024 01:57:41 pm
George, Red Barber and the Phillies, 1950 jogs memory of the incredible pain, tragedy of growing up a Dodger fan in that era. The Mets are painful through futility, the Dodgers were excellent, but just fell short. Some examples: 1941-Dodgers Win Pennant!, lose WS go Damn Yankees. Improvement as War ends finish 7, 3 and in 1946 tie for first-lose playoff to Cards. 1947 PENNANT! lose WS to Yanks.
Andy Tansey
7/18/2024 10:16:19 pm
Long since done with baseball - until tomorrow, treated by my nephew to my first visit to the new Stadium in da Bronx - I remember the proud thrill of the pinstripes on a Yankee in the All Star Game. Now I’m not even sure I know which league the teams are in. Are squeeze plays still legal?
George Vecsey
7/18/2024 11:28:45 pm
Andy that is Friday? Enjoy. The "new" Stadium is nothing like the previous versions. Essentially a theme park. I agree with you about information lag. I used to read box scores as a kid in junior high in Rego Park, Queens. Now the NYT doesn't even have a sports section of its own. I didn't know half the players in the all-star game...But for you and for me, soccer has taken some of our attention. I recognize players on Liverpool and Manchester City -- not the way I used to recognize 16-team baseball back in the day. Then again, any sport that has Ohtani must be doing something right, Enjoy, GV
Andy Tansey
7/20/2024 09:02:56 pm
Thanks, George. The game was fun from the second deck between third and the left field pole. High points:
Alan D. Levine
7/19/2024 01:42:27 pm
George--I've just had a flash of memory. Go you remember the ice cream vendor who would park his truck near our junior high school schoolyard and offer odds on all eight games being played that day?
Randolph
7/19/2024 09:55:34 pm
George,
Alan D. Levine
7/21/2024 11:31:44 am
Randolph--Remember the words of Red Smith when he heard a group of young sportswriters discussing football in the press box at a baseball game: "Baseball, gentlemen, baseball." 7/25/2024 12:07:14 am
My wife Sandi, who was never interested in sports, once complained that our, who was an early reader, only read the NYT sports section. I opined that at least he was reading the times. However, she was a sports trivia wiz from daily doing the NYT crossword puzzles in ink.
Randolph
7/25/2024 06:09:44 pm
Alan, 7/26/2024 11:53:19 am
MLB baseball is being affected by the same thing that is affecting most of our beloved pastimes: focus on marketing and profitability above everything else. Comments are closed.
|
Categories
All
|