Reviews

Talkin' Baseball*....Finally

3/20/2022

Jacob deGrom follows through. A blast from the past

The terrible stuff is all over the news but baseball, as always, is a welcome diversion.
It was on television and good old the radio this weekend. Pick your team; mine is the Mets.
I make no apologies for the hours I spent following Good Old Howie Rose on the radio for two days and the Three Amigos on the tube on Sunday.

The Mets presented their first exhibition Saturday, with Rose back in the booth after shutting down last season because of illness. He sounded himself in his haimish Queens tones (so familiar to my central Queens ear.)
Rose and his radio sidekick, Wayne Randazzo, noted that spring training was delayed to mid-March as the hard heads of Major League Baseball nearly throttled their thing, but now MLB is going after all that good, clean gambling money, while clubs are playing catchup – opening days in less than three weeks.

As the Mets played the Washington Nationals in West Palm Beach, Rose and Randazzo discussed the big change in rules this year – the National League has gone the way of the designated hitter after 49 years of the gimmick solely in the American League.
(The New York Times has an interview with Ron Blomberg, the first DH for the Yankees back in 1973. Blomberg likes it, and why not? It is his claim to fame.)

Somewhat to my surprise, Rose, 69, said it was time for “traditionalists” to accept the DH. Most pitchers can’t hit, anyway, and even those who can are in danger of being injured by putting their hands and wrists and elbows in the way of a wayward pitch. The deGrom Argument.

Jacob deGrom has been my best reason for keeping the tradition, based on the good hitting pitchers over the decades – Don Newcombe of my Brooklyn Dodgers, Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, Tom Glavine, Madison Bumgarner. (Shohei Otani, the slugging pitcher, is not just from Japan; he is from some other planet entirely.)
However, deGrom is also the best argument for getting elite pitchers out of harm’s way. He was an infielder in college and is a lithe fielder on the mound, and he can also bunt and swing for power. He kept getting hurt last year, ending his season way too early, possibly because of the stresses of hitting a fastball with a wooden bat.

Who wants to see Jacob deGrom’s career end early? Howie Rose was spot-on, in the opening innings of the first radio exhibition of the spring. This traditionalist gives up.

I picked up the Mets’ Sunday game on television, from their camp in Port St. Lucie – Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling, warming up for their 17th season together – so savvy, so entertaining. Their show showed a clip of Lindsey Nelson doing an intro for the Mets’ historic first camp in 1962, and praised the earlier Three Amigos, Nelson and Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner.

The current Amigos let us know winter was truly over by discussing the free agents who have moved around for salaries that seem unbelievable to me. They also discussed the legacy-killing act of Robinson Cano, who is back from a second drug suspension, the knucklehead.

The Amigos also talked about how clubs have to prepare fast. Hernandez, that great first baseman, noted that Francisco Lindor has a bad habit of underarming his throws on slowly-hit grounders. They speculated whether Michael Conforto could still be signed for this season --- a really good point, since he seemed a victim of the Mets' organizational anarchy last year. And Cohen, who flew to San Diego to fulfill his winter gig with Seton Hall basketball, raved about the stunning double victory by fellow jersey school, St. Peter’s.

Welcome Back, Howie Rose

True confession: just like the ball players, I am not ready to go nine, so I dozed in mid-game and caught the last segment on the radio with Good Old Howie Rose.

He was talking about the deterioration of most of the Mets’ hitters last year, as the old-time batting coach, Chili Davis, got fired, replaced by two minor-league coaches, who, according to Rose, were undercut by analytics types going where they don't belong – buzzing in the ears of major-league hitters. That won’t happen again, Rose said, and I hope he’s right.

In the final innings, Rose noted that the new manager, Buck Showalter, re-arranged the batting order of the anonymous late-inning subs, and imitated Bob Murphy, who used to explain the machinations of Casey Stengel or Bobby Valentine by enunciating, “I’m….sure…he…has…his... reasons.”

“Come on, April 7,” Rose urged, referring to Opening Day, when the March of the Subs will no longer happen.
He observed the fans, making their getaways into the choke point on the dreaded Peacock Blvd. Randazzo said he knows a short cut, albeit illegal, through a nearby gas station – the late-inning preoccupations of spring training.

All seems normal. Welcome back, baseball.
----
* -- Homage to the Terry Cashman standard.
And for all radio baseball fans:

Jeff Hysen link

3/20/2022 08:21:25 pm

Mr. Vecsey, I hope that you will try my Mets podcast "National League Town" which is co-hosted by Greg Prince of "Faith & Fear In Flushing". https://www.podpage.com/national-league-town/

George

3/21/2022 08:22:39 am

Mr. Hysen: Thank you....I know Greg's enlightening work on the Mets.
My regards, and I will take a listen...best, GV

Michael

3/20/2022 09:25:52 pm

Hi George

Yes, sports (any sport) is a great diversion from the sad news at home and abroad. Re: DH - I’ve never been a fan but it is much easier to accept than artificial turf!

Let’s go Yankees!!

Warm regards
Michael

George

3/21/2022 08:27:16 am

Michael, nice to hear from you. As I recall, you spend a lot of energy on Atletico and Tottenham -- good weekend. Be well, GV

Michael

3/24/2022 06:35:17 am

P.S. It was great reading your NYTimes article yesterday; re: 60 years since the Mets…

Randolph

3/20/2022 09:42:35 pm

George,
You made my day George! You are the only guy I know who still listens to baseball on the radio.

You took me back to 1958 when I would listen with my grandmother to baseball on the radio. She loved the St. Louis Cardinals because back in 1939 Stan Musial, age 19, had such nice manners when she feed him Sunday dinner in her house in Williamson, West Virginia.

She also loved the Yankees.
Who knows why. She grew up in southwest Virginia, moved a few miles away to West Virginia, but had never ventured any further in her life. (Just a few miles, “ As the crow flies.”)
But she taught me how to love baseball….. The radio took us far away.
All the best,
RF

George

3/21/2022 08:32:06 am

Randy, I love your story about young Stan Musial wandering into the wrong coal-town front door late one evening -- very dangerous in that part of the world. But he lived to tell the tale, and as I recall, your family saw the nice young man in church and around town. Not a surprise your grandmother loved the Cardinals -- they were the westernmost team in those days and also they were on 50K-watt stations that reached the south and into the Ozarks and Appalachians. When I lived in Louisville, the Reds were on a lot of local stations in KY and WV Southwest Virginia. -- young feller named Al Michaels calling the games. GV

Edwin W. Martin Jr

3/21/2022 01:01:42 pm

Memories. In Tuscaloosa, Al. Mid 50s, early 60 we had a wide range of radio options, country or “white gospel.”

However, KMOX, St. Louis: WHO, Des Moines, (girls basketball score, who knew?: N.Orleans, WWL (Jazz from Roosevelt Hotel): WLW, Cinncinati:

Occasionally, atmospheric freak, WHN, NY or KDKA, Pittsburgh.

And on NBC weekends, “Monitor,” the forerunner of more recent talk channels, with “Bob and Ray,” among the delights,

And before then, on LI, “The Old Red Head,” sittin in the catbird seat with Connie, vince was a schoolboy, then.

bruce picken

3/21/2022 03:55:44 pm

randolph,

when i was a kid in greensville, ontario outside hamilton, i used to take my two transistor radio to school and stick in my shirt pocket.

i had an ear bud for my left ear. i sat in the row by the window so the teacher couldn't see it. day games only in 1958 so this eight year old was in heaven. baseball was my best sport and the yankees were my team so it was a taste of heaven.

Randolph

3/21/2022 07:36:02 pm

Bruce,
What a great story.
You made me remember that I had radio like that.
Thanks,
R

Alan D Levine

3/20/2022 10:54:18 pm

Make that two people, Randolph. I love listening to Howie Rose.

Randolph

3/21/2022 06:50:40 am

Alan,
Thanks. You have inspired me. I will turn the radio on.
R

I am including a link to a YouTube video: TURN THE RADIO ON
by John Hartford

https://youtu.be/-Vmyx4efK_k

George

3/21/2022 08:51:14 am

To Alan, from the picturesque hilltop Jamaica High School, in Queens, and Randolph, originally from the picturesque coal town of Williamson, W. Va: I have just posted the Terry Cashman song about radio baseball. Randy, I know some of John Hartford's work, including this one. He died at 63...and left the haunting "Gentle on My Mind" (which Glen Campbell aced) and my other favorite "In Tall Buildings." about a country boy who works in the city,. Thanks for this link....GV

Altenir Silva

3/21/2022 08:47:03 am

George: It’s showtime. Dreams could come true. Who will be the best? Who will hit the most home runs? Who will get the Cy Young Award? The Rookie of the Year? Who will win the Subway Series? How many times will we hear John Sterling shouting, “YANKEES WIN! Thuh-h-h-h-h Yankees! Win!”? Then, let's play ball and eat hotdogs.
Be well/Altenir

Edwin W. Martin Jr

3/21/2022 01:03:08 pm

Altenir,

I’d much rather hear “GGGGGOOOOOAAAALLLL,!!!”

George

3/21/2022 08:57:38 am

You got it , Irmão.
John Sterling is one of those classic radio guys -- Harry Caray, Bob Prince, Mel Allen -- each, a piece of work.
I witnessed Gionfriddo's catch of DiMaggio's shot to LF -- on the radio, with Red Barber adding his classic, "Oh-ho! Doctor!"
I met Gionfriddo in NYC early 1980s -- he was tiny. Maybe 5-7.
What do you and Celia do for hot dogs in southern Brazil? GV

3/21/2022 01:12:41 pm

We moved to PGH, in 1957.

Bob Prince on KDKA. I was stunned when we used the word “we” whn talking about the Pirates. Red Barber would not have been caught dead calling the Dodgers “we.” He was a professional, kind of like my friend GV who was a “Journalist”. Suppressed fan.

Altenir Silva

3/21/2022 05:35:41 pm

We are crazy for hot dogs here in Southern Brazil. Curitiba is an immigrant city (German, Ukrainian, Polish, and Italian). Our hot dog differs from the American hot dog. Here they put inside the bread, sausage, pea, boiled egg, corn, cheese, tomato, potato straw, farofa (it only exists in Brazil. I think you had seen it in Anthony Bourdain Show about the state of Bahia), mustard, mayonnaise, and ketchup.
Best/Altenir

3/21/2022 05:59:47 pm

sounds better than any American hot dog, which I avoid.
I do like the German wursts in those kiosks in every city..
GV

Darrell Berger

3/21/2022 09:17:10 am

It looks to this objective Tigers' fan that for one of those rare interludes, the Mets are being run better than the Yankees, and is an opportunity for them to grab the primary attention of local baseball fans.

GEORGE VECSEY

3/21/2022 09:29:40 am

Hey, Darrell, nice to hear from you. I know better than to even think that. The Mets have been a mess for years....I vaguely recall some agent working as GM....My friend Omar Minaya recruited a lot of talent and is a baseball man...I think Eppler is also. But we never make optimistic claims. (Joe Foy! Jim Fregosi! Jason Bay!) Let me know how Javier Baez works out. But they still have Cano for distraction. Same Old Mets (our franchise chant/groan) GV

Alan D Levine

3/21/2022 10:06:15 am

To quote Gary Cohen: "Mets fans are always filled with hope...and dread."

George

3/21/2022 11:17:29 am

He was there in1969....a kid on the field, I think . GV

Alan Rubin link

3/21/2022 11:50:51 am

I am a native Manhattanitte who grew up above the George Washington Bridge at 802 West 190th Street. New York was a three-team town then and most of my friends were either Yankee or Giant fans.

The rare Dodger fan was both pitied and verbally abused. Later, after devouring scores of baseball books, I began to appreciate the unique nature of the Dodger organization and its history.

The Yankees did not add lights to the old, and more engaging, Yankee Stadium until 1946. We could see the lights for night games from the roof of my building.

Prior to that, a day night double header was an afternoon game at Yankee Stadium and an evening one at the Polo Grounds. We supplemented our mother’s lunches with ballpark franks. (the best I’ve ever tasted were at Camden Yards when Josh and I took in a Yankee Oriole’s game the second year it was open)

As a youngster, I loved listening to baseball, basketball and Navy college football games on the radio. Not all away games were broadcast, so someone simulated games using a teletype feed. It was not the same, but it was much better than silence.

Occasionally, usually around the 7th inning, the final score would be announced and the broadcast ended.

Marv Albert made radio broadcasts of Knicks and Ranger games very engaging. I was able to determine who was winning by how Marv sounded.

I rarely watch baseball now, but when I do I turn down the volume and listen on the radio to avoid the often-useless commentary. I also do this with soccer.

At one of my daughter Jen’s book talks, a young man said that he would use binoculars to watch World Series games on the TV in my store’s window and listen on the radio.

www.rubinjen.com

Baseball is something that remains in one’s life forever. I still mentally scoop up grounders while walking down the street.

bruce picken

3/21/2022 12:01:51 pm

george,

g'day.

i've always wavered about the DH.

tho i guess over time i've come to accept it.

must be figures about this, but i've assume AL games are shorter than NL's.

think YOUR TORONTO BLUE JAYS.as they always blast viewers with....might give the two rich teams a good run this year.

potentially a good pitching staff, just added the guy who might be the best fielding third baseman in the majors--a weakness last season--and their young guys are a year older. bichette and vlad jr might really light it up this years.

as for hitting pitchers.....jenkins was decent with good power. spahn too.....

bruce picken

3/21/2022 04:09:03 pm

edwin w...i just posted a bit about having my transistor radio.

your atmospheric comment brought back some memories.

as mentioned, i lived outside hamilton, ontario by the niagara escarpment.

there were railway tracks about two miles away and you could hear the noise travel thru the night, it was a haunting sound.....

when i went to bed i'd fidget with the radio beside my bed.

i remember tuning in and hearing cousin brucie morrow on wabc 770 in downtown manhattan.

also 890 wcfl chicago and listening to dick biondi.

seemed exotic and so far away.

George

3/21/2022 07:56:09 pm

Bruce,, that is true. I have so many memories of 50K stations coming in clear at night --The Grand Ole Opry on WSM reaching Long Island.
I remember driving from Nashville toward Eastern KY before dawn and hearing the all-night DJ in New Orleans describing Mardi Gras, still breaking up at 5 AM...and ball games on KMOX St. Louis while driving across Pennsylvania. Leaving my Tues night basketball game at a gym in Louisville, hearing Marv Albert calling the Knicks game from NYNY.....But...big but....not possible these days with digital dials.You can't fiddle with the dial...something has been lost. Oh, yeah, Marshalltown, Iowa..50K....country music...And Montreal station (French, I think) great memories in Eastern PA. GV

bruce picken

3/21/2022 08:12:18 pm

george,

don't really listen to the radio anymore but when i'm driving.

hadn't thought of the digital aspect for fiddling.

one other strange thing that happened--didn't know this was possible--but in 1970 i was coming home from a wedding with the person who because my first wife.

it'd been in brantford (home of wayne gretzky, phil hartman and jay silverheels, sort of).

the windshield seemed kind of streaky, but i couldn't clean it off. stopped the car, got out and realized it was the northern lights, but white. only time i've seen them this south.

got back in, started the car up, turned the radio on and we got an FM station.....car only had AM.

can't believe it's true or physically possible, but there it is.

bruce

Ed Martin

3/24/2022 04:03:02 pm

GV, when you mentioned Montreal it reminds me of my Dad, studied Spanish and German in 1918-20 in Bryant HS, (later Stuyvesant?). He kept up with bakers where he worked, became a partner. When he was in his 80s he decided to learn French. Went to a night school class in Baldwin HS, then he and classmates hired the teacher and began weekly meetings at each others homes. I was able to take him to France, with me, were he made favorites explaining he was a “student.”

A long story to get to him listening to Montreal station, but rejecting their version of French. He wrinkled his nose at the pronunciation difference.
Right, Bruce?

Randolph

3/21/2022 08:48:33 pm

Bruce and George,
You fellows are on a groovy wavelength….
Driving late at night and listening to the radio….
You guys made me think of an old Tom Waits song from 1972. I still have the album and play it : THE HEART OF SATURDAY NIGHT.
The song is called DIAMONDS ON MY WINDSHIELD.
Late at night driving….
The link is below.
R

https://youtu.be/GADAgEZYuR4

bruce

3/21/2022 10:03:59 pm

randolph,

thanks.

background music reminded me of the 'beatnik' days.

bruce

Shawn Frederick

3/23/2022 08:01:02 am

Mr. Vecsey,
Nice article in the NYT about the '62 Mets. My dad took me to my first baseball game (I was almost 9 years old) Memorial Day 1962 at the Polo Grounds; it was the first time the Dodgers were back since they left. It was a double header, a full house, over 55,000 fans. That moment when we walked up from behind the stands, up the ramps, and I saw for the first time the bright green grass of the major leagues! I've never been the same since.
We climbed to our seats. The only tickets left to buy had been "obstructed view;" mine was directly behind a big girder in the upper deck. When the grizzled guys amidst clouds of cigar smoke heard it was my first game, they moved around and made sure I had a seat with a view.
I miss the miracles of youth.
I miss the work of sportswriters like you.
My dad didn't care about the score. He was grateful that life had somehow given him the opportunity to take a son to a ball game. A couple years earlier we had sat together on on a park bench in Washington DC, listening to Mazeroski's homer on a portable radio. He saw I didn't understand what the home run meant to him, but he saw that I was happy that he was happy. My dad was from Pittsburgh, and came from nothing. His father died when he was two; second one died when he was six; there weren't any more after that.
Some years later, when I knew a little more about baseball, I asked who the greatest ball player he'd ever seen was. "Arky Vaughn," he said!

Thank you for your articles across so many decades. My life has been made richer by reading them.

Shawn Frederick,
Nyack NY

3/23/2022 10:15:05 am

Dear Mr. Frederick: Thank you for the lovely note. I am honored you found my Little Therapy Website , my outlet for the past 10 years. I love your memories of your first game -- guy I know is doing a book about people's first game (mine, Dixie Walker home run, 1946.) Baseball's pace is great for the connection of generations -- although I will say the new "every fan a star" generation has gotten noisier and more profane. I understand the Arky Vaughan context. I would have said "Dixie Walker" -- in 1946. Then came Jackie Robinson. Best., GV

Randolph

3/23/2022 08:26:38 am

George,
You still have the gift. Your article in the Times is a joy.

“ …played then in God’s own sunlight in early October”
What a great line George.
Rather than filing your articles under the heading of sports, I will have to decide if I place them under poetry or philosophy. What a dilemma.
All the best,
R

R

George

3/23/2022 10:17:25 am

Randy, I am no Wendell Berry, or Nikki Giovanni (whom I am reading right now)....but I value your friendship, and hope to keep typing. GV

Randolph

3/23/2022 07:43:51 pm

For those of you who missed George’s Times article today, the link is below. It is a wonderful article.
R

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/sports/baseball/mets-60th-anniversary.html?smid=url-share

Alan D Levine

3/23/2022 10:33:39 pm

George--I don't know how I missed your piece this morning. I just read it. I loved it and I loved the 66 comments it drew. All those fans recounting childhood memories of family and ballgames. For all its self-induced wounds, it's still the most wonderful game, for a multitude of reasons.

Peter Kennedy link

3/24/2022 08:29:37 am

George, what a great piece in yesterday's Times. I deposited my initial comments on the NYT site. As a youngin' I was there at the Polo Grounds, then later at Shea, and now at Citi. As you observe so astutely, it all changes, but somehow the magic and the madness remain. Which is why the Metsies are so endearing across time and generations. LGM.

George

3/24/2022 03:21:02 pm

Thank you all. I'm honored by your comments and the ones in the NYT. GV

Josh Rubin

3/24/2022 01:03:47 pm

What are the odds the NL will follow the AL's model so that the first DH will be Jewish? One can dream . . .

I still miss the team that Minaya built, especially with all those arms. So much promise that never quite came to fruition (except the very near miss of 2015, perhaps my favorite Mets team of all, or at least right up there with '73, playing with so much love for the game).

George

3/24/2022 03:19:03 pm

Josh: Hard to find a lantzman to DH in NHL -- maybe Joc Pederson now with Giants? Somehow, I don't think it's going to happen.
GV

bruce

3/24/2022 04:43:49 pm

ed,

i can putter around a little in french and japanese...emphasis on very little.

have my 27th trip to france coming, allah willing, in mid october. i've been to quebec about a dozen times.

when i'm in paris and talk to parisians i'll sometimes ask if they've been to quebec or canada, in general.

they answer fairly often that they have.

i'll ask how they did speken ze language?

more than half have told me, 'i had to speak engjish'.....some older say there was too much TU and not enough VOUS.

young people absolutely loved montreal. said the openness and informality was wonderful. recently read there are aboug 150,000 french citizens living in quebec.

in fairness, many in montreal and quebec city say they can't understand the language spoken in the hinterlands.

story is that when canada (with some help) liberated france during ww2 the army sent french speaking soldiers to the front as they entered towns and villages in normandy.

and when the normans became very emotional hearing the language from their ancestors who'd been in quebec city since 1608.

france declared it a colony in 1534, but it wasn't settled by europeans yet.

other stories when they arrived some french heard their accents and asked, 'are you germans? and when told 'no we're canadians', they were slapped on the back and offered wine/champagne that been waiting for the liberation.

Gene Palumbo

3/24/2022 09:25:25 pm

I sense a possible tragedy: some of us (those who follow George's blog) may not be subscribers to the N.Y.Times, and so will find a paywall blocking them from seeing his wonderful piece. I'm a subscriber, and have downloaded the piece, and would be happy to share it. Maybe the best way (unless anyone has a better suggestion) will be for me to wait till there are no new comments coming in, and then post it right here on the blog. So, stay tuned.P.S. Of course, I could post it right now. My only hesitation is that since it's (happily) long, I wonder if it might interrupt the flow of comments.

ahron horowitz

3/27/2022 06:35:02 pm

much thanks for posting this special article..we should never miss seeing any of georges words.ahron

Randolph

3/25/2022 07:49:00 am

Gene,
Great idea! But you might have to wait a while. I just looked and so far there are 121 comments. George really knocked it out of the park on this one. Like one fellow said,

“ Wow, a George Vescey column in the Times. It's a good day.”

All the best.
R

Gene Palumbo

3/26/2022 01:02:06 am

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/sports/baseball/mets-60th-anniversary.html
Sports of The Times
Before the Mets Were Amazin’, They Were Amazing
National League baseball returned to New York City 60 years ago, and Manager Casey Stengel knew exactly what he was brought in to sell.
The 1962 Mets were colorful, but they were also very bad at baseball. Their record, however, was beside the point with N.L. baseball back in New York City.Credit...Associated Press
By George Vecsey
March 23, 2022
Now, baseball fans can dream again.
Even with all the terrible things going on around the world, fans of all 30 teams have the annual March diversion of dreaming: free agents actually worth the money, franchise pitchers staying healthy, the promised brilliance of the latest “pheenom” (to speak with Casey Stengel’s vocabulary).
Once there was a spring when a ready-made fan base, equal parts bitterness and adoration, saw dreams come true, via the Worst Team in the History of Baseball — 40 wins, 120 losses. You could look it up.
The losses came after the Mets were cobbled together in the manic spring of 1962 and supported by a built-in fan base of New York’s brokenhearted National League fans.
In this round-year anniversary — it has been 60 years since that inaugural season — it is safe to say that never has an American sports team begun with an aura like that of Stengel’s Amazing Mets — bedsheet banners, lusty chants and ancient blood loyalties, all touched off by the Ancient Mariner of a skipper.
The Mets were a welcome addition even before they fumbled their first pop-up, hit into their first triple play, tossed their first game-losing home run.
Whatever Mets fans obsess about today — Jacob deGrom’s elbow, the undervaluing of Jeff McNeil, the lack of continuity in the front office; I could go on — the team is supported by a six-decade love affair with the bittersweet image of “same old Mets” or “did you hear about this?” — even when they win.
Some of us can still remember how this all began, when Stengel assembled his pitchers at home plate on a funky lakeside practice field in St. Petersburg, Fla., in February 1962 and commanded them to run to first base, because that was the essence of baseball.
I was 22, enjoying covering high school sports for that great paper Newsday, on Long Island, and also enjoying the gaggle of New York baseball writers in Florida spreading the word about the ineptitude/lovability of this new team.
In those days, before teams’ ubiquitous presence on social media, radio and TV, newspapers were the major outlet for a new team — and Stengel knew it.
The dispatches reached an instant Mets fandom looking to right a moral wrong — the abdication of the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers to California after the 1957 season.
Other cities have lost their only team — some got a new one — but New York, New York, did not take kindly to the loss of both National League teams.
I was recently comparing notes with one of my best friends, Steve Jacobson, now retired after half a century, mostly as sports columnist, with Newsday. He covered a part of spring training with the Mets in 1962.
Jacobson recalled his fear, in 1957, that both New York teams were going to skip town for California. He had been a copy boy at The New York Daily Mirror after college and then went into the Army, based at Fort Bragg, N.C.
When the Mets arrived in New York for their inaugural season, they were given a ticker-tape parade on Broadway.Credit...Ernie Sisto/The New York Times
Stengel, who had been pushed out by the Yankees because of his age, was equal parts salesman and manager for the Mets.Credit...Ernie Sisto/The New York Times
“I remember going into the barracks and reading The Times, and it said the Dodgers really were moving,” Jacobson recalled. “I threw the paper on the floor and said, ‘Damn, I’m never going to see the Dodgers again.’”
Hearts were broken. Willie Mays was going to San Francisco. Gil Hodges was going to Los Angeles. From 1958 to 1961, sulking Giants and Dodgers fans had to put up with the lordly Yankees winning three pennants and two World Series.
Some of us refer to that time as the Dark Ages.
“I was young, I didn’t have money, but I went to some Yankees games,” Jacobson admitted. “You respected them, but it wasn’t as much fun.”
He recalled that die-hard fans would fiddle with their radio dial to pick up Dodgers and Giants games from Philadelphia and other N.L. cities. “Some people drove down to Philadelphia to see the Dodgers and Giants. People would get mad because there were so many New Yorkers in the ballpark.”
Political pressure and economic reality forced a new team in New York to be created in 1962. It was to be called the Mets, named after the Metropolitans, a 19th century New Y

Gene Palumbo

3/26/2022 01:05:45 am

Political pressure and economic reality forced a new team in New York to be created in 1962. It was to be called the Mets, named after the Metropolitans, a 19th century New York team, and based, temporarily, in the rusty, vacated Polo Grounds, hard by the Harlem River.
The first good sign for “us” was the hiring of the Old Man, Stengel, who had won 10 pennants in 12 years for the Yankees and was then “dismissed” (in his ornate vocabulary) for the criminal offense of turning 70.
The Mets’ home opener at the Polo Grounds in 1962 had an announced attendance of 12,447. The upstart club held its own against the Pittsburgh Pirates, losing, 4-3.Credit...The New York Times
Jacobson was hired by Newsday to cover the Yankees in 1960, and Jack Mann, the great sports editor, sprung me to cover a few home games that year and several dozen more in 1961, the year of Roger Maris’s 61 homers. For National League types, the wait was on.
The new Mets management wisely hired Stengel before the 1961 World Series, which was played then in God’s own sunlight in early October and vastly more important to the American populace than it is today. Stengel was at Yankee Stadium, in the media scrum on the field before Game 2, evangelizing the glories of the Amazing Mets.
Stengel was described perfectly in The New York Times by Arthur Daley, the sports columnist, as sporting a “green Tyrolean hat,” doing one of his famous soliloquies in his language known as Stengelese:
“There’s Mr. Berra, which uster help me manage. … I don’t want to get close to these fellers which I am in the other league now and Mr. Berra will live to be 110. These once were my players and they gave me success to a certain extent and no one can say why.”
(To translate: He was saying he would never do such a thing as covet Yankees players. However, he would pick up “Mr. Berra” as a playing coach and good luck charm in 1965.)
The Old Man was present for Cincinnati’s only victory in that World Series, as Elio Chacon of the Reds dashed home from third base as a pitch got past the catcher. Chacon slid home in a cloud of Stadium dust and brushed himself off, applauded by anti-Yankees fans. I was there, writing a sidebar for Newsday, in an auxiliary press box, directly behind the Old Man, who doffed his aforementioned Tyrolean hat.Stengel’s connection to the Yankees helped add legitimacy to the Mets. He met with Roger Maris, left, and Mickey Mantle, right, in the spring of 1962 to remind everyone of the connection.Credit...Associated Press
(With that single act of hustle, Chacon earned himself a spot with the Mets in their first season; Stengel had an affinity for players who hustled. Chacon had a mostly futile season, and never played in the majors again.)
As the team filled its roster with players other clubs did not want, Stengel was creating the Mets, an image-building act worthy of a high-grade advertising agency — whisking back and forth from his home in Glendale, Calif., to wherever there were note pads and cameras and microphones in New York.
He had a rolling monologue about the Amazing Mets, the Metsies, and his dream for “the youth of America” because “they ain’t failed yet.”
In January 1962, Stengel materialized in Manhattan to hold a no-news conference. Jacobson reported in Newsday that Stengel had drawn photographers and even Gabe Pressman, the peripatetic radio news reporter, away from “the president and the mayor” — that is, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Wagner.
Stengel waved a paper roster detailing the culls and rejects the Mets had accumulated — geezers named Hodges, Ashburn, Bell, Zimmer, Thomas, Labine, Neal — to attract nostalgic National League fans — plus Chacon, of course, as well as Rod Kanehl, a longtime Yankees farmhand who had impressed Stengel by vaulting a fence on a practice field to catch a long fly ball.
The Old Man said he wore out a roster every day, brandishing it to writers and fans and prospective ticket buyers.
As he strode away, Stengel had parting words for the media types:
“Don’t forget to join the Amazing Mets!” Stengel shouted, adding, “If they have a newspaper merger, get a glove.”
The Mets were fairly terrible, but fans in New York City were happy to ask for autographs from players like right fielder Joe Christopher.Credit...Ernie Sisto/The New York Times
The Mets players were fun, but so was the return to New York City of stars like Willie Mays, who starred at the Polo Grounds from 1951 to 1957.Credit...Associated Press
Most New York newspapers assigned beat writers from the good old days — Dick Young of The Daily News was one — but The Times went the other route and dispatched Robert Lipsyte, not long out of Columbia University, literate and observant with no allegiance to standard sportswriting styles.
In h

Gene Palumbo

3/26/2022 01:08:40 am

Most New York newspapers assigned beat writers from the good old days — Dick Young of The Daily News was one — but The Times went the other route and dispatched Robert Lipsyte, not long out of Columbia University, literate and observant with no allegiance to standard sportswriting styles.
In his 50th anniversary paean to the Mets, Lipsyte described those first days of camp, including how he actually took his glove with him and was allowed to shag flies at the lakeside field. The first fly “exploded in my hand” and “my palm still stings at the memory.” Fortunately, it did not seem to harm his articles, which I read avidly up north.
The New Yorker sent Roger Angell to see if he could dig up anything — the start of a career shift for the now-centenarian icon.
We at Newsday assigned Stan Isaacs, who wrote a column called Out of Left Field, which he most certainly was, and Jacobson, who started the spring with the Yankees and switched to the Mets.
“The Mets may finish ahead of the Colts because they have implemented their expansion draft roster with journeymen like Frank Thomas and Charlie Neal,” Isaacs wrote, picking the Mets for ninth place in the 10-team National League; Jacobson had them eighth.
“Ah, that was just wishful thinking,” Jacobson said recently. “They had formerly good players who just couldn’t do it anymore.” He brightened and said, “But there was a lot of laughter all the time.”
In St. Louis for the opening game, nearly a dozen Mets were stuck in an elevator in the team hotel and, for better or worse, rescued, in time to lose.
Same old Mets.
Stengel’s roster did not produce many wins, but had plenty of recognizable faces, including Frank Thomas, Gus Bell and Richie Ashburn.Credit...Bettmann/Getty Images
The first home game was two days later — Friday the 13th, of course. I played hooky from the high school beat to sit in the stands on a nasty, sleety afternoon to watch the aged Mets slipping and sliding in front of only 12,447 fans. The growing Mets fandom survived a nine-game losing streak before they would win one: same old Mets.
In the days to come, Richie Ashburn, wise old slap hitter, would insist on playing, despite a concussion from hitting the wall. Same old Mets.
The Mets picked up a former Yankee named Marvin Eugene Throneberry, born to be a Met, erratic in the field and on the basepaths. Ashburn, in the next locker, counseled Marvelous Marv to enjoy the chants from the fans: “Raspberry! Strawberry! We Love Throneberry!” Same old Mets.
“You had things you never had before, like banners and signs and chants like a college football game,” Jacobson recalled. “‘Let’s go Mets!’ It was very loud.”
Stengel would go out on the field and it would get louder. People would stand on the dugout.
The New York fans blended their hatred of the departed Dodgers and Giants owners with their love of National League ball — Roberto Clemente! Henry Aaron! Frank Robinson! Stan Musial! When Willie Mays and Duke Snider came home in their road gray uniforms, there were lusty family reunions.
It was a glorious time, and it seems like yesterday. I eventually covered Mets games, home and away, as the crowds began to flock to this strange early-60s happening in Woodstock-on-Harlem.
With the Yankees, Stengel used to concede that he couldn’t have done it without the players.
With the Mets, Stengel couldn’t have done it without the fans.

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