BASEBALL LINGO: WHAT THE EXPRESSIONS MEAN, HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY (Part II)
Reactions to Part I were so effusive, that Part II is here for your enjoyment. Reactions always welcomed. THE WALKING MAN Eddie Yost played nearly two decades in the major leagues. His lifetime batting average was only .254, but that didn’t keep him off the bases. Yost coaxed pitchers into yielding I,614 walks to […]
Sad Story of Shoeless Joe Jackson
Who Belongs In the Baseball Hall of Fame This year of 2019 is the 100th anniversary of the “Black Sox” scandal. This article comes from the Frommer vault On July 16, 1889, Joseph Jefferson Wofford Jackson was born into a poor family in Greenville, South Carolina. He never learned to read or write. By […]
Remembering Robby (Part 3)
Major League Baseball rightfully celebrates Jackie Robinson Day every April 15, the day he broke the color barrier in 1947. I met my all-time favorite player twice –once as a teenager and then as an adult. Both moments still stay with me. HARVEY FROMMER: When school was out, I sometimes went around with my father […]
“You Could Look It Up”
With baseball’s hot stove heated up, with fans of the game getting antsy about what their favorite teams will do, here are a few nick-names and expressions starting with “W” for you to enjoy. As Casey Stengel was fond of saying: “You could look it up.” Here are a few starting with “W.” THE WALKING […]
Sports Book Reviews
This is the time of year for sports book giving and getting. Below are top choices from your favorite critic THE PATS by Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson (HoughtonMifflin $35.00, 365 pages) gets my vote for the best sports book of 2018. Detailed, carefully crafted, filled with fun, facts, passion, timeless and fabulous photographs […]
Shoeless Joe Remains a Scapegoat
With the recent announcement of a new class of inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the skeletons in the closet come front and center once again. Pete Rose and and “Shoeless Joe” are becoming baseball’s odd couple – both ineligible for the Hall of Fame because of a lifetime ban, two of just […]
Red Sox Flashback: The First World Championship
With the Sox on the cusp of winning another World Series, with fans all over New England savoring the time, a look back to 1912 provides a marvelous historical treat. Business in Boston virtually shut down on September 23,1912 as 100‚000 cheered the Red Sox returning from a western trip by train into South Station. […]
Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball
On July 16, 1889, Joseph Jefferson Wofford Jackson was born into a poor family in Greenville, South Carolina. He never learned to read or write. By the time he was six years old, he worked as a cleanup boy in the cotton mills. By age 13, he labored amidst the din and dust a dozen […]
Fenway Flashback
The glory days are back at the Fens as the 2018 season heads down the home stretch. There is a lot of excitement about the real possibility of another world championship for the Sox. Royal and loyal rooters, though, still have in their memory bank images of a sad long ago time when life at […]
FENWAY PARK FLASHBACK
The joy and passion and full houses and winning ways now on parade at Fenway Park all are a sharp contrast to the way things once were at the little ballpark in most of the 1960s. There are still those around who recall that time, some with mixed emotions. Sam Mele: I came into Fenway […]
“YOU COULD LOOK IT UP” –CASEY STENGEL
“Make ’em pay. Make ’em pay you a thousand dollars. Don’t go help those people with their shows for coffee-and-cake money. You’re the Yankees—the best. Make ’em pay you high.”—Casey Stengel By Harvey Frommer I first met Casey Stengel in the dugout at Shea Stadium when he was the manager […]
Sports Book Reviews
This is the time of year that all kinds of sports books with all kinds of slants appear. For some they are “hot stove reading.” For others, they are part of the annual cycle – spring books. For your information and reading pleasure, herewith some to sample. The New York Yankees Home Run Almanac […]
Remembering Jackie Robinson
He was born in Cairo, Georgia on the last day of January in 1919, and died on October 24, 1972 in Stamford, Connecticut. Robinson attended UCLA, where he won letters in three sports. He was in the Army during World War II and then played briefly in the Negro Leagues when the war ended. He […]
Talking Yankee Factoids, Trivia, Oddities
By Harvey Frommer With the “Baby Bombers” now part of the scene, with the Yankee future becoming brighter and brighter, with all the renewed interest in the franchise, herewith for your reading pleasure and edification some interesting sidebars that are part of the franchise history Yankees A reference with the name “Yankees” first appeared […]
BOONE TOWN! OCTOBER 16, 17, 2003
By Harvey Frommer The following excerpt from my The Ultimate Yankee Book celebrates “Booney,” the new guy on the block as manager of the New York Yankees. You can read more about Aaron Boone and other Yankee moments, streaks, feats and much more in the book. Enjoy. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It was a match up […]
REMEMBERING MEL ALLEN
By Harvey Frommer I had the very good fortune in 1990 to visit the legendary Mel Allen at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut. I was there to collect memorabilia for the “Stars of David: Jews in Sports” exhibit that I was the curator and executive producer for at the Klutznik Museum in Washington, D.C. My […]
REMEMBERING ELSTON HOWARD
“A man of great gentleness and dignity” –on his Plaque in Monument Park “He deserves credit and where would I be without him? Phew! He can give me a job in the outfield and he can catch, too. Good kid, too. He’s good.”—Casey Stengel With all the newspaper headlines today documenting angst and anger […]
RED BARBER
“Red was perhaps the most literate sports announcer I ever met.”-Vin Scully In my early and middle years of writing sports book, I called on Red Barber to blurb them. He never failed. He along with Mel Allen those long ago summer nights spun the tales of New York City Baseball and hooked me on […]
The Rivalry: Yanks vs Red Sox
Babe Ruth at Fenway Back then, as the story goes, there was a get-together in the woods. A Red Sox fan, a Cub fan and a Pirate fan were there. They all wondered when their team would make it to the World Series again and decided to call on God for advice. The Cub fan […]
How Murderers’ Row Shaped Baseball
When Yankee owner Colonel Ruppert’s “Rough Riders,” as some called them in the late 1920s, were not going head to head against their American League competition, they were playing exhibition games in Buffalo, Omaha, Rochester, Columbus, Dayton, Indianapolis… Everyone in the little cities and small towns wanted to catch a glimpse of the Babe, Lou […]
Dog Days at Fenway Park
With the crowds having fun at the hub in Boston, with the team gearing up to go deep this October, with a roster loaded with talent and more on the way, a flashback to Sox in the Sixties is almost like culture shock. September 28th, 1960, Red Sox vs. Orioles. Overcast, dank, chilly the final […]
