NOV: THE BASEBALL GURU
ARTICLE FROM
ONEMOREINNING
Sixteen
years of ONE MORE INNING: Part
Two
Over the
years there
have been
moments in the publishing of
ONE MORE INNING that have been difficult to deal with. They have involv-ed
baseball friends and people in the field that were either friends
or
acquaintances
that passed away.
Some
I had been very close to &
their death left a void in my life that could not be
replaced. Almost all of them
are ballplayers that I inter-viewed
at one time or another and
continued to correspond with
or meet every once in awhile.
In
some cases they were relatives who spent time with me and were kind enough
to share their memories of their husbands or fathers.
Let
me share some of my memories with you:
When I was a boy I would sit
in the stands next to rightfield in the old Yankee Stadium and would talk
to Cliff Mapes while he was on the field. He was always very obliging and
never turned me down when I would ask him a question or two. About 50 years
afterwards, when I started publishing One More Inning, I got in touch with
Cliff & he was the first
person I interviewed for the magazine. Over the years we corresponded quite
often, became very friendly and whenever he came into New York for an Oldtimers
Day game we would meet and have supper together. That was always fun because
invariably we would be joined by people like Allie Reynolds, Eddie Lopat,
Billy Johnson, Mike Torrez and others. The stories that I heard of their
days in the game were priceless.
The
last time I saw him he mentioned that he was afraid he was losing sight of
his remaining good eye ( he lost sight of his right eye when he fell on a
horseshoe spike shortly after he left the game). About a month after that
his wife Gert called to tell me he had passed away. She mentioned that he
always talked about the fact that it was so nice to have somebody like me
who remembered his days as a Yankee and would even bother to write about
him. Well, I was the one who felt flattered to have been included in his
circle and must say that several years after his passing I miss his
company:
Same thing about Dick Bartell.
Got to know Dick when I was
doing an article on the first ever All Star Game. Got in touch with him to
talk about his being the first shortstop to be elected to play in that contest.
Talked to him for awhile and for the most part was getting kind of general
answers to my questions. His wife broke in and said that Dick was needed
on the other phone and while he was gone she mentioned that Dick was in the
early stages of Alzheimers and was aware of it and didnt mind
her helping out with some questions. We continued the rest of the interview
that way.
Over a two year period I
corresponded with him and Ivy and experienced how deadly Alzheimers
could be. There would be moments where Dick would hold long,
lucid conversations with me.
But as time went by they would grow less and less. He did mention that he
was disappointed that he was never elected into the Hall Of Fame (if you
check his stats, its a compelling case). He did often mention how proud
he was when a baseball field he played on as a kid (and now used for Little
League) had been named after him, with a plaque erected in the front entrance.
And then of course I got the
expected phone call from Ivy telling me he was gone.
And then a year later she was
gone too.
Johnny Gee was one of the tallest
pitchers to play ML ball. When he was traded to the Giants the media made
a big to do about it and also talked about his blazing fastball. He never
made it and had a short career and then went on to do better in professional
basket-ball. Theres more to the story though and I didnt get
it until I talked to his wife.
15 years ago I sent away for
his autograph. His wife, Doris wrote back and said Johnny was gone for some
time now but she could answer any questions I may have about him. For the
next two years we corresponded often and I learned a great deal about Johnny.
She told me how it felt to be war bride and one particular incident when
she had visited him when the war was over and they rode home from camp together.
There were no seats available on the troop train and they were forced to
sit on long wooden crates. Suddenly she noticed that there were name plates
on the crates and realized they were the coffins of soldiers returning home.
She
also mentioned how her husbands career was ruined by Frankie Frisch.
When he was traded to the Giants he received a lot of attention from the
press because of his size and they played up the fact that he would probably
be able to help them a great deal. Frisch took exception to all the publicity
he was getting and did everything possible to belittle him and not use him
much during games. Early in the season, on an extremely cold and blistery
day, the Giants were losing badly and Frisch told Gee to come right in. When
he pointed out that he hadnt warmed up Frisch yelled out that he
didnt care and if he didnt go in now hed be in the minors
the next day and besides that he wanted him to pitch all fast balls. Gee
went in, faced two batters and on the third he heard a loud pop in his
arm. Frisch wouldnt take
him out and used him, bad arm and all, to come in for relief two more days
in a row. That effectively ended his career.
Then one day I received a letter
from her telling me she had Lou Gehrigs disease and probably would
have to curtail our correspondence.
I called her, but her sister answered and said she was in the hospital and
was in very bad shape. Two months later her son called to tell me she
had died a few days ago.
Sixteen years of doing the
magazine have given me other moments like the above. There are some more
that Ill share next month.