MAR: THE BASEBALL GURU ARTICLE
FROM
ONEMOREINNING
Baseball
panorama:
A NEW SERIES IN
ONE MORE INNING:
HERB
ROGOFF LOOKS AT
THE MANY WORLDS
OF BASEBALL:
As
bad as it was
for
the fans
it was worse
for the
players. Fly balls would do a ballet before coming to the
outfielders, ground balls would
test the ingenuity of the
infielders, pitchers had to buck gusts of wind and pitch accordingly.
It’s
incomprehensible that with all the money spent on the planning, development
and construction of the Stadium that nobody was aware of what the winds were
capable of doing at that site.
Some of the
highlights in the history of the park include: Stu Miller getting blown off
the mound during the 1961 All Star Game:
In 1963 an entire batting cage was thrown 60 feet by the wind during
the Mets batting practice
session: Just before the
third game of the 1989 World Series an earthquake struck the Stadium &
play was suspended for 10 days:
On the plus side
we should mention that the Beatles performed their last live commercial concert
there in 1966.
The Giants left
there in 1999 and moved into their new Stadium,
THE
BABE RUTH STORY:
Has
there ever been a worse movie about the life of a baseball legend? Well maybe
The Pride Of the Yankees (Lou Gehrig) or The Winning Game (Grover Cleveland
Alexander) but the Ruth horror tops them all.
Almost all of
the film is idiotic and on top of everything else not true and on top of
that not even researched. Here are just a few of the bits of nonsense that
can be found throughout the film.
Ruth promising
to hit a homerun for a dying kid (never happened). His called shot (specious
at best). His wife being a nightclub singer (never in a million years!).
Ballantine beer being advertised on the Yankee Stadium scoreboard (during
prohibition!). Brother Mathias never aging during a 34 year span. Suggesting
that Claire Ruth was his first wife (he had been married before). Showing
that his two daughters got along well (they hated each other). Portraying
Ruth as a caring and dutiful
husband (HA!). An incredibly moronic performance by William Bendix who makes
Babe look like an overgrown, oafish acting schoolboy in an adult body.
There’s also a scene where Claire Ruth sings, “Singing in the
Rain” 10 years before it was written and how can we leave out Ruth’s
promised HR to a crippled boy and guess what – the boy walks again.
If only promised HRs could work like that in real life.
Incredibly Ruth
was an adviser on the film!
THE
CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON STEROIDS, STARRING MARK
McGWIRE:
“I’m
not here to discuss the past.” And with those words we were given a
hint as to what the hearings would turn into.
If you love baseball
then how could you not feel disgust as to what was going on with the testimony
given by the players who participated in the hearings.
According to
their statements nobody knew anything. Jose Canseco was lying and falsely
accusing some of the best players of our day of being involved with Amphetimines
and Steroids. Direct answers to questions were danced around with and pretty
much ignored. The Canseco accusations were absurd and should not even be
discussed.
McGwire’s
full answer was, “I’m not going into the past or talk about my
past. I’m here to make a positive influence on
this.” Mark, if you have
nothing to hide why wouldn’t you talk about your actions in the past?
Raphael Palmiro
and Sammy Sosa, when questioned by the panel, vehemently denied ever using
Steroids. Days later when it was reported that he had failed a drug test,
Palmeiro said he had no idea what he was taking.
What a sorry
time this is for the wonderful game of baseball.
CUM
POSEY AND GUS
GREENLEE:
THE NEGRO LEAGUES
Editors
note: As of this writing
Two of the most important owners
of Negro League Teams were products of the Numbers Rackets. Let’s talk
about Cumberland Posey first.
His father was
a wealthy shippIng magnate who
also was part owner of the Pittsburgh Courier, a black newspaper. Posey joined
the Homestead Grays as an outfielder and later bought them with money he
had made from the Numbers rackets. Under his ownership they became one of
the finest teams in the Negro Leagues.
The depression forced him to sell
his best players & integration made him leave the game & just concentrate
on his very profitable numbers racketeering.
Gus
Greenlee was a nightclub
owner. A money lender, a political shaker and mover. A bootlegger, and a
numbers racketeer. He was also involved in giving back to the neighborhoods
he fleeced by buying groceries, paying rent, and building housing for the
poor.
He bought the Pittsburgh Crawfords
in 1930. They are now considered to have
been one of the great Negro
League franchises of all time. Among some of the players who were on the
team were, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Oscar
Charleston.
Like Posey and other Negro League
owners, he was forced out of the game by integration.
TY
COBBS FATHER:
The
rumors had been there for awhile and nobody knows for sure whether Ty
Cobb’s father knew about them.
Ty Cobb idolized
his father. During his formative years it was from his father that he drew
inspiration and the competitiveness that spurred him on during his career.
A few weeks before
Cobb was due to join the Tigers his mother shot his father as he was trying
to come into the house through a window. During the trial (Cobb was there
to testify for his mother) Mrs. Cobb claimed she thought that she was protecting
herself from a burglar. After the trial, rumors insisted that his father had heard what people
were saying about his wife having an affair and he had come home early to
spy on her.
His mother was
acquitted but the rumors didn’t end and persist to this day. Neighbors
did mention that they thought they saw a man leaving the house after the
shots were heard, but did not testify to that.
Nowhere does Cobb mention his father’s death but after the trial he spent very little time with her.
