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"Remembering
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Sneak previews and extra content:
Remembering
Yankee Stadium: Opening Day 1923
Yankee
Stadium Firsts
Barnstorming
Around America with the 1927 New York Yankees
Remembering
Yankee Stadium: All-Star Games
Roll
out the Barrel: The 1927 Yankees
An
Oral and Narrative History of The House That Ruth Built
Yankee
Stadium Prisms and Sidebars (A Very Partial List)
Yankee
Stadium By The Numbers
Remembering
Yankee Stadium:
Thirties
/
Forties
/
Fifties
/
Sixties
/
Seventies
/
Eighties
/
Nineties
Remembering Yankee
Stadium:
SIXTIES!
As the games at Yankee Stadium dwindle to
a precious few - -for your reading pleasure adapted from REMEMBERING YANKE
STADIUUM: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT)
-----------------------------------------------
“There was
a great, dark mystery about when I first came here from
Oklahoma. Now I think this is
about the prettiest ball park I ever saw." - Mickey Mantle
RALPH
HOUK:
I moved into the manager’s office in 1961, and the great clubhouse
guy Pete Sheehy had everything ready for
me. It had all I wanted: a room,
a desk, a place to keep my records.
Most of my memories of that office was bringing guys in and telling
them things they didn’t want to hear.
I
was usually down at one end of the Yankee dugout managing from a standing
position with one leg up. I
stood rather than sit on the bench. I was always
moving.
JOHNNY
BLANCHARD:
Roger Maris had the locker next to
mine. When he was popping those long ones out of the park, I had to get out
of my own locker because 20, 30 writers would flock around him, and they
would sift into my locker space. Roger was an introvert and did not like all the bright
lights. That was what gave him the reputation of being nasty. But he was
not.
SAL DURANTE:
I was with my girlfriend Rosemarie who
became my wife later on and my cousin and his
girl. We were hanging out in
Coney Island doing nothing. So I made a suggestion that we go to the last
game at Yankee Stadium. I knew that Maris was going after the 61st
home run. I knew about the
promised $5,000 reward for the
guy who caught the ball. I had read all about it in the
News.
I was a Yankee fan as
far back as I can remember although not really a Roger Maris fan. I was a
Mickey Mantle fan and watched every Yankee game as I was growing up because
of him.
We asked the ticket guy for four seats in right field. I never expected
there would be any. The guy thumbed through tickets like a deck of playing
cards, “Yeah, I’ve got four seats.”
I had no money. Rosemarie
paid for the tickets. We were in Section 33, Box l63D , the sixth row of
the right field lower deck. In those days you had six seats to a box. I was
sitting in the row below Rosemarie with John and his girl Rose Marie was
sitting by herself in Seat Four. I
switched seats with her so she could talk to them. It was the smartest thing
I did.
PHIL RIZZUTO (GAME
CALL) WCBS radio:
They're standing, waiting to see if Maris is gonna hit Number Sixty-one.
We've only got a handful of people sitting out in left field, but in right
field, man, it's hogged out there. And they're standing up. Here's the windup,
the pitch to Roger. Way outside, ball one...And the fans are starting to
boo. Low, ball two. That one was in the dirt. And the boos get louder...Two
balls, no strikes on Roger Maris. Here's the windup. Fastball, hit deep to
right! This could be it!
SAL DURANTE:
As soon as Maris the ball, I knew it was going to be a home run that
would go over my head. I jumped up on my seat and reached as high as I could.
The ball hit the palm of my hand. It didn’t hurt. It was a thing from
heaven that knocked me over into the next row.
TRACY
NIEPORENT: We were at the Stadium on
May 14, 1967 when Mantle hit his 500th home run in the seventh inning of
a game against Baltimore. As
it turned out, he didn't have that many home runs left in him after
that.
JOE
GARAGIOLA: (GAME
CALL, NBC)
Three balls, two strikes. Mantle waits. Stu Miller is ready.
Here’s the payoff pitch by Miller to mantle. Swung on! There she goes!.
. . Mickey Mantle has hit his 500th home run . .
.
BOB
SHEPPARD:
At one time Bob Fischel said to me: “I think it would be nice
to recognize the boys and girls, the young people.” That was when I
began saying: “Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls,” But I did
it under force for a short time and then returned to saying just “Ladies
and Gentlemen.”
FRANK RUSSO: My first game
at Yankee Stadium was Thurman Munson's first game. August 8, 1969 . My dad
was a huge Yankee fan and he read in the papers that their number one draft
pick had been recalled from the minors. We went to the second game of a twi-night
doubleheader against Oakland.
We walked right up and my dad bought the seats, good seats behind
the first base line.
Munson was definitely
a confident guy. He had some swagger to him which was what I liked. He got
his first major league hit against Catfish Hunter, another single and his
first two RBIs in that game. We knew if the Yankees were going to get better
in the 1970s, he would help lead the way.
About the Author:
Harvey Frommer is his 33rd consecutive
year of writing sports books. The author of 40 of them including the classics:
"New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime
Baseball," his REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history
(Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published September 1, 2008
as well as a reprint version of his "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball.".
Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and
autographed.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of one million
and appears on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.
