Goudey

Wikipedia - "The Goudey Gum Company was an American chewing gum company started in 1919. The company was founded by Enos Gordon Goudey (1863–1946) of Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia. ... Hank Greenberg and Lou Gehrig are prominently featured in the Goudey cards of the 1930s, colorful cards with hand drawn portraits of the players. Other baseball hall of fame and interesting players depicted on Goudey gum cards from 1933 to 1941 include: Ty Cobb, Jimmie Foxx, Bill Dickey, Carl Hubbell, Lefty Grove, Dizzy Dean, Mickey Cochrane, Charlie Gehringer, Tony Lazzeri, Mel Ott, Joe Dimaggio, Hank Greenberg, 'Ducky' Joe Medwick and Moe Berg."
Wikipedia
1933 Sport Kings
Vintage Baseball Cards: 1933 Goudey, 1934 Goudey, 1935 Goudey, 1936 Goudey, 1938 Goudey, 1941 Goudey

Tom Seaver

Wikipedia - "George Thomas 'Tom' Seaver (born November 17, 1944), nicknamed 'Tom Terrific' and 'The Franchise', is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He pitched from 1967-1986 for four different teams in his career, but is noted primarily for his time with the New York Mets. During a 20-year career, Seaver compiled 311 wins, 3,640 strikeouts, 61 shutouts and a 2.86 earned run average. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the highest percentage ever recorded (98.84%), and has the only plaque at Cooperstown wearing a New York Mets hat. As of 2010, Tom Seaver and Gil Hodges (played for the Mets in 1962-63) are the only Met players to have their jersey numbers retired by the team (Gil Hodges' number was retired as a manager even though he also played for the Mets)."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference
SABR: Tom Seaver
NYT: Q. and A. With Tom Seaver
amazon: Art of Pitching, The Last Icon: Tom Seaver and His Times
Tom Seaver: SI Vault
Tom Terrific And His Mystic Talent - SI Vault
Bleacher Report: Tom Seaver
YouTube: The Mets Win 1969 World Series, Tom Seaver Tribute
hulu: Talking Baseball with Ed Randall Tom Seaver

Bill Davis - "Georgie"

Georgie supervises the bleachers.
No one else would do it for twice the pay
and supervisor's pay was twice ours
and then some.
He joked and drank confiscated beer
and brought us some every now and then
in the room we dressed in
under the stairway.
Having to work bleachers
was like being sent to Siberia,
but nothing seemed to bother Georgie.

Georgie grew up in Lowell
and had been a fighter.
Whenever he talked about it
he told about the same fight,
when they had to stop him
from killing the guy,
and he's been the heavy underdog.

Don told me once
the last time he fought
(in the 1941 Golden Gloves
in Bridgeport Connecticut)
he kept getting knocked down
and getting up again
and getting knocked down,
and when his head hit the canvas
it sort of gave.

He only had trouble once
and Brady and Russo pulled him off
before he really got going on the kid.
That was the only time
they ever talked about firing him.
Usually he did a good job
and he seemed to like it there.


Local 254, 1974

The Curse of the Flying Scot

Polo Grounds Post Card
"Sing Goddess! The wrath of Bobby Thomson! The Trojan War had its Homer and Iliad, the birth of Rome its Virgil and Aeneid, the Black Death its Boccaccio and Decameron, Medieval Florence its Dante and Divine Comedy, Islam's Golden Age its Scheherazade and A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, Samurai Japan its Lady Muraski and Tale of Genji, a day in 1904 Dublin its Joyce and Ulysses, the V2 Rocket its Pynchon and Gravity's Rainbow. So it should be that baseball's greatest game—nay, the all and everything and nothing, the sublime ecstatic agony that is baseball—have its Gordon McLendon and his transcendent flight of verbal fancy on the afternoon of October 3, 1951."
Painting The Word Picture

2010 August: Shot Heard 'round the World
2011 April: Pafko at the Wall: A Novella
2011 May: Thomas Hill Ross - "An Evening with Bobby Thomson, 9/20/89"

1924 World Series

Wikipedia - "In the 1924 World Series, the Washington Senators beat the New York Giants in seven games. The Giants became the first team to play in four consecutive World Series, winning in 1921–1922 and losing in 1923–1924. Their long-time manager, John McGraw, made his ninth and final World Series appearance in 1924. This was the second extra-inning World Series-deciding game (1912) and the last until 1991. ... Walter Johnson, after pitching his first 20-victory season (23) since 1919, was making his first World Series appearance, at the age of 36, while nearing the end of his storied career with the Senators. He lost his two starts, but the Nats battled back to force a Game 7, giving Johnson a chance to redeem himself when he came on in relief in that game."
Wikipedia
Washington’s World Series
Baseball Almanac
Coffeyville Whirlwind - 1924 World Series
The Senators Are In the World Series! (1924)
First Run of the 1924 World Series

Lefty Gomez

Wikipedia - "Vernon Louis 'Lefty' Gomez (November 26, 1908 – February 17, 1989) was an American left-handed major league pitcher who played in the American League for the New York Yankees between 1930 and 1942. Considered one of the great pitchers of the day, Gomez was a seven-time All-Star and a five-time World Series Champion with the Yankees. He was also known for his colorful personality and humor throughout his career and life."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference
Lefty Gomez (Video)
EFQ Review: Lefty Gomez: The Life of the Party
NYCurve Yankees Blog
MLB Hall of Fame: Lefty Gomez Was Great, Andy Pettitte Was Merely Very Good
Classic Yankees: Lefty Gomez
YouTube: Lefty Gomez 1937 Pitching Form, Part 2, Lefty Grove pitching mechanics

Mike Shannon - "For Roger Metzger"

I was just getting used to you
As a Giant, when I heard that
Down in your basement
The whirring blade bumped a knot
And chewed off your throwing hand's fingertips.

Your comeback in the spring
Was a predictable failure,
But you did come back.

Poets have their failures
And need their comebacks too.
This comeback poem is for you,
Who can no longed play shortstop for me.


The Mantle-Mays Controversy Solved
The Day Satchel Paige and the Pittsburgh Crawfords Came to Hertford, N.C.

Eephus pitch

Rip Sewell
Wikipedia - "An Eephus pitch (also spelled Ephus) in baseball is considered a junk pitch with very low speed. The delivery from the pitcher has very low velocity and usually catches the hitter off-guard. Its invention is attributed to Rip Sewell of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1940s. According to manager Frankie Frisch, the pitch was named by outfielder Maurice Van Robays. When asked what it meant, Van Robays replied, 'Eephus ain't nothing, and that's a nothing pitch.'"
Wikipedia
NYT: A Brief History of the Eephus Pitch (YouTube)
ESPN: The something pitch
Ted Williams and the Eephus Pitch
W - Rip Sewell
Eephus, Fork, Knuckle, and Screw: Pitches That Are Anything But Junk (YouTube)

Ben Taylor

Wikipedia - "Benjamin Harrison Taylor (July 1, 1888 – January 24, 1953) was an American first baseman and manager in baseball's Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Born in Anderson, South Carolina, he played for the Birmingham Giants, Chicago American Giants, Indianapolis ABC's, St. Louis Giants, Bacharach Giants, Washington Potomacs, Harrisburg Giants, and Baltimore Black Sox. His playing career played lasted from 1908 to 1929."
Wikipedia
NLBPA": Ben Taylor
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
Seamheads
agate type
SABR

Municipal Stadium

Ruppert Stadium from 1938 to 1942
Wikipedia - "Kansas City Municipal Stadium was a baseball and football stadium that formerly stood in Kansas City, Missouri. It hosted the minor league Kansas City Blues of the American Association from 1923 to 1954 and the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues during the same period. The stadium was razed and rebuilt prior to the 1955 baseball season and hosted the Kansas City Athletics of the AL from 1955 to 1967, the Kansas City Royals of the AL from 1969 to 1972, and the Kansas City Chiefs of the AFL and NFL from 1963 to 1971, as well as other short-lived professional teams."
Wikipedia
ballparksofbaseball
Clem's Baseball
BallparkTour
Kansas City Municipal Stadium Artifacts Remain a Mystery
Stadium Page
Photograph Courtesy Rare Sports Films
Ballparks
NY's Gehrig at KC's 22nd and Brooklyn

Tim Peeler - "In '69"

Twelve and persistent
As the worst salesman
That ever stuck a toe in a door,
I began telling people at the church
That we were going to see the Braves.
Now the interstate to Atlanta was still
A long, strung-out thing back then,
But I told my buddy Coffey and the Hefners
And some of the men who stood out front
In ties and shirtsleeves,
Smoking by the wall before the service.
And soon it become known
That we were gong on an autumn Sunday,
With my frugal Dad, the dedicated minister,
Carefully picking a Lutheran church to attend-
More carefully than our field-level seats,
First base side, overweight Ken Johnson pitching
For the Cubs, the lanky Ron Reed for the Braves
In a bright afternoon of contrasts.

My head wheeled from side to side
In the round stadium, trying to take it
All in—the sheltered preacher's son,
A bit scared of all the beer drinkers,
Amazed at the wildness and color of it all,
The remarkable green open space of the field.
Then I turned away for a blink,
I missed the sudden pop of the ball as it left Aaron's bat,
Crashing in blue seats above
Chief Noc-A-Homa's tent.
I willed the trip, the game, the day,
Then blinked at a bright piece of history
In '69.


Waiting for Godot's First Pitch

Last call: Rick Dempsey's rain delay extravaganza

"Tonight's rain delay in the World Series brings one name to the mind of most baseball fans: Rick Dempsey. When I was a kid, 'This Week in Baseball' hosted by Mel Allen would occasionally show how Rick Dempsey entertained fans during rain delays during baseball games. Dempsey would wait until the tarp was nice and drenched, like a giant Slip-N-Slide. He would go from the clubhouse to the dugout, where he would take off his cleats, stuff a pillow under his jersey and head to the approximate area of home plate. There, he would pantomime Babe Ruth hitting a home run, complete with called shot. He would even pantomime the pitching."
LA Times
The Rainout Blog
Flashback Friday: Rick Dempsey's Rainy Days

Umpire

Wikipedia - "In baseball, the umpire is the person charged with officiating the game, including beginning and ending the game, enforcing the rules of the game and the grounds, making judgment calls on plays, and handling the disciplinary actions. The term is often shortened to the colloquial form ump. They are also sometimes addressed as blue at lower levels due to the common color of the uniform worn by umpires. In professional baseball, the term 'blue' is seldom used by players or managers, who instead call the umpire by his actual name in order to show respect (and the fact that MLB umpires sometimes do not wear blue)."
Wikipedia
W - Al Barlick
W - Nestor Chylak
W - Jocko Conlan
W - Doug Harvey
W - Tom Connolly

Kiner's Korner

1950 Bowman
Wikipedia - "Kiner's Korner was a post game interview show following New York Mets broadcasts hosted by Ralph Kiner. The show aired since the Mets' inaugural season at Shea Stadium in 1964. For years the show followed every Mets home game. The first was on April 30, 1963 with guests Buddy Hackett and Phil Foster."
W - Kiner's Korner
W - Ralph Kiner, Baseball Reference
SABR: Ralph Kiner
NYT: BackTalk; The View From Kiner's Korner By Ralph Kiner
YouTube: Channel 9 Mets Game Opening (1986)
Video: Kiner’s Korner, with Pete Rose

John Grey - ".190"

You're hitting .190.
The realization lingers longer
than the stench
of dressing room sweat.
That average is
the guy in the bar
whose rear end
swallows the stool beside you,
probes your sorry stats
like fingers prodding
the beginnings of your beer gut.
Your failures are strung out
by this mutual drowning of sorrows,
one beer for you,
one for that overwrought testimony
to the failed bunt,
the misread signal,
the pathetic whiff,
the descent of facial features
into helplessness
as slow curveball strike
floats by dumb lumber.
Some nights,
stadiums fit so easily
inside dark bars,
boos foam up atop the swirl
of bitter amber
and .190,
that unwanted companion,
encourages you to have
another and another and another.


Elysian Fields Quarterly

Phil Rizzuto

Wikipedia - "Philip Francis Rizzuto (September 25, 1917 – August 13, 2007), nicknamed 'The Scooter', was an American Major League Baseball shortstop. He spent his entire 13-year baseball career for the New York Yankees (1941–1956). Rizzuto was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994. ... Ted Williams once claimed that his Red Sox would have won most of the Yankees' 1940s and 1950s pennants if they had had Rizzuto at shortstop, but Rizzuto himself was more modest: 'My stats don't shout. They kind of whisper.' After his playing career, Rizzuto enjoyed a 40-year career as a radio and television sports announcer for the Yankees. His idiosyncratic style and unpredictable digressions charmed listeners, while his lively play-by-play brought a distinct energy to his broadcasts. He was well known for his trademark expression, 'Holy Cow!'."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference
amazon: O Holy Cow!, O Holy Cow! : The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto, Scooter: The Biography of Phil Rizzuto
Legends Look: Phil Rizzuto, #10
YouTube: Phil Rizzuto Yankees/Red Sox intro 1978, Roger Maris Hits Home Run #61

1975 World Series

Wikipedia - "The 1975 World Series was played between the Boston Red Sox (AL) and Cincinnati Reds (NL). It has been ranked by ESPN as the second-greatest World Series ever played. Cincinnati won the series four games to three. The Cincinnati Reds won the National League West division by twenty games over the Los Angeles Dodgers then defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates, three games to none, in the National League Championship Series. The Boston Red Sox won the American League East division by 4 1⁄2 games over the Baltimore Orioles then defeated the three-time defending World Series champion Oakland Athletics, three games to none, in the American League Championship Series."
Wikipedia
Baseball Almanac
amazon: The Cincinnati Reds 1975 World Series, Game Six: Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series
YouTube: Carlton Fisk's Homerun
MLB - Network Remembers: 1975 WS
ESPN, Peter Gammons: Fisk's HR in 12th beats Reds
The 1975 World Series–Game One

Andre Dawson

Wikipedia - "Andre Nolan Dawson (born July 10, 1954 in Miami, Florida), nicknamed 'The Hawk', is an American former center fielder and right fielder. During a 21-year baseball career, he played for four different teams, spending most of his career with the Montreal Expos (1976–1986) and Chicago Cubs (1987–1992). An 8-time National League (NL) All-Star, he was named the league's Rookie of the Year in 1977 after batting .282 with 19 home runs and 65 runs batted in (RBI), and won the Most Valuable Player Award in 1987 after leading the league with 49 homers and 137 RBI; he had been runner-up for the award in both 1981 and 1983. He batted .300 five times, drove in 100 runs four times and had 13 seasons of 20 home runs. A strong baserunner early in his career, he also stole 30 bases three times."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference
ESPN: Alomar short on first year of eligibility
YouTube: Baseball Hall of Fame - Biographies: Andre Dawson

Michael Culross - "The Lost Heroes"

Not many major leaguers came out of the Rocky Mountains." - Curt Gowdy

The exhibition at Pocatello
Had gone smoothly enough: three quick runs
In the second ware all they needed;
After that, most of the regulars

Watched from the dugout. Another easy
Win, but their bus from Boise was late.
When it finally arrived, only
The trainer and Kurtz, the first baseman

Showed up at the station to take it.
The others, whether victims of foul
Play, or lured off by some fabled
Trout stream, were never seen again, although

The front office continues to hope
Signed contracts for next year will turn up.



Hummers, Knucklers, and Slow Curves

The Favorite Obscure Baseball Figure Project

Bob “Death to Flying Things” Ferguson
"A little while ago I came up with the idea of asking various baseball fans to pick their favorite obscure baseball figure from the past. As the word 'figure' indicates, the person doesn’t have to be a player; it can be anyone employed within the game itself, by a team or by a league, including umpires, coaches, scouts, and front office personnel (but not the media). My idea is that time and a focus on sabermetrics and efforts to determine who should be in the Hall of Fame have left many uniquely interesting and/or appealing retired/deceased baseball people by the wayside. I’m asking for help in bringing to light some old baseball people who are worth remembering."
Misc. Baseball: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
amazon: Cult Baseball Players: The Greats, the Flakes, the Weird and the Wonderful

The SABR Baseball List & Record Book

"The SABR Baseball List & Record Book is an expansive collection of pitching, hitting, fielding, home run, team, and rookie records not available online or in any other book. This is a treasure trove of baseball history for statistically minded baseball fans that's also packed with intriguing marginalia. For instance, on July 25, 1967, Chicago's Ken Berry ended Game Two of a doubleheader against Cleveland with a home run in the bottom of the sixteenth inning -- Chicago's second game-winning homer of the day. The comprehensive lists include Most Career Home Runs by Two Brothers (Tommie and Hank Aaron have 768), Most Seasons with 15 or More Wins (Cy Young and Greg Maddux each have 18), and Highest On Base Percentage in a Season by a Rookie (listing every rookie above .400)."
amazon
100 Greatest Baseball Players
Seamheads: Comments on The SABR Baseball List and Record Book, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 10

Lost Ballparks: A Celebration of Baseball's Legendary Fields

"The Polo Ground, Ebbets Field, Comiskey Park--the great temples of baseball are being razed to the ground. Now the author of The Glory of Their Times has brought 22 of these grand old open-air, wood-and-concrete stadiums back to life in a beautiful, big-hearted book filled with over 250 vintage photos of parks, players, games, and fans."
amazon: Lost Ballparks: A Celebration of Baseball's Legendary Fields

Stephen Porter - "The Machine"

T'was the greatest group of men, ever to play,
On a diamond, with a ball, every day

There was Joe, there was Johnny, and then there was Pete,
The whole team was sturdy, as two ton concrete

Down at first there was Tony, always catching them square,
And at second was Joe, who could run like a mare

Dave held up short, never missing a beat,
And fielding at third, no one else, but Pete

The outfield was anchored, by three all their own,
Foster, Griffey, and Geronimo, no better were known

Individually the best, well maybe not quite,
But together they put up one hell of a fight

All who watched, those 8 play the game,
Knew something was up, they were destined for fame

And sure enough, two years back to back,
The Machine won the title, for they had the knack.

Were they truly the best group, ever to play,
On a diamond, with a ball, every day

It isn't for sure, no one can agree,
For many teams have put it on the line, in this land of the free

But one thing I feel, as other Reds fans do,
Those 8 played the best, as a team, as a crew.


Baseball Almanac - Stephen Porter