Once upon a time, early in the 1950s, there were three professional baseball teams in New York City. The Brooklyn Dodgers, the New York Yankees, and the New York Giants. At that time, perhaps three of the best center fielders who ever played the game played for those teams. Duke Snider with the Dodgers, Willie Mays with the Giants, and Mickey Mantle with the Yankees. Over their careers, the three…
Unless they know something about the history of the game, many younger folks would simply think Joe DiMaggio was the Mr. Coffee guy. But to more than a generation of Yankee fans, he was one of the best that ever wore the pinstripes. Players like that are few and far between in today’s game. His type of player would be a dinosaur. He struck out only 369 times in his…
I have had over the years many favorite comedians. Red Skelton, Robin Williams, Richard Prior, George Carlin, just to name a few. But there have been some people connected to baseball who I found to be very funny also. Probably the first I remember was Joe Garagiola. As most of us know, Joe played for the Cardinals and Pirates. He was a decent catcher, but not as good as his…
He was my favorite player growing up. A California boy who found fame in the borough of Brooklyn. He was a graceful outfielder, and a power hitting threat on the great Brooklyn teams of the late 40’s and 50’s. He was the only lefty threat in the lineup that featured Jackie, Gil, Campy, Pee Wee, and Scoonj. And in Brooklyn he was simply “The Dook”. I got that part from…
Until the Dodgers moved west in 1958, Los Angeles was home to two AAA PCL minor league teams. The Los Angeles Angels, and the Hollywood Stars. The PCL formed in 1903. The first six teams were the Angels, Portland Beavers, San Francisco Seals, Oakland Oaks, Sacramento Solons and the Seattle Indians. The Angels played in those days at what was known as Washington Park. It was also known as Chutes…
The other night I watched a few innings of the Dodger intra-squad. Even though they added piped in music, and “fan noise” it was still difficult for me to get excited about the game. One thing I did enjoy, however, was watching Josiah Gray pitch. He is a good one folks! And, if baseball ever returns to some semblance of normalcy, I can see great things ahead for him. Both…
I’m going to come right out and say that I believe that Gil Hodges should be in the Hall of Fame. Much has been written about the subject and nothing that I offer here is unique or original to me. I will just say this, if a player can be voted in for being a tremendous person, then Gill Hodges would be a unanimous first ballot selection. I was too…
I’m not particularly a Ron White fan, but over the last few days, I have found myself thinking of his “You Can’t fix Stupid” comedy routine. Not sure why, but it always seemed to come to mind when thinking about the current negotiations between MLB and the MLBPA. They just can’t seem to help themselves Since the beginning of March our world has turned on its axis in ways that…
A while back I had posted a column on Dan Bankhead, the first African-American pitcher in MLB. I knew the answer to that trivia question. To this one I did not know the answer. Namely, who was the first Puerto Rican player to play at the MLB level with the Dodgers? He was not the first to play MLB coming in second but was the first position player from Puerto…