Posted on 10/09/2020 9:28:34 AM PDT by IndyTiger
I had no idea he was still alive, despite my F-150 pickup truck being named after him.
The nuns used to wheel in a TV into the grammar school I attended so we could watch the Yanks in the 50s.
Ford at one time held the record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched in World Series play, 33. He broke Babe Ruth’s record!
RIP #16.
Aren’t you surprised, in all the games won by the Yankees, no 300 game winners?
Good comparison. You could easily add Steve Carleton, Tom Glavine, Carl Hubble, and Randy Johnson to that list of great lefthanders. And there are others but in the early days like Cy Young, and the negro leagues like John Donaldson.
http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201103/greatest-pitcher-youve-never-heard
rwood
Think they went 5-man rotation most of Whitey’s career. Two years they didn’t he won 24 and 25.
You were fortunate to see them on TV during school hours. Some of us had to sneak radios in to school to listen to the World Series surreptitiously.
CBS had baseball on Saturdays,usually the Yankees with Dizzy Dean and Pee-Wee Reese doing the broadcasting. That was as much fun as the game.
I also miss the old minor league stadiums with wooden bleachers which you could stomp for a rally . The sound was terrific. I got to see Cal Ripken, Jr and Eddie Murray play in the minors before they ascended to the Orioles.
Memories ... my elementary school played the radio broadcast of World Series games during recess over the PA system. They did the same to the classrooms the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963. But that was no game. We grew up immersed in the history of our times.
old minor league stadiums
One game I saw in the old arlington stadium was Nolan Ryan’s 7th no hit game. At 44 he struck out 16 too and not against some chump team, it was Toronto during its hayday
in 91. Sitting in a field box felt like we could touch first base!
Yogi, Whitey and Mickey... I got their autographs during spring training in 1958... Don Larson couldn’t be bothered by kids seeking his autograph.
Anytime Whitey is brought up, I think of this:
“Billy Martin celebrated his 29th birthday at the Copacabana with Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Hank Bauer and their wives. The players ended up in a drunken melee and the incident was the eventual cause of Martin being traded to the Kansas City Athletics.
The entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. was headlining the Copa that night when a group of bowlers entered the nightclub and began heckling Davis, including some racial epithets. The Yankees, being big fans of Davis, took offense to the name calling and came to his defense.
While there are many versions of what happened next, it is clear that the brawl resulted in one of the bowlers, a Bronx deli owner, ending up with a concussion and a broken jaw. Hank Bauer was thought to be the Yankee most likely to have punched the abusive bowler and a lawsuit was brought.
Below is an excerpt of the grand jury testimony involving Mickey Mantle.
“Well,” asked a grand juror, “did you see a gentleman lying unconscious on the floor near the Copa entrance?
“Yes I did,” Mantle answers.
“All right. do you have an opinion as to how this could have happened?”
Mantle thought about the question and then, with a serious look on his face, said “I think Roy Rogers rode through the Copa, and Trigger kicked the man in the head””
Whitey, Mantle and Martin were known to be hell raisers but the Yanks could not abide by bad publicity in those days. Someone had to go and of course given those names it was Martin, off the KC I believe.
Those old stadiums really put you on top of the game. One of the best sports memories I have occured at the old wood Crockett Stadium in Charlotte. Charlotte was playing Memphis. The Memphis Chicks (what a name) executed a spectacular triple play. The Charlotte O fans stood as one and gave them a standing ovation. The Chick players looked a bit puzzled then doffed their caps to the crowd. Fantastic.
I was a big fan of Ken Holtzman, too. Lefties forever!
“Earphone cord hidden under my shirt”....Dang, does that bring back some wonderful October World Series memories from the old days!
““Earphone cord hidden under my shirt”....Dang, does that bring back some wonderful October World Series memories from the old days!”
I don’t think my teachers were even aware of crystal radios.
I built a better model and strung a 100’ antenna for my home use.
True, plus the fact that they played a 154 game schedule until 1962.
Michael Kay said that Casey Stengel liked Ford for certain matchups, so sometimes he’d pitch once a week. When Ralph Houk took over, Ford went every 4 days.
RIP
Holtzman was, surprisingly for a major league baseball player, a very religious man...Jewish. And through 2010, his lifetime wins were the most for a Jewish pitcher to include Sandy Kofax. And they share another feat as both during their careers, declined to pitch on Yom Kippur. Shows some class, something not in today’s game.
I have to respect a player that stands by his religion and the people in it. Holtzman managed the Petach Tikva Pioneers in the inaugural 2007 season of the Israel Baseball League, but was unsuccessful in team wins and left after one year. He also worked for the St. Louis Jewish Community Center, running the gymnasium in the Marilyn Fox Building. He coached the St. Louis baseball team for the Maccabi games for a few years and is a member of the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame.
rwood
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