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As we await the start of the 2021 baseball season, New York Giants’ fan Bill Schaefer sets the tone for us by recalling an amusing episode from a Giants-Cardinal game he attended with his dad in the 1950s (Could one of the little guys in the featured photo above be a young Bill Schaefer??). He then throws in a few good “Yogisms” for an extra treat. I think you’ll enjoy it, and by the way…let’s hope for a better baseball season this year! -GL

BASEBALL APPETIZERS FOR THE ’21 SEASON

Say this much for Baseball–it is beyond question the greatest conversation piece ever invented in America –Bruce Catton

I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball –Pete Rose

Statistics are used like a drunk uses a lamppost–for support not illumination –Vin Scully

We love to think about baseball and talk baseball and figure out how our favorite team is going to do this year. Like we did as kids, we still want to believe the players play the game for the sheer joy of playing and not so much for the money. We want them to run hard to first base on every ground ball. We don’t need super statistical compilations to tell us what batter is a good bet to get a clutch hit and what pitcher will get a big out when the game is on the line. And we hope someone will tell the baseball manufacturers that we don’t want a batted ball to take off like a 2-iron shot in the fairway of Augusta National Golf Club.

Most of us can’t wait for the baseball season to start with real people in the stands again and a full season to enjoy. But now let’s go back in time, as I share an amazing baseball game experience and a few lovable Larry Berra items.

                  The Nightmare at Coogan’s Bluff

It was a blazing hot Sunday, June 15, 1952, at the Polo Grounds. The sun was shining mercilessly, with the thermometer popping at 97 degrees. The Giants were playing good ball with a record of 32-17, four games behind the Dodgers in second place. The club was coming off their miracle pennant run of ’51, but was not the same at its core. Willie Mays had departed for military service in May, Monte Irvin suffered a broken ankle in spring training and would be out until mid-August, and spark plug Eddie Stanky was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals to become their player/manager.

On this Sunday, my dad and I were at the PG to catch a twin bill with those Cardinals. We didn’t mind the heat so much but didn’t bargain for such a huge crowd precluding us from getting our favorite seats in the upper deck behind home plate. We had to settle for deep second deck seats way out in left-center field, at almost the curve of the huge horseshoe configuration. The vendors were in top form (“Hey, cold soda here!” “Hey, ice cream here!”). I had consumed one soda and two ice creams by the second inning. It was broiling hot but turning into a wonderful event. Sal Maglie was pitching and the Giants exploded for five runs in the bottom of the second. A Cardinal fan was seated right behind me. He was about 35 and a pleasant, friendly man. In the third inning, the Cards brought in a relief pitcher named Jack Crimean. I remembered him from earlier in the year. He stunk on ice and I was laughing it up, really giving it to the Cardinal fan. Sure enough, Crimean got creamed—to the tune of six runs, seven hits (two homers) and a walk. I was in my glory, never mind the heat–11-0 at the end of three innings with Sal “The Barber” Maglie on the mound!

Then the gods turned on us. Sal suddenly wilted in the inferno, and got rocked in the fifth inning. St. Loo put up a big SEVEN! Willie Werle came in and shackled the Giants’ bats. Hoyt Wilhelm had a rare ragged outing and by the end of seven innings, the score was 11-10. The vendors ran out of refreshments, so I sent my poor dad out to the concession stand to battle the heat and the mob for soda. He was gone a while and finally made his way down the crowded row juggling two large soda containers. He got jostled and some spilled on his shirt. When he got to me he was livid, “What happened!” he shouted. I answered meekly, “Solly Hemus just hit a home run into the photographer’s ledge in right field (an overhang from the upper deck facade). We’re behind 12-11.”

He exploded, “Don’t you EVER send me out for soda pop again!”

The Giants lost 14-12. I begged my dad to leave so we could catch a movie on 42^nd street. He was adamant, “I never walked out on a game in my life!” The Giants won the nightcap 3-0 on a three-run clout by Wes Westrum, behind Dave Koslo. The contest was called because of a Sunday curfew after seven innings. But nothing could numb the pain of that first game.

                          YOGI NEVER GETS OLD

 In March 1970, I was the Sports Director of a new radio station in Elizabeth NJ. The GM thought it would be nice if I called the Mets spring training headquarters in St. Petersburg, Fla, and get coach Yogi Berra on the phone to give us a brief promo for the brand new station.

Yogi was on the line in a jiffy. I stated my name and affiliation and what we’d like him to do in the way of a promo message. He was incredibly nice. I said, “Yogi, Just say, ‘Hi, this is Yogi Berra. I’d like to welcome a new station to the metropolitan area-WJDM, Elizabeth, NJ.’” After three tries he gave up, “Jeez, Bill, I just can’t get it.” I apologized for not providing a written copy for the promo, shortened it a tad, and we were good.

Berra was the sweetest guy in the world, and although seldom mistaken for a Rhodes Scholar, he was nothing short of a genius on the field. Yogi handled pitchers and defensive alignments brilliantly. So well, in fact, that Casey Stengel used to introduce him as “Mr. Berra, which is my assistant manager.”

“I didn’t say everything I said,” Yogi once insisted, but the following are verifiably on the record:

A radio interviewer once told him before a broadcast, “We’re going to do free association. I’m going to throw out a few names and you just say the first thing that pops into your mind.” Berra agreed.

On the air the announcer said, “I’m here tonight with Yogi Berra, and we’re going to play free association. I’m going to mention a name and Yogi’s just going to say the first thing that comes to mind. Okay, Yogi?” Berra again agreed.

“All right, here we go then. Mickey Mantle.”

“What about him?” said Berra.

Many Yogi stories involve his attachment to comic books. But when his teammates chided him about his addiction to comics, he answered shrewdly, “If that’s so silly, how come every time I put one down, somebody else picks it up?”

Rogers Hornsby had this to say about the long off-season, “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” 

Well, spring is finally here. Are we ready? 

 Bill Schaefer

Sources: 

1952 Giants/Cardinals Roster; 1952 Giants schedule almanac; 1952 NL standing of the clubs, June 14; 1952 box score Giants/Cardinals, June 15.

The Bathroom Baseball Book, Red-Letter Press, INC., Saddle River, NJ.

Baseball Anecdotes, Daniel Okrent-Steve Wulf, Oxford University Press, 1989.

The Wit & Wisdom of Baseball, Saul Wisnia with Dan Schlossberg, 2007 Publications International, Ltd.

100 best baseball quotes, internet google search.

Photo Credits: All from Google search