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Bill Schaefer returns today with some great personal reminiscences about a game he attended with his dad at Yankee stadium way back in 1946. Bill has some interesting memories of that day…including the foul ball that just evaded his grasp! I think you’ll enjoy Bill’s story. -GL
A MEMORABLE DAY AT YANKEE STADIUM
“Keller didn’t look like he’d been scouted; he looked like he’d been trapped!”-Lefty Gomez, speaking of teammate Charlie “King Kong” Keller
My dad was a diehard New York Giants fan going back to his days growing up in Westfield, NJ. His favorite players were Christy Mathewson, Mel Ott, Carl
Hubbell, and Ross Youngs. But he also appreciated Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra, et al. He took me to games at the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium beginning at the age of six. My fanatical attachment to the Giants developed a couple of years later.
It was a perfect Sunday in June, 1946. The war was over and many of the greats of the game were back in action, so we decided it would be a good idea to make the trip to 161st St. in the Bronx to catch the Yankees/Cleveland Indians twin bill. Everything was wonderful until we got to the Stadium and walked into a total mob scene! (the official attendance that day, June 9, was 66,545). I’ll never forget looking far back into the deepest recesses of the lower grandstand and seeing the crowd three deep behind the railing of the last row.
(In the featured photo, we see members of the 1946 Yankees, the team Bill saw with his dad. Top Row, L-R: Steve Souchock, Johnny Murphy, Coach Johnny Schulte, Nick Etten, Tommy Henrich, Ken Silvestri. Front, L-R: Frank Crosetti, Phil Rizzuto, Billy Johnson, Tommy Byrne.)
The situation was hopeless and I wanted to get the bleep out of there…as a little kid I was getting claustrophobic already! I begged my father to take me to one of the movie houses on 42nd St. so we could catch a double feature. The movies shown were a few years old but usually worth seeing. The year before, when the Giants were rained out, we saw “The Sea Wolf” with Edward G. Robinson as a deliciously nasty ship’s captain. I loved Robinson. Maybe we’d catch another great second-run movie. But my dad was adamant, “Somehow, I think you will be the means of us getting good seats, he said matter-of-factly.” By now, I may have whined a little and mumbled a prayer that this older guy would please come to his senses.
Suddenly, as if a wand had been waved, a well-dressed “important” looking man was standing near a concession stand about 15 feet away. My dad instinctively walked over and said, “Excuse me, sir, but I brought my little boy 25 miles to see the Yankees play. Could you possibly be able to help us find two seats?” Remarkably, the gentleman reached into the vest pocket of his suit jacket and produced two tickets. We were flabbergasted when the usher led us to field boxes right next to the Yankee dugout! Now, you may be tempted to blurt out, “C’mon, Schaefer, what’s the punch line to this dumb joke?” As they say, truth is stranger than fiction. And the stranger in question was none other than newly hired publicity chief/traveling secretary for the New York Yankees, Red Patterson. My father said, “See, I told you that you’d be…” I interrupted, “Yeah, but how did you know?” Just a hunch, he replied, smiling. I didn’t want to go to the movies anymore.
Once we got settled in, a whole new world surrounded us. The vast expanses of the magnificent Yankee Stadium, beautifully manicured infield, lush green grass as far as the eye could see–and a cloudless summer sky. Plus, the vendors were all over us…”Hey scorecard here…hey ice cream here…hot frank in a roll here…ice-cold beer here…seegars, cigarettes, candy here!” I probably lapped up half-a-dozen ice creams during the course of the afternoon. No more suffocating crowd. I was in my glory!
The Bronx Bombers split the double-header but I only remember the close up famous faces and the pinstripe uniforms as the players charged into the dugout. “That’s Charlie “King Kong” Keller!” I exclaimed to my dad. Described with eyebrows that had been borrowed from a passing lowlands gorilla, Lefty Gomez once said, “Keller didn’t look like he’d been scouted; he looked like he’d been trapped.”
Tommy Henrich seemed to have a permanent, pleasant half-smile. Bob Feller rendered this assessment of Old Reliable, “Tough to strikeout. Good clutch hitter. And it seemed he was always looking for the pitch I was delivering.”
Bill Dickey was impressive, rangy for a catcher, and four years removed from giving a notably natural performance in the 1942 film, “The Pride of the Yankees.” Speaking at spring training in ’29, Miller Huggins spoke glowingly of the future HOF Yankee backstop, “This boy will be better than all of them (catchers).” When we saw Dickey behind the plate in 1946, little did we know we were watching him in his final major league season.
Joe DiMaggio had an aura about him. His feet never really seemed to touch the ground. During the 1938 All-Star game, Carl Hubbell captured The Yankee Clipper’s ethereal quality, “Sure, I’ve faced great hitters but somehow you don’t get the same feeling when they’re at the plate as when Joe D. comes up.”
Deep into the second game, I had an opportunity to absolutely cap off the day. Suddenly, a foul ball trickled right near our seats. In those days, nobody threw baseballs back into the stands. But they weren’t as strict about fans quickly stepping over the small field railing to scoop up a prized white spheroid. My father tried his best, “Go on, Billy, climb over and get the ball!” I hesitated. He tried again, “Go on!” I just got over the rail when, out of nowhere; a long-legged ball boy swooped in and grabbed the ball. He wasn’t about to relinquish the baseball to the poor little kid standing there, empty-handed and slightly embarrassed. He who hesitates…
But, like I said at the beginning, it was, indeed, a memorable day at Yankee Stadium.
Bill Schaefer
Sources: Yankee schedule almanac, 1946; box score, Yankees/Indians, June 9, 1946; specific quotes derived from 1946 almanac, New York Yankees
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