Earle Combs went back to the second year of Yankee Stadium, 1924, and had a stellar career there when the vastness of the real estate was much greater than it came to be under DiMaggio. Earle Combs, the first Yankee… Continue Reading
The death in December 2015 of New York–based sportswriter Phil Pepe saddened the city’s baseball community, including his devoted readers, who enjoyed his many years with the New York Daily News and his output of more than four dozen books. Some… Continue Reading
When one-time relief-ace Andrew Bailey took the mound for the New York Yankees this past summer, much was made of it being his first Major League appearance in two years. Well, Paul Schreiber went 22 years between appearances in a Major… Continue Reading
Strangers in the Bronx DiMaggio, Mantle, and the Changing of the Yankee Guard By Andrew O’Toole, Foreword by Marty Appel MY FAVORITE STORY FROM 1951 INVOLVES THE “BOBBY THOMSON” game and one Yogi Berra. The ’51 season featured a terrific American League pennant race,… Continue Reading
I think most people take their children to their first game at too young an age. I know I did. I took my son to his first game when he wasn’t even three. He loved the ice cream, and when… Continue Reading
Paul Waner When Paul Waner got his 3,000th hit in 1942, he was the only player between Eddie Collins (1925) and Stan Musial (1958) to achieve that feat. It was a span of 33 years, and no one but Waner… Continue Reading
Mel Ott & His Enduring Home Run Record The tragic death of St. Louis Cardinals rookie Oscar Taveras during the World Series, victim of an auto accident in the Dominican Republic, brings to mind another ballplayer who died a similar… Continue Reading
The Boston Globe, September 28, 2014 Derek Jeter’s farewell in Boston evokes memories of Mickey Mantle The coincidences are too startling to overlook. So are the differences. Derek Jeter, the face of the Yankees — and maybe the face of… Continue Reading
On Saturday afternoon, August 5, 1939, Red Ruffing went out and did what he usually did when he started a game for the New York Yankees. Pitching off the very flat mound of Yankee Stadium, Ruffing hurled a complete… Continue Reading
He was an occasional member of the makeshift Gas House Gang band, and presumably just as bad as the rest of them, but on a team of popular players with colorful nicknames, he managed to stand out. In… Continue Reading