Baseball; the Last Great American Pastime by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Baseball; the Last Great American Pastime

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#5- A Wave of Big Bashers - The Thirties

 

Babe Ruth has been previously discussed, so I won’t add too

much about him here; other than to reiterate that he was still

there after having had revolutionized and possibly saved the

game, as no one could or did in any sport. He was still potent

in the early part of the decade, and as his onetime thought

unbreakable records are broken, the numbers really don’t matter,

as no one has nor ever will approach his stature. At his

baseball end he near carried the country through the worst,

initial part of the Depression shock; and then his advanced age,

exacerbated by his wild lifestyle inevitably set in.

Once the Babe had single handedly converted the game from

one of speed to one of power, he got quite a few imitators. No

longer could a fast center fielder play ten feet behind second

base and in effect be a fifth infielder. These guys were

smacking it.

 

And of huge significance to everyone, the stock market

crashed in 1929, leading to the protracted first Depression. The

shoeshine boys who had become millionaires in the Twenties were

again paying more attention to feet and what was on them. Though

not yet officially measured, it is now thought that the

currently estimated unemployment rates fluctuated between 15 and

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25 percent. “Don’t buy it today. It’ll be cheaper tomorrow”

became an orthodox saying, and the nation languished.

 

Entertaining the kids at the knotholes, the guys with the

dough, and the ones in the bleachers, there were more and bigger

guys waving bats menacingly. Standardized adjustments became the

order of the day. Fielders moved back. Pitchers on teams not yet

blessed with big sticks struggled to find a way to not lose the

game on one swing of the bat. A previously decent ERA of 3.08

was now sufficient to lead the league. Most important to the

owners and their hierarchy, fans flocked to the stadiums more

than they ever did before, even though many of them got in by

climbing fences or by gazing through the knotholes in the pine.

What’s a kid to do? Dream of the day they’ll become a well-paid

star.

 

While I was very impressed with the long ball artists, I

couldn’t help wondering why it took so long for the inevitable

Ruth clones to show up and why they didn’t put up numbers even

reminiscent of Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx.

Well, the answer is kind of simple. They didn’t have the

abilities of Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx. Hack Wilson took a run at

Ruth’s record of 60 home runs in 1930 and ended with 56. After

that he played four more years, through age 34, hitting one

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more, a total of 57 home runs, than he did in that fabulous

record setting RBI year of 1930. Fans would have to wait until

1938 before another basher named Hank Greenburg came close with

58. The pitchers learned how to pitch more carefully to Hack,

and coupled with his irreverent approach to the game, Hack

faded. That is almost too simple to say. Hack Wilson’s story

deserves much more space than this book’s intent allows.

What did happen in the thirties was that many hitters were

hitting 20-40 home runs per season, and simultaneously

registering more extra base hits and higher slugging averages.

Mel Ott, Babe Herman, Mickey Cochrane, Al Simmons, Joe

Medwick, and Pepper Martin became memorable and great, but still

secondary stars, as long as the Babe was in mind.

 

“Great is baseball. The national tonic, the reviver of hope, the

restorer of confidence.”

The Sporting News, magazine, 1931

 

“It was an even bet that Babe (Herman) would either catch it

(the fly ball) or get killed by it. His general practice was to

run up when the ball was hit, and then turn and run back, and

then circle about uncertainly. All this time the ball was

descending, the spectators were petrified with fear, and Mr.

Herman was chewing gum, unconcerned. At the proper moment he

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stuck out his glove. If he found the ball there he was greatly

surprised and very happy.

Collier's Magazine

 

“You couldn't hit him (Dazzy Vance) on a Monday. He cut the

sleeve of his undershirt to the elbow, and on that part of it

he'd use lye to make it white, and the rest he didn't care how

dirty it was. Then he'd pitch overhand out of the apartment

houses in the background of Ebbets Field; between the bleached

sleeve of his undershirt waving and the Monday wash hanging out

to dry; the diapers and undies and sheets flapping on the

clothesline; you lost the ball entirely. He threw balls by me I

never even saw.

Rube Bressler- pitcher, outfielder and first baseman

 

"I saw so many great pitchers, and maybe it's because of an

early impression, but of all the pitchers I saw; thinking in

terms of their control of themselves spiritually, as well as

their ability to throw the ball, to manipulate the pitch; I

would say... Let's put it this way; if I had a ball game to be

pitched and my life hung on the balance, I'd want Carl Hubbell

to pitch it."

Red Barber, sports announcer and commentator

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“I came to feel that if I, as a Jew, hit a home run, I was

hitting one against Hitler.”

Hank Greenberg, first baseman, outfielder

 

“After 30 years of continuous services (1932), John Joseph

McGraw has resigned as manager of the Giants. At the age of 59

Mr. McGraw steps down because of ailing health, with his Giants

in last place. Mr. McGraw was a product of the old school of

baseball, when fistfights were common, when red liquor was sold

at all the parks, when only ladies of questionable social

standing attended the game. To the end he was faithful to his

truculent creed. The last official act he performed as manager

of the Giants was to file a protest with the league against Bill

Klem, the umpire.”

Joe Williams, New York World-Telegram

 

1932 World Series; Babe Ruth's called shot.

"One of the things about baseball is the imagination of people,

and something remarkable happens. I was there! In their

imaginations. When Babe Ruth allegedly pointed to right field

bleachers before hitting his home run there against the Cubs, in

that World Series; I've had at least, maybe a hundred people

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tell me, I was there! If everybody who said they were there

really were there, Cubs park would seat a half million people."

Studs Terkel, author, historian

 

“If he had (pointed to center field), I'd have put one in his

ear and knocked him on his ass.”

Charlie Root, pitcher

 

“What do you think of the nerve of that big monkey? Calling his

shot and getting away with it?”

Lou Gehrig, first baseman

 

“It's in the papers, isn't it? Why don't you read the papers?"

Babe Ruth, right fielder

 

"Anything new has to establish itself and gain its own

credentials. When radio came along some of the entrenched

conservative owners said, Wait, wait a minute. Why give away

something that you're trying to sell for your living, to try to

keep your enterprise afloat? And especially on days of

threatening weather, when people will say, Well, it looks like

it may rain, I'll just listen to the radio and I won't go. They

did not realize at that time that it would be creating new fans,

that it would be making families of fans. Before radio, by and

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large, the people who came into a ballpark were men. Once radio

came along and came into the homes women began to understand the

game. They didn't have to have somebody explain it to them; the

play-by-play broadcaster was doing it. And attendance visibly

went up when you had families coming instead of single members

of the family. And that's the beginning of the impact of radio.

Radio made new fans."

Red Barber, sports announcer and commentator

 

On the St. Louis Cardinals A/K/A Gashouse Gang. “They don't look

like a major league ball club, or as major league ball clubs are

supposed to look in this era of the well-dressed athlete. Their

uniforms are stained and dirty and patched and ill-fitting. They

don't shave before a game and most of them chew tobacco. They

spit out of the sides of their mouths and then wipe the backs of

their hands across their shirt fronts. They're not afraid of

anybody.”

Frank Graham, New York Sun

 

“I was in the top ten percent of my class in law school. I'm a

doctor of jurisprudence. I'm an honorary doctor of laws. And I

like to believe I'm an intelligent man. Then will you please

tell me why in the name of common sense I spent four mortal

hours today conversing with a person named Dizzy Dean?”

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Branch Rickey, baseball executive

 

On the 1934 World Series. “This American League is a pushover. I

think if they pitched me the whole four days I'd win all of

them.”

Dizzy Dean, pitcher

 

“The Babe's big bulk today blotted out such unimportant things

as international squabbles over oil and navies.”

New York Times, newspaper

 

“We like to believe that countries having a common interest in a

great sport would rather fight it out on the diamond than on the

battlefield.”

Sporting News, magazine

 

“But how could you manage a team when you can't even manage

yourself?"

Jacob Ruppert, Yankee owner, to Babe Ruth

 

“From then on, until the day he died, he sat by the telephone

waiting for a call to manage that never came.”

Claire Ruth, Babe’s wife

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"My father and mother brought me up. I knew where the stakes

were set, and I concentrated on my game. I was very

conscientious; good night's sleep, good nutrition. I practiced

hard, worked hard, I did, as a kid on the farm, and my baseball

career was number one. So I just didn't exactly, say, fall off

the turnip truck.”

Bob Feller, pitcher

 

"We went to the World Series in 1934 in St. Louis and saw the

Gashouse Gang. And I thought right then and there that; I was

only 15; that major league baseball wasn't that far away. And,

not being cocky, I had a lot of confidence. My father gave me a

lot of confidence. I never was afraid of a batter on the mound.

They may hit me, hit me well, but I was never afraid of them."

Bob Feller, pitcher

 

"Baseball stories are so various, and they swap characters in

'em, but the way I heard it, Lefty Gomez, himself a pitcher,

faced an 18-year-old Bobby Feller. The first one came over and

the umpire called a strike, and the second one came over, called

a strike, and the third one came over and the umpire called a

strike and Gomez said; ‘I thought that last one sounded a little

low.’"

Shelby Foote, historian

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“I keep in shape during the off-season by cracking niggers over

the head while serving as a policeman back home in Ohio.”

Jake Powell, outfielder

 

“The older newspaper men sit in the chicken coop press boxes

around the circuit and watch Lou Gehrig go through the laborious

movements of playing first base, and wonder if they're seeing

one of the institutions of the American League crumble before

their eyes. They watch him at the bat and note he isn't hitting

the ball well. They watch him round the bag and it's plain he

isn't getting the balls he used to get. They watch him run and

they fancy they can hear his bones creak and his lungs wheeze as

he lumbers around the bases. On eyewitness testimony alone the

verdict must be that of a battle-scarred veteran falling apart.”

Joe Williams, New York World-Telegram

 

“To whom it may concern: This is to certify that Mr. Lou Gehrig

has been under examination at the Mayo Clinic from June 13 to

June 19, 1939. After a careful and complete examination it was

found that he is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

This type of illness involves the motor pathways and cells of

the central nervous system. The nature of this trouble makes it

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such that Mr. Gehrig will be unable to continue his active

participation as a baseball player.”

Dr. Harold H Habian

 

“The road may come to an end here. Seems like our backs are to

the wall. But there usually comes a way out. Where and what I

know not. But who can tell that it might lead right on to

greater things?”

Lou Gehrig, writing to his wife

 

“It is our belief that baseball is loved by an entire nation,

that it is the very backbone of America itself.”

Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis

 

“For the past two weeks you've been reading about a bad break.

Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the

Earth. That I might've been given a bad break, but I've got an

awful lot to live for. Thank you.”

Lou Gehrig, first baseman