Babe Ruth
Ruth and Gehrig
I like Lou Gehrig. He’s strong as hell and hits hard from the left side of the plate and soon becomes the second most feared hitter in baseball and forces pitchers to either give me good pitches to hit or walk me. What a future we have on the Yankees. “I feel as though I…
Read MoreBabe and Billy
“Hey, Kid, get out here,” Babe says, inhaling cold air and exhaling hard. “This place is our Yankee Stadium.” A wiry man of medium height appears and says, “How about you quit calling me Kid.” “I’ll be happy to, soon as I learn your name.” “How long you need? I’ve been here thirty years.” “I’ve…
Read MoreMaris Prime Rib
In mid-sixties Sacramento a restaurateur, exhibiting either grand generosity or manifest ignorance of human hunger, offered eat all you want prime rib lunch on Sundays. Two fast-growing adolescents and I, salivating after a hot afternoon of schoolyard baseball, scurried into an establishment that, a few years earlier, had presented Roger Maris the baseball he hit…
Read MoreGrave of Great Yankees
Who the hell ordered opening this quite deep grave we didn’t know existed in a cemetery near New York City? Turn off that caterpillar and crane and quit pulling out caskets stacked on each other. Why’re you changing the order? Just put ‘em back the right way: Lou Gehrig first, followed by Babe Ruth then…
Read MoreOld Newscasters Never Die
The chronology unfolded about like this: I recently visited my hometown Sacramento, which I’d left in 1991, and was as ever moved by familiar places laden with ancient memories, and shortly after returning to Bakersfield I wondered what had become of several television newscasters from my youth. And in particular I was interested in Harry…
Read MoreWillie Mays is Eighty
I can recall no adolescent experiences nearly as vivid and pleasurable as going to Candlestick Park, that cold and blustery point on San Francisco Bay, and watching Willie Mays play baseball. I first saw him live the last game of the 1962 season. With but three games to play, the San Francisco Giants had come…
Read MoreBabe Ruth on Steroids
“Boys, it’s great to be back. Too bad it’s off season. I haven’t been anywhere since 1948, and I’m ready to play.” “Babe, have you had time to read Jose Canseco’s book ‘Juiced’ that says eighty percent of major league baseball players used steroids?” a reporter asked. “Just finished it.” “Do you consider the new…
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