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Please note: As we compose new blog entries, we will now send each one out to all our subscribers as we post them. Here’s a link to see the entire Blog Archives -GL
March 5, 2023
New Blog Topic:
With spring training camps now in full swing and Opening Day just 26 days away, we welcome back lifelong Giants fan Bill Schaefer with some reflections on “Opening Days Past,” including attending Opening Day, 1952 with his dad. Bill also recalls a personal conversation he had with Willie Mays about one of the greatest catches in Willie’s career. I think you’ll enjoy Bill’s essay. -GL
PLAY BALL!
Reflections on Opening Days past!
“There is no sport event like Opening Day baseball, the sense of beating back the forces of darkness and the National Football League.”-George Vecsey
“There’s nothing like Opening Day. There is nothing like the start of a new season. I started playing baseball at seven, quit at 40. It’s in my blood.” –George Brett
“I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.”-Pete Rose
Baseball Is In the Air!
Well, we’re almost there with bubbling over anticipation, when all big-league teams will be in action on one Opening Day, March 30, for the first time since 1968. Fans are already buzzing about the new pitch clock, unveiled in spring training, feeling it will add a needed element of continuity and speed to the game. The odds makers have made the Houston Astros the favorite to win the World Series, with the Mets, Yankees, and Dodgers all close behind. There is a surge of money pouring in on the New York Metropolitans.
A strange phenomenon will soon take place. The first 10 games played will seem to happen slowly. Then the season will get caught in the vortex of its own unique rhythm, and suddenly the All-Star game will be looming right around the corner. Late August will be upon us too soon…footballs in the air…and can our baseball team survive its injuries and make the postseason?
One Vivid Opening Day Memory
April 18, 1952, Opening Day, Ebbets Field. My dad and I, intense Giants fans, along with my best friend, Donn Williams (one of the great Dodgers rooters) were seated in the left field upper deck. It was the first meeting of the two teams since the famous playoff series the year before. Clem Labine, who had shut out the Giants 10-0 at the Polo Grounds, was on the mound. Labine didn’t retire a single batter. The Giants KO’d Clem with five runs in the first inning. But Jim Hearn didn’t fare much better, lasting only one out in the bottom of the second stanza. The score after two was New York five, Brooklyn four. The teams battled into the twelfth inning tied at six when Andy Pafko homered over the right-center screen off George Spencer to win it for the Brooks, 7-6. From our vantage point, high up in the second deck in left, it looked to me, at first, like a pop fly. But the rising, burgeoning roar from Dodgers fans told a different story.
Fast forward to a TV commercial setting, 30 years later, at a Staten Island car dealership where I was the spokesman and Willie Mays was one of the sports celebrity guests. A two-minute commercial message would result. In chatting with Willie during a break, I referred to that Opening Day game and said I thought his catch of a Bobby Morgan line drive in the ninth inning was his greatest grab ever. He agreed but then said, “You don’t look old enough to remember that. Describe that catch.” I launched into the play-by-play:
Leo Durocher with Willie Mays
“Morgan belted a hard liner into the left-center gap that looked for sure like the game-winner. You came out of nowhere and dove through the air, parallel to the ground, spearing the ball with a supernatural backhand stab. You then hit the ground and rolled over and over again, winding up stretched out on your stomach near the fence and didn’t move for several minutes. Both teams rushed to the spot. Jackie Robinson led the Dodgers. Jack confessed, ‘We didn’t run out there to see if Mays was alright. We couldn’t believe he caught the ball!’ “
I passed the description test.
It’s 2023-But There’s Nothing like An Old-Time Baseball Story!
Chester “Red” Hoff was a left-handed pitcher with the Yankees and St. Louis Browns. At the time of the interview in 1991, he was the oldest living major leaguer at 100 years old.
Red Hoff
“How I got started? My brother and I were sitting at the dinner table one night. He says ‘let’s go out and have a little catch.’ And I says, ‘Oh sure.’ “
“So we went out in the lane and had a little catch and we come back. We didn’t say nothing about it. Two days after that he says, ‘let’s go out and have another catch.’ I says, ‘Sure.’ And we went out in the lane and had another catch. So we didn’t say no more about it. But my brother had something in mind.”
“He says, ‘Saturday, we got a game down in Tarrytown, so would you like to go down?’ I says, ‘Yeah.’ I go down and pitch, you know, just for the fun of it. It was in semipro ball and I won the game down there. So it went along alright.”
(Hoff had a tryout with the then New York Highlanders and pitched his first big-league game against the Detroit Tigers in 1911).
“So I got two strikes on the batter. He fouled them off and the catcher gave me a third pitch-out sign. He thought he’d go after a bad ball for the third strike. He didn’t go with that. So the catcher come out and he says, ‘I’ll give you the curve ball sign this time.’ “
“And I gave the batter the best curveball he ever seen and he just looked at it. And the umpire says, ‘Strike three and you’re out!’ And I didn’t know who the batter was. So the next morning I picked up a New York Journal and in the sporting page it had in big red letters, HOFF STRIKES OUT COBB. And that started me out in baseball, believe me!”
Over the next four years, Hoff pitched for the Highlanders-Yankees and St. Louis Browns. He pitched 83 innings in the majors, with a 2-2 record and an ERA of 2.49. He lived to be 107.
There is something so comforting about going back into baseball history, enjoying its stories and rich tradition. Writer, Poet Laureate and Red Sox fan, Donald Hall, expressed it perfectly,
“For most baseball fans, maybe oldest is always the best. We love baseball because it seizes and retains the past, like the snowy village inside a glass paperweight.”
But now a new season awaits – and we’re ready!
Bill Schaefer
Sources: Baseball, an illustrated history, Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns; Wikipedia, Donald Hall; Baseball ref.com, Red Hoff; 1952 Dodgers schedule almanac; Google baseball quotes.
As always, we enjoy reading your comments
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Nice reflections of past Opening Days by Mr. Schaefer. Thnx for sharing, Gary. I never got to attend any Opening Day games back home @ Comiskey or anywhere else…other than several in San Diego. That was a cool reference to the “snowy village inside a glass paperweight” by Donald Hall. I recognize that name from him being interviewed in the Ken Burns “Baseball” series. It was suggested that in 2023, Houston was capable of a WS repeat, with NYY, NYM and LAD close on their heels. I say there’s several other clubs that also have a legitimate chance to claim the WS title. Always enjoy these great articles. Thnx, Gary & collaborators.
Great comments, Tom…thanks!
Nice article, Bill. Fortunately we still have real baseball to look back on.
They’ve screwed with the game, again. Pitcher’s clock? A needed element of continuity and speed? Sorry, Guys, not why I watched baseball. For me a game of baseball was a battle. Every pitch a salvo; an invitation to join the fray; like a fencing match only with a bat vrs a ball instead of epees. No more stare-downs or stepping out of the batters box to clean the spikes. Bleeding the strategies and nuances out of the game, homogenizing it down to a loaf of white bread. What a shame. I wish to hell they’d leave baseball alone and do something about football. I’ve always said a one-hour game that takes 3 and 1/2 plus hours to play is seriously flawed.
Sincerely,
Joan
Thanks for checking in Joan…some great observations and I agree with you!
Thanks, Tom, for noticing one of the all-time great similes by Donald Hall-capturing so beautifully the enduring allure of baseball.
The Red Hoff story was also borrowed from Ken Burns. It caught my eye because of its rough hewn charm, which lends itself so well to bygone days of the game we love.
Joan, appreciate your cogent comment. But when the “strategies and nuances” too often spill into the fourth hour, speeding the game up a little might be a good thing.
Some of the most exciting, best pitched games are the result of pitchers loading up almost immediately after the return throw from the catcher. And concentration is heightened all the way around.
Terrific shot of a PG opening day, Gary!
Hey Bill:
Do you know how many 4-hour games are played in a season? I tried to look it up and my IPad must have gotten bogged down in stats, because I gave up waiting for an answer after about 5-minutes. I know when I was an active fan, the vast majority of games ran between 2 – 3 hours. Quite frankly, when we got extra innings we considered it a bonus. I remember a 17 inning game once, almost two games for the price of one. Wow. And, very few fans left. Now we have “ghost runners” on base before a pitch is thrown in extra innings. You have got to be kidding me.
Sincerely,
Joan
Back-back-baaaack in the day, Dr. Schaefer was acclaimed for saying, “Oh to be at the Polo Grounds, now that April’s there,” but then 1) his beloved Jints left town; 2) the upstart Metropolitans abandoned TPG for Shea Stadium; 3) Robert Browning stole his intoxicatingly memorable line outright, and 4) the once-great game of baseball was commandeered by a buncha geniuses in three-piece suits bent on torturing our national pastime into a grotesquely vague approximation of Alexander Cartwright’s finest creation. Aficionados, now grown long in the tooth and rendered former fans in the process, have clung to their fondest childhood recollections (Bill) or given up on the same (Joan), but this is definitely the time of year that hope springs eternal in the hearts of a few remaining optimists among us. Maybe the home team can really do it this season! Or, more likely: “I remember so well the greatest catch the say-hey kid ever made.”
Never one to pick a fight over such disputes, “I feel strongly both ways.”
Michael
Hi Michael:
With a wistful smile I can say I gave up on being an active fan the day I realized I was watching nine bank accounts instead of a team on the field. I keep hoping it will get better, but it just gets worse. It seems now, the game, conceived so perfect, played with so much heart by so many, in the interests of other schedules and time tables has given up on itself.
The pride and love I felt for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the chumps-to-champs NY Mets I can find here in the hearts and minds of the fans who frequent this wonderful space. Yes. The Giants, Cubs, Phillies, Cardinals and LA Dodger fans, too. In addition I am learning about those who preceded them and built the lore that is baseball’s history. Thanks to all of you who lend your talents to it.
Sincerely,
Joan
Ms. Tumbleson, Unfortunately, the owners have hired college-grad mathematicians to push most of the buttons for their franchise now-a-days. I wonder who carries the most weight in the strategic decision making for their team ? them ? or the managers & coaches; who have played the game themselves ? I say all of us traditionalists should not “give up the ship”; even if we are forced to go down with it some day. Great comments, ma’am. TM
Well, as the dust settles, with the pitch clock moving right along, the average length of a game thus far into spring training is two hours 40 minutes. Isn’t that better than three hours 50 minutes? I sure won’t miss batters stepping out of the box time and time again because the pitcher peers in endlessly to get the sign, then steps off, then consults the resin bag and leisurely toes the rubber-then peers in again. The pitch clock is not all bad.
Yes, Joan, the ghost runner is annoying because it comes in too soon. You’re right. Let them play–but for two extra innings. Then place a runner at second. At 12 innings the game trembles on the brink of becoming a marathon. Studies have shown both teams get weaker and weaker as the game drags on, inning after inning. And it’s a tremendous drain, particularly on the pitching staff. Now, in the 12th, go with the runner at second base, introducing an element of excitement and finality. Maybe, when I was 10 all those extra stanzas were appealing but now not so much.
I’d also like to introduce a rule that limits the number of foul balls. OK, let the brilliant bat manipulator spoil the tough pitches and finally draw a walk or get a hit. But after six fouls…on the seventh, yer out, baby!
On my team, everybody, except the injured or the pitcher, would run every ball out. Many a game would be won because the opposition would know when we came to town everybody busts it on ground balls. The pressure would take its toll. Derek Jeter prolonged a game winning rally against the Red Sox in 2009, by running hard on a routine grounder, with two out. The shortstop looked up, saw Jeter bearing down on the bag and rushed his throw. Ballgame. Multiply that by more than a few games…
That’s enough for now, but it could still be really good again.
Thanks for contributing!
I like your 12-inning suggestion. If we’re going to do with ghost runner thing, that’s a nice improvement. Hadn’t thought about the foul ball idea, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. Thanks!
Dear Mr. Marshall:
Thanks for your kind words. I’ve found there is only one way to sway the opinions of money-men; hit them in the pocketbook. I refuse to support in any way enterprises I don’t believe in. I know how futile this is, but it’s good for my own integrity. There are too many people, today’s fans, the new rules suit just fine. They’d rather be able to live their scheduled lives without interruptions.Who am I to say they’re wrong. These fans can’t miss what they’ve never known. My love affair with baseball was in a different time, with different priorities.I remember saying to my son, if people stopped going to games, and owners looked out on empty seats they would be forced to look at what they were doing. He looked at me like I was nuts. That’s when I had to accept the fact that times have changed and I have not.
I think you know what I’m trying to say even though I’m not doing it very well. By all means look forward to a new season, make friends with the new rules and hope for a great year. ( I still look at the back page of the paper first. Yes. I still get a daily paper.)
Kind regards,
Joan
Lest we forget in the flurry of yes-buts about 21st Century rules changes, this site is dedicated to the game of baseball we old-timers fell in love with so many decades ago: A beloved, near-perfect sport designed by uncommonly lucky geniuses, and practiced by heroic icons such as Christy Mathewson, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams and Henry Aaron. To my mind, “Baseball History Comes Alive” has no legitimate connection with latter-day owners’ careless rush to hold the fleeting attentions of chronically bored millennials at the expense of the greatest game imaginable.
That sound we can all hear now, with pitch clocks, ghost runners, bloated bases and — what next? — foot-races between competing managers after the eleventh inning of a tie ballgame? — is the groan of one Babe Ruth, rolling over in his grave.
Michael
Well said Michael! A welcome voice for all us old-timers!
Right on, Professor Keedy. Would that we had a time machine to go back to the days of Christy Mathewson and beyond.
We could watch baseballs hit pebbles in the infield and bound over infielders heads and sit there in rickety old stands as darkness descended, and nobody could follow the flight of the ball. And outfielders would pull balls out of their pockets rather than chase muddy, heavy, scuffed baseballs into the high, untended outfield grass. And if a wild animal suddenly jumped out of the overgrown brush, so be it !
Yup, it sure was one great game way, way, back in the day, day, day. Absolutely, we like to revisit some of the wonderful old time stories, told by venerable old gentlemen without the polished ease of some young dude who never heard of Walter Johnson. But I don’t enjoy endless at bats when, after hours in front of the TV, I’m forced to leave for a necessary errand and return 40 minutes later to see the same guy still at bat. I exaggerate, but you get the point.
It just wasn’t all that wonderful then and its not all that bad now. Some new things might actually work.