The first pitch of 2016 Baseball Season is a few short hours away. Every year for more years than I will admit to I have studied and followed the teams that play in my opinion “The Greatest Game” ever created.
Unlike the 2016 season picks, the usual safe bets; I feel this season will be full of surprises. That will make this one of those “Miracle Seasons” like the 1914 Braves, 1967 Red Sox, and the 1969 Mets.
Let the games begin!
Some say the Baseball season is too long, no way. Look at the current changes that have taken place in the Standings from first place to the wildcard. It just doesn’t happen in the NFL or the NBA.
For me, it is the fun days, and not the dog days of August. It is scoreboard watching at its best.
For sometime now the staff that has created MLB’s schedule have been doing and awful job.
Today’s New York Times:
I was drawn to photography at an early age by baseball through the images on the back pages of the Daily News, The New York Mirror and Ozzie Sweets photography. Today Bleacher Report has this wonderful link to my past, unpublished candid images from Life magazines files of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and other New York Yankees spring training 1961…
Enjoy!!!!
Today we celebrated Henry Hank Aaron 80th birthday.
The first game I ever took my wife to was a Brave, Mets game at Shea Stadium in 1970 to see Hank Aaron. At that time the media were starting the buzz can he break Ruth’s 714 home run record? We also went to the last game he ever played in New York at Yankee Stadium, then a Milwaukee Brewer. He played only in the middle game of 3 game series and got a hit in his final plate appearance. The Brewers had announced that would be the only game he would appear in. For me, that was a no brainier who would not want to see one of the greatest players of all-time for the last time? In his 4th and final plate appearance he flied out as he rounded the bases heading to the dugout wave to the crowd he was given one more standing ovation. In my archives, I have a series of shots from his final at bat in NY, and coming off the field, and waving to fans. It did not stop until he came out of the dugout for one final appearance. It is one of those special moments you store away, and on a special day like today it makes me feel connected to Henry Hank Aaron…
Happy Birthday Hank Aaron!
Growing-up near Yankee Stadium afforded me the opportunity to hang out there and get ball [players (almost all would sign) autographs as they walked to the stadium from the, subway, their cars and [1]The Concourse Plaza. I remember those days and have some stories about a few encounters, but Jerry Colman was one of the good guys and would sign and sign gain. There was the usual small group of us that showed up most days, and after awhile the players would recognize you, and Jerry was one that not only recognizes you but also talk to you.
With his active career over I encounter Jerry Coleman in the 1958-59 again, back then for a few years the Yankees would bring up their triple A farm team from Richmond VA and have them workout on the ball field that is now 161 Street Garage. Living just up the hill from the ball field where we played baseball everyday, word spread the Yankees farm team was working out there. I cannot say how kids showed up, but it was a lot. Out of that sea of kids like me Jerry Coleman called me over and let me be the back up batboy told me, be alert, and do not get hurt. I can still see talking to me dressed so neatly and wearing brown and white loafers…
[1] APA: Concourse Plaza Hotel – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concourse_Plaza_Hotel The hotel was located within walking distance of Yankee Stadium, which was home to baseball’s New York Yankees and (until 1976) football’s New York Giants. Many star players from the home teams – including Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris of the Yankees and Frank Gifford of the Giants – stayed at the Concourse Plaza, and visiting players would also stay at the hotel.[2][3]Yankees Second baseman Horace Clarke was reportedly the last Yankees player to make the hotel his in-season residence during the 1960s and early 1970s.
On this day in 1974 Rheingold Beer announces it will close its Brooklyn-based plant. As a result, the brewery will be forced to end its 13-year relationship with the Mets as the team’s primary radio-TV sponsor.
This was my dad’s beer, and it got me into trouble big time once. Not because I was drinking under-age but because that empty bottle was worth a nickel. In the late 1950’s, the summer, I was 10 years old I started saving my allowance to buy tickets, to sit in the bleachers at Yankee Stadium, price of admission fifty-cents. One-time I needed one more nickel for a ticket and, sitting in the refrigerator was dad’s almost full quart bottle of Rheingold beer. Thinking dad would not notice I poured it down the drain and with that nickel in hand off to the game I went. That night at dinner dad asked “what happened to his beer”, mom did not drink beer, my older brother was at camp, and my sister was eight. Knowing I was in trouble I confessed that I poured it out for the deposit on the bottle. Next came “why”, and my answer only made it worst I needed to buy a ticket to see the Yankees. Dad always a calm man, told me I was too young to be going to Yankee Stadium alone, pulled my allowance of 25-cents a week for the remainder of the summer.
on this day in 1941 Joe DiMaggio begins his 56-game hitting streak with a hit against White Sox pitcher Edgar Smith
1923 In front of over 72,000 fans, Yankee Stadium opens with Babe Ruth hitting the park’s first home run, a two-run homer off Red Sox hurler Howard Ehmke, which helps beat Boston, 4-1. The new $2.5 million ballpark is the first to feature three decks. http://www.nationalpastime.com/
First pitch at new Yankee Stadium 2009. First pitch at new Yankee Stadium 2009. Forty years ago 1973, I attended my first opening day that was alo the last oening day at the original Yankee Stadium. Since then I only missed the 1979 opening game at Yankee Stadium. Opening day makes all of us feel young again, that your team can have a speical season. Theirs no other sport that equals baseballs opening day. First pitch 1:05PM let the season begin.
BALLPARK PRINTS 