Around The Horn

The words and phrases are spoken and written day after day, year after year - generally without any wonderment as to how they became part of the language. All have a history, a story. And since so many of you asked for another installment - here it is.

OLD ACHES AND PAINS Luke Appling performed for two decades with the Chicago White Sox. A .310 lifetime batting average was just one of the reasons he was admitted to the Hall of Fame in 1964. His nickname stemmed from the numerous real and imagined illnesses he picked up playing in 2,422 games, while averaging better than a hit a game. Appling was born April 2, 1907, and in 1950 was still playing major league baseball, aches, pains, and all.

OLD RELIABLE Tommy Henrich played for the New York Yankees from 1937 to 1950. His lifetime batting average was only .282, but the value of Henrich to the Yankees was in his clutch hitting. Time after time he would come up in a key situation and deliver. His nickname had its roots in his ability to function under pressure and to perform reliably with distinction.

OLE PERFESSOR Hall of Famer Charles Dillon Stengel was an original. Born on July 30, 1890, in Kansas City, Missouri, he played in the majors for 14 years and managed for 25 more-with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Boston Braves, the New York Yankees (10 pennants), and the New York Mets (four tenth-place finishes). He had seen it all, and in one of his more coherent statements, he said, “This here team won’t win anything until we spread enough of our players around the league and make the others [teams] horseshit, too.” The statement underscored the ineptitude of the early Mets. Loquacious, dynamic, vital, Casey could lecture on baseball and life for hours and hours, and that was just part of the reason for his nickname. Actually, in 1914 Stengel held the title of professor at the University of Mississippi, for he spent that year’s spring-training coaching baseball at that institution. That’s how he really came by his nickname.

$100,000 INFIELD That was the price tag and the nickname given to Eddie Collins, “Home Run” Baker, Stuffy McInnis, and Jack Barry, the players who composed the infield for Connie Mack’s 1914 Philadelphia Athletics.

“WAIT ‘TIL NEXT YEAR” A plantive refrain echoed annually by the fans of the old Brooklyn Dodgers, this phrase was an expression of eternal optimism and faith in the ability of their beloved Bums to make up for all the failures and inadequacies of years gone by. It especially applied to the World Series. In 1941, for example, the Dodgers won the pennant but lost the World Series in five games to the New York Yankees. In 1947 the Dodgers won the pennant and lost again in the World Series, this time in seven games, to the New York Yankees. They lost in the 1949 World Series to the Yankees; they bowed in the 1952 World Series to the Yankees; they were defeated in the 1953 World Series by the Yankees-but 1955 was “next year.” The series went seven games, and the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees and became World Champions at long last.

WALKING MAN, THE Eddie Yost played nearly two decades in the major leagues. His lifetime batting average was only .254, but that didn’t keep him off the bases. Yost coaxed pitchers into yielding I,614 walks to him-almost a walk a game through his long career.

WEE WILLIE He was born March 3, 1872, in Brooklyn, New York. He died on January 1, 1923, in Brooklyn, New York. His name was William Henry Keeler. A lefty all the way, he weighed only 140 pounds and was a shade over 5′4″. His tiny physical stature earned him his nickname, but pound for pound he was one of the greatest hitters baseball ever produced. Keeler played for 19 years and recorded a lifetime batting average of .345, fifth on the all-time list. He collected 2,962 hits in 2,124 games, spraying the ball to all fields. Wee Willie’s greatest year was 1897, a season in which he batted .432, recorded 243 hits and 64 stolen bases, and scored 145 runs. He swung a bat that weighed only 30 ounces, but as he said, he “hit ‘em where they ain’t” -and that was more than good enough to gain Keeler entry into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1939.

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd consecutive year of writing sports books. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). His newest efforts are OLD TIME BASEBALL and WHERE HAVE ALL THE RED SOX GONE? He is now at work on the definitive book on the 1927 Yankees to be published in 2007.

Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of 750,000 and appears on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

“No one in the Yankee organization made me conscious of my color.” - Elston Howard

Jackie Robinson broke major league baseball’s color line on April 15, 1947. It was not until April 14, 1955 that Elston Howard had his moment with the Yankees of New York and became the first African-American to play for the team in the Bronx.

A marker date for Howard was July 19, 1950 when the Yankees purchased his contract and that of pitcher Frank Barnes from the Kansas City Monarchs. Both were assigned to Muskegon in the Central League.

Elston Howard was the International League’s Most Valuable Player in 1954 and could have been the regular catcher for most major league teams in 1955 but not the Yankees. Lawrence Peter Berra was in his prime.

“So Howard bided his time,” Irvin said. He also had to suffer through the indignity in spring training of not being able to stay with the rest of the team at their hotel in segregated St. Petersburg; he had to be put up by a family in the black section of town. He bore up under this, too.

“Elston was quiet, efficient, good quick and accurate arm,” Monte Irvin continued. “He paved the way for the first blacks on the Yankees.”

Casey Stengel utilized Howard from 1955-1957 at first base, the outfield, catcher. An American League All-Star nine straight seasons (1957-1965), a two time Gold Glove catcher, Howard batted over .300 three times.

The 1958 World Series against the Braves was a time that Howard especially showed off his talents. In the fifth game, with the Yankees trailing 3 games to one, Howard playing left field robbed the Braves of a hit, doubling a runner off first base. In Game Six, he collected two hits, and in the final game drove in the run giving the Yankees the series. He was named the World Series MVP, the first black to get that award.

In 1961, new manager Ralph Houk moved the aging Yogi Berra to left field and created the opportunity for Howard to finally be the became the everyday Yankee catcher. He batted a career high .348 with 21 homers. In 1962, he again hit 21 homers, upping his RBI total to 91.

Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris missed playing time in 1963 with injuries; Howard, often batted cleanup, taking up the slack as team leader, hitting .287 with a career high 28 home runs. He won the 1963 American League MVP award.

In 1964, he won his second Gold Glove, and led American League catchers with a .998 fielding mark, as the Yankees won their fifth straight pennant.

An exceptional defensive catcher, highly regarded as a handler of pitchers, Howard pioneered the use of a hinged catcher’s mitt that led to the modern one-handed catching techniques.

Traded to Boston in 1967, Howard returned to the Yankees a couple of years later where he coached for eleven years. When he passed away in 1980, Red Barber said: “The Yankees lost more class than George Steinbrenner could buy in ten years.”

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd consecutive year of writing sports books. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,”(updated version to be re-issued in 2007) and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). His newest efforts are “Old Time Baseball” and “Where Have All Our Red Sox Gone?” He is now at work on the definitive book on the 1927 Yankees to be published in 2007.

All the medical news these days coming out of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania about Barbaro gives that locale the most extensive news exposure since the days of Herbert Pennock, the man they called “The Knight of Kennett Square.”

One of the top hurlers of his time, Pennock went directly from high school to a major league debut May 14, 1912 with the old Philadelphia Athletics.

His final game was August 27, 1934.

Classy, he was a horticulturist, a breeder of red silver foxes at his country home near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

Pennock was known for a flowing pitching motion punctuated by fidgety movements on the mound.

He did not overpower batters. He let them hit the ball, giving up more than a hit an inning in his career.

But, he still was a big winner with this approach, notching 35 lifetime shutouts.

Legendary sports writer Grantland Rice said Pennock pitched each game “with the ease and coolness of a practice session.”

The loose southpaw was just another one of the talented players the Yankees stripped away from the Boston Red Sox. He came to the Yanks in 1923 and led the league in winning percentage (.760), the first of four over .700 seasons.

He followed with a 21-9 record in 1924, and was 59-25 in 1926-28.Yankee manager Miller Huggins called Herb Pennock the greatest lefthander in baseball history, marveling at the “Squire’s” World Series record: 5-0, 1.95 lifetime ERA.

In 11 Yankee seasons, Pennock was 162-90 for a .643 winning percentage.

In December 1943, Bob Carpenter purchased the Philadelphia Phillies. Pennock hit it off with the new owner and was hired “for life” as General Manager.

Pennock did not hit it off with Branch Rickey in 1947, attempting to block Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color line.

Pennock reportedly had a telephone conversation with Rickey during which he said that the Phillies would not take the field if Jackie Robinson were in uniform for a series starting May 9.

It was reported that Pennock told Rickey: that you “just can’t bring the nigger here (to Philadelphia) with the rest of your team.”

The Dodgers came, and Jackie Robinson came, too.

Racial hatred was on parade at the ball park for four days. Robinson played on despite the horrid spewing of racial epithets. It was so horrific that Dodger infielder Eddie Stanky, out of Alabama, challenged all those in the Philly dugout - this within earshot of Pennock and Carpenter.

“The Knight of Kennett Square” had many marvelous and uplifting moments on the baseball field. His attitude towards Jackie Robinson was not one of them.

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd. consecutive year of writing sports books. His “Old Time Baseball” will be published in 2006. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

Created in conjunction with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, “Shades of Glory” by Lawrence D. Hogan (National Geographic, $26.00, 421 pages) is a book that owes its origins to the research project “Out of the Shadows: Black Baseball in America.”

The author, Hogan, is a professor at Union County College in New Jersey and the book reflects his scholarly bent. We are there in words and pictures with Buck O’Neil, Monte Irvin, Satchel Paige and so many others through their struggles and successes, through the prejudice and prevailing. This is an important book that celebrates and crystallizes the contributions of Negro League players to baseball and American Culture.

HIGHLY NOTABLE: With fatherly pride, I heartily recommend Frederic J. Frommer’s “The Washington Nationals: 1859 to Today” (Taylor, $24.95, 195 pages). The book is an engrossing, all encompassing narrative about the national pastime in the nation’s capitol.

Frommer, an Associated Press journalist, and a guy who knows a thing or two or about baseball and writing (he should - he had a good coach) takes us through the decades in his detailed look at the game in D.C. There is a nifty chapter about Washington’s only championship, another chapter focused on presidents and baseball, another about the time that Ted Williams managed a team there - and of course all the machinations and maneuverings that moved the Expos of Montreal south to Washington and the creation of the Nationals.

If you are into terrific writing and excellent research, if you are a student of baseball - Frederic J. Frommer’s “The Washington Nationals: 1859 to Today” is the book for you.
“The Best of Baseball Digest” (Ivan Dee ,$29.95, 453 pages) is a mother and father lode of entertaining and insightful stories about the national pastime as it appeared in the pages of that old reliable publication. There are 116 pieces from the 1940s to now and 80 photos - all providing different prisms through which to view the game.

I feel today the same way I felt when I read the manuscript and offered this blurb for Cecilia Tan’s “The 50 Greatest Red Sox Games” (Wiley, $22.95, 238 pages). Old Towne Team fans will think they have died and gone to heaven . Informative, exciting, entertaining . . . .a good deed for the Fenway faithful.”

Jeff Angus has written “Management By Baseball” (Collins, $22.95, 254 pages) which is really not about baseball and really not about management strategies. But really about both and more. Highly readable prose from this award winning non-baseball manager is on every page of this tome. Two especially interesting stories focus on “The Man Who Invented Babe Ruth” and How the Red Sox organization was turned around after being cursed for lo those many years.”

Golfing guys will appreciate “Leadbetter’s Quick Tips” by of course David Leadbetter (Harper, $21.95, 171 pages). There are lots of illustrations and lots of tips by the author, a staff Teaching Professional for “Golf Digest.”

If you haven’t yet had a chance to read “Beyond Glory” by David Margolick (Knopf, $26.95, 423 pages) all about Joe Louis and Max Schmelling and as the sub-title proclaimes “a world on the brink,” go for this riveting chronicle that is at the same time scholarly research and high end journalistic reportage. Wonderful archival photographs. Recommended!

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd. consecutive year of writing sports books. His “Old Time Baseball” will be published in 2006. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

They say that baseball is a game of numbers, crooked numbers, straight numbers. The New York Yankees in existence now for more than a century have a stranglehold on stats, records . . . and numbers. For those of you who enjoyed Yankees By The Numbers (Part I) - for your reading pleasure we present Part II.

53 Most doubles in one season, Don Mattingly, 1986
54 - Mickey Mantle hit 54 home runs in 1961, a career best and most ever for a switch-hitter.
56 - Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak included 56 singles and 56 runs scored. It covered 53 day games 3 night games, 29 at Yankee Stadium, 27 road games. He had 223 official at bats, a batting average of .408, 91 hits, 16 doubles, 4 triples, 15 home runs and 55 RBIs. DiMag struck out 7 times, walked 21 times, was hit by a pitch twice.
63 - Joe DiMaggio hit safely against 63 right-handed pitchers during his 56 game hitting streak in 1941.
65- most home wins in a season, 1961.
71- Most career hits in World Series, Yogi Berra.
72 Babe Ruth homered twice in a game 72 times, a major league record
72 - Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig homered in the same game 72 times. Only 16 times did they homer back-to-back.
88 - Number of pitches David Cone threw in his perfect game, July 19, 1999
93 - Most stolen bases in a season,Rickey Henderson, 1988.
94- Whitey Ford, World Series strikeout leader.
100 - Two Yankee teams have lost 100 games: 1912, 50-102 and 1908, 51-103 100 - At Yankee Stadium, Babe Ruth on September 24, 1920 hit his 100th home run of Washington’s Jim Shaw.
110 - Most triples in a season, 1930.
112 - The best base stealing combo in Yankee history was Fritz Maisel and Roger Peckinpaugh in 1914. Maisel stole 74 bases and Peckinpaugh added 38.
114 - Most wins in a season, American League, 1998, all time record until 2001 and Seattle Mariners.
115 - Most combined home runs by teammates in a season, Mantle and Maris 1961
119 - Most extra base hits in a season,Babe Ruth, 1921: 44 doubles, 16 triples and 59 homers.
123 - Most complete games by a Yankee staff, 1904.
126 - Cal Ripken, most games played at Yankee Stadium by an opposing player June 18, 1982 - September 30, 2001
134 - Number of home runs Yankees hit at Hilltop Park, 1903-1912.
156 - Most strikeouts in a season, Danny Tartabull, 1993.
163 - Career home runs Mickey Mantle hit from the right side.
163 - Most career triples, Lou Gehrig.
170 - Most walks in a season,Babe Ruth,1923.
177 - Most runs scored in a season, Babe Ruth, 1921.
179 - Most home runs allowed in a season by a Yankee pitching staff, 1987.
183 - Team batting average in 2001 World Series is the lowest for a team in a World Series that went seven or eight games. The previous lowest average was .185 by the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals.
184 - Most runs batted in, one season, Lou Gehrig, American League record
185 - Number of working days it took for Yankee Stadium to be built
200 - Babe Ruth recorded his 200 home run on May 12, 1923 at Detroit off Tiger pitcher Herman Pillette.

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd. consecutive year of writing sports books. His “Old Time Baseball” will be published in 2006. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

John Schuerholz of the Atlanta Braves is the winningest general manager in the big leagues. His “Built to Win” with Larry Guest (Warner Books, $24.95, 272 pages) is a true inside look at how the fate and fortunes of the most successful baseball team of the last 15 years has been handled.

Schuerholz’s tricks of the trade, how he copes with an $80-million payroll in an era of megabuck payouts, what he thinks of the much ballyhooed “Moneyball” baseball management theory and why he prefers his own style - “winning-ball.” These and many more themes pervade “Built to Win,” a book filled with interesting, inside anecdotes and perspectives on the national pastime. Highly recommended reading.

One wonders why after all these years Mike Schmidt decided to write a book. No matter - the Philly legend has done the right thing in “Clearing the Bases” (with Glen Waggoner, $24.95, 199 pages). The ten time Gold Glover, Hall of Famer and member of the All Century team lets it all hang out in his spirited broadside on sham records, juiced players, and other things wrong with the game he lovess. As the book’s sub-title proclaims - it is Mike Schmidt’s search for the “soul of baseball.” There is much to agree with Mike about, much to admire him for saying what others would not say. If you are a Mike Schmidt fan or just care about the state of Major League Baseball - this is the books for you.

For those who never got their fill of New York sports radio’s WFAN’s Christopher Russo - there is now “The Mad Dog Hall of Fame, the Ultimate Top-Ten Rankings of the Best in Sports” (Doubleday, $23.95, 284 pages). Shrill, over-stated, and of course highly opinionated - that’s what C. Russo and his book are all about.
For zealots only.

The much celebrated Ira Berkow has been on the staff of the “New York Times” for a long, long time. His “Full Swing Hits, Runs and Errors in a Writer’s Life” (Ivan R. Dee, $26.00, 289 pages) is a marvelous memoir of events witnessed and written about, of celebrities known and learned from. I was especially interested as the biographer of Red Holzman to read what Berkow had to say about the sorely missed, late and legendary coach of the New York Knicks. On target stuff here - and moving, too. If you like Berkow - and why shouldn’t you - get a copy of this book and keep it in a place of prominence on your sports bookcase. Terrific stuff.

“Day By Day with the Boston Red Sox” by Bill Nowlin (Rounder Books, $19.95, 614 pages, paper) is a must have reference book for all fans of the team from the Hub. The author, born just 3.9 miles from Fenway Park is a BoSox zealot. That zeal and many facts and factoids intermingle on the pages of this terrific timeline to me.

More Lou Gehrig: The classic “Iron Horse Lou Gehrig in his Time by “Ray Robinson (W.W. Norton, $14.95, 300 pages. paper) is thankfully out in this brand new edition - and we are all the better for it. Marvelous writing by a true old pro. And there is also” The Life of Lou Gehrig Told By a Fan” by Sara Kaden Brunsvold (Acta Sports, $14.95, 252 pages, paper. This is a highly readable montage of memories about the legendary Yankee first baseman who died too soon.

The first black full-time beat reporter to cover the Yankees - Cecil Harris - offers anecdotes and opinions on his time there in “call the Yankees My Daddy” (The Lyons Press, $14.95, 241 pages, paper).

A little book with a lot to offer is “Extraordinary Putting” by Fred Shoemaker with Jo Hardy (G.P. Putnam’s Son, $21.95, 189 pages). A revered coach muses on the game and offers many tips from a pro.

“Black Maestro” by New York Times reporter Joe Drape is a bio of Jimmy Winkfield, the last black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby.
The book is riveting and consciousness raising.

FOR THE KIDS: “Roasted Peanuts” by Tim Egan (Houghton Mifflin) is a beautifully produced book about baseball and loyalty and friendship. Highly recommended.

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd. consecutive year of writing sports books. His “Old Time Baseball” will be published in 2006. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

In a thunderstorm of controversy, Barry Bonds is closing in on the all-time home run record of perhaps the greatest player in baseball history. Steroids, uppers, different lifestyles and personalities are not the only things that make for the difference between the Giant slugger and the Yankee immortal. The Babe was in a class by himself.

“No one hit home runs the way Babe did,” his teammate Lefty Gomez said. “They were something special. They were like homing pigeons. The ball would leave the bat, pause briefly, suddenly gain its bearings, then take off for the stands.”

” I’ve seen them,” Waite Hoyt, his friend and Yankee teammate said, “kids, men, women, worshippers all, hoping to get his name on a torn, dirty piece of paper, or hoping for a grunt of recognition when they said, ‘Hi-ya, Babe.’ He never let them down; not once. He was the greatest crowd pleaser of them all.”

He homered once every 11.8 at bats. His home run to hit ratio was 1 to 4:02. He won 12 home run titles in a 14 year span, 12 slugging titles in 13 seasons, .847 in 1920, .846 in 1921.

Born George Herman Ruth on February 6, 1895 in Baltimore,legend claims he was an orphan; the truth is his mother died when he was 16, his father when he was in the major leagues. His parents had placed him in St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys for his “incorrigible” behavior: stealing, truancy, chewing tobacco and drinking whiskey. Ruth’s entire youth was spent at St. Mary’s where his awesome baseball talent was developed.

In 1914, he began his storied major league career with Boston where he won 89 games over six seasons before his sale to the Yankees for $125,000 in 1920. His 54 home runs that year were more than any other team total except the Phillies. His .847 slugging percentage stood as the all-time best until Barry Bonds and 2001 came along.

Big, large, gigantic ­ everything about him was excessive: his bat - 44 ounces, his frame - top playing weight of 254 pounds, his appetites - food and drink consumed in abundance, salary $75,000 in 1932 - highest in the majors.

Just from a statistical point of view, the man players called “Jidge” accomplished is staggering stuff. Thirteen times he led the American League in home run percentage. Twelve times he had more than 100 RBIs. Eleven times he was the league leader in walks. Six times he led the league in runs batted in.

Babe Ruth amassed 16 seasons of more than 20 home runs, 13 seasons of more than 30, 11 times he had more than 40 or more home runs, four times he hammered 50 or more home runs. During his 15 seasons in New York, the “Sultan of Swat” powered the yanks to four world championships. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Ruth revolutionized the game, changing it from a pitcher-dominated, scratch-out-a-run contest to a home run hitting, power pays.

“The Babe” was the first to reach 30 homers, 40, 50, 60. From 1920-33, he slugged 637 homers, an average of 45.5 per season. From 1926-31, when his age ranged from 31 to 36 and when he was supposed to be past his prime, he averaged 50 homers, 155 RBI, 47 runs and a .354 batting average.

The Yankees, who had never even won any title, captured seven pennants and four Series with Ruth en- route to his 714 career home runs. He added 15 home runs in World Series competition.

Ruth has the ninth-best average (.342) ever, the second-most runs scored (2,174), second-most RBI (2,213), highest slugging percentage (.690) and second-highest on-base percentage (.483). He ranks first in career walks - 2,056, one every fourth at bat.

When the 1923 season opened, the Sultan of Swat already had 197 career home runs. The 1924 season was probably Ruth’s career year with these incredible numbers .378, 46 home runs and 142 RBIs.

The most celebrated sports figure of his time, perhaps of all time, the Babe hit the first home run ever in Yankee Stadium. Number 3 said:”I could have had a lifetime .600 average, but I would have had to hit them singles. The people were paying to see me hit home runs.”

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd. consecutive year of writing sports books. His “Old Time Baseball” will be published in 2006. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

The words and phrases are spoken and written day after day, year after year - generally without any wonderment as to how they became part of the language. All have a history, a story. Now with the 2006 baseball season almost with us -some more language of baseball to savor, to enjoy.

For those of you who liked Part I, Part II and Part III and wrote in to offer suggestions and ask for more - here is more - Part IV. As always, reactions and suggestions always welcome.

THE BABE George Herman Ruth probably leads the list for most nick-names acquired. First called “Babe” by teammates on the Baltimore Orioles, his first professional team because of his youth, G.H.Ruth was also called “Jidge” by Yankee teammates, short for George. They also called him “Tarzan.” He called most players “Kid,” because he couldn’t remember names, even of his closest friends. Opponents called him “The Big Monk” and “Monkey.”

Many of Babe Ruth’s nick-names came from over-reaching sports writers who attempted to pay tribute to his slugging prowess: “The Bambino“, “The Wali of Wallop“, “The Rajah of Rap“, “The Caliph of Clout“, “The Wazir of Wham“, and “The Sultan of Swat“, “The Colossus of Clout“, “Maharajah of Mash“, “The Behemoth of Bust“, “The King of Clout.”

His main nickname was rooted in President Grover Cleveland’s Baby Ruth. Perhaps the greatest slugger of all time and also one of baseball’s most colorful characters, Ruth set some 50 records in his 22 years as a player. His accomplishments, his personality, his nickname-all combined to rocket major league baseball firmly into the nation’s psyche.

“Babe” and “Ruth” In spring training 1927, Babe Ruth bet pitcher Wilcy Moore $l00 that he would not get more than three hits all season. A notoriously weak hitter, Moore somehow managed to get six hits in 75 at bats. Ruth paid off his debt and Moore purchased two mules for his farm. He named them “Babe” and “Ruth “for Ruth.

CHIEF BENDER Charles Albert Bender won 210 games and compiled a 2.45 lifetime earned-run average in 16 years of pitching. He was admitted to baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1953. His nickname came from the fact that he was a Chippewa Indian.

CLOWN PRINCE OF BASEBALL Al Schacht performed for only three seasons as a member of the Washington Senators (1919-21), but he still was able to make a mighty reputation on the baseball field. Schacht was a comic and his routines centered on the foibles and eccentricities of the National Pastime. It was said that nobody did it better, and that’s why Schacht was dubbed the Clown Prince.

DAFFINESS BOYS Also known as Dem Brooklyn Bums, the 1926 Brooklyn Dodgers wrought havoc on friend and foe alike. The hotshot of the team was freeswinging, slump-shouldered Babe Herman, dubbed the Incredible Hoiman, who bragged that among his stupendous feats was stealing second base with the bases loaded. Once Herman was one of a troika of Dodger base runners who found themselves all on third base at the same time. A Dodger rookie turned to Brooklyn manager “Uncle” Wilbert Robinson on the bench. “You call that playing baseball?” “Uncle” Robbie responded, “Leave them alone. That’s the first time they’ve been together all year.”

“DON’T LOOK BACK. SOMETHING MIGHT BE GAINING ON YOU” This line of homespun wisdom formed the sixth rule of a recipe attributed to former baseball pitching great Leroy “Satchel” Paige. The other five rules were (1) avoid fried meats which angry up the blood; (2) if your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts; (3) keep your juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move; (4) go very gently on the vices, such as carrying on in society-the social ramble ain’t restful; (5) avoid running at all times. It seems that most of us have managed to break all of Mr. Paige’s rules more than once. As for rule 5-don’t tell it to your neighborhood jogger.

DOUBLE NO HITTER It’s almost a baseball cliché. A no-hitter is tossed. And the next time that pitcher takes the mound, there is all the talk and speculation about the possibility of a second straight no-no taking place. And always what Johnny Vander Meer did 62 years ago today comes back into the public consciousness.

On June 11, 1938, the Cincinnati hurler no-hit the Boston Bees, 3-0. Four nights later, he was tabbed to start against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the first night game ever in the New York City metropolitan area. To that point in time, only two pitchers had ever recorded two career no-hitters. No one had ever posted two no-hitters in a season. No one had probably even contemplated back-to-back no-hitters.

More than 40,000 (Fire Department rules notwithstanding) jammed into Ebbets Field to see the first night game in that tiny ball park’s history and also bear witness to Vander Meer questing after his second straight no-hitter. Utilizing a one-two-three-four pitching rhythm that saw him cock his right leg in the air before he delivered the ball to the plate, “Vandy” featured a fast ball that was always moving and a curve ball that broke ever so sharply. Inning after inning, the Dodgers went down hitless. In the seventh inning, Vander Meer walked two batters. But the fans of “Dem Bums” cheered the Cincinnati pitcher on, sensing they were witnessing baseball history. The ninth inning began with Cincinnati holding a 6-0 lead. Buddy Hasset was retired on a grounder. Then suddenly, Vander Meer lost control of the situation. He loaded the bases on walks. Reds manager Bill McKechnie came out to the mound to talk to his beleaguered pitcher.

“Take it easy, Johnny,” he said, “but get the no-hitter.” Vander Meer got Ernie Koy to hit a grounder to infielder Lou Riggs, who conservatively elected to go to the plate for the force-out for the second out. The bases were still loaded, though. Leo “Lippy” Durocher, the Dodger player-manager and a veteran of many wars, stepped into the batter’s box.

Only the “Lip” stood between Vander Meer and the double no-hitter. Durocher took a lunging swing and smashed the ball down the right-field line. But it went foul into the upper deck. Bedlam and tension intermingled at Ebbets Field as Vander Meer’s left arm came around and delivered the pitch to Durocher, who swung and popped up the ball into short center field. Harry Craft clutched the ball. Johnny Vander Meer had made baseball history.
Fans leaped out onto the playing field, but Vander Meer’s Cincinnati teammates had formed a protective shield around the exhausted hurler as he scurried into the relative calm of the dugout. His mother and father, who had come to see their son pitch with about 500 others from their hometown, were not as lucky. Swarms of well wishers and autograph-hunters milled about Vandy’s parents. It took about half an hour before they could be extricated from the mob of admirers. The event remains in memory as the miracle of 1938, consecutive no-hitters spun by John Samuel Vander Meer, the man they called the “Dutch Master.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent congratulations. Newspapers and magazines featured every detail of the event for months. For Vander Meer, the double no-hitters were especially sweet coming against Boston and Brooklyn - teams he tried out for and been rejected by.

Vander Meer performed for 13 big-league seasons, winning 119 games and losing 121. He perhaps would be remembered as a southpaw pitcher who never totally fulfilled his promise if it had not been for the epic moments of June 11 and June 15, 1938.

HITLESS WONDERS The 1906 Chicago White Sox had a team batting average of .230, the most anemic of all the clubs in baseball that year. The team’s pitching, however, more than made up for its lack of hitting. The White Sox staff recorded shutouts in 32 of the team’s 93 victories. The “Hitless Wonders” copped the American League pennant and faced the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. The Cubs of 1906 are regarded as one of the greatest baseball teams of all time; they won 116 games that year, setting the all-time major league mark for victories in a season and for winning percentage. The White Sox continued their winning ways in the World Series, however, trimming their cross town rivals in six games.

“hitting for the cycle” Hit a single, double, triple and home run in the same game, not necessarily in that order.

HORSE COLLAR Describes a situation when a player gets no hits in a game.

KLU Ted Kluszewski played 15 years in the major leagues. He pounded out 279 homers, recorded a lifetime slugging average of nearly .500 and a career batting average of nearly . 300. He was a favorite of the Cincinnati fans; at 6′2″ and 225 pounds, his bulging biceps were too huge to be contained by ordinary shirt-sleeves. Kluszewski cut off the sleeves and started a new fashion in baseball uniforms-just as fans and sportswriters cut off part of his name to make for a nickname more easily pronounced and printed.

LONSOME GEORGE Former legendary Yankee General Manager George Weiss, for his aloof ways.

MAHATMA Branch Rickey (1881-1965) was one of baseball’s most influential personalities. Inventor of the farm system, the force responsible for Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color line, the master builder of the St. Louis Cardinal and Brooklyn Dodger organizations, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1967. Sportswriter Tom Meany coined Rickey’s nickname. Meany got the idea from John Gunther’s phrase describing Mohandas K. Gandhi as a” combination of God, your own father, and Tammany Hall.”

NICKEL SERIES Refers to old days when New York City teams played against each other and the tariff was a five cents subway ride.

NUMBER l/8 On August 19, 1951, Eddie Gaedel, wearing number l/8, came to bat for the St. Louis Browns against the Detroit Tigers. Gaedel, who was signed by Browns owner Bill Veeck, walked on four straight pitches and was then replaced by a pinch runner. The next day the American League banned Gaedel, despite Veeck’s protests. Gaedel was a midget, only three feet, seven inches tall.

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd. consecutive year of writing sports books. His “Old Time Baseball” will be published in 2006. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

As one who was literally brought up with the Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia (I still have a few volumes in my library), I have felt the lack of that tome in the spring just as baseball comes alive.

Thankfully, now there is “The 2006 ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia” with editors Gary Gillette and Pete Palmer (Sterling Publishing Company, 174 pages, $24.95 doing their splendid stuff. This epic effort is probably the most complete and baseball database ever put together. Essays, info, perspectives, annual team-by-team batting and pitching statistics for all players in major league history, all-time leaders in 150 categories, facts and factoids on teams and managers and more! As Casey Stengel used to say: “You could look it up.”

A kind of companion guide to the above would be “Baseball Field Guide” by Dan Formosa and Paul Hamburger (Thunder’s Mouth Press, $13.95, 224 pages). This a book to rummage thru, to keep in your pocket when you go to a game, to savor. It is as its sub-title suggests: “An in-depth illustrated field guide to the complete rules of baseball.

Jim Reisler’s “A Great Day in Cooperstown” (Carroll and Graf, $26.00, 241 pages) focuses cleverly on a small slice of baseball history - the unusual origins of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Part bio, part detective story, part profiling of the original 11 Hall of Famers - the book is worth the money and your time.

“Crashing the Borders” by Harvey Araton (Free Press, $25.00, 207 pages) is a rather slim but highly interesting survey of the state of hoops. Sub-titled: “How Basketball Won the World and Lost Its Soul at Home,” the book rails at the many flaws, false steps and fakers in the game today. Vet sports journalist Araton spares no one - worth reading.

“Only With Passion” by Katarina Witt with E.M. Swift (Public Affairs, $23.50, 168 pages) was a tie in to the fame of its subject and the Winter Olympics 2006. Witt watchers will benefit.

MOST NOTABLE

“Our Red Sox” by Robert Sullivan (Emmis Books, $10.95, 186 pages, paper) is a delightful read for all fans of the team from the Hub. Personal, painful at times because of the memories, the book is one to savor like a good red wine. Sullivan’s careful and graceful prose, a mix of intimate BoSox lore and family history, sets it apart from other books on the subject. As the co-author of “Red Sox Vs. Yankees” and the just published “Red Sox Where Have You Gone?” - -I can appreciate all the nuances of “Our Red Sox.” It’s also enough to convert one to root for the team from Fenway - -not quite.

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd. consecutive year of writing sports books. His “Old Time Baseball” will be published in 2006. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

He was the last of the first. The first black player on the last team to integrate — the 1959 Boston Red Sox. Below is a good chunk of his story, in an excerpt from Frommer’s new book, Where Have All Our Red Sox Gone?

He was born Elijah Jerry Green October 27, 1933 in Oakland, California, and grew up in Richmond, California, where baseball was a natural part of life. All the kids in his area, the young and old, men and women, everybody played baseball. “Pumpsie” was the nickname his mother gave him when he was a couple of years old.

In 1948, Jackie Robinson barnstorming with an all-star team, played a ball game at the Oakland Oaks’ ballpark.

PUMPSIE GREEN: I scraped up every nickel and dime together that I could, and I was there. I had to see this game with the Jackie Robinson All Stars. They were all black — Suitcase Simpson, Minnie Minoso, and the others. They played an Oakland team that was put together specially for that occasion.

I never thought of playing pro ball. To me, baseball was just a game to play and have fun with. That was all. I used to see this big picture of Stan Musial on the side of the highway in the neighborhood. That was just about the only association I had with major league baseball. But the Pacific Coast League was really big. I listened to Bud Foster doing every Oakland Oaks game and followed a whole bunch of people on that team. It was almost a daily ritual. When I got old enough to wish, I wished I could play for the Oakland Oaks.

We had a good high school team, coached by a man named Gene Corr, who went on to become the baseball coach at Contra Costa Junior College after my sophomore year. When I was getting set to graduate from high school, I planned to go to Fresno State, which offered me an athletic scholarship. But Gene Corr promised me that I could play shortstop if I joined his team at Contra Costa, so I switched plans and went there. In my senior year at Contra Costa, I was given a tryout by the Oakland Oaks. I tried out with the team for a week. The workouts were staged before the regular team did its exercises. Then, when the game started, Gene Corr and I would sit in the stands and watch the games.

The people in charge of the Oaks finally came to a decision about me. It was just sign and play ball. Oakland was an independent team, so there was no draft as far as I was concerned. I got no bonus, just a regular salary of three or four hundred dollars a month. But unfortunately, I never got a chance to play with Oakland. There was a stop in Oakland’s minor leagues with Wenatchee, Washington. In 1955, I was moved up to Stockton, California.

It was June. We were in first place. I was having a great year. Then one day my manager Roy Partee said: “Hey, Pumps, the Red Sox bought your contract. You are going to their organization, to Montgomery, Alabama.”

I did not want to go. I wasn’t ready for it. One of the reasons Boston wanted me to go to Montgomery was that Earl Wilson, the only black in their organization, was there. They wanted me to be his roommate. I managed to get permission to finish out the season with Stockton and was named the Most Valuable Player in the California State League. I hit about .300, and drove in about eighty-something runs.

In 1956, I went to spring training with the Red Sox in Florida. I was street-smart and knew I could take care of myself. But any young black in those days going to the South had some kind of feelings. California was an integrated experience. There were some problems, but there weren’t signs all over the place about where blacks and whites could go, like there were in Florida.

I roomed all by myself. I knew that all the major league teams had been integrated except for the Red Sox. People made me aware. They wouldn’t let me forget it. I did not think of myself as another Jackie Robinson, as a pioneer with the Red Sox. I just wanted to make the team. As long as I had that chance, I was going to try and do the best I could. It got to be sort of tiring when the media kept asking me questions about being the first black on the Red Sox and what it meant to me, and what was my opinion as to why Boston had never had a black player before.

I met all the guys, including Ted Williams, at Spring Training, and they acted fine to me. I had the best spring training of anyone on the whole team, including Ted Williams. Yet, after such a great spring, I was sent down to Minneapolis. That caused a lot of writing in the newspaper, and that was when I got tired of it all. People were asking me too many questions about things I had no control over. I told them: “You are asking the wrong person.”

They kept me in Minneapolis until 1959. That year I was having a great year, hitting about .330 or .340. On July 21, I got a call. The Red Sox wanted me to report to Chicago. I suddenly became weak. I had to sit down quick. I just couldn’t believe the news. My legs felt as if they’d collapsed. I packed in a hurry…and was landing in Chicago two hours after I received the phone call.

I had a little laugh walking out this long dungeonway in Comiskey Park. Passing the White Sox dugout, I saw an old junior college and high school baseball teammate, Jim Landis. He yelled, “Hey, El Cerrito. You have a good season.”

My major league debut for Boston was on July 21, 1959. I came in as a pinch-runner and remained in the game to play shortstop. We lost the game 2-1 to the White Sox. I will never forget my first at bat. I faced a guy who really shook me up. His name was Early Wynn. I had seen him on television pitching in the World Series. He had a big name. It was near the end of his career and the start of mine.

There was more media pressure than ever. I was trying to make it as a player and as the first black man on the Red Sox. I had no roommate. It never crossed my mind to have a roommate, since I was the only black on the team. It wasn’t a rule. It wasn’t a law. But it was unwritten that blacks did not room with whites.

The Red Sox got me a room in a hotel. I didn’t even know if I had to pay for it or not. I got to meet Mr. Yawkey the second day that I was in Boston. He was a very gentle, short, round man. He told me why he called me up, said he wanted to get to know me, and wished me well. “If you run into any problems or need any advice on something, you don’t have to go to the coaches or manager. Come directly to me,” he said. I thanked him, and we shook hands.

My first night in Boston was July 24. Fenway Park just felt small because it is small. Even Minneapolis, where I played for two years, seemed bigger. There was now more media pressure than ever. The first night I got to Fenway there was such a crowd, the park was full. A lot of blacks wanted to come to the game. They didn’t have a seat, but they were accommodated. The Red Sox roped off a corner part of centerfield. The whole thing made me feel special, but it made my blood pressure go up, too. “I can’t fail. I can’t make a mistake.” That was how I felt.

When I first got to Boston, I got in touch with guys from the University of San Francisco — Bill Russell and K.C. Jones — who were stars on the Boston Celtics. Russ would take me around and talk to me. He told me where I should and shouldn’t go.

Around the first of September, the Red Sox flew my wife up to Boston. That made things a lot easier for me. We had been married since 1957. I had good friends on that team — Pete Runnels, Frank Malzone. Jackie Jensen and also Ted Williams were friends and fellow Californians. Williams warmed up with me before every game. Some people said he was making a statement. But it wasn’t just he who befriended me; it was he and a bunch of the guys. I had some good friends on the Red Sox when I was there. It was just that after the ball diamond, they went their way and I went my way.

I was able to function, I really was. Some of the pressure and nervousness I put on myself. I know the people expected a lot, especially the black community, which wanted me to do good.

I roomed with no one until Earl Wilson came along. There was an unwritten rule, and that was the way it was. You get used to certain things; rooming by yourself, being by yourself. It was a way of life back then.

There were overtones of racial things. These overtones could be heard not only at Fenway but at any other ballpark. Sometimes terrible things would be yelled out, racial epithets. Some people said I must have felt like killing somebody. However, I never did. I got where I could divorce it from my mind, cut it off. I told people I had enough troubles trying to hit the curveball. I wasn’t going to worry about some loudmouths.

Truly, I didn’t have the kind of career that I would have loved to have had. I was used as a pinch runner or day-off replacement for infielders mostly. I played four seasons, 1959-62, for the Red Sox. My last game was September 26, 1963. I was 29 years old and had moved on to play a bit for the New York Mets. I didn’t know Boston was going to trade me. You go to sleep one night and wake up the next morning with somebody else.

Still, if I had it to do all over again, I would do the same thing. I never thought about the major leagues at all. I would have been happy just to have had the chance to play for the Oakland Oaks.

I have gotten cards and letters, people wanting autographs, phone calls and people bothering me through the years wanting to talk. It has been a bother and a thrill; a combination of both.

After I finished playing major league baseball, I went back to California, went back to being a regular working man. I worked for the school district in Berkeley. I coached the baseball team for about 25 years, taught math for awhile. And then I did a lot of nothing.

I have done card shows, talks to youth groups, lots and lots of interviews. People have not forgotten me. Every February is “Black History Month,” and that means I am onstage; one of the people there to talk to the kids.

I have grown children. For my children growing up, they really did not realize that I had broken the color bar with the Red Sox.
For my contemporaries, what I did was a big deal. But a lot of young kids never heard of me. Just like a lot of young kids never heard of Willie Mays. But when there are people who know what I did and their eyes are bright and they want to talk to me, it makes me feel good.

I have seen some players from my Red Sox time because I have been back to Boston more than once. I have seen Frank Malzone, Bill Monbouquette, and the late Dick Radatz. I never got around to exchanging Christmas cards. My roommate, Earl Wilson, who passed in 2005, I used to exchange cards with him.

I keep up with baseball; the Red Sox, the Giants. Those are two I root for. Since I am near the Giants, I watch them more. I like New England but I am really a California guy.

There’s really nothing that interesting about me. I am just an everyday person happy with what I did. Now I am in the twilight of what was a sometimes wonderful career. A lot of people ask me if I am “that guy.” Of course, I say “yes.” But fame is fleeting.

I have been married to the same wife all these years. Almost 50 years. She was there with me in Boston a couple of summers. Every once in awhile the two of us talk about those times.

It has made me feel good when I have returned to Boston. Just that I have been there before and that I accomplished what I had set out to do. I did what I wanted to do and I don’t see anything bad about anything.

I would like to be remembered in Red Sox history as just another ball player. Aside from being the last of the first, just another ball player.

Nowadays, I am retired from baseball coaching. I am retired from my job. I am retired from everything except chauffeuring my granddaughter, s pending time with my granddaughter Brittany. There are a whole bunch of good things that we do.

I spend time now at the YMCA where I have heck of a lot of workouts with a bunch of guys. We meet there every morning. I take a lot of pride in having played for the Red Sox. I will always keep an eye on the Red Sox.

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd. consecutive year of writing sports books. His “Old Time Baseball” will be published in 2006. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.