When Dixie Walker Took On Senators
"The other day the Cardinals were playing the Phillies and Dixie Walker was on the coaching lines and there was a man sitting in the press box who said:
'Every time I see Dixie, practically, I think about him in the middle of the darndest fight I ever saw on a ball field except, maybe, the Dempsey-Firpo fight that was held at the Polo Grounds. It was at Griffith Stadium at Washington away back in 1933, when Dixie was a young man, and I have seen many a fight since then, in ball parks and out of them, but this one I will always remember.
'Dixie didn't start it but, you might say, he wound it up. By the time he quit punching there were cops and detectives hanging all over him and he would have wound up in the pokey if it hadn't been for old Griff, although all he had done was to go the aid of a pal who was in trouble.
'Everybody was surprised to see him in there, slugging in all directions, because by nature he was a very peaceable fellow, as he is now. But he showed that day in Washington, as he was to prove in Brooklyn later on, that he was a very bad guy to monkey with and anybody who did was likely to wind up minus a few teeth. Like that hoodlum who started something with one of the other Dodgers one day at Ebbets Field and got sloughed by Dixie.
'Anyway,' the man said, 'this day in Washington, when Dixie was with the Yankees, his pal, Ben Chapman, slid into Buddy Myer, the Senators' second baseman, and knocked him down. While they were both on the ground, Buddy took a swing at Ben and then they got up and were trading punches when the umpires broke it up and chased the two of them out of the ball game.
'Buddy left the field without an argument, but Ben, who was a red neck kid if I ever saw one, kept yelling that Buddy had hit him first and wanting to know why he should be put out. Joe McCarthy knew he had to go, of course, and said to Dixie, who was on the bench: 'Run down to the bullpen and warm up in a hurry because you will have to take Chapman's place in left field as soon as they get the ball game going again.'
'Dixie grabbed his glove and ran down there. He was throwing a couple to the bullpen catcher to get his arm loosened up quick because Chapman was out on the play at second and that was the third out. About this time, Ben decides he has said about everything he can think of to the umpires and starts for the clubhouse. He is still steaming and when he gets to the Senators' dugout, through which he has to pass to get to the clubhouse, there is Earl Whitehill standing at the top of the stairs leading to the tunnel.
'Whitehill was one of the best pitchers in the league in those days and a handsome dark-haired guy, and cocky, too, and, as Chapman was about to pass him, Earl said:
' 'Well, you swell-headed -----, you finally got what was coming to you, didn't you?'
'Chapman hit him in the mouth with a right hand that almost knocked him down the stairs and then the fight really started. All the Washington players were trying to hit Chapman and fans were climbing out of the stands, trying to get at him, too, and cops were running in to put a stop to it and all of a sudden there was Dixie. He was yanking guys off his pal Chapman and belting them, which left Ben free to do some more punching on his own, and I never saw anything like it.
'The two of them kept a small circle about them and hit everybody in range- Senators, fans, everybody. It seems that a couple of the guys in store clothes they hit were detectives, although, of course, they didn't know who they were. But they soon found out because the detectives and the uniformed cops closed in on them and hauled them off and down the steps to the clubhouse. The cops told them to shower and dress because they were pinched and there was a police car waiting to take them to the pokey. Just then old Griff came in and said to the cops:
' 'Look, don't arrest these boys. The Yankees are going to Philadelphia right after the game. Let them leave town with their ball club. The league will take of them, I am sure, because I am going to call Mr. Harridge in Chicago and tell him what happened and I want Chapman, anyway, suspended and fined.'
'So,' the man said, 'the cops agreed to do as Griff asked but to make sure Ben and Dixie would leave town, they took them down to the Union Station in the police car and made sure they got on the train for Philadelphia with the rest of the Yankees. My recollection is that Harridge, who flew to Philadelphia to hold a hearing in the Yankees' clubhouse at Shibe Park, fined Chapman and Myer and suspended Chapman for three days and let Dixie off with a small fine, if any, and a slight lecture, and I have liked him for that, among many other things, ever since.' "
-Frank Graham, condensed from the New York Journal-American (Baseball Digest, June 1953)
"Dixie joins the Cardinals' coaching staff after three years as manager of Atlanta. He put in 23 seasons as an active player- 17 in the majors. Dixie played with the Yankees, White Sox, Tigers, Dodgers and Pirates. He hit .300 or better 11 times and won the National League batting crown with .357 in 1944.
In Brooklyn, Dixie is still known as 'The People's Cherce' because of his ability to come through with men on base."
-1953 Topps No. 190
No comments:
Post a Comment