1956 Yankee of the Past: Roger Peckinpaugh

 YOUNGEST BIG LEAGUE MANAGER? PECK!

"Who was the youngest to become a major league manager? Longtime shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh was a babe of 23 when he became boss of the woebegone seventh-place Yanks in mid-September, 1914. He ruled in 14 games and finished in a tie for sixth with the White Sox.

He got his chance when Frank Chance, now of the Hall of Fame and renowned 'Peerless Leader' of the Cubs, got sore at the Yanks' owners and busted out of a three-year contract.

When Peck was relieved at season's end, it was graciously and perhaps correctly written he could have kept the job but thought the burden might cramp his work on the shortstop beat. He was succeeded by Wild Bill Donovan.

Peck managed no more until 1928 when he started a six-year term with Cleveland, then after two years in the minors went back to the Indians for the 1941 season. His best major score was third in 1929.

It's doubtful if he hears as much about his youngest manager distinction as his eight errors for Washington against Pittsburgh in the 1925 World  Series- the record for a seven-game set. He was awarded the goatee for the Senators' loss. On the eve of the Series, he had been named the league's Most Valuable Player.

For lack of knowledge of Peck's tour with the Yanks, much beer is tossed and lost in tap room seminars dealing with the youngest manager issue. The unwary go for 'Boy Wonder' Bucky Harris, who was 27 when he won with the Senators in 1924. Others go for Joe Cronin, who was but 26 when he won with the Senators in '33. But the shrewdies name Lou Boudreau, who was 24 when he was appointed Cleveland manager in 1942."

-Don Donaghey, Philadelphia Bulletin (Baseball Digest, July 1956)

1956 Yankee World Series of the Past: 1941

 "One of the most memorable moments in World Series history happened at Ebbets Field, in the fourth game of the 1941 meetings with the Yankees, when Hugh Casey's third strike to Tommy Henrich, which would have ended the game, eluded Brooklyn catcher Mickey Owen.

If Owen had held the ball, the game was over, of course, and the Series would have been tied at two games each. Brooklyn was ahead, 4-3, two out and nobody on. But by the time the inning was over, the Yanks had picked up four runs, the ball game, and a 3-1 edge in the Series, which they went on to wrap up in five games.

Police had been stationed at all the exit gates in the stands around the dugouts so they'd be ready to dash on the field as soon as the game ended and throw up a protective cordon behind which the players on the diamond could get through the dugouts to the dressing rooms. However, the cops, like most of the fans, thought Henrich had fanned and ran out on the field as soon as Tommy's bat came around. There they were, a whole squad of bluecoats, running toward Mickey, and there was Mickey, weaving through the police like a broken-field runner, desperately pursuing the ball.

Leo Durocher, the Brooklyn manager, bounced off the bench gesturing wildly, like a farmer shooing chickens, and frantically chased the cops back to the stands.

They say everything happens at Ebbets Field and I guess it's true; that's the only time in my life, on or off the ball field, I ever saw a citizen chase cops."

-Tom Meany, Baseball Digest, October 1956

1956 Yankee of the Past: Joe McCarthy

MARSE JOE'S BIGGEST SERIES THRILL? SWEEP OVER CUBS, WHO FIRED HIM

1932 Triumph Also Sweet To Yankee Pilot Because It Was His First Title

McCarthy Rates Gehrig Greatest Competitor For His Clubs In Fall Classic

"A decade ago, Marse Joe McCarthy would have been reluctant to deliver such direct answers, as he did when he celebrated his sixty-ninth birthday, April 21, to two direct questions from an old friend, J.G. Taylor Spink, publisher of THE SPORTING NEWS. The questions were: 

'What World Series was your biggest thrill?' and 'Who's the greatest World Series competitor for your great Yankee teams?'

Time has sharpened the focus of McCarthy's marvelous memory and has brought the glowing events of nine World's Series and his seven world championship triumphs into an orderly sequence.

'I never had a greater thrill for a Series than the Yankees' four-game sweep over the Cubs in 1932,' Marse Joe began. 'Perhaps you understand why. First, it was my first World's Series winner; secondly, it was against the Cubs.'

McCarthy didn't put it in so many words that revenge was sweet and this series, he felt, vindicated him.

Marse Joe, taking over as Cub manager in 1926, had built them into a National League power, rising from eighth to fourth place in his first season. He won the pennant in 1929, but the nightmare of that ten-run World Series inning in Philadelphia, when Hack Wilson last two fly balls in the sun, hovered over the Bruins throughout the 1930 season.

Grabbed By Yanks Quickly

Owner Bill Wrigley dismissed McCarthy in the final week of the 1930 season. Ed Barrow was quick to sign Marse Joe to direct the Yankees.

Before the '32 season, Barrow bought Shortstop Frankie Crosetti for $75,000 and Vernon Gomez for $40,000 from the Pacific Coast League, acquired speedy Ben Chapman, Red Ruffing and Johnny Allen, who broke in with a 17-4 pitching record. The Yankees won 107 games and took the pennant by 13 games over the A's.

This was the celebrated Series when Babe Ruth called his home run shot into the center field seats at Wrigley, the most defiantly brazen gesture in baseball annals.

The Babe was great, but the old Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig, was, for McCarthy, the most dominant of Series stars.

'I didn't manage Ruth at his peak,' said McCarthy.

'But how could anyone be greater than Gehrig? Look at his World Series batting, .361. He was right at the crest of his career in 1932, and he put on the greatest one-man show I've ever seen. In the four games against Chicago, Lou batted .529 and was personally responsible for 14 runs.

'He had nine hits, including three home runs and a double. He scored nine runs and drove in seven; I heard Charlie Grimm say after that Series, 'I didn't anyone could be so good.' I often thought that Gehrig actually felt sorry for opposing pitchers.

'If he were a hungry hitter, a fellow greedy for headlines, he would have hit a lot more home runs and for a higher average. When we had a ball game wrapped up and Gehrig had a few key hits, he wasn't nearly so dangerous a batter. I guess he was the kind of fellow who never liked to rub in a defeat or embarrass a pitcher.

'The writers used to come down and visit our bench before games, and often you'd see someone pointing to a spot in the stands where a home run was hit. But I never heard Gehrig ever mention any of his home runs. The other fellows used to talk about them as you hear on every bench in the majors or minors.

'If you were around Gehrig, you'd get the impression that he never hit a home run in his life.'

The Yankees hit .313 and buried the Cubs under an avalanche of 37 runs in the four games in 1932. 'There was a lot of heat in the Series,' winked Joe, referring to the feud that the Yankees made of the Cubs' shabby treatment of Mark Koenig and their former manager, Rogers Hornsby.

Koenig was a popular ex-Yankee. Acquired in mid-season, Mark was a big factor in winning the pennant for Grimm, who had replaced Hornsby as manager on August 2. Koenig was voted a half share of the World's Series prize money and Hornsby didn't get a nickel.

'For such bench jockeys as Art Fletcher, the Yankees' coach; Sam Byrd and Ben Chapman, this was all the ammunition they needed,' chuckled McCarthy. They poured it on every inning. That Fletcher could put a burr under the hide of an elephant. He was at his best in the 1936 Series against the Giants when he got on Bill Terry for not joining the Players' Association.

'I enjoyed myself in the 1932 Series because our club was hitting. Even if it hadn't been hitting, Gehrig himself would have carried the attack. The third game was the crucial one for us. If the Cubs had won it, they probably would have tied the Series and we would have had to go back to New York to wind it up.

'As a manager, I had one big move to make in the Series and it came in the third game ... but to give you the background, we had four starting pitchers, Ruffing, Allen, Gomez and George Pipgras.

'It was at the bottom of the Depression but Commissioner Landis wouldn't allow tickets to be sold in singles, even at the Stadium; it was buy a strip of three or go home.

'It rained all morning and into the afternoon of the first game in New York, and the Series opened with a poor crowd, 41,459. Most fans didn't think there would be a game. In fact, the rain was so heavy that Gehrig, living in New Rochelle, didn't arrive at the Stadium until five minutes before game time.

'Missing batting practice never bothered him. He started out with a home run and a single and scored three runs as Ruffing went all the way for a 12 to 6 victory.

'Gehrig had three hits, scored two runs and drove in a third the next day as Gomez won, 5 to 2. Then we moved to Chicago.

'The third game was anybody's game until the last out. We had two relief pitchers, Herb Pennock and Wilcy Moore. Pipgras started the third game and pitched through the ninth, when Pennock came through in glorious style. We started with three runs in the first on Earle Combs' single, a walk to Joe Sewell and Ruth's home run. Gehrig homered in the third but the Cubs finally tied it up in the fourth.

Blow Silenced Cubs

'Now came the fifth inning, the one when Ruth called his shot. He was arguing with the Chicago bench at the time. Ruth's shot into the center field bleachers silenced the Cubs. When Gehrig followed with another homer into the right field bleachers, it was a worse shock to them. But they were fighters.

'The wind was blowing to right when Koenig appeared as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning for Lyle Tinning, a Chicago pitcher. Koenig was a switch hitter. I didn't want him to bat lefthanded against Pipgras for I was afraid that he'd pull the ball into the seats.

'That was why I brought in Pennock, a lefthanded pitcher. Koenig would have to switch, and he wasn't as dangerous as a righthanded batter who had to hit against the wind into left field. Grimm must have reasoned along with me, for he withdrew Koenig and sent up Rollie Hemsley. Pennock struck him out.

'The only person who asked me why I made that move was Bob Connery, the Yankee scout. It was the key one for us. The Cubs came back the next day and knocked out Allen in the first inning. Wilcy Moore pitched strong relief ball and we came back to tie the score at 5 to 5 going into the seventh.

'The Yankees got four runs in that inning and four in the ninth to win, 13 to 6. It was one of the great days in Yankee history. Ruth was held to one hit, Gehrig to a double and a single but it was a big day for Tony Lazzeri, Combs, Dickey and Sewell. Tony had two home runs and a single, Combs a homer, two singles and scored four runs. Dickey and Sewell each had three hits.

'That was the Series, above all the others, that gave me the big thrill.' "

-Cy Kritzer, Buffalo, N.Y. (The Sporting News, 1956)

1956 Yankee of the Past: Lefty Gomez

"Lefty Gomez, the Yankees' great lefty of the '30s, owes much of his popularity to his ability to tell a good story on himself.

Like the time he went in to pitch with a runner on first, and with his windup, the runner stole second. McCarthy warned the rookie to watch the runner. Gomez wound up again and the runner stole third. Again the conference, again the windup, and the runner was safe with a theft of home.

'And that was the longest windup in history,' Gomez confesses. 'I wound up in St. Paul.' "

-John Mooney, Salt Lake City Tribune (Baseball Digest, May 1956)

THERE'S NO PURE POWER PITCHER NOW

Gomez Last To Get By With Only Fast Ball

"On the Yankees' train from Boston to New York this spring, the talk ran to pitchers, mostly because the radio finally beat the static and was telling about the tough luck defeat of Cleveland's Herb Score.

'That makes two he loses 1-0 and the season ain't two weeks old yet,' said Yogi Berra. 'The kid is snakebit.'

Casey Stengel said, 'I don't wish the fellow any more tough luck but if he has any I hope it's against us. He's hard to lick.'

Bill Dickey said, 'Score is like all great pitchers in one respect. The best you can get from them is a run here and there, sometimes none at all. What I mean is that you never get a big inning.'

'Hank Greenberg says Score is a ringer for Lefty Grove,' Hank Bauer said.

'No,' Dickey said. 'A little bit like Grove but no ringer for him. Got that full, wide delivery but doesn't blow you down like Grove did. Score is best when he's curving you.'

'Score showed me a pretty good fast ball,' Irv Noren said.

'Sure he's got a fast ball,' Dickey said, 'but he's no Grove or even a Feller.'

Whitey Ford said, 'Whattaya mean, Bill, when you say Score is not even a Feller with his fast one? You don't mean Feller wasn't as fast as Grove?'

Dickey said, 'That's right. That's just what I mean. I get tired hearing about Feller being the fastest in his time, but he wouldn't have been the fastest thing since Walter Johnson. Feller was the fastest in his time, but he wouldn't have been the fastest in Grove's time.'

'Maybe you were more impressed with Grove because he was a left-handed pitcher and you were a left-handed batter,' a baseball writer suggested to Dickey.

'Listen, I'm not talking about I hit against Grove,' Dickey said. 'What I'm talking about is how fast his ball used to come in there compared to Feller's.

'I'm not talking about the viewpoint of a man with a bat on his shoulder,' Dickey continued. 'I'm talking about as their batterymate. I'm the only man who ever caught both Grove and Feller in All-Star Games and that's why I say Grove was faster.'

'They were both power pitchers, Bill,' said Jim Turner, the Yankee pitching coach. 'There's nobody around like that anymore. Nobody who can blow you down for nine innings.'

'Sometimes Mr. Mack would use Grove for relief,' Dickey said, 'and there was no sense going up to the plate. When he knew that he only had to pound that ball in there for a couple of innings, you could hear more of it than you could see.

'Our guy Larsen is winning because he gave up trying to blow the ball past everybody and worked on his change-up,' Turner said.

'That's right,' Dickey said, 'and you should know because you kept screaming at him to stop being so proud and mule-headed about his fast one.'

Turner said, 'Look at the other pitchers who win in our league and none of 'em tries to overpower you. Pierce has got a good fast ball, but he gets you out on his change-up. Whitey Ford wins with good junk.'

Casey Stengel said, 'Look at them Cleveland fellers. That Lemon can throw that ball hard but he just keeps putting it around your knees and dares you to hit it.'

'Early Wynn mixes 'em up the best,' Turner said. 'He's got that fast ball, everybody knows, but he just uses it like a gun at your head to keep you respectful. Mostly he's just curving that ball up there or giving you his knuckler. He works around the plate like a guy doing hemstitching and never gives you anything much good to hit at.'

'The last pitcher I saw who could get by only with a fast ball was Gomez,' Dickey said. 'He didn't have any curve, never did develop one. He would just keep pumping that fast one.

'Gomez was a big winner because his fast ball was alive. He always aimed at the heart of the plate and never got one over the middle, because the thing would sort of snap, crackle, pop like the loose end of a live wire. So he missed the middle and kept hitting the corners, which made him a great pitcher and he should be in the Hall of Fame.' "

-Shirley Povich, Washington Post (Baseball Digest, July 1956)

STRUCK OUT AGAIN

"Lefty Gomez, a great pitcher but a big out as a hitter when he was in the baseball headlines, has a 13-year-old son, Gary, who is a pitcher-outfielder for Durham (Conn.) High School. The youngster affects an open stance at the plate. Lefty tried to change Gary's batting style to help him pull the ball. 'But Pop, I've read your clippings,' the youngster protested."

-Max Kase, New York Journal-American (Baseball Digest, August 1956)

HALF PAST - THEN THE ALARM SOUNDED

"During an Old Timers' Day a while back those two pitching stalwarts of yesteryear, Lefty Gomez and Red Ruffing, became embroiled in a violent but good-natured argument.

'My homer was longer,' Ruffing kept insisting.

'You're crazy,' said Gomez. 'Mine was the longest ever hit anywhere.'

The odd part about this conversation was that they weren't disputing home run balls they'd hit but home run balls they'd thrown. Ruffing's candidate was some obscure chap- his name was too unimportant to stick in memory- who lingered in the big leagues only long enough to hit one titanic homer off Ruffing before disappearing.

'That's kid stuff,' sneered Lefty. 'Let me show you what Jimmie Foxx did to me. See that corner of the upper left field stands alongside the bullpen? Old Double-X broke seats up there on a ball I pitched to him. I climbed up there the next day to see the damage and the trip was so long it exhausted me. About three rows down from the top and in the farthest corner- well, that's where he hit it. It must be at least 450 feet from the plate and the ball was still rising when it smashed the seats.'

Lefty shook his head wonderingly.

'It was a good pitch, too,' he said. 'I got it half past him. But, oh, brother, what he did with the second half!' "

-Arthur Daley, New York Times (Baseball Digest, August 1956)

LEFT SPEECHLESS

"Lefty Gomez, the only pitcher ever to win three All-Star Games (1933-35-37) and who perpetuated his mastery over National League teams by winning six World Series games and never getting beat, worked his last big league game for Washington. That was in 1943 when the Senators were beginning to take on a strong Latin-American flavor. He went to Washington from the Boston Braves on waivers, pitched one game and lost it.

That was all for Lefty and, although he was part Castilian himself, he hung up his spikes. 'I was under a handicap at Washington,' he said. 'I could only speak English.' "

-John P. Carmichael, Chicago Daily News (Baseball Digest, September 1956)

ONE LEFTY STILL HASN'T ANSWERED

"Lefty Gomez, the star Yankee pitcher of years gone by, remembers a long ago day- before umpires were scrupulous about enforcing the 'quickie pitch' rule- when he was inspired with a sure-fire plan to handle Hank Greenberg if the slugger came to bat with men on base.

'When I get two strikes on Greenberg,' Gomez confided to Catcher Bill Dickey, 'you walk half way to the mound and I'll walk half way in. We'll turn back, count to eight, and just as you get past the plate and I get to the mound, I'll fire a pitch. Greenberg won't know what hit him.'

Dickey suggested that Gomez detail the idea to Joe McCarthy, then manager of the New Yorkers. McCarthy listened patiently, then told Gomez: 'That's fine, Lefty, just fine. But there is one thing you overlooked. How are you going to get two strikes on Greenberg in the first place?' "

-David Condon, Chicago Tribune (Baseball Digest, October 1956)

1956 Yankee of the Past: Tommy Henrich

"Tommy Henrich was in the Yankee dressing room at the Stadium receiving congratulations from players and press after he won the opening game of the 1949 Series with a ninth-inning homer against Don Newcombe of the Dodgers. The hit broke up a scoreless battle between Big Don and Allie Reynolds. A figure filbert discovered that this was the first World Series 1-0 game to be decided by a homer since 1923, when Casey Stengel, Tommy's current manager, had hit his for the Giants against Sam Jones in the third game at the same Stadium.

'I really think,' said a reporter informing Casey of the coincidence, 'that Tommy's hit was more dramatic than yours, since he made it in the ninth. You hit yours in the seventh.'

'I know,' deadpanned Stengel, 'I got nervous and couldn't wait.' "

-Tom Meany, Baseball Digest, October 1956

1956 Yankee of the Past: Joe DiMaggio

Joe DiMaggio Reveals-

INSIDE FAST BALL FINISHED ME!

Tells Secret Of Super-Play

"A runner on first, Joe DiMaggio declared, should be able to get to third base on a hit to the outfield.

'A man should try,' said the greatest ball player of his generation, 'unless the ball is hit awfully hard. You take Hank Greenberg and Tommy Henrich- they weren't too fast. Yet they could go from first to third very well. That's why Tommy was so valuable. He used to lean off first with the pitch. You've got to lean with every pitch.

'You've got to take a lead so that when the ball is caught by the catcher, you can't loaf back to first. You've got to run. It's that little extra effort, that's what gets a guy to third on a single. I wasn't a fast man. I took those big strides. On the straightaway, I wasn't that fast. I couldn't outrun most guys. For instance, Charlie Keller would lose me in a race.

'But I could get off. I didn't seem to gain momentum. I seemed to start at full speed. I was deceiving because I could run the turns on the bases and get a fast start. Going to first, I was just mediocre. I was just above the average. I wasn't slow, but I wasn't fast. When I played the outfield, it didn't appear I was moving. But I got there.

'My last year with San Francisco- Lefty O'Doul managed the ball club- I stole 24 bases in 25 attempts. The next year with the Yankees I stole one base. Why did I have to steal? We had fellows like Gehrig, Dickey and Lazzeri. So Joe McCarthy never gave me the steal sign. He never played for one run. He was going for the big inning.'

It is DiMaggio's theory you can teach a player most of the techniques of the sport.

'I don't think you can teach a man to hit,' he explained. 'Yet take the case of Lou Finney. He had a great year. He was a left-handed hitter who used to dribble balls to left field. All of a sudden, he started to hit like a fiend. He started to hit to right. He had that one big year.

'You can teach a guy to pull. But I don't think you can teach them to get the fat part of the bat on the ball six out of seven times. Yet a fellow like Finney will get it for a year, sometimes for a few years.'

He talked about playing the outfield.

'When an outfielder is out there,' he said, 'there isn't much to do, is there? He is out there to catch a fly ball. But he should be thinking about everything that can happen if the ball is hit to him. He should be ready. He should have every angle figured and know exactly what to do with the ball, no matter where it's hit.

'The situation changes with men on the bases. He should figure what he will do if the ball is hit to his right, his left, in front of him, behind him, right at him. He must figure, if there are runners on, can I catch the guy and where can I catch him? He must know the runner's speed. Will he take a chance with the throw? You've got to know the ball players on the other team to be able to make a decision.

'You've got to worry about the guy who hit the ball if he gets a hit and there's a man on. You must remember the guy on first base, too. We know there is a cut-off man if a runner is heading for third. But will he cut it off if the play at third is close? Suppose you miss the man at third and the guy on first takes second. You've got to have your mind made up when you get to the ball.

'One thing I'm sure about. The outfielder must have a clear mind. You can't be out there worrying about batting averages. You know, if I get another hit I'll be hitting .300. You can't take any outside problems on the ball field with you. You can't have your mind on outside problems and handle the situations that come up with base runners. One bad habit a guy can fall into is just playing automatically.'

There are ball players, DiMaggio stated, who are creative.

'Henrich made up his own plays,' DiMaggio said. 'He had a play with Phil Rizzuto. If a guy was on first and Tommy handled a base hit, he knew the guy would make the turn at second. Phil stood behind the runner, between second and third. Naturally, he was closer to second.

'The guy made a turn to draw a throw to third. Instead of throwing ahead of the runner to third, Tommy would throw right to second base. Soon as the guy stopped, Phil would break for second. In order to make the play, Phil had to beat the runner to second. He did, too, many a time.'

We discussed base runners.

'Mickey Mantle,' DiMaggio said, 'is as fast a base runner as I've ever seen. He has tremendous speed but he also knows how to take advantage of it around the bases. I've seen Mantle hit a one-skipper to second base. The guy would take his time- and be lucky if he'd get him by half a step.'

Ball players know when they're finished.

'The ball was upon me before I started to swing,' he said. 'A fast ball inside used to be my meat- boom, I'd hit it down the line. But then it went by me. It wasn't my fielding that made me give up. It was the hitting, that inside fast ball going by me.'

I asked him if he became restless now that's it's spring training time.

'No,' he said. 'I faced it. But someday I'd like to put on a uniform and see how much I really lost. I imagine I could still field well.' "

-Jimmy Cannon, New York Post (Baseball Digest, April 1956)

DIMAG'S BAT DEAD? NOW, PAUL!

"Paul Richards places some of the responsibility for the decline in batting averages on Joe DiMaggio's well developed shoulders.

'DiMaggio's stance and the way he held his bat were imitated everywhere,' says Richards, 'but that's not the way to bat. DiMaggio himself would probably have hit .700 had he copied the style of some of the other leading hitters. The batter who looks like a statue cannot swing with full effectiveness.'

A glance at DiMaggio's batting record indicates that he was not entirely ineffective. There are pitchers alive today who will testify to DiMaggio's effectiveness. He was effective enough to hit safely in 56 consecutive games in 1941 and no other player ever did that.

As for DiMaggio hitting .700 had he copied some of the other leading hitters, that can easily win top award as the overstatement of the year.

What if DiMaggio did look like a statue? It did not keep him from being the most dangerous hitter of his time.

Richards mentions a list of hitters from Babe Ruth to Ted Williams, and some before Ruth, who succeeded because 'they kept their bats alive.'

Does he mean that DiMaggio's bat was 'dead?' Contemporary pitchers often wished that it were.

Richards should know by this time that no two human beings are precisely alike. This holds especially true in baseball where there is a wide divergence of style. Players adopt the style best suited to them. It may violate all concepts of good batting form but, what of it? As long as it is the style they find most adaptable."

-H.G. Salsinger, Detroit News (Baseball Digest, July 1956)

1956 Yankee of the Past: Babe Ruth

THE BABE ANSWERED THE CHALLENGE

"Fred Haney, who is not averse to telling stories on himself, tells one about the first time, as a busher just brought up by the Detroit Tigers late in 1922, he made his first appearance at the Polo Grounds, where the Yankees then were playing.

'In my first time at bat,' he says, 'I hit a home run. I'll admit it wasn't much of a blow. It just sneaked over the lower deck of the grandstand, a few feet inside the foul line. But it was a home run. When our half of the inning was over and we were changing sides, I passed Babe Ruth and said to him:

'Watch out, Big Boy. You're still in front, but I'm gaining on you.'

'The Babe didn't let on he heard me but went on his way to the dugout. He was first up in the Yanks' half and he hit a real Ruth homer- a mile-high screamer that came down deep in the upper tier in right. As he trotted by me at third base, head down, as usual when he was rounding the bases, he said, without so much as looking at me:

'How do we stand now, kid?' ' "

-Frank Graham, New York Journal-American (Baseball Digest, August 1956)

ALL BABE'S 60 WEREN'T OFF ACES

Paul Hopkins, Losing Boston Hurlers Among "Pigeons"

"Two readers out of every three don't want to see Babe Ruth's home run record go down the drain. It is Babe's monument to himself.

'It would be sacrilege, almost,' writes one. 'Ruth would hit 70 with today's souped-up ball,' growls another.

Mickey Mantle confesses he would feel regrets- IF he happened to be the one who first exceeded 60 ... like Rocky Marciano splattering Joe Louis and lamenting, 'I almost bawled to see him lying there.'

Will the first man to hit 61 homers be addressed in the clubhouse mirror as, 'You stinker, you!'?

He won't win any popularity awards judging from the tenor of recent mail- but, in my book, the first man there will have earned it. It won't be an apologetic gesture.

There was 'rabbit' in the ball (1927) Ruth combed into the crowds and a re-examination of the pitching he faced leaves doubt of its quality in your heart.

A dilly of a query for the $64,000 question would be: 'Who was Paul Hopkins?'

Hopkins was the Washington pitcher who yielded up homer number 59 to Ruth, matching the Babe's old record.

He had never been inside a big league ball park until days before, when the Senators called him up from the bushes.

So I can't buy it in retail when one reader beefs, 'Mantle is hitting against a lot of slobs compared to the pitchers the Babe faced.'

Babe's barrier is the 17 homers he clobbered in September, of 1927. Hank Greenberg, Jimmie Foxx, Hack Wilson and Ralph Kiner all knocked themselves about against it.

Seventeen off whom? Five off 'winning' pitchers ... his most memorable entry a grand slam against the great Grove at Philadelphia (No. 57) ... and 12 off Paul Hopkins, Milt Gaston, Slim Harriss, Tony Welzer, et al.

This is not a knock on the immortal Ruth and his towering  Big 60 ... but in fairness to modern players who challenge, a correct analysis is imperative: 

Ruth hit 11 homers, more than one-sixth of his record, against Boston Red Sox pitchers, who formed this somewhat uninspiring array:

Slim Harriss (April 29, June 30, Sept. 7)- Won 14, lost 21; 4.17 earned run average; in his last season; one winning year in eight.

Harold Wiltse (June 22, two)- Won 10, lost 18; 5.09 ERA.

Danny MacFayden (May 29, Sept. 7)- Won 5, lost 8; 4.27 ERA.

Tony Welzer (Aug. 31, Sept. 6, two)- Won 6, lost 11; 4.45 ERA.

Jack Russell (Sept. 6)- Won 4, lost 9; 4.10 ERA.

Ruth got five homers in two days (Sept. 6-7) against this type of pitching. It gave him the big booster shot he needed to run down his own record of 59.

Was the A.L. green light on for the Babe?

Nobody ever proved it was ... but, under orders or not, they were pitching to him, not putting him on base!

It is a matter of record that Ruth had 107 official times at bat in his 28 September games or an average of almost four per game.

He was never hit by a pitched ball.

There were good pitchers and bad ones when Ruth was making his record. Homers are rarely made off a good pitch, anyway. Let's not fault the first man (Mantle?) to break the Big 60 on pitching.

The Babe hit his share off 'slobs.'

The season of 1927 was a Hitters' year. The archives prove it. Thirty-six A.L. regulars batted from .300 to as high as .398 ... but the Babe faced only four pitchers in the league with an ERA of 3.00 or lower.

I'll shed tears with the next guy when and if the Babe's record falls ... but deal me out if you seek to cheapen the exploit when it happens."

-Jerry Nason, Boston Globe (Baseball Digest, September 1956)

A POINT FOR THE BABE

"Although there were many more .300 hitters in 1927 than nowadays, indicating perhaps that hits were 'cheaper' then, home runs were less than half as plentiful.

There were only 437 homers hit throughout the American League in 1927, an average of 0.71 a game. When Mickey Mantle hit his 30th this year, there had been 562 homers in 317 A.L., an average of 1.77 a game.

Babe Ruth's record 60 accounted for 13.7 per cent of all A.L. homers hit in 1927. Mantle's first 30 this year, however, accounted for only 5.5 per cent of all A.L. homers hit to that point."

-Jerry Nason, Boston Globe (Baseball Digest, September 1956)

THE BABE'S PHANTOM 155TH GAME

Wrenched Knee Kept Him From Extra Chance At 61st Homer

"Because Sammy Hale, an opposing third baseman, made a spectacular catch of a torrid line drive, Babe Ruth got a chance to play in an extra 155th game the year he set his 60-homer record. But because the Babe, a few weeks later, wrenched a knee in an exhibition game at Springfield, Mass., he never got to cash in on that chance and play in that 155th game or in three others, either, in the 1927 season.

These little-remembered sidelights to the Babe's historic season were revealed by recent research and account for the gap between the 151 games Ruth played and the 155 games the Yankees played that year (110 victories, 44 defeats and one tie).

The catch by Hale, veteran Philadelphia third baseman, came in the third game of the season, April 14, after the Yanks had taken the opening two games from the A's, 8-3 and 10-4. With two Yankee mates on base in the eighth inning, Lou Gehrig shot a terrific liner down the third-base line. Hale, according to observers, threw up his glove in self-defense and made an 'unconscious' catch that prevented a 10-9 Yankee victory in regulation time and sent the game into an extra inning. After a scoreless tenth, it was called on account of darkness, a 9-9 tie.

(If it seems peculiar to 1956 folk that a single ball game of ten innings should be called on account of darkness, it should be pointed out that New York games started at 3:15 P.M. in that era, there was no daylight saving, it was early spring and, despite all the modern talk of the fast games of yesterday, the time of the game was 2:50.)

The playoff of the tie was scheduled for an open date on Tuesday, June 28, and when rain prevented much of an intervening Philadelphia-at-New York series, that June series became a six-game one, with doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday and single games Monday and Tuesday.

To crowd the schedule still further, the Yankees had previously arranged to play the exhibition at Springfield with the local Ponies of the Eastern League on Friday. The Babe, of course, was the big attraction and not only went along, but like everything else he did, he played it to the hilt.

What a show he put on for those Springfield fans! The very first inning he poled one over the right-field fence. In the third inning he singled and in the fifth he homered over the left-field fence. In the seventh he fancied it up by crossing over to the other side of the plate and, batting right-handed (a switch-hitter yet!) he doubled to left. With four hits, including two homers, in as many times at bat, most any other star would have called it in an exhibition and retired to the nearest speakeasy. But not the Babe. He played the full game, batting in the ninth, and when he grounded to the second baseman, ran it out as hard as if it had been an eyelash play in the deciding game of the World Series. As a reward, he pulled up lame.

Despite the injury, he played the double-header against the A's in New York the following day, but only aggravated the bad leg. When fluid started collecting at the knee, his physician made him sit out the Stadium double-header while Gehrig got his 22nd homer.

Ruth also was forced to rest during Monday's single game, in which Earle Combs and Tony Lazzeri homered, and he also had to miss the playoff of the tie Tuesday.

That would have afforded Babe a good opportunity for what might have been a 61st homer, for the starting pitcher was Rube Walberg, who, though a southpaw and a good one (he had a lifetime record of 155 victories and 141 defeats), was the Babe's favorite pigeon. Ruth hit 17 home runs off him during his career, four of them during his record 60 year.

It wasn't one of Walberg's better days and the Yanks made 13 hits off him and his successors, with Ben Paschal and Cederic Durst, who shared right field in the Babe's absence, making three of them. Gehrig contributed a homer, his 23rd, to the Yanks' 9-8 victory, though it was against Jing Johnson, a right-handed reliever, rather than against Walberg.

The next day Ruth returned to the lineup as the Yanks beat Boston, 8-2, and though he didn't homer celebrated his return with a double and three singles. Gehrig did homer again that day, for a 24th that temporarily drew him abreast of the Babe, but the following afternoon the Babe resumed his home run stride, with his 25th, against Boston's Slim Harriss, and he eventually wound up with a 60-47 edge over Gehrig.

Because of the playoff game, Ruth actually hit his 60th homer in the 154th game the Yankees played (and his 150th game). That was the day before the season closed and climaxed an exciting week.

Ruth entered the last week of the season with 56 homers and five games to go. That meant he had to hit four in the five games to beat his own record of 59 set in 1921. And during the Monday game against Detroit, he was shut out.

Now he needed four in four games. Tuesday was an open date but Wednesday the A's showed up at Yankee Stadium and the Babe fashioned a grand-slammer off no less a southpaw than Lefty Grove, then just winding up the first of his eight 20-win seasons. Ruth's blow beat Grove, 7-4.

Now it was three games and three homers to go. Another open date Thursday, then Washington reported to the Stadium for a closing series of three games. Babe hit two in the Friday game. The first came off Hod Lisenbee, a freshman right-hander who had won 18 games that year but that day suffered his ninth defeat, 15-4.

Ruth missed hitting his 59th by inches in the second inning when he tripled off the center-field wall. Then in the sixth he smashed one off Reliever Paul Hopkins, a right-hander whose major league service was to be limited to portions of 11 games. That 59th homer tied Ruth's own record.

The next day, Saturday, Babe broke the mark and the victim was Tom Zachary, a fine southpaw who had a lifetime total of 186 victories but who that year was having an off season and won only four. The Babe drew a walk the first two times up then singled.

There were two out in the eighth inning when Mark Koenig singled. Ruth then broke a 2-2 tie and won the ball game for the Yanks with a drive halfway up into the right-field bleachers, number 60!

Ruth went hitless in three trips the next day and in his final time at bat was struck out by Garland Braxton."

-Herbert Simons, Baseball Digest, October 1956

NO BOUNCE HOMERS IN BABE'S RECORD

"Mickey Mantle bounced a double into the bleachers in left center field at Yankee Stadium in the ninth inning of a night game in August to beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4.

If the rules under which Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927 had been in effect, Mantle would have had a home run, instead of a two-base hit. Prior to 1931, any fair ball that bounced off the field and into the stands was a homer.

How many of Ruth's homers bounced into the stands?

Legend says two or three. Some amateur researcher has said seven. But a three-hour look through the files of the New York Times indicates NONE. One-the-scene reporters of that paper do not describe any one of Ruth's homers that season as having bounced in.

All would have been recognized as homers under today's rules. Mantle is at no disadvantage in that respect.

The Yankees won the pennant easily in 1927 (19 games over the second place Athletics) that interest centered on what was called the Home Run Handicap- Ruth vs. Lou Gehrig.

Ruth trailed Gehrig in late August until he hit his 40th homer. Then he pulled away to win by 13. Gehrig hit only seven homers in the last six weeks.

Eight of Ruth's 60 homers were to left field. Most of them, of course, were to right.

Running down the three-score list, the following homers stand out as Times' reporters described them:

No. 3 - 'High and mammoth' as it cleared the right field fence in Washington, disappearing into a tree 400 feet away.

No. 5 - 'Cobb didn't even bother to turn to see if had killed anybody when it landed.' A line smash to right at New York.

No. 7 - 'The ball landed on the concrete front wall and bounded far back.' At St. Louis, where the range was short.

No. 8 - Into the center field pavilion at St. Louis, only the second, but not as far as his 1926 World Series homer there.

No. 10 - Barely over the short high fence at Cleveland, a 600-foot homer, '300 feet up, 300 feet down.'

No. 14 - Into the upper deck in left at Philadelphia in the eleventh inning to win, off Cousin Walberg.

No. 16 - One foot fair, it cleared the fence in right at Philadelphia, the street outside, and a two-story house. 'Last seen, it was headed for the North Philadelphia station.'

No. 19 - To right center, his second longest at Yankee Stadium.

No. 24 - Into the open space between the stands at Fenway Park, rolling into a vacant lot, and stopping against a garage, 'where six men and two boys fell on it.'

No. 26 - Twelve rows from the top of the center field stands at Washington.

No. 27 - His only inside-the-park homer of the season, standing up at Detroit.

No. 37 - Over the double-decked stand in right at Chicago, first ever hit out of that park.

No. 45 - He ran up on a pitch by Tony Welzer and hit it over the center field fence at Fenway Park. 'All statisticians present were unanimous in declaring it to be the longest hit ever made in Fenway Park.'

No. 48 - 'High over the left field fence, a point he seldom makes a target'- off Danny MacFayden at Fenway Park.

No. 56 - Won game, 8-7, against Detroit at New York. He carried his bat all around the bases, and was met at third by a boy who grabbed the bat and was dragged all the way to the dugout.

No. 60 - With one on in the eighth, the scored tied, 2-2, off Tom Zachary at New York."

-condensed from the Boston Globe (Baseball Digest, October 1956)

BABE'S EPIC

He Fanned Three In Ninth With Bases Loaded!

"It is little known to present-day fans and little remembered by their elders that when Ed Barrow, then managing the Red Sox, switched Babe Ruth permanently from the box to the outfield, he was the best left-hander in baseball and was rising steadily toward greatness. And that among his accomplishments was the pitching of 29 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings in World Series competition against the Dodgers in 1916 and the Cubs in 1918.

In his peak years, when he was the best outfielder in either league and the greatest home run hitter the game has ever known, he talked more about his pitching days than his power at the plate. His brightest memories of these days were of his World Series feats and the time, in the ninth inning of a 1-0 game with the Tigers, he struck out a fearsome trio- Ty Cobb, Wahoo Sam Crawford and Bobby Veach- with the bases loaded. He'd chortle over the latter performance, saying: 

'It was easy. I knocked them down with fast balls and struck out them out with curves.'

There is no doubt that if he had continued as a pitcher, he would have wound up among the all-time greats."

-Frank Graham, New York Journal-American (Baseball Digest, October 1956)