Freddy 'Sez' Schuman, a Yankee Stadium staple for last 20 years, dead at age 85

BY Peter Botte and Bill Hutchinson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Originally Published:Sunday, October 17th 2010, 4:09 PM
Updated: Monday, October 18th 2010, 11:43 AM

Bello/Getty

Freddy 'Sez' - a Yankee Stadium icon for 20 years - is dead at age 85, according to a friend.

Yankee Stadium fixture Freddy (The Fan) Schuman, who banged his trusty metal frying pan to rally Bombers fans for over two decades, has died.
The 85-year-old superbooster died Sunday afternoon at an undisclosed Manhattan hospital after suffering a heart attack Friday, said longtime friend Chuck Frantz, president of the Lehigh Valley Yankee Fan Club.
"Freddy was a true Yankee legend and a No. 1 fan [who] will be missed," Frantz said.
Frantz said he collapsed Friday at a senior center where he lived.
He was a staple at the old and new stadiums since 1988, greeting fans at the turnstiles by banging on a frying pan that was painted with a shamrock and toting a colorful sign that usually began with the words "Freddy Sez ..."
Schuman was the same age as the old Stadium when it was torn down. His death comes in the same season the Yanks lost owner George Steinbrenner and beloved announcer Bob Sheppard.
In the Yankees clubhouse, players said they'll miss the rat-a-tat-tat of Schuman's pan when they resume their American League pennant series tonight in the Bronx against the Texas Rangers.
"I've seen him out there all the time. I know he's been here forever," said Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher. "I definitely send my best wishes to his family."
Tina Lewis, the self-described queen of the Yankee Stadium "Bleacher Creatures," said the Bombers' home games will not be the same without Schuman.
"It's going to be very strange without him, without hearing Freddy and his pans," Lewis said. "He wasn't a Creature, but we respected him out in the bleachers. I wish he'd lived to see what I hope is one more great postseason."
Schuman was such a Bombers icon that one of his pans is on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and another is in the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center in Montclair, N.J.
Schuman, a retired Bronx upholstery shop owner, was also a die-hard booster of the Manhattan College Jaspers and Fordham University Rams athletic programs.
But he was mostly known as the Yankees' unofficial mascot, so famous he appeared in a baseball-themed MasterCard commercial and a House of Pain music video.
He once told the Daily News that his spirit for cheering stemmed from a lesson he learned when he caught a burglar in his upholstery shop.
"Get 'em down and keep 'em down," Schuman said. "That's what I like the Yankees to do."
whutchinson@nydailynews.com

With Filip Bondy

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2010/10/17/2010-10-17_freddy_sez_a_yankee_stadium_staple_for_the_last_20_years_dead_at_age_82.html#ixzz12lAimpl1