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New Book: The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923

A new book about Old Yankee Stadium has hit the shelves.  The author is Robert Weintraub.  It tells the story of the building of Yankee Stadium and the subsequent first Yankees title in 1923.

You can find the book here:  http://www.amazon.com/House-That-Ruth-Built-Championship/dp/031608607X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305685471&sr=8-1

I hope you all get a chance to read it and share your opinions here.

Thanks and take care.....Brad

Head Athletic Trainer Gene Monahan Will Retire

Head Athletic Trainer Gene Monahan, who is the longest-tenured employee in the Yankees organization, announced on 5/11 that he will retire at the conclusion of the 2011 season after 49 years of continuous service...is the longest-tenured Head Athletic Trainer in the Major Leagues, having worked in that capacity for the last 39 years...first worked for the Yankees organization in 1962, serving as a bat boy and clubhouse attendant during spring training while in his senior year at St. Thomas 
Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale...began his athletic training career with the Yankees' Class-D Ft. Lauderdale affiliate in 1963, and was promoted in 1965 to Double-A, where he served as head trainer for Columbus (Ga.) and Binghamton (N.Y.)...in 1969, made the jump to Triple-A Syracuse, where he worked through 1972 before heading the Yankees' Major League training staff in 1973. 

Leyritz gets 2nd chance after fatal crash

Leyritz gets 2nd chance after fatal crash

May 17, 2011 by BARBARA BARKER / barbara.barker@newsday.com

NEWARK
Somehow, he still walks with the same recognizable swagger.
Fifteen years, including three very difficult ones, have come and gone since Jim Leyritz's famous home run in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series. Yet, the former Yankees catcher still walks the baseball field with the confidence of a clutch hitter, with the feeling that he knows exactly what needs to be done and exactly how he's going to do it.

It didn't matter that he was wearing a gray T-shirt that says Newark Bears Tuesday instead of the Yankees pinstripes. It didn't matter that Riverfront Stadium in Newark is about as far away from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx as one can get and still be in professional ball. Leyritz was back home again, on a baseball field, which may be the one place for him in life where things always have made sense.
Six months after being cleared of vehicular manslaughter charges stemming from a 2007 automobile crash in Florida that resulted in the death of a 30-year-old woman, Leyritz is working as the pitching coach for the Newark Bears, who open their season May 26 against the Rockland Boulders. The unaffiliated professional team plays in downtown Newark and is managed by former Yankee Tim Raines.
"For me, this is a great opportunity," Leyritz, 47, said Tuesday during a team practice. "It's an opportunity to start my career over again and maybe get into the coaching ranks."
Leyritz played 11 years in the majors, primarily as a catcher, breaking in with the Yankees in 1990. During the course of his playing career, he made close to $11 million, and after his retirement in 2000, he worked as a commentator for ESPN Radio, MLB Radio and MLB.com.
Leyritz, however, went from a fan favorite with the Yankees to shunned outcast in December 2007. According to reports of the trial, after having drinks with friends on his 44th birthday, the car Leyritz was driving struck that of Fredia Veitch, a mother of two. Veitch, who also had been drinking, according to trial testimony, died as a result. Leyritz soon found himself looking at the prospect of spending up to 15 years in prison after being charged with vehicular manslaughter while driving drunk.
He ultimately was found not guilty of the charge last November, though he was convicted of a lesser DUI charge for which he received probation. He also settled a civil suit with the woman's family, according to reports.
One person who did not abandon him throughout the trial was Newark Bears owner Thomas Cetnar. Leyritz had played 19 games for the Bears in 2001, before signing with the San Diego Padres organization. He struck up a friendship with Cetnar, who then was the general manager of the Bears. The day after he got in the automobile accident, Cetnar flew to Florida to be with him.
And the day after he was acquitted, he offered him a job with the team. Leyritz, who is divorced and has primary custody of his three sons, was thrilled at a chance to bring them north for the summer to spend time around baseball.
"This is a league of second chances on the field," Cetnar said. "I think he's excited about turning the page after getting involved for three years in something that was tragic. Tragic for everyone involved."
Leyritz has written a book about his life that comes out June 7 called "Catching Heat," which discusses the car crash and trial. Because it has yet to be released, he would not talk specifically about the details of the accident Tuesday and what it was like to go through it.
He did, however, credit his religion, close friends and family for getting him through the last three years.
"I try to believe everything is a learning experience," he said. "Unfortunately, this was very painful for both families and everyone who had to go through it. But now, I'm able to move forward and move on and this is something I really want to do."
Another thing he wants to do is re-establish ties with the Yankees, adding that he is hoping he can go to Old-Timer's Day this year.
Cetnar believes that the experience has changed his friend.
"We all go through things in life that humble us as we mature," he said. "I think this has humbled him. He was always about doing the right thing, but I think he looks at things through different eyes now."
His swagger, however, is still the same.

Files reveal late Yankees owner blamed lawyers for Nixon donation

Files reveal late Yankees owner blamed lawyers for Nixon donation

By Spencer Fordin / MLB.com

5/9/2011 4:15 PM ET

Newly released FBI documents revealed that George Steinbrenner assisted the agency in two investigations and shed new light on the illegal corporate contribution that Steinbrenner made to President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign in 1972, The Associated Press reported on Monday.

The late Yankees owner assisted the government on matters of national importance, according to the documents. One memo released Monday described a probe in which Steinbrenner, who died in July, assisted in an "undercover operation" that ultimately led to an arrest, prosecution and conviction. The other investigation was described as a "sensitive security matter."

The FBI deleted the specifics about the two probes before releasing the file on Steinbrenner. A separate document revealed that Steinbrenner assisted the bureau from 1978-83, and a memo from 1988 indicates that he offered the use of Yankee Stadium for the staging of more than 500 gambling raids against a major organized crime syndicate in New York. Another location was ultimately chosen for the raids in question.

In addition, the documents showed that Steinbrenner blamed inadequate legal counsel for the $25,000 donation to the Nixon campaign that led to him pleading guilty in 1974 to both a conspiracy to funnel campaign contributions to politicians and to making "false and misleading" claims about the contributions. Steinbrenner was also sanctioned for trying to coerce the testimony of employees of his shipbuilding company.

That series of events had a wide-ranging set of repercussions. Steinbrenner, who had acquired a majority stake of the Yankees in 1972, was fined $15,000 as part of his plea bargain and subject to further sanctions by Major League Baseball. Bowie Kuhn, the Commissioner at the time, suspended him for two years.

"Attempting to influence employees to behave dishonestly is the kind of conduct which, if ignored by baseball, would undermine the public's confidence in our game," Kuhn wrote in a 12-page ruling.

The suspension was later reduced to 15 months. In an unrelated case, Steinbrenner was later banned from day-to-day operations of the Yankees by Major League Baseball in 1990 in response to his dealings with reputed gambler Howie Spira. That sanction lasted three years, with Steinbrenner reinstated as managing partner in 1993.

Steinbrenner sought a presidential pardon in 1979 and the newly released FBI documents indicate that he told officials he would not have made the contribution to the Committee to Re-elect the President if he knew it was illegal. Steinbrenner, according to the documents, said his attorneys should have been more thorough in their research.

Another FBI memo, which was acquired after the AP and other organizations made a request under the Freedom of Information Act, indicated that Steinbrenner thought of his conviction as an "embarrassment." Steinbrenner was ultimately pardoned by the next President, Ronald Reagan, in January of 1989.

The FBI also released Steinbrenner's application for a pardon, which contained a detailed explanation of his side of the story. Steinbrenner said that the conviction hurt his business and limited his participation in civic and charitable affairs. Furthermore, he argued that a pardon would "permit me to contribute more of my services to the community."

Spencer Fordin is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


© MLBAM, L.P. 2001-2011.

The story and career of George (SNUFFY) Stirnweiss - Update

March 18, 2011

TO:        Children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, Yankee teammates, fans, et al of George Stirnweiss

RE:  The story and career of George (SNUFFY) Stirnweiss

         In the pantheon of major league baseball greats a number of them played for the New York Yankees: Babe Ruth, Lou Gerhig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, et al.  These players were memorialized in the old Yankee Stadium and their careers are again remembered in the new stadium’s Memorial Park.  These players are also in baseball’s Hall of Fame and have had books written about them and movies made of their careers.

            There was another Yankee great, George, Henry, (SNUFFY) Stirnweiss whose story and career, in many ways, rivals the players mentioned above. But his story and career have been mostly forgotten both by the Yankees and major league baseball in general.  Very much like one of his Yankee predecessors, Lou Gerhig, Snuffy’s life had a tragic ending when he died in 1958 at the age of 39 when a New Jersey Central Railroad commuter train on which he was riding ran through an open bridge into Newark, NJ Bay.  A total of 40 people died in that wreck. Possibly by few other players in the history of major league baseball.  Here is a summary of what Snuffy accomplished that season: he led the league in these offensive categories:

Batting average, on base %, slugging %, at bats, runs scored, hits, total bases, triples, extra base hits, times on base, runs created, stolen bases (12 offensive categories). There are some detractors who note that 1945 was a war year therefore the categories in which Stirnweiss led the league in 1945 should be marked with the infamous *.  But it should also noted that while it is true that 1945 was a war year, it should also be noted that in 1945 there were close to 1,000 players in the American League but only Snuffy was able to accomplish what he did.  And in addition to these offensive leaderships, and he and teammate Frankie Crosetti led the league in double plays. In one of his years with the Yankees, 1945, he had a season which is unmatched by any other Yankee and

 One would have to go back to the 1911 season to find a comparable record when the immortal Ty Cobb batted .420 and led the league in most everything; he was the terror that pitfchers feared and shortstops and second-basemen feared when he was about to come sliding into 2^nd base.  But, baseball in 1911 and 1945 were entirely different games. 

           

In 1946, George was voted the Sid Mercer Memorial award as player of the year by the New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association.  Some previous award recipients were: Dixie walker, Ted Williams, Joe Di Maggio, Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, and Lou Gehrig.

            In 1948 with only five errors tallied against him in 141 games, he set a major league fielding record with a .903 average

.  In that same year, George was named major league baseball’s Father of the Year.  George often said he was more proud of that award than any other he had ever received.

            Again in 1948 with only five errors tallied against him in 141 games, he set a major league fielding record with a .903 average.


            This is quite a record for a player who never was even placed in nomination for the Baseball Hall of Fame, much less elected.

            Snuffy’s life had one major tragedy, the train wreck in which he was killed, and a few minor mishaps which destroyed his professional reputation.

            The Central Railroad (CRR) of New Jersey on which Snuffy and 39 other people died in the wreck on September 15, 1958 was in serious financial difficulty.  For just the first six months of that year the railroad was facing an operating deficit of close to two million dollars. For the entire year of 1957 it had only $140,000 operating profit from its passenger services and freight.  Drastic measures had to be taken to keep the company out of bankruptcy. Among the cost cutting actions taken was to eliminate the very large expenses that were needed on various safety features.  One of these features, the so-called ‘dead man’s switch’ which was the subject of much discussion at the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) hearing after the wreck. The switch is a device which shuts off power to the engine if the engineer becomes disabled.   In its testimony at the ICC hearing the railroad claimed it didn’t need this switch since it always had a second man (a fireman) in the engineer’s cabin.  But when the cabin was recovered from Newark Bay, only the body of Mr. Wilburn, the engineer, was found; The assigned fireman, Peter Anderson’s, body was found in another part of the train.  The railroad could offer no reason why Anderson was not where he was assigned to be.

            One of the minor mishaps in 1945 over which he also had no control was the decision by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA).  This organization which consists mainly of the newspaper writers in the cities where major league baseball is played.  Each season they select the player to be given the “Most Valuable Player (MVP) award.  Along with the CyYoung award given to pitchers the MVP is a prestigious honor which players hold in great regard.  In 1945 the BBWAA awarded the MVP to the Detroit pitcher Hal Newhouser.  Newhouser had won 27 games that year and led his team to the American League championship and winning the World Series.  There is little, if any, conflict with this choice.  But the BBWAA also gave 2^nd place in the award to another Detroit player, Eddie Mayo who led the league in absolutely no category even giving him 7 votes for 1^st place.  In contrast, Snuffy Stirnweiss was assigned to 3^rd place.

                                                                                                                                                            And then to heap insult on to injury in another dishonor placed on Snuffy by the BBWAA was in regard to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Election to the Hall is accomplished in two steps: (1) after having been out of baseball for five years, a player may then be placed on the ballot for election. He shall remain on the ballot for five years or until he receives a minimum of 75% of the voters.  Unless the player is elected during one of his five years of eligibility, his name shall be removed from subsequent ballots.

            Snuffy first became eligible for election to the Hall in 1957, but then died in 1958.  The election rules allow a player who was previously eligible for election but then died before he become ineligible shall be eligible for being placed on the annual ballot for his full five years

             It may be interesting to look at the names of a few of the players who were nominated for election by being placed on the ballot during the years when Snuffy was also eligible for such placement; each one received at least one vote for election.  BUT Snuffy could never make to the list to join such notable players as:  Kiki Cuyler, Eppa Risney, Nick Altrock, and Art Nehf.  Just another example of the BBWAA in action. 

The BBWAA action in the 1945 MVP voting along with their record in the Baseball Hall of Fame, could easily raise the possibility of some bias and/or prejudice by these writers in regard to Snuffy Stirnweiss.  At least I believe it could be so..
 . 

It’s quite likely that I’ve gone on much too long with this diatribe in which I’ve likely exhibited MY bias and prejudice towards Snuffy.  I hope I’ve built a case for my feelings.

It is likely that I’ve lost a number of readers by this point; yet I do have to offer one more bit.  It is quite apparent that there might be two Snuffy’s: My Snuffy and the one seen by the BBWAA members.

So, let me provide this statement, which I hope, tells the story of:

    WHO WAS THE REAL SNUFFY STIRNWEISS?   

Who was the real Snuffy Stirnweiss?  There was the Snuffy that

Had so many friends at Fordham Prep and The University of North Carolina.  There was the Snuffy Stirnweiss that millions of Yankee fans worshiped as their baseball hero.  The best way to learn about him is to listen to his many friends talk about him.

            There was Fr. Matty O’Rourke.  He and George were virtually inseparable friends during all of their days at Fordham Prep.  There wasn’t anything they didn’t do together.  When Snuffy needed help with his studies, which was quite often, Matty was there to lend a helping hand when Calculus became too much of a chore during the middle of football season.  Although it had been sixty years or more, others spoke just as lovingly of their memories of Rabbit, as he was known during his Prep days.

            One has only to listen to UNC President Erskine Bowles in several letters he wrote about how George is remembered at the university.  He is still in the university sports hero status at the level of Charlie Justice. 

            The statement made by George Steinbrenner: iii regarding Snuffy’s career: “Stirnweiss never received the accolades his performance demanded.  iwhich George deserved, Hopefully, your book will change that, and he will rightly receive his due. Of course there is some percentage of the millions of fans who saw him play who would remember him as do I..

          But it is the Snuffy who is remembered by his teammates in basketball, baseball, and football, who after all these years have gone by, can still remember him at the end of every game running as fast as he ever did on the football field to get to the opposition teammates.  Regardless of whether he was on the winning or losing team, everyone he could get to was given a warm, congratulatory handshake and a slap on the back (hugs weren’t the thing in those days).  And he had words for them too.  Probably some thought this was just grandstanding or showing off, but those who thought this didn’t know the real Snuffy.

          He couldn’t have been more sincere when he said to a player who may have been the “enemy” just a few minutes earlier, “Great game.  You have a wonderful team”.  George had only love and admiration for those on the other side of the field.  It wasn’t in his nature to behave in any other way.  And he felt exactly the same way about his fellow teammates; and he told them often.  And, those who knew the real Rabbit Stirnweiss knew his every word was sincere, earnest, and heartfelt.

          It is probably best summed by again by Fr.Matty O’Rourke who was devastated when he heard of his friend’s death, especially since he wasn’t able to be at his funeral.  It may have been close to sixty years since Snuffy’s death, but when Matty said to me: “I still miss George.  He IS my best friend.”.  He couldn’t have been more in earnest.  There were tears in his voice.

            It has been an effort of over three years to get the story of George Stirnweiss told.  My research began with visiting with members of his family in New Jersey, followed by visits to Fordham Prep in New York, and the University of North Carolina.  Of course I’ve spent countless hours searching the internet for what ever I could find.  I have an e-mail file with close to 200 contacts with anyone who could tell me more about Snuffy.  And every bit of these tasks was a true labor of love.  I do not regret one minute spent in this work, even though I’m not much closer to getting his biography published, despite having sent the document to Acquisition Editors at close to 100 publishers.  I came  ”close” with only two (no point in telling that story).  But, now age and health are bringing me close to the end of my being able to continue without some help (I’m starting my 84^th year and inflicted with Parkinson’s Disease, and several of the usual afflictions of an octogenarian: high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, hearing loss, macular degeneration in one eye (I’m a virtual Cyclops), et al.  But I always tell myself, as I do others complaining about “old age”, that growing old might not be much fun, but it’s infinitely better than the alternative.

            At one point, for about a year, I was working with an agent who made considerable effort to find a willing publisher.  I know she was highly motivated because her getting paid was dependent on getting the book published.  Although she was not successful in her efforts, when she quit, she did leave me with one piece of advice: “find a friend inside a book publisher” the chance of getting a submissions editor to read a unsolicited document for a biography about a relatively unknown baseball player are slim.  But, working from the inside at the start will greatly improve your chances (**)

            I most definitely am not seeking help with any of the aforementioned ailments since I’m already seeing too many physicians and taking 31 prescription medications daily.  Thank GOD for the help I get from the VA and Medicare with the costs of all this medical assistance.

            The help I urgently need is with making some effective contacts inside the world of book publishing. ** My hope is that there is a Snuffy friend who has a friend or a friend who has a friend inside some book publisher.  Most publishers specialize in what they print: cookbooks, fiction, self- help books, etc.  I am asking to publish the book as a paperback, gift-book that is a somewhat6 easier category to crack.

            If you can help, please contact me via my e-mail: 

                          Patmack27@comcast.net

            Even when I use my VA hearing aids, I don’t function very well on the phone, but I can manipulate an e-mail message to enable me to read it.

REGARDS,

Pat

Talks hurt Derek Jeter-GM relationship - ESPN New York

Talks hurt Derek Jeter-GM relationship
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ESPNNewYork.com

The relationship between Derek Jeter and New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was seriously and perhaps irreparably damaged during last fall's contract talks, according to an upcoming book about the Yankees captain by ESPN New York columnist Ian O'Connor.

“Don't you think I've tried? I try, and sometimes I've just got to walk away and come back and try again, but you know I've tried. And every time I try, he'll do something that pushes me away."

-- Derek Jeter on '06 rift with A-Rod

The book, "The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter," details a Nov. 30 sit-down in which Jeter, his agent Casey Close and Creative Artists Agency attorney Terry Prince met with Cashman, team president Randy Levine and co-owner Hal Steinbrenner to iron out their differences. The Tampa summit lasted four hours, but Jeter stayed for only the first 45 minutes, telling his employers -- especially Cashman -- how angry he was that they had made details of the negotiations public.

When Jeter got up to leave the room, Cashman asked the shortstop to sit back down and hear him out. "You said all you wanted was what was fair," the GM told the shortstop. "How much higher do we have to be than the highest offer for it to be fair?"

Jeter, who had no other offers in his first pass at free agency, ultimately signed a three-year, $51 million guaranteed deal plus an option year and incentive bonuses. But the negotiations were often difficult. When Close told Daily News columnist Mike Lupica that the Yankees' negotiating stance was "baffling," Hal Steinbrenner gave Cashman the green light to take the fight to Jeter and Close in the media. The quote that would anger Jeter the most was the one Cashman gave to ESPNNewYork.com's Wallace Matthews, who quoted the GM saying that Jeter should test the market to "see if there's something he would prefer other than this."

Levine met with Jeter in the shortstop's Trump World Tower home the day before the contract would be finalized. According to the book, Jeter told Levine he needed more money added to the proposed performance bonuses in the Yankees' offer, bonuses tied to awards such as league MVP, World Series or League Championship Series MVP, Silver Slugger and Gold Glove. Jeter spent a couple of hours making an impassioned plea to Levine, who was playing the good cop to Cashman's bad cop. Levine was so taken by Jeter's arguments that one official estimated the shortstop earned an extra $4-5 million in that meeting before signing the following afternoon in a suite at the Regency.

O'Connor's book demonstrates other awkward Jeter-Cashman moments. When the relationship between Jeter and Alex Rodriguez was at its coldest in 2006, the two came together for a dropped pop-up in a blowout loss to the Orioles. After the ball fell harmlessly to the dirt, Jeter gave A-Rod a death stare in full view of everyone in the ballpark.

Then-manager Joe Torre would scold the third baseman and shortstop for the drop, but Cashman asked his manager to do more. The GM asked Torre to talk to Jeter about improving his relationship with A-Rod. When Torre declined, Cashman confronted Jeter himself.

"Listen, this has to stop," the GM told the captain. "Everybody in the press box, every team official, everyone watching, they saw you look at the ball on the ground and look at him with disgust like you were saying, 'That's your mess, you clean it up.'"
"Show me the video," Jeter told Cashman in disbelief. "Show me the video."

The GM didn't bother, but advised Jeter to do a better job of embracing Rodriguez, if only for the sake of perception. One friend of Jeter's agreed with Cashman and told the shortstop to try to make A-Rod feel more welcome in the clubhouse.

"Now you're sounding like everyone else," Jeter told the friend, according to the book. "Don't you think I've tried? I try, and sometimes I've just got to walk away and come back and try again, but you know I've tried. And every time I try, he'll do something that pushes me away."

In 2007, Cashman decided he needed to address his shortstop's declining defense, and he didn't ask the newly-hired Joe Girardi to run this meeting for fear it might destroy the manager-captain relationship before it had a chance.

So Cashman met with Jeter at an Upper East Side restaurant, and the GM maintains he wasn't eager to blitz a beloved icon. "If you had a daughter," Cashman says in the book, "you'd want her to marry Derek Jeter. He's a great person."

But the GM did the job he was paid to do, telling Jeter the team needed him to improve his fielding in the offseason. According to the book, Cashman was under the impression that Torre had already approached the shortstop about the need to improve his range and, ultimately, about a possible move to center field.

Jeter shocked Cashman by telling him Torre had mentioned no such thing. The GM assured Jeter that the team had issues with his declining range. "You mean to tell me we were trying to win a championship every year," the shortstop told Cashman, "and there was a way for me to get better to help us do that, and nobody told me? ... I want to do everything I can to get better."

"I don't think you should have a problem with trying to get better," Jeter would tell O'Connor of the meeting with Cashman. Asked if he was on board with Cashman's suggestion that he needed to improve defensively, Jeter said, "Why wouldn't I be? It's important to get better and to be willing to listen."

This article can be found at: http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=6422592

Maris' feat is more impressive with time- by: Mark Hermann - Newsday

Maris' feat is more impressive with time

April 23, 2011 by MARK HERRMANN / mark.herrmann@newsday.com

As sports controversies go, the brouhaha over Roger Maris' 61 home runs in 1961 deserves an asterisk. That is, the controversy seemed like a big deal, but it really doesn't count. So slap on an asterisk, which has been the quick and easy way to discredit something for 50 years.
It goes back to the days when influential people thought Maris' record was flimsy enough to deserve an asterisk. He was criticized and vilified as he outraced Yankees teammate Mickey Mantle to surpass what then was the most celebrated standard in sports: Babe Ruth's 60 home runs in a season.
Hall of Famers said Maris wasn't worthy. Yankees fans held it against him that he wasn't Mantle. Purists, including baseball commissioner Ford Frick, said Maris technically didn't break Ruth's record because the schedule had expanded from 154 games to 162 in 1961 and Maris didn't hit his 61st within the first 154. Hey, get your red-hot asterisk here!

Fact is, there never was an asterisk. The threat of it was just part of tainting with a broad brush, along with detractors' arguments that Maris was batting against diluted expansion-year pitching, playing in bandbox ballparks and hitting supposedly juiced balls.
What no one ever did insist, though, was that Maris himself was juiced. Not even the harshest nit-pickers ever accused him of cheating.
That brings us to today, with the controversy having come full circle. Today, purists are on Maris' side.
Today, what with all kinds of testimony of steroid use involving Mark McGwire (who broke Maris' record by hitting 70 homers in 1998 and later admitted using substances that now are banned) and Barry Bonds (who broke McGwire's record by hitting 73 in 2001 and who was convicted of obstructing justice in his steroids-related trial), Maris is the one without the controversy, or the asterisk.
"I still consider him the one who has the record," said Bobby Richardson, Maris' teammate and friend.
Today, there is new regard for the man who was, Maris' son Richard has said, fueled only by caffeine and Camel cigarettes.
As for whether Maris remains the rightful single-season home run king, Tony Kubek, who batted directly in front of him for most of 1961, said: "That's something I could not care less about. All I know is that Roger was a great ballplayer."
But Jim Coates, who had one of his best pitching seasons in 1961 and has written a book titled "Always a Yankee," was more direct about McGwire, Bonds, Sammy Sosa and others: "Here's my opinion on that. I think they should have every one of their records stripped. Guys like Roger and Mickey, they did it on their own."
A detailed new book, "1961*" by Phil Pepe -- a rookie Yankees beat reporter in 1961 -- devotes an epilogue to putting Maris in context of the performance-enhancing drugs era. "He's the last guy who was a true, clean home run champion," he said in an interview. "It hasn't all been proven, but it seems he is the last guy who did it without artificial aid.
"The steroid problem," Pepe said, "has made Maris bigger than he had been."
Maris certainly was a big name 50 years ago. He was on his way to a second consecutive American League Most Valuable Player award. He (and Mantle) appeared in two movies, "That Touch of Mink" and "Safe at Home." Still, his profile fell way short of Babe Ruth's.
By 1961, Ruth had been gone long enough to seem mythical. On the other hand, 1961 still was close enough in the sweep of history to have Ruth's contemporaries still around, throwing cold water on Maris' chase.
Kubek said a barb from Rogers Hornsby and the backlash from Maris' response rankled the Yankees' rightfielder and affected his strained relationship with the media. "Roger was a quiet North Dakota guy. He wasn't from the big city, with big quotes," Kubek said. "But he was the most accessible guy, maybe ever, in the first part of the 1961 season."
Said Richardson, "It was hard because nothing was coordinated, PR-wise, and Roger was asked the same questions over and over."
Pepe, who covered the 1961 Yankees for the New York World-Telegram and Sun and later became a columnist for the Daily News and then a radio commentator, said some reporters were "exasperated" by Maris' handling of unfolding history. "He didn't get it, he didn't understand," the writer said.
But Pepe added that there was no bias against Maris in the press box -- despite how reporters came across in "61*," a movie produced by Billy Crystal. "Why would you root against him? Why wouldn't you want to be part of that? I never heard anybody say, 'I hope he strikes out,' " Pepe said. "I liked the movie, but Hollywood has to have a villain."
Judging from the booing at Yankee Stadium, Maris was the villain as he went up against two Yankees icons, Ruth and Mantle (who hit 54 in '61). Teammates say it never drove a wedge between Mantle and Maris, who shared an apartment in Queens with fellow outfielder Bob Cerv. What the whole experience did do was separate Maris from patches of his hair, which wound up down the drain because of stress.
Harmon Killebrew, an Idaho native who hit 46 homers for the Twins in 1961, rooted for the North Dakota family man down the stretch. "Roger was a really likable person," Killebrew said recently. "But I don't know that a lot of people in New York were rooting for him. I think they wanted Mickey."
"Honestly, everybody on the team was pulling for Mickey because he had come up in the system. But when Mickey was hurt and couldn't play anymore, our allegiance switched to Roger," said Richardson, who became close with Maris and delivered the eulogy at his funeral in 1985 (saying Maris is "in God's Hall of Fame").
The baseball establishment seemed to have its own favorite in the race: a burly rightfielder who had put home runs on the map. Frick had been a ghostwriter for Ruth and was seen by some as a loyalist. For the record, the commissioner said at the time that he thought a 162-game season was only a temporary expansion-year experiment (it lasts to this day).
Pepe reports that Frick held a meeting that summer with veteran baseball writers to say there would be a special designation if anyone topped Ruth's record after the 154th game. "Like an asterisk?" columnist Dick Young reportedly asked, and Frick did not disagree.
As Pepe points out at the start of Chapter 10: "There was no asterisk. Not then. Not now. Not ever." (The asterisk in the title is deliberately ironic, the author said, because "that's what people remember.") Instead, Frick approved a separate listing for Maris as record-holder in a 162-game season. Ruth was allowed to keep his 154-game mark. That was changed in 1991 and Maris posthumously was awarded the record outright.
"With Roger, that record was the best thing and worst thing that ever happened," Kubek said. "The bad part was that people thought it was the only thing he could do."
Teammates saw him as a complete talent and competitor, a good outfielder with an outstanding arm. "He was the toughest player in all of baseball for breaking up the double play," Richardson said of Maris, a standout high school halfback. "He'd slide and knock you into leftfield."
Maris also helped make the 1961 Yankees one of the best teams in history. "The greatest one, as far as I'm concerned," Coates said. Former Yankees credit first-year manager Ralph Houk for using Whitey Ford on three days of rest instead of his customary four, producing a 25-4 Cy Young season. They still compliment Houk for shuffling the lineup to bat Maris third, ahead of Mantle, setting the table for history.
History is growing increasingly kind to the man who had only 23,154 witnesses for his 61st homer Oct. 1, 1961 (including 19-year-old truck driver Sal Durante, who caught it in the rightfield seats). Maris now comes off as the clean one, the fellow who didn't buckle under the specter of an asterisk.
During the height of the controversy, Maris told reporters, "A season is a season."
All things considered, no one else really has had one like it.

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Local Negro Leaguer, Stanley ‘Doc’ Glenn, dies

Tuesday, 19 April 2011 16:02

Written by Donald Hunt Tribune Staff Writer

Stanley Glenn

Philadelphia has lost a baseball legend. Stanley Glenn, who played for the Philadelphia Stars of the Negro League, passed away on Saturday, April 16. Ironically, Glenn died one day after Major League Baseball recently celebrated “Jackie Robinson Day.” Robinson broke the color line in baseball on April 15, 1947. He played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League before signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Glenn, a Yeadon resident, played against Jackie Robinson during his baseball career. He played for the Stars from 1944-1950. The man they call “Doc” was a terrific catcher. Prior to his passing, there were four surviving members of the Stars. Now, they’re only three: Mahlon Duckett, Bill Cash and Harold Gould.
Services for Glenn will be held on Monday, April 25 at Camphor United Methodist Church, 5620 Wyalusing Avenue. The viewing will take place from 9:30 to 11 a.m. The funeral service will immediately follow the viewing.
Glenn was a tremendous high school ballplayer who could hit, throw the ball and call a good game behind the plate. He played baseball at Bartram High School in the Public League during the 1940s.
Carson “Cal” Puriefoy, Glenn’s nephew, followed his baseball career since he was a youngster. Puriefoy, director of public relations for the Philadelphia Stars, also worked closely with the Negro League Baseball Players Association. He will certainly miss Glenn’s warm personality and being around him for so many years.
“My uncle and grandfather (Charles Glenn) used to take me up to Elmwood (Avenue in Southwest Philly) to watch him play during the summer,” Puriefoy said. “I would spend my days watching Uncle Stanley play baseball. Patti LaBelle (R&B singer) didn’t live far from Elmwood.
“They called him “Doc,” but Uncle Stanley had another nickname. They called him “Slamming Stanley.” He was a great hitter at Bartram. He could hit the ball out to Elmwood Avenue. They won two city championships at Bartram. He played with Chip Wilkes who was a great player.
“He graduated from high school when he was 16 years old. Hall of Famer Oscar Charleston signed him when he joined the Stars. They played at 44th and Parkside (Avenue). But I watched Uncle Stanley play in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Newark, (N.J.) and New York.
“I saw him play against Larry Doby when he played for the Newark Eagles before he went up to the Cleveland Indians. He played against Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson. I remember watching him play at Shibe Park. Negro League teams could play in major league ballparks on Mondays. That was one day when they didn’t play their games.
“Uncle Stanley was a great speaker. I worked with him on getting him speaking engagements. He spoke at Northeastern University in Boston and Georgetown in Washington, D.C. He was my hero. He was a great man. I’m really going to miss him.”
Puriefoy worked tirelessly to support Glenn’s efforts. He did an outstanding job of promoting his book titled “Don’t Let Anyone Take Your Joy Away.” He wrote the book in 2006. He was 80 years old at the time.
“Negro League baseball is history, and a part of American history,” Puriefoy said. “He used to talk about that.”
Glenn was absolutely right. It’s also a sad part of history. Glenn was talented enough to play in the majors. The New York Yankees scouted him during his scholastic days. It’s just that baseball wasn’t taking Black players during those days.
Negro League players suffered a terrible injustice during those years. If you ever get a chance to interview or talk to any of players, there’s not a trace of bitterness in their voice even though they had every right to be bitter and upset being denied the opportunity to play in the big leagues.
Glenn never exhibited any harsh feelings towards major league baseball. He worked extremely hard to make life better for his peers. He was the president of the Negro League Baseball Players Association. In 2007, the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association recognized Glenn, Duckett, Cash and Gould at its sports banquet. In 2003, the Stars were honored with a Negro Leagues Memorial Statue. Glenn was around for all those great moments.
“He really appreciated all those things,” Puriefoy said.

Contact Tribune staff writer Donald Hunt at (215) 893-5719 or dhunt@phillytrib.com.