My Grandfather immigrated to the U.S. about the time of the
Great Depression. During that time College Football was the most popular sport
in America. He grew up loving Army and Notre Dame football. One night in 1935,
he found a depiction of a Yankees road game by accident. He was tuning his
parents’ radio and stumbled across this game and instantly fell in love with the
game. He can still remember listening to famed broadcaster Arch McDonald. As
was popular back in the day, McDonald would recreate the games based on
information received on a Teletype machine.
As an impressionable 10-year-old from Italy, little Gianni instantly fell in love with another young man of Italian decent. On May 3, 1936 Joe DiMaggio made his Yankee debut. “Watching Joe graze the outfield was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Fly balls would come out there and he had a way of gliding towards the ball. Back in those days they had those monuments in the field, nobody could maneuver through them like he did.” What about Mickey Mantle? “Mantle was my second favorite player, all-time. He was faster, but for some reason when Joe took those strides not too many balls got by him.”
As an impressionable 10-year-old from Italy, little Gianni instantly fell in love with another young man of Italian decent. On May 3, 1936 Joe DiMaggio made his Yankee debut. “Watching Joe graze the outfield was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Fly balls would come out there and he had a way of gliding towards the ball. Back in those days they had those monuments in the field, nobody could maneuver through them like he did.” What about Mickey Mantle? “Mantle was my second favorite player, all-time. He was faster, but for some reason when Joe took those strides not too many balls got by him.”
The Yankees have called 4 ballparks home, Hilltop Park, the
Polo Grounds, the original Yankee Stadium, and this new palace (5 if you want
to count Shea Stadium). “I’ve been to the oldest one more times than anything.
The biggest problem was the poles. You couldn’t see from a bunch of the seats.
When they remodeled it, they did away with the poles but they cut the seating
down. Before that they had the flagpole and the monuments in the field. I’ve
seen a few balls hit out that way. There weren’t any ground rule doubles if the
ball them. It was 461 feet away. In my time guys never hit the ball that far.
Left field was 457 feet; it was Death Valley out there. That one was my
favorite. This new one is nice…smaller. I just like the old one better.”
“Back in the 1940s we used to go down and buy $1.25 General
Admission tickets. Nobody had a car so we’d hop on the Mohawk Bus to Bob’s Bus
Terminal in the Bronx. One Friday night in 1947, the Yanks were playing the Red
Sox. We bought General Admission seats and tipped the usher a few bucks. He sat
us in the Football press box, which used to be along the third base line. The
Yankees won 1-0. Joe Page struck out Ted Williams, Rudy York, and another guy
to end the game.”
By the way, here is PART 1 of my series... THE MAN THAT MADE ME A YANKEE FAN. Hope you're enjoying it so far.
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