SEMPER FI TO YOU, JERRY COLEMAN

Jerry Coleman was a Marine for 5 years. He was also a New York Yankee for 9. Yet, if you ask him the most important time in his career, he chose being a United States Marine. 

As my friend Ron wrote just a short time ago on Twitter... RESPECT.

For a man who played 9 yrs for the New York Yankees to say that the most important time of his life was the 5 yrs as a Marine, I say RESPECT
— RON (@LawnRanger60) January 6, 2014

Jerry Coleman, a Yankee great of 9 years from 1949 to 1957 has passed.  According to the San Diego Padres, they put a statement out today which reads:

"The San Diego Padres are deeply saddened by the news today of the passing of Jerry Coleman. We send our heartfelt sympathy to the entire Coleman family, including his wife, Maggie, his children and grandchildren. On behalf of Padres' fans everywhere, we mourn the loss of a Marine who was truly an American hero as well as a great man..."

Just so you're not confused, Coleman was a radio broacaster for the Padres.

Big Respect, and I applaud his service, both with the Yankees and with the USMC.  My prayers go out to the Coleman family tonight.

Rest in Peace old friend.
 
Thank you to all the Bleeding Yankee Blue readers for continued success.  You've made BYB the fastest growing Yankees fan site in the history of Yankees fandom.  Thanks for reading, sharing and enjoying. Follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue (Official) on Facebook, just type it in.

PART 2: THE VENDOR FROM THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT

I like Dave Goode.  He’s a straight shooter, a huge Yankee fan and just a nice guy.  You don’t always get that combination.  You remember Dave right? We made Dave a star (I kid) with our piece titled THE VENDOR FROM THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT, and he recently was featured in a piece by Jeana Bellezza tited HANGING OUT AT THE ARIZONA FALL LEAGUE.

This guys full of Yankee knowledge and I wanted to pick his brain even more… so I did.  Here’s part 2 of our Series titled THE VENDOR FROM THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT.   

Enjoy this…I did.

BYB: Who was your favorite non-Yankee that you met at Yankee Stadium during your tenure and why was it so enjoyable?

Dave Goode: Gosh BYB… there were so many over the years. But one of the first people I met was Mrs. Babe Ruth.  What a pleasant person she was. I guess she was always asked for her autograph and she had these cards printed with her signature and name on it... I still have that card. 

There were others too. I once sat next to the comedian Robert Klein and we were high-fiving after Chris Chambliss hit the home run in 1976 to beat the Royals in the playoffs. That was a great moment. That’s when you knew that it didn’t matter if you were a celebrity or a guy on the street, you were all Yankee fans at that big moment.  I also met Woody Allen and a very funny man...Billy Dee Williams. 

(In Photo: Chuck Wepner)
He was a nice guy and so was Chuck Wepner (the boxer they called him the Hoboken Bleeder.)

BYB: There were many great and exciting moments. What was the saddest?

Dave Goode: The saddest day for me was when we were working at Shea Stadium and they announced that Thurman Munson had been killed in a plane crash. When the Yankees came home, they had a memorial for Munson. I still remember feeling terrible after we heard that news.  The one day I will never forget is that memorial service for Thurman. He was my favorite player and I have his picture on the wall in my office to this day. 

BYB: What was it like to meet Phil Rizzuto? 

Dave Goode: Many tell me that he was the nicest man they ever met. I was fortunate enough to meet the Scooter several times. The first time I met him was when I was about 10 years old…I was in Cub Scouts.  He and Gene Michael were signing autograph pictures at the local Coca-Cola plant. I met him numerous times during the time I worked there as well and I have to tell you, he was such a nice regular down to earth guy. He loved his wife and family and also his cannolis. In his last years broadcasting, I would see him leaving games early as he didn’t want to hit the traffic on the George Washington bridge as he wanted to get home to see his wife , kids and grand kids. Very, very fond memories of him.

BYB: Even though you were a vendor at the House that Ruth Built, did you ever get to wander around the belly of that stadium? If so, tell the BYB readers what it's like.

 
Dave Goode: Yes. The before the stadium was renovated (from 1974 to 1975), the vendors locker room was down in what I called the bowels of the stadium. In the old stadium, our locker room was very close to the Yankee clubhouse and dugout. There is Yankee stadium security & and believe it or not, even the NYPD had a mini precinct down there with a holding cell for those idiots who ran onto the field.  Of course, the main commissaries where where much of the food was stored.  After the renovation, the walls were painted Yankee blue. Before the 1974-75 renovation, I don't recall the color. Once the stadium was renovated and reopened in 1976, I don’t recall any funky smell....but in that original ballpark 1923-1973, at times I remember an old musty type smell.   It’s funny, in the original stadium, I seem to remember the bowels being darker.  After the renovation it seemed brighter, but for me to have walked in the bowels where I knew the history of all the greats that once walked there Babe Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Jerry Coleman, Frank Crosetti, etc,  walked underneath where I was at some point in time...WOW.  I have been in the room that Lou Gehrig sat in after he announced he has ALS.  

The rumor about Gehrig and that old storage room was supposedly he sat and thought to himself and wrote on the wall about what a good life he had. I have no idea if that is true or not, but that’s what I was told. I was very young in the early 70's and to have walked in the hallways & tunnels,  it was like winning the lottery for me. A truly awesome memory from those days.

BYB: You were at the 1977 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. Tell me about it and what is one moment you'll never forget from that special night?

Dave Goode: It was a hot July night in the Bronx. I was selling beer with another vendor in what was now called the Loge (prior to the renovation of the stadium it was bigger and called the Mezzanine.) We had a flat-bed truck loaded with about 60 cases of beer and we had to keep going back to the commissary for bags of ice so the beer would stay cold and boy that ice melted very quick that night. As far as the game went, our own Willie Randolph got a single off Tom Seaver for an RBI. Sadly the American league lost that game but the Yankees went on to win the World Series.

BYB: Yankee Stadium held other events. What else did you see?

Dave Goode: I worked the New York Cosmos games in the early 70's and got to see Pele play. So many events, there was Jazz Festivals,  many Morgan vs. Grambling football games and Jehovah witness conventions. I remember heavyweight boxing fights, Concerts with the Who and U2. The Pope.  I was at Yankee and also at Shea during the Yankee Stadium renovation ---Gosh, I wonder what I am forgetting .

BYB: Tell me the truth, did you ever snag a momento from the old Yankee Stadium? If so, what did you take and do you still have it today?

Dave Goode: Which “old stadium” are you refer to...before 1976 or 2008?  Yes, I have several balls from both parks. During the last New York Giants football game in 1973, I took a small sign from the upper deck that had a section number on it.  I also took some grass from that game. Sadly, I have moved too many times I don’t have anything else at this point. By 2008, I was no longer living or working near there and don’t have anything from the old renovated post 1976 stadium.  One of my most cherished souvenirs is the record that was given out on Mickey Mantle Day in 1969 and I still have that record. It was that day that I had run into a friend.  He convinced me to apply and work at Yankee Stadium.

BYB: We remembered Cory Lidle a while back on the anniversary of his death, but you actually met Cory.  Tell me about that meeting.

Dave Goode: By 1997, I was living in Arizona and I went to the press conference when it was announced that the Diamondbacks would be the new expansion team in the National league in 1998. Since I had never been to or seen an expansion draft, I drove to downtown Phoenix in late fall of 1997 to watch the draft as it took place live right here in Arizona.  There were a lot of baseball fans like myself who watching this process as it happened. Since I am very friendly, I started talking with a few guys before the draft started. Once the draft started, we all got quiet and watched the happenings. I was talking to this guy for about an hour. He was telling me about his wife but never mentioned who he was. Well, they announced the next pick for the Diamondbacks, and it was Cory Lidle. The guy excused himself, got up and said a few words. The guy I was talking baseball with was Cory Lidle. Such a nice man. It was so tragic what happened to him.

Dave, thanks again for a real fun and interesting interview.  I hope all you guys enjoyed it.  Enjoy your Saturday this Holiday Weekend!

Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.

RELIVING YANKEE TOUGHNESS AND HOW IT TRANSLATES TODAY

In May of 1957, several Yankee players went out on the town to celebrate Billy Martin's 29th birthday. A mix of players and wives were in the entourage of celebrants that wound up at famous New York hot spot, the Copacabanna at 10 East 60th Street. Yogi Berra's wife, Carmen, had ordered a cake for the occasion, and she made the point that this was Billy's last chance to celebrate before he gets old!

The pastry chef at the Waldorf baked Billy's cake, and Martin was toasted frequently during and after the birthday dinner.  The revelers had already made a couple of additional stops before arriving at the Copa for the late show that featured Sammy Davis, Jr.   A couple of the Yankees might have already arrived at what Casey Stengel called "whiskey slick" status.  

Something happened that night that still remains unclear 55 years later. Also in the club that evening were several members of an upper Manhattan bowling club, one or more of whom got too smart with the Yankee players and/or made racially disparaging remarks directed at Sammy Davis. Whatever took place, the Yankee party that included Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Hank Bauer, Whitey Ford, Martin, and Johnny Kucks took exception.

 

Both groups adjourned to the cloak room to settle their differences. Mantle testified later in the subsequent grand jury proceedings in June of 1957, that the victim came flying out and landed at his feet. Mantle thought it was Martin and picked him up. (Read HERE.) Upon seeing that it was not Martin, Mickey dropped the unfortunate fellow back on the floor. Mickey testified in court that the gentleman looked like "Roy Rogers rode through the Copa on Trigger and Trigger kicked the guy in the face."

Courtroom witnesses reported that the grand jury members were still laughing when charges were dismissed against suspected culprit, and highly decorated ex-Marine, Hank Bauer. The Copa six, as that group of players came to be known, were part of a four year run from 1955 through 1958 when the Yankees managed to win four consecutive American League pennants and two World Series.

While Bauer, Mantle, Ford, and Martin may have been world class party boys, they were also world class baseball players and laid it on the line every single game.  Manager Casey Stengel said to Hank Bauer, "You gave 110 percent every time you were in the lineup."  Stengel also referred to Bauer as one of his three best players in 1957.  Mickey Mantle was at the pinnacle of his success.  Mantle won the AL MVP award in both 1956 and 1957, and baseball's Triple Crown in 1956 with a 52HR, 130RBI and .353BA year!

In spite of how history has sullied the reputations of these Yankee players, especially Mantle, it is clear to me that the group's bonhomie and "hail fellow well met" approach to life enhanced, rather than hindered, their baseball performance.  (Read HERE.)  

The purpose of rehashing this story is to point out qualities possessed by the Copa six and other Yankees of that era that are seemingly missing on the 2012 squad.  I know the social mores have changed; I have lived through the changes that have occurred since the mid-1950's, but the 2012 Yankees have not shown anything like the toughness and camaraderie of that mid-fifties group.

When I watch Robinson Cano stroll to first base on ground balls, I certainly don't hearken back to the Yankees of the 50's and 60's.  Mickey Mantle, bad knees and all, busted his butt down the first base line almost every time.  The one time he failed to run hard on a ground ball in 1960, it was a national story.  Mantle was pulled from the lineup and publicly rebuked by Stengel.  We sure don't see that kind of behavior from the current Yankee manager when Cano loafs to first.

I have also noticed there are no war vets like Bauer and Jerry Coleman on the 2012 Yankees; There are no military vets at all, as far as I know.  Henry Albert "Hank" Bauer was a genuine WWII hero.  Bauer fought at Guadalcanal and Okinawa.  He earned eleven campaign ribbons, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts during his 32 months of Pacific Theatre combat.  In a desperate fight with the Japanese at Okinawa, Bauer commanded a Marine unit of 64 men.  Only six, including a badly wounded Bauer, survived.

Does anyone really think Hank Bauer could survive that ordeal and not acquire some real leadership skills?  I know society has changed and we will likely never see the Bauer, Mantle, Martin type of players again.  Hard scrabble lives make men tough, video games and cell phones, not so much!  Even so, there is no excuse for failing to face reality and doing your job as well as it can be done.  Today's baseball players are nothing like the men who played the game in post-war America. 

Whereas Yankees like Bauer, Berra, and Martin showed a fighting spirit, real leadership skills, and a strong bond as friends and teammates, the current squad of Yankees has not even demonstrated a sense of urgency during their extended baseball slump and funk.  Manager Joe Girardi seems to spend a lot of his time rationalizing and apologizing for the poor play of his team.  In fact, all we have heard from today's Yankee manager and players are platitudes, excuses, and rationalizations.  These are not good vibes if you are a Yankee fan hoping for more from this team.  Maybe it's just the sign of the times, who knows, but I do find it interesting.

Maybe the modern Yankees need to return to the rich Yankee tradition of a strongly bound team as a first step toward recovery.  Maybe somebody needs to exert some real leadership skill in the clubhouse.  Maybe somebody needs to throw a birthday party, bake a cake, go out to dinner, have some fun.  Maybe the Yankees should have a drink, loosen up a bit and stop trying to protect those well developed corporate images.  Light a fire!  Play some hardball baseball!  Hey... just an observation... it's my take. What do you think? Comment.

--Frank Gentry, BYB Writer

ORDER A BYB SHIRT NOW, DROB WEARS ONE! Also, Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.