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Posts Tagged History

“Mets Yearbook” A Treat For All Baseball Fans

Aug 5

Posted by Jerry Milani in Movies, New York Mets, Sports on TV | No Comments

A few weeks back I stumbled upon a Mets Yearbook film on SNY.  It was from the late 70s, chronicling one mediocre-or-worse Mets squad, but with an optimism and hopefulness that the coming year would be better.

I immediately went to the search function on my DVR and programmed in dates and times for future airings of other years’ films.

I don’t remember these in their original run — and though I’m more a Mets hater than fan, I just love these films.  The 1963 film has great footage of the last breaths of the Polo Grounds, and ‘64 touted the opening of the marvelous Shea Stadium, universally hailed as the great modern multi-purpose park.

The films are a treasure trove of footage, from stars like Seaver and Mays all the way to “the next big things” like Mike Vail, Steve Henderson and John Milner.

Opening Day always got a disproportionate amount of screen time devoted to it, probably because even in their worst years, the Mets managed to win their lid-lifter.  Events like Banner Day, Helmet Day and Old Timer’s Day — yes, the Mets had them then, and there were even Yankees (gasp!) invited

The films were always forward-looking, even though they recounted the title year — so guys who didn’t figure in the 1979 plans were nowhere to be found in the ‘78 video.

I particularly enjoyed a featurette in one of the shows on Dave Kingman, trying to humanize the famously surly slugger, showing him talking to camp kids in addition to his prodigious homers.

It’s not really fair to have BaseballReference.com open, clicking on players as they are mentioned in the series, but it certainly is fun to look back 40+ years in some cases and see what happened to those guys.

If the Yankees did such a video series, I’ve seen only a ‘77 season recap and a WPIX feature called “It Don’t Come Easy” reviewing 1978.  I think films of those mediocre and poor CBS Yanks teams would be great as well, and I hope that if YES Network has those somewhere, and rights to use them, that they’d consider putting them on.

But that might be a bit to ask for the Undefeated Yankees Classics network.

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The Last Time

Apr 19

Posted by Jerry Milani in History, New York Yankees | 1 Comment

1926 Yankees

Sports are full of things that seem meaningful but really are not:  bold, profound-sounding statements that by giving some slice of the past are supposed to predict the future or place certain players or teams into categories, like Hall of Fame or Best Team Ever.  Tidbits like “teams that win the first two games win the series x percent of the time,” (of course they do, they’re usually the better team in the first place), or “Only five players in MLB history had x number of hits, y stolen bases and z hit by pitches,” with the reasoning that one who is otherwise not in the class of the other four should be considered as such.

But applied properly, items like “the last time such-and-such happened” speaks to how true the idea is that you can see something new just about every time you watch a game.  Who would have thought, for example, that the last time the Yankees won the first four series of the season — just four series! — was 1926.  They still weren’t a dominant force in the league, having won just one title (1923).  It was the first year that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were teammates together at the start of the season, and that team went on to win “only” 91 games, a nice total but one of the lowest ever for a Yankees pennant winner.

That team, of course was just one year away from being the outfit that some still consider the greatest in baseball history, and the starting eight and five regular pitchers were part of both squads.  The ‘26 Yanks actually won the first five series, then promptly lost three straight to the Philadelphia A’s, who would finish third, just six games out.

Further, 52 Yankees teams have won more than 91 games, 48 of them after 1923.  Yet none of them were able to win the first four series outright.  That’s almost 90 years ago.  Some of the best teams ever, the aforementioned ‘27 squad, 1939, 1953, 1961 and 1998 teams among them, never did that.  Fans may recall that the ‘98 Yanks lost four of their first five games and were 3.5 games out of first (!) before ripping off 25 of the next 29 and never looked back.

It doesn’t guarantee anything, but I like the tie to history that “the last time” notes suggest.  And the more basic and apples-to-apples the fact — “won the first four series,” as opposed to “won 10 games started by lefties in day games,” the better the connection.

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A look at Old, Old Yankee Stadium

Jan 26

Posted by Jerry Milani in Logos, Movies, New York Yankees | No Comments

Alex Bleith over at BronxBanterBlog has a link to video from a 1928 Buster Keaton Movie, The Cameraman, which has a great look all around the then-five-year old Yankee Stadium.  Keaton’s trip around the bases is great because the wide shot gives a nice panorama of the Stadium in its very early days.

The thing that strikes me the most is how utterly massive the place looks.  The outfield fence looks a mile away, and even the distance from home plate to the backstop is huge.

And check out the subway car running above the batters’ eye in dead center field.  Great stuff.

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Winters of Yanks’ Content (and Discontent) (Part 1 of 4)

Dec 14

Posted by Jerry Milani in History, New York Yankees | 1 Comment

ReggieDailyNewsCurtis Granderson may or may not be the most prominent acquisition the Yankees make over this off-season.  Through free agency and trades, the Yankees have made significant moves almost every year since a group led by George Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973.

Here’s the first of a four part series on the best and worst moves in each decade, from the 1970’s through the 2000’s.

The 1970’s:

Best moves:
1. Reggie Jackson (free agent), prior to 1977 season – Reggie helped the Yankees to two World Series titles and electrified the city with his personality and play.
2. Goose Gossage (free agent), 1978 – It not only seemed like Goose came into the seventh inning of every important game, but he also posted 150 saves and a 2.10 ERA from 1978-83 with the Yanks.
3. Sparky Lyle (trade, for Danny Cater and Mario Guerrero), 1972 – Lyle was the Cy Young Award winner in 1977, and when he had just one good year left, was turned around in a deal for Dave Righetti before the 1979 season.
4. Mickey Rivers and Ed Figueroa (trade, for Bobby Bonds), 1976 – two key pieces in the ‘77 and ‘78 champions came in the same deal for the oft-traveled Bonds, who played for six more teams in the next six years.
5. Graig Nettles (trade, with Gerry Moses for John Ellis and three others), 1973 – one of the first great moves that helped build the Yankees dynasty later in the decade, Nettles became one of the premier third basemen in the game, hitting 250 home runs in 11 years in Pinstripes.
Also: Lou Piniella (trade), 1974; Willie Randolph (trade, 1976); Tommy John (free agent), 1979; Bucky Dent (trade, 1977).

Worst moves:
1. Rich McKinney (trade, for Stan Bahnsen), 1972 – Not that many to choose from, almost every deal worked out or was at least neutral.  Bahnsen would have been a nice fit on the mid-70’s Yanks and was still effective later in the decade, while McKinney hit .215 in 37 games and ended up getting sent down to Syracuse then traded at the end of the year.
2. Andy Messersmith (purchased), 1978 – if the Yankees were counting at all on this former two-time 20-game winner, arm trouble ruined any of those thoughts as he went 0-3 in five starts and was released.
3. Jimmy Wynn (purchase), 1977 – too bad the Yanks got ‘The Toy Cannon’ after his good days were over; he terrorized NL pitchers for 14 years but fizzled in N.Y., hitting just one HR in 92 at bats before getting cut.

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