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Hey let’s talk some Mickey Mantle
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Mays was absolutely awesome.
If you can find a clip of some of his greatest catches, do so. Unfortunately, so few of his games were televised or taped.
On several occasions he was fooled by the wind and caught the ball with his bare hand.
When I was a kid, if you had a TV ( we did), and if it worked ( sometimes), the only time you got to see a baseball game was on Saturdays and the World Series.
But almost every game featured either Mantle, Mays, or Clemente.
If you were a kid living in NYC, you could get on the subway and see Mays, Mantle, and Duke Snider....three HOF centerfielders.
From 1954, when Mays hit his stride, thru 1957, when the Dodgers and Giants moved west....
Mays averaged 9 WAR.
Snider averaged 7 WAR.
Mantle averaged 10 WAR.
No matter what game you chose to attend, you were likely to see something special.
If you can find a clip of some of his greatest catches, do so. Unfortunately, so few of his games were televised or taped.
On several occasions he was fooled by the wind and caught the ball with his bare hand.
When I was a kid, if you had a TV ( we did), and if it worked ( sometimes), the only time you got to see a baseball game was on Saturdays and the World Series.
But almost every game featured either Mantle, Mays, or Clemente.
If you were a kid living in NYC, you could get on the subway and see Mays, Mantle, and Duke Snider....three HOF centerfielders.
From 1954, when Mays hit his stride, thru 1957, when the Dodgers and Giants moved west....
Mays averaged 9 WAR.
Snider averaged 7 WAR.
Mantle averaged 10 WAR.
No matter what game you chose to attend, you were likely to see something special.
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Now, I will wax nostalgic, as so often happens. Posters from the old IBI board may shudder...lol.
Beware, when you get to my age, you will too.
Radio was the medium when I was a kid, and at night mine was my best friend. It was a wooden Philo tube radio...table top model that had to weigh five pounds. It got AM, FM, and shortwave. I could listen to the BBC in London.
It had been my Dads HS graduation gift in 1941.
Local stations went off the air at sundown, and as soon as the last tip of the sun disappeared, the BIG stations, esp KMOX in St Louis and KDKA in Pittsburgh began talking directly to me in Massillon, Ohio.
In addition to the Indians, I could listen to the Cardinals, Pirates, Tigers...and even as a novelty, the Houston Colt 45s.
The broadcasters were awesome, every single one of them. ( We are blessed to have Hammy today)
Imagine listening to the Cards back then...three announcers in the booth...Harry Carey, Jack Buck, and Joe Garigiola.
Detroit had Ernie Harwell. Pittsburgh had Bob Prince.
We had Jimmy Dudley. I loved him. I loved them all.
Most of them were folksy and had special sayings all their own. Some made no sense, but you knew what they meant.
Dudley when the count went full would say, 'The string is out!'
What the heck does that mean, and how did he dream that up?
What string, and where did it escape from?
The announcers were as much the stars as the players were.
Anyway, the Indians on the radio were the background music to my childhood. The games were always on the radio, no matter where we went.
Dudley, Bob Neal, Harry Jones, Herbie, Joe Tate, now Hammy.
It was fun to go to the old stadium, sit by the RF foul pole in the first row of the upper deck....put our feet up on the wall, have a beer, and watch the Indians. And we always took a transistor radio to listen as we watched.
Tate and Herbie were the funniest. Joe was excitable, and Herbie was...Herbie. Sometimes the calls had nothing to do with the games. I saw a lot of DEEP blasts caught by the shortstop fifty feet into the outfield.....lol.
At least Hammys deep blasts make it to the track.
So, in Dudleys way...
'So long and good luck, ya he-ah!'
Beware, when you get to my age, you will too.
Radio was the medium when I was a kid, and at night mine was my best friend. It was a wooden Philo tube radio...table top model that had to weigh five pounds. It got AM, FM, and shortwave. I could listen to the BBC in London.
It had been my Dads HS graduation gift in 1941.
Local stations went off the air at sundown, and as soon as the last tip of the sun disappeared, the BIG stations, esp KMOX in St Louis and KDKA in Pittsburgh began talking directly to me in Massillon, Ohio.
In addition to the Indians, I could listen to the Cardinals, Pirates, Tigers...and even as a novelty, the Houston Colt 45s.
The broadcasters were awesome, every single one of them. ( We are blessed to have Hammy today)
Imagine listening to the Cards back then...three announcers in the booth...Harry Carey, Jack Buck, and Joe Garigiola.
Detroit had Ernie Harwell. Pittsburgh had Bob Prince.
We had Jimmy Dudley. I loved him. I loved them all.
Most of them were folksy and had special sayings all their own. Some made no sense, but you knew what they meant.
Dudley when the count went full would say, 'The string is out!'
What the heck does that mean, and how did he dream that up?
What string, and where did it escape from?
The announcers were as much the stars as the players were.
Anyway, the Indians on the radio were the background music to my childhood. The games were always on the radio, no matter where we went.
Dudley, Bob Neal, Harry Jones, Herbie, Joe Tate, now Hammy.
It was fun to go to the old stadium, sit by the RF foul pole in the first row of the upper deck....put our feet up on the wall, have a beer, and watch the Indians. And we always took a transistor radio to listen as we watched.
Tate and Herbie were the funniest. Joe was excitable, and Herbie was...Herbie. Sometimes the calls had nothing to do with the games. I saw a lot of DEEP blasts caught by the shortstop fifty feet into the outfield.....lol.
At least Hammys deep blasts make it to the track.
So, in Dudleys way...
'So long and good luck, ya he-ah!'
come on Cats - it's Tait, not Tate - - and yes the deep drives to right for a walk off were often standard fly balls - lol - but he got us excited
we also picked up WBZ - where the sports talk radio (novel at the time) did nothing but rip Yastremski for his worthless RBIs - we'd also get the Phillies on WCAU and WOR out of New York - Mets? - favorite was easily the Cardinals on KMOX
for a couple stations we had to fight to get a clear signal due to the radio towers right across the SW State borders in Mexico - they didnt have to adhere to US regs and could really pump up the power (unfortunately, I didnt know Spanish back then)
iirc, someone on 1100 - pete franklin? claimed they covered 34 states and most of Canada
Anglefan
Getting a lot of that weak stuff outta here!
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Thanks for sharing your firsthand memories, Cats! I legit love hearing it, really provides color to an era I'm unfamiliar with.
I'm curious about Cleveland Stadium, specifically the condition and perception throughout the years. Can you speak a little bit on the transition of the stadium through the years from feeling like an awesome, new, or even "nice" thing to ultimately not being that at all? What did that look like and what was the timeline?
I'm curious about Cleveland Stadium, specifically the condition and perception throughout the years. Can you speak a little bit on the transition of the stadium through the years from feeling like an awesome, new, or even "nice" thing to ultimately not being that at all? What did that look like and what was the timeline?
Alabuckeye
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I tried to imagine how Nev Chandler felt being in the box every night with Herb Score......having to play the straight man to Herb's 'eccentricities'. They were baseball to me growing up.
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38 states and 1/2 of Canada.
The Indians were awful in the 70s and 80s but I still listened to them on the radio and occasionally watched them on TV. Highlight was watching Len Barker pitch a perfect game in 1981 - first time in 13 years (he never reached 3 balls on a batter). I subscribed to The Sporting News back then and they didn’t feature that game on the front page - it was buried in the issue even though sometime earlier they made a big deal over a no hitter. Cleveland got less respect than Rodney Dangerfield.
WBZ in Boston featured Celtics play-by-play man Johnny Most, who slanted his descriptions so severely it was a joke (“Spud Webb hammers McHale to the floor”).
WJR in Detroit had another house man, Bob Ufer, the voice of Michigan football. He had a horn that he claimed was on Patton’s Jeep that he’d blast once for a XP, twice for a FG and three times for a TD. Renowned for going completely nuts on the air when Michigan pulled off a last second victory against ... Indiana.
I'm not quite old enough to remember Municipal Stadium as new....lol.
It was huge is all I know.
Since nobody ever went, we could get any seat we wanted, as long as we waited until about the fifth inning, after which the octogenarian ushers didn't care.
We usually sat in the 'upper boxes', a euphemism for cheap seats that cost an extra fifty cents because of the expensive sounding name. They cost $3.50.
The kicker was that you could take your own cooler in, as long as you bought a ticket for it...I'm talking a full blown Coleman. No ushers or security ever came to the upper deck, so the aroma of pot permeated the entire area. Hippies loved baseball.
The Indians usually stunk, but the players were generally friendly. You could yell at them between innings, and they would wave back. Boog Powell was especially friendly. I think a lot of them were surprised that anybody even knew who they were....lol.
Gaylord Perry and George Hendrick were definitely not friendly.
**************
On the old board, a bunch of the older posters got talking about our favorite Tribe players from the early 60s. I mentioned Wynn Hawkins.
A month later I got an email from his niece. At the time he was living in some small burg in West Virginia and was in his 80s. He got a big kick that anybody remembered him.
I think I was as thrilled as he was.
It was huge is all I know.
Since nobody ever went, we could get any seat we wanted, as long as we waited until about the fifth inning, after which the octogenarian ushers didn't care.
We usually sat in the 'upper boxes', a euphemism for cheap seats that cost an extra fifty cents because of the expensive sounding name. They cost $3.50.
The kicker was that you could take your own cooler in, as long as you bought a ticket for it...I'm talking a full blown Coleman. No ushers or security ever came to the upper deck, so the aroma of pot permeated the entire area. Hippies loved baseball.
The Indians usually stunk, but the players were generally friendly. You could yell at them between innings, and they would wave back. Boog Powell was especially friendly. I think a lot of them were surprised that anybody even knew who they were....lol.
Gaylord Perry and George Hendrick were definitely not friendly.
**************
On the old board, a bunch of the older posters got talking about our favorite Tribe players from the early 60s. I mentioned Wynn Hawkins.
A month later I got an email from his niece. At the time he was living in some small burg in West Virginia and was in his 80s. He got a big kick that anybody remembered him.
I think I was as thrilled as he was.
so I want to say that back in the day , the PD had a sunday magazine section - one year, the front of the magazine had a pic of Rodney Dangerfield in an Indians Uniform withe caption - Hey, how about a little respect? I have it in a Frame in my office. Carter, Snyder years? If I knew how I would post a pic
I assume at this point most of the board knows that Joe Tait passed today.
from Cats post above my brother (who's lived on the east coast for 15 years) and I were reminiscing about Joe and his dramatic but inaccurate calls at the end of games - he was reminding me that we would talk about not letting Joe fool us with his call of a long drive to left in tight games - RIP Joe
Benway
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Is that the "Derf" cartoon?
Pierre Pan
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I sat next to him on a plane once after his playing days were over. I don’t recall too much of our conversation as I generally prefer sleeping over talking on flights. The one thing that I vividly recall is that he had an impressive amount of beverages.
bronko
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I was always a Willie Mays guy, but I saw Mantle several times. He was first baseman slow at the time, but at the start of his career he was as fast as anyone. He was named for Mickey Cochrane (sp?) A HOF catcher, by his dad who groomed him to be a catcher. Ultimately, Mantle was too fast too stay behind the plate, but the knee derailed his outfield career. Certainly a top 20 position player all time. As a tribe fan and Mays fan, I always hated Mickey until I read Ball Four. Then, he at least became human to me.
Cassity14
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Ball Four was such a great book. I feel like it's overlooked.
bronko
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Yep, one of the first insider tell all books. Made Jim Bouton a pariah for the rest of his career.