Daily Archives: November 16, 2008

Lenny Shecter is perhaps best remembered as the man behind Jim Bouton’s classic Ball Four. But for a generation of sports fans and writers who followed Shecter’s columns in the New York Post in the late Fifties and the early Sixties, he stands as one of the great sports writers of them all. John Schulian, Vic Ziegel (who was a pup covering high school sports for the Post in the early Sixties when Shecter and the other Lenny, Leonard Koppett were covering baseball there), and Roger Kahn all point to him as a major figure.

Perhaps because he was a newspaper writer first and foremost, Shecter is largely forgotten today. He had a quick-witted but thoughtful style and did write a handful of books, including The Jocks, a scatching a cynical collection of essays about the world of sports that was released the year before Ball Four. Shecter’s take on the famed Yankee teams of Mantle-Berra-and-Ford was much tougher in The Jocks than in Bouton’s book.

Shecter’s name did resurface this past September when Alan Schwarz wrote about piece about him in The Times. The following week, Stan Issac’s wrote a follow-up piece on Shecter. Both are worth taking a look at.

So leave it up to me, old Dorkasaurus Rex, to hit the microfilm room at the main branch of the New York Public Library, in search for old Shecter columns. Here is just a small sampling of some of his ledes that caught my attention:

April 7, 1961

The Yankee spring training camp had to be the strangest in ten years. It was run as though it was a St. Petersburg subdivision of General Motors and while there has long been an air of cold efficiency which hovers about the Yankees like the odor around the beach at low tide, an important softening ingredient was missing. Casey Stengel.

October 2, 1961

Great events of history are over swiftly. A ball, even if it’s the first in the long and noble history of baseball to be hit for a 61st home run, takes only a few heartbeats of time to be propelled from home plate to the outfield seats.

For those who were at Yankee Stadium yesterday, some 24,000 people, it was over all too quickly. It would have been better if the ball leaped in exaltation, turned in the air and wrote a saucy message (like WHEEE!) against the blue sky, dipped nobly and shed a tear over the monument to Babe Ruth in center field.

But the way it was the count was two balls and no strikes. Roger Maris hitched up his trousers, pumped the bat once toward the pitcher, Tracy Stallard, young Boston righthander, then waited.

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Freddy Rodriguez retrieves his T-shirt cart from a basement on West 118th Street near Lenox Avenue every morning. He hauls it down the subway stairs and takes the 2 train from 116th Street to Chambers Street and switches to the 1 train that carries him to South Ferry where he pulls the cart up more stairs.

“Then I get my T-shirts ready for the tourists in Battery Park,” Rodriguez explained. “I carry all the staples: Jeter, A-Rod, Mariano, Posada, Joba and the Statue of Liberty. I’ve got lots of hats and some sweatshirts now that it’s getting colder.”

Rodriguez smiled as he showed off his newest item.

“This Yankee Stadium water globe is going to be a big seller,” he said. “I’ve also got a connection that can guarantee me number 52 CC Yankees shirts the day after he signs.

“That will be great for business,” Rodriguez continued. “Nothing has ever gone my way, but that’s starting to change. When CC gets here I’ll officially be on Easy Street.”

Separating truth from rumor during the baseball season is difficult enough, but during the hot stove season, it’s easy to get burned if you don’t view everything you read with a skeptical eye. We know the deal: the rumor-mongering is intended to sell papers, conjure arguments on talk radio, and stir conversation and commentary on blogs like this to keep baseball relevant in a town where both NFL teams are in first place and the Knicks look like an actual professional basketball team for the first time in six years.

Speaking of rumors, we knew the Yankees, with their financial clout and now $32 million to work with (I like Cliff Corcoran’s conservative accounting), would be big players in this winter’s free agent market. The past 30 hours or so have seen one constant in the CC Sabathia Sweepstakes: the Yankees are the highest — and only — bidder to date.

Not long after our Diane Firstman gave the skinny on the landscape’s analysis of the record offer made to the 6-foot-7, 290-pound southpaw, which included a quote from a Yankees official who welcomed the Mets’ inclusion in the mix, Newsday’s David Lennon reported that the Mets put the XX on CC. Joel Sherman wasn’t as definitive in this blog post, but he did not discount the Mets as a player, if for no other reason than to jack up the price for the Yankees.

What no one needs to see as it relates to CC Sabathia are stories like this. LeBron James is a Yankee fan. He’s friends with Sabathia, who until mid-summer spent his entire career in Cleveland. But do we, and should we, care what James has to say on this issue? In James’ defense, I believe this is more of an indictment of the Cleveland reporter who felt compelled to ask the question more than it is on James, who could face a similar free-agent dilemma next summer. James could opt out of the remaining two years of his contract in July and go to the highest bidder, which according to the aforementioned report, is expected to be either the Knicks or the New Jersey Nets. But if you’re the Cleveland scribe, why create a mess now? Haven’t those fans suffered for long enough? As a former reporter, I’m embarrassed. Maybe I’d have used that question as an icebreaker for an off-the-record situation, but that’s it. No way do you go to press with that.

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If C.C. signs with the Yanks, I fear some entrepreneur will start printing up “Black Sabathia” t-shirts, showing him biting the heads off of baseball bats.

But I digress … here now the news:

• Over at LoHud, our buddy PeteAbe has photos from inside the new stadium.  Unfortunately, there are 12 photos, and they’re not all in one post.  You’ll have to page through them, but its worth it.  Pete also reports that Hank Steinbrenner “wants all the pitchers.”
• Hold the phone on yesterday’s report that the Metsies would go after C.C.  Marty Noble at MLB.com spoke to a source within the organization, and got a different take.
• Out in Milwaukee, GM Bob Melvin is a bit flummoxed by the supposed offer to C.C. (as per the Journal Sentinel)

“It sounds like they’re overbidding,” Melvin said. “If the speculation is true that we’ve offered CC $100 million, why would you offer $140 million? Why wouldn’t you offer $110 million?”

“(The Yankees) have been pretty adamant about bidding on everybody. That doesn’t mean that’s what the market is. That’s just one team’s offer. Until all the bids are on the table, I don’t know what the market is.”

• The News‘ Bill Madden likens the Swisher deal to similar trades in prior years:

His .219 batting average notwithstanding, Nick Swisher looks to be a high-upside acquisition in the same mode as Scott Brosius (.203 with the Oakland A’s) in 1997 and Paul O’Neill (.246 with the Cincinnati Reds) in 1992. That is, a quality all-around player who, for whatever reasons, had a down year and was in dire need of an environment change. Just as O’Neill had a personality conflict in Cincinnati with Lou Piniella (who wanted him to pull the ball more and hit for more power), Swisher fell into a batting funk early on with the White Sox last season and resisted advice from hitting coach Greg Walker and manager Ozzie Guillen.

• Also at MLB.com, Robert Falkoff reports that the Padres and Yanks have had numerous discussions regarding Jake Peavy, despite the no-trade clause in Jake’s contract.
• Darrell Rasner asked for and was granted a trade to a team in Japan, according to ESPN.
• Dwight Gooden, one of a few ex-Mets to pitch a no-hitter for someone OTHER than the Mets, turns 44 today.  Dwight no-hit the Mariners on May 14, 1996.
• On this date in 2002, the Yankees and the Yomiuri Giants sign an agreement to form a working relationship, hoping to establish scouting and marketing ties which will benefit both teams.