BATTER UP!

[Harp]

I am going to watch all three Yankee-Sox games Thursday-Saturday because of this thread and I made sure the cupboard is stocked with peanuts, Crackerjacks, ice-cream, soda and beer - my baseball go to snack eats.

where didja get the Crackerjack? Lookin all over town. CJ is getting scarcer than regular everyday ordinary Oreos.

 

[Fading Fast]

where didja get the Crackerjack? Lookin all over town. CJ is getting scarcer than regular everyday ordinary Oreos.

Target on line. But Amazon has it too. I see it in the stores in NYC, but it (as are most things) is much cheaper on line. This (picture and link below) is what I bought from Target (would have preferred the old-style box, but I had a Target order in motion already).

https://www.target.com/p/cracker-ja...corn-peanuts-4-125oz/-/A-14908987#lnk=sametab

 

[Harp]

CJ in a pouch...sometimes you need to think outside the box. Thanx for tip.

The Yankees are playing a double header today, wear-n-tear on the bullpen. Sox should ace the advantage.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

The Bambino

Ty and Joe

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[Fading Fast]

While I'm meh on John Fogerty (his voice has too much screech for me), I thought his song "Centerfield" nailed the positive vibe that baseball held for me growing up before all the contemporary scandals hit and all the truth came out about baseball's hallowed lore.

When I hear this song, for three minutes, I can forget all the ugliness and remember baseball the way I once thought it was. The video has some outstanding classic clips as well.

• Also great echo back to Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man"
• Any montage that has Mays' catch in it is already ahead of the game
• And the cri de coeur from little league to the big leagues - "Put me in coach, I'm ready to play" captures the universal passion to play perfectly

 

[Ghostsoldier]

While I'm meh on John Fogerty (his voice has too much screech for me), I thought his song "Centerfield" nailed the positive vibe that baseball held for me growing up before all the contemporary scandals hit and all the truth came out about baseball's hallowed lore.

When I hear this song, for three minutes, I can forget all the ugliness and remember baseball the way I once thought it was. The video has some outstanding classic clips as well.

• Also great echo back to Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man"
• Any montage that has Mays' catch in it is already ahead of the game
• And the cri de coeur from little league to the big leagues - "Put me in coach, I'm ready to play" captures the universal passion to play perfectly

Yeah, I'm not a big CCR fan, but this solo hit by Fogerty makes me feel the same way.

Rob

 

[Fading Fast]

Yeah, I'm not a big CCR fan, but this solo hit by Fogerty makes me feel the same way.

Rob

His almost scream also works well on "Fortunate Son" as it captures the plaint of many regular people who do the actually fighting while some (not all) of the wealthy and connected get their sons out of it. Bob Seger's version is good, but CCR owns that song.

 

[2jakes]

"Blue Moon Nights"
John Fogerty ~ CCR

 

[Harp]

Sandbags, once rained upon and baked by the scorching Sun, are hard as bricks. Can stop a 7.62mm slug.
Sandbags also make a good baseball diamond layout complete as base bags. Just don't slide head first into 2nd sandbag....

 

[2jakes]

 

[LizzieMaine]

Announcer Red Barber interviews The Lip for their joint first television appearance on August 26th 1939, between games of a Dodgers-Reds doubleheader. Leo gives the camera a thousand-yard stare, figuring out how he might be able to make a buck off this someday. Reds manager Bill McKechnie, wearing number 1, waits for his turn, while Dodger players Ernie Koy, Dixie Walker, and Dolph Camilli kibitz in the rear.

Barber was quite proud of being the first man to call a major league game on TV, and in lieu of a fee, he asked NBC for a memento to mark the occasion, suggesting an engraved silver cigarette case might be nice. A few days later he received a fine engraved silver cigarette case from NBC -- along with a bill from the jeweler for $37.50.

 

[2jakes]

 

[2jakes]

Colorized image of the great LizzieMaine at the ball park.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

More panoramic photos...

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

Good shots of the rickety wooden fields that dominated the first decade of the 20th Century. The top one, National Park in Washington, burned down just before the 1911 season, and the more famous Griffith Stadium went up on the same lot. The bottom one, South Side Park in Chicago, was abandoned by the White Sox after the 1909 season, but Negro League and semi-pro teams continued to use it, despite constant deterioration, until it burned down in 1940.

There weren't very many of these wooden parks, now that I think of it, that *didn't* burn down. Washington Park in Brooklyn was torn down to make way for a concrete-and-steel Federal League park, and the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston and Hilltop Park in New York were dismantled when the leases ran out -- but if they'd been left in place chances are they'd have burned down too.

 

[LizzieMaine]

But speaking of rickety ballparks, nothing can beat poor old Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

It was entirely de luxe when it was built in 1894 to replace an earlier wooden park destroyed by fire -- the first park built with bricks and steel and the first to have a cantilevered upper deck. But the engineering and the construction were both shoddy, and twice spectators were killed when parts of the deck collapsed under shifting weight. Along with the poor construction, it was also a badly designed playing field, with a ridiculously shallow right field marked by a high iron-plated wall. Schlock home runs were common even during the dead ball era, and hard line drives hit off the wall could rebound easily as far as the pitcher's mound. A hapless Phillies pitcher of the mid-1930s named Walter Beck was tagged wih the unfortunate nickname "Boom Boom," after the sound made by the liners he tended to give up ricocheting off this wall.

By that time, the park was the joke of the league, but the Phillies, whose poverty-stricken owner Gerry Nugent would often hide under the stands to avoid process servers, couldn't afford to improve it in any way -- nor could they leave, because they were bound by a 99-year lease as iron-clad as the right field wall.

Finally, with the city threatening to condemn the property as a hazard to life and limb, the Phillies were able to negotiate a deal allowing them to leave -- even though they were stlll on the hook for the lease payments. They abandoned the park at the end of June 1938 -- losing their last game to the Giants, 14 to 1 -- and moved in as tenants of the Athletics at Shibe Park.

Baker Bowl, astonishingly, was not immediately torn down. Instead, the owners of the property had the dangerously-decayed upper deck peeled off, and installed an asphalt track for midget-car racing around the field. The Bowl remained open for several more years as a venue for various cheap promotions, but the decay got so severe that it finally had to be completely abandoned. By 1948 all that remained was the bricked-up carcass of the park, left to rot like an old fish.

Finally, in 1950, a heavy storm blew down a large chunk of the remaining wall and the city was forced into action, demolishing what was left of the ballpark. A gas station and a historical marker now stand at the site, and so far neither has fallen apart.

 

[2jakes]

Baseball cards that grandpa kept in the attic.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

But speaking of rickety ballparks, nothing can beat poor old Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

It was entirely de luxe when it was built in 1894 to replace an earlier wooden park destroyed by fire -- the first park built with bricks and steel and the first to have a cantilevered upper deck. But the engineering and the construction were both shoddy, and twice spectators were killed when parts of the deck collapsed under shifting weight. Along with the poor construction, it was also a badly designed playing field, with a ridiculously shallow right field marked by a high iron-plated wall. Schlock home runs were common even during the dead ball era, and hard line drives hit off the wall could rebound easily as far as the pitcher's mound. A hapless Phillies pitcher of the mid-1930s named Walter Beck was tagged wih the unfortunate nickname "Boom Boom," after the sound made by the liners he tended to give up ricocheting off this wall.

By that time, the park was the joke of the league, but the Phillies, whose poverty-stricken owner Gerry Nugent would often hide under the stands to avoid process servers, couldn't afford to improve it in any way -- nor could they leave, because they were bound by a 99-year lease as iron-clad as the right field wall.

Finally, with the city threatening to condemn the property as a hazard to life and limb, the Phillies were able to negotiate a deal allowing them to leave -- even though they were stlll on the hook for the lease payments. They abandoned the park at the end of June 1938 -- losing their last game to the Giants, 14 to 1 -- and moved in as tenants of the Athletics at Shibe Park.

Baker Bowl, astonishingly, was not immediately torn down. Instead, the owners of the property had the dangerously-decayed upper deck peeled off, and installed an asphalt track for midget-car racing around the field. The Bowl remained open for several more years as a venue for various cheap promotions, but the decay got so severe that it finally had to be completely abandoned. By 1948 all that remained was the bricked-up carcass of the park, left to rot like an old fish.

Finally, in 1950, a heavy storm blew down a large chunk of the remaining wall and the city was forced into action, demolishing what was left of the ballpark. A gas station and a historical marker now stand at the site, and so far neither has fallen apart.

Great stuff, Lizzie...I love hearing the history of these old ballparks.

Rob

 

[Fading Fast]

Barber was quite proud of being the first man to call a major league game on TV, and in lieu of a fee, he asked NBC for a memento to mark the occasion, suggesting an engraved silver cigarette case might be nice. A few days later he received a fine engraved silver cigarette case from NBC -- along with a bill from the jeweler for $37.50.[/QUOTE]

Freakin' unbelievable. What scumbags.

How great is the feeling when they take the field to start the game. First scene captures that well. Only a dead heart wouldn't get a lift from that.

Wonderful to see - thank you for posting