What I'm Watching and Reading Before The Series Begins

The thing I like to do more than watch and read about the New York Yankees is to watch and read about The History of Baseball.

I bought this awesome 10 disc DVD collection by Ken Burns called BASEBALL on Ebay Express and if you want to get downright medieval with your beloved sport, this is most certainly your ticket.

Right now I am on the second DVD called Inning 2: Something Like A War: 1900-1910 (Alright - I confess that I jumped ahead and watched the fourth DVD first since it chronicled The Bambino, so I'm really on my third DVD).

All I can say is that WOW - what a treasure this series is - I've learned things like Homeruns were really not special back in the day because the fences were back so far that most were inside the park homeruns.

The baseball itself was what the oldtimers called "dead" because it wasn't until Babe Ruth's era that the ball was wound much tighter.

Fans were allowed directly on the field and often times arguments between players and fans erupted.

Back before The Babe, the pitcher was allowed to spit on the ball (usually licorice or tobacco juice) and a new ball was rarely put in play.  The pitcher would take a new ball and stomp on it with those old fashioned spikes, cut it, chew on it, just about anything you could think about.

The players were a hodge podge of "rubes" or "hayseeds," the popular nickname for a guy from the country. 

The Boston Red Soxs used to be called The Boston Pilgrims and there was this one guy named Mike McGreevey aka "Nuf Sed!" who used to lead The Royal Rooters (fans of Boston) with a song called Tessie (Sweet Caroline has nothing on this song!).

They called McGreevey "Nuf Sed!" because anytime there was an argument about anything about baseball, he was the final authority.

Check these lyrics to Tessie out:

Tessie, you make me feel so badly,
Why don't you turn around.
Tessie, you know I love you madly,
Babe, my heart weighs about a pound.

To the opposition team they would change the lyrics and sing stuff like:

Honus, why do you hit so badly,
Take a back seat and sit down.
Honus, at bat you look so sadly,
Hey why don't you get out of town.
 
(Honus Wagner - this guy makes A-Rod look like a rookie - he could play every position - it is said that he used to scoop the ball up at third base so fast and throw to first base that there were pieces of dirt still flying off of the ball when the first baseman caught it.)

Aw man...this stuff strikes a vein in my heart with this game.

The book to accompany this series is definitely, "The Glory Of Their Times" by Lawrence S. Ritter.

I bought a first edition fourth printing (1966) that is a treasure trove of stories by guys like Tommy Leach, Rube Marquard, I can go on...

I'll leave you with this one about our Blog Uncle Tommy Lasorda's team the Dodgers - The team was really called The Trolley Dodgers - I always wondered what a Dodger was!

Peace,

G-