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    New York Sluggers: The First 75 Years
    New York Sluggers: The First 75 Years
    New York Sluggers: The First 75 Years
    Ebook187 pages44 minutes

    New York Sluggers: The First 75 Years

    By Mark Rucker

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    About this ebook

    New York City was the original hotbed of baseball, so it is not surprising that fans in the five boroughs are very knowledgeable about the game. It did not take long after baseball was established in the city in the late 1850s for heavy hitters to rise in popularity. New York has continued to set the standard. When thinking about hitting, or better yet, smashing or crushing a baseball, the first team to come to mind is always the New York Yankees. Slugging was actually invented by the Yanks and was most prominently demonstrated by Babe Ruth. When Lou Gehrig joined the team in 1923, a one-two punch was established that set a standard seldom equaled in major-league history. Meanwhile, across the East River, the Giants manufactured lots of hitting, and the New York Nationals rattled the walls in the Polo Grounds. This book is a pictorial story of the sluggers that made history in New York, in both the American and National Leagues.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJun 22, 2005
    ISBN9781439632390
    New York Sluggers: The First 75 Years
    Author

    Mark Rucker

    Mark Rucker, author of Brooklyn Dodgers and a pictorial researcher for the Ken Burns film Baseball, is a baseball historian and active member of the Society for American Baseball Research. He operates Transcendental Graphics and the Rucker Archive, providing historical images and information for projects worldwide.

    Read more from Mark Rucker

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      Book preview

      New York Sluggers - Mark Rucker

      INTRODUCTION

      When fans think about players who could hit a baseball—or, better yet, smash or crush a baseball—the first team to come to mind is always the New York Yankees. Slugging was actually invented by the Yankees, and was most prominently demonstrated by Babe Ruth. When Lou Gehrig joined the team in 1923, a one-two punch of home runs and extra-base hits was established, setting a standard seldom equaled in major-league history. Meanwhile, across the East River in New York, the Giants also manufactured lots of hitting. And although they were never the powerhouse the Yankees were, the New York Nationals could rattle the walls in the Polo Grounds against any comers.

      New York City was the original hotbed of baseball, so it is not surprising that fans in the five boroughs are very knowledgeable about the game. It did not take long after the game was established in New York City in the late 1850s for heavy hitters to rise in popularity. News reports of contests during this period remarked on long drives to the outfield or hard striking by the local boys. The pleasure of seeing a ball hit right on the nose is among the most enjoyable moments for spectators. But to a hitter, cutting a fastball in half off the sweet spot of the bat is an ecstatic moment like no other.

      Relying on the long ball to win games was something new to baseball in the late 1910s. Before that, strategic systems were employed to score runs. New Yorkers understood strategy, baseball intelligence, and working as a team. But they were not averse to new developments when something eye-opening came onto the scene. And Babe Ruth was certainly an eyeopener, a player who single-handedly changed the game. No one before the Babe had swung always from their heels, and Babe got more of his upper body to provide power than any player before him. After his follow-through, Ruth’s body would look like a wrung towel.

      With the Babe’s success, sluggers of many varieties began to appear in the major leagues. Within a few years, the Giants had sluggers of their own. John McGraw’s hustling squad added Rogers Hornsby to the mix for a few years, and then Mel Ott, and then Johnny Mize—all long-ball artists. A tradition was established during the 1920s that teams needed home run hitters, both to entertain the crowds and to increase scoring. For the Yankees, no sooner was the Ruth-Gehrig era waning than Joe DiMaggio arrived from San Francisco. DiMaggio’s strength and grace enthralled fans for almost a decade and a half. Then, as DiMaggio’s career was fading away, along came Mickey Mantle from Oklahoma. It was as if the Yankees could manufacture slugging superstars whenever they were needed, generation after generation.

      But knocking balls over the wall is not all you need to win ball games. For the Giants and Yankees, there was a constant parade of good hitters moving on and off their rosters. But all hard hitters were not home run threats. Mugsy McGraw, the manager of the Giants for 30 years, built his teams with doubles-hitters and singles-hitters to go with his top-level pitching. They could usually score enough runs to win. Still, the big drama and the big bang was with the Yankees, and they outdrew the Giants at the box office almost every year.

      Simultaneous to segregationist white America enjoying its National and American League action, the Negro Leagues were in full flower. The New York Lincoln Stars, the Lincoln Giants, the New York Black Yankees, and the New York Cubans were among the teams that played in the city, exciting their audiences every season. Stars like Pop Lloyd, Ghost Marcelle, Bill Holland, Mule Suttles, Turkey Stearnes, Chino Smith, Clint Thomas, Martin Dihigo, Dick Lundy, and Luis Tiant Sr. were on the field annually for their Negro League fans, and they would have been impressing crowds across the nation were it not for institutionalized racism. They often leased major-league stadiums when white teams were away on road trips.

      The talent that passed through New York ballparks—both black and white—was staggering, and the fanatics, whether rooting for their Negro League clubs or for

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