The New York Yankees have the best record in the American League and are loaded with talent at every position. Six Yanks were on the AL All Star team. But the Yankees are much more than a team. They represent a heritage, a mystique.
Part of the Yankee mystique is the Curse of the Bambino, the Subway Series, the Five O'Clock Lightning, Murderer's Row and the Bronx Bombers. It is the Springfield Rifle, the Big Cat, the Bull, the Scooter, Yogi, Goofy, the Goose, Moose, Old Reliable, Donnie Baseball, Iron Horse, Sultan of Swat, Ellie, Slick, King Kong, Bulldog, the Yankee Clipper and Joltin' Joe, the Pride of the Yankees, Mr. October and Mr. May.
The mystique is also The Oklahoma Kid and the Commerce Comet, Sailor Bob, the Almighty Tired Man, Billy Ball, Blind Ryne, the Count, Puff, Pepi, the Battle of Broadway, Superchief.
October is big time Yankee mystique time. It is Reggie Jackson hitting home runs into the chilly nights, the Babe blasting the ball, Mickey Mantle ripping the tape-measure shots, Don Larsen soft tossing the perfect game.
The mystique is Casey Stengel racking up the English language and other teams, Joe McCarthy pushing all the right buttons, DiMag hitting in 56 straight, Bucky hitting the tin in Fenway, Chris Chambliss hitting it out off Littell.
There are all those pennants and world championships, the standing-room only crowds, the Ballantine Blasts, the White Owl Wallops, the Southern voice of Mel Allen exclaiming, "How about that?" and the New York accents of Phil Rizzuto shouting "HOLY COW!"
There are the lines that have been passed down from generation to generation, also part of the mystique:
Casey Stengel: "If I'da known I was going to live this long, I woulda taken better care of myself."
Roger Maris: "If all I am entitled to is an asterisk - that will be all right with me."
Lou Gehrig: "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
Col. Jacob Ruppert: "Yankee Stadium was a mistake, not mine but the Giants."
It is players from other teams coming into Yankee Stadium and being awed and intrigued by the monuments and plaques. They stroll out before a game and gawk.
It is the sound of the cultured voice of Bob Sheppard, the public address announcer who has been on the scene since April of 1951 - "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Yankee Stadium."
It is Buck Showalter acknowledging: "Every kid growing up has dreamed of lining up at Yankee Stadium and having Bob Sheppard announce his name."
There is also George Steinbrenner, also part of the mystique, Omnipresent, vocal, always hovering about, and the ultimate hands-on owner.
There is the famed opera singer and Yankee Stadium national anthem singer Robert Merrill who became a Yankee fan when he was eight years old and saw Babe Ruth play.
There is Frank Sinatra singing: "...If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere... " That too is a part of the scene, a part of the mystique.
» Harvey Frommer is the author of 30 sports books, including "The New York Yankee Encyclopedia, "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,"and "Growing Up Baseball" with Frederic J. Frommer. His A YANKEE CENTURY: A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball's Greatest Team will be published by Berkley in October 2002.
Also by Harvey Frommer
» Satchel Paige: World's Greatest Pitcher
» "Red Smith on Baseball": Sports Book Review
» The Barry Halper Collection of Baseball Memorabilia: Sports Book Review
» Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson
» Remembering Irving Rudd
» Subway Series
» Midsummer Classic: Midsummer Mockery
» Yankee Stadium's First Opening Day
» The Birth of Baseball's First Professional Team
» Yankee Stadium's First Opening Day
» Gehrig's Streak
» Willie Mays and the Month of May
» Reese was no Pee Wee
» Yankees vs. Red Sox: Baseball's Greatest Rivalry
» Celebrating Hank Greenberg
» Bobby Thomson's Famous Homer Lives On
» Remembering the Yankee Clipper: Joe DiMaggio
» Shoeless Joe Remains a Scapegoat
» The Mets Have Always Been Amazing
» More submissions
Copyright © 2002 by Harvey Frommer. Posted July 11, 2002.
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