baseball

Saturday Apr 12

by


Attend first Baseball game
this spring, an exhibition
between the Yankees and Dodgers

——–

Matt’s Notes

Baseball!

The season was a little shorter and started a little later back then, but Yankee Stadium looked familiar:


The above photo is from 1923 and shows the Stadium surrounded by what appears to be a country road, but as the New York Times noted in its account of the game Papa saw,

By the Yanks’ opening day, April 23, the paving of the streets around the arena will have been finished and motorists will find it an easier task to drive up to the gates. [It’s hard to imagine this ever being the case – ed.] The new subway station at 161st Street was in service yesterday, and the Yanks will soon be all set for the season.

Since the subway was running, Papa likely took the IRT from Canal Street to 161st to the Stadium, where defending champion Yankees fell to the Brooklyn Robins, 10-8, before a crowd of 12,000. (The nickname of the Brooklyn club changed from “Trolley Dodgers” to “Robins” and then back to “Dodgers” over the years; 1924 must have been a transition period, since the Times used both names interchangeably.)

Papa was a big baseball fan (I’ve inherited his baseball-loving gene in the same way I’ve inherited his movie-loving gene) and, with all he’d had on his mind for the previous few weeks, a day at the ball park would have been a welcome diversion (even if it was a bit chilly at 54 degrees and Babe Ruth “fanned lugubriously twice,” as the Times put it).

Here’s who was on the field that day:

Brooklyn

Dick Loftus, cf
Jimmy Johnston, 3b
Zack Wheat, lf
Jack Fournier, 1b
Tommy Griffith, rf
Joe Klugman, 2b
Johnny Jones, ss
Hank DeBerry c
Dutch Ruether, p
Dazzy Vance, p
Andy High
Leo Dickerman, p

New York

Whitey Witt, cf
Joe Dugan, 3b
Babe Ruth, rf
Wally Pipp, fb
Bob Meusel, lf
Aaron Ward, 2b
Everett Scott, ss
Fred Hofmann, c
Chick Autrey, c
Oscar Roettger,p
Earle Combs
Harvey Hendrick

Head over to baseball-reference.com for more on the 1924 Brooklyn Robins and 1924 New York Yankees.

—————-

Image source: Yankee Stadium, 4/3/23. Library of Congress # LC-B2- 5958-11. No known restrictions on publication.

Sunday Apr 13

by


Another Baseball games
Yanks & Robins

Visited
Freidas Children

Berta Tannesoff’s family
and attended lecture by
Lipsky at the Pennsylvania

Met Cousin Sam Scheurman
of Long Branch after not
having seen him for years

—————

Matt’s Notes

Two days, two exhibition games, and not one home run from Babe Ruth. Still, Babe’s future Murderers Row mate, left fielder Bob Meusel (called “Bustin’ Bob” by the Times, though his “official” nickname was “Long Bob”) hit a 7th-inning homer and a walk-off single to score Whitey Witt in the 10th.

I would imagine Papa saw all this action from the cheap seats, so his view might have looked a little like this:

It’s hard to imagine, in this era of designated hitters, TV timeouts, and multiple pitching changes (I love Willie Randolph, but why does he pull his pitchers so much?) that Papa was able to make a three o’clock Yankee game and still manage to visit two friends (maybe Frieda and Berta, whoever they were, lived in the Bronx so Papa caught them on the way back from the Stadium) and also catch Louis Lipsky at the Hotel Pennsylvania in the West 30’s. But the numbers don’t lie: both games Papa saw that weekend, including Sunday’s extra-inning drama, were over in under two hours. (As I write this, the Mets have been playing for two-and-a-half and they’re only in the 7th. David Wright just hit an RBI triple, though, so I’ll take it.)

Papa’s mood seemed to rise and fall in relation to how busy he was (when he was alone, his mind turned toward his romantic struggles, his longing for home, his father’s continuing illness) so I’d say this was a good day for him. He spent time with friends, ran into a cousin from distant Long Branch, N.J., enjoyed a gorgeous 66-degree day at the ballpark, and attended a lecture by one of the era’s most influential Zionists (this was actually his third Lipsky lecture of the year). Despite his worries, he must have felt lucky to live in New York, where it was easy to cover so many bases on a Sunday in April, 1924.

Bob Meusel

—————–

Here’s who was on the field that day:

Brooklyn:

Dick Loftus, cf
Jimmy Johnston, 3b
Zack Wheat, lf
Jack Fournier, 1b
Tommy Griffith, rf
Joe Klugman, 2b
Johnny Jones, ss
(?) Gonzales, c
Burleigh Grimes, p
Andy High
Art Decatur, p

New York:

Whitey Witt, cf
Joe Dugan, 3b
Babe Ruth, rf
Wally Pipp, fb
Bob Meusel, lf
Aaron Ward, 2b
Everett Scott, ss
Wally Schang, c
Waite Hoyt, p
Earle Combs
Joe Bush, p

———-

Additional References:

———-

Image sources:

  • Yankee Stadium, 4/3/23. Library of Congress # LC-B2- 5958-12. No known restrictions on publication.
  • Bob Meusel, Library of Congress # LC-B2- 5252-11. No known restrictions on publication.

Saturday Apr 26

by


Had Miss Rosen out at
Ball game, I was glad
after I saw her home. —

She is far from the type that
I need, No more such
matrimonial tryouts.

Spent the entire evening
visiting various Zionist
Clubs on the East Side.

———-

Matt’s Notes

Poor Miss Rosen. Papa had been down on her from the moment his friends, the Linzers, introduced him to her a few days earlier, and she obviously didn’t help her cause at the ball park. (I’m tempted to say she “struck out” at the game, but as you can see I restrained myself.)

I’m not sure which game they saw that day, but Papa must have felt heavily handicapped by Miss Rosen if he couldn’t enjoy himself at either. Out in Brooklyn, the National League champion Giants climbed into first place with a 5-2 victory over the Robins (a.k.a. Dodgers) which would have been tough enough to frown through on a sunny, 60-degree day. Meanwhile, up at the Stadium, the Yankees defeated the Red Sox, 4-3, in an 11-inning thriller that included an inside-the-park home run by Wallie Pipp and a game-winning bunt by Whitey Witt. “Search the records far and wide and you won’t find many better games,” declared the New York Times, “it was packed with all the thrills of a lifetime.”

Papa would have needed catastrophically bad chemistry with Miss Rosen to see such games and remain unmoved. But what offense could she have given? Did she eat ketchup on her hot dog? Did she say she didn’t like movies? Had she never heard of Palestine? It’s hard for me to imagine what might have made Papa so dismissive of her, but maybe his romantic sensibilities didn’t permit him to enjoy something as crass as a “matrimonial tryout.” Maybe Miss Rosen wasn’t really that “far from the type” Papa needed — she just might have been a victim of his desire for a less contrived love story.

——————–

Additional Notes:

I think Papa says “spent the entire evening” at the beginning of the third paragraph of this entry, but I’m not sure if I have the word “entire” right. Here’s what it looks like:

Please write or drop a comment if this looks like something else to you.

Also, if you’re a baseball fan, do yourself a favor and check out the Times‘ recaps of the day’s games. I can’t get enough of their baseball writers’ bemused tone:

Sunday May 4

by

Attended games at Polo
grounds, and after that attended Maccabean
meeting at Pennsylvania
Hotel.

I am glad to notice
that my beloved camp
is progressing even if
slowly, at every meeting
it is my pleasant duty
to initiate new members.

Our meeting was visited
by guests of various O.B.Z.
camps in the city.

————–

Matt’s Notes

I enjoy the ironic, playful tone of the New York Times’ baseball writing from Papa’s day, but I think the anonymous New York Giants beat writer is my favorite. Here’s how he (presumably not she) opens his account of the double header Papa saw:

If 42,000 persons had not been present it would be kinder to say nothing about what happened at the Polo Grounds yesterday. But by this time it is no secret that the Giants brutally assaulted the hapless and helpless Phillies, winning both ends of the Sunday double-header, 13 to 3 and 12 to 3. Not all of the 42,000 saw the massacre through, for some were faint-hearted and others wanted to get home while there was still daylight enough to find their way there.

He goes on to wonder why anyone would see the Phillies in the first place, “even though they were twice offered for sacrifice at the nominal price of $1.10.” This serves as a great example of the resourcefulness required of baseball writers to say essentially the same thing 154 times a year (the length of the season in 1924) and also answers my question of what Papa paid for tickets. The Polo Grounds would have had over 10,000 empty seats that day, but I think this photo of the more crowded stands on opening day of 1923 still gives us a good idea of what the field looked like from Papa’s point of view:

polo grounds

I also continue to be amazed at how quickly baseball games were played back then. The double header described above wrapped up in four hours (yesterday’s Yankees double header took 6) allowing Papa plenty of time to hop on the IRT at 155th Street, head down to Penn Station, and make his “Maccabean” meeting at the Hotel Pennsylvania.

“Maccabean,” as noted before, refers to Papa’s chapter of the Zionist mutual aid society B’nai Zion. It looks like the meeting he attended was larger than usual and included members of other B’nai Zion camps (it must have taken place in one of the Pennsylvania’s private dining rooms) because it was an induction ceremony for new members. Papa would have run the meeting and conducted the initiation rituals in his capacity as Master of Ceremonies.

On minor quirk in this entry is Papa’s use of the initials “O.B.Z” to refer to B’nai Zion. This must be an inadvertent conflation of the group’s Hebrew (B’nai Zion) and English (Order Sons of Zion) names, unless I’m reading his handwriting wrong:

————-

Additional Notes:

The Jewish Daily Forward, descendant of the venerable Yiddish daily that Papa most certainly read in his youth, published a story about Papa’s Diary Project in this week’s English language issue. It’s called “Dear Diary: Back in Time” and you can read it here.

————-

References:

—————–

Image source:

Opening Day, Polo Ground, 4.26/1923. Library of Congress #LC-B2- 5982-1

Monday June 16

by


After seeing the baseball game
at Ebbets Field, I went to
Harry Eisenkraft and sat
there until late in the night
conversing.

Ms. Eisenkraft was so kind
to give me a picture of Hymie
Eisencraft (Olam Haba) whom the whole
family has grown to love, because
of his love and kindness for
all, but the unavoidable death
robbed him from us at the
prime of his youth.

Five years after his death
I still find find myself under
the shock because of his early
death.

Blessed be his memory
Shalom [?]

Matt’s Notes

Not a bad day to be at Ebbet’s Field, where the Robins (a.k.a. Dodgers) beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2.

I’m not sure who the beloved Hymie Eisencraft was, but Papa must have really felt strongly for him to honor him with the term “Olama Haba” (“I’ll see him in the afterlife”) that he has previously used only in relation to his recently-departed father.

Papa also concludes the entry with another Hebrew tribute, though it’s a bit hard to read. My Hebrew-reading wife, Stephanie, can tell it starts with the word “Shalom,” but the second word is harder to make out. Any ideas?

Update: My friend Inbar, a native Hebrew speaker, thinks this is Shalom Lefro, literally “Goodbye to his ashes.”
—————

Update 10/17/07 – I now have a photo of Hymie Eisenkraft:

This photo comes to me through the grandson of the above-mentioned Harry Eisenkraft, who read about this blog in the October 14th New York Times City section. Papa’s father was likely the brother of Harry’s mother, Sara, who spelled her last name Seuerman (making Papa and Harry cousins). Though Hymie fought in World War I, his untimely death did not come in the trenches; he was killed by an auto in Brooklyn on June 26, 1919, an ironic fate too good for the front page editors of the Brooklyn Eagle to pass up.

The woman Hymie appears with in the photo above is his sister-in-law, Jennie. She was married to Harry and appears with him in the photo below.

Harry had one other brother, Issac Mendel, who Papa mentions in his May 15th entry.

—————

Update 1/11/08

Here’s another picture of Hymie Eisenkraft in the form of a custom-made Rosh Hashanah card:

I’ve written a bit more about this card in a separate post.

—————

References for this post:

ROBINS BEAT RIXEY AND THE REDS, 5-2; Brooklyn Batters Rout Western Invaders With Four-Run Rally in the Eighth. The New York Times, June 17, 1924.

Image Source: Outside Ebbet’s Field, 1920. Library of Congress # LC-B2- 5311-1 .

Tuesday June 17

by

Yesterday and today I
did not work so I went
again to a ball game at
the Polo Grounds.

I am so worried that Netties
baby son is ill, he
is coughing so.

May the Allmighty speed
his recovery.

He is named after beloved
father, May he grow up and
be as good as his Grand-
father, for he and Ruchale
are the only bright spots in
the life of their parents.

—————–

Matt’s Notes

Papa saw the Dodgers (a.k.a. Robins) take another game from the Cincinnati Reds on this day, a 5-4 decision in which Tiny Osborne pitching a complete game for Brooklyn.

Sunday Sept 14

by


Baseball game
and evening with friends

—————–

Matt’s Notes

With the Yankees out of town on this day, Papa could have seen the Brooklyn Robins (a.k.a. Dodgers) play the Reds at Ebbets field or the New York Giants play the Cardinals at the Polo Grounds. Both teams were battling it out in an enthralling pennant race, so it’s hard to imagine which game Papa would have chosen. Let’s try to figure it out:

Papa’s attendance statistics and habits in 1924 would indicate he was fan of the world champion Yankees; he went to the Stadium seven times, including two exhibition games against the Dodgers, and took at least one date there. The numbers reveal less about his National League leanings, though. By my reckoning he went to Ebbets Field three times and the Polo Ground four, but both teams were in town on three of those days and we can’t really be sure who he saw (one of those tossup days also included a visit to relatives in the Bronx, so geographical convenience favored the Giants since the Polo Grounds were on the way). All in all, there’s really no way to tell who Papa preferred that year. Advantage: None.

The Giants were out front all season but had quieted down in the stretch, and at 86-55 they were only one-and-a-half games up on the 85-57 Dodgers. The Dodgers had been in fourth place and seven-and-a-half games back on August 18, but since then they’d gone on a 25-6 run that began with a sweep of the Pirates (who were no slouches and had enjoyed their own late surge). “It is now reasonably certain that one of these local teams will represent the National League in the world’s series,” noted the New York Times, “The Giants, with a shifted lineup and a tottering pitching staff, have been fighting hard to keep ahead of the fast-moving Robins.” With the season clearly on the way to a photo finish, I’d say Papa, as a baseball fan, would have been more intrigued by the surging team. Advantage: Dodgers.

Both the Dodgers’ and the Giants’ opponents were out of the race (though the Reds were not mathematically eliminated as the Cardinals were) so the competition wouldn’t have factored into Papa’s choice. Still, the Dodgers had the National League’s best pitcher and future hall-of-famer, Dazzy Vance, on the mound against the Reds. Vance was on his way to a 28-6 record and a 2.16 ERA, and he was no doubt a big draw; in fact, the Dodgers had 27,000 fans in the stands that day versus the Giants’ 25,000. Advantage: Dodgers

The ride to Ebbets Field was probably shorter than the ride to the Polo Grounds from Papa’s Lower East Side home, but Papa’s willingness to go for long jaunts on the subway without complaint makes convenience a negligible consideration. Still, Papa had a bunch of friends in Brooklyn — perhaps those were the friends he spent the evening with — so we’ll give a slight geographical edge to the Dodgers.

And there we have it. If we take everything into account, it looks like Papa probably saw the Dodgers and Dazzy Vance shut out the Reds on September 14th. The final score was 3-0.

————-

My mother adds:

Interesting. In all the years I knew Papa, he never took me to a Yankee game, while he took me to dozens of Dodger games from the time I was about five years old onward. It was at wonderful Ebbets Field where he taught me to keep score and then brag to the people around us —“Look how this little girl can keep score”. When the Dodgers and Giants left us for California, he never became a Yankees fan, but instead we rooted for the hapless Mets. He lived long enough to see the miracle of 1969.

We loved talking baseball and politics together.