yankees

Saturday Apr 12

by


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

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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.

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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

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Additional References:

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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:

Thursday May 1

by


This is workers day, so
I am off resting.

In afternoon attended
game in Yankee Stadium
in Evening Zionist meeting
at Hotel Astor.

Sent home $5.00

Received letter from home
father still ill, but I am
at least relieved by getting
some news from home.

——————

Matt’s Notes

“Workers Day” refers to International Workers day or Labor Day, a holiday recognized around the world on May 1 and generally associated with the Haymarket Riot of 1886 and its tragic aftermath. (As you remember from your history lessons, the riot took place after Chicago union workers called a general strike in support of an eight-hour workday on May 1, 1886. Four days of mayhem followed. Several protesters died at the hands of the police, though events reached a tragic climax when a bomb exploded in Haymarket Square and killed at least seven police officers and four civilians. Several anarchists were falsely arrested, tried and executed for the bombing, sparking international outrage). Though the riot happened in Chicago, the United States never officially recognized May Day as a holiday, allegedly because its commemoration had quickly become associated with Socialist causes. Meanwhile, more conservative labor organizations had already prompted several states to declare the first Monday in September as Labor Day, and in 1887 Grover Cleveland decided to make it a national holiday.

Papa’s union and employer obviously still recognized May Day as a workers’ holiday in 1924; the New York Yankees, on the other hand, could only wish they had the day off, as they saw their long winning streak come to an end at the hands of the Washington Senators. Papa saw them strand runners on base all day in the course of the 3-2 loss at the Stadium, or, as the New York Times put it, “When a single or a fly meant a run or more, the Yankee hitsmiths struck out or popped out or rolled out in a manner agonizing.”

It looks like the U.S. Postal Service was open that day as well, since, my sources tell me, post offices often served as banks through which immigrants would send money overseas (I can’t be totally sure that Papa sent his $5.00 home through the post office since he had other options as well, but it’s a safe bet). Having received an update from the old country and sent some money to his family, I expect Papa was able to concentrate on his Zionist meeting at the Astor with something like a clear head.

hotel astor

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References:

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Image sources:

  • Yankee Stadium, 4/3/23. Library of Congress # LC-B2- 5958-11. No known restrictions on publication.
  • Hotel Astor. Library of Congress call number HABS NY,31-NEYO,72-.

Saturday June 21

by


Oh how I’m out of luck
I failed in a certain
undertaking again, which
means no more that under-
taking.

I went to the Ball game
at the Yankee Stadium
this afternoon.

Met Shapiro Zichlinsky
& Friedman in the evening
who spent the remainder
of the eve, at my home.

—————–

Matt’s Notes

Papa really seems out of sorts in this entry — his handwriting looks messy and hurried, he mistakenly wrote his friend Shapiro’s name when he meant to write his friend Zichlinsky’s, and he fails to mention that the Yankees played a double-header at the Stadium, the second game of which ended in a rare tie on account of rain.

I can only assume that Papa’s agitation was due to the “certain undertaking” he failed in that day, though I’m afraid to imagine what he was talking about. Did he place a bet on the second Yankee game, only to see it get rained out? Did he try to pick up a woman? Get turned away while scoring some prohibition hooch? His evasive and embarrassed language makes me think he must have tried something sexual, something sinful, Something That Dare Not Speak Its Name. Of course, someone of Papa’s moral character would have been ashamed to admit to jaywalking, so maybe he was just up to Something That Preferred To Speak Its Name in a Quiet Voice.

Did he talk about whatever he had tried when he had his friends over that night? Or did he save his semi-confession for his diary, preferring to discuss safer subjects like Zionism, the upcoming Democratic Convention, or the home run he saw Babe Ruth hit against the Red Sox earlier in the afternoon?

——————

The Red Sox, by the way, were not much of a draw in 1924. They were on their way to a seventh-place finish (an improvement over 1923, when they finished eight and last as they would in 1925). The Yankees were much stronger, though they would end the season in second place behind the Washington Senators, who would go on to beat the New York Giants in the World Series (the Giants and Yankees had met in the previous three Series, by the way).

Here are how the Red Sox and Yankees lineups looked that day:

Game 1

Yankees

Johnson, 2b
Witt, cf
Ruth, rf
Hendrick, lf
Pipp, 1b
Schang, c
Dugan, 3b
Scott, ss
Shawkey, p

Red Sox

Flagstead, cf
Wambsganss, 2b
Veach, lf
Todt, 1b
Boone, rf
Clark, 3b
O’Neill, c
Lee, ss
Quinn, p
Collins
Ross, p
Heving

Game 2

Yankees

Johnson, 2b
Witt, cf
Ruth, rf
Hendrick, lf
Pipp, 1b
Hofmann, c
Dugan, 3b
Scott, ss
Pennock, p

Red Sox

Flagstead, cf
Wambsganss, 2b
Veach, lf
Collins, 1b
Boone, rf
Ezzell, 3b
O’Neill, c
Lee, ss
Ferguson, p
————-

References

Image Source: “Babe Ruth crossing the plate after making his first home run of the season today,” April 21, 1924. Library of Congress # LC-USZ62-97945. No known restrictions on publication.

Friday July 18

by


Baseball game in afternoon
Radio at night

I am anxiously waiting for
next Monday when I will
resume work after a forced
vacation of 3 weeks, besides
being terrible doing nothing
I am also broke and I am
heavily indebted. My reso-
lution to save (from the 1st of
January) was so far a dream

Unexpected misfortunes
befell me simultaneously
and unexpectedly which
upset my earlier plans however
I’m hopeful for better times,

—————

Matt’s Notes

The Giants and Robins (a.k.a. Dodgers) were both on the road this day, so Papa must have seen the Yankees-Indians double-header at the Stadium. The Yankees split, losing 9-2 in the first game and winning 7-2 in the second, keeping the Yankees in a tight race for first with the Senators and surging Tigers.

The highlight of the day was an inside-the-park home run by Yankees slugger Bob Meusel (Babe Ruth must have walked a lot since he only recorded 5 at bats for both games) though for me, once again, the most impressive details in the box scores are the game times — both games clocked out at 2:05, meaning the Yankees banged out a double header in the time it takes modern-day American league teams to play a single prime-time game.

Papa might have even moved down to a better seat than he could usually afford since there were only 20,000 on hand at the Stadium, but it looks like he had weightier matters on his mind. He has felt especially pessimistic while he’s been out of work, and, as is often the case when one is low on money and self-esteem, even the prospect of working and earning again does little more than remind him of his debts and trigger reflections on the year’s difficult developments.

The “unexpected misfortune” most on his his mind is, of course, the relatively recent death of his father. This also led to his “heavily indebted” state since he had to take out a $100 loan to help his family in the old country with funeral and living expenses. Papa is sad enough to berate himself for not keeping his New Year’s resolution to save more money even though he said at the time he didn’t really believe in resolutions, and I’m sure he’s also running through a checklist of the year’s romantic disappointments and bouts of homesickness.

Sometimes when I read Papa’s words I feel, irrationally, like he’s deliberately written something just for me, and the last line of this entry, in which he says he’s “hopeful for better times,” seems like it’s there just to make me feel less sad for him as I write this on a dark, rainy morning. Better times did arrive for him, as we know, though I have no way to go back and say to him Papa, this is you:

———-

References:

YANKS BREAK EVEN AS PENNOCK WINS; Southpaw Takes Sixth in Row, Beating Indians in Second, 7-2 — Champions Lose Opener, 9-2. (From the July 19, 1924 New York Times.)

Image source: “Robert William Meusel, New York Yankees outfielder” taken in the 1920s. Library of Congress #LC-USZ62-127876. No known restrictions on publication.

Sunday Aug 24

by


Took Blanche to a Ball
game at Yankee Stadium
and later one hour rowing
at Central Park and then
the Concert at the Mall, and
home.

—————–

Matt’s Notes

I’m still not sure who Blanche is, but in this, her second appearance in Papa’s diary, she enjoys veritable 1920’s New York montage of a day with Papa.
<!– –>
Things started off on a fine note with a Yankee victory over Detroit at the Stadium. New York sluggers Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel had quiet days, but the Yankees still scored eight runs while giving up only one. Was Blanche a baseball fan, or did Papa explain the game to her, show her how to keep score, lean in close to whisper during suspenseful moments? Did he wonder, on this pleasant August day, if this would be the first of many games he’d see with her?

I questioned a couple of days ago whether Blanche was an old friend of Papa’s or someone he’d just started dating, but today’s post-baseball row in Central Park leads me to think that romance was in the offing. Happily, Papa had practiced rowing in the Park earlier in the year, and perhaps he felt it paid off for him now. Was Blanch impressed by his comfort with his surroundings, his easy way with a rowboat, his rakishly-tilted straw boater?

And after rowing, a stroll over to the Mall, where they joined 60,000 others to see a concert featuring, among other selections, a couple of pieces by Wager and, luckily for Papa, his beloved Tchaikovsky. (I’m taking some liberties with the photo below since it’s from 1894, but it’s the best I could do.)

This concert was not, we should note, the August 24th performance at City College Stadium that Papa had thought about attending with the lively “Miss R.,” a woman who had expressed a matrimonial interest in him last week. Still, it was an outdoor show and it did take place on the same day, so perhaps this is further proof that Blanche and Miss R. were, as I speculated the other day, the same person.

Since I’ve said what the concert wasn’t, I should probably now say what it was: the summer’s final outdoor show conducted by the popular Edwin Franko Goldman, who received an award at intermission in honor of his triumphant season. Goldman likely wrapped up the show with a performance of “On the Mall,” a catchy march he’d just written that would go on to become his most famous composition. I wonder if, in later years, Papa felt proud to have been among the first to hear Goldman’s signature work. I wonder, too, if the strains of “On The Mall” always made him think of Blanche and the perfect day, full of potential, they shared together in 1924.

———————

References:

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Image Sources:

“Babe Ruth crossing the plate after making his first home run of the season today,” April 21, 1924. Library of Congress # LC-USZ62-97945. No known restrictions on publication.

“New York City views from Central Park. Across lake at 77th St. VI,” 1931. Library of Congress # LC-G623-T-15618

“The Mall, Central Park, N.Y. (looking south), 1894. Library of Congress #LC-USZ62-69575