Ralph Kiner

A gem of a human being.

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Times obit
His genial, well-informed and occasionally tongue-twisted presence accompanied all of Mets history, from the verbal high jinks of Casey Stengel and the fielding high jinks of Marv Throneberry to the arrival of the fireballer Tom Seaver and the miraculous World Series championship of 1969, from the thrilling 1986 Series victory over the Red Sox to the dispiriting Subway Series loss to the Yankees in 2000 and the Madoff-poisoned, injury-riddled ill fortune of recent seasons.

Kiner, who hit 369 homers, playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1947. Associated Press

Over half a century of Met broadcasts, while sharing the microphone with Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Tim McCarver — whom he once called Tim MacArthur — among many others, Kiner proved himself especially valuable in explaining the nuances of hitting, and though occasionally criticized for a flat affect and a penchant for phrase-bungling — “On Father’s Day we again wish you all happy birthday!” — he was known as an amusing raconteur who was generally well prepared with both facts and stories, and his intended wit was often as memorable as his unintended humor.

“Two-thirds of the earth is covered by water,” he declared about an especially fleet outfielder. “The other third is covered by Garry Maddox.” Cutting to a commercial after mistaking McCarver’s name for that of the World War II general, he said: “MacArthur once said ‘I shall return,’ and we’ll be back after this.”

Smooth as silk.


Malaprops Were Part of the Charm of Kiner, an Enduring Met
“He once dropped a name on us, Frenchy Bordagaray, which I couldn’t pronounce or make any reference to,” said Howie Rose, his former partner on cable TV. “But I did a little homework and learned about his career. When I hear younger fans criticize older broadcasters for their references to players from past generations, I wonder, ‘Do you have an ounce of curiosity?’ ”
 

His lack of pretension and his wit and amiability made “Kiner’s Korner,” his postgame show, required viewing, even if it looked like public access programming. In its debut from the Polo Grounds, Mets Manager Casey Stengel forgot to remove his microphone as he left the interview and brought the set down.

“Hold up the cue cards because we have to get to commercial so I can get off the air,” Kiner recalled telling his production assistant during an interview in 2012.

Another story from McCarver. He and Kiner were calling a Mets game in Philadelphia. Walking through the press box were Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband, Christopher Guest.

“They’re huge Phillies fans, and they came in and were introduced to us,” McCarver said. “But Ralph wants a moment with her because he had once dated her mother, Janet Leigh. So he sheepishly approaches her and says, ‘Jamie Lee, my name’s Ralph Kiner, and you were just introduced to us and I wanted to tell you that I used to date your mother.’ And she throws her arms around his neck and says, ‘Daddy!’ ”

Blazing Pitcher - Fastball Dazzled

2 obituaries, in the Times and the Journal.

Associated Press-Bob Feller hurled his third no-hitter July 1, 1950 with a 2-1 win over the Detroit Tigers in the opener of a twin bill at Cleveland.

Bob Feller, who died Wednesday at age 92, had one of the great fastballs in the history of baseball and at the time perhaps the sport's biggest star after Babe Ruth.

Whether apocryphal or not, one story has it that In the 1940 no-hitter, the story goes, White Sox center fielder Mike Kreevich protested a called strike, telling the umpire, "It sounded a little high."

And: As Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez was said to have remarked after three Feller pitches blew by him, “That last one sounded a little low.”

In 1956, as Mr. Feller was preparing to retire, he was elected president of baseball's Players' Association, where he advocated for higher minimum salaries and against the reserve clause binding a player to his team for life. The clause wasn't lifted until 1975, effectively creating the free-agent market. "They call baseball the great American pastime but what is more un-American than tying a player to a club against his will?" he said after testifying before Congress in 1957.

Times:  When he returned from the war, he was better than ever, developing a sinker to go with his fastball and curve. He threw his second no-hitter, at Yankee Stadium, in April 1946, and struck out 348 batters that season, listed at the time as a major league record, eclipsing Rube Waddell’s 343 for the Athletics in 1904. (Waddell’s total was subsequently revised to 349.) 

Journal: He led the league in wins three more times after the war, but was perhaps a bit less dominant than before it. A favorite game among cognoscenti is to debate how many games he might have won if he had never gone to war. Mr. Feller often said he would easily have cracked 300 total wins. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility. 

Curiously, the Journal obit makes no mention of Jackie Robinson. The Times does:
Back in 1945, Feller, always outspoken, had created a controversy involving Robinson soon after Robinson had been signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers organization to break baseball’s color barrier. After pitching against Robinson in California on a postseason barnstorming tour, Feller told a reporter in Los Angeles that Robinson was too muscle-bound to handle major league pitching and expressed doubt that Robinson would be considered for the big leagues if he were white. Feller eventually acknowledged that he had been mistaken, but it appears he never expressed regrets directly to Robinson. He did say that he had taken pride in giving black players exposure through his barnstorming tours. And in his memoir, “Now Pitching, Bob Feller,” written with Bill Gilbert, he said it had been “extra meaningful” for him go into the Hall of Fame “with major league baseball’s first black player.” Robinson, in turn, said it was a pleasure to be inducted with Feller.

Bob Strickland, shortstop

George Strickland remains part of baseball's historic era
By Peter Finney, Times-Picayune
February 24, 2010, 6:00AM


George Strickland played on the Cleveland Indians' 1954 team, which won a record 111 games."


My last interview with George Strickland was in autumn 2007, a time his son was bemoaning the 0-4 start of his favorite football team, a franchise now celebrating a Super Bowl championship.

Son, it took the Saints a month to lose four games," said dad. "Remember, I was on a team that did a lot worse. We lost four games in four days."

It was vintage "Bo" Strickland, who passed away this week at age 84. He had a way of putting things in perspective, telling stories that left you laughing to the very end.

Before I asked a question at that October meeting in '07, Bo already was laughing. "It's World Series time, so I guess you want to keep talking about 1954," he said. "You laugh, and I'll cry."

The guy who grew up playing shortstop at S.J. Peters High School, then wound up playing shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, was part of a piece of baseball history at a time history was being written in capital letters.
Not by the Cleveland Indians. By the New York Yankees. When the Indians showed up to play the New York Giants in the '54 Series, they had snapped a record run of five consecutive world championships by a Yankees dynasty managed by Casey Stengel.

During this golden stretch, in 1951, Joe DiMaggio played in his final World Series and Mickey Mantle in his first. After their fall from grace in '54, the Yankees returned to play in nine of the next 10 World Series, winning four, baseball's most dominant stretch ever. "You look at this," said Bo, "and that's what made what we did in '54 so special."

What the Indians did was win a record 111 games. They finished eight games in front of the Yankees, 17 in front of the White Sox, 42 games ahead of the rest of the teams in the American League. "We played the Yankees 22 times and split 11-11," said Bo. "It was a great Yankees team. But our pitching was so good, so deep, we were hardly ever out of a game. We won 111, but if you check the scores, we had a chance to win close to 150. That's how dominant we were. No team ever had deeper pitching." Bo enjoyed rattling off the records: Bob Lemon (23-7), Early Wynn (23-11), Mike Garcia (19-8), Bob Feller (13-3), Art Houtteman (15-7). "In the bullpen," said Bo, "we had Hal Newhouser, a Hall of Famer, and two of the league leaders in saves, Ray Narleski and Don Mossi."

The Indians had a couple of double-digit winning streaks, 11 straight in May, 11 in September. Strickland remembered the last one coming when the Yankees came to Cleveland trailing by 6¤1/2 games. "It was for a Sunday doubleheader," said Bo. "We had to get permission from the league to sell tickets in the center-field bleachers for a stadium with a capacity of more than 80,000. We were pitching two right-handers, Lemon and Wynn, and they were going with two lefties. Thinking of all the white shirts sitting in the bleachers, it would have been smarter on our part if we had sold tickets for the side that would have given our hitters a better background in picking up the flight of the ball against lefties. We did just the opposite. "But you know what? We won both games in front of a record crowd of 86,000. Give the Yankees credit for that."

So how could a team as good as the '54 Indians get swept by the Giants? "We had a lot of respect for the Giants," said Bo. "We must have played them 15 times in spring training out in Arizona. They could do a lot of things -- hit, run and steal. And they had a guy named Willie Mays."

In the opening game at the Polo Grounds in New York, it was Mays, the 23-year-old phenom, who made an immediate impression. "We've got two men on, and Vic Wertz hits it 460 feet to deep center," said Bo. "It would have been a home run in any park except the Polo Grounds. Well, Willie makes the all-time highlight reel with a great catch that stops a big inning for us. Then Dusty Rhodes wins it with a pinch-hit homer in the 10th inning that didn't travel more than 200 feet. A 460-foot out, a 200-foot homer. That's baseball.

"In Game 2, it's Dusty again. He's responsible for all the runs in a 3-1 game, with a single and another chip-shot homer. Then we get to Cleveland, and Garcia loses, 6-2, and Lemon loses, 7-4. Give the Giants credit. Good pitching, timely hitting. Case closed." Strickland always said the best excuse he could offer was winning 111 games.

"After we clinched the pennant more than a week before the season ended, our goal was to beat the record of 110 victories. When we did, I guess we lost something. We went into the Series like a football team favored to win by three touchdowns. But this wasn't football." Getting swept in four games left Strickland with one lasting memory. "The next day I'm at the ball park in Cleveland, all packed, ready to drive back home to New Orleans," he said. "I'm just looking around, killing time, and I walk into this room piled high with stacks of programs to Game 5. Could have taken as many as I wanted. I always regretted not taking one." 

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