pmeares17
11-30-2001, 06:32 PM
The Gashouse District was a section of the lower East Side of Manhattan, an area that once had housed several large gas tanks. Historians have described the general area there as a rough neighborhood, with writer Frank Moss saying, "Perhaps the most unique of all vicious drinking places is a 'dead house' on 18th Street in what is called the 'gashouse district,' a hangout for vagrants and bums of New York, Brooklyn and New Jersey." The neighborhood came to be known best for its wandering group of particularly cruel thugs: the Gashouse Gang.
The best-known Cardinals might have perhaps been their own Gashouse Gang, as well.
Hard to tell exactly how the 1934 Cardinals came to be called after the Gashousers and forever in baseball lore linked to that nickname. Perhaps the true story is the one about the day in the 1934 season when the Cards arrived in New York to play the Giants after playing the Boston Braves in a rain-soaked game. Being the passionate, ever-sliding bunch that they were, the Cardinals' uniforms carried the dark color of grime. And they didn't have the luxury of extra uniforms or the ability to wash the ones they had after each game. When they first appeared at the Polo Grounds, one New York sportswriter noted that they looked like "the gang from around the gashouse."
Or maybe the truth began in a conversation between writer Frank Graham of the New York Sun and a member of that Cardinals team. Graham said the Cardinals might even be good enough to play in the American League. The player, probably either Leo Durocher or Pepper Martin, responded: "They wouldn't let us play in the American League. They'd say we were just a bunch of gashouse players." Graham made liberal use of the nickname after that.
Durocher, in his autobiography, recalled the team wearing the dirty uniforms to the Big Apple and "the next day, I saw a cartoon in the World-Telegram. It showed two big gas tanks on the wrong side of the railroad track, and some ballplayers crossing over to the good part of town carrying clubs over their shoulders instead of bats. And the title read: 'the Gashouse Gang.' "
Though perhaps the best-known of the Cardinals' teams, they probably weren't the most athletically talented. They certainly didn't look the part. They wore stained, dirty uniforms that didn't fit right and were patched up in several places. Many didn't shave before games. Most chewed tobacco, spit out the sides of their mouths, rubbed the backs of their hands across their mouths, and then wiped the backs of their hands across their shirts.
Thick-necked, knotty-muscled, cussin' and fightin' - with enemy ballplayers, fans, umpires, club owners, league officials, even commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
Somehow, through all that, they captured the imagination of baseball fans everywhere in 1934 and the respect of everyone by winning the World Championship.
The best-known Cardinals might have perhaps been their own Gashouse Gang, as well.
Hard to tell exactly how the 1934 Cardinals came to be called after the Gashousers and forever in baseball lore linked to that nickname. Perhaps the true story is the one about the day in the 1934 season when the Cards arrived in New York to play the Giants after playing the Boston Braves in a rain-soaked game. Being the passionate, ever-sliding bunch that they were, the Cardinals' uniforms carried the dark color of grime. And they didn't have the luxury of extra uniforms or the ability to wash the ones they had after each game. When they first appeared at the Polo Grounds, one New York sportswriter noted that they looked like "the gang from around the gashouse."
Or maybe the truth began in a conversation between writer Frank Graham of the New York Sun and a member of that Cardinals team. Graham said the Cardinals might even be good enough to play in the American League. The player, probably either Leo Durocher or Pepper Martin, responded: "They wouldn't let us play in the American League. They'd say we were just a bunch of gashouse players." Graham made liberal use of the nickname after that.
Durocher, in his autobiography, recalled the team wearing the dirty uniforms to the Big Apple and "the next day, I saw a cartoon in the World-Telegram. It showed two big gas tanks on the wrong side of the railroad track, and some ballplayers crossing over to the good part of town carrying clubs over their shoulders instead of bats. And the title read: 'the Gashouse Gang.' "
Though perhaps the best-known of the Cardinals' teams, they probably weren't the most athletically talented. They certainly didn't look the part. They wore stained, dirty uniforms that didn't fit right and were patched up in several places. Many didn't shave before games. Most chewed tobacco, spit out the sides of their mouths, rubbed the backs of their hands across their mouths, and then wiped the backs of their hands across their shirts.
Thick-necked, knotty-muscled, cussin' and fightin' - with enemy ballplayers, fans, umpires, club owners, league officials, even commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
Somehow, through all that, they captured the imagination of baseball fans everywhere in 1934 and the respect of everyone by winning the World Championship.