GaryMrMets
07-12-2004, 02:10 AM
http://yesnetwork.com/yankees/news.asp?news_id=383
Life, Death and Rebirth
By Steven Goldman
Special to YES Network Online
July 10, 2004
NEW YORK — One of the few downsides to being a Yankee fan is just how much you’ve missed. Unless you are 100 years old and possessed of health, working faculty of memory, and, above all, a perfect attendance record, there’s no way to have taken in all or even most of the great events that have made the franchise the most successful in sports.
Old Timers’ Day, which originated with the Yankees, is designed to remedy that. Some curmudgeonly critics deride old-timers events as just a parade of sagging skin, an insult to both the players of the past and their fans by erasing the pristine memories of the past and replacing them with only the inevitable decay of flesh.
The naysayers miss the point of these annual reunions between the fans and their heroes of yesteryear. The exhibition of the honored soldiers of campaigns past is not a banal, bathetic exercise in sentimentality, but rather the creation of a momentary museum and a living tableau of the past. This is particularly true of the Yankees, who Saturday presented players connected with nearly every era of the team’s history. Phil Rizzuto’s first team was Joe McCarthy’s champion 1941 Yankees. Yogi Berra earned the first of his many rings with Bucky Harris’ 1947 Yankees. They were both here, as were Whitey Ford, numerous members of the 1976-1978 pennant winners (including Lou Piniella, the opposing manager later in the day), Kevin Maas and Dave LaPoint of the desperate early 1990s, and many more. As Joe Torre said during the festivities, “Only the Yankees can do this, because of the history.”
For the first time, Don Mattingly became the conduit for the continuity between present and past. As an old-timer representing the great unfulfilled Yankees of 1982-1995, Mattingly received the biggest hand of any of the returning alumni. As a member of the 2004 Yankees coaching staff, he received the greatest praise from his boss. “He’s done a hell of a job,” Torre said. “His first-half report card is pretty high from me. He jumped right into this without any hesitancy. He knew exactly what he wanted to do and takes each hitter, like he should, as an individual thing. He works with their ability.”
The Yankees also chose 2004 to remember one of their stars of the 1930s as a plaque for Charles Herbert “Red” Ruffing, right-handed ace of McCarthy’s consecutive champions of 1936-1939, was unveiled. Ruffing, who died in 1986, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1967 and has held the team record for victories by a right-hander, 231, continuously since his retirement after the 1946 season. Yet, perhaps because Ruffing was a reticent man reluctant to supply the writers of his day with a quip or a quote, the Yankees had forgotten to add him to their ballpark museum of antiquities and wonders.
Ruffing’s descendants were on hand to accept the honor on his behalf. Meanwhile, a living monument of sorts was being created in Monument Park. As Thurman Munson’s widow, Diana, prepared to throw out the day’s ceremonial first pitch in honor of the 25th anniversary of Munson’s tragic death in a plane crash, Munson’s son, Mike, was on bended knee before his father’s plaque in the memorial garden, proposing marriage to his girlfriend, Michelle Bruey. She accepted, taking what had been intended as a day of mourning and spinning it in the opposite direction.
The events of the Old Timer’s game itself, were, as always, irrelevant, the exhibition game superfluous to the celebratory atmosphere of the day. The Yankees of today are mere shadow puppets without the context provided by their famous forebears. Mike Mussina is merely Ruffing in modern dress. Without Rizzuto there to stand behind Derek Jeter, the Yankees would merely be the Devil Rays, their opponents for Saturday’s game, a franchise unblessed by the shadow of the past.
RUFFING EXCELLED AS A HITTER TOO
Charles Ruffing, “Red” because of his hair, is the quintessential demonstration of what a change of scenery can do for a pitcher. Despite having lost four toes on his left foot at age 16, the result of a losing encounter with a mine car, Ruffing was a highly coveted pitching prospect when he arrived in the majors with the Boston Red Sox as a 20-year-old rookie on May 31, 1924.
Ruffing threw as hard as any pitcher of the time but he was not yet a pitcher, and the Red Sox were not in the position to help him. Still reeling from the pillaging of their roster by former owner Harry Frazee, utterly without financial resources of any kind, the Sox were the doormats of the American League. Boston lost over 100 games in each of Ruffing’s first three seasons, then improved all the way to 96 in the next two. Ruffing followed them to the bottom, twice losing over 20 games and compiling an overall record of 39-96 with a subpar ERA of 4.62.
By 1930, both Ruffing and the Red Sox had reached the nadir of their relationship. The Red Sox weren’t getting any better, and Ruffing was apparently getting worse, compiling an 0-3, 6.38 record through May. It was rumored that perhaps Ruffing might have been trying to make a point to Red Sox ownership. Nevertheless, the Yankees were watching. Manager Bob Shawkey, at one time a dominant Yankees right-hander himself, thought he saw an easily correctible flaw in Ruffing’s delivery and pressed Yankees team secretary (general manager) Ed Barrow to acquire him. One journeyman outfielder (Cedric Durst, 33) and $50,000 later, the deal was done.
Shawkey applied his fix, and Ruffing, who possessed an exemplary fastball and curve and soon proved to be a pioneer with the slider, took off. Buoyed by New York’s superior defense and offense, he racked up a 15-5 record and dropped his ERA to 4.14, just below the league average. Two years later he emerged as a dominant pitcher, leading the American League with 190 strikeouts and finishing second in the league with a 3.09 ERA.
Ruffing, an aspiring outfielder before the injury to his foot, also proved to be an exemplary hitter. Manager Joe McCarthy frequently employed him as a pinch-hitter, and he compiled 58 career safeties in that role (he once held out, asking the Yankees to give him a raise on the basis that he held two jobs with the club). His hitting could change games; On August 13, 1932, Ruffing broke up a 0-0 10th-inning tie with a home run. The next day, he unknotted a 2-2 tie with a grand slam. In both cases the pitcher he aided was himself. Overall, he batted over .300 in eight different seasons.
In 1936, Ruffing began a run of four consecutive 20-win seasons. He also excelled in the World Series during this stretch, posting a 7-2, 2.63 record in 10 postseason starts. A consistent winner through 1942, only a bizarre call-up to the Army Air Corps – Ruffing was 39 and the missing toes still hadn’t grown back – prevented him from winning 300 games. Ruffing went 12-4 for two also-ran Yankees teams in 1945 and 1946 before finishing his career with the White Sox in 1947.
Steven Goldman writes The Pinstriped Bible for YES Network Online.
http://www.yesnetwork.com/images/news/ruffing_inline_0710.jpg
A plaque dedicated to Red Ruffing’s memory is unveiled at Old Timers' Day.
Life, Death and Rebirth
By Steven Goldman
Special to YES Network Online
July 10, 2004
NEW YORK — One of the few downsides to being a Yankee fan is just how much you’ve missed. Unless you are 100 years old and possessed of health, working faculty of memory, and, above all, a perfect attendance record, there’s no way to have taken in all or even most of the great events that have made the franchise the most successful in sports.
Old Timers’ Day, which originated with the Yankees, is designed to remedy that. Some curmudgeonly critics deride old-timers events as just a parade of sagging skin, an insult to both the players of the past and their fans by erasing the pristine memories of the past and replacing them with only the inevitable decay of flesh.
The naysayers miss the point of these annual reunions between the fans and their heroes of yesteryear. The exhibition of the honored soldiers of campaigns past is not a banal, bathetic exercise in sentimentality, but rather the creation of a momentary museum and a living tableau of the past. This is particularly true of the Yankees, who Saturday presented players connected with nearly every era of the team’s history. Phil Rizzuto’s first team was Joe McCarthy’s champion 1941 Yankees. Yogi Berra earned the first of his many rings with Bucky Harris’ 1947 Yankees. They were both here, as were Whitey Ford, numerous members of the 1976-1978 pennant winners (including Lou Piniella, the opposing manager later in the day), Kevin Maas and Dave LaPoint of the desperate early 1990s, and many more. As Joe Torre said during the festivities, “Only the Yankees can do this, because of the history.”
For the first time, Don Mattingly became the conduit for the continuity between present and past. As an old-timer representing the great unfulfilled Yankees of 1982-1995, Mattingly received the biggest hand of any of the returning alumni. As a member of the 2004 Yankees coaching staff, he received the greatest praise from his boss. “He’s done a hell of a job,” Torre said. “His first-half report card is pretty high from me. He jumped right into this without any hesitancy. He knew exactly what he wanted to do and takes each hitter, like he should, as an individual thing. He works with their ability.”
The Yankees also chose 2004 to remember one of their stars of the 1930s as a plaque for Charles Herbert “Red” Ruffing, right-handed ace of McCarthy’s consecutive champions of 1936-1939, was unveiled. Ruffing, who died in 1986, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1967 and has held the team record for victories by a right-hander, 231, continuously since his retirement after the 1946 season. Yet, perhaps because Ruffing was a reticent man reluctant to supply the writers of his day with a quip or a quote, the Yankees had forgotten to add him to their ballpark museum of antiquities and wonders.
Ruffing’s descendants were on hand to accept the honor on his behalf. Meanwhile, a living monument of sorts was being created in Monument Park. As Thurman Munson’s widow, Diana, prepared to throw out the day’s ceremonial first pitch in honor of the 25th anniversary of Munson’s tragic death in a plane crash, Munson’s son, Mike, was on bended knee before his father’s plaque in the memorial garden, proposing marriage to his girlfriend, Michelle Bruey. She accepted, taking what had been intended as a day of mourning and spinning it in the opposite direction.
The events of the Old Timer’s game itself, were, as always, irrelevant, the exhibition game superfluous to the celebratory atmosphere of the day. The Yankees of today are mere shadow puppets without the context provided by their famous forebears. Mike Mussina is merely Ruffing in modern dress. Without Rizzuto there to stand behind Derek Jeter, the Yankees would merely be the Devil Rays, their opponents for Saturday’s game, a franchise unblessed by the shadow of the past.
RUFFING EXCELLED AS A HITTER TOO
Charles Ruffing, “Red” because of his hair, is the quintessential demonstration of what a change of scenery can do for a pitcher. Despite having lost four toes on his left foot at age 16, the result of a losing encounter with a mine car, Ruffing was a highly coveted pitching prospect when he arrived in the majors with the Boston Red Sox as a 20-year-old rookie on May 31, 1924.
Ruffing threw as hard as any pitcher of the time but he was not yet a pitcher, and the Red Sox were not in the position to help him. Still reeling from the pillaging of their roster by former owner Harry Frazee, utterly without financial resources of any kind, the Sox were the doormats of the American League. Boston lost over 100 games in each of Ruffing’s first three seasons, then improved all the way to 96 in the next two. Ruffing followed them to the bottom, twice losing over 20 games and compiling an overall record of 39-96 with a subpar ERA of 4.62.
By 1930, both Ruffing and the Red Sox had reached the nadir of their relationship. The Red Sox weren’t getting any better, and Ruffing was apparently getting worse, compiling an 0-3, 6.38 record through May. It was rumored that perhaps Ruffing might have been trying to make a point to Red Sox ownership. Nevertheless, the Yankees were watching. Manager Bob Shawkey, at one time a dominant Yankees right-hander himself, thought he saw an easily correctible flaw in Ruffing’s delivery and pressed Yankees team secretary (general manager) Ed Barrow to acquire him. One journeyman outfielder (Cedric Durst, 33) and $50,000 later, the deal was done.
Shawkey applied his fix, and Ruffing, who possessed an exemplary fastball and curve and soon proved to be a pioneer with the slider, took off. Buoyed by New York’s superior defense and offense, he racked up a 15-5 record and dropped his ERA to 4.14, just below the league average. Two years later he emerged as a dominant pitcher, leading the American League with 190 strikeouts and finishing second in the league with a 3.09 ERA.
Ruffing, an aspiring outfielder before the injury to his foot, also proved to be an exemplary hitter. Manager Joe McCarthy frequently employed him as a pinch-hitter, and he compiled 58 career safeties in that role (he once held out, asking the Yankees to give him a raise on the basis that he held two jobs with the club). His hitting could change games; On August 13, 1932, Ruffing broke up a 0-0 10th-inning tie with a home run. The next day, he unknotted a 2-2 tie with a grand slam. In both cases the pitcher he aided was himself. Overall, he batted over .300 in eight different seasons.
In 1936, Ruffing began a run of four consecutive 20-win seasons. He also excelled in the World Series during this stretch, posting a 7-2, 2.63 record in 10 postseason starts. A consistent winner through 1942, only a bizarre call-up to the Army Air Corps – Ruffing was 39 and the missing toes still hadn’t grown back – prevented him from winning 300 games. Ruffing went 12-4 for two also-ran Yankees teams in 1945 and 1946 before finishing his career with the White Sox in 1947.
Steven Goldman writes The Pinstriped Bible for YES Network Online.
http://www.yesnetwork.com/images/news/ruffing_inline_0710.jpg
A plaque dedicated to Red Ruffing’s memory is unveiled at Old Timers' Day.