Late in the 1977 season, the Dodger's Dusty Baker hit his 30th home run of the season. When he returned to the dugout, he was greeted by part-time outfielder Glenn Burke, who, instead of extending his right hand to shake, as was tradition, decided to turn both his hands upward. Baker then responded by simply slapping them. This my friends, was the first ever "high five", a gesture that is so commonplace in sports today, that no one even notices it anymore. That it was a relatively unknown player like Burke who invented this trend is not that noteworthy. The fact that Burke was gay, however, is...
Of course, back then, no one knew he was gay; he didn't come out until two years after his playing days were over. During his brief career, a few players knew of his lifestyle choice, as did members of the Dodger's front office. The fans, however, remained blissfully ignorant. Although, if Glenn's lover, sportswriter Michael J.Smith had his way, it would have been public knowledge. Smith had pleaded with Burke to come out during the 1977 World Series against the Yankees. Something tells me that if he had, Reggie's three home run performance in game 6 wouldn't have been the only thing people were talking about. Glenn thought better of it and kept his secret, even when the Dodger higher ups decided to trade him the next year to Oakland ( basically for not keeping things on the "down low" ), for an older player with almost identical stats, Billy North.
Only one other Major League baseball player has come out since, that being journeyman outfielder Billy Bean ( not to be confused with the current A's GM), but since then, nothing. Only one NBA player, John Amaechi, has come out, also well after his playing days were over, and wrote a book about the experience entitled "Man in the middle". Surprisingly, there are three NFL players who have later admitted to being gay; Esae Tualo, Roy Simmons and Dave Kopay. Although Burke is seen in hindsight as a pioneer of sorts, his life was a sad one. After baseball, he slipped into drug addiction and eventually died of AIDS in 1995, the same year his autobiography "Out at home" was published.
So the next time you see an athlete congratulate another with a high five, remember where it came from. Maybe it will enlighten some of the more homophobic sports fans. You know, the same people who don't see the irony of singing along to Queen's "We will rock you/We are the champions" every time their team wins. Freddy Mercury's anthem of triumph has been used for years to celebrate victories in almost every sport, and Freddy couldn't have been more gay if he tried. So, the moral here is, don't judge a, uhhhhh....don't be like....ummmm...well, don't judge, I guess. That person next to you at work or competing against you may be gay, but that fact won't keep him or her from achieving greatness or from being an innovator who comes up with something that people use everyday...like say the "high five"...
Who was your favorite player growing up? It's kind of a strange question, because first of all, we need to define what exactly the "growing up" years are. So to make it easier, let's just say from the ages of 6 to 12. You may have liked baseball before 6, but you probably didn't understand it enough to make an informed decision. And after the age of 12, you're a teenager and therefore subject to being kind of a cynical douchebag from time to time (although I know a lot of pre and post -teen douchebags as well, but I digress...). Also, you may remember your favorite player from those days as being someone who actually wasn't your favorite at the time, but you tell everyone that they were just to be cool. For example, when Dan Epstein, author of the amazing book "Big hair and plastic grass" autographed his book for me a few months ago, he asked me that very question, and I said "Bill Lee". Now he's my favorite player from the late 70's Red Sox teams, but he wasn't when I was actually watching them then. He was a pitcher, and I liked hitting...especially guys who hit "taters". Therefore my fave was first baseman George "the boomer" Scott.
Scott started his career actually a few years before I was born, debuting in 1966 and was a part of the 1967 "impossible dream" team that saw them get to within one game of winning it all (Damn you Bob Gibson!). After 2 solid years with the bat, he had an atrocious year hitting in 1968. He bounced back slightly in the next few years only to be traded to the Brewers in 1972, where he ( of course) had his best offensive seasons, leading the league in homers and RBI's in 1975. One thing he never slumped at, though, was his fielding. For a big man, he was quite agile, winning 8 gold gloves in his career. He returned to the Sox in 1977 and his 33 homers , or "taters", as he liked to call them, were part of the teams 213 that year. At the time, getting the boomer back to Beantown seemed like a good move.After all, they only had to trade under performing Cecil Cooper to get him. Needless to say, Cooper went on to a borderline Hall of fame career...oh well.
I think the thing I dug about the Boomer the most was his wild batting swing; He would take a ferocious cut every time, pulling his right hand off the bat after he swung. I emulated that style in little league, and first time up, I hit a home run ( I'm sorry, a tater)...the last one I ever hit in little league. He also wore a batting helmet at first base and regularly sported a necklace that he claimed was made of "second baseman's teeth". Growing up dirt poor in Mississippi with only a third grade education, George was as unpretentious as they come. Before a spring training game against the Orioles in the early '70s, the boomer was taking batting practice. Around the cage watching him were Frank Robinson, Elrod Hendricks and Paul Blair who were discussing the current events of the day, specifically, the plight of Biafra. When one of them asked, "hey George, what do you think of Biafra"? he replied, "I never faced the muddafucka, but third time up, I'll hit a tater off him". The fact that he just assumed Biafra was a pitcher is hilarious, and pretty awesome. The man breathed, ate and slept baseball..Unfortunately, he also ate a lot of other things.
Weight was always a problem for him, even at a young age. Dick Williams, manager from the '67 season always got on his case for it, and he would try all sorts of crash diets. By the time he returned in 1977, he was pretty heavy, but because he had an All Star season that year, nobody griped. In 1978, however, he was noticeably out of shape. He later lamented about not switching to a lighter bat like Sox manager Don Zimmer told him to. Alas, the boomer was traded to the Kansas city Royals midway through the 1979 season for something called a "Tom Poquette". He played for them for only a month or so and then was picked up by the Yankees to finish off his final season in baseball. That topps 1980 card with the boomer wearing a Yankees cap is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. Imagine Donnie baseball wearing a Sox cap, Yankees fans...yes, that bad. In later years, he managed Boston's A ball team, the Lowell Spinners for a bit, and his grandson plays for the Pacific coast league, so he's still involved in the game in one way or another...anyway, that's was my favorite player "growing up"...who was yours...?
No one loves a pointless conspiracy theory more than me, so I've decided to create one, though it's hardly a conspiracy and barely a theory...It's just that I've noticed a lot of clapping at ball games over the past ten years or so. I don't mean like regular, "Oh he made a good play" or "yeah, my team scored" type clapping. I'm speaking specifically of the two clap, pause, three quicker clap variety, or clap-clap, clapclapclap, which usually follows the words "Let's go Red Sox" or "Let's go Yankees". But of course I would hear these; I grew up in Boston and now live in New York. There are other times I'd hear the simple three word chant , "Let's go Mets!", in which the claps came on each word. However, I do watch a lot of games from different teams, so I tried to make a list of these "two syllable" teams and how successful they've been in recent years...the results are a little mind blowing.
Take the 2011 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. Now technically, they're a three syllable team, but their name can easily fit into a two syllable context, therefore they can fit into a "five clap" chant, ie: "Let's go Cardinals", (Clap, clap, clapclapclap ). Let's call them a 2 and 1/2 syllable team. And going back through the years, it looks like this:
Let's Go....
2011- Card-inals (Clap, clap, clapclapclap)
2010- Gi-ants
2009- Yank-ees
2008- Phil-lies
2007- Red -Sox
2006- Card-inals
2005- White-Sox
2004- Red- Sox
2003- Mar-lins
2002- Ang-els
2001- D'Backs (I cheated a little here, but most people call
them the D'Backs anyway...)
2000-Yank-ees
1999-Yank-ees
1998-Yank-ees
1997-Mar-lins
1996-Yank-ees
...and then the 1995 Braves break the string...a string of sixteen years of 2 syllable teams. The longest such streak ever. Before then, there's a little bit of back and forth; 1994 was a strike year, the Blue-Jays winning back to back titles in 92 and 93, which was preceded by three 1 syllable teams in a row ( It would have been six, but the A' lost to the Dodgers in a series they should have won blindfolded in 1988 ), the 1991 Twins, the 1990 Reds and the 1989 A's. Before the Dodgers' surprise series title in '88, there were the mono syllabic '87 Twins and '86 Mets, which broke up a nine year run by dual syllable teams; 85 Royals, 84 Tigers, 83 Orioles (another one of those 2 /12 syllable teams...maybe it's a bird thing) 82 Cardinals(ditto), '81 Dodgers, 80 Phillies, 79 Pirates, 77- 78 Yankees. The longest streak by one syllable teams came right before that run...75-76 Reds and the 72-74 A's.
Every championship team in the '60s had 5 clap names except the '69 Mets. In fact, the second longest streak by the dual sylls run from 1958-1968...of course the team who predated this streak was the '57 Braves (then in Milwaukee), who broke up an 8 year dual syll run that started in 1949. The team that preceded that run is one of the only legitimate three syllable teams, the Indians. Sure, I could go back even further, but I've made my point...whatever the hell THAT point was is up for debate. I think I was just taken aback by the most recent run of 5 clap-worthy teams. As for this year, the Rangers are looking good, as are a few other teams. But of course, now that I've written this, the three syllable Nationals have the best record in baseball, and will probably mess the current streak up and win it all, just like a certain other team from Washington named the Senators had their only championship in 1924 land smack dab in the middle of an almost decade long run of 2 syllable dominance. Somewhere, the Mariners are saying "what about us"?...
Billy goats...black cats...Steve Bartman...all are in one way or another to blame for a "curse" against the Chicago Cubs, one of the oldest and wealthiest teams in baseball. Of course there were/are other curses in the game, some broken, some still in full effect. The most famous of course was the "Curse of the Bambino", in which Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sealed the team's fate for 86 years by selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees for cash to fund his play "No, no Nanette". What people don't remember is that he also sold off several other key members of those 1915-1918 teams by unloading other greats like Tris Speaker( actually, he was sold by the previous owner in 1916...) and Harry Hooper. Tom Yawkey bought the Bosox in the '30s and opened his wallet to try and do to the Philadelphia A's what the Yankees did to the Sox, by buying big names like Jimmie Foxx and Lefty Grove. The reason that the Sox never won a championship in the Yawkey era ( he died in 1976, and his wife took over for the next decade to no avail) was probably because he was more than a little racist. The Sox were the last to integrate, signing Pumpsie Green in 1959.
The Cubs, however , had no problem with integrating the team. In fact, by the time Green played his first game for Boston, Ernie Banks had already won 2 MVP awards ( for losing teams, of course), and The Cubs have had 3 more black players go into the Hall of fame as of this writing...Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins, and more recently, Andre Dawson (who should have gone in as an Expo, but anyway). As far as fans go, however, it has been pointed out that for a team that was always pretty diverse racially, the fan make up is pretty white. Possibly because Wrigley is located in the northside of Chicago, which has a more suburban feel to it as opposed to the south side, where the White Sox play. Honestly, I've never been there, so I don't know ( and you could make the same argument about Fenway, so I'll just shut up now). Another team with a so-called "curse" are the Cleveland Indians. There was a book published in 1994 entitled "The Curse of Rocky Colavito", which blames the trade of the popular slugger to the Detroit Tigers in 1960 for the team's downfall, although it's not the same as the Babe Ruth trade, of course; The Indians had gone a dozen years without a World championship by then, and the Tigers would have to wait until 1968 for theirs, and Colavito was long gone by then. The irony of that book was that a year after it was published, the Indians won the pennant, as they would 2 years later. But enough about that, back to Chicago...
Very little fanfare was made when Chicago's south side team, the White Sox, broke an 88 year championship drought in 2005. Maybe because it was on the heels of the Red Sox Championship the year before. Most likely it's because the Cubs are just more popular. So popular, it seems like they don't even have to try being great to get fans through the turn styles. Hell, the last time they even won a pennant was 1945, but of course lost the series to the Tigers because Cubs fan William Sianis famously bought his pet billy goat a ticket to game 4, then was ejected in the fourth inning when other fans complained of the smell. He became so incensed for his ousting, he put a "curse" on the team. Fast forward to 1969 when a black cat crossing in front of the dugout during a game that year with the Mets somehow led them to losing the division to New York. The more logical, non superstitious answer was that the Mets had a better pitching staff. Even with division play starting in 1969, it would take the Cubbies another 15 years to make it to the playoffs, in 1984, the year Ryne Sandberg made Phillies fans curse the name Ivan DeJesus. In their first ever NLCS, the Cubs won the first 2 at Wrigley, they then dropped 3 straight in San Diego, thanks in no small part by Leon Durham's pre-Buckner ball-through the first basemen's legs routine.
However, I believe the 2003 NLCS game against the Marlins was the most heartbreaking of all. Known now as the " Steve Bartman incident "after a fan by that name reached over to catch a ball in fair territory and prevented Moises Alou from making the catch. The fact that at least one other fan was also guilty of this act is rarely brought up. Bartman became the goat, although the real goat may have been the pitching staff which let up 8 runs after the incident, with an error by shortstop Alex Gonzalez (not to be confused with the other shortstop named "Alex Gonzalez" playing for Marlins that day ) not helping matters. They lost that game, and then the next. The anticipated Cubs/Red Sox World series was never to be. The Sox, of course would lose the 2003 ALCS to the Yankees because of Aaron bleepin' Boone, but they pulled it together the next year. Their GM of course was Theo Epstein, now with the Cubs. Can he pull it off again? If he does, then I know a certain headphone -wearing bespectacled Cubs fan who would definitely "friend" him on facebook.
Ah, the trading deadline...the time of the year where all the contending teams scurry around, looking up and down their minor league roster for a (maybe) future star as trade bait for the teams' immediate needs. Maybe a pitcher, maybe a hitter, usually a player whose best days are behind them (hello, Ichiro) . It's also the time of year for teams to decide if they're actually IN contention. This year, with the expanded Wild card format, more teams will be, in theory at least, ready to make a deal. Most of the time, however, the young players don't turn out to be that great. Maybe they'll last a few years, or become role players, but usually, you never hear from them again. Unless, of course, they eventually end up as coaches and managers in the Minor Leagues. Other times....
It was 1990, and the Red Sox found themselves in contention, but they needed some help. More precisely, bullpen help. That help came in the form of Larry Andersen of the Houston Astros. Andersen had been around the league a bit, pitching for the Indians, Mariners, Phillies, and in 1990, The Astros, mostly as a set up man or long reliever... He was 37 years old at the time, but still had good stuff and actually helped the Sox win the AL Eastern division (although he kind of blew up in the actual playoffs against the A's). He would have a few more years in the bigs afterwards with the Padres and back with the Phillies again (I think he may be the only player to be on both the 1983, and 1993 Phillies pennant winning teams) then retire in 1994. Oh, and who did the Sox give up for him? No one really, just somebody named Jeff Bagwell. Yeah, THAT Jeff Bagwell, as in the future Hall of famer. I believe this was the move that eventually got Sox GM Lou Gorman canned.
The Sox would recover, of course, but it did change things considerably in Houston, as Bagwell helped keep the team in contention for most of his career, culminating in the Astros only World Series appearance in 2005, although, to be fair, Bagwell didn't play in it much, being injured at the time and had just 1 hit in 8 at bats. It would also be his last year in the bigs, ending a career he could look back on fondly; 1991 Rookie of the year, 1994 MVP, appearing in four All Star games, and so on. As For Mr. Andersen, he was mainly remembered for being a prankster in the clubhouse, although he did have some pretty good years. After all, you don't make in to your '40s in the Majors by sucking. There may be some irony in Andersen's last season, 1994, also being the year Bags won the MVP. I kind of always thought 1994 was a wasted year anyway, with the strike and all. Having no World series that year really ticked me off.
So all you GM's out there, beware. Double check and make sure you don't just "give away" the next Jeff Bagwell. It's easy for me to say...I don't run a team. Hell, I would trade for players just because I like their name. Placido Palanco, for example. How cool a name is that? Sounds like what the guy on the Dos equis commercial should be named. I would have signed Oscar Gamble, and in his contract would be a clause in which he could NEVER cut his 'fro...I would have signed Darren Daulton just to have his wife in the stands. She was a looker...But seriously, you don't want to be the GM who trades a guy who ends up hitting .297 lifetime, with 449 homers and 1,529 RBI's which Bagwell did in 15 years , all the while doing so with one of the most uncomfortable batting stances this side of Phil Plantier, or, if I can do a "call back", Oscar Gamble...I'm not going to mention him for a third time, because if I do, he will appear, "beetlejuice" style in my Brooklyn apartment, and I will have to explain the bit I do onstage about him...
Here's a movie idea: Say there was this guy who played baseball from the late '50's to the early '70's, who was the first of his race (Latino) to make it to the hall of fame due to his great fielding and lifetime (.317) average. Let's also make him part of two of the greatest world series ever played, had him be in the first all-black /Latino line-up ever, play in a game where his pitcher that day threw a no-hitter on LSD, and to top it off, was a great humanitarian, who died while trying to take supplies to an earthquake ravaged nation....you'd watch that movie, right? So why oh why has Hollywood not made the Roberto Clemente biopic yet?
Seriously, when you see some of these biopics, you have to wonder. A year ago there was "Killing Pablo" about a drug dealer, "William and Kate", about a Royal couple who have only recently appeared in the public eye, (way to give it time, guys) and of course, "Moneyball", about a team who actually never won anything and who may be moving out of the city they're playing in right now...so inspiring. Look, I don't care how good or bad these movies are, it's the principle of the thing. "Clemente" deserves to be made, even if I have to write another stern facebook message to Jonathan Sayles to get it done. (forgot about the facebook biopic)
All you'd need is a late twenty something Hispanic athletic type to play the lead. There may be one or 4,000 of those lying around. Someone to adapt a screenplay from one of the many biographies written about him, and a director who's a baseball fan. I chose Sayles because of his movie "8 men out", which was of course about the 1919 BlackSox scandal. Hell, I'll even play one of the players, or better yet, manager Danny Murtaugh. I can deliver his immortal line when he was asked about whether or not he was making a political statement being the first manger to field and all Black/Hispanic line-up: "The nine best players I had available all happened to be black. Next question".
Of course race will play a huge part in the film. For a lot of his career, broadcasters insisted on calling him "Bobby", perhaps to make him more appealing to the white listeners/viewers. Even at the very end of his career when he smacked his 3,000th and final hit, one of them said "They're all waiting for Bobby to get # 3,000." I'm sure if some of these folks had their way, they would have figured out how to gentrify his last name too, something along the lines of "Clements" or "Clemens". Come to think of it, they'll probably have a movie about that cheating asshole Clemens before they have one about Clemente, because steroids are SOOO interesting (sarcasm detector).
So while you're all waiting patiently for the upcoming Tupac Shakur biopic (couldn't they have gotten him and Biggie out of the one with one film?...just sayin'), ask yourself, who really deserves one. Some one who may or may not have been responsible for the death of a rival rapper, or someone who died trying to prevent the death of several thousand people. Either way, I'm reminded of one of the many great lines from the movie "This is Spinal Tap", where the band's manager Ian Faith answers David Saint Hubbins' question about why their latest album "Smell the glove is all black: "Death sells".
While walking in my neighborhood recently, I noticed a sign that read "First home game since 1957". It was an ad for the new Brooklyn Nets basketball team, and the sign referred to the old Brooklyn Dodgers, who moved to L.A. at the start of the 1958 season. I almost threw up. Yeah, I get that it'll be the first professional sports franchise to play in Brooklyn for over half a century, but talk about apples and oranges. The Dodgers were the olde town team, beloved by all the locals, even when they were bad, which was often. The Nets are strictly a power play move to cram more revenue into an already crowded area. Developer Bruce Ratner, with the help of a certain Russian billionaire, helped destroy a vibrant community by using unethical tactics and eminent domain. You should see the monstrosity they built to house the team...it's hideous.
To me, the only real (semi) professional team Brooklyn has are the Cyclones, the Mets A ball minor league team. Playing in Coney Island with the amusement park in the distance, the Cyclones are pure Brooklyn; unpretentious, fun and a little scary (well, the boardwalk can be late at night if you walk down the wrong way), and while it's mostly future stars on the team, you'll occasionally see a player or two on rehab assignment...I remember seeing Moises Alou there circa 2006, just three years removed from his "Steve Bartman" meltdown while a member of the Cubs in 2003. Yeah, that Moises was on a lot of teams. Side note:You know that his dad and two uncles made up The Giants outfield briefly in the '60s? Yup. Felipe, Matty and Jesus. You think the "Nets" are gonna have cool facts like that. Of course not. They'll just regale us with pointless stories about which one of them is boinking a Kardasian sister.
Anyway, The Brooklyn Dodgers won their only World series title in 1955, and were referred to as "The boys of summer"...not to be confused with that terrible Don Henley song. Actually, did I even need to write the word "terrible" there? BTW, my sister interviewed Henley for her college paper back in the '90s, and unlike the Cyclones, HE was pretentious. Kept pronouncing literature as "literator". When you think about it, that's more ignorant than pretentious...where was I? Oh yes, their only championship in 1955... well they did actually win a lot of National league pennants, losing most of them to the evil empire, like a lot of National league teams. As for their old home, Ebbets field, it's now a housing project. In fact the only way anyone could tell that Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, and Roy Campenella once played there, is a small plaque on the building itself.
Yes, I did grow up in the Boston area rooting for the Red Sox, but as a Brooklyn resident for the past decade, a part of me wishes that the team who played on the corner of Bedford avenue and Empire blvd was still around. For one thing, it would take me like 10 minutes to bike there from my apt. I mean, I like the Mets and all, mostly because I've used to Psycho therapy to remove any memory of 1986, but they're in Queens. I'm really into the whole Brooklyn pride thing, and I know it's a different sport, but I just can't root for the Nets. It's safe to say, I'm actively rooting against them. So unless the Mets move to my borough, the only Brooklyn team to me will be the kids spending their summers in that park off of Surf avenue. Well, them and the Brooklyn Bombshells from the Gotham Girls Roller Derby League, those gals can hit!
