My grandfather is now 91 years old. He is my last living grandparent. He is a proud man, once a prominent architect in New York City. His work ethic inspired me and he has always believed in me.
I make a commitment to see him at least once a year. I never spent enough time with my other grandparents. Two or more years had passed in between visits and their respective deaths. I was always too busy with my career and family.
Last year, he flew East to Maryland with his dear friend Ms. Genny. I told him I had decided to write a guide to inspiring people and talk about it on the Oprah Winfrey show so he could attend near his home outside Chicago. Hey, we should all dream big. Without any air of doubt, he simply smiled and said he was looking forward to it.
Well, over the next six months, I did write that guide and started my company,
Interview Angel, around it. Admittedly, I haven’t made it on Oprah yet. My goal is to do so before I lose him, and to share with the country a truly inspirational story about a teenage mother I met in Richmond City.
Last month, I flew out to
Chicago to visit him with my mother. His health has been declining and the day we left he was hospitalized. Fortunately, he was released back to his apartment later in the week.
Before we left, he gave me something very valuable and unexpected – a
baseball signed by the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers. After all these years, growing up a huge baseball fan, this was the first time he shared it with me. Baseball in Brooklyn pre-dates me. I grew up in Maryland in the 70s and 80s. A die hard Baltimore Orioles fan with my father.
I cried the way home from Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street the day Robin Yount hit two home runs against Jim Palmer in the 1982 final regular season – winner take all – game. I cheered with excitement the next year when a young shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr (my boyhood hero) caught the final out in the World Series against the Phillies.
Baseball is beautiful because of its history. I collected thousands of baseball cards (eventually sold them to buy an engagement ring for my wife) – although never sold my prized Ripken rookie card. I studied the game dating back to its origins. This 1947 baseball intrigued me and to my surprise, the research had already been completed. Well, almost all of it.
Eleven years ago, my grandfather asked a friend to see what he could find out about the 1947 baseball. 1947 was a monumental year in baseball history because it was the year Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball. In spite of numerous death threats and a boycott petition by some of his own teammates, Robinson played on in 1947 and helped the Dodgers win the pennant.
Here are the signatures on the baseball:
1. Vic Lombardi (P). Vic Lombardi finished his career with Pittsburgh in 1957 so it couldn’t have been his “last game”. Lombardi also pitched two games in the World Series, including game 6 in which
Al Gionfriddo (OF) made his game saving catch off of Joe Dimaggio – it’s a very famous catch and the newsreel show Dimaggio kicking the dirt in frustration after the catch.
3. Harry Taylor (P)
4. Bobby Bragan (C) – Part of a group of players who signed a petition against Jackie Robinson's presence in 1947. But Bragan quickly relented. "After just one road trip, I saw the quality of Jackie the man and the player."
5. Joe Hatten (P) – Finished the 1947 season with a career-high 17 wins with eight losses and a 3.63 ERA.
6. Tommy “Buckshot” Brown (OF) – In 1945 at age 17, Brown became the youngest player in baseball history to hit a major league homerun. Brown still holds that record today.
7. Carl Furillo (OF) – Won the 1953 batting title with a .344 batting average; the highest average at the time by a right-handed Dodger since 1900. Batted .353 in the 1947 World Series.
9. Gil Hodges (1B) – One of the Dodger greats, in Brooklyn and in Los Angeles. Eight-time All-Star. Stellar defensive player. Suffered through a famous 0 for 21 slump at the end of the 1952 season with hundreds of fans sending him letters of support and never booing him. Served in the Pacific theater during World War II. In his biography about Gil Hodges, “The Quiet Man”, author Marino Amoruso opens with his one childhood meeting with the Dodgers first baseman:
“Gil, you’re my favorite player.”
“And you’re my favorite fan.”
You can now imagine the positive impact Hodges had on countless young fans who uttered the same words. Hodges managed the New York Mets to the 1969 World Series title over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles in one of the sport’s biggest upsets. Died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 47 while playing golf with Yogi Berra. Hodges is notably and sadly absent from the Baseball Hall of Fame.
10. Hal Gregg (P) – Led the Dodgers in innings pitched and strikeouts in the 1947 World Series. Started game 7 on only two days rest, giving up 3 runs in 4 innings. Yankees won the game and the Series.
11. Pete Reiser (OF) – Won the National League batting title in 1941 as a rookie. Known for his fearless playing style running into outfield walls and putting his career at risk due to on-the-field injuries. Once fractured his skull running into the outfield wall (then not padded) and still made the throw into the infield. Reiser was carried off the field in a stretcher many times and was once given his Last Rites at the ballpark. His first manager Leo Durocher remarked the only player comparable in skill and potential to Reiser was Willie Mays.
12. Stan “Spider” Jorgenson (3B)
13. Jackie Robinson (1B) – Became the first African-American Major League Baseball player in history on April 15, 1947 after nearly sixty years of segregation in professional baseball. Won the inaugural 1947 Rookie of the Year Award (leading the league in stolen bases and batting .297) and the NL MVP Award in 1949. Played in six World Series including 1955 when the “Bums from Brooklyn” captured their first championship in franchise history, and only title in Brooklyn. Robinson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962 on the first ballot, becoming the first African-American inducted into Cooperstown. Today, the number 42 is retired across all major league teams in honor of Robinson.
14. Ed Mikses
15. Ralph Branca (P) – In 1951, Branca gave up the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” by the NY Giants Bobby Thompson to lose the pennant for the Dodgers
16. Arky Vaughan (SS) – Among Hall of Fame shortstops, his lifetime .318 average ranks second only to Honus Wagner. Batted .385 in 1935, a 20
th century record for NL shortstops. Hit two home runs in the 1941 All-Star Game. Played in his only World Series in 1947. Vaughan retired after the next season and sadly drowned at the age of 40 while fishing on Lost Lake in California.
17. Gene Hermanski (OF)
The details about the game perhaps reveal the absence of Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reece as well as other historical discoveries:
* The ball was given to my grandmother by her Aunt May. May was the nurse for Lombardi’s wife (back in the day when mothers would stay in the hospital for a week at child birth). So Vic had the team sign the baseball as a thank you gift for May.
* That day, Bert Haas of the Reds slid very hard into Pee Wee Reece at shortstop, spiking Reece and putting the shortstop out of action for an indefinite time. Second baseman Eddie Stanky also got spiked and had to leave the game. Both injuries were likely paybacks from the day before when Pete Reiser of the Dodgers slide home and sent Reds pitcher Ewell Blackwell sprawling. (Source: Red Barner,
When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball)
* The next day, Sunday August 24, 1947, history was made. Dodgers executive Branch Rickey brought up Dan Bankhead from Memphis. Bankhead was the first black pitcher in big league history. Bankhead had served in the Marines during the war and was described as a “quiet, pleasant man”. He pitched on Tuesday in relief and unfortunately got hit hard, giving up 10 hits in 3 1/3 innings. Known more for his hitting prowess in the minor leagues, Bankhead delivered and hit a homerun in his first at bat!
* Branch Rickey broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier earlier in the season by signing Jackie Robinson and years later drafting Hispanic superstar Roberto Clemente. Rickey also introduced the batting helmet, created the framework for the minor league farm system, and was nicknamed “the Mahatma” for his outspoken Christian faith.
* Pee Wee Reece, the Captain of the Dodgers, was a strong supporter of Jackie Robinson. He refused to sign a petition that threatened a boycott if Robinson joined the team, and a bronze statue of Reece and Robinson stands outside KeySpan Park in Brooklyn today.
* The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers lost the World Series to the NY Yankees in 7 games. It was the first Series broadcast on television although limited to the New York City area.
* Ebbets Field in Brooklyn had a capacity of 32,000 seats. Yankee Stadium in the Bronx had World Series crowds of over 70,000.
So after more than 60 years, the mystery remains. What does the inscription "
8-23-47 Played Last Game” mean? It is speculated that Aunt May wrote it, but why?
My blog posts are typically designed to help people get hired so there are two points I would like to make. One, make sure you have someone who believes in you, just like I have with my grandfather. Two, reflect on the obstacles that great American heroes like Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reece, Branch Rickey, and Jackie Robinson overcame to fulfill their dreams while remaining steadfast in their values. Anything you set your heart and mind to, you can achieve.
And if you can share your memories of the Brooklyn Dodgers and perhaps even solve this 62-year baseball mystery, my grandfather and I are forever grateful.
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