“Say it ain’t so Vince,” Red Barber from his catbird seat, Tallahassee, Florida. “We saw his potential, his promise atEbbets Field in Brooklyn.
“ Crouched between my catbird seat and Al Helfer in the booth. But what did we know. Vince Scully ‘s acclaim and admirationat Chavez Ravine 48 hours ago, the L.A. Dodgers, putting his voice on for another year. At 85”, playing out his scrub like field of dreams a la Connie Mack, the patrician into his nineties..”.
“A latent immortal soul buried alive for 65 years, never burned out, by God”.
II
“But what did we know. Vince’s immortal soul. Eighty five years young and the Dodger organization sent him out to pasturefor another post graduate year….buddy amigo back breaking work of amore….nothing is work unless one wishes to do something else.” quoteth Branch Rickey from his sermon on the mount at Montague and Court . “The Chancellor can do no wrong.”
85 years into “Boys of the Summer” said Red Barber, his eyes and voice, never a shill for Dan Topping’s Yankees across the river, down the pike in their new billion dollar scene…Memorial Park.
”I’m no pimp. I caked ‘em as I see ‘em,” said Red, his mind’s eye going back to those yesterdays at Ebbets, sitting in the broadcasting booth. This kid... an inintern.. a yearning intern.With a dream as Stan Lomax, the WOR sports editor for 40years, would say. (Midwood High’s Argus, 1943)”
III
Give the 20 year old kid, a whirl, a break. He may be a flash in the pan. A crooning syntax at best; a tonsils like the Bing,Sinatra. But who kn ows what the morrow brings. A Johnny Vander Meer, pitching two…mind you two n o hitters, thelights turned on for the first time. The Brooklyn roof tops agog.”Night games from Bedford Avenue before Churchill’s mother (born in Brooklyn Heights) told her son in playing out the Prime Minister’s role,” maim the rooftops”, enabling the Londoners to deter Adolph’s blitz.
“This is Ed Murrow, speaking from those rooftops as Hitler’smantra for Baron von Cram , raided the city, rising from thewomb… Ditty the Dinosaur, the saber tooth tiger; in the Los Angeles’s basin, Chavez Ravine the archaic base of the La Brea tar pits and Vince Scully’s Angels.
Leo Durocher, the manager in those hurly burly knothole kid yesterdays.”Nice guys finish last.”
“Eat your words, Leo.” The gashouse gang’ shortstop, speaking off the cuff at the Friars club, out of touch with Red Barber’s protégé and his once invisible but emerging voice. Awesome perhaps the war still to come prior to Scully’s discovery…Bobby Bragan , the catcher behind Mickey Owen (the passed ball in the World Series of ’41, Howie Schultz, a 6’6” first baseman who played with the Boston Celtics during the off season, Coast Guardsman Gene Hedrmanski put in his time after active duty. Bragan while slow on his feet as catchers go (ErnieLombardi of the Reds) tried his hand at short, Pee Wee serving his time in the military.y.
IV
Larry McPhail out of Cincinnati, validated the cornerstone at Montague (Romeo’s nemisis?) and Court Street in downtownBrooklyn. That cornerstone where the Professor, a gashouse gang pioneer named Branch Rickey, gazed unto his crystal ball…..like Mandrake the Magician, he took a voodoo metric . “God give me the presence of mind to uphold my end of the bargain with the Dodger trust. McPhails, O’Malleys.
“Who knoweth what the morrow brings ,” said the Mahatma, breaking the color line with Ucla’s Jackie Robinson… that eye hand coordination, transcending the Josh Gibson Satchel Paige Negro League,
Montreal and…”The boys of the summer” crashing the all whitecircuit, #42 laying down a squeeze bunt, the chalk swirling in the slide at home plate. Ring Lardner , the father of the “Mash” creator, in the celebrity seats, brushing his jacket off.
“Say it ain’t so, Vince.”
V
And therefore these larger than life humans Heroes came forth to thunderous ovations, recapturing their own field of dreams. It was as though they never missed a heart beat as they stepped one by one out of the opposing player dugouts, their memories and epithanies flashed on the electronic scoreboard in center field.
The Babe in his camel hair coat, pointing to the distant bleachers; Lou Gehrig “I’m the luckiest man alive” “Joe DiMaggio and his 54 game hitting streak. The Mick, Mantle,Roger Maris with his two sons at his side …Bill Dickey, Hank Bauer in the “clutch”, Yogi, Billy Martin, Paul O’Nei, Bernie Williams without his guitar, dashing out on the field.
“Say it ain’t so, Vince.”
VI
And then these athletes… playing out their own field of dreams,the ceiling of their skies reenergizing their years..
# 42, himself Jackie Robinson before his Chock full of nuts and NY Giant role, showing his teeth, waving his cap. “Campy”, theonce brawly catcher, paralyzed. Don Newcomb, his twin soul on the mound, the circuitry catching Satchel Paige “Don’t lookback. You’ll see something gaining on you.”
“”The boys of the summer” Casey Stengel, Hodges….and then Pee Wee Reese, thed captain from the South…Dixie Walker, his brother Harry, the Waner brothers (Paul and Lloyd), Pete Reiserbefore his concussion, crashing into the Center Field wall ,the clothing store advertisement.
“Ducky” Medwick, Van Lingel Mungo… the barber himself..Sal Maglie, shuffling between the Polo Grounds and EbbetsField., his sinister look, shading his sideburn s as he faced the likes of “Mr. October”, George Steinbrenner ,the Yankee impresario signing Reggie Jackson to a personal assistant bargain when his playing days ended…..the quads, knees Johnny L sugery faded out his career. (as with Jeter, El Capitan,testing himself in minor league Trenton, the Bronx Bomber farm teams a la Newark, Montreal for the Bums across the bridge and Navy Yard, at Bedford Avenue.
Stan the Man Musial playing his harmonica, Ted the splinter Williams, serving in two wars, yet batting 406, throwing the dice into his immortality, his mortal son wanting to freeze hispapa forever.
“Say hey” Willie Mays bowing to the thunderous acclaim,joining his mates, sharing their space… ala a viable Monument Park.
Creepy Crespie of the Cards and the Bards King Henry cutups (Slender, Mistress Quickly, Falstaff.) Father Serra’s Missionary influence, historically among Southern California converts...
The Dodger managers: Charley Dressen, Tom LaSorta, Don
Mattingly (present and accounted for). Walter Alston’s quiet mind and leadership at both Chavez Ravine and BedfordAvenue.
Carl Furillo, the Duke, “Cookie” , Dolph Camili, Ed Stanky, Billy Herman,(a Babe Herman relation?) Lew Riggs, ArkyVaughan, Kirby Higbe from the Phils ,dependable WhitlowWyatt ,)(the pitching duels with the Cards Morton Cooper, his brother Walker, catching) Larry French, Curt Davis. “Fat”Freddy Fitzsimmons and Hugh Casey mopping up in relief..making names for themselves, Casey owning a diner in the neighborhood, like the great Yank reliever M. Riviera, mopingup…his 9th inning grand finale after some 19 years saving w’sfor Steinbrenner’s motivated leadership.
Vll
But the loudest scream of impropriety went from the fans to Mickey Owen, who in the ’41 World Series against the Yankees,he dropped a third strike against Old Reliable,Henrich ging to first on the passed ball, and the rest as they say is “a bloop and a blast”.
Babe Phelps, his predecessor even forgave him. Nothing could stop the Yanks They were on a steamroller….King Kong Keller,the Yankee Clipper and “Old Reliable”Tommy Heinrich…. Joe Page stretching, in the bullpen.
Then the southpaw Sandy Koufax, his Van Nuys partner DonDrysdale, the Dugout owner on Oxnard Boulevard…Sid Gordon(Tilden High School), Mel Ott, Bill Terry of the Polo Ground Giant rivals. Paying tribute to Vince Scully, who arrived on the scene in 1948, sixty five years ago.
Can Tommy Holmes, the Brooklyn Eagle scribe, Jimmy Cannon, the New York Post writer capture the ferocious competitive energy .To measure their heroics by mortal hair picking and the standards of a Philadelphia lawyer. Ask Don Zimmer, the shortstop, and Yankee coach, who played for both teams.
Ask the Scooter, Frank Frisch, Joe Gordon, Crosetti, Red Rolfe (his coz, Chairman of the Englsish departmet, nearby , off the freeway, Westwood Village and Ucla.
And then Hank Aaron appeared…..Like Willie Mays, he electrified the spectators……the young old identifying with his larger than life gift of God..
Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doer, Dom DiMaggio…Hank Greenberg,the Detroit slugger, Ralph Kiner, Ralph Branca? (he married the boss’s daughter), throwing the home run ball in the playoff game versus the hated Giants. Was it Bobby Thompson who hit it out … Carl Hubbell, Hal Schumacher in the bullpen, HarryDanning catching, in their N.Y. Giant field of dreams.
Warren Spahn warming up for the Braves before they moved to Atlanta (the Boston Braves). Al Gionfrido miracle catch of a “say hey kid” drive into the gap at Ebbets…Goody Rosen, a” brother” a game of miracles…. Goody, an envious outfielder, in sheer disbelief.
The field of dreams morphed into a game of miracles.
And the hated Cardinals…Marty Marion at short Johnny Mize at first, Enos Slaughter , Terry Moore in center. t. But the “Barber” Sal Maglie walking out to the mound as the scoreboard captured his dream in the hardnosed “Bigs”
Joe Torre, a Brooklyn native and a catcher by dream, morphinginto manager of the Yanks… Dodgers in the Ravine. Anexecutive , never talking trash, bargaining with the player’s union (Arod’s use of drug enhancing substances)
Say it ain’t so, Vince.
Red Barber’s catbird seat, honoring Vince Scully’s sixty five years in broadcasting, Chavez Ravine , the Los Angeles Angels,August 22, 2013.
