thedrifter
07-07-08, 07:18 AM
Ernie Harwell: Seeing the '43 Series as a Marine in N.Y.
BY ERNIE HARWELL • FREE PRESS BASEBALL COLUMNIST • July 7, 2008
Watch out for a bombardment of nostalgic stories about Yankee Stadium.
With the All-Star Game scheduled there next week and the final-game celebration coming at the end of the season, everybody will be evoking memories about the baseball mecca in the Bronx.
Why should I be different? Here goes.
My first look at the stadium was Oct. 5, 1943. On a short leave from the Marines, I made my first visit to New York. I arrived in the big city at 2:30 a.m. without any idea where to stay. Coming out of Penn Station, I flagged a cab.
"Take me to some place where a serviceman can sleep," I told the cabbie. "There's a big place at Columbus Circle," he said. "It's 50 cents a bed, but you'll be with seven hundred other guys." I spent the rest of the night there, sleeping in my Marine uniform with my hand on my wallet.
The next afternoon, the Yankees and the Cardinals opened the World Series at Yankee Stadium. I left my cot early and headed for the Commodore Hotel, hoping to see the Cardinal players and other baseball people. I didn't find any players, but through the lobby strode the famous baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, with his entourage.
I went up to the shaggy-haired, bent-over Landis and said, "Hi, Commissioner. How 'bout a ticket for the game today?" He stared at me. "Hello, Marine," he said and kept on walking. I had discovered it wasn't true that a man in uniform could get almost anything free in New York City.
However, that bit of street wisdom was almost true at Yankee Stadium that day. When I got there, the ticket line was long, stretching two or three blocks around the stadium. Some of the folks in line spotted my uniform and yelled, "Hey, Marine, go to the front of the line." The ticket wasn't free, but that long line parted for me, and I didn't have to wait.
Yankee Stadium overwhelmed me. Yes, it was wartime baseball, but still exciting. The Yankees' Spud Chandler outpitched Max Lanier, the Cards' left-hander, in that opener, 4-2. New York went on to win the Series in five games. Each club still had big-name stars on their war-depleted rosters. Bill Dickey, Frank Crosetti, Joe Gordon and Charlie Keller were with the Yankees. The Cardinal standouts were Stan Musial, Marty Marion, Harry Brecheen, and Mort and Walker Cooper.
My next visit to Yankee stadium was in the fall of 1948, when I announced an All-America Football Conference game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. In 1963, I returned there for my first World Series broadcast, the Yankees against the L.A. Dodgers.
I have experienced many thrilling moments at Yankee Stadium, but I still retain a most vivid memory of that first visit during World War II.
Contact ERNIE HARWELL at Detroit Free Press, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit 48226. Order his four-CD audio scrapbook and his three Free Press books -- "Stories From My Life in Baseball," "Life After Baseball" and "Breaking 90" -- for $44.95 at www.freep.com/bookstore or by calling 800-245-5082.
Ellie
BY ERNIE HARWELL • FREE PRESS BASEBALL COLUMNIST • July 7, 2008
Watch out for a bombardment of nostalgic stories about Yankee Stadium.
With the All-Star Game scheduled there next week and the final-game celebration coming at the end of the season, everybody will be evoking memories about the baseball mecca in the Bronx.
Why should I be different? Here goes.
My first look at the stadium was Oct. 5, 1943. On a short leave from the Marines, I made my first visit to New York. I arrived in the big city at 2:30 a.m. without any idea where to stay. Coming out of Penn Station, I flagged a cab.
"Take me to some place where a serviceman can sleep," I told the cabbie. "There's a big place at Columbus Circle," he said. "It's 50 cents a bed, but you'll be with seven hundred other guys." I spent the rest of the night there, sleeping in my Marine uniform with my hand on my wallet.
The next afternoon, the Yankees and the Cardinals opened the World Series at Yankee Stadium. I left my cot early and headed for the Commodore Hotel, hoping to see the Cardinal players and other baseball people. I didn't find any players, but through the lobby strode the famous baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, with his entourage.
I went up to the shaggy-haired, bent-over Landis and said, "Hi, Commissioner. How 'bout a ticket for the game today?" He stared at me. "Hello, Marine," he said and kept on walking. I had discovered it wasn't true that a man in uniform could get almost anything free in New York City.
However, that bit of street wisdom was almost true at Yankee Stadium that day. When I got there, the ticket line was long, stretching two or three blocks around the stadium. Some of the folks in line spotted my uniform and yelled, "Hey, Marine, go to the front of the line." The ticket wasn't free, but that long line parted for me, and I didn't have to wait.
Yankee Stadium overwhelmed me. Yes, it was wartime baseball, but still exciting. The Yankees' Spud Chandler outpitched Max Lanier, the Cards' left-hander, in that opener, 4-2. New York went on to win the Series in five games. Each club still had big-name stars on their war-depleted rosters. Bill Dickey, Frank Crosetti, Joe Gordon and Charlie Keller were with the Yankees. The Cardinal standouts were Stan Musial, Marty Marion, Harry Brecheen, and Mort and Walker Cooper.
My next visit to Yankee stadium was in the fall of 1948, when I announced an All-America Football Conference game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. In 1963, I returned there for my first World Series broadcast, the Yankees against the L.A. Dodgers.
I have experienced many thrilling moments at Yankee Stadium, but I still retain a most vivid memory of that first visit during World War II.
Contact ERNIE HARWELL at Detroit Free Press, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit 48226. Order his four-CD audio scrapbook and his three Free Press books -- "Stories From My Life in Baseball," "Life After Baseball" and "Breaking 90" -- for $44.95 at www.freep.com/bookstore or by calling 800-245-5082.
Ellie