All Through Baseball He Was Loved And Respected

As a mild-mannered, decent, modest and kindly fellow, Walter Johnson was the personification of virtue in what was becoming an increasingly rowdier game of baseball.

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As a pitcher, Walter Johnson was so far ahead of his time that he was considered by some to be an evolutionary freak (not that evolution had yet gained popular acceptance). By today's standards, it is quite likely that he would still be revered as a formidable hurler, but during his career (1907-1927) he was thought to have the fastest pitch in the game. Throwing with a sidearm motion, players would describe his pitch as invisible, arriving in a swoosh with the sound of a thunderclap in the catcher's mitt.

Having a fast pitch is nice, but without control it is of little consequence, except, perhaps, to give up more long balls. Johnson, however, had control and gave up a mere 1,405 walks, an average of less than one every 4.1 innings.

His pitching ability earned him the nicknames "The Big Train," after America's new, high-balling rail engines, and "Barney," after Barney Oldfield, the first man to drive a car at a mile-a-minute (60 mph) (I think even the slowest pitchers in the game can match that speed.).

Still, Walter Johnson was much respected for his decency and chivalry, such that sports writers refered to him as "Sir Walter" and "The White Knight."

With a comfortable lead in the game, Johnson was known to "ease up a little on the opposition" and allow a weak batter or old friend to get a hit. He never blamed teammates for losses, regardless of the number of errors they made, never argued with umpires nor intentionally threw at hitters.

Such as it was, Ty Cobb would move up in the box and crowd the plate, knowing that Johnson would never deliver him any "chin music."

Walter Johnson was inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame in its inaugural year, 1936, along with Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson.

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If They Don't Win It's A Shame

Written in 15 minutes on a scrap of paper by Jack Norworth in 1908, Take Me Out To The Ballgame is a baseball classic.

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Baseball is a game of statistics and traditions, and it just wouldn't be a baseball game without the singing of Take Me Out To The Ballgame during the "Seventh Inning Stretch."

Noone knows for sure how the Seventh Inning Stretch originated, or why Take Me Out To The Ballgame is sung. Some attribute the Seventh Inning Stretch to President William Howard Taft. It was during the 1910 season opening game between the Washington Senators and the Phildelphia Athletics at Griffith Stadium when Taft, weighing in at over 300 pounds, could no longer bear the confines of his small, wooden seat and rose to stretch his legs. It was the middle of the seventh inning. The rest of the crowd, thinking that the President was about to exit, also rose. He did not leave, and as the game resumed play, he sat down again, as did the rest of the crowd.

It is also said that Taft began the tradition of the President delivering the first pitch of a new season at that same game.

While the latter may be true, historians have produced an 1869 document which describes an earlier origin of the tradition.

Harry Wright of the Cincinnati Red Stockings made note of a behavior the crowd would engage in during the course of every game. He described how between the halves of the seventh inning, the fans would rise and stretch their legs for relief from sitting on the hard benches for so long.

In a broadcasting career spanning 53 years and four franchises, Harry Caray was a baseball tradition in himself.

The "Mayor Of Rush Street" was well known for his oversized, black-rimmed glasses and trademark calls of "Let's Get Some Runs!" and "Holy Cow!"

Caray would also lead the fans in a raucous chorus of Take Me Out To The Ballgame.

Harry Caray was inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1989 and passed away in 1998.

His son Skip broadcasts for the Atlanta Braves and his grandson Chip is a studio host for Fox Sports.

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If Cooperstown Is Calling, It's No Fluke

In the four seasons from 1954 to 1957, the most frequently debated issue in baseball was "Who's the best centerfielder in New York?" Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle or Duke Snider?

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Willie Mays, the "Say Hey Kid," excelled in all aspects of the game with career statistics including 3,282 hits and 600 home runs. He was National League Rookie Of The Year in 1951, earned a dozen Gold Gloves and 2 MVP awards. He played in 24 All-Star games (a record shared with Stan Musial) and four World Series. In Game One of the 1954 World Series, Mays made his spectacular over-the-shoulder catch off of Vic Wertz' bat, 460 feet to straight-away centerfield at the Polo Grounds. In any other park, it would have been a home run. Any other player would have played it off the wall for a stand-up triple. Willie Mays was inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1974.

Mickey Mantle, the "Commerce Comet," batted over .300 during ten seasons and ended his career with 536 home runs and a .298 career batting average. He won three MVP awards and the Triple Crown in 1956. In the first 14 seasons of his 18 year career, he contributed to 12 pennants and 7 World Series titles. Having replaced "Joltin'" Joe DiMaggio as Yankees' centerfielder, Mantle had a hard time winning over the fans and was booed for much of the first half of his career. Their change of heart finally came after th 1961 season where Mantle and Roger Maris were both on track to best Babe Ruth's record of 60 homeruns in a season. Due to illness, Mantle completed the season with 54 to Maris' 61. After that, the fans cheered Mantle and booed Maris instead. Dem's is Yankees fans for ya. Mickey Mantle was inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1974.

Duke Snider, "The Duke Of Flatbush," "The Silver Fox," born Edwin Donald, began his career in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Duke was the only player to hit four homeruns in two different World Series (1952 and 1955). His career 11 World Series homeruns and 26 World Series RBIs are National League records. Snider hit the last two home runs at Ebbett's Field on September 22, 1957, his 39th and 40th for the season. Duke Snider was inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1980.

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What's On Second, I Don't Know Is On Third

As one of the greatest comedy teams in show business, Lou Costello and Bud Abbott became the only non-baseball playing celebrities ever inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame with their Who's On First routine.

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For 20 years they adapted their act from burlesque stages, to radio, Broadway, film and television.

Their physical differences, short and stocky Costello, tall and slender Abbott, and their proficient use of the straightman/clown routine became the model which other acts would aspire to; Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and Ed Norton (Art Carney) of "The Honeymooners" and George Costanza (Jason Alexander) and Jerry Seinfeld of "Seinfeld" for example.

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There Is No Joy In Mudville

"Casey at the Bat, A Ballad of the Republic" was first published on June 3, 1888 in San Francisco's Daily Examiner by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, writing under the pseudonym "Phin."

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Since its first public performance later that year by comedian/actor DeWolf Hopper at Wallack's Theatre in New York City it has been performed countless times in venues ranging from ballparks, classrooms, Las Vegas stages, "Saturday Night Live" and a 1946 Disney cartoon classic.

Hopper himself estimates that he performed Casey At The Bat over 10,000 times.

Quite a legacy for a piece which was written in a few hours and intended as filler.

Although Thayer held that the poem was pure fiction, there is a town 90 miles east of San Francisco which was once known as Mudville that had a California League team in 1888. The league also did have players with the names Barrows, Flynn and Cooney, which are the names of the batters to precede Casey to the plate in the verse.

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