2019 MLB Regular Season running thread

By all reputable accounts, Hank Bauer is the guy who beat the crap out of those bowlers in the Copa. Billy was actually pretty innocent in that scrap, but it gave George Weiss the excuse he needed to pack Martin off to Kansas City.

 

Very dark. Me likey

 

Ford told a funny story about how Mantle testified before a grand jury. One of the jurors asked him what he was chewing, and Mickey replied it was gum. The juror asked him to stop, and he took out the gun and testified while holding it in his hand.

 

That is true, but Martin being Martin took the blame because he liked the idea of people thinking he was a tough guy. Actually, I’ve read several times that the fight started because the other guys (bowling team?) were yelling racist insults at Sammy Davis, Jr. and it was Martin who told them to knock it off. Can you imagine the handling of the story by the standards of today?

 

Did he get to keep chewing the gum, since he was armed?

 

Yes. An instance in which the players were blameless and did what they should have done. But even if Martin wasn't there Weiss was going to find a reason to get rid of him. Casey loved him but management wanted good Christian Bobby Richardson to play 2B (and he was pretty good, especially in the WS) and they still had Coleman and McDougald and Andy Carey as insurance if Richardson flamed out.

I'm more surprised some bowling team from the Bronx or Brooklyn was in a place like the Copa. I'd always been led to believe it was a pretty high-class joint.

 

LOL. Mantle really shot down those Billy rumors.

 

Another fun story: The Yankees were struggling and Weiss thought it was because the team was partying too much. So he hired a private detective to follow around the players. The first night, he decides to follow Richardson and Tony Kubek. Who led the detective right to the YMCA, where they were going to play ping-pong.

 

Speaking of the Yankees, two observations about Aaron Judge tonight. He doesn't step out of the box after a pitch. When the pitch hits the catcher's mitt, he taps the plate twice and pumps the bat until the pitcher is ready to throw. No walking around, no adjusting gear. He's just ready to hit. I love it.

Also, he hands a ball to a fan in the bleachers before every inning. Small gesture (and probably not unique to Judge), but very cool for the fans down front. The guy just gets it.

 

I knew a guy like Billy Martin in high school. Hard drinker and got into fights all the time. A mean drunk who would hurt you.

One night 15 or 20 years ago he was driving on a two-lane highway, drunk, crossed the center line and head-on hit a car. Killed himself and the four people in the car.

Motherfucker all the way around. He should have met a culvert alone.

 

Absolutely. Staying in the batter’s box is a good way to speed up games, too.

Judge does all the right little things. Good on him. I’ll have to take a closer look, but Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil for the Mets seem to be similar. Tho, they’re Mets, so something bad will eventually happen.

 

When I worked at the alt-weekly Boston Phoenix in the late 70s-early 80s, the offices were on the third floor of a building about a 5-10 minute walk from Fenway Park. On the ground floor was a restaurant, the Newbury Steak House. Its bar was where Billy Martin went to drink after a game with the Sox. It was amazing whenever he'd walk in, exactly like in those old Westerns where the bad guy walks in the saloon and the piano player stops and everybody vanishes from the scene instantly heading for any exit they can see. Nobody wanted to be the next marshmallow salesman.