THE 1969 MIRACLE METS: THE IMPROBABLE STORY OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST UNDERDOG TEAM (15 page)

In the 1940s, Brooklyn was in the pennant chase
almost every season, usually with the St. Louis Cardinals, Boston
Braves, and in1950 with the Philadelphia Phillies. They won some,
lost some. In 1946, Brooklyn general manager Branch Rickey took the
unprecedented step of signing the first black player, Jackie
Robinson.

Robinson had been a football star at UCLA. His
Bruins featured other black stars such as Kenny Washington and
Woody Strode (the black gladiator who dies so Kirk Douglas can live
in
Spartacus
). Their battles against integrated USC teams in
front of packed L.A. Coliseum crowds already had a major social
effect on the West Coast. Like the California collegiate programs,
the East Coast had been the scene of integrated football as well.
Fritz Pollard of Brown and Paul Robeson of Rutgers were
All-Americans.

Robinson was an Army officer during World War II, a
Christian family man. After having won a war against the deranged,
racist ideology of Adolf Hitler, Rickey felt now was the time and
New York – specifically Brooklyn – was the place to break the
“color barrier.”

Robinson broke into the big leagues in 1947, earning
the Rookie of the Year award while leading his team to the pennant.
He developed into a major American hero for his courage under
racial fire, paving the way for so many minorities who followed.
Robinson and the social progress he represented came to symbolize
the Brooklyn Dodgers and the borough itself.

The Yankees were viewed as Wall Street “fat cats,”
but Brooklyn and the Dodgers were a true “people’s team.” Brooklyn
was a melting pot of Jews, Irish, Italians, Polish and blacks. It
was a place that always fought for its own identity, a place for
underdogs with an inferiority complex. Oddly, it was the success of
these underdogs that drove Brooklyn out of Brooklyn, at least in a
roundabout way. As more and more Brooklynites assimilated,
achieving the “American Dream,” they moved into the suburbs of Long
Island and New Jersey, leaving low attendance and a crime problem
in Brooklyn.

Robinson was the National League’s Most Valuable
Player in 1949. His black teammate, catcher Roy Campanella, was the
MVP in 1951, 1953 and 1955. Another black Dodger, pitcher Don
Newcombe, was the 1956 MVP (as well as Cy Young award winner).
Between 1947 and 1969, 16 National League MVPs were black
(including the Puerto Rican Roberto Clemente in 1966). No black
American Leaguer won the MVP award until Elston Howard of the
Yankees in 1963.

The term “National League baseball” came to
represent the aggressive style of the “Negro League ball player”
who stole bases, went for the extra bag, and made things happen.
Yankee money was enough to keep them dominant while “waiting for
the long ball,” but overall the American League was inferior for
decades. The real “Red Sox curse” really has nothing to do with
Babe Ruth. It stems from their failure to sign Willie Mays after a
try-out because he was black.

In 1951, the pennant race between the Dodgers and
Giants was a thoroughly integrated affair. New York featured the
rookie Mays and the veteran black slugger Monte Irvin. Durocher,
fired (or let go, depending on the interpretation) by Branch Rickey
essentially because he was an amoral man (technically his gambling
associations, but it went well beyond that) had taken over the
Giants. Manager Charlie Dressen’s Dodgers of Rickey, Campanella,
Newcombe, Carl Erskine, Duke Snider, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges and
Pee Wee Reese, got out to a huge lead of 13 1/2 games by August
11.

The Giants of Mays, Irvin, Sal Maglie, and Bobby
Thomson made an amazing comeback, catching Brooklyn on the last day
of the season. A play-off ensued. In game three at the Polo
Grounds, the Giants may or may not have been aided by a “spy”
giving them Dodger signals from the left field scoreboard. Trailing
4-2 in the ninth, Thomson hit the “shot heard ‘round the world” off
Ralph Branca, breaking Brooklyn hearts.

Brooklyn won pennants in 1952 and ‘53, losing the
Series to the Yankees both times. In 1954, Willie Mays returned
from the Army to power the Giants to the last World Championship in
that franchise’s history, a four-game sweep of Cleveland in the
Series. Finally, “next year” came in 1955 when Johnny Podres
pitched the Dodgers, led by manager Walt Alston, to a 2-0,
seventh-game victory over the Bronx Bombers.

“White flight” drained Brooklyn of much of its fan
base by 1957. The Harlem neighborhood where the Polo Grounds was
located had turned dangerous, too. The Dodgers and Giants chose to
move to California in 1958.

****

Frank Sinatra’s most famous song may be “New York,
New York,” which is the signature tune played at the end of Yankee
games.

“If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere,”
crooned “Ol’ Blue Eyes.”

The song tells the story of
wanderlust
, of
any young man or woman whose “vagabond shoes are longing to stray,”
to reach out and find what he is made of, test himself, go up
against the best; and if one can go to New York, succeed there,
then indeed they can succeed “anywhere. It’s up to you . . . New
York, New York.”

Sinatra’s song is about himself, a kid from nearby
Hoboken, New Jersey who stared out at the Manhattan skyline every
day, which despite its physical closeness represented a world a
million miles away from all he had known. It is about singers,
songwriters, actors, models, playwrights, directors, novelists,
journalists; all with the dream of accepting the challenge of New
York, and making good.

There was symbolism in the Dodgers and Giants moving
to the Golden State. This event gave official sanction, if you
will, to the great rivalry that always existed between New York and
California. This rivalry had been in full swing at least since the
1920s, but New Yorkers provincially denied it until the
Dodger-Giant move made it impossible to ignore.

Hollywood was built, in large measure, by New
Yorkers. Los Angeles is a city with a strong East Coast flavor to
it; its business dealings, its show biz
ethos
. San Francisco
has always modeled itself on New York, with its skyline and
fashions. The two states are the most important in the country.
When Dwight Eisenhower chose Richard Nixon as his Vice-Presidential
running mate in 1952, it demonstrated the electoral power of
California and the West. Nixon himself moved to New York in 1963
specifically to “prove himself to the Wall Street crowd,” which is
credited with his winning the Empire State (and thus the White
House) in 1968. Nixon and Ronald Reagan symbolized growing
California political power. No campaign in either party succeeds
without winning the financial battle for California’s political
dollars.

The two states compete for attention and influence
in all aspects of American and international politics, culture,
society, finance, entertainment, literature, and athletics. There
are several reasons for this. The fact that both have large
populations makes it, in some respects, a mathematical equation,
but does not entirely explain it. There is a sense in both places
that each is the “place to be” if one is to succeed, to reach for
the stars. So, many people come
to
New York and California,
but just as many come
from
there. For obvious reasons, New
York has a “head start” over California, but the two states far
out-number all others when it comes to producing famous people;
celebrities, stars, movers, shakers in all walks of life.

For every world famous political, literary or
financial figure from New York, California matches it with an
equally famous actor, athlete or rock star. There is great
co-mingling of the genres. New York may lay claim to a larger
preponderance of writers, but California “answers back” with the
likes of Jack London, Gertrude Stein, John Steinbeck. New York
would like to think they have the market on film directors – Martin
Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola – but then one recalls the likes of
George Lucas and Ron Howard from California. For every brooding
Robert DeNiro of “Little Italy” there is a Santa Monica beach boy
type like Robert Redford.

It is in sports where California holds an enormous
edge over the rest of the world. Again, population explains much of
the reason. Excellent year round weather is an obvious factor. Many
have theorized that the hardy, Darwinian genetic survival mechanism
of settlers made for physically gifted offspring. Others have
speculated that more physically attractive men and women came to
Hollywood for the movies, married and produced children with
greater sports gifts.

The New York-California rivalry is accentuated in
large measure by the fact that many of the greatest, most iconic
stars in the hallowed history of New York sports came
from
California, to New York City, to test themselves. Stars of the
great Southern California high school leagues, the legendary
California collegiate programs, the Pacific Coast League; they
yearned to be more than regional stars, but rather, nationally
recognized heroes.

The San Francisco Bay Area and the San Francisco
Seals were, for all practical purposes, became a breeding grounds,
a farm system, for the Yankees. The San Francisco-Yankee connection
is seemingly endless, and quite extraordinary. San Francisco and
the Bay Area at one time was the greatest producer of baseball, and
all-around athletic talent, in the United States. It starts with
the great “Prince Hal” Chase of Los Gatos. Chase was said to be the
greatest defensive first baseman of his time. Then there was San
Francisco’s Ping Bodie. Two San Franciscans played on the “all-time
greatest” 1927 Yankees: excellent shortstop Mark Koenig and
slugging second baseman Tony Lazzeri. In addition, the ’27 Yankees
featured power-hitting outfielder
Bob Meusel
(born in San Jose) and capable pitcher
Dutch Ruether of
Alameda (who previously pitched for Brooklyn).

In the 1930s a new crop of San Franciscans came
along. The legendary Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio played at San
Francisco’s Galileo High School. He was born in a little fishing
town on the Carquinez Straits, an extension of San Francisco Bay
that winds all the way to Stockton, at 90 miles the most inland
“sea port” in the world. Martinez is right next to another tiny
little town called Rodeo, which was the birthplace of his Hall of
Fame Yankee teammate, pitcher Lefty Gomez (who played high school
ball in the East Bay town of Richmond).

Shortstop Frank Crosetti, out of San Francisco’s
Sacred Heart High School, was a Yankee mainstay on those teams.
Babe Dahlgren (also of San Francisco) replaced Lou Gehrig when the
“Iron Horse” retired.

The Bay Area connection continued into the 1940s and
1950s with shortstop Joe DeMaestri of Marin County’s Tamalpais High
School and the feisty Billy Martin of Berkeley High (manager of the
1977 Yankees World Champions). From San Francisco: Charlie Silvera,
Gil McDougald, Jerry Coleman (now the San Diego Padres’
broadcaster) and Dr. Bobby Brown (who became President of the
American League). Casey Stengel was not from the Bay Area, but the
Yankees hired him after leading the Oakland Oaks to the 1948 PCL
title. His star second baseman was local hero Billy Martin.

In the 1970s: pitchers Rudy May (Oakland) and Dick
Tidrow (Hayward). In the 1980s: Dave Righetti (San Jose’s Pioneer
High) and future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson (Oakland Tech). In
the 1990s: two players from the University of California, Kevin
Maas and Matt Luke, plus ace reliever John Wetteland (Santa Rosa).
In the 2000s: future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson (Livermore and
USC).

Central and Southern California have been well
represented at Yankee Stadium, too. Norm Sherry (Los Angeles
Fairfax High) played for the1963 Yankees. Bobby Bonds (Riverside)
wore pinstripes in 1974. First baseman Chris Chambliss (Oceanside,
UCLA) hit the momentous home run that clinched the 1976 American
League pennant. His teammate, Gold Glove third baseman
Craig Nettles, was a San Diego product who played at San
Diego State. Bob Lemon, who managed New York to the 1978 World
Series title, hailed from Long Beach. Pitcher Andy Messersmith
(Anaheim’s Western High, University of California) was a star with
the Angels and Dodgers, as well as a member of the 1978 World
Champion Yankees. Infielder Steve Sax (Sacramento) was the Rookie
of the Year in Los Angeles and played for the Yankees from 1989 to
1991. Pitcher Tim Leary led the Santa Monica American Legion team
to the 1976 national championship, was an All-American at UCLA, and
an ace on the 1988 World Champion Dodgers’ staff before spending
three years (1990-92) with the Yankees.

Outfielder Jason Giambi (West Covina’s South Hills
High, Cal State Long Beach; brother of Jeremy Giambi) was the 2000
American League MVP with Oakland and a key member of the Yankees
since 2002. Third baseman Aaron Boone (Villa Park, USC; brother of
Seattle’s Bret Boone) was a Yankee for a brief time, but his home
run to beat Boston in the 2003 American League Championship Series
gives him a special place in Yankee lore. It also meant that two of
the most famous home runs in Yankees history – Chambliss’s in 1976,
Boone’s in 2003 – were hit by a rival Bruin (Chambliss) and Trojan
(Boone). Pitcher Mike Mussina led Stanford to the 1987 and 1988
national titles (his Stanford teammate was Chicago’s Cy Young award
winner, Jack McDowell).

But in all cases of California players who have made
their mark at Yankee Stadium, there is perhaps no greater example,
if not fluky coincidence, than that of Don Larsen and David Wells.
Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history, over
Brooklyn in 1956, when the Yankees captured the World title. In
1998, Wells tossed a perfect game there for the Yankees. New York
went on to win the second of four World Series victories in five
years, and are marked by history as one of if not the best
single-season team ever assembled.