Damn Yankees.Indd

“Six Months Out of Every Year” “Goodbye, Old Girl” HE Yankees, fresh from a triumphant series in “Heart” Chicago, were in the city of Cleveland that night, “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo” ““TT while the Washington Senators were in Detroit, engag- ing the Tigers in a game of little meaning except to the most “A Little Brains, A Little Talent” grimly devoted followers of the two teams; and these, as the years passed, “A Man Doesn’t Know” were becoming fewer. The Tigers were currently the fifth-place team; the “Whatever Lola Wants” Senators were in sixth and moving toward seventh, their customary “Who’s Got the Pain When They Do the THE STORY habitat, with all the singleness of purpose of a homing pigeon.” Mambo?” Douglass Wallop, Chapter One, “The Game” The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant “Near to You” You did not need to be a sports fan in the 1950s to know the old saying “Washington—first in war, first in peace, “Those Were the Good Old Days” and last in the American League.” When Douglass “Two Lost Souls” Wallop’s Faustian novel first appeared in 1955, the “A Man Doesn’t Know” (Reprise) beleaguered Senators were underdogs par excellence. It had not always been so—in 1924, after the Senators won their first American League flag, they went on to win the World Series, sending the District into delirium. Fans had one man to thank in particular: Walter Johnson, a pitcher from Kansas whose fastballs were legendary. One story has it that a batter left the plate after only two swings. The umpire pointed out that the player had a third swing are only three coming. “I know,” the batter replied. “You can have the HERE next one. It won’t do me any good.” Twice more, in 1925 ““ things that America and 1932, the team managed to capture the American League TT pennant. After a long dry spell, the original Senators left the will be known for 2,000 nation’s capital in 1960 to become the Minnesota Twins. years from now when they study The Yankees, on the other hand, were virtually unstoppable during the 1950s. Powerhouse talent like Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra helped this civilization: the Constitution, the Yankees to win the pennant every year of the decade except ’54 and ’59. jazz music, and baseball. They’re Each season from 1949 to 1953, they walked away with the World Series. THE STORY Senators fans (and you can bet Wallop was in the stands) got a first-hand look at the three most beautifully the Yankee phenomenon on their own Washington turf: In 1953, Mantle hit a ball 565 feet, a show of force unobserved since the days of Babe Ruth. Joe Boyd designed things this culture has was probably not the only Senators fan who risked eternal damnation for one ever produced.” long-ball hitter for Washington. Gerald Early, quoted in RIGHT: Al Federoff of the Detroit Tigers is forced out at second base as second baseman Billy Martin of the Yankees whips the ball to first too late for a double play, August 24, 1952. Ken Burns’ Baseball. Umpire Bill Greive calls the play, which started on Bill Hoeft’s grounder to Yankee shor- stop “Scooter” Rizzuto, who threw to Martin. PHOTO: UPI/BETTMAN 6 7.

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