Peanuts and Crackerjacks<\/p>\n
The Bronx 1946<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, the Yankees are playing the Cleveland Indians and Bobby Feller is pitching. Can I go?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho doesn\u2019t go school, but goes to a ballgame? It\u2019s mishugeh<\/em>. There will be a ballgame on the weekend. That\u2019s when normal people go to a game.\u201d \u201dFeller, Shmeller, go to school. Ballgames they play every day.\u201d Wait, with your bialy sandwich, I’ll give you\u00a0Postom<\/em>\u00a0in a thermos.”<\/p>\n “<\/em>Ma,<\/em>\u00a0Postum isn’t coffee. It’s brown and tastes brown.”<\/p>\n “Feh!\u00a0<\/em>What kind of talk is this? It doesn’t sound nice.”<\/em><\/p>\n I left our building\u00a0and walked a long block towards Jack\u2019s upscale apartment house next to the Dover Theater in the Bronx.<\/p>\n It was early in the morning. Jack\u2019s mother was at work. I rang and he opened the door. \u201cTake it easy. We have plenty of time. Did you hear Begin the Beguine<\/em> by Artie Shaw? I could play it. I have the record.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll loan you the fifty-five cents, but we\u2019ll have to walk to the Stadium. I always walked about three or four miles to the Stadium when the Yankee Juniors were let in free compliments of the Consolidated Gas Company. But,\u00a0he did live in an elevator building, so I assumed he had no problem with the money.<\/p>\n We followed the trolley tracks along the cobble-stoned Boston Road, passed the McKinley Square Theater, and eventually dipped down to Third Ave. There was a bit of a chill in the shadows from the overhead Third Ave. subway tracks, but our sixteen-year-old legs brought us quickly into the sunlight.<\/p>\n We knew we were close to the Stadium when we saw the Concourse Plaza Hotel standing tall on the Grand Concourse to our right.<\/p>\n Tickets were fifty-five cents for a seat on a wooden plank in the bleachers. The ticket booth was in a dark hallway leading to the bleachers. No matter how many times I had passed through the entrance, the intense emerald green of the playing field always dazzled my pupils and increased my heartbeat.<\/p>\n The outfielders were shagging fly balls, while the infielders were practicing groundouts and double plays.\u00a0Joe DiMaggio, directly in front of us, was shagging flies with the grace of a ballet dancer. All the pallid April faces gazed at his bronze summer tan highlighted by his white, pinstripe home uniform. It was obvious Joe was special when he stood alongside of left fielder Charley Keller, who wore the same uniform, but was built like a gorilla.<\/p>\n Before the cream cheese starts melting, I better eat my sandwich.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cJack, do you want half of my cream cheese sandwich?\u201d He didn\u2019t want it. He was very intent on watching batting practice. The urinal was a ceramic sink about twenty-feet long and twelve inches wide, with water continually cascading down its far wall. While we were urinating, four black attendants carrying towels and talcum sang, After washing my hands, I returned to my seat.<\/p>\n \u201cJack, You can\u2019t miss this. There\u2019s entertainment in the bathroom!\u201d Yankee pitcher, Bill Bevens was pitching for the Yankees. He pitched well but, three things I can recall about the game that took place on April 30, 1946:<\/p>\n a. Bobby Feller pitched a no-hitter. danielwolfebooks@aol.com<\/a> Peanuts and Crackerjacks The Bronx 1946 \u201cMom, the Yankees are playing the Cleveland Indians and Bobby Feller is pitching. Can I go?\u201d \u201cWho doesn\u2019t go school, but goes to a ballgame? It\u2019s mishugeh. There will be a ballgame on the weekend. That\u2019s when normal people go to a game.\u201d But this is Bobby Feller. He… Continue reading Peanuts and Crackerjacks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[356,351,355,353,354,358,352,357,89],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bill-bevens-pitching","tag-bobby-feller-pitching","tag-charley-keller","tag-concourse-plaza-hotel","tag-joe-dimaggio","tag-lou-boudreau","tag-mel-allen","tag-no-hitter","tag-yankee-stadium","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3344,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions\/3344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBut this is Bobby Feller. He won\u2019t be pitching on the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nI didn\u2019t go to school. Jack was waiting to go to the game. Before I left with my cream cheese on bialy sandwich and my schoolbooks, Ma called out,<\/p>\n
\n\u201cJack, my Mom doesn\u2019t want me to go to the Stadium. She wants me in school. I have no money so I\u2019ll go to Crotona Park later and listen to Mel Allen broadcast the game in Leo\u2019s playground.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI don\u2019t give a shit about Artie Shaw. He doesn\u2019t know me. How will we get to the game?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nI better go to the bathroom before the game starts.<\/p>\n
\nLet\u2019s all pee together and<\/em>
\n Not on one another.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nJack returned to tell me that all he saw was a long urinal and toilets. I guessed the recital was over.<\/p>\n
\nb. Lou Boudreau, playing shortstop, made a great play on a ground ball hit to him.
\nc. I didn\u2019t save my ticket stub.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"