February 16, 2012

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  The Day We Met Tallulah

   

  There was a time very long ago – a sweet-time time

  When cobbled streets were mostly level with the tar that held them in place

  And smooth enough for pink-rubber spalding-balls to bounce accurately

  And old paint-flaked broomsticks salvaged for bats        

  And stick-ball games with the ‘catholics’ versus us ‘greeks’

   

  It was great fun that one summer in the South Bronx in 1937 –

  Irish Catholic kids from Cauldwell Avenue against us Greeks from Eagle

  Until one day late in August when Harvey and Sam Roth moved into our block

  To the empty apartment on the second floor of the old blind man’s house

  They were Jews…

   

  Their mother was a beautiful lady that ran a beauty parlor

  Their father was shot in a hold-up in his hardware store the year before

  They used to live above it but the mother sold it and they had to move

  So there they were - sitting on their stoop watching us

  With a kind-of sad look in their eyes as we played stick-ball on our street

   

  Harvey was about 14...a tall good-looking kid, thin as one of our broomsticks

  His brother was younger and short and kind of fat

  Every couple of days a cab would show up in the afternoon and this rabbi

  Would hustle them in and take them to the synagogue on Jackson

  For Jewish lessons…

   

  And then one day a few weeks later when the Irish kids came looking for a game

  We didn’t have enough Greek guys for our side

  So we broke down and asked Harvey and Sam to play the outfield for us

  Boy… that Harvey could hit and field like a pro and we beat the micks bad

  And so the next day we went down to the cops and got them both PAL* cards

                                                                                                                                                              

  The Giants were in town that week so Harvey and Sam and me

  We rode the 163^rdStreet trolley free over the Harlem River to the last stop

  Where the Polo Grounds was and because it was a week-day

  We got in free with our cards and climbed high up into the right-field stands

  And sat with a few thousand other kids who also got in free to watch the game

   

  If I remember right…it was the sixth inning when Mel Ott came up to bat

  With two men on base and Johnny Vander-Meer pitching for the Cincinnati Reds

  Mel lifted a high fly ball that would have been caught in any other ballpark…

  It came down right where we were standing and Harvey caught it bare-handed

  He was so tall he reached up and just grabbed it with both hands!

   

  After the game we walked across to the club-house at the end of center field

  To see if we could get Mel Ott (whose real name was Ottenberg) to sign it for us

  This wild-looking lady was walking ahead of us and once in a while

  She would take out a silver flask from her purse and take a swig

  She was swaying a little by the time we got to the clubhouse door

   

  Harvey was passing the ball around to the kids who were walking with us

  The lady asked if she could see it too. She said she was good friends with Mel Ott

  And she would get him to sign it for us if that was okay with us

  She put her arm around Harvey and they walked into the club-house together

  I think Harvey was kind of holding her up… I think that’s what she really wanted

   

  Minutes later Harvey came out with Mel Ott, Johnny-Vander Meer and the lady!

  She showed us the ball with Mel’s signature and also Johnny Vander-Meer’s!

  Mel introduced her to us as one of the greatest fans the Giants would ever have

  Her name was Tallulah Bankhead, one of the greatest actresses on Broadway... and

  Her father was the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States!

   

  So there!...

   

   

   

  The Polo Grounds was originally that… A field where polo was played… It was  oval-shaped and the left and right field foul poles

   were only about 250 feet from home plate while the center field line was over 500 feet away. To pull hitters like

   Mel Ott , Johnny Mize and Bobby Thompson, long fly balls would turn into home runs as Ralph Branca sadly found out in 1951…

   

  Johnny Vander-Meer has the distinction of being the only pitcher in the history of baseball to pitch 2 No-Hit games back-to-back…

  On June 11, 1938, he "No-Hit" the Boston Braves and 4 days later he did the same to the Brooklyn Dodgers...                                  

  A feat that will never be repeated because someone would have to pitch 3 No-Hitters in a row to break his record...

   

  *Police AthleticLeague

                                                                                    

   

   

   

   

   

  • 2:19 pm
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