The Golden Age of Baseball is generally referred to as those years between 1930 and 1965.
I was particularly interested in those last 15 years because that was when I ate, drank, and slept baseball. When I was old enough to read, the first thing I would do each morning was check the box scores to see how my boyhood baseball hero, Eddie Matthews, had done the day before and if the Milwaukee Braves, my favorite team because that’s who Eddie played for, happened to have lost, my day was ruined. But if they won and he had, perhaps, hit a home run, it was a joyous day.
While I love the “game” of baseball, I do not have the passion for it in its current state because the players today don’t hold a candle to the greats of those years.
Now, I’m not talking about skills because in many ways the players of today are superior to those of the 50’s and 60’s. Physically, that is. They are stronger, bigger, and more athletic but they don’t seem to have the passion and intensity for the game that the greats of that era did. And they certainly don’t hold the history of it near and dear. In a recent poll of current major league players, only 18% of them knew who Ty Cobb was and what records he held. That is pitiful and sad.
Baseball was filled with characters- characters that little boys everywhere could associate with. Could there be a bigger character than Babe Ruth or a better idol to look up to than Lou Gehrig? The Gas House Gang, Murderers’ Row, and the Philadelphia Whiz Kids have etched their way into the annals of baseball history. And then along came Jackie Robinson and, suddenly, the whole thing changed for the good because now baseball was open to everyone.
Robinson paved the way for greats like Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Willie McCovey, Roberto Clemente, and many, many others. Kids from any town in the country, no matter what their ethnicity was could find heroes to look up to during that age.
But in one great metropolitan city, the choice of who your hero would be was most difficult. During the 50’s, New York had, not one, but three teams to root for- the Yankees, the Dodgers, and the Giants. And you couldn’t be wishy-washy about your selection either. Choosing your team to support was as heated as SEC football is today; maybe even more so. You couldn’t, for example, be a Yankee fan and also pull for the Dodgers or Giants and vice versa. You loved one, but hated the other two. No self-respecting Giant fan would be caught dead in Yankee Stadium. The Jets and the Sharks from West Side Story had nothing on these rivalries.
And in the middle of that controversy were three players who were the best at their position, centerfield, and everybody took sides as to who, among them, was the best. The Giants’ had Willie Mays, the Yanks’ had Mickey Mantle, and the Dodgers’ had Duke Snider, #4, roaming the outfield for them.
These three were so great that a song was written about them. In 1981, Terry Cashman recorded a song titled “Talkin’ Baseball” that has these lines:
“We’re talkin’ baseball
Kluszewski, Campanella
The Man and Bobby Feller
The Scooter, the Barber and the Newc
They knew them all from Boston to Dubuque
We’re talkin’ baseball
Willie, Mickey, and The Duke.”
In many ways, those three were the face of baseball and now, only one of the three is still with us. A few days ago, baseball lost Duke Snider, who died at the age of 84. Snider is, of course, a member of Baseball’s Hall of Fame and his credentials support that honor. He finished his career with a .295 lifetime batting average, 407 home runs, and 1,333 RBI’s. I find it interesting that his home run and RBI totals still rank #1 on the Dodger all-time mark. Think of that. In spite of the great Dodger players who have played since Snider retired, his totals are still the best. And, to date, he is the only player to hit four home runs in two different World Series.
Snider was an eight-time All Star, which was a difficult accomplishment since he played at the same time and in the same league (National) that Willie Mays did. Snider was a very good defensive player. He didn’t have the speed of either Mays or Mantle but he possessed the best arm of the three ending his career with more assists than the other two.
And, perhaps, his best characteristic was his dignity. Always a gentleman on and off the field, the “Duke of Flatbush” would sign autographs for hours after a game and always got along with the press who, as we know, could and can be brutal in New York. If truth be told, Snider was probably #3 on the list behind Mays and Mantle in overall ability, but he never let jealousy get in the way of his daily performance. He was a professional in every sense of the word and I wish there were more like him today. If you were talkin’ baseball in the 50’s, you had to talk about Willie, Mickey, and The Duke.
One of the greatest coaches in any sport, Dean Smith, turned 80 on February 28th. I had the great opportunity to meet him once and being around him for that short period of time made me a life-long fan of his.
I was a rising Junior and I won a “scholarship” to go to a basketball camp that Coach Smith and Press Maravich (Pete’s dad) conducted in Asheville, North Carolina. I was one of about 100 boys but I felt like Coach Smith was talking just to me when he spoke. This was in the summer of 1964 and Coach Smith had been named the head coach at UNC just three years before so, he certainly had not gained the fame that he would later attain. But I could sense the greatness in his teaching methods and when he told me that I had great form in my free throw shooting technique, I was on cloud nine.
During Coach Smith’s career at UNC, I followed them closely. Wasn’t a big fan of his Four Corner Offense that he would utilize in the late stages of a game, but it won many a game.
It’s hard not find his disciples in every phase of basketball, both pro and college. The current UNC coach, Roy Williams, was an assistant under Coach Smith for many years. George Karl, one of the most successful pro coaches and the current Denver Nugget coach, both played and was an assistant for him. Brad Daughtery played for him. And a list of his former players who went on to successful NBA careers is a veritable who’s who in the sport. Maybe you’ve heard of one of them- Michael Jordan.
Happy Birthday, Coach Smith. And in case you’re interested, coach, I still have that good free throw shooting technique today.
Randy Blalock is a columnist for The Barrow Journal. Send comments about this column to rblalock@mindspring.com.
