Yankees' Storied Monument Park Needs Facelift
PLUS: 'A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN' LIVES AGAIN IN BEHIND-THE-SCENES BOOK
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
In the first inning this season, Atlanta has scored 95 runs, hit 30 home runs and logged 129 hits -- each the most of any team in any inning this year . . .
Red Sox southpaw Chris Sale has never justified the five-year, $145 million Red Sox contract, suffering rib, finger, and wrist injuries plus an elbow issue that required Tommy John surgery to repair . . .
The only catchers earning more than White Sox bust Yasmani Grandal are J.T. Realmuto (Phillies) and Salvador Perez (Royals), also far off their former form so far this season . . .
Always-injured Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon may not be the worst free-agent signee of all time (seven years for $245 million) but he’s close . . .
A trade of outfielder Jorge Soler (Marlins) for third baseman Josh Donaldson (Yankees) could help both teams . . .
Washington’s wobbly pitching staff has gotten next-to-nothing from veteran Patrick Corbion, who led the NL in losses, hits, and earned runs allowed last year and still has two years and $59 million left on his contract . . .
The Cubs are paying some $21 million for Jason Heyward to play for the Dodgers . . .
Colorado owes Nolan Arenado, the NL’s All-Star third baseman from the Cardinals, $31 million over the next four years . . .
Still hard to believe nobody has taken a $720,000 flyer on veteran southpaw Madison Bumgarner, released by Arizona earlier this year.
Leading Off
It Is Time To Fix the Yankees' Monument Park?
By Paul Semendinger, Ed.D.
The Yankees have a section of Yankee Stadium, accessible to the fans before most games and mentioned on most broadcasts of the games where they honor some of the greatest and most important players in their rich history. This area, called Monument Park, houses plaques for these legendary Yankees. On the Yankees web site, Monument Park is described in this manner, "Monument Park, located in center field, recognizes legends who have appeared at Yankee Stadium over the years."
This brings up some simple questions. What legends are recognized? Why have they been chosen? And who makes these decisions? The answers to those questions are unclear. The Yankees do not have a voting process for former players to be included in this area. Some players are recognized, but others, players who were more worthy in many regards than the players honored there, have been left out. The Yankees have also never publicized their selection process or rationale for including certain players. For a place supposedly to honor their heroes, it is shrouded in mystery.
The Yankees have recognized five different managers in Monument Park. The four greatest managers in their history, Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel, and Joe Torre are recognized there. But, along with them, so is Billy Martin, a manager who was fired by the Yankees five times, and often amid great controversy. As a manager, Martin won 556 games and won one World Series. Ralph Houk, who managed 944 games and won two World Series, has never been recognized by the Yankees for his contributions to the team and the success they had under his leadership including being the manager of the 1961 Yankees, one of the most legendary teams in the history of the sport.
The Yankees have recognized seven starting pitchers with plaques in Monument Park. These include Lefty Gomez, Whitey Ford, Ron Guidry, Andy Pettitte, Allie Reynolds, Red Ruffing, and Mel Stottlemeyre. All are worthy of this honor and recognition, but there are some very notable, and noticeable, absences. Allie Reynolds was a great Yankees pitcher, but he was part of a trio of great Yankees starters in the era in which he pitched. Along with Reynolds were two other team legends, Ed Lopat and Vic Raschi. Neither Lopat or Raschi are honored there. They both belong in Monument Park, but have never been added. A host of Hall of Fame pitchers also spent much of their careers with the Yankees franchise including Jack Chesbro, Waite Hoyt, and Herb Pennock. A strong case for Catfish Hunter and Mike Mussina, also both Hall of Famers, can also be made.
While there are 27 different players in Monument Park, the Yankees have never included a third baseman in that hallowed ground. Graig Nettles is widely considered the team's greatest third baseman. He played on four World Series teams, two that were World Champions. He was also a Yankees captain, the first to gain this honor after Thurman Munson. By WAR as a Yankee, Graig Nettles ranks 15th all-time. Why has he never been granted the honor?
The Yankees also had other great third basemen, among them Home Run Baker and Wade Boggs (two Hall of Famers) along with Red Rolfe, Clete Boyer, and Alex Rodriguez. The Yankees need to begin to recognize those players.
The Yankees have seven outfielders enshrined in Monument Park, but none (save for Babe Ruth, who is remembered more as a right fielder) ever played any significant time in left field. The 11th greatest Yankee all-time by WAR, Roy White, also a multiple time World Champion, has never received his due from the Yankees. Roy White, widely considered one of the classiest and most dignified Yankees of all time, along with being their greatest left fielder, belongs in Monument Park. Other great Yankees outfielders such as Earle Combs and Dave Winfield (both Hall of Famers), along with Tommy Henrich, Bob Meusel, and Charlie Keller also deserve this honor.
The great Yankees' second baseman Willie Randolph is, appropriately, in Monument Park, but why are Hall of Famers Tony Lazzeri and Joe Gordon, along with 1960 World Series MVP Bobby Richardson not included there? Jerry Coleman, also a second baseman, and one of only two Major Leaguers to serve in both World War II and Korea, also deserves this honor.
Tino Martinez, who was an excellent Yankee, and a World Champion numerous times, is in Monument Park, but forgotten greats such as Wally Pipp and Moose Skowron, also champions, are absent.
Frank Crosetti was a World Champion shortstop and then a coach on the Yankees for decades. In the history of the franchise, no player has ever been part of more championship teams than Frank Crosetti. One cannot truly tell the story of the Yankees without Frank Crosetti being part of that story, but or whatever reasons, Frank Crosetti, has never been included among the Yankee legends recognized in their ballpark.
Inconsistencies like these make me question the purpose and legitimacy of Monument Park. Why are some greats included but others have been left out? This is something the Yankees have never explained.
In a very real sense, Monument Park serves as the Yankees' own Hall of Fame. It is, as they say, where they recognize their legends. But they don't recognize all, or even most of their legends, they include only just a select few and for reasons unknown that seem arbitrary and extremely unfair. I see this as a problem for the team and its history. Monument Park should be a place where the Yankees honor all of their greats. When a player is honored with inclusion there, he becomes someone who will be remembered forever. Conversely, when worthy players are left out, they, over time, become forgotten.
Fans will visit Monument Park and read about and remember Paul O'Neill, a great right fielder who accumulated 26.7 WAR as a Yankee and was on four Yankees World Series winners, while at the same time those visitors will never learn about Hank Bauer, also a right fielder, who earned 29.7 WAR, was on seven World Series winning teams. Bauer was also a hero in World War II. If Paul O'Neill deserves to be remembered through inclusion in this hallowed ground, then Hank Bauer, a superior player in many regards, and a World Champion more times, also deserves this honor.
It is time for the Yankees to make Monument Park more inclusive. It is time for them to create a panel of experts that can include baseball historians, writers, executives, former players, announcers, and maybe even fans, and have transparent yearly elections to open up Monument Park not just to those who the organization, for reasons unknown, unclear, and never explained have been recognized, but to all of the Yankees who by their play, dedication, and excellence also deserve this honor.
Paul Semendinger runs the great Yankees site Start Spreading the News. He has written the highly acclaimed Scattering the Ashes, Impossible is an Illusion, The Least Among Them, and From Compton to the Bronx. Paul is currently beginning his research on a new book about some different Yankees, ones who never played professional baseball, and others, at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Cleaning Up
Inside ‘A League Of Their Own’ ~ Author Tells All In Forthcoming Book
By Dan Schlossberg
Among the 100 or so baseball books published this year, one stands out as the most creative, most unlikely, and most unusual.
Coming right around Labor Day, it’s called No Crying in Baseball: The Inside Story of A League Of Their Own. It even carries an extra sub-head: “Big Stars, Dugout Drama, and a Home Run for Hollywood.”
The 320-page hardcover, published by Hachette Books, carries a sale price of $29.
Written by Erin Carlson, author of three books on Hollywood history, the book dives into the clubhouse of the hit movie, exposing rivalries, jealousies, and behind-closed-doors stories of people like Tom Hanks, Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell, Lori Petty, Jon Lovitz, and Geena Davis, the best-looking backstop since Yogi Berra’s heyday.
Who knew the movie studio didn’t want Hanks, that Madonna awoke extra early for a stay-in-shape jogging session of 8-10 miles, or that many of the cast members were intimidated by the singer-turned-actress. The author’s interviews reveal those stories and more.
As Dottie Henson, Davis played Pepper Paire, the real-life catcher of the Rockford Peaches and long-time promoter of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. The part was supposed to go to Debra Winger but that was before Davis, who starred in Thelma & Louise, told the producers she read the script and imagined herself as the feisty catcher.
Little did she, Marshall, or anyone else realize the film would become much more than a chick flick. In fact, its poignancy, humor, and charm mixed with the striking, unpredictable realism of the war years.
Davis has described A League Of Their Own as a feminist film — and told writers to quote her.
The attractive actress, much taller than the squat Pepper Paire, was so taken by her role in the Penny Marshall movie that she became a trustee of the Women’s Sports Foundation. She also launched the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media — an organization instrumental in convincing movie-makers to add more female roles.
The author points out that women have even made big strides in baseball since the film came out 30 years ago.
For example, the Giants have a female coach, the Yankees have a female manager in the minors, and the Staten Island FerryHawks have a woman player — the first to play for any MLB-affiliated team since 1994.
There’s a Woman’s Baseball World Cup and a former all-female barnstorming club called the Colorado Silver Bullets (managed by the late Hall of Famer Phil Niekro).
Filmed at Wrigley Field, legendary home of the Chicago Cubs, A League Of Their Own could have — and probably should have — a sequel. And Davis has even floated the idea.
How many of the original stars might participate is another issue, especially considering the passage of time.
But the original film has kept alive the true story that Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley conceived the idea of creating competitive baseball teams while most major-leaguers were fighting World War 2 overseas.
Surviving players from the AAGPBL still tour the country, talking about how and why they kept baseball going during a time of national peril. They even make regular visits to the Play Ball extravaganza, once called FanFest, at the All-Star Game.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of 40 books himself. A baseball writer since 1969, he now covers the game for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories & Dreams, and other outlets. His e.mail is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
High-kicking, hard-throwing Satchel Paige, at least 42 when he broke into the big leagues and 65 when he pitched his last inning, allegedly worked some 2,600 games — four times more than Nolan Ryan — during a Negro Leagues career that lasted five decades . . .
He and Larry Doby, another Bill Veeck find, were not only the first black players to win World Series rings [1948 Cleveland Indians] but also found their way to Cooperstown . . .
Called “the best pitcher I ever saw” by Joe DiMaggio after a pre-segregation exhibition game, Paige was once the subject of a three-page photo spread in the popular Life Magazine . . .
In 1941, seven years before Jackie Robinson broke the color line in the majors, Paige drew 20,000 fans — a Negro Leagues record — when he pitched for the New York Black Yankees on Opening Day . . .
The all-white Yankees had an attendance of 12,368 fans in that pre-war season . . .
Twenty years later, Paige returned to Yankee Stadium for an exhibition game . . .
According to author Dave Kaplan, Negro Leagues teams rented Yankee Stadium more than any other ballpark, a total of 225 times . . .
A Satchel Paige Black Yankees bobblehead was given to fans attending a game between the visiting Tampa Bay Rays and 2023 Yankees on May 11 — 72 years after his brilliant bow in the Bronx.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
I haven't been to Yankee Stadium since the onset of the pandemic. But when I did attend Yankee games, I always made it a point to visit Monument Park. It is like visiting hallowed ground. I have to admit that the article by Paul Semendinger, Ed.D. (It Is Time To Fix the Yankees' Monument Park?) opened my eyes to something that never crossed my mind. I plan on returning to the stadium now that I am retired and I will surely visit Monument Park. I will not think any less of monument park but I will visit hoping for more!
Sadly the new Monument Park is nothing like the park at Old Yankee Stadium. The Yankees have gotten ridiculous with retiring numbers as well, taking away from the area honor. They can honor all the players they want with plaques, not retiring their numbers. Monument park should be open during the entire game, not closing it 45 minutes before the first pitch. The way they navigate you through Monument park is also a negative. The last time I visited, people were stepping on the flowers and pushing through to try and get around and see all the plaques and numbers. It is not an ideal setup. Nothing was like the Old Stadium and Monument Park that inhabited it there.