Thomas Hauser on Sports: Remembering the Journey

A Yankee Fan Grows Older

Revisiting the touchstones of one’s youth can bring mixed emotions A Yankee Fan Grows Older Once upon a time, believe it or not, doubleheaders were regularly scheduled by the lords of baseball. In 1961 (the year Roger Maris hit sixty-one home runs),the NewYorkYankees played twelve Sunday doubleheaders at home.A box seat cost $3.50. General admission was $1.30.The bleachers were under a dollar. I was fifteen years old at the time. I know I’m starting to sound like an old fogey. But for older Americans, baseball, more than any other sport, is deeply ingrained in memories of childhood, so bear with me for a moment while I reminisce. When I was a boy, I’d go to ten doubleheaders a year; all of them at Yankee Stadium. My friends and I would arrive ninety minutes early to get good seats in the upper deck and watch batting practice.There were four Hall of Famers in theYankee lineup—Mickey Mantle,Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and Phil Rizzuto. And I saw countless others headed for Cooperstown—Ted Williams, Al Kaline, Harmon Killebrew, Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox, EarlyWynn. One of my happiest moments came when I went to aYankees-Tigers doubleheader and the first game lasted fifteen innings. In those long-ago days, there was no place on Earth I’d rather be. I knew I was starting to get old when I went to a doubleheader at the stadium with some friends during my second year of law school.Around the middle of the second game, I started to wish it would end. Now I go to a game once every few years. That brings me to July 4, 2000. Once upon a time, the Fourth of July was a day of particular significance in baseball.Whoever was in first place on July 4, it was said, would most likely win the pennant.This year, the Yankees were playing the Baltimore Orioles at the stadium. It seemed like a good day for me to revisit my childhood,so I took the subway up to the Bronx. As one grows older, perceptions change, butYankee Stadium is still awe inspiring.As for the game itself, it’s no secret that the Bronx Bombers 6 THOMAS HAUSER have been struggling this season. Starting pitching has been the reason why, and July 4 was no different. David Cone was on the mound, and he surrendered home runs to Mike Bordick, Harold Baines, Brady Anderson, and Mark Lewis.That accounted for seven Oriole runs, which was all Baltimore needed.A ninth-inningYankee rally fell short, and the Bombers lost 7–6.The dramatic highpoint of the afternoon came during the fifth inning, when a voice on the stadium public-address system intoned “it’s proposal time” and announced that an ardent suitor wanted to know, “Alicia, will you marry me?” At that moment, it seemed as though virtually all of the 44,447 fans in attendance shouted “NO!” It would be nice to think that Alicia said, “Yes.” The weather was hot and humid. Around the middle of the sixth inning, I started to wish the game would end. Still, it was obvious that, for the multitude of children sitting nearby, the entire experience was magical. I don’t know when I’ll go toYankee Stadium again. Baseball is now vibrant and exciting for me only in memory. But those memories will always be with me. And in tribute to them, I’d like to bequeath to younger generations a list of things that I recall most fondly about baseball the way it used to be: (1) Irregularly-shaped playing fields with foul lines that were “too short” and centerfields so large that you could put monuments there and not interfere with play. (2) Crowds that cheered without the aid of “tomahawk chops,” “homer hankies,” or electronic scoreboards that trumpet “Charge!” (3) The policy of holding back general-admission seats until the day of a game, so anyone (and particularly children) who cared enough could go to the ballpark early and get tickets for a crucial game. (4) Starting pitchers who finished what they started and were allowed to bat for themselves. (5) Managers who didn’t play the percentages with switch-hitters ad nauseam. (6) Baseball cards that were flipped,traded,and carried in back pockets instead of being put in binders by eight-year-olds as an investment. (7) Jackie Robinson, Stan Musial, Sandy Koufax,Warren...