Hello and welcome to Issue 013 of Clearing The Bases, an email newsletter in conjunction with the My Baseball History podcast hosted by Dan Wallach.
The latest episode of the podcast with ANGE ARMATO went live on Wednesday, April 10, so if you haven’t had a chance to listen to that yet, make sure you do. Ange is a former member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League who spent time playing with the Rockford Peaches and the Kalamazoo Lassies. We spoke about what it was like to practice and play with the best team in the league. We discussed what bus travel, hotel accommodations, and field conditions were like. And we remembered a number of the great players from the AAGPBL’s history, with Ange recounting stories about each of them on and off the field. It’s a really special episode with a woman who deserved to have her story properly told. I hope you take the opportunity to listen. You can do that HERE.
These past couple weeks have been very busy, and very full of travel for me. After Ange’s episode was published, I got in my car and headed to New York City to be at Gitterman Gallery for the grand opening of Paul Reiferson’s incredible exhibition, Jackie Robinson and the Color Line. I know I’ve mentioned this in a couple previous newsletters, but now that it’s actually open and I had a chance to see it, I wanted to write about my experience.
First and foremost, I want to thank Paul for putting on the show, and my friends Graig Kreindler and William Peebles for coming on opening day to see it with me. With Graig, Paul, and William all in the same room, it was the largest reunion of former My Baseball History guests ever assembled. Naturally, we took a photo together to commemorate such a momentous occasion.
Listen to Graig’s episode HERE // Listen to Paul’s episode HERE // Listen to William’s episode HERE
I also wanted to share something amazing that happened while at Gitterman Gallery as we all took in the photos and artifacts Paul has dutifully collected, researched, and displayed. Paul’s exhibition opened on April 15, which Major League Baseball recognizes and celebrates as Jackie Robinson Day, since Jackie officially broke MLB’s color barrier on April 15, 1947. That day, Robinson played in his first regular season game as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field against the Boston Braves. However, that wasn’t Jackie’s first game in a Dodger uniform, or at Ebbets Field. That game was actually four days earlier, on April 11, when the Dodgers played an exhibition game against the New York Yankees.
As Paul wrote: “Robinson’s introduction to Major League Baseball was meticulously planned to include carefully controlled media to maximize the probability of success. On occasion, sympathetic photographers acting spontaneously helped the cause, as with this image in which children who were genuinely admiring of Robinson were asked to pretend to get his autograph.
“This photograph of Robinson besieged for autographs by young white fans was taken on April 11, 1947, in a pre-season game that marked Robinson's first appearance in a major league uniform. Eddie Dweck, the boy at the far left reaching toward Robinson, recalled the scene 66 years later:
“We had maybe bleacher seats, the cheapest seats, and we were trying to get to the Dodger dugout just like we tried to get to the Dodger dugout every game we went. But there were a hundred photographers taking pictures of him. This was a momentous day. So they told the ushers ‘let these kids come down, and lean over like you’re trying to get his autograph.’ And that’s how we got down there. It was a matter of a few minutes, five minutes, ten minutes as I remember. Then we had to scatter. It looks like he’s signing something, but I don’t think anybody got an autograph, not while I was there.”
Seeing that photo in person was eye-opening. It’s a photo many of us have seen before, by design, as Paul described, since the Dodgers did everything in their power to convince the public (and maybe even themselves) that their ‘grand experiment’ was going to work. As we were going through the exhibit with a guided tour from Paul, an older gentleman walked in. It was Edward Dweck, who was 12 years old at the time of the photo. Eddie spoke to us all about that day, and told us how six years later, he went to Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida to try out for the team. While he didn’t make the roster, think of how special it was for him to share a field with Jackie, and to wear that uniform. Meeting Eddie and hearing him tell that story in person is something I’ll never forget.
Gitterman Gallery is located at 3 East 66th Street, Suite 1B in New York, New York. Paul’s show runs through Friday, May 24, with the gallery being open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and available by appointment by calling 212-734-0868. If you have an opportunity to make it there before the show closes, I highly, highly suggest going to see it. It’s one of the most culturally significant exhibits relating to sports that I’ve ever seen, curated by someone who has been building this specific show for 25 years.
After NYC, I drove to Philadelphia to record an interview which will be a future episode of the podcast. It’s an interview nearly five years in the making, but it was well worth the wait. You’re going to love it when it comes out next season. We recorded the interview during the afternoon, and it just so happened that the Phillies had a home game that night. I had never seen a game at Citizens Bank Park, so I asked my interview subject if he wanted to catch the game with me. Thankfully, he agreed, and we got to see the Phillies beat the Rockies 5-0. Bryce Harper went 2-4 with a double, a home run, and 3 RBI. It was great to be able to see that stadium, to walk around and check out the statues and plaques honoring the team’s history, and to experience the environment during a Phillies win.
After Philadelphia, I headed to Strongsville, Ohio for a baseball card show. Love Of The Game Auctions had a table at the show where they were taking consignments, but since Al Crisafulli was on a huge road trip from New York to Seattle to pick up other consignments he’s been working on securing for the next LOTG auction, that meant my friend Andrew Aronstein was going to be at their table alone all weekend. I told the guys I would be happy to come hang out and help, so we ended up having a nice little warmup for The National card show which will be in Cleveland in July.
Andrew’s dad is Michael Aronstein, who is one of the first major baseball card collectors in the hobby. He grew up in New York in the 1940s and 50s, and helped coordinate some of the very first card shows and card collector gatherings, one of which was actually held at his house. If you’ve ever heard of the baseball card manufacturing company TCMA, Michael Aronstein is the “MA” in TCMA. He has also owned two different copies of the Honus Wagner T206 card during his life and collecting career, which Andrew has told me all about.
At the show in Strongsville, one of the vendors had a couple different copies of Hobby Card Collectors Catalogue, which was a very early publication which baseball card collectors from all over the country could use as a resource to be able to buy cards from specific sets they were trying to build. Look at some of the prices in here…
T206 cards for 50 cents each. 1940 and 1941 Play Ball cards for 40 cents each. 1951 Bowman cards for 15 or 20 cents individually, or the whole 324-card set for $51.25. And 1952 Topps cards for 15 or 20 cents each, or the high-number cards (including Mickey Mantle’s famous card #311) for the princely sum of $1 each. Looking back with our current knowledge and modern values of those cards, those prices are insane. But in 1964, that’s what they cost. In another 6-8 months when I finally finish my time machine, I know exactly where I’m going.
The Cleveland Guardians had a home game Saturday night of the weekend of the card show, so Andrew and I went to Progressive Field to take it in. The Black Keys (who are a band from Akron, Ohio) just recently released a new album, and that Saturday night game just happened to be a special giveaway where you got an exclusive color of the vinyl record which you could only get at that game. If you know about my vinyl record collection, you know that made me happy.
Andrew and I met up with Jeremy Feador at the game, who is the official team historian of the Cleveland Guardians, so that was also neat. The Guardians beat the Athletics 6-3 that night, with Josh Naylor going 2-4 with a home run and 3 RBI. I have actually seen a couple different games in Cleveland before, so while this wasn’t a new stadium for me to check off my list, it was still fun to see a game with Andrew to remember the trip. There are lots more trips planned this summer, so stay tuned.
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Until next time, I’m Dan Wallach, and this is My Baseball History.
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