Rare Doubleheader Today Kindles Memories

There will be something so rare this afternoon in major league baseball, an event that once occurred just about every week, but disappeared: a true doubleheader, and not a day/night, but an old fashioned doubleheader.

Due to the fact that the last two games of a four game series between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians, in the Yankees only scheduled visit to Cleveland, were postponed, there is a makeup doubleheader scheduled today. The first game has a noon, local start. The second game, matching two first place teams by the way, is scheduled for a three thirty local start.

Ah, doubleheaders! I am old enough to remember them on Sundays and certainly on such holidays as Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. They represent many fine memories. Sadly, they do not exist any longer. Once in the back of a car service provided vehicle, I recall Al “Grampa” Lewis, a once big baseball fan, recall and lament by saying “remember doubleheaders”

In the great book, “The Godfather,” author Mario Puzo talks of the men, some with children in hand, waiting at the betting parlor, to wager on Sunday doubleheaders. The parlor boss, “Carlo Rizzi” (this before “Sonny” arrives to “confront” him regarding “Carlo” hitting “Sonny’s” sister “Connie”) is to neatly write with chalk the odds for the plethora of doubleheaders in what were 8 team leagues at the time, in the years after World War 2, depicted in the great book and film.

People before my time must have great memories of Yankees vs Indians doubleheaders, in say the 1950’s, when great names such as  Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Al Rosen and Larry Doby were among the players, who lined the rosters of each team.

I recall a truly entertaining, if not great, doubleheader between the Yankees and Indians at the original Yankee Stadium in June, 1970.

With Cleveland easing to victory in the “opener,” Yankees manager Ralph Houk brought six foot six inch pitcher, Steve Hamilton into the game. Hamilton threw the highly entertaining, “folly-floater” pitch. It was thrown on a high arc and was difficult to hit.

The Indians’ Tony Horton found this out when he popped out to catcher Thurman Munson on the second of two such pitches. Tony fouled off the first one and asked Hamilton to throw another.

However, Tony  “wowed” the crowd when he crawled back to the dugout after that at bat. The entertaining, Yankees’ broadcaster Phil Rizzuto cites Horton as a big part of that “show.”

In the first game of that “DH,” Bobby Murcer homered in his last at bat. Then he hit three home runs in the nightcap. Thus he hit four consecutive home runs, a record he shares with, as another Yankees’ broadcaster Frank Messer, would say, “Joe Many.”(the rather obvious reference being many others have hit four consecutive home runs but nobody has ever topped four.)

I believe firecrackers were thrown on the field that day so not all the memories are great. Yet this scheduled doubleheader and thoughts of others, including the related, aforementioned one, between the two clubs, evokes good memories this Monday morning.

Click on the link for great video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFvp7kMraAw