Dwight Gooden visited the Nassau County Health Fair and Expo on Saturday August 9, 2014 at Mitchell Field in Long Island to talk about his struggle with drug addiction during and after his baseball career and how he's kept himself clean for the past three years.
Bucky Dent with Bruce Apar of the Harrison Apar Foundation
Bucky Dent regaled the crowd for almost 20 minutes at the 2013 Harrison Apar Foundation Columbus Day Golf Classic with stories from his Yankees career, sharing insight about his famous home run, his run-ins with George Steinbrenner, and playing in shorts as one of Bill Veeck's wild promotions.
Watch video of Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer ever in baseball, entering the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field to a prolonged standing ovation from the crowd. Rivera, 43, pitched a scoreless 8th inning, in his 13th and final All-Star Game.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Roberto Clemente's fatal plane crash on December 31st, 1972 in San Juan, Puerto Rico in his attempts to ensure that relief supplies were being delivered to the necessary recipients in Nicaragua. While Clemente was coaching in Leon, he was encouraged by fans to step up to the plate and take some batting practice. Sporting his familiar number 21, Clemente obliged much to the delight of the fans and the opposing players. Hans Norbert Jaeger, a member of the German team that competed in the Amateur World Series in Leon, discovered footage of Clemente during that batting practice session.
Roberto Clemente - 1972 Topps
This video, which shown below, is the last known video of Clemente batting. As we celebrate Clemente heroic efforts, watch closely at one last glimpse of Clemente's effortless swings interspersed between his classic gyrations to loosen himself up to hit.
Rare footage of the legendary Satchel Paige pitching in 1948 has emerged due to a discovery in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archives. The video below is of Paige pitching on November 7, 1948 at a winter league game in California. Paige pitched in the game for Chet Brewer's Kansas City Royals against fellow Indians teammate Gene Bearden's Major League All-Stars. Bearden can be seen around the :23 mark in the video. Also playing in the game was future Hall of Famer James "Cool Papa" Bell, as well as Sam Hairston, grandfather of New York Mets outfielder Scott Hairston, and Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Jerry Hairston Jr.
Carl Erskine and Roy Campanella were battery mates for Campanella’s entire ten-year career with the Brooklyn Dodgers. If anyone should know a thing or two about how Campanella handled the pitching staff, it’s Erskine.
Roy Campanella and Carl Erskine
This is Part 4 of a series of interviews with Brooklyn Dodger great Carl Erskine about his experiences playing with the storied franchise.Erskine appeared recently in New Yorkon behalf of the Bob Feller Museum and was kind enough to grant us access to produce this series of vignettes regarding his career.
Campanella wasn’t exactly a rookie when he joined the Dodgers; he had been playing nine years in the Negro Leagues, learning from Hall of Famer Raleigh “Biz” Mackey. For those familiar with Campanella's lineage, it was of little surprise then that Campanella skillfully handled his pitching staff.
“What Campy did more than anything else with the pitching staff, was how he made you pace yourself,” Erskine said. “Pitchers are always overanxious, especially if you have a bad pitch or you throw a home run or something. You want the ball back, you want to go again; he wouldn’t let you do that, he made you stay within yourself.”
Although Campanella should have worn a sign saying, “Thou Shalt Not Steal”, because he threw out 51% of would-be base stealers during his career, it was his mental approach to the game that set him apart from other receivers at the time.
“His savvy ... that’s something you can’t describe; he just had a feel for the game,” Erskine said.
Erskine described how Campanella's "feel" helped to mold on one of the mainstays of Brooklyn’s rotation, Don Newcombe.
“Campy … was great at the mind game,” he said. “What to throw, when to throw it. … He was an easy personality. He helped [Don] Newcombe a lot because Newk was a little volatile and he was one of the early blacks. He had to face a lot of the indignities, same as Jackie [Robinson] did. He wasn’t handling that as well as Jackie probably, so Campy was a real soothing influence on Newcombe.”
Campanella’s ability to handle the pitchers was so esteemed, that the coaching staff gave Campanella wide latitude with his charges.
“The manager would basically say to the pitching staff … ‘If you shake Campy off, you better have a good reason,” he said. “He’s been around, he knows what to do; you kinda follow Roy.’ So Roy used to say to the young pitchers. ‘Now you young pitchers, you just throw what ‘Ol Campy calls and I’ll make you a winner!’"
Sometimes, Campanella would lead them down a path that was not always victorious. Erskine took the opportunity to remind him that the loss went next to his name, not the catcher after a loss.
“So I’d lose a game and I’d bring him a box score,” Erskine said. “His locker was right next to mine. I’d say, 'Hey Campy, look at this! It says Erskine losing pitcher. Shouldn’t that say Campanella, losing catcher?'"
This website is normally dedicated to baseball, but I feel as many of you have seen card shops close across the country that you would feel this one.
Labeled "The Last Stop for Hip Hop", Fat Beats served as the mecca for hip hop fans, DJ's and collectors. A legendary fixture in New York City on 6th Avenue, right near the famous West 4th Street basketball courts, hip hop "heads" would often gather to purchase the latest hip hop record and discuss who was next to blow up on the scene.
The inner walls of the store covered with autographed photos and posters of the many artists who graced the store during their record release celebrations. The names on the wall are too many to mention, but it reads like a "Who's Who" of hip hop. On any given day, you could run into a significant artist, DJ or producer who would stop by while they were in New York to see what was new in the "underground". If you wanted a hip hop 12" or CD by an artist large or small, chances are they had it. Customers would often come in with playlists from radio shows such as the Stretch and Bobbito Show or the Halftime Radio show and purchase every single record that was played on the airwaves. The fans demand it and they kept the fiends coming back every week for more. You better have acted quickly though because any record worth its salt didn't stay on the racks too long.
A look at the ceiling of Fat Beats
As digital forms of music began to dominate the market, trends saw a shift away from consumers, especially DJ's buying vinyl records. They now opted for MP3's which worked in their Serato programs that much more neatly held all of their music on a hard drive instead of bulky crates of records. CD sales tanked just as quickly as vinyl and Fat Beats felt the impact of a declining consumer base. Even though it managed to outlast such megastores as Tower Records, it couldn't continue to provide the services of a physical store with the decline in revenue.
This past week had an All-Star lineup of DJ's, MC's and producers performing to celebrate the institution that Fat Beats had become. I attended the closing ceremonies on Saturday September 4, 2010 that included performances by DJ Scratch of EPMD, DJ Spinna, Caron Wheeler of Soul II Soul and DJ Premier of Gangstarr. It was fitting that Premier closed out the week-long celebration, as he epitomized the essence of hip hop and vinyl. DJ's across the country immersed themselves in vinyl due to his work and have their crates full of his productions.
DJ Premier rocks the final set at Fat Beats
Its closing represented an end of an era. I had been shopping there since 1999 and I quickly relived the last 11 years of my involvement in radio, DJ'ing and the industry. No longer will there be a central place for "heads" to gather and discuss the culture, find out about local events and take a chance on spending $5 on that artist whose vinyl still remains a go-to record in your crates over a decade later. The chances of another place opening that represented the purity of a culture that roped in my generation to hip-hop is unlikely and it is for that I dedicate this post to Fat Beats. Fat Beats will still remain open online and continue to provide those who thirst for the music an opportunity to get their fix. I don't know how much the current generation will care about its closing, or pine for a hub to replace it, but for many who went through our era of experiencing hip hop emerge, this serves as a reminder that as much as we want to hold on to seasons of the past, the forces of nature will leave us behind as it writes its next chapter. Consider this one closed. RIP Fat Beats.
On the field, George Case was known for his speed. The fleet-footed outfielder led the American League in stolen bases six times, including a five-year stretch from 1939-1943. During his career that spanned 11 seasons, Case had the foresight to capture action from all of the American League ballparks onto color 8mm film. Previously silent footage, Case wisely recorded the narration before his death in 1989 that guides you through the 37 minute expedition entitled "Around the League".
While Case identifies his old teammates and opponents, he makes you feel like you are sitting next to your father calmly recounting proud memories of an era long gone. There are over 15 Hall of Fame baseball players featured in this collection, and for many fans it is their only chance to see action of baseball's immortals in living color. Vivid footage of such greats as Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer and Hank Greenberg bring the descriptions that one may have read about these legends come to life on your screen. Add in Case's first hand accounts of the foregone players and ballparks, you will feel like you were there live in the flesh while Case was capturing it on his personal camera.
The DVD sells for $35.95 (shipping included) and can be purchased directly from his son George Case III by emailing him at case67@verizon.net.
ESPN.com reports that Jose Offerman threw a punch at an umpire during a Dominican winter league game Saturday night, the second time in 2½ years he has assaulted someone on a baseball field.
Offerman, who is the manager of the Licey Tigers, took a swing at the first base umpire during a heated exchange in the game against the Cibao Giants. Offerman came out onto the field after Ronny Paulino was ejected for arguing balls and strikes. He went to argue with the home plate umpire, but got entangled with the first base umpire Daniel Rayburn instead.
Offerman's previous fighting incident on the field occurred during the 2007 season when he was a member of the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. During the August 14, 2007 game against the Bridgeport Bluefish, pitcher Matt Beech hit him with a fastball. Offerman charged the mound with his bat and swung at least twice, striking Beech and Bluefish catcher John Nathans.
In February 2009, Nathans sued Offerman in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, seeking $4.8 million in damages. Nathans said the attack left him with permanent, career-ending injuries.
