| Maury Allen |
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going by the book |
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You're the Tops! |
 The great Whitey Ford |
Ford's more than a great
pitcher; he's also a great guy
By MAURY ALLEN
of TheColumnists.com
WHITEY FORD IS 75 years old,
a cancer survivor, the best pitcher the Yankees ever had, a Hall
of Famer, a native New Yorker and the best damn guy I ever covered
in the Yankee clubhouse.
When I covered them in the 1950s and 1960s, the Yankees were
an arrogant, crusty and sullen lot, but Ford was a joyous presence.
While Mickey Mantle would stare down at his shoes and mumble
into his beer can, Ford would laugh with the press and make excuses
for his slugging pal.
When his left arm went south and his circulation was damaged,
Ford kidded about only having to wash half his uniform because
he only sweated on one side.
He came in as a champion with a 9-1 season for the 1950 Yankees
and a World Series win over the Philadelphia Phillies Whiz Kids
in the final game of the four game sweep. Left fielder Gene Woodling
dropped a fly ball in a 5-2 game and manager Casey Stengel went
to fireballer Allie Reynolds for the final out.
Ford never forgave Stengel for that. He was 23 years old at the
time and had been in 20 big league games.
He went out in 1967, even leaving pal Mantle behind on the staggering
Yankees of those days, when his pride got the best of him. If
he couldn’t help the Yankees, he wouldn’t steal their
money.
He coached for a while, stayed close to the Yankees as a scout
and spring training instructor, battled through his own illness
and the shocking loss of a son and remained a legend in his time
and all time.
His 1974 Hall of Fame election together with Mantle registered
a 9.1 on the Richter party scale in the upstate New York village
of Cooperstown. Ford at his Hall of Fame induction cited that
it was a big week for Fords. He was named to the Hall of Fame
and Gerald Ford had just taken over for the resigned Richard
Nixon.
He recalled the Mantle speech at the induction ceremonies when
he reminded the audience of some bad business investments after
baseball, especially a fried chicken franchise that went bust.
Mickey told the Cooperstown crowd the motto of the franchise
was, “To get a better piece of chicken, you would have to
be a rooster.”
Mantle was always funnier away from the press.
Much of the warmth, joy, decency and daring of Whitey Ford is
captured in Few And
Chosen: Defining Yankee Greatness Across the Eras (Triumph
Books), an examination by Ford with sportswriter Phil Pepe of
the best of all the Yankee players.
Ford had a tough time in two categories of his choices. He was
uncomfortable picking Joe DiMaggio as the best centerfielder
of all his Yankee time as against his buddy, Mantle, and selecting
the best lefty whose name wasn’t Ford.
Ford only played part of that first season of 1950 with DiMaggio.
He missed Joe’s last year of 1951 while serving in the Army.
DiMaggio quit after that season because he felt he “wasn’t
Joe DiMaggio anymore.” I was told that by Joe's older brother,
Tom, who ran the family’s San Francisco restaurant at Fisherman’s
Wharf, while I was doing my book on the Yankee Clipper, Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Ford quit in 1967 when
he wasn’t Whitey Ford anymore. Mantle, unlike Ford, didn’t
quit until the end of 1968 even though he wasn’t Mickey
Mantle anymore. Mickey batted .255, .245 and .237 in three of
his last four years. It forced his lifetime average under .300
to .298, a bitter reality Mantle always had trouble accepting.
Ford was awed by Mantle’s power and courage. He probably
hit baseballs harder and further than anybody who played the
game, especially from both sides of the plate.
Mantle was a brother to Ford. DiMaggio was an unapproachable
icon. Ford puts DiMaggio on top of the centerfield list but that
is known as the baseball version of political correctness.
He puts Lefty Gomez on top of his lefty list in all modesty.
Gomez was a Hall of Famer who won 189 games in 14 years. Ford
won 236 in 16 years. Stengel always said he would pick Ford if
he had one game to win as a life saver.
While Ford and Mantle consumed enough beer to float down the
Mississippi, Mantle’s drinking would lead him to further
female excursions. A busted marriage and four tormented sons
were the result.
Ford’s family life was another Hall of Fame experience with
three great kids and a fantastic wife still going strong with
the lefthanded pitcher from the Astoria section of Queens in
New York City after 50 years.
The relationship between Ford and Mantle, with Billy Martin as
an outside intruder, was unique and remarkable considering their
different backgrounds, personalities and pressures. Somehow it
worked.
Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle were great baseball players who
really defined the true joy of the game, the fraternal brotherhood
of teammates that no fan, no sportswriter, no historian could
ever truly understand.
This Ford may not have been a president or owned a car company.
He was simply the walking Dream Team of what a sportswriter wants
to deal with in a baseball clubhouse.
© 2001 by Maury Allen. The photo of Whitey Ford is from
the Baseball Hall of Fame website.
You
can comment on this column or contact Maury Allen with an email
to: talkback@thecolumnists.com
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