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from Nov. 10, 2000 |
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Stan
Isaacs Out of Left Field |
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It may be worth a million now,
but it was more fun then
By
STAN ISAACS
of TheColumnists.com
It is a welcome part of the baseball landscape that some of the new baseball parks have adapted the idea that traces to long-gone Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. It is an updated version of the "Hit Sign, Win Suit" sign emblazoned on a narrow strip under the scoreboard in right-center field at the revered Dodgers ball park.
These
being richer times, a mere suit is small potatoes to the current
flock of millionaires playing baseball. Now, a million dollars
is the lure. Of course, it is probably just as hard, if not harder,
to win the prize at two of the ball parks as it was at Ebbets
Field.
Pac Bell Park in San Francisco offers a million dollars to the
slugger who can hit the huge glove situated above the stands
in left-center field. Turner Field in Atlanta offers the million
bucks to the worthy who can drive a ball off the huge Coke sign
in left field. Both would take mighty pokes of some 500 feet
or so. It's unlikely, but just possible that some of today's
behemoths might actually hit the targets and win the million
dollars. Naturally, the ball park managements are insured against
the possibility, however slight.
The sign at Ebbets Field lent some of the character to that grand
old ball park. It also was a tough sign to hit-on a bounce or
on the fly--because it was in a spot under the scoreboard in
right-center field that couldn't be reached if the right fielder
was doing his job adequately. A ball that did hit the sign usually
wound up as a two-base hit.
Abe
Stark, was the proprietor of the clothing store which bore his
name. He unveiled the sign in the early 1930s. He said, "They
put the scoreboard up about then. I was out at the ball park
one day and saw that the space was empty. It looked like a good
spot for the sign. I got in touch with [concessionaire] Harry
Stevens who sold space on the outfield fences and asked him about
the space. He said nobody had ever asked for it. He didn't think
it was a good spot. I did. I bought it. And I made the offer
because I knew it would be a tough spot to hit."
He said, "It cost about $275 for the season in those days.
By the time Ebbets Field closed down [in 1958}, the rental price
had gone up to $2,500 a season what with the rise in prices and
the increased value of the space because of television."
(Note: In the early days of Shea Stadium Newsday bought space above the auxiliary scoreboards in left and right field for $10,000. The signs would show up so often on television when home run balls were hit in that sector that the Mets soon doubled, tripled and quadrupled the price and made them revolving signs that featured three rotating sponsors).
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The "Hit Sign, Win Suit" sign made a city-wide personality out of Stark. The sign even gave him a prominence that enabled him to move into politics, and he became Borough President of Brooklyn. The sign inspired a memorable New Yorker Magazine cartoon by George Price. It showed a sign with the message, "Hit This Sign and Abe Feldman will give you a suit absolutely free." Backing up an outfielder reaching for a ball is an elderly gent, obviously Abe Feldman, with a glove guarding the fence.
How many times was the sign hit?
"Many times," Stark said. "I would say at least five times a year. One fellow named Hudson [Johnny Hudson, a second-baseman, circa 1939, known for depriving Carl Hubbell of a perfect game] hit it three times in one year. And Mel Ott hit it twice in one game."
Stark was mistaken. My check of long-time Ebbets Field residents brought general agreement that the sign was hit rarely. If it was hit once a year that was often. Reporters, ex-Dodgers officials and Ebbets Field fans of long standing didn't recall more than a few instances when the sign was hit. Johnny Hudson didn't hit it three times and Mel Ott certainly didn't hit it twice in one game. It just felt to Stark that he was giving away a lot of suits.
He was fortunate because he had some redoubtable right fielders standing guard for him through the years. Notably Dixie Walker and Carl Furillo. They made a living playing in front of the right field screen and scoreboard. Both rarely misjudged a ball so that it might hit the sign. On the other hand, Stark's supply of suits may have been in some jeopardy when the sign was at the mercy of a troglodyte like Babe Herman, famous for his misplays in the early 1930s.
Furillo once said, "I don't recall a ball ever hitting the sign when I was in right field. I asked the man for a pair of pants or something for guarding the sign, but he never gave me anything. Dixie Walker, I think, wangled a few pair of slacks for his work out there."
Over the years Furillo himself won two suits by hitting the sign. Furillo said, "Once Elmer Valo misjudged a line drive I hit to right-center, and the ball sailed over his head and off the sign. I remember that when I went to collect the suit, they wanted to give me one of the cheap suits. I looked around and took one of the good ones."
The procedure was for the official scorer to notify the store when the sign was hit. Bill Roeder of the long-defunct World Telegram remembered a time when one player, "I think it was Harry Walker," he said, "hit the sign on a bounce. He called and asked if that wasn't at least good for a pair of pants or a jacket. I took up his cause in the paper and I think Walker got a pair of pants."
The Ebbets Field "Hit Sign, Win Suit" come-on lit up the scene a whole lot more than the commercial-laden electronic messsage boards of today's ball parks. The spirit of Abe Stark stalks the huge glove in Pac Bell Park and the coke sign in Turner Field.
P.S.--When the Giants were considering offers about which commercial entity would pay enough money to emblazon its name on the new Giants park, Hank Greenwald, the longtime Giants broadcaster, wished aloud that the Ralph Lauren Company would buy the rights and thereby name the park the Polo Grounds--a waking up of the echoes of the Giants' old ball park in New York.
© 2000 by Stan Isaacs. The cartoon is © 2000 by Jim Hummel. The Ebbets Field illustration is from the IMSI Master/Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. East, San Rafael, CA 94901-5506, USA.
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