New York Yankee Pinstripes

The other evening I had the pleasure of attending one of those 'Author Talk' events, this one was held at the Ossining Public Library. More accurately, it was an 'Editor Talk' event, by Rob Fleder discussing his anthology by invitation book 'Damn Yankees,' a collection of 24 pieces from 24 writers about either their personal feelings about the Yankees, or a piece on a Yankee player, or owner.

Mr. Fleder was joined by the interviewer Bob Minzesheimer, of USA Today, who described himself as being raised in Brooklyn and a Dodger fan.  Mr. Minzesheimer was wearing a baseball cap, that quite honestly I couldn't readily identify because it was pushed back a bit on his head, and he was taller than I am.

It was a decent size gathering of folks who did not respond with any happiness or negativity to Mr. Minzesheimer admission of his Brooklyn Dodger fanhood.  Years ago an announcement of being genetically connected to Brooklyn could always be counted on to generate cheers and jeers. Being perhaps the second oldest person in the gathering I got a feeling the good folks of Ossining needed their GPS systems to tell them where Brooklyn was.  Even given that, no app on earth could give you a sense of what those Brooklyn fans were like. 

Ossining is a Westchester suburb famous for being the home of some writers and actors, and a New York state prison population housed in the "Big House" up the river, Sing Sing.  The Metro-North Hudson Division commuter line goes into a tunnel through the prison. How New York State has maintained a prison there for over 100 years, considering what value the land has that overlooks the Hudson River less than one hour from NYC, is surely another story.

Mr. Fleder, in his book's introduction, and his talk, gives a background story as to how the book was conceived.  When it was pointed out the baseball beat reporters seem to be absent from the book you got a sense from Mr. Fleder's answer that he was aiming for writing from more traditional literary sources, authors, vs. reporters, even though certainly, some of the assembled did write for newspapers. The fact that Mike Lupica is left out of the book is an unspoken advantage I think Mr. Fleder has, and that Dick Young is long dead is even better.

Are there still Yankee heroes?  Certainly, and to Mr. Fleder's credit he quite nicely points out that out. Underlines it, actually. Years ago I once read something Leonard Koppett (a NYT baseball writer) wrote in a Sunday magazine section devoted entirely to sports, that every fan has their Golden Age, a ten year period or so when their attention is so strongly focused on a team that it creates ever-lasting, deep-seated memories for them.

A few people in the audience were dressed the same as the zealot who recently killed the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Or, more accurately, they were wearing Yankee caps, as he was. This  proves a valid point: the Yankee reach is worldwide. It makes you wonder if the Yes Network reaches some with Arabic subtitles. It's too bad we can't find out what they might have understood about Phil Rizutto, or currently think about Suzyn Waldman.

Mr. Fleder points out other examples of the ubiquity of the Yankees and their logo. The power of pinstripes is part of the movie and Broadway musical 'Catch Me if You Can.' The Yankees are truly  the most storied franchise in sports history.

My own favorite example of proof of that is the picture I saw a few years ago, I think in the Wall Street Journal. It was one of those pictures that with its caption stood on its own. It wasn't connected to a an adjoining story.  The scene was a large group of Indonesian women demonstrating against their working conditions. They were striking 'sex workers,' each wearing a yellow Yankee cap with the famous logo.

I really have no idea how that turned out for them, but I didn't see any of them in Ossining the other night.

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