The Catch, Part II

One thing I can say for the NYT obits page and its editor William McDonald, they've got class. I wasn't sure they'd do a tribute obit for the passing of Sal Durante, 81, who as a 19-year-old from Brooklyn caught Roger Maris's 61st home run in the right field bleacher seats at Yankee Stadium on the last day of the 1961 season. But they did.

It's a nicely done piece bylined by Richard Sandomir and coincidently appears on the day the news breaks that Aaron Judge was signed to a multi-year, multi- million dollar (is there any other kind these days?) with the New York Yankees. All's well in the Bronx expect the cost of parking for a game.

The NYT does a much better job of filling in the empty spots left over from other obits. Sal caught the ball one-handed, then survive all the guys who jumped him to take it away from him.

Sal did get $5,000 from  a California restaurant owner, Sam Gordon, to buy the ball and display it for a while in his Sacramento restaurant. But Gordon later gave the ball to Maris, who then donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sal, in addition to being there with his fiancée, Rosemarie Calabrese,  was there with his cousin John and his date. Sal was broke, so his fiancée paid the $10 for the four seats. Imagine that.

Sal and Rosemarie were married three weeks after the catch and then flown out to California by Sam Gordon to collect the $5,000. Gordon also footed the bill for Sal and Rosemarie's honeymoon in Palm Springs.

After catch Sal was whisked to the WPIX broadcast booth and met Phil Rizutto who greeted Sal with warmth and said, "I'm glad you're a paesano."

After reading that in the obit I was reminded of how Rizzuto once with Bill White in the booth explained that names that ended in a vowel denoted an Italian. Bill White, who was black never missed a beat and then asked Phil, "Oh you mean names like White and Shapiro." Phil probably choked on his cannoli.

Mr. Durante was invited to the 50th anniversary of the catch in 2011 (pictured above) at what was now a new Yankee Stadium built in 2009. Sal proved to be more than a capable interviewee when he was asked if the 61 homer season should stand against the Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire records that of course exceeded 61 homers, but also carried the taint of being from the so-called "steroid-era."

Sal replied, "How about I just say Roger deserved it. He did it on his own, you know, the skill."

We all know by now the effects of dementia, and sadly the dementia that Sal passed away from prevented him from even being able to absorb the year Aaron Judge was having this year when he finished with 62 homers in a season, an undisputed America League record.

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