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The Kent CT Library is the scene of this meeting between the niece and nephew of former Yankee second baseman George (Snuffy) Stirnweiss and Frank StraussLocal author recaptures baseball's glory daysNew book tells story of 1947 Yankees' improbable title runBy Dan S. Cohen, Danbury News Times, 8/19/08 KENT -- The New York Yankees' 2008 campaign is sputtering to what appears will be an inglorious finish. Unless they can pull a Bucky Dent or two out of their caps, they're likely to miss the playoffs, ending a 13-year run of postseason success. Maybe all they need is something like a 19-game winning streak. It worked for the 1947 Yanks, as noted by author Frank Strauss, who talked about that watershed season -- the subject of his book, "Dawn of a Dynasty: The Incredible and Improbable Story of the 1947 New York Yankees" -- at the Kent Memorial Library on Saturday. The date was also, coincidentally, the 60th anniversary of Babe Ruth's death. Strauss, a New York City native who also resides in Litchfield County, was 13 when he met The Babe in 1948, getting a "Hiya, kid" and an autograph. Strauss sidestepped a question on this year's pinstripers during his talk. At the book signing afterwards, however, he conceded that perhaps the modern Yankees' run of success was simply coming to an inevitable conclusion. All things, after all, must pass. The passing of Yankee Stadium, however, in its final games before the new stadium replaces it in 2009, is not something that Strauss favors. "I'm very unhappy about that," he said. "I don't think there's that much wrong with it the way it is now. I think it's a shame. "I'm a real traditionalist and a sentimental person. When I go to Yankee Stadium, not only do I see the monuments there, but I look out at that field and I think to myself: this is the very field that Lou Gehrig played on. Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, (Phil) Rizzuto -- these great players played right here on this field." Strauss said he was inspired to write the book shortly after watching sluggers Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire testify before the congressional hearings on steroids. "After that, I happened to go to a game and I overheard a conversation taking place between five men my age and all they were talking about was the good old days of baseball. "So it struck me that what I would like to do was to create something that would remind older fans and would introduce to younger fans what baseball used to be like." Strauss was referring to a time when most games were played during the day (the '47 Yanks played just 14 night games), on natural grass and when "Sundays and holidays automatically meant doubleheaders." It was a time when "pitchers pitched the entire game." Strauss recalls two 1-0 games in 1947 that went 11 innings with all the starters going the distance. "Can you imagine someone pitching 11 innings today?" he asked. "It just doesn't happen." Strauss compared that with a Philadelphia-San Diego game last week that was also a 1-0 affair. The two sides combined to employ nine pitchers. "When people complain that baseball is slow, it's a boring game, it has become that way because they're changing pitchers all the time," he said. "In the old days you pitched -- as one of the players mentioned to me -- as long as you had good stuff. It's a different game." Strauss, a lifelong Yankees fan who kept scrapbooks of the 1947-49 seasons, originally planned to write about the '49 season and talked to a few players about their remembrances of that campaign. His plans changed, however, after speaking with Yogi Berra. Said Strauss: "His response was "Oh, not 1949 again. So much has been written about 1949.'" Strauss' subsequent research confirmed that Berra was right. Plenty had already been done on that, including David Halberstam's "Summer of '49," a book Strauss highly recommends. More research revealed that little light had been shed on the '47 team, an interesting one for several reasons. That year would mark the start of a Yankees run of 15 pennants and 10 World Series titles through 1964. It also brought serious questions for players who had returned the year before from military service after World War II. Most had suffered poor seasons in '46. Said Strauss: "So the question became as they approached 1947: Had these great players lost their skills serving during WWII? Could they recapture the skills that they had before they went off to serve in the armed forces?" The Ted Williams-vintage Red Sox were the clear pre-season choice to win a second straight pennant in 1947. The Yankees, who'd be incorporating rookies Berra, Bobby Brown and Naugatuck native Frank "Spec" Shea into a roster that included veterans like Joe DiMaggio, Rizzuto and Tommy Henrich, were picked no better than third. In June, the Yanks were in a four-team scramble for first, behind the Tigers and Indians and just a game up on the Red Sox. In July, the Yankees went on a 19-game win streak that set an AL record and allowed them to cruise into the World Series. The Bombers concluded the year with a memorable seven-game Series triumph over the Jackie Robinson-led Brooklyn Dodgers. That series was notable for having the first all-rookie battery of Shea and Berra and as the first Series ever televised. It also featured what Strauss calls "one of the most exciting games ever played in the World Series." Yankees pitcher Billy Bevens came within one out of pitching a no-hitter in Game 4, but ended up losing 3-2 on a two-run pinch hit by Cookie Lavagetto. Game Seven also gave Strauss fodder for more Yankee tales, although this one won't be found in the book. Strauss was at another book signing recently that was attended by Shea's family. Said Strauss: "Shea's son told me this story in Naugatuck two weeks ago: Shea volunteered to pitch (Game 7) with one day's rest and (Yankees general manager) Larry McPhail said 'We're going to give you a $1,000 bonus.'" Shea started, but didn't last beyond the second inning. Although the Yankees won the game and series, "the bottom line is that Frank Shea never got the $1,000." Shea never enjoyed another season (14-5, 3.07 ERA, 2-0 WS record) like his rookie year, either. He pitched four more years in the Bronx before being traded to Washington after the 1951 season where he concluded the final four years of his career, finishing with a 56-46 record. But Shea always had that special year to remember, one that Strauss will never forget. NOTE: For more information on "Dawn of a Dynasty" visit www.1947yankees.com. Strauss admires incredible Yanks of ’47
By REBECCA SALAMONE
August, 21, 2008 Lakeville Journal
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KENT — Baseball fans from all around descended on the Kent Memorial Library on Saturday, Aug. 16, to hear author Frank Strauss read from his book, “Dawn of a Dynasty: the Incredible and Improbable Story of the 1947 New York Yankees.”
In his book, Strauss chronicles a notable season for the Yanks, in which they had 19 straight wins in midseason, won a pennant and played a memorable subway World Series against Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Strauss tells the story of an amazing team that had stumbled onto some hard times. With fewer than 50 games left in the season, a faltering pitching rotation and their best hope for leadership into the post season on the disabled list, Yankee fans had high anxiety about whether their team could achieve a spot in the October spectacle.
But hope was on the horizon for this team.
At the library, fans who lived through that time, and some who had only read about it, came together to relive the dawn of what turned out to be the glory year of 1947.
“We had a wonderful turnout,” said Leslie Levy, media director of the Kent Memorial Library, of Saturday’s talk. “People drove up from as far as Waterbury and Naugatuck.”
A special visitor: Kent Chamber of Commerce official Lynn Stirnweiss, who who was related to former Yank “Snuffy” Stirnweiss.
“This is really cool,” Strauss told her enthusiastically. “Stirnweiss was my favorite player!”
Strauss chronicled the team’s problems, including: DiMaggio, Rizzuto and Henrich returning from military service; DiMaggio, the heart of the team, plagued with foot problems and a new player, Allie Reynolds, who had just been acquired from the Indians to beef up the starting rotation.
A glimmer of hope was seen in promising rookies Yogi Berra and Bobby Brown.
But as the season began, the Red Sox were favored to dominate the season.
But the underdog team came around to win 19 straight games midseason and later claim the pennant over the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Strauss, who has worked as a journalist and a public relations director for more than 50 years, followed the Yankees from his youth. From the age of 12, he kept meticulous scrapbooks of his favorite team — all of which helped with the writing of this book.
After his presentation, Strauss stuck around to sign copies of his book and share stats and game stories with the other Yankee fans. Yankees magic revisited in author's talk By: Maggie Behringer 08/22/2008 Kent Good Times Dispatch "No one is more passionate than sports fans," said Ken Cooper, president of the Kent Library Association, as he introduced Frank Strauss at the latter's talk last Saturday. Mr. Strauss, a Litchfield County weekender, is a perfect example. His new book, "Dawn of a Dynasty," recounts the New York Yankee's 1947 season.
When Leslie Levy, special events director at the Kent Memorial Library, first heard about Mr. Strauss' book, she immediately saw a place for him in the library's schedule. Mr. Cooper agreed. It seemed that the author agreed, as well. In fact, he called the library and asked to speak as part of his tour through Western Connecticut, visiting Salisbury, Litchfield, Torrington and Naugatuck. Though the book went on sale in February of this year, the tour's timing has as much to do with events of last winter as it does with the current baseball season.
Mr. Strauss began his talk in the library's quaint reading room, surrounded by black-and-white portraits of the Yankee's 1947 team, by asking who among the audience was a Yankees fan. Then he asked who was a Red Sox fan. The majority cheered for the boys in blue and white pinstripes. Mr. Strauss grew up a Yankees fan, and though he had qualms when the team fired one of his favorite players turned manager, Yogi Berra, he remains loyal. Of his two sons, one is a Yankees fan, the other a Mets fan.
Mr. Strauss, who has a background in journalism, explained the idea of writing a book originated from the contrast of two events. The first was watching baseball's great players testify in the congressional hearing on steroids use in the sports. Not long after, he overheard a conversation between older fans talking about the good old days while watching a game.
"I wanted to create something that would remind older fans and introduce younger fans to what baseball was like then," said Mr. Strauss. This included doubleheaders for the price of one game, more day games rather than so many night contests, listening to the radio instead of watching TV broadcasts and the concept of players being literally owned by teams.
When a contract expired, players would attempt to negotiate for an extra $500 or $1,000, a sharp distinction from Yankee Alex Rodriguez's 10-year, $275 million contract.
One of Mr. Strauss' most vivid baseball memories, which he admitted cemented his "sense of being a Yankee's fan," happened in 1948. The 13-year-old ran into Babe Ruth in the elevator of his family's apartment. A neighbor, whose dog Mr. Strauss walked, turned out to be Ruth's niece. She informed the flabbergasted young man that he was more than welcome to stop by whenever he spotted Ruth's black Lincoln parked outside. Mr. Strauss, of course, still has the autograph.
Initially drawn to 1949, Strauss discovered it was a much-mulled-over season. It had been definitively treated in David Halberstam's book, "Summer of '49," and Yogi Berra himself urged Mr. Strauss to pick another season. He found 1947 surprisingly intriguing.
After returning from military service, veteran players such as Joe DiMaggio and Phil Rizzuto had not had a spectacular season in 1946. People wondered if their skills had not survived military service. An influx of rookies, such as Yogi Berra, Bobby Brown and Connecticut local Frank 'Spec' Shea, raised questions about how the team would blend old and new players.
Sports writers predicated the Boston Red Sox would take the American League again. The Yankees ranked third, which proved to be accurate early in the season. However, the team hit a 19-game winning streak, grabbing the record for most consecutive wins. The Yankees cruised won the American League pennant.
Going up against the National League's Brooklyn Dodgers, the Yankees found themselves engaged in a World Series tug of war. The Yankees won the first and second games. The Dodgers, with Jackie Robinson as the team's newest star, took the third and fourth. Game Four was the first baseball game Mr. Strauss saw on television. He described it as one of the most exciting games ever played.
Both managers, Bucky Harris for the Yankees and Burt Shotton for the Dodgers, called risky plays. In the ninth inning, Yankees' pitcher Bill Bevens was only one pitch from a no-hitter. Shotton brought in pinch runner Al Gionfriddo to steal second base, despite the fact that the Yankees needed only one more out. Then, Harris had Bevens walk the next batter to first, even though the batter was the potential winning run. Next, Shotton shuffled his batting lineup, sending in veteran Cookie Lavagetto.
Mr. Strauss shifted to reading directly from his book, narrating the play by play like a radio announcer. Just as the crowd at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field was standing in tense anticipation, the Kent audience was on the edge of its seats.
Lavagetto slammed Bevens' second pitch out of the park. The World Series was tied 2 to 2 and Lavagetto's hit became part of baseball lore.
The tug of war continued with the Yankees winning the fifth game and the Dodgers the sixth. However, the Yankees finished Game Seven with a 5 to 2 victory at Yankee Stadium.
After a disappointing finish in the '48 season, the owners fired Harris. New manager Casey Stengel took control of franchise history, winning five consecutive World Championships and vaulting the Yankees toward their dynasty level in baseball history.
Mr. Strauss concluded his talk, which happily evolved into more storytelling than lecturing, by urging people to share their personal memories of baseball at the book's Web site. He has set up a forum for thoughts and accounts of the era, the teams and the players. Finally, he dwelt again on why he had written the book. After its February publication, Mr. Strauss received a letter from Yankee third baseman Billy Johnson's 91-year-old widow. She told him that the book's account of baseball's good old days had in fact rekindled her own memories.
Mr. Strauss and his wife live in New York City and have a house in Goshen. For more baseball stories, visit the Web site www.1947yankees.com.
An Evening Remembering Spec
July 24th, 2008 by Joe Palladino , Waterbury CT Republican-American
A lovely time was had by all last week in the big, bad borough in the Valley as author Frank Strauss came to Naugatuck to talk about his book, Dawn of a Dynasty: The Incredible and Improbable Story of the 1947 New York Yankees.
While Naugy is one of the greatest of all Yankees strongholds, more than 60 people gathered to listen to Strauss for one reason: They wanted to talk about Spec.
When the next Yankees dynasty was in that dawning stage, the Naugatuck Nugget, Naugy native Frank “Spec” Shea was in his rookie season. He was 14-5 that year, despite missing almost a month with shoulder trouble. Spec was the winning pitcher of the 1947 All-Star game, the unofficial American League rookie of the year (Jackie Robinson was the ROY winner when baseball only honored one player from both leagues) and Spec was also the unofficial World Series MVP after winning two games, and starting game seven for the Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers on only one day of rest.
Strauss brought with him wonderful 8×10 glossy photos of the ’47 Yanks, including one of a baby-faced guy named Yogi, who was also a rookie that year, and a still youthful looking Joe DiMaggio, now back in action after time for military service.
Stauss’ talk was nothing if not charming, and he melted the assemblage at the Howard Whittemore Library when he said, “I am pleased to have met so many of Spec’s family. Every time I drive through Naugatuck I say, ‘This is where Spec is from.’”
Strauss focused on three topics: Why write a book? Why 1947? How the game has changed?
I don’t know if Strauss realized that the great sports writer from the Daily Mirror, Dan Parker, happened to be a Waterbury native, but the New York City resident who also owns a home in Goshen, read from a Parker story that ran the day after World Series game seven in 1947: “Every time Frank Shea pitches, the seventh and eighth graders at St. Francis Grammar School, the school that Shea attended, say a prayer in Frank’s name. Shea had nothing but a prayer yesterday. Even Frank Shea needs four days rest.” Shea’s family and friends told Spec stories. We laughed because, as everyone knows, every Spec story is a funny story.
The audience also truly loved it as Strauss reminisced about the game we love, but sometimes, no longer recognize.
“The game has changed,” he said, “and it has not all been good.”
Strauss opined on the reserve clause, pitch counts, and the designated hitter, which he called “an abomination.” He also asked a pertinent question that a lot of people have been asking: “What is wrong with the old Yankee Stadium?”
Spec’s kids were there, some of his grandchildren, and his sister, Eleanor Scheiber. “I did enjoy this,” Scheiber said. “It brought back a lot of memories.” That’s what baseball is, an endless progression of memories. Spec Shea gave his hometown of Naugatuck more than a few, and Frank Strauss helped stir them up again last week.  Frank Strauss (center) with members of Frank Shea's family including his son and daughter (far left), his granddaughter (far right) as well as his sister and sister-in-law (center). FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2008
THE LITCHFIELD COUNTY TIMES
© 2008 The Litchfield County Times
Frank Strauss' Book Captures Baseball's Golden Years
Written by JOHN TORSIELLO Any kid with his bubble gum growing up in New York City in the 1940s was into baseball. It was just that much a part of the city's fabric.
Little Frank Strauss was no different. In fact, he was so enamored with the game, and especially his beloved New York Yankees, that his mother would pack him a lunch and send him off to sit in the bleachers at "The Stadium" on warm summer afternoons to get a look at his heroes up close and personal. "I can remember watching Joe DiMaggio in center field and seeing him move so effortlessly, chasing down fly balls and making throws back to the infield," recalls Mr. Strauss, now 72, as he sits in his comfortably appointed home in Goshen's Woodridge Lake neighborhood, where he resides with his wife, Joan.
Mr. Strauss was so smitten by the National Pastime and the Yankees specifically that he began keeping a scrapbook during the late 1940s. Then, little Frank grew up and launched a career of his own that kept him close to baseball. "I think the best times of my working life were as an editor for the Rockland (New York) County Independent, which I don't think is publishing anymore," said Mr. Strauss, whose primary residence is New York City. "It was so much fun editing and writing and being a part of the community."
His job sometimes took him to New York, where he would occasionally cover one of the big league teams still there - the Yankees and the New York Mets, whose first season was 1962. Eventually, Mr. Strauss landed a job as public relations and communications director for the Metropolitan Regional Council, a group of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut elected officials. He then moved on to a long and distinguished career (25 years) in the same role with the Council of Jewish Federations, which serves as the national organization for Jewish Federations in the United States and Canada.
"It was a fascinating job and I got to meet some incredible people, like Yitzhak Rabin and Golda Meir (both Prime Ministers of Israel) as well as President [Bill] Clinton," he said. Mr. Strauss "retired" in 2000 and immediately launched a new, two-fold career, teaching basic computer skills to senior citizens in New York City on a volunteer basis and writing. One day, he came across his old scrapbooks. His wife was duly impressed. "Joan said I should do something with them, like write a book," Mr. Strauss said with a smile. Thus armed with his treasured, tangible memories from childhood, a still fervent love of baseball and his wife's blessings, Mr. Strauss began researching for the writing of a book.
"I thought I would focus on the 1949 season and had a discussion with Yogi Berra (Yankee Hall of Fame catcher). He kind of discouraged me because so much had been written about that season. So I switched gears and focused on 1947, and found that little had been written about that year." The end result of the two-year project is "Dawn of a Dynasty," which is available in a number of privately owned bookstores in Litchfield County and beyond. It can also be ordered online at Borders, Barnes and Noble and Amazon. In his first book, Mr. Strauss details the exciting but little-discussed season during which the Yankees won the American League pennant and beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in a thrilling seven game World Series. The foreword was written by Bobby Brown, a member of the Yankees' 1947 team, who went on to an illustrious career as a doctor and served as president of the American League. "What makes this year so special from a Yankees viewpoint is that they hadn't won the pennant the year before and were picked to finish third in the American League," said the author. "It was midseason and they were in a hot race with the Boston Red Sox (of course), Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians and the Philadelphia A's. They went on a 19-game wining streak and ran away with the pennant." The Bronx Bombers' World Series opponent was the cross-town Dodgers, one of a number of Subway Series the teams played during the city's baseball heyday of the 1940's and 1950’s. “It was probably one of the most exciting World Series ever played," said Mr. Strauss.
Indeed it was. The Yanks' Bill Bevens' bid for a no-hitter in the fourth game of the Series was thwarted when Cookie Lavagetto pinch hit a double to drive in two runs and win the game for "Da Bums" with two outs in the ninth inning. The immortal Jackie Robinson was a rookie with the Dodgers and was still enduring the immense heat of breaking baseball's color barrier. Naugatuck, Connecticut's own Spec Shea won two games in the Series. And the Yankees won the title behind relief pitcher Joe Page's marvelous effort in game seven. The cover photo of "Dawn of a Dynasty" is of a still young-looking DiMaggio ready to plant a kiss on the cheek of Shea following game five. The two are obviously drenched in sweat and champagne and the image is one of pure fun and innocence. "I entitled the book 'Dawn of a Dynasty' because the Yankees were a mixture of veterans like DiMaggio, Tommy Henrich, Phil Rizzuto and Allie Reynolds and newcomers like Yogi Berra and Bobby Brown, who would go on to form the foundation for the second great Yankee Dynasty of the late 1940's, 1950's and early 1960's," Mr. Strauss explained. The author's research included reviewing countless sports pages of the era, looking through his scrapbook and interviewing Yankees from the '47 team that are still alive, including Berra and Brown.
He also received help from the Society for American Baseball Research, of which he is a member. The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, provided the photos used in the book. "It was so much fun and the memories came flooding back to me when I started writing the book. We had hoped to get the book out last year, which was the 60th anniversary of the 1947 team. But we had to wait until this spring, which was fine because this is the last year of Yankee Stadium." The Yankees will move out of the greatest ballpark in baseball after this year as they slide into their shiny new, luxury-box riddled stadium in 2009.
"I think it is a shame they are going to move out of the Stadium," bemoaned Mr. Strauss with a disturbed look on his face. "There are so many memories there and I really can't see anything wrong with it. They draw four million fans a year."
Mr. Strauss also laments many of the changes in baseball over the years. "Back in 1947, pitchers threw complete games, there was no designated hitter and relief pitchers pitched four or five inning if they had to. Players stayed with the same team unless they were traded, the games were played during the day (the Yankees played only 14 night games in 1947) and the World Series games were always played during the day," he said. "Today, the kids can't stay up to watch the Series because they start so late." Mr. Strauss wrote his book for several reasons. One was to provide older Yankee fans with another piece of the team's history to digest. The second was to educate young fans on a bygone era. "The history is of interest to older fans. And I think the younger Yankee fans can become educated about a time that they perhaps don't know too much about. I hope I've helped fill in a gap in the team's great and long history."
Mr. Strauss leaned back and told a poignant story of his meeting Babe Ruth, the Yankees famous slugger of the 1920s and 1930s, a meeting that etched his love for the Yankee tradition even deeper into his psyche.
"I was going into the elevator in my family's apartment building in 1948 and the door opens and out walks a woman and Babe Ruth. They had a dog with them and I remember thinking that was the same dog I walked every afternoon for a few cents. When I went to see the woman who owned the dog and had been with Babe, I found out she was his niece and that he visited her at times," he recalled. "I asked if I could meet Babe some day, and she said whenever I saw a big shiny black car outside I could come up and see him. "I came home from school one day and the car was there, so I went up. The woman told Babe to come out of a room where he was resting (he was ill with throat cancer) and he did. I can remember him greeting me with a very gravelly voice and we talked for a minute. He signed an autograph for me, which I still have."
Mr. Strauss heard of Ruth's death later that summer while he was away at camp.
"My cousin told me about it and I just started to cry. A camp counselor, who was also our baseball coach, came up and put his arm around me and talked to me for a long time about tough things, like death. I'll always remember it," he said. But that's baseball. More than a mere game, it transcends sport and enters ethereal realms that bring meaning and purpose to existence and a semblance of order in a confusing world, especially for a young kid to whom the heroes of the game are larger than life itself. Frank Strauss hopes "Dawn of a Dynasty" keeps the flame of youth and perceived innocence glowing for those who can recall fondly games played in sunlight and doubleheaders, as well as a generation that grew up weaned on artificial turf and World Series games played only under lights.
Mr. Strauss has established a website, www.1947yankees.com. to provide information about his book as well as a section for individuals to record their own memories of the team. 1947 Big Year In Naugy By Joe Palladino, Waterbury Republican-American May 19, 2008
Do you recognize the man on the book cover above? No, not the guy pucker
ing-up on the right. That's Joltin' Joe. But the guy on the left, don't you know him? I’ll give you a clue: His initials are N.N.
Give up? It's our guy, Frank "Spec" Shea, the Naugatuck Nugget.
Spec is one of the featured topics in a book released this spring called "Dawn of a Dynasty The incredible and Improbable story of the 1947 New York Yankees."
There are no shortage of books and memoirs about that 1947 season. Most of them surround the rookie season of Jackie Robinson, a summer of baseball that changed the face of American sport in a profound way. We here in the Valley look back on 1947 for another reason: It was the Season of Spec. The kid from Naugatuck won 14 games, despite missing more than a month with a shoulder injury. He was the winning pitcher in baseball's All-Star game. He also won two games in the World Series, started Game 7, was the first rookie to ever start any Series game at all, and was the unofficial American League rookie of the year and Series MVP, in a time before they had such things. But 1947 attracted the attention of someone else as well. New York-born Frank Strauss, 72, is a former journalist and public relations director, a part time resident of Goshen, and a full-time Yankees die-hard for more than 60 years. As a youngster, he began keeping scrapbooks of his favorite team in, it is no coincidence, 1947. Compiling clippings was a snap in an era when New York City had an endless supply of newspapers, like the Times, the Herald Tribune, the Daily News and the Daily Mirror, not to mention the Post, the Journal-American, the Evening Sun and the World Telegram. Did I miss any? Probably. He was searching around for a topic to sink his prose teeth into, when someone slipped him an idea.
"My wife finally said to me, 'You really should write a book about these teams, about the whole seasons. Not too many people remember them.'"
Women are so smart. So that is what Strauss did. He naturally turned to the one season that attracts most authors and historians, 1949, which featured one of the great pennant races in baseball history. Fortunately for Strauss, Yogi Berra talked him out of it. There were too many books about that season, reasoned Yogi.
That's when Strauss hit upon the season of '47. "When I turned to 1947, I began to realize that this was the season that started the second Yankees dynasty," he said. "It was a very unusual team. There were a lot of veterans who were back from service in World War II."
Players like DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto and Tommy Henrich struggled for a season when they came back from war. No one knew what to expect from them in the summer of '47. Besides, the Yankees were going to count on contributions from three amazing rookies that stunned the baseball world in that summer: Some guy named Yogi, another called Spec and the future president of the American League, Bobby Brown.
"This team was not favored to win the pennant," explains Strauss. "The Red Sox, who had won in 1946, were favored to repeat. The Yankees were picked third by most of the writers." Everyone was wrong of course. Not that the Yanks started strong. On this date 61 years ago the Bombers were 12-13, in sixth place. Sound familiar? But the Yankees went wild in the summer, won 19 straight games and won the AL by 12 games over the Tigers and 14 over the Sox.
How remarkable was this team? Only one player hit more than 20 home runs, and that was DiMaggio, and he hit only 20. Not one player knocked in 100 runs. Not one pitcher won 20 games (Allie Reynolds did win 19). Only two starters batted over .300.
The closer, though no one called him a closer at the time, was Joe Page. He saved only 17 games, but get this: His record was 14-8, and he threw 141 innings, which is double what a workhorse closer throws today. How did the Yankees manage to win 97 games? You'll have to buy "Dawn of a Dynasty" to find out. The season of 1947 was remarkable, but the World Series of 1947 even better. Spec started and won Game 1, Cookie Lavagetto slapped the most famous double of all time to break up a Bill Bevens no-hitter and win Game 4 for Brooklyn, and then Al Gionfriddo robbed Joe D. to win Game 6. Then Spec took the ball on one day's rest in Game 7. There may have never been a Series like the '47 Series. "I hoped to give younger readers a sense of what baseball was like in the 40s and 50s," adds Strauss, "and bring back memories for people like myself who remember those teams and remember those players. There are two audiences for this book, and I hope it reaches them." It is available on amazon. com, and also at the Hickory Stick bookshop in Washington Depot, where they just might have a few autographed copies left on the shelf. No, you can't have mine. Pottstown PA Mercury July 26, 2008 Randy Gumpert featured in book about
1947 New York Yankees
By Rosemarie Ross rross@pottsmerc.com
The memories never fade for those who watched the New York Yankees' amazing rise to the top half a century ago.
Frank Strauss was a 12 year-old New York City kid, clipping every newspaper article and box score of those 1947 Bronx Bombers who stunned the baseball world.
Projected to finish no better than third place, the Yankees strung together 19 straight wins in the course of that season, captured the American League pennant and then the World Series, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers and launching a Yankees dominance that stretched into 1964 with a record 15 American League pennants and 10 World Series championships.
Monocacy native and former major league pitcher Randy Gumpert was a member of that magical 1947 Yankees team.
A while ago, Strauss pulled out all those old clippings, added a ton of research, and penned a book, "Dawn of a Dynasty: The Incredible and Improbable Story of the 1947 New York Yankees," with a game-by-game, pitch-by-pitch, hit-by-hit account of the 1947 season as a kind of fond farewell to Yankee Stadium, which will be leveled after this season.
"Where did you get this book, I haven't seen that one," Gumpert said during a recent interview, a smile crossing his face, as he looked at the book's cover picture of Joe DiMaggio hugging pitcher Frank Shea, following Game Five of the 1947 World Series.
"Bill Bevens, he threw a no-hitter in that World Series," he said, again smiling.
Gumpert played his part in that season and is mentioned in the book's opening paragraph as Strauss first reflects back on the 1946 season, the first one after World War II, when the Yankees finished in third place, 17 games behind the pennant-winning Red Sox.
"Despite some outstanding pitching performances by Spud Chandler (20-8), Bill Bevens (16-13), and Randy Gumpert (11-3), the hitters are still trying to get back into their pre-war stride," Strauss wrote.
Next comes an account of how Yankees president and general manager Larry McPhail put together the 1947 team, starting with convincing Bucky Harris to take over as manager at the start of spring training.
Chapter Three details Jackie Robinson's first appearance against the Yankees, "in the final three-game spring series," with Strauss detailing that series at Ebbets Field, step-by-step, down to the final out in game three.
"Randy Gumpert comes on to pitch the last of the ninth for the Yankees," he wrote. "Although giving up a single to put the tying run on base, he retires Robinson for
the final out on a foul pop to catcher Aaron Robinson."
Talk about being part of an amazing baseball history.
"I remember," Gumpert said, nodding his head.
With the overall shake up of the Yankees lineup, Gumpert had been moved to the bullpen in 1947.
"I started to have pain in my elbow," he said, rubbing that right elbow as if the memories were making it hurt all over again.
But in early June he was back as a starter. As the Yankees swept the St. Louis Browns in a doubleheader, Yogi Berra came up with an unassisted double play "and it saves the game for starter Randy Gumpert, who makes his first start after nine relief appearances," Strauss wrote.
Gumpert, 90, then picked up his scond win as a starter, close to home, in a rain-delayed 5-1 decision over Philadelphia. And he kept right on doing his part as a starter and in relief, figuring in a number of wins during that magial Yankee ride. "I'm the oldest living one of that team," he said wistfully.
John Vorperian (left) interviews Frank Strauss for a Cablevision television program seen in major Westchester County (NY) communities.
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