Baseball Time Travel

On top of my eBay watch list Tuesday was an old wire photo dated July 23, 1937. It shows White Sox shortstop Luke Appling scoring ahead of the tag by Yankees’ catcher Bill Dickey in a 9-6 Sox win. And off I went on a visit to baseball-reference.com. The Yankees were in town for a four-game series that weekend. The Sox took three out of four, including two walk-offs. Whatever New York thought of Chicago, Sox fans always showed up to see their heroes battle the bullies from the Bronx. The game on the 23rd drew 42,000, with another 22,000 for the Saturday game and 50,000 for the Sunday doubleheader. Those three wins pulled the Sox to within five of the Yankees, but it was not to be. The 88 wins that yearwere nice for a team that hit all of 67 homeruns on the season, but the bullies proved sixteen games better in winning themselves yet another pennant. It’s possible my dad was in the crowd that Sunday, assuming he didn’t pull a shift at the Ford plant on Torrance Avenue. Ed Bukowski would have seen the likes of DiMaggio, Crosetti, Dickey and Gehrig, though I doubt he cared much; he was too good a Sox fan to cheer, however faintly, for any bully, even the HOFers. No, it would have been “Yea!” Luke and… Jackie Hayes, the second baseman forced to retire because of eye problems that eventually left him blind; infielder Tony Piet, who, when he retired, opened up a Pontiac dealership on south Western Avenue; pitcher Monty Stratton, who went all nine innings to win the second game of the twin bill, 7-6. Stratton, hailed as a future ace after winning thirty games in 1937 and ’38, only to his right leg in a postseason hunting accident. And then there was first baseman Zeke Bonura, the pride of New Orleans. Bonura didn’t make the big leagues until the age of 25, but could he hit, with a career .307 BA and 704 RBIs in just seven seasons. Bonura’s name kept popping up during broadcasts this summer, with stats that usually put him just ahead of Luis Robert for hitting by Sox rookies, all-time. From 1937 to 2020 and back again. In these COVID times, it’s nice to get a chance to travel like that.