Hank Bauer passes away.

[jaxvid]

It was a bit mention in the media which heaps praise on lowlifes like James Brown when they pass on, but Hank Bauer died the other day. I've pasted his obit and will include the link, maybe Don will want to put it on the front page. Just reading the story of this guys life makes me wonder WTF happened to this country.

Former Yankees OF Hank Bauer dies at 84

Hank Bauer

NEW YORK - Hank Bauer, the hard-nosed ex-Marine who returned to baseball after being wounded during World War II and went on to become a cornerstone of the New York Yankees dynasty of the 1950s, died Friday. He was 84. Bauer died of cancer in Shawnee Mission, Kan., said the Baltimore Orioles. Bauer managed the 1966 Orioles to their first World Series title.

A three-time All-Star outfielder, Bauer played on Yankees teams that won nine American League pennants and seven World Series in 10 years. He set the Series record with a 17-game hitting streak, a mark that still stands.

"Hank Bauer is an emblem of a generation that helped shape the landscape of our country," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. "He was a natural leader and a teammate in every sense of the word, and his contributions went well beyond the baseball field. His service to the Yankees, his country, and his family shows why I have been so privileged to call him a friend."

Surrounded by sluggers such as Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, Bauer was a major ingredient in the Yankees' success during his years in New York from 1948-59.

"I am truly heartbroken," Berra said in a statement issued by the Yankees. "Hank was a wonderful teammate and friend for so long. Nobody was more dedicated and proud to be a Yankee, he gave you everything he had."

Bauer played his last two seasons with the Kansas City Athletics, a team he managed in 1961-62. He also managed Baltimore from 1964-68 and the Athletics again in Oakland in 1969.

"He played on some of the greatest teams that ever played and brought the Orioles their first World Series title. That's saying something. He was a players' manager. He didn't overcomplicate things," Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer said.

"He was my first manager in the major leagues. He gave me my first opportunity (in 1965) when he could have kept other people. I was lucky; he was a Jim Palmer fan. You can't get in the Hall of Fame without your first chance."

Bauer was voted The Associated Press AL Manager of the Year in 1964 and 1966, when his Orioles swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. It was the only time he reached the Series as a manager, but he was a frequent participant in the postseason with the Yankees.

Bauer's World Series hitting streak stretched from 1956-58 when the Yankees dynasty was at its peak.

"Oh, it was a joy," he said in a 1998 interview. "I was there 11 years and we won nine pennants. And we could have very easily won 10 in a row, because in 1954 we won more games than we ever did. We won 103."

Cleveland won 111 that year, a rare interruption in the Yankees dynasty that stretched from 1949-64

Bauer enlisted in the Marines shortly after Pearl Harbor and saw action in a number of battles in the Pacific, including Okinawa and Guadalcanal, according to Hall of Fame archives. He earned two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts.

Bauer was wounded at Okinawa, hit in the left thigh by shrapnel in his 53rd day on the island.

"We went in with 64 and six of us came out," Bauer said.

After he was discharged, Bauer signed with the Yankees minor league affiliate at Kansas City and after two .300 seasons there, he moved to New York in 1948. A year later, Casey Stengel became the manager and Bauer moved into the lineup as the Yankees began their run.

Bauer batted .320 in his second full season and became a fixture in the Yankee outfield alongside Mantle. The two outfielders became close friends, and Bauer was a pallbearer at Mantle's funeral in 1995.

Equipped with a strong arm, Bauer was a dead pull fastball hitter, a disadvantage at Yankee Stadium with its spacious left field. He once said that if he hit a ball to right field, it was an accident.

Bauer batted .277 with 164 homers and 703 RBIs. It was in the World Series that he excelled, from a Series-ending catch at his knees against the New York Giants in 1951 to his final Series appearance in 1958, when he hit .323 with four homers and eight RBIs as the Yankees beat the Milwaukee Braves in seven games.

"Maybe I bore down a lot more in the Series," Bauer said. "I had my luck. I had my good days and bad ones. I played for the right organization."

In 1959, after the Yankees finished behind the Chicago White Sox, Bauer was part of a seven-player trade with Kansas City that delivered a young Roger Maris to New York. Two years later, Maris set a season record with 61 homers, a mark that stood until 1998.

Bauer kept his Marine Corps crewcut through his baseball career and beyond. After he retired, he returned home to the Kansas City area, where he scouted for the Yankees and the Royals. Later, he was a regular at Yankee annual Old-Timers' Days, an opportunity to reunite with friends from those championship seasons.

In the last week, two players whose careers intertwined with Bauer's days died. Steve Barber, who pitched for Bauer in Baltimore, died Sunday; Lew Burdette, who faced the Yankees in the 1957 and 1958 World Series, died Tuesday.

 

[Realgeorge]

Earl Weaver received the most accolades for managing the Orioles to championships over the years. Weaver was a great manager, but Hank Bauer got overshadowed. The Orioles in '66 were the most dominant of all Orioles teams, in my opinion. And where Weaver was flashy and argumentative, kicking dirt on umpires and such, Bauer was more reserved and cerebral, allowing his players to do the talking.

A sad few years for Orioles fans! Steve Barber, Hank Bauer, Dave McNally, and Elrod Hendricks have all passed away.

 

[Solomon Kane]

Here's a column from Pat Buchanan on Bauer and the "Old" Yankees, and how much they meant to him and many of those who grew up in the fabulous '50's.




The Time of the Yankees

by Patrick J. Buchanan




Saturday afternoon, writing in the basement, I took a break to surf the Internet. A headline caught me up short.

"Hank Bauer dies."

The name means nothing to Americans under 60. But to a grade-schooler in the 1940s and 1950s, who looked on the New York Yankees as a synonym for American greatness and invincibility, Hank Bauer was a hero. If Lou Gehrig was "The Pride of the Yankees" in the post-Ruth era, Bauer was the soul of the Yankees of the 1950s, the greatest team ever assembled.

Born in East St. Louis, Ill., across the river from "The Hill" in south St. Louis where Yogi Berra grew up, Bauer fought as a Marine in the Pacific, where he picked up two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts. In the battle to capture the Okinawa airfield, he lost 58 of the 64 Marines in his unit. On Iwo Jima, he picked up shrapnel he would carry the rest of his life.

Bauer's first full year in the Majors was 1949, the beginning of the Casey Stengel era. From 1949 to 1953, Bauer and the Yankees won five straight pennants and five straight World Series, breaking the record set by the Gehrig-Dimaggio Yankees of 1936-1939.

"He was my best friend in life," first baseman "Moose" Skowron related on hearing of Bauer's death. "When I came up in '54, we won 103 games and still didn't win the pennant. Hank told me: 'We win every year. This is all your fault.' I told him, 'I did all I could.' I hit .340 that year, but Hank was just getting on me."

As the Daily News obit writer put it, "Bauer was the unofficial Yankee 'enforcer,' customarily straightening out players who failed to hustle with a terse 'you're messin' with my money' admonishment."

Rough-hewn, tough, full of spirit and fire, a proud professional, Bauer was the quintessence of what it meant to be a Yankee. He hit when it counted, setting a record still unbroken for hitting safely in 17 consecutive World Series games. In the 1955 Series, he batted .429.

No beauty, a 1964 Time cover story about Bauer, when he managed the Baltimore Orioles to a World Series victory, said looking into Bauer's face was like "looking into a bowl of mashed potatoes."

In a famous incident at the Copacabana in May of 1957, Bauer, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Berra and Billy Martin were celebrating Martin's birthday, when the next table began to heckle the entertainer, Sammy Davis Jr. A brawl broke out, and a patron claimed the man who cold-cocked him was the right fielder and ex-Marine.

No other witness came forward to identify Bauer, but all the Yankees involved were fined $1,000. Fifty years later, I yet recall the depiction of the incident by a sportswriter who wrote that Mantle, Bauer and Berra had been walking home from early mass, when they had been accosted by male models.

A month later, Billy Martin was traded to Kansas City. A bad influence on the team, it was said. Two years later, Bauer followed in a seven-player deal that brought to the Yankees a kid by the name of Roger Maris. With Bauer's departure, to this writer, the era was over. Though the Yankees won the pennant all four years from 1960 through 1963, they were not the Yankees I had grown up with, the Yankees of Dimaggio, Phil Rizzuto, "King Kong" Keller, Eddie Lopat, "The Big Chief" Allie Reynolds, "Fireman" Joe Page, Hank Bauer and Yogi Berra.

I had all their autographs. The Yankee Clipper's was the toughest to get. He came out of the locker room fast, brushed past the kids who raced after him and walked straight to the bus. But persistence paid off for me once. Don't know what became of that autograph book, but it would be worth a lot to me today. And not in money.

Griffith Stadium was where the Yanks came to play. On opening day 1956, Mantle drove two over the centerfield fence. Two days later, he drove one over the left field wall, 405 feet from home plate, over the bleachers and out of the park. They said the ball went 565 feet. No one had ever done that before. No one ever did it again.

"The Mick" was MVP that year and won the triple crown - leading the American League in batting, home runs and runs batted in. The last was easiest. The Yankees ahead of him in the batting order were almost always on base.

Two years ago, I traveled with "The McLaughlin Group" to Palm Desert, Calif. Nothing to do one morning, I went to the hotel health club. As I reached the door, a short older man trotted up. I held the door. As he came close, I stared into his face. "Are you who I think you are?"

"Are you who I think you are?" he replied.

For 15 minutes, Yogi Berra and I talked of the old Yankees and Nats. With the autograph-hunting kids, Yogi had been the best, signing until every kid was gone. I told him how hard it had been to get Dimaggio's autograph.

"Yep, that would be Joe," Yogi said.

As I said, it was a great time for America, and they were the greatest.

February 15, 2007

Patrick J. Buchanan [send him mail] is co-founder and editor of The American Conservative. He is also the author of seven books, including Where the Right Went Wrong, and A Republic Not An Empire.

Copyright © 2007 Creators Syndicate

Patrick J. Buchanan Archives

 

[sport historian]

I remember seeing Hank Bauer on TV during the 1958 World Series. I was 8 years old. Lew Burdette was a famous pitcher during my childhood. He won 3 games in the 1957 WS as the Beaves beat the Yankees. Bauer and the Yankees won the next year (1958) over the Braves, beating Burdette in game 7.

 

[jaxvid]

Nice article by Buchanon. However I have one criticism, and that's the comment about Bauer:

"No beauty, a 1964 Time cover story about Bauer, when he managed the Baltimore Orioles to a World Series victory, said looking into Bauer's face was like "looking into a bowl of mashed potatoes."

WTF? Where did that come from? What the hell difference does it make what he looked like? Geez the guy was old then. What does that have to do with an article honoring him?

Imagine an article that went like this:

"Pat Buchanan was a senior advisor to three American presidents, Nixon, Ford and Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He also co-founded The American Conservative magazine and launched The American Cause, a paleoconservative foundation.
He is also ugly."

For some reason white people in the medis have to find something demeaning about other white people. Pat said all of those nice things about Bauer and I guess felt he had to balance it out. Notice you will never, ever, hear those kinds of things about black people.

For instance James Brown just died. There were thousands of words written about him but did anyone in the media ever comment on the fact that he was dog ugly? James Brown was a disgusting ogre even when he was a young man. As an old man he was frightening. If Hank Bauers face looks like mashed potatoes (because he was white) then James Brown's face looked like a pile of sh*t!

And how about Tony Dungy? That is one ugly dude. He scares me. He looks like he has just finished either chemotherapy or a 4 week binge on the bottle. But you will never hear anyone even hint anything about his looks.

Hey, I'm no beauty either, but when writing about someone why add that BS about looks?

Hank Bauer. No beauty but then how many of us are?

Pat Buchanan. Shouldn't throw stones?

James Brown. (caution may frighten young children)

Tony Dungy. "Lurch" gets a lot of face time lately.

 

[sport historian]

Buchanan's remark is strange, as this is NOT how Bauer was described. Many times I have read of Bauer having a face "like a clenched fist." This meant that Hank Bauer was not a man to be messed with.

In WWII, Bauer was a Marine Raider, a special group considered the toughest fighting men in the US Marine Corps. This speaks for itself.

 

[Bart]

And how about Tony Dungy? That is one ugly dude. He scares me. He looks like he has just finished either chemotherapy or a 4 week binge on the bottle.

You are very perceptive.

Not to knock Dungy, but during games, he often has a very peculiar expression on his face -- as if he's bewildered or frightened.

 

[LabMan]

Can we all imagine what a solid White throwback player like Bauer thought about how the game of MLB has declined?

 

[Solomon Kane]

That's a fair criticism of Buchanan, Jaxvid. I don't know why he included the mentioning of Bauer's looks--and an unfavorable one at that. I guess a merely partial defense would be that the "mashed potato" line is not his, but then of course the response would be: hey, you didn't have to quote it, Pat!

I guess maybe Buchanan wanted to note it as a way of bringing out the non-glamorous, tough-guy quality of the athletes of the past, the fact that they weren't spoiled, perfumed, armani-suited, 20 million a year guys. Looks were not as important as solidarity with your teammates, professionalism, "wearing the pinstripes with pride", winning the world series, etc.---what used to be called "Yankee class." Bauer exemplified that class.

Maybe this also emanates from a 50's style good-natured ribbing about looks, as in: "Geez, will ya lookit that mug, a face only a mother could love!" (And there were famous "mugs" in those days: Yogi Berra, Don Mossi, Moose Skowron, etc.)

In (fairly) recent history, I remember, during a joint post-game interview with Chris Mullin, Louie Carnessecca, then coach of St. Johns--who freely admitted his own lack of beauty--hugged his freckled star, and turned his face to the camera, saying "will ya lookit that Irish mug, it's a classic" Mullin was grinning.

But, as we all know, it's all about the spirit in which a thing is done.

In Buchanan's case, I don't think it was a bad spirit that animated him, but sheer carelessness and obtuseness.

Anyway, a strange--and rather large--fly in an otherwise decent soup of a column.

And yes, Pat has his "Irish mug" moments.

 

[Realgeorge]

Bauer's face was like "looking into a bowl of mashed potatoes."

WTF? Where did that come from? What the hell difference does it make what he looked like? Geez the guy was old then. What does that have to do with an article honoring him?

Howdy Jaxvid. Thank you for the MASTERPIECE of picture comparisons. Hank Bauer, Pat Buchanan, and James Brown! Brown could scare the rats back onto a sinking ship!

And "ugly" is certainly subject to debate, Mr. Bauer looks fairly like a masculine German with a square jaw -- a pretty good prototype if U ask me.

I wonder if Pat Buchanan rushes to the aid of his sister, who truly is, well, not Vogue magazine material