Althouse: "But long before he referred on the air to Gary Carter as Gary Cooper, declared that 'if Casey Stengel were still alive he'd be spinning in his grave'..."

February 6, 2014

"But long before he referred on the air to Gary Carter as Gary Cooper, declared that 'if Casey Stengel were still alive he'd be spinning in his grave'..."

".. or watched a long ball disappear from the park with the trademark call 'Going, going, gone, goodbye!,' Kiner was one of the game’s great right-handed hitters."

Goodbye to Ralph Kiner. He was 91.

11 comments:

Michael Fitzgerald said...: My Little League team as a 9 year-old was the Ralph Kiner's. Other teams were the Ruth's, the Stengel's, the Connie Mack's, the Cobb's, the Dimaggio's... That was over 40 years ago... the Bill Dickey's were a team, and the Tris Speaker's. Mr. Kiner, you'd have been proud of us.We finished in first place and got to march in the town 4th of July parade.; 2/6/14, 7:39 PM
Michael K said...: I remember when he played for the Cubs. We used to say that he had to hit home runs or he would be thrown out at first, he was so slow.; 2/6/14, 8:09 PM
David said...: "From 1947 to 1951, he had home run totals of 51, 40, 54, 47 and 42, becoming only the second player in history — Babe Ruth was the first — to hit at least 40 home runs in five consecutive seasons."

And this for a terrible team. The article elevates them considerably by calling them mediocre. And in a large ballpark. (The Mazeroski home run in 1960 went over a 12 foot wall at the 406 mark.)

The part about liking the ladies is also true. He took a fancy to my photogenic and somewhat flirty mother at a party and a photo of them made the papers. Nothing too scandalous, but my father was not amused.; 2/6/14, 8:45 PM
Ron said...: And on Babe Ruth's birthday too! That would not be lost on Ralph...

http://amba12.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/you-are-your-own-sultan-of-swat/; 2/6/14, 9:10 PM
SteveR said...: I hope there will be Ralph Kiners from this era to talk about in 50 years.; 2/6/14, 9:45 PM
ngtrains said...: I had a Ralph Kiner glove wheN I was a kid.; 2/6/14, 9:50 PM
David said...: SteveR said...
I hope there will be Ralph Kiners from this era to talk about in 50 years.

The Ralph Kiners of today make so much money that they won't even think of broadcasting.

Plus in today's game Kiner would have become a free agent and signed with the Yankees.; 2/6/14, 9:51 PM
J Lee said...: Kiner, Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy gave the Mets' broadcasts an endearing quality in the first seven years of the team, when they were truly gawdawful, before suddenly jumping from almost-worst-to-first in '69.

My favorite memory of Ralph came from seven years after that -- he would go downstairs before the ninth inning of Mets TV games on WOR to get ready for Kiner's Korner after the game, but on this particular night with a 3-1 lead, Jerry Koosman gave up a two-run homer in the top of the ninth against St. Louis, and the game proceeded to go another 14 innings, until sometime after 3 in the morning.

Sometime before that -- about inning 20 or so -- they cut to a shot of Ralph, still in the Kiner's Korner studio, fast asleep in his chair (he may have been faking it, but either way, it was a funny bit, and the Mets still have a history of playing more hyper-marathon games than any other team).; 2/6/14, 9:58 PM
rcommal said...: So it goes, baby, so it goes.

R.I.P., indeed.; 2/6/14, 10:47 PM
SteveR said...: @David I can hope but you are right; 2/6/14, 11:35 PM
From Inwood said...: Only 10 comments here on Ralph K.

Anyway, two nice obits in today's NYT

Let's just say that he was better than any current MSNBC commentator.

Semper fee!

(For non MSNBC watchers, that's how the US Marines' motto is pronounced on MSNBC.); 2/7/14, 9:41 AM