Jim Koenigsberger

Tom Seaver`s media nickname referred to the cartoon character, "Tom Terrific." In 2019, NFL quarterback Tom Brady was denied the trademark, "Tom Terrific", when the "United States Patent & Trademark Office" said it: "May falsely suggest a connection with Tom Seaver."

"Mel Farr, your Superstar Dealer, come in for a Farr better deal." “Mel Farr Superstar” "Mel Farr Ford", Oak Park, Michigan. Mel Farr completed his degree at the University of Detroit while still in the National Football League. He worked during the off-season for the Ford Motor Company in its management program. In 1975, "Mel Farr Ford" opened at 2470 Greenfield Road in Oak Park, Michigan. Targeting the inner-city population with its high credit risk, but its need for automobiles and ready financing, Farr employed a variety of creative marketing and management approaches. Purchasing additional dealerships beginning in 1986, Farr's empire grew to over thirteen dealerships and a Seven-Up Bottling Plant. By 1998, Mel Farr's auto dealership, "Mel Farr Auto Group" grossed $596.6 million, making it the top black-owned business in the United States, and the thirty-third largest auto dealership in the United States. Mel Farr was an original founding member of the "Black Ford Lincoln and Mercury Dealers Association", later renamed the "Ford Motor Minority Dealers Association". "You only gonna earn today what your skills and efforts allow you to and no more." Mel Farr's brain and spinal cord were donated by his family to Boston University School of Medicine, where an autopsy revealed he had CTE, "Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy", a disease commonly found in football players. The original NFL "Helmet Cam".

"Once in a scoreless tie game with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1957, Stan Musial came to the plate with runners on first and second and nobody out. Leading the National League in hitting, Musial was asked to lay down a sacrifice bunt in order to advance the runners to second and third base. Great hitters are not normally ever called upon to perform such a humble task. They would always expect to hit away in that situation. But Stan Musial laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, and accordingly the next batter drove those two runners home. Musial with his personal batting practice pitcher, Bob Gibson.

"A pitcher should pay to pitch for the Dodgers, whereas the Pirates' second baseman and shortstop were like goalposts with the ball bouncing between them!" "Preacher" Roe of Ash Flat, Arkansas. In 1939 at "Harding College", Roe struck out 26 batters in a 13-inning game. "Mr. Rickey said: "Remember it isn't the color of a man's skin that matters. It's what's inside the individual. And he said some of the people with the whitest skin would be the sorriest I'd meet and some of the darkest ones would be the best." "Preacher" Roe. "The Boys of Summer." Reese, Robinson, Roe.

“Sometimes it seems like he’s playing underwater.” Vin Scully on Bobby Bonilla.

"To Tommy John. I can’t thank you enough for your phone call, whether you were coerced or not, that phone call at the age of 34 meant the world to me. Emotionally, I’d given up. I had thought that no one would last and wait for a pitcher of my age on the last year of my contract. Thank you for encouraging me, that was pivotal part of my career, to push through what I thought might be a career ending." John Smoltz, in his induction speech, recalled a call he received from Tommy John. Smoltz tore his elbow ligament at 32 years old and had Tommy John surgery. He missed the entire 2000 season. He came back in 2001, later was baseball’s top closer and returned to being a starter. In 2015, he became the first Tommy John surgery pitcher to earn induction into the Hall of Fame. "Braves General Manager Bobby Cox asked me: ‘Who the heck is Smoltz?’ I told Cox that Smoltz had the best arm I ever saw on a right-handed pitcher." John Hagermann On Aug 12, 1987, the Detroit Tigers acquired pitcher Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves, trading away a Double-A right-hander named John Smoltz. Tommy John is in my HOF!!!

Donnie Baseball Makes a Difference! @threeinningfan @GothamBaseball sportingnews.com/us/mlb/philade…

Ted always marched to his own drummer. Integrity.

Thank you Mr. Thorn!

“In all the years I’ve played this game, he is the finest competitor I have ever seen, the most professional, the best example of a team player. He had a sense of tradition for the history of the game." Lou Piniella on Thurman Munson. "I voted for Thurman Munson for the Hall of Fame even though his major-league career was barely more than the minimum 10 seasons. He was an outstanding player and greatest force in returning the Yankees to a pennant after 11 years in the doldrums." Steve Jacobson. "Thurman Munson played harder than any man I've ever met. He played in pain. He played with purpose. Most of all he brought out the best in those around him." "Catfish" Hunter. "Munson would have been the greatest catcher of all-time had God not called him to heaven too soon. Still, two World Series Championships, seven All-Star teams and bringing the Bronx Bombers back to Yankee glory, after more than decade’s absence can’t be ignored." Tony Castro. Thurman Munson’s name on was allowed on the Baseball HOF ballot, three years early. Thurman Munson got 15.5 percent of the vote. Never again reached double figures and fell quietly off the ballot in 1995. Thurman Munson's locker remained in the Yankees clubhouse for 29 years after his death. In my HOF!!!!

Joe DiMaggio would later offer his account: "I said, ‘Go ahead, Mickey. You take it.’ I called out to him as we converged. Luckily, I was close enough to make the catch." Mickey Mantle never blamed DiMaggio publicly. "He had his own opinion, but he never said it". Mickey Mantle`s wife, Merlyn would tell Jane Leavy: “He ruined his career.” Game 2 of 1951 World Series, 36 year old veteran Joe DiMaggio supports fallen Yankee teammate, 19 year old Mickey Mantle after the rookie injuries his knee getting his cleats stuck on a drain in right field. In essence, the 'Mick' would never be the same. "Mickey Mantle used to rush over to greet new Yankee players with an outstretched hand. "I'm Mickey Mantle," he would say, as if the young player didn't know. It was one of Mickey's nicest gestures. Mickey Mantle's first thrill as a Yankee was shaking hands with Joe DiMaggio."

“Barry Bonds? I’ll tell you what, if he hit a home run off Bob Gibson or Don Drysdale and stood and admired it, they’d knock that earring out of his ear the next time up.” National League Umpire Doug Harvey. Bob Gibson, Manhattan.

"I hope that someday, the names of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson can be added to the symbol of the great Negro League players that are not here only because they were not given a chance." Ted Williams. "No one encouraged me. I thought this thing alone. I’ve seen Satchel Paige. I’ve seen Josh Gibson. I heard about Buck Leonard. I heard about some of the other great black athletes. It just came out at that Hall of Fame day and I thought about the great players of the past. Only because of their color, they didn’t have a chance to play in the big leagues." Ted Williams told Bob Costas in the early 1990's that speaking up for Negro League players was one of his proudest moments in baseball. Cooperstown, July 25, 1966.

Harry Caray: “Here now is Willie McCovey, too big to be a man and not quite big enough to be a horse. McCovey, born in Mobile, Alabama and his hobby is reading comic books." Jack Buck: “And hitting.” Herry Caray: “Yeah.....and hitting." Bob Gibson would later call Willie McCovey the scariest hitter in baseball. McCovey faced only 6 pitchers more than 100 times. Slugged: .680 against Drysdale, .584 against Seaver, .552 against Niekro, .500 against lefty-killer Steve Carlton. From 1967-1972 was the best power hitter of the time, with the highest OPS (.957) for any player in baseball. "I played with Willie Mays. People have a false impression of what a great player is nowadays. If somebody puts up great numbers, they think he’s great. But if you saw Willie play, you would see games where he would win it for us, and he wouldn’t even get a hit. He did things that nobody else did. That’s what makes a great ballplayer." Willie McCovey. The other gentleman played centerfield!

"Mickey Lolich was starting with one less day of rest. He pitched the first two innings like a man defusing a live bomb, working slowly and unhappily, and studying the problem at length before each new move." Roger Angell. "When we got to the World Series, the people of St. Louis were convinced that the Tigers were no match for their team. I met Bob Gibson at an autograph signing function years later and he told me that as far as St. Louis was concerned, the 1968 World Series never happened." Mickey Lolich. "Mickey Lolich was far from a conventional athlete. Labelled as too heavy, too slow, and too unconventional, Lolich was dismissed by scouts and sportswriters early in his career. But with a devastating fastball and deceptive left-handed delivery, he steadily rose through the ranks, eventually joining the Detroit Tigers in 1963. Over the next 13 seasons, Mickey Lolich would become one of the most durable pitchers of his era, known for throwing complete games with near-superhuman consistency." "It doesn't seem like such a big deal to me." Mickey Lolich after becoming the eighth pitcher to win three games in a seven-game Series. Mickey Lolich won 14 games and started 30+ games for 11 years straight (1964-1974). His HOF credentials rival many who are there. 3.44 ERA, over 200 wins and over 2,800 Ks. World Series MVP. In my HOF!!!

"Secret? Hell, there ain't no secret to it. You just walk up there and hit the ball." Bob Fothergill, a .325 career hitter, 37th all time in MLB history! When Leo Durocher was a rookie with Yankees, he stopped a game in Detroit. Two men were on and Bob Fothergill came to bat. “Fothergill was as big and round as the Rockefeller bank account. Durocher suddenly ran in from his position at shortstop. “Stop the game, stop the game!." "What’s the matter," the ump replied. “It’s against the rules," screamed Durocher, leveling his finger at the stout Fothergill. “Both these men can’t bat at once!” Fothergill was so outraged he struck out. Durocher didn’t apologize. “I’m fat on my mother’s side.” “Bob Fothergill was one of the last of those rare spirits who appeared to play for the fun of it, and he seemed to be able to extract the fullest amount of pleasure from life. After the game, you could find him with a thick porterhouse steak and a seidel of beer, and he would chuckle to himself: ‘Imagine getting paid for a life like this!’” “A Study in Suet” "The Complete Armchair Book of Baseball."

"It was a pretty fierce rivalry. I'm just speaking for myself, but I think it was general through the clubs. We didn't like them, and they didn't like us." Bobby Thomson. In 1951, Bobby Thompson got off to a slow start playing center field, then went to the bench in May when the Giants called up a 20-year-old rookie named Willie Mays. "The Miracle of Coogan's Bluff." The phrase: "The shot heard round the world" is from 1837 poem "Concord Hymn" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, about the American Revolutionary War. Ralph Branca and Jackie Robinson both deal with loss after Bobby Thompson’s famous "Shot Heard ‘Round The World." October 3,1951.

"Up at six to wash and dress for Mass and breakfast. Classes, academic or vocational, from breakfast until 10 in the morning. Recess from 10 to 10:30. School or work from 10:30 to 11:30. Dinner and free time from 11:30 to 1:30. School again until 3:15, after which there was a class in Catholic doctrine, required of Catholics only. From then until supper at 6.00, the boys played, the small boys in the Little Yard, and the boys of fifteen or older in the Big Yard. After supper the boys were supposed to read in bed from 7:30 until lights out 45 minutes later. I spent 12 years in a reform school. A friend of mine came to me the other day out in Chicago and said: “Babe, a lot of people seem to have an idea that St. Mary’s Industrial School in Baltimore, is a reform school. Don’t you think it would be a good idea for you to clear up on that point? There was only one answer that I could make him: It is a reform school. St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys is the sort of institution where un­ruly young rascals are taken in hand by men of big character, and taught to be men. It is run by an order of 'Brothers', who can find and develop the good in a disobedient Youngster. When I was first sent to St. Mary’s, I did not give the idea many votes, but as I look back upon the years I spent there, I realize now that the best thing my parents ever did for me was to put me in the way of the good training I got there." St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys. Babe Ruth with catcher's mask and glove, 1912.

“Has ‘Polio’ Hit the Yankees?” Has the mysterious “polio” germ, which felled Lou Gehrig, also struck his former teammates, turning a once-great team into a floundering non-contender?” According to overwhelming opinion of the medical profession, poliomyelitis, similar to infantile paralysis is communicable. The Yanks were exposed to it at its most acute stage. They played ball with the afflicted Gehrig, dressed and undressed in the locker room with him, travelled, played cards and ate with him. Isn’t it possible some of them also became infected? If Gehrig passed through a state in which the cause of his ineffectiveness was undetermined, isn’t it possible such is also the case with many of the Yanks today?" Jimmy Powers 'New York Daily News'. August 18, 1940. "As it is now, I am a pariah whom many people shun. I might just as well have been marked with leprosy. Sitting in motion picture houses, those near me get up and move away." Lou Gehrig, August 22, 1940. "Though at first there was a very definite possibility of the entire team becoming afflicted, there is now no indication of it." Dr. Robert E. Walsh, Yankees physician. "Lou Gehrig was a symbol of indestructibility. A Gibraltar in cleats." Jim Murray, Los Angeles Times.

"Roy caught the pitcher’s eye. His own had blood in them. Youngberry shuddered. He threw—a bad ball—but the batter leaped at it. He struck out with a roar. 'Wonderboy' flashed in the sun. It caught the sphere where it was the biggest. A noise like a twenty-one gun salute cracked the sky. The ball screamed toward the pitcher and seemed suddenly to dive down at his feet. He grabbed it to throw to first and realized to his horror that he held only the cover. The rest of it, unravelling cotton thread as it rode, was headed into the outfield." "The Natural" Bernard Malamud. "Boyhood dreams. A bat made from a tree struck by lightning And most importantly A never ending passion for the game." Art by William George.