"It took Ron Blomberg - he pronounces it Bloom-berg - four and one-half years to start repaying the Yankees for the reported $90,000 bonus they bestowed on him after making him their number one draft choice in 1967. Until last season it appeared the club had a lemon on its hands. But the 23-year-old lefty swinger caught fire at Syracuse, where he hit .326 in 43 games, and he was promoted to the parent club. He quickly caught the eye of the Stadium fans and became a favorite with his solid line-drive hitting which produced a .322 batting mark with seven homers and 31 RBIs in 64 games. In addition, his all-out base running reminded people of the way Enos Slaughter used to tear around the bases when he starred for the Cards.
A bit unsure in the outfield, Ron was sent to the Yanks' instructional camp to get some experience at first base.
'I've always thought I could play first better than any other position,' he says."
-Brenda Zanger, Major League Baseball 1972
"He's Mr. Excitement. Ron stirred things up for the Yankees last season when he was called up from Syracuse in mid-year and batted .322 in 64 games, showing good power; and he has speed to burn. New York figures his future is at first base and played him there in the winter instructional league.
Born August 23, 1948 in Atlanta, Georgia, Blomberg was the No. 1 free agent draft choice in June 1967. He pronounces his last name as if had the double 'o' instead of one.
He loves to eat and once consumed 28 hamburgers in one sitting. That was a promotion paying off a hamburger for every 1956 penny the customer could produce.
'I had 28 pennies,' confessed Blomberg."
-Hal Bock, The Complete Handbook of Baseball, 1972 Edition
" 'Someday,' drawls Ron Blomberg in his Georgia accent, 'someday I hope to have a monument in centerfield for me.'
That may be some time away. But if that is Ron Blomberg's ambition, only a churl would discourage him.
Up from Atlanta with the wonderful wide-eyed enthusiasm of a country boy on his first visit to the big city, Ron wasn't so awed by Yankee Stadium that he couldn't hit .322 as a rookie. And he could instantly talk of his batting practice home run that went through the facade on the right field roof.
The Boomer said, 'Mickey would have been proud of that one.'
Two hundred pounds of energy in perpetual motion, Ronnie is as excited as a Little Leaguer by every game. He is eager to contribute to every victory. He hates sitting on the bench, though that's part of his education.
He's a mod Lil'Abner who can hit and run and throw - and eat any quantity of fresh bagels his lady fans bake for him. What else would a nice young Jewish boy be doing in the Bronx?"
-The New York Yankees Official 1972 Yearbook
"The Boomer came into his own last season, displaying the hitting ability that was predicted for him when he was selected Number One in baseball's 1967 Free Agent Draft. Ronnie began the season at Syracuse, and after hitting .326 was recalled to the parent club on June 24. He excited the fans in his very first game as he went 2-for-5 with a double and a home run.
Although basically a line drive hitter, Ronnie has good power with the ability to break open a game at any time. He's hit two homers in one game twice, and Yankee players still talk about the shot he hit over the right field roof of Tiger Stadium during batting practice back in 1969. He hit another batting practice shot through the facade in Yankee Stadium's upper right field stands.
Although he faced right-handed pitchers for the most part, Blomberg's .322 average with seven homers in 199 at-bats speaks for itself. The Yankees sent him to their Florida Instructional School this past fall to brush up against left-handers and also to give him work at his original position of first base."
-1972 New York Yankees Press/TV/Radio Guide
A BLOMBERG GROWS IN THE BRONX
"Ron Blomberg had hardly settled his muscular frame into the booth, hadn't yet received the menu from the nice lady in the Baltimore deli and he was already issuing orders. 'A double order of potato salad,' he said. 'And sandwiches, of course. Hmm, letmesee, Pastrami! Two of them on rye. And don't forget the pickles, please.'
Beautiful, his reputation as the Yankee with the biggest appetite was intact. It didn't matter that he would offer half his potato salad to the two reporters lunching with him. They know him. He eats often but not quite as much as people are led to believe. But the image is important. Here's this strapping 23-year-old- six foot one 1/2 and 195 pounds- with bulging muscles, wearing tapered 42 long sport coats, and how did he get that way?'
The Yankees have been aware for years of the valuable gate attraction a Jewish ballplayer could be for them. It couldn't be just anybody, for the sake of having a Jew in Pinstripes, and you don't come by a Hank Greenberg or a Sandy Koufax easily. They finally made their move in the June 1967 free agent draft.
They had the number one pick in the country, about the only award they won for having finished last in the previous season's standings. They chose Blomberg and he couldn't have been happier. He already had a lot in common with the kids in the Bronx. He was 18 and a Yankee fan ever since he could remember turning on a TV set to watch the World Series.
His parents came up with him for a night's visit to Yankee Stadium on the day he signed. 'He wasn't going to be a doctor, lawyer or accountant,' said Mrs. Sol Blomberg, his mother, 'so why not a ballplayer?' The team let him work out with the Yankees that night and put him in a locker next to Mickey Mantle, his boyhood hero.
One of the joys of dressing next to Mantle in those years was you had Joe Pepitone to talk to on the other side. 'You can share my hair spray, kid,' Pepi told Blomberg, 'but you can't you use my mirror.' Fritz Peterson, observing the youngster in batting practice, said, 'He better be good. We didn't finish last for nothing.'
Little did Blomberg realize it then but it wasn't going to easy to get back to Yankee Stadium. There was a cup of coffee with New York at the tail end of 1969 when he hammered out three hits in six at-bats, but mostly it was a painstaking development through the minors.
He hit only .251 for Kinston in 1968 but polished a 72-ounce steak one night. It was one of those deals where dinner is free if you can polish it off in under an hour. And you have to eat in all, the steak plus salad, vegetables, rolls. potatoes and dessert. Blomberg finished with 30 minutes to spare. 'Three guys have done it,' he said. 'I'm the only guy who did it twice.'
He was so much more colorful than the traditional ballplayer that you hoped he would make it to the Bronx to stay. Signed as first baseman, he had been converted to the outfield and there was much to be learned there. Still, it was his inconsistent hitting that had the Yankees most concerned.
They took a gamble starting with the 1970 season. Figuring that the left-handed hitter's basic problem with southpaw pitching had him confused against all pitching, they started sitting Blomberg against left-handers. The feeling was he had to regain confidence in that quick bat of his. He finally began to surge, hitting .326 for Syracuse in the International League in 1971 when he was called up to the Bronx in June.
He was a breath of fresh air in the summer heat. Ralph Houk continued to feed his young lion almost exclusively to right-handed pitching, and Blomberg responded with a .322 average in 198 at-bats. The seven homers that jumped off his bat were really hit and his big-man speed was equally impressive.
New Yorkers began to recognize him in restaurants. They had heard rumors of his prodigious eating habits, now they could see for themselves. One report caught him on a Saturday eating 11 slices of buttered rye bread before his dinner was served. 'Ahh, it was only four or five,' said Blomberg in his Southern drawl. 'Just the people at the tables around me kept sending over more bread.'
The State Delicatessen on Seventh Avenue in New York is a storied spot. Celebrities partake of its sandwich fare. Blomberg visited for 'three pastramis.' The proprietor watched him eat, recognized him and requested a picture to put above Raquel Welch's in the window. Ron cut the ribbon for the opening of a store in Long Beach, a Long Island city with a large Jewish population. There were youngsters at the store waiting to see him from 8 a.m. on and he wasn't due until noon.
He was charmingly unsophisticated. He was trying to describe the place of a manufacturer who had provided some clothes at a good price and he said, 'You know, it's down on Broadway Street.' He swiftly retreated from his car ventures into the city. 'I'm scared to drive in New York,' he said. 'I know if I get lost, there'll many people honking at me.'
He made his mistakes on the ball field, too. It wasn't all .322 and game-winning hits. Some baseballs bounced off him in the outfield, and one night he sat forlornly in front of his locker after a bad game. Bobby Murcer, occupying the next locker, tried to cheer him up.
'If that's the worst day you ever have, I'll take it,' Murcer said. 'You should have had some of the days I had. You don't see them. We'd be leading 12-0 and they'd pull me for defense.' That was when Murcer failed as a third baseman in '69. Now he was a veteran and a steadying influence on Blomberg. Murcer had finally learned how to go to left field with the outside pitch, a process that made him competition for Tony Oliva's batting title last season, and it was one of the lessons he tried to drum into Blomberg.
It can't all be done in a day. Or a rookie season. There was so much to be learned. Blomberg hit two homers in a 4-3 defeat in Kansas City but bunted for a hit late in the game with a runner on first and the score tied. He was thrown out but even if he had beaten out the bunt, the bad strategy had to be explained to him.
He had taken away a home run swing from his ball club when one was needed. Houk took him aside for a chat before the next day's game and Blomberg came away a little more knowledgable. 'There are certain things you do and certain things you don't do,' the young player said. 'As long as I don't do it again. I've still got a lot to learn in this game and they're teaching me.'
Houk continued to use him only infrequently against left-hand pitching, despite the pressure and the theory that if a rookie could hit well over .300 against one type of pitching he rated the chance to play against all pitching. Houk chose to recall how long it had taken Blomberg to develop and how only a steady diet of right-hand pitching had finally created the desired result.
'We were trying to build his confidence,' the manager said. 'He might have gone down the drain. This is the first year he started to come. Now if we can get him straightened out against left-handers in Clearwater we'll have something going.'
Clearwater means Florida and the winter instructional league which Blomberg wasn't eager to attend. He and his wife, the former Mara Goldsmith, wanted to get off by themselves and forget baseball for a while. He had a tough enough time landing her. Mara apparently didn't think a professional ballplayer could be Jewish. Displaying the mezuzah that hangs from a chain around his neck didn't convince her. On their first date, Mara had him recite the traditional Hebrew prayer blessing of the wine before she would believe him.
The Yankees convinced him to try it their way. They're plotting a big change for him this season. They want to convert him back to a first baseman and they hope that he can play regularly. The Yankees feel that switch-hitting right fielder Rusty Torres is ready to play regularly in an outfield with Murcer and Roy White, and that Blomberg can best serve them at first base where they had mediocre results last season from Danny Cater and John Ellis.
Blomberg is refreshingly honest which means he also better continue being a productive ballplayer if he doesn't want the Yankee brass sitting on him. Asked at a Boston sports luncheon about Yankee plans to move him to first, he said, 'Well, I started as a first baseman. They like to say they moved me to the outfield because of my great speed but actually, it was because I made too many errors at first. If I make too many errors next season, I'll try catch the year after that, then third, then pitch- except my control isn't too good.'
He was being humorous but at the same time semiserious. Blomberg isn't sure he can play first base but he knows he can get by in the outfield passably. The early returns on the 'great experiment' aren't overly optimistic. It was a reluctant Blomberg who went to the winter instructional league to begin with. He wanted to spend more time with his wife and if he had wanted to play baseball, he could have done it for much more money in the Puerto Rican winter league.
Looking at the list of Yankee farmhands who were to go the winter instructional league, he said, 'They want me to learn how to hit left-hand pitching. Well, I see two guys on this list who are the wildest left-handers you ever saw. They have great arms. But if they could find home plate, they'd be up here in the majors. They must want me to get killed.'
Blomberg admits he was unhappy going to Florida but claims he did profit by it. 'Bill White helped me at first base,' he said. 'I like to think I'll be able to play it now.' White, a former slick-fielding first baseman and a fine hitter, is now a Yankee radio and television broadcaster. There is a report that whatever help he provided Blomberg had to come after a stern lecture to the young man.
White supposedly wasn't thrilled with Blomberg's attitude. He had to remind him that he wasn't a star, not yet anyway. He impressed upon him that it was basically Houk's careful handling that helped lead him to that .322 batting average and that Blomberg better get to work. Things are supposed to have smoothed out after that and the Yankees are hoping to resume the trial of Blomberg at first base, and also against left-handed pitching, in spring training.
The Yankees already knew Blomberg had a mind of his own. One game last September he touched his mezuzah and stepped in against Cleveland pitcher Steve Dunning. It was getting a little late for Blomberg. The scoreboard clock read 4:18 that afternoon. Rosh Hashonah, the Jewish New Year and a holy period observed by Blomberg, started at sundown. Blomberg took that to mean 5:30 p.m.
'If I was up to bat with a three-and-two count, I'd walk off at that time,' Blomberg says. If he didn't connect that at-bat, he might have been tested. The score was 2-2 and it was the last of the ninth. The Yankees had runners on first and third with one out.
The Cleveland outfielders moved well in to defend against the winning run edging off third. The infielders were breathing in on Blomberg. He ended the suspense in a hurry. He tagged Dunning's first pitch and center fielder Vada Pinson didn't even bother to turn and run after the ball. It was no use. Blomberg touched first, the winning run came home and the Yankees had themselves a 3-2 victory.
The drive rolled to the warning track in deep right-center and a youngster vaulted the bleacher wall to claim the trophy. The kid took off quickly. Perhaps he had a deadline to meet at home, too. Blomberg was elated. 'Why do you think I hit the ball so good?' he said. 'I felt sundown coming.'
That's the type of moment that should make him a folk hero in the Bronx neighborhood. Even should the team ultimately move to New Jersey, he'll remain their representative and within a visit. Of course, his growth depends on how much effort he's willing to put into growing as a player. This season will be an important one towards determining how good he can become. Ron Blomberg, a crowded neighborhood turns its wistful eyes toward you. Smell the chicken soup in those pots and do good."
-Joe Donnelly, 1972 Baseball Annual Grand Slam
No comments:
Post a Comment