Bill Veeck (70 page)

5
. AP,
Miami News
, June 27, 1962, 40.

6
.
Baltimore Sun
, February 22, 1953.

7
.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, February 21, 1993.

8
. AP, March 13, 1953.

9
. UPI,
Telegraph-Herald
, March 15, 1952.

10
.
Baltimore Sun
, March 7, 1958.

11
.
The Doings
, January 8, 1986.

12
.
Baltimore Sun
, September 28, 2003;
Time
, March 16, 1953.

13
. AP,
Daytona
Beach Morning Journal
, March 18, 1953; Daley's column syndicated in
Telegraph
, November 10, 1964.

14
.
Montreal Gazette
, March 23, 1953.

15
.
Baltimore Sun
, March 23, 1953.

16
. AP,
St. Joseph Gazette
, March 24, 1953.

17
.
Los Angeles Times
, March 23, 1953.

18
.
Pittsburgh Press
, April 3, 1953.

19
.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, February 21, 1993.

20
. AP,
Daytona Beach Morning Journal
, April 10, 1953;
Washington Post
, June 7, 1953.

21
. Fred Lieb,
The Baltimore Orioles
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1955), 219.

22
. Donald Honig,
Baseball When the Grass Was Real: Baseball from the Twenties to the Forties Told by the Men Who Played It
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), 222. In the book, the party is said to have occurred after the eighth game in the losing streak, but the record shows that it was the seventh. The Browns were in Chicago for the eighth loss.

23
.
New York Times
, May 1, 1988.

24
.
Time
, July 20, 1953.

25
.
Los Angeles Times
, September 4, 1953. But almost as soon as he had begun his flirtation with the West Coast, he declared, “Los Angeles and San Francisco were delightful but I don't think they are for us.”

26
.
New York Times
, September 26, 1953.

27
. James Bready,
Baseball in Baltimore: The First 100 Years
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), 214.

28
.
Pittsburgh Press
, November 10, 1953. The report alludes to Paige talking to Bearden in March 1953.

29
.
The Doings
, January 8, 1986;
Baltimore Sun
, October 4, 1953, 35.

30
. Lieb,
Baltimore Orioles
, 221.

31
. This recollection was given to John Eisenberg and is an account that has never been made public before.
Baltimore Sun
, September 28, 2003.

32
.
Baseball Digest
, June 1953.

33
.
Washington Post
, September 29, 1953;
Baltimore Sun
, October 4, 1953, 35.

34
.
Sports Illustrated
, July 4, 1960; Gordon Beard,
Birds on the Wing
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967), 165.

35
.
Christian Science Monitor
, October 1, 1953.

36
.
Time
, March 23, 1953.

37
.
Chicago Defender
, October 10, 1953.

38
. Veeck with Linn,
Veeck—as in Wreck
, 305.

39
.
Baltimore Sun
, October 4, 1953, 35.

1
.
Cleveland Press
, November 7, 1956.

2
.
Milwaukee Sentinel
, October 17, 1953.

3
.
New York Times
, December 1, 1954.

4
.
Chicago American
, October 18, 1953.

5
.
Spokesman-Review
, January 27, 1954; Leroy Satchel Paige as told to David Lipman,
Maybe I'll
Pitch Forever
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), 243.

6
.
Chicago Tribune
, April 20, 1976. This comes from a David Condon column in which (presumably) Veeck is sitting in the Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago telling stories about his past.

7
. The report “Facts on the Coming Expansion of Major League Baseball to the Pacific Coast” is quoted in detail in Michael D'Antonio's
Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles
(New York: River-head Books, 2009), which cites the Walter O'Malley archives as the source of the report.

8
.
Chicago Tribune
, February 4, 1955, C1; September 5, 1956, D3.

9
. AP,
Spokane
Chronicle
, December 22, 1955.

10
. AP,
Schenectady Gazette
, March 11, 1955.

11
.
Arizona Daily Star
, July 14, 1991.

12
. Bill Veeck with Edward Linn,
Veeck—as in Wreck
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962), 311;
Ottawa Citizen
, January 4, 1956;
Baseball Digest
, March 1956, 65.

13
.
Miami News
, January 28, 1956.

14
.
Baseball Digest
, July 1961.

15
.
New York
Amsterdam News
, December 29, 1956; Pat Williams interviews, 1997–98, no. 138 (interview with Eddie Storin).

16
. UP,
Modesto Bee
, August 15, 1956.

17
.
Washington Post
, February 15, 1956. Many sources including Wikipedia insist that Greenberg was previously an owner of the Indians, but it is a claim that Greenberg and Veeck both denied.
Washington Post
, February 6, 1955, C1.

18
.
Chicago Tribune
, May 28, 1956.

19
. Ibid., January 11, 1956.

20
.
Washington Post
, July 18, 1956.

21
. Ibid.

22
.
Washington Post
, July 8, 1956.

23
.
Cleveland Press
, July 13, 1956.

24
. Bob Addie in
Washington Post
, July 7, 1956.

25
. Veeck with Linn,
Veeck—as in Wreck
, 315;
Chicago Defender
, June 11, 1956.

26
.
Cleveland Press
, July 19, 1956.

27
. Rolfe declared that his Tigers' prospects for the coming season were poor because Detroit had not opted for the ready-made stars who had dominated the pennant races of the past few years. He asked: “Where would the Indians be without Luke Easter and Larry Doby? Or Brooklyn without Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella? Or the Giants without Henry Thompson, Monte Irvin, and Willie Mays?” Rolfe would be replaced during the 1952 season, and the Tigers, for all their dignity, remained a second-division club.

28
.
Daily Defender
, July 24, 1956.

29
. This whole account appears in Bryson's interview with Osborn in
Baseball Digest
, July 1961. Bryson's son, also writing as Bill Bryson, is a popular journalist and author.

30
.
Time
, October 22, 1956. Both Gregory Veeck and Eloise Saperstein mentioned the inflatable tent in separate interviews.

31
.
Chicago Defender
, October 16, 1956.

32
.
Cleveland Press
, November 7, 1956.

33
. Interviews with Lou Brissie, November 7, 2008, and August 13, 2009.

34
.
Chicago Tribune
, October 20, 1953.

35
.
Los Angeles Herald Express
, August 4, 1958: The article was entitled “Hoover Agrees with Veeck on Baseball, Bonus, Draft.” A wire service version of this piece appears in Veeck's FBI file, which would seem to indicate that Hoover was pleased with his declaration of support for Veeck.

36
.
New York Herald Tribune
, December 26, 1958.

37
.
Chicago Tribune
, January 15, 1956, C1;
Washington Post
, June 3, 1959, A8.

38
.
New York Herald Tribune
, December 26, 1958.

39
. Interview with Eloise Saperstein, September 27, 2009. Veeck and Abe Saperstein were together again and both a little closer to their mutual pipe dream of owning the Cubs. “They talked of owning the Cubs incessantly,” recalled Abe's daughter Eloise, “but at least now they were on the South Side.”

40
. Edward Linn,
A Great Connection: The Story of Molex
(Chicago: Regnery Gateway, 1988). Interviews with Fred Krehbiel, June 26, 2010, and July 2010.

41
. Pat Williams interviews, 1997–98.

42
.
Harvard Crimson
, April 10, 1969.

43
.
Saturday Evening Post
, June 6, 1959, 31–32, 92–94.

44
. UPI,
Cleveland Press
, April 15, 1959.

45
. Pat Williams interviews, 1997–98, no. 173.

46
.
St. Petersburg Times
, July 13, 1959, 30.

47
. Interview with Fred Krehbiel;
Washington Post
, June 29, July 12, and July 27, 1959;
Daily Defender
, July 15, 1959;
Chicago Daily News
, May 11, 1959.

48
. Pat Williams interviews, 1997–98, no. 173.

49
.
Chicago Tribune
, June 30, 1959.

50
. Burt Solomon,
Baseball Timeline
(New York: Avon, 1997), 597.

51
.
Chicago Tribune
, September 4, 1959.

52
. AP,
Calgary Herald
, September 24, 1959.

53
.
Chicago Tribune
, September 22, 1959.

54
. Jerome Boltzmann and George Vass,
Baseball Chicago Style: A Tale of Two Teams, One City
(Chicago: Bonus Books, 2001), 115.

55
.
Chicago Tribune
, September 30, 1959, C1.

56
.
Washington Post
, September 30, 1959, C2.

57
.
Chicago Tribune
, October 2, 1959.

58
.
Bill Veeck Show
, Recorded Sound Reference Center, Library of Congress, audio file LPA50732.

59
. Interview with Stan Isaacs, February 27, 2011.

60
. Pat Williams interviews, 1997–98, no. 106. The transcript of this interview includes many more accounts of Veeck's behavior at this point in his life, including this one repeated in its entirely: “In 1959, I asked Veeck if he would address a father-son sports night meeting at my parish. It was on Opening Day in Chicago, and he drew an overflow crowd. Earlier, Veeck and his wife, Mary Frances, had come to our house to socialize and have dinner. Before dinner, Bill sat in the kitchen with a beer in hand, and regaled some of the Kuenster kids with stories, and showed them his wooden leg, which contained a cut-in ashtray. To their amusement, he flicked cigarette ashes into the tray. Following his talk in the parish hall, Veeck stayed on until after midnight, answering questions from his listeners, most of whom were diehard White Sox fans. When we finally returned home, Veeck suggested that Mary Frances, my wife, and I accompany him to the nearby Martinique Restaurant for a few drinks and dancing. ‘Dancing?' I said. ‘Everybody'll be gone by the time we get there.' Foolish me. When we arrived at the Martinique, everybody was gone but the orchestra. That afternoon, Bill had evidently called Tony DeSantis, the club owner, to tell him he was coming over late in the evening, and DeSantis asked the musicians to stick around after they had finished their regular gig. So, at 1 a.m., there were Bill and Mary Frances dancing gracefully by themselves, later joined by my wife and myself. It was a wonderful way to cap an evening (and early morning) together, and I must say, Bill was a pretty good dancer. He never considered himself as being handicapped despite having only one good leg.”

61
.
New York Times
, December 18, 1959.

62
.
Pittsburgh Chronicle
, December 19, 1959.

63
. From the script of “Veeck: A Man for Any Season,” WTTW, 1985,
http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=1,7,1,1,54on
.

64
. E-mail from Carol Scott Alley, August 10, 2009; interview with Alley, August 13, 2009;
Chicago Sun-Times
, February 16, 1960.

1
. Aaron D. Cushman,
A Passion for Winning: Fifty Years of Promoting Legendary People and Products
(Pittsburgh: Light house Point Press, 2004). Cushman added: “He actually came up with the idea shortly after he sold the Indians. When he pitched it to them, the team turned a deaf ear to the idea. Bill filed it away and unveiled it with the White Sox.”

2
. Interview with Eloise Saperstein, September 27, 2009.

3
. Jack Newfield,
American Rebels
(New York: Nation Books, 2003), 280.

4
.
New York Times
, May 9, 1960.

5
. Ed Gruver,
The American Football League: A Year-by-Year History, 1960–1969
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1997), 35.

6
.
Chicago Tribune
, June 26 and 30, 1960.

7
.
Washington Post
, August 6, 1960.

8
. The files at the National Baseball Library and Archives in Cooperstown were obtained in 1999 by Eric Enders. A number of pages were withheld from the records, so it is entirely possible that there was more to this story that may never be known. Mary Frances Veeck was unaware of this event based on a discussion with her on February 25, 2011. Her assumption was that Bill did not want to worry her unnecessarily. Veeck never made any comment on this matter, nor was it known to have happened until Veeck's FBI file was opened up under a Freedom of Information Act request in 1999, so one can only speculate what effect it had on him, although it could not have been anything but a great burden and, perhaps, may have lead to the thought that using the word
exploding
for his new scoreboard may have been a bad choice.