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Tuesday October 17, 2007

'Haunted Baseball' Explores America's October Obsessions

By John Mooney

Dan Gordon and Mickey Bradley have collaborated on a book that covers two of America's October obsessions: Baseball and ghost stories.

HAUNTED BASEBALL: GHOSTS, LEGENDS & EERIE EVENTS contains narratives about shadowy figures hovering over beds, long dead voices and cigar smoke in clubhouses, spectral Hall of Famers throwing fastballs indoors, and haunted hotel rooms.

The authors interviewed over 800 major leaguers, including Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, and Jorge Posada of the Yankees; Curt Schilling, David Ortiz and Jason Varitek of the Red Sox; and Carlos Betran and Moises Alou of the Mets. A number of Hall of Fame players - Yogi Berra, Willie Mays, Jim Palmer, and Nolan Ryan - participated, as did future HOF members Greg Maddox, Mike Piazza, and Rickey Henderson. Other notables include Bob Stanley, Mookie Wilson, and Joe Torre.

Co-author Mickey Bradley, an Irish American with roots in County Tipperary, is a lifelong Yankee fan named after the legendary centerfielder Mickey Mantle. He partnered with Dan Gordon, a college friend and devoted Red Sox fan, to write the book.

"Ghost stories keep the great players of the past alive figuratively by keeping them alive literally. They capture the tradition and history of the game," Bradley said. "Any Irishman who has traced his family roots, or continues to tell stories about long-gone relatives, knows what I'm talking about."

Ghosts who appear in the book include Babe Ruth, Casey Stengel, Harry Caray, and Buck Weaver one of the "Eight Men Out" who were banned in the "Black Sox" scandal. Weaver, the third baseman for the 1919 Chicago White Sox, maintained his innocence until the day he died and still seeks to clear his name from the grave.

Dan Gordon (right) and Mickey Bradley (left), put aside their baseball differences at a game in Japan

Spirits tend to haunt places of sadness or where portions of their life are unfulfilled, precluding them from passing on. However, paranormal experts told the authors that sometimes ghosts simply hang around places they loved. Given that, it would make sense that Ruth, Gehrig and the others are still in Yankee Stadium.

Mickey Bradley & Dan Gordon spent two years researching HAUNTED BASEBALL (www.hauntedbaseball.com) and interviewed more than 800 ballplayers, managers, and coaches along the way. Highlights include:
Field of Legends
A baseball field in St. Petersburg that was the Spring Training home of the Yankees is said to be haunted by the ghosts of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and managers Casey Stengel and Miller Huggins, among others.
The Ghosts of Yankee Stadium
Many major leaguers believe that the ghosts of Yankee greats (Ruth, Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle) reside at the Stadium and help the team out in the late innings of big games by getting a ball to drop or sneak over the fence. Among the believers: Derek Jeter, who told Aaron Boone that the ghosts would take over - just before Boone hit a walk-off home run to win the 2003 ALCS.
Stompin' at the Vinoy
Numerous players, managers, and coaches claim that the Vinoy Hotel, which hosts visiting teams playing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, is haunted. Pitcher Scott Williamson is among those spooked at the Vinoy ("I got this tingling sensation that someone was watching me... All of a sudden, I just couldn't breathe - like someone was sitting on me.") After continued weird occurrences, the Red Sox stopped booking the hotel.
Haunted Stadiums
The Cubs' beloved announcer Harry Caray has caused after-hours eeriness in Wrigley Field. (He probably won't rest until the "Cubs win!"). Dodger Stadium is the site of many ghostly encounters. The spirit of legendary Red Sox P.A. announcer Sherm Feller is believed to be in the control booth at Fenway Park.
Rallying Spirits
A collection of stories related to 9/11 includes Mike Piazza's game-winning HR during the Mets first home game following the tragedy. (Piazza believes he was aided by the spirits of those killed in the WTC attacks.) Players on both the Yankees and the Diamondbacks feel that the spirits of those lost on 9/11 were present during the 2001 World Series... and played a part in the Bombers' stunning late-inning comebacks at home. Ken Griffey, Jr. is said to have hit a home run at the request of a grieving WTC widow, whose firefighter husband was a huge Griffey fan.
Clear My Name
In a real-life Field of Dreams story, a doctor in Illinois is repeatedly visited by the ghost of Chicago "Black Sox" star Buck Weaver and has launched a major campaign www.clearbuck.com to clear the banned player's name. The man has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money in the effort. (A sidebar explores the theory that the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson regularly visits U.S. Cellular Field.)
I See Dead People
Roberto Clemente had premonitions of his early death in a plane crash. Lou Gehrig and wife received a message about an upcoming ordeal delivered via Ouija board shortly before his ALS diagnosis.
The Plague of the Plaque
When the Giants moved to San Francisco, they promised to take their monument for Eddie Grant (a former player and WWI hero) with them. Instead, it mysteriously disappeared, leaving a team curse in its place.
The Bird and Jim Thome
After the Cleveland Indians' beloved team trainer Jimmy Warfield died during the 2002 season, the devastated team was comforted by the presence of an odd bird on the field, whom many considered to be the departed trainer come back to say goodbye.

"Almost no one feels the baseball ghosts are menacing or threatening in any way. Babe Ruth's afterlife is just as wonderful and fun-filled as his earthly life," said Bradley about the game's greatest player. "One exception is where Miller Huggins, who supposedly is indignant that the Yankee lockers were removed from the Spring Training ballpark in St. Petersburg. He is said to scare current workers there."

Dan Gordon wrote chapters involving his beloved the Red Sox, while Bradley wrote the chapters about the Yankees. The authors began the book in late 2004, after Boston ended the famous "Curse of the Bambino." They conducted hundreds of interviews during 2005 Spring Training, when they could speak with players from many different teams without having to travel to 30 different cities and ballparks. Bradley spent quite a bit of time in Chicago, which has numerous ghost stories relating to both the city's major league teams.

The Chicago Cubs' famous "Curse of the Billy Goat" is said to have been gone into effect in 1945, the last time the Cubs played in the World Series. Officials at Wrigley Field kicked the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern and his goat, "Murphy," out of ballpark, thereby incurring the longest-running curse in baseball history. (The bar owner, Vasili Sianis, had bought a ticket for the goat and said nothing indicated he could not use it to give the animal a seat.)

When it began to rain, fellow patrons complained about the smell of the wet goat. After Cubs officials made Sianis leave the game, which the Cubs lost to the Detroit Tigers, the Greek immigrant sent a telegram to team owner P.K. Wrigley saying:

You are going to lose this World Series and you are never going to another World Series again because you insulted my goat.

The authors uncover that many years later Sianis lifted the curse - in exchange for World Series tickets in 1969. However, late in the season, the Mets surprisingly overtook Chicago to win the National League pennant, denying the Cubs yet again.

Despite the official removal, many people believe the "Curse of the Billy Goat" is still in effect. It would be hard to argue that point since the Cubs lost in the first round of the NL playoffs last week and next year will mark a century of futility since they last were the champions of baseball.

Bradley and Gordon also address lesser-known hexes in St. Louis ("The Curse of Keith"), Cleveland ("The Curse of The Rock"), and Philadelphia ("The Curse of William Penn"). The book features a number of anecdotes that have never before been told. "In one of my conversations with Derek Jeter about the Ghosts of Yankee Stadium, I asked him if he would like for people one day to say that he's one of the ghosts on the field," the 42-year-old author explained. "Jeter answered, 'I'd love for them to say I was out there! That means you've had some kind of an impact.'"

Of course, not everyone is as convinced as Jeter is about the paranormal.

"For the nonbeliever, I think the significance is that great players are still so highly regarded and missed - still such a part of the American imagination and the game of baseball - that we find ways to make them relevant and active," Bradley said.

If that is the case, you don't have to believe in ghosts to enjoy the stories. You just have to believe in baseball.

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