NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Frank Strauss has just written Dawn of a Dynasty, the incredible and improbable story of the 1947 New York Yankees.
Strauss is a former newspaper editor, public relations director and lifelong Yankee fan. He was 12 years old back in 1947 when he kept meticulous scrapbooks chronicling each Bomber game. In Dawn of a Dynasty, he relives how this team won nineteen straight games in midseason and later charged to the American League pennant. Strauss then details the Yanks’ World Series win against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The unforgettable 1947 Yankee team launched a extraordinary record of winning. They garnered 15 American League pennants and 10 World Championships between 1947 and 1964. It was a remarkable time, and this is a remarkable book.
I caught up with the author after a discussion he gave at the Litchfield, Connecticut library. Frank was kind enough to share his thoughts with me.
Why did you choose 1947 to write about? What do you find special about that year?
I found that not much has been written about the 1947 Yankees and it was an interesting year. Many of the veteran players had returned from their WW II service the previous year and had not done very well. Also a crop of young rookies was set to join the team and they also had a new manager in Bucky Harris. So the lead question became – could this group manage to do better than the third place finish the writers predicted for them at the start of the season.
You say the scrapbooks you kept as a kid were a catalyst for this book.
I kept scrapbooks of the 1947, 1948 and 1949 Yankees that I have kept carefully all these years and they provided me with a source for my book.
Your book recaptures baseball as it used to be. Do you consider it nostalgic?
Yes, because it serves to remind older readers and educate younger readers about what baseball used to be like.
Tell us about the time you met Babe Ruth as a kid.
I met him in our building where we used to live in Jackson Heights, NY. He was coming out of the elevator as I entered and was accompanied by a woman I knew. She introduced me and I have the Babe’s autograph, which reads – “To Frankie Strauss from Babe Ruth.” As you can imagine, I treasure it. A truly unforgettable moment in my life.
What ex-Yankee players helped you with your research?
Primarily three – Yogi Berra, Bobby Brown (who agreed to write the introduction to the book) and Jerry Coleman. Not too many of the players from that 1947-49 era are still living.
Can you share an amusing anecdote from the book?
Always a Yogi story – probably when his neighbors from St. Louis honored him with a night at the ballpark and he said: “I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary.” He is a great person and was easy to meet and talk with.
What was the most surprising thing you discovered while researching and writing the book?
Lots of things – primarily how pitchers pitched in the olden days – without any pitch count. There are two games I write about that both went 11 innings and the starting pitchers for both teams in both games pitched the entire game.
Lots of folks underestimate the contributions of Joe Page. Can you talk about what he did for the 1947 Yanks?
The Yankees never would have won in ’47 had it not been for Joe Page. He was a great relief pitcher who was brought into games by Bucky Harris as soon as there was trouble – often as early as the fifth or sixth inning. In the World Series, he came into Game Seven to start the fifth inning and hurled the rest of the way giving up just one hit, no walks and won the game and the Series for the Yankees.
Joe DiMaggio comes off as a detached, uncaring man in many ways. Is that what you’ve found as well?
Joe was the team leader – no doubt about that. He was somewhat detached and did not show that much emotion either on the field or in the clubhouse but he was the one person who made that team a championship team.
1947 was Spec Shea’s rookie year, and his best year in the majors. Tell us about his impact on that year.
Spec was special in 1947. He was a rookie who won 14 games and started three games in the World Series – winning Games One and Four. He became, along with Yogi Berra, the first rookie battery to start Game One of a World Series. Arm trouble plagued him thereafter and he was never the same but he was brilliant in 1947.
Yogi was only 22 in 1947, and at the time he was a horrible defensive catcher. What did the Yankees see in him?
Yogi was always a great hitter – starting in his brief appearance with the team at the tail end of 1946. Although not the all-star catcher he would become, he was always a solid hitter – so much so that he played the outfield quite a bit in his early years.
How would you characterize the ownership of the Yanks in 1947?
Dan Topping and his partners were excellent owners who cared about the team – much more so than the ownership that followed in the mid-sixties.
What kind of manager was Bucky Harris?
Bucky was a more laid-back person than his predecessor Joe McCarthy had been. He did not want to manage the team but was instead interested in a front office post. But Larry McPhail, the GM at the time, convinced him to take the post with the possibility of his gaining his coveted front office job in the future. It was not to be.
Was Paul O’Neill the Tommy Henrich of his time?
Good analogy. Tommy was know as “Old Reliable” because he got so many key hits for the team. I guess the same could be said of O’Neill.
Baseball has changed in so many ways since 1947. In your opinion, what changes have been the most significant?
Too many to mention but the most important would include:
1. The end of the reserve clause, which at the time did not permit players to play out their contracts and declare free agency.
2. The use of pitchers – in 1947 they tended to pitch complete games and only came out of games when they were hit hard and not when they reached an artificial pitch count.
3. Games being played in the daytime rather than at night. In 1947 the Yankees played 154 games and of those 150 were played in the daytime. Also, all World Series games were played in the daytime.
4. Games were played on grass and not on any artificial turf that changes the game completely.
5. There was no designated hitter rule. Pitchers batted and in some cases were quite successful as hitters.
You can visit the author’s website at www.1947yankees.com
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