and later attended DeWitt Clinton High School. from Harold Friend
Much has been written about the Yankees who won five consecutive championships, but Lopat added a little insight into dynasty when he told a writer that "We had an esprit de corps on that ball club. There wasn't one jealous bone on that whole ball club... Also, the older players used to reprimand the younger ones for lack of hustle. If they didn't put out, we'd say, 'you're playing on this club and you'd better put out, because that's the way we play ball here.'"
Eddie Lopat was a pitcher, not a thrower. He epitomized the term “crafty left hander.” He threw every pitch known, including the spitball. In 1990, Lopat visited baseball commissioner Fay Vincent. The two spoke about baseball for several hours and Vincent later related that Lopat had once told him that he not only threw the spitball but that as Kansas City pitching coach, he tried to teach it to the entire staff.
Back in those days, for some guys, their World Series shares were almost as big as their salaries.
ReplyDeleteOur wives expected us to win every year; Cora had my 1951 World Series share spent by the end of August of '51. We weren't gonna let any loafing rookie take that money out of our pockets.