The LMRC slugger of my generation, Allan Silverstein, is approaching his 60th birthday. Al's a strong guy but I think his power is based just as much on technique, either a technique that he created or one that was second nature. I found a series of films deconstructing what Ruth was doing. A guy named
Perry Husband provides the analysis. It's fascinating. Ruth had to be powerful, but it had to be something else to explain why he was so much better than players of his generation. It's not like he was taking steroids or corking his bat. I could make contact as a hitter fairly decently, but I could never really drive one. What I'd do for another crack at the fence in the old Coleman Oval aided by time travel and some of these techniques.
As with Yogi, much had to do with the wrists, but what Al and The Hammer had that Yogi and the rest of us didn't was Yetta's cooking. Now that raises an interesting question: Was Tommy Red of St. Josephs eating over at the Silversteins before games? Scandal to be investigated 50 years later? Reemergence of the Journal American? A new generation of guys returning to Tannehy Park with hats made from newspapers? TV series, "LES Then & Now" produced and directed by Big Dave and starring The Boys? Stay tuned.....
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