Wednesday At The Tenement Museum, Part 2

Kurlansky was late and I shared this song with Kevin Baker to play for the audience.
It was a big hit.

Goodbye Mr. Ball Goodbye
Written by Bill Coryn & Harold Smith
Performed by Groucho Marx, Bing Crosby & Hank Greenberg
Courtesy of the Philco Radio Show
We’ve heard about those old time dangerous pirates
of Captain Kidd and Silver John the Long
but we prefer those modern dangerous Pirates
as our victims walk the plank we sing this song
Oh, goodbye, Mr Ball, goodbye
You are going to see an awful lot of sky
don’t hang around for Richard to open up that door
when Hankus Pankus hits you where you’ve never been hit before
Oh, goodbye, Mr Ball, goodbye
You had better kiss your relatives good bye
when Hank comes to the plate, Ball,
you’re gonna to be out late so
Oh, goodbye, Mr Ball, goodbye
Oh, goodbye, Mr Ball, goodbye
Say hello there to the sun up in the sky
a plate is mighty handy to eat the lean and fat
but not when Hank the Greenberg serves it up with his big bat
Oh, goodbye, Mr Ball, goodbye
Go fly ‘til the blue has met the dawn up in the sky
when Hank gets home run itch, Ball,
you’re going to drop a stitch
so goodBye Mr ball, goodBye
Oh nothing could be finer
than a partner like Ralph Kiner
in the outfield
and I am confirmin’ that I’ll work for Billy Herman
in the infield
Oh goodbye, Mr Ball, goodbye
you had better kiss your relatives goodbye
Wait a minute, when the count is 2-0 and I let that third one go,
what happens then?
You’re out
Oh Goodbye Mr Hank goodbye
And furthermore,
when I think I've got a hit and it winds up in Slaughter's mitt
How about that?
Too bad
Oh goodbye Mr. Hank Goodbye
Oh, Mr. Greenberg
Goodbye Mr. Hank Goodbye

from hungry for music

Wednesday At The Tenement Museum

One of KV's greatest punchball players, of any ethnicity , Prof. Bob Nathanson, joined me at the Tenement Museum to hear Mark Kurlansky talk about his biography of Hank Greenberg called Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn't Want to Be One.
The talk was excellent, due in great part to Kevin Baker's expert facilitation, but I was somewhat disappointed in the book. Ira Berkow's bio is much better.
but I did pick up a clue from the Kurlansky book to the Greenberg's lower east side roots. David Greenberg, Hank's dad, had a job as a clothes sponger and with a little census detective work I figured out he lived at 210 E. 3rd Street in 1906. The document image in the inset is part of Greenberg's naturalization application.
about clothes' sponging

Basically, this is going be entirely dependent on how thorough the shrinkage process at the mill was. Top quality mills usually pre-shrink cloth better. However, any cotton fabric may still shrink to varying degrees. Some tailors who are particularly meticulous won't trust what cloth merchants say about their cloths being "pre-shrunk" and even "sponge" the cloth to shrink it before making it up. For those interested this is traditionally done with bed sheets that have been soaked in water. However, one tailor told me that he wets the cloth and places it in a dryer.

a previous post about Hank Greenberg