I got to see Whitey Ford pitch once. It was Old-Timers Day 1991, at the old Yankee Stadium, and he pitched to one batter. But I did get to see it.
Edward Charles Ford was born on October 21, 1928, in an apartment on 66th Street on Manhattan's East Side, and grew up on 34th Avenue in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens. He was supposed to go to William Cullen Bryant High School, but it didn't have a baseball team. So his father Jim, who worked for Con Edison, used his connections to get Eddie into a specialized school that did have a baseball team, the Manhattan High School of Aviation Trades, or "Aviation High." He graduated in 1946.
With some irony, that school moved to Long Island City, just one neighborhood over from Astoria, and is now named the Aviation Career & Technical Education High School. It is a vo-tech school, designed to train aircraft mechanics, not pilots. In the 1940s, shortly before Whitey, it produced another student who would go on to play in Major League Baseball, Lou Limmer, a 1st baseman for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1951 to 1954.
Although he was still usually identified as "Eddie Ford" as late as his rookie season, having very light blond hair gave him the nickname "Whitey." This had also been the case for George Kurowski, a 3rd baseman who was key in the St. Louis Cardinals' 1942 World Series win over the Yankees; and Richie Ashburn, the Hall of Fame center fielder and later broadcaster for the Philadelphia Phillies. It would later be the case for Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog, a journeyman infielder who became a Hall of Fame manager.
(Since all of these men got the nickname before the Civil Rights Movement as we know it got underway, it had nothing to do with race. In Ashburn's case, "Whitey" -- or, as his broadcast teammate Harry Kalas would say, "His Whiteness" -- was originally short for "The White Mouse." In Herzog's case, the original form of his nickname would also survive: "The White Rat.")
At his Hall of Fame induction ceremony, he said he had been a Yankee Fan since he was 5 years old. But he told 2 different stories about how he came to the Yankees. In one version, he said, "I dreamed of making it to the Yankees, but as a first baseman. But when they saw how I hit, they made me a pitcher."
In another version, an interview with Peter Golenbock for his book Dynasty: The New York Yankees, 1949-1964, he said he had been a fan of the New York Giants, who offered him a signing bonus of $5,000, while the Yankees offered $6,000.
Golenbock: "So if the Giants had offered you $7,000, you would have signed with the Giants?"
Ford: "Yeah."
And if that's true... Giants owner Horace Stoneham moved the team to San Francisco after the 1957 season. After the last game, he said, "I feel bad for the kids, but I haven't seen too many of their fathers lately." Now, imagine a team with Willie Mays, Monte Irvin, Sal Maglie and Whitey Ford. Maybe enough of the fathers would have come out to the Polo Grounds, and the Giants would still be playing in New York City (or a suburb) today.
So if Whitey was telling the truth that time, then, Stoneham could have saved the Giants for New York, but chose not to, over $1,000 -- about $11,650 today. "So it was that a kingdom was lost, all for the want of a nail."
Instead, it was Paul Krichell, the same scout who had signed Lou Gehrig out of Columbia University in 1923, who signed Whitey for the Bronx Bombers in 1947.
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He made his major league debut at Fenway Park in Boston on July 1, 1950. It didn't go so well: Tommy Byrne got shelled, and didn't get out of the 2nd inning. Wearing Number 19, Whitey came in to relieve, and wasn't much better, pitching to the 7th and allowing 5 more runs. The Red Sox beat the Yankees 13-4.
On July 6, manager Casey Stengel gave Whitey his 1st major league start, at Yankee Stadium against the Philadelphia Athletics. The Yankees won, 5-4, but he was not the winning pitcher. He didn't get another start until July 17, at home against the Chicago White Sox. That game, he won, 4-3. He won 9 straight decisions, before losing on September 27, 8-7 to the A's, and finished 2nd in the American League's Rookie of the Year balloting, behind Walt Dropo -- who had hit a home run for the Red Sox off Byrne in Whitey's debut.
Dropo himself knew how good Whitey was: "Right away, I could see this guy was going to be trouble. He was like a master chess player who used his brain to take the bat right out of my hands. You'd start thinking along with him, and then Whitey had you because he never started you off with the same pitch in any one sequence."
The Yankees won the Pennant, and swept the Philadelphia Philies in 4 straight to win the World Series. Whitey started Game 4, and was 1 out away from a shutout, when left fielder Gene Woodling dropped a fly ball, letting in 2 runs.
Stengel came out to relieve Whitey, and let Allie Reynolds get the last out. When Whitey walked back to the dugout, the fans booed. He couldn't understand why they were booing him. They weren't: They were booing Casey for taking him out. Whitey was already a fan favorite.
The following off-season, Whitey married a woman named Joan, but also got drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War, resulting in him missing the 1951 and 1952 seasons. He was discharged in time to play in 1953. He and Joan remained married 'til death did they part, and they had sons Eddie and Tommy and daughter Sally Ann.
Now 24, and wearing what became his familiar Number 16, Whitey became the ace of the Yankee staff, as the "Big Three" of Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi and Eddie Lopat saw their careers wind down. He went 18-6 in 1953, 16-8 in 1954 (earning the 1st of his 10 All-Star Game berths), 18-7 in 1955 (leading the AL in wins), 19-6 in 1956 (with a League-leading 2.47 ERA), 11-5 in an injury-shortened 1957, and 14-7 in 1958 (with a League-leading 2.01 ERA).
As much as his Hall-of-Fame teammates, center fielder Mickey Mantle, catcher Yogi Berra, and shortstop Phil Rizzuto, Whitey was the key to the Yankees winning Pennants in 1953, '55, '56, '57 and '58, winning the World Series in 1953, '56 and '58. This was the era in which terms like "The lordly Yankees" and "Break up the Yankees!" were used.
That both were from her home Borough of Queens had something to do with it, but she also loved that Whitey was smart and didn't rely on overwhelming force, mixing up his pitches like her favorite Dodger pitchers, Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine and especially Preacher Roe. (And also like her favorite Met pitchers, Tom Seaver, Ron Darling, David Cone and Al Leiter.) She had no patience for pitchers who were fastball-reliant, like Ralph Branca of the Dodgers. She also hated hotheads like Billy Martin, Eddie Stanky and Roger Clemens. She loved that Whitey kept his cool.
Whitey was on the mound in Game 1 of the 1955 World Series when Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers stole home plate. To the end of his life, Yogi insisted that he got the tag down and that Jackie was out. Whitey agreed that Jackie was out: "I was only 55 feet away by the time I threw the ball, and I thought he was out." But Rizzuto said, "Well, I was playing shortstop, and I had the best view of anybody, and he was safe!"
About a year later, Yankee outfielder Irv Noren was rooming with Whitey, and showed him a picture from that game, including that play. He'd blown it up, to show who was playing shortstop. While Rizzuto was in the game, by the time the steal happened in the 8th inning, he had been replaced in the field: The shortstop at the moment was Jerry Coleman. Whitey won that game, although the Yankees lost the Series.
Whitey and Yogi outside Yankee Stadium, 1956
These were the days when Whitey, Mickey, and 2nd baseman Billy Martin would go out after games and carouse. Casey called them "whiskey slicks," and, for the rest of their lives, Mickey and Whitey called each other "Slick." In 1987, Whitey published a memoir titled Slick: My Life In and Around Baseball.
Left to right: Whitey, Mickey, Billy
He also became known as "The Chairman of the Board," a nickname given to him by Elston Howard, a left fielder before he and Yogi switched positions in 1960. While "Board" rhymes with "Ford," the nickname spoke to his command on the mound, similar to that of another man who then had the nickname, singer Frank Sinatra, who was friends with Whitey and some of the other Yankees. Whitey loved Sinatra and loved the comparison.
The troublesome trio of Mantle, Martin and Ford was broken up in 1957, when Martin was traded. While Billy wasn't hitting, everyone presumed it was because of an incident the month before, when the 3 of them, plus Yogi, Hank Bauer and Johnny Kucks, got into trouble at the famed Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan. Whitey was the last survivor of the Yankees who were there.
Mickey was told that Billy was traded for being a bad influence on him. Years later, Mickey would say, "The last year Billy and I were roommates, I won the World Series and the Triple Crown. How bad an influence could he have been?" But he would sometimes add, "Turns out, it was Whitey who was the bad influence on me."
Mickey was joking. Of the three, Whitey was the only one still with his 1st wife until the end. In 2000, when Billy Crystal made his movie 61*, about the 1961 Yankees, Whitey, he showed the aftermath of a drunken incident that Mickey, played by Thomas Jane, had gotten into, and Whitey, played by Anthony Michael Hall, had to pay people off to not talk about it. He said to Mickey, "Hey, Slick: How come every time you get drunk, it ends up costing me money?"
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In 1959, the Yankees had a down year, as they were in something of a transition, but Whitey still went 16-10. In 1960, he went 12-9, and the Yankees won the Pennant again.
You'll notice that, as good as he was, Whitey had not yet won 20 games in a season. This is because Casey would sometimes move Whitey up, or back, in the rotation to face a tougher opponent. This may have cost him a couple of wins every year.
In the 1960 World Series, Casey started him in Games 3 and 6. He could have started him in Games 1, 4 and 7, but didn't. The Yankees won Game 3 10-0 and Game 6 12-0. They lost Game 1 6-4, Game 4 3-2, and Game 7 10-9, as Bill Mazeroski hit what we would now call a walkoff home run. Although the official reason for Yankee management firing Casey was his age (70), lots of people thought the decision was justified because of the way he handled Whitey.
Casey was replaced by Ralph Houk. In the off-season, he and Whitey ran into each other at a prizefight at the old Madison Square Garden. Ralph asked him, "How would you like to pitch every 4th day?" As in, "No matter who the opponent is." Whitey said, "I'd love to."
It worked: Whitey had his best season, going 25-4. Although his ERA was a comparatively high 3.12, his WHIP was just 1.180. He had 11 complete games, 3 of them shutouts, a career-high 209 strikeouts, and went 243 consecutive innings without allowing a stolen base. From the establishment of the Cy Young Award in 1956 until 1966, it went to the best pitcher in both Leagues, and Whitey won it in 1961.
The Yankees hit 240 home runs, a record at the time, including a record 61 by Roger Maris and 54 by Mantle. In addition to Whitey's 25-4, Ralph Terry went 16-3, and reliever Luis Arroyo went 15-5 and set what was then a major league record with 29 saves. The Yankees won 109 games, finishing 8 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers, and won the Pennant.
Before the All-Star Game at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Whitey and Mickey were invited by the Game's host, Giants owner Horace Stoneham, to his country club. They made $1,200 in pro shop purchases. Stoneham found out, and agreed to pay their tab if Whitey could strike the Giants' Willie Mays out in the Game. Whitey threw a particularly nasty pitch past Willie for strike 3, and he walked off the mound laughing. Mickey walked off the field, also laughing. After the Game, Willie asked him, "What was all that about?" Whitey admitted, "I'm sorry, Willie, but I had to throw you a spitter." Nevertheless, Stoneham kept his word, and paid the tab.
The Yankees played the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series, and Whitey won Game 1. Before his Game 4 start, he was asked by the press about the record. He said, "What record?" They told him: In 1916 and 1918, Babe Ruth pitched 29 2/3rds consecutive scoreless innings, setting a record for Series play. Whitey said he didn't even know Ruth had been a pitcher. He only pitched 5 innings before leaving due to an ankle injury, but the record was his, as was the Series' Most Valuable Player award -- the Babe Ruth Award. The Yankees won the Series in Game 5.
In 1962, against the San Francisco Giants, he would extend it to 33 2/3rds innings, still a postseason record (Mariano Rivera came within 1 batter of tying it), and the Yankees made it back-to-back titles.
In 1963, he went 24-7, and finished 3rd in the AL MVP voting, the closest he ever came, behind Elston Howard, now his own catcher, and Detroit's Al Kaline. His Game 1 showdown with Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who was 25-5 and beat him out for the Cy Young Award, was one of the most-hyped World Series matchups ever. It was a mismatch: Whitey allowed 4 runs in the 2nd inning, and Koufax struck out 15 batters to set a new Series record. The Dodgers swept the Yankees in 4 straight.
Whitey went 17-6 in 1964, helping the Yankees to win their 5th straight Pennant, and their 11th with him on the roster. But, at age 35, his decline had begun. "I didn't begin cheating until late in my career," he later said, "when I needed something to help me survive. I didn't cheat when I won the 25 games in 1961. I don't want anybody to get any ideas and take my Cy Young Award away. And I didn't cheat in 1963 when I won 24 games. Well, maybe a little."
How did he cheat? He used the diamond in his wedding ring to cut the ball. Eventually, an umpire caught him, and warned him to stop. So Elston Howard came up with an alternative, sharpening a buckle on his shinguard, providing the same effect.
Whitey's shoulder bothered him through most of the '64 season. In Game 1 of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, he had nothing. His arm went numb, and he allowed 4 runs in the 6th inning, including a long home run by Mike Shannon. He left the game, and never appeared in the World Series again. His unavailability almost certainly cost the Yanks that Series, but a doctor told him there was a blood clot, and if he kept pitching, it could have gone to his lung, his heart, or his brain, and killed him.
The Dynasty collapsed in 1965, as pretty much everybody on the Yankees got hurt, or old, or both, at once. Whitey managed to go 16-13 for a team that finished 6th. He was just 2-5 in August 1966, when he finally got the shoulder operated on to relieve his circulatory problem. It didn't help, and on May 21, 1967, he pitched his last game, having gone 2-4 in just 7 appearances. He was 38 years old.
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Whitey Ford has never gotten the credit he deserves -- not during his career, when he was always overshadowed by Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Roger Maris; and not in the more than half a century since his retirement. Fans under the age of 60 have never seen him pitch, except in Old-Timers' Games. Fans whose memories begin with the Torre/Jeter/Rivera era haven't even seen him do that. They don't get just how good he was, or just how important he was.
He won 236 games, still a Yankee record, against just 106 losses. This gave him a winning percentage of .690. That makes him the leader among modern pitchers with at least 300 career decisions. The only pitchers ahead of him are Al Spalding, who went a whopping 262-65 for .795, but that was in the underhanded-pitching era; another Yankee, Spurgeon "Spud" Chandler, who went 109-43 for .717, but didn't debut in the major leagues until he was nearly 30; and Clayton Kershaw, current star of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who finished the 2020 season at 175-76, for .697, but is only 32 and has not yet begun to decline.
As I said, until 1960, manager Casey Stengel would sometimes move Whitey up or back in the rotation, to face a tougher team. This makes his .690 winning percentage even more amazing. In 1950, from his debut on July 1 to the end of the season, and from 1953 to his last game on May 21, 1967, the Yankees went 1,486-1,027, and 1,250-921 in games that he didn't pitch, for a percentage of .576.
This made Whitey 11.4 percent more likely to win than his team -- which, don't forget, had Hall-of-Famers Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra on it, as well as Phil Rizzuto early on, not to mention All-Stars such as Moose Skowron, Elston Howard, Roger Maris and Joe Pepitone, and fellow pitchers Allie Reynolds, Bob Turley and Ralph Terry.
Among retired starting pitchers from the post-1920 Lively Ball Era, Whitey is the leader with a 2.75 career ERA. Koufax is 2nd, at 2.76, and he retired at 31, due to having a similar circulatory issue to Whitey's, in his elbow, so he never had a decline. Throw in currently active pitchers, and, again, Kershaw is ahead of him, at 2.43, but, as I said, has not yet begun to decline, and could well end up behind Whitey. It's worth noting that, for a few years, Pedro Martinez was ahead of Whitey in both categories, but ended up at .687 and 2.93.
Whitey's career ERA+ was 133, meaning he was 33 percent better at preventing runs than the average pitcher of his era. His career WHIP was 1.215. Despite not having a blazing fastball, he struck out 1,956 batters, against 1,086 walks, for a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 1.80. He wasn't much of a hitter, batting only .173 lifetime, with 3 home runs and 69 runs batted in, but he was a good bunter, with 65 sacrifice hits.
Since the Yankees were in the World Series nearly every year from 1949 to 1964 (all but 1954 and 1959), Whitey was nearly always in it. He holds Series records for most starts (22), innings pitched (146 -- nearly a full season), batters faced (594), complete games (7), wins (10), losses (8), strikeouts (94) and walks (34).
Whitey once said, "You kind of took it for granted around the Yankees
that there was always going to be baseball in October."
Note the red, white & blue bunting, a World Series tradition.
Look at the lineups he faced from 1953 to 1962: The Brooklyn Dodgers of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider and Gil Hodges. The Milwaukee Braves of Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Joe Adcock. The Pittsburgh Pirates of Roberto Clemente and Dick Stuart. The Cincinnati Reds of Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson. The San Francisco Giants of Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda. He did this in ballparks with short fences in right field (the old Yankee Stadium Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Forbes Field in Pittsburgh), left field (Crosley Field in Cincinnati), notoriously bad infields (Forbes), or weird wind (Candlestick Park in San Francisco). And he still notched a World Series ERA of 2.71 -- not a record, but amazing.
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Whitey served as the Yankees' 1st base coach in 1968, and as pitching coach in the 1974 and '75 seasons. In 1974, he and Mantle were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame together. On August 3 of that year, his Number 16 was retired, making him the 1st Yankee pitcher so honored. "There's really only four numbers that should be retired" by the Yankees, he once said, "and mine's not one of them." He meant Babe Ruth's 3, Lou Gehrig's 4, Joe DiMaggio's 5 and Mickey Mantle's 7.
He was also 1 of the 1st 2 Yankee pitchers awarded a Plaque in Monument Park, honored along with Lefty Gomez on August 2, 1987. I was there for that ceremony.
Ford, Mantle and Maris had appeared in the 1962 film Safe at Home!, generally regarded as one of the worst baseball-themed movies ever made. In 1984, Ford and Mantle played themselves on an episode of the NBC mystery drama Remington Steele. In 1997, Whitey voiced a character based on himself on The Simpsons.
In 1998, rapper Erik Schrody, a Long Island native who used the stage names Everlast and Whitey Ford, titled an album Whitey Ford Sings the Blues. He later released albums titled Eat at Whitey's and Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford.
In 2002, Whitey opened Whitey Ford's Cafe next-door to the Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, Long Island. Like Mickey Mantle's Restaurant on Central Park South in Manhattan, it had a 1950s Yankees theme, complete with the waitstaff wearing Yankee jerseys with the respective player's number on the back. Around the same time, Mays opened a Willie Mays Chicken franchise.
Neither Ford's restaurant nor Mays' chain lasted long, and while Mantle's restaurant lasted a lot longer than his previous attempt, a chain named Mickey Mantle's Country Cookin', his New York restaurant only lasted a few years after his death in 1995.
As Mickey died, and so did Joe DiMaggio in 1999, and finally Yogi in 2015, Whitey became recognized as the greatest living ex-Yankee, and was eventually the oldest living player in the Hall of Fame. (Tommy Lasorda, elected as a manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers, is older.)
The title of "Greatest Living Yankee" was between him, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. The greatest pitcher in Yankee history? It's down to Whitey and Mo. Those of you who only knew Mo, it shouldn't only tell you how great Whitey was to be fairly compared with Mo. It should tell you how great Mo was to be fairly compared with Whitey.
Four Yankee pitching legends. Left to right:
Ron Guidry, Whitey Ford, Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia.
Photo taken at the Yogi Berra Museum in Little Falls, New Jersey.
He was a fixture on Old-Timers' Day, and was one of the players honored before the last game at the old Yankee Stadium in 2008. But in his last couple of Old-Timers' Day appearances, at the new Yankee Stadium, it looked to me like something was wrong. On TV, it looked like he didn't understand what was happening. He seemed to be thinking, "They told me they were taking me to Yankee Stadium. This isn't Yankee Stadium. It's got the facade on the roof like it used to have, but it hasn't had that in years. I don't understand... "
I was at Old-Timers' Day in 2019, and he did not attend. My sister was with me, and I told her that's usually a bad sign: Even Don Larsen, perfect game hero of the 1956 World Series, who was 90 years old, in a wheelchair, and, as it turned out, died a few months later, attended. But Whitey didn't.
Whitey Ford died last night, October 8, 2020, at his home in Lake Success, Long Island, 12 days short of his 92nd birthday. No cause has yet been publicly announced, but the New York Daily News has confirmed that he had "a long battle with dementia." He and Joan had been married for 69 years. He was predeceased by his son Tommy.
The Yankees' Twitter feed: The Yankees are incredibly saddened to learn of the passing of Hall of Famer Whitey Ford. Whitey spent his entire 16-year career as a Yankee. A 6x WS Champion and 10x All-Star, The Chairman of the Board was one of the best lefties to ever toe the rubber. He will be deeply missed.
The Yogi Berra Museum: We are devastated to hear of the great Whitey Ford’s passing. One of Yogi’s closest companions, Whitey was so incredibly kind and caring, beyond being a legendary pitcher. This loss is immense. Here’s to you, the Chairman of the Board. We love you.
Jim Palmer, Hall of Fame pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, now a broadcaster for them: Today I was asked who’s my fav pitcher of all time.I’ve never been asked! It’s Whitey Ford. What an honor to call him my friend.
Richard Neer, legendary classic rock disc jockey on the now-defunct, WNEW-FM, now with a talk show on all-sports WFAN: Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson and now Whitey Ford. We've lost three of the greatest pitchers of baseball's golden age. I'd interviewed Whitey several times and he was always a wonderful gentleman with a host of great recollections. 2020 just gets worse and worse.
With Whitey's death, 3rd baseman Bobby Brown, scheduled to turn 96 this month, is now, as he is for 1947, 1949 and 1951 (when Whitey was in the service), the last surviving member of the Yankees' 1950 World Series winners. Brown was in the service in 1953, so the last survivor of that year's Yankee title team is 96-year-old pitcher Art Schallock. Brown and Schallock are the last 2 living former teammates of Joe DiMaggio.
From the 1956 title team, there are 4 left: Pitcher Ralph Terry, 2nd baseman Bobby Richardson, backup shortstop Billy Hunter, and outfielder Lou Skizas, who played just 6 games.
From the 1958 title team, there are 5: Richardson, shortstop Tony Kubek, and pitchers Bobby Shantz, Art Ditmar and Zach Monroe. Terry had been traded away, but would be reacquired.
From the 1961 title team, there are 8: Richardson, Kubek, Terry, outfielders Hector Lopez and Jack Reed, infielder Billy Gardner, and pitchers Rollie Sheldon and Bud Daley.
From the 1962 title team, there are 9: Richardson, Kubek, Terry, Lopez, Reed, Sheldon, Daley, catcher Jake Gibbs, and rookie 1st baseman Joe Pepitone. Today is Peptione's 80th birthday: He was born on the exact same day as Jerry McMorris, the founding owner of the Colorado Rockies, and Beatle John Lennon.
There are 17 living former Yankees who played under Casey Stengel: Brown, Schallock, Richardson, Hunter, Terry, Skizas, Shantz, Kubek, Ditmar, Monroe, Lopez, outfielder Gordie Windhorn, and pitchers Gary Blaylock, Jim Bronstad, Fred Kipp, Hal Stowe and Johnny James.
And there are 13 living people honored in Monuent Park at Yankee Stadium: Ron Guidry, Willie Randolph, Reggie Jackson, Goose Gossage, Don Mattingly, Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Tino Martinez and Joe Torre.
Whitey's death comes only a few days after that of Tom Seaver. Those two, plus old-time Giants Christy Mathewson and Carl Hubbell, lead me to paraphrase an old song:
If you believe in forever
then life is a momentary station.
If there's a New York Baseball Heaven
well, you know they got a hell of a rotation.
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