Word: bauer
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When it came to crunching into the stadium wall after a fly ball, sliding on a raw strawberry to bulldoze a double play, or just plain terrifying the opposition, Bauer was the man. His strength was the talk of the league: in a playful scuffle one day, he popped a friend on the chest-and sent him to the hospital with a broken rib. His base running was murderous: "When Hank came down that base path," shudders ex-Boston Shortstop Johnny Pesky, "the whole earth trembled." His will to win was awesome. "It's no fun playing...
...close enough to tip it with his bare hand -and flip it right into Mickey Mantle's glove. Hank crashed into the Scoreboard, bounced off and trotted back to right-field." Then there was the last game of the 1951 World Series, against the New York Giants. Bauer had put the Yankees ahead with a bases-loaded triple. But the Giants rallied in the ninth inning. Two men were on, two were out, and the score was 4-3 when the Giants sent up Sal Yvars as a pinch hitter. Yvars blooped a sinking liner into rightfield. The sensible...
...Drink. On or off the field, his value to the Yankees was priceless. "Bauer taught me how to dress, how to talk-and how to drink," says Mickey Mantle, remembering how he arrived from Commerce, Okla., wearing a straw hat and carrying a $4 cardboard suitcase. "I'll never forget the first game I pitched for the Yankees," says Whitey Ford. "I came flying into the locker room at 1 p.m. I had overslept. Nobody said anything, but Bauer gave me that look of his. I dressed and ran. As it turned out, I won the game. Afterward, Bauer...
There were bad moments too. There was, for instance, the celebrated "Copacabana incident" in 1957. A Bronx delicatessen owner sued Bauer for $250,000, claiming that Hank had punched him and broken his jaw. That was silly; a Bauer punch would have broken him into little pieces. But Hank was still hauled off to a police station, photographed, fingerprinted and booked-"just like a criminal." Partly on the strength of Yogi Berra's now-classic testimony-"Nobody never hit nobody nohow"-a Manhattan grand jury cleared Bauer of the charge. Another sore point: the cavalier way the Yankees traded...
...that sadly depressing trade proved to be the biggest break of Bauer's career. After a so-so 1960 season (.275 average, three homers), the aging outfielder was summoned to a meeting with Kansas City Owner Charles O. Finley and General Manager Frank Lane. "How would you like to manage one of our minor-league farm clubs?" asked Lane. Replied Bauer: "I'd like a shot at managing, but I don't think I'm interested in going back to the minors." Announced Finley: "Well, then, you're the new manager of the Kansas City...