Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfsong
Lazzeri was a Cub around 38-39ish. (Poor guy, they were 30 years into their slump by then). He did actually play with the Cubs in the World Series....against the Yankees in '38. They lost. An old, classic Yankee, played with both Ruth and Gehrig. Tony once said them;
"They didn't get along. Gehrig thought Ruth was a big-mouth and Ruth thought Gehrig was cheap. They were both right." - Tony Lazzeri
He was a good ballplayer. What made him your favorite all time?
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Yes, Lazzeri went to the Cubs in 1938 - it was his only season there. He then went to the Dodgers, New York Giants and ended up in Toronto.
Why is Lazzeri my favourite plaver? It's strange but I'm not really a baseball fan in that it's not my sport. However, I love imagery of the Yankees of the 1920s and 1930s. I collect original Yankees photos from this period and have one of the best collections that exists.
Why do I like Lazzeri? Well, he wasn't as popular as Ruth or Gehrig but a damn good player. Also, I like his being Italian at a time when it wasn't always easy to be high profile and successful as a non-WASP.
However, above all, Lazzeri is my favourite player because he was so photogenic. I have photos of Lazzeri from his first days at the Yankees in 1926 and chart his career through the Yankees. What I find most interesting is that he had such a warm, alluring smile but that seemed to go after he left the Yankees. I've five or six photos of Lazzeri at the Cubs in 1938 but he's not smiling in any of these, same with photos of him at the Dodgers and Giants.
I recently purchased the original negative of a Lazzeri photo taken in the summer of 1946. In this, he was wearing a Yankees shirt as he was at a baseball summer school in San Francisco. He was found dead weeks later. I'm not certain but think that this is probably the last ever photo of him pictured in a Yankees jersey.