J. David Herman - Almost Yankees: The Summer of 81 and the Greatest Baseball Team Youve Never Heard of

Columbus discovered America. David Herman discovered Columbus. What Herman, a great explorer in his own right, found was a cherished boyhood filled with baseball. Heroes. Homers. Memories. Its pure Americana. Herman takes us back in time and lets us share in his life-changing summer. Itll make you feel good.

Dan Raley, author of Pitchers of Beer: The Story of the Seattle Rainiers

I was there, in Columbus working at Franklin County Stadium during the summer of 1981. Reading J. David Hermans Almost Yankees is like sitting with an old friend, going over old times, and telling stories of a time when baseball was still a game, the summer full of magic, and each of us, in our own way, still dreamed of making the major leagues. Almost Yankees is a book for anyone who has ever fallen in love with baseball.

Glenn Stout, author of Young Woman and the Sea and series editor of The Best American Sports Writing

Almost Yankees is amazing. Thanks to J. David Herman for reminding me of one of the greatest years of my life in baseball through his words and stories in this book.

Rick Rizzs, radio voice of the 81 Columbus Clippers and longtime Seattle Mariners broadcaster

J. David Herman

University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln

2019 by J. David Herman

Lyrics to Hey Canaries, by Frank and Pauline Verdi and Hometown Heroes and Ring Your Bell by the Columbus Clippers are printed with permission.

Cover designed by University of Nebraska Press; cover image: baseball cards Columbus Clippers.

Author photo Mike Hipple.

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Herman, J. David, author.

Title: Almost Yankees: the summer of 81 and the greatest baseball team youve never heard of / J. David Herman.

Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018038915

ISBN 9781496208897 (cloth: alk. paper)

ISBN 9781496215369 (epub)

ISBN 9781496215376 (mobi)

ISBN 9781496215383 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH : Columbus Clippers (Baseball team)History20th century. | New York Yankees (Baseball team)History20th century. | Baseball teamsOhioColumbusHistory20th century. | Baseball teamsNew York (State)New YorkHistory20th century. | Baseball playersOhioColumbusBiography. | Baseball team ownersOhioColumbusBiography.

Classification: LCC GV 875. C 83 H 47 2019 | DDC 796.35709771/57dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038915

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

For my dad, and for his dad, whom I never had a chance to know

Columbus Clippers are the best team around

Theyll outhustle any team thats in town

Whoever they are playin had better watch out

Land ho Columbus! Were the best without a doubt

The Clippers, Columbus Clippers

The Clippers are

Our hometown heroes

The Clippers, Columbus Clippers

The Clippers are

Our hometown heroes

From Hometown Heroes, one of two Columbus Clippers fight songs played at Franklin County Stadium in 1981 (Courtesy of the Columbus Clippers)

My dad has been gone for several years now, but I can still hear his voice, rising above a chorus of others, urging the ball to clear the right-field wall.

Its June 12, 1981. Major League Baseball stadiums across the country are dark and empty tonight. For the first time in the history of professional sports, a labor strike has halted an entire season in midstream, with no end in sight. The players association, unwilling to cede ground to team owners in matters involving free agency and soaring salaries, walked away from negotiations early this morning. Fans face a summer with no baseball. At least no Major League Baseball.

At Chicagos Wrigley Field, midmorning arrived with flags flying atop the scoreboard as if nothing had changed, but the Cubs game against the San Diego Padres was the first contest canceled. A busload of disappointed Padres fans angled to at least get a tour of the stadium. Organist John Henzl performed for a half hour before learning that no one was coming. Sunshine gave way to a threat of rain, and tarps now cover the infield dirt, batters box, and pitchers mound in the vacant stadium. Fans on Chicagos North Side, already long-suffering, are once again cursing their misfortune. After a horrid start even for them, the Cubs had perked up enough to win five of their last six. The strike snuffed out any rekindled optimism.

Players scattered. Groups of New York Yankees, denied access to the team bus in the wee hours this morning, hitched rides on the streets of Chicagos South Side. Hours later in Milwaukee, Brewers pitcher Mike Caldwell pulled a 16-gauge shotgun from his locker in the teams clubhouse and started cleaning it, intending to fill at least part of his summer going after pheasants instead of hitters. On the road for a series in California, Red Sox star Carl Yastrzemski made plans to go fishing and watch his son play in the Cape Cod League. Back in Boston, outside Fenway Park, John Picardi, a young souvenir salesman, stood in his empty shop, played solitaire, and wondered how hed afford to pay for tuition in the fall.

The Baltimore Orioles are the farthest from home of any Major League team. Tonight theyre opening their own wallets for lodging in Seattle. A handful of Kansas City Royals are spending the evening at Detroits Joe Louis Arena, watching Larry Holmes knock out Leon Spinks. Down along the Gulf Coast, any Houston Astros fans tuning in to hear Gene Elston and Dewayne Staats on KENR radio cant find them. The announcers are busy preparing to fill the airwaves tomorrow night with a historic recreation of the teams first-ever game in 1962.

Major League Baseball is over. For the moment, at least.

The reserve clause that bound a player to a team for life has been dead five years now. With players able to sign with the highest bidder, salaries have exploded. Owners with the deepest pockets, who embraced this new era, have benefited, some playing the new game better than others. George Steinbrenner, the capricious king of the New York Yankees, parlayed the biggest free agent signings into World Series titles in 77 and 78, and a 103-win regular season in 1980 before a loss to Kansas City in the American League Championship Series increased his mania.

Most owners though, Steinbrenner included, have had enough. Tired of losing control over player movement and salaries, theyre demanding that every time one of their star players signs with another team, they receive a high-value player in return. Their desire to thwart the free agent market isnt lost on the players. Ownership has underestimated their resolve and, this time, both sides are determined not to give in.

And so the season has stopped cold, with Philadelphias Pete Rose just one hit from the all-time National League record, Fernandomania sweeping through Los Angeles, and Steinbrenners increasingly harried Yankees among the teams sitting atop what will come to be known as the first-half standings. Before its over, the strike will wipe out more than seven hundred contests and change the game forever.

Yet in Minor League cities such as Columbus, Ohio, there will be baseball through the rest of the spring and summer. The Columbus Clippers, the top Minor League affiliate of Steinbrenners Yankees, stocked with an unusual blend of experience, talent, and potential for a Triple-A team, are in the midst of a blitzkrieg against the rest of the Triple-A International League. The IL is strong this season, with Cal Ripken Jr. (Rochester), Wade Boggs (Pawtucket), Brett Butler (Richmond), and Von Hayes (Charleston) among its rising stars. But for the next two months at least, the ClippersKing Georges super-talented collection of spare partswill be the greatest baseball team on the planet.