Wednesday, April 13, 1927

Opening Day: The Fire Party

After the Yankees celebrate an 8–3 Opening Day victory over the Athletics, New York’s tallest hotel catches fire, and a crowd of 50,000 gathers to watch it burn all night. Myles and his society friends attend a wild party across the street in the Plaza Hotel.

Thursday, April 14, 1927

Memories of 1926: Babe Ruth’s Biggest Blunder

Myles describes incredible circumstances in which Babe Ruth and the Yankees lost the 1926 World Series in 7 games to Grover Cleveland and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Friday, April 15, 1927

Sailor Bob and The Tiger Lady

Myles tells the story of fellow pitcher Sailor Bob Shawkey’s disastrous marriage to Philadelphia’s infamous “Tiger Lady” and Sailor Bob’s World War I naval career.

Monday, April 18, 1927

The Weekend

Over a weekend of baseball and booze, Myles introduces us to Duke Ellington, Barbara Stanwyck, Texas Guinan, a selection of gangsters and the illegal vagaries of Prohibition in New York in 1927.

Wednesday, April 20, 1927

What’s Babe Ruth Like?

If you’re a New York Yankee, there’s one question everyone is guaranteed to ask you. And Myles tries to answer it.

Friday, April 22, 1927

Jumpin’ Joe Dugan

Philadelphia fans were vicious even in the 1920s, as Joe Dugan found out at a very young age.

Monday, April 25, 1927

Lou Gehrig: A Terrible Loneliness

Lou Gehrig seems to just be a shy young man. But Myles sees a side of him that no one else does.

Wednesday, April 27, 1927

Hoyt The Mortician

Waite Hoyt is called the “Merry Mortician” The New York Times writer John Kieran tagged him with the name, and not just because Hoyt buries people from the mound. Hoyt’™s actually a mortician. Or, at least, apprenticing to be one.

Thursday, April 28, 1927

Lou, What Do You Think?

Ruth and Gehrig are always bridge partners, though they are a rather odd couple.

Monday, May 2, 1927

Urban and Eddie

I admire Urban Shocker more than any man I’ve ever met. But I promised Urban and Miller Huggins, and Eddie Bennett, that I won’t tell anybody why.

Wednesday, May 4, 1927

The Yankees Steal Babe Ruth’s Mail

The Babe gets two hundred letters a week. Most of his mail he tosses to the ball boys. Without exception he keeps all the letters from his female admirers.

Thursday, May 5, 1927

Out of the Coal Mine

Dutch Ruether is having a helluva start to the season: 3–0 with an ERA of 1.59. “I’m 33 but I’m feelin’ 27,” he boasted to Benny and me in the locker room.

Monday, May 9, 1927

‘Pops’ and the Babe

What makes “Pops” Armstrong so special? It’s not just his power — he’s as powerful with a trumpet as the Babe is with a bat. It’s his style.

Wednesday, May 11, 1927

Andrew Rube Foster and the Ride to Kankakee

Foster was the commissioner of the first Negro League, and by far the most important person in black baseball.

Friday, May 13, 1927

Reading and Writing Ruth’s Mail

Schoolboy Hoyt is not the only Yankee who reads Ruth’s mail. It’s a tradition that goes back to Ruth’s first season with the Yankees in 1920, when he hit 54 home runs.

Monday, May 16, 1927

Miller Huggins’s Yankees

Nobody liked Miller Huggins much his first half dozen years as manager in New York, despite his winning three pennants in a row and one World Series.

Tuesday, May 17, 1927

Five O’Clock Lightning

Schoolboy Hoyt came up with the phrase. All our games begin at 3:30 and it seems like all of our late-inning rallies happen right around five o’clock, give or take 15 minutes.

Tuesday, May 24, 1927: Washington, D.C.

You Can’t Get Pissed Off At Ruth. (But You Can Get Pissed Off At Koenig.)

He makes his mistakes at times, but it’s still really hard to get mad at the man-child that is Babe Ruth. But when Mark Koenig makes an error (which is often), Myles fumes.

Friday, May 27, 1927: New York City

The Flood. The General. And Sam Rice’s Secret.

In one of his more somber entries, Myles writes about the ongoing flooding of the Mississippi Valley. Later, while having drinks with General Crowder, an old baseball friend, Myles learns of the tragic past of a Senators’ outfielder, Sam Rice.

Monday, May 30, 1927

Three Points of View

Myles offers a few different perspectives of his relief outing against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

Tuesday, May 31, 1927

Sex in the City

Schoolboy Hoyt is from Brooklyn. Gehrig’s from Manhattan. The Babe is from Baltimore. Most players on the team are from small towns. None of them long to leave New York City. (starts at 2:25)

Thursday, June 2, 1927

Hooded Baseball

The train ride from Philadelphia to New York is long enough to have a slow drink, a leisurely dinner, and a couple of hands of gin before we pull into Pennsylvania station.

Monday, June 6, 1927

Bowling on Long Island: Nine Pins to Eight

Hoyt called me at 9 a.m., and asked if Steven and I wanted to go to Long Island to a party Saturday night hosted by Harry Frazee, the man who sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

Tuesday, June 7, 1927

Relief

The pitcher everyone is talking about is Wilcy “Cy” Moore, a 30-year-old rookie. Ed Barrow, our business manager and scout found Cy late last year reading the Sporting News.

Wednesday, June 8, 1927

A Walk Through Central Park

While traveling between games in Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland and Detroit, we take detours to other cities and play exhibition games that make more money for the team, and the Babe.

Friday, June 10, 1927

Henry Ford Blames the Jews

Chicago’s been a train wreck since 1921 when Commissioner Landis banned eight of the Black Sox for life for throwing the 1919 World Series.

Monday, June 13, 1927

The Best Seat in the House

It’s 80-degrees an hour before the game. Yankee Stadium is half full, a sea of straw hats dotted by fresh face women, their blouses unbuttoned one more button than last week.

Wednesday, June 15, 1927

Waiting For The Trade

Apparently, I’m the only person not aware the Yankees have been talking with the Red Sox about trading Mark Koenig and me for the Sox’s 23-year-old shortstop Buddy Myer.

Thursday, June 16, 1927

Unwanted

Back in ’24 Congress tried to pass a constitutional amendment banning child labor. Right in front of me now is proof that it was never ratified.

Friday, June 17, 1927

The Appearance of Control

There are a pack of writers covering the team this year, with probably a dozen of them regularly traveling with us.

Monday, June 20, 1927

Every Day

Hugg hands me the ball for my third start of the season, this one against the St. Louis Browns, a lousy club whose official team motto should be, “Thank God for the Red Sox.”

Wednesday, June 22, 1927

Sol White

“Myles Thomas, I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Sol White.” Sol was a ball player, Myles. One of the great ones.

Thursday, June 23, 1927

Can You Do The Math On That?

Yesterday was Tony Lazzeri Day in Boston. That’s right, the Red Sox held a day in honor of a Yankee. A Tony Lazzeri Day is a way for Boston to satisfy their Italian fans.

Friday, June 24, 1927

“DEVO PISCIARE!”

A drunk Tony Lazzeri shows up at the Yankees’ hotel, and he really has to take a piss.

Monday, June 27, 1927

Coney Island

We could smell the night’s salt air coming off the water as drove along Ocean Parkway towards the beach and towards the light.

Wednesday, June 29, 1927

Saving Shocker’s Game

Urban Shocker may be dying, but on the mound he’s thriving. No matter how much time on earth Shockers has left, he’s going to take down as many batters as he possibly can.

Friday, July 1, 1927

The Worst Inning of My Life

Miller Huggins handed me the ball Thursday afternoon for a start against the worst team in the league, the Boston Red Sox. The Sox were 15–50 and falling fast.

Monday, July 4, 1927

Big Bill Dinneen Doesn’t Appreciate Me

The last thing I need is for Big Bill to see how upset his calls are making me. No one wants to upset Big Bill.

Wednesday, July 6, 1927

July 4. And the Center of the Universe

We sent the Washington Senators packing yesterday, stripped of any delusions of grandeur they might have had that 1927 could be anything like 1924 or 1925.

Friday, July 8, 1927

Not the Center of the Universe.

Myles is adrift.

Monday, July 11, 1927

Dreams and Detroit

The doctor who looked at the Hoyt’s X-rays determined there was no ligament tear, nor anything else that they could see.

Monday Night, July 11, 1927: On the Train from Detroit to Cleveland

Fork Me

Schoolboy Hoyt’s return to the mound last week in New York lasted all of three pitches before his arm gave out. Today’s start against the Tigers had a similar feel.

Thursday, July 14, 1927

The Kid.

After reading Henry Ford’s disingenuous apology to the Semitic people, Myles spends an off-day in Cleveland, Ohio. He enjoys all the city has to offer, including a vibrant jazz scene featuring an up-and-coming clarinetist named Artie Shaw.

Saturday, July 16, 1927

Still Constipated

Friday, the chronically constipated Schoolboy Hoyt started our last game in Cleveland. His arm’s killing him, and he still lasted four innings before he was sent to the pen.

Monday, July 18, 1927

Eels and Inventions

Everyone’s feeling the heat, even Gehrig. Since the second game of the Detroit series, he’s barely batting .300. As of Saturday he only had one home run in his past 10 games.

Tuesday, July 19, 1927

Cabbage and Ribs

Babe Ruth loves food in all its forms. He eats as much as he can, but Myles learns that also uses food to keep cool during the dog days of summer. Babe also serves the Yankees one of his favorite foods: ribs.

Wednesday Night, July 20, 1927

Heat Waves and Summer Nights

Night’s at the House of the Good Shepherd, Ruth’s favorite brothel, are full of sweat, and short on sleep, same as nights at the Buckingham Hotel in July and August.

Sunday, July 24, 1927

Dinner with Snorky

Earlier today the Yankees announced that “Tony Lazzeri Day” will be held on September 6th. Mayor Walker proclaimed it will be a half-day holiday for all Italian New Yorkers.

Wednesday, July 27, 1927

Ben Paschal Can’t Sleep

We’re on the road for half the season and life with a roommate will have its ups and downs. I found out Ben Paschal is have a tough time with his roommate, Little Julie Wera.

Friday, July 29, 1927

“Cheating. Plain and Simple.”

Schoolboy’s arm seems to have mended. He had his second strong outing in a row this week-a complete game victory over the St. Louis Browns. And this one was without pain.

Saturday, July 30, 1927

The MVP: George Burns

Yesterday I pitched one inning, the ninth, in a game we lost to the Indians. Only 7,000 showed up at the Stadium. They did miss me getting out last year’s MVP, George Burns.

Monday, August 1, 1927

Benny’s Back

Thanks to the summer heat loosening up his dead arm, Benny Bengough makes his first start of the season behind home plate in a game against the bottom-dwelling Cleveland Indians. (starts at 1:50)

Wednesday, August 3, 1927

The Babe And His Pal Bix

The Babe has been practicing a lot lately. During batting practice he spent 10 minutes hitting to the opposite field. Off the field he’s practicing the saxophone.

Friday, August 5, 1927

Sacco And Vanzetti (And Me)

For the last two days the newspapers stories are all about the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti- ever since the Governor of Massachusetts announced he will not pardon them.

Monday, August 8, 1927

Benny and Berg

The Yankees meet the White Sox in the Bronx, where Schoolboy Hoyt gets to match up against his multi-lingual catching foe, Moe Berg. Benny continues to solidify his role as an important cog on the Yanks’ squad. (starts at 2:05)

Wednesday, August 10, 1927

Terror in New York — Sacco and Vanzetti

There are police everywhere. Bombs are exploding in the New York subways … in a church in Philadelphia … in the mayor’s house in Baltimore … and everybody is on edge.

Monday, August 15, 1927

You Can Say That Again, Hamlet

Pants Rowland has had a colorful career in baseball. After a managerial stint with the White Sox, Pants is now an umpire, and a lousy one at that. Few men calling a game can cause a full blown riot, but Pants finds a way.

Tuesday, August 16, 1927

Hey Rooms

Benny and I get back to the hotel just before midnight, having done our share of drinking while checking out Joe E. Lewis’s comedy act at Capone’s Green Mill Lounge.

Friday, August 19, 1927

Mr. Capone. A Pleasure to See You Again

We won our third straight against the White Sox today, 5–4 in 12 innings, with Wilcy Moore getting the win after relieving Shocker in the ninth.

Saturday, August 20, 1927

Where Am I?

Since Capone left his office, I’ve been staring at his pile of newspapers with Steven and Rothstein’s advertisement promising to make millionaires out of peasants.

Wednesday, August 24, 1927

Every Day I’m Getting Better and Better

I woke up from a restless night with thoughts of Al Capone, Arnold Rothstein and Steven to hear those words being chanted in my room at the Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit.

Friday, August 26, 1927

Lazzeri Bets Against The Yankees

Little Julie Wera, our self-pleasuring utility infielder, is a mathematical savant. He never made it high school but his head seems to be filled with numbers.

Monday, September 5, 1927

Stanwyck Is A Star

The second game against the Red Sox was rained out, so we left the city early Thursday afternoon. So Schoolboy and I missed the opening night of Stanwyck’s play, “Burlesque”.

Wednesday, September 7, 1927

Buddy The Jew …?

Well it took a couple of months, but my pal Buddy Myer finally spilled the beans on why he was traded from the Senators to the Red Sox last May.

Monday, September 12, 1927

Feeling Sick

The road trip came to an end when our train crept into Penn Station after midnight Thursday. The station is normally quiet at that hour, but it felt especially empty tonight.