DATE: 1951-67 ORIGINAL or REPRINT: Original - Printed from the original negative in the time period in which it was shot SUBJECT: Ralph Kiner APPROXIMATE SIZE: 7"x4" to 8-1/2"x7-1/2" MARKS / STAMPING: Last 2 photos are Type 3 news wire photos. NUMBER OF PHOTOS: 5 COMMENTS / CONDITION: This is one of a large accumulation of vintage sports photographs, slides and negatives that we will be listing over the coming months. Wear on these, if any, is mostly confined to minor corner and edge wear, but see scans for further details including condition. We do not deal in stock images or modern reprints, and all scans shown are of the actual vintage photograph, slide or negative being sold. If you have any questions about a particular piece, please ask before the auction ends. BIO: Ralph McPherran Kiner was born in 1922 in Santa Rita, NM and died in 2014 in Rancho Mirage, CA. He played major league baseball from 1946 to 1955 as outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, and a single season with the Cleveland Indians, was selected 6 times as an All-Star, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975. Many of Kiner's homers were hit into a shortened left-field and left-center-field porch at Forbes Field, originally built for Hank Greenberg, and known in the press as "Greenberg Gardens"; the porch was retained for Kiner and redubbed by the media as "Kiner's Korner".(Lost Ballparks, Lawrence Ritter, Penguin Books, 1992, p.66-67) Kiner would later use "Kiner's Korner" as the title of his post-game TV show in New York. A quote variously attributed to Kiner himself, as well as to teammates talking about Kiner, was "Home run hitters drive Cadillacs and singles hitters drive Fords." Footage of Kiner hitting a homer in Forbes Field can be seen in the 1951 film, Angels in the Outfield. In 1961, Kiner made his way into the broadcast booth with the Chicago White Sox. The next year, Kiner, along with Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy, started announcing the games of the expansion New York Mets on WOR-TV in New York. The trio rotated announcing duties on the Mets' radio broadcasts, as well. Among Kiner's jobs on WOR-TV was to host a post-game show known as "Kiner's Korner". Despite a bout with Bell's palsy, which left him with slightly slurred speech, Kiner is still broadcasting, entering his 46th year of doing Mets broadcasts as of the start of the 2008 baseball season, though only as an occasionally guest analyst. He is the only broadcaster to survive all of the Mets history. Kiner's traditional home run call -- "it is gone, goodbye" or "that ball is gone, goodbye" -- is a signature phrase in baseball. SKU: XP12010
Item: XP12010
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