DATE: 1950 ORIGINAL or REPRINT: Type 2 Original - Printed from the original negative, but in a later period TEAM: New York Yankees SUBJECTS: Whitey Ford, Eddie Waitkus APPROXIMATE SIZE: 5"x7" NUMBER OF PHOTOS: 1 COMMENTS / CONDITION: Offered is an approx. 5''x7'' photo of Whitey Ford and Eddie Waitkus in the 1950 World Series. It is not clear when the photo was produced, but it is on a modern glossy photo stock. Comes from the archives of either The Sporting News or Sport Magazine. See scans for further details, including condition. BIO: Edward Charles Ford (The Chairman of the Board and Slick) was born in 1928 in New York, NY and died in 2020 in Lake Success, NY. He played major league baseball from 1950 to 1967 as pitcher for the New York Yankees, appeared in the 1950, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964 World Series, was selected 8 times as an All-Star, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. He was voted the AL Rookie of the Year in 1950 by The Sporting News, and won the Cy Young Award in 1961. After his career ended, Ford admitted to occasionally cheating by doctoring baseballs in various ways, such as the "mudball," which could only be used at home in Yankee Stadium: Yankee groundskeepers would wet down an area near the catcher's box where Yankee catcher Elston Howard was positioned; pretending to lose balance on a pitch while in his crouch and landing on his right hand (with the ball in it), Howard would coat one side of the ball with mud. Ford would sometimes use the diamond in his wedding ring to gouge the ball, but he was eventually caught by an umpire and warned to stop; Howard then sharpened a buckle on his shinguard and used it to scuff the ball. In 1977, Ford was part of the broadcast team for the first game in Toronto Blue Jays history. In 1999, Ford ranked 52nd on The Sporting News list of Baseball's Greatest Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2003, Ford was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame. In 2002, Ford opened up "Whitey Ford's Cafe," a sports-themed restaurant and bar next to Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, New York. It lasted less than a year before it closed down. In Slick: My Life In And Around Baseball, Ford wrote "I didn't begin cheating until late in my career, when I needed something to help me survive. I didn't cheat when I won the twenty-five games in 1961. I don't want anybody to get any ideas and take my Cy Young Award away. And I didn't cheat in 1963 when I won twenty-four games. Well, maybe a little." Edward Stephen Waitkus was born in 1919 in Cambridge, MA and died in 1972 in Jamaica Plain, MA. He played major league baseball from 1941 to 1955 as 1st baseman for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies and the Baltimore Orioles, appeared in the 1950 World Series, and was selected in 1948 and 1949 as an All-Star. Waitkus got off to a hot start in 1949, hitting .305. However, on June 14th of that year, he was shot with a .22 caliber rifle in a Chicago, IL hotel by Ruth Ann Steinhagen, an obsessed teenage fan. After several operations to remove the bullet, he amazingly returned to baseball and was a key member of the Phillies' 1950 "Whiz Kids" team. Later in life, he worked summers at the Ted Williams baseball camp. Waitkus would serve as the inspiration for the Roy Hobbs character in "The Natural" and as such is an enduring legacy in Baseball history. SKU: L06375
Item: L06375
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