DATE: 1951 ORIGINAL or REPRINT: Type 3 - Second or later-generation photo, printed from a duplicate negative or wire photo process, within about 2 years of when it was shot TEAM: Pittsburgh Pirates SUBJECTS: Ralph Kiner, Billy Meyer ISSUER: Associated Press APPROXIMATE SIZE: 7"x9" NUMBER OF PHOTOS: 1 COMMENTS / CONDITION: This is one of a number of photos to be offered which hail from the personal collection of All-Star player and manager Eddie Stanky. 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. William Adam Meyer was born in 1893 in Knoxville, TN and died in 1957 in Knoxville, TN of a heart attack at the age of 65. He played major league baseball from 1913 to 1917 as catcher for the Chicago White Sox and the Philadelphia Athletics. A catcher who spent most of his playing career in the minor leagues, Meyer broke into the majors with the 1913 Chicago White Sox, but played only one game. Three years later, in 1916, he returned to the American League with the Philadelphia Athletics. Despite his association with these debacles, Meyer was a highly respected figure in baseball. He spent a dozen years (1936-47) as the manager of top farm clubs for the New York Yankees — Oakland of the Pacific Coast League, Kansas City of the American Association, and Newark of the International League, winning four league championships. Unfortunately for Meyer, the skipper of the Yankees for most of that time was the legendary Joe McCarthy (ironically, a close friend of Meyer's), and he was never called to manage the big club. In 19 seasons as a minor league skipper, Meyer's clubs won 1,605 and lost 1,325 (.548). After his 1939 Kansas City club won 107 games, Meyer was named Minor League Manager of the Year by The Sporting News. After being passed over as McCarthy's successor three times in 1946-47 (in favor of Bill Dickey, Johnny Neun and Bucky Harris), Meyer was offered the managing job with the last-place Pirates. In his first year, Pittsburgh rose to fourth place in the 1948 National League standings, improving by 21 games to a record of 83-71. The Sporting News named him Major League Manager of the Year. Meyer remained in Pittsburgh, but the Pirates—despite the home run heroics of Ralph Kiner—quickly plummeted back to the bottom of the NL standings. By 1950, they were back in the cellar, and legendary executive Branch Rickey became Pittsburgh's general manager. His solution was to purge the team of high-salaried veterans and bring up young players from the minors. The tactic had worked for Rickey with the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers, but backfired disastrously in Pittsburgh, since most of the youngsters he called up were not ready for the majors. They managed to improve to seventh in 1951, but by 1952, the team hit its nadir, losing 112 games. Meyer was replaced by Fred Haney at the end of that campaign. Despite a managing record of 317-452 (.412) over five seasons, all with Pittsburgh, and a career batting average of only .236 (with one home run and 21 runs batted in), Meyer was given two significant honors, a measure of how widely respected he was. For years the baseball park in his native city of Knoxville, Tennessee, was named Bill Meyer Stadium. And the Pirates retired Meyer's uniform number (1), despite that horrible 1952 campaign. SKU: XP12423
Item: XP12423
|