"SCOUTING LOU GEHRIG" and "PATRICK'S BIG NIGHT"
#982/#981
982. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY VS NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
APRIL 28, 1923
SOUTH FIELD
QUALITY OF PLAY
6.87
DRAMA
5.35
STAR POWER
9.48
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT
5.55
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
8.65
LOCAL IMPACT
6.02
TOTAL: 41.92
“SCOUTING LOU GEHRIG”
Andy Coakley knew from talent. A 20-game winner with the 1905 Philadelphia A’s, Coakley pitched in the World Series that year against the great Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants (he lost 9-0). Shortly after his pro career ended in 1911, Coakley joined the staff at Columbia University, coaching pitchers for a year until he became the head cheese in 1915.
He held the gig for 37 years, becoming an institution uptown. He had good teams and bad over the years, good players and average ones. But Coakley had one that towered over all the rest—a lefty pitcher and slugger named Lou Gehrig.
As with his future frenemy Babe Ruth, Lou was a tremendous pitcher. As a sophomore he put together a 6-3 record during the 1923 season, while playing first base and the outfield when not on the mound. The years have granted Coakley a ton of credit for grooming Gehrig into the Hall of Famer he would become, but even the coach resisted that notion—Gehrig’s talent was undeniable. What Coakley did do was turn the thickly built powerhouse into a nimble and quality fielder at first base, hitting him grounders by the thousand.
The Yankees’ scouting and signing of Gehrig seems, in retrospect, like a no-brainer—of course the pride of Morningside Heights would play for one of the local teams. But it wasn’t that simple. After graduating from Commerce High School (now Brandeis High), Gehrig went to the Polo Grounds, home of the Giants, New York’s most famous and best team, for a workout. He made an error in the field and John McGraw screamed to “get that busher off the field.” Not Big Mac’s finest moment of talent judgment.
The Washington Senators also were interested in Lou. Coach Coakley was friendly with Joe Judge, the Washington first baseman who grew up at 66th and First Avenue on the Upper East Side. “Coach Coak” passed along the tip that Columbia had an outstanding player in the offing, and Judge in turn told his owner, Clark Griffith. But for whatever reason, the Sens never did send a scout to eyeball Gehrig.
But Paul Krichell, legendary Yankees birddog, was on hand for the Columbia games that bulldozed Lou’s pathway to Cooperstown. Krichell followed Babe Ruth and Ed Barrow down the Boston Post Road after the Bambino was sold to New York in the winter of 1920. Barrow was hired a year later, and he took his friend Krichell with him. The Paris-born, New York-reared scout would scour the bushes for talent for the Yankees for the next four decades.
He watched as Gehrig struck out 17 batters against Williams on April 18, 1923. On April 26, Columbia visited Rutgers in New Brunswick. Tall trees lined the Jersey field—if only they could duck! Gehrig plastered a pair of mammoth homers into the woods as Columbia demolished the Scarlet (Rutgers didn’t adopt the Knight as a mascot until 1955).
Krichell was on hand, jaw agape. He made sure to sit next to Coakley on the train ride back to the City, pumping the coach for information about Gehrig. Coakley assured him that Lou was more than a pitcher, much more. Indeed, his professional future was likely as a slugger, given the way Ruth had whacked balls out of the Polo Grounds and, starting a couple of weeks earlier, the brand new Yankee Stadium.
From the train Krichell double-timed it up to the Bronx, where Barrow was still settling in to his new office (the entire Stadium was hastily erected after permit issues stalled construction—see “The House That Ruth Built” for details).
“I think I’ve just seen another Babe Ruth!” yelped Krichell.
Barrow was more cautious. He told his scout to go watch Lou play again. Krichell cleared his calendar for two days later, Saturday, April 28, 1923, when Columbia hosted its downtown rivals, NYU, at South Field.
The Violets, winners of seven straight games, had recently beaten their Manhattan rivals, and Columbia was out for revenge. Gehrig pitched and hit third, and the cool day and overcast sky “rendered his [fastball] speed more effective,” according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “The husky Blue and White portsider was the outstanding figure of the contest,” the Eagle opined, and it was hard to argue. He held a potent NYU lineup to just two runs on six hits, while singling, walking twice, and hitting another gargantuan homer in his four trips to the plate.
This one came in the bottom of the fifth, after NYU had trimmed a 3-0 deficit to 3-2 with a pair of runs in the top half. Lou stepped in against “Pitcher” Carlson, an outstanding hurler with a laughably generic nickname, and slammed an “inshooter” far, far into the gray afternoon. The battered horsehide flew over the right field fence, over 116th Street, and bounced on the steps of the Columbia Library across the way. The ricochet nearly whacked the Dean of the Ivy League school in the head.
Paced by the “Babe Ruth of Columbia” the home team won 7-2. Krichell giddily zipped across the Harlem River to tell Barrow that yes, he was sure—Lou Gehrig was the real deal.
AFTERMATH
Cross-checking is an important element of scouting, so Krichell called in fellow Yankees scout Bob Connery for a second opinion. Connery too was well impressed with the Columbia star, and the Yankees signed Gehrig for a $1,500 bonus and a salary of $2,000.
Gehrig had a season to finish in Harlem first. On May 19 he hit his final homer in Columbia flannels, his 7th (in 20 games), a colossal blow against Wesleyan that landed on the steps of the Journalism School at 116th and Broadway, between 450-500 feet from home plate. After much contemplation, Lou skipped the last three games of the Columbia season and left school in order to join the Yankees. Gehrig wasn’t yet “Larrupin’ Lou” or the “Iron Horse.” When he got to the Yankees they hung the nickname “Biscuit Pants” on him, for Gehrig’s ample buttocks. Gehrig struggled with the major leagues at first, ready to quit when his first slump hit. But Krichell, who had become Lou’s sounding board and confidante, made sure he stuck it out.
On June 2, 1925, Gehrig started at first base while Wally Pipp, the normal first sacker, sat out the game with a headache (one that may have been induced by a recent beaning). The rest is history.
WHAT THEY SAID
“Lou, you’ve been in my class for almost a year. I think you’d better play ball.”
—Archibald Stockder, Columbia professor, after Gehrig asked his advice on whether he should sign a professional contract or stay in school.
FURTHER READING:
Luckiest Man by Jonathan Eig
981. NEW YORK KNICKS VS BOSTON CELTICS
MARCH 24, 1990
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
QUALITY OF PLAY
7.91
DRAMA
6.71
STAR POWER
8.18
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT
5.65
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
6.26
LOCAL IMPACT
7.23
TOTAL: 41.93
“PATRICK’S BIG NIGHT”
The celebrations resounded across the metropolitan area when the Knicks won the inaugural draft lottery and thus the right to select Georgetown’s great center, Patrick Ewing. But in his rookie season, 1985-86, the team was even worse than it had been the year before. It took a while before Ewing added a consistent jumper to his powerful inside game. When he did, the team took off.
Stu Jackson’s 1989-90 Knicks weren’t quite as potent as they had been the year before, when they won 52 games, though they were still solid competitors in the Eastern Conference. But the team endured a brutal spring, losing six in a row in March, including a loss to the dreadful Charlotte Hornets, the NBA’s worst club. They were hoping to end the skein when their Atlantic Division rivals and ancient enemy from Boston, the Celtics, invaded the Garden on Saturday night, March 24, 1990.
Boston was facing the end of an era, with the all-time great frontcourt of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish in its death spiral. The forgettable Jimmie Rodgers was coaching the team, although on this Saturday night he was in Chicago, burying his recently passed father. The Celts were getting it done on muscle memory and historical intimidation of the opposition, and lately it had been working—they had won four in a row coming in to the game, and were trying to chase down New York for second place in the Atlantic Division. With the postseason looming, the game was essentially a battle for home-court advantage in the coming playoffs, when the two teams appeared destined to clash under the old seeding format.
New York was without its power forward and enforcer, Charles Oakley, who had a broken hand. Ewing thought it was on him to win the game alone. And he played that way, sending the sellout crowd into a frenzy early on.
The ex-Georgetown big man abused Parish and Joe Kleine for the entirety of the first half. Patrick poured in 32 points by halftime while getting both Celtics trying to check him into foul trouble. Boston stubbornly refused to double-team Ewing, and paid the price, as the New York big man dropped in a wide variety of baseline jumpers, runners in the lane, and power slams. Patrick outscored the rest of the Knicks, who led 62-56 at the midpoint.
In the third quarter interim coach Chris Ford at last sent his guards to double Ewing, and the points stopped coming so easily. He had just nine points in the third quarter (giving him 41 in all), but New York managed to boost its lead to eight, 85-77. New York pushed that to 11 early in the fourth quarter but McHale and Reggie Lewis ignited a rally that surged Boston in front (Lewis would lead Boston with 31 points, 15 in the fourth). Suddenly the Knicks were down by one, and needing their big man. Ewing was up to 51 points in the game by now, having the game of his life. He alone stood between the ‘Bockers and defeat.
Naturally, Jackson took Ewing out for a rest.
“I felt that down the stretch we needed Patrick to have fresh legs,” Jackson explained. It didn’t work. The Knicks lost all momentum, and the Celtics buoyed their lead, even after Patrick re-entered the game. He went scoreless over the final five-plus minutes, and a McHale block of Kenny Walker’s three-point try late in the game iced it for Boston. The road team won, 115-110. Multiple possessions in the fourth quarter consisted of one or zero passes, and Ewing hardly even got the rock. Instead, his teammates jacked up iffy shots. When Patrick did get it, the Celts did made some canny strips of the ball on his way up.
It was helluva way for a game to finish when your star player scores more points than he would in any other game in his high-volume career. Patrick finished with 51 points and added 18 rebounds, but the Knicks were outscored 22-4 when Ewing was on the bench. Take away his 20-29 from the floor and the team shot 34% (21-61).
“I’m really disappointed,” Ewing said after the game. It was New York’s seventh straight loss, and Boston’s fifth consecutive win. The two teams seemed to be headed in irreparably opposite directions.
AFTERMATH
New York’s collapse continued, finishing the regular season in third place in the division, seven games behind Boston, who finished on a 16-4 run to close the campaign. The Knicks and Celts then indeed matched up in the opening round of the 1990 NBA Playoffs. The series required a deciding Game 5 at Boston Garden, which the Knicks took in a stunning 121-114 victory. The key play happened when Ewing chased down an errant pass by Charles Oakley and drained a three-pointer to beat the shot clock. New York actually winning a decisive game on the parquet floor in Boston was a shocking development for those of who had become comfortable with the idea that we would never witness such an event. That it so neatly inverted the “typical Knicks” attitude adopted after the team lost despite Ewing’s 51 points made it particularly special, and augured a new and better era in the 1990s.
Said golden age hadn’t quite yet arrived, however—the Pistons easily ushered the Knicks out of the postseason in the following round, winning in five games. The only game New York won was Game 3, behind 45 points from Ewing.
WHAT THEY SAID
''You name it and that's what Patrick did tonight. He had a great night. I was kind of glad when he got tired.’'
—Robert Parish, Boston center
FURTHER READING:
Patrick Ewing (Basketball Legends) by Paul Weiner
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