Baseball dinner party

[FrankWakefield]

Dizzy Dean

Mickey Mantle

Leo Durocher



Initially, I thought this was about who I'd want to listen to for an evening and my mind IMMEDIATELY went to John McGraw. Then I realized that it's about hearing great baseball tales. I understand the Mantle/Ford/Martin pick, but one of them is enough, Mantle for me. Initially, it might seem that Durocher and Dean would overlap greatly. They would when it's about the Gashouse Gang teams. But Dean played later with the Cubs, made it to the World Series with them in 1938, against the Yankees. Durocher adds the beginnings of the Say Hey kid from Alabama... golly, he managed the Dodgers, the Giants, they Cubs, coached forever, got suspended for a year, got thrown 100 games as a manager, and probably a few as a player and coach. Those three guys would know some stuff.

There may be some modern players who'd know about modern stuff. There may be some old T206 era players who knew stuff from Pre WW I. Mantle, Dean, and Durocher would be an awesome bunch.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

Dizzy Dean



Mickey Mantle



Leo Durocher







Initially, I thought this was about who I'd want to listen to for an evening and my mind IMMEDIATELY went to John McGraw. Then I realized that it's about hearing great baseball tales. I understand the Mantle/Ford/Martin pick, but one of them is enough, Mantle for me. Initially, it might seem that Durocher and Dean would overlap greatly. They would when it's about the Gashouse Gang teams. But Dean played later with the Cubs, made it to the World Series with them in 1938, against the Yankees. Durocher adds the beginnings of the Say Hey kid from Alabama... golly, he managed the Dodgers, the Giants, they Cubs, coached forever, got suspended for a year, got thrown 100 games as a manager, and probably a few as a player and coach. Those three guys would know some stuff.



There may be some modern players who'd know about modern stuff. There may be some old T206 era players who knew stuff from Pre WW I. Mantle, Dean, and Durocher would be an awesome bunch.

the OP requirement was "to have the most crazy fun time as possible." so if your idea of a crazy fun time is listening to stories, sure, go that route. But the guys who picked Lenny Dykstra, Pete Rose, or some other wild child's obviously have a different idea of crazy fun times.

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[FrankWakefield]

For some, what is fun changes as they get older and older. I could laugh all night and wake up hangover free the next day. That sounds fun to me.

[Musashi]

I bet you could get an interesting evening of conversation from this group:

Jimmy Piersall
Jay Johnstone
Bill "Spaceman" Lee

[ejharrington]

I have to think about the other two, but Kevin Millar is definitely on the list.

[esd10]

Mathewson, jake daubert and probably joe kelley

[todeen]

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

For some, what is fun changes as they get older and older. I could laugh all night and wake up hangover free the next day. That sounds fun to me.

I was never into partying, even in college. But intramural sports all day tournaments.... couldn't stay long enough. Watching Ken Burns documentaries? yes please.

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[switcher7]

Mickey Mantle
Casey Stengel
Phil Rizzuto

[michael3322]

Great thread topic.

Ruth
Paige
and
Berg

"On December 18, 1944, a 42-year-old man masquerading as a Swiss physics student settled his 6-foot-1 frame into a chair in a Zurich lecture hall. Instead of simply listening to the brilliant insights offered by the physicist at the podium, the man was trying to understand enough of the scientist’s native German to identify key words—words that could change, or perhaps even destroy, the world. All the while, he was hoping the gun tucked into his jacket pocket wouldn’t fall out, as it had during his trip across the Atlantic.

The audience member was no ordinary student. In fact, he wasn’t a student at all. He was a retired baseball player named Morris “Moe” Berg, and the American government wanted him to assassinate a man dubbed “the most dangerous possible German in the field” of physics: Werner Heisenberg, director of the Nazi nuclear program.

An average-at-best catcher who played well past his prime, Berg joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the CIA, in 1943. Nicknamed the “brainiest man in baseball” due to his knack for languages and quick wit, he found himself behind enemy lines five years after he hung up his cleats for the last time. A polymath who loved the press but was reluctant to discuss his personal life, he was a man of contradictions who crossed paths with many of the leading figures of the day, from Babe Ruth to Franklin D. Roosevelt to J. Robert Oppenheimer."

Smithsonian Magazine

[bmattioli]

Mantle

Rose

Wade Boggs