I broke into Baseball as an employee of in 1951. And though my role in America's great game has been immortalized in literature and newsreel footage, I left as quickly as I came, at the height of my fame.
Who am I?
Leave your answers in the comments box.
UPDATE: No answers yet? I could drop a hint, but then the question might "seam" too easy. How about this -- I made my major league debut at the Polo Grounds.
ANOTHER HINT: Perhaps I'm engaging in a bit of personification here?
WE HAVE A CORRECT ANSWER: Congrats to David Pinto of Baseball Musings who answered the ball that Bobby Thomson hit to win the National League Pennant for the Giants. Let's go through the hints:
In 1951, was the official supplier of baseballs to the Major Leagues.
Unlike many famous home run balls of today, the ball Thomson hit off of Ralph Branca was never found -- except in contemporary American fiction. The main charcter in Don Delillo's Underworld obtained the ball from the fan who had originally caught it. Though the novel itself is rather daunting, the Prologue, which recounts the one-game playoff in the Polo Grounds through the eyes of J. Edgar Hoover, Jackie Gleason, Frank Sinatra and Toots Shoor, stands on its own as one of the finest short stories I've ever read. Check it out.
CORRECTION: As Charles Kuffner points out in the comments box, the National League Pennant was determined by a three-game playoff, not the one-game system that came into use after the leagues split into East and West divisions in 1969. Thomson's home run came in Game 3 in the Polo Grounds.
Eddie Gaedel?
No.
I’d have to guess Sandy Koufax.
No again. Look back at all the hints carefully.
It was the ball Bobby Thomson hit to win the 1951 pennant for the Giants.
Hmph. Deceptive question. The ball was not an employee of Spalding, it was an employee of the National League. Spalding may have created it, but it wasn’t in Spalding’s service. Furthermore, the ball did not leave the game at the “height” of its fame–it reached its apex somewhere over the Polo Grounds outfield and was descending when it cleared the fence.
Aren’t law professors a pain?
I totally agree with your comments about the opening chapter in Dellilo’s “Underworld”. I got the book remaindered at a Dollar store and couldn’t believe my luck when reading the first chapter. A wonderful story only slightly marred by Dellilo’s hatred of J. Edger. The rest of the book is another story, however. Actually several stories styled in Dellilio’s turgid prose. Worth buying it for the first chapter, tho.
Wasn’t it a three-game playoff? Both teams played 157 games in 1951.
You are correct, Charles. We have corrected the record.