Lefty Gone--but Not Forgotten

Vernon (Lefty) Gomez, 80, died Friday. He was one of baseball’s wittiest storytellers and after-dinner speakers. Today’s Morning Briefing is dedicated to the former Yankee pitcher, whose good humor brightened this space over the years. Here’s the best of Lefty:

Talking about his career as a minor league manager:

“We lost 12 straight one year. I decided if we got rained out, we’d have a victory dinner.”

Gomez also was known as “Goofy” or “El Goofo.”

Asked how he got the name, he explained that the Yankees were on a train when Albert Einstein got aboard.

“One of the writers asked me if I knew who Einstein was,” Gomez said. “I said sure I did, he was an inventor.

“The writer asked me if I ever invented anything. I told him I invented a rotating fishbowl that would add 10 years to the lives of tropical fish. That way the fish doesn’t have to waste all that energy swimming around.

“I guess the writer thought that sounded a little goofy.”

Gomez was a notoriously bad hitter--unfortunately, long before the American League had the DH rule. His career average was .147.

He told about the only time in his career he broke a bat: “I ran over it backing out of the garage.”

Every spring Yankee roommate Babe Ruth used to bet Gomez he wouldn’t get five hits all season.

One year, Gomez told Phil Elderkin of the Christian Science Monitor, “I was down to pitch the opener for the Yankees against the old Washington Senators, and I was ready. Not only did I win, but I got four hits in five trips to the plate.

“I told the Babe after the game I was already counting my money. Know what? I didn’t get another hit all year.”

Trivia Time: Now, who was credited with the first run batted in in All-Star game history in 1933? (Answer below.)

Chuck Stevens of Long Beach, who runs the Assn. of Professional Baseball Players of America, knew Gomez well. Once they were together at the winter meetings when Gomez was telling about his recent bypass operation.

Stevens: “We were standing around talking when Lefty said, ‘If I’d known I’d feel this good, I would have had that operation 30 years ago.”

Although their Yankee careers only partially overlapped, one of Gomez’s closest friends in later years was Joe DiMaggio, the Hall of Fame center fielder. Gomez told how DiMaggio liked to play shallow, as Tris Speaker did before him, to pick up short bloopers, believing he could still get back for deeper drives.

“Joe was always telling me, ‘I’ll make ‘em forget Speaker. I’ll make ‘em forget Speaker.’

“One day I was pitching, somebody hit one deep to center field that Joe just touched but couldn’t hold. It went for a triple and cost us the ball game. Afterward at dinner, Joe said it again: ‘I’ll make ‘em forget Speaker.’

“I said, ‘Joe, if you don’t move back a little, you’ll make ‘em forget Gomez.”

Add DiMaggio: “I never knew what he looked like until I roomed with him. In the game all I saw was his back chasing drives.”

Trivia Answer: Lucky guess! Lefty Gomez, of all people.

Quotebook

Lefty Gomez, on the secret of his success: “Clean living and a fast outfield.”