My great friend and baseball travel partner Dennis Murray recently loaned me some vintage yearbooks and scorecards to scan. What a kick to thumb through that 1957 Yankee Yearbook! Here's the ad from Ballantine Beer welcoming Phil Rizzuto the broadcast team. Yes, the Scooter moved behind the microphone sixty years ago.
To Phil's left is the original voice of the Yankees, Mel Allen; just below, the third member of the team, fellow legend Red Barber. Take note at how the photos are aligned in the shape of Ballantine's logo! (You can see the "three-ring sign" on the bottle in at the bottom of the ad.)
Below, it's the page on the local media contingent covering the Yankees. They're the 10 newspaper beat writers, from what were then the seven daily New York papers, plus the two across the river in Newark, New Jersey and another from the regional Newhouse chain. No local radio station reporters and none from the any of the local TV channels, even the Yankees own station WPIX.
At the bottom of the page, another photo of the broadcast team. OK, are you wondering why I'm posting a Throwback two days early? Check the calendar. Here's the answer: it's February 14th, Mel Allen's birthdate. Whether you discovered his marvelous, enthusiastic baritone on Yankee games, This Week in Baseball, FOX Movietone Newsreels or NBC radio's Monitor, it's a voice you'll never forget. So if you know anyone else with a Valentine Day's birthday, be sure to tell them they share it with Mel Allen.
For a look at Mel's Monument Park plaque in Yankee Stadium, click here.
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