Old Giants: Don-Help

[klaiggeb]

Don:

I keep running across two old NY Giants about whom I can find little to nothing at all.

What can you tell me about Jo Jo Moore, and Hughie Critz?

Fast? Slow?

Good defenders? Good range?

Hitters?

Thanks, Don, all you can provide will be appreciated.

boly

[donk33]

Dec 23, 2017 10:15:51 GMT -5 klaiggeb said:

Don:

I keep running across two old NY Giants about whom I can find little to nothing at all.

What can you tell me about Jo Jo Moore, and Hughie Critz?

Fast? Slow?

Good defenders? Good range?

Hitters?

Thanks, Don, all you can provide will be appreciated.

boly

dk...Critz was really before my time...I only knew him as a name..   JoJo Moore was a very good player..A solid 1 or 2 hitter who hit .298 and scored a lot of runs hitting ahead of Terry and Ott....he was a thin, strong person with gap power and good coverage in the outfield and a good arm...I think of him as a complete player who gave you a solid game, but I don't remember too much about his talent, I was too busy keeping track of Mel Ott....I would take JoJo in a flash if he was available and young...he would be the perfect LF in the Phone Booth   .the 1936 and 1937 Giants won two flags with Moore in left and Ott in right (Until Ott went to 38 in 1937 after Jackson retired and Lou Chiozza broke a leg)...Ripple and Leiber were the other outfielders...Leiber was a good, young hitter until he met a Bob Feller fastball in the head...no helmet....Leiber was a part of a big trade that dented my heart...Bartell, Leiber and Mancuso for Jurges, Demaree and O'Dea of the Cubs...Jurgess cost the Giants...he got into a spitting fight with an Ump and got a 10 day  suspension and the next year he was beaned and never really the same again...,.

I wrote to the Giants once telling them that they should have something going on to honor the old NY Giants...especially the ones with their numbers retired...have a night to show their pictures and tell some history and'/or stories about them...they said they had something planned but that was last I heard about it...now, almost all the ex NY'ers are gone...

[klaiggeb]

Man! I can't thank you enough for all of that info, Don!

I wanted to inquire about Bartell and Mancuso, too, but I figured two was more than enough to ask.

Thanks again!

[rog]

This was kind of weird, but one day in Alameda I was sitting across the desk from a bank officer, except that he wasn't yet at his desk. He had some papers on his desk, and my peripheral vision noticed that they had the name "Dick Baretell" on them. Dick grew up in Alameda, so I'm guessing the papers were for him.

My memory (from what I'd read or heard; he stopped playing before I was born) was that he was a pretty good shortstop, and that apparently is the case.

I knew a little about Jo-Jo Moore, but like Don, I hadn't even heard of Hughie Critz. And I knew almost no details about Jo-Jo. Jo-Jo would have turned 109 Christmas Day.

[donk33]

Dec 23, 2017 22:06:53 GMT -5 rog said:

This was kind of weird, but one day in Alameda I was sitting across the desk from a bank officer, except that he wasn't yet at his desk. He had some papers on his desk, and my peripheral vision noticed that they had the name "Dick Baretell" on them. Dick grew up in Alameda, so I'm guessing the papers were for him.

My memory (from what I'd read or heard; he stopped playing before I was born) was that he was a pretty good shortstop, and that apparently is the case.

I knew a little about Jo-Jo Moore, but like Don, I hadn't even heard of Hughie Critz. And I knew almost no details about Jo-Jo. Jo-Jo would have turned 109 Christmas Day.

dk...his name was Bartell....Called Rowdy Dick...but now changed to Rowdy Richard...he is the guy that Vince Scully smeared all over the TV at least twice...he claimed that Dick hit a ball out that the Umpire called foul...Dick was cited by Scully as getting into a fight with the Ump that resulted in a spitting duel...actually the batter was Billy Jurges and both him and the Ump got 10 day vacations for the whole deal.....later on. baseball decided to put up screens on the foul pole so that close calls could bounce off the pole or screen if fair... When Alomar did his little spitting fight with an ump, the Illinois baseball writers tried to get to Jurges to get his view on the fight...Jurges got pissed because he was a good enough player to be remembered for his ability and not one bad instant in his career.....but Scully never reads the papers or watches baseball on TV and never has a clue what is going on in the world of baseball....Scully was the  short on facts and preparation and yet people put him on such a high level....one of the last plays I remember about Dick Bartell...he came back to the Giants....was the first play of a double header...the batter hit a line drive to CF...Johnny Rucker, the new Georgia Peach, dove and seemed to come up with the ball...the Ump ruled it a trap...Mel Ott, the RF and Mgr, came running over to protest the call...Dick came running out from SS  and forced his way between Mel and the Ump...Dick got the boot instead of Mel      
 advantage Giants......Gus Mancuso was a good catcher but not much of a hitter....what kind of guy was he...he caught Carl Hubbell's great 18 inning 1-0 game and came back and caught the second game of the double header...he got up early the next day and caught one more game.....when Mancuso was #1, Harry Danning was his backup...Danning caught mostly when Hubbell was pitching...When Danning became #1, Gus did the catching of Hubbell.....Danning had 3  very good years with the bat and threw out a very high % of base  runners...Harry went into the army and never returned to baseball...he lived close to me and I never met him even though my Daughter's father-in-law use to hang with him at the LB St. games.I copied Hank's batting when I was a kid.....

[klaiggeb]

Wow, again, Don!!!

This is the kind of stuff I've been craving for years!!!

Thanks!!!!