October 17th, 1964

60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

10/17/64 – The New York Yankees fire Manager Yogi Berra two days after losing The World Series to The St. Louis Cardinals

Ouch!!!  He got them to the World Series ... and then got FIRED because they lost it?

That's harsh!!!

The Yankees won 99 games that year under Berra's leadership ... it was his FIRST season as a manager, after playing for the Bronx Bombers for 16 years, during which time The Yankees won 14 championships.  (He was named to the American League All Star Team 18 times during that stretch.  He also led The Yankees in RBI's seven times during this era ... coming in ahead of players like Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio in this department!)

The photo of Berra leaping into pitcher Don Larsen's arms after Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history is priceless ... and probably one of the most famous and recognized sports photos of all time.

After The Yankees fired him, Berra moved across town and joined The Mets, first as a coach (under the great Casey Stengel) and then as their manager, ultimately taking THAT team to The World Series, too, in 1973.  (Sadly, they lost that series to the Oakland A's.)  Incredibly, The Mets' record that year was just barely over .500 (82-79) ... but that was enough to win the East Division ... where they went on to beat The Cincinnati Reds in the playoffs.

Apparently it was "No Hard Feelings" as far as The Yankees were concerned ... 

In 1972, they retired his uniform number (8) ... and later that same year Yogi was elected into The Major League Baseball Hall Of Fame.

The Yankees hired Berra back in 1976 as a coach ... and then named him manager in 1984.  After finishing third that season, George Steinbrenner fired him again, 16 games into the 1985 season. 

YOGI The Player:

He played 19 seasons in the major leagues ... 1946–1963 and 1965), all but the last of those seasons was for The New York Yankees.  (Yogi took his last Major League At Bat on May 9th, 1965, just three days shy of his 40th birthday.)

While with The Yankees, he was an 18-time All Star and won TEN World Series Championships, more than any other player in MLB history.

He had a career batting average of .285, slugging 358 home runs and recording 1430 runs batted in.  (Seven times he led The Yanks in this department ... a pretty impressive stat when you consider some of the all-time greats that played for this team during this era.)

He is one of only six players to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award three times ... and is widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history.  He was elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1972, the same year The Yankees retired his uniform number (8.)

After being fired as The Yankees' Manager after losing the 1964 World Series, Berra went straight across town and joined The New York Mets, first as a coach, then as a player (for part of the 1965 season), and then as their manager,  spending ten years in The Mets' organization, before returning to The Yankees in 1976, first as a coach (for eight years) and then as their manager (for the next two.)  When he was fired again, he went and coached The Houston Astros until his retirement in 1989.

Besides his All Star legacy, Berra caught the only perfect game in World Series history.  A little known fact is that he was also the first player in Major League Baseball history to pinch hit a home run in a World Series game (1947.)  In all, he caught 63 World Series games ... and still holds the Major League Record for number of shut-outs caught (with 173.)

In 1962, he caught all 22 innings of an extra-innings game between The Yankees and The Detroit Tigers, which took just over seven hours to complete.

Sadly, Berra died on September 22nd, 2015

Berra was also known for his "Yogi-isms," some of which are still repeated to this day ...

 "It ain't over 'til it's over"

 "It's deja vu all over again"

 "You can observe a lot by watching^"

When giving directions to Joe Garagiola to his New Jersey home, which was accessible by two routes, Berra told him "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." 

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded"

"A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore"

If you can't imitate him, don't copy him^"

"Ninety percent of the game is half mental."

And perhaps most accurately, "I really didn't say everything I said^"

THE DOORS: 60th Anniversary

A HUGE campaign has been launched to celebrate The Doors' 60th Anniversary ...

From Shore Fire Media ... 

October 8th, 2024 The Doors Celebrate 60th Anniversary In 2025 The Doors 1967-1971 6-LP Set - Latest Installment in Label’s Acclaimed High Fidelity Audiophile Vinyl Series  The Doors - Live in Detroit - Arrives On 4-LP Vinyl For the First Time Ever For Record Store Day’s Black Friday  The Doors Anthology Book Night Divides The Day Available Now For Pre-Order RIAA Officially Certifies 12 of The Doors’ Singles Multi-Platinum, Platinum & Gold Much More to Come as The Doors Break On Through To 2025       Tuesday, October 8th 2024 - In the Summer of 1965, Ray Manzarek had a chance encounter on Venice Beach with Jim Morrison, a young poet whom he knew when they were both students at UCLA’s film school. Jim told Ray he had been living on a friend’s rooftop writing songs. Though Morrison had never intended to be a singer, he sat down on the beach and sang the new songs to Ray, including “Moonlight Drive.” Manzarek thought they were the best rock and roll lyrics he ever heard. At that moment, they both agreed to start a rock band and call it The Doors, taking their name from Aldous Huxley’s psychotropic monograph The Doors of Perception and William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Guitar player Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore, who’d played together in the Psychedelic Rangers, were recruited soon thereafter. After months of rehearsals, they landed a gig as the house band at a small Sunset Strip club called the London Fog. By May 1966, they had graduated to their dream gig – house band at the Whisky a Go Go. Soon after, Elektra Records president Jac Holzman and producer Paul A. Rothchild saw the band performing at the Whisky and signed The Doors to the label. Over the course of a week, The Doors recorded their debut album at Sunset Sound Recording Studios in Hollywood, putting on tape the songs they had been playing night after night at the Whisky. With an intoxicating, boundary-pushing sound, provocative and uncompromising lyrics, and mesmerizing stage presence, The Doors would go on to have a transformative impact on both music and culture.  Beginning next month, The Doors will kick off the 2025 60th Anniversary with a new anniversary logo, a series of physical releases, an extraordinary anthology book, and much more to come.  The Doors 1967-1971 6-LP set will arrive as the latest installment in Rhino’s acclaimed High Fidelity audiophile vinyl series on November 22nd, featuring all six of the band’s original studio albums cut from the original analog master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio. The vinyl was pressed at Optimal Media and the box includes a heavyweight gatefold jacket featuring rare photos and liner notes by Doors archivist David Dutkowski. Only 3,000 copies of the limited-edition set will be available exclusively at thedoors.com and rhino.com.      Additionally, for Record Store Day’s Black Friday on November 29th, The Doors will release The Doors – Live in Detroit, featuring the band’s performance from the Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on May 8, 1970. This 4-LP set will be available on vinyl for the first time.  Captured on tape during the band's 1970 US tour, it was one of the band's longest performances. In fact, the band played for an hour past curfew and were then banned from the Cobo Arena on future tours. The fiery set includes a number of Blues covers, including "Back Door Man," Junior Parker's "Mystery Train," and "Crossroads" by Robert Johnson. The Doors also tear through a 17-minute-plus version of "The End," as well as an over 19-minute version of "Light My Fire" and other rare tracks such as "Love Hides." This collection captures the band at their absolute zenith.     The Doors’ eponymous debut album - which the BBC and Rolling Stone have each hailed as one of the greatest debuts of all time - released in January 1967 and features the chart-topping smash-hit “Light My Fire,” the bluesy, growling “Back Door Man” and seminal live-set showstopper “The End,” with its legendary Oedipal spoken word section.  Having cemented their place in the rock pantheon and the psychedelic rock revolution, The Doors returned to the studio resulting in the anticipated follow-up, Strange Days, which went to number three on the US Billboard 200 and featured “Love Me Two Times” and “People Are Strange.” In 1968, the band released Waiting for the Sun, their first number one album featuring the chart-topping single “Hello, I Love You,” along with “Love Street” and “Five to One.”  The Doors then dove further into uncharted psychedelic territory with 1969’s string and horn-laden album The Soft Parade, which included the Krieger-penned hit “Touch Me.” 1970’s Morrison Hotel, which boasts fan favorites “Roadhouse Blues” and “Peace Frog,” took the band back to its bluesy roots. 1971’s L.A.Woman, the band’s final album with Morrison and recorded in the band’s rehearsal space, features “Riders on the Storm,” “Love Her Madly” and the title track. During their brief time together, The Doors delivered six studio albums before Morrison’s untimely death in Paris in 1971. Their electrifying achievements in the studio and onstage remain unmatched in the annals of rock, and today they remain as one of the best-selling bands of all time with over 100 million records sold worldwide.  In 1993 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Several years later, the songs “Light My Fire” and “Riders on the Storm” along with The Doors’ debut album were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The Library of Congress also recognized the band, selecting their self-titled album for inclusion in the National Recording Registry in 2014. The Doors also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007. Created to commemorate the upcoming 60th anniversary, The Doors’ first-ever complete anthology book Night Divides the Day will illuminate the band’s archives like never before with rare photography, intimate interviews with Robby Krieger and John Densmore, and meticulously sourced archival text from Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek. With unlimited access granted by the band, Night Divides the Day includes a unique collection of historical ephemera – including childhood photos, song lyrics, poster artwork, movie stills, and much more – which adds context to the wealth of rare photography that documents the band’s musical odyssey.     Joining Robby and John are a host of contributors, with a foreword by Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, and afterword by maestro Gustavo Dudamel. The anthology is presented in a limited-edition of only 2,000 numbered box sets, each hand-signed by Densmore and Krieger. Each set includes the 344-page signed edition, a 7” vinyl record with rare demos of “Hello, I Love You” and “Moonlight Drive,” and other assorted historical memorabilia. Available for pre-order now and shipping early 2025. Stay tuned for more news coming soon from The Doors and Rhino this year, and as the 60th Anniversary kicks off in the new year.   Follow The Doors Official Site Instagram Twitter Facebook YouTube TikTok

kk: 

During July, 1995, in East Hollywood at the MET Theatre on Oxford Avenue, I produced and co-curated with director Darrell Larson and associate producer Daniel Weizmann a month-long Rock and Roll in Literature series.

Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robby Krieger reunited and played “Peace Frog,” “Love Me Two Times” and “Little Red Rooster” on July 8th. Kirk Silsbee read from Art Pepper’s Straight Life, John Densmore did an entry from his new novel, and Michael Ontkean recited Ode to L.A. by Jim Morrison. 

At the time I told Weizmann, now an acclaimed novelist, we will be talking about the Doors in 30 years.  

In 2024, he emailed me about the Doors and their enduring and endearing legacy. 

“In ‘79, on a rare broadcast series called Album Greats, Ray Manzarek told L.A. radio station KLOS-FM that ‘Once you see where you stand in relation to eternity, making pop songs for AM radio seems a little inconsequential. 

“The Doors at the Hollywood Bowl went down only 35 months after the Beatles August, ‘65 appearance, but it represents a complete passage from innocence to experience. That the Dionysian Princes of Experience also happened to be local dudes just makes it that much more thrilling. I mean, who drove them home after the show? Did they hitch a ride after they recaptured the High Temple of Electric Sound? Or did they get into their own cars and reenter the river of motel neon, traffic, and the throbbing AM radio with its songs about lollipops and peppermints?

“Hollywood psychedelia was always a strange Janus-faced animal -- part freak out, part show biz, part burlesque, part teenybopper a go go -- but even by these anti-standards the Doors stood apart ... from their peers, their audience, even from each other as they jammed choppy organ jazz and broken poetry in the shadows. They weren’t folkies. They weren’t loveniks. They weren’t even blues fanatics, not really.

“Onstage at the Hollywood Bowl, with all the power in the world to move the crowd, they refuse play to a single trope of ‘the performing artist,’ not even good will. At one point, Jim asks them for requests half-heartedly, then ignores them, and chides ‘No -- you do something,’ as if the pop star game is wearing on him. Then they burrow down into the swirling music and reach for pitch darkness, precisely where another performer would hog the spotlight -- they literally beg to cut the lights. They were ready for eternity.”

HK

Photo of Jim Morrison by Henry Diltz, Courtesy of Gary Strobl at the Diltz Archive. 

Photo of Harvey Kubernik and Ray Manzarek by Heather Harris. 

All other images courtesy of Rhino. 

NOTE:  A longer, much more in depth profile of The Doors, written by Harvey Kubernik, is also available by email by request ... let me know if you'd like me to send you a copy.  (kk)

October 15, 1964

60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

10/15/64 – The St. Louis Cardinals win their seventh World Series title, beating The New York Yankees in game seven by a final score of 7-5 at Busch Stadium.  St. Louis Pitcher Bob Gibson is named MVP.  (Incredibly, on August 23^rd, The Cardinals were eleven games back in the National League.)

Also on 10/15, American composer Cole Porter dies

and ... from our FH Buddy Chuck Buell ...

73 YEARS AGO TODAY ...

It was on this day, October 15, in 1951 that “I Love Lucy” First aired on TV and ran for six amazing years.

With that in mind, I have some “splaining to do” for you.

 

You may find it of some interest that during that entire run of the series, Desi Arnez’ character, Ricky Ricardo never said, “Lucy, you got some ‘splaining to do!”

 

Perhaps that came from an episode’s storyline where at one point Ricky did say, “I think I’m entitled to a little explanation,” actually pronouncing “explanation” clearly - not leaving off the first ”ex” syllable of the word.

 

And moments later, while talking to Ethyl, Lucy said, “that she has a little explaining to do to Ricky.”

 

Nevertheless, over the years, that alleged unspoken “signature” phrase has been permanently embedded into “All Things Lucy!”

 

Including Today’s Lucy-style emojis!

 

CB ( which stands for “Conga-Babalu” Boy!” )

 

Yeah, and Lassie never saved Timmy when he fell down the well!!!

 

You've got to wonder how these sayings get started ... and then stick around for 50, 60 and even 70 years!!!  Especially when BOTH shows have been available in syndication nearly that entire time!  (You think it'd be easy enough to check!!!)

But c'mon ... who DOESN'T Love Lucy?!?!  (kk)

 

(Well, maybe not DISCO Lucy so much ... but incredibly THIS is the version that became a hit!)