A PREVIOUS POST
12-19-06
Larry Sherry passed away yesterday at the age of 71. He had been battling cancer for the last 12 years and yesterday nothing could save….”the saver.”
The name Larry Sherry will mean nothing to the non-sports fan, or to the sports fan born after 1959….unless of course the love of baseball history is a tangent of that person’s character.
On February 11th 1959 I turned 13 years old. In October of 1959 the Dodgers won their second World Series and the first one in Los Angeles since the move from Brooklyn the year before, when they finished last in the division.
During the 1959 season I played my first year of Babe Ruth baseball and probably listened to every Dodger game on the radio…which means I spent the entire season paying strict attention to the words and the melodic vocal ranges of the legendary Vin Scully.
Most of the time I was listening to the radio in our back yard, and most of the time I had a bat in my hand, when the Dodgers were on offense, or a glove on my hand, when they were playing defense. In 1959 the only games televised were the away games in San Francisco, with the Giants…I think.
Keep in mind that people did not have multiple televisions in those days…and a 13 year olds choice for what television show would be viewed….was way down the list. I suspect that I got to watch some games, but generally Mr. Scully was my connection to the Los Angeles Dodger experience…and thank God I can say this….AND STILL IS, TO THIS VERY DAY.
The importance of Vin Scully to my childhood is a separate story and one which would require an editor and a publisher.
Today I’m only going to discuss the passing of a sports hero…a hero to a young boy who will never forget the emergence of a player who had nothing to do with the team until August. The Dodgers had been playing baseball since April and when a rookie gets called up in August and ends up being the World Series MVP…it’s a huge deal. “The Closer” was not a term in baseball in 1959 and it was rather hard to remove a starting pitcher, if he had any kind of lead. In those days salaries for starting pitchers were very much determined by how many complete games were pitched. Relief pitchers were not highly regarded.
Larry Sherry might be the beginning of what “The Closer” has become. He was a starting pitcher, who actually threw a shutout for the Dodgers when he first came up in August. They decided that he could be more important in the bullpen and basically the game of baseball has never been the same. It’s not a bad change…it’s just a different game than it was when starters always wanted to finish something “they started.”
Larry Sherry, from August to the end of the World Series, was the single most important reason the Dodgers have a World Championship banner from 1959.
Of course there were other important contributors to that team, but Larry Sherry was the fresh rookie who never seemed to fail at his job. The act of failing is a major part of playing baseball and the art of over-coming failure is one of the main attributes to being a good ballplayer. Larry Sherry, in my mind, never failed that year…and he came from no where after the season was half over…and led them to a World Series victory.
Larry Sherry was also a name that was never shortened to Larry, or Sherry….it was always Larry Sherry…which is the way a poetic name should be said…Larry Sherry.
Now I have no idea what his mom and dad’s names were….but he did have an older brother named Norm, which probably is the reason they decided to give Larry a poetic name. You name your first boy Norm and when having a second opportunity to create a special name that rhymes…you simply do not pass up the chance to create Larry Sherry.
Larry Sherry won 53 games in his 11 year major league career. In 1959 Larry Sherry was the “King of the world.” And to every young baseball fan between the ages of 8 and 18, who lived in Los Angeles in 1959…who are now 55 to 65…Larry Sherry will forever be one of our first heroes. And when first heroes pass away…a small part of us passes away. It’s not a part that we need; it’s just a part we loved. A part of our childhood that helped saved the day, the month, the season and the year.
Thank you Larry Sherry, for the life long memory, and for being a trail blazer in the world of baseball. Eric Gagne will always be remembered for what he did in 3 amazing seasons for the Dodgers…while Larry Sherry will always be remembered for what he did in three amazing months.
Three months in 1959….just seems like yesterday.
Michael Timothy McAlevey
12-19-06
Larry Sherry passed away yesterday at the age of 71. He had been battling cancer for the last 12 years and yesterday nothing could save….”the saver.”
The name Larry Sherry will mean nothing to the non-sports fan, or to the sports fan born after 1959….unless of course the love of baseball history is a tangent of that person’s character.
On February 11th 1959 I turned 13 years old. In October of 1959 the Dodgers won their second World Series and the first one in Los Angeles since the move from Brooklyn the year before, when they finished last in the division.
During the 1959 season I played my first year of Babe Ruth baseball and probably listened to every Dodger game on the radio…which means I spent the entire season paying strict attention to the words and the melodic vocal ranges of the legendary Vin Scully.
Most of the time I was listening to the radio in our back yard, and most of the time I had a bat in my hand, when the Dodgers were on offense, or a glove on my hand, when they were playing defense. In 1959 the only games televised were the away games in San Francisco, with the Giants…I think.
Keep in mind that people did not have multiple televisions in those days…and a 13 year olds choice for what television show would be viewed….was way down the list. I suspect that I got to watch some games, but generally Mr. Scully was my connection to the Los Angeles Dodger experience…and thank God I can say this….AND STILL IS, TO THIS VERY DAY.
The importance of Vin Scully to my childhood is a separate story and one which would require an editor and a publisher.
Today I’m only going to discuss the passing of a sports hero…a hero to a young boy who will never forget the emergence of a player who had nothing to do with the team until August. The Dodgers had been playing baseball since April and when a rookie gets called up in August and ends up being the World Series MVP…it’s a huge deal. “The Closer” was not a term in baseball in 1959 and it was rather hard to remove a starting pitcher, if he had any kind of lead. In those days salaries for starting pitchers were very much determined by how many complete games were pitched. Relief pitchers were not highly regarded.
Larry Sherry might be the beginning of what “The Closer” has become. He was a starting pitcher, who actually threw a shutout for the Dodgers when he first came up in August. They decided that he could be more important in the bullpen and basically the game of baseball has never been the same. It’s not a bad change…it’s just a different game than it was when starters always wanted to finish something “they started.”
Larry Sherry, from August to the end of the World Series, was the single most important reason the Dodgers have a World Championship banner from 1959.
Of course there were other important contributors to that team, but Larry Sherry was the fresh rookie who never seemed to fail at his job. The act of failing is a major part of playing baseball and the art of over-coming failure is one of the main attributes to being a good ballplayer. Larry Sherry, in my mind, never failed that year…and he came from no where after the season was half over…and led them to a World Series victory.
Larry Sherry was also a name that was never shortened to Larry, or Sherry….it was always Larry Sherry…which is the way a poetic name should be said…Larry Sherry.
Now I have no idea what his mom and dad’s names were….but he did have an older brother named Norm, which probably is the reason they decided to give Larry a poetic name. You name your first boy Norm and when having a second opportunity to create a special name that rhymes…you simply do not pass up the chance to create Larry Sherry.
Larry Sherry won 53 games in his 11 year major league career. In 1959 Larry Sherry was the “King of the world.” And to every young baseball fan between the ages of 8 and 18, who lived in Los Angeles in 1959…who are now 55 to 65…Larry Sherry will forever be one of our first heroes. And when first heroes pass away…a small part of us passes away. It’s not a part that we need; it’s just a part we loved. A part of our childhood that helped saved the day, the month, the season and the year.
Thank you Larry Sherry, for the life long memory, and for being a trail blazer in the world of baseball. Eric Gagne will always be remembered for what he did in 3 amazing seasons for the Dodgers…while Larry Sherry will always be remembered for what he did in three amazing months.
Three months in 1959….just seems like yesterday.
Michael Timothy McAlevey
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