ebay Item Of The Day
Today’s bit of ephemera is a copy of the New York Times from June 12, 1923, which contains an article announcing the Yankees signing of a local college boy by the name of Gehrig. Did he make good as a professional ball player or did he make a drastic mistake when he, as the article states, “sacrificed two years of academic study to join the Yankees”...?
A couple of things about Gehrig that came to mind when seeing this article.
*Why didn’t the Yankees sign him out of high school? He famously hit a ball completely out of Wrigley Field at 17 and also played for Hartford in the Eastern League when he was 18, so it wasn’t like he was under the radar.
*After New York signed him out of Columbia, he tore it up at Hartford in both 1923 and 1924, indicating he was ready for the big show long before he finally became a regular. Gehrig probably would have been an improvement over incumbent first baseman Wally Pipp in 1923 and definitely would have been in 1924. Still, he had to wait until June 2, 1925 for his shot. We all know what happened then.
*The article misreports his age as 23.
*Mike Gazella, another signee mentioned in the article, was a very old college senior. He was 27 when signed by the Yankees and did see action with the team in 1923 and was later a lesser member of the great Yankee teams of 1926, 1927 and 1928. The article states he was one of the most-respected college infielders at the time of his signing, also, although only 160 pounds, he was known for his football prowess. He started his gridiron career at Mansfield State Normal College (now Mansfield State University of Pennsylvania), but left when the United States entered World War I. According to a 1920 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, he “gained fame” as a soldier in the 79th Infantry Division for which he also played football.
*The other player mentioned in the article is Edward Vanderbach, “a former Fordham catcher.” Baseball-Reference.com has no record of an Edward Vanderbach playing professionally. They do list a Harry W. Vanderbach catching for the Buffalo team of the International League in 1923, although he’d played for Jersey City in 1920.
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