The Sommer Frieze

Yankee fans may remember Marty Appel from his days as the Yanks’ PR Director in the early 1970s. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Appel was executive producer of Yankee telecasts for WPIX Channel 11. You can check out Marty’s rich life in sports on his Wikipedia entry.

Marty passes along this message:

Legendary Sports Prints (www.LSprints.com) sells top quality art at
reasonable prices; they have a lot of Yankee material, but two in particular
got my attention.

Both are by Bill Purdom. One shows Mantle at bat with Maris on deck
from 1960, and the other Ruth at bat with Gehrig on deck from 1929, the
first time players wore numbers. The Mantle/Maris one shows the left field
grandstand, and the Ruth/Gehrig one the right field grandstand. Side by
side, they make a beautiful matched set. Very cool holiday gifts for Yankee
fans.

What I like is the attention to detail the artist showed. Looking at those pieces, you see the Crow and Brooks Robinson in the 1960 piece. The 402 to LF and the old balloon chest protector the home plate umps wore in those days.

As for the second one, the artist paid attention. Back in those days, the third base dugout was the Yanks’ home dugout. I believe they switched in the late 1940s but don’t recall the exact year.