Mail Call LETTERS Exclusive Interview All-Star Amos Otis H. FRIEND M. Rivera - Man with a Message M. AUBRECHT First Match-up at Fenway H. FROMMER Angel In the Outfield D. McCOURT Exclusive Photos B. DiSALVO Yankee Doodles M. TERRY 2004 Predictions M. AUBRECHT Back Issues THE ARCHIVES Bombers Board CLASSIFIEDS NEW Uniform Guide eBooks Baseball-Almanac Editor's Note: We just purchased the Yankees Uniform Number Guide and have found it to be a great resource for lots of hard to find data! Yankees Cartoons Marvin Terry Prints Ballpark Blueprints Ballpark Architecture Portrait Matt's Restored Baseball Photos Pinstripe Press HOT OFF THE PRESS Completed The history of the AL/NL Divisional Series for Baseball-Almanac.com. GoodNews A new Christian-baseball newsletter dedicated to sharing a love for the Game and the Gospel. Yankees Trivia LAST MONTH Which former Yankee holds the MLB record for the most career leadoff homeruns? The answer may surprise you. Answer: Rickey Henderson Web Links FAN NETWORK BaseballAlmanac BaseballFever UltimateYankees Yankeesmania YankeesBoard BehindTheBombers NewYorkYankees TakeHimDowntown Bosux.com Harvey Frommer Cecilia Tan Steve Steinberg VirtualLibrarySport Portrait Matt's Coming Soon The Highlander AOL chatroom. Dates and times TBD. Look for our Email announcement! Volume 14 April 2004 Return to Front Page Email: The Highlander 5AM Wakeup Call? LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Email: Michael Aubrecht Website: Pinstripe Press BASEBALL IS AMERICA'S National Pastime. Over the last few decades however, its commercial appeal has spread well beyond the borders of the United States. I believe that this is good for the sport as many other countries are now experiencing the social benefits of baseball. Still this game in particular remains as one of the last true American traditions and must be preserved as such in order to keep its fledgling popularity alive. Why then has Major League Baseball once again compromised the "rights of the fans" by holding it's "official" Opening Day game between the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays at 5:30 AM in Japan? Baseball is huge there (perhaps even a bigger ticket draw than in the U.S.), AND they account for over 40% of MLB's international revenue. Therefore, I believe it simply comes down to the almighty dollar, which has compromised the integrity of this sport in more ways than I can personally count. Obviously (as with most U.S. products) money generated abroad takes priority over American interests. Don't get me wrong. I have NO problem with the Japanese hosting other MLB games and I'm sure they are thankful and elated to share this historic event with one of their national heroes. After all, they are GREAT fans. Still, I can't help but feel like something has been taken away from those of us left back in the states by "exporting" the FIRST game of the season. Any game, but the Opener would be more acceptable to me. To the league and owners I say this: Promoting Major League Baseball around the world is right... doing it at the expense of your remaining American fans isn't. Update: I wrote the above statement the day before the Opener. After all that complaining, I still watched the replay on ESPN2 and don't know what was worse, the game itself or the play-by-play done by the Baseball Tonight guys. UGH! View Press Release: New York City Baseball - The Last Golden Age, 1947–1957 New edition from the University of Wisconsin Press: - PDF format Adobe Acrobat Viewer "A must have for New York baseball fans of any era! " - The Pinstripe Press Portrait Matt's Digitally enhanced and colorized player photos WEBSITE SPOTLIGHT http://www.portraitmatt.50megs.com/ WE FIRST introduced Matt's outstanding photo-retouch work back in October of 2003 to rave reviews. Later, we asked him to provide us with members of the New York Highlanders and Yankees for our 2004 debut edition. He sent us 92 stunning images. Matt's web site currently contains over 700 player images, and will keep growing indefinitely. Each zipped file listed contains 20 pictures, and there is an index with all player names and which file they are contained in. At this site you will find colorized baseball player photos, dating as far back as 1874. These images, collected from various sources, have been digitally enhanced and colorized. The results truly bring these players to life. Now Available: a colorized panoramic photographic print of the 1910 Polo Grounds! If you like the way these colorized portraits look, wait until you see this panoramic photo. Check it out today! "When I get through managing, I'm going to open a kindergarten." Yankees skipper Billy Martin on managing professional baseball teams Frank Baker PLAYER PROFILE Source: Baseball Hall Of Fame Bio Born: March 13, 1886 - Died: June 28, 1963 (Trappe, Maryland) Teams: Philadelphia Athletics, New York Yankees (1916-1919, 1921-1922) Elected to Hall of Fame by Committee on Baseball Veterans: 1955 A POWERFUL SLUGGER of the dead ball era, as well as the first member of the New York Yankees elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Frank Baker manned the hot corner in Connie Mack's famous "$100,000 Infield." He led the American League in homers in 1911 and then hit two more in the World Series, earning him the nickname "Home Run." Baker later led the league in homers three more times, although he never hit more than 12 in an entire season, a result of playing in the dead ball era. Did you know... Over his 13-year major league career, Frank Baker never played a single big league inning at any position other than third base. Yankees Trivia ANSWER IN NEXT ISSUE Have a trivia question? Email it to us and maybe we'll use it. Name the pitcher who WON 20 games for the Yanks in '65, then LOST 20 in '66? Fast Facts YANKEES HISTORY 101 Source: Baseball-Library Player Biography AFTER BECOMING a regular in 1984, Donnie Baseball (aka Don Mattingly) established himself as one of the preeminent stars of the 1980s. He hit for average and power, fielded his position at first base with brilliance, and displayed a work ethic and charisma reminiscent of Yankee greats of the past. Actually, his home run power developed after his arrival in the majors, but he went on to set a couple impressive HR records in 1986. That year Mattingly set new Yankees marks for doubles (53) and hits (238) in a season, becoming the first Yankee since Lou Gehrig with three consecutive 200 hit seasons. During the 1987 season, Mattingly set or tied five remarkable major league records. He hit six grand slams to set a new single-season mark. (He had never hit one prior to 1987.) He tied Dale Long's 1956 record by homering in eight consecutive games from July 8 through July 18. His 10 homers during that period were a major league record for total homers in an eight game streak, and his concurrent streak of 10 games with at least one extra base hit broke Babe Ruth's 1921 AL record. The power streak ended on July 20, the night Mattingly tied the major league record of 22 putouts by a first baseman in a nine-inning game. RECRUITING VOLUNTEERS! Join the staff of our monthly Internet publication dedicated to baseball's most storied franchise. This is for fun, not work, but only serious parties apply. Write your own column, email it to us and we'll do the rest. Apply now at StlrsFan1@aol.com. The Pinstripe Press: https://www.angelfire.com/ny5/pinstripepress The Highlander: https://www.angelfire.com/ny5/thehighlander The Collector: https://www.angelfire.com/ny5/thecollector GoodNews: https://www.angelfire.com/ny5/goodnews Copyright © 2002-2003-2004 Pinstripe Press. All Rights Reserved. This online newsletter is not affiliated with the New York Yankees. The opinions expressed solely represent the contributor's and not the Pinstripe Press. Questions or comments in regards to a specific article should be sent directly to that writer's email. All questions, comments, advertising inquiries etc. should be sent to the Pinstripe Press at StlrsFan1@aol.com. Best when viewed with latest Internet Explorer or Netscape browsers in 1024x768.