Meanwhile, before blogs...

By foxsports
Published

I just picked up a collection of Joseph Mitchell's pre-New Yorker writing, and was well-pleased to find a couple of short baseball items. One of them's about a 1930s first baseman named Buddy Hassett, and begins this way:

One blistering afternoon I was sitting in the dressing room of the Brooklyn Dodgers, which is reputed to be a baseball team, when John (Buddy) Hassett walked in. Mr. Hassett is twenty-five years old and he is a plumbers' helper, a crooner and a left-handed first baseman. He lives in the Bronx and to reach Ebbets Field he had to ride one hour and twenty minutes on the subway. However, he was cheerful.


I wouldn't suggest for a moment that the old days were better. They sure were different, though.