Port Chester, N.Y., May 10, 2013 — On Saturday, May 11, the Yankees will be in Kansas City, playing a road game. Nothing unique there; they’re in a stretch where they’ll play 26 of 40 away from home. But 110 years ago the at-the-time Highlanders were on the road too, facing Detroit in Bennett Field, as described by Ray Istorico in “Greatness in Waiting: An Illustrated History of the Early New York Yankees.” They had played 16 games in their initial New York season, 10 of them away, with an 8-8 record, and that day’s 8-2 win pushed them one game above .500.

They would win more games than they lost that year, and contend for the pennant in 1904. Despite struggles to come, being a winning team would become something of a habit, as would doing so largely by hitting with power. It was that day in Detroit that first baseman “Popup John” Ganzel would hit the first home run, the first four-bagger, in the team’s history.

New York’s American League team would not always forge winning records, nor would they always hit for power; Ganzel’s inside-the-park shot was one of his three that season. He would tie Patsy Dougherty for the team lead in 1904 with six. Ganzel, whom Marty Appel, in his “Pinstripe Empire,” reveals was recovering from smallpox when the Highlanders signed him to a three-year deal, was from a family of athletes, and baseball was the sport of choice for many of them. Charlie, one of five Ganzel brothers to play pro ball, was a major-league catcher for 14 years, and John’s nephew, Babe Ganzel, would play for Washington in 1927 and 1928.

The family hailed from Kalamazoo, Michigan, a small city with virtually no pinstriped connection, at least until a transplanted kid from New Jersey grew up there and learned to play the grand old game. It was from a distance of some 700 miles that Derek Jeter dreamed of playing shortstop for the Yankees.

Ganzel’s career had other highlights, not just with the Highlanders, but with several teams. He led major league first basemen in fielding and in total chances with the Giants in 1901, and again with the Highlanders in ’03. John had the first RBI in the team’s intial home game, a 6-2 win in Hilltop Park over Washington on April 30, 1903. And Ganzel started the team’s first triple play six days before he hit his home run, spearing a line drive and stepping on first before throwing to the shortstop in an 11-3 win over the Philadelphia Athletics on May 5.

John forged a strong identity off the field as well. His time with the Highlanders did not end happily. Once Clark Griffith brought in “Prince Hal” Chase to play first in 1905, the stubborn manager refused to grant Ganzel his release so he could pursue a dream. John had bought the Grand Rapids franchise in the Western League, but could not play first for them that year because of baseball’s “reserve clause.” Becoming one of the first in a line of independent ballplayers who were businessmen too, John bought his contract out for $3,000 in 1906. But he still had good major league years ahead of him; Ganzel raced to a National League high in triples with 17 in 1907 with Cincinnati, and he led NL first basemen in fielding with the Reds in 1908 as well.

Ten years after Ganzel smacked his franchise’s first four-bagger, the team would become known as the Yankees, and 10 years further on, they opened the House That Ruth Built, across the Harlem River in the Bronx. This iconic venue served the team well until they replaced it with a new Palace across 161st Street after 86 years, 26 of them Championship seasons. And in the team’s 86th year in the American League, Claudell Washington hit the Yankees’ 10,000th home run, the first major league team to reach that figure, in a 7-6 extra-inning win over Minnesota, on April 20, 1988.

Impressive number, 10,000. But it started with John Ganzel’s first, his

Bellwether Blast

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!