THE MARTIN LUTHER KING MITZVAH: THE YANKEE GAME WITH AL DOWNING PITCHING
In my novel The Martin Luther King Mitzvah (to be published by Fitzroy Books in 2018), my main character Adam Jacobs’ father takes Adam to Yankee Stadium on June 9, 1967 to see a New York Yankees game against the Chicago White Sox. The Yankee pitcher is Al Downing, the first Negro pitcher that ever played for the Yankees. I chose to highlight this game with Al Downing pitching as it works along with the Martin Luther King theme of the book. In my research, the historical reference of this game just fell into place and so I used it, as I did many of the other historical incidents in this book. My research led me from Martin Luther King speeches to Pete Seeger concerts to New York Mets and New York Yankees baseball games, and it’s all in the book.
In real life, my father took me to many Yankee games when I was a kid, at the old Yankee Stadium as described in the novel. Here, they had these pillars holding up the grandstands and the ball when hit to the outfield would pass between the pillars and you’d have to catch a glimpse of the ball as it came in and out of view. It was the house that Ruth built, where the right-field home runs did not have to be hit as far as the home runs to center and left field.
I saw many Yankee games with Dad in 1961 when Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle were battling it out in the home run derby, as they called it then, and which Roger Maris eventually won as he beat Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record with 61 home runs. I went to Yankee games with Dad in 1967, when I was thirteen, and we may well have gone to the game when Al Downing pitched against the White Sox. Dad was a huge Al Downing fan, probably because (as I explain about Adam’s father in the book) he did like underdogs. Also, he respected Al Downing as a Negro pioneer in a white man’s league.
On June 16, 2009, I was fortunate enough to see my beloved Yankees play the Washington Nationals at the new Yankee Stadium that was opened that year. I missed the pillars and the smell of the cigars that I remembered from my youth in the old Yankee Stadium, but it was still the Yankees and I was happy to be there. In Photo 1, I am standing outside of Gate 6, and the exterior looks similar to the old stadium; in Photo 2, I am waiting for the game to begin near my seats along the first base line in right field. You can see the Yankees doing their pregame stretches in the background at left. In Photo 3, the great Mariano Rivera pitches the Yankees to victory with a scoreless ninth inning as the Yanks won the game 5-3. You can see Rivera on the pitcher’s mound near the center of the photograph.
I wasn’t planning on including a Yankees game in my novel, but when I came across the reference to Al Downing, I just had to go for it.
