A Few Who Didn't Quite Make it

A FEW WHO DIDN’T QUITE MAKE IT

February 21, 2011

Thanks to my old team mate and still active player, Ron Weiss, I was invited to attend the 2nd annual Alumni games at City College last week. Here's a school I didn't graduate from. And since New York University, the college I actually attended, never invited me anywhere, I thought this reunion would be perfect, especially with old friends.

Weiss, Belli, Malangone

So there we were, at the Nat Holman Gymnasium. All sorts of things were going on, like girls' fencing, basketball, and a batting cage!!! The coordinator of the event, Anthony Belli, was a guy who I hadn't seen since the Roy Hobbs tournaments in Fort Myers, Florida. Anthony threw us some rounds of batting practice. I felt 65 all over again!

Andy Stampfel, Head Men's Basketball Coach, conducted some of the other activities while writer Mike Harris was working on the biography of our old friend, John Malangone, who was clearly the star of the entire afternoon. His stories with the crowd ran for 2 hours.

Malangone

John, of course, was a member of the New York Yankees organization in the early 50's, and had all the talent to succeed Yogi Berra as a great catcher with the publicity to go with it. When the book is complete, and when the movie is finally produced, you will know that John, at age 5, accidentally killed his uncle with a javelin made out of an umbrella. That was the beginning of the end. He never thought he deserved any success, and promptly screwed up his life, purposely, with the Yankees. What he was actually saying was "Why should I do well and make a name for myself when I killed my own uncle? I deserve nothing."

When is professional career was over, I met John in 1957 and we played on the same team, "The Mel Greene Cubs". I managed and pitched. His buddy, Ron, taught him to read and write, and also got John's head back on.

In his 70's, John was still throwing knuckleballs instead of catching, but was enjoying life.

A few years ago, Phil Mushnick of the New York Post, did a great story on John, wondering when this fascinating story would be told. Writer, Gary Smith, wrote 12 pages about John in Sports Illustrated. Well..........we're getting closer to letting the baseball world know about the Malangone Story.

As for Ron Weiss, he is now 73 and is probably the oldest regular player in the country in over 40 leagues. The man can still hit. Ron couldn't make it to the big leagues either but played professionally in the Philadelphia Phillies organization. While he was still getting base hits, Ron taught physical education for 30 years.