SPORTS

years. I always made $40-50 a
game?'
When he married Florence,
a native Detroiter, Maloff
moved here and soon began a
40-year career as a cab driver
and vendor at what was then
Briggs Stadium. "I would
park my cab, go work the
ballpark, go out back driving
again .. .
"I finally got out of the cab
business. I got held up and I
figured 'That's enough for the
cab business.' "
Maloff now works part-time
at Farmer Jack on Greenfield
in Oak Park. He also works as
a school crossing guard in
Oak Park, where he lives, and
collects social security.
But it's his vending which
gained him some notoriety as

If his legs hold
up, Leon Maloff is
aiming to add two
more years to his
43-year career.

Leon Maloff was ready for opening day.

o f

■

Tiger Stadium vendor Leon Maloff has dished out
food since before any of today's Tigers were born.

MIKE ROSENBAUM

Sports Writer

50

FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 1989

oday is opening day
at Tiger Stadium,
and for the 43rd
straight year, Leon
Maloff will be on
hand, selling food to the Tiger
loyalists.
"Opening day is a good day
for everybody?" Maloff says.
"Everybody makes money on
opening day. The people are
happy and they're hungry."
Maloff began his vending
career as a boy in Syracuse,
N.Y. He would buy a ticket to
the Syracuse University foot-
ball games "and smuggle in
20 boxes of candy in a blanket
and walk around inside the
ballpark and sell it?' he
recalls. "I was doing that for

well as seniority among the
Tiger Stadium crew. Maloff
appeared in television, radio
and print ads for Hygrade's
Ball Park Franks in the '60s.
He was inspired to write a
poem praising the product he
sold. As a reward, the com-
pany president had a
25-pound ham delivered to
Maloff's home. Unfortunately,
it was gift Maloff could not
enjoy.
"We run a kosher house; we
don't eat ham, so we gave it
to our next door neighbors."
He will, however, sample his
own product outside his home.
"I eat anything on the out-
side, but not in the house."
Maloff has sold other pro-
ducts at Tiger Stadium, such
as peanuts and programs.
Now, with his seniority, he
gets his choice, usually select-
ing hot dogs. He will sell soft
drinks on hot days. The ven-
dors work on commission,
keeping 19 percent of their
receipts.
Although he likes baseball,
Maloff sees little of the game.
"The only time I watch the
ballgame is if something hap-
pens and the crowd yells. I'll
turn around and see what
happened . . . I'll turn around
and stop working for a second;
then I'll go right to work
again."
Once, Maloff was caught
with his back turned. About
20 years ago a batter hit a
foul ball into the upper deck
section where Maloff was
working. "It bounced off
about three or four chairs and
the ball landed right in my
mustard jar. Everybody got
splattered . . . Everybody
thought it was a big joke."

