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was describing the action on
the diamond in sponsor-
alliterations, such as "a
Ballantine blast," or "a White
Owl wallop," or "the ball is
foul by the length of a White
Owl."
"The idea was to get in an
extra plug for the sponsor, so
maybe they'd extend my con-
tract," he said, laughing.
Detractors, however, com-
plained that Allan was a rav-
ing fan, that you could tell the
score by the tone of his voice.
If the Yankees were losing,
they said, he sounded like
death. This accusation brings
color to Allen's neck even now.
"I never thought I was pre-
judiced, just partisan," he told
me. "There's a difference,
okay?'
Mel knows he has tendency
to ramble; he calls it
"wandering?' Yogi Berra was
once asked what he thought
of • Allen. Said Yogi: "Too
many woids."
Probe him about the great
Lou Gehrig and you find out
even more about Mel Allen.
"I remember one time Lou
came into the dugout before a
Born Melvin Israel,
he was brought up
in a Conservative
Jewish family in
Birmingham, Ala.
game," he said. "He only had
a few months to live. I heard
him shuffling along on his
cane down the passageway
leading from the dressing
rooms. It broke you up to see
a man of Lou's fierce pride
and physical stature so crippl-
ed now He came over and sat
down and patted me on the
knee and said, 'Mel, when I
was out there playing ball all
the time I couldn't listen to
your broadcasts, but now that
I'm no longer playing I listen
as often as I can. It keeps me
going! All I could say to him
Was: 'Thanks a lot, Lou!
"And then I jumped up off
the bench and stumbled out
of the dugout. He must have
thought I was crazy jumping
up like that after getting the
greatest compliment of my
life. But after he said that to
me I just couldn't look into his
face any longer. I walked
down the passageway he'd
just come through and press-
ed my head against the wall
and bawled like a baby.
"In all my years of broad-
casting Yankee games, there
have been three individual
accomplishments of such
walloping importance that
they make all the tape-
measure homeruns and
miracle catches and dramatic
no-hit games take a back
seat," he continued. They are?
"DiMaggio's 56-game hitting
streak was one. The others
were Rogers Maris' 61 home
runs in one season and Don
Larsen's perfect 1956 World
Series game?' (A historic day
for this reporter too, who was
at Yankee Stadium to watch
Larsen retire 27 Dodger hit-
ters, 3 up and 3 down, every
inning for nine innings). "The
Yankees' clubhouse was like
Times Square on V-J Day,"
said Mel.
Les Brown and his Band of
Renown were swinging to a
new hit song in 1941: It was
"Joltin' Joe DiMaggio." "No
wonder," he said. "That was
the year Joe began the
longest hitting streak in the
history of baseball — 56
straight games — enthralling
a nation and his teammates
as well. He played with such
fluid grace and regality.
There was no flaw in the
magnificent equipment he
brought to the game. Other
men hit more home runs, hit
for higher averages, - stole
more bases, but DiMaggio
was the complete ballplayer.
He was the class of New
York?'
Despite all the problems of
current Yankees — both
players and management —
you can't get Mel to say 'an
unkind word about his team.
One suspects that beneath
his brown tweed suit is
pinstriped underwear. Red
Barber, his colleague in the
booth for a couple of years,
put it best: "The Yankees
were his wife and his life?'
Born Melvin Israel, he was
brought up in a Conservative
Jewish family in Birm-
ingham, Ala. His father own-
ed a retail clothing store. As
a child he showed an interest
in baseball, and later on,
while attending the Universi-
ty of Alabama Law School, he
broadcast the college's foot-
ball games. Though he
graduated he never practiced
law, thanks to Ted Husing of
CBS ("He was the greatest
broadcaster of them all"), who
heard his announcing one-day
and advised him to come to
New York.
Allen did, passed the audi-
tion, and in 1937 became a
staff announcer for CBS
radio, taking the name Mel
Allen at the "suggestion" of
management. Before long, he
was introducing the likes of
Perry Como, Duke Ellington,
and Benny Goodman to a na-
tional radio audience. "I had
a lot of fun in those years," he
said softly.
He broadcast his first
Yankee game as an assistant
to Arch McDonald, and when
McDonald left shortly after,
Allen became head an-
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