August 1, 2024 • 52 mins
Step into the past with me and my dear friend Cookie Charres, a Navy veteran and lifelong New York Yankees aficionado, as we journey through iconic baseball memories and personal stories. From growing up in New York City and attending Yankee games with his family to his grandfather's colorful days as a bookie, Cookie's anecdotes capture the essence of a bygone era and the timeless allure of America's favorite pastime. Our shared passion for baseball, ignited through the local non-profit Cooking With Love, sets the stage for an enriching conversation filled with nostalgia and heart.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joy (00:03):
Thanks for tuning in.
This podcast is all aboutbringing joy through
storytelling and conversation.
I'll drop some thoughts on thelife lessons I'm growing through
.
You'll be inspired andentertained.
It'll be time well spent.
I promise you that.
So sit back and relax.
Let's do this thing.
This is going to be a funepisode.
We're changing it up andintroducing a guest today.
(00:24):
Joining me on the mic is myfriend, Cookie Charres.
Cookie Charres (00:29):
Yeah, I'm Joyces guest today and I'm very proud
and very excited to be here.
Thank you.
Joy (00:36):
Before we get into the conversation, cookie, I want to
tell the listeners a littlestory about how you and I are
connected.
So I volunteer for a wonderfullocal non-profit here in Key
West called Cooking With Love,whose mission is to provide our
senior and most vulnerablecommunity a weekly meal.
Every Saturday, rain or shine,approximately 250 meals are
(00:56):
delivered.
I've been volunteering for afew months now and look forward
to that time in my week.
Well, I think it was my secondtime out delivering.
I rolled up on your porch andfrom the minute we saw each
other, we were fast friends.
I was wearing a Conk baseballshirt and you were wearing a New
York Yankee T-shirt.
(01:16):
Right and well, the rest ishistory.
As they say, we started talkingbaseball and we haven't stopped
since.
Is that how you remember it?
Cookie Charres (01:25):
Absolutely, Absolutely.
It was a gift because, you know, being a senior citizen, there
at the Senior Citizen Plaza, Ilive by myself and I don't get a
chance to really converse witha lot of people.
But the fact that I was able toconverse with Joy and
immediately we started talkingbaseball and baseball man is a
(01:47):
universal language it is man and, and you know, along with
baseball, specifically a NewYork Yankee fan you're.
Joy (01:55):
You're a historian, I mean, you spit out stats and
statistics going all the wayback to 1953, you know, when you
went to your first game.
You tell me so many stories andI want you to tell the stories,
but I remember them.
But before we get too muchfurther into baseball, what else
should go into yourintroduction?
(02:15):
You're a friend, a father,grandfather, veteran of the Navy
.
Yes, what else am I leaving out.
Cookie Charres (02:22):
Yes, yeah, what else am I leaving out?
I'm a son to a parent, Raphaeland Cecilia Charres, who are
deceased right now.
Right now They'll stilldeceased.
There's no such thing as, rightnow they're gone.
I was born and raised in NewYork City, born in Harlem and
raised in the Bronx, and, yes, Iserved 35 years in the United
(02:44):
States Navy, went to Vietnam in1968, and came back in 1975.
But in between all that time, Inever lost touch with baseball.
Baseball was my little escape,but, yeah, I was raised in New
York and everybody in my familywas a Yankee fan.
(03:06):
My grandfather, in fact, was abookie and he'd take bets.
Joy (03:14):
This is a new story.
You hadn't told me this.
Cookie Charres (03:16):
No Go ahead, go ahead.
My grandfather was a bookie.
He also ran the bolita If youguys know what the bolita is,
the illegal numbers.
Back in the day before therewas a lottery and my grandfather
took bets and he would, ofcourse, take people bet against
the Yankees and he was alwayswinning because the Yankees back
(03:36):
then in the 50s were unbeatable, okay, and so he just let
people off because the Yankeeswould win all the time.
And he give them odds and theystill would win.
That's how I got, and everybodymy family was involved in that
scheme or the side of thebusiness, and so I grew up in
(03:58):
the streets following baseball.
If I didn't play baseball orlisten to it before there was TV
, I would definitely playstickball or stoop ball, and it
all has to do with baseball.
To me, life is like baseballyou get the first base, second
base, third base and then,before you know it, it's time to
(04:19):
go home.
Joy (04:23):
And there you have it, folks.
Now you know why I wanted toget this guy on the mic.
He's got one story afteranother.
You told me one story aboutthat.
You remember, you and you andthe kids going to the game with
your uncle.
You're all packed into a yellowcab yeah, and headed out to.
Cookie Charres (04:40):
We had a tradition that, and on some days
we would go to my aunt's house.
My father had 13 brothers andsisters.
One of them was TT, iris, andthe other aunt lived upstairs,
pura Now they're both deceasednow and all my uncles are gone
too, but we would go there onSundays, have Sunday dinner and,
(05:02):
of course, be in Puerto Ricanfrom the Bronx, you know, from
Harlem, wherever it was beingPuerto Rican from the Bronx, you
know, and from Harlem, whereverit was Puerto Ricans.
In New York.
We have a habit of havingfamily get-togethers and there
was a lot of drinking back then,you know, and it was
traditional.
So my aunt would make friedchicken, pack sandwiches, and
(05:22):
one day my father was indisposed.
He was up the river, you know.
He was serving a little timefor something he wasn't supposed
to do.
Joy (05:32):
He was taking some classes.
Cookie Charres (05:34):
Yeah, he was going to college.
He called that going to college, you know.
And so anyway my uncles decidedwe're gonna go take Cookie to
the baseball game and they wereplaying Cleveland.
I remember that specificallythat day and we packed in so we
got the lunches and everythingelse.
In those days you can bringcoolers, you know, to the ball
(05:57):
game.
You know now you can't do that,but we get into it.
They held a cab and it was achecker cab.
I don't know if you guys arefamiliar with checkered cabs in
New York.
They're like humongous little.
They're yellow cabs but theylook.
You could sit four in the backseat and then you had little,
what they call jump seats in theback and the front.
Joy (06:19):
So you could put kids in there.
I thought those yellowcheckered cabs were just on the
movies.
No, they're real.
Those yellow checkered cabswere just on the movies.
No, they're real.
You really see those in.
Cookie Charres (06:24):
Newark.
Oh yeah, I rode in them all thetime.
In fact I prefer to ride inthem because they had a lot of
leg room, not the other oneswhere you have this plastic
thing.
In those days they didn't haveplastic partitions, they just
had.
You can talk to the driver, youcan lean over.
You know, now, with all themoney in a slot now, it looks
(06:44):
like a speakeasy now compared toback in the old days.
Joy (06:47):
So you all pile into the back of the cab and you got
fried chicken and sandwichespacked up Beer, beer.
Cookie Charres (06:57):
Yeah, yeah, we had Valentine beer.
Remember the Yankees weresponsored by whom back then?
Valentine?
That's why my man, red Barber,and Mel Allen, who would
announce the games back then,used to say baseball and
Valentine okay.
And when Mickey Mantle, you hita home run and they go, and
(07:18):
there goes another Valentineblast by the Mick, you know and
it's time to pull, and they goright into a commercial.
You know, in those days theywould verbalize a commercial.
They'd read it, you know.
So this is where the Mick pullsout his can of cold Ballantyne.
It's time for you folks outthere who are Yankee fans pull
out yours, because now Mick ismaking his trip around the bases
(07:41):
, you can have a cold one.
And that's the way I looked atit.
I remember that day so muchbecause when I walked into the
stadium as a kid, you know justthe experience of the smell.
You know the smell of thepeanuts, the Crackerjacks, the
(08:04):
smoke, the beer.
Back then, in those days, youhad to dress up to go to the
stadium.
People dressed up to wear suits.
I had to wear.
I wore a shirt and a tie and apair of shorts.
We walked into the stadium andI remember it was dark, your
eyes were adjusting from thesunlight outside to the stadium,
darkness on the inside beforeyou get to the actual the
sunlight outside to the stadium,darkness on the inside before
(08:25):
you get to the actual ramp goingup to the seats.
And I remember distinctivelywhen we got to our section.
You know we were in the righthand stands, right field stands,
right before you get to thebleachers.
You know cheap seats but inthose days they were considered
pretty good.
I think in those days thoseseats pretty good, I think those
in those days those seats werea buck 25 and I was considered a
(08:47):
lot of money yeah, a dollar 25,not 125, a dollar 25, and uh,
and if you wanted to sit in thebleachers it was 50 cents, okay,
but anyway, I get up to theramp, going up there, and
they're holding my hand and thefirst thing I see is, all of a
sudden, this flash.
I felt like I was Darth Vaderin the Wizard of Oz.
(09:08):
You know, it's like all of asudden hey, uncle, uncle Eddie,
I guess we're not in Kansasanymore.
And I saw this green field,this massive green field,
because this was the old stadium, not this little ballpark they
have now, which is like a littleleague park.
It was 410 feet dead center.
Back then, the monuments wereon a field.
(09:31):
There wasn't a separate museumin the back, separated from the
park.
Joy (09:35):
So they were on the playing field.
Cookie Charres (09:37):
They were on the playing field.
So if you play center and youhit a ball out there behind the
monuments, by the time you grabit you have it inside the park
home.
Talk about a warning track.
A warning track, the monumentwas your warning track.
You know how many times Mickeyhit that monument to grab a ball
.
Oh my God, it was sensational.
But the thing is that, the thingthat I remember to this day, I
(09:57):
can still smell that, the smellof the hot dog, the hot peanuts,
and just that visualization ofwhat seemed green, massive green
on the blue sky and people.
Just you know, yo, yo, yo getyour perogarams.
Perogarams Can't tell yourplayers without your perogarams.
(10:18):
I mean that just stillresonates in my head and as a
kid it's very impressionable,you know.
And then watching your favoriteplayers come up, you know, in
those days, in 53 Phil Rizzutowas still playing shortstop,
yeah, yogi Berra behind theplate.
You had Whitey Ford on the bumpor the mound.
(10:40):
Center field was, and that daywas Mickey Mantle right field,
field, can't remember, to behonest, they played right field,
I have to look that up.
Left field I think they put TomTresh back there.
He was also a utility man whoalso played infield.
The infield consisted of CleetBoyer III.
Shortstop was Phil Rizzuto.
(11:00):
Second base was either BobbyRichardson or Tom Tresh.
First base was Bill Scarrin theMoose they called him.
And let me tell you and Iremember this like it was
absolutely yesterday and son ofa gun, we were losing to the
Cleveland Indians three to two.
We had two men on base and thebottom of the ninth.
(11:23):
Guess what happens?
Like the stories we hear as akid, the mitt comes up to the
plate, two outs bottom of theninth and you got two men on
base and he's got two strikes onhim and he's batting lefty.
I was about to ask which wayhe's batting lefty, he's batting
lefty, he's a switch hitter, sothe greatest switch hitter in
(11:43):
the history of baseball.
And he takes that swing, hegets two strikes on him and he's
following him off and followinghim off and I think on the
mound that day I forget, I thinkit was, it couldn't have been
Ferguson Jenkins, because heplayed for the Cubs.
I forget who was pitching forthe Cleveland Indians.
Anyway, it was a reliever atthat point, didn't have closers,
(12:05):
back then they called them justrelievers.
And he fouls a couple of backmore and then he takes a mighty
swing and guess what?
The freaking ball comesdirectly towards our section and
it lands six rows in front ofus.
Joy (12:21):
Are you kidding me?
And?
Cookie Charres (12:22):
this is the upper deck, okay, and we had an
overhang then called the freeze,in front of us.
Are you kidding me?
And this is the upper deck,okay, and over the?
And we had an overhang that'scalled the freeze.
It's named the freeze and itlanded right there and it just
missed hitting our seats and oursection by, just like I said, a
couple of rows, a couple ofseats down that way.
But we won the game at thebottom of the ninth, and that's
(12:44):
my recollection of my first gameat Yankee Stadium.
Joy (12:49):
So your first game.
You're there with all thepeople you love, right and the
Yankees win the game.
Cookie Charres (12:55):
They win the game.
Joy (12:56):
In the bottom of the ninth.
That's right, the Mick.
You call him the Mick, the Mickyou mentioned earlier.
He batted from either side ofthe plate.
Cookie Charres (13:04):
That's right, he's supposed to hit it.
Joy (13:05):
Arguably the best hitter in baseball.
Cookie Charres (13:07):
Ain't no arguing about that.
The man, the man was a beast onboth sides of the plate.
It didn't matter, you threw itin.
You know what.
You better be ambidextrousbecause, no matter what happens,
he's going to hit that, he'sgoing to make contact and he hit
line drives.
He sprayed that ball.
If they had stats back thenyou'd be amazed.
(13:29):
They couldn't even keep up theamount of his this man had.
He struck out a lot but youknow, when he made contact that
sucker would hit thempractically out of the ballpark.
You can actually see the Ltrain going by, because that's
how hard the L train, theelevator train, was back then.
You could see it riding rightdown.
You can hear the chute, thetractor, just the noise of the
(13:51):
tractor wheels hitting thetractor.
You know from your seat.
Sometimes we did the wall.
The fans would say KK, keep itdown.
You conductor, just keep itdown.
You know.
Joy (14:05):
You're ruining the atmosphere.
Cookie Charres (14:07):
I'm going to tell you.
Joy (14:07):
Slow that train down, yeah.
Cookie Charres (14:09):
I'm going to tell you just a quick piggyback
to that story.
One time it was the first timeI went up there to Yankee
Stadium by subway.
My first recollection of thatis what.
The last stop before you get tothe elevator the later part of
the journey was a stop called149th Street.
(14:31):
Okay, and 149th Street beforeyou get to the elevator part of
the train, and then you'd sitand I'd love to go to the first
car because I wanted to see thetunnel.
And the tunnel, would you know,I would smile from ear to ear
because the actual you're comingout of a tunnel from pure
(14:53):
darkness and you saw this lightat the end of the tunnel, like
you were going to heaven.
The very first stop on that rideon the elevator part of the
train was 161st Street andRiverside and it stayed up there
.
Right down on the train saidYankee Stadium, you know.
So it was basically YankeeStadium that was here next stop
(15:15):
and I remember that just seeingthat and I was like, oh my God,
you know, this is so cool.
I died and went to heaven.
I'm at Yankee Stadium and allthe people would go from there
and at that time in the platformthey would have a ramp that
goes straight into the stadium.
And so you go again fromdarkness to light, from light to
(15:35):
darkness, and then into theactual.
You could see the field, andthat's when you realize that
you've reached Mecca.
Joy (15:42):
Yeah, because your feet, never really hit the ground.
Cookie Charres (15:44):
No, you're at the Cathedral of Baseball
Stadiums back then.
They still call it theCathedral because Yankee Stadium
is Yankee, although it's stilla small ballpark now compared to
those days.
But the thing is that back thenit was a cathedral because of
the frieze.
I don't know if you're familiar, guys, if you're familiar with
the frieze the original stadiumIn.
(16:11):
In fact, they have it at thenew stadium now because they're
replicated.
It's that ornate right, thatornate thing that hangs down
from the roof.
Well, I mean, let me uh tag onthat one, because I wasn't there
for this game, but so wait aminute, let me.
Joy (16:20):
Let me stop you right there .
See.
Earlier you said mick hit thefreeze he did one game.
Cookie Charres (16:26):
He hit the freeze.
I wasn't there for that.
He hit that.
And that's just supposed to befor decoration.
It was supposed to be fordecoration but he missed it by
something like 12 inches or so,or 15 inches it could have been
a whole foot, who knows, or afoot and a half Of going out of
the stadium and the freeze keptit in there, but it was
(16:46):
estimated to be like 620 feet.
If you Google that now in thisday and age, you'll see.
They'll actually show you onYouTube him hitting a ball up
there and they actually put astraddle cast of like a laser on
it to show you exactly.
That would have been thelongest home run in the history
of baseball to this day, if youwould take an estimation.
Joy (17:05):
Right if they were keeping that now.
Yeah.
Cookie Charres (17:07):
And those are the things I remember as a kid.
I mean to me.
I've been a Yankee fan sinceand sometimes I feel that I wish
I wasn't, because I'm sofrustrated now with them.
Joy (17:18):
Well, let's talk about that for a minute.
So you're like 1953, talkingabout like 70 years ago, plus
right, and you've been a Yankeefan.
Cookie Charres (17:28):
Since.
Joy (17:29):
Winning, lots of winning lots of titles, yeah.
But even one loss breaks yourheart.
Cookie Charres (17:35):
Yeah.
Joy (17:36):
And I know it because I get those texts from you, like last
night when we lost the gameagainst the Red Sox.
Cookie Charres (17:42):
I got a text from you last night.
Joy (17:44):
I don't even think, I don't even.
Yeah, All right, go ahead.
You tell the story.
Cookie Charres (17:52):
Joy.
Joy is a joy because she's likemy therapist.
She sends me texts and she'llget me.
I won't watch the gamesometimes because I'm so anxious
and my anxiety attacks andshe'll text me.
I just tell him the good parts.
She texts me.
She doesn't use foul languageI'm the one that uses foul
language, by the way, which Iwon't use here but the thing is
that she'll text me last nightabout Judge hitting a big one.
(18:16):
Now, I thought it was a grandslam, but he hit it, it was a
three run home run and itbrought us to the lead Two runs
up.
That is true, it was worthy of atext.
Yes, it was Joy, you areabsolutely correct.
But I a text.
Yes, it was, yeah, joy, you'reabsolutely correct.
But I'm such a negative sobthat I said to her and I texted
her back.
Joy (18:35):
I bet you any money we lose to them.
Cookie Charres (18:36):
Yeah, talk about debbie down in here yeah, yeah,
yeah, you're right, they wereplaying up a fenway, you know,
and, uh, and sure enough,because I said that boom would
probably screw up the bullpen,which he did.
Okay, if you're not familiarwith Baboon Boone, the Baboon is
Aaron Boone, who our currentmanager.
(18:57):
He should be wearing pinstripes, I'm sorry to say, and that's
what happened, yeah.
Joy (19:02):
Cookie's starting a petition to get Aaron Boone, the
manager of the New York Yankees, fired.
Cookie Charres (19:08):
I would love to have him fired.
He wants to boycott.
Joy (19:11):
What your text went on to say is that the fans need to
boycott no more ticket sales.
Cookie Charres (19:17):
No more ticket sales Boycott.
Hit him in the pocket.
Hit him in the pocket.
Joy (19:21):
And then they'll get rid of him.
Cookie Charres (19:22):
Al Steinbrenner, who couldn't shine as far as
shoes, who knows nothing aboutbaseball.
See, because what happens now?
This is the problem.
Joy (19:29):
Don't get too wound up, remember, this podcast is called
Bring Joy.
I'm bringing joy, okay, allright.
All right, stay with the vibe.
Cookie Charres (19:36):
This is the joyful part of it.
The joyful part of it is thatyou see, greed doesn't pay.
The greed part of the Yankeeorganization now is not like the
old man you used to have.
George Sirenbrenner used tospend money to bring joy to
people.
Now they don't spend money,they make money.
The reason why they don'tchange anything because the
(19:58):
money's coming in.
They've been selling out likecrazy 40,000 plus every game.
See back in the day when I wasa kid and I'd go to Yankee
Stadium to sell out a game, ithad to be 55,750 people.
Okay, now you don't get that.
Joy (20:14):
But who's counting how many ?
Cookie Charres (20:16):
55,750 is to sell out there and they had
standing room only, which thenwould make it like 57,000.
You know, now it only takeslike 40 to 45,000.
They've been selling outregularly now for the last 10,
20 games in a row.
Joy (20:33):
Because, like you said, the New York Yankees are their
iconic team.
They are a brand that isassociated with America,
associated with New York.
So if you go to New York, yougo to a Broadway play and you
try to get a ticket to a Yankeegame.
Cookie Charres (20:54):
Okay, in New York the Broadway play is the
Yankee game.
You know it's like.
You know it's a brand, justlike Joy just said.
Joy, you're right, absolutely1,000%.
Correct, right on the money.
It's a brand.
The.
Dallas Cowboys and america'steam.
America's team is I'm sorry youdallas cowboy fans, I got none
(21:17):
against dallas, go dallas.
But the thing is that america'sbrand is really america's team.
Is really the new york yankeesor the yankees?
So that way I don't getspecifically new york, yeah, but
it's the yankees.
So that way I don't getspecifically New York, but it's
the Yankees.
Everybody in the world you weara Yankee hat.
Everybody knows what that means.
You know the interlocking NY.
You know we don't even havenames on the back of our jerseys
(21:40):
.
Why?
Because we don't need to.
We know who's off the plate.
Joy (21:44):
All right, but tell me that , so this leads to a good
question.
Me that, so this, this leads toa good question.
Name your top yankees, topyankees of all time.
Yeah, give me, give me, give mea top.
It doesn't have to be a lineup,necessarily, but all the way
around the diamond, but give meyour, your favorite yankees,
give me five seven yankees okay,number one of all time for me
(22:06):
as a yankee, luke er.
Cookie Charres (22:07):
Now I never got to see him play Number four.
Then I would say second, babeRuth.
Third, mickey Mantle hey, theMick, the Mick Can't beat that
right.
There.
The first three, and then Iwould put in there as well,
following the Mick, derek Jeter.
Joy (22:26):
Yes, sir the captain.
Cookie Charres (22:28):
The captain, the real captain.
But we couldn't have beencaptain back then because it was
a captain by the name of MickeyMantle.
So you know, number sevenwasn't going to relinquish that,
and after Jeter I would have tosay Jorge Posada.
Joy (22:44):
I like that.
I like it.
The catcher you got to put acatcher in there.
Jorge Posada baby, the smartestguy on the field is the catcher
.
Cookie Charres (22:51):
every time, the catcher is the general.
If you don't have arelationship between your
pitcher and the catcher, youdon't have a team.
Joy (23:02):
Forget about it.
So we got Posada.
Who else?
Cookie Charres (23:05):
Posada.
I would definitely put in thereTino Martinez.
Joy (23:10):
Yes, sir, we haven't even talked.
Posada, I would definitely putin there.
Tino Martinez.
Yes sir, we haven't even talkedabout this.
Cookie Charres (23:15):
No, this is all ad-libbed here, we're good, keep
going, keep going.
Then I would put the other, thewarrior O'Neal.
Oh, a left-handed guy, anotherguy, all right, then Mark
Teixeira.
Joy (23:30):
Hey, and you happen to be wearing his jersey today.
Cookie Charres (23:32):
I'm wearing his jersey Number 25, who's now
being fraudulently depicted by aguy by the name of Gleyber
Torres.
Joy (23:41):
Yeah, just because he's wearing 25.
It's not retying.
Cookie Charres (23:44):
He can't wear that shirt.
He's not Mark Teixeira, that'sfor sure you know.
But I would start with that andthen build up my pictures.
Would be number one, right offthe bat, would be Whitey Ford,
my first daughter.
My second daughter would be ElDuque hey.
Joy (24:07):
You know I'm crazy about El Duque, senor Hernandez from
Cuba.
Cookie Charres (24:10):
who would put you out?
Joy (24:13):
The great American story.
Okay, right, the fact from acommunist country.
Cookie Charres (24:17):
He defected from Cuba Right, and for me that's a
great story, even though I'mPuerto Rican, I root for him
because of the fact that he wentto Holy Hell to get to where he
was going.
Joy (24:26):
Right.
He left his family and getshere signs with the Yankees,
wins a World Series.
Cookie Charres (24:34):
Right, not only that, but here's a sidebar to
that People don't realize that,talk to me.
Talk to me.
George Steinbrenner this is howmuch of a humanitarian talking
about a joyful instance inYankee history.
George Steinbrenner wanted tokeep him so bad because he was
homesick and what he did was payoff Fidel Castro to bring in
(24:55):
his entire family from Cuba tothe United States.
So he wiggled some strings inNew York.
He was a very powerful man inNew York and he got him
citizenship here.
He put him in the front of theline to get their stuff, their
papers, to work together and therest is history.
He's an American citizen withhis family.
He's happier than all Get outand guess what?
(25:18):
He pitches three games in a.
I think it was two games in theworld, two starts and he has
two wins.
And you know what?
The greatest thing about it?
The next picture I would haveas a reliever coming out.
It would be two guys HectorLopez, who was a who, hector
Lopez was a pitcher with theYankees, okay.
(25:39):
A Latino, okay.
And then I would have the onlyone, number 42, come out of the
bullpen.
Joy (25:47):
Oh, I wish I had the music playing right now.
Oh, that's what I need in thebackground All right, go Play.
Cookie Charres (25:52):
The Sandman Comes in Mariano Rivera.
Joy (25:55):
Let's go.
Cookie Charres (25:57):
And you know when the man came in?
When he came in, it was over.
Joy (26:00):
Forget about it.
It was good.
Pack up, get your stuff fromunder the seat, make sure you
didn't lose anything.
Cookie Charres (26:05):
There was a saying we said every time he
came in look, you got yourshares now with Slim and Nun,
and guess what?
Slim left town, and that's theway I look at it.
And I didn't even botherfilling in the rest of the team.
So imagine what we got.
And I didn't even include RogerClemens.
We had the rocket in the pocket.
Don Mattingly.
(26:26):
With Don Mattingly, you know,our last captain before Jeter
was Don Mattingly.
It was Munson.
Munson passed away in theairplane crash.
Joy (26:37):
I was a kid when that happened.
Cookie Charres (26:39):
Yeah, 1979.
Joy (26:40):
Yep, my daughter was born then, yep, I was about nine,
eight or nine years old, I think.
Cookie Charres (26:45):
Yeah, and he passed away and I remember that
game because I attended it.
It was at Yankee Stadium andBucky Dent hit the—no, it wasn't
Bucky Dent.
I can't remember who it is.
Now I don't know if it wasBucky—no, I'll tell you who it
was.
It was a very close friend ofMunson and I can't remember the
(27:07):
the and shame on me for notremembering him.
Anyway, it was a team play butit's very close to Munson and he
hit the deciding home run in inthe ninth inning to win the
game and that's what baseball islike real life drama that's
what my brother-in-law, paulie,always says right baseball,
sports in general, but butespecially baseball, is real
(27:29):
life drop.
Well, it is because, basically,art imitates life and baseball
imitates life.
And to me, how many times haveyou people out there have heard
one strike, two strikes, threestrikes, you're out.
You know what that means.
Everybody can relate to that.
And for you, casanovas outthere, getting to first base,
you know what that means.
(27:49):
I'm not going to go into it,but you know what that means.
That's a joyful part of yourromantic life.
And sometimes don't get to home, you don't even get to second
base, but you're happy to get tofirst.
I know, on many, many of myoccasions when I was a young man
, a strapping young man, hold onone second.
Joy (28:07):
Yeah, you better take a moment right there.
You better take a moment.
Cookie Charres (28:14):
Getting to first base was a considerable how can
I say?
Accomplishment.
Now I can't even get out of thebench.
I'm like if I'm sitting on thelittle I'm getting out to play
the game, and you know it's aeuphemism.
You know a euphemism and astart with the letter M.
Joy (28:39):
It'll come to me, don't worry about it All right, but
you know, what we were talkingabout is like baseball is real
life drama, right, and baseballimitates life, right.
Cookie Charres (28:48):
Oh yeah, you were saying there's no question
and I.
Joy (28:51):
I think that's one of the things that I love about
baseball is it doesn't happenfast no right, and because it's.
It's a marathon, not a sprint.
You gotta work for it, yougotta sit and be patient right.
There's big hits, there'slittle hits, well it's a thing.
You know that you, you don'trush, you just sit and enjoy.
Cookie Charres (29:11):
It's a chess game.
It ain't checkers right exactlyyou said something in a podcast
, uh, when I first met you.
That lesson too, that wasreally, really profound and I
hope you reheat it because Ican't remember.
I'm terrible for quotes, but,uh, paraphrasing it.
They call it oh, but the otherword that I was thinking was a
(29:32):
metaphor.
Joy (29:33):
Oh, a metaphor.
Cookie Charres (29:34):
Baseball is a metaphor for life.
I should have helped you out,but the thing is that you said
something about baseball.
How do you consider that boring?
People say baseball is boringand you came out with something
that had to do with that.
You better check yourself orreally go visit.
Joy (29:50):
Can you recall that?
Yeah, I don't recall right nowWe'll have to rewind that
episode.
Cookie Charres (29:55):
I'm telling you I think that thing was so
profound.
I'm going to do it because Ihave a list of all your podcasts
and I'm going to look that upand I'm going to steal that and
put it in my pocket because itwas absolutely so true that you
know it's almost like you weretraining.
You know what you got to getsome therapy if you you.
But oh, here we go.
You better spend more time byyourself, by with yourself yeah,
(30:16):
sit with yourself you bettersit with yourself a little bit
longer.
So if you think that baseball isboring, sit with yourself a
little bit longer ah, that's it.
Joy (30:24):
That's that's what I said and that's the thing.
Right you gotta if you'reuncomfortable sitting with
yourself yeah, then you knowyou'll find anything boring and
that's where the work happens,when you sit with yourself.
Right, cookie, we were talkingabout this at lunch earlier, but
that's another episode, right?
Cookie Charres (30:38):
but we won't get into that.
I can tell you a little bit ofstory, I think, but I'm gonna
wait until joy brings that up atanother time.
Uh, which happens to be verymetaphorical with baseball, with
the things that I'veexperienced in my life.
Joy (30:52):
You mentioned the Dallas Cowboys and you and I haven't
talked.
But if you look on my ankleright here, you'll see a blue
star.
Cookie Charres (30:57):
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Joy (30:59):
No, that's all right, that's all right, my bad.
Yeah, so my family, a lot of myfamily, came from Dallas.
Really, that's how we ended updown in Key West.
I ended up down in Key West.
I ended up being born here, butanother story.
But being a fan of the New YorkYankees, being a fan of the
Dallas Cowboys, being a fan ofthe Key West High School Conks
right.
When you're a fan ofchampionship teams, our
(31:21):
expectations are always realhigh.
They throw the roof Right, andwe talked about that, and that's
another thing with life andbaseball, right.
You've got to learn not to putsuch high expectations on people
, be easy right, absolutely.
Cookie Charres (31:36):
It's called progress, not perfection.
Joy (31:39):
Yes, we talked about that too.
Cookie Charres (31:41):
You've got to be able to keep it in perspective.
It's a long season.
I fail miserably at this.
My friends out there, you knowI can talk all the BS in the
world, but you know what?
Sometimes adhering to your ownideals is so difficult?
Because we're imperfect humanbeings.
Joy (32:03):
I think that's the other part of it.
Right, with baseball, you don'thave to hit a home run every
time you can strike out andyou're going to get another at
bat.
Pass the baton, baby, you'llget another at bat, and it's a
long season.
Cookie Charres (32:16):
Take one for the team once in a while.
Joy (32:17):
Yeah, sometimes you need it .
Cookie Charres (32:18):
You've got to step up under the pitch and just
take it, wear it, baby, and getto the first base and just pass
the bat over to the next guy,but don't ground down to double
plays.
Joy (32:28):
Yeah, which reminds me, since you said that that sounds
like this year's.
We talked a lot about the pastYankee greats so many to talk
about but this year's team westarted out fantastic, oh yeah.
Cookie Charres (32:43):
Like a house of fire.
Joy (32:44):
Yeah, 50 games faster than any other team.
Probably some other record.
Cookie Charres (32:49):
By May we already reached, we already had
50 wins.
Joy (32:54):
We were talking about World Series.
You said you hadn't been to NewYork and you said the next time
you go to New York before WorldSeries, If they make it to the
World Series.
Right and I'm looking uptickets and hotels because I'm
thinking we're going to theWorld.
Cookie Charres (33:06):
Series yeah, you and I spoke about it.
Let's go, right, let's go.
Joy (33:09):
And then all of a sudden summer came.
Oh my God, and what?
Cookie Charres (33:12):
happened?
A swoon in June.
Ooh, Talking about the swoon inJune, the Yankees are deep into
it, baby.
It's like stepping in dog shitand you can't get it off your
shoe.
Wait, I need a beep, beep don't.
Joy (33:28):
No, we're all right.
Dog doo-doo.
We're good, dog poo, we're good.
Yeah, no, it's been a sloppysummer.
Cookie Charres (33:35):
We're sitting in it, baby, we're sitting in it.
Yeah, that's what Boone saidright, yeah, we're sitting in it
and the thing is that you knowit's like you know, joy, you
bring up such a good thing, agood point, and life is like you
know.
You've got to have to have.
(33:56):
We talked about this.
Please help me out here.
Joy (34:06):
This is your resolve and your oh yeah.
We said you've got to gothrough adversity.
Cookie Charres (34:09):
Two.
Joy (34:10):
Right Adversity and resilience.
Cookie Charres (34:14):
Resilience.
Yes, exactly that is so, soimportant and I have to remind
myself of that all the time.
But joy constantly brings methat light where I can see
beyond my muck and mire.
My muck and mire gets me.
The shitty committee in my head, in my language, will mess up
my day in a heartbeat.
(34:35):
Do you hear me, folks?
In a heartbeat, you know,because the dark guy on the
other side of the you know, theguy that's sitting on the other
shoulder wants your day to bemiserable.
If the devil ignores you, thatmeans you're doing something
right yeah, don't yeah and takeit.
Joy (34:56):
Take it when you get it right.
Yeah, you gotta take it.
Cookie Charres (34:59):
When you get it, man, I tell you what, I tell
you what.
Thank you for that, for that,for that leading.
You know, you'll never trulyknow the value of the moment
until it becomes a memory.
Joy (35:14):
That should be on a t-shirt or a greeting card or something
.
And those are the things.
Those are the little thoughtbombs that we have on Saturday
mornings when I see you.
That made me really want toshare the mic with you, because
we could talk about baseball.
But you've been, you've beenthrough it in life and you
always have these little bits ofwisdom that you drop on me, the
(35:38):
cookie corner.
Cookie Charres (35:39):
The cookie's corner, the cookie corner.
Joy (35:41):
I think we're going to have a spin-off.
Cookie Charres (35:42):
A crumb from cookie's corner.
Joy (35:44):
That's it.
Cookie Charres (35:45):
A crumb.
Joy (35:46):
A crumb from cookie's corner.
See, there you go.
You know, Spin-off right here,you heard it here, folks.
Cookie Charres (35:54):
Yeah, it's a good thing.
You know, joy brings a lot ofjoy into my life.
Going back doing the 360 again.
The thing is about joy is joysupplies a lot of joy.
She brings a lot of joy to thepeople where I live at.
You know, we're on our last leghere.
You know what I'm saying.
All of us are retired, most ofus are handicapped, you know,
(36:17):
and you know we don't haveanybody, but joy is always there
every Saturday for us.
You know, and that to me is aspecial thing, man, that's a
gift.
That's like having, you know, aDH.
You know, she's the designatedhitter in our place, so when we
have somebody that can whack theball and get a hit, she's there
(36:39):
, she's capable of doing that,and so that makes me happy.
And the other ones I reallydon't know, and between you and
I I don't care, but the thing isthat she brings that to my life
.
So after that, I'm extremelygrateful to her and for
everything she brings with her.
Joy (36:59):
Thank you for the compliment.
One thing I'll say aboutvolunteering is anybody out
there who volunteers foranything, or whoever has you,
know that you do it thinkingthat you're going to give
something, but you always getmore.
(37:22):
And that day when I rolled upon your porch, you know, and me
and you became friends.
That's talking about a gift,you know.
So whenever you extend yourself, trust me, you'll get more in
return.
I certainly got a life friend.
You got to pay it forward, girl.
Yeah, it's all good stuff yougot to pay it forward.
Cookie Charres (37:39):
Yes, ma'am.
Joy (37:40):
You talked about.
You've been around a little bit, right, so let's throw some
wisdom at me, right?
What brings you joy besidesbaseball?
Cookie Charres (37:51):
Besides baseball , people like you, you number
one, number two, the fact that Igot.
You know, I have grandchildren.
I got four beautifulgrandchildren and my joy is just
.
You know, it's easy for mesometimes to sit back in
retrospect and look at my pastand look where I'm at now.
(38:14):
I shouldn't be here, you know.
I should be either dead, injail or in an institution.
You know, I'm here.
I'm sitting with a good friendof mine and we're talking things
about life and just ourfavorite sport, which is
baseball.
How better do I have it?
(38:37):
Look, I'm the luckiest guy.
I have it better than anybodyelse on the planet.
Joy (38:44):
Lou Gehrig said that I'm the luckiest man on the face of
the earth yeah, facing aterrible disease that tore him
up and took him away from thegame and took him away from his
fans, and he still felt thegratitude and I think that's a
lesson for all of us.
He stood up there on his lastgame and said he's the luckiest
(39:06):
man on the face of the earth.
Right, I hope I didn't get thatwrong.
No, you got it right.
He said I'm lucky.
Well, in his accent.
Cookie Charres (39:10):
I'm the luckiest man on the face of the earth,
right?
I hope I didn't get that wrong.
No, you got it right, becauseyou said I'm lucky Well, in his
accent I'm the luckiest man onthe face of the earth.
Joy (39:19):
Yeah, and there's always light.
Right when there's dark there'slight, especially if you're on
L train traveling from 149th.
Street up to 160th Street.
Cookie Charres (39:31):
You see the light at the end of the tunnel
and it's.
Joy (39:33):
Yankee Stadium baby, let's go.
Man, we got emotional rightthere.
But when you talk about thingsthat bring you joy and you're
passionate about, if youremotions don't get stirred up,
I'm going to tell you a realquick story, if I may.
Cookie Charres (39:49):
Don't be concerned, please do Okay.
I'm going to talk you a realquick story, if I may.
I'd be concerned, please doOkay.
I'm going to talk about theMick real quick, and I'm not
talking about Mickey Rivers,although he was a great leadoff
hitter probably one of the bestleadoff hitters we've ever had,
other than Gardner.
I don't know what happened toGardner.
They just made him disappear.
Maybe he was whacked by JohnGotti, who?
Joy (40:08):
knows, don't start rumors.
They'll come looking for us now, come on.
Cookie Charres (40:15):
It's okay, listen.
The thing is that the Mick oneday you know the Mick, I don't
know if you guys out there knowthat the Mickey Mantle had a bar
on 57th Street which is west ofhe had to call.
It's called Mantles.
It was on Central Park Southand one day I went to Mickey
(40:40):
Mantles.
I was a little bit older atthat time, but I wasn't old
enough to drink.
Let's put it that way.
I'm going to leave that littlestory for another time, but I'll
tell you right now To speed itup a little bit.
I will fill in the spaces atanother time.
But I'll tell you right now tospeed it up a little bit.
I will fill in the spaces atanother time.
But he gave me a coaster and hesigned it and he just put it on
(41:03):
there, on there, let the kid in.
And every time I went to YankeeStadium, all I had to do was I
didn't have a ticket, I was toopoor to buy it and I would show
that to the guy at the gate.
And he let me in Because heknew his signature.
And every time I went to theballpark, I was the luckiest man
on the planet because of fact,all I had to do was show him the
(41:26):
coaster and I said let the kidin.
And the guy would grab me, puthis arm around me, says get out,
go, go, go, before they see mego.
Wow, you know, and that's how Iused to get into games, you
know, without paying.
Besides the con edison I don'tknow if you guys out there from
new york or used to be in newyork when I was a kid there was
(41:47):
a program from con edison.
Consolidatedated Edison used todo all the power.
The gas and electricity camefrom Consolidated Edison, their
power plant, and they used tohave a program for kids, inner
city kids like myself, and theyused to call Con Ed kids, and
(42:07):
they used to have free ticketsand I used to wait in line like
from 10 o'clock in the morningand I'd skip school or go before
school and get the tickets.
You know, a ticket, a singleticket for me so I can get into
the game.
And anyway, we don't have thosekind of programs anymore, you
(42:28):
know, unfortunately.
But you guys out there, if youwant to see good baseball, I'm
going to tell you right now Gosee the Conks over here.
I remember I used to watch themwhen they had Bronson Arroyo as
their pitcher.
He was a good pitcher back thenand I said he'd be an amazing,
and sure enough he would.
The only thing that I regret henever pitched for the Yankees,
because he'd still be around Atleast.
(42:48):
He'd be a legend and he'dprobably retire his number.
Joy (42:51):
Yeah, a legend for the Yankees instead of the Sox,
right.
Cookie Charres (42:54):
Well, he played for the Sox, he played for the
Cubs, he played for everybodybut the Yankees, and his career
was short-lived.
I think he had an injury.
In those days Tommy John wasn'tconsidered perfected, wasn't
perfected.
Yet Now you got kids in collegeand in minor leagues getting
Tommy John before they even makethe majors and that actually
(43:15):
really enhances their throwingability.
Joy (43:17):
Yeah, oh to instead of fix a problem to make their arm.
Cookie Charres (43:24):
Exactly Stronger .
Stronger Because they tore atendon.
Do you know where that camefrom?
Joy (43:31):
No.
Cookie Charres (43:31):
Okay, as soon as I say this name, you're going
to know who that came from.
No, as soon as I say this name,you're going to know who it is
Tommy John.
Who did he pitch for?
Joy (43:40):
The Yankees.
Cookie Charres (43:42):
The New York Yankees.
Where did he come from?
He used to pitch for the LADodgers and we got him in the
trade and Tommy John pitched forus and he had that surgery done
and he was the first player inthe history of baseball to get
that elbow surgery done TommyJohn surgery.
And that's where it stuck,tommy John.
(44:03):
So you get a Tommy John.
They named it after him becausehe was the first ball player to
get pictures to actually havethat done yeah, zoned out.
Joy (44:11):
I zoned out for a minute.
I was thinking about the guysgetting the surgery for carpal
tunnel no, no, no, no.
Not just getting the surgery sothey could perform better, not
because they were fixing aninjury.
Cookie Charres (44:24):
So I was thinking of that in this case
the tommy john thing went rightover my head.
In this case it was an injury,but now they're getting it done,
that it like a as an enhancer.
Joy (44:33):
It's the new steroid.
Cookie Charres (44:34):
The new steroid, the new steroid, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Joy (44:37):
Let's not talk about steroids right now.
We need another episode forthat whole era, right, yeah,
yeah, because we talked aboutA-Rod earlier.
Cookie Charres (44:52):
A-Rod.
You know and think about aboutit.
Guys out there, luke Garrick,babe Ruth Look at these stats.
Look at Mickey Mantle nosteroids.
Imagine if it was all steroidswhat he would do.
He would have destroyed BabeRuth's record a long time ago.
714.
And when he won the TripleCrown he had like what was it?
He had RBIs.
That year was 158 RBIs.
That's unheard of.
I mean, the guy wasunbelievable and there's a lot
(45:16):
of guys like that now, but notlike the Mick.
The Mick can do that from bothsides of the plate.
Joy (45:21):
You're very lucky to have been able to see those guys play
in person and not just readabout them in a book.
No doubt about it and see someof the film that's put back
together.
You can now see find on youtube.
I I saw something that was, uh,remastered a swing of babe ruth
, where they had taken multiplestill images and put it together
(45:46):
using ai and you could actuallysee the swing and what was the
unique aspect of babe bruce townother than hitting?
I feel like I should know theend.
Oh well, he was a pitcher.
Cookie Charres (46:05):
Yeah, yeah, he was a southpaw yeah and he had
more records pitching before hebecame the Sultan of Swats,
before he became the Babe that'shis thing.
He was a pitcher for the BostonRed Sox.
In those days they were calledthe Boston Braves.
Joy (46:27):
There's another guy now, Otani.
Cookie Charres (46:31):
Shohei Otani, which is really close to being
like a baby right not too manyjapanese baby and the new kid
that came up.
Joy (46:39):
What's his name?
Paul skeens.
He played for the pirates now.
And he's yeah, he played forlsu tigers um in college last
year.
He's playing in college winsthe world series, gets drafted
and he starts in the All-Stargame a year later.
That's just crazy, but he waslike that Now, of course, he's
(46:59):
just pitching now that he's inthe show.
Cookie Charres (47:01):
I wish the Yankees had him right now.
Joy (47:04):
But he can hit.
Cookie Charres (47:05):
Yeah, and remember guys, remember this DEA
stuff didn't exist.
Back when I first startedwatching baseball, we didn't
have the pitcher always bat atninth, because he was the worst
hitter on the team, becausepitchers had to hit.
So think about that.
In those days you had.
(47:26):
And real quick, just to add onto that, the ballplayers back
then didn't get paid whatthey're getting paid now.
They're getting paid millionsof dollars, $55 million a year.
Oh my God, I mean it's justcrazy.
You know what?
Mickey Mantle made?
The most he ever made a year hewas making $150,000 a year.
(47:51):
All the guys back then, afterthe season was over, had second
jobs.
They either sold cars orendorsed things, even guys like
Joe DiMaggio.
What did he do?
He used to make commercials, mrCoffee.
Joy (48:06):
Yeah, yeah.
Cookie Charres (48:07):
All right, the coffee maker they sell cars.
Or Petrocelli, the guy who wasthe shortstop for the Boston Red
Sox, rico Petrocelli, and inthe off season he would sell
suits, and they were calledPetrocelli suits, you know.
And so they all had the secondjob.
(48:28):
The bottom line is that theyhad to maintain a lifestyle for
their families one way or theother, and to wind up on the DO,
or what they call now the IO,because you can't call it
disabled list, because it's notpolitically correct.
Joy (48:43):
Finish no, no, no, keep going.
Cookie Charres (48:45):
And you know, to me it's still the DO.
You know, in those days youplayed through.
If you look at Mickey Mantle,before he suited up for a game,
the man used to look like themummy.
He had so many bandages on hisknees and people don't realize
that.
You know how he got injured.
I'm going to share this withyou.
In 1953, 52, if I'm not mistaken, 52 in one game he was playing
(49:16):
right field and it wasDiMaggio's last season.
Mickey was the heir apparent toJoe DiMaggio, he was retiring
and they went for a balltogether and Mickey Mantle, he
was a speedster.
He finished that year also withlike 30-some-odd bases stolen.
(49:36):
All right, the guy was a maniacon the bases.
He got his cleats caught in thedrainage system in the outfield
and both of them.
And so when he pulled upbecause DiMaggio, you know, the
captain of the outfield isusually the guy at center field.
So there was a double entendre,because Joe DiMaggio was not
(49:57):
only the captain of the team buthe was also the captain of the
outfield.
So what happened was thatMickey Mantle pulls up and he
gets his cleat caught on one ofthe draining, the rain drain.
I never heard that story, yeahand that's how he damaged his
knees.
And ever since, you know, whenGeorge Steinbrenner bought the
Yankees from NBC because CBS wasit that owned the Yankees and
(50:22):
what he did was then he tookbecause he was a huge Mickey man
fan I mean tremendous, and hemade sure that all the drainage
entries in the outfield wererecessed.
That's why they got the bestdrainage system in the world In
all the stadiums.
Yankee City's got the bestdrainage system.
You can thank GeorgeSteinbrenner for that.
(50:44):
The boss.
Joy (50:46):
Nobody like the boss.
Cookie Charres (50:47):
Nobody's like the boss.
What do you think he would donow?
Boom wouldn't have been there amonth ago, boom would have been
bombed.
Joy (50:55):
Yeah, when we lost the first five games in this slump,
boom would have been going.
Somebody's got to go.
What do you say?
He loves winning more thanbreathing.
Cookie Charres (51:05):
More than breathing, or something like
that.
You're the one that turned meon to that, something like that.
It was a quote.
It was the one that that turnedme on to that.
Something like it was a quote.
It was a paraphrase, that, yeah, he said that the thing that I
love more than breathing.
Joy (51:17):
Breathing is winning.
Yeah, that's the way he said it.
Cookie Charres (51:19):
Good stuff yeah, you can't be that, that we
don't have that anymore.
See, the love of the game is.
That's the most important thingabout anything you do in life.
Guys out there, you gotta havea love for it.
You don't have the passion forit, don't do it.
It ain't meant for you.
If your passion is teaching,being a nurse or just being a
parent, if that's your passion,go for it.
(51:42):
You got to jump in there withboth feet and don't worry about
sinking or swimming, because youknow what You're not going to
drown.
You belong in that and that'sall I have to say about that.
And that's my story and I'msticking to it.
Joy (51:55):
I love it and I think that's a good place to wrap up.
And you know what I had afeeling that once we did this
first episode, that there wouldbe more and, like you said, a
little crumb from Cookie'sCorner.
A little crumb from Cookie'sCorner.
I think we might be ontosomething.
Cookie's Corner, I think wemight be on to something.
You got a lot of stories totell and I wish everybody could
(52:17):
see your face, because when youtalk about going to Yankee
Stadium when you were a kid, youlook off and your eyes start
sparkling and no, it's abeautiful thing and I appreciate
you sharing your love for theYankees.
I'm so glad that I came up onyour porch.
You're my good friend, cookie.
I'm crazy about you.
You know that I'm Joy Newlishand I appreciate you tuning into
my podcast.
My purpose is to bring joy intomy life and the lives of others
(52:37):
.
If you enjoyed this episode,drop a review, share and
subscribe, because there's a lotof good stuff on tap.
You can check my website atjoynewlishcom Now.
Go, bring joy to the people inyour world.
Until next time, much love.
Thanks for tuning in.
This podcast is all aboutbringing joy through
storytelling and conversation.
I'll drop some thoughts on thelife lessons I'm growing through
.
You'll be inspired andentertained.
It'll be time well spent.
I promise you that.
So sit back and relax.
Let's do this thing.
This is going to be a funepisode.
We're changing it up andintroducing a guest today.
(00:24):
Joining me on the mic is myfriend, Cookie Charres.
Cookie Charres (00:29):
Yeah, I'm Joyces guest today and I'm very proud
and very excited to be here.
Thank you.
Joy (00:36):
Before we get into the conversation, cookie, I want to
tell the listeners a littlestory about how you and I are
connected.
So I volunteer for a wonderfullocal non-profit here in Key
West called Cooking With Love,whose mission is to provide our
senior and most vulnerablecommunity a weekly meal.
Every Saturday, rain or shine,approximately 250 meals are
(00:56):
delivered.
I've been volunteering for afew months now and look forward
to that time in my week.
Well, I think it was my secondtime out delivering.
I rolled up on your porch andfrom the minute we saw each
other, we were fast friends.
I was wearing a Conk baseballshirt and you were wearing a New
York Yankee T-shirt.
(01:16):
Right and well, the rest ishistory.
As they say, we started talkingbaseball and we haven't stopped
since.
Is that how you remember it?
Cookie Charres (01:25):
Absolutely, Absolutely.
It was a gift because, you know, being a senior citizen, there
at the Senior Citizen Plaza, Ilive by myself and I don't get a
chance to really converse witha lot of people.
But the fact that I was able toconverse with Joy and
immediately we started talkingbaseball and baseball man is a
(01:47):
universal language it is man and, and you know, along with
baseball, specifically a NewYork Yankee fan you're.
Joy (01:55):
You're a historian, I mean, you spit out stats and
statistics going all the wayback to 1953, you know, when you
went to your first game.
You tell me so many stories andI want you to tell the stories,
but I remember them.
But before we get too muchfurther into baseball, what else
should go into yourintroduction?
(02:15):
You're a friend, a father,grandfather, veteran of the Navy
.
Yes, what else am I leaving out.
Cookie Charres (02:22):
Yes, yeah, what else am I leaving out?
I'm a son to a parent, Raphaeland Cecilia Charres, who are
deceased right now.
Right now They'll stilldeceased.
There's no such thing as, rightnow they're gone.
I was born and raised in NewYork City, born in Harlem and
raised in the Bronx, and, yes, Iserved 35 years in the United
(02:44):
States Navy, went to Vietnam in1968, and came back in 1975.
But in between all that time, Inever lost touch with baseball.
Baseball was my little escape,but, yeah, I was raised in New
York and everybody in my familywas a Yankee fan.
(03:06):
My grandfather, in fact, was abookie and he'd take bets.
Joy (03:14):
This is a new story.
You hadn't told me this.
Cookie Charres (03:16):
No Go ahead, go ahead.
My grandfather was a bookie.
He also ran the bolita If youguys know what the bolita is,
the illegal numbers.
Back in the day before therewas a lottery and my grandfather
took bets and he would, ofcourse, take people bet against
the Yankees and he was alwayswinning because the Yankees back
(03:36):
then in the 50s were unbeatable, okay, and so he just let
people off because the Yankeeswould win all the time.
And he give them odds and theystill would win.
That's how I got, and everybodymy family was involved in that
scheme or the side of thebusiness, and so I grew up in
(03:58):
the streets following baseball.
If I didn't play baseball orlisten to it before there was TV
, I would definitely playstickball or stoop ball, and it
all has to do with baseball.
To me, life is like baseballyou get the first base, second
base, third base and then,before you know it, it's time to
(04:19):
go home.
Joy (04:23):
And there you have it, folks.
Now you know why I wanted toget this guy on the mic.
He's got one story afteranother.
You told me one story aboutthat.
You remember, you and you andthe kids going to the game with
your uncle.
You're all packed into a yellowcab yeah, and headed out to.
Cookie Charres (04:40):
We had a tradition that, and on some days
we would go to my aunt's house.
My father had 13 brothers andsisters.
One of them was TT, iris, andthe other aunt lived upstairs,
pura Now they're both deceasednow and all my uncles are gone
too, but we would go there onSundays, have Sunday dinner and,
(05:02):
of course, be in Puerto Ricanfrom the Bronx, you know, from
Harlem, wherever it was beingPuerto Rican from the Bronx, you
know, and from Harlem, whereverit was Puerto Ricans.
In New York.
We have a habit of havingfamily get-togethers and there
was a lot of drinking back then,you know, and it was
traditional.
So my aunt would make friedchicken, pack sandwiches, and
(05:22):
one day my father was indisposed.
He was up the river, you know.
He was serving a little timefor something he wasn't supposed
to do.
Joy (05:32):
He was taking some classes.
Cookie Charres (05:34):
Yeah, he was going to college.
He called that going to college, you know.
And so anyway my uncles decidedwe're gonna go take Cookie to
the baseball game and they wereplaying Cleveland.
I remember that specificallythat day and we packed in so we
got the lunches and everythingelse.
In those days you can bringcoolers, you know, to the ball
(05:57):
game.
You know now you can't do that,but we get into it.
They held a cab and it was achecker cab.
I don't know if you guys arefamiliar with checkered cabs in
New York.
They're like humongous little.
They're yellow cabs but theylook.
You could sit four in the backseat and then you had little,
what they call jump seats in theback and the front.
Joy (06:19):
So you could put kids in there.
I thought those yellowcheckered cabs were just on the
movies.
No, they're real.
Those yellow checkered cabswere just on the movies.
No, they're real.
You really see those in.
Cookie Charres (06:24):
Newark.
Oh yeah, I rode in them all thetime.
In fact I prefer to ride inthem because they had a lot of
leg room, not the other oneswhere you have this plastic
thing.
In those days they didn't haveplastic partitions, they just
had.
You can talk to the driver, youcan lean over.
You know, now, with all themoney in a slot now, it looks
(06:44):
like a speakeasy now compared toback in the old days.
Joy (06:47):
So you all pile into the back of the cab and you got
fried chicken and sandwichespacked up Beer, beer.
Cookie Charres (06:57):
Yeah, yeah, we had Valentine beer.
Remember the Yankees weresponsored by whom back then?
Valentine?
That's why my man, red Barber,and Mel Allen, who would
announce the games back then,used to say baseball and
Valentine okay.
And when Mickey Mantle, you hita home run and they go, and
(07:18):
there goes another Valentineblast by the Mick, you know and
it's time to pull, and they goright into a commercial.
You know, in those days theywould verbalize a commercial.
They'd read it, you know.
So this is where the Mick pullsout his can of cold Ballantyne.
It's time for you folks outthere who are Yankee fans pull
out yours, because now Mick ismaking his trip around the bases
(07:41):
, you can have a cold one.
And that's the way I looked atit.
I remember that day so muchbecause when I walked into the
stadium as a kid, you know justthe experience of the smell.
You know the smell of thepeanuts, the Crackerjacks, the
(08:04):
smoke, the beer.
Back then, in those days, youhad to dress up to go to the
stadium.
People dressed up to wear suits.
I had to wear.
I wore a shirt and a tie and apair of shorts.
We walked into the stadium andI remember it was dark, your
eyes were adjusting from thesunlight outside to the stadium,
darkness on the inside beforeyou get to the actual the
sunlight outside to the stadium,darkness on the inside before
(08:25):
you get to the actual ramp goingup to the seats.
And I remember distinctivelywhen we got to our section.
You know we were in the righthand stands, right field stands,
right before you get to thebleachers.
You know cheap seats but inthose days they were considered
pretty good.
I think in those days thoseseats pretty good, I think those
in those days those seats werea buck 25 and I was considered a
(08:47):
lot of money yeah, a dollar 25,not 125, a dollar 25, and uh,
and if you wanted to sit in thebleachers it was 50 cents, okay,
but anyway, I get up to theramp, going up there, and
they're holding my hand and thefirst thing I see is, all of a
sudden, this flash.
I felt like I was Darth Vaderin the Wizard of Oz.
(09:08):
You know, it's like all of asudden hey, uncle, uncle Eddie,
I guess we're not in Kansasanymore.
And I saw this green field,this massive green field,
because this was the old stadium, not this little ballpark they
have now, which is like a littleleague park.
It was 410 feet dead center.
Back then, the monuments wereon a field.
(09:31):
There wasn't a separate museumin the back, separated from the
park.
Joy (09:35):
So they were on the playing field.
Cookie Charres (09:37):
They were on the playing field.
So if you play center and youhit a ball out there behind the
monuments, by the time you grabit you have it inside the park
home.
Talk about a warning track.
A warning track, the monumentwas your warning track.
You know how many times Mickeyhit that monument to grab a ball
.
Oh my God, it was sensational.
But the thing is that, the thingthat I remember to this day, I
(09:57):
can still smell that, the smellof the hot dog, the hot peanuts,
and just that visualization ofwhat seemed green, massive green
on the blue sky and people.
Just you know, yo, yo, yo getyour perogarams.
Perogarams Can't tell yourplayers without your perogarams.
(10:18):
I mean that just stillresonates in my head and as a
kid it's very impressionable,you know.
And then watching your favoriteplayers come up, you know, in
those days, in 53 Phil Rizzutowas still playing shortstop,
yeah, yogi Berra behind theplate.
You had Whitey Ford on the bumpor the mound.
(10:40):
Center field was, and that daywas Mickey Mantle right field,
field, can't remember, to behonest, they played right field,
I have to look that up.
Left field I think they put TomTresh back there.
He was also a utility man whoalso played infield.
The infield consisted of CleetBoyer III.
Shortstop was Phil Rizzuto.
(11:00):
Second base was either BobbyRichardson or Tom Tresh.
First base was Bill Scarrin theMoose they called him.
And let me tell you and Iremember this like it was
absolutely yesterday and son ofa gun, we were losing to the
Cleveland Indians three to two.
We had two men on base and thebottom of the ninth.
(11:23):
Guess what happens?
Like the stories we hear as akid, the mitt comes up to the
plate, two outs bottom of theninth and you got two men on
base and he's got two strikes onhim and he's batting lefty.
I was about to ask which wayhe's batting lefty, he's batting
lefty, he's a switch hitter, sothe greatest switch hitter in
(11:43):
the history of baseball.
And he takes that swing, hegets two strikes on him and he's
following him off and followinghim off and I think on the
mound that day I forget, I thinkit was, it couldn't have been
Ferguson Jenkins, because heplayed for the Cubs.
I forget who was pitching forthe Cleveland Indians.
Anyway, it was a reliever atthat point, didn't have closers,
(12:05):
back then they called them justrelievers.
And he fouls a couple of backmore and then he takes a mighty
swing and guess what?
The freaking ball comesdirectly towards our section and
it lands six rows in front ofus.
Joy (12:21):
Are you kidding me?
And?
Cookie Charres (12:22):
this is the upper deck, okay, and we had an
overhang then called the freeze,in front of us.
Are you kidding me?
And this is the upper deck,okay, and over the?
And we had an overhang that'scalled the freeze.
It's named the freeze and itlanded right there and it just
missed hitting our seats and oursection by, just like I said, a
couple of rows, a couple ofseats down that way.
But we won the game at thebottom of the ninth, and that's
(12:44):
my recollection of my first gameat Yankee Stadium.
Joy (12:49):
So your first game.
You're there with all thepeople you love, right and the
Yankees win the game.
Cookie Charres (12:55):
They win the game.
Joy (12:56):
In the bottom of the ninth.
That's right, the Mick.
You call him the Mick, the Mickyou mentioned earlier.
He batted from either side ofthe plate.
Cookie Charres (13:04):
That's right, he's supposed to hit it.
Joy (13:05):
Arguably the best hitter in baseball.
Cookie Charres (13:07):
Ain't no arguing about that.
The man, the man was a beast onboth sides of the plate.
It didn't matter, you threw itin.
You know what.
You better be ambidextrousbecause, no matter what happens,
he's going to hit that, he'sgoing to make contact and he hit
line drives.
He sprayed that ball.
If they had stats back thenyou'd be amazed.
(13:29):
They couldn't even keep up theamount of his this man had.
He struck out a lot but youknow, when he made contact that
sucker would hit thempractically out of the ballpark.
You can actually see the Ltrain going by, because that's
how hard the L train, theelevator train, was back then.
You could see it riding rightdown.
You can hear the chute, thetractor, just the noise of the
(13:51):
tractor wheels hitting thetractor.
You know from your seat.
Sometimes we did the wall.
The fans would say KK, keep itdown.
You conductor, just keep itdown.
You know.
Joy (14:05):
You're ruining the atmosphere.
Cookie Charres (14:07):
I'm going to tell you.
Joy (14:07):
Slow that train down, yeah.
Cookie Charres (14:09):
I'm going to tell you just a quick piggyback
to that story.
One time it was the first timeI went up there to Yankee
Stadium by subway.
My first recollection of thatis what.
The last stop before you get tothe elevator the later part of
the journey was a stop called149th Street.
(14:31):
Okay, and 149th Street beforeyou get to the elevator part of
the train, and then you'd sitand I'd love to go to the first
car because I wanted to see thetunnel.
And the tunnel, would you know,I would smile from ear to ear
because the actual you're comingout of a tunnel from pure
(14:53):
darkness and you saw this lightat the end of the tunnel, like
you were going to heaven.
The very first stop on that rideon the elevator part of the
train was 161st Street andRiverside and it stayed up there
.
Right down on the train saidYankee Stadium, you know.
So it was basically YankeeStadium that was here next stop
(15:15):
and I remember that just seeingthat and I was like, oh my God,
you know, this is so cool.
I died and went to heaven.
I'm at Yankee Stadium and allthe people would go from there
and at that time in the platformthey would have a ramp that
goes straight into the stadium.
And so you go again fromdarkness to light, from light to
(15:35):
darkness, and then into theactual.
You could see the field, andthat's when you realize that
you've reached Mecca.
Joy (15:42):
Yeah, because your feet, never really hit the ground.
Cookie Charres (15:44):
No, you're at the Cathedral of Baseball
Stadiums back then.
They still call it theCathedral because Yankee Stadium
is Yankee, although it's stilla small ballpark now compared to
those days.
But the thing is that back thenit was a cathedral because of
the frieze.
I don't know if you're familiar, guys, if you're familiar with
the frieze the original stadiumIn.
(16:11):
In fact, they have it at thenew stadium now because they're
replicated.
It's that ornate right, thatornate thing that hangs down
from the roof.
Well, I mean, let me uh tag onthat one, because I wasn't there
for this game, but so wait aminute, let me.
Joy (16:20):
Let me stop you right there .
See.
Earlier you said mick hit thefreeze he did one game.
Cookie Charres (16:26):
He hit the freeze.
I wasn't there for that.
He hit that.
And that's just supposed to befor decoration.
It was supposed to be fordecoration but he missed it by
something like 12 inches or so,or 15 inches it could have been
a whole foot, who knows, or afoot and a half Of going out of
the stadium and the freeze keptit in there, but it was
(16:46):
estimated to be like 620 feet.
If you Google that now in thisday and age, you'll see.
They'll actually show you onYouTube him hitting a ball up
there and they actually put astraddle cast of like a laser on
it to show you exactly.
That would have been thelongest home run in the history
of baseball to this day, if youwould take an estimation.
Joy (17:05):
Right if they were keeping that now.
Yeah.
Cookie Charres (17:07):
And those are the things I remember as a kid.
I mean to me.
I've been a Yankee fan sinceand sometimes I feel that I wish
I wasn't, because I'm sofrustrated now with them.
Joy (17:18):
Well, let's talk about that for a minute.
So you're like 1953, talkingabout like 70 years ago, plus
right, and you've been a Yankeefan.
Cookie Charres (17:28):
Since.
Joy (17:29):
Winning, lots of winning lots of titles, yeah.
But even one loss breaks yourheart.
Cookie Charres (17:35):
Yeah.
Joy (17:36):
And I know it because I get those texts from you, like last
night when we lost the gameagainst the Red Sox.
Cookie Charres (17:42):
I got a text from you last night.
Joy (17:44):
I don't even think, I don't even.
Yeah, All right, go ahead.
You tell the story.
Cookie Charres (17:52):
Joy.
Joy is a joy because she's likemy therapist.
She sends me texts and she'llget me.
I won't watch the gamesometimes because I'm so anxious
and my anxiety attacks andshe'll text me.
I just tell him the good parts.
She texts me.
She doesn't use foul languageI'm the one that uses foul
language, by the way, which Iwon't use here but the thing is
that she'll text me last nightabout Judge hitting a big one.
(18:16):
Now, I thought it was a grandslam, but he hit it, it was a
three run home run and itbrought us to the lead Two runs
up.
That is true, it was worthy of atext.
Yes, it was Joy, you areabsolutely correct.
But I a text.
Yes, it was, yeah, joy, you'reabsolutely correct.
But I'm such a negative sobthat I said to her and I texted
her back.
Joy (18:35):
I bet you any money we lose to them.
Cookie Charres (18:36):
Yeah, talk about debbie down in here yeah, yeah,
yeah, you're right, they wereplaying up a fenway, you know,
and, uh, and sure enough,because I said that boom would
probably screw up the bullpen,which he did.
Okay, if you're not familiarwith Baboon Boone, the Baboon is
Aaron Boone, who our currentmanager.
(18:57):
He should be wearing pinstripes, I'm sorry to say, and that's
what happened, yeah.
Joy (19:02):
Cookie's starting a petition to get Aaron Boone, the
manager of the New York Yankees, fired.
Cookie Charres (19:08):
I would love to have him fired.
He wants to boycott.
Joy (19:11):
What your text went on to say is that the fans need to
boycott no more ticket sales.
Cookie Charres (19:17):
No more ticket sales Boycott.
Hit him in the pocket.
Hit him in the pocket.
Joy (19:21):
And then they'll get rid of him.
Cookie Charres (19:22):
Al Steinbrenner, who couldn't shine as far as
shoes, who knows nothing aboutbaseball.
See, because what happens now?
This is the problem.
Joy (19:29):
Don't get too wound up, remember, this podcast is called
Bring Joy.
I'm bringing joy, okay, allright.
All right, stay with the vibe.
Cookie Charres (19:36):
This is the joyful part of it.
The joyful part of it is thatyou see, greed doesn't pay.
The greed part of the Yankeeorganization now is not like the
old man you used to have.
George Sirenbrenner used tospend money to bring joy to
people.
Now they don't spend money,they make money.
The reason why they don'tchange anything because the
(19:58):
money's coming in.
They've been selling out likecrazy 40,000 plus every game.
See back in the day when I wasa kid and I'd go to Yankee
Stadium to sell out a game, ithad to be 55,750 people.
Okay, now you don't get that.
Joy (20:14):
But who's counting how many ?
Cookie Charres (20:16):
55,750 is to sell out there and they had
standing room only, which thenwould make it like 57,000.
You know, now it only takeslike 40 to 45,000.
They've been selling outregularly now for the last 10,
20 games in a row.
Joy (20:33):
Because, like you said, the New York Yankees are their
iconic team.
They are a brand that isassociated with America,
associated with New York.
So if you go to New York, yougo to a Broadway play and you
try to get a ticket to a Yankeegame.
Cookie Charres (20:54):
Okay, in New York the Broadway play is the
Yankee game.
You know it's like.
You know it's a brand, justlike Joy just said.
Joy, you're right, absolutely1,000%.
Correct, right on the money.
It's a brand.
The.
Dallas Cowboys and america'steam.
America's team is I'm sorry youdallas cowboy fans, I got none
(21:17):
against dallas, go dallas.
But the thing is that america'sbrand is really america's team.
Is really the new york yankeesor the yankees?
So that way I don't getspecifically new york, yeah, but
it's the yankees.
So that way I don't getspecifically New York, but it's
the Yankees.
Everybody in the world you weara Yankee hat.
Everybody knows what that means.
You know the interlocking NY.
You know we don't even havenames on the back of our jerseys
(21:40):
.
Why?
Because we don't need to.
We know who's off the plate.
Joy (21:44):
All right, but tell me that , so this leads to a good
question.
Me that, so this, this leads toa good question.
Name your top yankees, topyankees of all time.
Yeah, give me, give me, give mea top.
It doesn't have to be a lineup,necessarily, but all the way
around the diamond, but give meyour, your favorite yankees,
give me five seven yankees okay,number one of all time for me
(22:06):
as a yankee, luke er.
Cookie Charres (22:07):
Now I never got to see him play Number four.
Then I would say second, babeRuth.
Third, mickey Mantle hey, theMick, the Mick Can't beat that
right.
There.
The first three, and then Iwould put in there as well,
following the Mick, derek Jeter.
Joy (22:26):
Yes, sir the captain.
Cookie Charres (22:28):
The captain, the real captain.
But we couldn't have beencaptain back then because it was
a captain by the name of MickeyMantle.
So you know, number sevenwasn't going to relinquish that,
and after Jeter I would have tosay Jorge Posada.
Joy (22:44):
I like that.
I like it.
The catcher you got to put acatcher in there.
Jorge Posada baby, the smartestguy on the field is the catcher
.
Cookie Charres (22:51):
every time, the catcher is the general.
If you don't have arelationship between your
pitcher and the catcher, youdon't have a team.
Joy (23:02):
Forget about it.
So we got Posada.
Who else?
Cookie Charres (23:05):
Posada.
I would definitely put in thereTino Martinez.
Joy (23:10):
Yes, sir, we haven't even talked.
Posada, I would definitely putin there.
Tino Martinez.
Yes sir, we haven't even talkedabout this.
Cookie Charres (23:15):
No, this is all ad-libbed here, we're good, keep
going, keep going.
Then I would put the other, thewarrior O'Neal.
Oh, a left-handed guy, anotherguy, all right, then Mark
Teixeira.
Joy (23:30):
Hey, and you happen to be wearing his jersey today.
Cookie Charres (23:32):
I'm wearing his jersey Number 25, who's now
being fraudulently depicted by aguy by the name of Gleyber
Torres.
Joy (23:41):
Yeah, just because he's wearing 25.
It's not retying.
Cookie Charres (23:44):
He can't wear that shirt.
He's not Mark Teixeira, that'sfor sure you know.
But I would start with that andthen build up my pictures.
Would be number one, right offthe bat, would be Whitey Ford,
my first daughter.
My second daughter would be ElDuque hey.
Joy (24:07):
You know I'm crazy about El Duque, senor Hernandez from
Cuba.
Cookie Charres (24:10):
who would put you out?
Joy (24:13):
The great American story.
Okay, right, the fact from acommunist country.
Cookie Charres (24:17):
He defected from Cuba Right, and for me that's a
great story, even though I'mPuerto Rican, I root for him
because of the fact that he wentto Holy Hell to get to where he
was going.
Joy (24:26):
Right.
He left his family and getshere signs with the Yankees,
wins a World Series.
Cookie Charres (24:34):
Right, not only that, but here's a sidebar to
that People don't realize that,talk to me.
Talk to me.
George Steinbrenner this is howmuch of a humanitarian talking
about a joyful instance inYankee history.
George Steinbrenner wanted tokeep him so bad because he was
homesick and what he did was payoff Fidel Castro to bring in
(24:55):
his entire family from Cuba tothe United States.
So he wiggled some strings inNew York.
He was a very powerful man inNew York and he got him
citizenship here.
He put him in the front of theline to get their stuff, their
papers, to work together and therest is history.
He's an American citizen withhis family.
He's happier than all Get outand guess what?
(25:18):
He pitches three games in a.
I think it was two games in theworld, two starts and he has
two wins.
And you know what?
The greatest thing about it?
The next picture I would haveas a reliever coming out.
It would be two guys HectorLopez, who was a who, hector
Lopez was a pitcher with theYankees, okay.
(25:39):
A Latino, okay.
And then I would have the onlyone, number 42, come out of the
bullpen.
Joy (25:47):
Oh, I wish I had the music playing right now.
Oh, that's what I need in thebackground All right, go Play.
Cookie Charres (25:52):
The Sandman Comes in Mariano Rivera.
Joy (25:55):
Let's go.
Cookie Charres (25:57):
And you know when the man came in?
When he came in, it was over.
Joy (26:00):
Forget about it.
It was good.
Pack up, get your stuff fromunder the seat, make sure you
didn't lose anything.
Cookie Charres (26:05):
There was a saying we said every time he
came in look, you got yourshares now with Slim and Nun,
and guess what?
Slim left town, and that's theway I look at it.
And I didn't even botherfilling in the rest of the team.
So imagine what we got.
And I didn't even include RogerClemens.
We had the rocket in the pocket.
Don Mattingly.
(26:26):
With Don Mattingly, you know,our last captain before Jeter
was Don Mattingly.
It was Munson.
Munson passed away in theairplane crash.
Joy (26:37):
I was a kid when that happened.
Cookie Charres (26:39):
Yeah, 1979.
Joy (26:40):
Yep, my daughter was born then, yep, I was about nine,
eight or nine years old, I think.
Cookie Charres (26:45):
Yeah, and he passed away and I remember that
game because I attended it.
It was at Yankee Stadium andBucky Dent hit the—no, it wasn't
Bucky Dent.
I can't remember who it is.
Now I don't know if it wasBucky—no, I'll tell you who it
was.
It was a very close friend ofMunson and I can't remember the
(27:07):
the and shame on me for notremembering him.
Anyway, it was a team play butit's very close to Munson and he
hit the deciding home run in inthe ninth inning to win the
game and that's what baseball islike real life drama that's
what my brother-in-law, paulie,always says right baseball,
sports in general, but butespecially baseball, is real
(27:29):
life drop.
Well, it is because, basically,art imitates life and baseball
imitates life.
And to me, how many times haveyou people out there have heard
one strike, two strikes, threestrikes, you're out.
You know what that means.
Everybody can relate to that.
And for you, casanovas outthere, getting to first base,
you know what that means.
(27:49):
I'm not going to go into it,but you know what that means.
That's a joyful part of yourromantic life.
And sometimes don't get to home, you don't even get to second
base, but you're happy to get tofirst.
I know, on many, many of myoccasions when I was a young man
, a strapping young man, hold onone second.
Joy (28:07):
Yeah, you better take a moment right there.
You better take a moment.
Cookie Charres (28:14):
Getting to first base was a considerable how can
I say?
Accomplishment.
Now I can't even get out of thebench.
I'm like if I'm sitting on thelittle I'm getting out to play
the game, and you know it's aeuphemism.
You know a euphemism and astart with the letter M.
Joy (28:39):
It'll come to me, don't worry about it All right, but
you know, what we were talkingabout is like baseball is real
life drama, right, and baseballimitates life, right.
Cookie Charres (28:48):
Oh yeah, you were saying there's no question
and I.
Joy (28:51):
I think that's one of the things that I love about
baseball is it doesn't happenfast no right, and because it's.
It's a marathon, not a sprint.
You gotta work for it, yougotta sit and be patient right.
There's big hits, there'slittle hits, well it's a thing.
You know that you, you don'trush, you just sit and enjoy.
Cookie Charres (29:11):
It's a chess game.
It ain't checkers right exactlyyou said something in a podcast
, uh, when I first met you.
That lesson too, that wasreally, really profound and I
hope you reheat it because Ican't remember.
I'm terrible for quotes, but,uh, paraphrasing it.
They call it oh, but the otherword that I was thinking was a
(29:32):
metaphor.
Joy (29:33):
Oh, a metaphor.
Cookie Charres (29:34):
Baseball is a metaphor for life.
I should have helped you out,but the thing is that you said
something about baseball.
How do you consider that boring?
People say baseball is boringand you came out with something
that had to do with that.
You better check yourself orreally go visit.
Joy (29:50):
Can you recall that?
Yeah, I don't recall right nowWe'll have to rewind that
episode.
Cookie Charres (29:55):
I'm telling you I think that thing was so
profound.
I'm going to do it because Ihave a list of all your podcasts
and I'm going to look that upand I'm going to steal that and
put it in my pocket because itwas absolutely so true that you
know it's almost like you weretraining.
You know what you got to getsome therapy if you you.
But oh, here we go.
You better spend more time byyourself, by with yourself yeah,
(30:16):
sit with yourself you bettersit with yourself a little bit
longer.
So if you think that baseball isboring, sit with yourself a
little bit longer ah, that's it.
Joy (30:24):
That's that's what I said and that's the thing.
Right you gotta if you'reuncomfortable sitting with
yourself yeah, then you knowyou'll find anything boring and
that's where the work happens,when you sit with yourself.
Right, cookie, we were talkingabout this at lunch earlier, but
that's another episode, right?
Cookie Charres (30:38):
but we won't get into that.
I can tell you a little bit ofstory, I think, but I'm gonna
wait until joy brings that up atanother time.
Uh, which happens to be verymetaphorical with baseball, with
the things that I'veexperienced in my life.
Joy (30:52):
You mentioned the Dallas Cowboys and you and I haven't
talked.
But if you look on my ankleright here, you'll see a blue
star.
Cookie Charres (30:57):
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Joy (30:59):
No, that's all right, that's all right, my bad.
Yeah, so my family, a lot of myfamily, came from Dallas.
Really, that's how we ended updown in Key West.
I ended up down in Key West.
I ended up being born here, butanother story.
But being a fan of the New YorkYankees, being a fan of the
Dallas Cowboys, being a fan ofthe Key West High School Conks
right.
When you're a fan ofchampionship teams, our
(31:21):
expectations are always realhigh.
They throw the roof Right, andwe talked about that, and that's
another thing with life andbaseball, right.
You've got to learn not to putsuch high expectations on people
, be easy right, absolutely.
Cookie Charres (31:36):
It's called progress, not perfection.
Joy (31:39):
Yes, we talked about that too.
Cookie Charres (31:41):
You've got to be able to keep it in perspective.
It's a long season.
I fail miserably at this.
My friends out there, you knowI can talk all the BS in the
world, but you know what?
Sometimes adhering to your ownideals is so difficult?
Because we're imperfect humanbeings.
Joy (32:03):
I think that's the other part of it.
Right, with baseball, you don'thave to hit a home run every
time you can strike out andyou're going to get another at
bat.
Pass the baton, baby, you'llget another at bat, and it's a
long season.
Cookie Charres (32:16):
Take one for the team once in a while.
Joy (32:17):
Yeah, sometimes you need it .
Cookie Charres (32:18):
You've got to step up under the pitch and just
take it, wear it, baby, and getto the first base and just pass
the bat over to the next guy,but don't ground down to double
plays.
Joy (32:28):
Yeah, which reminds me, since you said that that sounds
like this year's.
We talked a lot about the pastYankee greats so many to talk
about but this year's team westarted out fantastic, oh yeah.
Cookie Charres (32:43):
Like a house of fire.
Joy (32:44):
Yeah, 50 games faster than any other team.
Probably some other record.
Cookie Charres (32:49):
By May we already reached, we already had
50 wins.
Joy (32:54):
We were talking about World Series.
You said you hadn't been to NewYork and you said the next time
you go to New York before WorldSeries, If they make it to the
World Series.
Right and I'm looking uptickets and hotels because I'm
thinking we're going to theWorld.
Cookie Charres (33:06):
Series yeah, you and I spoke about it.
Let's go, right, let's go.
Joy (33:09):
And then all of a sudden summer came.
Oh my God, and what?
Cookie Charres (33:12):
happened?
A swoon in June.
Ooh, Talking about the swoon inJune, the Yankees are deep into
it, baby.
It's like stepping in dog shitand you can't get it off your
shoe.
Wait, I need a beep, beep don't.
Joy (33:28):
No, we're all right.
Dog doo-doo.
We're good, dog poo, we're good.
Yeah, no, it's been a sloppysummer.
Cookie Charres (33:35):
We're sitting in it, baby, we're sitting in it.
Yeah, that's what Boone saidright, yeah, we're sitting in it
and the thing is that you knowit's like you know, joy, you
bring up such a good thing, agood point, and life is like you
know.
You've got to have to have.
(33:56):
We talked about this.
Please help me out here.
Joy (34:06):
This is your resolve and your oh yeah.
We said you've got to gothrough adversity.
Cookie Charres (34:09):
Two.
Joy (34:10):
Right Adversity and resilience.
Cookie Charres (34:14):
Resilience.
Yes, exactly that is so, soimportant and I have to remind
myself of that all the time.
But joy constantly brings methat light where I can see
beyond my muck and mire.
My muck and mire gets me.
The shitty committee in my head, in my language, will mess up
my day in a heartbeat.
(34:35):
Do you hear me, folks?
In a heartbeat, you know,because the dark guy on the
other side of the you know, theguy that's sitting on the other
shoulder wants your day to bemiserable.
If the devil ignores you, thatmeans you're doing something
right yeah, don't yeah and takeit.
Joy (34:56):
Take it when you get it right.
Yeah, you gotta take it.
Cookie Charres (34:59):
When you get it, man, I tell you what, I tell
you what.
Thank you for that, for that,for that leading.
You know, you'll never trulyknow the value of the moment
until it becomes a memory.
Joy (35:14):
That should be on a t-shirt or a greeting card or something
.
And those are the things.
Those are the little thoughtbombs that we have on Saturday
mornings when I see you.
That made me really want toshare the mic with you, because
we could talk about baseball.
But you've been, you've beenthrough it in life and you
always have these little bits ofwisdom that you drop on me, the
(35:38):
cookie corner.
Cookie Charres (35:39):
The cookie's corner, the cookie corner.
Joy (35:41):
I think we're going to have a spin-off.
Cookie Charres (35:42):
A crumb from cookie's corner.
Joy (35:44):
That's it.
Cookie Charres (35:45):
A crumb.
Joy (35:46):
A crumb from cookie's corner.
See, there you go.
You know, Spin-off right here,you heard it here, folks.
Cookie Charres (35:54):
Yeah, it's a good thing.
You know, joy brings a lot ofjoy into my life.
Going back doing the 360 again.
The thing is about joy is joysupplies a lot of joy.
She brings a lot of joy to thepeople where I live at.
You know, we're on our last leghere.
You know what I'm saying.
All of us are retired, most ofus are handicapped, you know,
(36:17):
and you know we don't haveanybody, but joy is always there
every Saturday for us.
You know, and that to me is aspecial thing, man, that's a
gift.
That's like having, you know, aDH.
You know, she's the designatedhitter in our place, so when we
have somebody that can whack theball and get a hit, she's there
(36:39):
, she's capable of doing that,and so that makes me happy.
And the other ones I reallydon't know, and between you and
I I don't care, but the thing isthat she brings that to my life
.
So after that, I'm extremelygrateful to her and for
everything she brings with her.
Joy (36:59):
Thank you for the compliment.
One thing I'll say aboutvolunteering is anybody out
there who volunteers foranything, or whoever has you,
know that you do it thinkingthat you're going to give
something, but you always getmore.
(37:22):
And that day when I rolled upon your porch, you know, and me
and you became friends.
That's talking about a gift,you know.
So whenever you extend yourself, trust me, you'll get more in
return.
I certainly got a life friend.
You got to pay it forward, girl.
Yeah, it's all good stuff yougot to pay it forward.
Cookie Charres (37:39):
Yes, ma'am.
Joy (37:40):
You talked about.
You've been around a little bit, right, so let's throw some
wisdom at me, right?
What brings you joy besidesbaseball?
Cookie Charres (37:51):
Besides baseball , people like you, you number
one, number two, the fact that Igot.
You know, I have grandchildren.
I got four beautifulgrandchildren and my joy is just
.
You know, it's easy for mesometimes to sit back in
retrospect and look at my pastand look where I'm at now.
(38:14):
I shouldn't be here, you know.
I should be either dead, injail or in an institution.
You know, I'm here.
I'm sitting with a good friendof mine and we're talking things
about life and just ourfavorite sport, which is
baseball.
How better do I have it?
(38:37):
Look, I'm the luckiest guy.
I have it better than anybodyelse on the planet.
Joy (38:44):
Lou Gehrig said that I'm the luckiest man on the face of
the earth yeah, facing aterrible disease that tore him
up and took him away from thegame and took him away from his
fans, and he still felt thegratitude and I think that's a
lesson for all of us.
He stood up there on his lastgame and said he's the luckiest
(39:06):
man on the face of the earth.
Right, I hope I didn't get thatwrong.
No, you got it right.
He said I'm lucky.
Well, in his accent.
Cookie Charres (39:10):
I'm the luckiest man on the face of the earth,
right?
I hope I didn't get that wrong.
No, you got it right, becauseyou said I'm lucky Well, in his
accent I'm the luckiest man onthe face of the earth.
Joy (39:19):
Yeah, and there's always light.
Right when there's dark there'slight, especially if you're on
L train traveling from 149th.
Street up to 160th Street.
Cookie Charres (39:31):
You see the light at the end of the tunnel
and it's.
Joy (39:33):
Yankee Stadium baby, let's go.
Man, we got emotional rightthere.
But when you talk about thingsthat bring you joy and you're
passionate about, if youremotions don't get stirred up,
I'm going to tell you a realquick story, if I may.
Cookie Charres (39:49):
Don't be concerned, please do Okay.
I'm going to talk you a realquick story, if I may.
I'd be concerned, please doOkay.
I'm going to talk about theMick real quick, and I'm not
talking about Mickey Rivers,although he was a great leadoff
hitter probably one of the bestleadoff hitters we've ever had,
other than Gardner.
I don't know what happened toGardner.
They just made him disappear.
Maybe he was whacked by JohnGotti, who?
Joy (40:08):
knows, don't start rumors.
They'll come looking for us now, come on.
Cookie Charres (40:15):
It's okay, listen.
The thing is that the Mick oneday you know the Mick, I don't
know if you guys out there knowthat the Mickey Mantle had a bar
on 57th Street which is west ofhe had to call.
It's called Mantles.
It was on Central Park Southand one day I went to Mickey
(40:40):
Mantles.
I was a little bit older atthat time, but I wasn't old
enough to drink.
Let's put it that way.
I'm going to leave that littlestory for another time, but I'll
tell you right now To speed itup a little bit.
I will fill in the spaces atanother time.
But I'll tell you right now tospeed it up a little bit.
I will fill in the spaces atanother time.
But he gave me a coaster and hesigned it and he just put it on
(41:03):
there, on there, let the kid in.
And every time I went to YankeeStadium, all I had to do was I
didn't have a ticket, I was toopoor to buy it and I would show
that to the guy at the gate.
And he let me in Because heknew his signature.
And every time I went to theballpark, I was the luckiest man
on the planet because of fact,all I had to do was show him the
(41:26):
coaster and I said let the kidin.
And the guy would grab me, puthis arm around me, says get out,
go, go, go, before they see mego.
Wow, you know, and that's how Iused to get into games, you
know, without paying.
Besides the con edison I don'tknow if you guys out there from
new york or used to be in newyork when I was a kid there was
(41:47):
a program from con edison.
Consolidatedated Edison used todo all the power.
The gas and electricity camefrom Consolidated Edison, their
power plant, and they used tohave a program for kids, inner
city kids like myself, and theyused to call Con Ed kids, and
(42:07):
they used to have free ticketsand I used to wait in line like
from 10 o'clock in the morningand I'd skip school or go before
school and get the tickets.
You know, a ticket, a singleticket for me so I can get into
the game.
And anyway, we don't have thosekind of programs anymore, you
(42:28):
know, unfortunately.
But you guys out there, if youwant to see good baseball, I'm
going to tell you right now Gosee the Conks over here.
I remember I used to watch themwhen they had Bronson Arroyo as
their pitcher.
He was a good pitcher back thenand I said he'd be an amazing,
and sure enough he would.
The only thing that I regret henever pitched for the Yankees,
because he'd still be around Atleast.
(42:48):
He'd be a legend and he'dprobably retire his number.
Joy (42:51):
Yeah, a legend for the Yankees instead of the Sox,
right.
Cookie Charres (42:54):
Well, he played for the Sox, he played for the
Cubs, he played for everybodybut the Yankees, and his career
was short-lived.
I think he had an injury.
In those days Tommy John wasn'tconsidered perfected, wasn't
perfected.
Yet Now you got kids in collegeand in minor leagues getting
Tommy John before they even makethe majors and that actually
(43:15):
really enhances their throwingability.
Joy (43:17):
Yeah, oh to instead of fix a problem to make their arm.
Cookie Charres (43:24):
Exactly Stronger .
Stronger Because they tore atendon.
Do you know where that camefrom?
Joy (43:31):
No.
Cookie Charres (43:31):
Okay, as soon as I say this name, you're going
to know who that came from.
No, as soon as I say this name,you're going to know who it is
Tommy John.
Who did he pitch for?
Joy (43:40):
The Yankees.
Cookie Charres (43:42):
The New York Yankees.
Where did he come from?
He used to pitch for the LADodgers and we got him in the
trade and Tommy John pitched forus and he had that surgery done
and he was the first player inthe history of baseball to get
that elbow surgery done TommyJohn surgery.
And that's where it stuck,tommy John.
(44:03):
So you get a Tommy John.
They named it after him becausehe was the first ball player to
get pictures to actually havethat done yeah, zoned out.
Joy (44:11):
I zoned out for a minute.
I was thinking about the guysgetting the surgery for carpal
tunnel no, no, no, no.
Not just getting the surgery sothey could perform better, not
because they were fixing aninjury.
Cookie Charres (44:24):
So I was thinking of that in this case
the tommy john thing went rightover my head.
In this case it was an injury,but now they're getting it done,
that it like a as an enhancer.
Joy (44:33):
It's the new steroid.
Cookie Charres (44:34):
The new steroid, the new steroid, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Joy (44:37):
Let's not talk about steroids right now.
We need another episode forthat whole era, right, yeah,
yeah, because we talked aboutA-Rod earlier.
Cookie Charres (44:52):
A-Rod.
You know and think about aboutit.
Guys out there, luke Garrick,babe Ruth Look at these stats.
Look at Mickey Mantle nosteroids.
Imagine if it was all steroidswhat he would do.
He would have destroyed BabeRuth's record a long time ago.
714.
And when he won the TripleCrown he had like what was it?
He had RBIs.
That year was 158 RBIs.
That's unheard of.
I mean, the guy wasunbelievable and there's a lot
(45:16):
of guys like that now, but notlike the Mick.
The Mick can do that from bothsides of the plate.
Joy (45:21):
You're very lucky to have been able to see those guys play
in person and not just readabout them in a book.
No doubt about it and see someof the film that's put back
together.
You can now see find on youtube.
I I saw something that was, uh,remastered a swing of babe ruth
, where they had taken multiplestill images and put it together
(45:46):
using ai and you could actuallysee the swing and what was the
unique aspect of babe bruce townother than hitting?
I feel like I should know theend.
Oh well, he was a pitcher.
Cookie Charres (46:05):
Yeah, yeah, he was a southpaw yeah and he had
more records pitching before hebecame the Sultan of Swats,
before he became the Babe that'shis thing.
He was a pitcher for the BostonRed Sox.
In those days they were calledthe Boston Braves.
Joy (46:27):
There's another guy now, Otani.
Cookie Charres (46:31):
Shohei Otani, which is really close to being
like a baby right not too manyjapanese baby and the new kid
that came up.
Joy (46:39):
What's his name?
Paul skeens.
He played for the pirates now.
And he's yeah, he played forlsu tigers um in college last
year.
He's playing in college winsthe world series, gets drafted
and he starts in the All-Stargame a year later.
That's just crazy, but he waslike that Now, of course, he's
(46:59):
just pitching now that he's inthe show.
Cookie Charres (47:01):
I wish the Yankees had him right now.
Joy (47:04):
But he can hit.
Cookie Charres (47:05):
Yeah, and remember guys, remember this DEA
stuff didn't exist.
Back when I first startedwatching baseball, we didn't
have the pitcher always bat atninth, because he was the worst
hitter on the team, becausepitchers had to hit.
So think about that.
In those days you had.
(47:26):
And real quick, just to add onto that, the ballplayers back
then didn't get paid whatthey're getting paid now.
They're getting paid millionsof dollars, $55 million a year.
Oh my God, I mean it's justcrazy.
You know what?
Mickey Mantle made?
The most he ever made a year hewas making $150,000 a year.
(47:51):
All the guys back then, afterthe season was over, had second
jobs.
They either sold cars orendorsed things, even guys like
Joe DiMaggio.
What did he do?
He used to make commercials, mrCoffee.
Joy (48:06):
Yeah, yeah.
Cookie Charres (48:07):
All right, the coffee maker they sell cars.
Or Petrocelli, the guy who wasthe shortstop for the Boston Red
Sox, rico Petrocelli, and inthe off season he would sell
suits, and they were calledPetrocelli suits, you know.
And so they all had the secondjob.
(48:28):
The bottom line is that theyhad to maintain a lifestyle for
their families one way or theother, and to wind up on the DO,
or what they call now the IO,because you can't call it
disabled list, because it's notpolitically correct.
Joy (48:43):
Finish no, no, no, keep going.
Cookie Charres (48:45):
And you know, to me it's still the DO.
You know, in those days youplayed through.
If you look at Mickey Mantle,before he suited up for a game,
the man used to look like themummy.
He had so many bandages on hisknees and people don't realize
that.
You know how he got injured.
I'm going to share this withyou.
In 1953, 52, if I'm not mistaken, 52 in one game he was playing
(49:16):
right field and it wasDiMaggio's last season.
Mickey was the heir apparent toJoe DiMaggio, he was retiring
and they went for a balltogether and Mickey Mantle, he
was a speedster.
He finished that year also withlike 30-some-odd bases stolen.
(49:36):
All right, the guy was a maniacon the bases.
He got his cleats caught in thedrainage system in the outfield
and both of them.
And so when he pulled upbecause DiMaggio, you know, the
captain of the outfield isusually the guy at center field.
So there was a double entendre,because Joe DiMaggio was not
(49:57):
only the captain of the team buthe was also the captain of the
outfield.
So what happened was thatMickey Mantle pulls up and he
gets his cleat caught on one ofthe draining, the rain drain.
I never heard that story, yeahand that's how he damaged his
knees.
And ever since, you know, whenGeorge Steinbrenner bought the
Yankees from NBC because CBS wasit that owned the Yankees and
(50:22):
what he did was then he tookbecause he was a huge Mickey man
fan I mean tremendous, and hemade sure that all the drainage
entries in the outfield wererecessed.
That's why they got the bestdrainage system in the world In
all the stadiums.
Yankee City's got the bestdrainage system.
You can thank GeorgeSteinbrenner for that.
(50:44):
The boss.
Joy (50:46):
Nobody like the boss.
Cookie Charres (50:47):
Nobody's like the boss.
What do you think he would donow?
Boom wouldn't have been there amonth ago, boom would have been
bombed.
Joy (50:55):
Yeah, when we lost the first five games in this slump,
boom would have been going.
Somebody's got to go.
What do you say?
He loves winning more thanbreathing.
Cookie Charres (51:05):
More than breathing, or something like
that.
You're the one that turned meon to that, something like that.
It was a quote.
It was the one that that turnedme on to that.
Something like it was a quote.
It was a paraphrase, that, yeah, he said that the thing that I
love more than breathing.
Joy (51:17):
Breathing is winning.
Yeah, that's the way he said it.
Cookie Charres (51:19):
Good stuff yeah, you can't be that, that we
don't have that anymore.
See, the love of the game is.
That's the most important thingabout anything you do in life.
Guys out there, you gotta havea love for it.
You don't have the passion forit, don't do it.
It ain't meant for you.
If your passion is teaching,being a nurse or just being a
parent, if that's your passion,go for it.
(51:42):
You got to jump in there withboth feet and don't worry about
sinking or swimming, because youknow what You're not going to
drown.
You belong in that and that'sall I have to say about that.
And that's my story and I'msticking to it.
Joy (51:55):
I love it and I think that's a good place to wrap up.
And you know what I had afeeling that once we did this
first episode, that there wouldbe more and, like you said, a
little crumb from Cookie'sCorner.
A little crumb from Cookie'sCorner.
I think we might be ontosomething.
Cookie's Corner, I think wemight be on to something.
You got a lot of stories totell and I wish everybody could
(52:17):
see your face, because when youtalk about going to Yankee
Stadium when you were a kid, youlook off and your eyes start
sparkling and no, it's abeautiful thing and I appreciate
you sharing your love for theYankees.
I'm so glad that I came up onyour porch.
You're my good friend, cookie.
I'm crazy about you.
You know that I'm Joy Newlishand I appreciate you tuning into
my podcast.
My purpose is to bring joy intomy life and the lives of others
(52:37):
.
If you enjoyed this episode,drop a review, share and
subscribe, because there's a lotof good stuff on tap.
You can check my website atjoynewlishcom Now.
Go, bring joy to the people inyour world.
Until next time, much love.
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