Saturday Morning News

New York Prepares for Start of Subwat Series

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Baseball fans will be packing Yankee Stadium a few hours from now and New York sports bars as well, no doubt.

CNN's Jeff Flock has stationed himself at the Seven Seas Restaurant on Long Island and to get the latest on the much talked about Subway Series.

Now, that's not Jeff, but I'm wondering, Jeff, are you going to get your face painted, too?

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, I don't think so. We're not going to wear our hearts on our sleeves here today. But as you can see, they are getting their game face on this morning here at the Seven Seas.

We thought we would start today outside the city in Long Island. The folks on Long Island don't want to be left out of this, as perhaps you can see, they are not, as we speak. It is the Seven Seas and these are some of the young ladies that typically wait on tables. What are you doing right there?

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: Painting my logo of the New York Yankees.

FLOCK: Now, OK, we've got a Yankee over here and on this side we have the Mets heard from. What's this all like here, this thing that's unfolding?

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: Crazy. Crazy. The Yankees are losing. Mets all the way.

FLOCK: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: In your dreams.

FLOCK: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: Man, I don't think so.

FLOCK: Before we get away, let's take a look at your hand. Can I see your hands? Carl, if you're able to see this, take a look at this. What possessed you?

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: New York Mets.

FLOCK: What possessed you?

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: I'm a Mets fan all the way. Die hard. We're taking it this year. We're taking it. It's our turn. It's our turn. Back up. Get out.

FLOCK: Now, I take it you don't remember the last Subway Series, which was in 1956, but you feel very strongly about your team, yeah?

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: Absolutely. We're consecutive winners 25, a 25 time series. Two times, that's all you won statistically.

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: That's all right. This is our year.

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: Statistically that's all you won.

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: This is our year.

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: That's all it is.

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: Let's go Mets.

FLOCK: I feel as though I've walked into a bizarre sports CROSSFIRE segment here somehow. But as you can see, this is some of what is unfolding here, both on Long Island as well as in the city. As you know, the game goes on tonight and New York will be in some sort of pandemonium probably for the next week or perhaps even 10 days.

We'll let you go back to the painting, to the serving, to the...

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: Who let the dogs out?

UNIDENTIFIED BASEBALL FAN: We've got the (unintelligible) ready. We've got the kennel ready.

FLOCK: And that's it, the dogs out, but we'll be back to tell you.

For now, I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, reporting live from Great Neck, Long Island.

PHILLIPS: Be careful, Jeff.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: From, what is it, from the left and from the right, right? Yeah, right.

FLOCK: I'm not sure which is which today.

O'BRIEN: All right.

PHILLIPS: Poor Jeff.

O'BRIEN: Poor Jeff. All right. We wish him well. Hopefully he has security there.

Anyway, let's move on and let's take the conversation maybe...

PHILLIPS: Elsewhere.

O'BRIEN: Should we send it up the escalator just a little bit? This is a big moment for many New Yorkers, as you might have guessed. After all, it has been 44 years since the last Subway Series. A lot has changed since then and we're not just talking about ticket prices, subway fares and players' salaries. For one thing, in 1956 our next guest was hawking peanuts in Yankee Stadium. Today, he is a professor of history at Long Island University specializing in pop culture in general and baseball in particular.

We welcome Joseph Dorinson. Professor, thanks for being with us.

PROF. JOSEPH DORINSON, LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY: Thanks for having me.

O'BRIEN: All right, put this in perspective historically.

DORINSON: Sure.

O'BRIEN: '56 versus the year 2000 in New York City. There's a lot of interesting parallels, aren't there?

DORINSON: Definitely. You have the...

O'BRIEN: What...

DORINSON: I'm sorry.

O'BRIEN: Go ahead, talk.

DORINSON: You have the Dodgers who, in a sense are the parents of the Mets. They're a team of hustlers. They're a team of individual players who meld. You have the great Jackie Robinson, the barrier breaker. You have Gil Hodges' stolid spectacular at first base power. You have Roy Campanella, who was probably the greatest catcher in baseball. Yogi fans will contest that. You have Don Nukem, who has won 27 games that year but seems unable to win the big one in the World Series. You have Don -- no, Zimmer played in '55, you have Don Holt (ph), you have other players who fill in nicely.

But the Yankees are, of course, the Yankees. They have Mickey Mantle, who anchors center field, the replacement for the great Joe DiMaggio. You have Moose Scawon (ph) at first. You have Gil McDougal (ph), normally a second or third baseman, playing short for the departed Phil Rizutto. You have an unsung hero, Don Larson, who was 11 and five during that season and is known, I think, more for his drinking skills than his pitching success. And suddenly in the fifth game he pitches an unparalleled gem, a perfect game.

I remember vividly Yogi Berra pouncing on Big Don. I remember in that same game Mickey Mantle hitting a towering home run and saving the no hitter by robbing Gil Hodges of at least a triple in the deep corners of left center field. This was a...

O'BRIEN: That perfect game probably the greatest World Series game ever played.

DORINSON: Oh, unquestionable...

O'BRIEN: Huh?

DORINSON: Unquestionably.

O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this, we just saw a little glimpse of it, but for folks who are, you know, just a little bit west of the Hudson River here, help us understand the differences between Mets and Yankees fans. You know, if you could name the quintessential Yankee fan, the quintessential Mets fan, who are they?

DORINSON: OK, right. Well, all generalizations are subject to controversy, but the Mets fans, like the old Dodger fans, were basically blue collar, middle class at best, but basically a diverse group struggling scrappers. The Yankees represented pinstriped respectability. One author called them the U.S. Steel of baseball. The Yankees represented the elite. They dressed accordingly, always with jackets and ties under the tutelage of first Joe McCarthy and later the old professor, Casey Stengel.

The Yankees were among the last to hire a black ball player, Elston Howard (ph), and Elston played a pivotal role in the Yankees' success in '56. He hit a home run, played left field in the seventh game, the deciding game, and went on to star with the Yankees many years thereafter.

The Dodgers had broken the barrier with Jackie and then with Nukem in '49 and Campanella in '48 and Gillian (ph) in the '50s and Sandy Amarose (ph). The Dodgers were the first team actually to field five African-Americans at the same time, sort of breaking another barrier. And they had won the previous series.

O'BRIEN: All right, professor, unfortunately our time has expired. I'd like to talk baseball with you a little longer, but unfortunately we don't have the time to do that and we hope you enjoy the series. We didn't even ask you who you're going to be rooting for. I'm going to gather it's the Yankees, right?

DORINSON: No, surprisingly, I'm rooting for the underdog.

O'BRIEN: All right. All right.

DORINSON: This is a belated admission of guilt for rooting for the Yankees all those years when Jackie was starring. So...

O'BRIEN: All right, Professor Joseph Dorinson, who is with Long Island University, thanks for being with us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

DORINSON: Thanks for having me. It's been a pleasure.

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