It is a welcome part of the baseball landscape that some of the new baseball
parks have adapted the idea that traces to long-gone Ebbets Field in
Brooklyn. It is an updated version of the "Hit Sign, Win Suit" sign
emblazoned on a narrow strip under the scoreboard in right-center field at
the revered Dodgers ball park.
These being richer times, a mere suit is small potatoes to the current flock of
millionaires playing baseball. Now, a million dollars is the lure. Of course, it
is probably just as hard, if not harder, to win the prize at two of the ball
parks as it was at Ebbets Field.
Pac Bell Park in San Francisco offers a million dollars to the slugger who
can hit the huge glove situated above the stands in left-center field. Turner
Field in Atlanta offers the million bucks to the worthy who can drive a ball
off the huge Coke sign in left field. Both would take mighty pokes of some
500 feet or so. It's unlikely, but just possible that some of today's behemoths
might actually hit the targets and win the million dollars. Naturally, the ball
park managements are insured against the possibility, however slight.
The sign at Ebbets Field lent some of the character to that grand old ball
park. It also was a tough sign to hit-on a bounce or on the fly--because it
was in a spot under the scoreboard in right-center field that couldn't be
reached if the right fielder was doing his job adequately. A ball that did hit
the sign usually wound up as a two-base hit.
Abe Stark, was the proprietor of the clothing store which bore his name. He
unveiled the sign in the early 1930s. He said, "They put the scoreboard up
about then. I was out at the ball park one day and saw that the space was
empty. It looked like a good spot for the sign. I got in touch with
[concessionaire] Harry Stevens who sold space on the outfield fences and
asked him about the space. He said nobody had ever asked for it. He didn't
think it was a good spot. I did. I bought it. And I made the offer because I
knew it would be a tough spot to hit."
He said, "It cost about $275 for the season in those days. By the time
Ebbets Field closed down [in 1958}, the rental price had gone up to $2,500
a season what with the rise in prices and the increased value of the space
because of television."
(Note: In the early days of Shea Stadium Newsday bought space above the
auxiliary scoreboards in left and right field for $10,000. The signs would
show up so often on television when home run balls were hit in that sector
that the Mets soon doubled, tripled and quadrupled the price and made
them revolving signs that featured three rotating sponsors).
The "Hit Sign, Win Suit" sign made a city-wide personality out of Stark. The
sign even gave him a prominence that enabled him to move into politics, and
he became Borough President of Brooklyn. The sign inspired a memorable
New Yorker Magazine cartoon by George Price. It showed a sign with the
message, "Hit This Sign and Abe Feldman will give you a suit absolutely
free." Backing up an outfielder reaching for a ball is an elderly gent,
obviously Abe Feldman, with a glove guarding the fence.
How many times was the sign hit?
"Many times," Stark said. "I would say at least five times a year. One fellow
named Hudson [Johnny Hudson, a second-baseman, circa 1939, known for
depriving Carl Hubbell of a perfect game] hit it three times in one year. And
Mel Ott hit it twice in one game."
Stark was mistaken. My check of long-time Ebbets Field residents brought
general agreement that the sign was hit rarely. If it was hit once a year that
was often. Reporters, ex-Dodgers officials and Ebbets Field fans of long
standing didn't recall more than a few instances when the sign was hit.
Johnny Hudson didn't hit it three times and Mel Ott certainly didn't hit it
twice in one game. It just felt to Stark that he was giving away a lot of suits.
He was fortunate because he had some redoubtable right fielders standing
guard for him through the years. Notably Dixie Walker and Carl Furillo.
They made a living playing in front of the right field screen and scoreboard.
Both rarely misjudged a ball so that it might hit the sign. On the other hand,
Stark's supply of suits may have been in some jeopardy when the sign was
at the mercy of a troglodyte like Babe Herman, famous for his misplays in
the early 1930s.
Furillo once said, "I don't recall a ball ever hitting the sign when I was in right
field. I asked the man for a pair of pants or something for guarding the sign,
but he never gave me anything. Dixie Walker, I think, wangled a few pair of
slacks for his work out there."
Over the years Furillo himself won two suits by hitting the sign. Furillo said,
"Once Elmer Valo misjudged a line drive I hit to right-center, and the ball
sailed over his head and off the sign. I remember that when I went to collect
the suit, they wanted to give me one of the cheap suits. I looked around and
took one of the good ones."
The procedure was for the official scorer to notify the store when the sign
was hit. Bill Roeder of the long-defunct World Telegram remembered a time
when one player, "I think it was Harry Walker," he said, "hit the sign on a
bounce. He called and asked if that wasn't at least good for a pair of pants
or a jacket. I took up his cause in the paper and I think Walker got a pair of
pants."
The Ebbets Field "Hit Sign, Win Suit" come-on lit up the scene a whole lot
more than the commercial-laden electronic messsage boards of today's ball
parks. The spirit of Abe Stark stalks the huge glove in Pac Bell Park and the
coke sign in Turner Field.
P.S.--When the Giants were considering offers about which commercial
entity would pay enough money to emblazon its name on the new Giants
park, Hank Greenwald, the longtime Giants broadcaster, wished aloud that
the Ralph Lauren Company would buy the rights and thereby name the park
the Polo Grounds--a waking up of the echoes of the Giants' old ball park in
New York.
© 2000 by Stan Isaacs.
It may be worth a million now,
but it was more fun then
TheColumnists.com, November 10, 2000
by Stan Isaacs
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