BY ALAN J. STEINBERG
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
COMMENTARY
On Saturday night, June 5, 2010, world super-welterweight champion Yuri Foreman will be defending his title against former world welterweight champion Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium. It will be the first bout at a Yankee Stadium since Muhammad Ali successfully defended his world heavyweight championship against Ken Norton at its former location across the street on September 28, 1976. Once again, Yankee Stadium will be a boxing world capital, restored to its former pugilistic glory.
Major boxing matches are always a time of nostalgia and memories of great fights past. As the fans at Yankee Stadium await the first round bell on Saturday night, I will be reminiscing about my great New York fight memories. Old family boxing stories passed down from my father to me may actually bring a tear to the eye.
My love of boxing and baseball, as well as my Jewish heritage and Hebrew name, is an inheritance from my grandfather, Archie Steinberg, born Aryeh Malovany in Rozan, Poland in 1898, who passed away eight months before my birth in 1949.
He married his first cousin, Rose, the daughter of his Uncle Michuel and Aunt Bryna in 1920. My grandmother, however, would soon find that she was marrying baseball and boxing as well.
Archie opened his own kosher butcher shop on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill, the Jewish neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Every year in April, Archie would give Rose the keys to the car and tell her to drive him to the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. As they arrived near Forbes Field, home ballpark of the Pirates, Archie would get out of the car and tell Rose, "I'm going to the Pirate opener – go back and watch the store."
Let me tell you the ultimate of Archie's sports fanaticism – on the day my father, Melvin (Moishe) was born, October 7, 1925, Archie was at Forbes Field watching Hall of Fame Washington Senators pitcher Walter Johnson win against the Pirates in Game One of the World Series. When he arrived home and asked mother-in-law Bryna,"Where is Rose?" She responded, "You have another son!"
Boxing, however, was the equal of baseball in Archie's sports world. Billy Conn, the greatest light-heavyweight champion in history, also lived in Squirrel Hill. Archie knew Billy's trainer, a fellow Jew by the name of Harry Pitler, brother of Brooklyn Dodger coach Jake Pitler. For the sports public, Harry went by the name of Johnny Ray.
When Billy fought Joe Louis for the heavyweight championship of the world at the late, lamented Polo Grounds in Manhattan on the night of Wednesday, June 18, 1941, my late uncle Alter Steinberg went to Forbes Field to watch the Pirates play the New York Giants. That was not, however, the real reason he went to the game.
At 10:00 pm, the game stopped, and the Louis-Conn fight was broadcast over the public address system. The blow-by-blow announcer was Don Dunphy, broadcasting his first world heavyweight championship fight.
Don Dunphy was the greatest announcer in the history of boxing, and on that night, he was broadcasting what in my opinion was the greatest heavyweight championship fight in boxing history. After twelve rounds, Billy was outboxing the champion Brown Bomber and led on two of three scorecards, 7-4-1 and 7-5 while tied on the third, 6-6.
Then, Billy made a fatal mistake. He left his corner and tried to knock Louis out, and he was knocked out at 2:58 of the thirteenth round. After the fight, Harry Pitler said to his fallen fighter, "Billy, if you had a Jewish head instead of an Irish head, you would be the heavyweight champion of the world today!"
There was no question that a fight of this magnitude would be held in New York. During the 1930s right up through the early 1960s, virtually every major championship fight, with few exceptions, was held in the nation's largest city. Throughout this era, New York actually had three boxing capitals: the Polo Grounds in Harlem, Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, and Madison Square Garden at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, later in 1968 to be moved to its present Penn Station Manhattan location.
In one respect, the Polo Grounds historically was the leading fight capital of the three venues, for it was the site of the two greatest heavyweight championship fights of all time, the aforesaid Louis-Conn fight and the 1923 Jack-Dempsey-Luis Angel Firpo classic. During this bout, the Argentine challenger, known as the "Wild Bull of the Pampas" was knocked out in the second round, but not before he had knocked the champion Dempsey out of the ring at the end of the first round after himself previously being floored seven times.
Yet the other two venues had their historic claims as well. Madison Square Garden hosted more major championship fights than the other two sites, including the epic first battle between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier "Fight of the Champions" on March 8, 1971. The Garden was also the location of virtually every major bout, championship or otherwise, on the televised Friday night and later Saturday night Fight of the Week series during the 1950s and early 1960s, sponsored by Gillette razors and broadcast by Jimmy Powers and Don Dunphy. Who can ever forget those great Gillette razor commercials: "Look Sharp – Be Sharp – Feel Sharp!"
As for Yankee Stadium, its place is indelibly etched in American history and not just boxing history, for it was the site of the June 22, 1938 heavyweight championship rematch between Joe Louis and former champion German Max Schmeling. Adolph Hitler had used Schmeling's June 19, 1936 12th round knockout of Louis at Yankee Stadium as proof of Aryan superiority. In the rematch, Louis scored a victory for America by knocking out Schmeling in the first round.
There were many other great championship boxing events in Yankee Stadium, but for me, the most memorable was the middleweight championship bout between defending champion Sugar Ray Robinson and welterweight champion Carmen Basilio on September 23, 1957. The bout took place during a sad period for New York -- the last days in the city for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants prior to their departure for Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively. It was an unforgettable contest, however, won by Basilio on a close split decision.
There are few events in the sports world as exciting as a championship bout in New York. The unique energy of the city and the intensity of New York fight fans provide an atmosphere unmatched in any other venue. Due to tax reasons, however, most major bouts over the past few decades have been fought in Las Vegas. That is a shame. Las Vegas is a plastic town with boulevards of broken dreams. It can hardly match the unique excitement provided to a championship bout by New York, the greatest city in the world.
Yankee Stadium has a history unmatched by any other sports stadium in the universe. It was the site of many a classic World Series, as well as the most important sports event of my life, the 1958 NFL Championship "sudden death" game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants whose exciting outcome led to the NFL becoming the nation's number one sport. The Foreman-Cotto fight will hopefully be a new worthy chapter in the history of The House That Ruth Built, Reggie and George Remodeled, and Bloomberg Built Anew Across the Street.
As for the fight itself, I definitely have a strong bias. I am thrilled that a fellow Orthodox Jew, Yuri Foreman, born in the former Soviet Union and now living in Brooklyn is a world championship boxer. Not only that -- Yuri is a rabbinical student! I have been influenced by a lot of great rabbis throughout my life, but none of them could box. Understandably, I will definitely be rooting for Yuri.
At the same time, during my service as Region 2 EPA Regional Administrator, I developed a very warm feeling towards the people of Puerto Rico, and I truly adore the beauty of the island commonwealth. Not only that, growing up in Pittsburgh, Roberto Clemente was my ultimate sports hero. So if Miguel Cotto, one of many great Puerto Rican fighters, including Sixto Escobar, Jose Torres, Carlos Ortiz, and Wilfredo Gomez, prevails on Saturday night, I will be happy for my many Puerto Rican friends as well.
In the words of the late, beloved New York ring announcer Harry Balogh, whose malapropisms exceeded those of Yogi Berra: "May the better participant emerge triumphant!"
Alan J. Steinberg served as Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush. Region 2 EPA consists of the states of New York and New Jersey, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and seven federally recognized Indian nations. He currently serves as Public Servant in Residence at Monmouth University.
