There’s a guy on the diamond at Keyspan Park who’s named after a Brooklyn street.
This Brooklynite works hard, yet he’s constantly smiling, and he’s not a player grinning over his high batting average. He’s Sam Carrigy, a rookie seasonal groundskeeper who’s no neophyte in the work force, having recently retired after working 30 years as an administrator for the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation.
A baseball player as a kid, Carrigy has been a baseball fan all his life and working at the ballpark is pure joy for him.
But there’s no Brooklyn street called Sam, so what about his name?
It seems that, over 50 years ago, Sam’s father was unwinding in Costello’s Bar, situated on Quentin Road in Marine Park. He got a call from the hospital that his wife had given birth to a boy and was asked to supply a name. He looked out the window of the watering hole towards the street and the first name he saw, on the street sign, was Quentin. So he said to name the baby Quentin, and that’s what happened.
But years later, when Carrigy went to school and the teacher called the roll on the first day, names like Robert, John and Joseph went by with nary a whisper. But when Quentin was called out, well, let’s just say the kids thought it was pretty exotic. Kids being kids, they started poking fun at poor little Carrigy by calling him “San Quentin,” for the famous California prison known as “The Big House.”
Well, “San Quentin” then got shortened to “San,” which over time transformed to the very Brooklynish name, “Sam.”
Carrigy is about the same size as recently-promoted second baseman Matt Fisher, and his cherubic countenance makes him look like he could be Fisher’s dad.
So when you’re out at Keyspan, and you see a happy man who looks like Matt Fisher manicuring the diamond, say, “Hiya, Sam.”
He’ll smile at you — happy in his work and happy that his own father wasn’t sitting in a different part of Costello’s.
Because a slightly different view outside of Costello’s that day would have left Carrigy with a name those darn kids would have had even more fun with.
Nostrand.
Moonlight and Al Harris
On June 29, 1905, Archibald “Moonlight” Graham made his only major league appearance when he went into a game as a defensive replacement for the New York Giants. The game was in played in Brooklyn, at Washington Park, against the team that would eventually become the Brooklyn Dodgers. Graham was waiting in the on-deck circle when the game ended, an never again got the chance to take a swing in the bigs.
After leaving the game, Graham became a doctor, and his story became well-known thanks to W.P. Kinsella’s novel, “Shoeless Joe,” which was the basis for the movie “Field of Dreams.”
In that film, Kevin Costner, playing farmer Ray Kinsella, plows over his cornfield and builds a ballfield, so ghosts of former players — including Archibald and, eventually, Ray’s father — have a place to play.
On June 29, 2005, at Keyspan Park, “Moonlight Graham” came out of a cloud of smoke in center field — corn doesn’t grow well at the beach — and walked in the rain towards home plate.
Waiting for him were the Cyclones, still in uniform after the completion of the suspended make-up game of a scheduled double-header.
Behind the plate with catcher Drew Butera was the specially-appointed umpire for Graham’s second chance, Al Harris.
Harris is a season ticket holder who now works in the Cyclones’ ticket office when he is not sitting in Section 12, a few rows behind the Cyclones’ dugout. Known for his “engaging,” yet wholesome, repartee with New York-Penn League umpires during Cyclones’ games, he was now getting to show his own umpiring skills.
Most of the fans, soaked to the gills after the evening rain, had exited the stadium. The grounds crew was anxiously waiting in left field, ready with the tarpaulin to cover the field as soon as Graham got his chance.
On the mound for the Cyclones was pitching coach Steve Merriman.
Graham stepped in to bat. With the count at 1-1, Butera signaled for a brush back pitch — to a 128 year-old man none-the-less!
Merriman deigned to throw at Graham and the count, thanks to a called strike by Harris, reached 3-2.
Graham, after a 100 year absence from the batter’s box, looked a bit rusty at bat. But Harris was determined to call ’em as he saw ’em — giving no breaks to such a senior batter.
Merriman went into his wind-up and threw a fastball. Graham swung in the Keyspan Rainville, and like Casey from Mudville, struck out.
Afterwards, Graham said that it didn’t bother him that he struck out.
“It was all about getting the opportunity,” said the slugger (who was played by an actor the Cyclones wished to remain anonymous). “It shows that the dreams of our youth never die, no matter how much time or space passes.”
True, but for others out there who have dreams — don’t wait as long as Moonlight Graham did to take your at-bat.
As Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige put it, “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”
A surplus of southpaws
Yankee Stadium, with its short right field porch, has traditionally favored left-handed batters, but it’s extremely rare for a team to field a squad of lefty swingers from one to nine in the batting order.
As Cyclones’ announcer Warner Fusselle pointed out, the Staten Island team started a lineup of all southpaw swingers on July 6 at Keyspan Park, as the Yankees had either four left-handed batters and five switch-hitters scheduled to face Brooklyn righty Jeff Landing.
After Landing pitched five innings, he was followed by three relievers, all right-handed, so all the Yankee switch-hitters continued to hit lefty through-out the game.
The next evening at Keyspan brought the same situation — Brooklyn started right-handed Orlando Rengel, and the Yankee line-up once again all batted left handed.
When Brooklyn left-hander Eric Domangue replaced Rengel to start the seventh, Yankee switch-hitter Hector Gonzalez turned around to bat right-handed and the streak was broken — 63 consecutive left-handed batters over two games.
It is the longest such streak that Fusselle can recall.
Anyone know of a longer one?
July 16, 2005 issue
