BringJoy
This podcast is all about bringing joy through storytelling and conversation. You’ll be inspired and entertained It’ll be time well spent I promise you that, so sit back and relax. Let's do this thing!
BringJoy
Echoes of Yankee Stadium featuring Cookie Charres
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.
BringJoy Theme: Original Music by Tyler Lee
Music and SFX: Subscription to SoundStripe
I do not own the rights to Enter Sandman by Metallica (clip)
Thanks for tuning in. This podcast is all about bringing joy through storytelling and conversation. I'll drop some thoughts on the life lessons I'm growing through. You'll be inspired and entertained. 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 fun episode. We're changing it up and introducing a guest today. Joining me on the mic is my friend, Cookie Charres.
Cookie Charres:Yeah, I'm Joyces guest today and I'm very proud and very excited to be here. Thank you.
Joy:Before we get into the conversation, cookie, I want to tell the listeners a little story about how you and I are connected. So I volunteer for a wonderful local non-profit here in Key West called Cooking With Love, whose mission is to provide our senior and most vulnerable community a weekly meal. Every Saturday, rain or shine, approximately 250 meals are delivered. I've been volunteering for a few months now and look forward to that time in my week. Well, I think it was my second time out delivering. I rolled up on your porch and from the minute we saw each other, we were fast friends. I was wearing a Conk baseball shirt and you were wearing a New York Yankee T-shirt. Right and well, the rest is history. As they say, we started talking baseball and we haven't stopped since. Is that how you remember it?
Cookie Charres:Absolutely, Absolutely. It was a gift because, you know, being a senior citizen, there at the Senior Citizen Plaza, I live by myself and I don't get a chance to really converse with a lot of people. But the fact that I was able to converse with Joy and immediately we started talking baseball and baseball man is a universal language it is man and, and you know, along with baseball, specifically a New York Yankee fan you're.
Joy:You're a historian, I mean, you spit out stats and statistics going all the way back to 1953, you know, when you went to your first game. You tell me so many stories and I want you to tell the stories, but I remember them. But before we get too much further into baseball, what else should go into your introduction? You're a friend, a father, grandfather, veteran of the Navy. Yes, what else am I leaving out.
Cookie Charres:Yes, yeah, what else am I leaving out? I'm a son to a parent, Raphael and Cecilia Charres, who are deceased right now. Right now They'll still deceased. There's no such thing as, right now they're gone. I was born and raised in New York City, born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx, and, yes, I served 35 years in the United States Navy, went to Vietnam in 1968, and came back in 1975. But in between all that time, I never lost touch with baseball. Baseball was my little escape, but, yeah, I was raised in New York and everybody in my family was a Yankee fan. My grandfather, in fact, was a bookie and he'd take bets.
Joy:This is a new story. You hadn't told me this.
Cookie Charres:No Go ahead, go ahead. My grandfather was a bookie. He also ran the bolita If you guys know what the bolita is, the illegal numbers. Back in the day before there was a lottery and my grandfather took bets and he would, of course, take people bet against the Yankees and he was always winning because the Yankees back then in the 50s were unbeatable, okay, and so he just let people off because the Yankees would win all the time. And he give them odds and they still would win. That's how I got, and everybody my family was involved in that scheme or the side of the business, and so I grew up in the streets following baseball. If I didn't play baseball or listen to it before there was TV, I would definitely play stickball or stoop ball, and it all has to do with baseball. To me, life is like baseball you get the first base, second base, third base and then, before you know it, it's time to go home.
Joy:And there you have it, folks. Now you know why I wanted to get this guy on the mic. He's got one story after another. You told me one story about that. You remember, you and you and the kids going to the game with your uncle. You're all packed into a yellow cab yeah, and headed out to.
Cookie Charres:We had a tradition that, and on some days we would go to my aunt's house. My father had 13 brothers and sisters. One of them was TT, iris, and the other aunt lived upstairs, pura Now they're both deceased now and all my uncles are gone too, but we would go there on Sundays, have Sunday dinner and, of course, be in Puerto Rican from the Bronx, you know, from Harlem, wherever it was being Puerto Rican from the Bronx, you know, and from Harlem, wherever it was Puerto Ricans. In New York. We have a habit of having family get-togethers and there was a lot of drinking back then, you know, and it was traditional. So my aunt would make fried chicken, pack sandwiches, and one day my father was indisposed. He was up the river, you know. He was serving a little time for something he wasn't supposed to do.
Joy:He was taking some classes.
Cookie Charres:Yeah, he was going to college. He called that going to college, you know. And so anyway my uncles decided we're gonna go take Cookie to the baseball game and they were playing Cleveland. I remember that specifically that day and we packed in so we got the lunches and everything else. In those days you can bring coolers, you know, to the ball game. You know now you can't do that, but we get into it. They held a cab and it was a checker cab. I don't know if you guys are familiar with checkered cabs in New York. They're like humongous little. They're yellow cabs but they look. You could sit four in the back seat and then you had little, what they call jump seats in the back and the front.
Joy:So you could put kids in there. I thought those yellow checkered cabs were just on the movies. No, they're real. Those yellow checkered cabs were just on the movies. No, they're real. You really see those in.
Cookie Charres:Newark. Oh yeah, I rode in them all the time. In fact I prefer to ride in them because they had a lot of leg room, not the other ones where you have this plastic thing. In those days they didn't have plastic partitions, they just had. You can talk to the driver, you can lean over. You know, now, with all the money in a slot now, it looks like a speakeasy now compared to back in the old days.
Joy:So you all pile into the back of the cab and you got fried chicken and sandwiches packed up Beer, beer.
Cookie Charres:Yeah, yeah, we had Valentine beer. Remember the Yankees were sponsored 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 hit a home run and they go, and there goes another Valentine blast by the Mick, you know and it's time to pull, and they go right into a commercial. You know, in those days they would verbalize a commercial. They'd read it, you know. So this is where the Mick pulls out his can of cold Ballantyne. It's time for you folks out there who are Yankee fans pull out yours, because now Mick is making his trip around the bases, you can have a cold one. And that's the way I looked at it.
Cookie Charres:I remember that day so much because when I walked into the stadium as a kid, you know just the experience of the smell. You know the smell of the peanuts, the Crackerjacks, the smoke, the beer. Back then, in those days, you had 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 a pair of shorts. We walked into the stadium and I remember it was dark, your eyes were adjusting from the sunlight outside to the stadium, darkness on the inside before you get to the actual the sunlight outside to the stadium, darkness on the inside before you get to the actual ramp going up to the seats. And I remember distinctively when we got to our section. You know we were in the right hand stands, right field stands, right before you get to the bleachers. You know cheap seats but in those days they were considered pretty good.
Cookie Charres:I think in those days those seats pretty good, I think those in those days those seats were a buck 25 and I was considered a lot of money yeah, a dollar 25, not 125, a dollar 25, and uh, and if you wanted to sit in the bleachers it was 50 cents, okay, but anyway, I get up to the ramp, going up there, and they're holding my hand and the first thing I see is, all of a sudden, this flash. I felt like I was Darth Vader in the Wizard of Oz. You know, it's like all of a sudden hey, uncle, uncle Eddie, I guess we're not in Kansas anymore. 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 little league park. It was 410 feet dead center. Back then, the monuments were on a field. There wasn't a separate museum in the back, separated from the park.
Joy:So they were on the playing field.
Cookie Charres:They were on the playing field. So if you play center and you hit a ball out there behind the monuments, by the time you grab it you have it inside the park home. Talk about a warning track. A warning track, the monument was your warning track. You know how many times Mickey hit that monument to grab a ball. Oh my God, it was sensational.
Cookie Charres:But the thing is that, the thing that I remember to this day, I can still smell that, the smell of the hot dog, the hot peanuts, and just that visualization of what seemed green, massive green on the blue sky and people. Just you know, yo, yo, yo get your perogarams. Perogarams Can't tell your players without your perogarams. I mean that just still resonates in my head and as a kid it's very impressionable, you know. And then watching your favorite players come up, you know, in those days, in 53 Phil Rizzuto was still playing shortstop, yeah, yogi Berra behind the plate. You had Whitey Ford on the bump or the mound.
Cookie Charres:Center field was, and that day was Mickey Mantle right field, field, can't remember, to be honest, they played right field, I have to look that up. Left field I think they put Tom Tresh back there. He was also a utility man who also played infield. The infield consisted of Cleet Boyer III. Shortstop was Phil Rizzuto. Second base was either Bobby Richardson or Tom Tresh. First base was Bill Scarrin the Moose they called him. And let me tell you and I remember this like it was absolutely yesterday and son of a gun, we were losing to the Cleveland Indians three to two. We had two men on base and the bottom of the ninth. Guess what happens? Like the stories we hear as a kid, the mitt comes up to the plate, two outs bottom of the ninth and you got two men on base and he's got two strikes on him and he's batting lefty.
Cookie Charres:I was about to ask which way he's batting lefty, he's batting lefty, he's a switch hitter, so the greatest switch hitter in the history of baseball. And he takes that swing, he gets two strikes on him and he's following him off and following him off and I think on the mound that day I forget, I think it was, it couldn't have been Ferguson Jenkins, because he played for the Cubs. I forget who was pitching for the Cleveland Indians. Anyway, it was a reliever at that point, didn't have closers, back then they called them just relievers. And he fouls a couple of back more and then he takes a mighty swing and guess what? The freaking ball comes directly towards our section and it lands six rows in front of us.
Joy:Are you kidding me? And?
Cookie Charres: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's called the freeze. It's named the freeze and it landed right there and it just missed hitting our seats and our section by, just like I said, a couple of rows, a couple of seats down that way. But we won the game at the bottom of the ninth, and that's my recollection of my first game at Yankee Stadium.
Joy:So your first game. You're there with all the people you love, right and the Yankees win the game.
Cookie Charres:They win the game.
Joy:In the bottom of the ninth. That's right, the Mick. You call him the Mick, the Mick you mentioned earlier. He batted from either side of the plate.
Cookie Charres:That's right, he's supposed to hit it.
Joy:Arguably the best hitter in baseball.
Cookie Charres:Ain't no arguing about that. The man, the man was a beast on both sides of the plate. It didn't matter, you threw it in. You know what. You better be ambidextrous because, no matter what happens, he's going to hit that, he's going to make contact and he hit line drives. He sprayed that ball. If they had stats back then you'd be amazed. They couldn't even keep up the amount of his this man had. He struck out a lot but you know, when he made contact that sucker would hit them practically out of the ballpark. You can actually see the L train going by, because that's how hard the L train, the elevator train, was back then. You could see it riding right down. You can hear the chute, the tractor, just the noise of the tractor wheels hitting the tractor. You know from your seat. Sometimes we did the wall. The fans would say KK, keep it down. You conductor, just keep it down. You know.
Joy:You're ruining the atmosphere.
Cookie Charres:I'm going to tell you.
Joy:Slow that train down, yeah.
Cookie Charres:I'm going to tell you just a quick piggyback to that story. One time it was the first time I went up there to Yankee Stadium by subway. My first recollection of that is what. The last stop before you get to the elevator the later part of the journey was a stop called 149th Street. Okay, and 149th Street before you get to the elevator part of the train, and then you'd sit and I'd love to go to the first car because I wanted to see the tunnel. And the tunnel, would you know, I would smile from ear to ear because the actual you're coming out of a tunnel from pure darkness and you saw this light at the end of the tunnel, like you were going to heaven.
Cookie Charres:The very first stop on that ride on the elevator part of the train was 161st Street and Riverside and it stayed up there. Right down on the train said Yankee Stadium, you know. So it was basically Yankee Stadium that was here next stop and I remember that just seeing that 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 all the people would go from there and at that time in the platform they would have a ramp that goes straight into the stadium. And so you go again from darkness to light, from light to darkness, and then into the actual. You could see the field, and that's when you realize that you've reached Mecca.
Joy:Yeah, because your feet, never really hit the ground.
Cookie Charres:No, you're at the Cathedral of Baseball Stadiums back then. They still call it the Cathedral because Yankee Stadium is Yankee, although it's still a small ballpark now compared to those days. But the thing is that back then it 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 stadium In. In fact, they have it at the new stadium now because they're replicated. It's that ornate right, that ornate thing that hangs down from the roof. Well, I mean, let me uh tag on that one, because I wasn't there for this game, but so wait a minute, let me.
Joy:Let me stop you right there. See. Earlier you said mick hit the freeze he did one game.
Cookie Charres:He hit the freeze. I wasn't there for that. He hit that.
Cookie Charres:And that's just supposed to be for decoration. It was supposed to be for decoration but he missed it by something like 12 inches or so, or 15 inches it could have been a whole foot, who knows, or a foot and a half Of going out of the stadium and the freeze kept it in there, but it was estimated to be like 620 feet. If you Google that now in this day and age, you'll see. They'll actually show you on YouTube him hitting a ball up there and they actually put a straddle cast of like a laser on it to show you exactly. That would have been the longest home run in the history of baseball to this day, if you would take an estimation.
Joy:Right if they were keeping that now. Yeah.
Cookie Charres:And those are the things I remember as a kid. I mean to me. I've been a Yankee fan since and sometimes I feel that I wish I wasn't, because I'm so frustrated now with them.
Joy:Well, let's talk about that for a minute. So you're like 1953, talking about like 70 years ago, plus right, and you've been a Yankee fan.
Cookie Charres:Since.
Joy:Winning, lots of winning lots of titles, yeah. But even one loss breaks your heart.
Cookie Charres:Yeah.
Joy:And I know it because I get those texts from you, like last night when we lost the game against the Red Sox.
Cookie Charres:I got a text from you last night.
Joy:I don't even think, I don't even. Yeah, All right, go ahead. You tell the story.
Cookie Charres:Joy. Joy is a joy because she's like my therapist. She sends me texts and she'll get me. I won't watch the game sometimes because I'm so anxious and my anxiety attacks and she'll text me. I just tell him the good parts. She texts me. She doesn't use foul language I'm the one that uses foul language, by the way, which I won't use here but the thing is that she'll text me last night about Judge hitting a big one. Now, I thought it was a grand slam, but he hit it, it was a three run home run and it brought us to the lead Two runs up.
Cookie Charres:That is true, it was worthy of a text. Yes, it was Joy, you are absolutely correct. But I a text. Yes, it was, yeah, joy, you're absolutely correct. But I'm such a negative sob that I said to her and I texted her back.
Joy:I bet you any money we lose to them.
Cookie Charres:Yeah, talk about debbie down in here yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right, they were playing 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 familiar with Baboon Boone, the Baboon is Aaron Boone, who our current manager. He should be wearing pinstripes, I'm sorry to say, and that's what happened, yeah.
Joy:Cookie's starting a petition to get Aaron Boone, the manager of the New York Yankees, fired.
Cookie Charres:I would love to have him fired. He wants to boycott.
Joy:What your text went on to say is that the fans need to boycott no more ticket sales.
Cookie Charres:No more ticket sales Boycott. Hit him in the pocket. Hit him in the pocket.
Joy:And then they'll get rid of him.
Cookie Charres:Al Steinbrenner, who couldn't shine as far as shoes, who knows nothing about baseball. See, because what happens now? This is the problem.
Joy:Don't get too wound up, remember, this podcast is called Bring Joy. I'm bringing joy, okay, all right. All right, stay with the vibe.
Cookie Charres:This is the joyful part of it. The joyful part of it is that you see, greed doesn't pay. The greed part of the Yankee organization now is not like the old man you used to have. George Sirenbrenner used to spend money to bring joy to people. Now they don't spend money, they make money. The reason why they don't change anything because the money's coming in. They've been selling out like crazy 40,000 plus every game. See back in the day when I was a kid and I'd go to Yankee Stadium to sell out a game, it had to be 55,750 people. Okay, now you don't get that.
Joy:But who's counting how many?
Cookie Charres:55,750 is to sell out there and they had standing room only, which then would make it like 57,000. You know, now it only takes like 40 to 45,000. They've been selling out regularly now for the last 10, 20 games in a row.
Joy:Because, like you said, the New York Yankees are their iconic team. They are a brand that is associated with America, associated with New York. So if you go to New York, you go to a Broadway play and you try to get a ticket to a Yankee game.
Cookie Charres:Okay, in New York the Broadway play is the Yankee game. You know it's like. You know it's a brand, just like Joy just said. Joy, you're right, absolutely 1,000%. Correct, right on the money. It's a brand. The.
Cookie Charres:Dallas Cowboys and america's team. America's team is I'm sorry you dallas cowboy fans, I got none against dallas, go dallas. But the thing is that america's brand is really america's team. Is really the new york yankees or the yankees? So that way I don't get specifically new york, yeah, but it's the yankees. So that way I don't get specifically New York, but it's the Yankees. Everybody in the world you wear a Yankee hat. Everybody knows what that means. You know the interlocking NY. You know we don't even have names on the back of our jerseys. Why? Because we don't need to. We know who's off the plate.
Joy:All right, but tell me that, so this leads to a good question. Me that, so this, this leads to a good question. Name your top yankees, top yankees of all time. Yeah, give me, give me, give me a top. It doesn't have to be a lineup, necessarily, but all the way around the diamond, but give me your, your favorite yankees, give me five seven yankees okay, number one of all time for me as a yankee, luke er.
Cookie Charres:Now I never got to see him play Number four. Then I would say second, babe Ruth. Third, mickey Mantle hey, the Mick, the Mick Can't beat that right. There. The first three, and then I would put in there as well, following the Mick, derek Jeter.
Joy:Yes, sir the captain.
Cookie Charres:The captain, the real captain. But we couldn't have been captain back then because it was a captain by the name of Mickey Mantle. So you know, number seven wasn't going to relinquish that, and after Jeter I would have to say Jorge Posada.
Joy:I like that. I like it. The catcher you got to put a catcher in there. Jorge Posada baby, the smartest guy on the field is the catcher.
Cookie Charres:every time, the catcher is the general. If you don't have a relationship between your pitcher and the catcher, you don't have a team.
Joy:Forget about it. So we got Posada. Who else?
Cookie Charres:Posada. I would definitely put in there Tino Martinez.
Joy:Yes, sir, we haven't even talked. Posada, I would definitely put in there. Tino Martinez. Yes sir, we haven't even talked about this.
Cookie Charres:No, this is all ad-libbed here, we're good, keep going, keep going. Then I would put the other, the warrior O'Neal. Oh, a left-handed guy, another guy, all right, then Mark Teixeira.
Joy:Hey, and you happen to be wearing his jersey today.
Cookie Charres:I'm wearing his jersey Number 25, who's now being fraudulently depicted by a guy by the name of Gleyber Torres.
Joy:Yeah, just because he's wearing 25. It's not retying.
Cookie Charres:He can't wear that shirt. He's not Mark Teixeira, that's for sure you know. But I would start with that and then build up my pictures. Would be number one, right off the bat, would be Whitey Ford, my first daughter. My second daughter would be El Duque hey.
Joy:You know I'm crazy about El Duque, senor Hernandez from Cuba.
Cookie Charres:who would put you out?
Joy:The great American story. Okay, right, the fact from a communist country.
Cookie Charres:He defected from Cuba Right, and for me that's a great story, even though I'm Puerto Rican, I root for him because of the fact that he went to Holy Hell to get to where he was going.
Joy:Right. He left his family and gets here signs with the Yankees, wins a World Series.
Cookie Charres:Right, not only that, but here's a sidebar to that People don't realize that, talk to me.
Cookie Charres:Talk to me. George Steinbrenner this is how much of a humanitarian talking about a joyful instance in Yankee history. George Steinbrenner wanted to keep him so bad because he was homesick and what he did was pay off Fidel Castro to bring in his entire family from Cuba to the United States. So he wiggled some strings in New York. He was a very powerful man in New York and he got him citizenship here. He put him in the front of the line to get their stuff, their papers, to work together and the rest is history. He's an American citizen with his family. He's happier than all Get out and guess what? He pitches three games in a. I think it was two games in the world, two starts and he has two wins. And you know what? The greatest thing about it? The next picture I would have as a reliever coming out. It would be two guys Hector Lopez, who was a who, hector Lopez was a pitcher with the Yankees, okay. A Latino, okay. And then I would have the only one, number 42, come out of the bullpen.
Joy:Oh, I wish I had the music playing right now. Oh, that's what I need in the background All right, go Play.
Cookie Charres:The Sandman Comes in Mariano Rivera.
Joy:Let's go.
Cookie Charres:And you know when the man came in? When he came in, it was over.
Joy:Forget about it. It was good. Pack up, get your stuff from under the seat, make sure you didn't lose anything.
Cookie Charres:There was a saying we said every time he came in look, you got your shares now with Slim and Nun, and guess what? Slim left town, and that's the way I look at it. And I didn't even bother filling in the rest of the team. So imagine what we got. And I didn't even include Roger Clemens. We had the rocket in the pocket. Don Mattingly. With Don Mattingly, you know, our last captain before Jeter was Don Mattingly. It was Munson. Munson passed away in the airplane crash.
Joy:I was a kid when that happened.
Cookie Charres:Yeah, 1979.
Joy:Yep, my daughter was born then, yep, I was about nine, eight or nine years old, I think.
Cookie Charres:Yeah, and he passed away and I remember that game because I attended it. It was at Yankee Stadium and Bucky Dent hit the—no, it wasn't Bucky Dent. I can't remember who it is. Now I don't know if it was Bucky—no, I'll tell you who it was. It was a very close friend of Munson and I can't remember the the and shame on me for not remembering him. Anyway, it was a team play but it's very close to Munson and he hit the deciding home run in in the ninth inning to win the game and that's what baseball is like real life drama that's what my brother-in-law, paulie, always says right baseball, sports in general, but but especially baseball, is real life drop.
Cookie Charres:Well, it is because, basically, art imitates life and baseball imitates life. And to me, how many times have you people out there have heard one strike, two strikes, three strikes, you're out. You know what that means. Everybody can relate to that. And for you, casanovas out there, getting to first base, you know what that means. I'm not going to go into it, but you know what that means. That's a joyful part of your romantic life. And sometimes don't get to home, you don't even get to second base, but you're happy to get to first. I know, on many, many of my occasions when I was a young man, a strapping young man, hold on one second.
Joy:Yeah, you better take a moment right there. You better take a moment.
Cookie Charres:Getting to first base was a considerable how can I say? Accomplishment. Now I can't even get out of the bench. I'm like if I'm sitting on the little I'm getting out to play the game, and you know it's a euphemism. You know a euphemism and a start with the letter M.
Joy:It'll come to me, don't worry about it All right, but you know, what we were talking about is like baseball is real life drama, right, and baseball imitates life, right.
Cookie Charres:Oh yeah, you were saying there's no question and I.
Joy:I think that's one of the things that I love about baseball is it doesn't happen fast no right, and because it's. It's a marathon, not a sprint. You gotta work for it, you gotta sit and be patient right. There's big hits, there's little hits, well it's a thing. You know that you, you don't rush, you just sit and enjoy.
Cookie Charres:It's a chess game. It ain't checkers right exactly you said something in a podcast, uh, when I first met you. That lesson too, that was really, really profound and I hope you reheat it because I can't remember. I'm terrible for quotes, but, uh, paraphrasing it. They call it oh, but the other word that I was thinking was a metaphor.
Joy:Oh, a metaphor.
Cookie Charres: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 boring and you came out with something that had to do with that. You better check yourself or really go visit.
Joy:Can you recall that? Yeah, I don't recall right now We'll have to rewind that episode.
Cookie Charres:I'm telling you I think that thing was so profound. I'm going to do it because I have a list of all your podcasts and I'm going to look that up and I'm going to steal that and put it in my pocket because it was absolutely so true that you know it's almost like you were training. You know what you got to get some therapy if you you. But oh, here we go. You better spend more time by yourself, by with yourself yeah, sit with yourself you better sit with yourself a little bit longer.
Cookie Charres:So if you think that baseball is boring, sit with yourself a little bit longer ah, that's it.
Joy:That's that's what I said and that's the thing. Right you gotta if you're uncomfortable sitting with yourself yeah, then you know you'll find anything boring and that's where the work happens, when you sit with yourself. Right, cookie, we were talking about this at lunch earlier, but that's another episode, right?
Cookie Charres:but we won't get into that. I can tell you a little bit of story, I think, but I'm gonna wait until joy brings that up at another time. Uh, which happens to be very metaphorical with baseball, with the things that I've experienced in my life.
Joy:You mentioned the Dallas Cowboys and you and I haven't talked. But if you look on my ankle right here, you'll see a blue star.
Cookie Charres:Yeah, I'm sorry.
Joy:No, that's all right, that's all right, my bad.
Joy:Yeah, so my family, a lot of my family, came from Dallas. Really, that's how we ended up down in Key West. I ended up down in Key West. I ended up being born here, but another story. But being a fan of the New York Yankees, being a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, being a fan of the Key West High School Conks right. When you're a fan of championship teams, our expectations are always real high. They throw the roof Right, and we talked about that, and that's another thing with life and baseball, right. You've got to learn not to put such high expectations on people, be easy right, absolutely.
Cookie Charres:It's called progress, not perfection.
Joy:Yes, we talked about that too.
Cookie Charres: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 know I can talk all the BS in the world, but you know what? Sometimes adhering to your own ideals is so difficult? Because we're imperfect human beings.
Joy:I think that's the other part of it. Right, with baseball, you don't have to hit a home run every time you can strike out and you're going to get another at bat. Pass the baton, baby, you'll get another at bat, and it's a long season.
Cookie Charres:Take one for the team once in a while.
Joy:Yeah, sometimes you need it.
Cookie Charres:You've got to step up under the pitch and just take it, wear it, baby, and get to the first base and just pass the bat over to the next guy, but don't ground down to double plays.
Joy:Yeah, which reminds me, since you said that that sounds like this year's. We talked a lot about the past Yankee greats so many to talk about but this year's team we started out fantastic, oh yeah.
Cookie Charres:Like a house of fire.
Joy:Yeah, 50 games faster than any other team. Probably some other record.
Cookie Charres:By May we already reached, we already had 50 wins.
Joy:We were talking about World Series. You said you hadn't been to New York and you said the next time you go to New York before World Series, If they make it to the World Series. Right and I'm looking up tickets and hotels because I'm thinking we're going to the World.
Cookie Charres:Series yeah, you and I spoke about it. Let's go, right, let's go.
Joy:And then all of a sudden summer came. Oh my God, and what?
Cookie Charres:happened? A swoon in June. Ooh, Talking about the swoon in June, the Yankees are deep into it, baby. It's like stepping in dog shit and you can't get it off your shoe. Wait, I need a beep, beep don't.
Joy:No, we're all right. Dog doo-doo. We're good, dog poo, we're good. Yeah, no, it's been a sloppy summer.
Cookie Charres:We're sitting in it, baby, we're sitting in it. Yeah, that's what Boone said right, yeah, we're sitting in it and the thing is that you know it's like you know, joy, you bring up such a good thing, a good point, and life is like you know. You've got to have to have. We talked about this. Please help me out here.
Joy:This is your resolve and your oh yeah. We said you've got to go through adversity.
Cookie Charres:Two.
Joy:Right Adversity and resilience.
Cookie Charres:Resilience. Yes, exactly that is so, so important and I have to remind myself of that all the time. But joy constantly brings me that 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. Do you hear me, folks? In a heartbeat, you know, because the dark guy on the other side of the you know, the guy that's sitting on the other shoulder wants your day to be miserable. If the devil ignores you, that means you're doing something right yeah, don't yeah and take it.
Joy:Take it when you get it right. Yeah, you gotta take it.
Cookie Charres: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 truly know the value of the moment until it becomes a memory.
Joy:That should be on a t-shirt or a greeting card or something. And those are the things. Those are the little thought bombs that we have on Saturday mornings when I see you. That made me really want to share the mic with you, because we could talk about baseball. But you've been, you've been through it in life and you always have these little bits of wisdom that you drop on me, the cookie corner.
Cookie Charres:The cookie's corner, the cookie corner.
Joy:I think we're going to have a spin-off.
Cookie Charres:A crumb from cookie's corner.
Joy:That's it.
Cookie Charres:A crumb.
Joy:A crumb from cookie's corner. See, there you go. You know, Spin-off right here, you heard it here, folks.
Cookie Charres:Yeah, it's a good thing. You know, joy brings a lot of joy into my life. Going back doing the 360 again. The thing is about joy is joy supplies a lot of joy. She brings a lot of joy to the people where I live at. You know, we're on our last leg here. You know what I'm saying. All of us are retired, most of us are handicapped, you know, and you know we don't have anybody, but joy is always there every Saturday for us. You know, and that to me is a special thing, man, that's a gift. That's like having, you know, a DH. You know, she's the designated hitter in our place, so when we have somebody that can whack the ball and get a hit, she's there, she's capable of doing that, and so that makes me happy. And the other ones I really don't know, and between you and I I don't care, but the thing is that she brings that to my life. So after that, I'm extremely grateful to her and for everything she brings with her.
Joy:Thank you for the compliment. One thing I'll say about volunteering is anybody out there who volunteers for anything, or whoever has you, know that you do it thinking that you're going to give something, but you always get more. And that day when I rolled up on 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.
Joy:You got to pay it forward, girl. Yeah, it's all good stuff you got to pay it forward.
Cookie Charres:Yes, ma'am.
Joy:You talked about. You've been around a little bit, right, so let's throw some wisdom at me, right? What brings you joy besides baseball?
Cookie Charres:Besides baseball, people like you, you number one, number two, the fact that I got. You know, I have grandchildren. I got four beautiful grandchildren and my joy is just. You know, it's easy for me sometimes to sit back in retrospect and look at my past and look where I'm at now. I shouldn't be here, you know. I should be either dead, in jail or in an institution. You know, I'm here. I'm sitting with a good friend of mine and we're talking things about life and just our favorite sport, which is baseball. How better do I have it? Look, I'm the luckiest guy. I have it better than anybody else on the planet.
Joy:Lou Gehrig said that I'm the luckiest man on the face of the earth yeah, facing a terrible disease that tore him up and took him away from the game and took him away from his fans, and he still felt the gratitude and I think that's a lesson for all of us. He stood up there on his last game and said he's the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Right, I hope I didn't get that wrong. No, you got it right. He said I'm lucky. Well, in his accent.
Cookie Charres: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, because you said I'm lucky Well, in his accent I'm the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
Joy:Yeah, and there's always light. Right when there's dark there's light, especially if you're on L train traveling from 149th. Street up to 160th Street.
Cookie Charres:You see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's.
Joy:Yankee Stadium baby, let's go. Man, we got emotional right there. But when you talk about things that bring you joy and you're passionate about, if your emotions don't get stirred up, I'm going to tell you a real quick story, if I may.
Cookie Charres:Don't be concerned, please do Okay. I'm going to talk you a real quick story, if I may. I'd be concerned, please do Okay. I'm going to talk about the Mick real quick, and I'm not talking about Mickey Rivers, although he was a great leadoff hitter probably one of the best leadoff hitters we've ever had, other than Gardner. I don't know what happened to Gardner. They just made him disappear. Maybe he was whacked by John Gotti, who?
Joy:knows, don't start rumors. They'll come looking for us now, come on.
Cookie Charres:It's okay, listen. The thing is that the Mick one day you know the Mick, I don't know if you guys out there know that the Mickey Mantle had a bar on 57th Street which is west of he had to call. It's called Mantles. It was on Central Park South and one day I went to Mickey Mantles. I was a little bit older at that time, but I wasn't old enough to drink. Let's put it that way.
Cookie Charres:I'm going to leave that little story for another time, but I'll tell you right now To speed it up a little bit. I will fill in the spaces at another time. But I'll tell you right now to speed it up a little bit. I will fill in the spaces at another time. But he gave me a coaster and he signed it and he just put it on there, on there, let the kid in. And every time I went to Yankee Stadium, all I had to do was I didn't have a ticket, I was too poor to buy it and I would show that to the guy at the gate. And he let me in Because he knew his signature. And every time I went to the ballpark, I was the luckiest man on the planet because of fact, all I had to do was show him the coaster and I said let the kid in. And the guy would grab me, put his arm around me, says get out, go, go, go, before they see me go. Wow, you know, and that's how I used to get into games, you know, without paying.
Cookie Charres:Besides the con edison I don't know if you guys out there from new york or used to be in new york when I was a kid there was a program from con edison. Consolidatedated Edison used to do all the power. The gas and electricity came from Consolidated Edison, their power plant, and they used to have a program for kids, inner city kids like myself, and they used to call Con Ed kids, and they used to have free tickets and I used to wait in line like from 10 o'clock in the morning and I'd skip school or go before school and get the tickets. You know, a ticket, a single ticket for me so I can get into the game. And anyway, we don't have those kind of programs anymore, you know, unfortunately.
Cookie Charres:But you guys out there, if you want to see good baseball, I'm going to tell you right now Go see the Conks over here. I remember I used to watch them when they had Bronson Arroyo as their pitcher. He was a good pitcher back then and I said he'd be an amazing, and sure enough he would. The only thing that I regret he never pitched for the Yankees, because he'd still be around At least. He'd be a legend and he'd probably retire his number.
Joy:Yeah, a legend for the Yankees instead of the Sox, right.
Cookie Charres:Well, he played for the Sox, he played for the Cubs, he played for everybody but the Yankees, and his career was short-lived. I think he had an injury. In those days Tommy John wasn't considered perfected, wasn't perfected. Yet Now you got kids in college and in minor leagues getting Tommy John before they even make the majors and that actually really enhances their throwing ability.
Joy:Yeah, oh to instead of fix a problem to make their arm.
Cookie Charres:Exactly Stronger. Stronger Because they tore a tendon. Do you know where that came from?
Joy:No.
Cookie Charres: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:The Yankees.
Cookie Charres:The New York Yankees. Where did he come from? He used to pitch for the LA Dodgers and we got him in the trade and Tommy John pitched for us and he had that surgery done and he was the first player in the history of baseball to get that elbow surgery done Tommy John surgery. And that's where it stuck, tommy John. So you get a Tommy John. They named it after him because he was the first ball player to get pictures to actually have that done yeah, zoned out.
Joy:I zoned out for a minute. I was thinking about the guys getting the surgery for carpal tunnel no, no, no, no. Not just getting the surgery so they could perform better, not because they were fixing an injury.
Cookie Charres:So I was thinking of that in this case the tommy john thing went right over my head. In this case it was an injury, but now they're getting it done, that it like a as an enhancer.
Joy:It's the new steroid.
Cookie Charres:The new steroid, the new steroid, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Joy:Let's not talk about steroids right now. We need another episode for that whole era, right, yeah, yeah, because we talked about A-Rod earlier.
Cookie Charres:A-Rod. You know and think about about it. Guys out there, luke Garrick, babe Ruth Look at these stats. Look at Mickey Mantle no steroids. Imagine if it was all steroids what he would do. He would have destroyed Babe Ruth's record a long time ago. 714. And when he won the Triple Crown he had like what was it? He had RBIs. That year was 158 RBIs. That's unheard of. I mean, the guy was unbelievable and there's a lot of guys like that now, but not like the Mick. The Mick can do that from both sides of the plate.
Joy:You're very lucky to have been able to see those guys play in person and not just read about them in a book. No doubt about it and see some of 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 multiple still images and put it together using ai and you could actually see the swing and what was the unique aspect of babe bruce town other than hitting?
Joy:I feel like I should know the end. Oh well, he was a pitcher.
Cookie Charres:Yeah, yeah, he was a southpaw yeah and he had more records pitching before he became the Sultan of Swats, before he became the Babe that's his thing. He was a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. In those days they were called the Boston Braves.
Joy:There's another guy now, Otani.
Cookie Charres:Shohei Otani, which is really close to being like a baby right not too many japanese baby and the new kid that came up.
Joy:What's his name? Paul skeens. He played for the pirates now. And he's yeah, he played for lsu tigers um in college last year. He's playing in college wins the world series, gets drafted and he starts in the All-Star game a year later. That's just crazy, but he was like that Now, of course, he's just pitching now that he's in the show.
Cookie Charres:I wish the Yankees had him right now.
Joy:But he can hit.
Cookie Charres:Yeah, and remember guys, remember this DEA stuff didn't exist. Back when I first started watching baseball, we didn't have the pitcher always bat at ninth, because he was the worst hitter on the team, because pitchers had to hit. So think about that. In those days you had. And real quick, just to add on to that, the ballplayers back then didn't get paid what they're getting paid now. They're getting paid millions of dollars, $55 million a year. Oh my God, I mean it's just crazy. You know what? Mickey Mantle made? The most he ever made a year he was making $150,000 a year. All the guys back then, after the season was over, had second jobs. They either sold cars or endorsed things, even guys like Joe DiMaggio. What did he do? He used to make commercials, mr Coffee.
Joy:Yeah, yeah.
Cookie Charres:All right, the coffee maker they sell cars. Or Petrocelli, the guy who was the shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, rico Petrocelli, and in the off season he would sell suits, and they were called Petrocelli suits, you know. And so they all had the second job. The bottom line is that they had to maintain a lifestyle for their families one way or the other, 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 not politically correct.
Joy:Finish no, no, no, keep going.
Cookie Charres:And you know, to me it's still the DO. You know, in those days you played through. If you look at Mickey Mantle, before he suited up for a game, the man used to look like the mummy. He had so many bandages on his knees and people don't realize that. You know how he got injured. I'm going to share this with you.
Cookie Charres:In 1953, 52, if I'm not mistaken, 52 in one game he was playing right field and it was DiMaggio's last season. Mickey was the heir apparent to Joe DiMaggio, he was retiring and they went for a ball together and Mickey Mantle, he was a speedster. He finished that year also with like 30-some-odd bases stolen. All right, the guy was a maniac on the bases. He got his cleats caught in the drainage system in the outfield and both of them. And so when he pulled up because DiMaggio, you know, the captain of the outfield is usually the guy at center field. So there was a double entendre, because Joe DiMaggio was not only the captain of the team but he was also the captain of the outfield. So what happened was that Mickey Mantle pulls up and he gets his cleat caught on one of the draining, the rain drain.
Cookie Charres:I never heard that story, yeah and that's how he damaged his knees. And ever since, you know, when George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees from NBC because CBS was it that owned the Yankees and what he did was then he took because he was a huge Mickey man fan I mean tremendous, and he made sure that all the drainage entries in the outfield were recessed. That's why they got the best drainage system in the world In all the stadiums. Yankee City's got the best drainage system. You can thank George Steinbrenner for that. The boss.
Joy:Nobody like the boss.
Cookie Charres:Nobody's like the boss. What do you think he would do now? Boom wouldn't have been there a month ago, boom would have been bombed.
Joy: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 than breathing.
Cookie Charres:More than breathing, or something like that. You're the one that turned me on to that, something like that. It was a quote. It was the one that that turned me 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:Breathing is winning. Yeah, that's the way he said it.
Cookie Charres: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 thing about anything you do in life. Guys out there, you gotta have a love for it. You don't have the passion for it, 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. You got to jump in there with both feet and don't worry about sinking or swimming, because you know what You're not going to drown. You belong in that and that's all I have to say about that. And that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Joy:I love it and I think that's a good place to wrap up. And you know what I had a feeling that once we did this first episode, that there would be more and, like you said, a little crumb from Cookie's Corner.
Joy:A little crumb from Cookie's Corner. I think we might be onto something. Cookie's Corner, I think we might be on to something. You got a lot of stories to tell and I wish everybody could see your face, because when you talk about going to Yankee Stadium when you were a kid, you look off and your eyes start sparkling and no, it's a beautiful thing and I appreciate you sharing your love for the Yankees. I'm so glad that I came up on your porch. You're my good friend, cookie. I'm crazy about you. You know that I'm Joy Newlish and I appreciate you tuning into my podcast. My purpose is to bring joy into my life and the lives of others. If you enjoyed this episode, drop a review, share and subscribe, because there's a lot of good stuff on tap. You can check my website at joynewlishcom Now. Go, bring joy to the people in your world. Until next time, much love.
