1 THE DAY OF THE SLIDER---09/17/1951
Posted by Zita Carnoscroogie – 04/13/2016 at 5:12 PM

This was a game I will never forget, on a day which I will never forget. I was sixteen, and on this Monday I played hooky from school to go to the Yankees-Indians game, and I watched as Ed Lopat outpitched Bob Lemon for what had to be the gazillionth time, 2-1. I had an ulterior motive; I had been burning with curiosity about the slider, which I had heard a lot about and had seen thrown in games, and I thought that maybe I could ask one of the Yankee pitchers about it. The one I asked turned out to be Lopat, and after the game I caught up with him and just wanted to know if I could ask him something. He stopped n his tracks, looked at me, and then with four quiet words he had me in the palm of his hand. He said, in a calm voice that relaxed me immediately, "Go ahead---I'm listening." When I