The Sunday Funnies

Lefty Gomez was good enough at pitching to make the Hall of Fame, and self-deprecating enough that you wouldn't know it from his stories.

Another Hall of Fame hurler, Robin Roberts, heard a number of Gomez's stories over the years and summed them up:

"Just once I'd like to hear Gomez tell a story in which he got someone out."

The Sunday Funnies

The 1965 World Series pitted the Minnesota Twins (hooray!) against the Los Angeles Dodgers (boo!).

The Dodgers would have started the great Sandy Koufax in the opener, but it was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. So manager Walter Alston started Don Drysdale instead, which is not a bad fallback.

Except that Drysdale didn't fare well that day at the old Met. The Twins scored six runs in the third inning and drove him out of the box, and Minnesota won 8-2.

After the game, the long-retired Hall of Fame pitcher Lefty Gomez stuck his head into Alston's office to say: "Hey, Alston. Bet you wish Drysdale was Jewish too."

The Sunday Funnies

Vernon Gomez, a Hall of Fame left-handed pitcher for the Yankees in the 1930s, had two nicknames: Lefty and Goofy.

Stories like this lie behind the Goofy Gomez monicker:

Gomez is in a jam, and the powerful Jimmy Foxx -- who only hit 534 home runs in his own Hall of Fame career -- is up.

Yankees catcher Bill Dickey calls for the fastball; Gomez shakes him off.

Dickey asks for the curve. Gomez shakes him off.

Dickey signals for the change up. Gomez shakes him off.

Dickey runs though the signs again. Gomez shakes them all off.

Dickey calls time, goes to the mound: "What do you want to throw?"

Gomez says: "Nothing. If we wait long enough, maybe he'll give up and leave."