Frank Sinatra would have turned 100 tomorrow. He had his fair share of baseball chops.
He starred with Gene Kelly in the 1949 feature Take Me Out to the Ball Game in which he played second baseman Dennis Ryan of the famed “O’Brien to Ryan to Goldberg” ditty.
Might not have been the greatest baseball film in the world; the story focused on a woman owner of a turn-of-the-century ball club. Shocking! But it did have a lot of star power: Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Esther Williams (so, of course, swimming scene), Betty Garrett, Jules Munchin, and perennial villain Edward Arnold (kids, ask your grandparents).
Sinatra actually did like to play, “managing” a team called the Sinatra Swooners (Tumblr page here). You can still buy a team jersey if you’ve got the dough. He palled around with sports figures. At one point he and fellow Italian Joe DiMaggio were the kings of their respected professions and Tommy Lasorda loved to talk about their relationship.
And, of course, Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, home of the first professional game.
He also recorded one of the saddest songs of all time, and not just about baseball, but about our lost nostalgia.
So sing a “Happy Birthday” to Sinatra, knowing you can now do it royalty-free.
is available on Amazon.com,
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