William B. Mead, who authored
"The Official New York Yankee Hater's Handbook",
passed away in December at the age of 83. In addition to his obsessive (and
completely understandable) hatred of
The Bronx Embalmers, Mead was also an expert on the St. Louis Browns baseball franchise—which morphed into the Baltimore Orioles in the mid-1950s. In his anti-Yankee "handbook", Mead recounted the story of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce adopting a resolution that denounced
The Pinstriped Posers for "poor sportsmanship" since they acquired too many good players in the middle of a particular season. Sound familiar? Mead also told of a Boston cabbie who—upon finding out that his fare was
Harry Frazee—punched him and knocked him to the ground for selling
Babe Ruth to
The Evil Ones in 1919. Apocryphal?
Maybe, but
we believe it!
