Appel from the Big Apple

by Robert Palazzo

Last August (2001), I made one of my all day trips to The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. That day I would see a pretty cool guy ­ Marty Appel, author and former public relations director for the New York Yankees. 

I found a parking place (not an easy thing to do in Cooperstown in the summer), and picked up my ticket for the event, which would start at 1PM. I walked around for a while outside, taking some pictures of the HOF and Museum buildings to be used in a future Diamond Angle magazine special HOF issue. Then it was time to go back inside, stop at the Mick's plaque, give it my customary finger touch and make my way to the Bullpen Theater, where Marty Appel would make his presentation. 

As I approached the Bullpen Theater, I heard a familiar voice ­ it was Bruce Markesun, Manager of HOF Special Programs. It was close to 1PM and he was preparing for Marty's introduction. Bruce and I chatted for a while and then I made my way into the theater. The Bullpen Theater is a very intimate venue, seating about 75 maybe, and a nice place for this sort of event, as long as the crowds don't get too large. Today, the crowd was too large! 

As Bruce began to introduce Marty, fans were still making their way in, some having to sit on the steps in the aisles. I hoped I wouldn't have to respond to nature's call as I would step on quite a few folks as I quickly made my exit.  

Marty is young-looking, although in his early 50's (actually, he was born August 7, 1948). It was 1968, when as a 19-year old student at SUNY Oneonta, he wrote a letter to the Yankees inquiring about a summer job. As luck would have it, Bob Fishel, the legendary Yankee Public Relations Director, received the letter the same day that a ton of fan mail arrived addressed to Mickey Mantle. Marty was hired to open and respond to Mick's fan mail that summer. As Marty told the youth in the audience (and as a college career advisor I was glad he did), "You have to write that letter. Everything that has happened to me in my career is a result of that letter I wrote when I was 19 years old." 

Marty told us it was a sad season for Mick. All his friends had retired; he felt lost and alone. Marty would bring Mick certain letters to cheer him up. Mick knew it too. But he would just crumple them up and throw them away.  

In 1974, Marty became just the third Yankee PR Director; and at age 25, the youngest ever. It certainly provided him with quite a list of strange, wonderful and wacky experiences. We all remember Graig Nettles' quote about wanting to join the circus and be a major league player, and getting his wish with the Yankees. Well, that says it all. Marty said nothing could prepare him for the Peterson/Kekich "family trade". Other events and thoughts that he shared from his years with the Yankees: 

* Ron Bloomberg being the first DH. His bat is in the HOF and he didn't even get a hit; he walked.

  * Experiencing the free agent signing of Catfish Hunter in 1973, using a 19 cent BIC pen to sign the $3.4 million history making deal.

  * From 1968-1977 Pete Sheehy was the clubhouse manager. He would sometimes shake his left wrist when talking about a player, his signal that the player was "a lefthander," in other words strange. It would appear that Pete's left hand might have gotten quite a workout, to hear Marty describe the Yankees during that time!

  * How he was able to get Oscar Gamble to get his much loved "Afro" hairdo cut in 1976, avoiding a potentially ugly union grievance and bad publicity, much to the delight of Yankee management.

  * Sparky Lyle was the funniest player he has been associated with. The organist would play pomp and circumstance whenever Sparky took to the mound.

  * As for George Steinbrenner, "He's pretty much like the Steinbrenner character that was portrayed on Seinfeld." (Marty signed a New York Post book excerpt for me that had a prominent photo of Stenbrenner smoking a cigar with these words "Robert ­ This guy was something!").

  * Ball Four by Jim Bouton offended him and he was as upset as any of the players. But as time has passed, emotions have faded and the book actually opened the doors to baseball reality for the fans to see.

  * There really was a bitter rivalry between Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk. You might say they actually hated each other. They would only address each other by last name. And they would talk to each other (one can only guess what was said) when one was batting and the other catching. Munson would get upset whenever sports announcer Curt Gowdy would plug Fisk and speak highly of him. Munson would say that Fisk would sit out a game when he was hurt but that he played every day. Marty's opinion is that Munson would have eventually become a Yankee manager.

 

In 1980, Marty became Executive Producer of Yankee broadcasts on New York television station WPIX. With that came the duties of supervising Phil Rizzuto, Bill White, and the other cast of Yankee announcers. I suspect as long as he kept Phil supplied with Italian connoli pastries and let him leave the broadcasts early to beat the traffic and cross the bridge, things went smoothly. 

Marty actually became an accidental Yankee fan. It was 1955, and at the age of 7, it was the year of his first World Series. We all know that 1955 was one of the rare times the Yanks lost the Series; they lost to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Marty decided he would root for the underdog, who he assumed, not knowing their history, were the NY Yankees! 

Marty was asked several questions about his book. He said that Publisher's Press approached him about the project so he thought "Why not?" He writes from 6-10 AM on Saturdays and Sundays. Fortunately, he is a fast typist, something about his thoughts going immediately to his fingers. In the book, it mistakenly lists the year of Mantle's death. Marty said that may be evidence that he still hasn't accepted it.  

He was asked how Yogi Berra came to write the forward. He explained Yogi is a client of his and figured having Yogi's name associated with the book would help sales. And then he shared a Yogi story with us: 

Apparently, Yogi once had dinner with Joe DiMaggio and his bride Marilyn Monroe. Figuring this was an event that would make for good conversation, Marty sked Yogi to share his memories of it with him. Yogi thought awhile and then said to Marty, "You know, instead of the usual four or five shrimp they usually bring you in your shrimp cocktail, we had eight."

Afterwards, there was a book signing and I had my picture taken with Marty. We exchanged business cards and I promised to send him a copy of this article when it was completed. I'm sorry it took me so long.