It’s another win for Whitey Ford!
The late, great Hall of Fame Yankee pitcher out of Astoria, Queens, was celebrated Saturday afternoon with a neighborhood street renamed in his honor.
Friends, family and elected officials beamed as 43rd Street between 34th and 35th avenues was co-named Edward Charles “Whitey” Ford Way.
Nicknamed “The Chairman of the Board” for remaining calm under pressure, Ford was raised in Astoria and spent his entire 16-year MLB career with the Bronx Bombers on his way to becoming a 10-time All-Star and six-time World Series champion.
City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer — who facilitated the tribute — was joined by state Sen. Michael Gianaris, the Old Astoria Neighborhood Association and the Friends of Whitey Ford Field for the ceremony, which took place on the southwest corner of 43rd Street and 34th Avenue.
The Yankee great — who was born in Manhattan and graduated from the Manhattan High School of Aviation Trades — cut his teeth playing sandlot ball with the Thirty-fourth Avenue Boys Club of Astoria.
Ford went 236-106 during the 1950s and ’60s for the Yanks, who signed the crafty 5-foot-10 left-hander out of high school in 1947 for $7,000, outbidding the crosstown New York Giants and the Boston Red Sox.
35 comments:
What address did he live at?
From the other QC, an apartment building at 31-53 34st (this might be a typo)
https://www.qchron.com/qboro/i_have_often_walked/whitey-ford-went-from-astoria-to-cooperstown/article_dc14f051-a58b-5b83-a78e-54434c0e0b5b.html
Uh oh ... that name "Whitey" sounds like a racial trigger to me. I predict future protests.
JQ: I know about that 34th street address but it's not near where the street and corner naming is on 43rd street.
So where on earth was the building - the exact address- where Whitey Ford lived/grew up? I'm still confused on this. Anyone know? Thanks.
BTW. I never heard of a "Thirty-fourth Avenue Boys Club of Astoria". Where might that have been?
@ G
It looks like the NY Post wrote this piece in a hurry. Because this doesn't make sense to me either.
Maybe Jimmy Van Bramer knows why 43rd st. was chosen. Or maybe a passerby crap reader from Astoria might have an inkling.
Here is the real deal...
https://digital-editions.schnepsmedia.com/BM042021/page_23.html?fbclid=IwAR1WmGypn_h7LVX5AdaAddKItqqXjGV3QWOLv5EbBaz4_lDyprch51d0pAE
@“ It looks like the NY Post wrote this piece in a hurry. Because this doesn't make sense to me either. ”
When did anything from the NY Post make any sense. It’s just a mouthpiece for the Australian far right
The Old Astoria Neighborhood Association also gives the address of the house where Ford lived as
31-53 34th Street. I would say that that is pretty official.
If the OANA says it's on 34th street, why was the signage put on 43rd street?
@ G
It's all the way at the bottom of that post
"Whitey attended PS 166 in Astoria and later Aviation High School in Manhattan. Whitey Ford started out as an amateur pitcher for the 34th Avenue Boys, based on 43rd street. The team was part of the Kiwanis League, which played on the sandlots in Brooklyn and Queens. When Whitey was signed by the Yankees a block party was organized for him on 43rd Street"
So it's basically where he learned his hurling skills as a kid.
Thanks JQ. It sort of clears things up. If I'm getting it right: he lived on 34th Street but hurled on 43rd. Be interested if there are any old photos of the venue on 43rd street that was the base of the 34th Avenue Boys. A club house perhaps? Maybe even a "sand lot"? A team photo? This Whitey Ford saga I believe could be a bit more complete, no?
Here's a photo of Ford's sandlot team, George.
And the 34TH Avenue Boys Social And Athletic Club, Inc., was incorporated on 21 November 1945. It appears to still be active, although no current address is listed.
Thanks for the team photo (and the book pages with additional pix as well.) Now we're getting somewhere! BTW in that photo, what does S.A.C. mean on the uniforms? Anyone know? Also, what does the B and F stand for on the banner? And where was Queens Park?
I'm just fascinated with this Whitey Ford info that seems to just now be getting play. I grew up in Astoria not far from his home on 34th street and NEVER heard about any of these details. No one in the neighborhood who I hung around with - playing stickball and stoopball in the streets - even knew about these details.
One more thing. I just noticed a discrepancy about where Whitey lived in Astoria. We have been mentioning all along until now that he lived on 34th Street. Right? However the bio that the sandlot team's photo appears in - Miles Coverdale's "Whitey Ford: A Biography" - states on the first page of the opening chapter: "When Whitey was five, the family moved to 34th Avenue in Astoria, Queens..."
So, we're back to square 1. Can anyone authoritatively and definitely state where the heck Whitey Ford lived in Astoria? Puleeeeeze.
The Daily News ran a picture of the building back in 2020.
I think the author of the book got confused because Ford lived on 34th Street but played for the 34th Avenue Boys, and the author just mistakenly conflated the two and said that Ford lived on 34th Avenue. All of the sources I'm coming across say he lived at 31-53 34th Street, regardless of the name of the team or where the ballfield was.
SAC = Social and Athletic Club, as in 34th Avenue Social and Athletic Club.
With regard to the banner that Ford and his teammates are holding in the photo, (ignoring the Kiwanis logo) it might just read "Kiwanis Boys Of Queens League" and the "B" could be their division.
Anonymous, now I'm really going nutz. (BTW, thanks for letting us know that S.A.C. means Social Athletic Club - you posted the answer before my question.) The Whitey Ford mysteries deepen: 1. Where did he live exactly? AND 2. What happened to and where is the elusive incorporated 34th Avenue S.A.C.?
Queens demands answers!!!
George, I hate to tell you, but in the 1940 Census, they were living at 43-08 34th Avenue! But that doesn't mean that they couldn't have moved to 34th Street by the time he was playing ball more seriously a few years later. I'll keep digging.
No problemo! Yes please keep digging because only on Queens Crap, folks, will you find this historical information!! A Queens Crap exclusive!!!
Ya know I have to laff about this. See the photo that accompanies this post, "Great Whitey Way"? You see the guy with the short-sleeved white shirt carrying the bag? See the black awning with the white lettering above his head? That's the offices of the Queens Gazette (42-16 34th Avenue). That office is just yards away from this newly-discovered possible Ford domicile: 43-08 34th Avenue - catercornered above the Freakin Rican restaurant. The Queens Gazette (located there for decades now) - along with other newspapers both community-oriented and citywide - never got on this story? Well, I guess, it is what it is, no?
[JQ. Would you be able to keep this posting and thread active before it disappears into the realm of the "older posts"?]
Here's another question to the growing list: Why would the Ford family move from 42-16 34th Avenue - a more open environment - to 31-53 34th Street - a more congested one?
Another feather in the cap of Queens Crap.
PS The possible 34th Avenue residence is much closer to the Northern Boulevard sandlot(s) in the vicinity of 43rd Street. The possible 34th Street residence is much further away and the young Whitey would have a longer schlep to get there. Any psychological trauma going through his head because of this?
Why would the Ford family move from 42-16 34th Avenue - a more open environment - to 31-53 34th Street - a more congested one?
On 34th Avenue, they were living with Ford's mother's parents (i.e., the maternal grandparents). Things must have improved and they got their own place. Or there was no room for them anymore and they had to get out.
On Whitey's WWII Draft card (dated Oct. 16, 1940), he gave his address as 31 53 34th St Long Island City Queens NY.
Sorry, I wasn't able to find anything further about the mysterious 34th Avenue Sports and Athletic Club, later known as 34th Avenue Boys Sports and Athletic Club
Sorry, my error - the date of Ford's draft card is Oct. 21, 1946.
Thanks Anonymous. You've provided alot of heretofore unknown info. I guess Whitey's the horse's mouth about where he lived. Anyway you might post a picture of his draft card/record? There should be an historical plaque on that building, no?. Interesting that this recent corner naming at 34th Ave and 43rd street revolves around Whitey kind of just passing through it now and then.
BTW, 2 blocks away at the SE corner of 34th Ave & 45th St., we find the Croatian United Miners S.C. ("Rudar"). Check it out on Google Maps. Might this be the previous site of the 34th Ave.Social and Athletic Club?
BTW, 2 blocks away at the SE corner of 34th Ave & 45th St., we find the Croatian United Miners S.C. ("Rudar"). Check it out on Google Maps. Might this be the previous site of the 34th Ave.Social and Athletic Club?
An article from 1998 about the Rudar Social Club in the NY Times says that it's in a building that used to be a paint store.
Have no idea how I would post Whitey's draft card on QC, since we can only post text.
Here's further clarification about the Kiwanis League and where they played: this article says that Whitey played for the "34th Avenue Varsity in the New York State Kiwanis League," and mentions that they played at Queens Park. Also another nice photo of their uniform jerseys.
This article says that Queens Park was on 31st Avenue and 58th Street in Woodside, but there is no indication if that's where they played on a regular basis, or just for their "quintripleheaders."
Thanks again. Fabulous photo of Whitey as a young man. Now that "Queens Park" has me intrigued. Never heard of that. Must have fit the definition of what a sandlot was? Any pix or further info?
So, he lived on 34th Street. He played at a Queens Park on 31st Avenue and 58th Street. So, what is the significance of that specific corner of 34th Avenue and 43rd Street? Where the sign has been placed? The rationale? Seems it's quite nebulous to me.
PS Before the Rudar S.C. was a paint store might it have been the 34th Avenue S.A.C.?
If Whitey Ford is an Astorian "hero", there should be, I believe, more clarification of his local geographical biography. What say you all?
This information about Queens Park comes from East Side, West Side: Tales of New York Sporting Life, 1910-1960, by Lawrence S. Ritter. It sounds like Queens Park was an actual stadium rather than just a sandlot, since it had bleachers (i.e., seating capacity).
Queens had a semipro baseball team known as the Queens Club (often called the Chiefs), and from 1938 to 1949, they played at Queens Park, located in Woodside between 30th and 31st Avenue, from 58th to 61st Street. The owner of the Queens Club was James "Red" Turner, who built Queens Park in Woodside as a home field for his team. Queens Park's first-base line ran parallel to 31st Avenue, right field to center field ran parallel to 61st Street, center field to left field ran parallel to 30th Avenue, while the third-base line ran parallel to 58th Street. Seating capacity was about 2,500. The Queens Club was disbanded after the 1949 season, as attendance at semipro games had begun to diminish. Queens Park was razed in 1951 and light industry now occupies the site.
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Here's a website with some teams and standings. The Springfields played at Recreation Park, which was razed in 1938 to make way for the Queensbridge Houses.
Thanks again. I guess that the vestiges of Queens Park fell victim to the construction of the BQE? Maybe the current St.Michaels playground and athletic field was an offialdom "sop" to what once was of Queens Park? Any extent pix of Queens Park?
There are some photos of the Queens Club players in the Queens Library's Digital Archives - the website is very slow - but the location of the field is not identified, except for when one clearly sees the "Queens Park" sign:
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
Photo 5
Photo 6
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