Rooting for the Yankees is like...

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 18 May 2005 16:56:08 -0400, Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>-----
>> Los Angeles Times, Feb 23, 1966, p. B1
>> "The Old Breed" by Jim Murray
>> I guess I'm getting sensitive in my old age. Getting the feeling people
>> don't appreciate me.
>> It all began when I heard the guy on television say, "Well, it was
>> Bennett Cerf who once said, 'Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting
>> for U.S. Steel.'"
>> Then, Bill Veeck, in his latest book, "The Hustler's Handbook," notes
>> "The Yankees should sue the guy who first said that 'Rooting for the
>> Yankees is like rooting for U.S. Steel' because he articulated for so
>> many people what they had already come to feel."
>> Ok, now, you want to know who said it first? You're looking at him. Old
>> numero uno. James Patrick Murray.
>> You don't believe it? All right. Do you happen to have a copy of Life
>> for April 17, 1950 around the house? Gen. Eisenhower is on the cover.
>> He always was in those days. Open to Page 25 and you'll find a story
>> titled, "I Hate The Yankees" by a guy identified as "James Murray,
>> Time-Life correspondent in Los Angeles."
>
>Is this the Jim Murray who was a long-time sports columnist for the LA
>Times?

Yup-- see the byline.  Before moving over to the _LA Times_ in 1961, he
worked for _Time_ and _Life_ (and helped found _Sports Illustrated_).



--Ben Zimmer