For over fifty years, Gene Hutmaker has observed baseball from every possible vantage point – a player, coach, umpire, and most importantly a lifelong fan. His ability to recall obscure facts and stats has earned him the moniker “The Baseball Rainman”. He recently retired from the U.S. Postal Service after 40 years and is a Viet Nam Army Veteran. He is married to Josephine (42 years and counting) and has two sons (both Yankee fans), co-author Michael, a University Dean, and Christopher, a former All-State baseball player and Wall Street executive.
Gene, thanks for taking the time to chat with 9 Inning Know it All. How did the whole “Yankee Hater” start?
Grew up in a Yankee Hatin’ house – from BANNED in the BRONX…
Turning into a St. Louis Cardinal fan, I followed the National League a lot more than the American League. Since I was a new baseball fan I became more aware that the Yankees were ‘
“EVIL”. The people in my house would continually comment on how lucky they were.(It was probably around this period that the saying “Rooting for the Yankees was like rooting for United States Steel” was started).Because of being a follower of the National League and the people in my house being anti-Yankee, I became a Yankee Hater.Note: My parents grew up as Babe & Lou fans but had incidents that changed their loyalties – see from BANNED in the BRONX.
Let me give some background on why my parents were not Yankee fans.
My father was born in 1914 and was five years old when Babe Ruth was traded to the Yankees.Living in the NJ suburb of Verona, which was about ten miles from New York City, he became a Yankee fan rooting for Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the rest of them.For 14 or so years he was a Yankee fan.That was soon to end.In the mid-1930’’s, in the middle of the depression, my dad helped make ends meet during this era by being a caddie at the Montclair Country Club.One of the golfers he caddied for was George Weiss,an executive with the Newark Bears, the top Yankee minor league team.Weiss, who later became the Yankees’General Manager, would tip his caddie like he would later pay his Yankee players of the 1950’’s – very cheaply (he even tried to cut Mickey Mantle’s salary in 1957; the same year he was the AL MVP). Caddies relied on the tips received from their golfers.Weiss’ stinginess really aggravated my father.Since the Newark Bears were the Yankees’ farm team, my father changed his baseball loyalties from the Yankees to the New York Giants and became a ‘King’ Carl Hubbell (253-154, 2.98 ERA, NL MVP in 1933 & ‘36) a.k.a. ‘The Meal Ticket’, and Mel ‘Master Melvin’Ott (.304, 2876 hits, 511 homers, 1860RBIs, 1859 runs scored – 6 home run crowns) fan (the Giants’ future Hall of Famers).
Is there a Yankee you hate the most?
Billy MARTIN – it was always about him – granted he was good with a young team but not a veteran team as evidenced by Goose Gossage stating the Yankees would have never had overcome the Red Sox lead if they didn’t get rid of him and replace him with Lemon – also annoying was Billy going out to the mound with a huge lead in the 9th inning to talk to the pitcher just so the fans could see him -NOTE: I am anti-JUICERS so I hate ROIDger, AROID and the rest of the illegal ENHANCED HUMANOID FREAKS.
Growing up who inspired you?
Being a Cardinal fan naturally Stan the MAN – and Kenny Boyer (who joined the team when I was 10), which is why I played 3rd base
What has been the most memorable moment coming from the book?
On a personal level with my sons Mike & Chris in the Middlesex high school summer league that I managed in 1988.
From BANNED in the BRONX
The final game of the regular season was for the Southern Division Championship against a team from Old Bridge, NJ.
Both teams came on strong down the stretch, matching wins.We were facing their undefeated pitcher (5-0).Because of his back I had Chris bat ninth.He went 4 for 4 and Mike went 3 for 4 with 2 walks.The brothers combined for a 7 for 8 day with 7 runs scored and 4 RBIs.We were ahead 13-3 in the last inning but due to some sloppy defense and a bunch of hits the Old Bridge team made it 13-7.My pitcher then changed places with Mike and he got the final 2 outs.We won the Southern Division Championship of the Home News League.On a MLB level GAME 7 of the 2004 ALCS from BANNED in the BRONX…Meanwhile the Yanks couldn’t do anything with Lowe. In 6 innings he yielded only one hit and one run.
Pedro started the seventh and promptly got rocked for doubles by Godzilla and Bernie, and a single by Kenny Lofton as the Stadium was in full vocal harmony of “Who’s your daddy?” He finally got out of the inning on a hard fly out by Cairo. It was now 8-3 and hey, the Giants blew a 5 run lead to Angels in the 20’02 Series.Anyway, Bellhorn made it 9-3 with a homer off Gordon and the Sox got another in the ninth for a 10-3 lead and since the Yanks’ bats had no thunderbolts in them, the Bosox relievers kept the Yanks from scoring. Red Sox won 10-3 in baseball’s greatest comeback ever in a 7 game series.
You played, coached and was an umpire, what advice would you give the younger players?
Enjoy the game and practice your ‘butt off’ to get the best out of yourself – – and remember the umpire’s favorite singers are Ray Charles & Stevie Wonder so do not expect good calls from them
Check out Genes website at www.bannedinthebronx.com