Another sad day in Yankeeland......
From the Daily News:
Freddy "Sez", a Yankee Stadium staple for the last 20 years, has died at age 82, according to friend Chuck Frantz.I'd also like to quote Ben from RAB, who wrote this earlier today:
At almost every Yankee game, Freddy could be seen outside Yankee Stadium with his daily message for the Yanks and a frying pan he banged like a drum. He also let other fans bang it as well.
His pan and spoon are now in Cooperstown. “This is what keeps me going,” he said to Times reporter Manny Fernandez back in 2006. “This is why I’m doing it. Probably if I stopped, I’d probably be buried already.”When I was a kid there were three sounds of the stadium that always stuck out; Bob Sheppard on the PA, Eddie Layton on the organ, and fans hitting a pan with a spoon. All of that is now gone.
The 2006 piece is chock full of stories about Freddy. The Upper West Sider lost his eye in a stickball accident at age 9 and his teeth because he owned a candy store. The constant banging he endured as the holder of the pan left him hard of hearing, but he did it for love of the game. The Yanks even flew him out to Arizona for Game 7 of the 2001 World Series to serve as the team’s good luck charm. “If Freddy isn’t there with his pan,” Rudy Giuiliani once said, “it doesn’t feel right. It feels like there’s something missing.”
