It began as the GODFATHER OF MATH, evolved into the GOODFATHER OF MATH. Now this. Go figure...

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The kind of humor I like is the thing that makes me laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes = G. CARLIN...Stain glass, engraved glass, frosted glass
–give me plain glass = JOHN FOWLES ... Music is the mathematics of the gods=PYTHAGORAS ... Nothing is more fluid than language = R. L. SWIHART
I cannot live without the oxygen of laughter = DAWN POWELL ... !!! ... But laughter cannot survive without the hydrogen of gravitas = PAUL OLIVERIO
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Thursday, May 18, 2017

"This Is Going To Sound Silly, I Can't Be Sure"

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The title is a quote from
a major league baseball umpire
who made book-ending history

That is the day
the New York Mets
played their LAST GAME 
at Shea Stadium.

One of the umpires
for that game was

 Mr. Gorman made history
that day because when
the Mets' FIRST GAME 
was played there on
April 17, 1964,
one of the umpires
was his father,
Tom Gorman.

The elder Gorman
was such a celebrated umpire,
he numbered amongst his friends
Bob Hope and John Kennedy.

About the New York Mets
first game at Shea Stadium,
the younger Gorman said:

"I think I was there,
but this is going to sound silly,
I can't be sure...
I was only 5 years old at the time.
I have this vague memory of being there,
but I don't know. We went to
a lot of my father's games at Shea.
He enjoyed working games here
because it allowed him to stay at home
after all those trips and hotel rooms."

In 1964,
staying at home
for the Gorman family
referred to 6th Avenue
in Whitestone.

They lived less than
three miles from Shea Stadium.

I know this for a fact
because the Oliverio family
also lived on 6th Avenue
in Whitestone, at the opposite end
of the block from the Gormans.

Another friend of Tom Gorman's
was Sam Oliverio, my father.

This is going to sound silly,
but I can't be sure...
My father once had a twenty-minute
private conversation with Tom Gorman
while I sat on a bus bench
and picked my nose
for the duration.

I can't be sure...
maybe it was only ten minutes
and maybe I didn't pick my nose.

Maybe I just waited for my mother
to get off a bus.

I was ten years old at the time.
It was 1959.

The year Brian Gorman was born.

Sixth Avenue in Whitestone
–between 149th Street
and 150th Street–
consisted of twenty four houses
on each side of the street.

Those houses looked very similar
but their exact twins were 
directly across the street.

The Oliverios lived directly opposite
these three 6th Ave homes.

The Gormans lived eighteen doors
west of them.

The tree you see used to be third base
when we played stick ball in the street.

In 1961, Tom Gorman
umpired one of our games
during which I hit three home runs,
the longest of which landed
on the Gorman's lawn.

Please accept my apology
but that fabricated sentence
was  too nostalgically beautiful
to NOT be told.

However everything else on this page, 
is gospel truth, unsure memories included. 


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Footnotes
The TOM GORMAN mentioned on  this page 
bears no relation to the Tom Gorman of Whitestone.

This is what Shea Stadium looked like
in 1964:

This is what it looked like
after the 2008 season:

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