WML Project: Gil Hodges

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On Jackie Robinson Day I present his old teammate:

5/26/63 Gil Hodges, who had just retired as a player with the Mets to become the manager of the Washington Senators. He would later leave that job to manage the Mets. He is the first guest.


I thought Eamonn Andrews, the host of the English version of What's My Line, would be out of his element with a baseball guest but he asked the key question. Arlene Francis had been in a an auto accident where her car skidded on a wet road and smashed into another car. Someone in the other c ar had been killed and she was hospitalized for a time. She was not charged in the accident.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=8U4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=7149,4281344&hl=en

 

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You could tell from the WML clip that Hodges had a lot of dignity and presence as well as a melodious voice and a good sense of humor. he should certainly be in the Hall of Fame, as this clip describes:

 

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Gil's funeral, where one of the pallbearers was Jackie Robinson, who would join him six months later:


Teammates used to observe that when Hodges watched a war movie he would cross himself whenever someone - even fictional characters- were shown dying.