The Freddy Sez Story

From the Christian Science Monitor:

In baseball there are fastballs, curveballs, and … oddballs – fans so involved with their teams that they become part of the lore.

At Yankee Stadium, Freddy Schuman, aka Freddy Sez, will be walking around with his frying pan and a spoon letting fans bang away, in hopes of inspiring the Bronx Bombers.

It was during Mr. Schuman’s childhood that he used to go into “mama’s” kitchen on New Year’s Eve, banging on the pots and pans to wake up the whole neighborhood. Then, in 1988 when the Yankees were in the middle of a long slump, he suggested to the team management that they let him roam the stadium with a sign to encourage fans to make some noise and possibly inspire the players.

The first year, he mainly got children interested in banging his frying pan. But by 1996, after plenty of television coverage and newspaper stories, he says, “I was on the map.”

On the map is an understatement. In 2000, Rudolph Giuliani, New York mayor at the time and a longtime Yankees fan, brought the World Series trophy to the hospital when Schuman was ill. Mr. Giuliani took him to Arizona on a chartered jet for the 2001 World Series. He’s been in World Series parades. He has a frying pan in Cooperstown at the Hall of Fame. The former truck driver, who was once homeless, has written a book about his first five years as “Freddy Sez” and is included in a MasterCard commercial.

“I am just a quiet guy,” he says.

The fans generally adore Schuman. Longtime Yankees fan Bruce Garrison remembers banging Schuman’s pan and then watching Darryl Strawberry hit three home runs in one game. “Freddy’s always got a positive message,” says Mr. Garrison.

Back in May of 2006, the Times did an excellent feature on Freddy as well.

Maybe, someday, someone will do a story on zealot Yankees bloggers who like to provide laconic commentary?

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