Watching The King’s Speech this past weekend reminded me of an amusing baseball story I read about in one of the Baseball Hall of Shame books. Apparently the King of England (given the time frame, it would have to be either George V, Edward VII, or George VI) was visiting the US and taking in a baseball game. Being a monarch and all, he was given a VIP tour and somehow wound up in one of the dugouts, where he was introduced to the team’s manager.
The team’s manager (Connie Mack? Leo Durocher?) was a man known for neither eloquence of speech nor refined manners. On being introduced to the visiting monarch, said manager responded by saying “How ya doin’, King?”
Can anyone fill me in on the particulars of this event?
Here is a picture of George V at a baseball game in England. The manager of one of the teams was John McGraw. It was either in 1920 (according to this) or 1914 according to the Wiki.
This anecdote may be anecdotal- I have heard a suspiciously similiar story
re Jim Thorpe.
After his decisive gold medal performance at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics
Thorpe was introduced to the King of Sweden. The King congratulated Thorpe,
saying something to the effect that Thorpe was surely the best
athlete of all time.
Thrope is supposed to have replied: “Thanks, King”.
Getting back to the baseball anecdote, it sounds like something wiseacre
Durocher might have said. George VI was in North America in May-June
1939, and one of his stops was the World’s Fair in NYC, where Durocher was
managing the Dodgers. Alas 30 minutes or so googling has failed to turn
up any connection.
Yes, it seems to me that the OP is recalling the story about Jim Thorpe (who played baseball among other sports) and the King of Sweden:
However, there is an anecdote about Casey Stengel and the King of England, when Stengel was on a world tour with the Giants. According to Stengel’s account, he went up to the king, stuck out his hand, and said “You are deeply honored, Your Majesty.”
I can’t find a cite but if it was a baseball player, it could have been Arlie Latham, known in his day as “The Freshest Man in Baseball” and lived in England for seventeen years. During World War I he tried to teach the British baseball and said King George V had a “fair middling arm” but couldn’t break him of his habits from playing cricket.http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&bid=842&pid=0
Legendary Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee was twice introduced to the Queen. As part of her meeting the Australian side in 1977 he asked for an autograph. He had a pen and paper with him. She declined but sent him an autographed photo a few weeks later. At about 1:16
When he was introduced in 1981 at Buckingham Palace to receive his MBE Lillee stuck out his hand to shake with her and said, “G’day, how ya go’in?”
