Two of my very favorite things in this world are (a) a baseball uniform with properly worn stirrups and (b) bowling. It had never occurred to me that those two things could be combined until I saw the old wire photo shown above.
The photo is from July 10, 1964. It’s hard to read the sideways caption, so I’ve transcribed it here:
Yogi Berra, New York Yankees manager, fires the ball down the alley — bowling alley, that is — in a bowling exhibition with Washington Senators manager Gil Hodges prior to the Yankees-Senators baseball game in Washington tonight. Hodges is seated at left with his [bowling] partner, Jim Robinette, one of the Washington area’s top bowlers, and Bob Stampe, right, 1964 All-Star bowler, who was Berra’s partner. A regulation bowling alley was set up on the infield in D.C. Stadium for the event. Hodges is in the bowling business in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Berra in Clifton, N.J.
I love that Yogi is wearing bowling shoes with his full baseball uni. I was hoping to find a similar photo showing Hodges bowling in uniform but came up empty. I did, however, find a very informative article from The Washington Daily News that explained how the event came about and how the lane was set up on the field (see highlighted sections):