HELPING A PITCHER BY TAKING OUT HIS TEETH.

HELPING A PITCHER BY TAKING OUT HIS TEETH. I learned from LEFTY that in the 1930’s “yanking teeth was an accepted medical procedure for a ballplayer who ate well but remained skinny.” In 1930 Lefty Gomez was a skinny 21 year old rookie who couldn’t get above 150 pounds. Yankee management insisted that his upper teeth be taken out (the theory was that a dental infection was keeping him from gaining weight). LEFTY quotes a contemporary report in the New York Times by John Kieran which said that the Yankees had had the teeth removed the day after Gomez had walked four or five men. The report concluded that Gomez “doubtless will warn newcomers on the Yankee pitching staff to avoid wildness if they value their teeth.” The book says that Lefty Grove and Lou Gehrig also had teeth yanked in the 1930’s.