Hartzell, James Adams

Source: The Editorial Art of Edmund Duffy, by Stanley L. Harrison,1998 Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, page 214, 216.

James was a friend of Pulitzer prize winning editorial cartoonistEdmund Duffy (1899-1962).

"James Hartzell, his longtime friend from the Sun, would fromtime to time act as a personal messenger. Once, Hartzell recalls,for some reason the original cartoon was lost and a last minutereplacement needed. Duffy redrew it. Hartzell agreed to deliverthe art to Philadelphia. Hartzell relates that the originalhad turned up and the two cartoons matched virtually line forline."

Note: Jeff Vilenski saw several original Edmund Duffy cartoonsin Jimmy's Townson home in the early 2000's.

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Newsletter by/for retirees from Sunpapers:


Page2
THE GEEZER GAZETTE
April 21, 1988
You're a baseball fan? Talk to Jim Hartzell
By Jim Bready

They took Jim Hartzell’s picture recently at the Babe Ruth Birthplace& Baltimore Oriole Museum, to put in the paper he worked forfrom 1930 to 1979. When the photo duly appeared on Page 2 ofthe People Section, it looked okay. Also in it were Fred Rasmussen,the follow-Geezer who as photo librarian of the Baltimore Sunknows good photography from bad; Bob Latshaw, first basemanfor 1944’s forever-famous champion Orioles; and Tom Peace, afan of equivalent fervor.

No comparisons, certain no aspirations. Just, the retouch might’vebeen handled a little bit differently by the art departmentin its old Hartzell days.

They took James A. Hartzell’s picture, that recent evening,and fed and irrigated him, and then showed him and the preview’sother dignitaries a new Maryland Public Television superspecial,“Hardshell Handball: The Story of Baseball in Baltimore.”But did anyone realize how much of any videotaped baseball historymust seem less than real to Jim Hartzell – inside whose headthe actual experience still goes on, because he was there, watchingwhen it all happened?

Hartzell remembers his first big league game, readily. TheSenators vs. the Yankees, Griffith Stadium, 1926; the game hadalready started and as Hartzell made for his seat, Tony Lazzeri,batting lofted a foul right at him. In the scuffle, somebodyelse got the ball.

Babe Ruth played that day, and many days when Hartzell was aspectator. Working for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad then,he made use of the office pass and other devices for extendedtravel. A fan primarily of Yanks and Senators, he also studiedthe National League with care, at Polo Grounds home games ofthe New York Giants. You want to ask Hartzell if he ever sawyour favorite bygone hero, playing? Go right ahead – and startby saying, “Jim Thorpe?”

In the Sunday Sun’s classified ad section headed For Sale, 676-1049offered “Babe Ruth baseball. Orig. Signed. $1,000.” At suchmoments, Hartzell does his unimpressed look, a look perfectedwhile dealing with decades of under-age city desks.

One day, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Hartzell saw Babe Ruthgiving autographs and worked his way to the front of the swarm.He held out his scorecard. “I don’t sign scorecards,” thegreat men said. Hartzell felt in his coat pocket – yes! Aletter from Betty, his girl in Baltimore. The Babe said yes,and so in a different way, later, did Mrs. Betty Hartzell.Jim still has that envelope, that letter, that autograph.


One day in Baltimore, a new American League franchise got intouch with him, wanting a symbolic bird drawn for use in itsadvertising and promotions. So Hartzell drew one. Eight yearslater, after a clunker of a pennant season, 33d Street’s highcommand killed that cheerful, lively Oriole, replacing it withthe stern and baleful figure familiar ever since.

But in May, 1966, Managing Editor (and future Geezer) Paul Bankermade a change on Page 1. There should be, he decreed, somethingto post a reader as to yesterday’s Oriole-game outcome, at amere glance. Following every game, there should be … an Oriolebird, appropriately happy or sad (or after a split doubleheader,schizoid). The model was taken from a frieze, the Hartzellbird in many moods, that he did to order in 1958 for the book,“The Home Team.”

Hartzell’s Page 1 announcer bird was soon a Baltimore beacon.Great game? Lo, how high the bird soared over the Statue ofLiberty. Bad show? It stood there at the end of a pier inFells Point, teetering.

Hartzell himself played a lot of ball, in youth, mostly as aninfielder. Nowadays, he self-evaluates objectively: “I couldhit, but not very far.” Often playing on Druid Hill Park ballfields, he was for a while on the same team as Don Heffner,later a New York Yankee 2nd baseman. While on the B&O Paymastersteam, Hartzell once rode in a company Pullman to Grafton, W.Va.,and back, for a doubleheader against the locals.

The First Orioles that Hartzell ever saw were the InternationalLeague team, during World War 1. A boyhood friend, in the familyof a part-owner, often got him into a box seat behind home plate.Was there anyone else at the Babe Ruth Birthplace & BaltimoreOriole Museum that evening who could truthfully claim to haveseen all seven pennant winners in action, from 1919 through1925 when Jack Dunn's Orioles were terrorizing the InternationalLeague?

A man of many interests—his railroad artifact collection issuperb -- Jim Hartzell as he nears age 80 still watches morebaseball than most other geezers combined. Living in Towson,he may be the Towson State University team's No. 1 fan. Lastmonth, for instance, he accompanied the Tigers on their springvacation tour of North Carolina campuses. Coached by Mike Gottlieb,now that former Oriole Billy Hunter has become athletic director,the TSU nine has some good prospects, HartzeIl reports.

However, nobody on the team looks immediately good enough tounclunk the 1988 Orioles.

Editor's Note: Jim Hartzell is also staff artist for The GeezerGazette, and creator of the Official Geezer Logo.