New York Post: NYC street renamed after late Yankee Hall of Famer Whitey Ford
Originally published in
New York Post
It’s another win for Whitey Ford!
The late, great Hall of Fame Yankee pitcher out of Astoria, Queens, was celebrated Saturday afternoon with a neighborhood street renamed in his honor.
Friends, family and elected officials beamed as 43rd Street between 34th and 35th avenues was co-named Edward Charles “Whitey” Ford Way.
Nicknamed “The Chairman of the Board” for remaining calm under pressure, Ford was raised in Astoria and spent his entire 16-year MLB career with the Bronx Bombers on his way to becoming a 10-time All-Star and six-time World Series champion.
City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer — who facilitated the tribute — was joined by state Sen. Michael Gianaris, the Old Astoria Neighborhood Association and the Friends of Whitey Ford Field for the ceremony, which took place on the southwest corner of 43rd Street and 34th Avenue.
The Yankee great — who was born in Manhattan and graduated from the Manhattan High School of Aviation Trades — cut his teeth playing sandlot ball with the Thirty-fourth Avenue Boys Club of Astoria.
Ford went 236-106 during the 1950s and ’60s for the Yanks, who signed the crafty 5-foot-10 left-hander out of high school in 1947 for $7,000, outbidding the crosstown New York Giants and the Boston Red Sox.
Ford, who retired midway through the 1967 season due to a circulation problem in his pitching arm that surgeries failed to correct, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974, his second year of eligibility.
The beloved Yankee icon died Oct. 8, 2020 at his Long Island home. He was 91.
