This lad has one of them

This lad has one of them.”He staked a claim to greatness during his first year in the major leagues when, on 27 September 1952, he and his team, the Boston Braves, played the New York Giants at the old Polo Grounds. That afternoon he became the first rookie ever to hit three homers in one game. During the 17-year career that followed, he hit 30 or more homers nine years in a row and eventually accumulated 512, becoming one of only 16 players ever to pass the magic 500 mark. He gained 2,315 hits with 1,453 runs batted in and retired with a batting average of .271.Uniquely, he played for the Braves whilst they were in Boston (1952), Milwaukee (1953-65) and Atlanta (1966). In 1953, his 47 homers for the team set a single-season record for a third baseman.

His partnership with the outfielder Hank Aaron proved one of the most potent in the game’s history, their teammate total of 863 home runs surpassing the 859 mark of New York Yankee legends Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.Mathews went to the World Series on three occasions: twice with the Braves (1957, 1958) and once, in 1968, with the Detroit Tigers. During the 1957 Series Milwaukee faced a powerful Yankee team that included Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle. Mathews won Game Four with a 10th-inning homer, scored the only run in Game Five and doubled in the first two runs in Game Seven. With the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the ninth inning, it was Mathews’s dynamic fielding as he scooped up Bill Skowron’s shot down the line and stepped on to third base that clinched the “Fall Classic”.In 1967 he played for the Houston Astros.

He stayed for a year before moving on to Detroit where a brilliant career was capped by the team’s World Series victory against the St Louis Cardinals.By Paul Wadey. Eric Stemp, artist: born London 11 February 1924; married (three daughters; marriage dissolved); died London 15 February 2001. Eric Stemp, artist: born London 11 February 1924; married (three daughters; marriage dissolved); died London 15 February 2001.
Eric Stemp was the master of the elegant fashion illustration, and his economic style swept through the pages of Vogue from 1955 to 1963. The tone of the magazine perfectly matched his precise line; under clipped headlines such as “How to be a Raving Beauty”, “The City Situation” and “What to Wear with What”, Stemp conjured up images of immaculate, no-nonsense glamour.

His talent lay in an ability not only to draw beautifully, but to translate fashion directives into readable, inspirational pictures.Born in London, the youngest of three children, Stemp spent his childhood in Brighton. In 1940 he attended Brighton School of Art, regularly cycling to the nearby Sussex countryside with fellow students where they would sketch each other using pen, nib and watercolour, dipping their brushes in a nearby stream. Stemp later described these spontaneous dabblings as “perhaps the happiest and most carefree drawings I ever did”.In 1942, aged 18, Stemp joined the RAF as a gunner, later reaching the rank of Sergeant. Having quickly gained a reputation within the camp for his artistry, Stemp often sketched fellow soldiers. Stationed in Germany from April 1945 to December 1946, he witnessed first-hand the destruction of Cologne and Hamburg.