My friend, journalist Roger Friedman, is pictured here with his Brother Mark in the Yankee jersey and his Father Arthur. They are die hard Yankee fans who have been going to the games with their Dad since they were young boys. Their Dad who is a Bronx native has been attending games since the days of Joe DiMaggio. Just think the contract that DiMaggio signed in 1949 was at that time a record setting $100,000 now sixty years later that’s less than some players make in a single game! Roger’s brother told my daughter-in-law, Simone (pictured here next to son Troy), that at one point years ago he tried to get a job at the stadium cause he was so crazy about the team. Simone totally gets it. She’s been going to the games since she was a little girl with her family. Going and watching as a family are some of her fondest memories. Troy is wearing a Dodger hat because…..well he’s a Dodger fan. He was happy to support the Yankees though since the team the Yankees beat that evening (the Phillies) had beat the Dodgers in the playoffs. Revenge is such sweet sorrow. But Simone’s mother is such a good, generous woman, she actually offered to root for the Dodgers to support Troy (before they lost to Philly). When I stay at Troy and Simone’s and watch them watch games together I think how lucky he is to have a wife who is as into baseball as he is.
Janet L.
Hi Jane, I remember watching you with Ted Turner on TV at many of the Atlanta Braves games and enjoying yourself. I recall you always loving the game even back in your California days. BTW, our son Troy is so handsome and his wife Simone is beautiful.
I’m a native New Yorker (born in the Bronx). I attended the Yankees World Series Game 5 back in October of 2001. They won the game that night against Arizona. The emotion in Yankee stadium that night in 2001 will live with me forever. New York fans and NYPD cops were hugging each other in the stands and crying.
Baseball talks to us as a people and a nation, I think.
Chris Cipollini
Sorry Jane, It’s Red Soxs all the way!!!!
Bobbie
I get Simone….I love baseball. I’ve lived in Louisiana my entire life but my heart is still with the Braves (even when they were really bad). Have a 1991 Georgia license plate that reads “Tomahawk’n” hanging in my loft. My aunt (who lived in Atlanta for years) sent me some of the dirt from the pitcher’s mound at Fulton County Stadium….one of my prized possessions.
Kelsey
Well you know what they say…real women are Yankees fans. Very true!!! 🙂 Personally I think it’s because we get to stare at Derek Jeter, but thats just me!!
Tim C.
I see you still love baseball. Have you thought about doing a sports movie? I can just picture it: you would play a woman determined to show that age isn’t tying her down and tries out for a professional baseball team, and succeeds amidst the pressures and trials of ageism and sexism.
Martin
And in 1949 many top stars were ‘slaves’ to the studios making less than a $1,000 a week–and wasn’t it until Liz Taylor broke the million dollar mark in 1963(?) that many started their own companies and asked for and got ‘points’? And now it’s $20 mil for some stars–wonder what JD would get today?
Jason
I turned 40 yesterday. FORTY! Wow what a figure. And I just wanted to tell you that what’s helping me a lot in my life at the moment is the way you’ve put your life into three acts. Until reading your book and interviews I’d never thought of age that way before, however, I’ve been looking back and seeing the patterns of how my life have evolved. How intuitively smart I was in my late teens and into my twenties, a time when real life was just beginning. In my thirties I kind of backtracked on myself and sold myself short in lots of ways. Interesting. As if I was so insecure all of a sudden, that I need to sell myself short? And I unfortunately lost my sense of humour too. Shame. (It’s back now though!) And now looking at it that way I’ve made very conscious decisions about how I want my forties to be. Our lives are much more complex and naturally can’t be put into such a time frame, but it’s been an enormous help looking at it like you look at it. Thank you.
By the way, don’t you think we’re all getting younger? Forty seemed ancient when I was young – and forty even looked ancient! Yet nowadays, forty is definitely the new 30
“I’m so old my back goes out more often than I do” Phyllis Diller
Timothy Dougherty
yea having some one interested in the same things is not easy. You can’t pay a person to have interest in your life , that is how people get riped off. Their is nobody more interested in you than yourself, in general that is a fact, when it comes down to it. We have friends and lovers and hope to find common things to share and to learn new things in life ,that is rare. Seems like Jane Fonda has tried them all , the Actors the directors and alike. Mabe it is like acting is it acting of the role is to close to the self?
robin laughlin
revenge is sweet.
parting is such sweet sorrow.