Who Am I? October 2023
I’m a boxing guy from da Bronx where my dad owned a pawn shop. I am a former fighter who fought and won 3 heavyweight bouts, one by a knockout. I’ve been called a Runyonesque type of character because I often used expletives and spoke in a colorful style. In the following paragraph I explain the difference between a tomato can and a kyoodle.
I used to say, “Boxing is built on bums. All sports are built on bums. How else you know good from bad? How else is a good boy going to get on top and get experience unless he fights bums? I tell ya, there’s a shortage of bums. It’s this way. On top, that is, the fighters who work on top, they got a name. Then ya got club fighters, who don’t know how to box well but are always in there punching. A crowd pleaser. Then, ya got what is called tomato cans. A tomato can is a tomato can. Just a fighter. Maybe box a little, punch a little, not a dog. Any fighter who doesn’t have guts is a dog. A little dog in him, though, don’t hurt. It makes him learn some defense, and ya don’t have that ya might as well be in a poker game with Doc Kearns {a boxing manager and known trickster} without any cards. Then ya got what is called a kyoodle. A kyoodle, he is a dog, a hound, a mutt, a pig even. That is a kyoodle.”
I was drafted during WWII and was stationed in Louisiana. I was no paragon of military virtue. I was a defendant 5 times in courts-martial, once for decking an officer for directing an anti-Semitic remark at me. I knew well what the inside of a stockade looked like.
I have been a professional fighter, a cornerman, a manager, and a trainer of over 30 fighters. For over two decades I was the top aide to that notorious Black boxing promoter with the electric hair. I helped him negotiate contracts with boxers.
One boxer I managed later became known as “The Bayonne Bleeder,” a sobriquet he didn’t like at all. We met when he came to my aid in a Bronx saloon (“There were 4 of ‘em on me...”). I was also a “cut-man” who worked in my fighter’s corner of the ring. I was somehow able to stop the bleeding of this Bayonne bruiser while he was in a title heavyweight fight. Later, someone grilled me as to whether or not I was using a foreign substance. I replied, “It wasn’t no foreign substance, it was made right here in the U.S.A.” In the 9th round of that famous title fight my fighter scored a knockdown and came to my corner and told me, “Start the car. We’re going to the bank. We’re millionaires.” I then told my guy, “You’d better turn around. He’s getting up and he looks pissed off.”
Out of the ring I earned a citation from a N.Y.C. mayor for assisting a detective in subduing and cuffing a murderer and a thief. I always looked back with pride upon that event which also seemed to get me out of future traffic tickets.
I finally succumbed to complications from diabetes which led to my N.J. bona fides. My funeral was held at Robert Schoem’s Menorah Chapel in Paramus. That’s me in the photo below.
(1a)Who Am I? (1b)How did I get the nickname “Showers?” (1c)What was my wife’s name? (2a)What was The Bayonne Bleeder’s actual name? (2b)What army camp was I stationed at in Louisiana? (2c)What boxing promoter did I work for who had electric hair? (3a)What boxing film was made about “The Bayonne Bleeder?” What actor portrayed me in that film? (3b)What series of films starring Sy was spawned by “The Bayonne Bleeder?” (4a)What N.Y.C. mayor honored me with a citation? (4b)What was the name and address of he antique store I owned with my wife at the time of my death?
