NYT: Kilgannon: Why Short Al From Brooklyn, Talkative Fan, Calls No More

Bruce from Bayside likes the Cleveland Indians, while Bruce from Flushing is a Yankees man. There is Marc in the Bronx (Denver Broncos) and Miriam from Forest Hills (Islanders and Mets). Regular listeners know that Jerry from Queens is Jerry Seinfeld, a proud FANdroid and occasional host of the show.

Short Al from Brooklyn was a Mets devotee who, having been a regular at Ebbets Field since boyhood, provided an old-timer’s perspective. He called in the predawn hours nearly every day since WFAN went on the air in 1987, becoming a favorite of Steve Somers, a host known as “The Schmoozer” who shared Al’s love for the Mets but prodded him to get to the point by saying, “Time is short, and so are you.”

Short Al suddenly disappeared from WFAN’s airwaves last year, leading some listeners to worry that he had joined the great lineup of FANdroids who have died, including John from Sandy Hook and Doris from Rego Park. “I can’t tell you how many times people called in and asked, ‘Why hasn’t he been calling? What happened?’ ” said Marc Malusis, another of WFAN’s overnight hosts.

The mystery is here answered!

Short Al is 5-foot-4, and he tells the story of his life as a baseball fan as though writing a script worthy of Kevin Costner.

Growing up in Coney Island, he said, he worked as a child in a penny arcade on the Boardwalk for money to go to Brooklyn Dodgers games. In 1934, at age 7, he went alone to his first game at Ebbets Field, by bus, trolley and subway. On June 15, 1938, he said, he was there when the Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer pitched a no-hitter against the Dodgers — four days after pitching a no-hitter against the Boston Braves, the only major leaguer ever to achieve such a consecutive feat. Short Al himself did not play serious baseball, but he ran track at Lincoln High School.

“I got my speed by selling ice cream illegally on the beach,” he said. “You had to be fast, to run away from the cops.

“I started boxing at age 7 because I was a little guy and got beat up in school,” he added. “I had 130 amateur fights and I was never knocked out because I have no neck, which is good for boxers and baseball catchers. Look at Yogi Berra and Johnny Bench.”