A lot of life hasn’t broken Fred Schuman’s way. As a nine year old in the Bronx, a stray bat in a stickball game destroyed his right eye. The injury relegated him to the sidelines in the schoolyard and for World War II when he was declared 4F,unsuited for military service. Freddy’s first marriage was a disaster. He started a jewelry business that went bust, followed by a bicycle business that went bust. He lost contact with his only son. He lost the building that his family owned in the Bronx. As Freddy will be the first to tell you, he was the quintessential loser, a failure at everything he tried. At his lowest point he was out on the street.

And yet in a highly improbable turn of events, Fred Schulman has become a highly recognizable symbol of the winningest franchise in American sports, the New York Yankees. Since 1988, Freddy has been a fixture at Yankee stadium during home games, inciting fans to cheer using decidedly old school, even weird school tools: hand lettered signs (‘FREDDY SEZ: YANKEES CAN IMPROVE!”), an old frying pan and a metal spoon.

That the Yankees answer to the San Diego chicken would turn out be a once homeless, one-eyed octagenarian stretches the limits of credulity, but Freddy’s association with the most recent Yankee dynasty (1996 , 2000) has conferred on him certified good luck charm status. Mayor Giuliani famously flew him to Phoenix for Game 7 of the 2001 World Series,a mission that was unsuccessful but only solidified Freddy’s celebrity.

I talked to Freddy a week before 2008 opening day as he prepared himself for another season in the Bronx, the last before the Yankees demolish the House That Ruth Built and set up shop in a billion dollar reinterpretation next door.

CI: What was the first reaction to you at the Stadium, when you started going in 1988.

FS: In the very beginning I couldn’t use the language of how they told me to, ‘Get the f–…Get lost”. They were interested in the ball game. Here is this guy coming up with a sign, with a spoon. And he wants me to hit the spoon and everything. It was pretty much, ‘Get lost.” Well fight, I can’t fight. I’m not a fighter. I’m a blind guy I don’t know karate, black belt and so forth. If I knew that I would probably have taken them on.

CI: How did you come up with the spoon and the pan?

FS: Ah, this you’ll get a kick. When we were children, at 745 East 178th Street, which is one of the places we used to live. Down to Time Square New Years Eve. We were kids we didn’t go downtown. But when we did we took momma’s pots and pans, and went in the hallway we woke up everybody in the building. Hitting the pot and pan, fryer, whatever we had to make noise that’s the way we did it in those days up in our neighborhood.

CI: Soon after you started, you began to get a lot of press attention. What was the moment where you knew that you had become this kind of new character, ‘Freddy Says,” and not Fred Schuman?

FS: The thing was, I never was successful or anything. Throughout my vocational time, failure, a complete failure. I always lost out in whatever I did. I don’t know why I deserve anything like this. All I can do is I can cheer then because there is an electric charge that happens at the stadium. I feel like a maestro when I am at the foot of the crowd conducting a symphony. The marquee says ‘Make noise, I will raise us up.” I go before the crowd. I show them the pan. I give them the opportunity to hit it and so forth. I feel good. I feel good. Now this is not to say that some people still say ‘Hey Freddy, do me a favor. Bring it somewheres else.”

CI: Do you have any competition at the Stadium?

FS: There is this guy called the Cow Bell Man. He’s a Bronxite. But he says, ‘We’re friends. We don’t hurt each other.” I would never hurt him nor would I even hurt in any particular way disparage anyone. I’m a good will ambassador.

CI: Can you point to one particular game at the Stadium where you feel you influenced the outcome?

FS: The 1996 World Series, in the sixth game. It was too quiet in the stadium so I start yelling, ‘Hey let’s make some noise. Let’s rock the house.” A little kids comes up, I don’t remember his name, and he grabs the spoon. I never saw a child whack the hell out of the frying pan! I’m thinking this kid is going to win the game for us! And don’t know you know it, like a miracle, I just can’t tell you how. The Yankees got three runs in that inning. THREE RUNS! If you recall the statistics of the game, we won it 3-2. The kid won the game as far as I am concerned. But I know I did my share to get at least some kind of reaction.

CI: Let me ask you about Mayor Giuliani…

FS: He’s been so good to me. If he’d would have won the opportunity to run for president, I would have voted for him. If he needed me in any particular way I would have gladly done anything to help him out. That’s how much I think of the man now.

CI: But what did you think of him putting on the Red Sox hat?

FS: OH WOW WOW. Now I had a little chip with him! He did put on Red Sox hat. I was rooting for the Rockies. I‘m going for the little guy. The Rockies were the little guy. I didn’t expect them to win. But I went with them. I told him I said, ‘You’re acting like a traitor a little bit.” He said he’s doing it because it was an American League team, American League that was his answer.

CI: The Red Sox have really turned their bad energy around in the last few years. Do you think they have a Freddy working for them?

FS: Do they have a mascot do they have anyone working for them?…Matter of fact? I had wrote to the Yankees and asked if I could be called the mascot or the cheerleader. They never approved or gave me the right. In fact, they never got back to me.

CI: But you have had the Yankees officially acknowledge you?

FS: I did not claim the title of number one Yankee fan. I did not claim it. And I don’t to this particular day brag or say that I’m the number one fan. But I have their letter on Yankee’s stationary in which they wrote back to me and said Freddy, ‘You are the number one fan.” On the official paper. I’ll accept it graciously, because I try my best. I can’t guarantee a win or a loss either way. If they win because they played good, fine. If they get in a slump I try my very best not to come up with negative stuff. I gotta try to tell the fans, ‘Look we’re in a little slump. They’re having a bad stretch, they’ll pull out.”

CI: What’s your prediction for this season?

FS: There’s no question in my mind we have hitting ability. We can do good on hitting. But pitching…In yesterday’s pitching, the wind was very bad down in Florida and they got Hughes for seven runs! I’m concerned about the pitching. I’m definitely concerned about the pitching.