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February 9 is the birthday of slick-fielding third baseman Clete Boyer (1937). After eight stellar seasons in the Bronx, Clete was traded in 1966 to the Braves for Bill Robinson, a badly failed Yankee attempt (one of many) to find a star to replace Mickey Mantle in center. Clete responded with his finest offensive year (26 homers, 96 rbi’s). And in 1969 Clete fell “victim” to the buxom Morganna, who walked on the field and kissed him. Clete had blasted 95 homers with 393 rbi’s and 27 stolen bases with the Yanks from 1959-1966. He was acquired from Kansas City in 1957 along with Art Ditmar, Bobby Shantz, Jack McMahan, Curt Roberts, and Wayne Belardi for Irv Noren, Milt Graff, Mickey McDermott, Tom Morgan, Rip Coleman, Jack Urban, and Billy Hunter. Unfortunately, Clete died during the 2007 baseball season. Continue reading February 9 in Yankee History
February 8 was a bad Yankee day in the back-to-back years, 1983 and 1984. During the latter, the Yanks front office goofed. The number one player in the last year’s draft was Tim Belcher. He had become available once he refused to sign with the Twins, so the Yanks signed him, but it came to pass after they had submitted their list of protected players. The A’s, due compensation once the Orioles had signed their Type A free agent Tom Underwood, swooped in and grabbed Belcher before the Bombers could rectify the situation. Continue reading February 8 in Yankee History
Baseball players make millions of dollars today, while the guys who came before, relatively speaking, made a pittance. But the road from there to here was a journey of a lot of steps. Joe DiMaggio, who would for more than 30 years after retiring be known as “the greatest living ballplayer,” established a new plateau for major-league players on February 7, 1949, when he signed a $100,000 contract with the Yankees to play the upcoming season. It was the first ever six-digit contract in the League. Continue reading February 7 in Yankee History
 We are the champions... In Asia just three days earlier, the World Series trophy made a road trip to Westchester this weekend. White Plains, NY, February 6, 2010 Hello Excellence, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again.
With apologies to Paul Simon, those words, and others just like them, whirled through my head on Saturday, February 6, as we made the trip to White Plains to see the New York Yankee World Series Trophy in person. The predicted snow had stopped south of Westchester County, and when we arrived we had just a 25-minute wait until it was our turn. Continue reading Hey, Gorgeous!
 Al Kooper's birthday bash at B.B. King's We experienced the only high side (aside from all the hilarious late night fodder we had for weeks) of the ending of the Conan O’Brien stint on the Tonight Show when guitarist Jimmy Vivino joined the Al Kooper 66th birthday celebration at B.B. King’s Friday night. Jimmy, member of the seminal New York band Prisoners of 2nd Avenue, one fourth of the excellent Beatles cover band the Fab Faux and a regular at Levon Helm’s Midnight Rambles in the barn in homey Woodstock, has been on the wrong coast almost continuously since Al’s 65th celebration last year, and New York has missed him. Continue reading Welcome Back, Jimmy
Blow the party horns; tug on the party hats. In descending order, Yankee fans, baseball fans, and spectator sports fans of all stripes should all rejoice, maybe even celebrate with a piece of cake. Babe Ruth, our very own revered and beloved Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, the man around whom so much of what we obsess about today originally began, was born on this day in 1895. Once acquired from the rival Red Sox by Business Manager Ed Barrow, he led the Yankees to the Promised Land with his booming bat, having already set a pretty high standard as a pitcher in Boston. He played from 1914-1935, the last year with the Boston Braves, and amassed 714 home runs and 2,213 rbi’s during that time. And there are four more Yankee birthdays this day. Continue reading February 6 in Yankee History
A tree may grow in Brooklyn, but on February 5, 1921, the New York Yankee baseball club purchased 20 acres in the South Bronx. This plot, across the Harlem River and within sight of the Polo Grounds they had shared with the Giants for almost 10 years, would be the location of Yankee Stadium. Continue reading February 5 in Yankee History
In just one more sign that the eighties were not “The Glory Years,” on February 4, 1984, the Yanks traded righty reliever George Frazier, who looked a lot like a tall Ron Guidry until he threw the ball, and a young Otis Nixon, in his first year in the bigs, to Cleveland for Toby Harrah. Toby never really warmed to the opportunity to replace the traded and much beloved Graig Nettles. Harrah hit just .217 in 84 games and was shipped out a year later to Texas for minor-leaguer Eric Dersin and outfielder Billy Sample. Harrah hit one home run, drove in 26 runs, and stole three bases in the Bronx, while Frazier split his 1984 season between Cleveland and Chicago (the Cubs) to a 9-5 mark. Nixon patrolled outfields for 15 years, through the 1999 season, with significant stopovers in Cleveland, Montreal, Atlanta, and Toronto. Harrah holds two odd (and unenviable) fielding records: He accepted no chances at shortstop in a June 25, 1976, doubleheader, a first and only occurrence for a major league shortstop. And on September 17, 1977, he played 17 innings in a game at third base without recording an assist. Continue reading February 4 in Yankee History
Pitchers and catchers report February 17, can we be far behind? We’re sticking to the greater Tampa Bay area, so we’re headed over to Dunedin on Sunday instead of taking the 2+ hour drive to see them play the Minnesota Twins at Hammond Stadium in Ft. Myers. Continue reading Spring Training 2010
In the early years of the Twentieth Century, the game of baseball continued to evolve. One sign of progress was the acceptance of some practices which were then gradually called into question, only to eventually be ruled illegal. The spitball was a famous example of this phenomenon, but a less heralded one was the emery ball, described in one source as “an illegal pitch in which the ball is filed with an emery board for better grip.” This pitch was most often associated with New York Highlander righthander Russ Ford, who introduced it in 1910. Russ put up some good numbers with the Yanks, going 73-56 with three saves from 1909-1913 before spending two years with the Buffalo Blues (later Buffeds) of the Federal League. But he really excelled right after he put his innovation into practice: He posted a 48-17 mark in 1910 and 1911. The American League banned Russ’s brainchild on February 3, 1915. Continue reading February 3 in Yankee History
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