February 19 in Yankee History

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  • The Yankees paused to reload on February 19, 1957, shipping former Boston lefty can’t-miss prospect Mickey McDermott (he missed), along with hurlers Tom Morgan, Gary Coleman, and Jack Urban, outfielder Irv Noren, and infielders Billy Hunter and Milt Graff to the Kansas City Athletics for a package of players of their own. K.C. had a major-league team (now in Oakland) that at the time the Bombers mined regularly for young talent. The returning supporting cast was pitcher Jack McMahan and infielders Curt Roberts and Wayne Belardi, but the marquee names were righthander Art Ditmar, third sacker Clete Boyer, and lefty Bobby Shantz, who (here’s a twist) batted righty. Between them, Ditmar and Shantz gave the Yankees a four-year total of 77 wins with 50 losses, and 30 big saves. And Boyer contributed 95 homers, 397 rbi’s, and 27 stolen bases along with eight years of solid defense at the hot corner.
  • Lou Gehrig won the Triple Crown in 1934 (.363 ba, 49 homers, 165 rbi’s) along with leading the American League in OPS, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, and total bases, and he even played all 154 regular-season games. So he felt pretty confident asking for $37,000 for the following season. On February 19, 1935, he settled for $30,000.
  • There is a strange connection between the two former or future Yankee players with February 19 transactions. First, we’ll count the sudden retirement of Vida Blue on this day in 1987. Vida was almost a Yankee, only Bowie Kuhn voided the sale of the star righthander to the Bombers in the middle of the 1976 season. Southpaw Paul Lindblad, on the other hand, did finish his career in the Bronx, once the Yanks purchased him from the Rangers in August 1978. On February 19, 1977, The A’s sold Lindblad to Texas for $400,000. The deal had to await Kuhn’s approval, however, because once he had voided the Blue sale the year before, he had not yet set the monetary limit where a similar restriction would kick in. Lindblad earned himself a ring by pitching seven games for the ’78 Yanks (one start) to no record, with two saves.
  • On February 19, 2016, the Yankees invited two nonroster righthanders to Spring Training, Mark Montgomery and Kyle Haynes. Montgomery had been in the Yankee organization since 2011, Haynes since 2014.
  • Though some might use this tendency to attack the Yankees, as a fan I am delighted that the club is always open to bringing former Pinstripers back into the fold. Thus, catcher Jim Leyritz was given the opportunity to make a third tour with the team when he was signed to a minor-league contract on November 19, 2002. Jim failed to land a job with the Yanks or anyone else in the bigs, but he did spend time with ex-Yank Rick Cerone‘s independent Atlantic League Newark Bears later that year. Leyritz, unfortunately, faced charges from a drunken driving fatality early in 2008, a charge of which he was acquitted. He tried to restart his career in an off-field capacity with the 2011 Newark Bears.
  • Those who hear the Yankee Stadium seventh-inning stretch almost 10 years after the events of 9/11, and who see the stands often dotted with U.S. military personnel whenever duty calls them to town, should be aware that this is nothing new in the Bronx. For instance, on February 19, 1942, with the country having entered World War II just two months before, the Yankees announced that 5,000 uniformed soldiers would be admitted free of charge to all the team’s upcoming home games.
  • I do not know the words for “ball,” “strike,” “hit,” “out,” or “home run” in Dutch, nor do I have to. That is thanks to the Peace of Westminster between England and the Netherlands on February 19, 1674, making New York an English (and English-speaking) city.

 
Players Who Have Died This Day

  • Two players of note to die February 19 played with the Yankees. Lefty-hitting outfielder Ray Demmitt (1956) debuted with the 1909 Highlanders, for whom he reached four fences with 30 rbi’s in 123 games. After six years with the Dodgers, he had hit eight home runs with 165 runs driven in overall. Also a left-handed batter, outfielder Frank Colman (1983) ended his career in Pinstripes, hitting three dingers with 11 rbi’s for the 1946-1947 Yankees in 27 games. Added to his numbers from a 1942-1946 stay in Pittsburgh, Frank accumulated 15 long balls with 106 rbi’s.
  • Entrepreneur and Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley, he of the yellow baseball, and also the guy who tried to sell Vida Blue to the Yanks in 1976 (see above), died on February 19, 1996. Righthander Bob Groom (1948) played most of the time with the Senators from 1909-1918 to a 119-150 record; while southpaw Doc White (1969) posted most of his 189-156 mark with the White Sox from 1901-1913. Another righthander and a catcher round out the list of noteworthy nonYankee players to have died on February 19. Frank Miller (1974) posted most of his 52 wins, 66 losses, and four saves from 1913-1923 with the Pirates and the Braves; and backstop Mike Gonzalez (1977) hit 13 home runs and drove in 263 runs from 1912-1932, playing mostly with the Giants, the Cubs, and the Cardinals.

 
Players Born This Day

  • I remember what I said like it was yesterday. Unfortunately, my Yankee fan buddies remember it too. We were watching the Yanks play the Braves in West Palm Beach the first week of March 1989. I was prepared for rising Yankee star Randy Velarde to be installed into his rightful place at shortstop, once the Yanks had allowed ex-Met Rafael Santana to hold down the position the year before. But Randy had looked good backing up, and I was amused that Yankee Manager Dallas Greene had inserted an interloper with the no. 72 on his back into the Yankee infield that day. “Get a good look at him,” I quipped. “Because you won’t be seeing him in the Bronx.” Of course, I was wrong, and while Velarde developed into a solid infield backup player, and eventually a full-time second sacker, Alvaro Espinoza, born February 19, 1962, held down the shortstop job for the Yanks for the next three years. Called “Espy” by most (though I called him “Alvy” to distinguish him from Texas outfielder Cecil Espy), Espinoza notched seven homers, 94 rbi’s, and eight stolen bases during that time. He would play for the Indians and Mets afterward.
  • Aside from that, the Yankee birthday shelf is fairly bare. Righty Tim Burke (1959) ended his time in the bigs by going 2-2 in 23 games for the 1992 Yanks after six-plus years with the Expos and two with the Mets. The Yanks had actually acquired Tim with fellow minor leaguers Don Aubin, John Holland, and Jose Rivera from the Pirates for Lee Mazzilli in 1982, but they sent him to the Expos for Pat Rooney a year later. But Burke didn’t actually pitch in the Bronx until the Yanks received him from the Mets in ’92 for Lee Guetterman. And Oscar Roettger (1900), another righty, managed one save in six games in his only stop in the majors, with the 1923-1924 Bombers.
  • Until 2012, catcher Chris Stewart (1982) had earned a short mention based on one game as backup backstop in the Bronx in 2008, but he played a significant role in that spot on the 2012 roster behind Russell Martin, and got the majority of the playing time behind the Bronx home plate in 2013, with Martin gone. Chris, who hit a home run and drove in 13 runs as a Yankee in ’12, had played in 95 games for the White Sox, the Rangers, the Padres and the Giants since 2006, accumulating three more long balls and another 13 rbi’s. As expected, rather than as hoped, he struggled in 2013 at the plate once Francisco Cervelli‘s injury made Stewart the starter, with four home runs and 25 rbi’s despite starting more than 100 games. He provided solid defensive play. Ironically, Stewart served as Martin’s backup in Pittsburgh in 2014.
  • Lefty JP Sears (2000) showed a lot of promise in the Bronx in 2022, when he posted a 3-0 record in seven games (two starts) until he was traded with three other players for Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino of the A’s on August 1. Drafted by the Mariners in 2017, the Yanks got him that year in a trade for Nick Rumbelow. The Yankees will watch nervously as JP continues in Oakland, where he went 3-3 in 10 games (nine starts) down the 2022 stretch. Sears went 5-14 in 32 games, all starts, on a very challenged 2023 Oakland team.
  • Perhaps worthy of honorable mention, however, are Dave Cheadle (1970), who only got into two games with the 1973 Braves, because he was drafted by New York in the first round in 1970; and Don Taussig (1932), who signed with the Yanks before the 1950 season. Taussig recorded all of his 263 at bats with the Giants, the Cardinals, and the Astros in 1958, 1961, and 1962 respectively, to the tune of four dingers, 30 rbi’s, and two stolen bases. Cheadle was one of two “players to be named later” the Yanks sent to the Braves with Wayne Nordhagen and Frank Tepedino for Pat Dobson in June 1973.
  • Righthander Dan Otero (1985) could have made this list in 2013, when the Yankees claimed him off waivers from San Francisco, but Oakland claimed him in turn one day later. But then Otero was signed by New York as a free agent in February 2020, only to be released without pitching for the team in November. Otero has won 22, lost eight, and saved three games in three cities since 2012.
  • Other birthdays: Russ Nixon (1935); Chris Zachary (1944); Dave Stewart (1967); Keith Atherton (1959); Miguel Batista (1971); Brad Kilby (1983); Michael Schwimer (1986); Josh Reddick (1987); Kevin Chapman (1988); Daniel Mengden (1993); Josh Fuentes (1993); Joel Kuhnel (1995); Juan Nepez (1998); and Carmen Mlodzlinski (1999).

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