September 6 in Yankee History
It’s only sporting to lead this day’s events off with the surpassing of one of the Yankees’ most dearly held records. On September 6, 1995, Cal Ripken, Jr., played in his 2,131st game, taking the place of the beloved Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig, in the record books. Judge for yourselves, but despite having a lot of trouble with this earlier in life, I have to acknowledge that Cal handled the long years reaching the number, and the moment overcoming it, with a lot of class. Besides, the recently dearly departed Yankee hero Phil Rizzuto urged support for Cal in his later years. Good enough for me.
September 6, 2004, was perhaps the most bizarre day in Yankee Stadium in many a year. As Labor Day dawned in the Bronx, the Yankees opened the park and awaited the arrival of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who had failed to make the trip north for a weekend New York series before Hurricane Frances hit land. It was to be a doubleheader with Game One scheduled for 1:00 pm, then delayed to 3:00. Finally the first game was postponed once again and the Yankees played the Rays in one game starting at 7:00 pm. During the many-hour wait, the Bombers held extended batting practice to entertain the crowd, and free hot dogs and soda were passed out at the concession stands. As Rays players finally appeared from the visiting dugout, the Yankee organist played, “If it takes forever, I will wait for you.” When play finally began, the Yanks used a four-run fourth-inning rally to post a 7-4 win, with Orlando “el duque” Hernandez besting Doug Waechter.
The Yankees swept two from the Red Sox on September 6, 1971, 5-3 and 3-0, in the Big Ballyard in the South Bronx. The Red Sox used a totally different 10-man lineup in Game 2 than they had in the first contest, but to no avail.
Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter led off the bottom of the first of the September 6, 2005 game vs. Tampa Bay in Yankee Stadium by singling and scoring in his 1,500th career game. Then he singled to deliver the Yanks’ third (and last) run in the second. But 2005 was the year of the Devil Ray when it came to Yankee games, and this gorgeous Tuesday evening was no exception. Tampa scratched three runs off Randy Johnson over seven, and scored the game winner on a Robinson Cano error in the ninth, 4-3 Rays.
The 10 pinch home runs the Yanks stroked in 1961 stood as a record for 21 years, until Benny Ayala delivered the 11th of the 1982 Orioles’ season in an 8-2 win over the Yankees on September 6.
The Yanks used a record 10 pinch hitters on September 6, 1954, during a doubleheader at the Stadium against, you guessed it, the Boston Red Sox, but I’m not sure how many were used in each game. They won the opener 6-5, but Boston recovered to win the nightcap 8-7.
Johnny Blanchard hit two homers, each following a walk to Mickey Mantle, and Moose Skowron, Bob Hale, and Roger Maris went yard too, in an 8-0 shutout of Washington on September 6, 1961. Whitey Ford threw a five-hitter to go to 23-3 on the season, and Roger’s homer was his 54th.
Despite a good outing from Babe Ruth (with the Red Sox at the time) on the mound, once he tired, the Yanks cashed in a 5-2 win over Ruth and reliever Dutch Leonard to sweep two on September 6, 1915. The Yanks took the first game 4-0, and The Babe went 2-for-3 at the plate in the nightcap.
When it took the Orioles 13 innings to beat the Yankees 7-6 on September 6, 1975, neither of the managers nor Yankee catcher Thurman Munson were around at the end, as all three were tossed in the ninth inning.
The Yankees jumped on Detroit’s Mark Redman for seven hits and six runs in the home fifth in an 8-1 win in Yankee Stadium on September 6, 2002.
We were lucky to be present for the first Staten Island Yankees playoff game in their new house in Richmond County Ballpark on September 6, 2001. Having attended a game a few weeks before, we just happened to be there when the prized tickets went on sale. The Yankees beat the Brooklyn Cyclones in the first of three 6-1, though the Mets farm team would come back to win that series. We were also fortunate to have taken the roundtrip Staten Island Ferry ride under clear skies just five days before the Twin Towers would be lost from the Manhattan skyline.
Comings and goings for the Yankees on September 6, 2005: They purchased the contract of outfielder Mike Vento from AAA Columbus while designating righthander Sam Marsonek for assignment. Vento would join the Washington Nationals organization in 2006. The Bombers also recalled infielder Felix Escalona and righty reliever Scott Proctor, and reinstated starter Chien-Ming Wang from the 15-day disabled list.
New York Giant Jeff Tesreau threw a 3-0 no-hitter at the Phillies on September 6, 1912. And White Sox hurler Frank “Piano Mover” Smith won the second game of a doubleheader sweep over the Tigers, 15-0, with a no-no on the same day in 1905.
On September 6, 2010, the Yankees recalled left fielder Colin Curtis from AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
The Yankees moved two Alous on September 6, 1973. Felipe Alou’s shift to Montreal was a waiver transaction, while the contract of Matty Alou was sold to St. Louis.
During a doubleheader split between the Yankees and the Philadelphia Athletics on September 6, 1943, Carl Scheib became the youngest ever AL player when he allowed two hits but no runs in .67 inning for Philly at the age of 16 years, 248 days. The A’s took the first game 11-2, while the New Yorkers would prevail in the nightcap 11-4.
It was on this day in 1976 that Dodger catcher Steve Yeager suffered a scary and freak injury when he was struck in the neck with a jagged chunk of teammate Bill Russell’s bat while awaiting his turn to bat in the on-deck circle. The Dodgers beat the Padres, 4-1.
Eddie Murray of the Orioles hit his 500th home run in a 5-4 loss to Detroit on September 6, 1996. It was an achievement Yankee fans were more aware of than they might have been as the Bombers were off and Baltimore had closed a 12-game Yankee lead to three in that season’s final month.
In the weird strike-interrupted 1981 season, Yankee Manager Gene Michael had already ensured that the Yanks would partake in the postseason by winning the first half of the season before the work stoppage, but he was replaced by Bob Lemon on September 6 with the team only two games above .500 in the second half.
In what at least one baseball historian referred to as the 100,000th game in major league history, Bennie Daniels and the Senators beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-2, on September 6, 1963.
Deion Sanders finished his rookie season in Yankee Stadium on September 6, 1990, after striking out in the sixth inning of a California Angels 12-6 victory over the Yanks. After batting only .158 in 57 games, he was off to Atlanta to play football with the Falcons.
The Cal Angels purchased the contract of Dave Kingman from the Padres on September 6, 1977. He had begun the season with the Mets, so when the Yankees bought his services nine days later, he became the only player to play for a team in all four divisions extant in baseball at the time in the same year.
Two players won their 20th games of a season 65 years apart on September 6. Christy Mathewson of the Giants got his by beating Lew Moren and the Phillies in the second of two in 1907; and Detroit’s Mickey Lolich shook off five consecutive failures to eke by the Orioles 4-3 on the same day in 1972. Above we mentioned that the Pinstriped Whitey Ford claimed no. 23 on September 6, 1961. Boston’s Joe Wood won his 30th over Walter Johnson and the Senators 1-0 on this day in 1912. And Detroit’s Denny McLain garnered no. 28 on his way to the most recent 30-win season, when he beat the Twins 8-3 on this day in 1968.
An additional September 6 highlight involving a one-time Yankee player involves veteran starter Urban Shocker just one season removed from his career-ending, several-year stint in the Bronx. Shocker threw two complete-game, 6-2 victories for the St. Louis Browns over the White Sox on this day in 1924. He struck out but one batter in the 18 innings of work.
Players Who Have Died This Day
The only Yankee player to have died on September 6, shortstop/second baseman Stubby Magner (1956) played all 13 of his big-league games with the 1911 Highlanders. He had seven hits in 33 at bats, drove in four runs, but hit no home runs.
Not only are all five noteworthy nonYankee players who have died this day position players, two caught, two played third base, and one patrolled the outfield. Backstop Charlie Berry (1972) hit 23 long balls and knocked in 256 runs for the A’s, the Red Sox, and the White Sox from 1925-1938; and Eddie Ainsmith (1981) reached 22 fences and drove in 317 runs playing most of his games from 1910-1923 with the Senators, the Tigers, and the Cardinals. Third sacker Lave Cross (1927) played almost exclusively in the City of Brotherly Love from 1887-1907 with the Phillies and the A’s, and hit 47 roundtrippers with 1,371 rbi’s; and Sammy Hale (1974) hit 30 homers and drove in 392 runs from 1920-1930 with the Tigers, the A’s, and the Browns. And lefty-hitting outfielder Barney McClosky (1996) played with the Tigers, the A’s, the Reds, and the Indians from 1939-1953, and he hit 24 home runs and drove in 397 runs.
Players Born This Day
There are three Yankee September 6 birthdays, one of them former Mets broadcaster Fran Healy (1946). When Fran played in New York it was reported that one of the contributing factors to his remaining on the Yankee team as a catcher from 1976 through 1978 rather than a comparable backup was that he got along well with Reggie Jackson. One thing is certain: Backups to Thurman Munson did not play often. Healy got into 74 games with 188 ab’s in his three years in the Bronx, hitting five doubles, no homers with 16 rbi’s. He played six-plus years in San Francisco and Kansas City before arriving in a May 1976 trade from the Kansas City Royals for Larry Gura. The Yanks released Healey in May 1978.
First baseman Jack Phillips (1921), also a backup, debuted with the Yanks in 1947 through early in the 1949 season before spending three years each in Pittsburgh and Detroit. With the Bombers, Jack kicked in two home runs and 12 rbi’s. The Yanks sold Phillips’s contract to the Pirates in August 1949.
Outfielder Shags Horan (1895) played 22 games with the 1924 Yankees, hitting no home runs with seven rbi’s and a .290 batting average in his only major league play.
Worthy of mention too are Mike York (1964) and Jim Fridley (1924). A 1982 Yankee amateur draft selection (in the 40th round), York went 2-5 in 1990 with Pittsburgh and in 1991 with Cleveland after the Yanks released him. Outfielder Fridley arrived in the December 1954 blockbuster from Baltimore with Bob Turley, Don Larsen, and Billy Hunter with the Yanks sending Gene Woodling, Harry Byrd, Jim McDonald, Hal Smith, Gus Triandos, and Willy Miranda south. Fridley hit eight home runs with 53 rbi’s with the Indians in 1952, the Orioles in 1954, and the Reds in 1958, but did not play with the Yanks.
Other birthdays of note: Hall of Fame righthander Red Faber (1888), who won 254 games for the White Sox from 1914 through 1933; Vince DiMaggio (1912); Roy Smith (1961); Pat Meares (1968); Derrek Lee (1975); former Mets prospect Alex Escobar (1978); Mark Teahen (1981); Jerry Blevins (1983); and Mitch Moreland (9185).
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