Author Archives: Dan McCourt

June 6 in Yankee History

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  • It was not only a blow to lose a game to the slumping White Sox in the Stadium on June 6, 2023, the manner of the loss was a crusher. All three Chisox runs in the 3-2 decision came via two home runs from catcher Seby Zavala, who hit only seven for the White Sox that year. Both jolts came against Clarke Schmidt, who did well in retiring 13 of 18 on ground ball outs, though a few fly balls ruined the party. Continue reading →

    • June 5 in Yankee History

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  • The Yankees eked out a 5-4 victory over the visiting Tigers on June %, 2022. Joey Gallo delivered a two-run homer in the fifth, and the Yanks managed single tallies in the seventh and the eighth. Detroit failed to score in the 10th, while the Yankees, on a sac fly by Josh Donaldson, scored the winner, 5-4.
  • The Yankees and Jameson Taillon led visiting Boston 2-0 on Gleyber Torres‘s fourth-inning home run on June 5, 2021, but the Red Sox reached Taillon, then Jonathan Loaisiga, for five straight hits in a 3-0 sixth. Bobby Dalbec keyed a four-run eighth inning with a bomb, and the visitors prevailed, 7-3.
  • Most of the June 5, 2015, tilt vs. visiting Anaheim was a delight, as Nate Eovaldi pitched well before losing his control in the top of the sixth, and the Yankee offense gave a clinic in scoring add-on runs after taking a 2-0 lead in the second on a Stephen Drew home run. They scored in the third, fifth, sixth, and seventh, with highlights featuring a Mark Teixeira two-run shot, a Brett Gardner triple, a second Drew jolt, and three hits from Alex Rodriguez, including an rbi single that moved the Yankee DH ahead of Barry Bonds into fourth place on the all-time rbi list with his 1,997th. Strong relief by lefties Chasen Shreve and Jacob Lindgren continued the home team dominance into the ninth, when long man Esmil Rogers allowed six straight to reach, until Dellin Betances put out the fire and the team held on for an 8-7 win.
  • The Yanks won a good, tight ballgame in a 2-1 decision over visiting Oakland on June 5, 2014. Masahiro Tanaka surrendered a home run to John Jaso, the game’s second batter, but held the A’s there with the help of an inning each of relief by Dellin Betances, Adam Warren, and David Robertson. The home team scored on Alfonso Soriano‘s second-inning rbi single and a home run from Brett Gardner in the third.
  • It doesn’t get any better than when the Yanks host a midweek day game on a beautiful afternoon, and the June 5, 2013, battle with Cleveland fit the bill. Not long after New York football Giants first-round pick Justin Pugh threw out the ceremonial first pitch, the Yanks took a 2-0 lead on Travis Hafner‘s first-inning bomb, then 6-0 when Brett Gardner added a three-run shot in the second. Despite allowing two runs in both the sixth and the seventh, CC Sabathia pitched a complete game in the 6-4 win.
  • The fourth-inning Russell Martin grand slam off James Shields in a 7-0 June 5, 2012 win over Tampa in Yankee Stadium turned out to be overkill, because, in one of his finest starts, Andy Pettitte blanked the Rays into the eighth inning on just two hits. The Yanks had already scored two runs in the first on a Robinson Cano single and an error, and Cano and Nick Swisher doubles closed out the scoring in the fifth.
  • The Yanks held on to beat the White Sox, 8-6, on June 5, 1977, but it took six home runs to do it, the most they had hit in three years. Most of the homer hitters are well-known names: Bucky Dent, Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, and Graig Nettles — even DH/outfielder Carlos May, who did most of his career hitting with the opposing team — but it was little-known George Zeber‘s first career homer that was the game winner.
  • Mike Epstein of the Senators turned a 200-foot drive down the left-field line off Yankee rookie Thad Tillotson into an inside-the-park home run on June 5, 1967, but Mickey Mantle‘s eighth-inning home run off Darold Knowles won it for the Yanks, 4-2.
  • Things looked bleak in Yankee Stadium on June 5, 2008, even though the Yanks got Jorge Posada back from injury, catching no less. Lyle Overbay‘s two-run fifth-inning home run against Chien-Ming Wang had the visitors up 7-2, but the Yanks rallied and eventually won on Jason Giambi‘s two-run walkoff tater with two down in the ninth. Yankee employee Tony Morante, best known for conducting tours of the old ballpark, moved the games-remaining counter from 53 to 52 in the fifth inning.
  • Do I have to explain my joy about the 13-5 pummeling the Bombers planted on Josh Beckett and the Red Sox in Yankee Stadium on June 5, 2006? The six straight safeties to start the home second featured an Andy Phillips three-run home run to left. Jason Giambi followed with another three-run tater once the string was broken by a fielder’s choice ground ball. Mike Mussina, celebrating his 57th career complete game in a 6-1 victory in Detroit the week before, benefited from all the offense and went six for the win.
  • Frustrated by the fact that the Yankee offense had failed to score in 24 straight innings, Mel Stottlemyre homered off Gary Peters in the fourth inning of a game against the visiting White Sox on this day in 1965. Mel went the distance for a 4-3, 10-inning win, Mickey Mantle homered in the sixth, and Elston Howard singled in the winning run.
  • Bobby Valentine‘s trip to Yankee Stadium to manage the Mets in a June 5, 1999 contest could not have been a happy one, as he found out that Bob Apodaca, his pitching coach, was fired by reading it in the paper. When he arrived in the Bronx, he discovered two more coaches had been let go. Then the Yanks used a Tino Martinez home run and doubles by Tony Tarasco, Chuck Knoblauch, Chili Davis, and Derek Jeter off Masato Yoshii to lead the Bombers and Orlando “el duque” Hernandez to a 6-3 Yankee victory.
  • After a decade toiling in the minor leagues, Orioles hurler Travis Driskill beat the Yankees in the Stadium 4-3 on this day in 2002. Four straight hits off David Wells in the third and a Tony Battista sixth-inning homer had the O’s up 4-1 until Jorge Posada finished Driskill’s night with a two-run jack in the home eighth, but the Yankee comeback ended there. Perhaps the only Yankee player to have faced Driskill before, outfielder Juan Rivera doubled and lined out hard twice in his first ever game in Pinstripes.
  • The Yankees beat the Indians 4-3 on June 5, 1936, as Lou Gehrig played in his 1,700th consecutive game.
  • At the end of action on this day in 1961, Mickey Mantle had tied Roger Maris and Rocky Colavito with 15 home runs by going yard in the eighth inning in a 6-2 win over the Twins. The home-standing Yanks doubled up the Twins by winning the nightcap 6-1.
  • It only took Andy Pettitte 102 pitches to beat the Marlins 5-1 in an interleague contest on June 5, 1998, with Todd Zeile scoring the only Florida run on a Chuck Knoblauch error in the seventh. But Chuck would knock in two, the first plating Joe Girardi after his double in that inning’s bottom half. In a preview of the kind of performance he would give later in the Bronx, eventual Yankee bullpenner Felix Heredia teamed with Brian Edmondson to give the Pinstripers four walks and a hit by pitch (for Knoblauch’s second rbi) to hand the Yanks two tallies in the eighth.
  • The Yanks continued to wear out the AAA Scranton to New York shuttle on June 5 2007, with righthander Matt DeSalvo and outfielder Kevin Thompson being sent down and reliever Chris Britton and southpaw Sean Henn taking their place.
  • With the Yanks behind the Orioles 6-1 in the Bronx after five frames on this day in 2001, Joe Torre brought in Brandon Knight to relieve Mike Mussina in Knight’s major league debut. He struck out Jerry Hairston, Jr., but felt the cold slap of reality as Brady Anderson and Mike Bordick followed with back-to-back jacks in the Baltimore 10-3 win.
  • The M&M boys took care of June 5, 1960’s first-game 5-4 win over the Red Sox as Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris both homered. Art Ditmar pitched a full nine innings in the nightcap and the Yanks completed the sweep with an 8-3 win.
  • First, the Yanks pummeled the Red Sox 12-1 in Yankee Stadium on June 5, 1932. Then they purchased the contract of veteran hurler Danny MacFayden. After posting a 26-32 record with the Sox, MacFayden improved to 14-10 with the Yanks over two seasons. MacFayden would have his best years with the Boston Braves from 1935-1939.
  • The Yanks beat Milt Pappas and the Orioles 4-3 behind Whitey Ford on this day in 1963, but they lost Mickey Mantle for 61 games when he fractured a bone in his foot running into a chain-link fence trying to corral Brooks Robinson‘s blast.
  • The Indians turned a triple play in their 15-3 win over the Yanks on June 5, 1926.
  • Mickey Mantle scored on his third inside-the-park home run in a month as the Yanks beat Early Wynn and the White Sox 12-5 in a doubleheader split in the Bronx, on June 5, 1958. Chicago took the nightcap 3-2.
  • Future (at the time) Yankee setup man Tom “Flash” Gordon was the closer for the Red Sox when Atlanta knicked him for two runs in top of the ninth for a 6-5 Braves win on June 5, 1997. It ended Tom’s major league (since surpassed) consecutive-saves record streak at 54 games.
  • On June 6, 2021, the Yankees placed righthander Corey Kluber on the 60-day injured list, with a right shoulder strain; optioned righty Nick Nelson to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders; and selected the contract of first baseman Chris Gittens from the same location.
  • On June 5, 2019, the Yankees signed righthander Zach Greene.
  • On June 5, 2018, the Yankees optioned outfielder Clint Frazier to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, from which he had been recalled the day before.
  • On June 5, 2017, the Yankees optioned first baseman Tyler Austin to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
  • On June 5, 2015, the Yankees sent shortstop Brendan Ryan on a rehab assignment to the AA Trenton Thunder.
  • Reacting to injuries on June 5, 2014, the Yankees activated rightfielder Carlos Beltran from the 15-day disabled list; sent catcher Francisco Cervelli on a rehab assignment to the Tampa Yankees; and optioned second baseman Scott Sizemore to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
  • It was on June 5 of 2002 that Bud Selig announced that major-league baseball would be contracting two teams before the 2003 season. It would not come to pass.
  • Toronto had the hottest facility in the sport when they opened Skydome by losing 5-3 to the Brewers on this day in 1989.
  • The Yankees’ amateur free agent selections made on June 5, 1989, made no mark on the games, but two guys who played key roles in their Championships of the late nineties were taken by other teams. Chuck Knoblauch was a 25th-round Minnesota choice, and Chad Curtis became an Angel after being tabbed in round 45. Knoblauch, by the way, would hit a grand slam in a Twins 14-3 win over Curtis’s Angels on June 5, 1996.
  • Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez tied Roger Maris (from May 22, 1962) for the AL record when he was given four intentional walks in a 4-3 win over the Tigers on June 5, 2001. Andre Dawson holds the major-league record of five though he was eventually tied by 2006-2007 Yankee outfielder Bobby Abreu, who pulled it off with Philly.
  • Raising his total to 1,777, Nolan Ryan passed Early Wynn on the all-time walks-allowed list during a 3-0 win over the Mets on June 5, 1981. He struck out 10 and gave up only five hits.
  • Images of the combative Oakland A’s of the early seventies are not overplayed. Eventual Yankee World Series hero Reggie Jackson injured his shoulder while fighting A’s teammate Billy North on June 5, 1974, and when catcher Ray Fosse tried to break it up, he suffered a back injury and missed the next 12 weeks.
  • Recent Yankee DH Alex Rodriguez became the first Seattle player to hit for the cycle in a nine-inning game as the Mariners beat the Tigers 14-6 on June 5, 1997. Ironically, the one previous Seattle cycle, achieved in 13 innings in 1993, was turned in by ex-Yank Jay Buhner.

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    Players Who Have Died This Day

  • The two Yankee players who have died June 5 both played with the team two years, and both played for the Yanks and no other team. Catcher Bill Reynolds (1924) played 10 games with the 1913-1914 Yankees, and got two hits but no home runs or rbi’s in 10 at bats. Righthander Pete Wilson (1957) pitched 20 games (18 starts) for the 1908-1909 Highlanders to a 9-8 record with no saves.
  • There are four nonYankee player to have passed this day we’ll mention. Lefty pitcher Phil Knell (1944) compiled most of his 79-90 record with no saves from 1888-1895 with the Colonels; and righty Chuck Taylor (2018) won 28 games, lost 20, and saved 31 from 1969 through 1976, mostly with the A’s and the Cardinals. Righthander Aubrey Gatewood (2019) won eight games, lost nine, and saved none with the Angels from 1963 through 1965, and with the Braves in 1970. He appeared 1n 68 games, 13 of them starts. And righty John Miller (2020) pitched just for the Orioles from 1962 through 1967 to a 12-14 record.

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    Players Born This Day

  • Hall of Famer Jack Chesbro (1874), who went 128-89 for the 1903-1909 Yanks, and had a career year at 41-12 in 1904, leads the Yankees born June 5. Jack jumped from the Pirates to the Highlanders prior to the 1903 season, and was lost via waivers to the Red Sox in September 1909. Chesbro posted a career mark of 198-132.
  • Outfielder Darryl Jones (1951) was drafted by the Yanks in the fifth round of the 1972 amateur draft. He knocked in six runs in spot duty with the 1979 club in his only major-league service. Mike Coolbaugh (1972) played in the bigs only for St. Louis and Milwaukee, but he was a free agent signee with the Yanks in October 1999; they released him one year later. Mike died in a freak accident when hit by a batted ball in the temple coaching first base in a minor-league game in July 2007.
  • Catcher Truck Hannah (1889) leads a string of Yankee players who used the “tools of ignorance” in their careers. He played all 244 of his major league games for the 1918-1920 Yanks, contributing five home runs and 66 rbi’s to the cause. Backstop George Yeager (1874) ended a seven-year career in the bigs by driving in one run in 11 games with the 1902 Baltimore Orioles (after jumping to that club from the Giants). That is the team that would relocate to New York the following year, becoming the Highlanders, and then the Yankees.
  • Fred Mitchell (1878) pitched and caught in seven big-league seasons, but he spent his 68 games with the 1910 Highlanders crouched behind the plate; Fred drove in 18 runs and stole six bases in New York. And also a catcher, Duke Sims (1941) got into only nine games in the mid-70s in the Bronx once he was selected off waivers from the Detroit Tigers in September 1973. He hit one tater and knocked in three runs before being traded to the Texas Rangers for Larry Gura and cash in May 1974.
  • New to the list is lefthander Andrew Heaney (1991), who was acquired to shore up the Yankee staff in 2021, not to good effect. He posted a 2-2 record with no saves in 12 games (five starts), but with a 7+ era. Having spent almost all of his career with the Angels, he signed with the Dodgers for 2022. Having played with the 2023-2024 Rangers, Andrew holds a 47-54 career record with no saves, as of this writing.
  • We’ll add righthanded catcher Robinson Chirinos (1984) to the list in 2021 by virtue of the free agent contract he signed in February. Lost during Spring Training due to a fractured finger, he was re-signed in March, but never joined the big club. Almost 450 of Robinson’s 602 career big-league games came with Texas from 2013 through 2018. With Baltimore in 2022, his career numbers are approaching 100 home runs and 300 rbi’s.
  • The slimmest of threads attaches the career of righthander Lane Somsen (1990), who pitched two games to no record for the 2016 Reds, to the Yankees, as they selected him off waivers from the Cincinnati roster that May, only to have the Dodgers take him from them one month later. Somsen, who has not reappeared in the major leagues, was taken by the Reds in the 22nd round of the 2013 amateur draft.
  • Other birthdays: Eddie Joost (1916); Bill Spiers (1966); Ray Lankford (1967); Russ Ortiz (1974); Bill Bray (1983); Manny Pina (1987); Jake Petricka (1988); Jimmy Nelson (1989); Dereck Rodriguez (1992); Phoenix Sanders (1995); Dedniel Rogers (1996); Joe Ryan (1996); Chris Murphy (1998); and Royce Lewis (1999).

    • June 4 in Yankee History

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  • On June 4, 2022, Luis Severino struck out 10 Tigers and pitched around a lone single in the second inning of his 3-0, seven-inning win over Detroit. Aaron Judge, batting leadoff, started the game with a home run, and Anthony Rizzo doubled the lead with a blast of his own in the home sixth. Continue reading →

    • June 3 in Yankee History

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  • I would place this feat in third place to his incredible consecutive-games-played streak and the lofty rbi totals and hits totals he amassed: Lou Gehrig stroked four consecutive home runs in one game on June 3, 1932. The Yanks prevailed over the Athletics in a slugfest, 20-13, as Tony Lazzeri hit for the cycle as well. (That leaves the Iron Horse’s lead in career grand slams that stood for eight decades now fourth on his all-time performance numbers, by the way!) Continue reading →

    • June 2 in Yankee History

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  • June 2 is a sad day in Yankee land, as Lou Gehrig was lost to amyotropic lateral sclerosis, the condition that is more famously referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, on this day in 1941. But the Yankee organization did institute the first ever “Lou Gehrig Day” on this day in 2021, and the team responded with a 4-3 win over Tampa. Jordan Montgomery went six for the win, and Gio Urshela and Clint Frazier supplied the offense, driving in two apiece. Gio whacked a two-run homer in the first, while Clint, coming off an 11th-inning walkoff the previous day, singled for two in the fourth. Continue reading →

    • June 1 in Yankee History

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  • The first (historically and tradition-wise) of two huge June 1 Yankee days took place as Lou Gehrig pinch-hit for shortstop Paul Wanninger in 1925 in a 5-3 loss to the Senators. The next day Lou played first for Wally Pipp, making what was to become his record consecutive-games streak two games old. Continue reading →

    • A Bear Poked

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    Lakeland, Fla., February 24, 2024; Yankees 22, Tigers 10 — The 2023 Yankees barely posted a .500 record, garnered a fourth place finish, and missed the playoffs altogether. A not pretty season to be sure, but it was uglier than that. In both August and September 2023, this team suffered losses in nine different games in which they failed to score as many as three runs. Continue reading →

    Fun, After the Sun

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    Tampa, Fla., March 6, 2023; Yankees 9, Pittsburgh 2 — There are a couple of things that need to be said about this Spring Training game. First, although many (assuming there are many?) reading this cannot presently appreciate it, the pleasure we experienced tonight is one you’ve all enjoyed, though we got to do it on March 6. It was a perfect baseball night, high 70s under a largely cloudless sky, as a full moon arose over the center field wall. Your day is coming, friends, but we were privileged to an early sight. Continue reading →