Recent steroids/HGH controversy notwithstanding, Yankee fans were delighted when former Pinstriped southpaw Andy Pettitte signed a one-year deal, with a one-year player option, to return to the Bronx on December 21, 2006. And for good reason. Pettitte pitched better than his 15-9 record, and his gutsy start in Game Two of the 2007 ALDS gave the team an excellent chance to advance to the next round, until a swarm of gnats ruined the evening. Andy struggled in the second half of a 14-14, 2008 season, but after mulling a Yankee offer came back in 2009, and only won the clinching games in all three playoff series on the way to Championship No. 27, that’s all. Happily, he signed on to play in 2010, had another very good year, but missed six weeks with an injury. And the saga continues, as Andy called it quits after 2010, then unretired and pitched well before being injured in 2012, then signed again and pitched well in 2013. As it was assumed, he has now joined his “core four” teammates Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, and Derek Jeter, the last domino to fall, in retirement.
On December 21, 2022, the Yankees re-signed free agent righthander Tommy Kahnle and signed free agent lefthander Carlos Rodón. The team also designated righty Junior Fernández for assignment.
On December 21, 2023, the Yankees signed free agent outfielder Luis González to a minor league contract.
On December 21, 2018, the Angels claimed righthander Parker Bridwell off waivers from the Yankees.
On December 21, 2016, the Yankees signed free agent catcher Wilkin Castillo to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
On December 21, 2015, the Yankees signed free agent outfielder Cesar Puello to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training. Having been in the Mets system since 2008, Carlos showed some signs in spring training, but did not have a big following year in AAA.
The Red Sox made quite a coup when they signed reliever Tom Gordon to a two-year contract on December 21, 1995. But they were concerned about Tom’s health and let him walk when the contract was up. Eight seasons later, he had two great years as Mariano Rivera‘s setup man in 2004-5. Kyle Fansworth took “Flash’s” role in the Yankee pen in 2006, with several different guys lined up for 2009.
We reported three days ago that Duffy Lewis, newly returned from the war in Europe, was traded from Boston to the Yanks back in 1918. The actual trade was a seven-player deal, with some reports placing it on December 21. The Red Sox sent Dutch Leonard (the first — and less famous — of two Boston players with this name) and Ernie Shore south with Lewis, with the Yanks packaging pitchers Ray Caldwell and Slim Love and position players Frank Gilhooley and Roxy Walters in return. But the principals were Lewis and Caldwell, and in that respect Lewis’s 150 rbi’s for New York in 1919-1920 trump the 7-4 mark the Sox got from lefty Caldwell. Neither team got what they were hoping for, however, as those numbers pale in comparison with what the players had achieved earlier: Lewis, almost 700 runs driven across for Boston; and Caldwell with close to 100 wins for New York.
The Yankees sent righthander Jim Miller outright to AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on December 12, 2012. Miller, who would be around the Yankees minors much of the 2013 season, would actually pitch for the parent team down the stretch.
Neither party got what they expected when the Yankees signed second baseman Tony Womack to a two-year contract on December 21, 2004. Banished to the outfield and then bench by the emergence of young second sacker Robinson Cano, Womack was shipped to Cincinnati for two minor leaguers just short of one year into the two-year deal.
The Yankees made a couple of minor moves on December 21, 2001, hoping to shore up the end of their bench. First they signed catcher Alberto Castillo to a one-year deal to be Jorge Posada‘s backup, but Castillo’s anemic offense would lead the team to abandon that plan midseason in 2002 and bring in Chris Widger. The Yanks also inked utility guy F.P. Santangelo to a minor league contract. Experienced in both the outfield and infield, F.P. was retained until the end of Spring Training but lost out to eventual backups Jon Vander Wal and Ron Coomer.
Brooklyn’s Dixie Walker outdueled Stan “The Man” Musial for the National League batting title in 1944, .357 to .347, but when the league voted for an MVP it was defensive whiz and shortstop Marty Marion, who was tabbed on December 21, 1944.
There was a time when almost all managers in the game were player/managers, but the phenomenon has been few and far between in recent decades. Two that come to mind are Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, who only managed through the 2006 season but who handled both roles with Cleveland when he got his first job piloting a club, and Pete Rose. (Rose is no saint among ballplayers, but he certainly should be enshrined among the all-time greats with his 4,000 hits.) Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau was the last young player to serve as player/manager, a dual task he performed in Cleveland starting in 1942. But he won the American League Rookie of the Year Award on December 21, 1940, for his work as a player only in that season.
In another kind of managing experiment that has not been repeated, the Cubs decided to take to the field of play the following season without a field boss on December 21, 1960, but rather relying on what owner P. K. Wrigley referred to as a “college of coaches.”
Players Who Have Died This Day
Even though he played just 36 games for the Yanks, we look fondly back on backup catcher Elrod Hendricks, who passed away on December 21, 2005. Hendricks spent most of his 12-year career with the rival Orioles, but he was well-liked in New York once he arrived in the 1976 blockbuster along with Doyle Alexander, Jimmy Freeman, Ken Holtzman, and Grant Jackson while Rudy May, Tippy Martinez, Dave Pagan, Scott McGregor, and Rick Dempsey headed south. Of Hendricks’s 62 career homers with 230 rbi’s, four and 10 came with the Yanks. The only other Yankee player to have died on December 21 is first baseman Harry Williams (1963), who played all 86 of his major-league games with the 1913-1914 Yankees. He stroked two home runs and drove in 219 runs on 50 hits in 260 at bats.
The list of noteworthy nonYankee players who have died on December 21 includes two righthanded pitchers, a lefty, a lefty-hitting catcher, and a third baseman. Happy Townsend (1963) won just 35 games while losing 82 pitching mostly for Washington from 1901-1906; Joe Genewich (1985) posted a 73-92-12 mark pitching with the 1922-1928 Braves and the 1928-1930 Giants; and portsider Chubby Dean (1970) won 30 games, lost 46, and saved nine for the A’s and the Indians from 1937-1943. Backstop John Warner (1943) hit six long balls and drove in 303 runs while playing mostly for the Giants from 1895-1908; and third baseman Willie Kamm (1988) cleared 29 fences good for 826 rbi’s from 1923-1935 playing with the White Sox and the Indians.
Players Born This Day
The 1-1 record in 33, 2008 Yankee games with an almost 6.00 era were not the numbers the Yanks thought they’d be getting when they inked free agent righty reliever Latroy Hawkins (1972), the first of seven December 21 Yankee birthday players. A subsequent 2-0 record with one save with the Astros brought Latroy to a 59-76 record with 76 saves over 14 years in the bigs, most of it with the Twins. His name is familiar to some Yankee fans as the losing pitcher in David Wells’s 1998 Perfect Game in the Bronx.
We’ll never know how different the career of d’Angelo Jimenez (1977) could have been had he not suffered the catastrophic 2000 offseason car accident that put him in a neck brace early in his career after he had debuted in the bigs. He was recovering from his neck and back injuries when he could have been playing significant innings as a backup in the Bronx. He had managed to stroke eight hits in seven games for the 1999 club, chipping in with four rbi’s in 20 at bats in games where he predominantly played at second base. But before he could resume play in the Bronx after his recovery, he was shipped off to San Diego for righty reliever Jay Witasik. Jimenez, one of three Yankees born on December 21, was selected by the Yankees in the 1994 amateur draft. The trade that sent him away turned catastrophic for the Yanks. Meanwhile, he has hit more than 30 dingers for 200-plus rbi’s with several teams since he left, but he did not play in the bigs in 2008.
The ironic thing about the career of Elliott Maddox (1947) is that although he tore up his knee playing center field for the Yanks when they played in Shea Stadium in 1975, and sued the city of New York because of the injury he sustained there, he finished up his career by playing three seasons in that same outfield for the Mets from 1978-1980. Elliott was a good defensive center fielder, and he contributed four homers and 71 rbi’s to the Yankee cause during the 1974 through 1976 seasons. But the best asset he brought to the Bronx was when he was traded for a still quite serviceable Paul Blair from Baltimore in 1977. The Yanks got Maddox from Texas in March 1974.
Although Dave Kingman (1948) blasted 442 career homers, it was certain early on that his flawed game would not get him into the Hall of Fame. He hit four home runs for the Yanks in eight games in 1977. In a historical quirk, Dave set a record that year that will not be matched. There were four divisions in baseball that season, and Dave played for — and homered for — teams in all four (the Padres, the Angels, the Yankees, and the Cubs). Kingman was acquired from the California Angels in September 1977 and was granted free agency two months later.
The Bombers have added a December 21 birthdaying player a year recently, first with southpaw Royce Ring (1980) in 2010. Ring did not fare well in the Bronx, pitching to no record and a 15.43 era in five games, and he did not pitch in the majors in 2011. He has pitched to a 3-3 career record in five seasons for the Mets, the Padres, the Braves, and the Yanks.
Although the Yankee December 21 birthday club grew by one in 2011 after righthander Buddy Carlyle (1977) pitched in eight games to an 0-1 mark, he could have made the group back in 2003, the first time the Yanks signed him to a free-agent deal. With a decent 4.70 era with the Yanks, the veteran had notched an 11-12 career record after 2011 having spent seven seasons pitching small amounts of games for the Padres, Dodgers, Braves, and Yanks. Buddy’s record stands at 13-13 after pitching for the Mets in 2014 and 2015.
Also a 2011 sort-of Yankee addition is righthander Brian Schlitter (1985), who from January 2011 through April that year was selected off the roster of the Cubs by the Yanks, then selected by the Phillies, then back to the Yankees, until he finally was returned to the Cubs. Brian posted an 0-1 record in seven games for the 2010 Cubs, then increased that to 2-4 in 61 games in 2014.
An addition to the Yankee list in 2021 is righhthander Asher Wojciechowski (1988), a 2010 first-round pick of the Blue Jays whom the Yankees signed in February 2021; he pitched in one game (a start) in July, and was released at the end of that month. Asher arrived having pitched five games for Houston, 25 for Cincinnati, and 27 for Baltimore from 2015 through 2020 (34 overall starts) to a 9-15 record. He got no decision in his sole Yankee start.
Other birthdays: Cubs and Phillies outfielder from 1912-1930 Cy Williams (1887), who hit 251 homers and 1,005 rbi’s; Hall of Fame Negro Leagues power hitter Josh Gibson (1911), known as the “Black Babe Ruth,” who is reputed to have hit 962 home runs over 17 seasons with a .391 career batting average; Paul Casanova (1941); Joaquin Andujar (1952); Tom Henke (1957); Andy Van Slyke (1960); Roger McDowell (1960); Dustin Hermanson (1972); Freddy Sanchez (1977); Philip Humber (1982); Taylor Teagarden (1983); John Mayberry, Jr. (1983); Eddie Gamboa (1984); Brian Schlitter (1985); Ed Easley (1985); Khris Davis (1987); Danny Duffy (1988); Cody Stanley (1988); David Rollins (1989); Kendall Graveman (1990); Mike Clevinger (1990); Josh Staumont (1993); and Josiah Gray (1997).
