February 18 in Yankee History

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  • On February 18, 1998, the Yanks avoided arbitration with Bernie Williams by signing him to an $8.5 million contract, his last one-year deal. Ten months later they would barely avoid losing him to the Red Sox with an $87.5 million, seven-year deal. The one news item yet to occur in Bernie’s playing career was the day he would make his de facto retirement official.
  • All New York was aghast a year later on February 18, 1999, when the Yanks shipped David Wells, Graeme Lloyd, and Homer Bush to Toronto for Roger Clemens. Few could have guessed that Clemens and Wells would be teammates two years later. In retrospect, the Yanks got the same Wells both times, as he fashioned two, two-year, 34-14 records. Clemens initially disappointed, never matching the 41-13 mark he had fashioned in Toronto (with two Cy Youngs), but he was largely responsible for the crucial Subway Series win vs. the Mets in 2000, and likely would have been the World Series MVP in 2001, had the Yanks held on to beat Arizona. A return to the Bronx in 2007 for Clemens was a mixed bag, but there is very little positive in the current steroids brouhaha.
  • On February 18, 2018, the Yankees signed free agent righthander Ismael Gomez to a minor league contract.
  • Righthander Chase Whitley, who had been claimed off the Yankee roster by Tampa three months earlier, had his status changed by the Rays on February 18, 2016. Recovering from May 2015 Tommy John surgery, Whitley would get into five games for Tampa in the upcoming season, one of them a start.
  • Ex-Yankee outfielder and Hall of Famer Dave Winfield was one of four players inducted into Ted Williams‘s Hitter Hall of Fame in Florida on February 18, 2001. Paul Molitor, Jim Rice, and Robin Yount were the other three.
  • On February 18, 2005, stars such as Yogi Berra and Bill White met with Elston Howard‘s widow Arlene Howard in White Plains, New York to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ellie having become the first black player to be signed by the Yankees. The Yanks trained in the still-segregated St. Petersburg, Fla., when Howard joined the team, and Yogi broke down in tears describing how tough those early days were for his teammate and fellow catcher.
  • On February 18, 1999, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Jackie Robinson stamp as part of their “Celebrate the Century” promotion. Robinson, selected to represent the 1940’s, was the second player chosen, as Babe Ruth, representing the 1920’s, had been designated the May before.
  • On February 18, 1976, in an exhibition, softball pitcher Eddie Feigner (of the King and His Court) fanned six big leaguers in a row, including future Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Brooks Robinson, Roberto Clemente, and Harmon Killebrew.

Players Who Have Died This Day

  • Two one-time Yankee players have died on February 18, starting with lefty-hitting outfielder Tom Connelly (1941), whose play with the 1920-1921 Yankees, his only major-league service, netted one hit in six at bats during five games. Righthander Butch Wensloff (2001) debuted in mlb with the 1943 and 1947 Yanks, posting a 16-12-1 record in 48 games, 32 of them starts. He lost his only other outing, one game with the 1948 Indians.
  • Chicago Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray succumbed on February 18, 1998, dying four days after collapsing at a Valentine’s Day supper. One hopes somebody in whatever afterlife there may be is “taking [Harry] out to a Ballgame.” Also lost this day, Hall of Fame Braves third sacker Eddie Matthews (2001) hit 512 home runs good for 1,453 rbi’s from 1952-1968. Senator and Tiger middle infielder Marty McManus (1966) hit 120 long balls with 996 rbi’s from 1920-1934; and Washington infielder Gene Montreville (1935) hit 17 homers and delivered 497 runs from 1894-1904. Two righthanders follow on the list of noteworthy nonYankee players who have died on February 18. Button Briggs (1911) won 44, lost 47, and saved four games from 1896-1904 with the Colts, the Orphans, and the Cubs; and lefty-hitting hurler Luke Hamlin (1978) posted most of his 73-76-9 record from 1933-1944 with the Dodgers. And newer to the list, third baseman Jim Davenport (2016), who played for the Giants only, from 1958 through 1970, and only once the team had relocated to San Francisco, hit 77 home runs and drove in 456 runs in his career. And lefty Juan Pizarro (2021) posted a 131-105 with 28 saves in 488 games, 245 of them starts. He threw for the 1957-1960 Milwaukee Braves, the 1961-1966 White Sox, the 1967-1968 and 1974 Pirates, the 1970-1977 Cubs, and the 1968-1969 Red Sox, with two other stops. Over that long career, Juan hit eight home runs with 66 rbi’s.

Players Born This Day

  • It’s impossible to find any real pattern when looking at Yankee player birthdays. We can go for days with no players, or one or two, and then have six or seven birthdays that fell on three of the next five dates. But the list of those born on February 18 is truly different. If we count Dad Hale (1880) from the 1902 Baltimore Orioles (tangentially connected because the franchise folded up their tent after that season and relocated as the Highlanders in New York in 1903), there are six Yankee players born this day from 1887 through 1927. Hale ended up his career, which consisted of stints in Boston and in Baltimore in 1902, with the O’s, pitching in three games (two starts) to an 0-1 record.
  • One year older than Hale was Louis Leroy (1879), who posted a 3-1 mark with one save in 14 games (five starts) with the 1905-1906 Highlanders, before finishing his time in the bigs with the 1910 Boston Red Sox.
  • Third sacker Curt Coleman‘s (1887) only big-league experience was with the 1912 Highlander team. He scratched out 37 at bats during 12 games, managed nine hits, scored eight runs, and knocked in four.
  • Despite a 48-55 mark and eight saves with the Yanks from 1915-1920, lefthander George Mogridge‘s (1889) biggest claim to fame is that he tossed the first ever regular-season no-hitter for the Bombers, against the Red Sox no less, in 1917. He pitched with the Cubs from 1911-1912, and with the Senators (five years) once the Yankees traded him there with Duffy Lewis for Braggo Roth on January 20, 1921. Mogridge finished up with stints with the Browns and the Braves on either end of a short non-playing (injured?) stop in the Bronx. The Yanks sent Wally Schang to St. Louis for Mogridge in February 1926, and the Braves claimed him on waivers the following June.
  • Rounding out the “gang of six” born 65-plus years ago are two Yankee stalwarts, second baseman Joe Gordon (1915) and reliever Luis Arroyo (1927). Gordon, who was recently named to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee, starred at second base, but the blow of losing him in a trade to Cleveland after the 1946 season was cushioned by the fact that he brought the superb Allie Reynolds to the Bronx in exchange. Joe socked 153 round-trippers, drove in 517 runs, and stole 68 bases with the Bombers from 1938-1946.
  • Late-blooming lefty Arroyo had experienced decidedly mixed success with St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati from 1955 until he arrived in the Bronx in 1960, but that’s when he turned it around, dominating the late innings for four years to the tune of a 22-10 win-loss record and 43 saves. His best season by far was 1961, when he posted a fabulous 15-5 with 29 saves.
  • But as overwhelming as the six players with one team born within 50 years is, more puzzling still is that the Yanks have had only one guy play for them born on February 18 since, or at least they did until 2008. Lefty power hitting first baseman John Mayberry (1949) put up some big numbers in Houston, and particularly with the Royals and the Blue Jays, but once John arrived in the Bronx during the 1982 season he was nearing the end of the line. The Yanks got him in May from Toronto for Dave Revering, Tom Dodd, and minor leaguer Jeff Reynolds. Mayberry hung up his spikes after that ’82 season, but not until he contributed eight home runs and 27 rbi’s to the Yankee cause in 69 games.
  • The 2008 season-ending shoulder surgery to Jorge Posada was the impetus behind the arrival of the newest Yankee February 18 birthdayer, catcher Chad Moeller (1975), who filled in admirably in spelling backup Jose Molina, a good defensive player with a very good arm but a subpar offensive game, who was forced into starting lots of games by Posada’s injury. Moeller hit one long ball and drove in 10 runs in 41 games, but he scored better as a backstop backup in the Bronx than many have.
  • Opening day in 2015 will, it seems certain, usher in yet another member of the Yankee February 18 birthday club, as young Didi Gregorius (1990), purchased via trade in the offseason, is the first player to try to fill the retired Derek Jeter‘s shoes at shortstop. A free agent signing by the Reds, Didi played just eight games in Cinncy in 2012, but played 183 at Arizona from 2013-14, just a handful at second and third base. A lefty hitter (but righty thrower) who struggles against lefties, Gregorius arrived with 13 homers and 57 rbi’s and a .243 batting average, carrying a rep as a solid glove at short, but he started his first season in pinstripes struggling in all phases of the game. But Didi closed impressively, with stellar “D,” and he kicked in nine homers and 56 rbi’s at the bottom of the order. Didi really grew into his role afterward, hitting 20 home runs, and driving in 70 runs, then 25 and 87, in 2016-2017. A lefty who hits lefties very well, Didi continued with 27 homers and 86 rbi’s in ’18, but he tore his rotator cuff in his throwing arm in the playoffs. He did return midseason of 2019, but underperformed, as is often the case in this recovery, but with Gleyber Torres on the team, it was decided to let Didi walk, which he has done, to Philadelphia. Didi has cleared 24 fences good for 113 rbi’s in Philly into the 2022 season, but he was then released that August.
  • Honorable mention goes to catcher Cal Neeman (1929), drafted by the Yankees in 1949, but who never played here before the Cubs took him in the 1956 rule-V draft. After four years with the Cubs, and the next three with the Phils, the Pirates, the Indians, and the Senators, Cal wrapped it up with 30 taters, 97 rbi’s and one stolen base.
  • Other birthdays: Manny Mota (1938); Bob Miller (1939); Dal Maxvill (1939); Jerry Morales (1949); Bruce Kison (1950); Marc Hill (1952); Rafael Ramirez (1958); Kevin Tapani (1964); John Valentin (1967); Matt Turner (1967); Kyle Abbott (1968); Tyler Green (1970); Shawn Estes (1973); Jamey Carroll (1974); Alexis Rios (1981); Brian Bogusevic (1984); Joseph Colon (1990); Jake Irvin (1997); Ryan Mountcastle (1997); Nick Maton (1997); Isaac Paredes (1999); Ryan Vilade (1999); and Jordan Westburg (1999).