October 20 in Yankee History

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  • We’ll depart the usual history template today by leading off with a birthday, perhaps the biggest Yankee birthday ever, at least to this fan. Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle (1931) was born on October 20, and to our delight, found his way to the roster of the New York Yankees. He amassed 536 homers and 1,509 rbi’s in the Bronx from 1951 through 1968, sadly experiencing his superb career batting average dip below .300 to.298 in his final years, slowed by injury and age. Some of us found the admitted problems with alcohol that led to his death from liver disease, and the way he dealt with that in his final days, to be as inspirational as his marvelous playing career, if not more so. A three-time AL MVP, Mickey was proud of his plaque in Monument Park indicating that he was “a great teammate.”
  • It could have been the game that turned around the 2010 ALCS, but as it turned out, it was just one last moment of Yankee glory in the team’s 7-2 win over Texas in Yankee Stadium on October 20. Jorge Posada and Curtis Granderson‘s second-inning rbi’s backed by Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano homers the next frame carried CC Sabathia over C.J. Wilson, but it turned out to be the last win of the Yankee postseason.
  • After three scoreless innings in Anaheim the night of October 20, 2009, the Yanks restored order to the ALCS with a 10-1 hurting on the Angels to go ahead 3-1 in games. Alex Rodriguez‘s leadoff fourth-inning single off Scott Kazmir started a three-run rally and A-Rod hit the second pitch from reliever Jason Bulger for a two-run homer in the fifth; the rout was on. CC Sabathia allowed one run and five hits through eight, and Chad Gaudin got to close it out. More poignantly than we knew at the time, the Yanks brought about this crushing victory on emcee Bob Sheppard‘s 99th birthday.
  • If there was any doubt who was the best closer in baseball in 1998, the debate was settled for many on October 20 of that year, with significant help from Yankee third baseman Scott Brosius. Scott got his second home run of the game and three of his four rbi’s as he homered off San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman in the top of the eighth to lead the Yankees to a 5-3 win and three to nothing lead in games in the ’98 World Series. Winner by a Brosius knockout: Mariano Rivera.
  • The Mariners had a rare great day against the Yanks in the ALCS on October 20, 2001. Jamie Moyer got the 14-3 win; John Olerud, Jay Buhner, and Brett Boone homered; and Boone tied an ALCS record with five rbi’s.
  • A hope for accuracy forces me to report the disastrous 2004 Game Seven ALCS loss to the Red Sox near the lead of this column, but it will never migrate to the opening graph. Kevin Brown put the Yanks in an immediate 2-0 hole, and was replaced by young Javier Vazquez with the bases loaded and one down in the top of the second. Johnny Damon‘s ensuing first-pitch grand slam all but ended the night. Yankee fans enjoyed a brief “Who’s Your Daddy?” moment against Pedro Martinez during a two-run seventh, but when Doug Mientkiewicz grasped Ruben Sierra‘s two-out, 4-3 grounder in the bottom of the ninth, the Red Sox had completed their comeback from three to none down in games. Derek Lowe got the 10-3 win on October 20, 2004.
  • The Yanks took the opener of the World Series against the Dodgers, 5-3, on October 20, 1981. Bob Watson‘s first-inning, three-run homer was the big blow, Ron Guidry pitched well for seven innings for the win, and Goose Gossage came on for the save.
  • The Braves would learn the same painful lesson as the Yanks eventually did in that ’81 Series in 1996, but they were on the top of the world after blasting the home-standing Bombers, 12-1, in the opener of the Classic in Yankee Stadium on October 20. A very young Andruw Jones homered twice and John Smoltz got the win.
  • “You win some, you lose some, and some are rained out,” the old saying goes. Unfortunately, the rainout the Yankees experienced with the Reds on October 20, 1976, was their most successful day of that World Series, delaying as it did Game Four of the sweep at the hands of Cincinnati.
  • Coming off their only World Series loss to the cross-borough Dodgers, many of the Yanks took part in a 16-game exhibition tour of Japan that began on October 20, 1955.
  • Finalizing what had transpired in an ALCS loss the day before, the Yankees placed first baseman Mark Teixeira on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right hamstring on October 20, 2010.
  • The cork-centered ball finally replaced the rubber-centered one for the seventh World Series on October 20, 1910.
  • October 20 was another bizarre day in 1964. Several days before, the Yanks had lost to the Cards. Then they fired Yogi Berra as manager, and Cardinals field boss Johnny Keane shocked the post-game press conference by resigning from his job, just when he had achieved his greatest success. Three days later, on October 20, 1964, Keane signed to manage the Yanks. The story would get uglier as his teams failed to produce in the next two years.
  • Yankee Coach Ralph Houk was elevated to the job of manager, replacing the “retired” Casey Stengel, on October 20, 1960.
  • Joe DiMaggio joined a team of All Stars led by Lefty O’Doul on a tour of Japan on this day in 1951. They would win 13 of 15 games.
  • When Art Fletcher was replaced as manager of the Phillies by John “Stuffy” McInnis on October 20, 1926, Fletcher signed on with the Yankees as a coach.
  • The New York teams played a City Series in the early days of the 20th Century. On October 20, 1910, the Giants bested the Highlanders 6-3, with Christy Mathewson getting the win over Jack Warhop.
  • On October 20, 2019, the Yankees activated righthanders Chance Adams and Albert Abreu; lefthanders Stephen Tarpley and Nestor Cortes Jr.; infielders Thairo Estrada and Tyler Wade; first basemen Luke Voit and Mike Ford; catcher Kyle Higashioka; and outfielder Mike Tauchman. Also, outfielder Clint Frazier; righthander Michael King; and lefthander Jordan Montgomery had their roster status changed by the club.
  • One of the wildest games in World Series history took place on this day in 1993, as the Blue Jays beat the Phillies 15-14.
  • The Kansas City Monarchs defeated the Hilldales in the final game of the first ever Negro Leagues World Series on October 20, 1924. Jose Mendez, manager of the Monarchs, pitched for the winners, as he threw a three-hit, 5-0 shutout.
  • At least three league MVP Awards were bestowed on October 20 in the 1930s. St. Louis Cardinal Frankie Frisch rode a league-leading 28 steals and a .313 batting average to the 1931 NL title; Hank Greenberg took 1935 AL honors over Wes Ferrell; and Carl Hubbel beat Dizzy Dean in a close race in the NL in 1936.
  • In our only October 20 “high”light affecting a one-time Yankee, future Bomber manager and first baseman Frank Chance earned the distinction of being the first player ever tossed from a World Series game when Umpire Tom Connolly ran him from a 12-5 Cubs loss to the A’s for arguing a home run call on this day in 1910.

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    Players Who Have Died This Day

  • Switch-hitting righthander Allen Russell (1972), one of two Yankee players who have died on October 20, appeared in 114 games (58 starts) from 1915-1919. The 26-36-13 record grew to 71-76-42 following subsequent three-year stops with the Red Sox and the Senators. Third baseman Paddy Greene (1934) had four hits in 13 at bats playing in four games for the 1903 Highlanders, with no home runs or rbi’s. One-year stints with the Phillies (1902) and the Tigers (part of 1903) garnered him one rbi.
  • Hall of Fame New York Giants catcher William “Buck” Ewing passed away on October 20, 1906. He hit 71 long balls and drove in 883 runs playing eight years in New York, three each with the Trojans and the Reds, and two each with the Gothams and the Indians from 1880-1897. The list of additional noteworthy nonYankee players who have died on October 20 includes three righthanded pitchers and two outfielders. Dick Rudolph (1949) won 121, lost 108, and saved eight games from 1910 through 1927 pitching mostly with the Braves, after two years with the Giants; and John Whitehead (1964) posted a 49-54-4 mark pitching four years each from 1935-1942 with the White Sox and the Browns. Lefty-hitting outfielder Turner Barber (1968) cleared only two fences from 1915-1923, and knocked in 185 runs, doing most of his damage with the Cubs; while lefty-hitting, righty-throwing outfielder Dave May (2012) hit most of his 212 home runs and drove in the greater part of his 422 rbi’s from 1967-1978 with Milwaukee and Baltimore. Righthander Hal Dues (2021) pitched in 37 games, 17 of them starts, with the 1977-1980 Montreal Expos, his only team, to a 6-8 record with one save.

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    Players Born This Day

  • There is a tribute to Mickey Mantle (1931), by far the foremost of the five Yankee players who celebrate October 20 as their birthday, at the top of this column. And those of us celebrating and remembering the Commerce Comet on this day since 2006 have to come to grips with this: October 20, 2006 would have been birthday number 75. Time keeps passing by.
  • Of the other birthdaying Yankee players, the one who played most recently is shortstop Keith Smith (1961), whose only major league experience occurred in four at bats and six games for the 1984 and 1985 Bombers once they selected him in the 15th round of the 1979 amateur draft.
  • In a misdirected attempt to retool the post-Reggie Jackson Yanks as a speed team, the Bombers signed the switch-hitting Dave Collins (1952) for the 1982 season. The following December they traded him with Fred McGriff (yes, a prospect that got away), Mike Morgan, and cash to the Toronto Blue Jays for Dale Murray and Tom Dodd. The usual numbers one looks at were poor in Collins’s case: three homers and 25 rbi’s, but the crushing disappointment was the meager stolen-base total of 13.
  • Archie Campbell (1903) debuted in the Bronx, going 0-1 with two saves for the 1928 club before closing his big-league time out with one season each in Washington and Cincinnati. And finally, lefty-hitting outfielder Tom Connelly (1897) got one hit and one walk in five at bats in five games for the 1920-1921 Yanks.
  • We had an addition to the Yankee family with righty reliever Jose Veras (1980), who the Yanks signed to a free agent contract before the 2006 season, and who earned one save in 12 games in 2006 and two more in nine games in 2007. Veras won five and lost three in the 2008 Yankee pen. Despite posting a 3-1 record in early 2009, he pitched poorly to a very high era, was released, and went 1-2 with the Indians the rest of the way. Jose pitched for the Marlins in 2010, the Pirates in 2011, and the Brewers in 2012. He had a big 2013, saving all but two of his 21 saves with Houston, before a fortuitous trade to AL Central leader Detroit late in the season.
  • Lefty DH/first baseman Ronald Guzman (1994) signed with the Yanks as a free agent in March 2022, and appeared in three games, garnering no hits or rbi’s. A free agent signer with Texas in 2011, Ronald hit 31 home runs with 104 rbi’s in 243 games with the Rangers from 2018 through 2021. He has not reappeared in the majors since the Yanks released him following the ’22 season.
  • Other birthdays lead off with two other members of the Hall of Fame. Player in the Negro Leagues Judy Johnson (1900) is the first; and Giants righty Juan Marichal (1937), who went 243-142 from 1960 through 1975, is the other. A few more: Keith Hernandez (1953); Rudy Seanez (1968); Juan Gonzalez (1969); Choo Freeman (1979); Michael Mariot (1988); Gus Schlosser (1988); Ty Blach (1990); Tyler Goeddel (1992); Trevor Kelley (1993); Chris Shaw (1993); and José Soriano ((1998).