The New York Yankees have had more catching greats than any other team. From Bill Dickey to Jorge Posada, the catching position has provided excellent offense and in most instances, great defenses.
Selecting the five greatest Yankees catchers is easy, but who is No. 6? That selection can be controversial.
A few seasons ago, the Boston Red Sox had the most dangerous one-two batting punch in the majors with David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. With the addition of Adrian Gonzalez and the resurgence of the 35-year-old Ortiz, the Red Sox, once again, have the most potent one-two batting combination of any team.
Ortiz is batting .320 with 15 home runs and 36 RBIs. Gonzalez is doing even better, hitting .338 with 12 home runs and 57 RBIs.
The Red Sox have just completed their second consecutive sweep of New York’s other team, the New York Yankees, at that team’s new home. Three-game Boston sweeps didn’t happen too often in the real Yankee Stadium.
Adrian Gonzalez tripled home one run and Ortiz blasted a two-run home run to help the Red Sox to a 6-4 win in the first game of the series. After hitting the mammoth blast, Ortiz flipped his bat, which angered Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
Perhaps Mr.. Girardi prefers that a hitter only flips his bat after striking out, as the great Alex Rodriguez did in the seventh inning of a game against the Toronto Blue Jays on July 6, 2009.
The next night, the Yankees held Ortiz and Gonzalez to one hit in eight at-bats, but the one hit was another Ortiz two-run home run, this one in the first inning, coming off former nemesis A.J. Burnett. It helped Boston to a three-run first inning.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman demonstrated his baseball acumen when he signed Burnett for five years at $16.5 million a year. The fact that Allan James almost always beat the Red Sox was a major factor in the signing.
Much to Cashman’s chagrin, the former farmhand of New York’s most beloved team, the New York Mets, has not won in his last nine starts against the Red Sox, the last eight with the Yankees.
Burnett is 0-4 with an obscene 8.01 ERA over that span.
Brian Hock of Major League Baseball reported that, after the game, Joe Girardi provided the media with his usual sagacious comments.
“It’s not what you want,” Girardi said. “The book is not closed on A.J. here and what’s ahead of us, that’s for sure. He struggled tonight, but that book is not closed—that book is wide open—and he’s going to have another opportunity.”
The final game of the series was delayed for about three hours by rain, but the Yankees management, always putting the fans’ interests first, realized that the reason fans paid to get into the ball park was to see a game, even if it didn’t start until about 11 PM.
C.C. Sabathia started against Yankees nemesis Josh Beckett. The Yankees hadn’t scored a run off Beckett in either of his first two starts against them, but this time, they jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. They wouldn’t score again until the ninth inning, when it was much too late.
Sabathia cracked in the seventh inning. Who got it started? Why, David Ortiz of course.
Ortiz singled to right field. Jed Lowrie tripled him home with the first Boston run. After Carl Crawford grounded out, former Met Mike Cameron doubled home Lowrie with the tying run, but the Sox were far from finished.
Jason Varitek, an old catcher who still gets a hit once in a while, singled Cameron to third. Jacoby Ellsbury, who is the kind of player that Brett Gardner would like to be, singled home the lead run.
With two outs, Gonzalez singled home Varitek, and before the inning ended, Boston had scored seven runs.
Ortiz had two hits in four at bats, while Gonzalez had two hits in five at bats.
For the three games, Mark Teixeira had one hit in eight at bats and the great A-Rod had a hit in 12 at-bats.
The Red Sox have the top one-two punch in baseball despite the protestations of the St Louis Cardinals fans, who prefer Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday. By the end of the season, they may be proven correct, but Yankees fans should remain silent.
A-Rod and Teixeira won’t top either.
References:
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
In 1999, the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) rated the 100 greatest players of all time. Mickey Mantle finished 12th. Joe DiMaggio finished sixth.
SABR is a respected organization that is on the cutting edge of innovation with respect to modern statistics, but their rankings can be questioned. Many fans, especially today’s New York Yankees fans, rate Mantle ahead of DiMaggio.
DiMaggio’s peak seasons occurred consecutively from his rookie season in 1936 through 1941, when he hit in 56 consecutive games. DiMaggio had a good year in 1942, but it was well below the seasons that had preceded it.
After returning from helping to defend freedom during WWII, which cost him three seasons, DiMaggio never quite regained his earlier form.
From 1936-41, DiMaggio batted .345, had a .408 on base average, slugged .626 and averaged 33 home runs. When one projects his home run average to a 162 game season, home runs increase to 39.
Mickey Mantle didn’t come into his own until 1955. Following an erratic, inconsistent rookie season in 1951, Mantle was a fine player the next three seasons and then matured.
From 1955-58, Mantle hit .331 with a .462 on base average and a .643 slugging average. He averaged 41 home runs, which increase to 46 when adjusted for a 162 game season.
The next two years were not Mantle’s best, but he had excellent seasons in 1961 and 1962, hitting .319 with a .465 on base average and a .652 slugging average. He averaged 42 home runs, which increase to 50 when adjusted for 162 games.
Based on peak seasons, it is a fool’s task to choose one over the other. Based on the rest of each player’s career, DiMaggio gets a statistical edge, primarily because his only subpar season was 1951, when hit batted .263 with a mere 12 home runs.
Mantle’s rookie year (.267/.349/.443) and three of his final four seasons were well below the norms set during his career. He batted .255 in 1965, .245 in 1967 and managed to hit only .237 in his final season.
Many fans and those in the media point out that despite his low averages, Mantle had solid on base averages during those three seasons (.379, .391 and .385), but his slugging averages (.452, .434 and .398) were unlike Mickey Mantle.
Those who saw DiMaggio play, and that number is decreasing with the passage of time, point out that DiMaggio was a far superior defensive player compared to Mantle, but one must wonder how much of that is based on legend or exaggeration.
Unlike Mantle, who played the outfield on speed and instinct, DiMaggio was exacting in his study of the hitting patterns of opposing players, and the effects of wind and ballpark peculiarities on the flight patterns of baseballs
Many writers, teammates and opponents have claimed that DiMaggio was such a natural outfielder that he never had to dive for a ball to make a catch.
In 1947, Joe was victimized in the World Series when Brooklyn’s Al Gionfriddo robbed him of a potential game-tying home run by making one of the great catches in World Series history. Years later, DiMaggio spoke to a writer about the catch.
“Don’t put this in the papers, but if he’d been playing me right, he’d have made it look easy.”
Teammate Bobby Brown claimed that DiMaggio would have made the catch but without diving for it. That makes for good copy, but it is mere hyperbole.
DiMaggio was rarely fooled by a fly ball. He seemed to glide across the huge center field expanse of Yankee Stadium with little effort. He made the difficult seem easy, but he proved he was human during the 1936 All-Star Game.
In the second inning, Joe misplayed Gabby Hartnett’s line drive into a triple, allowing Frank Demaree to score the game’s first run. DiMaggio tried to make a shoestring catch, but the ball went between his legs and rolled to the wall.
DiMaggio was not a showboat. He made only the moves necessary to make the play.
He would reach the ball just as it fell into his glove, which seemed to make the catch inevitable. Baseball scribe Wilfrid Sheed wrote “In dreams I can still see him gliding after fly balls as if he were skimming the surface of the moon.”
Mantle was originally a shortstop who was defensively challenged. He was switched to the outfield, where he became an above average defensive player.
Mantle had a great throwing arm, at least as good as DiMaggio’s, until Red Schoendienst fell on his right shoulder on a pick off play in the 1957 World Series.
Mantle was faster than DiMaggio, but the latter was probably a better baserunner. Mantle was a much greater stolen base threat but Joe McCarthy, who was DiMaggio’s manager for many years, made an interesting comment.
“He was the best baserunner I ever saw,” McCarthy said. “He could have stolen 50, 60 bases a year if I let him. He wasn’t the fastest man alive. He just knew how to run bases better than anybody.”
No matter how one interprets the statistics and evaluates the opinions of those who saw both men play, Joe DiMaggio was just a little bit better than Mickey Mantle.
References:
100 Greatest Players at Baseball-Almanac
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
The hated enemy, the Boston Red Sox, took over first place in the American League East division last night, pushing the New York Yankees into the unfamiliar position of being a second-place team.
Boston and New York are tied in the lost column. It’s never too early to be aware of the lost column. The Yankees can make up the two wins by which they trail the Red Sox. Losses can never be made up.
Paradoxically, the Yankees’ problem, as ridiculous as it sounds, is their offense.
They lead the league in runs scored with 253 and average 5.16 runs a game, which is excellent, but the concern is how and when they score.
About 50 percent of the Yankees’ runs are result of the home run. The problem is that they score only about 50 percent of their runs without hitting a home run.
The first five batters in the Yankees lineup are solid, but Derek Jeter (.254/.308/.318) and Robinson Cano (.273/.312/.481) have been less productive than in the past.
The number six through number nine hitters’ decreased production from past years has been less noticeable thanks to the fact that top of the order hitters have covered for them.
Curtis Granderson is having an outstanding season and has 16 home runs with a .620 slugging average. Mark Teixeira has hit 14 home runs. Alex Rodriguez is doing well as well, hitting .288 with nine home runs and a .500 slugging average.
Russell Martin, Jorge Posada, Nick Swisher and Brett Gardner have tailed off. If the top five don’t produce, the Yankees often are in trouble, especially when they fail to hit the long ball.
Joe Girardi recently kept Swisher out of the lineup to give him time to work with batting coach Kevin Long.
Last night against the Seattle Mariners, Swisher walked and singled to raise his batting average to an awful .206, but with the Yankees trailing by a run, Swisher took a called third strike leading off the ninth inning.
Swisher led off the ninth inning because in the eighth inning, with Swisher at bat, Eduardo Nunez stole second to put the potential tying run in scoring position with two outs.
That is the kind of baseball that wins games, but then Nunez was picked off second, which in inexcusable.
Nunez expressed remorse after the game.
“I feel bad. It’s a big play in the inning,” Nunez told MLB.com’s Brian Holch. “The tying run is me. To get picked off, I feel so bad. It happens.”
Overall, the Yankees have the most prodigious offense in the major leagues, but upon close examination, the Yankees have scored nine or more runs in a game seven times, which has accounted for 80 of their 253 runs.
The problem is that they have often have trouble scoring in low scoring games when one or two runs can turn the game around.
In the 4-3 loss last night, Yankees pitchers held the Mariners hitless in chances with runners in scoring position, but the Mariners scored all of their runs on ground ball outs.
The Yankees will make the playoffs, but in October, when they don’t face the opposition’s fourth and fifth starters, they must score playing “small ball” as well as getting some home runs, but hitting home runs in the playoffs is usually difficult.
Winning 15-3 and 12-1 is great, but it is winning 3-2 and 2-1 that produces world champions.
Ask the 1960 Yankees.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
New York’s most beloved team, the gritty, gutsy New York Mets found themselves in last place on Aug. 30, 1973. With about one month left to play, right-thinking fans weren’t paying much attention to them, which was a gargantuan mistake.
The Mets have earned a reputation of often doing the opposite of what the “experts” predict (which gives the 2011 edition more hope than most believe they deserve). No person in their right mind thought the 1969 Mets, who had finished ninth in a 10 team league the year before, would win the World Series. They did.
Near the end of August during that fateful 1973 season, the Mets caught fire. They won 24 of 35 games and when they beat the defending National League Eastern Division champion Pittsburgh Pirates on Sept. 21, New York’s most beloved team took over first place.
They had gained 12 games in the standings in 10 weeks.
Before a crowd of 51,381 screaming fans, the Mets destroyed Steve Blass and the Pirates 10-2, behind the greatest pitcher to ever pitch in New York, Tom Seaver (Sandy Koufax didn’t become the greatest pitcher of all time until he became a Los Angeles Dodger).
The Mets, usually an offensively challenged team, rocked six Bucco hurlers for 13 hits to go along with their 10 runs. Seaver was never challenged as he allowed only five hits while striking out eight.
When the Mets scored their final three runs in the eighth inning, two of them on a Rusty Staub home run, the fans at Shea Stadium went crazy. Some left their seats, jammed the aisles and started to dance. Others jumped onto the roof of the dugout and shouted for all the world to know, “We’re number one.”
No team in the division was able to take charge. After the Mets pivotal win, only two-and-one-half games separated the Mets from the fifth place Chicago Cubs. The Mets had only eight games remaining.
Jerry Koosman, who was instrumental in bringing New York the World Championship in 1969, had seen it before.
“But it’s as though this is the first time all over again. The New York fans are hungry and they get your adrenaline flowing.”
Manager Yogi Berra, who New York’s other team had summarily dismissed in 1964 and whose days with the Mets were believed to numbered when the injury-decimated team was losing, never lost his perspective.
“Even Chicago is only two-and-one-half games out. We’ve been hot since the 17th of August, but I have to say it’s still wide open.”
The Mets went on to sweep a two game series from the St. Louis Cardinals and then split two games with the Montreal Expos before going to finish the season in Chicago.
The Mets led the Pirates by one-half game, which was in the win column.
The Pirates could do no worse than tie for the division title if they won their last five games. Of course, they didn’t.
On Thursday, Sept. 27, the Philadelphia Phillies edged the Pirates 3-2 to give the idle Mets a full game lead. That was almost all the Mets needed.
On Friday, the Expos beat the Pirates while the Mets and Cubs were rained out. The Expos beat the Pirates again on Saturday and the Mets-Cubs were again rained out.
At the end of play of Saturday, the Mets led the Cardinals, who were now in second place, by one-and-one-half games.
The Mets and Cubs played a doubleheader on Sunday, which was the last day of the season. The first game defines the Mets franchise.
Left-hander Jon Matlack, who once wondered why fans would prefer to watch him pitch in the summer instead of going to the beach, went the distance, allowing but one run. The Mets never scored.
Jerry Koosman started the must-win second game, and he won.
The Mets bats woke up as they scored three in the first and pounded Ferguson Jenkins for six runs in six and one-third innings on the way to an easy 9-2 win. Koosman went the distance.
The second place Cardinals finished at 81-81. The Mets were 81-79. If the Mets lost their final two games, they would be tied with the Cardinals.
The Mets and Cubs would play a doubleheader on the Monday after the season ended. If the Mets won the first game, the second game wouldn’t have to be played.
Tom Seaver started the first game against Burt Hooton. The Mets scored five runs off Hooton, who worked only four innings, and won 6-4.
From the Miracle Mets of 1969 to the gutsy Mets of 1973 to the 1999 wild card Mets who almost beat the Atlanta Braves in the second round of the playoffs after trailing in games, three to none, the Mets have been an unpredictable, peculiar franchise.
They are surprising the “experts” so far in 2011. The way the National League is balanced (read that weak, but not as weak as the American League), nothing the Mets do could be a surprise.
References:
By, J. D. (1973, Sep. 22). Mets attain .500 mark and first place in east as Seaver defeats pirates, 10-2, before 51,381: Dancing on the dugout Mets take first place by toppling Pirates, 10-2. New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. 21-21. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/119720655?accountid=46260
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
“I hate what the game’s become. The greed, the nastiness. You can be married to baseball, give your heart to it, but when it starts taking over your soul, it’s time to say ‘whoa.'”
New York Yankees television broadcaster Tony Kubek called games from 1990-94. The former shortstop spent 30 years as a commentator with NBC, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Yankees.
In 2008, Kubek was honored by the Hall of Fame when he was awarded the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasters.
Bob Costas, who has worked a few baseball games in his career, held Kubek in high regard.
“He thought of himself as a baseball man with a microphone, and while he developed a certain amount of broadcasting craftsmanship, he was largely disdainful of showmanship.”
When he worked for the Blue Jays, an article that appeared in the Toronto Star captured the essence of Kubek the broadcaster.
“He educated a whole generation of Canadian baseball fans without being condescending or simplistic.”
Just like current Yankees’ radio broadcaster John (Harold Moskowitz) Sterling.
Kubek, as the late Howard Cosell claimed to do but rarely followed through, told it like it is.
During the 1972 playoffs between Billy Martin’s Detroit Tigers and the Oakland A’s, there was an ugly incident in which Tigers pitcher Lerrin LaGrow knocked down Bert Campaneris by throwing at his legs, which were Campaneris’ bread and butter.
The A’s shortstop threw his bat at the pitcher.
Kubek didn’t mince words. He told viewers that Campaneris was justified in throwing the bat because any pitch aimed at a hitter’s legs could end his career.
Of course, Kubek had to have been influenced by the many times pitchers threw at Mickey Mantle’s legs.
Kubek’s position was not met with favor. Chrysler, a sponsor of the playoffs, called commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who in turn complained to NBC, but nothing came of the matter.
Kuhn was not in Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium on Apr. 8, 1974 when baseball’s all-time home run leader, Hank Aaron, broke Babe Ruth’s career mark of 714 home runs. Kubek criticized Kuhn, stating the commissioner should have attended all the games in which Aaron played after he had tied the Babe.
The Yankees were not exactly a powerhouse during the early 1990s. New York’s most beloved team, the New York Mets, ruled New York while the Yankees were experiencing one of the longest winning droughts in the team’s history.
George Steinbrenner had taken over the team in 1973. The Yankees were World Champions in 1977 and 1978, but they didn’t win again until Mr. Steinbrenner was suspended from baseball for life.
Upon his return (you read that right), the Yankees owner remained in the background while Gene Michael, Bob Watson and Buck Showalter helped to build the championship teams Joe Torre was fortunate enough to manage.
Kubek wasn’t afraid to criticize Mr. Steinbrenner. He didn’t mince words.
“George’s legacy is not the World Series winners of ’77 and ’78 or having the best record of any team in the ’80s. His legacy is these past five seasons. Teams with worse and worse records culminating in last year’s last-place finish.”
“George talked a lot about tradition, but it was all phony, it was just him trying to be part of the tradition. You can’t manufacture tradition in a plastic way. You have to have a certain class to go with it.”
It is hoped that John Sterling doesn’t find out about this.
In 1994, Kubek suddenly quit.
“I didn’t like some of the things I saw. I’m not averse to either side making money, but money was becoming more important than the game itself.”
At the Cooperstown ceremonies in 2008, Kubek told reporters that he hadn’t watched a major league game since retiring, and that he doesn’t follow current players or teams.
Baseball under Bud “Al” Selig doesn’t take kindly to those who tell it like it is.
References:
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
In 1959, New York’s other team, the New York Yankees, finished a disappointing third, 15 games behind the American League Champion Chicago White Sox.
The Yankees best players were Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Bill Skowron, Elston Howard and Tony Kubek. In those days, teams didn’t trade key players for youngsters, hoping that some of the youngsters would fill the void and, of greater importance, reduce salary.
Hank Bauer was old, Norm Siebern was in the doghouse because he lost three fly balls in the sun during the 1958 World Series and Don Larsen never lived up to his potential after his perfect game.
The Yankees sent them, along with Marvelous Marv Throneberry, whose batting stance resembled that of Mickey Mantle but whose production was closer to Juan Miranda, to their Kansas City cousins in exchange for Roger Maris.
Today, it is different.
There have been constant rumors that New York’s most beloved team, the financially strapped New York Mets, will trade the city’s best shortstop, Jose Reyes before the end of July.
The thinking is that the Mets will not be able to meet Reyes’ contract demands and should get as much for him as possible. That thinking may be wrong.
Jose Reyes may be the best shortstop in the game today. Hanley Ramirez and his .202 batting average, along with Troy Tulowitski are the top two among shortstops, but Reyes is right up there with them.
Reyes puts people in the seats with his exciting, thrilling, Jackie Robinson-type approach to the game. It is not being claimed that Reyes is as dedicated as Robinson was, that he hustles as much as Robinson did or that he is even as good as Robinson, but he brings the same excitement to the game. Fans pay to see that.
Shortstop is a difficult position to fill. Reyes has all the defensive tools, although it must be admitted he sometimes loses his concentration.
He already leads the league this season with five triples. He has stolen 12 bases in 14 attempts, is hitting .326, and despite hitting but one home run, is slugging .500. Reyes is an “igniter.”
Reyes is only 28 years old. He is at his peak, and using New York’s other shortstop as an example, Reyes should be productive for another seven or eight seasons.
Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez, who is a better escape artist than Houdini, should be allowed to leave, which will free up the money to sign Reyes. Of course, this may be a naive statement considering the Wilpons’ financial situation, but as recently as yesterday, controversial hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen was named the front runner to purchase a minority share of the team.
If Cohen knows anything about baseball, he must realize that keeping Reyes in Mets orange and blue should be a priority. According to reports, he certainly can afford the price.
It is ridiculous to allow a key player in a key position to walk away. Think of it this way. What are the chances that any youngsters they receive in a trade or any compensation picks they get if he signs with another team would be as great? Assuming they receive some outstanding young players, how long will it be before they pay off in performance?
You don’t improve your team by trading your best player.
When the Mets were building a contender during the early 1980s, they traded for Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter, Ron Darling and Bob Ojeda. They didn’t use key team members Darryl Strawberry, Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson or Dwight Gooden as trade bait.
The Mets have some outstanding young players, including Ike Davis and Josh Thole. The left side of the infield has been the Mets’ strength the last few seasons. With David Wright and Reyes, it should remain just that.
There is no question that Jose Reyes must remain with the Mets.
References:
Baseball ReferenceMets Minority Owner
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Major League Baseball is going to add one wild card to each league next season, which will give teams a better chance of making the playoffs.
Bud Selig, whom sports and political expert George Will has called “baseball’s greatest commissioner,” is right on target, but he does not go far enough.
The only teams that should not make the playoffs are the last place teams in each league and the team with the worst record among the teams that finish next to last.
The fans’ excitement would be almost indescribable. At the beginning of each season they would know that no matter how good or bad their team is, the chance of catching lightning in bottle after the regular season could lead to the World Series.
How would it work?
Teams would play 154 games during the season. This would please traditionalists, who might be slightly upset with the new playoff format.
Barry Bonds’ single-season home run record would never be broken, even if a player had the temerity to use performance enhancing substances.
Based on the 2010 American League standings, the Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals, Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians would be eliminated from the playoffs.
This leaves 10 playoff teams. The first round would be a best of three series. The higher-finishing team would play the first and third games at home. The three division winners and the second place team with the best record would draw a bye.
The New York Yankees had the best record among second place finishers.
The third-place Boston Red Sox would play the fourth-place Toronto Blue Jays , the second-place Chicago White Sox would play the Detroit Tigers and the second-place Oakland A’s would play the third-place Anaheim Angels.
Let’s say the Red Sox, White Sox and A’s win their first playoff round.
Tampa Bay had the league’s best record. They draw the remaining bye. Hey, rest is good. Great teams don’t get rusty. Money is more important than excellence.
There would be a great incentive to finish with the league’s best record, so the players could have a brief vacation before getting back to baseball.
Anyway, the Yankees play the first-round winning team with the best record, which was Boston, the Minnesota Twins play the A’s and the Texas Rangers play the White Sox.
These are best-of-five series.
The Red Sox, A’s and Rangers win their second-round series to advance to the third round.
Tampa plays the A’s and the Red Sox play the Rangers in a best-of-seven series.
The winners play each other in a best-of-seven series. The winner gets a chance to win the World Series.
One issue which would cause great controversy would be playing the World Series in either Los Angeles, Arizona or Florida, for obvious reasons. However, since the World Series wouldn’t start until the middle of November, it might be a good idea.
The above are merely suggestions, but they are excellent suggestions that expand Mr. Selig’s creative idea to make the game even better.
What do you think?
Reference:
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
There is nothing better than winning the World Series and there is nothing worse than losing it, but despite the fact that nothing hurts more than losing the final game of the season, some World Series defeats are worse than others.
In 1963, the New York Yankees lost four consecutive games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Yankees never had a chance, although they were in every game.
When it was over, the players were embarrassed and depressed, but almost to a man, they felt that the 1960 loss was much worse.
Mickey Cried All the Way Home
Mickey Mantle expressed it eloquently.
“I don’t care if the Dodgers beat us 10 straight games. I still feel we have a better team. We couldn’t hit and their pitching was terrific. But this one didn’t hurt like 1960.”
Bill Skowron, who had been traded to the Dodgers during the offseason and was part of the Dodgers’ winning team, confirmed Mickey’s statement.
“I sat next to Mickey that year, and he cried and cried all the way home.”
Los Angeles Had the Best Pitching the Yankees Had Seen in a World Series
The Yankees were angry with themselves but were calm. Manager Ralph Houk, who suffered his first World Series defeat after winning his first two, credited Los Angeles pitching for its championship.
“Their pitching was the best we’ve ever seen in a Series. I thought we played good ball but we couldn’t hit and that’s that.”
Houk had been with Yankees, as a player, coach, and manager since 1947.
Four Runs in Four Games Won’t Win
Elston Howard rated Koufax, Drysdale and Podres ahead of the Braves‘ Spahn, Burdette and Buhl, but it was Yogi who put things into perspective.
“We only got four runs in four games. It’s a little like the 1950 World Series. We beat the Phillies four straight with scores like 2-1 and 1-0.”
Mantle agreed, although he wasn’t yet a Yankee in 1950. Showing his competitive drive, Mickey told reporters, with a wistful grin, “Like they used to say in Brooklyn, ‘We’ll get ’em next year.'”
There Are Degrees of Pain
Winners hate to lose but recognize that, as Mantle said in the losing team’s locker room, “There’s only two ways you can come out of a World Series. Feeling great or the way we are.”
But there are degrees of pain. In 1963, Sandy Koufax dominated Game 1 at Yankee Stadium, striking out 15 Yankees to set a new World Series record.
Johnny Podres shut out the Yankees for the first eight innings of Game 2 on the way to a 4-1 win, and when the teams went to Los Angeles, Don Drysdale out-dueled Jim Bouton for a 2-1 win.
Koufax beat Ford in Game 4, 2-1, to end the Series.
A Double Play That Never Happened in 1960
In 1960, the Yankees dominated the Pirates in three games, winning by scores if 16-3, 10-0, and 12-0, but they lost three close ones. The Pirates won their games by scores of 6-4, 3-2, and 5-2.
It came down to one game. The Yankees started Bob Turley, who no longer was the ace who won the 1958 Cy Young Award, against the Bucs Vern Law.
The Pirates jumped on Turley for two runs in the first inning, and when Smokey Burgess led off the second with a ringing single to right field, Casey Stengel brought in Bill Stafford. At the end of the inning, the Yankees trailed, 4-0.
In the sixth inning, the Yankees seemed to turn things around when one of the greatest clutch hitters of all time, Yogi Berra, facing Elroy Face, put the Yankees ahead, 5-4 with a three-run home run.
The Yankees tacked on two more runs in the eighth inning for a 7-4 lead.
Mariano Rivera wouldn’t be born for nine more years.
Gino Cimoli led off the Pirates’ eighth with a single off Bobby Shantz, who was in his sixth inning of work. And then it happened.
The diminutive lefty got Bill Virdon to hit a sharp ground ball to shortstop. It looked like a certain double play, but the ball hit a pebble, hopped weirdly and struck Tony Kubek in the throat.
The Pirates had runners on first and second with no outs.
Dick Groat singled home Cimoli to make the score 7-5. Right-hander Jim Coates took over for Shantz to face left-handed hitter Bob Skinner. The Pirates’ left fielder sacrificed the runner to second and third.
Coates got left-handed hitter Rocky Nelson on a fly ball to right fielder Roger Maris. The runners held, and there were two outs with the great Clemente batting.
Roberto hit a slow ground ball toward first base. Bill “Moose” Skowron fielded the ball, but much to his chagrin and that of millions of Yankees’ fans, Coates was late covering first.
Clemente was safe, Virdon scored the Pirates’ sixth run, and there were runners on first and third.
Former Yankee Hal Smith hit a three-run home run. The Yankees trailed, 10-8.
But the Yankees never die easily. They tied the game with a pair of runs in the ninth inning off Bob Friend, but we all know what happened in the bottom of the ninth.
Bill Mazeroski wrote his ticket to the Hall of Fame when hit Ralph Terry’s second pitch over the left field wall.
Losing in 1963 was bad, but there were few regrets. Losing in 1960 was different.
What if Virdon’s double play grounder hadn’t hit a pebble? What if Coates had covered first base? “For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, It might have been.”
References:
Koppett, Leonard. “1960 Loss Worse, the Players Say; Team Felt More Humiliated After Defeat by Pirates in 7 Games 3 Years Ago.” New York Times. 7 October 1963, p. 39.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
There was a time when the team with the best record in its league qualified to play in the World Series. It was called “winning the pennant.”
Starting in 1969, the team with the best record in its division qualified for a best three-of-five playoff series against its league’s other division winner. This led to some interesting results.
In 1973, the National League Western Division champion Cincinnati Reds won 99 games. They played the Eastern Division champion New York Mets, often referred to as New York’s most beloved team. The Mets won 82 regular-season games.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants won more games in 1973 than the Mets. The Houston Astros matched the Mets’ 82 wins, but the Dodgers, Giants and Astros didn’t qualify to play for the pennant.
The Mets beat the Reds to win the pennant and took the Oakland A’s to seven games in the World Series.
Starting in 1994, each league consisted of three divisions. The division winners and the second-place team with the best record became the wild card. There were two rounds of playoffs.
The Florida Marlins (1997, 2003), the Anaheim Angels (2002), and the Boston Red Sox (2004) became World Champions after winning the wild card.
The regular season was compromised for money.
This week, former automobile salesman Al “Bud” Selig, who is now commissioner of Major League Baseball, declared that in 2012 there will be the opportunity for a mediocre team to qualify for the playoffs by “winning” a second wild card slot.
Why is there going to be an additional wild card qualifier? I’ll tell you why in one word, which is (surprise) “money.”
More playoff games, regardless of the level of play, means more money, both in tickets that can be sold and in television revenues. Adding an additional playoff round benefits the owners and some of their employees. It does not benefit the fans who must endure November weather conditions at the ball park.
Excellence is becoming an illusion. The truth is getting harder and harder to find.
One baseball executive, in a moment of what might have been weakness, said, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, “As a member of a club, you’re talking about extra chances to get into the playoffs and have your season look like a success…I make the playoffs, I keep my job.”
The executive continued, making an appealing point, especially to those individuals who play the lotteries.
“If you’re a fan, you don’t want your team to have a 6 or 7 percent better chance at making the playoffs? You don’t want to see games in October in your home stadium? You don’t want that?”
One baseball owner came right to the point, saying “our ideas aren’t as much what’s right for the sport as what’s right for revenues.”
In 2010, the Boston Red Sox, a team that won 89 games, would have been the second wild card. There would have been another playoff series between the Yankees and the Red Sox.
In the National League, the San Diego Padres, who led the San Francisco Giants by six and one-half games at the end of play of Aug. 25 and then lost 10 consecutive games, would have been the second wild team.
In 2010, Yankees manager Joe Girardi was more concerned with preparing for the playoffs than winning the division since the Yankees were assured of the wild card. It would be quite different if there had been a second wild card.
The Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays each had 95 wins. One would win the division, while one would be the first wild card.
The Red Sox won 89 games and would be a second wild card.
The Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers each won their divisions with 90 victories. Now for the fun.
Neither the Yankees nor the Rays would want to be the first wild card because it means they would have to play the Red Sox in a best two-of-three series. As Joe Torre used to say, a best three-of-five series is a crapshoot. A best-of-three series is much worse.
The Yankees and Rays would be involved in a battle to win the division while the wild card Red Sox and division-winning Twins and Rangers could prepare for the playoffs.
The positive aspect is that there would be a real race to win the division, but the downside of penalizing the better teams, the Yankees and Rays, outweighs that.
There is no way to prevent a second wild team being added in 2012. The owners and the television executives run the game, not the fans.
It will be a rarity when baseball’s best team wins the World Series.
References:
Real Reason for Expanded Playoffs
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com