The New York Yankees rarely allow emotions to interfere with winning.
After the Cleveland Indians won the 1954 pennant to snap the Yankees’ record streak of five consecutive pennants and World Championships, general manager George Weiss, referred to by baseball writers as “Lonesome George,” stole Bob Turley and Don Larsen from the Baltimore Orioles.
The Yankees won four consecutive pennants from 1955-58.
Nineteen fifty-nine was a different story. The team got off to a slow start, and the Chicago White Sox, nicknamed the Go-Go Sox, started to go from the get-go and won the pennant. The Yankees finished third, 15 games behind.
After pitching his perfect game in the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, Larsen had a decent but nondescript 1957 season, going 10-4 and pitching to a 97 ERA+. He was 9-6 in 1958 with a 116 ERA+, but won only six games in 1959.
Not winning the pennant was unacceptable. The Yankees went to their cousins in Kansas City for help for two reasons.
The first was that no other American League team would trade with the Yankees, and the second was that the A’s had a fine young outfielder named Roger Maris, who was Al Kaline’s equal on defense, and who, as a left-handed pull hitter, could take advantage of the short right field porch in Yankee Stadium.
“I know we’ll take a lot more ribbing but it simply got down to where we couldn’t close a deal with any other club.”
George Weiss sent gritty Hank Bauer, whose best days were behind him; young outfielder-first baseman Norm Siebern, who was in the dog house after losing some fly balls in the sun in the 1958 World Series; left-handed hitting first baseman Marv Throneberry, whose batting stance uncannily resembled that of Mickey Mantle and Don Larsen, the only man to have ever pitched a perfect game in the World Series, to the A’s.
In return, the Yankees received left-handed hitting first baseman Kent Hadley, shortstop Joe DeMaestri and Maris.
The trade was the 15th between the perennial World Champions and Kansas City since Arnold Johnson, a good friend of Yankees owners Dan Topping and Del Webb, had moved the team from Philadelphia.
There was no place for emotion, as George Weiss confirmed.
“I hated to see so fine a competitor as Bauer go and we’ll always feel indebted to Larsen for his perfect game performance. However, in Maris we have a young outfielder who should develop into a fine player at the stadium.”
The Yankees and Weiss were, of course, right. That is the nature of life, and baseball, in many ways, reflects life.
Larsen, who had suffered arm problems, could no longer help the Yankees win. Bauer, who had been with the team since 1948, batted only .238 with nine home runs in 1959. Maris would bring youth and power to put the Yankees back on top. It was a no-brainer.
What have you done for me lately?
References:
By JOHN DREBINGER. (1959, December 12). Yanks Trade Bauer, Larsen and Get Maris in 7-Player Deal With Athletics :SIEBERN WILL JOIN KANSAS CITY CLUB Throneberry Also Traded as Yanks Obtain DeMaestri and Hadley of A’s. New York Times (1923-Current file),p. 27. Retrieved December 20, 2010, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 – 2007). (Document ID: 80566518).
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