Misc. Bull$h!t

I hadn't stopped to take inventory of how many of those seasons I got to witness, but now I realize that I got to "enjoy" them all also. It's sort of amazing that I didn't just dump them and become Oriole fans like all the other kids in my neighborhood. Perhaps the proclamation of Yankee fandom and the later reaffirmation during the losing seasons was my first act of youthful rebellion. Now, I'm even prouder of being a Yankee fan than ever!!! Doc Edwards and Jake Gibbs forever!!!

In 1970 I thought we had acquired a star in Cater when he hit .301/.340/.393. For the record that was an OPS + of 107. You know who had a .743 OPS in 2018? Marwin Gonzalez, who did it off a .247/.324/.409 line, good for an OPS+ of 103. Gonzalez out-homered Cater 16-6. Not sure what all that means...nor the fact that Cater fanned 44 times and Gonzalez fanned 126 times...

In 1968, when Cater hit .290/.336/.393  for Oakland, he had an OPS+ of 127 and his BA was second to Yaz's AL topping mark of .301...

I recall the headlines when Amaro broke his leg in '66...It looked like a tragic loss for the team. Why, I'm not sure. Amaro was a banjo hitter. Horace Clarke made a fine replacement that year, hitting .266, though Amaro was back at SS the next season (1967), hitting his usual .223 while Clarke became rooted at second with the retirement of Bobby Richardson. What great days of joyous losing...With Charlie Smith taking over third that season with his lusty .224 average and Tom Tresh in LF at .219 we were a fearsome bunch. That's not all, either. There were several more players in prominent back up roles hitting between .136 (Mike Hegan) and .224 (a young Roy White)...Bill Robinson, Elston Howard, and a very non-Presidential John Kennedy posted matching .196 averages. Starting catcher Jake Gibbs was in the stratosphere at .233...

HR leaders? Mantle 22, Tresh 14, Pepitone 13, and the next Mantle making up for his 11 HR by swatting .243. I guess since I've given so much wonderful news about our offense that season, I should mention that Horace Clarke was the team batting leader by a wide margin with a stunning .272 mark...How DID they win 72 games? The pitching wasn't horrible...

That's the spirit!!  You came along just as the empire was crumbling, and the local entry was getting into its greatest phase, yet you still instinctively understood where the real article was.  For sure, if you embraced the Yanks during the dog days of Steve Whitaker and Buddy Barker and Roger Repoz and Ross Moschitto, you proved you were no fair-weather fan.

I kept thinking Jake Gibbs was going to develop into a first-rate catcher.  This assessment was based on no evidence beyond his success as a quarterback at the University of Mississippi.  Sure, there is a direct correlation there.  After all those years of the Yanks having three really good to great catchers in Yogi Berra, Elston Howard and John Blanchard, it seemed impossible that they couldn't come up with just one until Thurman came along.  They went through the likes of Frank Fernandez and Ellie Rodriguez and John Ellis and Mike Hegan and Bill Bryan behind the dish, along with the aforementioned Doc Edwards, who to me almost symbolized the futility of the Yanks of that era.

BTW, I saw recently that Bob Friend passed away.  He came to the Yankees toward the end of his career, after he had pitched many years for mostly awful Pirates teams.  He was part of some of those dismal seasons.  Like Bill Monbouquette at the end of the line.  And then there was Fred Talbot and Joe Verbanic.  Sheesh.

Clarke was a decent player. Roy White was actually pretty good. As for some of the other has beens, I remember listening to a game on the radio with my dad, a Tigers fan, where Lindy McDaniels pitched a no-hitter. Unfortunately, the no-hitter was like from the 9th through the 17th inning. Don't remember who won the game, it was just cool to listen to with my dad (and the Tigers were pretty good) and on the A.M. Detroit station. Pretty good signal to get to western North Carolina.

Renfield, that would have been WJR, 760 on the AM dial, the big 50,000 watt station in Detroit.  They used to come in loud and clear in southeast PA where I lived as well.  That was probably 1968, when the Tigers won the championship with a very good team -- Al Kaline, Willie Horton, Norm Cash, Bill Freehan, Denny McLain, Mickey Lolich, Jim Northrup, Dick McAuliffe, Mickey Stanley.

Lindy McDaniel, known for his forkball, was actually a very good pitcher for many years.  Yeah, didn't need any three-batter minimum rule in those days!!

Good reminder about that Detroit signal. I listened to a few Yankee games on there when they played the Tigers because my little transistor radio didn’t fade and squeal as much from Detroit as it did from NY, which seemed odd in northeastern MD, too..

Thanks for making Lindy a bit larger this time around. I was not aware of that game, and now I’ll have to look it up while my poor wife sits beside me bored to death...