RALPH HOUK (Manager)
1962 AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR (Manager)
SHOULD POWER BUNT WINNING RUN TO THIRD
Yankees' Houk Doesn't Believe In It
"The score is tied in the last half of the ninth inning in the seventh and decisive game of the World Series.
The leadoff batter and the next man up both reach base, bringing the No. 3 hitter with men on first and second and nobody out.
What would you do in that situation, remembering that one run is all you need to put a lot more gold and glory in your club's coffers? Would you bunt the million-dollar run to third as time-honored baseball tradition dictates?
Well, maybe you would, but Manager Ralph Houk of the perennial pennant-winning Yankees would NOT unless he reversed himself over previously stated and enacted strategy. This major league freshman pilot proved that in a comparable situation during the regular season and gave the reasons behind the no-bunt policy.
Furthermore, the Yanks from way back have scorned the sacrifice hit with their 3-4-5 hitters at bat, no matter what the situation.
Did Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey or any of those yeoman Yanks of yore ever bunt? The answer is emphatically 'no' except on the drag as a surprise offensive maneuver.
Furthermore again, a lot of American League managers agree with the Yankee philosophy, although specifying you need hitters of the Bronx Bombers caliber to succeed in such heretical departure from the tried and true old baseball methods.
One junior circuit pilot, who obviously didn't want his name mentioned, said, 'Maris and Mantle are good enough hitters so you are better off having them swing than bunt. They are also fast enough so their chances of hitting into a double play are comparatively slight. Now with our personnel it's different.'
On the other hand, the National League Dodgers, then at Brooklyn, did have such fine 3-4 hitters as Duke Snider and Roy Campanella bunt to get an important run around in a crucial World Series spot. And even though the senior league is leaning more on power than before, it is still prone to sacrifice in bunt-beckoning setups irrespective of what Vada Pinson, Frank Robinson, etc., did in their jousting with the Yanks.
But now let's go back to the beginning ... and the incident that prompted this article.
The Yankees and Minnesota Twins actually were tied going into the last of the fifteenth inning in a game at New York in early August. At that time the Bombers were still engaged in a nip-and-tuck pennant dogfight with Detroit's Tigers.
Bobby Richardson led off with a single to right and Cletis Boyer beat out an infield hit by catching the Twin defense napping on a two-strike out bunt between first and second. Now don't go saying this spoils the point of this story, because Boyer was the No. 2 hitter and he merely set the stage for Maris to thumb his nose at the sacrifice.
At the time he came up, Roger was swinging a 41-homer bat and was trailing Mickey Mantle by one in their personal duel. Mick had hit two out of the park earlier that game and Houk's decision to let Maris go for the fences without even faking the sacrifice made you wonder at the time if Ralph was thinking more of the homer derby than he was of the pennant race.
What happened is relatively unimportant to the main theme. But for the record Maris' deep fly did advance both runners and Mantle was purposely passed. The winning run came home on a force out at second which just missed being a side-retiring double play.
Naturally at the time the Yankees weren't playing for their cherished big inning with one run as good as ten. So the question was put to Houk: why not bunt the winning run around to third and avoid the double play peril? And this was his answer:
'In the first place, there is no assurance the bunt will work. A lot of players are better hitters today than they are bunters because they spend more time on their hitting. And even if Maris does lay the ball down, it is no cinch that Richardson wouldn't be forced at third. But forget that. Let's assume the bunt does advance the runners to second and third. Then what happens? Naturally, they walk Mantle intentionally and then we are faced with the double-play setup all over again without ever having capitilized on the hitting potential of Maris and Mantle.'
Houk then brought up the alternative.
'Supposing we let Rog swing. A homer or any ball he hits off the fence will break up the game right there. But he's a pull hitter and even if he doesn't hit safely, there is a good chance he may hit to right on a fly (which he did) or ground out and still advance the winning run to third. Even if he pops or fans and doesn't advance the runners, you still have your 4-5 hitters coming up and another good chance to win the game. The only thing that will really kill you is a double play. And considering the speed of Maris and Mantle and their ability to pull, the chances of a double play aren't too big. And it is a chance I'm willing to take. I think the percentages in such situations are all in favor of letting your 3-4 men swing even though run is all you need.'
Ed Lopat former Yankee pitcher and in 1961 a Twin coach, watched that strategy unfold in the game in question and was moved to comment: 'The Yanks never have bunted in such situations. I remember Casey Stengel saying time and again, 'If I have to bunt with my 3-4-5 men, then I'm really in trouble.' '
Now never is a pretty strong word and Houk won't go on record that Maris, Mantle, Berra or Howard, the Yanks' current 3-4-5 boys, will never bunt. In fact, a couple times after that 15-inning swing instance, Rog did pull off a two-out surprise bunt which scored the man from third.
'The Babe did that, too,' recalls Earle Combs, who was Babe's teammate on three world championship clubs and for seven other years with the Yankees. 'But that was when the third baseman was playing deep. That's different. But I never saw Babe or Lou (Gehrig) ever try to sacrfice a man along on a bunt no matter the situation.'
How do other A.L. managers feel about having their 3-4-5 men swing away and risk the twin killing?
Says Al Lopez of the White Sox: 'It all depends on the situation: who's pitching, who's batting and a lot of other things. You can't lay down general rules.' But observers close to the Chicago club say Al has bunted with such a good hitter as Minnie Minoso but never with the 'big guy,' Roy Sievers.
Said Jimmie Dykes, then of Cleveland: 'I'd go with the Yankee way of having your 3-4-5 men hit. But you might have your No. 5 guy bunt in certain situations, depending on who your No. 6 and No. 7 men were.'
Says Sam Mele of the Twins: 'I think Houk's strategy was sound with those good left-handed hitters coming up.'
Says Bill Rigney of the Los Angeles Angels: 'I like to have my 3-4-5 men swing in most situations. With men on first and second and none out, if you have your No. 3 man bunt, then your No. 4 man is walked intentionally and your two best batters have never had a chance to swing at the ball. That's no good. In the same situation you might have your No. 5 man bunt. But then you'd have to figure on your sixth man being walked and think of other things like who you had to pinch-hit for your seventh man provided they made a left-or right-hand pitching for the particular occasion.'
Says Mickey Vernon of Washington's Senators, somewhat whimsically: 'I can't say exactly what I'd do in such situations because I never know who my 3-4-5 hitters are going to be.'
Dykes, who has coached and briefly managed in the National League, said he was no authority on senior league behavior in bunt situations, but Angelo Giuliani, Twins' scout who previously caught in both major leagues, claims, 'They are always more apt to bunt in the National League. It is a characteristic just the same as the National is much more of a low-ball pitching league than the American, the same way the A.L. has been thinking of the homer and the big inning since the Yanks won their first pennant in 1921. And it must be a pretty good theory since the Yanks have finished on top 25 other times, too.'
Bob Scheffing, Detroit manager who has quite a power crew of his own in Al Kaline, Rocky Colavito and Norm Cash, says, 'I did have my big guys sacrifice twice this past season, once with Colavito and once with Cash. But as a general thing, I don't. And I never would have them bunt in those cases I mentioned unless I had Charley Maxwell available to pinch-hit after their intentional pass. Otherwise it would have not been sound strategy.'
Rosy Ryan, the one-time Giant pitcher who is now general manager of Horace Stoneham's Tacoma farm club, admits his old boss, John McGraw, would turn over in his grave at some of the no-bunt tactics in vogue today. And as consolation to that late, great manager, Rosy says he doesn't think the current Giants would have their 3-4 men, Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda, bunt in such a fifteen-inning setup as confronted the Yankees against the Twins. 'They are both right-handers, and for that reason hit to left field more and are more apt to hit into double plays,' says Rosy.
Ryan, of course, was thinking of two well-known facts: that it is more difficult to make the double play from first base, and that left-handed batters have the advantage of being a step closer to first and therefore less likely to be doubled up because they can get down the line more quickly than the right-handed batters.
That also brings to mind another reason why the Yankees no-bunt strategy has been so successful. Down through the years almost every one of their 3-4 sluggers has swung from the port side. Think back and the only really great right-handed batsman the Yanks had hitting in the 3-4-5 spots was Joe DiMaggio.
On the other hand their history can parade, in addition to Ruth and Gehrig, such hickory heroes as Charlie Keller, Bill Dickey, Tommy Henrich, George McQuinn, Johnny Mize and Wally Pipp. They were left-handers and lusty hitters all, just as Maris is today, and the switch-hitting Mantle is the majority of the time.
If you want to look back over the years for 'no bunt, no matter what,' there was the final game of the 1927 World Series between the Yanks and the Pirates. With Earle Combs and Mark Koenig on first and second, the score tied in the ninth inning, none out and the Yankees needing just one run to capture the title in four straight, Ruth came up to swing, not bunt. But a John Milijus wild pitch, which advanced the runners, dictated the wisdom of passing the Babe intentionally. Again Manager Huggins turned a deaf ear to pleas on the bench to squeeze home the winning run. Hug never wavered when first Gehrig and then Bob Meusel struck out before Milijus made his strategy look good by wild-pitching Combs home with the payoff run."
-Dick Gordon, Baseball Digest, January 1962
CHARTING OUTFIELD DEFENSE
"The old theory of an outfielder depending on his instincts is considered obsolete by Ralph Houk. The manager of the Yankees has charts that show exactly where every batter in the league gets his hits off Yankee pitchers. It is decided where most of the blows fall and that decides where the outfielders play.
'Outfielders,' said Houk, 'have a tendency to remember where a game-winning hit goes. That's the one that sticks with them. But that could be an unusual hit that follows a radically different course. The chart explains where they hit them most of the time. We bunch up on him that way. It's like a zone defense in basketball."
-Jimmy Cannon, New York Journal-American, Baseball Digest (January 1962)
"One of the few pilots to hit the jackpot in his freshman season, taking the pennant and the title. This 41-year-old Lawrence (Kansas) leader scrapped the Casey Stengel shake-well system and used a set lineup daily.
Houk was a Yankee substitute catcher from 1949-1954 and never hit a homer. He had prior experience as a field boss at Denver (1955-1957) and also served five years as a Bomber coach, mostly at first base."
-Don Schiffer, The 1962 Major League Baseball Handbook
HOW HOUK OUTDID CASEY
He Handled Ford, Blanchard, Boyer Better
"Looking back over the 1961 season, Ralph Houk probably faced as big a challenge as anybody in the cerebral end. Naturally, this statement will be contested. Every second buff in a baseball crowd will sneer, 'Some challenge! I could manage the Yankees.'
Managing the Yankees became Houk's job after Casey Stengel was given the heave-ho after winning the pennant in 1960. Houk faced a challenge because the only way he could improve on Casey was to win the World Series, too. And Ralph had to do it with a bench that had been thinned by the American League expansion.
Stengel may not have been beloved by all his young men but they respected him. They didn't pretend to understand why he had made certain moves but they held him in awe. He was the legendary Casey, who won.
Houk had been a coach, an equal. Only a few years earlier, he wasn't even an equal of some of the veterans. When Ralph was an active player he sat in the shadows of such as Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle. Now in 1961, he was their boss. Conceding that he had the horses, the question was: Could Ralph handle them?
Turned out he could- and did. The Yankees went all the way- pennant and World Series. Houk was good and he was lucky. He had to be both.
Ralph was lucky, for example, when Luis Arroyo was put on the expansion list and went unclaimed for $75,000. All Little Luis did was appear in 65 games (more than any pitcher in the league) and post a 15-5 record. He was the best reliever in the majors.
Houk was lucky, too, when Roger Maris and Mantle caught fire together. Maris rocketed from 39 homers in Stengel's last season to 61, Mantle from 40 to 54. But the rookie manager had more than luck going for him.
When the A.L. draft was finished, the vaunted bench that Stengel so successfully employed was depleted. The Yankees lost Dale Long and Bob Cerv, who hit the long ball in a pinch. He lost some pitching. Eli Grba, for instance, won 11 games for Los Angeles. Gil McDougald retired.
In spring training Houk spoke wistfully of Long and his one-time Yankee roommate, Gene Woodling, both with the Senators. Hopeful that Ralph might panic into a deal for a long-ball pinch hitter, Ed Doherty, for one, tried to pry loose John Blanchard, the catcher, and/or Cletis Boyer, the acrobatic infielder.
Houk wouldn't panic. 'No deal,' Ralph said. 'Boyer is my third baseman and Blanchard, Berra and Howard, my catchers, are my depth.'
Stengel didn't think highly of Boyer. Once, in the 1960 World Series, he yanked him for pinch hitter McDougald in the first inning. Boyer flung his bat away in disgust. Blanchard didn't like Casey. He was ready to quit baseball until Casey was replaced.
Houk advised Blanchard to stick with it, then in the same breath told Elston Howard that he was the No. 1 catcher. In deference to Berra's advancing years, Ralph switched Yogi to the outfield. He used Berra behind the plate only 15 times all season, as against 87 in the outfield. He found work for the restless Blanchard, a little bit of catching, a little bit of outfielding, a great deal of pinch-hitting.
Howard became the best catcher in the league and hit .348. Blanchard hit .305 and broke open as many games with one blow as Maris. The manager may have added a year or so to Yogi's baseball life by keeping the veteran fresh.
Boyer hit .242 for Casey in 1960, but his weak bat nettled the old man and he shuttled the fellow in and out of the lineup. Last season Boyer batted only .224 but Houk was satisfied that Boyer's often incredible fielding earned him the right to play every day.
Maybe Houk's most masterful move was the way he treated Ford, who had turned 32 when he reported for spring training. Whitey had been only a 12-9 pitcher in 1960 for Casey, who began to use him sparingly in the belief that his little money pitcher was going downhill. Because Art Ditmar had won 15 that season, Stengel opened the World Series against the Pirates with him and came back with Ditmar in the fifth game. Art lasted a total of one and two-thirds innings in the two starts.
Casey's dedication to Ditmar (Ford won his two starts by shutouts) undoubtedly cost him the Series and his job. Houk had different ideas about Ford. He felt that Whitey was better if he worked more often. Last season he pitched him religiously every fourth day- 39 starts in all. The doughty southpaw, who had pitched only 193 innings for Stengel, thrived on the work.
Whitey led all pitchers in innings pitched- 283- and won the most games- 25. He lost only four, one of which was the Yankees' opener. Houk figured Ford for his ace and never failed to lead him. That went for the World Series, too. Ford won two more by shutouts and the Cincinnati Reds, unlike the Pitates, couldn't take a lead.
Ford had been a fine pitcher, a winning one, but in nine previous seasons he'd never won 20 games. Last season he was a great pitcher. Don't say that Houk didn't have something to do with it. Casey is wonderful but last season so was Houk."
-Francis Stann, Washington Star (Baseball Digest, March 1962)
THIRD BASEMAN USED IN OFF-BEAT CUT-OFF
"Baseball is a game of percentages and most managers play it that way. Watch ball games every day from March to October and it's like kibitzing a poker game. After a while, you get to know the players who will take a flyer on filling in inside straight and the ones who play the cards close to the vest. It's the same way with managers. You have the bunting kind or the all-or-nothing breed.
Run your finger down the list of major league managers and you'll all of them governed by the book. Put the game's managers in one room, and all of them will know the percentage of time they have to bunt or steal third base. Think from here to next Thanksgiving and you will find it about impossible to come up with a revolutionary twist to alter the percentage techniques. If a manager suddenly finds himself enshrined as a genius, chalk it up to the way he handles the hired men, the superior talents of the players under his command and the organizational zeal of the front office.
Now and then, though, a manager pops up on the scene who dares to play it a little differently. Ralph Houk is like that. He is not so much an independent thinker that he'll order third base stolen with two outs. But the Yankee manager uses his own book.
During spring training Houk ordered a long workout on cutoff plays. Nothing unusual about that kind of drill at that time of the year. But how often do you see the third baseman used as the cutoff man? The normal procedure finds the first baseman in the cutoff position, with the third baseman responsible for covering third.
Houk says this slightly off-beat technique was devised through necessity. Too many base runners were taking the extra base on throws from the outfield to the plate.
'You don't find many big league managers agreeing with the idea,' he says.'But in Cletis Boyer we've got an exceptional glove man with great reactions and an outstanding throwing arm. They all tell me Boyer's position in the middle of the diamond leaves third base uncovered. Maybe so. But I know after we tried it last year we had fewer hitters sailing on to second base when outfielders threw home trying to nail runners at the plate.'
After properly digesting this preachment, someone asked Houk if he wasn't afraid his card in the manager's union would be rescinded.
Houk, the most accurate tobacco squirter since Enos Slaughter went into retirement, zeroes in a small clod of turf. 'Everybody to his own liking,' he said. 'Some folks don't like strawberries.' "
-Til Ferdenzi, New York Journal-American (Baseball Digest, May 1962)
"Houk was born in Lawrence, Kansas, resides in Saddle River, New Jersey, is married and the father of one daughter and two sons.
Managing the New York Yankees was probably furthest from his mind when, as a 19-year-old, Ralph Houk signed his first contract with the Yankee organization. Now after 23 consecutive years (with four years out for distinguished military service), the same Ralph Houk is the respected, able manager of the World Champions. Though his playing career was undistinguished, there was a mark about this determined man. He gave everything he had to his job; he learned; he developed confidence and leadership.
After serving as a player-coach in 1953-54, Ralph was given an opportunity to manage the Denver club in the American Association, then the Yankees' top farm affiliate. He did a spectacular job of developing future Yankees such as Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, John Blanchard, Ralph Terry ... to name only a few. His Denver clubs always were in the race, and he piloted the Bears to the Little World Series triumph in 1957.
His promotion to manager of the champion Yankees was only natural. He became only the third big league manager to win a World Series in his freshman year as pilot, and the first since Eddie Dyer won with the Cardinals in 1946. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the job Ralph did last year was the rebuilding of the pitching staff after the season was underway. The Major made changes when one or two veterans failed; he promoted rookies to regular jobs, won the confidence of the players and won the designation of Manager of the Year by THE SPORTING NEWS.
Ralph Houk belongs as manager of the World Champion New York Yankees."
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
Ralph George Houk (MGR) #35
Born August 9, 1919, in Lawrence, Kansas, resides in Saddle River, N.J.
Married and father of one girl, Donna (20), and two boys, Dick (19) and Bobby (12).
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
"When Ralph Houk was named manager of the Yankees in October of 1960, succeeding Casey Stengel, he said, "I feel extremely proud to be chosen for this job. I hope I can give New York the kind of team it deserves because the men are there to make it a great team. The Yankees are not dead." And as everyone knows, the powerfully-built native of Lawrence, Kansas, made good on his statement, as he guided the Bronx Bombers to the American League pennant plus a World Championship in his first season as a major league pilot.
Though a veteran of only 91 major league games as a catcher spread over eight seasons with the Bombers, Houk has been regarded over the years as one of baseball's best brains.
Houk, who is 5'10" and scales 190, was discovered by the late Yankee scout Bill Essick and started his career in organized ball in 1939 with Neosho of the Arkansas-Missouri loop. He played with Joplin, Binghamton and Augusta before enlisting in the Army as a private. He came out of the service as a major in the Rangers, receiving a battlefield commission. He was awarded, among other citations, the Silver Star for heroic action in 1944 in Luxembourg.
After the war, he performed with Kansas City and Beaumont before joining the Yankees in 1947. He remained with the parent club through the 1954 campaign, except for short tenures with the K.C. American Association farm in '48 and '49.
Houk piloted Denver for three seasons (1955-56-57), finishing second twice and third once, before coming back to the Stadium as a coach under Stengel in 1958.
The Yankee manager lives in Saddle River, New Jersey, with his wife, Bette, and two of his three children, Dick, 18, and Bobby, 12. Donna, 20, was married last year. Ralph's hobbies are fishing and hunting."
-1962 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook
Coach, New York Yankees, 1953-54, 1958-60.
Manager, New York Yankees, 1961-62.
-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
SHE MANAGES THE CHAMPS' MANAGER
Bette Houk Plays Vital Behind-Scenes Role
"A baseball wife carries a heavy burden on her pretty shoulders- her husband. Each afternoon or evening during the playing season her eyes are glued to a ball field, life-sized or reduced to the dimensions of a TV screen. If hubby's an active player, her worry is his average. If he's a manager, it's the standing of a club.
If he's a manager, the wife may become a public personage in her own right. If he happens to be managing the New York Yankees she becomes almost as newsworthy as he, for New York, with its many newspapers, press associations and broadcasting outlets, pokes into every corner of a Yankee manager's life, including wifey's kitchen and kids' playroom.
On October 21, 1960, Ralph Houk became Yankee manager. Until then, Bette Houk had been merely one of 'the girls' on the feminine side of the club's roster, which included such better-known better-halves as Merlyn Mantle, Carmen Berra and Joan Ford. Since 1948 she'd been the wife of a second-string catcher, minor league catcher and coach. Ralph Houk had rarely been hot newspaper copy. Bette Houk was virtually unknown to the press or fans.
But not to Ralph. The Major, as everyone now knows, is a most efficient, clear-minded planner. Nothing had escaped his all-seeing eye, not even his wife's potential as his chief aide, fondest critic and most reliable second-guesser. She'd been in training for the post ever since Ralph decided that he would never be able to dislodge Yogi Berra from the Yankees' No. 1 receiving job, which was as long ago as 1947, when they first met.
She was Bette Porter then, playing tennis in shorts and hair flying, when a cousin of Ralph's introduced her to the rugged war hero on the campus of the University of Kansas. As Bette relates in Ballplayers Are Human, Too, the currently published book in which they tell their story: 'I was embarrassed when we went indoors after the game, but Ralph didn't care how messy I looked. He asked for a date that night, and that night he asked me for a date the next night. Before I knew what was happening we were going out for a date every night. We'd dance- he was a good dancer- or go driving in one of the cars he was trading in for another almost every week.'
Bette wasn't impressed with Ralph's being a big league ball player on the championship Yankees. There was no solution to the nightly dating problem except to make a lifetime date with the aid of a pastor. They were married on June 3, 1948. Bette quit her job as a receptionist-secretary to a doctor in Lawrence, Kansas, and became a ball player's wife.
Ralph was on a Yankee farm team, the Kansas City Blues, then, and wasn't to become a permanent Yankee until 1950. Farm-bred and outdoorsy, he hunted and fished each fall, Bette tagging along to the game-rich property he owned in the Ozarks of southern Missouri. 'We'd go to a cabin and stay three or four weeks, Ralph, I and an old hillbilly who'd sit in the duck blind with us,' says Bette. 'They'd shoot and I'd shoot and say, 'I got one!' but they never gave me credit for bringing one down. I'd insist I shot one but they'd just laugh at me. One day no birds came for three or four hours and they decided to go squirrel-hunting. They told me to wait for them under a tree, figuring I'd keep out of trouble that way.
'After they left I went back to the blind by myself, so that if I hit a duck I'd know for sure it was mine.
'I wasn't in the blind very long before the big mallards started circling around. I fired. 'I got one this time,' I shouted to myself. The duck fell in the river. There was a boat but I didn't dare take it out. I was afraid the duck would float away, so I got a big limb off a tree, lay flat on my stomach and pulled it in.
'I put in the blind. It was a beautiful bird. I was petting it when Ralph suddenly sneaked up behind me and burst laughing because I was petting the duck. Well, it's mounted now and in our den- it's the first and last duck I shot.'
Bette also moved into the situations caused by Ralph's belief that umpires are no more than human. 'I realize that umpires have a job to do,' he says. 'I respect them for the way they do it, but ...'
As Umpire Ed Hurley learned last August 31 during a doubleheader with the Baltimore Orioles, Ralph doesn't believe in letting an umpire's mistake go unnoticed. He was fined $250 and suspended for five days following a magnificent blowup over a disputed third-strike call.
Ralph had blown up before, especially during his tenure as Denver's manager during a 1955 losing streak. 'I'd better be watching a game on TV,' says Bette, 'usually with one eye on the screen because I was busy with the housework or the children. Suddenly there'd be a rhubarb, with Ralph in the middle of it. One day Ralph was ousted after a decision at third base. He hurled his helmet to the ground, then drop-kicked all the way to the clubhouse in centerfield.
'Well, there didn't seem to be any sense in managing from a clubhouse 350 feet from home plate and paying a fine for it. So I told Ralph he'd have to pay me the same amount the league fined him in the future. I had a nice little bank balance by the time the season ended.' That Bette is a professional Mrs. Manager is proved by her next remark. 'Of course, Ralph was right in all those rhubarbs!'
Ralph appeared in only 91 games during his Yankee career. While warming up pitchers or sitting around in the bullpen, he closely observed the tactics used by managers and players. He made copious notes and play analyses, evolving theories of his own. Night after night he discussed technical problems with Bette; she helped him assemble a library of records and baseball books. He was well prepared when the Yankees offered him the Denver post in 1955.
Meantime, Bette was managing Donna, Dick and Bobby Houk at home. When Ralph returned to Yankee Stadium as a coach in 1958, she went house-hunting. She chose a beautiful post-colonial dwelling in Saddle River, New Jersey, seated on a sloping lawn with woodland and a stream in the rear. 'It may have seemed too big and extravagant for a man on a coach's salary,' she says, 'but we both believed that a home that is a home is vitally important to family happiness. We couldn't afford servants or hired hands, but Ralph and Dick agreed to do the heavy work, Donna to help in the kitchen and Bobby to run errands.'
The Houks still live in the charming old house. The furnishings, a blend of Americana purchased from the former occupants and matching pieces of Bette's choice, are a tribute to their taste.
Quiet days ended at Crossroads, as the house is called, on the morning in 1960 when the Yankees' owners informed Ralph that he was their choice to succeed Casey Stengel. No public announcement could be made, they said, until Casey's retirement became official three days later. 'But rumors spread,' says Bette. 'We stopped answering the phone, bolted the doors, drew the shades. It was like being under siege. We had to sneak Bobby out the back door for provisions in the village.'
The Big Day came. All the world knew Ralph was managing the Yankees. Bette became a sports page personality, too. She assumed the role of a manager's wife with typical understanding of her responsibilities. There were the 'girls,' the baseball wives she'd sat with at ball games, those who lived nearby, who exchanged visits or went shopping with her.
'It seemed like a difficult problem at first,' she says. 'Managers can't fraternize with friends among their players for fear of showing partiality, and neither can a manager's wife. The Berras had been our friends in Saddle River; Carmen and I had been friendly, Bobby played with Yogi's children. The Yankee wives understood by predicament. They made it easier for me.'
She was not surprised by the way Ralph seized the Yankee reins and made the team respond to his leadership. 'Ralph's wartime experiences gave him a deep understanding of how to manage men. And Ralph started at the very bottom. He's been through everything in baseball from the low minors to the championship Yanks. He knows what players go through and how to talk to them in their own language. He studied American League teams since he became a coach. He'd sit on the bench, listening, remembering what was said, never missing anything.'
The Yankees' 1961 season ended in melodramatic thrills and a great World Series triumph. But it was marked by many ups and downs. Bob Turley and Art Ditmar, the team's right-hand aces, fell by the wayside in May. No sooner had Ralph daringly promoted Bill Stafford and young Roland Sheldon to starting roles than injuries weakened the infield and sore arms reduced the mound staff to seven able-bodied men.
'It got pretty hectic during the summer,' says Bette. 'The two of us were involved in so many things that we'd just pass each other on the way to and from appointments. I'd be interviewed, or had to run to New York, dashing to this place or that, while Ralph was struggling with the ball club. 'Where are YOU going?' we'd say as we met each other. But it was fun- we got a big kick out of it. After we took those three games from Detroit at the start of September, there was a little more relaxation and more smiles.'
Bette's introduction as the manager's wife occurred on Opening Day when he was hostess at a pregame luncheon given by Dan Topping at his private suite in the Stadium. In August she made her debut on television as mistress of ceremonies in a Family Day celebration, introducing the wives and children of Yankee players. Like Ralph, she is cool under lights and before the cameras. 'I just knew I couldn't remember the first names of all the girls,' she says. 'So I cued them by telling them to look out at me and if I didn't call out their names at first to say them themselves.'
By August the whole country was watching the enthralling Maris-Mantle battle for the home run championship. The Yankees' three-game sweep of Detroit in early September virtually clinched the pennant race, yet the homer hullabaloo continued until Roger had hit his sixty-first in the season finale.
But to the Houks the big day was September 20 when the flag was mathematically nailed down. It happened in Baltimore with laughter mingled with tears of joy. A victory party followed. Before it began Ralph toasted Bette with champagne and danced her around their suite.
Then to the banqueting room, and for the first time, Bette sat down with the hero Maris. Newspapermen had been interviewing him by the thousands; millions of words were being written about how he felt and what he thought before, during and after each of his miracle home runs.
Bette decided to do some interviewing of her own. The result is a character sketch of Roger which penetratingly explains how he overcame obstacles that would have stopped a less determined young man.
'I'd known Mickey,' says Bette, 'but I never had a chance to talk to Roger until that Baltimore pennant party. It's a little hard to put into words exactly what Roger's like. I talked to him for a very few minutes that night but I understood him right then much more than I ever did before. He was so down to earth about all the fuss they were making over him. He wanted to settle down and get it all over with.
'The writers had him up in the air. He had a nervous rash from it. The publicity and all the rest may have been great, but he wanted to crawl away and be himself again. He'd had a great year and so many great things were happening to him that I don't think he could handle the problems that came up a hundred times a day. It was too much for him physically; people were driving him nearly crazy. He couldn't go to a restaurant and eat in peace. I don't know how those writers dreamed up those questions they asked him.'
To fans, the Yankees seemed to have romped away with the World Series prize. To those on the inside- and especially to Bette- the story was quite different. Mickey Mantle's injury shadowed the early games. Although the Yankees led, 2-1, after the third game, many of the players were on the ragged edge after a long, grueling season of hairbreadth victories. By the fifth game, Mantle, Berra, Ford and Blanchard were hors de combat, through- it was a MUST game with substitutes at four positions, pitchers arm-weary and luck running out.
No one but Bette knew that Ralph was at his wit's end as he tried to select a lineup from the able-bodied players still under his command.
'Ralph usually makes his plans during the evening before a game,' she says. 'That night he had no idea who was available for the next day's game. He knew that if the Reds won and carried the Series into the seventh game, he'd literally have no starting pitcher who could be expected to finish. It's all very well to think that the Yankees are sort of baseball supermen. As he says in his book, ball players are human, too. No one knew that Blanchard had injured his leg, that Bobby Richardson could hardly walk, that Whitey Ford needed to recover from muscle strain and a damaged foot.'
As always, Ralph decided to use the best nine men available. On the bench, the injured stars cheered their teammates on. The entire squad knew that fifth game had to be won.
'Well, that's what they did- and quickly,' says Bette.
On the special train that bore the victors back to New York, Ralph and Bette danced down the aisles.
The players said they'd won the pennant and world's championship 'for Ralph' but they were winning it for Bette, too. As a matter of record, the Ralph-Bette combination is unbeatable. Two such managers are too many for any merely human ball club to lick."
-Charles Dexter, Baseball Digest (May 1962)
THE AMERICAN LEAGUE IS TOUGHER
Yankee Manager Houk Attacks National League Claims Of Superiority And Argues His Case For The American League.
"Every time the New York Yankees win another pennant there are a lot of people who say, 'But after all, they're playing in an easy league. In the National League, the competition is much tougher.'
"I've been hearing this for years, and it always burns me up. I've been connected with nine Yankee pennant winners- first as a reserve catcher, then as a coach, and since 1961 as the manager- and I know how hard our ball club had to battle to win those American League championships. Even in years like 1960 and 1961, when the Yankees were able to pull away at the end, our final margins were deceiving, because those were hot races right into September. And we never met a National League club in the World Series that looked any rougher to us than the contenders we had to beat out in our own league. Truthfully, we sometimes had it much easier in the Series than during the regular season.
"Yet somehow the National Leaguers have been able to put across the idea that it's harder to win pennants over there. They claim that their league has better balance and more over-all strength. They've sold this theory to the fans- at least to the fans in their cities- and they've sold it to many of the writers. I find this in talking to newspapermen during the season.
"I guess it's human nature to build up your own group, and I'll have to credit the National League for doing a good job of it. But it pains me just the same because what they're really doing is belittling the Yankees. They're saying that all those pennants we've won don't mean very much, because we didn't have much to beat.
Power Of Yankee Publicity
"One reason they've been able to get away with this argument is the tremendous amount of the publicity that is given to the Yankees in the American League. Now, I think we do have the best team. Our players deserve all the praise they receive. But there's so much of this that it tends to downgrade the other clubs. People don't realize how strong the league as a whole is.
Look at how the standings of the two leagues read this year on July 15 with more than half of the season played. In the National League the fourth-place team, St. Louis, was ten games out of first. In the American, the ninth-place club, Kansas City, was closer than that. And Boston in eighth place was only six and a half games out.
"We were first at that time, with just a one-game lead over Cleveland. There's no question that injuries played a part in the race up to then. If Mantle hadn't been out for a month, and if Ford hadn't had his troubles, along with Arroyo - why, we might have been in a little better position. And Detroit had been held back by Al Kaline's injury and Frank Lary's arm trouble.
"But the biggest reason for the closeness of the American League race those first three months was the improvement of the other clubs. It was young ballplayers nobody had ever heard of before who were making the difference. Fans and writers- and sometimes managers too- have a tendency to go by the established 'names' in sizing up a ball club. They forget that there are always young players coming up who have a lot of ability.
"That's been especially true in our league recently. The National League likes to talk up its individual stars, but if you check the record, I think you'll find that we've been developing more new ones lately.
Twins, Indians, Angels Surprise
"Take the Minnesota Twins. Through midseason, they played much better ball than in 1961, when they finished a bad seventh. This spring you might have thought, 'Well, they've got about the same team.' And then they came up with this kid Rich Rollins, who hit and fielded so well that the American League players voted him to the All-Star team over established players like Brooks Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles and Clete Boyer of our club. At second base they found another promising boy, Bernie Allen, to team up with their good-fielding young shortstop, Zorro Versalles. And they got Vic Power to play first base. So all of a sudden they got a hot infield to go with a catcher like Battey and power hitters like Killebrew and Allison and good pitchers like Pascual.
"Or take Cleveland. They've added young fellows like Luplow and Cline in the outfield. They've got a deep pitching staff and a strong bench. They've got both right- and left-handed hitting power, which makes it tough for a manager to maneuver his pitching against them.
Last year we had the good luck to beat Cleveland fourteen out of eighteen ball games- although many of those games could have gone either way. This year they won nine of the first thirteen we played with them.
"But the biggest surprise of the first half of 1962 was the Los Angeles Angels. They're one of the new 'expansion' teams, and supposedly have a long building job ahead of them. Yet on July Fourth they were leading the league by half a game. I think this shows that the American League did a real good job in its expansion program. The National League clubs made darn sure that their new teams wouldn't get many good ballplayers, whereas in our league quite a few good ones went in the expansion draft. And it's helped to give us better balance than they have today.
"Anyway, in July people were asking 'What's keeping the Angels up there?' Well, it was simply the fact that they had so many ballplayers who came into their own this year, such as Leon Wagner and Billy Moran and Lee Thomas and Bob Rodgers and Bo Belinsky.
"So at midseason we still couldn't tell who our chief competitors were going to be. Whether some of those surprise teams stayed in the race would depend on whether their youngsters could hold up all season. Meanwhile, we knew that Baltimore, which gave us our chief opposition in 1960, and Detroit, which did the same in 1961, could still be rough. Chicago and Boston couldn't be counted out, either. Nor could Kansas City be taken too lightly. They were leading the league in hitting, with fellows like Jiminez- another newcomer- and Siebern and Lumpe. And Washington, in tenth place, which gave the Yankees unexpected trouble last year, has enough pitching to make more trouble for us in 1962.
"Does the National League offer competition like this from top to bottom? I certainly don't think so. In fact, I believe you could put any of our first-division clubs over there and they'd be right in the race. On the other hand, all but their very top teams would have a hard time making our first division.
"Of course, the National League has good ballplayers, too. We face some of them every year in the All-Star Games. And I've always thought our personnel compared favorably with theirs. But actually, All-Star competition doesn't prove much about the relative strength of the two leagues- and I was saying so before this year's games, in which I managed the American Leaguers.
"Naturally you're trying to win. But you're handed a set lineup to start with, and then you try to give as many of the other fellows as possible a chance to play. Then there are restrictions on the use of pitchers. You just can't operate in a normal way.
World Series Often Misleading
"One or two games are never a true test anyhow. Even a World Series can be misleading. Conditions are so different than in a full season of play. You're not using your entire personnel. You can start just your best pitchers, for one thing: I used only three starters in the 1961 World Series. Over a pennant race, you've got to be able to beat different types of ball clubs and pitchers and win in different types of parks. A World Series doesn't necessarily show your over-all bench strength and maneuverability.
"In the 1960 Series, when I was coaching under Casey Stengel in his last year with the Yankees, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat us in seven games. They may have had a lucky break or two, but they deserved to win. They made the plays and got the hits it took to beat us. Yet if they'd been competing in the American League in 1960 I'm sure they wouldn't have finished ahead of us. I'm not sure they'd have finished ahead of Baltimore, either.
"I felt the same about Cincinnati last year. We took the Series from them in five games, and they were a good ball club. But I don't believe they would have beaten out Detroit for second place in the American League.
"I first came up to the Yankees in 1947 and I've been with them ever since, except for 1955-57, when I managed their American Association farm club at Denver. I think our league today is the strongest I've seen it. In the past, there were seasons when you could be pretty confident about beating out some of the second-division clubs. But there's never been a year when I thought we had to concede anything to the other league on an all-around basis.
"I have no doubt that the National League is better these days, too, because baseball has kept improving during the past fifteen years. The young ballplayers are getting a lot of special instruction from experts that clubs didn't furnish when I was a rookie. There are more players who can hit the long ball, and to try to keep them from doing it, new refinements in pitching and defense have been developed.
A.L. Players Better in N.L.
"The front office organizations have also been moving ahead. Naturally I think the Yankees have the best organization in the business, but the pattern everywhere is the same. I'll concede that there are wealthy owners and smart baseball men in both leagues. But I don't see how the National Leaguers could claim any edge over us.
"Whenever one of their ballplayers switches to the American League and does well, they like to say that this proves our league is easier. But lately we've had quite a few of these cases going for us. Billy Pierce, who in 1961 had trouble breaking even in our league, went from the White Sox to San Francisco this year and immediately had great success as a starting pitcher. So did Don Larsen as a reliever. And Bob Shaw, who wasn't exactly burning up the American League, became quite a winner with Milwaukee.
"Last season second baseman Frank Bolling was traded from Detroit to Milwaukee, and he made the National League All-Star starting lineup, which he had never done in the American League. The same deal brought Bill Bruton to Detroit, and he was quoted as saying he thought our league might be easier. Well, he's a ballplayer who has hurt our club at times, and we respect him. But the fact remains that whereas he averaged .276 as a hitter during his nine seasons in the National League, he batted only .257 for Detroit.
"Naturally these interleague trades won't always work in our favor. But it's happened so often lately that I don't imagine the National League would even want to raise the subject right now.
"I know they won't agree with many of the things I've said here, but then I haven't agreed with a lot of the things they've said over the years. It's time I got it all off my chest. Sure, they've got a good league, but it's ridiculous for them to keep saying they're stronger than we are. The American League is better."
-Ralph Houk, as told to Harry T. Paxton, The Saturday Evening Post (August 11-18, 1962)
"Pete Runnels, Boston's fine hitter who is battling for the American League hitting title, like many other ballplayers, has tremendous respect for the Yankees' Ralph Houk. 'He's a real leader,' says Pete. 'At the Chicago All-Star Game, he gave us a 15-word pep talk; that was all. He told us what we were there for and who we were. No wonder Mickey Mantle plays for him on a bad leg.'"
-Bob Addie, The Sporting News (August 18, 1962)
"A year ago Ralph Houk was receiving acclaim as Manager of the Year from The Sporting News and numerous other sources. But those of those who have watched his performance in his sophomore year will attest that this has been his finest hour.
This has been no 'push button' manager. 1962 was a difficult year for the Yankees and many other American League clubs, as injury struck early and often. To name only the major absences- Mickey Mantle was out five weeks in one stretch, and suffered other lesser injuries; last season's pitching heroes, Whitey Ford and Luis Arroyo, had arm miseries for varying periods; Tony Kubek missed two thirds of the season in military service, plus many more of a lesser nature.
But Ralph kept the team 'up,' reorganized his forces and kept the Yankees in the race, and in first place continuously from the All-Star break (July 8) on. He had rookie Tom Tresh at short in Kubek's absence and young Tommy was good enough to be named to the All-Star squad. When Tony returned, Tresh was switched to left field for the first time in his pro career. He has performed there as if it were 'old hat' to him. Pitching has been a problem, but Ralph has utilized his arms in pennant-winning form.
This is Ralph Houk's 24th year in the Yankee organization, including more than four years out for distinguished military service. He had an undistinguished career as a catcher, mainly as a 'caddie' for Yogi Berra. But he was spotted early as managerial timber and made it 'big' with two straight championships."
-Official Souvenir Program of the 1962 World Series (Yankee Stadium)
YANKEE COACHING STAFF
"Years of baseball experience are represented by the Yankee coaching staff as assembled by Manager Ralph Houk. This 27th Yankee championship club won a team victory this year and an integral part of that team were the coaches presented here.
Of course, Frank Crosetti is the senior member of the brain trust. He is completing his 31st year as a Yankee, the longest consecutive service on the team. This is Frank's 21st World Series. He has participated in a record 104 Series games as a player and coach, and has been eligible for nine more games.
Johnny Sain is in only his second year as the Bombers' pitching coach. He was a fine spot starter and relief pitcher with the Yankees at the end of his career after compiling a brilliant record with the old Boston Braves. Johnny was a 20-game winner four times with the Braves.
Wally Moses was an American League outfield star for 17 seasons, compiling a lifetime .291 average in 2,012 times at bat. This is his 11th season as a big league coach, his second as the Yankee batting coach and first base signalman.
Jim Hegan joined the Yankees in mid 1960 as bullpen and catching coach. He was an outstanding catcher for the Cleveland Indians for more than a decade. His son, Mike, is an excellent first base prospect in the Yankee minor league system."
-Official Souvenir Program of the 1962 World Series (Yankee Stadium)
FRANKIE CROSETTI (Coach)
"Crosetti was born in San Francisco, California, resides in Stockton, Calif., is married, and the father of two.
This is Cro's 31st consecutive year with the Yankees. He spent 17 as an infielder and has coached under three managers since 1947. Crosetti has been in a record 20 World Series with the Yanks."
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
Frank Peter Joseph Crosetti (CH) #2
Born October 4, 1910, in San Francisco, California, resides in Stockton, California.
Married and father of two.
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
"Third Base Coach Frank Crosetti celebrates his 31st straight season with the Yankees in 1962. One of the A.L.'s top shortstops upon coming to the Bombers from the San Francisco Seals in 1932 until the advent of Phil Rizzuto in 1941.
The 50-year-old father of two, a Yankee coach since 1947, has appeared in seven World Series and one All-Star Game. Holder of several major league and Series records."
-1962 Jay Publishing Yankees Yearbook
Has appeared on 20 of the 26 Yankee pennant-winning clubs.
Played or coached in a record 104 World Series games.
Coach, New York Yankees, 1947 through 1962.
-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
JOHNNY SAIN (Coach)
YANKEE HURLERS DON'T BELIEVE IN RUNS OR RUNNING
Sain Defies Tradition In Conditioning Program
"In 19 major league training camps this spring more than 300 pitchers, driven sadistic maniacs with fungo bats in their hands, will run themselves to the brink of collapse and then, their tongues hanging out, will run some more.
For as every conditioner of pitchers knows, you gotta get the old legs in shape and after that, the old soupbone, sometimes known as the salary whip, will come around automatically.
That is, all but one conditioner of pitchers is familiar with that basic precept. The odd man- and in the society of pitching coaches he is regarded as a very odd man, indeed- is Johnny Sain, tutor of the New York Yankees' first line of defense.
To state it in the simplest of terms, Sain believes firmly that running, except as a means of getting from one place to another, is the bunk. With equal firmness, he believes that the best way for a pitcher to prepare himself for a season of pitching is to pitch.
Jim Hegan, a believer, if a somewhat reluctant believer, in the Sain system, reported this conversation recently.
Now a Yankee coach, Hegan recalled that in his many years with the Cleveland Indians, he accepted the premise that the fanatical program of running, led by Bob Feller and followed dutifully if not enthusiastically by such distinguished practitioners of the pitching art as Bob Lemon, Mike Garcia and Early Wynn, was the only way. Sain has convinced him that it isn't.
'On the Yankees' first day in training camp,' he relates, 'everybody will run around the park once or twice, just to loosen up. Then Sain will hand every pitcher a ball and tell him to get him a catcher and start throwing. I'm not even sure if he approves of that preliminary run around the park. But I know that after that he has no use for running.
'Every Yankee pitcher throws five minutes of batting practice on the first day. Sain watches to see that nobody gets overeager and throws too hard, but everybody throws a little longer and a little harder each day until pretty soon he's ready to pitch 20 minutes of stiff batting practice.'
Another more or less revolutionary Sain theory that seems to a layman to make sense deals with the care and handling of pitchers during the season. Every man 'stiffens up' after pitching a nine-inning ball game. Most coaches prescribe rest the next day, followed by light throwing the third day. Sain believes the way to get rid of that post-pitching stiffness is to work it out- by pitching, not rest.
It may be argued that his theories haven't been sufficiently tested to be worthy of full acceptance. He has had only one season as the Yankees' coach and, while the perennial champions enjoyed excellent pitching last year, it proved nothing because they've had it under the old conditioning program.
Hegan is disposed to credit Manager Ralph Houk for Whitey Ford's jump from 12 victories in 1960 to 25 in 1961, though he said Ford endorsed the Sain training system.
'Casey Stengel pampered Ford,' said Hegan. 'Houk worked him. He worked everybody- and they loved him for it. A great guy and a great manager.' "
-Gordon Cobbledick, The Cleveland Plain Dealer (Baseball Digest, April 1962)
"Sain was born in Havana, Arkansas, resides in Walnut Ridge, Ark., is married, and is the father of four.
A great pitching star for the old Boston Braves for whom he won 20 games on four occasions, Sain was a Yankee relief ace late in his career. He has proved valuable in the rebuilding of the Yankee pitching staff."
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
John Franklin Sain (CH) #31
Born September 25, 1917, in Havana, Arkansas, resides in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.
Married and father of four.
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
"Beginning his second year as Yankee pitching mentor is Johnny Sain, Bomber relief ace of 1952-53-54. The 43-year-old, 6'2", 205-lb. former right-hander took a leave of absence from his Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, automobile agency to join his old mates.
Sain, who hurled in the majors from 1942 through 1955 with the Boston Braves, Yankees and Kansas City A's, was a K.C. coach for a brief period in 1959. He's married, with four children.
Besides winning 20 or more games four times, he led the N.L. in complete games in 1946 and '48, teaming with Warren Spahn in the latter year to pitch the Braves to the pennant."
-1962 Jay Publishing Yankees Yearbook
Coach, Kansas City Athletics, 1959.
Coach, New York Yankees, 1961-62.
-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
WALLY MOSES (Coach)
"Moses was born in Uvalda, Georgia, resides in Philadelphia, PA, is married, and is the father of one.
He has been a major leaguer for 28 seasons. He had a lifetime average of .291 in 2,012 games. A coach since 1952, Moses has been the Yankee batting instructor and first base coach [since 1961]."
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
Wallace Moses (CH) #36
Born October 8, 1910, in Uvalda, Georgia, resides in Philadelphia, Pa.
Married and father of one.
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
"A valuable aid to Manager Houk is first base and batting coach Wally Moses, who has been on the major league scene since 1935, when he joined Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, being purchased from Galveston. The former A.L. ace fly-chaser stands 5'10", weighs 161, is married, and has one child. Moses, who was born in Uvalda, Georgia, October 8, 1910, makes his home in Philadelphia.
He led the junior circuit in doubles in 1945 and tied for the lead in triples in 1943.
After retiring as an active player, Wally coached the A's from 1952 through 1954; the Phillies from 1955 through 1958; and the Reds in 1959 and '60 before joining the Bombers in '61."
-1962 Jay Publishing Yankees Yearbook
Coach, Philadelphia Athletics, 1952-54.
Coach, Philadelphia Phillies, 1955-58.
Coach, Cincinnati Reds, 1959-60.
Coach, New York Yankees, 1961-62.
-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
JIM HEGAN (Coach)
"Hegan was born in Lynn, Mass., resides in Lakewood, Ohio, is married, and the father of three.
He joined the Yankee coaching staff at mid-season in 1960. After a distinguished career (mostly with Cleveland) as a catcher, Jim turned to coaching and now handles the catchers and bullpen chores for the Yankees. His son, Mike, is a Yankee prospect."
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
James Edward Hegan (CH) #44
Born August 3, 1920, in Lynn, Mass., resides in Lakewood, Ohio.
Married and father of three.
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
"Boss of the bullpen is rangy Jim Hegan, who came to the Yanks on July 29, 1960, succeeding Bill Dickey, who left because of illness. Hegan, born August 3, 1920, in Lynn, Massachusetts, lives in Lakewood, Ohio, with his wife and is the father of two. He's 6'2", weighs 195.
Rated one of the finest defensive catchers during his active days, Hegan was behind the bat in three no-hit games while with the Cleveland Indians: Don Black's victory over Philadelphia, July 10, 1947; Bob Lemon's triumph over Detroit, June 30, 1948; and Bob Feller's third no-hitter, July 1, 1951, against Detroit."
-1962 Jay Publishing Yankees Yearbook
Coach, New York Yankees, 1960-62.
-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
JOE DIMAGGIO (spring training instructor)
WHEN DIMAG TRIED TO "PITCH"
"The old Yankees gathered in New York for a reunion this past summer and it was at this get-together that Johnny Murphy, a famous relief pitcher in his time, told about a bit of advice he once got from Joe DiMaggio.
This was a game in Detroit when Hank Greenberg was at the peak of his career as a home run hitter. In those days the bullpen in the Detroit stadium was in center field. Greenberg was coming to the plate in a vital spot and Manager Joe McCarthy decided it was time for Murphy.
As Johnny came out of the bullpen he had to pass DiMaggio, 'a guy, as you know, who never had much to say to anybody. Joe was strictly a fellow who minded his own business. But this time,' as Tommy Henrich retold the yarn, 'Joe stopped Murphy in center field. 'I've got a suggestion, Murph,' he said, 'We try to throw the fast ball by this big free-swinging guy all the time. I'll bet you can sucker him with a curve.'
'Murph took the advice but Hank knocked the ball a mile over Joe's head into the center field seats for the ball game.
'And in the Yankee dressing room, a sheepish DiMaggio walked over to Murphy's locker and apologetically said, 'Don't you ever- and I mean EVER- listen to anything I have to say to you from now on.' "
-Baseball Digest, January 1962
"Although he is as trim as he was when he was a top star, Joe DiMaggio laughed at suggestions he could play for Casey Stengel's new Mets team. 'After I thew out the first ball at the World Series opener,' said DiMaggio, 'I felt like I needed a rubdown.' "
-Leonard Lyons, the New York Post (Baseball Digest, January 1962)
THE MAGIC OF JOE DIMAGGIO
He's Still A Hit- Though It's Ten Years Since He Made One
"The years and people's memories have treated Joe DiMaggio most kindly. He belongs to a very exclusive club and Jack Dempsey is the only other member who comes readily to mind.
DiMaggio hung up his uniform in 1951. His batting average of .263 that season offended Joe, who was a perfectionist. But it is as if DiMaggio were the most complete ball player of the time, as it is with Dempsey, to whom there has been no other heavyweight boxing champion to compare.
You share a breakfast with DiMaggio and wonder how long it's been since he's eaten warm eggs. The mob comes up to greet him in an unending stream- old teammates and rivals, managers, coaches, club presidents, sports nuts and hangers-on.
Ted Williams was at least as good a hitter and certainly more controversial and he quit much later than Joe. But while Williams isn't overlooked at baseball meetings, The Thumper doesn't quite cut the same figure as Joseph Paul DiMaggio.
Joe was a streamlined athlete in his prime, a picture player at bat and in the field and on the bases. He is slender now and maybe he looks younger than in 1951, when in a fit of desperation Casey Stengel, his manager, put DiMag on first base for one game in Washington.
This was like trying to make a catcher out of Tris Speaker. But DiMaggio, for all his exquisite grace and greyhound bearing, was a player plagued by foot ailments and that was a short-lived move designed to keep him from disappearing from the scene.
Joe is a food executive these days. They say he makes $100,000 a year from V.H. Monette, which supplies the Army PXs, but you don't talk money with this dark-suited man with the Sulka shirts and the $25 ties. If he hasn't got it, he's wearing it.
Instead, you talk baseball. And DiMag, when he's given a chance, revels in it. Know his present ambition? It's to get another leave of absence, like the one he got last winter from Monette, to pull on a Yankee uniform and help the old alma mater with 'the younger players.'
Joe was at St. Petersburg last winter and some people snidely noted that he seemed to be lurking in the wings while rookie Manager Ralph Houk was on stage, trying to make a score. In February, provided he gets his leave of absence, DiMag will turn up at the Yankees' new camp at Fort Lauderdale. Only there won't be so many suspicious folks.
Houk is the Yankee manager- DiMaggio is DiMaggio. 'As a matter of fact,' Joe says, 'I advised only the young players who asked for my advice. I tried to stay away from the varsity. That was Ralph's department.'
We asked Joe, 'How do you define 'young players'? Naturally, Yogi Berra and others were out of your province. But how about the Roger Maris of a year ago? He wasn't exactly young but he wasn't a national figure, either?'
'Oh, Maris never fell under my advisory capacity,' Joe protested. 'Roger had a terrible spring. He couldn't hit a loud foul. But he was a professional and everybody knew he'd work it out, eventually. Oh, we may have talked casually about it among the manager and coaches but we didn't go into it seriously.'
DiMaggio probably makes more money today than the Yankee manager and the entire coaching staff. But you'd never know it.
'Is Maris really a memorable hitter, or just a one-year freak?' Joe was asked.
'You mean,' DiMag replied, eyes twinkling, 'whether he'll hit 61 home runs again? Rog had those problems I mentioned last spring. He began to spray, kind of desperately. He'd try to punch the ball to left or to center- wherever the ball was pitched.
'I think Roy Hamey (the Yankees' general manager) straightened out Maris. He told Rog, 'I'm not interested in how many kinds of hits you make, I want you to go for the fences. Forget the average, go for the long ball.'
A lot of folks, including American League pitchers, refuse to put Maris on a pedestal because he batted .269. Ruth hit nearly 100 points higher in 1927 when he clouted 60 home runs in a 154-game season, as against Maris' in a 162-game season.
'That's one of the penalties for going all out for the long ball,' DiMag says. 'People are going to belittle you.' "
-Francis Stann, the Washington Star (Baseball Digest, February 1962)
DOUBLE WEAKNESS
"When Joe DiMaggio first came up to the big leagues, Washington's Bobo Newsom asked for the chance to pitch against the highly-publicized rookie.
'I'll take care of him,' Bobo promised. 'I pitched against him out on the Coast and I know his weakness.' DiMag doubled off Newsome his first time up. Next time he doubled again. His third two-bagger drove Newsom out of the box. After the game, Newsome was asked if he still knew DiMag's weakness. 'Yep, it's two-base hits,' he said."
Max Kase, New York Journal-American (Baseball Digest, May 1962)
Joe DiMaggio, saying the 'tell' on a hitter comes after he's in a hole with two strikes: "If he's protecting the plate and going with the pitch, he's the guy who should wind up with a respectable average. If he's looking for a certain pitch to hit out of the park, he likely strikes out a lot."
-Baseball Digest, June 1962
