1962 Profile: Clete Boyer

"Look for the sport's best-fielding third baseman to move to shortstop in 1962. That would be Cletis Boyer, brother of Cards' Ken, possessor of baseball's quickest hands when they're stopping a batted ball.

Born in Cassville, Missouri, Boyer became Yankee in 1959, serving at Kansas City as a part-time teenage performer in '54 and '55. Nobody around can match him for amazing agility at third base."

-Don Schiffer, The 1962 Major League Baseball Handbook

"Yankee Stadium fans and those around the league have watched Clete Boyer make 'impossible' stops and still get his man. The newest magician in the game, Boyer is one of five brothers to play professional baseball. Best known, of course, is Ken, the great third baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals. While Ken swings a more potent bat, it is Clete who has become the master glove man at the hot corner.

Boyer, only 25, has shown real power at the plate, despite a lifetime batting average of .226. He has garnered 35 extra-base hits in each of his last two seasons. With the help he received from Joe DiMaggio and Wally Moses this spring and his determination, Boyer is an almost sure bet to hike his batting average this season.

Manager Houk considered moving him to short, to plug the hole left by the Army call to Tony Kubek. And Boyer can play short, too. But the Yankee manager is anxious to keep his defensive star in his normal position. Last year was Clete's first full season as a regular third baseman and his defensive play gave the Yankees their strongest infield in many years. Boyer may well be the anchor man of a great infield for many years to come."

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Cletis Leroy Boyer (IF)     #6

Born February 8, 1937, in  Cassville, Missouri, resides in Webb City, Missouri. Height: 6-0, Weight: 183. Bats right, throws right. 

Married and father of two girls, Valerie (5) and Stephanie (2 1/2).

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Bonus player with Kansas City Athletics.

Brother of Ken Boyer of Cardinals and Cloyd Boyer, former pitcher for Cardinals.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

"Fans around the nation got to see what American League fans had witnessed all season when they saw the 1961 World Series: the finest fielding third baseman in the game today, Clete Boyer.

To Clete, the hard play is routine, the impossible play, just another out. He blocks hard-hit grounders like a hockey goalie, dives through the air for liners and somehow always (or so it seems) manages to make the play.

The 25-year-old native of Cassville, MO, comes from a real baseball family. His brother, Ken, is one of the National League's All-Star performers with the St. Louis Cards, and another brother, Cloyd, hurled for the Athletics not too many seasons back.

Kansas City signed him to a bonus contract in 1955 and because of the then-existing rule, Clete was forced to spend two years with the Athletics when he could have been gaining valuable minor-league experience.

The Yankees acquired Boyer during the winter of 1956-1957 and sent him to Binghamton of the Eastern League. He was with Richmond of the International League in 1958, dividing the '59 campaign between Richmond and the Stadium.

In 1960 Boyer became the Yankees' regular third sacker. During his first full season with the Bombers, Boyer hit .242 and smacked 14 homers. Last year his average dipped to .224, but he drove out 11 four-baggers and upped his RBIs from 46 to 55.

Now a resident of Webb City, MO, Cletis is married and the proud daddy of two. He stands an even six feet and weighs 180 pounds.

Boyer can play shortstop and second base, but the Yankees are happy having him at third where he can turn "sure doubles" into outs.

Coach Wally Moses worked with Boyer on his batting during the Spring and if he can pick up a few points, Clete may soon be an All-Star."

-The 1962 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook

OH BOY, OH BOYER!

Acrobatic Clete Adds Power To Yankee Role

"In the very first inning of the first World Series game last October, Clete Boyer came out of nowhere to fling himself leftward, slide on a shoulder, glide on an ear and come up with a hot shot that he fired to first while still on one knee. Fans who had been watching Yankee games all season had been boasting that Clete was the best third baseman on defense since Pie Traynor. Now all the world knew they were right.

That is, except for St. Louis Cardinals fans, who could argue that they had a Boyer, Ken, who was just as good on defense and had outbatted Clete by 105 points, .329 to .224.

Whereupon Clete and his Yankee mentors decided to do something about improving Clete's form with the stick. The result, during this season's first weeks, was astonishing. Clete broke into a rash of home runs, doubles and singles and, as of May 10, was batting exactly .329, his brother Ken's 1961 mark.

All of this means that the baseball-minded Boyer family is about to stage an inter-league competition of its own. And if the Cards win the pennant and the Yanks face them in next October's global setto, it'll be Boyer vs. Boyer at the hot corner, and let the better brother win ... 

Not since the DiMaggios- Vince, Joe and Dom- scurried around center field on three big league teams two decades ago has a family demonstrated such aptitude for baseball as the Boyers. There are seven of them, five of whom have already played the game for pay, with two more coming fast. Cloyd, now 34, was a pitcher for the Cardinals and A's (1949-55) and is now a coach with Richmond, the Yankees' farm club in the International League. Wayne, now 32, pitched in A ball before his arm went dead, and is now a dentist in Kokomo, Indiana. Ken, 31, and Clete, 25, are, of course, established big leaguers. Lynn, 29, might have been in the big time, too, if he hadn't broken his wrist in his second professional year; he was an up-and-coming first baseman who recently graduated from the Kansas State Teachers College. Ronnie, 17, plays third base on his high school team in Missouri; Leonard, 16, is its second baseman. Both of these Boyer boys are being scouted, with Lenny, six-one and still growing, rated as a top prospect for a future outfield or first base job in the majors.

It was raining outside Yankee Stadium and the night game with the Red Sox had been called off. Clete, who takes things easy when he isn't on the diamond, felt like talking about the Boyers. He pulled up a stool and tried to explain how the family's seven strapping young men became ball players. 'You see, we grew up in Cassville, Mo., which you won't find on the map because it's so small, about 350 population,' he said. 'My father was a small farmer and in a town like that there was nothing to do but work on the farm- no movies, no TV, no street corners to hang out on. And across the road from our house was a baseball field.

'We were poor. I don't mean we didn't have enough to eat- you always eat enough down on the farm. But we didn't have money to spend dashing around in automobiles. When we had time off from school or farm work we played ball. We'd start playing when we were ten and by 14 or 15 we'd be good enough to get on a team in the Ban Johnson League. And we could stick in that league until we were 21, playing a regular schedule with games every day. That meant that we'd get in five to seven years of steady play- and there's nothing like steady play for making a boy develop rapidly.

'It's no accident that every one of us, including Ronny and Lenny, went out for shortstop first. Every kid wants to be a big wheel on his team and the two most important positions are pitcher and shortstop. Well, you can't have more than one shortstop on a team, so we'd shift around the infield or try the box. Max Buzzard, who was my coach, wanted me to become a pitcher because my arm was strong, but I like infielding better and stuck to it. I was a second baseman when scouts started thinking about me seriously.

'At that time I'd had seven years of Ban Johnson play. Many of the fellows in our league had signed up for the majors. Ralph Houk had gone to the Yankee organization before my time. Ralph Terry also became a Yankee. Most of our coaches had professional experience.

'To us kids along the western border of Missouri, there was only one big league team, the Cardinals; that is, until the Athletics moved to Kansas City. Cliff Marr, who was then a Cardinal scout, signed up Ken in 1949 and had an eye on me. Marr switched jobs to Kansas City, however,  and when the scouts got hot after me Joe Bowman of the Kansas City staff came down and looked me over. By then other clubs were making me offers. Bowman's was the best, $35,000. That's how I became a member of the A's.'

The Kansas City A's were suffering the after-effects of the Mack family's long struggle to survive in Philadelphia. They were no longer under a bankrupt ownership but they were desperately player poor. 'I was only 18 and weighed only 165 pounds with the result that I was not much use to a big league team, but I had to stay with the A's for two years because of the bonus rule that was in force then, instead of going to the minors for regular play and development. In 1955 and 1956 I was used mostly at second base, with a few games at third. My manager was Lou Boudreau, and there's no one who can teach a pivot play to a kid better than Lou. Harry Craft was a coach for the A's then. Day after day he'd hit fungoes to me, sharpening my reflexes. But it was pretty frustrating. I'd have been better off if I'd been in the minors playing regularly and learning how to meet game situations instead of bench-warming most of the time.

'The A's were perpetually battling for the cellar championship. They had no big farm system to draw on for recruits. Parke Carroll, the general manager, adopted the policy of trading for quantity, hoping he'd come up with winners. I didn't know that the Yankees had their eyes on me, especially Lee MacPhail, who supervised the Yankee farm system then. They concocted a five-for-seven deal. It was made in February 1957, but Commissioner Ford Frick voided it as far as I was concerned because I hadn't finished my two-year bonus term. So I sat on the bench from the opening of the season until June 4, when my bonus term ended. I headed East but never put on a Yankee uniform. I was shipped out to Binghamton of the Eastern League for the rest of the season and went up to Richmond the following year.'

Clete's prospects of becoming a Yankee regular were dim. 'The Yankees decided to convert me into a shortstop. I'd had some good experience in Kansas City, teaming with shortstop Joe DeMaestri. But I had trouble going to my right from the shortstop position. The Yankees gave me an accelerated course, sending Jerry Coleman down to Richmond for a full week just to tutor me.'

Finally, in 1959, Clete put on a Yankee uniform for the first time. 'But I had no place to play except as a late-inning substitute for Gil McDougald at shortstop. Tony Kubek was standing by, ready to take Gil's place when he retired. I'd had a little experience around third in Richmond but when Kubek went to short McDougald moved to third, and there was I, waiting around with nothing to do.

'But although my chances of becoming a Yankee regular were poor I had that good Yankee feeling.'

That 'good Yankee feeling' is there, in the air, in that Pin-striped uniform, in the hectic atmosphere of New York. Clete explains it this way: 'In Kansas City the boys would go to the ballpark, and they'd play to the best of their ability. In New York the Yankees to the ballpark to WIN a ball game. The Yankees have been winning for so many years that they can't stand the idea of losing. You feel the uplift as soon as you open the clubhouse door. You know you've got to do better than your best in every game, every inning, every time you go to bat. And when the team's behind, you're expected to come through in late innings.

'Well, there I was, a fifth or sixth wheel in the Yankee infield as the 1960 season opened. I'd get into a few games now and then when Casey Stengel juggled the lineup. Late in May Casey got sick and went to the hospital for ten days. Ralph Houk managed during his absence and put me on third base. I'd worked out at third at camp that spring. I'd talked about third base play with Ken at home, and, since the Cards also trained at St. Petersburg, Ken would drop and watch me play in our games with the Cards, and give me pointers afterwards.

'Then Stengel retired and Houk became our manager. In camp last year he called me aside and told me I was the regular third baseman whether I hit .220 or .320. Now it's okay for a manager to tell you that. But you've got to prove to yourself that you're good enough to stick, and you've also got to be sure the manager means what he says when he tells you what Ralph told me.

'My big day, the day I was confident I could stick and knew Ralph meant what he said, came in May. Los Angeles was leading by run one in the seventh. It was my turn to bat. Let's face it- in a situation like that the previous year, Stengel would have taken me out for a pinch hitter. Ralph left me in. I singled, tying the score. Then in the ninth-

'The A's were leading in the ninth- 4-3. We had two on base. Again it was my turn to bat. I looked around. Houk said, 'Get in there and knock those guys in.' I did, with a double. We won, 5-4. I was the hero.

'Look at it any other way- a fellow plays better when he knows he's won a regular job. I knew it that day. It was Ralph's way of telling me so, letting me bat in a clutch, me and my .224 average.'

There was never any doubt in Houk's mind about Clete's ability to cover third brilliantly. Third base used to be an old man's home for aging shortstops and second basemen. Clete was young, agile and gifted with a strong enough throwing arm to hold down the shortstop post in any company. As for his acrobatics: 'If you play like me from the time you're 14, you acquire an instinct for knowing what to do. One way of saying it is the old crack about your reflexes being sharper. That's true but it's only part of the truth. After ten years' infielding you learn how to play the hitters and after two or three months in the same set lineup, you know what kind of stuff your pitchers are throwing and can set yourself for an upcoming play accordingly.

'I don't keep book on opposing batters like some infielders do. After I've watched them a few times I file away the information about their batting habits somewhere inside my head. As a result, I have a mental jump on them. Fielding hot shots, line drives, balls off to my left or along the foul lines, coming for bare-hand pickups of bunts becomes a matter of routine. I've read that I have quick hands. Maybe so, but it's the quickness of all your faculties that makes hard chances seem easy. I remember when I'd play in too close for the double play or play the ball instead of handling it naturally. Steady work during games, playing regularly, cures such bad habits. And playing beside the same infielders every day helps a man know what to expect from his teammates. He becomes part of a smooth-running machine. He's no longer an individualist.

'As for those so-called acrobatics of mine, that's a matter of keeping in prime physical shape all the time. I think I'm that limber because every day before a game I put myself through calisthenics. That's like oiling up a machine before you put it to use.'

Until this season Clete's only serious problem was that puny batting average. He had the bad habit of fishing for outside pitches which smart boxmen knew and kept flinging at him. 'This spring Wally Moses, our batting coach, sold me on the idea of using the same method at bat that I use in the field. I mean, getting the jump on the pitcher. Wally's great on making an explanation sound clear. He pointed out that if I could gain a second in watching the ball as it leaves a pitcher's hand I'd have just that much more time to follow the ball and get set for it. A second doesn't seem much, but it's meant a lot to me thus far this season. I see the ball quicker, know whether it's going to be in the strike zone or not that much sooner. And I have more time to shift and place the ball in right on outside pitches, all of which adds points to my batting average.

'And I'm no longer a kid growing up. I've hit my right weight, about 185 pounds. My power has increased. I don't commit myself at bat as quickly as I once did. I have that much more advantage on pitchers. Maybe if I don't forget Wally's lessons I'll catch up to Ken in the averages.'

Then there's the added incentive that comes from being a Yankee. 'It's a funny thing,' Clete says. 'Here's Ken, the best third baseman in the game, five times a .300 hitter, third in the National League last year and everybody's All-Star third baseman. But he's in St. Louis and I'm in New York, and I get more press notices and magazine stories than he does. And, by the way, more of those nice little sideline emoluments that come your way when you're a Yankee.'

So at 25 Boyer is apparently set for a long, successful and profitable Yankee career. Tall, exceptionally good-looking, with black hair and dark eyes, he's the baseball hero type. But-

'I'm a farm boy,' he says. 'I have no desire to live it up in a big city. There's too much traffic, too much noise. I don't want a big house in Jersey or on Long Island. And I'm not looking for an outside business here in New York or any place else. I got married to Marilyn Sue King, a hometown girl, when I was 18. We have two little daughters, Valerie, who's six, and Stephanie, who's three. I'm in partnership with Marilyn's brother, who runs a grocery store in Webb City, Missouri, five miles from Mickey Mantle's motel in Joplin. Wintertimes I work in the store. Summertimes Marilyn and the girls come East, where we live across the Hudson River in River's Edge, New Jersey. That's enough for me.'

That ... and being the best third baseman the Yankees have had since Red Rolfe covered the hot corner 20 years ago ... "

-Charles Dexter, Baseball Digest, July 1962

"Probably the most spectacular fielding third baseman in the American League this year was the Yanks' Clete Boyer. Anchoring the Yankees' classy defensive infield, Boyer also showed great improvement at bat this season, raising his average some 50 points over 1961 and over his lifetime batting mark. The younger brother of the Cards' Ken set personal highs in batting, homers and RBIs in 1962."

-Official Souvenir Program of the 1962 World Series (Yankee Stadium)

1962 Profile: Luis Arroyo

THE PORTLY PORTSIDER

Arroyo's "Scroogie" Tightens Up Ford

"During the recent World Series games in Cincinnati, a rather portly man with wavy gray hair felt very much at home. Luis Arroyo used to undress and dress in the home team's clubhouse. He had worn the scarlet undershirt briefly in 1959 and, but for an extraordinary oversight on the part of the Reds' overlords, might well have been pitching for Fred Hutchinson's team against the Yanks.

One of these overlords was Hutchinson himself. 'He had me in St. Louis in 1955,' Luis says. 'I won 11 games for the Cards but he said I was lazy. So when the season was over he sent me to Omaha.'

Luis was always packing and unpacking his bags in those days. He bounced between Pittsburgh and Hollywood in 1956, thence to Columbus and finally to Cincinnati. 'Mayo Smith was the manager when the season opened,' Luis recalls. 'I sat on the bench mostly, but I did win one game. Then Mayo was fired and Freddie took his place. He took one look at me and without giving me a chance to pitch, out he sent me.'

Luis feels no animosity towards the glum-faced manager of the National League champions. On the contrary. Life, in the baseball sense, began anew for him with the Reds' Havana farm team. The story of his comeback from nowhere to fame as the Yankees' greatest relief pitcher in a decade is proof that's it's never too late to succeed.

'I got no other life than baseball,' is how he puts it. 'If I don't play, I don't make money.' Luis is a money pitcher both by inclination and from hunger.

Felipe Arroyo was a watchman on a farm near Tallaboa, a hamlet some 80 miles from San Juan, Puerto Rico. He had four boys, all of whom played baseball from tiny tothood. Luis always pitched; Raimon always caught. 'Baseball was like a fever,' Luis says. 'I was pitching for what you might call a Little League team when I was eight. There were leagues everywhere- in the eighth grade I was already in what you might call AA amateur ball such as they play in Central Park in New York.'

In Puerto Rico, baseball is an around-the-calender game. After the war, the New York Yankees played exhibition games in San Juan, Ponce and other cities. Luis, then 18, was picked as a member of the best amateur team on the island. The following year he signed with Ponce. Except for working in a bakery in 1946 and 1947, he has done nothing but play ball.

In the winter of 1947 Juan Garcia, owner of the Ponce club, paid Luis' expenses to the baseball school operated by Snuffy Stirnweiss and Phil Rizzuto in Barstow, Florida. The minor leagues were flourishing then. Bob Doty, owner of the independent Greenville club of the Class D Coastal Plain League, signed Luis to his first contract in organized baseball, and his zigzag climb up the ladder began.

'I wish I knew 15 years ago what I know now,' Luis said one day last summer after he had won his thirteenth game in relief. He might have added that he wished some of baseball's wiseacres had appreciated his dedication to the game then. After winning 21 games for the Greensboro team of the Class C Carolina League in 1949, the Cardinals began to groom him for old Sportsman's Park. He had a fine fast ball, a curve, a slider, a changeup, enough equipment to warrant serious consideration. He had something else- twice as much experience for a pitcher his age than almost anyone else. 'The pay wasn't good,' he says. 'A man's got to have money to support a family. That's why I played winter ball after every season. It paid me $50, $75 a game.'

He was kept on the Cardinals' reserve list until 1955. By that time he had acquired a thorough self-education in the finer arts of pitching. He is fundamentally a thinking moundsman. He studies batters, and detects little details about their stance, swing, mental processes. His advance notices were excellent when he, at last, became a big leaguer with the Cards in 1955. 'Look here,' he says, pointing to statistics which detail his record that season. 'I won 11 games and lost only eight. I was in 35 games. It was a good season, wasn't it?'

But there was something about Luis' gait, his casualness, his refusal to get excited that affected Fred Hutchinson oddly. Luis' release came as a shock to him. But, in the book of the average big league scout, 28 is too old; and Luis was already set in his pitching ways. He was tabbed as an almost-ran, sound of arm and heart, wise in the ways of pitching, but not quite good enough for the big time. The woods are full of such guys, arent' they?

'I kept looking for the Why,' Luis says. 'In 1958 I was back in Columbus. One day Al Hollingsworth, who used to pitch for the St. Louis Browns, was warming up for batting practice tossing. He was throwing all kinds of stuff. I see him throw a screwball. 'That's what I need,' I says to myself.' So Luis put his mind and arm to conquering the pitch that had served Carl Hubbell so well during his many years of southpaw supremacy.

The 'scroogie,' as it's called in baseball jargon, is a going-away pitch to right-handed batters. It looks like a normal cross-fire fast ball or inside curve until it reaches the plate. Suddenly it goes the wrong way, squibbing off the end of the bat for a foul or easy pop-up- or is missed completely. Add a sinker, a good fast ball, a change-of-pace and a slider to the screwball and you have Luis Arroyo, the incomparable, in action. The 'scroogie' is hard to control. It's hard on the arm, too- Hubbel's flipper was contorted for years of twisting, but Luis' is as yet unaffected.

In 1960, pitching for Havana in the International League and wintertimes in Puerto Rico, Luis quickly perfected his mastery of the odd ball. His earned run figures had plummeted to a sensational 1.15 in 1959. He was at 2.27 in August 1960, when manager Steve Souchock of the Yankees' Richmond farm team, added a postscript to his weekly report: 'Arroyo could make a good relief pitcher for the Yankees.'

Meantime, the U.S. State Department had put Castro's Cuba off limits for Stateside baseball. The Havana franchise was transferred to New Jersey, three minutes by Hudson Tube from Manhattan.

Bill Skiff, the Yanks' head scout, made the trip the following evening. 'I took one look at Luis,' he says. 'He had the best screwball I'd seen in years.' The next day, for $25,000, the Yankees bought Luis' contract from Cincinnati, owner of the Jersey City franchise.

Luis appeared in only 29 Yankee innings before the season ended, but won five games, losing one. At that time Bobby Shantz was Casey Stengel's late-inning mopper-upper. Casey vanished over the Rockies to Pasadena after the Yankees lost the World Series to the Pirates. Shantz vanished into the National League draft two months later after the expansion draft. Ralph Houk used Luis for the first time in an exhibition game with the Minnesota Twins in March.

The 1961 Yankees were a freewheeling, boisterous club, a young club, seeded with a few starry veterans. Luis moved among them like a genial uncle. He didn't look like an athlete in street clothes. He occasionally mingled with the crowds outside the clubhouse door, listening to the cheers for Maris, Mantle, Ford, Berra and the other stars, and went unrecognized.

But, as the weeks passed and he frequently rescued Ford and other starters, the fans began to cheer him, too. It was a new and refreshing experience for the old pitcher. One day he retired the Cleveland Indians with one pitch which was converted into a double play. In the bottom of the ninth, Johnny Blanchard socked a pinch home run. Luis wore the widest grin in the clubhouse afterwards. 'If I can keep winning games with one pitch, I'm good for another 15 years up here,' he said.

His string of victories passed the ten mark, the 11, 12, 13. Reporters crowded around his locker on such occasions. One asked, 'Where's a good Spanish restaurant in town?'

'I don't to go to many' he said.

'But you must know one or two,' the reporter insisted.

Luis mentioned an eatery in Greenwich Village.

'What's your favorite dish?' the reporter inquired.

'Beans and rice. That's what I used to eat all the time when I was a kid.'

There are few secrets in the Yankee clubhouse. Whitey Ford frankly told newsmen how he had pitched to various batters. Luis became equally frank. 'No, I didn't get him on the screwball,' he says about a hitter who fanned feebly on his 'out-pitch.' Luis would add with a smile: 'He went down on my fast ball.'

The experts called it 'setting a pattern.' Luis explains: 'A reliever has an advantage. We come in late in the game. Batters haven't seen us and don't know our pattern. We know what we are going to do. They don't.'

Luis is methodical- and slow- in everything he does except pitching. Elston Howard, a 'pattern-catcher,' who tries to remember every pitch thrown at every batter. Luis' 'scroogie'  has been so well advertised that most batters expect it after they've reached two strikes. Luis and Ellie delight in confusing, befuddling and out-thinking them. A batter, leaning forward for an expected scroogie, looks awfully foolish when a fast one slices the inside corner of the plate.

It sounds easy, if you have control, which Luis does. Pitching around the calendar has given his arm an automatic affinity for the strike zone. Long experience has made him philosophic. 'I didn't have it,' he'll say after allowing a run. His pitching is for real as every A.L. team and the 1961 Cincinnati Reds found out.

Luis appreciates his late success. He has seldom made more than $7,500 a year, the major league minimum, or a minor league stipend plus winter pickings. The Yankees raised him to $10,500 last spring. Next season he'll receive at least twice as much. At long last he'll be able to afford more than a hotel room; or, taught thriftiness from years of scant pickings, prepare for the long future when the scroogie will have become a museum piece.

Witty Whitey Ford calls Luis 'my other arm.' Gifts rained down on Whitey from admiring fans last September 9. A half-truck rolled from the bullpen, displaying a gigantic white Life Saver. From it hopped Luis. The affable, earnest avuncular Puerto Rican was grinning all over his proud pan. Combined into one super southpaw, Ford and Arroyo won 40 games and lost but nine in one of the happiest examples of true teamwork that baseball has ever seen."

-Charles Dexter, Baseball Digest, January 1962

"The round man with the educated screwball is Luis Arroyo, baseball's best relief artist. He earned 15 victories in 1961, a record for an American League bullpen specialist, and had a 2.19 ERA.

The Puerto Rican craftsman kicked around at St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati before finding steady work at Yankee Stadium in 1960. Arroyo commands the game's top salary for "piece work." He has a 38-28 lifetime mark."

-Don Schiffer, The 1962 Major League Baseball Handbook

"This was the first spring since he entered professional baseball 14 years ago that Luis Arroyo felt secure. He knocked around the minors long before he came up with the St. Louis Cardinals. From there he drifted back and forth between the minors and Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

The Yankees, needing relief help desperately late in 1960, bought Looie from Jersey City. Since then he has won 20 games, lost six. In his 65 relief appearances last year (an American League record for a southpaw), Arroyo was 15-5, saving 29 games and posting an amazing 2.19 earned run average. The graying Puerto Rican came to Whitey Ford's rescue 24 times, saving 13 games, winning five, losing one.

Despite his fine late-season performance in '60, Luis wasn't secure at spring training a year ago. He wasn't at all sure that American League hitters might not be catching up with him. Then he suffered a broken left wrist, the result of being hit by a line drive. But he returned to enjoy the most glorious year of his career, including selection on the American League All-Star team.

This year he knows Manager Ralph Houk is counting on him as his relief ace, but just to be sure, Luis is working on added pitches to supplement his famed screwball."

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Luis Enrique Arroyo (P)     #47

Born February 18, 1927 in Puenuelas, Puerto Rico, resides in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Height: 5-8 1/2, weight: 185. Bats left, throws left.

Married and father of four boys, Solveig (14), Luis (12), Harold (10) and Luis (6), and one girl, Marta Miriel (1).

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Pitched no-hit game for Houston of the Texas League, against Dallas, winning 3-0, August 11, 1954.

Set American League record, most appearances by a left-handed pitcher (65), 1961.

Set American League record, most games finished by a left-handed pitcher (54), 1961.

Received Sporting News Fireman Award as top American League relief pitcher, 1961.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

"Much of the credit for the Yankees' success in 1961 belongs to their capable little relief specialist, Luis Arroyo. The 34-year-old veteran not only picked up 15 victories in 20 decisions but was responsible for saving more than twice that number of wins for New York starting pitchers.

The one-time National Leaguer was obtained by the Bombers during mid-season, 1960, from Jersey City of the International League for Zack Monroe.

In 29 games during the '60 campaign, he replaced Ryne Duren as New York's chief bullpen artist, posted a 5-1 record, and had a fine 2.85 earned run average. Last summer, working 119 innings, Luis' ERA was 2.19. Only because he didn't work the required 162 innings kept the stocky Puerto Rican from being the Junior Circuit's ERA king.

A fine control artist, Arroyo was first signed by the St. Louis Cardinal organization in 1948. He spent four seasons in the minors before going on the voluntarily retired list for the 1952 and 1953 seasons.

Luis returned to Organized Ball in '54 and in 1955, he made his big league debut with the Cards, posting an 11-8 mark. The Redbirds sent him to Omaha of the American Association in 1956 and eventually traded him to Pittsburgh. He was 3-3 with the Pirates before being sent down to Hollywood.

In 1957 Arroyo's mark with the Bucs was 3-11. They dispatched him to Columbus (IL) in 1958 and dealt him off to Cincinnati the following season. On the strength of his record at Columbus (10-3), Luis earned his third shot at the Senior Circuit. He won his lone decision with the Reds in 1959 but was once again sent down to the International League.

With Cincy's Havana club, his record was 8-9; however, this doesn't tell the real story. His 1.15 ERA is more in keeping with the facts, and his total of 94 strikeouts against 15 walks and 117 innings shows just how well he toiled for the Sugar Kings.

In 1960 the Havana club shifted to Jersey City due to the internal tension on the island. Arroyo, who stands at 5'8 1/2" and hardly looks like a ball player [sic], was going along at a 9-7 pace (2.46 ERA) when Yankee scouts watched him working against the Bombers' Richmond farm club. They decided that the cigar-smoking vet could help the club and a trade was consummated.

The 190-pound southpaw helped his own cause last summer with some timely hitting, especially against the Boston Red Sox.

He was credited with victories over every club in the league except Baltimore, and was particularly effective against Detroit, winning four from the Bengals.

Arroyo picked up his first World Series win in the 1961 Classic, receiving credit for the decision in game No. 3.

New York's bullpen problems are nil with the Senor on hand. He's ready, willing and able to come in when the going is rough.

Luis, who is called Yo-Yo by his teammates, has one of the finest screwballs in the game. He's a family man, with five youngsters.

Last spring Luis had to make the club. This year he's got it made. Now all he has to do is continue to produce in the same fashion he has since coming to the Bronx, and another pennant is almost a certainty for the Yankees."

-The 1962 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook

SURPRISE, MAN!

"Did anybody notice Whitey Ford almost fainted when he was relieved by Jim Coates in the fifth game of the last World Series?

'I had my head down and never looked up to see who it was,' Ford said recently. 'I handed him the ball and then stopped. It was a right hand. I looked up and it was Coates. Every other time this season it was Luis Arroyo.' "

-Leonard Schecter, New York Post (Baseball Digest, May 1962)

"What a season Luis Arroyo had in 1961. He pitched in 65 games, won 15, lost only five, recorded an earned run average of 2.19 in the regular season and won a game in relief in the World Series.

But Luis was to be denied this kind of year again. Arm trouble shelved him in 1962, but he'll in there battling to help bring another championship to New York."

-Official Souvenir Program of the 1962 World Series (Yankee Stadium) 

1962 Profile: Bobby Richardson

1962 AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR

Jimmie Dykes on the Yankees' Bobby Richardson: "He's the greatest double play pivotman I've ever seen. I used to think Gerry Coleman was the best, but Bobby's better. Bubba Phillips- and you know how he can run- said to me that he goes down to first full throttle and Richardson still throws him out by four steps. He really makes the Yankees' infield."

-Baseball Digest, February 1962

"A solid anchor man at the keystone is boyish-looking Bobby Richardson, who continues to sparkle in the Series, following his .367 of 1960 with .391 in '61.

A Yankee since '55, Richardson had his best season in '59 when he checked in with .301. A spray hitter who lashes to all fields, his 49 RBIs in '61 was his career high. He has six homers in his lifetime, lowest figure on the club. Born in Sumter, South Carolina."

-Don Schiffer, The 1962 Major League Baseball Handbook

"Bobby Richardson has been called the 'Man who owns the World Series.' In the last two 'classics,' the second baseman from Sumter, S.C. had hit .367 and .391, respectively. In the 1960 Series he set a whole host of slugging records- among them were the most RBIs in a World Series (12), most RBIs in one game (6), and he became the seventh player in World Series history to hit a grand slam home run. Bobby tied a record this past fall by getting nine hits in a five-game series.

But it is as a 'glove man' that Richardson is best known. A fine fielder, he has been the pivot man in the best double-play combination. As a leadoff man, Bobby would like to increase his walks in 1962. Last year, he drove in 49 runs, his top major league run production. Bobby wants to play every game. He missed only one contest last year. In 1959, he led the Yankees in hitting at .301, his only .300 season to date.

The 26-year-old Richardson, a devoted family man, also serves his community. He is active in church work here during the season and in the YMCA and church activities in the winter."

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Robert Clinton Richardson Jr. (2B)     #1

Born August 19, 1935, in Sumter, South Carolina where he resides. Height: 5-9, weight: 172. Bats right, throws right. 

Married and father of two boys, Robert (4) and Ronald (3), and one girl, Christine (1).

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

One of ten players to hit grand slam in World Series game, connecting in 1st inning off Clem Labine of Pittsburgh at Yankee Stadium, October 8, 1960.

Set World Series record for most runs batted in, one game (6), against Pittsburgh, October 8, 1960.

Set record for most runs batted in, one World Series (12), against Pittsburgh, 1960.

Tied World Series record for most triples, one game (2), against Pittsburgh, October 12, 1960.

Tied record for most runs scored, one World Series (8), against Pittsburgh, 1960.

Won Sport Magazine Corvette as outstanding performer, 1960 World Series.

Tied record for most hits, five-game World Series (9), against Cincinnati, 1961.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

"Bobby Richardson topped off the 1961 season with his second successive outstanding World Series, and once again was one of the American League's outstanding glovemen.

The diminutive (5'9") second-sacker batted .261 during the regular campaign and reached a personal big-league high with 49 runs batted in. He also equaled his previous major league total by connecting for three home runs.

A fine bunter, Bobby was the No. 1 Yankee with 10 sacrifices; and his nine stolen bases placed him second to only Mickey Mantle among the Bronx Bombers.

Richardson broke into Organized Ball in 1953, seeing service with Norfolk (Piedmont League) and Olean (PONY League) during the campaign. He hit PONY League hurling for a .412 mark in 32 games and was promoted to the Class A Binghamton Triplets the following summer.

A .310 mark with the Trips earned him a shot at Triple-A ball in '55. Bobby was going along with a .296 clip in August when the Yankees called him up from their Denver (American Association) farm club. The stay was a short one, and after 11 games he was dispatched to Richmond.

In 1956 Bobby was back in Denver and batted .328. He also had 10 homers and 73 RBIs and was again called up by New York.

This time the move was permanent. After spending the 1957 and 1958 seasons as a part-time performer, Richardson was moved into the regular lineup.

Bobby made the most of his opportunity and in 1959 he was the only member of the Yankees to reach the charmed .300 circle, batting .301.

His average dipped to .252 in 1960, but he picked up nine points and showed a respectable .261 mark last summer.

The 166-pound native of Sumter, South Carolina, set two records in the 1960 World Series against the Pirates. He drove in six runs in one game (October 8) and sent 12 tallies across the plate during the seven games in a valiant effort that fell short thanks to Bill Mazeroski's ninth-inning homer in the seventh contest. Richardson and Mantle each tied the Series record in '60 by scoring eight runs.

Last Fall he gave Cincinnati pitchers a rough time and was instrumental in bringing the Championship back to New York.

Bobby can play shortstop and third base as well as second and has seen service at both of these spots during his tenure with the Yanks.

Although he's only 26 years old, Richardson is in his eighth season and fourth as a regular for the Bombers.

During the off-season he spends much time hunting and playing with his two youngsters."

-The 1962 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook

"Bobby Richardson may be the smallest of the Yankee regulars, but he is the 'iron man' of the American League champions. Bobby played nearly every inning and was among the top hitters and the first Yankee since Phil Rizzuto in 1950 to reach the 200-hit mark for a season.

But Bobby excels in the World Series. The fine-fielding second baseman has hit .345 in four Series, reaching a high of .391 last fall. He set a host of records in 1960, including a grand slam homer and a record 12 RBIs.

-Official Souvenir Program of the 1962 World Series (Yankee Stadium)