1962 New York Yankees Prospect Profiles

JACK FARLAND   

"Six-foot, 190-pound third baseman Jack Farland is another promising young infielder in the New York Yankee organization. Farland, 22, is from Sturbridge, Mass. He bats and throws right-handed.

Farland ignored a football career to join the Yankees."

-1962 New York Yankees Official Spring Guidebook and Scorecard (Ft. Lauderdale Stadium)

JAKE GIBBS

B: L, T: R; Ht.: 6-0, Wt: 180. Married. Born Nov. 7, 1938, in Grenada, Miss., where he resides.

Mississippi's 1960 All-American quarterback signed $105,000 bonus with Yankees. Batted .270 in 106 games with Richmond of Triple-A International League.

Scouting Report: "A 'comer,' but may take time developing. Line drive hitter and deft bunter. Troubled by left-handed pitching but doesn't give an inch and so should improve."

-Baseball Digest Scouting Reports, March 1962

"The loss of Tony Kubek to the Army gives big bonus boy Jake Gibbs an early opportunity to catch on as a reserve third baseman or reserve infielder.

A former All-American quarterback at Ole Miss, Jake is a stinging lefty hitter who must learn to pull with power. Speedy and aggressive, he's considered a prime prospect (about $100 thousand worth). He hit .270 in his first pro season (at Richmond) last year, collecting six homers and 28 RBIs.

Jake was born in Grenada, Mississippi."

-Don Schiffer, The 1962 Major League Baseball Handbook

All-American quarterback at the University of Mississippi, 1960.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

PEDRO GONZALEZ 

B:R, T:R. Ht.: 6-0, Wt.: 175. Single. Born December 12, 1937, in Santo Domingo, D.R., where he resides.

Batted .280 in 144 games at Richmond of Triple-A International League.

Scouting Report: "Ability here- especially in running- but may have been over his head playing in the International League in 1961. If he can improve he may be ready by '63."

-Baseball Digest Scouting Reports, March 1962

Led Eastern League in hitting (.327), 1960.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

ALAN HALL

B:R, T:R. Ht.: 6-1, Wt.: 185. Married. Born August 31, 1938 in San Diego, resides in Tucson.

Batted .261 in 114 games at Binghamton of American Association, yet was walked intentionally ten times, tied for league lead. Two years experience.

Scouting Report: "Fielding and hitting both poor- must improve greatly to move up. Arm and speed just so-so."

-Baseball Digest Scouting Reports, March 1962

Baseball All-American at University of Arizona, 1960.

Signed by Yankees to bonus contract.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

GEORGE HANEY

B:S, T: R. Ht.: 6-3, Wt.: 182. Born September 8, 1939, in Charlottesville, Virginia, resides in Barboursville, Va.

8-8, 3.54 ERA  for Richmond of Triple-A International League. Completed only three of 27 starts. Two years of experience.

Scouting Report: "Owns a lively fast ball, but needs to improve his breaking stuff. Sneaky delivery."

-Baseball Digest Scouting Reports, March 1962

MIKE HEGAN 

"Nineteen-year-old first baseman Mike Hegan is playing his first season in organized baseball. Rated a top future prospect for the Yankees, Mike is the son of former major league catcher Jim Hegan. His dad is now a coach with the Yankees.

Hegan, 6-1 and 195 pounds, hails from Lakewood, Ohio. He's a left-hander all the way."

-1962 New York Yankees Official Spring Guidebook and Scorecard (Ft. Lauderdale Stadium)

HOWARD KITT

B:R, T:L. Ht.: 6-3, Wt.: 195. Jewish. Born May 12, 1942, in New York City, resides in Oceanside, Long Island, NY.

Fanned 209 in 149 innings, 9-9 with 3.38 ERA for Modesto of California League. One year of expereince.

Scouting Report:"Average fast ball with a good curve. Trouble moving off the mound. He'll have to show life to make it."

-Baseball Digest Scouting Reports, March 1962

Signed by Yankee organization, November 23, 1960.

Attends Hofstra College in off-season.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

PHIL LANDES

"If big right-hander Phil Landes had the experience to back up his excellent control, he would probably be pitching in a higher classification this season. Landes, 6-3 and 200 pounds, drilled with other top prospects during the New York Yankee advanced camp last February. He's 19 and hails from Kirkwood, Mo."

-1962 New York Yankees Official Spring Guidebook and Scorecard (Ft. Lauderdale Stadium)

DON LOCK

B:R, T:R. Ht.: 6-2, Wt.: 195. Married. Born July 27, 1936, in Wichita, Kansas, resides in Kingman, Kansas.

Batted .261in 142 games at Richmond in the Triple-A International League.

Scouting Report: "Does everything well but will have cut down on the number of strikeouts to reach majors."

-Baseball Digest Scouting Reports, March 1962

Attending University of Wichita.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

ART LOPEZ

"Fastest man in the Florida State League? That's Ft. Lauderdale center fielder Art Lopez. He has been clocked within a tenth of a second of the world's 60-yard dash record and can certainly cover plenty of outfield territory. He's a base-path terror, too. He's 5-10, weighs 165 pounds and is 21 years old.

The Puerto Rican makes his home in New York City. He hit .300 in his first of pro ball at Auburn, N.Y, last season and is certain to be a sensation."

-1962 New York Yankees Official Spring Guidebook and Scorecard (Ft. Lauderdale Stadium)

BILL MADDEN

B:L, T:R. Ht.: 5-10, Wt.: 186. Irish, married. Born August 2, 1942, in Danvers, Mass., where he resides.

Batted .269 in 89 games for Auburn of the Class-D New York-Penn League.

Scouting Report: "Take-charge type of player; likes to play. Lots of savvy and pretty good tools. Give him an outside chance."

-Baseball Digest Scouting Reports, March 1962

Attends Boston College.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

BOB MEYER 

B:S, T:L. Ht.: 6-2, Wt.: 175. German. Born August 4, 1942, in Toledo, OH, where he resides.

9-11, 4.50 for Binghamton of Eastern League, with 147 strikeouts in 132 innings pitched. Led circuit with 128 walks and 18 wild pitches.

Scouting Report: "A definite future- this boy looks like a pitcher on the mound. He is well coordinated and throws a lively fast ball. Good rotation on curve but tends to throw it too hard."

-Baseball Digest Scouting Reports, March 1962

Attends University of Toledo.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

JOE PEPITONE

"Born and raised in Brooklyn and a Manual Training High School graduate, Joe Pepitone is a Yankee with a future. A Texas League  All-Star last year with Amarillo where he clouted 21 home runs and hit .316, Joe has shown remarkable versatility for a rookie with the Yankees. He has been used in center field, at first base and as a pinch hitter. Joe swings a 'quick' bat (as they say in the dugout) and is a strong defensive fielder."

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Attended Manual Training High School in Brooklyn.

Signed a bonus contract in August 1958.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

A FOUR-SEWER YANKEE

Pepitone Prepped On Brooklyn Stickball

"Yankees come from Fargo, North Dakota, Commerce, Oklahoma, and other far-out places. But Joe Pepitone, a big-eyed skinny kid with wild black hair and a good Roman nose, is a Yankee, too, and comes from the Park Slope section of Brooklyn.

'It wasn't a tough section,' is the way Pepitone puts it. 'But there were tough neighborhoods around all over. I mean the Red Hook section, boy. that was tough.'

This means that Pepitone played stickball and pool and before that Ringaleevio; Buck, Buck, How Many Fingers Up? (a game which sounds suspiciously like Johnny on the Pony, One, Two, Three), and Kick the Can.

'Kids don't play those games no more,' Pepitone says. 'Now they're all doing the Mashed Potatoes. Don't get me wrong. If I knew how to do the Mashed Potatoes, I would. But all I can do is the Twist.' He sounded a little crestfallen about it.

But the big game was stickball. This is played in the street (what we called the 'gutter' in our misspent youth). The game has been going downhill since there have been more automobiles in New York than places to put them.

'Oh, I really loved that game,' says Pepitone, who is 21 and still not far from the memory. 'We'd play all the time. I'd get up early in the morning and play until dark. Even in the rain. We'd play one-bounce stickball, that's pitching on one bounce.'

When there were cars on the playing field Joe and his friends would scour the neighborhood for the owners. 'Especially on Sunday, when we'd play for money,' he says. 'We'd ask them to move the cars and they didn't mind. They had box seats to the game, out the window.'

The most Joe ever played for, he says, was five dollars a man. But when his uncle's team played (they were the older 'men') he'd hock the family jewels, if he could. 'I liked to bet on his team,' Pepitone explains. 'They never lost. We'd play them sometimes, but only exhibition games. No money.'

Pepitone wears a somewhat bedeviled look most of the time, but when he talks about the game (stickball, of course) there's an expression of gentle love on his craggy face. 'That was a game I loved,' he says again. 'It's actually a really skilled game. It's only a rubber ball and you have to have a lot of skill to catch it. It sinks and it sails, everything.'

Most fun, of course, was hitting it, and if the ball went clear to the corner, a distance of over four sewers, it was a ground-rule home run. 'I hit a few out there,' Pepitone says with the same becoming modesty he uses to discuss the balls he hit into the right field seats at Yankee Stadium this spring. But you get the feeling he's prouder of those four-sewer jobs.

Sudden, blinding tragedy ended Pepitone's tour on the streets of Brooklyn. First he was accidentally shot in the belly in one of his classrooms at Manual Training, a vocational high school. 'This kid had this gun,' Pepitone says,' and he pointed it at me and said, 'Stick 'em up.' You know, he was kidding around. Then it went off. We found out later it had a hair trigger. I thought at first it was a blank because I didn't feel nothing. And I saw that on my shirt was powder burns. Then I saw the hole and I reached around and I could feel it in back. I went into a panic. I was horrified. I didn't know what to do.'

It was the sheerest luck that no vital organ was pierced, and after 12 days Pepitone was out of the hospital, everything but his nerves patched up. A couple of years later his father, a construction worker, died at the age of 40.'

'He died about a month before I signed (with the Yankees),' Pepitone says. 'It's one of the main reasons I signed. When he died, I was a wreck. I like to talk about my father. We had a brotherly relationship. I mean I could talk to him, you know?'

The Yankees gave young Pepitone $20,000. It didn't last him very long. 'I was very young,' he says now from the vantage of his few years. 'My mother knew how nervous I was. She would let me do anything. I bought one car, had a little trouble with it, so I bought another. I gave my mother some money to go into business. She got a little restaurant, but it was too much for her. Anyway, I saw the money was going and I said, 'What the heck am I doing?'

That must have been the first attack of maturity. The other came in his first season of pro ball, in St. Petersburg where he was playing in a winter instructional league. That's where he met his wife.

It wasn't all beer and skittles right away. Pepitone and his wife went through the last of the bonus money, found it hard to adjust to the spartan life and went into debt. The Yankees bailed them out, gave them a talking to. Now there's a baby and it looks like a happy ending.

Of course, as in all baseball stories, there's a catch, otherwise known as the batting average. At the moment Pepitone is rated as an authentic hitter. But he understands the game. 'It's great,' he says, 'while it lasts.' "

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

LOU ROMANUCCI 

B: R, T:R. Ht.: 6-2, Wt.: 180. Italian. Born January 28, 1942, in Brooklyn, where he resides.

2-2, 6.68 ERA for Auburn of Class-D New York Penn-League.

Scouting Report: "Throws hard but has control problem. Needs work on curve."

-Baseball Digest Scouting Reports, March 1962

"Right-hander Louis Romanucci impressed the New York Yankees so much at Auburn, N.Y., last season that he was invited to work with other top prospects at Ft. Lauderdale Stadium in February.

Romanucci, 19, lacks only experience. He's 6-2, 190 pounds and hails from Brooklyn."

-1962 New York Yankees Official Guidebook and Scorecard (Ft. Lauderdale Stadium) 

RON SOLOMINI

B:R, T:L. Ht.: 6-0, Wt.: 175. Italian. Born October 22, 1940, in Brooklyn, where he resides.

.305 in 74 games for Greensboro of Class-B Carolina League.

Scouting Report: "Odd way of running- but gets there. Hits with power. Good arm. Has a chance."

-Baseball Digest Scouting Reports, March 1962

Attends Long Island University.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

"Ron Solomini, young Amarillo [Class AA Texas League] outfielder, still is paying off handsomely on the $40,000 bonus the Yankees gave him a year ago. The 21-year-old slugger broke up a thriller at San Antonio on August 2 with a 10th-inning home run that handed Amarillo a 4-3 victory. It was homer No. 10 for Solomini, who has been staying right around the .300 level."

-The Sporting News (August 18, 1962)

MEL STOTTLEMYRE

"Mel Stottlemyre of Greensboro (Carolina League) [Class B] was turned back in a bid for his eighth shutout of the season, but the right-hander won his fourteenth game, defeating Rocky Mount, 6-1, on August 5."

-The Sporting News (August 18, 1962)

HAL STOWE

B:L, T:L. Ht.: 6-0, Wt.: 170. Married. Born August 29, 1937, in Gastonia, North Carolina, where he resides.

Won 12 in a row for Amarillo of Double-A Texas League before lone defeat, wound up 14-1, 3.16. Three years of experience.

Scouting Report: "Spot pitcher. Fast ball and curve are fair but a smart competitor who pitches with fine control and poise."

-Baseball Digest Scouting Reports, March 1962

Pitched Clemson Tigers into Collegiate World Series two years in a row.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide