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) 

1962 Profile: Bill Skowron

"During a Yankee game last season, the amazingly wild-swinging Bill Skowron swung at a low pitch and the ball got away from the catcher, a base runner advancing. The official was torn between calling it a passed ball or a wild pitch.

'If it hit in front of the plate, it's a wild pitch,' he said, thinking aloud.'But I'm not absolutely sure whether it hit the dirt or not.'

'Of course, it hit the dirt,' a nearby reporter wisecracked. 'Skowron swung at it, didn't he?' "

-Scholastic Coach, Baseball Digest (February 1962)

"Bill Skowron had the poorest of his eight seasons, closing with a low of .267. The burly first baseman had a high of 28 homers but failed to hike his RBI figure (89).

A former footballer at Purdue, Skowron became a Yankee in 1954 after stops at Binghamton, Norfolk and K.C. Prone to injury, he played his highest number of games (150) in '61. Known as Moose, he's one of the game's strongest men. Born in Chicago."

-Don Schiffer, The 1962 Major League Baseball Handbook

"A healthy 'Moose' Skowron generally means pennant insurance for the Yankees. Plagued with various ailments over a period of years, he played full seasons in both 1960 and '61 ... and the Yankees went on to win the pennant in both seasons.

Last year, the popular Skowron set several personal highs ... and, regretfully, a low. In the 'highs' department, he played more games, had more times at bat and more home runs than ever before. In fact, over a two-season period, Moose played 296 games with 1,099 official at-bats. But in 1961, the big first baseman also posted his lowest big league season batting mark, .267. This dropped his lifetime average below the .300 mark for the first time in his career.

In the last two World Series, Skowron has garnered 18 hits in 49 at-bats for a remarkable .367 average, with three homers and eleven RBIs. In five All-Star Games, the native Chicagoan (who now resides in Hillside, N.J.) has hit for a .429 average. Quite a clutch player!

The veteran of the Yankee infield helps to keep the opposition 'honest.' He has power as a left-field pull hitter but can hit the long ball to the opposite field as well. As the Yankees' leading right-handed slugger, Moose is a real threat to clubs that try to 'left-hand' the Yankees."

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

William Joseph Skowron (1B)     #14

Born December 18, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, resides in Hillsdale, N.J. Height: 6-0, weight: 191. Bats right, throws right. 

Married and father of two boys, Gregory (8) and  Steve (5).

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Played football and baseball at Purdue.

One of only seven players to hit a grand slam in a World Series game, October 10, 1956.

One of only three players to have 12 hits in a seven-game World Series, 1960.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

"The Yankees' slugging first baseman saw his average take a 42-point dip last season, but Bill Skowron reached a new high by blasting 28 home runs and contributing many key blows as the Bombers won the American League crown.

Skowron, known as Moose, played in 150 of the New Yorkers' regularly scheduled games and had 150 hits, good for 265 bases. His home run output topped by two his previous high, set in 1960, and his 89 runs batted in were just two shy of equalling his previous high, also set in 1960.

A native of Chicago, Bill was signed by the Yankees in 1951. He had been an All-America selection at Purdue University and set a Big Ten record by batting .500 in his senior year. The six-foot, 200-pounder, had also played football for the Boilermakers.

His first stop in Organized Ball was with Binghamton of the Eastern League, where he was converted from a shortstop (his college position) to a third baseman. After 21 games he was sent to Norfolk of the Piedmont League, and he promptly captured the Class B circuit's batting title with a .334 mark.

In 1952 the Yankees elevated their prospect to Triple A company. He won the American Association HR and RBI titles with 31 round-trippers and 134 tallies driven in and compiled a neat .341 average. In '53 he hit .318 for the Kansas City Blues and earned a promotion to the Bronx. During his stay with K.C., Bill played first, third and the outfield.

As a Yankee rookie, he was platooned at first with Joe Collins. During his initial campaign with the Bombers in 1954, he hit .340 in 87 games. In 1955, playing 108 contests, he batted .319 and polled 12 homers.

Skowron became a slugger in '56, with 23 circuit clouts, 21 doubles, six triples, 90 RBIs, and a .308 average. He was a .304 batsman in '57 and slumped below the .300 level for the first time in '58.

Injuries plagued him in '57.'58 and '59. He was limited to a token appearance in the '57 Series and in '59 he broke his wrist making a tag play at first. A torn thigh muscle added to his trouble that summer and he was able to appear in only 74 games.

In 1960 he shook the injury jinx and played in 146 contests. His 34 doubles were second highest in the Junior Circuit and he had a fine World Series, blasting Pirate pitchers for 12 hits, including a pair of homers while batting .375.

The Moose, who now lives in Hillsdale, New Jersey, and is in business in the Garden State, is one of the few Yankees to have an outstanding record in All-Star competition.

Now 30 years old, the muscular veteran has been a member of six championship clubs since joining the Bombers. His eight-year record shows him close to .300 and he has 142 big league homers to his credit.

Although he bats right-handed, Skowron has been known to take advantage of the short right-field fence in New York. He has probably hit more "wrong field" homers than any other player. Bill's 1961 slate showed 22 of his four-baggers coming off right-handed pitchers. He batted .293 facing lefties and versus righties, his mark was .256.

A healthy Skowron will do much to ensure another pennant for Ralph Houk's champs in 1962."

-The 1962 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook

"Bill Skowron is another Yankee who has played some of his best baseball in World Series competition. He hit .353 in the '61 classic, .375 in 1960. In Series play, Moose has rapped seven homers and has 25 RBIs.

Though this was not his best season, he picked up in his hitting in the closing weeks and hopes to make the 1962 World Series another big one for the Yankees and himself."

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

1962 Profile: Elston Howard

1962 AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR

HAVE THE YANKEES HELD BACK HOWARD?

"His bat was hot, his fielding almost flawless, but still Elston Howard sat out so many games he could not qualify for the batting title. And an old storm thundered anew.

While the sound and fury of Mantle and Maris' home run pursuit raged in early August, another Yankee was making an all but unnoticed pursuit of the American League batting championship. Weighed against the rare assault on Babe Ruth's record, the batting title meant little, except, you would imagine, to the Yankees' Elston Howard who was battling for it. But on August 15, right in the thick of the battle, Howard said the last thing on his mind was winning the title. 'I haven't thought about it all year.' So he said, anyway.

Despite Elston's easy-going attitude, the batting crown- specifically Howard's involvement in it- raised the question that has hovered around him since 1954, before he played his first game with New York: Are the Yankees holding him back? For by mid-August it became apparent that it was next to impossible for Howard to win the batting championship even if he drove his average to .400. He wouldn't made 502 plate appearances, the league minimum to qualify for it. And the fans' indignation, on behalf of Howard, began to grow.

'Can ya beat that!' a man bellowed in a crowded bar near Yankee Stadium on Saturday, August 5, after New York had beaten Minnesota, 2-1. 'Howard gets three for four, he's hitting .355, yet he ain't gonna win the title no matter what he does. They ain't gonna let 'im play enough. It sure looks fishy to me.'

'Yer damn right it does,' his drinking partner said. 'He's been hittin' like that all year long- when they let 'im play. Which ain't too often. They've always had something against that guy. In '58 he had a chance for the title, too, but Stengel didn't play 'im enough. And when he first came up the Yankees did everythin' they could to keep from playin' him AT ALL.'

On June 6 of this season, Howard had the highest average in the league, .389, yet he had only 90 at-bats. Why hadn't he been up more? After all, sportswriters had reported in the spring (the third one in succession) that Howard had finally emerged from Yogi Berra's shadow as the first-string catcher.

Sitting in the Yankee dugout during an August batting practice, manager Ralph Houk supplied an answer. 'I said I had three No. 1 catchers at the beginning of the year and that I also considered them as my bench,' Ralph said, arms crossed, ankles crossed. 'I told them that the fella who was doing best- the man with the hot bat- would be doing most of the catching.' He let loose with a burst of tobacco.

'Well,' Ralph went on, leaning forward to see a ball off Mantle's bat hit in the left-field seats, 'right in the first month of the season (Hector) Lopez slumped a bit, so I sent Yogi to the outfield and he fitted right in. Before that he'd been alternating with Howard behind the plate. After that the catching sorta molded itself. I caught Howard most of the time. I caught (John) Blanchard against certain pitchers and in certain ballparks and didn't have to catch Howard in doubleheaders. He's only caught doubleheaders against left-handed pitchers. This kept Howard strong and kept Blanchard sharp for pinch-hitting. We started winning that way and that's the thing we're interested in. It's unusual for a manager to have this kind of problem- three fine catchers with good bats- which I consider a nice problem.'

Heavy duty, however, did not seem to tire Howard. After catching Friday, Saturday and Sunday,and the first game of a twi-night doubleheader on Monday, June 5. Ellie sat by his locker-room cubicle between games. Houk walked over to him. It was a warm, humid night and Ralph thought of resting the big (6-2, 195-pound) catcher, but he was also thinking of Chuck Stobbs' left-handed pitching which the Yankees were about to face.

'Are you tired, Ellie?' Houk asked.

'No' said Howard, toweling his face. He grinned. 'Who's tired when you're hitting good?'

'Fine,' Houk said, patting him on the shoulder. 'You,'ll catch this one, too.' He did and went three for four.

Howard's bat stayed hot and he stayed in the lineup. Berra alternated in left field with Lopez and Bob Cerv. Blanchard worked from time to time, too, and suddenly exploded with a rash of homers. Between June 5 and August 6, Blanchard's clutch hits won or tied eight games for the Yankees. They went on to win each of the ties. Five of the hits were pinch homers. As a result, Blanchard played more, Howard, though hot as ever, less.

So you might say the Yankees have held back Howard in 1961, Yankees named Berra and Blanchard. If Elly hadn't been alternating with Berra at catcher for the first month of the season, and if Blanchard hadn't proven so potent a hitter (he doesn't compare with Howard as a receiver), then Howard would have gone to bat more.

There was then no reason to criticize Houk. Howard didn't even dream of it. Pulling off his uniform in the visitor's locker room at Minnesota on June 25, Elston- who had just banged a three-run homer and run-scoring single in an 8-5 Yankee win- discussed his manager. 'He's helped plenty,' Howard said, nodding at Houk lighting a cigar across the room. 'He's a quiet man and he talks things over with you. If he's got something to say he tells you nice and quiet-like, and the next thing you know you're talking it over.'

'Like what?'

'Like he's telling me all the time to hit the ball through the middle. Like that: 'Hit the ball through the middle,' he says. 'He can tell when I'm rolling my wrists too much and trying to kill everything to left field. He notices things like that.'

Down through August, Howard remained hot- fighting with Norm Cash for the league batting lead- and Blanchard cooled off. So Houk said that barring injury Elly would play most of the time from then on. 'Naturally, my first concern is winning the pennant,' Ralph said. 'But I'm going to do everything I can to give Howard every possible chance to take that batting championship. I'd be very happy to see him do it.'

By then, though, Howard appeared out of the batting race. He still had a mathematical chance to qualify, but a slim one. By August 5, for example, he had 262 at-bats, 16 walks and two sacrifices for 280 plate appearances. New York had 56 games left and if Howard batted four times in each of them he would have achieved 504 plate appearances, two over the minimum.

Howard himself thought at the time he could qualify. He was seated on a trunk near his Yankee Stadium cubicle, autographing baseballs and considering his batting title chances. 'I may be able to do it,' he said. Then he smiled. 'But I don't know if I can get enough base hits to win it even if I get  up enough.'

But ten days later, before a night game, Howard said, 'No, I don't think I can qualify.' He was sitting by his cubicle again but he wasn't smiling this time. 'If you look back, not many catchers have won the batting title.' (None in the American League and only two in the National League: Ernie Lombardi with 309 at-bats in 1942 and 489 at-bats in 1938, and Gene Hargrave with 326 at-bats in 1926). They have to rest 'em up for doubleheaders.'

Howard, who has played left field, right field, first base and catcher for the Yankees, could have been 'rested' on first base or even in left field. However, as Elly realistically said, 'Ralph's not going to switch me around just to win the batting title. We're interested in winning the pennant. I haven't played any outfield this year. And I've just filled in first to rest Moose (Skowron). He's got a bad back that bothers him every so often.' (Skowron also had a bad bat that bothered him and the Yankees occasionally in July and August, sometimes causing Houk to move Howard to first and Blanchard behind the plate.)

Even if the Yankees clinched the pennant, Howard said, he didn't believe he could play enough to qualify for the title. 'I figured it up- the statisticians figured it up,' he said. He pulled a clean white sock over his knee and rolled it on his thigh. 'Back when we had 50 games left, I needed four times up every game and I didn't think I could get that many.' He rolled up another white sock, then drew on the blue-black Yankee outer socks and rolled the tops of them tightly beneath the white.

It was a hot afternoon and the players were lounging around in shorts, socks and undershirts. Roger Maris was seated, feet propped up on one wall, in his cubicle next to Howard's, reading letters and squeezing a spring-pressured, grip-strengthener with his right hand. Luis Arroyo was blowing cigar smoke over his mail in the lounge, a left turn off Maris' locker.

'Did Ralph talk to you about the title?' Howard was asked.

'He said I didn't think I could qualify because catchers seldom play 120 games a year,' Ellie said. He reached up to a hook and took down a long-john-looking undershirt marked HOWARD in indelible ink. He slipped it over his head. 'But as I said, winning the batting title has been the least thing on my mind. I haven't thought of it all year. I've just been trying to get base hits. I'd like to win it, true enough. It would be a great honor. But if I just have a good year and we win the pennant- that's more important.'

Later that afternoon, Houk said: 'I didn't discuss the batting title with him until I knew he didn't have a chance for it. Then I said, 'Ellie, I want you to know that it's impossible for you to win the battle title. You couldn't catch that many ballgames and stay at top peak.' He said he hadn't given it a thought, but I thought it was best for me to discuss it with him. A man can't catch 50 games in a row and not suffer in the field and at the plate. I'm of the opinion that 502 times at bat is too many anyway. It almost eliminates all catchers from a chance at the title. I'd like to see that rule changed: 450 would be better.'

Quiet, serious and intelligent, Howard accepted his lot stoically. He was particularly careful to weigh every word he spoke on the batting-title subject. Of course, he thought of it, but he kept it in its place, remaining a team man first. Shrugging off the title in his public statements, Ellie was fighting hard to keep a storm from exploding on exactly the same subject as had haunted him in the past. The subject: Howard's skill and the Yankees' reluctance to use it.

Elston Gene Howard, born February 23, 1929, in St. Louis, Missouri, has been involved in that controversy most of his professional baseball life. Before he ever tried on his first Pinstripes, an organization of whites and Negroes had picketed Yankee Stadium carrying signs accusing the club of discrimination for not having a Negro player. Howard became the center of controversy during spring training in 1954. The 'Baltimore Afro-American' ran the front page headline VICIOUS CONSPIRACY BEING CONDUCTED, alleging the Yankees were mistreating Howard. The story, by Sam Lacey, also charged the Yankees with cutting down Howard's chances of making the team by shifting him from the outfield to an unfamiliar position (catcher).

'I ought to punch that guy's (Lacey) head off,' said the usually placid Howard after seeing the story. 'There's always someone like that putting words in my mouth misquoting me. A few weeks ago some wrote that I said Vic Power (his Negro teammate in the minors the preceding year) wasn't a hustler and things like that. I never said anything of the sort ... '

Howard won't discuss the incident today. 'I've forgotten that stuff,' he says. 'That's all in the past.'

In retrospect it is naive to think the Yankees planned to give their rivals exclusive rights to a whole race of ballplayers, but at the same time, they appeared to need outfielders more than they needed catchers. They had a teeming roster of catchers, including Berra, Charlie Silvera, Houk, Hal Smith, Lou Berbert and Gus Traindos.

After Bill Dickey taught Howard the basics of catching in 1954 spring training, Elston was sent to Toronto for seasoning. Although he had battted .353 in 1954 exhibition games and .286 in Triple-A ball the year before, Howard is not sorry he didn't stick in 1954. 'I'm just as happy I went down,' he said. 'I never thought I was a great outfielder. I learned everything about catching at Toronto. I couldn't have done that in the major leagues sitting around on the bench.'

He won the International League's most valuable player award in 1954, hitting .331, with 22 home runs and 108 RBIs. After the Cleveland Indians won the pennant that year- breaking a five-season Yankee monopoly- Yankee pitcher Allie Reynolds told a sportswriter: 'With Howard in '54, we would have won six straight pennants.'

The Yankees purchased Ellie's contract that fall and assigned him to a winter-league team as an outfielder because Casey Stengel still hadn't decided where to play him. Casey wasn't even certain he would keep Ellie with the Yankees. 'Howard's a good boy,' Stengel said at training camp in 1955. 'But I can't make up my mind where he's best at, even though I've had him hittin' cleanup, which I don't do except with a real good hitter, which he is. He looks good but I can't say he's made the team.'

That spring sportswriters of Arthur Daley's stature were writing things like: 'He (Howard) seems certain to be the first Negro to make the Yankees. The men  in the Yankee front office have stubbornly refused to be panicked into hiring a Negro just because he was a Negro.' (Jackie Robinson had only played eight years in the majors then.) 'They've waited for one to come along who answers the description of 'the Yankee type.' ' (Whatever that is though obviously fiery Vic Power wasn't while fiery Billy Martin was.) 'Elston is a nice, quiet lad of 25 whose reserved, gentlemanly demeanor has won him complete acceptance from every Yankee.'

Howard stuck with the Yankees in 1955, played in 97 games as on outfielder-catcher and batted .290, with ten home runs, seven triples, eight doubles and 43 RBIs. He's been with them ever since.

Rightfielder-leftfielder-catcher-first baseman-pinch hitter, Elston didn't surpass his rookie year hitting until 1958. 'The switching around hurt me a little,' Howard said. 'You have a tendency to worry about a position you're not used to. I worry at first base a little this year- the position's strange to me. But if it helps the club out I'll do it. I don't mind.'

In 1958 Howard had his first chance to win an American League batting championship. But he was plagued by the same problems that hurt him in 1961. He wasn't getting to bat often enough to qualify. On August 5, 1958, for example, Howard was hitting .342 and had the best RBI average per time up of anybody on the club. Yet he couldn't pick up 477 appearances, the qualifying minimum then, unless he was moved up to one of the top three spots in the batting order and played all the remaining games. Stengel wouldn't hear of it.

'There's nothin' I'd like to see better, of course, than for him to win it,' Casey said. 'He might get up enough yet.' No, Stengel was told, he couldn't unless he was moved up and played regularly. 'Well, I'm not gonna catch him every day and not have him ready for what I want when I need him. I'm still thinkin' about winnin' ball games and I'm not gonna worry about twistin' everything around everything for one man. I'm not worryin' about that and neither is he.'

Howard didn't feel Stengel lacked confidence in him. 'If he lacked confidence in me I wouldn't have been up here,' Howard said.

Ted Williams won the batting title that season with a .328 average; Ellie finished at .314. Ellie was the fielding star in the World Series against the Braves, contributed several key hits, and received the Babe Ruth Award, given annually by baseball writers to the man they pick as the Series' outstanding player.

'I gotta find a place in the lineup for that fella,' Stengel said after the Series. 'It's only justice. He earned it. He's a good hitter and he has a wonderful spirit. He's gotta lotta talent.' Casey indicated he would continue to shuffle Howard from one position to another, but that Ellie's days as a substitute were over.

Yet on July 28, 1959, Howard had a problem. 'I'm playing even less than I did a year ago, or so it seems, 'he said. 'What disturbs me most is that I feel a hot streak coming on, but Casey sees fit to keep me on the bench. Playing a couple days, then sitting one or two out cools me off.' Howard had hit home runs off Riverboat Smith of the Indians and Don Mossi of the Tigers on Thursday and Friday. 'Yet there I was,' he said, 'sitting on the bench Sunday all because a right-hander (Frank Lary) was pitching for the Tigers. When I'm swinging right I can hit righties as well as lefties.'

Howard conceded that his .263 average was well below the .314 he had hit in 1958. 'But how am I ever going to lift it,' he said, 'if I don't play?'

Howard is philosophical about it today. 'I never knew why he switched me around,' he says. 'I never asked him and he never told me. I've had four or five hits in a game, then sat out the next day. But platooning was Stengel's policy. He platooned a lot of good hitters. Woodling, Bauer, Henrich- they were all good hitters. He was platooning them before I got here. I don't think I could have been the one to change his policy.' He paused. 'Especially since his policy was so successful.'

After finishing 1959 at .273, and reaching his home run peak (18) and RBI peak (73), Ellie slumped in 1960 to .245. 'I tagged Bill Tuttle in a rundown at Kansas City in June (1960) and fell on my wrist,' he said. 'I was hitting about .290 then; I couldn't swing a bat after that. My wrist bothered me all the way to the World Series. Then I was all right until Bob Friend hit me with a pitch that broke a bone in my left hand.' He pointed to the fleshy part of the hand below the pinky.

This year Howard predicted in training he'd have a good season. Until then, he had hit from an open stance. But Yankee coach Wally Moses helped him alter it. 'We decided in the spring that I ought to close my stance,' Ellie says, 'and ease up on my swing. I was swinging my head off the ball. Moses told me to swing with my arms- use my wrists- not my body. I also began using a heavier bat- a 36-inch, 35-ounce one. I used to use a 33-ounce one.'

'Howard's a legitimate .300 hitter now,' Moses says.' He's got a real good swing, real strong.'

When Howard unleashes his strong swing, the bat lashes around in a blurry, wrist-popping arc. There's little body; just eyes fixed, stride, pop, follow-through and most of the time a hard smash toward centerfield. Just how often Howard bangs them back through the middle was shown in the first game of a Yankees-Twins doubleheader at the Stadium August 6. In the second inning he doubled to right-center off Pedro Ramos; in the fourth he singled to left-center; in the fifth he almost amputated a couple of fingers on Ramos' glove with a line-single that swelled the pitcher's hand so badly Pedro left the game after the eighth (it was Howard's sixth hit in his last seven at-bats, eighth in his last 11, and it drove home the game's tying run, 5-5); in the seventh he struck out; in the 10th he grounded out, the shortstop racing several steps left to field the ball; in the 11th he almost ripped off pitcher Ray Moore's glove with a line-single; in the 14th he struck out; in the 15th the Yankees won, 7-6.

When he sets himself up for a pitch- left foot near the plate, right one trailing obliquely, bat carved above his bent back- Howard looks like the hitter his average indicates he is. But apparently some pitchers and managers still minimize his batting ability. In August the Yanks and Indians were tied in the 10th, 2-2. After Billy Gardner doubled, Maris and Mantle were retired and Berra was intentionally passed to get to Howard. Ellie singled to right-center securing Whitey Ford's 21st win. Ellie laughed after the game, saying 'Maybe they don't know I'm hitting the ball this year.'

Howard excels in the field as well as at bat. The saying that runners steal on the pitcher rather than the catcher is generally true. Yet they seldom do even that with Howard back of the plate. On August 15 Luis Aparicio, bidding to become the first player to lead his league in stolen bases six consecutive years, came into Yankee Stadium. He had been thrown out only 11 times, three on pickoffs by pitchers, in 52 stolen-base attempts. Aparicio led off the game with a single and two pitches later dashed toward second. Howard came out of his crouch like a sprung jack-in-the-box and rifled the ball to Bobby Richardson. Luis was out.

The next day Aparicio again singled in the first. On the fourth pitch to the next batter, Luis was almost three-quarters of the way to second when the ball struck Howard's mitt. You didn't see its removal or the snap throw- only the white blur. Then Richardson was tagging and the umpire's thumb was up. Again Aparicio was out.

Not only can Ellie throw the ball and catch it, he can handle pitchers with confidence-inspiring skill. To a man the Yankee pitchers echo Whitey Ford's sentiments on Howard. 'He's probably the best in both leagues,' Ford said.  'He's improved so much in the last year or two by playing regularly. He has more confidence now and has an idea on how to pitch to every batter. You can go through a whole game without shaking him off. And he keeps you on your back out there, doesn't let you get lackadaisical. He makes you bear down when you do- gives you the fist, hollers out, runs out. He keeps you on the ball.'

He helped keep the whole Yankee team churning during the most important series of 1961, when Detroit came into New York September 1 trailing by only one and one-half games. In the first game he raced back to the railing with men on first and third and two out, reached into the seats and caught Norm Cash's foul pop to kill a rally. That was in the eighth of a 0-0 game. There was still no score in the last of the ninth after Maris and Mantle had been eliminated by Don Mossi's great pitching. Then Howard singled sharply to right-center and scored the game's lone run when Berra and Skowron followed with base hits.

Howard was hitless in four times up in the second game, which New York won, 7-2. But his bat made the difference in the series finale. With the scored tied 5-5 in the last of the ninth, two men on and two men out, Ellie took a terrific cut on reliever Ron Kline's first pitch. He missed. He repeated that swing on the next pitch and the ball landed far back in the left-field seats. It was Howard's 15th home run of the year- and his top one.

Elston lives with his pretty wife Arlene and their three children- Elston Jr. (five), Cheryl (three) and Karen (19 months)- in Teaneck, New Jersey. It is an integrated, upper-middle class community just 15 minutes' drive from Yankee Stadium.

Howard, who has been a public relations representative for Ballantine Breweries during the last five off-seasons, has given plenty of thought to his future. He has a partner and they are looking for a business to go into. Of course, this doesn't mean he's thinking of retiring yet. 'I'll be playing as long as I can swing a bat and don't get pushed around,' Howard says. 'Then I wouldn't mind going into coaching.'

According to Ralph Houk, Ellie could be a good coach. 'He's a student of baseball,' Houk says. 'He'll be a valuable man in baseball when he stops playing.' Which Houk hopes isn't too soon.

As the song says, he's come a long way from St. Louis. It hasn't been easy. It never is when you're the first of your race to do anything among white men. As Whitey Ford says, 'It was pretty rough for him for a while. There was a lot of pressure on him, being the first Negro with the Yankees. I think he's lived up to it real well.' He has, and then some. And if the American League rule-makers heed Ralph Houk's suggestion regarding adjustment of the batting title qualifications, perhaps next year Howard will achieve that 'great honor' so many people think he deserves a reasonable chance at."

-Berry Stainback, Sport Magazine, December 1961

"It was a long time in the making, but Elston Howard finally arrived in 1961, proving to be the best of all catchers. His .348 was the No. 2 mark in the AL and his arm was second to none.

The first Yankee Negro player in 1955, he's played the outfield and first base. Howard hit the most homers (21) and collected more RBIs (77) last season than in any of his previous six.

Born in St. Louis, he was the most valuable player in the International League in 1954."

-Don Schiffer, The 1962 Major League Baseball Handbook

"The old saw about hitters being born and not made may seem to apply to some of the gifted, such as Ted Williams, Stan Musial and Hank Aaron. But this is superficial truth. Hitters, natural or otherwise, can improve themselves, as has Elston Howard of the New York Yankees. Last season, Howard hit .348, a gain of 113 points. This year he will probably win the American League's batting championship.

Howard, who never before in the majors had hit as high as .300, has improved himself to the point where he is now one of the few players who can meet most-if not all- of the qualifications demanded of the championship batsman. He knows the strike zone, has enough power to handle the fastball, and yet not so much power that he lunges. He succeeds against both right-handed and left-handed pitchers and can hit through the box to all fields- and with good power. He's outstanding in the clutch.

Moreover, Howard is a superb low-ball hitter, a definite plus since most pitchers are constantly trying to keep everything low, where the danger of the home run is lessened. The knee-to-belt high sinker that is effective against almost everyone else is Howard's delight and pitchers simply don't know what to do with him. If they try him outside, he will go to right and right center; inside, he'll pull to left; a good fast ball, and he'll rifle it right back through the middle.

One of the factors that set the high-average hitter apart is that, unlike the free swingers, he cannot afford the luxury of too many strikeouts. Mickey Mantle, Harmon Killebrew and Jim Gentile, all of whom have more power, disqualify themselves from batting championships and give away as much as 30 points because they are swinging and lunging for the long ball. Mantle struck out 112 times last season, Killebrew 109 and Gentile 106. Howard fanned only 65 times.

Mantle is the league's most exciting hitter, in our opinion, because of his power which borders on the animal. Old timers speak of Babe Ruth and his 500 and 600-foot homers, and even about his prodigious pop flies. They also should observe Mantle's line drives and the ball that he blasts through the infield on one hop. Says first baseman Bob Hale: 'I remember he once hit me one that sizzled. I'm not kidding. I heard it.'

Mantle batted .317 last season and may hike his average this year on the theory that the demands for his power may not be as great with Roger Maris around. There are a dozen other bona fide .300 hitters in the American League. Al Kaline of the Tigers, who struck out only 42 times last season, could run second to Howard for the batting title. Some of the others who should finish high are Norm Cash of Detroit, last year's leader with a .361 average. Jim Landis of the White Sox and Jerry Lumpe of Kansas City are both ready to muscle in among the leaders after good 1961 seasons."

-Baseball 1962, edited by Lee Greene, published by Whitestone Publications, Inc.

"Raising his lifetime batting average by 14 points last year, Yankee catcher Elston Howard celebrated his greatest season in the majors with a sparkling .348 mark. This brought his major league lifetime average up to .287. His 1961 performance also resulted in the following personal Howard highs: most games played (129), most at-bats (446), most home runs (21), most runs batted in (77), most runs scored (64) and most hits (155).

Ellie, now at his peak at the age of 33, formally succeeded to the first-string catcher's job so long held with distinction by Yogi Berra. Like Berra, Howard was born in St. Louis but now resides in suburban Teaneck, New Jersey.

The popular veteran hit only .245 in 1960. This caused him to change his batting style, cutting down on his swing and 'going with the pitch.' The change worked to perfection as Howard lined hit after hit up the middle, and, by mid-June a year ago, the home runs started to come.

Howard, who has helped the Yankees immeasurably over the years as a part-time outfielder and first baseman as well as receiver, won the first-string catching job when Ralph Houk became manager and moved Berra to left field. Now Howard feels more secure and sure of himself and he believes that specializing has improved his work behind the plate and the added concentration on one job has helped his hitting, too.

Elston feels he can improve on his home run and RBI totals in 1962 while concentrating on one position. Houk will settle for the Howard performance of 1961 in '62."

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Elston Gene Howard (C)     #32

Born February 23, 1929, in St. Louis, Missouri, resides in Teaneck, N.J. Height: 6-2, weight: 204. Bats right, throws right. 

Married and father of two daughters, Cheryl (3) and Karen (2), and one son, Elston Jr. (6).

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Hit home run in first World Series at-bat, September 28, 1955.

Won Babe Ruth Award (top World Series player), 1958.

Led Yankees in hitting (.348), 1961.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

"Elston Howard had his greatest season in 1961 and hopes to continue where he left off last season. The 33-year-old veteran became the Yankees' No. 1 receiver last year and almost won the American League batting title. Only Norm Cash and the fact that he barely missed making the prescribed number of appearances at the plate kept the native of St. Louis from walking off with this laurel.

Howard broke into Organized Ball in 1950 with Muskegon of the Central League. After a two-year hitch of military service, he spent a year with Kansas City (American Association) and Toronto (International League). With the AA Blues, Elly batted .330 and drove in 109 runs; and at Toronto, he was named the league's most valuable player.

In 1955 he became the first Negro to wear a Yankee uniform. He served as Yogi Berra's understudy for six seasons before taking over the first-line catching chores last summer. In addition to wearing the tools of ignorance, Elly also played the outfield and first base.

As the Bombers' top backstop, Elston not only hit .348 but also batted out 21 homers, topping his previous high of 18 in 1959, and drove in 77 runs, four more than he had in '59.

While no speed merchant on the base paths, Howard is a good runner and a fine bet to get a piece of the ball when at the dish. His arm is one of the most accurate in baseball and he cut down many would-be base stealers last summer.

A jammed left hand and a broken finger in 1960 saw him fall to .245 as a batsman, but the healthy Howard upped that mark by over 100 points last season.

Elston lives in Teaneck, New Jersey, with his charming wife and three youngsters, just a short drive from Yankee Stadium.

An American League All-Star selection the past two seasons, Howard is one of the many Yankees who are always "up" for the big game as his World Series record shows. The Yankees know that Howard is always available for picket duty and can do the job at first base if called upon.

A righty all the way, Elly hit opposing hurlers thus: against lefties his average was .405 (8 HRs and 29 RBIs) and against righties he went .315 (13-48).

There was some talk last season about moving Howard up to the first or second slot in the batting order late in the campaign to give him a chance to get the needed 502 appearances for the batting crown, but Elston's first thoughts were for the team and not personal glory.

One of the class players in the game and certainly a pride of the Yankees is Elston Howard."

-The 1962 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook

"Ellie had the persistence to shrug off the discouraging factor of having played behind Yogi Berra for most of his career. And now, finally, he has displaced Yogi as the varsity receiver of the Yankees. He offers better defense than the aging Yogi and there's nothing wrong with stick work that can produce 21 homers and a .348 batting average. He can do a lot more than catch."

-Tom Gallery (Director of Sports for NBC), NBC Complete Baseball 1962

"This was NOT Elston Howard's greatest year ... but the hard-hitting backstop continued to win All-Star selection and perform as an outstanding receiver on an All-Star club should. After his great 1961 hitting accomplishments, Ellie hit .279 but continued to swing an effective home run (21) and RBI (91) bat."

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

1962 Profile: Yogi Berra

1962 AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR

"Top personality among all players is Yogi Berra, the Yankee dean in service who begins his 17th campaign and his second as a full-time outfielder. One of the game's most efficient catchers, he moved to the garden with his usual good humor and team spirit. His .271 in 1961 was the third-lowest average of his career.

Born in St. Louis, Yogi holds just about all the World Series standards, having played in the most games (73) and driven in the most runs (39). He's one of the few in business to acquire more than 2,000 hits."

-Don Schiffer, The 1962 Major League Baseball Handbook

"The Hall of Fame will be beckoning to the Yankees' Larry 'Yogi' Berra before too many more years pass. The three-time Most Valuable Player in the American League and one of the all-time great catchers has abandoned the mask and shin guards to become the club's regular left-fielder. And at 37, Yogi is still one the game's most feared 'clutch' hitters. As a rival player recently said, ' ... he's the best catcher baseball has ever seen and he breaks up more games in the late innings than anyone I know.'

Now that he's a full-time outfielder for Manager Ralph Houk, the venerable veteran hopes to lengthen his career. He already owns a host of records. He has played the most games and has the most hits of any World Series performer; he has hit a record 300 of his 340 home runs as a catcher; has the most chances accepted lifetime by a catcher (9,045); has the most hits for a career by a catcher and the most RBIs in World Series play ... among many [other records].

Berra, one of the most popular and one the ablest Yankees, needed only 34 more games this season to reach the 2,000 mark. He has played more full seasons with the Yankees than any other player in the club's history and isn't far behind Gehrig and Ruth in total games played.

From his start on the 'Hill' in St. Louis, Berra has come a long way. He is and has been a Yankee in the truest tradition of the name."

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Lawrence Peter Berra (OF-C)     #8

Born May 12, 1925, in St. Louis, Missouri, resides in Montclair, N.J. Height: 5-8, weight: 193. Bats left, throws right. 

Married and father of three boys, Larry (12), Timmy (10) and Dale (5).

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Named American League's Most Valuable Player, 1951.

Tied with Gus Triandos, most home runs in one season by American League catcher (30), 1952 and 1956.

Named American League's Most Valuable Player, 1954.

Named American League's Most Valuable Player, 1955.

One of seven players, six of whom are Yankees, to hit a grand slam in a World Series game, October 5, 1956, against Brooklyn.

Has hit more home runs than any major league catcher in history (300) while hitting 40 as an outfielder.

Holds record for most hits by a catcher, lifetime (2,053).

Holds record for most chances, catcher (9,045)

Has played in most World Series games, lifetime (72).

Has most hits in World Series, lifetime (71).

Has most RBIs in World Series, lifetime (39).

Has most chances, catcher, World Series,lifetime.

Has most putouts, catcher, World Series, lifetime.

Has most assists, catcher, World Series, lifetime.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

"One of the game's best bad ball hitters and an All-Star catcher for 12 seasons, Yogi Berra is now the Yankees' regular left fielder. The 37-year-old native of St. Louis made the switch when the Bombers needed him and did the job in style.

Berra joined New York late in the 1946 season and promptly tied a major league record by belting a home run in his first trip to the plate. He's hit a whole flock of four-baggers since that one, including 22 last season, and has 340 to his credit since reaching the big time.

A small but powerful man (5'8", 191 pounds), Yogi broke into Organized Ball with the Yankees' Norfolk farm club in 1943. He spent the next two seasons in military service and played for Newark of the International League in 1946. A .314 batting average earned him a shot with the Bombers and his .364 mark at the close of the '46 campaign solidified his position there.

Berra split the 1947 season between the outfield and catching and was the Yankees' regular backstop from '48 through '60. Under the tutelage of Bill Dickey, he developed into a first-class receiver.

His bat spoke for itself and Yogi was named Most Valuable Player in the American League three times (1951-54-55). In addition to his 340 homers, Berra has 307 doubles and 49 triples since coming to New York, and he's sent 1,367 runs across the plate.

Yogi's best year was 1950 when he batted .322, hit 28 homers and drove in 124 runs. He had 30 HRs twice, 1952 and 1956, and reached a personal high with 125 RBIs in 1954.

Berra has been a member of the American League's All-Star team in each of the past 13 campaigns and smacked a homer during one of the 1959 mid-season meetings against the National League.

The lefty slugger holds many World Series records, including most games played and most hits during the postseason classic. His pinch homer against the Dodgers in '47 was the first such blow in World Series competition.

Yogi's best Series was in 1956 when he slugged three circuit clouts and drove in 10 runs while posting a .360 average. He batted better than .400 in both the 1953 and 1955 Classics.

Berra now makes his home in Montclair, New Jersey, and is the proud father of three boys. His interests include a 40-lane bowling alley (he's partners with former Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto in this enterprise) and a soft drink firm in the Garden State. Yogi's autobiography was placed before the public during the 1960-61 winter and he is in constant demand at banquets.

Berra loves all sports and is a better-than-fair golfer. He is a regular at basketball and hockey games during the off-season.

When Ralph Houk needed a left fielder last year, Mr. Berra was his man; in fact, Yogi has also seen service at first and third base during his glorious career with the Yankees. While he's no gazelle in the field, Yogi makes the plays and his arm is one of the best in the game.

In his 17th season with the World Champs, Yogi hopes to repeat his 1961 totals. He batted a respectable .271 and drove in 61 tallies. His 107 hits were good for 184 bases and he pilfered two bases and hit five sacrifice flies.

Few players have contributed as much over the years, both to his team and the game, as Yogi Berra."

-The 1962 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook

THAT YOGI AGAIN

"Joe Gariagola was once sitting around with Yogi Berra and the conversation drifted to the attendance problem in Kansas City. 'The Athletics can't seem to draw at home,' observed Garagiola.

Yogi nodded his head sagely. 'Yeah, but if the fans don't want to come out, nobody can stop them.' "

-Herbert L. Masin in The Scholastic Coach (Baseball Digest, July 1962)

YOGI, 37, 'NOT THINKING OF RETIRING'

Expects to Play Just as Long as N.Y. Needs Him

'I've Still Got Things I'd Like to Do in Baseball,' Veteran Star Announces

"There is a reluctant air about Yogi Berra when he is asked to recall some of the golden moments of a major league career that stretches back over 16 eventful years, including his appearance in 15 All-Star Games and 72 World Series contests.

'When you look back, you're looking ahead,' the bard of the dugout said. 'I've got things I'd like to do in baseball.'

This was at the outset of a friendly inquisition to find out how much baseball, if any, there was going to be in Yogi's future.

It didn't take long to discover that the most colorful of all Yankees in the post-Babe Ruth era was not getting ready to clean out his locker at Yankee Stadium to retire to a life of clipping coupons as lord of the manor at his palatial estate in Montclair, N.J.

Briefly, Yogi wanted to make it known- 'once and for all'- at 37 years years of age he was still a competitive asset and not a sentimental liability already well traveled on the other side of the hill.

Future Wrapped up in the Present

Yogi's future is wrapped up in the present. That's the way he looks at, and despite the many verbal malaprops that flavor Yogi's everyday speech, no one- but no one- is any more clear or straight-ahead in his thinking than the estimable Lawrence Peter Berra.

That helps explain why Yogi has scrapped- for the time being, anyway- any plans to quit as an active player at the end of this season.

'Now don't go saying I'm not ever going to retire,' Yogi said. 'But if you want the truth, I'm not thinking about it now. And I'm not going to think about it until I feel in my heart I can't help the club anymore.'

'Maybe,' the veteran added, 'I'll change my mind, but how do I know now? The way I feel now, I'm going to keep on playing as long as they want me. You can bet nobody will ever have to tell me to get lost. I'll get lost all by myself. When I don't have it anymore, I'll be the first guy to admit it. But I ain't admitting that now because I figure I still got enough to help the Yanks win another pennant.'

There was no mistaking Yogi's enthusiasm.

'I may be 37 years old, but so what?' he said. 'Did you ever hear about Stan Musial? Anything wrong with Stan? You'd take him on your club, wouldn't you?'

The answer was 'Yes.'

'So there you go,' Yogi said. 'You don't get old by just getting more years on your back. You think old as a ball player and you get old.

'I don't mean I can play every day. But here and there I can help.'

Yogi poked a finger into my chest, then grinned.

'Remember that morning at that hotel in Detroit?

'Ah, c'mon now, you remember,' he said poking his finger with more authority.

At this point, I told Yogi that if I had his memory, I would have no mortgage and a swimming pool in the back yard.

'Don't change the subject,' he said. 'You gotta admit I saved you some money by not betting with you.'

It was all clear now. In the clubhouse after Yogi caught every inning of the Yankees' historic 22-inning victory over the Tigers, it was mentioned he'd pay for it the next day.

'Don't Bet,' Yogi Advised

'You'll need the trainer and a derrick to get you out of bed. I'll bet you five bucks you don't make it down to breakfast,' Yogi was told.

'Save your money,' Yogi advised at the time. 'I ain't that old.'

Just as he predicted, the next morning found Yogi as spry and as hungry as a rookie.

'I was sore a little, but not lame,' he said in recalling what he considers to be 'one of the high points' in his career.

More than anything else that has happened this season, that 22-inning stretch behind the plate proved to the veteran that if old Yogi isn't what he used to be, he still isn't ready for the old men's home.

'Don't forget,' Yogi said with justifiable pride, 'Up to the day I caught those 22 innings, I hadn't been doing much catching.'

In fact, Yogi's 22-inning marathon was only the third game he had caught in more than a year. Since the start of the 1961 season, Yogi's talents had been almost exclusively as a left fielder, right fielder and pinch hitter.

Yogi's interrogator then tried to slide the interview into another area. For instance, was he interested in managing once his active playing days were ended- whenever that might be?

Yogi, though, wasn't ready to shift his gears.

'Boy,' he said. 'Those 22 innings were long- seven hours- getting up and down behind the plate.'

It must have been a pleasant recollection.

Yogi sat there, his face wreathed in a big smile.

'Slept Like a Baby'

'Funny thing about that,' he said, 'not only did I feel good getting up the next day, I felt real good after the game. You know what I did? A bunch of us had been invited over to my cousin's house for a big Italian feed and we all showed up, late as it was. I wasn't tired at all. I ate up everything they put in front of me, then I went back to the hotel and slept like a baby.'

Yogi paused a few seconds.

'Did you say something about managing?' he queried.

'Yes. Would you like to be a big league manager?'

'Ummm,' Yogi said, deep in thought. 'Well ... yeah, I guess I would.'

'Have you got anything in mind?' I asked.

'Wait a minute,' he shot back. 'We're just talking here about when I'm through as a ballplayer. We're not talking about next week, or next month or even next year ... there is nothing definite. Right?'

'Right!'

'Okay then, yeah, I'd like to manage, but that doesn't mean I'd jump at any job they offered me.'

'That sounds like you've already eliminated some teams,' Yogi was told.

'No,' he answered in simple logic. 'How can I do that If I don't even have any team in mind I'd like to manage?

'But I don't want anybody to come to me without giving me the whole story.'

'What's that?'

'If I manage anywhere, I've got to have things understood. I don't want anybody giving me the starting lineup- and things like that. You know what I mean. I've got to have some pretty good players, too. You know I wouldn't jump into a job like that without talking it over good- real good.'

'Would you like to coach?'

'Maybe,' he said. 'It would have to be the right spot.'

'Have you ever thought about a business career of some kind?'

Return on Investment

'Not too much,' he said. 'I got money invested that's bringing me in a little.

'But about going down to an office and stuff like that ... I haven't thought about it much.

'You know, baseball's been my life. I've been with the Yankees all my life ... It seems like that, anyway. I came up here in 1946.

'Only once in all that time did I have trouble getting the money I wanted. But we weren't apart long. Every year, though, they've been great. I got no kicks. I got only thanks.'

'How did you feel the day you first walked into the Yankee clubhouse as a player?'

'I wasn't sure I'd stay long,' he said. 'I came over from Newark where I hit pretty good (.314, 15 homers).

'I figured I'd do all right with the bat, but I wasn't sure.'

Yogi picked up some confidence in the first game he played.

'We were playing the Athletics over in Philly and I got a home run off Phil Marchildon,' he recalled. 'The next day I got another homer. This time off Jesse Flores. It made me feel the first day wasn't a mistake.'

Yogi has made precious few mistakes. It's a cinch he'll be voted into the Hall of Fame.

And who in the Cooperstown shrine will be more qualified to be there than Yogi Berra?

Yogi has hit more homers than any catcher in history.

He has played in more games and has more hits in World's Series competition than any performer in history.

Copped Three MVP Awards

He was the Most Valuable Player in 1951-54-55.

He has more hits to his credit than any catcher in history.

He has accepted more chances than any catcher in history.

As everybody knows, Yogi is also a capable outfielder, author of a couple of books, raconteur par excellence, conversationalist without peer, dugout philosopher of the first magnitude and clutch hitter among the very best.

He is also an exceptional husband, father and provider to his pretty wife, Carmen, and the Berra brood- Larry (12), Timmy (10) and Dale (5).

Lawrence Peter Berra, Esq., is a bowling impresario and vice-president of the Yoohoo Chocolate Drink Company.

Mister Berra has excelled in everything he's ever tried. He'll do the same the day he manages his first ball club.

As Red Schoendienst once said, 'Put Yogi on horseback and he'll be a polo player.'"

-Til Ferdenzi, The Sporting News (August 18, 1962)

BEST EVER? '49-53 YANKEES

"Yogi Berra's best-ever Yankee list includes what he calls 'the best I ever played on.'

'I'll pick the teams of 1949, '50, '51, '52 and '53,' he said. 'How can you rate any team better than the five who won five straight world championships. They had balance- power, defense and great pitching. Don't forget, we had Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi, Ed Lopat and Whitey Ford as starters.'"

-The Sporting News (August 18, 1962)

CATCHING LARSEN'S PERFECTO ONE OF BERRA'S TOP THRILLS

"Yogi Berra has had many thrills in baseball, but he ranks two of them 'right up near the top.'

'Every time I was elected the Most Valuable Player was a top thrill, and I got it three times,' Yogi said.

'And how about catching Don Larsen's perfect game? That's something a catcher will do once in a lifetime,' he said."

-The Sporting News (August 18, 1962)

"Every time Yogi Berra appears in a World Series game, he sets at least one record. He has played in the most Series, the most games, he has the most hits, most RBIs, most singles, most total bases ... and so on an so on. If he should hit .300 in this Series, he would equal Babe Ruth's record of having hit .300 or over in six Fall Classics.

The great Yankee veteran has played more games as a Yankee than anyone other than Ruth and Gehrig. He has more homers than any catcher in history- by far. You might say, 'Yogi is the MOST.' "

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