How mid-1960s New York Yankees dropped the ball

He got hurt playing touch football

The name "New York Yankees" still had allure for me through the latter 1960s. The name evoked legend and greatness. We watched the grainy black and white highlight footage of Babe Ruth. The footage was not "speed corrected."
It was clear the Yankees were mortal after 1964. The speed of their decline was stunning. I watched as a typical boy fan between age ten and high school graduation. The Yankees had such a long reputation of dynasty. But it was the generation of players of the late 1950s and early '60s that endeared themselves to my generation of the boomers. It was fitting that Jim Bouton wrote the book that broke the mold at a time when my generation was seeking to break the mold with everything.
Bouton was an exhibit in how the Yankees lost their luster over such a short time.
Billy Crystal fell in love with the Yankees of the late '50s and early '60s. His movie about Roger Maris was partly a personal expression about how he clung to those memories. The Yankees fascinated me too, even though my team was the Minnesota Twins. It was Harmon Killebrew of my Twins who with one swing of the bat, just before the All-Star break in 1965, sent a message that the Yankees were fading.
But let's go back to 1964. Lyndon Johnson would be elected president. The Yankees surged from behind to take the '64 American League flag, their 29th over a span of 45 years. So let's yawn, right? Only in New York City could something as silly as the Phil Linz harmonica incident enter the treasured lore. Yogi Berra, the great Yankee backstop (and character) was manager. He was criticized for not winning easier. But the Yanks survived the hard-fought race and took the World Series to seven games.
One could hardly guess that a collapse was imminent. But holy cow, the collapse set in mighty fast. Perhaps there is a lesson about complacency in all this. Do you suppose they thought they could win because of the uniforms? In '65 they had the same lineup as the '64 A.L. champs. The '64 win total was 99.
The Yanks' problems became chronic. There would be no immediate relief. The '65 Yankees won 77 games. The return of Ralph Houk as manager was no relief. My, the '66 Yanks went 70-89 and placed tenth! And in '67, ninth place. How do we interpret such a drastic fall from glory?
Misunderstandings have abounded. The team was getting old? Not really. Even wise guy Bouton who felt he knew it all, fell for this one. Any team has a couple guys on the older edge of the spectrum, and in New York's case we can consider Elston Howard, catcher. Whitey Ford was up in years but was still effective in '65. Mickey Mantle at age 32 - hardly a baseball senior citizen yet - was the only regular other than Howard over age 30! Maybe Howard and Ford were going to be phased out, but historically the Yankees had a system easily capable of finding replacement parts.
 
A costly failure to respond
The Yankees were hurt very suddenly by an inability and insensitivity when it came to handling player injuries. This is not only revealing but it's profoundly sad.
Why the carelessness? Was the organization asleep at the wheel? Roger Maris got hit by pitch in his right hand in May of 1965. Following X-rays, the team pronounced him fit and said the exam showed nothing amiss. Except, the reality was that Rodg had a broken bone. He played with bone chips, plus there was a detached ligament. His vaunted power was gone. Maris became justifiably bitter. We can be thankful his career was given a reprieve by the St. Louis Cardinals for the '67 and '68 pennant-winning seasons.

Bouton is quite the exhibit for appreciating the Yankees' collapse. In '64 he pitched through a sore arm and in fact impressed greatly in the second half, and he won two games in the World Series. In '65 he reported another sore arm. The team hoped he could deal with it again, but no. He was essentially done at age 26, notwithstanding his later attempted comeback with the knuckleball.
I have always felt that Bouton would readily trade all his success as an author for two or three more seasons in his prime as a pitcher. I think there was an undercurrent of bitterness in "Ball Four," a feeling that something had been taken away from him.
Now let's move on to Tom Tresh. The '62 rookie of the year was a cog with the pennant-winners up through '64. He even continued with the upbeat performance through '65, but in spring training of the following season, he had a fateful injury. It was torn cartilage in the knee. The Yankees were struggling and desperate to have Tresh in the mix. Same mistake as with Bouton - playing through pain and courting permanent damage. Tresh sought to be a trooper but his stats waned along with the whole Yankee franchise.
The ship was sinking. Tresh was essentially done at age 27. It almost seems criminal what happened to Maris, Bouton and Tresh. Young fans at the time weren't in the know about this, and young fans are handicapped by the "invulnerability of youth" syndrome anyway - we failed to appreciate the delicacy of the human body. Look what happened to Tony Conigliaro of Boston. Jimmie Hall of my Minnesota Twins had a beaning that many have led to his decline.
Shortstop Tony Kubek of the Yankees had a back injury while playing touch football with his National Guard mates. Kubek had to be written off at age 29. So the Yankees were getting "old?" Not really.
 
Too many abused pitching arms
My boyhood of following baseball was full of young pitchers who had meteoric careers due to throwing their arm out. Yankee pitchers Ralph Terry, Bill Stafford and Rollie Sheldon went down this way. Whitey Herzog has observed that throwing a pitch in baseball is an unnatural physical act. A pitcher literally injures his arm every time he throws a pitch, Herzog says.
Concerning? Yes, but it's not as bad as football. Us young fans had little or no grasp of the physical risks being taken by pro athletes.
Horace Clarke is a name that has come to be associated with the Yankees' nadir period. Ironically, a close analysis shows it was a "push" between Clarke and his predecessor, Bobby Richardson (a personal hero of mine).
We can consider the trade of Clete Boyer for Bill Robinson (who?). Well, all teams stumble like that with decisions from time to time. The Yankees were supposed to have the assets to overcome. Alas, the mid-1960s would not be such a time, so in '65 my Minnesota Twins brought me glee with the American League pennant, lifted by that dramatic Killebrew homer at mid-season off Pete Mikkelson, whose sinker ball must not have sunk quite enough.
 

And, what would you like for dessert?

How to order pie
Jake Gibbs came along as a celebrated prospect at catcher for the Yankees - he had a "name" because of his quarterbacking for Ole Miss. Gibbs was more deserving than Clarke of being a symbol of the Yankees' nadir. I smile as I remember an anecdote shared by Bouton in "Ball Four," about Gibbs ordering pie a la mode in a restaurant and then asking the waitress to "put a little ice cream on it."
The Yankees averaged less than 85 wins between 1966 and 1975. That covers my teen years. The Yankees seemed largely a ghost in my mind, a team kindling memories but little else. Billy Crystal gave us a paean with his movie.
In 1976 a whole new chapter opened. I was in my 20s and losing some of my baseball interest. The designated hitter was a turn-off for me. Player strikes sapped my interest, not that I didn't feel players deserved to be treated better. And then in 1994, the whopper of all strikes happened and I lost all emotional connection to the game. But I still relish watching the Billy Crystal movie. How about a movie about the harmonica incident? Just kidding.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com