Results tagged ‘ february 23 ’
February 23 – Happy Birthday Roy Johnson
Through the years, there have been several members of the Yankees’ all-time roster who have had brothers playing in the big leagues at the same time. The most current example would be Yankee catcher Austin Romine, who’s brother Andrew has thus far had three cup-of-coffee trials as a middle infielder for the Los Angeles Angels. The first ever New York Highlander team had a starting pitcher named Jesse Tannehill, who’s brother Lee was a starting third baseman for the White Sox.
Today’s Pinstripe Birthday Celebrant also had a brother in the big leagues when he became a Yankee in 1936. At the time, Roy Johnson was just coming off three straight seasons as the starting left fielder for the Boston Red Sox during which he averaged .313, .320 and .315. He had also driven in a career high 119 runs during the 1934 season. But when that RBI number fell to 66 the following year, Boston GM Eddie Collins took $75,000 of Tom Yawkey’s money and went out and got Doc Cramer from the A’s to play right field and traded Johnson to the Yankees.
Roy’s younger brother Bob was one of the best-hitting outfielders in the American League for most of the 1930′s. He had his best seasons for Connie Mack’s terrible Philadelphia A’s teams during that decade. Bob had much more power than his older sibling and put together seven straight 20 home run-100 RBI seasons. He also made seven AL All Star teams, an honor his brother never received.
The Yankee outfield picture Roy Johnson joined was one in transition. Babe Ruth had left New York two seasons earlier. The team’s 1935 starting left fielder, Jess Hill had been traded and the starting center fielder, the temperamental Ben Chapman would get dealt to the Senators three months into the 1936 regular season. It therefore looked like Johnson would have a pretty good shot at earning a starting berth with his new team until he got to spring training and ran into a rookie from the Pacific Coast League named Joe DiMaggio.
Johnson’s poor timing relegated him to the fourth outfielder’s spot on that ’36 Yankee team. He played in 63 games that year and hit .265, but he also got to appear in his one and only World Series (2 games and 1 hitless at-bat) and won a ring. He again made the team in spring training the following year but was placed on waivers by New York in early May and claimed by the Boston Braves. This part Cherokee Indian from Oklahoma retired with a .296 lifetime batting average. His younger brother would later leave the big leagues with the same exact lifetime average.
Johnson shares his birthday with this great Yankee catcher and this former Yankee outfielder.
Here’s my all-time team of Yankees who had brothers playing in the big leagues while they wore the pinstripes:
1b Jason Giambi (brother of Jeremy)
2b Steve Sax (brother of Dave)
3b Clete Boyer (brother of Ken)
ss Jerry Hairston (brother of Scott)
of Joe DiMaggio (brother of Vince & Dom)
of Bob Meusel (brother of Irish)
of Matty Alou (brother of Felipe & Jesus)
c Bill Dickey (brother of George)
dh Carlos May (brother of Lee)
p Phil Niekro (brother of Joe)
February 23 – Happy Birthday Elston Howard
I was a huge Elston Howard fan when I was a kid. He never seemed to get the amount of media attention accorded to his more famous Yankee teammates but he certainly got the attention of Yankee opponents. In 1961 he hit .348, a ridiculously high average for an everyday big league catcher. In 1962 he drove in 91 runs from the six-hole of the Yankee lineup. In 1963, he was selected the AL MVP and in 1964 he played in 150 games, hit .313 and was named to his seventh consecutive AL All Star team.
The Yankees were slow to integrate their team, waiting till 1956 to do it with Howard, who by then was already 26 years old. Compounding Ellie’s delayed development was a Yankee roster loaded with talent and his first Yankee manager, Casey Stengel’s platoon system, which combined to relegate Howard to less than 375 at bats in five of his first six big league seasons.
It wasn’t until Ralph Houk replaced Stengel in 1961 that Howard became a full-time part of the Yankee lineup and by then, he was already 32 years old. Give him those 450 at bat seasons beginning when he was 22 or 23 and Howard would have hit closer to 300 lifetime home runs instead of 167, he’d have easily added perhaps 700 more hits to his career total of 1,471, he’d have seven world series rings instead of four and perhaps he’d be in Cooperstown today.
This former Yankee outfielder and this one too, also celebrate birthdays on today’s date.
February 23 – Happy Birthday Rondell White
I personally remember three instances when Yankee television broadcast crews actively promoted the acquisition of a player on a competing team. The first was Scott Brosius. It seemed as if whenever New York played the A’s during the 1997 season, somebody in the New York booth would make it a point of commenting how Brosius, then Oakland’s starting third baseman, would be a perfect fit on the Yankee team. The next time I remember it happening was that same season when the Royals were in town and somebody in the booth talking about how Kansas City ‘s switch-hitting DH, Chili Davis would be a great addition to the Yankee lineup. The last time I remember the booth chatting about who would be a great addition for the Yankees, the subject was a Chicago Cub and former Expo outfielder, Rondell White.
I’m sure there have been several other instances when somebody with a Yankee microphone made statements about acquiring players from other teams but either I wasn’t listening or the conversation centered on a superstar that every team coveted at the time. Brosius, Davis and White were all considered good solid players in their day but not superstars. That’s why it is so easy for me to remember thinking the booth chatter about each was odd. It almost seemed as if somebody in New York’s front office asked the game announcers to talk about each player as a way of making the team’s interest in them public but I couldn’t think of any real good reasons why they would want to do so.
In any event, the announcers were spot on about Brosius. The Yankees got him in a trade for Kenny Rogers after the ’97 season. The TV guys were also right about Davis. After a year of bad health, he became a key cog as the full-time DH of New York’s 1999 World Championship team. Unfortunately, their good feelings about Rondell White as a Yankee proved to be unfounded. The Milledgeville, GA native was signed as a free agent after the 2001 season and the hope was that he would fill the huge outfield hole left by the retiring Paul O’Neill. That didn’t happen. His batting average, slugging percentage and on base percentage fell of the cliff as soon as he put on the pinstripes and after just one season in the Yankee outfield, he was traded off to the Padres. White played well just about everywhere else, ending a fifteen year big league career in 2007 with a .284 lifetime batting average and 198 home runs. He was born on February 23, 1972.
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