Results tagged ‘ horace clarke ’
June 2 – Happy Birthday Horace Clarke
For long-time Yankee fans it was the “Dark Ages.” It was the interval of time that lasted from the day CBS fired Yogi Berra after the Yankees lost the 1964 series to the Cardinals, until the very final day of 1974, when George Steinbrenner signed Catfish Hunter as a free agent. It also happened to be pretty much the same exact period of time that Horace Clarke played second base for the New York Yankees.
We called him “Hoss” back then and I can remember screaming at him through my TV set during the early part of his career, “You stink Hoss!” He really didn’t though. He just had the misfortune of being a Yankee leadoff man in front of young hitters named Bill Robinson, Frank Tepedino and Steve Whitaker instead of young hitters named Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Elston Howard. Clarke amassed over 1200 career hits and 140 stolen bases while with the Yankees. I saw him recently at a Yankee old-timer game with that familiar number 20 on his pinstriped back. I’ve now come to the conclusion that those Dark Age days of rooting for the Yankees would have been even darker if it wasn’t for Hoss. Clarke was born in the Virgin Islands on today’s date in 1940. He shares his June 2nd birthday with a new Yankee DH.
June 27 – The June-born All-time Bronx Babies Team
There are a few days during the calendar year for which I can find no
current or former Yankee player, manager, coach, front office exec,
announcer etc. celebrating a birthday. June 27 happens to be one of
those dates. So instead, let’s look at the all-time best starting
lineup of Yankees who celebrate their birthday in June:
1B – Lou Gehrig – June 19
2B – Horace Clarke – June 2
3B – Phil Linz – June 19
SS – Derek Jeter – June 26
C – Bill Dickey – June 6
OF – Hideki Matsui
OF – Don Baylor – June 28
OF – Vic Mata – June 17
DH – Thurman Munson – June 7
P – Andy Pettitte – June 15
RP – Eddie Lopat
This month’s All-Pinstripe-Birthday team is strong at catcher. In
addition to Dickey and Munson, Mike Stanley and Jose Molina were also
June-born babies. The team is weak at third. I could have used “the
Stick,” Gene Michael, Fernando Gonzalez or Gary Templeton at the hot
corner but in the end went with Linz. The June-born Bronx Babies was
also one player short of having a great outfield and I was forced to
use the crafty starter, Eddie Lopat in this team’s bullpen for lack of
a closer.
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