1963 FARM CLUBS
Farm Director - Johnny Johnson
Assistant to the Farm Director - Pete Kalison
AAA
Richmond, Virginia
International League
Manager - Preston Gomez
AA
Augusta, Georgia
South Atlantic League
Manager - Rube Walker
A
Greensboro, North Carolina
Carolina League
Manager - Frank Verdi
A
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Pioneer League
Manager - Loren Babe
A
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida*
Florida State League
Manager - Pinky May
A
Shelby, North Carolina
Western Carolina League
Manager - Wilmer Shantz
*Owned outright, all others working agreement.
1963 SCOUTING
Director of Scouting - Jack White
Scouting Staff:
Dolph Camilli
Ed Dancisak
Bob Decker
Art Dede
Atley Donald
Tom Greenwade
Randy Gumpert
Babe Herman
Harry Hesse
Willis Hudlin
Gordon Jones
Tom Kane
Jess Landrum
Lou Maguolo
Buster Mills
Johnny Neun
Frank Novasel
Frank O'Rourke
Pat Patterson
Bill Skiff (Director of Scouting, Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada)
Mayo Smith
Steve Souchock
Eddie Taylor
Al Todd
Jack Warner
Bill Yancey
1963 SPRING TRAINING INSTRUCTORS
Manager - Ralph Houk
Yogi Berra (Player-Coach)
Cloyd Boyer (Minor League Pitching Coach)
Frankie Crosetti (Coach)
Joe DiMaggio
Preston Gomez (Richmond Manager)
Jim Hegan (Coach)
Wally Moses (Minor League Batting Coach)
Johnny Neun (Camp Coordinator)
Johnny Sain (Coach)
Wilmer Shantz
Steve Souchock
Rube Walker (Augusta Manager)
1963 YANKEES YEARBOOK "DEVELOPING FUTURE STARS"
Curt Blefary (C)
Ronnie Boyer (3B)
Jake Gibbs (3B)
Alan Hall (C)
Elvio Jimenez (OF)
Tom Kowalowski (C)
Billy Madden (C)
Mike Mathieson (IF)
Ron Solomini (OF)
Steve Whitaker (OF)
YANKEE FARM SYSTEM: Developing Future Stars
"The lifeblood of any baseball organization is its minor league system ... its farm clubs. And befitting the World Champions, there is no more important function within the Yankee organization than its farm system. The success of the Yankees in the future will depend to a large extent on the development of young players to replace today's stars.
Eighteen of today's Yankees were developed in the club's minor league organization. Last year alone, four youngsters made the Yankees in their freshmen years, a remarkable figure for any club ... but even more unusual for a defending World Champion. Tom Tresh (Rookie of the Year), Phil Linz, Jim Bouton and Joe Pepitone were all first-year men. The Yankees are continually rebuilding while winning. Going back only five years to the 1958 World Champions, only six present-day Yankees were on that club ... Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Elston Howard, Tony Kubek and Bobby Richardson.
Quantity is not, and never has been, the objective of the Yankee farm system. Quality is the objective. If a scout approaches a young prospect on behalf of the Yankees, he is doing so because he believes he can make the big club. There is no greater honor in the game than being a Yankee. The New York Yankees are the most highly publicized and best known team in all sports. This club has won an incredible 27 American League pennants and a record 20 World Championships.
'It's great to be a Yankee,' said Joe DiMaggio (and scores of others who have worn the famed Pinstripes). It takes work ... application ... desire. But the effort is worth it. Just ask the present Yankees.
Despite all of the honors and championships won by the Yankees, the team is building for tomorrow. Great opportunities exist today for ambitious young ball players who set their goals high- at Yankee Stadium."
-The New York Yankees Official 1963 Yearbook
STARDOM STARTS HERE
"The first- and most important- stage of the rocket to baseball acclaim fires when a quiet man watches a young kid in a sandlot game. Here's how super-scout Tom Greenwade discovers future greats.
Every major league ball club has a scouting setup, of course. Some are good, some not so good. The teams with good scouting can usually be found in the first division, year after year, although the man out beating the bushes doesn't step up to the plate to pinch-hit for some high-priced star. He did his job a half-dozen or so years earlier.
Scouting is the lifeblood of a major league organization. A pretty good estimate of each club's share of its revenue dollar siphoned off for scouting and bonuses would be between 20 and 25 per cent. In this day of $100,000 bonuses, the responsibility on the man in the field is almost crushing. He is trapped between extensive bidding for a boy with obvious talent and the awareness of what a few bad picks can do- to his reputation and the treasury of the club.
Every scout has bet his reputation on a boy who hasn't made it. That goes for Tom Greenwade, the Yankees' best. There are five or six men of Greenwade's caliber sprinkled through the other big league organizations, but this story is about the Lincolnesque Missourian and his methods.
First, Greenwade breaks most of the rules governing a scout's procedure, and has been doing for the 17 years he's been with the Yankees. Several front office bosses bit their nails to the quick trying to get Greenwade to put things on paper. His comeback is simple enough: 'If you want me, call me. If you can't find me, call the house. My wife will know where I am.'
He could be in one of a thousand places, including Commerce, Oklahoma, where he watched Mickey Mantle many years ago, and Chelsea, OK, where he signed Ralph Terry for $1,500. If the big picture is beginning to emerge to show why the Yankees have given up insisting that Greenwade put things on paper, well, you're showing signs of being bright enough to win a nice, fat general manager's job yourself.
The Yankees have about two dozen scouts, a number larger than most clubs, although the Dodgers and one or two other organizations are up there, too. What the Yankees seek is pretty much what the other clubs are also shooting for.
The Yankee scouts, and Greenwade, look for speed, throwing, and hitting ability- and probably in that order, although scouts might have an individual preference that would cause these qualities to be juggled in importance. If the boy isn't fast there isn't much hope for him to achieve the majors unless he's a catching prospect. Usually, a slow player will have to show a major league arm or bat for the scouts to display interest. Speed is so important because it can't improve very much with practice; a man is either fast or he isn't.
Greenwade has a working credo that, unlike an automatic elevator, needs an experienced operator.
'When I size up an outfielder,' he says, 'the first thing I want to see is the good arm. The second is good size, the third is power. Of course, if the boy looks like an exceptionally good center field prospect, you compromise on power the way I did with Bill Virdon. (Virdon is one of a dozen players Greenwade sent up to the majors.)
'First thing I want in a shortstop is quick reflexes- can he move to his right and his left, and does he have quick hands and a strong arm? A good shortstop can play anywhere in the infield. (Mantle was a Ban Johnson League shortstop when Greenwade signed him, seated in the back of his car on a rainy Sunday afternoon.)
'I like to see a catcher who hit and throw. He doesn't have to be fast. Of course, if he has good running speed that's great. (Elston Howard, a Greenwade find, didn't have running speed but received rather enthusiastic grades in the other areas.)
'In pitchers, I look for the kid who throws hard and is pretty good sized, say six feet one, and about 185 pounds. I tend to pass up the soft throwers, figuring I shouldn't take a chance on their cuteness getting them by in the majors. I stay away from extra tall pitchers because I figure they their coordination isn't as good as men a little shorter.' (Terry, at six-foot-three, had both coordination and speed.)
Jack White is comparatively new in the role of Director of Scouting for the Yankees, although he's known Greenwade for a dozen years. He had occasion to visit Greenwade on the job during a college tournament, and just as they got comfortable behind home plate Greenwade said, 'Let's go and get a real good seat.'
He led the bewildered White out to center field, reclined under a big shade tree, stuck a blade of grass between, turned, smiled and asked, 'How's this for comfort?'
White, in a daze, got back to New York and reported to Roy Hamey, the front office boss, 'He not only doesn't write reports, but he watches the games from center field!'
Greenwade's reluctance to write letters is understandable, and his reluctance to fool with notebooks at a game is based on sound logic. 'Half the time the scouts have their heads down making notes and don't even see which way the ball is hit,' he says. He doesn't bother with field glasses, either.
Greenwade nearly burst with pride last fall as he sat in front of a television set at home in Willard, MO and watched Terry win the seventh World Series game. Still, his prize catch is Mantle. How the slugger was signed is typical of the skill and resourcefulness needed in pre-bonus scouting. Only the fact that Mantle was destined for superstardom makes the story special.
'Mickey had played a game Friday night after graduating from high school,' recalled Greenwade, 'and had a game scheduled for Sunday. I had to drive over to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to see another prospect and I was mighty scared that some other scouts might get on Mickey's trail while I was away. But Mickey's father promised me that no matter what the offer was, his son wouldn't sign until I got back. Luckily, no other scout showed up.
'Mickey's father said his boy could make what we were offering him to play in Class D ($140 a month) just by playing Sundays around Spavinaw- where Mickey was born- and working around the mines during the week. So I got a pencil and a large Manilla envelope and we figured just how much Mickey could possibly make each year and then how much how much he'd make playing in Class D. It figured up to a difference of $1,150, so that's the bonus I paid him.'
Like most veteran scouts, Greenwade takes a dim view of huge bonus payments. He argues, logically, that anyone who must risk a small fortune on his own judgment tends to back away from anything that doesn't look sure-fire. In baseball, this works against players who can hustle and learn, but don't have the natural gifts of a Mantle or Mays.
At last count, there were 16 Greenwade players in the Yankee system. Others have been dealt in important trades- men like Tom Sturdivant, Bill Virdon and Jerry Lumpe. One of his players, Hank Bauer, went on to manage the Kansas City A's in the big leagues.
Scouting, though, is a never-ending task, and the ivory hunter who sits back and surveys with satisfaction what he has done is in trouble. He has to keep the boys coming, balancing his knowledge, experience and intuition in the often ruthless competition where the money is sometimes flung around like confetti. It's real money, though, and it's a really important job that the scouts do- as important, in the final analysis, as any other in the organization."
-Harold Rosenthal, Sports All-Stars 1963 Baseball
ESCALATOR TO THE MAJORS
by Johnny Johnson, Farm Director, New York Yankees
"Much depends on the placement of a player in an organization's farm system. Starting him too high might put too much pressure on a young player; a too-low grouping could waste a precious season two of his career.
In the Yankee farm system we categorize players as follows:
Triple-A: Experienced men a step away from major league play.
Double-A: Two years away, some experience.
A: Players with no more than one year of experience, heavy emphasis on instruction.
We also try to place the correct man in the managerial position in each of our farm operations. The Triple-A manager shouldn't concern himself too much with instruction but should be the smart, shrewd play-maker type.
Double-A calls for a man who is well-grounded. Major league playing or managing experience is not necessary.
In Class A the manager's chief strength has to be his ability to instruct. He must be well-grounded in fundamentals and must also be the type a young player can take his problems to."
-Johnny Johnson, Sports All-Stars 1963 Baseball
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