"The king will die, felled by the heavy artillery of the Minnesota howitzers and forced to abdicate by a tighter bunch of contenders who will spend more time seeing that this is the year the Yankees lost the pennant.
How will the Yankees fail to send their fourth straight flag to the top of the pole? Simply by being pressed from the beginning by the Twins, Tigers and White Sox. In addition, there will be those nagging close losses that every freshman manager must expect, and Yogi Berra, nonpareil that he is as a man and was as a player, is no exception. Add to this the continued physical inability of Mickey Mantle, the ailments of Roger Maris and the absence of hitters capable of putting together a consistent attack, and you have a pitching staff that will be shouldered with responsibilities far beyond its capacity- and a team finishing in second place.
The front four of Whitey Ford, Ralph Terry, Jim Bouton and Al Downing is as strong as any comparable quartet. But an off year by one of this group or a slump that could come to even the most formidable, and New York is in trouble.
Redeeming features are a tight infield, the continued emergence of Joe Pepitone as a player of substance, and the Yankee story of success. Not one of the Bombers believes that a pennant loss can happen- but neither did any believe they would know the bitterness of four straight defeats in a World Series. All of the Yankees think positively, an optimism that, like osmosis, seeps through to the most ordinary of bench warmers who suddenly develop a capitalistic complex when they find themselves in a Yankee uniform.
Berra must prove that his patience is as durable as that of his predecessor. Ralph Houk never criticized, whined, alibied or showed strain in the face of mounting injuries, disappearing batting averages, mysterious slumps. This exemplary mental courage taught his people that the game is played with nine to a side and that nine innings are required before a decision can be reached.
Yogi goes into a new job with what many feel is a Yankee machine geared to make another runaway of what hasn't been a pennant race in this league for too many years. However, Houk can tell Berra that the obvious doesn't always happen and an opponent never can be regarded too lightly."
-Don Schiffer, Major League Baseball Handbook 1964
1964 Spring Training Yankees Depth Chart
C Elston Howard, Johnny Blanchard, Jake Gibbs
1B Joe Pepitone
2B Bobby Richardson
3B Clete Boyer
SS Tony Kubek
LF Tom Tresh
CF Mickey Mantle
RF Roger Maris
UTILITY:
Harry Bright
Phil Linz
Pedro Gonzalez
Hector Lopez
PITCHERS:
Whitey Ford Stan Williams
Al Downing Bud Daley
Ralph Terry Steve Hamilton
Jim Bouton Hal Reniff
Bill Stafford
-Don Schiffer, Major League Baseball Handbook 1964
"When the new manager of the New York Yankees strode into the Salon Bleu of the Savoy Hilton for a press conference last October, nobody gasped in amazement that the new manager was Lawrence Peter Berra.
In a separate conference two days earlier, owner Dan Topping had announced Roy Hamey was retiring as general manager and that Ralph (3-for-3 pennants) Houk would take over for Hamey. That left the manager's job open for ... Yogi.
'Today's my day,' Houk said, half-seriously, when pressed about the identity of the new manager. 'He'll have his day on Thursday.' Thus, as it should have been, Hamey, a nice man, and Houk, an organization man, were given proper attention.
Yogi certainly had his day on Thursday. He could have said 'Nov Shmoz Ka Pop' and people would have laughed. For people are in tune with Yogi's image: he says funny things.
He wasn't, of course, that funny. Managing the Yankees is serious business. Yogi said he could be firm enough to manage the Yankees. He said he thought he knew enough to manage. He also claimed he had asked for a one-year contract. 'If I can't manage, I'll quit,' he added.
'He's got a good head for baseball,' Houk said.
'He'll have the respect of the team and be able to get the most out of the players,' seconded second baseman Bobby Richardson.
Whether Yogi can manage- and how necessary that is on the talent-laden Yankees- will become evident in 1964. Sooner or later, an issue of strategy and/or discipline will confront Yogi, and the man will grapple with the event.
Yogi follows in some pretty impressive footsteps. Houk, undoubtedly a good manager, won three pennants and two championships until a funny thing happened last October. Casey Stengel, 'the slickest manager in baseball,' did splendidly before him.
The Yankees are just overwhelming. In 1963, with Mickey Mantle sidelined with a broken foot and a wobbly knee, with Roger Maris hurt most of the time, with Luis Arroyo's arm gone dead, the Yankees still ran away from the American League. No team in the league could scare them.
Why should it not be the same this year? A knee operation last fall may have restored Mantle's daily brilliance. But even a part-time Mantle, throwing his knuckler before games and jostling in the dugout during games, is probably worth a dozen victories.
Maris, however injury-prone he may be, is still one of the best players in baseball. Tom Tresh would be the best outfielder on quite a few teams and fourth man Hector Lopez wouldn't be riding many benches.
The infield is young and able. Nobody will disrupt the quartet of first baseman Joe Pepitone (23), Richardson (28), shortstop Tony Kubek (27) and third baseman Clete Boyer (27). Utility man Phil Linz (24) supplies added insurance.
Yogi won't catch anymore, so the Yankees will just have to struggle along with the Most Valuable Player in the American League. Big Daddy Elston Howard (34) should still have several years of long-ball hitting, solid receiving and capable handling of the young pitchers.
Ah, yes, the young pitchers. Who else but the Yankees could develop Al Downing (22) and Jim Bouton (25) in the same season? Bouton won 21 games in a full season and Downing won 13 after being recalled from Richmond in June. Isn't there a federal antitrust law against a team owning two bright, young solid citizens like Bouton and Downing? [No, because of baseball's antitrust exemption.]
It doesn't seem fair.
Old man Whitey Ford, 35 and veteran of 15 professional seasons, is Yogi's pitching coach this year. Yogi has assigned Whitey to win 15 games himself and 'learn his experience' to others.
Ralph Terry, 28, had a mediocre season (17-15) and couldn't even promote a start in the brief World Series. He's still important.
If there is one weakness, it is the relief and the second-line pitching. The bullpen- pudgy Hal Reniff, tall Steve Hamilton and young Tom Metcalf- may not be sensational. Possible starters Stan Williams and Bill Stafford did not impress last year. And there don't seem to be any promising young pitchers in the minors, but you know the Yankees.
One weakness- where other clubs have 15 or 20- should not stand in the way of Yogi's first pennant and the Yankees' 29th."
-Bill Wise, 1964 Official Baseball Almanac
THE AMERICAN LEAGUE
"Every season there's a new theory why the Yankees will lose. Almost every season the theory dissolves in despair.
This season the theory is this: By sweeping the Yankees in four straight games in last year's World Series, the Dodgers proved that the Yankees can be beaten. Not only that, the Dodgers indicated the Yankees may be overrated. From this the theory goes on to stipulate that now the other American League contenders, having discarded their Yankee complex, will rise up and destroy the pin-striped monster who has won 13 of the last 15 pennants.
The only trouble with this theory is that it's meaningless.
The Yankees played four games against the Dodgers. They play 162 games in the American League. The Yankees faced three of baseball's best pitchers in the four-game span. The Yankees don't face three pitchers like Koufax, Podres and Drysdale in four weeks in the American League, much less four games.
There is another fallacy to this theory. It is based on psychology. Very few baseball games are won with psychology. They are won with base hits and strikes.
The Yankees possess the players who, over the season, will produce enough base-hits and strikes to win more games than any of their rivals. It's a nice theory, this psychology bit, but it won't work. The Yankees will see to that. Strangely enough, they may be aided by something psychological. They desperately want to win this pennant so that they can get another shot at the Dodgers in the World Series.
That's the only time psychology pays off- when you have the base-hits and strikes to back it up.
The Yankees have another incentive: to win a record-tying fifth consecutive pennant. In the confusion over new manager Yogi Berra, that statistical tidbit has been overlooked, mainly because the streak will involve three managers, assuming the Yankees win. Casey Stengel was the manager when it started in 1960. Then Ralph Houk guided the Yankees to three pennants in his three years as manager, 1961-62-63. And now Berra has an opportunity to make it five straight.
That's only been done once before- by the Yankees, naturally, when Stengel was the manager, 1949-50-51-52-53. After losing to the Indians in 1954, the Yankees won four more pennants in a row under Stengel but lost their bid for the fifth when the White Sox, with the Go-Go-Go slogan, won in 1959.
The White Sox will be talking pennant this time, too. Al Lopez, their manager, is always talking pennant in the Spring. It's amazing how silent he becomes in the Fall. But Lopez, of course, is the only American League manager with the credentials to talk pennant. He's the only manager to disrupt the Yankee pennant streak- with the Indians in 1954 and with the White Sox in 1959. The White Sox will make a bid. They always do. And they have some good pitchers. But there are too many holes in their lineup- especially with sparkplug Nellie Fox gone.
There's another manager who'll be talking pennant, too. His name, of course, is Charley Dressen. He has the credentials, too, from the National League where he won twice with the Dodgers a decade ago when they were in Brooklyn.
Dressen's problem then, as now, was the Yankees. He lost to them twice in the World Series. As a result, he lost his job. Give him a few years and he'll probably lose a few pennants to the Yankees, too. And he'll probably lose his job again, too. That's the way life is in the American League.
That's why the other teams have to depend on psychology to give them some hope for a pennant. They know they can't depend on their players, not when they're compared to the Yankee players."
-Dave Anderson, 1964 Major League Baseball Handbook
"On the day Yogi Berra was appointed manager of the Yankees, he was standing in front of a microphone in a ballroom of a snazzy New York hotel and he was answering questions from the assembled newsmen. Somebody asked him:
'What makes a good manager, Yogi?'
'Good ballplayers,' Yogi answered.
The Yankees, of course, have more good ballplayers than any team in the American League. Which should make Yogi Berra a good manager in 1964, a pennant-winning manager in his first year - as Ralph Houk was, and as Casey Stengel was. Berra inherits more than players. He now bears the responsibility of the Yankee heritage: to win the pennant so that the Yankees can get even with the Dodgers in the World Series.
The thought of the four-straight defeat by the Dodgers in last year's World Series should give the Yankees all the incentive they need to win the American League pennant.
With their personnel, they don't need much incentive. But it helps. Last season they developed two young pitchers who loom as aces of their staff in a few years: right-hander Jim Bouton and left-hander Al Downing. This season Downing figures to join Bouton among 20-game winners. Maybe Whitey Ford can win 20, too, if his duties as pitching coach don't disturb his concentration. Ralph Terry also figures to bounce back to 20-game form. Which gives the Yankees four possible 20-game winners. That should be enough to avoid some worries for Berra.
But the Yankees not only have the most proven pitchers in the American League, they also have the most proven hitters.
There is Mickey Mantle. There is Roger Maris. There is also Elston Howard. No other club can claim three players who have won the American League's Most Valuable Player award. These three have monopolized the award the past four seasons: Maris in 1960 and 1961, Mantle in 1962 and Howard last season. And this year both Mantle and Maris figure to be healthier, just on percentages, than they were last season when the Yankee bench made the big difference in the pennant race.
When Mantle and Maris are playing, along with left-fielder Tom Tresh, the Yankees have the most dangerous outfield in the league, if not in the majors.
Their infield is just as good. So good defensively, in fact, that it's the hidden factor behind the success of the Yankee pitchers. Hit the ball on the ground and it's a double play. They're all excellent glove men: Joe Pepitone at first base, Bobby Richardson at second, Tony Kubek at shortstop and Clete Boyer at third. And there's depth, too, because if anyone is hurt, Phil Linz can step in and play pennant-winning baseball.
There is depth in catchers, too, where John Blanchard, when he's playing regularly, is a dangerous home run hitter. But barring a serious injury to Howard, he's not going to be playing regularly.
This, then, is the collection of 'good ballplayers' which figure to make Yogi Berra a good manager in 1964. And which figure to increase the attendance at Yankee Stadium, where it has been on a gradual decline in recent seasons. It's not a serious drop-off, but no decline is considered trivial in the Yankee front office. That's why they usually win."
-Dave Anderson, Major League Baseball Handbook 1964
"Many teams stress balance, but none has it like the American League champs. They won easily with Mantle and Maris out most of 1963, and the two stars are due back this season.
A book, in fact, several books could easily be written about the key to the Yankee success, but nothing illustrates it more graphically than the team's standing in '63. Last season the American League champs paid about $170,000 to their M-and-M boys - Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris - but they got little playing time from the two sluggers.
Such a development would have rocked another club to its foundations. The Yankees? They won the pennant 8 1/2 games ahead of the winning pace they had set the previous year.
Briefly, the key to success in baseball is balance - and that means not only equality of strength in hitting and pitching, but also the ability to fill in effortlessly for an absent star. Few organizations have been able to do this as well as the Yankees.
Take the hitting: with Mantle and Maris hobbled, stars-to-order leaped into the breach: Elston Howard, Tom Tresh, Bobby Richardson and Joe Pepitone.
Or take the pitching: When Ralph Terry, hero of the 1962 World Series against the Giants, skidded a bit and wound up as a reliever, Whitey Ford came through with a brilliant league-leading year. And sophomore ace Jim Bouton provided a right-handed complement to Ford's lefthanded slants.
Three years ago, when the Yankee brass shelved manager Casey Stengel and front office boss George Weiss for Ralph Houk and Roy Hamey, most of the other American League clubs permitted themselves a sigh of relief - the New Yorkers would be coming back to them. Now after three straight pennants and two World Series victories, the Yankees have made another switch, Houk to the front office, Yogi Berra to the pilot's seat. The opposition, at last report, hasn't decided whether to sigh or hold its breath.
Yankee stars hold several of the big records in the game. Babe Ruth's 177 runs scored in 1921 are a major league high. So are Maris' 61 homers three years ago when he eclipsed the Babe's mark.
In the pitching records, the name of Jack Chesbro still shines after 60 years. Two of his four club marks - for victories and complete games - are also major league records.
Ford is the big star of the current staff. He has led the club in games won three of the past five years, and in the last three years has an aggregate won-lost of 66-19. His lifetime record moving into '64 is 199-78 for a .718 percentage, and that's the major league record. Whitey is now the first pitcher-coach in the majors.
The staff's combined earned run average was 3.07, behind Chicago's 2.97, but the champs led in complete games (59) for the first time since the 1943 Yankees had 83. The New Yorkers also came up with a pair of 20-game winners (Bouton and Ford) for the first time since Ed Lopat and Vic Raschi in 1951.
Yankee batting honors in '63 were shared by Tresh, Richardson, Pepitone and MVP winner Howard. They didn't produce league highs, but then all the Yankees needed was balance."
-Allan Roth, Baseball 1964 Guidebook
"Except for managerial experience, Yogi Berra, the brand-new pilot of the Yankees must feel a little like the man who has everything.
The Yanks, who have won eight pennants in the last nine years, have the game's finest defensive team, outstanding power, a good versatile bench and the best pitching potential a Yankee club has owned in more than a decade. They may be more heavily favored than usual this season.
To be truthful, Berra and the Yanks don't quite have everything. They don't have a relief star of the Dick Radatz caliber, nor a second-string catcher as capable as the retired Mr. Berra.
Despite their World Series debacle, the Yankees completely dominated the American League last year even though two of their top stars, center fielder Mickey Mantle and right fielder Roger Maris, played a combined total of only 155 games. If both stay healthy this year and have normal seasons, it could be Katy-bar-the-door for the rest of the league.
The Yankee infield is the finest defensive unit in the game and there is no sign of any letdown. Joe Pepitone, who had a fine sophomore year with a .271 batting average, 27 home runs and 89 runs batted in, has a swing tailor-made for Yankee Stadium.
Second baseman Bobby Richardson (.265, 3, 48) and third baseman Clete Boyer (.251, 12, 54) should do about as well, while shortstop Tony Kubek (.257, 7, 44), who was hampered by injuries also, should do better.
Joining Mantle (.314, 15, 35) and Maris (.269, 23, 53) in the regular outfield will again be left fielder Tommy Tresh (.269, 25, 71), who is capable of a higher average than he posted in his sophomore season.
Backing them up will be Hector Lopez (.249, 14, 52), who played 130 games last year and did well in clutch situations; the versatile Phil Linz (.269, 2, 12) and John Blanchard (.225, 16, 45), who also ranks as the second-string catcher.
As long as Elston Howard (.287, 28, 85), the A.L.'s Most Valuable Player in 1963 and the game's best all-around catcher these days, stays healthy, Blanchard won't see much action behind the bat except in double-headers. Jake Gibbs (.233, 6, 26 at Richmond) may be No.3.
Southpaw Whitey Ford, who won 24 games, lost seven and had a 2.74 ERA, will not only be the pitching staff leader this year, he will double as Berra's mound coach.
Starters with Ford figure to be Ralph Terry (17-15, 3.22) who slumped mildly after his big 1962 season ; Jim Bouton (21-7, 2.53), who came fast in his sophomore campaign ; southpaw Al Downing (13-5, 2.56), who was a near sensation after his recall from Richmond last spring, and Stan Williams (9-8, 3.21), who was as inconsistent as he was for the Dodgers.
Right-hander Hal Reniff (4-3, 2.71 in 48 games) and southpaw Steve Hamilton (5-2, 2.93 in 37 games) figure to do the brunt of the relief pitching again."
-Allen Lewis, Baseball Digest, April 1964
QUICK RUNDOWN ON THE YANKEES
Strength: great, well-rounded defensive team.
Greatest Need: outstanding relief pitcher.
Outlook: strong and versatile.
-Allen Lewis, Philadelphia Inquirer (Baseball Digest, April 1964)
1964 Yankees Depth Chart
C Elston Howard
1B Joe Pepitone
2B Bobby Richardson
3B Clete Boyer
SS Tony Kubek
LF Tom Tresh
CF Mickey Mantle
RF Roger Maris
UTILITY:
C Johnny Blanchard
3B Harry Bright (1B)
SS Phil Linz (2B)
CF Archie Moore
RF Hector Lopez (LF)
PH Pedro Gonzalez (1B)
PITCHERS:
Whitey Ford
Ralph Terry
Jim Bouton
Al Downing
Bill Stafford
Rollie Sheldon
RELIEF PITCHERS:
Hal Reniff
Steve Hamilton
Stan Williams
Bud Daley
Tom Metcalf
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