"You can see the red come into his neck after he's been called out on strikes and while he stands morosely on the field waiting for someone to bring him his cap and glove. You can see him pouting in the locker room, still in uniform, an hour after a game the Yankees have lost. That's one side of Steve Whitaker - the hard loser. Then there's the Steve Whitaker with the smooth, powerful swing at the plate that only the truly gifted have, and you know it's only a matter of time before he matures into a hitter of some magnitude.
He's only 25, with just one year of big league ball behind him. He joined the Yankees late in the 1966 season, after belting 20 homers and ripping a .311 average at Columbus. Last year, he hit .243 with 11 homers and 50 RBIs in 122 games. Give him time. He's going to be a good one."
-Jack Zanger, Major League Baseball 1968
"When you've come all the way from Little League, Babe Ruth, American Legion and semi-pro ball to the minors and know the Yankees want you, you can be excused for kicking the water cooler when you blow it and are dropped all the way to Lauderdale.
But the Fort Lauderdale pilot, former Yankee Jack Reed, doesn't like dented coolers and teaches you how to kick the habit of fighting yourself.
In '66 when Reed is shifted to Columbus, you move with him and his teaching pays off. You're hitting .311 - 20 homers and 68 RBIs in 86 games. You jump from Triple-A Toledo to Yankee Stadium in the same year - without once kicking the cooler. In your first week in the majors, you hit a grand-slam homer and an inside-the-park home run. You follow this with seven homers and drive in 15 runs in 31 games.
That's the first part of the Steve Whitaker story. The second part began last season when the young slugger from Tacoma, Washington - who bats left and throws right - showed what can happen when a player keeps his cool and makes it work for him. In '67 Steve hit 11 home runs and had 50 RBIs for a .243 average. Despite military service that threw him off stride, Whitaker became a respected hitter in the American League who showed the kind of power that can break open a game at any time. He also served well in the outfield as led the club with 12 assists.
'Jack Reed convinced me that it's possible to win games by fielding as well as hitting,' says Steve.
Whitaker is pretty solid proof that the Yankees' policy of building with young players is working out. He also typifies the new Yankee who's active in the community; he works hard for the promotional department. Young, 23, personable and single, he lives in Fort Lee, New Jersey."
-The New York Yankees Official 1968 Yearbook
"After a long, hard struggle, Whitaker finds himself as one of the prominent players of the Yankees' future. Signed in 1962, he did not [travel] the steadiest of roads to Yankee Stadium. In 1965 he was sent from the AA Columbus club to Ft. Lauderdale, in a class A league.
Steve bounced all the way up to the Yankees the next year, however, as he hit .311 with 20 homers at Columbus, then .271 and five homers at Toledo and was recalled by the Yankees in August. He broke in with a bang, hitting two homers in his first week, one a grand slam and another inside-the-park.
Despite interruptions due to military obligations last year, Whitaker became a respected hitter in the American League. He showed power that could break up a game at any time. He also fared well in the outfield as he led the club in assists with 12.
Steve worked for the Yankees' promotional department during the off-season."
-1968 New York Yankees Press-Radio-TV Guide
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