MICHAEL BURKE (President)
"The future is moving up on us. And this youngest team in Yankee history has the talent to meet with it with confidence and pride."
Michael Burke, The New York Yankees Official 1970 Yearbook
"'We set out to rebuild the Yankees into a championship team. We chartered a course, knowing it would take time and patience and that there would be no place to hide while the going was rough. We knew it would take a thick skin to withstand the slings and arrows that come at you in the lean years, confidence in ourselves and patience to hang with our youngsters while they matured.'
Michael Burke, who grew up in the competitive world of sports, starring in baseball, basketball and football, learned how to 'hang tough when the going was rough' as a brilliant halfback at the University of Pennsylvania in the years when Penn was one of the country's most powerful teams. He learned more about tough going against long odds as a World War II member of General Wild Bill Donovan's OSS. Burke parachuted into German-occupied France to join the French Resistance movement as a guerrilla fighter. He was General Manager of Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus before joining CBS and has been a member of the New York Yankees Board of Directors since 1964, taking over as President in September 1966 with the Yankees mired in the American League cellar.
'We now see clear evidence that our Go-Young policy was the correct one. We have the boys in our organization - at the major and minor league levels - who will write the next chapter of greatness in Yankee history. Our aim has been to have the Yankees back on top and stay on top in the new decade. All of us in the Yankee organization, on the field and in the front office, feel that we now have that capability.'
Late in the '69 season, a sign appeared on a board outside Yankee Stadium that read: '1970 begins now. It can happen here!' Since Mike has always maintained that the Yankees have a date with destiny in the '70s, there wasn't much doubt about who posted that sign. Across town at Shea Stadium, the Mets were coming from ninth place to win the pennant and the World Series. It was exactly as Mike Burke meant - it can happen here. It doesn't take much to go from losing to winning.
'The experienced players we obtained last winter - Curt Blefary, Danny Cater and Pete Ward - will supplement the younger players we have been developing. As a result, a young ball club, but a more experienced club than we might have had,' says Burke.
'Proof of how well we have been growing our own talent on the farm is that five young players made it with the Yankees in '69: Burbach, Ellis, Kenney, Munson and Murcer. More young players will emerge this year. We've been positioning ourselves for the '70s. Kenney, Munson, Murcer and White have now had the seasoning of major league experience; they're equal to the pressure of playing in the majors and the pressure of a pennant race.'
Mike is anything but an ivory tower President. He's usually found in a box next to the dugout, in the locker room, or in a huddle at the batting cage with Lee MacPhail and Ralph Houk.
'All of us get out of bed every morning with one thought in mind,' he says. 'Building a winner.'
'There must be some of Silky Sullivan in me. I like to come from behind to win. We've laid back in the field long enough. Now we're ready to make our move.'"
-The New York Yankees Official 1970 Yearbook
LEE MACPHAIL(General Manager)
"When Lee MacPhail returned to the Yankees before the 1967 season, it was for him like returning home. Lee had been with the Yankees from 1946 through 1958 and served as their AAA General Manager at Kansas City and as Farm Director and Director of Player Personnel in New York. While he was running he Yankee farm system, players like Mantle, Richardson, Kubek, Tresh, Skowron, McDougald, Virdon, Terry and many others were signed and developed on Bomber farm teams into major league performers. Today Lee, ably assisted by Farm Director Johnny Johnson, is trying to develop a similar crop of young stars to bring championship baseball back to the Stadium.
While he was away from the Yankees, MacPhail spent eight seasons as General Manager and President of the Baltimore Orioles. His work and his contributions there played an important part in the success of the Orioles and in their development into a championship club. He left the Orioles in 1966 to spend a year in the Commissioner's office as assistant to the commissioner.
When Lee returned to the Yankees, they were in last place, and together with Michael Burke and Ralph Houk, he set a long-range, realistic goal for rebuilding the team. It was the beginning of the five-year 'Go Young' rebuilding program. It necessitated some initial player moves affecting veteran players that were difficult, but it was recognized that the hardest step is sometimes the first one. At the same time, he concentrated on revitalizing the Yankee scouting and minor league organization. This kind of improvement isn't always easily apparent at the major league level in its early stages. Those efforts are now paying off, and the Yankees were selected last year as the organization with the best young minor league talent in baseball.
At the same time at the major league level, the Yankees have been putting together a young team with potential. Last year the Yankees were the second youngest team in baseball. In this, the fourth year of the building program, the Yankees may well prove to be the youngest team. (Based on a winter roster that includes four top pitchers, the Yankees could field a team averaging 24.3 years.) For 1970, MacPhail strengthened the offense with three experienced players: Curt Blefary, Danny Cater and Pete Ward. All are versatile: Blefary will probably play right field, but also works behind the plate or at first; Cater plays first or third and the outfield; Ward can handle first or third and has made a career of getting on base as a pinch-hitter. This gives the Yankees a bench of flexible material that will spring a lot of surprises. It's also the best accident policy for what has bugged the team in the past - injuries.
Lee MacPhail feels his rebuilding job is on schedule. He feels that there is more skill and potential on the 1970 roster than at any time since the club last won in 1964. And the young Yankees who make up this roster feel that they are not too far from fulfilling his objective of putting a championship flag back on the Yankee Stadium center field flagpole."
-The New York Yankees Official 1970 Yearbook
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