"A fan favorite. As big and friendly as a St. Bernard, Blomberg has the home run swing for the right-field seats at Yankee Stadium but is still an incomplete player. Something of a disappointment last season, he was a platooned at first base. Ron has spent time in the instructional league the last two winters, learning to hit left-handers and learning to play first where he still is a liability; yet the ball jumps off his bat.
Born August 23, 1948 in Atlanta, Blomberg was the No. 1 draft choice in all of baseball in the 1967 Free Agent Draft.
Ron has a legendary appetite. He once ate 28 hamburgers in a single sitting in high school. He asked to pull KP in the Army because he wasn't getting enough to eat. Ron had a spectacular performance in a local restaurant while playing for Kinston, eating a 72-ounce steak with all the trimmings.
'It was free if you could eat it in an hour,' he says. 'Three guys have done it. I'm the only guy who did it twice.'"
-Joe Gergen, The Complete Handbook of Baseball, 1973 Edition
"The full Ron Blomberg has yet to be written.
Ronnie is confident that it will be a dramatic story in the Yankee mold of great hitters with consistently high batting averages laced with awesome power and burning speed.
This 205-pound bolt of energy and enthusiasm strains to be in the action every minute of every game. His .298 batting average for a year and half of major league experience has been gained primarily against right-handed pitchers. When he learns to hold his own against southpaws, as he will, the Boomer will be in the lineup every day. And that can't happen too soon for this eager lad from Atlanta who now makes his year-round home in Riverdale, New York.
His 14 homers last year in just 299 at-bats was second on the club, behind only Bobby Murcer's 33. And he was third on the club in RBI production. Ronnie shared first base with Felipe Alou and together they accounted for 20 homers and 86 RBIs.
Ron attended the Yankee Instructional Camp last fall and worked long and hard on his defensive play around first base.
'I really think we can win this year,' says Ronnie, convincingly. You can bet Boomer Blomberg will play an important part in the Yankees' success."
-The New York Yankees Official 1973 Yearbook
"The Boomer was a potent part of the Yankee attack last year, although hitting mostly against right-handed pitching. His 14 homers were second on the club to Bobby Murcer's 33 even though he appeared in only 107 games and had just 299 at-bats, an average of a homer once every 21 at-bats. He was third on the club in RBIs (49), behind Murcer (96) and White (54). He and Felipe Alou combined for good offensive production at first base, as together they rapped out 20 homers and had 86 RBIs.
Although basically a line-drive hitter, he has displayed awesome power at times and is capable of breaking open a game at any time. He's hit two homers in one game twice in his brief career, and Yankee players still talk about the shot he hit over the right-field roof in Tiger Stadium during batting practice back in 1969. On another occasion he hit a batting practice shot through the facade in Yankee Stadium's upper right-field stands.
An all-star basketball player in Atlanta, he received many college scholarship offers, and is a fan of the Atlanta Hawks."
-1973 New York Yankees Press/TV/Radio Guide
REASON TO SMILE
"Ronnie Blomberg, long a promising Yankee slugger, 'arrived' this season. Though playing primarily against right-handed pitching, the popular, outgoing first baseman was hitting over .400 in the second week in June and had been leading the league for several weeks. He hit safely in 23 of 24 consecutive games, missing only as a pinch hitter after 17 in a row.
Blomberg's name does not appear on the All-Star ballot, but Yankee fans can write his name in on the ballots and punch the spot marked for 'Write-ins.' "
-1973 New York Yankees Scorecard & Official Program
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