A TALE OF THREE CITIES: NEW YORK, L.A. AND SAN FRANCISCO IN OCTOBER OF ‘62 (35 page)

"I just walked up to him and shook his hand,"
he remarked. "It's hard to explain, but just seeing him gave me a
lift."

When Mantle limped back into the starting
line-up on June 22 after another nagging injury, his teammates
started calling him "B & G" (for "Blood and Guts"). 10 days
later the Yankees were back in first place. With Mantle out of the
line-up, the club trolled along at a .500 pace, but upon his return
won 12 of 18, in the process lifting the team batting average from
.248 to .265. Mantle played right field for the first time since
1954, and New York continued to win, capturing won 29 of 40 games
to put the pennant away.

With Mantle establishing himself as the clear
star and team leader, the press simply could not acknowledge that
Maris was also a key component. He always suffered in comparison to
the Mick.

"One really can't compare him to Mantle in
real value," wrote Koppett. Maris was even benched in September,
mainly an effort to rest him but seen by his detractors as proof
that he was a lesser player. "Maris didn't seem upset by this. In a
strange sort of way he feels a kind of vindication . . .
has always insisted he isn't a 'superstar' has resented
being treated like one."

Houk had a "take no prisoners" attitude about
the regular season that Stengel did not. If "the Major" did not see
blood, he expected his charges to play, so if Maris sat then it
must be viewed as indicative of his weak character, or so said the
"Knights of the Keyboard," as Ted Williams derisively dubbed the
press box know-it-alls.

The early key was Tresh, who made the
All-Star team as a shortstop on his way to Rookie of the Year
honors. When Kubek returned from the Army he moved to the
outfield.

"We felt he was a big league hitter, but no
one expected that he'd develop that kind of power from both sides
of the plate," said Houk. When Tresh moved to the outfield it
portended the end for Yogi Berra, who hit only .224 with 10 homers
and 35 RBIs in limited action. Yogi never complained.

"I figure I still got enough to help the
Yanks win another pennant," he said.

"It's a home run outfield, yet all of them
can cover ground and throw," Houk said of the Tresh-Mantle-Maris
triumvirate after the season. "That outfield is very strong. Mantle
is a very young 31, Maris is 28 and Tresh, at 24, looks as though
he'll be around for a long time."

Tresh's switch to the outfield was a cause
for some alarm with the media, who wondered whether it was wise to
tinker with success. "I never considered that a gamble," said Houk.
Tresh had youth, speed, a strong arm, and the ability to get after
fly balls. "You could tell that by the way he got a jump on those
Texas League pop-ups."

By 1962, Mantle not only had filled
DiMaggio's shoes, but the argument could be made that he was better
not only than Joe D., but very well may have been ahead of Willie
Mays in the pantheon. He certainly had surpassed Duke Snider, the
third New York center fielder, who had been destroyed by the L.A.
Coliseum's dimensions.

Mantle hit .321 with 30 homers and 89 runs
batted, statistics that failed to match some of his better years in
the past, but were slightly skewed by injury. His place on the
team, his position as a leader, however, was secure, as was his
place in the glory halls of Yankee Stadium. After having lost the
MVP award by four points to Maris in 1960 and three points in 1961,
Mantle beat out Richardson for the award in 1962.

"I thought Bobby would win," Mantle said
modestly, as if there was any chance of that. "I'm happy to receive
the award, and I'd like to be the first Major Leaguer to win it
four times."

Up until that time, Mays had only won it once
(1954). Begun by the Baseball Writers Association of America in
1931 (the MVP had been awarded in inconsistent manner prior to
that), Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Roy Campanella and
Yogi Berra had each won it three times. Mantle could easily have
had five, and there seemed a good chance he would capture it again
in future years.

34-year old Whitey Ford did not match his
fabulous 1961 Cy Young performance, but he remained the Chairman of
the Board. The "red-faced" Ford had in 11 seasons "grown chubbier,
wiser, wittier, and more impressive," wrote Bill Wise in the
1963 Official Baseball Almanac
. Blending control, curves and
guile (which included using his wedding ring to throw mean cut
fastballs), Ford went 17-8 with a 2.90 earned run average.

"If I could get away with it now, I'd throw
nothing but fast balls," the 5-10, 182-pound southpaw said. "No
matter how fast you throw it, the fastball doesn't put real strain
on your arm because the motion is natural. But you can't get a big
league hitter out on fastballs alone, no matter how hard you throw
the ball."

Still pitching on the four-day rotation that
Houk had instituted beginning the previous season, Ford remained
remarkably free of strains and muscle pulls. "I've taken good care
of myself and I've been lucky," he said. "It's got to end sometime,
but I want to win 200 first."

"When he thinks about it, which is often,
28-year old Roger Maris realizes he has finally found a shadow he
can't escape," wrote Bill Wise in the
1963 Official Baseball
Almanac
. In 1962 Maris "met his match," when by hitting 33 home
runs and driving in 100, "the moody, temperamental outfielder"
demonstrated that he was not only not as good as Mickey Mantle and
Babe Ruth, but "not as good as Roger Maris and probably never would
be."

"Even when he hit 61, Roger knew he wasn't
that good," one anonymous Yankee said. "He's a fine ballplayer, but
when people know you've done it once and they're paying you
$100,000 to do it again, they expect perfection."

Maris rebelled against perfection beginning
in Spring Training. He dealt with dismal slumps, worried as was his
custom, and lashed out in an angry explosion against the New York
press. He was called a "problem ballplayer" and "the most unpopular
Yankee." He announced a moratorium on interviews. His silence did
not improve his batting average. Hitting around .200 at mid-season,
he was being booed unmercifully at home and on the road. The media
destroyed him.

"After a while I just tried to forget about
everything and everybody and just try to salvage something out of
the season," he said. In the second half, Maris finally found his
stroke, raising his average to .256. His 33 homers and 100 RBIs
were better than Mantle and led the club.

Bobby Richardson improved from being a solid
second baseman to a genuine star in 1962. His fast start kept the
club afloat when they struggled, Maris slumped, and Mantle was
hurt. Playing in 161 games, he batted .302 and finished second in
the MVP balloting.

"With our big sluggers not hitting the
homers the way they did last year, there is no denying that Bobby's
steady hitting, especially with those timely two-baggers, played a
tremendous role in putting us over the top," said Houk.

Ralph Terry, who became a new father,
learned to control his emotions and became the staff ace, winning
23 games. Tom Tresh, the All-Star and Rookie of the Year when he
successfully transitioned from shortstop to left field, hit .286
with 20 home runs and 93 runs batted in (four more than
Mantle).

Luis Arroyo slumped after his great 1961
campaign, but Jim Bouton announced his presence with authority,
going 7-7 with a 3.99 ERA. He also took to the Yankee lifestyle in
a big way; particularly the "Johnny Grant parties" when the team
visited Hollywood. At one shindig, he "tread water in the swimming
pool, stripped to my underwear holding a martini in each hand while
shimmying to the theme song from
Lawrence of Arabia
," he
recalled.

Marshall Bridges was 8-4, Jim Coates was
7-6, Bud Daley was 7-5, and a new rookie from Trenton, New Jersey
named Al Downing was briefly called up from Richmond. Rollie
Sheldon finished 7-8 and Bill Stafford was again 14-9.

Reliable Johnny Blanchard baptized Bouton
with a beer shower when he won his first game, but hit only .232.
Elston Howard was firmly in control of the catcher's position,
playing great defensively while hitting 21 home runs with 91 RBIs
and a .279 average. Clete Boyer improved with the bat to .272. Tony
Kubek batted .314 after returning from the Army. Outfielder Hector
Lopez batted a creditable .275.

As a team, the Yankees led the league with a
.267 mark. Their 199 home runs were second to Detroit's 209 but
better than Minnesota's 185. The Yankees, as usual, eschewed the
stolen base and had only 42. The league batting champion was Pete
Runnels of Boston (.326), followed by Mantle at .321. Bobby
Richardson's .302 placed him among the league leaders.

Mantle's .605 led the league in slugging
percentage. Harmon Killebrew of the Twins led in homers (48) with
Maris tied with Jim Gentile for fifth (33). Killebrew also led the
league with 126 RBIs. Mantle's 122 walks set the pace as did
Richardson's 208 hits. Bobby scored 99 runs and had 38 doubles,
too.

On the mound, New York's team ERA was 3.70,
third behind Baltimore and Los Angeles. Ford's 2.90 earned run
average was third behind Detroit's Hank Aguirre (2.21) and the
veteran Robin Roberts (2.78), now toiling for Baltimore. Terry's 23
wins led the A.L., and he was the league workhorse with 299 innings
pitched.

In addition to Tresh's Rookie of the Year and
Mantle's MVP honors, both Richardson and Mantle won Gold
Gloves.

The early-season prognostications featured
Detroit, winners of 101 games under manager Bob Scheffing, as their
chief rival. If Maris saw a drop-off in production, it was nothing
compared to Tigers first baseman Norm Cash. It has never really
been proven, but many suspect he corked his bat in 1961 when he hit
.361. In 1962 his average fell to an abysmal .243. He would enjoy a
creditable career, but the Hall of Fame potential of his early
years never materialized.

But what killed Detroit's chances was a
shoulder injury suffered by pitcher Frank Lary. He went from 23
wins in 1961 to 2-6 in 1962. Hall of Fame outfielder Al Kaline was
headed for his best year when he broke his collarbone and missed 61
games.

Defensively, the Tigers - especially without
Kaline - looked like they all had club feet, which outfielder Rocky
Colavito actually had. Colavito had come over from Cleveland in
1960 and continued to hit for power, but he struck out far too
much. The Tigers resembled the 1947 Giants, a team that set the
all-time home run record but finished in the middle of the pack. In
June, an anticipated battle between contenders turned into a
marathon when New York prevailed, 9-7 in a 22-inning, seven-hour
drag. Detroit never seriously contended and finished 85-76, 10 1/2
games back of the 96-66 Yankees; tied for fourth place.

The other known contenders started to drop
off, too. Over the past years, New York's main competition, aside
from Detroit, had come from Cleveland and Chicago. Indians general
manager Gabe Paul and manager Birdie Tebbets were now presiding
over an aging club, but the loss of Colavito had cost them wallop.
Playing in spacious Municipal Stadium - the infamous "mistake by
the lake" - they needed strong pitching, the staple of their
success in the years of Bob Feller and Bob Lemon. 35-year old
veteran right-hander Dick Donovan won 20 games, but the rest of the
staff faltered. They were either too old or too young. Jim "Mudcat"
Grant (7-10), Sam McDowell (3-7) and Jim Perry (12-12) would have
better years later. Gary Bell was 10-9. He would later help Boston
win the 1967 pennant. Weak-hitting catcher Jerry Kindall would make
his baseball name later, too, as the coach at the University of
Arizona. The Indians actually held their own in direct competition
with the Yankees, winning 11 of 18, but were never able to mount a
threat, settling into a mediocre 80-82 season, 16 games back.

The Chicago White Sox were the single
American League team to make a dent in Yankee hegemony over the
previous seven seasons, having captured the 1959 flag before
falling in six games to Los Angeles in the World Series. Veteran
right-hander Ray Herbert won 20 games, and outfielder Floyd
Robinson drove in 109 runs with a .312 average, but it was not
enough. The old "Go Go White Sox" who gave Bill Veeck the pennant
three years earlier could not continue to do it with mirrors. The
double-play combination of second baseman Nelson Fox and shortstop
Luis Aparicio was solid, but not enough, and Chicago tied Detroit
for fourth at 85-77.

Baltimore's roster included several names
that would make up their dominant teams of the late 1960s - Dave
McNally, Brooks Robinson, and Boog Powell - but they were a few
years off. The Oriole way was about pitching, and they had talent,
such as hard-throwing southpaw Steve Barber (9-6), but there was no
offense outside of San Francisco native Jim Gentile's 33 home runs.
The Orioles, like Cleveland, played New York tough but laid down
against the rest of the American League to finish 19 games out
(77-85).

When dashing young southpaw Bo Belinsky of
the Los Angeles Angels went to Beantown, he said wryly, "I looked
Boston over pretty good. The only bright lights they ever had in
Boston was the lantern in the Old North Church." References to the
Revolutionary War aside, there were no bright lights in the old
town, circa 1962. The Red Sox fumbled their way to a 76-84 mark.
The Red Sox had not won the pennant since 1946, and had not
competed since Ted Williams returned from the Korean War.
Attendance and interest were way down. Williams retired after the
1960 campaign, replaced by a hotshot who attended Notre Dame in the
off-season, Carl Yastrzemski, who hit a creditable .296. Like
Baltimore, their organization included a fair number of names that
would make up the 1967 "Impossible Dream" team, but they were a
long ways off.