New York Yankees

Some people reach a pinnacle in their life and will forever be remembered for their accomplishments. It’s true I played for the New York Yankees for one year. That year was a dynamic year for the Yankees. How in the world did I make the team that year?

I guess being at the right place and at the right time had more to do with it than just raw talent alone. I’ll never forget taking the field the first time and hearing the fans cheering and calling players names. I’m thinking we haven’t even played yet what’s all the excitement about? We were the New York Yankees, Champions!

I would like to claim I was the best player on the team but that’s far from the truth. We had a championship coach. He’s the one who put us in the winner’s circle. He knew baseball inside and out.

I remember him studying the mechanics of my bat swing. Then he asked me if I would like to make it to first base? Of course I did. He said, “Son if you want to ever make it to first base you gotta stop swinging the bat.” You see he understood the law of averages.

You take a sorry batter and have him face a bad pitcher. If he doesn’t swing the bat that equals first base. The first time I walked to first base. The coach was pointing to his eye and yelling, “Good eye, way to watch the ball!”

I thought, here I am playing for a championship team and I’m on first base. It felt so good. I was standing on first base. That year in 1962 we won every single game. We were the New York Yankees!

Years later after I had married my wife it slipped out that I had been a player for the Yankees. She had absolutely no idea about my short lived career. She wanted to know why I had kept that from her. “Well it’s not like you think,” I told her.

“Yes we did win a championship that year. I’m proud that I played every game. I didn’t sit on the bench and I had in fact been a starter.” She was excited and wanted to know what it was like living in New York that year?

“New York? I never lived in New York. I played for the Yankees at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale Arizona in 1962, Pee-Wee league.”
I didn’t want her to know and marry me for the wrong reasons you understand. It comes also down to I didn’t want to be a player on and off the field like some infamous baseball players were known for.

We wore the identical uniforms the pros did in New York. We had a winning year just as our counterparts did in New York. We proudly shared the same team name as the New York Yankees..