40 Years Ago In Yankeeland
Posted by Steve L. on May 27th, 2010 · Comments (7)
Dig the Yankees starting line-up, 40 years ago from today:
Player Pos 1 Horace Clarke 2B 2 Jerry Kenney 3B 3 Bobby Murcer CF 4 Roy White LF 5 Danny Cater 1B 6 Curt Blefary RF 7 Jake Gibbs C 8 Gene Michael SS 9 Fritz Peterson P
Yeah, that’s Roye White – as the clean-up hitter.
I was 7 1/2 years old when that game was played. So, I was oblivious to what was going on in Yankeeland at that time. Must have been something, huh?
I remember that team and that lineup didn’t exactly strike fear in the hearts of their opponents. Jake Gibbs was a hell of a QB as a catcher.
Makes sense that they’d ride the hot hand, White had A-Rod (for 2010) esque power numbers and was hitting .339 at the time.
Nothin wrong with movin a player whos hot up in the order, especially when he’s OPSing .961
Steve, you and I are the same age – and I had every one of those guys’ baseball cards. Still remember holding the whiffle bat just like Roy White.
GDH wrote:
Hands at the belt from the left side. Yup. I’ve done that one too in stickball.
Amazingly, enough that 1970 won 93 games, and finished 2nd in the AL East…though, 16 games behind the 1st place eventual champion Orioles.
They were 4th in runs scored, despite being 11th in HR. They were 6th in walks, 6th in BAVG, and 2nd in steals. It was a much, much tougher offensive environment than today’s game. So much so, that in 3 years, the AL would adopt the DH to try to increase scoring.
The ’70 Yanks were 4th in the AL in runs allowed, and 3rd in ERA, however.
lordbyron wrote:
This was Thurman Munson’s rookie year. Ironically, in a backup role, it was Gibbs best year also as he hit .301 w/8 HR in 153 AB.
Things were so bad that Jerry Kenney played 3B with 464 plate appearances and hit .193 with a slugging percentage of .282. Maybe they thought they could carry his bat because Stick played SS and hit .214.