1960: When the Yankee pipeline went dry

George Weiss, Dan Topping and Casey Stengel formed an amazing trio. Blessed in the late 1940s and early 1950s with a bounty of budding stars signed by Yankee scouts, Weiss and Topping managed to keep the dynasty afloat with astute trades long after the pipeline from the minors had gone dry. Stengel found a way to take his maturing homegrown players and surround them with the spare parts his bosses pried lose from the Athletics and St. Louis Browns/Orioles to create devastating platoons. Their combined understanding of talent papered over the fact that there were no Mantles, Berras, Fords, Kubeks, Skowrons, Richardsons or McDougals on the way up.

1960 was a watershed year for the Yankees. The highlights are known to all. They won the A.L. flag by 8 games but lost the World Series in 7 games to the Pirates in one of the most memorable series ever. Many still argue over which was the most awesome home run in baseball history: Maz's Series-winner or Thompson's flag-winner. Then The Ol' Perfessor got the gate.

I listened to most of the Series on my transistor radio, and was exhiliarated by Maz's home run. That final game was perhaps the most exciting game I've ever watched/listened to. Oh, the sweetness of the Yankees' defeat! That Series made me a Pirates fan for life!

But if you probe deeper into that season, you'll find how Stengel, Weiss and Topping made the whole thing work. Stengel had his homegrown stars: Mantle, Ford, Kubek, Richardson, Ellie Howard, Berra, Blanchard, McDougald and Skowron. The front office, making up for a dearth of Yankee farm hand pitchers, kept him supplied with hurlers like Turley (Baltimore), Terry, Ditmar, Maas, Schantz and Duren (all from KC) to back up Ford in the waning years of Stengel's reign. Trades with KC brought aboard Maris, Hector Lopez and Clete Boyer.

Stengel used these weapons so craftily that it must have seemed to the opposition that he had 40 men on the bench. He had three guys listed as catchers: Berra, Blanchard and Howard. All three played various positions during their Yankee days, depending on who was pitching FOR NY, who was pitching AGAINST NY, who was hot and who was not. Lopez was one of the great subs of all times, and could truly play every position in the field. Skowron was platooned early in his Yankee days, much to his disgust--but he hit over .300 four of those years and .298 a fifth.

Casey knew what he was doing, not just when he made out the lineup card, but in motivating his players as well. His secret, he always insisted, was to unite the team in its hatred of the manager. He constantly disparaged Mantle as a player who never lived up to his potential, and he authorized the trade of his pet player, Billy Martin. That must have sent a message.

Notice that the front office, in those halcyon days, only traded with loser teams. The Yankees did not want to trade a good player to a contender. The best example was the trade that brought Lopez and Terry to NY from KC in May 1959. The Yankees essentially got these two for Jerry Lumpe. While Lumpe went on to have a series of excellent seasons for KC and later Detroit, nothing he could do for the Athletics would budge them from mediocrity. Lopez and Terry were exactly what the Yanks needed at the time.

Other deals weren't even fair. In a huge deal, the Yanks got Clete Boyer, Schantz and Ditmar for basically nobodies. Such deals elicited cries of "Foul!" from fans of other A.L. teams. But you had to admire the end results.

Stengel wasn't happy to be let go after the World Series loss. But maybe he could see what was coming. Instead of Mantle, Ford, Kubek and Richardson coming up from the farm, it was Jesse Gonder, Bill Stafford, Johnny James, Jim Coates and Ken Hunt. They let their one decent prospect go--Deron Johnson--but he wasn't ready yet anyway. No, the pipeline had gone dry, and even the Athletics had decided to stop stripping away all their talent in exchange for Yankee cast-offs. The team would continue to win for a few more years, thanks in part to expansion's addition of two really lousy clubs. But by 1964, the ticker tape parades would be shut down for years. The Ol' Perfesser's reputation as a managerial genius would be untarnished, despite his tenure with the Mets. The Yankees, to the delight of a young Indians fan, would not bubble to the top again until 1976.