October 9 – Happy Birthday Joe Pepitone

October 9, 2013

Joseph Anthony Pepitone was born on October 9, 1940 in Brooklyn. He came up to the Yankees in 1962 and took over the starting first baseman’s job from one of my favorite players in Pinstripes, Bill Moose Skowron. We long-time Yankee FAN-atics will always consider the November 1962 trade that sent Skowron to the Dodgers for pitcher Stan Williams as the first crack in the crumbling of the original Yankee dynasty.

Pepitone may have had better baseball skills than the Moose but he lacked the unselfishness and professional discipline of his Yankee predecessor. Unlike Skowron, who was extremely self-critical, “Pepi” tended to blame his failures on the field on everyone else but himself. He thought he could work hard during the game and play hard at all other times. As the Yankees continued to lose their veteran players to age and injuries, Pepitone’s lack of maturity and good judgment prevented him from filling that growing vacuum in Yankee team leadership.

Still, in 1966 when my beloved Bombers finished in last place in the American League and Mickey Mantle was officially converted from an “injured superstar” into an “aging has-been,” Joe Pepitone’s 31 home run season gave us Yankee fans hope. His graciousness in switching starting positions with the Mick one season later to help prolong Mantle’s career added luster to Pepitone’s Yankee-fan friendly image. By 1969, however, Pepitone’s diminishing batting average and power numbers along with his continuing off-the-field antics had all worn thin on the fans and few complained when Joe was traded to the Astros for a guy named Curt Blefary. In 1975, Pepitone wrote his autobiography with Barry Stainback. It was called “Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud.” I recommend it to any student of Yankee history and any fan of Pepitone.

Today is also the birthday of another former Yankee infielder named Joe and this up and coming Yankee pitcher.

Year	Tm	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1962	NYY	63	141	138	14	33	3	2	7	17	1	3	21	.239	.255	.442	.697
1963	NYY	157	615	580	79	157	16	3	27	89	3	23	63	.271	.304	.448	.752
1964	NYY	160	647	613	71	154	12	3	28	100	2	24	63	.251	.281	.418	.698
1965	NYY	143	580	531	51	131	18	3	18	62	4	43	59	.247	.305	.394	.699
1966	NYY	152	621	585	85	149	21	4	31	83	4	29	58	.255	.290	.463	.753
1967	NYY	133	544	501	45	126	18	3	13	64	1	34	62	.251	.301	.377	.678
1968	NYY	108	421	380	41	93	9	3	15	56	8	37	45	.245	.311	.403	.714
1969	NYY	135	546	513	49	124	16	3	27	70	8	30	42	.242	.284	.442	.726
12 Yrs		1397	5475	5097	606	1315	158	35	219	721	41	302	526	.258	.301	.432	.733
NYY (8 yrs)		1051	4115	3841	435	967	113	24	166	541	31	223	413	.252	.294	.423	.718
CHC (4 yrs)		268	1049	966	127	274	36	6	39	144	5	60	84	.284	.328	.454	.782
ATL (1 yr)		3	12	11	0	4	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	.364	.417	.364	.780
HOU (1 yr)		75	299	279	44	70	9	5	14	35	5	18	28	.251	.298	.470	.767

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/9/2013.

Written by pinstripebirthdays Posted in Dailies Tagged with first baseman, joe pepitone, october 9, pepi, yankees