October 16 – Happy Birthday Don Hood

October 16, 2013

October 16th is a not a great day for notable Yankee birthdays. Neither was 1979 a great year for Yankee baseball. The two-time defending World Champions lost their team captain, the great Thurman Munson in August of that season and missed the postseason for the first time in four years. Munson’s death was not the only reason that Yankee team faltered. In June of that same season, Yankee DH Cliff Johnson got into a brawl with ace closer, Goose Gossage in the Yankee locker room showers. Gossage broke his thumb in the altercation and was out for the rest of the season. Without him, a dominating Yankee bullpen became very ordinary.

The Yankee front-office punished Johnson by quickly trading him to the Indians for today’s birthday celebrant. Don Hood, born on October 16, 1949 in Florence, SC, went 3-1 out of the Yankee bullpen during the remainder of that season. By 1980, he was pitching for the Cardinals.

Another October 16th birthday celebrant with Yankee connections is this former big league catcher who did color and play-by-play for Yankee games for a couple of seasons at the turn of this new century.

Year	Tm	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
1979	NYY	3	1	.750	3.07	27	6	9	0	0	1	67.1	62	24	23	3	30	22	1.366
10 Yrs		34	35	.493	3.79	297	72	84	6	1	6	848.1	840	412	357	57	364	374	1.419
CLE (5 yrs)		17	22	.436	4.17	152	49	25	4	0	2	494.2	491	255	229	38	238	225	1.474
KCR (2 yrs)		6	3	.667	2.99	57	3	32	0	0	1	114.1	119	51	38	12	36	48	1.356
BAL (2 yrs)		4	3	.571	3.61	28	6	14	1	1	2	89.2	78	43	36	2	26	44	1.160
STL (1 yr)		4	6	.400	3.39	33	8	4	1	0	0	82.1	90	39	31	2	34	35	1.506
NYY (1 yr)		3	1	.750	3.07	27	6	9	0	0	1	67.1	62	24	23	3	30	22	1.366

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/16/2013.

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Written by pinstripebirthdays Posted in Dailies Tagged with don hood, october 16, relief pitcher, yankees