Freddie Beene was one of those short-term Yankee players I will always remember. He was a little right-handed relief pitcher New York had picked up from Baltimore in a 1972 preseason trade. Yankee skipper Ralph Houk brought him north with the team after his first spring training season and he appeared in 29 regular season games that year. He won just one of his four decisions in ’72 but he saved three and finished with an excellent 2.34 ERA. He helped another Yankee newcomer that year named Sparky Lyle, rejuvenate the team’s bullpen.

But it was Beene’s 1973 season I remember best. Though he appeared in just 19 games that year including four as a starter, he was just about perfect in each of them. He finished 6-0 with one save and a microscopic 1.68 ERA. He entered the first month of the 1974 season as an established member of the Yankee pitching corp but by the time it ended, he was a member of the Cleveland Indians. On April 26, 1974, Yankee GM Gabe Paul had traded Beene, Fritz Peterson, Steve Kline and Tom Buskey to the Tribe for pitchers Dick Tidrow, Cecil Upshaw and the key player for New York in the deal, first baseman Chris Chambliss. Beene would spend his final two Major League seasons relieving in Cleveland,  before returning to the minors, where he spent the final four seasons of his pitching career.

Beene shares his November 24th birthday with this former Yankee utility player and this former Yankee pitcher.