1964... Yogi Wins the Pennant, Gets Fired

We all remember that pennant race in 1964. The Yanks had a big lead over the 2nd place White Sox most of the year. The pale hose were a bunch of no names but man could they throw the rock.

It is now late August, the boys have a comfortable five-game lead as they enter Chicago for a four-game series that will surely put the pesky Sox out of the misery for good.

Our Yanks now learn the meaning of the phrase "this is why you play the games."

Every morning that summer at 6 a.m. without fail we would be at the news stand for our 15-cent fix — a copy of the New York Daily News and two packs of Topps baseball cards.

The News sport section was the best, they would have a long inning by inning and play by play in print. We  remember reading every line, batter by batter. We really needed to get a life.

Those had to be the toughest four days of the summer as the Sox got out their brooms and swept our Yanks.

It was a crazy hot and humid Monday morning and we remember the headlines.

Heat advisory and Sox sweep Yanks... Mary had a little lamb...

Time line: 47 years ago, Chicago 4:47 p.m., Phil Linz plays a few notes of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" on a cheap harmonica.

In those days teams traveled on old school buses without air conditioning. The team was down in the dumps as they traveled from Comiskey to O'Hare.

Phil only managed a few notes before the old Cro, Frank Crosetti (many people thought it was manager Yogi Berra but it was Cro) shouted,,, (this is a PG column so I will clean up the language.) "STOP THAT MUSIC!!!!" Linz, now engrossed in the noise, didn't hear and turns to nearby Mantle: "What did he say Mick?" Mantle: "he said 'PLAY IT LOUDER.' " OK says Phil... MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB.

Berra now storms to the back of the bus, grabs the harmonica , slams it to the ground, it bounces up and hits Pepitone in the knee, Pepi howls in mock pain.

The next day Phil gets fined $200, thats no problem as Linz get $10,000 two weeks later to endorse the harmonica company.

This was famous for two things.

1. This incident wakes up your boys—from that point on they get red-hot and win the pennant by one game over the Sox and go on to play the Cardinals in the '64 World Series.

2. This reporter is convinced that was the day that the Yankee Brass decided that Yogi had lost the respect of the team and no matter what he was to be fired at seasons end. General Manager Ralph Houk later explained that this was a clear case of the inmates ruling the asylum.

Trading Phil was the first order of business by new manager Johnny Keane in 1965. Keane lasted one year and was fired 20 games into the 1966 season, he died the next year at age 50.

We believe Phil finished his career in '68 with the Mets.

 Yogi Berra has the distinction of being the only manager in baseball history to get fired the day after managing his team in a world series.