Expanding the "Field"

[Knuckles]

Plenty of people peripherally associated with the New York Yankees were born on January 17, but I only found one guy of note who participated on the "field" of play in Pinstripes, and even that guy, Chili Davis (1960), spent only two of so many years playing in the Bronx.

But legendary bench coach Don Zimmer turns 72 today. In baseball more than 50 years, he is certainly associated with the Yanks in most minds now.

Perhaps even more happily remembered by Yankee fans is Mark Littell, born on January 17, 1953. Mark surrendered the walk-off ninth-inning homer to Chris Chambliss in the 1976 ALCS, ending a 15-year Yankee disappearance from World Series play.

On this day in 1939, Ed Barrow was elected to the position of Yankee President to replace Colonel Jacob Ruppert, who passed away four days before. Ed is in the Hall as a Yankee exec!

The stubborn but gifted Mr. Fred Lynn chose not to sign with the Yankees after we drafted him on January 17, 1970.

Other birthdays of note: Infielder Tyler Houston (1971), signed by the Phillies yesterday; Angels DH Brad Fullmer (1975); Darrell Porter (1952), who played only four of 17 years with the Royals, but those were great Yankees/Royals rivalry years; and Pete LaCock, born on the same day as Porter and his teammate in KC. Pete's main claim to fame is being related to Peter Marshall, who at the time was famous as the host of the still-running-today Hollywood Squares TV game show.

Peripheral to baseball, but a key member of the cast of Kevin Costner's "Field of Dreams," the deep-voiced James Earl Jones was born on January 17, 1931. Stretching the "field" a bit further, sports legend Muhammad Ali was born today in 1942.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!

[thecaptain]

1989
? Free-agent Claudell Washington leaves the Yankees to sign a 3-year contract with the Angels.

1983
? Bob Horner agrees to a 4-year contract with the Atlanta Braves that will pay him up to $6 million, including $400,000 in bonuses if he keeps his weight below 215 pounds.
1970
? ML teams select a record 357 players in the January phase of the annual free-agent draft, including top pick Chris Chambliss, by Cleveland, and Chris Speier. Fred Lynn, drafted by the Yankees in the first round, will not sign. 1885
? The New York Clipper reports that Paul Hines cancels his Washington Monument ball-drop exhibition. "The experiment of trying to catch a ball thrown from the top of the Washington Monument has proved to be a failure. The ball reaches the ground with such great speed that it indents the ground almost as much as a heavy cannon ball would dropped from a proportionate height. The fact is that, independently of the difficulty of judging the ball balling from such a height, the speed is too great to allow of any one holding it when it nears the ground."

[Knuckles]

Originally posted by thecaptain
1989
? Free-agent Claudell Washington leaves the Yankees to sign a 3-year contract with the Angels.



Good update on Claudell, captain.

He is perhaps most famous in Yankee lore for having hit the 10,000th homerun in Yankee history.

But what I remember him most for is the game I saw on Sunday afternoon, September 11, 1988, at the Stadium, the longest game I ever attended. We played the Tigers and it went 18 innings. They scored a run in the top of the 18th, but Claudell hit a two-run shot in the bottom of the frame to send those left in the stands home, happy and exhausted.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!