Keane Faces Tough Time as Yankee Manager

May 7, 1965 - Johnny Keane made out his 18th straight “irregular” lineup for the Yankees in Cleveland last night and then was reprieved from using it by rainstorms that swept in off Lake Erie.

The bad weather forced the postponement of the final game of the series between the Yanks and Indians. 

Only once since he became manager of the Yankees has Keane been able to make out a lineup card containing the names of all eight regulars on the Yankee varsity. That was on opening day in Minnesota, and the Yankees lost the game anyway, 5-4, in 11 innings.

Since then, Roger Maris was sent home to Missouri with a strained hamstring, Elston Howard underwent an operation for bone chips in his right elbow, and Mickey Mantle sat out the Cleveland series with pains in his famous legs.

So, this evening, Keane “emptied the bench” again in order to put nine able-bodied men on the field. He wrote down the names of Arturo Lopez for Maris, Hector Lopez for Mantle, and Doc Edwards for Howard.

The entire lineup had a collective batting average of .212 and was considered to docile that it was being comically referred to as Keane’s defensive unit.

And there is no relief in sight. The word from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York was that Howard’s progress could not be gauged properly for four more days. Maris was supposed to return in three weeks. And Mantle was, in dugout jargon, a “day-to-day proposition.”Red Barber, the Yankee broadcaster, looked into the dugout last night and said sympathetically:“Just like Atlas, eh, John — the weight of the world on your shoulders?”“No, not really,” Keane replied softly — like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

The burden had been felt throughout the organization Wednesday night after a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Ralph Terry, once a Yankee hero and now suddenly a Cleveland hero.

Terry pitched a nearly perfect game against his former mates — 70 pitches thrown to 30 batters, only three of whom reached base (all on singles). And he required only 1 hour 40 minutes to do the job — the fastest time for a game in the major leagues this season.

Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s