Aug. 11, 1964 - The Mets don’t have a monopoly on zany business around a baseball field. And if losing a painfully crucial day-night doubleheader to the White Sox today wasn’t embarrassment enough, the cool, calm, and collected Yankees managed to look pretty silly before the night game began.
Eight Yankees stood ready at their stations on the Yankee Stadium diamond waiting for starter Jim Bouton to complete his warmup tosses. All of a sudden, Tony Kubek came trotting out of the dugout and headed toward Phil Linz at short. After a few brief words, Linz trotted into the dugout, but not without slamming the ball at the first-base line and tossing his glove at the water cooler.
Manager Yogi Berra had told Linz he would start the second game of the day-night doubleheader but mistakenly put Kubek’s name on the official lineup card. Kubek had to start or be wasted for the game without even rising from the bench.
“I felt foolish coming off the field,” said Linz.
It was all very un-Yankee-like, but then so was the night game. The White Sox pulled off an 8-2 embarrassment after beating the Yanks for the first time in 11 tries this season, 6-4, in the opener. Chicago trails league-leading Baltimore by one game. The Yanks are third, 3½ games out.
“It was just one of those days,” Berra said about the double loss. Then he tried to explain the lineup mix-up. No, it wasn’t a last-minute change of heart to put back his regular shortstop Kubek, who has had an upset stomach since Saturday. “I wanted to give Tony a rest,” Berra said, “and I just put his name down on the card out of force of habit, I guess. I could have taken him out, but I didn’t want to waste two men for nothing. Would you?”
As it turned out, Yogi could have used even more help than was available. Juan Pizarro (pictured crossing home plate), the winningest pitcher in the league, twirled a five-hitter to boost his record to 15-6. He also homered with two men on for one of the Sox’s 11 hits of the evening and 24 of the doubleheader.
The Bombers’ Ralph Terry was touched for 10 hits in seven innings of the opener and Bouton, who had won seven of his last nine games. gave up nine hits in six innings of the nightcap.
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