Phil Linz Is Mad

June 11, 1965 - Phil Linz was so angry he couldn’t play his harmonica. The normally pleasant, joke-telling Yankee infielder became incensed today after reading a wire service story that implicated him as a prime swinger in Sunday’s Yankee drinking party at Newark Airport. Linz says he was definitely not fined or reprimanded, has the support of manager Johnny Keane, and plans to consult a lawyer and may bring a suit against the wire service.

The morning eggs didn’t go down so good after Linz read that a bartender — unnamed but supposedly working at the airport — said he had refused drinks to three or four Yankees and recognized Linz among them.

The story quoted the bartender as saying, “Finally, Keane came in, and he went up to Linz and said something like, ‘You at it again?’ Then all of them left.”

Linz’s best defense will remain his manager.

“Linz wasn’t involved,” Keane said today. “The story is absolutely not true. I stayed at the boarding gate with my wife the entire time. I never spoke to Linz. In fact, I don’t even know where the bar is.”

Linz called the wire service three times and demanded a retraction. “I was almost incoherent with them on the phone,” he reported. “I was so mad. It implies that I’ve been giving trouble the whole season.

“I go to a lot of banquets and church affairs in the off-season where there are kids. Do you think they’re going to want me now? Those people are going to believe Linz is a troublemaker. There’s no way they’re going to retract it in the minds of a lot of people.”

Jim Bouton, Linz’s roommate, said: “Phil was the most upset I ever saw him. By the time I grabbed the phone from him, he had sued three telephone operators and four editors.”

This afternoon, however, Phil had regained his sense of humor. “This is worse than 15 harmonica incidents,” he remarked.

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