Yankees Clinch 29th American League Pennant

Oct. 3, 1964 - Unable to unfurl a big inning with the bases loaded and nobody out in the first inning, the New York Yankees finally produced one with two out and one on in the eighth inning today and thereby clinched the American League pennant.

A line-drive single by Bobby Richardson, which was almost caught by Dick Howser, was the hit that broke a 3-3 tie with the Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium. Before the inning ended, the Yanks had added four runs, and when Pedro Ramos retired the Indians in the ninth, the Yankees had an 8-3 victory.

It was No. 99 of this season and the one that eliminated the Chicago White Sox and made New York’s 29th American League championship official. The pennant was the Yankees’ fifth in a row, a feat accomplished only once before in major league history — by Casey Stengel’s Yanks from 1949 to 1953.

Afterward, someone asked Phil Linz, the unrepentant harmonicat, if he’d brought along his harmonica for the clincher.

“No,” he laughed. “I thought about it, but I decided against it. I think we’ve worn that gag out. Most everyone had forgotten all about it. I just hope I get back the $200 they fined me, though.”

Of all the Yankees, manager Yogi Berra was the most champagne-drenched and the happiest.

“This was worse than playing, these last two months,” Yogi said. “If I could put this one over, nothing will ever bother me again.

“The schedule sure wasn’t in our favor. We had to play four doubleheaders within a little more than week.”

A newsman asked for his opening World Series pitcher.

“Ford!” Berra hollered. “And probably Stottlemyre in the second game, no matter where it’s played. All those National League parks are small, and Whitey and Stottlemyre are sinkerball pitchers.”

Did it matter whom the Yanks played?

“I don’t care who wins in the National League, as long as we’re in,” Berra replied. “I wouldn’t want their race to end in a playoff, though. We want to start playing Wednesday. It wouldn’t do us any good to wait the extra days.”

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