Aug. 5, 1964 - The New York Yankees don’t beat themselves — except tonight and last night at Municipal Stadium against the Kansas City Athletics.
The Yanks lost to the A’s, 10-1, tonight and the colored lights at the stadium flashed, and the duplicates of the Queen Mary’s horns filled the residential neighborhood with the sounds of the harbor as Nelson Mathews’ grand slam cleared the center-field fence in the fourth inning. But five of the Athletics’ first six runs were unearned.
It only goes to prove that even the Yankees can’t give the Athletics five outs in an inning. Sometimes they can’t even give them four.
In the second inning, when it was still a ballgame, Tony Kubek had alertly trapped Rocky Colavito off second on a hard grounder to shortstop. Colavito was caught in the rundown, but Kubek threw the ball once too often instead of chasing the slow runner. Kubek’s lob hit Colavito in the back, and Rocky then ran into Clete Boyer, and interference was called. Doc Edwards hit into a double play, Colavito scored, and the A’s were up, 1-0.
There were two out and none on in the Kansas City fourth when Colavito hit a high pop back of shortstop. Kubek ran out, Tom Tresh ran in. Mickey Mantle hollered from center field, and Bobby Richardson hollered from second base.
“I should have kept my mouth shut,” Richardson said. “I called Tony. Mickey called Tommy. We have a set rule. The infielder keeps his mouth shut.”
Kubek heard both names. “I froze,” he said. He made a lunge, but the ball fell behind him for two bases.
Al Downing walked Jim Gentile, and Edwards singled home the A’s second run. George Alusik hit what should’ve been the third out the second time, but Kubek threw into the dirt. Then Mathews hit his grand slam.
In the Yankee clubhouse, manager Yogi Berra said: “We haven’t played like that in a long time. I’m glad we got it out of our system. It’s hard to get them up for every game. It was the same when I was playing, until they get a little behind and wake up. Then they were too far behind.”
“First laugher in a long time,” Richardson said.
But nobody was laughing. “No, I guess not,” he said.
Some managers might rant and rave and stamp and even call for postgame batting practice. Not Berra.
“I’ll never keep a team after a game,” he said. “They know how bad they’re going. Why can’t they come out of it on their own? They don’t have to be told — not our guys.”
Instead, Berra told his men to sleep late and forget about batting practice before the last game of the series tomorrow.
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