Aug. 31, 1964 - There are some accomplished fellows in pinstripes who are used to being the main attraction at Yankee Stadium — second billing and third place are distasteful. Some Yankees didn’t go for the play-by-play inning summations of the Chicago-Baltimore game over the Stadium loudspeaker during yesterday’s 9-3 laugher over the Red Sox.
“We’re in disagreement that they’re giving play by play,” Bobby Richardson said. “Gosh, there’s 33 games to go. We’re far enough behind that we realize we have to win our games. We understand that it’s a service for the fans. But the score on the board should be sufficient.”
“I just don’t want to hear about it,” Elston Howard said. “It don’t bother my playing none, but we’re playing here, not the White Sox or the Orioles.”
The idea of play by play from Baltimore was a clever scheme by Yankee public relations. “We’re paying $41 a day for a special wire to give us the running account of the White Sox-Oriole series,” a spokesman explained. It had zeroed in attention to the last series between the clubs the Yanks are chasing.
There were some bugs in the system. During Friday’s twi-nighter in Baltimore, a public address announcement was made at Yankee Stadium while Roger Maris was batting.
But Roger didn’t mind his act being stepped on. “It didn’t bother me,” Maris said. “I don’t hear a thing while I’m batting. But if it shows up on the scoreboard, what more is needed?”
“The first night [Friday] it bothered me,” said Tom Tresh. “We could have picked up ground. We were winning. Then suddenly we’re losing. We’re being reminded that a split is going on in Baltimore. It doesn’t help to hear out loud that you’re losing a half game to each of them. Last night and today it didn’t bother me. We won three, and they split.”
“It’s bush,” Johnny Blanchard snapped. “For the next two weeks, we can read how they do in the papers. We don’t want to hear play by play.”
Meanwhile, the Yankees have more important problems than having to listen to somebody else’s play by play. They open a 10-game road trip Tuesday night in Los Angeles and Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Tony Kubek may be on the bench.
“Mickey came to the park today with his knees a little sore,” said manager Yogi Berra. Mantle hit a two-run single that built the Yankee lead to 7-1 in the fifth, then gave way to pinch runner Richardson. Mantle seemed to be running with more pain than usual. “We’ll have to wait until Tuesday to see if Mickey can play,” Berra cautioned. Kubek still has a sore hip from a Friday night slide, and Maris has a sore back.
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