Happy Birthday to 89-Year-Old Bobby Richardson

Today we wish Bobby Richardson a happy 89th birthday. The former All-Star was known as a glove-first second baseman, but he could swing the bat which he certainly did in 1962, and his performance in the the 1960 World Series - despite theYankees loss to the Pirates - was one for the record books.

Mickey Mantle won the MVP award in 1962, but many people - including Mantle - thought the runner-up in the voting, Bobby Richardson, deserved the honor.

In fact, Mantle sent a Christmas card to Richardson that December and addressed it to the “MVP” and it wasn’t really a stretch because in 1962, the second baseman had the season of his life and he played a key role in New York’s defense of the World Series title.

Casey Stengel, who loved everything about Richardson, once said of him, “Look at him. He don’t drink, he don’t smoke, he don’t chew, he don’t stay out late and he still can’t hit .250.”

None of that changed in 1962. Richardson, a devout Christian who had been raised in the Bible Belt of South Carolina, still didn’t drink, smoke, chew or carouse, and he didn’t hit .250. Instead he hit .302, set an American League record with 692 at-bats and produced a league-high 209 hits. He also earned the second of his five straight Gold Glove awards, the second of his six straight nominations to The Sporting News All-Star team, and played in the first of five straight All-Star Games.

It all came together in 1962 for Richardson, and he credited manager Ralph Houk - who had replaced Stengel the year before - as the primary reason for his success. Houk had managed Richardson in the minors and loved the way he played. When he took over the Yankees in 1961, he moved Richardson from eighth in the batting order to leadoff or second, and he wrote his name on the lineup card every day that season.

“Ralph had confidence in me and kept me in there even when my batting wasn’t as sharp as it could have been,” Richardson said. “He stayed with me through the slumps, didn’t pull me out for pinch hitters, and it gave me a great desire to reward his confidence with a good performance.”

And those rewards were plentiful.

On the strength of his 11 hits and record 12 RBI he won the 1960 World Series MVP award even though the Yankees lost to the Pirates. In 1961 he played in every regular-season game, turned an astounding 136 double plays to win his first Gold Glove, and in the Series he pounded out nine hits to help the Yankees defeat the Reds. In the 1962 Series, he made the game-saving and Series-ending catch of Willie McCovey’s screaming line drive.

“Bobby was the best second baseman in the league,” Joe DeMaestri, who was a Yankee utility infielder for a brief period, once said. “He was so quick. As a hitter Bobby could handle a bat as good as anybody I ever saw. Depending on where the ball was pitched he’d either flip his wrists or just reach out with the bat and he’d have a hit. He was a threat because he could always hit the ball somewhere, often with extra-base power. He made a great leadoff man, batting in front of Tony Kubek.”

He also made a great double play partner for Kubek. Those two were artistic around the keystone sack, and with Mantle in center and Elston Howard behind the plate, the Yankees were probably baseball’s strongest team up the middle in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

“I came up as a shortstop and Casey said, ‘I have a good man (Phil Rizzuto and later Gil McDougald) at that position so you better learn to play second base,’” Richardson recalled. “Frank Crosetti was the infield coach and he did the coaching. He taught me to position myself closer to the bag in double play situations, that way you can be in position until the last possible second if a man is stealing and the batter is swinging.”

Richardson’s religious virtues were well-known, but what was nice is that he never pushed his beliefs on anyone else. All the players knew Richardson wasn’t ever going to swear or lose his temper and they respected him for it.

But there were times when his presence was a little unnerving. Clubhouse language is often vile, yet the players tried to curb their behavior when Richardson was around. However, occasionally someone would be telling a dirty joke or sharing a story about a particular sexual conquest, and Richardson would come in unexpectedly and spoil the fun. Not that he meant to, but the players knew he frowned upon such things and rather than subject his ears to the story, they would cut it off and leave everyone else hanging.

Mantle once told the story of the day in the dugout when Moose Skowron made an out and came back to the bench swearing up a blue streak. He walked past Richardson and stopped cussing long enough to say, “Excuse me, Bobby” and then continued down the line swearing again. Even Richardson laughed at that one.

During his 12-year career, all with the Yankees, Richardson led the AL three times in at bats (1962-64) and once he became an established player in 1957, the Yankees won seven AL pennants and three World Series. He finished with a slash line of .266/.299/.335 and an OPS of .634 which was obviously not great, but for the time he played, perfectly commensurate with other second basemen when that position was strictly for light hitters and outstanding fielders.

• Aug. 20, 1938: With a single by Red Rolfe and walks by Tommy Henrich and Joe DiMaggio loading the bases in the top of the first, Lou Gehrig hit the 23rd and final grand slam of his career, this one off Buck Ross of the A’s, part of a six-RBI game as the Yankees won 11-3. That would stand as the record until Sept. 20, 2013, when Alex Rodriguez broke it and A-Rod would ultimately finish his career with 25 slams.

• Aug. 21, 1931: Babe Ruth hit his 600th career home run on this day, obviously becoming the first player to reach that milestone. He hit it off George Blaeholder of the St. Louis Browns in an 11-7 Yankees victory. Ruth had three hits and three RBI and the 36-year-old raised his season average to .375 and his OPS to 1.181.