Although just 25 years, old Kubek had helped anchor the Yankees middle infield since 1957, as season where he was Rookie Of The Year.
Kubek probably wanted to forget about the 1960 World Series more than any Yankee player (sans Mantle or Terry). For it was the image of a ground ball that hit a pebble and struck Kubek in the throat, that had opened the door in a 5 run Pirate uprising in the fatal game 7.
Kubek entered the Yankees 6th game of the year with no hits, five walks, zero RBIs and zero runs scored.
That all changed when Tony collected 2 hits (one double) in 4 AB in a 4-2 win over the O's on April 21st. That performance raised his average to .105!
But that got the ball rolling, and it wasn't going to hit a pebble and hit him in the throat, this time.
Another hit the next day and two more the day after that, brought the batting average to .185.
All of which, leads us to April 26th.
A game the Yankees won 13-11 over the Detroit Tigers, who despite the loss, were still 2 games up on the Yankees, who were only in 3rd place. The Yankees would not have won the game without their shortstop.
Yes, Mantle had a homerun, not to mention 3 runs scored and 4 RBIs.
Yes, Maris had a homerun, not to mention 2 runs scored.
But what about Kubek?
He had a fine day. 3-6 with 3 runs scored.
His big moment came in the top of the second. Having reached first on a bunt single and later scoring, in the first, Kubek put the Yanks up 6-0 with a homeun in the top of the second off Don Mossi.
The Tigers would fight back before the Yankees won this one in the 10th on a Mantle homerun.
Now isn't that something: a great day for Kubek, forgotten after what I just wrote! Get used to it.
Unless your name was Mantle or Maris, you tended not to exist in 1961.
But Kubek
did exist in the next game against Clevelend. Another 3 hits, but this time in only 4 ABs, and the Yankees won another close one 4-3. Kubek crossed home twice. And that horrible batting average? Try .273. Getting there!
It got over .300 as Kubek had two hits in each of the next three games to finish April with a .321 batting average. A 2-1 loss to the Senators on the last day of the month snapped the Yankees' 4 game winning streak, however.
Another two hit game on the second of May lifted the batting average to .328, as season high. No way Tony can keep this up. In fact, he got no more than one hit in the next seven games to drop it back to .273. Despite that, Tony collected 3 walks on May 5th vs the expansion Los Angeles Angels. He then hit his second homerun on the season on May 9th against Kansas.
But then came Kubek's third three hit game against the Tigers on May 12th. But the Yankees lost the game, 4-3 to the Tigers.
And they would also lose the next game as Kubek did no better than one hit.
The Yankees would win the final two games to split the series, but Kubek would go only 1-5 in each game.
Following an 0 for day, as they say, Kubek got another 3 hits on May 17th against the Senators. The Yankees lost 8-7.
2 hits against Cleveland on the 20th and 3 more in the first game of a doubleheader against Baltimore upped Tony's average to .302. 4 days later, he hit his 3rd homerun off Boston's Billy Muffett.
His average hovered around .300 the rest of the month, but June started off even better. 3 hits were recorded by Kubek in his first June appearance. Then he went 2-6 twice against the White Sox. .312.
On June 6th against the Twins, it was time, once again, for a 3 hit game. The day before, he'd hit homerun #4.
June 8th, the second game of a doubleheader against the A's, saw Kubek get 3 hits. The next day, same, but he scored three times as well and helped the Yankees to a 8-6 win. Two of his hits were doubles, and Tony was now batting a season high .327.
A slump followed in the next three games and Kubek couldn't even manage one hit. But then he got two against Los Angeles on the 12th, and then three more hits against the Indians on the 14th.
On June 14th against Cleveland, Tony helped power the Yankees to an 11-5 win by going 3-6, one of his hits was a double. This was his 4th 3 hit game of the month.
Kubek was 2-5 two days later against Detroit, but despite that, and despite an RBI, the Yankees lost 12-10.
After sitting out two games, Kubek was back in the lineup, to collect a hit and an RBI against KC. This time, the Yankees prevailed.
Actually, the Yankees were to lose just three more games the rest of the month, but Kubek went into a funk that dropped the average down to .296 on June 28th. But Kubek collected two more hits two days later, as the Yankees beat Washington 5-1.
The amazing stat for June? Walks, by Kubek, two!
Four two-hit games brought Kubek's average to .303 by July 9th. No hit was better than Tony Kubek's July 8th homerun.
The Yankees trailed the Red Sox, 3-0 in the bottom of the third, but a homerun by Johnny Blanchard made it 3-1, and a Kubek single brought the Yankees to within one. Before the inning was over, it was the Yankees on top 5-3.
Kubek and the Yankees weren't finished.
Mickey Mantle's fifth inning of Tracy Stallard (who would give up Roger Maris' 61st homerun on the last day of the season) made it 6-3. But then the Red Sox came back with two of their own in the top of the 7th. They were right back in it.
At least, that was, until Kubek came in the bottom of the frame. Mike Fornieles was the pitcher and he retired Bobby Richardson, the leadoff hitter.
But Kubek homered. The Yankees were up two again. Bill Skowron's homerun an inning later put the game out of reach.
But Kubek could manage only 6 hits in the next seven games. But when the Yankees needed it, he was there.
Take July 13th for example. A game where you would forget everything that Kubek did, offensively and defensively.
Richardson led of that game against the White Sox with a single. Kubek moved him over to second with a well placed bunt.
Early Wynn (7-1 entering the game) now had to face Maris and Mantle.
Maris homered (34th). Mantle homered (30th). The Yankees not only had a 3-0 lead, but they now had two players with 30 + homeruns, and it was not quite the middle of July.
And they also had a shortstop who never made the headlines.
But he was
still the Yankees shortstop.
The man to the right of Kubek, Clete Boyer, drove in the Yankees 4th run of the inning. But the White Sox were not about to go away easily.
In the top of the 5th, Sherman Lollar went yard off Bill Stafford to get the Chi Sox on the board. Then Frank Baumann, the pitcher who had relived Wynn, also took Stafford deep. The lead was cut in half. When Luis Aparicio singled, the tying run was at the plate with one out. Nellie Fox was the hitter.
He pounded the ball past Boyer.
But not past Kubek.
From deep in the hole, he speared it, made the loooooooong throw to first for the out. Aparicio made it to second, and with his speed, continued to third. Boyer, after all, was still way behind third, from trying to field it. So Kubek had to beat Aparicio there.
And he did just that. BANG! A double play.
A potential big inning, turned into a slight uprising.
The Yankees would not score again until the ninth, as they were clinging to the 2 run lead. Kubek would double home Richardson. Then Mantle singled Tony home for his second RBI on the day, and 76th on the season.
A typical Yankee win. One that Kubek was overlooked, despite doing the necessary things to win.
And Aparicio knew that. "He's a very good shortstop. The talk about Zorro Versalles and Dick Howser. Forget it. Tony's the best!", he said after the game.
How's that for a compliment? From your very own counterpart.
It seemed that Kubek might only get one hit, but it would score a run, or Kubek would score a run. Or it would move a runner to third. But Kubek kept doing it.
On the 17th, he got two hits, one a double.
Then from the 19th to the 25th, Tony Kubek had 9 hits, six of the them doubles. He touched home 3 times and drove in three.
On the 29th of the month, it was another two hit show, against Baltimore. None of them scored a run, and Kubek could not do much on the base paths. But the hits sure helped.
In the third with the Yankees up 3-0, Kubek singled Richardson first to third. Richardson would score on Yogi Berra's single, but Kubek was then caught stealing.
With two down in the bottom of the 5th, Kubek kept the inning alive with a booming ground rule double to right. Berra walked, but Mantle flied out. The Yankees went on to win 5-4 when Berra homered.
Walks by Kubek in July: 3
He started out August with two hits in both ends of a doubleheader. He scored three times and drove in two. His next doubleheader came four days later as he went 1-2 in two pinch hit appearances.
He went from pinch-hitting to playing all ten innings in a 5-4 win over Los Angeles on August 8th. He collected two more hits, two more runs.
Three days later, it was time for, four hits by Tony Kubek.
Facing the expansion Senators, he stroked a triple in the first to score Bobby Richardson. Mickey Mantle drove Kubek home with a sacrifice fly.
Kubek singled to start the 3rd, then scored, along with Berra, when Elston Howard doubled. The Yankees kept adding runs as Kubek batted again that inning with Richardson on first and the Yankees up, 8-0.
He moved Richardson to third with a single, but Maris flied out to center.
In the top of the ninth, it was hit #4 for Kubek, and he scored again as Hector Lopez (who had replaced Mantle in the bottom of the 7th) singled Tony home.
He managed but 2 hits in the next five games, however, bringing him back to earth with a thud. But he wasn't done torching the White Sox. On August 17th, the Yankees were clinging to a one run lead in the fourth, when they added two, before Kubek put them out of their misery. His double to left made it 4-0.
In the sixth, he singled Richardson to second. Kubek was then forced at short by Maris, and Mantle scored Richardson with a groundout.
The Yankees managed to starve off a last ditched comeback effort in the ninth by the Sox to win 5-3.
A bum elbow was to plague him for a while, limiting him to pinch hitting, with little success.
He was back in the lineup on the 25th, but could not get a hit. The next day he got one, but it was a big one.
Kubek, who drew a walk (his second and final one of August) of the A's starter, Jerry Walker, faced him again in the top of the 6th, with the Yanks up 3-0. Kubek led off the inning.
In style, he connected solidly and sent a pitch deep to right for his 6th homerun on the campaign. When Maris followed with his 51st, everyone had forgotten about Tony. The Yankees won the game, 5-1.
He manages just one hit the next day, but it was good enough for an RBI on the Yankee's eight and final run. The Yankees did need it, as the A's rallied and came up just short, 8-7. It was the Yankees' third straight win.
Three hits in five at bats on the last day of August brought Kubek's average up to .279. But none of the hits or anything else Kubek did that game resulted in an RBI or a run scored.
The Yankees lost the game 5-4 to the Twins.
But September began with a 12 game winning streak by the Yankees.
And Kubek did play a part in many of the wins.
He drove in two runs, and scored one himself, despite just one hit, on September 2nd in a 7-2 win over the Tigers.
He was 1-3 with an RBI on September 4th in the first game of a doubleheader win over Washington.
Then he went 3-5 with a double, a triple and three runs scored on the 7th in a 7-3 win over the Indians.
The next day was another route by the Yankees over the Indians. Can you believe it, it was even more one sided: 9-1.
And Tony Kubek shined!
After Bobby Richardson walked in the bottom of the first, Kubek pushed him to third with a single off future Red Sox Gary Bell.
It was time for Maris and Mantle to do their thing.
How about a little variation, nickle and diming?
Roger grounded out to score Richardson, Kubek was now on second. Mantle was then intentionally walked.
But it backfired as New York went on to score twice more as Kubek and Mantle each got to cross the plate.
It was still a close game as Vic Power struck out in the top of the third. A run would score as it resulted in a wild pitch.
But then Tony Kubek came up in the bottom of the fifth with starter Bill Stafford on third after hitting a triple.
Kubek deposited a Bell pitch into the right field stands for his 7th homerun. One out later, Mantle hit his 52nd to tie a career high. The game was out of reach. It was the Yankees' 96th win on the season.
After a hit, a walk, and a RBI the next day, it was followed by hit (double), a walk, a run, and an RBI on September 10th, the first game of a doubleheader. The second game went well for Kubek and the Yankees, too. Tony was 2-4 with a run scored. It was the fifth straight game that Kubek had scored a run and gotten a hit.
The Yankees recorded their last win of the 12 game winning streak on September 12th. Kubek did not score a run, or even knock in one. He did get a hit in three at bats and also got a sacrifice bunt.
The Yankees then dropped a doubleheader to the White Sox two days later despite Kubek's 2-4 and 1-4 efforts.
And there was no rest for the weary as the Yanks had to play still another doubleheader the next day in Detroit. Kubek would go only 1-9 and the Yankees could win only one of the two games. But in doing so, Tony Kubek scored his 78th run on the season, for a new career high.
The Tigers would route the Yankees on the 16th, despite Kubek's 2-2 day. It included a triple, an RBI, a run scored, and a walk. It was Tony's 44th RBI and 6th triple.
The Yanks would need 12 inning to beat the Tigers 6-4 as Kubek had another two hits and another walk. This time, he scored twice. This brought his runs scored total to 82. This also put his average up to .280.
In the next three games, Kubek was just 2-13 and on 21st of the month, wasn't even in the starting lineup.
Tom Tresh started his first ever game after two token appearances for the Yankees. The Yankees' opponents were the Baltimore Orioles.
And Tresh would play the whole game. But he and his Yankee teammates struggled with O's starter Jack Fisher, who last season gave up Ted Williams 521st and final homerun on his illustrious career. This year, he was destined to give up Roger Maris' 60th homerun.
On this night, he was destined for a good outing.
It was 5-1 Orioles in the top of the 8th.
Jack Reed's groundout scored the Yankees second run. Kubek was called on to pinch hit for pitcher Bill Stafford.
Then Kubek went yard for the eight time on the season. That made it 5-3, but that was also all for the scoring.
That also seemed to be the end for Kubek. At least for this season.
He collected an RBI in an 8-3 win over the Red Sox the next day, but failed to get a hit. He was also hitless in the next two games.
Then Kubek rested for three games.
There was one game left, October 1st against Boston.
Hardly anyone noticed when Kubek singled with one out in the bottom of the first to end his slump.
The next batter was Roger Maris, stuck on 60 homeruns. He flied out to left field.
In the bottom of the 4th, Kubek struck out. But that was alright by Yankee fans as Maris hit his record breaking 61st homerun next.
Kubek was not done as he hit a bunt single to third.
In the bottom of the eight, Kubek grounded out relief pitcher Chet Nichols.
Then in the top of the ninth with two outs and Carl Yastrzemski on first, Lou Clinton grounded to Bobby Richardson, who tossed to Kubek on second for the force. The Yankees had won the game 1-0.
The Yankees had also finished the season with 109 wins.
Kubek had finished the year with a .276 batting average, 8 homeruns, 46 RBIs and 84 runs scored. Amazingly enough, he had walked just 27 times, so his on base average was just .306.
He played 145 games at shortstop (4th in the AL) and pinch hit 8 times (2-8, .250, 1HR, 1RBI, 1R, 1K).
Kubek appeared in both all star games.
Offensively, his 617 at bats was good enough for 6th place in the American League and his 170 hits was 9th. He wasn't just a singles hitter as his 38th doubles placed him second behind the Tigers' Al Kaline's 41. Tony was 7th in the league in sacrifice bunts with 10.
On the negative side, he made 470 outs on the season, which placed him seventh in the AL.
But how about his defense?
Kubek ranked 8th in defensive Wins Above Replacement with a 1.2 among AL shortstops.
His 449 assists was 3rd in the AL among everyone, and second among shortstops. Only Ron Hansen (with 460) and Luis Aparicio (with 487) had more assists. Aparicio was the only shortstop with more assists. Kubek's 261 putouts was good enough for 3rd among AL shortstops. Only Aparicio (264) and Dick Howser (299) had more.
How about Kubek's Range Factor Per Nine Innings? Kubek's was 5.07, second to Aparicio's 5.08. But Kubek's Range Factor Per Game of 4.90 tops Aparicio's 4.81.
Kubek's .959 fielding percentage was third among shortstops in the AL behind Woodie Held's .960 and Aparicio's .962.
In total chances, only Aparicio's 781 and Howser's 764 were more than Kubek's 740.
But Aparicio would turn just 86 double plays, far back of Kubek's 107 and Hansen's league leading 110.
Now on the negative side, there was those 30 errors committed by Kubek, which is third in the AL. But Howser committed 31 and Hansen committed 38. And Kubek was tied with Zoilo Versalles and Aparicio, actually. So he had pretty good company! Just looking at how they all did just at shortstop, it was a 4 way tie for second: Kubek, Aparicio, Hansen and Versalles.
Kubek could do no better than one walk in game 1 of the 1961 World Series. Cincinnati's Jim O'Toole allowed the Yankees just 6 hits and reliever Jim Brosnan allowed no hits in 8 combined innings of work.
Kubek made it to second after drawing a walk in the first inning. Richardson had singled and was on third. But Yogi Berra popped out.
That was the most Kubek could do. But he did not need to do anything as the Yankees got by this one, 2-0.
In game 2, the Yankees trailed 6-2 in the bottom of the eight and Kubek was still hitless.
He singled off Joey Jay, but Tony moved no further as Maris fanned, Berra flied out and Johnny Blanchard fouled out. The Yankees went on to lose the game.
The third game saw the Yankees down 1-0 in the seventh inning when Kubek led off with a single. But Maris and Mantle made outs. Would Kubek be left stranded again. A passed ball had moved him to second.
Berra's single drove him home with a single.
With the game tied at 2 in the eight, Richardson singled with two outs. But Kubek ended the inning by flying out to centerfielder Vada Pinson.
Roger Maris won the game in the ninth for the Yankees with a homerun.
In the crucial game 4, New York was up by just a single run, 1-0, in the fifth, when Kubek singled in a vital insurance run, although Maris flied out to end the inning.
However, the Yankees would tack on 5 more runs in the game. Kubek would fly out against Brosnan in the 7th and strikeout against Bill Henry in the ninth.
In game 5, the Yankees were up 5-0 in the top of the second when Kubek singled to left. When Maris followed with a double down the left field line, Tony would score.
In the 4th inning, with the Yankees up 6-3, Kubek led off with a single. Maris flew out, but Blanchard doubled Kubek to third. When Elston Howard walked, the Yankees had the bases loaded. Moose Skowron scored both Kubek and Blanchard with a single. Hector Lopez knocked home three more with a homerun.
Kubek would face Bob Purkey in the 5th and flied out. In the seventh, he faced Brosnan leading off the inning. He flied out to second. But by this point they were up 13-5.
Then in the ninth, Kubek faced Ken Hunt, and grounded out. This would be his last plate appearance.
In the ninth, he took Elio Chacon's grounder and tossed him out at first. When the next two Red batters flied out, the Yankees were World Series Champions.
Overall, in the 1961 World Series, Tony Kubek was 5-22. He scored 3 runs and drove in 1. He also walked once. His batting average was .227.
Kubek was never someone to grab headlines or make awe inspiring plays at shortstop, but to a man, Kubek was as important as any of the players on the 1961 team.
References
Golenbock, Peter. "1961."
Dynasty: The New York Yankees, 1949-1964. Lincolnwood, IL: Contemporary, 2000. Print, pp. 405-445.
Mantle, Mickey, and Mickey Herskowitz. "The M & M Boys."
All My Octobers: My Memories of Twelve World Series When the Yankees Ruled Baseball. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. Print, pp. 129-145.
Smith, Ron.
The Sporting News Presents 61*: The Story Of Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle And One Magical Summer. St. Louis: Sporting News, 2001. Print, pp 129-145.
Sports Reference LLC.
Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 16 Dec. 2011.
The World Series Of 1961. Dir. Lew Fonseca. Prod. Dick Borden. Perf. New York Yankees Cincinnati Reds 1961. Major League Baseball Productions Inc, 1961. DVD. DVD Released in 2006.
