Blanchard comes off the bench, hits a homerun.
Blanchard comes off the bench, hits a homerun.
Again and again? It seemed like it.
April didn't give any hint of that. He played three straight games, all as a pinch hitter and did nothing, except strikeout in his last at bat of the month.
After failing to get a hit in another pinch hit appearance on May 2nd, he started the very next day. Blanchard only went 1-5, but he collected his first RBI.
Then he went 0-2 in his next two pinch hit at bats. But on May 7th, he was back behind the plate against Los Angeles, and he smacked his first homerun, and drew an intentional walk. The downside was losing the game 5-3 and doing nothing else other than walk and homerun.
5 days later he was walked intentionally again in a game against the Tigers. He also collected a hit, but it only lifted his average to .167!
The next day, he hommered against Phil Regan to bring the Yankees within one of the Tigers, 3-2. Yogi Berra, playing in left field tied the game in the 6th with a solo shot. Alas, the Yankees watched helplessly as the Tigers put 5 runs on the board the rest of the way, to their zero.
He was back on May 14th, in the second game of a doubleheader. This was John's forth straight game the he made an appearance, three of them starts. In the first game, he came in as a defensive replacement in the 10th inning and failed to collect a hit in his only at bat. In the nightcap, however, he collected a hit, 2 walks and an RBI. Now his average was a season high .240, so far.
His next big game came 11 days later. Kind of fitting that it was against the Red Sox, as you will see later. Mickey Mantle was off, so Roger Maris started in centerfield, Yogi Berra in right, and Bob Cerv in left. You had Clete Boyer batting second and Bobby Richardson batting eighth in front of Whitey Ford.
In the bottom of the first with Tony Kubek on first and one out, Blanchard faced former Cardinal Billy Muffett. Johnny whacked a homerun to right, and the Yankees would tack on another run that inning. It was 6-0 after 5 innings, and the Yankees held off Boston's 4 runs late in the game to win.
Blanchard collected just one more RBI the rest of the month, however, and his average was now down to .204.
On June 1st, he collected two hits and two walks. His two hits were doubles, and he got another RBI.
Four days later, Blanchard really came up big!
With the Yankees trailing 2-0 to the Twins in the bottom of the 7th. Blanchard faced Don Lee with two on.
WHAM! Three run homerun!
Not only did the Yankees have the lead, but Mantle's two run shot the next inning put the game out of reach.
On June 8th, it was Johnny Blanchard who got 2 hits and scored twice. He failed to pick up an RBI, however. The Yankees beat KC, 6-1.
He did get RBIs in back to back games on June 14th and 15th, then he upped his heroics with a performance on June 18th against the Tigers. Blanchard helped the Yankees to a 9-0 win.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Bill Showron went deep, and then Blanchard, on cue, followed suit for back to back dingers. It was 2-0 against Yankee killer Frank Larry. Boyer and Mantle then each hit sacrafice flies to make it 4-0 before the inning was over.
Jerry Casale was the Tigers pitcher in the 7th and the Yankees were now up 6-0. Blanchard, made it clear that he and the Yankees weren't finished by hitting another homerun. He ended the game with a season high 3 runs scored.
This performance lifted his average to a more than respectable .278.
On the 24th, he helped the Yankees to another win over the City Twin with a homerun, then two days later, smacked one pinch hitting.
So June ended with Johnny Blanchard hitting 5 homeruns, upping his total to 8 on the season. His also knocked in 12 and batted .359 for the month.
On Independence Day of 1961, Blanchard raised his average to .293 by going 3 for 4. Amazingly, he did not get an RBI or a run scored. The Yankees lost to Detroit, 4-3.
4 days later, he once again torched the Red Sox with a homerun. Then he got two RBIs against the other Sox on the 15th. And he was know just one decimal point below .300!
He did reach .300 on July 19th in the first game of a doubleheader against the Sens, but he dropped below the mark in the nightcap.
But on the 21st, Blanchard came up in the top of the 9th against Boston, of course. The Yankees trailed 8-6, with two outs and the bases loaded. Hey! Don't we all go to bed dreaming of this scenario? As in hitting a grand slam.
Which Blanchard did, against Mike Fornieles. Did I mention he was pinch hitting?
So the very next day, Blanchard again pinch hit in the 9th inning. And again the Yankees trailed, this time 9-8. The pitcher was Gene Conley, who also played for the NBA's Boston Celtics.
And I'll bet he wished basketball season started early that season, as Blanchard smacked another homerun, tying the game. The Yankees went on to win, 11-9.
So his next game was four games later. This time, the Yankees got the idea: We gotta start this guy more often.
The strategy would pay off.
In the bottom of the 1st, Mantle greeted Ray Herbert with a two run shot. Blanchard was up next. Could he duplicate that?
Well, he couldn't his a two run homerun, obliviously! But he settled for a solo shot!
It was still 3-0 in the bottom of the 4th as Blanchard came up again.
And again hit a homerun.
Johnny Blanchard now had 4 homeruns in 4 plate appearances.
Herbert, now shaken, allowed another blast by Boyer before the inning ended.
So Blanchard came up again the bottom of the 6th, with Herbert settling down.
Blanchard gave it a ride, deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep to right. Can it be? Blanchard turned on the jets, to give the ball some imaginary weight. Floyd Robinson in right field ran, backed up to the fence.
And he hauled it in! So close.
Blanchard's next at bat resulted in a double play, but the Yankees starved off the ChiSox's two run uprising in the top of the 7th and won 5-2.
Blanchard knew that it was still all about Mantle, and Maris (who didn't hit one) after the game. Johnny made that clear to the reporters who came up to ask him about his slugging rampage. Everyone knew exactly what he meant.
The month ended with Blanchard going 3-3, plus a walk, in a game against the O's . But just like his first appearance this month, there was no RBIs or runs scored. And again it was a loss by one run, 2-1.
But this performance put his average at .315 for the season.
Kansas was the victim of two hits, a walk and three RBIs on August 2nd. And his batting average was now a season high .321, but it would not get any higher.
Blanchard managed just one hit against Minnesota two days later. The Yankees were tied 5-5 in the bottom of the 10th inning. With one out, Mantle walked and Yogi Berra singled him to second. Johnny Blanchard would face Bill Pleis.
Hero time!
BLAM! Homerun! The Yankees won 8-5.
He had just one hit in 7 trips to the plate the next day, but, you guessed it, it was a homerun.
His average sagged the next few days, but he was back at it on the 13th, with 2 hits (one a triple), 2 runs scored and an RBI.
This would be his last RBI of the month, and Blanchard close out the month with just a run scored in the last 9 games.
September started out no better as he was 0 for 2 on September 3rd to drop his batting average to .282. But the next day was a new day, a 3 for 3 day!
And it included a homerun.
On September 6th, it was a 2 for 4 day, but the "2" represented homeruns, giving him 18 for the season.
On the 8th, a 2-3 performance at the plate put his average back over .300, for good on the season.
Another homerun came the very next day against Cleveland, and he had two other hits for good measure.
The big moment came the next day (September 10th) in the first game of a doubleheader against the Indians. Blanchard was in left field It came in the bottom of the second, after Mickey Mantle tripled. Johnny Blanchard faced Barry Latman and went deep to right to give him 20 homeruns on the year. It had taken him just 78 games, 197 at bats and 225 plate appearances. The Yankees won the game 7-6.
In the second game, he actually failed to hit a homerun, but, playing left field again, Blanchard again made his presence felt with 2 hits, 2 RBIs, a run scored and one hit by pitch. Mantle kept everyone interested with homerun #53.
It wasn't until September 20th that he got two hits again, as the Yankees beat Baltimore 4-2. Blanchard did fail to get an RBI, although he did score a run. And the run ended up being the Yankees forth and final run. In that game Maris (#59) and Berra (#21) went back to back in the top of the third before Elston Howard's double scored Blanchard, who had singled. I wonder if anyone noticed?
After getting a hit in his only at bat of a September 24th game against Boston, Blanchard had 2 more hits and his first RBI in two weeks.
Then, in his final highlight of the 1961 regular season, he went 2-4 with his final homerun against, why Boston, of course. In the bottom of the 4th, he hit a dinger off Bill Monbouquette to put the Yankees up 1-0. After the Red Sox tied it in the 7th, Blanchard won the game in the bottom of the 9th with a walk off single of Monbouquette to score Roger Maris.
Blanchard finished the 1961 season as having participated in 93 games, accumulated 243 at bats, hitting 21 homeruns, knocking in 54 runners, and touching home 38 times. He recorded 27 walks, 9 intentional. Plus he was hit by a pitch four times. His finals batting average was .305 and his on base percentage was a very impressive .382.
He caught 48 games, played in left field 8 times and right field 7 times. He pinch hit 33 times.
With the Yankees up 2-0 in game 1 of the 1961 World Series against Cincinnati, John came up in the bottom of the 8th against Jim Brosnan. New York had Berra on first and two outs. Brosnan got him on a popup.
Game 2 was an 0-4 performance against Joey Jay, as the Yankees lost 6-2.
Blanchard had a chance to redeem himself in game 3 as the Yankees trailed 2-1 in the eighth. There were two outs and he faced Bob Purkey, having one hell of a game.
Purkey had kept the Yankees off guard all game long with knuckleballs. But Mickey Mantle reminded Blanchard before he batted to look out for a slider on the first pitch. That was the best pitch to go after, because it was all knuckles after that.
Mantle's advice paid off as Blanchard slammed Purkey's first pitch (a slider, of course) into right for a homerun. Maris won the game an inning later.
Johnny Blanchard did not play in game 4, but in game 5 with Mantle back out, there John was out in right field, with Maris in center and Berra in left.
In the top of the first with two on, two outs and Joey Jay back on the mound, Blanchard put the Yankees ahead for good with a homerun.
After walking in the second inning off Jim Maloney, he doubled to right in the 4th inning of Bill Henry, which moved Tony Kubek to third. Skowron scored both of them with a single, putting New York up 8-3.
In the sixth, it was Purkey back on the mound. Blanchard drew a lead off walk, and would later score again. Now the Bronx Bombers were up 12-5. They would add another tally that inning.
Then in the 9th, with the Yankees up 13-5 with Maris on first and one out, Blanchard faced Ken Hunt, the Reds' 8th pitcher on the day. Blanchard grounded out.
In four World Series games that year, Blanchard had 2 homeruns, 3 RBIs, 4 runs scored, 2 walk and a .400 average in 10 at bats.
Overall, the 1961 season was a momentous one for Johnny Blanchard. While Mantle and Maris grabbed the highlights when it came to the long ball, Blanchard did that two in limited duty in both the regular season and post season.
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.
Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 15 Oct. 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.
Blanchard comes off the bench, hits a homerun.
Again and again? It seemed like it.
April didn't give any hint of that. He played three straight games, all as a pinch hitter and did nothing, except strikeout in his last at bat of the month.
After failing to get a hit in another pinch hit appearance on May 2nd, he started the very next day. Blanchard only went 1-5, but he collected his first RBI.
Then he went 0-2 in his next two pinch hit at bats. But on May 7th, he was back behind the plate against Los Angeles, and he smacked his first homerun, and drew an intentional walk. The downside was losing the game 5-3 and doing nothing else other than walk and homerun.
5 days later he was walked intentionally again in a game against the Tigers. He also collected a hit, but it only lifted his average to .167!
The next day, he hommered against Phil Regan to bring the Yankees within one of the Tigers, 3-2. Yogi Berra, playing in left field tied the game in the 6th with a solo shot. Alas, the Yankees watched helplessly as the Tigers put 5 runs on the board the rest of the way, to their zero.
He was back on May 14th, in the second game of a doubleheader. This was John's forth straight game the he made an appearance, three of them starts. In the first game, he came in as a defensive replacement in the 10th inning and failed to collect a hit in his only at bat. In the nightcap, however, he collected a hit, 2 walks and an RBI. Now his average was a season high .240, so far.
His next big game came 11 days later. Kind of fitting that it was against the Red Sox, as you will see later. Mickey Mantle was off, so Roger Maris started in centerfield, Yogi Berra in right, and Bob Cerv in left. You had Clete Boyer batting second and Bobby Richardson batting eighth in front of Whitey Ford.
In the bottom of the first with Tony Kubek on first and one out, Blanchard faced former Cardinal Billy Muffett. Johnny whacked a homerun to right, and the Yankees would tack on another run that inning. It was 6-0 after 5 innings, and the Yankees held off Boston's 4 runs late in the game to win.
Blanchard collected just one more RBI the rest of the month, however, and his average was now down to .204.
On June 1st, he collected two hits and two walks. His two hits were doubles, and he got another RBI.
Four days later, Blanchard really came up big!
With the Yankees trailing 2-0 to the Twins in the bottom of the 7th. Blanchard faced Don Lee with two on.
WHAM! Three run homerun!
Not only did the Yankees have the lead, but Mantle's two run shot the next inning put the game out of reach.
On June 8th, it was Johnny Blanchard who got 2 hits and scored twice. He failed to pick up an RBI, however. The Yankees beat KC, 6-1.
He did get RBIs in back to back games on June 14th and 15th, then he upped his heroics with a performance on June 18th against the Tigers. Blanchard helped the Yankees to a 9-0 win.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Bill Showron went deep, and then Blanchard, on cue, followed suit for back to back dingers. It was 2-0 against Yankee killer Frank Larry. Boyer and Mantle then each hit sacrafice flies to make it 4-0 before the inning was over.
Jerry Casale was the Tigers pitcher in the 7th and the Yankees were now up 6-0. Blanchard, made it clear that he and the Yankees weren't finished by hitting another homerun. He ended the game with a season high 3 runs scored.
This performance lifted his average to a more than respectable .278.
On the 24th, he helped the Yankees to another win over the City Twin with a homerun, then two days later, smacked one pinch hitting.
So June ended with Johnny Blanchard hitting 5 homeruns, upping his total to 8 on the season. His also knocked in 12 and batted .359 for the month.
On Independence Day of 1961, Blanchard raised his average to .293 by going 3 for 4. Amazingly, he did not get an RBI or a run scored. The Yankees lost to Detroit, 4-3.
4 days later, he once again torched the Red Sox with a homerun. Then he got two RBIs against the other Sox on the 15th. And he was know just one decimal point below .300!
He did reach .300 on July 19th in the first game of a doubleheader against the Sens, but he dropped below the mark in the nightcap.
But on the 21st, Blanchard came up in the top of the 9th against Boston, of course. The Yankees trailed 8-6, with two outs and the bases loaded. Hey! Don't we all go to bed dreaming of this scenario? As in hitting a grand slam.
Which Blanchard did, against Mike Fornieles. Did I mention he was pinch hitting?
So the very next day, Blanchard again pinch hit in the 9th inning. And again the Yankees trailed, this time 9-8. The pitcher was Gene Conley, who also played for the NBA's Boston Celtics.
And I'll bet he wished basketball season started early that season, as Blanchard smacked another homerun, tying the game. The Yankees went on to win, 11-9.
So his next game was four games later. This time, the Yankees got the idea: We gotta start this guy more often.
The strategy would pay off.
In the bottom of the 1st, Mantle greeted Ray Herbert with a two run shot. Blanchard was up next. Could he duplicate that?
Well, he couldn't his a two run homerun, obliviously! But he settled for a solo shot!
It was still 3-0 in the bottom of the 4th as Blanchard came up again.
And again hit a homerun.
Johnny Blanchard now had 4 homeruns in 4 plate appearances.
Herbert, now shaken, allowed another blast by Boyer before the inning ended.
So Blanchard came up again the bottom of the 6th, with Herbert settling down.
Blanchard gave it a ride, deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep to right. Can it be? Blanchard turned on the jets, to give the ball some imaginary weight. Floyd Robinson in right field ran, backed up to the fence.
And he hauled it in! So close.
Blanchard's next at bat resulted in a double play, but the Yankees starved off the ChiSox's two run uprising in the top of the 7th and won 5-2.
Blanchard knew that it was still all about Mantle, and Maris (who didn't hit one) after the game. Johnny made that clear to the reporters who came up to ask him about his slugging rampage. Everyone knew exactly what he meant.
The month ended with Blanchard going 3-3, plus a walk, in a game against the O's . But just like his first appearance this month, there was no RBIs or runs scored. And again it was a loss by one run, 2-1.
But this performance put his average at .315 for the season.
Kansas was the victim of two hits, a walk and three RBIs on August 2nd. And his batting average was now a season high .321, but it would not get any higher.
Blanchard managed just one hit against Minnesota two days later. The Yankees were tied 5-5 in the bottom of the 10th inning. With one out, Mantle walked and Yogi Berra singled him to second. Johnny Blanchard would face Bill Pleis.
Hero time!
BLAM! Homerun! The Yankees won 8-5.
He had just one hit in 7 trips to the plate the next day, but, you guessed it, it was a homerun.
His average sagged the next few days, but he was back at it on the 13th, with 2 hits (one a triple), 2 runs scored and an RBI.
This would be his last RBI of the month, and Blanchard close out the month with just a run scored in the last 9 games.
September started out no better as he was 0 for 2 on September 3rd to drop his batting average to .282. But the next day was a new day, a 3 for 3 day!
And it included a homerun.
On September 6th, it was a 2 for 4 day, but the "2" represented homeruns, giving him 18 for the season.
On the 8th, a 2-3 performance at the plate put his average back over .300, for good on the season.
Another homerun came the very next day against Cleveland, and he had two other hits for good measure.
The big moment came the next day (September 10th) in the first game of a doubleheader against the Indians. Blanchard was in left field It came in the bottom of the second, after Mickey Mantle tripled. Johnny Blanchard faced Barry Latman and went deep to right to give him 20 homeruns on the year. It had taken him just 78 games, 197 at bats and 225 plate appearances. The Yankees won the game 7-6.
In the second game, he actually failed to hit a homerun, but, playing left field again, Blanchard again made his presence felt with 2 hits, 2 RBIs, a run scored and one hit by pitch. Mantle kept everyone interested with homerun #53.
It wasn't until September 20th that he got two hits again, as the Yankees beat Baltimore 4-2. Blanchard did fail to get an RBI, although he did score a run. And the run ended up being the Yankees forth and final run. In that game Maris (#59) and Berra (#21) went back to back in the top of the third before Elston Howard's double scored Blanchard, who had singled. I wonder if anyone noticed?
After getting a hit in his only at bat of a September 24th game against Boston, Blanchard had 2 more hits and his first RBI in two weeks.
Then, in his final highlight of the 1961 regular season, he went 2-4 with his final homerun against, why Boston, of course. In the bottom of the 4th, he hit a dinger off Bill Monbouquette to put the Yankees up 1-0. After the Red Sox tied it in the 7th, Blanchard won the game in the bottom of the 9th with a walk off single of Monbouquette to score Roger Maris.
Blanchard finished the 1961 season as having participated in 93 games, accumulated 243 at bats, hitting 21 homeruns, knocking in 54 runners, and touching home 38 times. He recorded 27 walks, 9 intentional. Plus he was hit by a pitch four times. His finals batting average was .305 and his on base percentage was a very impressive .382.
He caught 48 games, played in left field 8 times and right field 7 times. He pinch hit 33 times.
With the Yankees up 2-0 in game 1 of the 1961 World Series against Cincinnati, John came up in the bottom of the 8th against Jim Brosnan. New York had Berra on first and two outs. Brosnan got him on a popup.
Game 2 was an 0-4 performance against Joey Jay, as the Yankees lost 6-2.
Blanchard had a chance to redeem himself in game 3 as the Yankees trailed 2-1 in the eighth. There were two outs and he faced Bob Purkey, having one hell of a game.
Purkey had kept the Yankees off guard all game long with knuckleballs. But Mickey Mantle reminded Blanchard before he batted to look out for a slider on the first pitch. That was the best pitch to go after, because it was all knuckles after that.
Mantle's advice paid off as Blanchard slammed Purkey's first pitch (a slider, of course) into right for a homerun. Maris won the game an inning later.
Johnny Blanchard did not play in game 4, but in game 5 with Mantle back out, there John was out in right field, with Maris in center and Berra in left.
In the top of the first with two on, two outs and Joey Jay back on the mound, Blanchard put the Yankees ahead for good with a homerun.
After walking in the second inning off Jim Maloney, he doubled to right in the 4th inning of Bill Henry, which moved Tony Kubek to third. Skowron scored both of them with a single, putting New York up 8-3.
In the sixth, it was Purkey back on the mound. Blanchard drew a lead off walk, and would later score again. Now the Bronx Bombers were up 12-5. They would add another tally that inning.
Then in the 9th, with the Yankees up 13-5 with Maris on first and one out, Blanchard faced Ken Hunt, the Reds' 8th pitcher on the day. Blanchard grounded out.
In four World Series games that year, Blanchard had 2 homeruns, 3 RBIs, 4 runs scored, 2 walk and a .400 average in 10 at bats.
Overall, the 1961 season was a momentous one for Johnny Blanchard. While Mantle and Maris grabbed the highlights when it came to the long ball, Blanchard did that two in limited duty in both the regular season and post season.
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.
Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 15 Oct. 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.
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