October 15, 1964: The Last Day of the Old Yankee Dynasty

Bob Gibson pitching to Mickey Mantle, Sportsman's Park

October 15, 1964: Game 7 of the World Series is played at Sportsman's Park – or, as Cardinals owner and Anheuser-Busch beer baron August Anheuser Busch Jr., a.k.a. "Gussie" Busch, has renamed it, Busch Stadium. The Cardinals start Bob Gibson, loser of Game 2 but winner of Game 5, on 2 days' rest. The Yankees start rookie Mel Stottlemyre, who had defeated Gibson in Game 2.

Lou Brock's 5th-inning home run triggers a 3-run frame and a 6-0 lead for Gibson. Mickey Mantle‚ Clete Boyer‚ and Phil Linz homer for New York – for Mantle, the record 18th and final Series homer of his career – and the Yanks close to within 7-5 in the 9th. But it's not enough, as an exhausted Gibson finds enough gas in his tank to finish the job, and the Cards are the World Champions.

Both Boyers‚ Ken for the Cards and Clete for the Yankees‚ homer in their last Series appearance. While they had homered in back-to-back games, Clete in Game 3 and Ken a grand slam in Game 4, this remains the only time in Series history that 2 brothers have both homered in the same game.

The three games at Yankee Stadium had attendances of 67,101, 66,312 and 65,633. In contrast, of the four games at Busch Stadium, built in 1909, three had an official attendance of 30,805, while Game 7 had one of 30,346. Never again has a World Series been played in front of a crowd so low, or in a stadium with a seating capacity so low -- or in a stadium built before 1912. One of many turning points that this World Series represented: On May 8, 1966, the Cardinals left their old neighborhood ballpark, and moved into Busch Memorial Stadium, a concrete circle built downtown for as many events as possible. They would play the 1967, 1968, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 2004 World Series there, before moving next-door to a new Busch Stadium (no "Memorial").

Sportsman's Park

Although the Yankees (27) and the Cardinals (11) have each won more World Series than any other team in their respective Leagues, they have never met in another, despite both making the Playoffs in 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2015. (Both teams came close to making the Playoffs in 1974, the Cards just missed in 1981, and the Yanks just missed in 1985.)

For each manager, it is his last game at the helm. Johnny Keane had nearly been fired by Cardinal management in mid-season, and their come-from-behind run to top the Philadelphia Phillies had saved his job. But he had had enough, and he resigns.

Yogi Berra, after helping the Yankees to 14 World Series as a player and now 1 as their manager, also coming from behind, to top the Chicago White Sox, thinks he's done a good job, and expects to be offered a new contract. Instead, he gets fired, and Yankee management hires… Johnny Keane.

This will turn out to be a massive mistake. While the Cardinals will hire their former star 2nd baseman Red Schoendienst, who will lead them to the 1967 World Championship and the 1968 Pennant, Keane, already in ill health, will be a terrible fit for the Yankees, getting fired early in 1966, and he dies in 1967.

Del Webb and Dan Topping, who had owned the Yankees since 1945, had just sold the Yankees to CBS – yes, the broadcast network – and had cared little for keeping the farm system stocked. As a result, there was very little talent left to call up to the majors when the Yanks' current stars got hurt or old, and it seemed like they all got hurt or old at once.

In the 44 seasons from 1921 to 1964, the Yanks won 29 Pennants and 20 World Series, but fell to 6th place in 1965, 10th and last in '66. Despite a 2nd-place finish in '70, they were well behind the World Series-winning Orioles. They didn't get into a race where they were still in it in August until '72, to the last weekend still in the race until '74 (by which time George Steinbrenner had bought the team from CBS), to the postseason until '76 and the World Championship until '77.

In 2008, Buster Olney published The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, about the one that began in 1996, and ended at what's now called Chase Field in Phoenix on November 4, 2001. But no baseball dynasty, indeed no sports dynasty, was as, well, dynastic as the 1949-64 Yankees. Peter Golenbock's Dynasty: The New York Yankees 1949-64 tells of how it was built, and how it began to fall apart; David Halberstam's October 1964 tells of how both the Yankees and the Cardinals got to this Game 7, and what happened thereafter; both books put the teams in the context of their times, at home and abroad.

There were a lot of big names on those teams -- including future National League President Bill White, and future broadcasting legends Tony Kubek, Mike Shannon, Bob Uecker and Tim McCarver. None of them had any inkling that this was anything other than the last day of a great season, that it was The Last Day of the Yankee Dynasty.

UPDATE: The Cardinals have a team Hall of Fame. From their 1964 World Champions, they have inducted team owner August "Gussie" Busch, coach Albert "Red" Schoendienst, scout George Kissell, scorekeeper Lou Adamie; 1st baseman Bill White, 3rd baseman Ken Boyer, left fielder Lou Brock, center fielder Curt Flood, right fielder Mike Shannon, 2nd baseman Julián Javier, catcher Tim McCarver, pitcher Bob Gibson, and broadcaster Jack Buck.

Through the 2025 season, manager Johnny Keane, general manager Vaughan "Bing" Devine, and broadcaster Harry Caray (a St. Louis native, once every bit as identified with the Cardinals as he now is with their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs) have not yet been inducted.

Busch, Schoendienst, Kissell, Adamie, Gibson, Brock and Flood were elected to the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame. Busch, Schoendienst, Kissell, Adamie, Boyer, Brock, Shannon, Gibson, Buck, Devine, Caray, shortstop Dick Groat and right fielder Charlie James (a St. Louis native) were elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

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October 15, 1964 was a Thursday. This was the only baseball game on the day. Football was in midweek. And the NBA season didn't begin until the next day.

But there was 1 game played in the NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

August 20, 1964: The Harmonica Incident

Phil Linz (left) and Yogi Berra. Winning solves everything.

At least for a while.

August 20, 1964: An incident on the New York Yankees' team bus wakes the team up, and leads to a Pennant.

In 1959, catcher Yogi Berra and left fielder Elston Howard had their positions switched by manager Casey Stengel. Talking about how the Sun combined with the old Stadium's roof, making it difficult to see a fly ball from left field, Yogi said, "It gets late early out there."

He was still a key figure on Pennant-winning teams. But after the 1963 season, Yogi was 38 and clearly slowing down. And, with Ralph Houk, his former backup catcher, being moved up from field manager to general manager, Yogi was offered the job of managing the Yankees for the 1964 season.

There were those who thought that Yogi was too much of a softie to manage, especially players he'd played with. On August 20, the Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 5-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. John Buzhardt went the distance for the ChiSox, while Whitey Ford got knocked out of the box in the 4th inning.

Former Yankee Bill "Moose" Skowron went 3-for-4 with an RBI for the ChiSox. The Yankees only got 7 hits, all singles: 3 by shortstop Tony Kubek, 2 by right fielder Roger Maris, 1 by Howard, and 1 by backup catcher Johnny Blanchard, who started in left field on this day. Usual center fielder Mickey Mantle was once again battling an injury, and did not play.

The loss completed a 4-game sweep by the Pale Hose over the Bronx Bombers, and left them 4 1/2 games behind Chicago with 23 to go. The Baltimore Orioles were just half a game behind the White Sox.

The tension on the team bus to O'Hare International Airport was so thick, it could have been cut with a knife. Reserve infielder Phil Linz pulled out a harmonica he'd begun learning how to play, and began to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb," the traditional song for anyone learning how to play an instrument to start with.

Yogi, sitting at the head of the bus, heard it, and yelled back, "Whoever's playing that thing, shove it up your ass!" (Yogi was old-school even by the standards of the Sixties, but he was no prude when it came to language.) Linz didn't hear what he said, and asked Mantle what it was. Being a wisenheimer, Mickey said, "He said, 'Play it louder.'" So Linz did.

Yogi wasn't having it. He got up, walked down the aisle of the bus, saw Linz, and said, "I thought I told you to shove that thing up your ass." Linz said, "If you want it shoved up my ass, why don't you shove it there?" He flipped the instrument to Yogi... who slapped it down.

There are 2 versions of what happened next. One is that everyone saw that Yogi could mean business, and that the respect for him as a manager suddenly grew by leaps and bounds. That's the version that Yankee management, in the years since, would have fans believe.

The other version, which is more believable, is included in Peter Golenbock's book Dynasty, and has been backed up by the surviving '64 Yanks, all of whom said that respect for Yogi was never an issue. This version says that the slapped-down harmonica bounced off 1st baseman Joe Pepitone's leg. Pepi then fell into the aisle in mock agony, rolling around on the floor of the bus like a Spanish soccer player (with the bad hair to match). Everyone cracked up -- and loosened up.

With respect for Yogi restored, or the tension shattered, whichever is true, the Yankees went on a tear. They flew to Boston and lost 2 more, then won 28 of their last 39, including an 11-game winning streak from September 16 to 26, and won the Pennant, winning 99 games, beating the White Sox by 1 game and the O's by 2. Yogi had won his 1st Pennant as a manager, and he wasn't even 40.

But they lost the World Series -- ironically, to Yogi's boyhood team, the St. Louis Cardinals. This was in spite of Linz, substituting for an injured Kubek, playing in all 7 games, and hitting home runs in Games 2 and 7, both off Bob Gibson. Yankee management fired Yogi, anyway, which they were determined to do even if he won the Series. If he was upset, he never let on: When people would ask him about it, he'd just say, "That's baseball."

At least they told him to his face. That would not be the case the 2nd time he was fired as Yankee manager.

With Stengel now managing the Mets, he hired Yogi was one of his coaches, and Yogi even played a few more games. In 1966, with Stengel having retired and Wes Westrum having been hired as Mets manager, the Yankees traded Linz to the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1967, the Phils traded Linz to the Mets, reuniting him with Berra.

Linz's playing career ended after the 1968 season, and he ran a restaurant in Manhattan, before retiring to Leesburg, Virginia. He died in 2020. (Not from COVID.)

Berra was on the coaching staff of Gil Hodges as the Mets won the 1969 World Series. In 1972, Hodges died at the end of Spring Training, and Yogi was named manager, winning the National League Pennant in 1973. He was fired in 1975, and brought back to the Yankees as a coach.

He was named manager for the 1984 season, but was fired early in 1985. Team owner George Steinbrenner, instead of telling Yogi face-to-face, sent a team official to do it. Furious over this lack of courtesy, not over the firing itself, Yogi said he would never set foot in Yankee Stadium again as long as Steinbrenner owned the team. He kept that promise for 14 years, until peace between them was negotiated, including a face-to-face apology from George to Yogi. Yogi was brought back into the Yankee fold, and remained there until his death in 2015.

 

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August 20, 1964 was a Thursday. These other baseball games were played that day:

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-4. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Phillies swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0 and 3-2 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Art Mahaffey pitched a 2-hit shutout in the opener, allowing a single each to both of the Bucs' eventual Hall-of-Famers, Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski. Frank Thomas -- not the later White Sox slugger -- won it with a home run off Bob Friend in the bottom of the 9th. Clemente and Willie Stargell each got 2 hits in the nightcap, but a home run by Johnny Callison helped give the Phils the win.

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Hank Aaron went 4-for-5, although none of his hits was a home run.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 10-7 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the New York Mets, the Chicago Cubs, the Houston Colt .45s, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Washington Senators and the Minnesota Twins were not scheduled.