It was 60 years ago that infielder Phil Linz turned the New York Yankees season around by playing the harmonica. Seriously. Thus, we commemorate this epochal occasion in the annals of baseball because, as sportswriters, we’re obligated to write about any anniversary that ends in zero, however innocuous it may be. They teach us that right after we learn the secret handshake. We might commemorate an anniversary ending in the number five whenever we can’t think of anything to write about. If we write about an anniversary that ends in any other numeral, you know we’re really desperate for material.
60 Years Ago: Phil Linz And His Harmonica Saved The Yankees Season
The Yankees were a grumpy bunch on August 20, 1964. The Chicago White Sox had just swept them in a four-game series at Comiskey Park. The mighty Yankees weren’t accustomed to anything but first place. Now they were in unfamiliar territory, in third place, 4 ½ games out of first place in the American League. In addition to that indignity, they were stuck in traffic on their team bus on the way to O’Hare Airport.
The Yankees’ versatile infielder Linz played well despite the losses. He started the first three games at shortstop, batting leadoff, and pinch hit in the final game. In the four games, he was 3-for-11 with two runs scored, an RBI, two walks, two triples, and for all of you analytically inclined geeks out there, a .141 WPA. In the field, he handled eight chances and committed one meaningless error.
While in Chicago, Linz and Yankees teammates Tony Kubek and Tom Tresh each purchased a harmonica. Whether the trio’s intent was to one day displace Jerry Murad’s Harmonicats is lost to history. Sitting in the back of the bus, Linz decided he’d pass the time by practicing his new instrument. The harmonica came with an instruction sheet with a practice tune. “The practice tune was ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb,’” Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton told FOX Sports in 2020, “and if you can play ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ as a dirge, this was it.”
“Play It Louder”
However, when you’re the mighty Yankees, you’re supposed to stew over losses. Linz didn’t feel like it. “I didn’t have anything to do with losing that game,” Linz told the Associated Press. Furthermore, he was upset about being benched in the final game. As Linz played, from the front of the bus, first-year manager Yogi Berra shouted, “Put that thing in your pocket!” according to the AP. According to eyewitnesses, Berra told him to put it somewhere else.
Linz kept playing in open defiance of the order. In 2013, Linz explained to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, “I wasn’t sure what he said, so I turned to Mickey (Mantle), and asked, ‘What did he say, Mickey?’ Mickey told me, ‘Play it louder.’”
“You Hurt My Little Knee”
At once Berra was charging toward Linz, shaking his fist. Linz flipped the harmonica to Berra. Bouton wrote in Ball Four, “Yogi swatted at it with his hand and it hit (Joe) Pepitone in the knee. Immediately he was up doing his act called, ‘Oooooh, you hurt my little knee.’ Pretty soon everybody was laughing, even if you’re not supposed to laugh after losing. . .” (The flying harmonica cut Pepitone’s knee, not severely.)
Coach Frankie Crosetti, who had been with the Yankees since 1932, stood and said, “This is the worst thing that’s ever happened in the history of the New York Yankees!” Now the players were laughing so hard they were in hysterics. Crosetti was the Yankees shortstop when Lou Gehrig contracted amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and passed away. Yet Linz playing a harmonica was the worst thing that had ever happened in Yankees history?
The incident took on a life of its own. During the annual Mayors Trophy charity game at Shea Stadium on August 25, Mets fans taunted Linz by playing harmonicas. Mets pitcher Tracy Stallard, who shared an apartment with Linz, threw a harmonica at him when he batted in the sixth inning. Meanwhile, the Yankees front office feared that Berra had lost control of the team, or perhaps never even had it to lose in the first place. Berra had been their teammate in 1963 and retired to take the managerial job. The Yankees brain trust thought him too close to the players. Later, on August 22, the United Press International headline blared, “Yankees Must Start Winning to Save Berra.”
Yankees Get Hot
Somehow, the Yankees went on a hot streak. The Yankees were 30-13 to finish the season after Linz tooted his harmonica. They won the AL pennant by one game over the White Sox. Many players, scribes, and fans credited what came to be known as “The Harmonica Incident.” Some said it loosened up the Yankees. Others said it asserted Berra’s authority. However, one might find more practical reasons in a pair of transactions. For one, the Yankees called up rookie pitcher Mel Stottlemyer on August 12. He got the Yankees rolling with a complete game shutout in Boston on August 22. He finished 1964 at 9-3 with a 2.06 ERA and 1.167 WHIP. On September 5, the Yankees acquired reliever Pedro Ramos from the Cleveland Indians. Ramos had a 1.25 ERA and 0.600 WHIP for the 1964 Yankees. In his 21 2/3 innings, he didn’t walk a single batter.
The Last Word
Unfortunately, this story doesn’t have a happy ending for the Yankees. The Yankees lost the World Series in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. Their loss was symbolic of a changing landscape in the United States. The Beatles had landed at Kennedy Airport and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. A flamboyant loudmouth named Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston to win the world heavyweight championship. President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. The Yankees, Elvis, and Liston were the establishment. Out with the old. In with the new, steaming ahead like a locomotive.
The Yankees fired Berra after the Series and replaced him with the Cardinals manager, Johnny Keane. Some theorized that the Yankees’ front office made up their minds as soon as The Harmonica Incident became public knowledge. The Mets hired Berra as a coach and reactivated him as a player long enough to appear in four games in May 1965. Later, the Mets acquired Linz in a July 1967 trade with the Philadelphia Phillies. Long before that, Linz and Berra had reconciled the day after The Harmonica Incident. The newspapers ran a photo of Linz and Berra in their Mets uniforms. In it, Linz played a harmonica and Berra covered his ears.
Keane and the Yankees were a bad fit. The Yankees were a team of hard drinkers and skirt chasers, and Keane was a stern disciplinarian. A history of injuries and bad habits finally took its toll on Mantle. Thus began the “Horace Clarke Era” which didn’t see the Yankees in the World Series again until 1976. Berra made it to the World Series with the Mets twice before the Yankees made it again, once as a coach in 1969 and again as a manager in 1973.
Main Photo Credits: Frank Becerra Jr./The Journal News / USA TODAY NETWORK
