APRIL 6, 1969:
AL PREVIEW: YANKEES by Joe Trimble (New York Daily News)
NEW YORK - The year, the Yankees depart from the own tradition. Their hallmark, the long ball, representing hitting power, no longer exists. This will be a "go-go" team, one which may the first New York American League club to fail to hit 100 home runs in a season.
For 23 straight years, the Brox Bombers have hammered 100 or more balls over the fences, including the all-time record of 240 in 1961, when Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle waged their season-long battle to eclipse Babe Ruth's record of 60 in one year. Maris did it, with 61 in 162 games. Mantle fell short with 54.
Manager Ralph Houk, forced to deal with the material at hand, wisely has accepted its limitations and foregone any expectation of miracles.
"This club can be a good one," Houk said. "The pitchers and the kids, with their speed, must carry it. We can go only as far as they can take us."
Houk had assembled a team of fast, young, line-drive hitters who offer an adequate defense with speed and daring on the bases. The pitching staff, fortunately, is a good one that will not require many runs to win. It will have to stand up under the season-long pressure of tight, low-scoring games.
There will be two bright, young and almost-new faces in the daily lineup, Bobby Murcer at third base and Jerry Kenney in center field. Both hit lefthanded, with little power. Murcer occasionally wheels one out of sight, but Kenney is strictly a slap hitter, far from the mighty man he succeeds, Mickey Mantle.
Both are converted shortstops who have hit for good average wherever they have played. Murcer failed to make it at short with the 1966 club and has been in the Army the past two seasons. Kenney looked like a hitter, but not a shortstop, in a brief trial in 1967 and was in the Navy all of '68.
The rest of the team is about the same as last year's fifth-place finishes. Tom Tresh returns to shortstop, Horace Clarke to second base and Joe Pepitone will be on first. The catching again will be shared by the left-right platoon of Jake Gibbs and Frank Fernandez. Roy White will be the left fielder, with Bill Robinson stationed in right.
Ace Mel Stottlemyre, righty Stan Bahnsen (the 1968 Rookie of the Year) and southpaw Fritz Peterson are the big three starters, with rookie righty Bill Burbach and former Dodger southpaw Mike Kekich behind them. The bullpen is solid, with veterans Lindy McDaniel, Steve Hamilton and Joe Verbanic. Don Nottebart, 33-year-old National League castoff, also will relieve.
Missing from the scene for the first time in 18 years will be the magnificent Mantle. His retirement leaves the club without an inspirational leader, other than the manager.
Houk did a great job lifting the Yanks to fifth place last year. Unfortunately, the four clubs that came in ahead of New York - Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland and Boston - are grouped with the Yanks and Senators in which is probably the strongest division in sports.
The Yanks can not match the power of the Tigers, Orioles and Red Sox, nor the super pitching of the Indians. So, it will be another miracle if they can move higher than fifth. But they should have no trouble keeping Ted Williams' Senators in the cellar.
JERRY KENNEY