Bernie Williams (AP)
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Post columnist Steve Serby goes back in time, lobbing questions at the Old Timers who gathered yesterday at Yankee Stadium.
Q: What is your favorite Yankees memory?
DAVID CONE: Probably warming up in the outfield on the day that Joe DiMaggio died, and Paul Simon walks out and plays his famous song “Mrs. Robinson” … Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? So I just sat down, with my back against the outfield wall, and watched Paul Simon. My own little personal concert is what it seemed like. That was an unbelievable moment. I was lucky: I got to pitch on the day Mickey Mantle died, the day Joe DiMaggio died. And that one, the day Joe DiMaggio died, that tribute was … like none other.
BERNIE WILLIAMS: The old Stadium, winning the batting title from a personal standpoint on the last day of the [1998] season was very special. That same year, winning the championship, I don’t know if I can top that. I think every year that I spent here was very special. I never took it for granted.
LOU PINIELLA: Winning our first world championship in 1977. I’ve always worn that ring with a lot of pride. I remember players I’ve played with and the teams that we beat on the way to that. My favorite year, though, was ’78. That was the year that we were written off at the All-Star break and we came back from that 14-game deficit and had that wonderful, wonderful, memorable playoff game in Boston, the most fun-filled game I’ve ever played in my life.
WILLIE RANDOLPH: If I could just speak from a selfish standpoint, it was the ’77 All- Star Game in the old Yankee Stadium. Obviously I’m a 22-year-old kid, rubbing elbows with guys I was emulating three years ago, you know? In front of all your family and friends. It’s the ultimate dream come true. You got the Chris Chambliss home run [in the 1976 ALCS] obviously was huge, and there’s a lot of other great memories being part of championships, but to me, just being able to stay on the field, look around and soak everything in on that one particular night, played the whole game, and just to be able to be on that stage, I felt like I really kind of arrived as a young player.
ROY WHITE: I always tell everybody that one of my great memories is the first time just coming into the Yankee Stadium clubhouse as a rookie and seeing Mickey Mantle sitting over in the corner and [Roger] Maris and then Whitey [Ford] and Elston Howard. Bobby Richardson, who was my idol as a second baseman, that was a great moment for me. If you want to talk about a moment on the playing field, I think a home run against Boston in ’78, in a big series, in the bottom of the ninth [off Bill Campbell] that tied up a game that we won in extra innings, and we swept that series and it catapulted us into first place.
Q: What is your favorite single Yankees memory other than your 1978 playoff home run at Fenway Park?
BUCKY DENT: The three home runs that Reggie hit in ’77. It was my first World Series, my first year in New York and first world championship, and to see something like that in Game 6 was special.
Q: What is your favorite Yankees memory?
BOBBY RICHARDSON: Current would be just standing around the cage a few minutes ago, and Mo Rivera walked up to me, hugged me and said, “I remember the first time that you and I were together.” We shared, at the All -Star Game in Atlanta [in 2000], that goes back a lot of years, he shared his testimony and I spoke and we have been friends ever since. Playing-wise, I had some wonderful thrills in World Series play, and if I had to be honest, the biggest thrill was in 1960 against the Pirates, third game of the Series. [Casey] Stengel had me bunting. I fouled it off twice, and he said, “Hit the ball to right field, stay out of the double play.” And I hit a grand slam, and when I came by him in the dugout, he said, “Good bunt.”
JOE PEPITONE: My first time playing with the Yankees. Yogi [Berra], Mickey I watched in high school, next thing you know I’m playing right field and he’s playing center, and he’s talking to me, he’s in the locker next to me. It was great. Hitting a grand slam in the ’64 World Series, Yogi the manager. Hitting two home runs in one inning my first year [1962], and the only other Yankee to do that was Joe DiMaggio, so that was a big thrill.
RON BLOMBERG: When I was on deck and Thurman Munson was hitting third, and we’re losing 2-1, there was a man on second and third, and Thurman hit a home run and we all went to home plate, we all cheered. This was almost about a year before he passed. He was the team captain, he was my roommate for four years. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what was going to transpire a year later, but just to be part of that and to see everybody jumping up, I think that probably is my greatest memory.
CHARLIE HAYES: Oh, the catch! No doubt. Also, Old-Timers’ Day. We were in the clubhouse a little while ago, and I saw Yogi, stuff like that. I mean, just getting to hang out, be around the guys.
Q: Reenact the moment when the ball’s in the air for the last out of the 1996 World Series.
HAYES: Well, the pitch before that, [Mark Lemke] fouled it, and I tripped over the camera in there or somebody on the Braves. I broke my little finger, and I was running back out to the field saying, “Man, if he hits it on the ground, where am I gonna throw this ball? Am I gonna throw it to Tino [Martinez at first base], or am I gonna throw it in the bleachers?” But thank God it was another popup, and catching that thing, man. … It didn’t hit me at the moment, but sitting back three weeks later, reminiscing where I came from, how this all started … it was very touching.
Q: What is your favorite Yankees memory?
JERRY COLEMAN: The first pennant we won [in 1949]. We came into Yankee Stadium tied with the Red Sox for the lead. And we beat ’em behind Vic Raschi, one of the great pitchers of all time. Don’t ask me why Raschi and [Allie] Reynolds aren’t in the Hall of Fame.
JESSE BARFIELD: I would say putting on the uniform for me and for the first time walking out here and getting an ovation the way I did because I know they expected a lot out of Al Leiter [traded to the Blue Jays for Barfield in 1989], and he certainly turned out to be a pretty darn good pitcher.
LEE MAZZILLI: I was with Texas, and I was traded between games of a doubleheader [in 1982]. And I remember first game sitting on the third-base side of the dugout, and looking over and the guys on the team were saying, “Are you coming over here next game?” To me, that was my greatest moment, being traded back to the Yankees.
PAT KELLY: My first day walking out of that tunnel, scared to death — not that tunnel, but the old tunnel. Boston. Full house. Memorial Day [1991]. Mel Hall walk-off home run. I played third base. Jack Clark hit a ball right off my chest … into the stands. “Boo, you bum!”
DON LARSEN: (Just kidding. No need to ask.)