Forget the Maris thing...
Aaron Judge needs one more home run to pass, perhaps the greatest Yankee of them all...
Joe Pepitone!
They are both tied at 309th all-time. Can Judge do it? Will we have to wait until next year?
Why is this not a national obsession?
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18 comments:
Pep could've been great. Instead, his success went up his nose and out his hair dryer.
Not a great book, as books go, but a must-read.
I do believe that Doug’s crisp description up above might be better than the book itself. . .
I have faith that the big man can do it this season.
My profane glossolalia appears to have slackened. But fear not Commentariat; I will be in fine form for the post-season.
Criminy.
AA - that's from Amazon not me.
I don't know how to put the description in italics.
Sorry for the confusion.
If you ever get a chance...
Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud
by Joe Pepitone, Barry Stainback
"One of Esquire’s Twenty Best Baseball Books Ever:“A frank, uninhibited self-portrait” by the New York Yankee about his wild life, his wins—and his losses (Kirkus Reviews).
From the review on Amazon: At seventeen Joe Pepitone signed with the New York Yankees, and soon experts were predicting he’d be the team’s next superstar. He could run, throw, and field, and he had a sweet home run swing.
But during his twelve years in the majors Pepitone devoted most of his energy to swinging off the field. He blew his career, destroyed two marriages, lost custody of three children, and came very close to a nervous breakdown. At thirty-three he quit baseball for good and finally admitted that for most of his life, he’d been living a lie. He’d been acting the carefree clown in order to cover up immense inner pain.
In this autobiography, Pepitone reveals what was behind his wild behavior in devastatingly honest terms, holding back none of the embarrassment, anguish, and guilt that perpetually haunted him. He tells of the father he loved so much, the toughest man in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood, whose beatings and constant pressure led Joe to tell his mother one night that he wished his father would die. Willie Pepitone died the next day. But along with plenty of pain, this book also has plenty of humor, as Pepitone tells of partying with Frank Sinatra and Mickey Mantle, carousing with groupies and hookers, and “living the life” of a famous ballplayer in the sixties and seventies. It’s a journey filled with highs and lows—and a mature man’s reckoning with his younger self.
“The most honest book an athlete ever wrote . . . profane and compelling.” —Chicago Tribune
“Raucous . . . far more revealing than [Jim Bouton’s Ball Four].” —Rolling Stone"
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I don't know about it being one of the 20 best baseball books ever but it is a fun read.
I had a feeling, Doug ;)
That said, I wonder if Barry Stainbeck was a distant cousin to John Steinbeck?
Nice offering though, Doug. I hadn’t thought about Pepitone in a long while.
I wonder if any of our YES booth jockeys will call out the Pepitone connection now that it’s been made here.
Cone would enjoy riffing on Joe.
My wife got Joe’s autograph at a game, years ago. Didn’t hurt that she was with both of her sisters and all three were cute little things
I eat lunch at the oceanfront bar at the Moana Surfrider in Waikiki a couple of times a year. Food is average and overpriced but the locale is great.
There is a waiter there who has been telling me for 20 years he is going to open a restaurant in Las Vegas with Joe Pepitone -- always "next year". I get the same story for 20 years. He's just waiting for some money to get out of litigation.
It would be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic.
Some writer once said that Pepitone could not hold on to a dollar bill if it were stapled to his forehead. Managers used to try to goad him, asking what he was going to do if he couldn't play ball. He would say that he'd just go home to his mother, who loved him. She'd take care of him, and he'd live on the beach at Coney Island and eat hot dogs.
Apparently only Yogi Berra could gently coax him into playing everyday.
Sad, sad case.
Joe = Giuseppe = "Pep" for short. I was called "Pepino" by one of my grandfathers. So Joe Pepitone was Pep Pep, kinda-sorta, for some people anyway.
I did read the book a while ago. The one thing that stuck with me was Joe's profile of Sinatra.
I thought he was a wonderful singer and even sometimes-good a actor. But I had a suspicion that F.S. was an asshole as well, from reading about his escapades.
Joe's book confirmed that.
The comments on this Pepitone discussion have me musing that the Yankees are and have always been a reflection of the society and culture and values around them at any given time in this country's history.
So, thinking about today's Yankees...uh...I'm going to stop now.
Jon Heyman yesterday was saying that people close to Ohtani deny that he's against moving to New York. That he's interested in winning.
I guess the Mets, then. He won't be a free agent until 2024, at any rate.
DJL starting at 3B, batting fifth.
Pepitone looked like he was going to be the real deal. By the time he left town, he was dreadful -- Aaron Hicks awful. Interesting guy. Sad case.
A Mattingly digression: Remember those parts of two seasons when Donnie Baseball was the best player in MLB? Pretty sure it was '86 and '87 when he was hitting everything everywhere hard. I'm sure we all enjoyed that a lot. But it all went away so fast and he was so much less of himself within a year. I got married in July 1987 and I think that's the month or certainly the season when he hit HRs in 7 straight games, an unbroken record (I think).
It's fun to have that feeling again -- the best player in the game is on our team.Don't know how long it'll last. As Hoss reminded us a few times, Judge is real big and it's hard to stay healthy when you're that big playing baseball. Who knows even if he'll be on the Yankees. Still, this has been fun.
PT - the odds are still above average that Judge will remain a Yankee.
I'm hopeful that he's back next year.
And - if we win today our 96 wins prediction disappears.
It would be strange if we wound up with 99 wins (JUDGE) but I think we're headed higher.
I love you all, but...
https://www.koolaid.com
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