Perhaps the most poignant memoir ever written by a ballplayer.
1. He grew up in Brooklyn and attended Manual Training High School.
2. At 17, he was shot by a student in school; that day, his dad had a stroke and died.
3. At various points in his career, he replaced Moose Skowron at 1B and Mickey Mantle in CF.
5. He was obsessed with his hair and even wore a toupee under his ballcap.
6. He signed to play a year in Japan but was cut for excessive partying.
7. He tried pro softball and was suspended for "conduct detrimental to professional softball."
8. In 1988, police nabbed him with nine ounces of cocaine, 344 qualudes, a pistol and $6,300 in cash. He did four months in Rikers Island.
9. George Steinbrenner rehabilitated him, hiring him as coach. For his part with the 1999 team, he received a world series ring.
10. He sold it in an auction.
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The miracle was that he lived to be 82...
He hit 27 home runs in his rookie season, made the all-star team, and finished 17th in the MVP voting.
His second year, he drove in 100 runs, made the all-star team again, and hit a grand slam in the World Series.
His third season, he won a Gold Glove, and made the all-star team again, though he probably should not have.
His fourth season, he hit 31 home runs, started to make the transition to CF, and finished 27th in the MVP voting. He was still just 25.
In 1967, he got the starting CF job, officially—and in the words of Steve Hamilton, folded like a cheap tent...
I saw him in the first baseball game I ever went to, Yankee Stadium, 1967. He made a key, two-base error to cost the Yanks a run in a one-run game, and struck out with the bases loaded.
I saw him in the second Yankees game I ever saw, up in Fenway Park. He went 0-4.
I saw him in the the third Yankees game I ever saw, in Fenway again. He went 0-4 and got himself kicked out of the game late. That allowed the immortal Len Boehmer to have his moment in the sun, getting the game-winning hit in the 10th inning...
He still had enough left to hit 26 homers and win another Gold Glove in 1969. But the Yanks had had enough. They traded him for an even worse player with an even worse attitude, in Curt Blefary. (No, Brian Cashman was NOT in charge of the team yet.
He had enough left to have a 27-home run season, then hit .304 in Wrigley, in 1972.
But he was soon done in the US. He went to Japan, where he got caught dancing in a disco, on a night when he was supposed to be out with a leg injury.
The word "Pepitone" became a synonym for "malingerer" in that country...
He was embodiment of all the ruined youth and all the dashed hopes of that once-bright, long-ago decade. The poster boy for the Fallen Dynasty and Fallen New York.
The victim of some mean streets and yet another abusive father. The victim of his own, minor celebrity, and the ill-considered decision to take his cues off the field from Mickey Mantle.
He was good for countless stories. The first man to bring a hair dryer into the clubhouse. The guy who told his teammates that if you ever make an error, the thing to do is to fake an injury.
He was a whole era's unrealized potential, all rolled into one, confused, Brooklyn boy who never grew up. Where the rest of that 1960s team wound up honorably broken on the field of play: Tresh, Kubek, Downing, Bouton, the M & M Boys, etc.
Not Joe Pepitone. He managed to wreck himself. A Sanchez or a Gleyber before his time. He just never stopped falling.
I make excuses for plenty, both known to me personally, and various celebrities. But Pepitone, amusing antics and all was a bad seed. A man with all the people who supported him winding up in Rikers... Let's not drag Sleepy Sanchez or Gleybor into the pit.
Another thing, getting caught in 1988 with nine ounces of coke, 344 ludes, a gun, etc. would have landed most of us ten years and up. This guy gets four months!? And even writes a book that I imagine would have made Robert McNamara proud. I would love to know the particulars of why he was shot in high school, not as popular for solving hurt feelings as it is now.
The word "Pepitone" became a synonym for "malingerer" in that country...
He wasn't Sánchez or Gleyber before his time. He was Pavano before his time.
I looked up his stats on baseball-reference when I read that he passed.
He was a guy I really wanted to be great in my formative years, even with his hair dryer.
What struck me is what HC66 mentioned, he had some fine years at the plate in the "deadball-higher pitchers's mound" era.
And he did it as a young man.
The Yank blended him in with older aging stars as a 21,22, 23 yr. old.
WHAT A CONCEPT!!
I wonder if such a thing would work again 50year later?
According tp Brenden Coffey (SP?),
per filings required by NY State, the Yanks made $344.7 million dollars in tickets sales last season.
That does not include any merchandise , beers, hot dogs, etc.
That doesn't include MLB income or TV revenue.
Our "fortunate son" doing alright ; cue CCR.
I once saw Joe get thrown out of a game that didn't take place.
It was probably 1965 or so; I was watching on TV. Yankees were playing a day game at home; bottom of the first Pepitone hit a grand slam and the Yanks took a 4-0 lead. A couple of innings later the skies opened up and the tarp came out. 80 or 90 minutes later it was still raining hard, so the umps called the game. Under the rules of the time all stats were wiped out.
Peppy came running out of the dugout and argued with the umps, pleading with them not to call the game. He kept it up and finally was thrown out of a game that had already not happened. Only time I ever saw that happen.
I should clarify: I didn't mean to make a moral comparison between Pepi, and Gleyber or Sanchez. Of course they've never done anything like deal drugs.
I just meant they seemed to share the same attitude of not really caring that much despite their immense, early potential.
Either Pepi's toupees got better or he became a member of the Hair Club For Men. Probably the latter because with very long hair his coiffure looked seamless and natural.
A great book to read, "Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud."
I lived in Bklyn, as a young youth, when Pepi played for NYYs.
You have never in your life heard as much crap (there's another word for it) about a human being no one personally knew who was NOT a politician . . . as I heard about this person.
Learned a lot of new words......
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