New York Yankees: A Look Back at the 1961 Lineup
2) Tony Kubek, SS
Tall and rangy at 6’3″ 190 lbs, Tony Kubek played shortstop and hit second in the Yankees batting order. Playing in all but one of the Yankees’ 154 games, he would make 617 plate appearances.
He hit .276 in ’61, collecting 170 hits. More importantly, though, like his counterpart Richardson he provided the up-the-middle strength defensively to round out a powerful offense. He finished third in the league in both putouts and assists.
The year before in the seventh game of the World Series, Kubek’s career had almost come to an end when a smash off the bat of Bill Virdon hit a pebble and bounced up hitting him in the throat. Kubek was carried off the field and on his way to the hospital when Bill Mazeroski ended the series with a dramatic home run.
Following his retirement as a player in 1965, Kubek began a second career as a broadcaster. And in 2008, he won the highly coveted Ford Frick award, taking a seat in the Hall of Fame.
Ironically, though, Kubek turned sour on the game claiming that baseball had been taken over by money and greed. Here’s how he explained it to the New York Daily News just prior to his induction:
"“I have no ill feelings toward anyone or the game,” Kubek said by phone from his home in Appleton, Wis. Tuesday. “I just felt it had become too driven by money. There are still a lot of dedicated players out there, but I just felt there were too many players more interested in their salaries who didn’t respect the game. It became overbearing what people in the game were allowed to get away with. I really haven’t watched a game on TV since I retired. If I couldn’t be a part of all of it, I didn’t want to be a part of any of it.”"