Afternoon Baseball

Baseball Musings links to Wood on Sports, which asks the question, "What happened to Brien Taylor?" He of the misspelled name, huge bonus and huge #1 pick bust, of course.
There's an unrelated knock on Roger Clemens "pretending to still be relevant," though. Ignore that (the best pitcher of 2005 is relevant until the ink's dry on the retirement papers -- something the Yanks forgot to ensure in 2003) and read about Taylor, one of only two #1 picks to never play in the majors.

2006 is the 50th anniversary of Don Larsen's perfect game and Mickey Mantle's Triple Crown. It's also the 30th anniversary of George Steinbrenner's first pennant winner and, ahem, the 40th anniversary of the 10th-place Yankees of Johnny Keane -- 7th-game WS losers to last of the last in 18 months.
The 1956 team had other stars. Yogi Berra, who becomes more underrated as people only remember the jokester, went .298/.378/.534, catching 135 games. He had 105 RBI, and an astounding 30 HR to 29 strikeouts. Hank Bauer was mediocre (102 OPS+), but provided 26 home runs. Moose Skowron -- the forgotten Moose -- hit .308/.382/.528 with 23 HR and 90 RBI. The team also featured aged Phil Rizzuto get cut midway through, Enos Slaughter play in 24 games, and a 20-year-old Bobby Richardson get a few at-bats.
Whitey Ford was 19-6, 2.47, while Johnny Kucks and Tom Sturdivant went 34-17 with 18 CG and 5 saves. In another young-old combo, 1950 Phillies ace Jim Konstanty got into 8 games, while 20-year-old Ralph Terry pitched three times.
The pitching staff was not the Yankees' greatest (they had lost Vic Raschi, Johnny Sain, Ed Lopat and Allie Reynolds over the past few seasons), but one thing to note: Whitey Ford was the only one under 6 feet in height. I've talked about the bigger player phenomenon before.

This team, of course, was battling to gain redemption from the unforgivable loss to the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers (they've got a great exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame on them, actually). It took seven games, no doubt aided by five consecutive complete-game performances (I believe this still has not been matched since -- the 2005 White Sox falling a game short). For a good look at the World Series, read the Sporting News recap.