Joe Pepitone

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joe Pepitone

First Base, Outfield
Batted: Left	Threw: Left
MLB debut
April 10, 1962 for the New York Yankees
Final game
May 25, 1973 for the Atlanta Braves
Career statistics
Batting average	.258
Home runs	219
Runs scored	606
Teams
New York Yankees (1962-1969) Houston Astros (1970) Chicago Cubs (1970 - 1973) Atlanta Braves (1973)
Career highlights and awards
3-time AL All-Star (1963, 1964 & 1965) 3-time AL Gold Glove Award Winner (1965, 1966, 1969) 5 20 Home Run Seasons (1963, 1964, 1966, 1969 & 1970) 1 30 Home Run Season (1966) 1 100 RBI Season (1964)

Joseph Anthony Pepitone (born October 9, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and outfielder for the New York Yankees (1962-1969), Houston Astros (1970), Chicago Cubs (1970-1973) and Atlanta Braves (1973).

1 Baseball career
2 Problems after baseball
3 References
- 3.1 Books
- 3.2 Newspapers
4 External links

[edit] Baseball career

In 1958, Pepitone was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent. After playing four seasons in the minor leagues, he broke in with the Yankees in 1962, playing behind Moose Skowron at first base. A much-discussed legend was that while on his way to 1962 spring training in Florida, Pepitone spent his entire $25,000 signing bonus. He bought a Ford Thunderbird, a boat which he towed with the Thunderbird, and a dog. He arrived at the Yankees new spring training facility in Fort Lauderdale with a new car, a new boat, a new dog, and was wearing a new shark-skin suit.

Pepitone had a powerful swing and an excellent glove, and some of Pepitone's tougher friends thought he should be the regular first baseman ahead of Skowron. They offered to help Joe out by breaking Skowron's legs; Pepitone declined. The Yankee brass believed he could handle the job, and before the 1963 season traded Skowron to the Dodgers. Pepitone responded admirably, hitting .271 with 27 HR and 89 RBI. He went on to win three Gold Gloves, but in the 1963 World Series he made an infamous error. With the score tied 1-1 in the seventh inning of Game Four, he lost a routine Clete Boyer throw in the white shirtsleeves of the Los Angeles crowd, and the batter, Jim Gilliam, went all the way to third base and scored the Series-winning run on a sacrifice fly. He redeemed himself somewhat in the 1964 Series against the Cardinals with a Game 6 grand slam.

The ever-popular Pepitone remained a fixture throughout the decade, even playing center field after bad knees reduced Mickey Mantle's mobility. After the 1969 season he was traded to the Astros for Curt Blefary. Later he played for the Cubs and finished his major-league career with the Braves.

In June of 1973, Pepitone accepted an offer of $70,000 a year to play for the Yakult Atoms, a professional baseball team in Japan's Central League. While in Japan, he hit .163 with one home run and two RBIs in 14 games played. According to an edition of Total Baseball, Pepitone spent his days in Japan skipping games for claimed injuries only to be at night in discos, behavior which led the Japanese to adopt his name into their vernacular--as a word meaning "goof off".

Pepitone was a member of the 1963, 1964 and 1965 American League All Star Team. He won the Gold Glove award for first basemen in 1965, 1966 and 1969.

Jim Bouton talks extensively about Pepitone in his book "Ball Four." Pepitone is described as being extremely vain. Bouton said that Pepitone went nowhere without a bag containing hair products for his rapidly balding head. Pepitone even had two toupees, one for general wear and one for under his baseball cap, which he called his "game piece." Bouton told a humorous story about how the game piece came loose one day when Pepitone took off his cap for the national anthem.

In June of 1982, Petitone was hired as a batting coach with the Yankees, but was replaced by Lou Piniella later in the season.

In the late 1990s, Pepitone was given a job in the Yankees' front office.

[edit] Problems after baseball

Pepitone spent four months at Rikers Island jail in 1988 for two misdemeanor drug convictions after he and two other men were arrested on March 18, 1985, in Brooklyn after being stopped by the police for running a red light in a car containing nine ounces of cocaine, 344 quaaludes, a free-basing kit, a pistol and about $6,300 in cash. He was released from jail on a work-release program when Yankee owner George Steinbrenner offered him a job in minor-league player development for the team.

In January of 1992, Pepitone was charged with misdemeanor assault in Kiamesha Lake, New York, after a scuffle police said was triggered when Pepitone was called a "has-been." He was arraigned in town court and released after he posted $75 bail.

In October of 1995, the 55-year-old Pepitone was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated after losing control of his car in New York City's Queens-Midtown Tunnel. Police found Pepitone bloodied, disoriented and mumbling as he walked through the tunnel. Authorities charged Pepitone with drunken driving after he refused to take a sobriety test.."^[1] Pepitone pled guilty. When asked if he was staying away from alcohol, Pepitone responded: "I don't drink that much."^[2]

Recently divorced from his third wife, Pepitone has managed to stay out of trouble for the past 10 years, and on October 9, 2006, he celebrated his 66th birthday.

Today, Pepitone spends his time signing autographs and baseball memorabilia at autograph shows, as well as with his two youngest children (son B.J. and daughter Cara) and his grandchildren.

[edit] References

[edit] Books

Bouton, Jim. "Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues," (edited by Leonard Shecter). World Publishing Company, 1970, 400 pages. (ISBN 0-9709117-0-X)