NEW YORK — Dynasties are not built on stars alone. Behind every championship roster, there is a player who never started every day but delivered when it mattered most. For the early-1960s Yankees, that player was Johnny Blanchard.
Wednesday marked what would have been Blanchard’s 93rd birthday. Born on Feb. 26, 1933, in Minneapolis, he spent 10 seasons with the Yankees from 1955 to 1965. He was never the headliner on rosters that featured Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra and Elston Howard. But sportswriter Bill Madden called him “probably the most famous third-string catcher in baseball history.” And for good reason.
A three-sport star who chose the Yankees over the Lakers
Blanchard was one of the finest athletes to come out of Minneapolis. At Central High School, he earned all-conference honors in football, basketball and baseball. High school sports historian Dana X. Marshall was quoted by the Society for American Baseball Research as saying that Blanchard “may have been the best three-sport athlete to ever come out of Minneapolis.”
The Minneapolis Lakers wanted to keep him in state as a basketball player. But the Yankees offered $20,000 to sign out of high school, and Blanchard took the deal. He played semi-professional baseball in Iowa before entering the minor leagues.
His development was interrupted by a two-year stint serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War in 1953 and 1954. Before his service, Blanchard had posted a .996 OPS for the Joplin Miners in 1952. When he returned, it took years to reach the majors for good. The Yankees’ outfield became even more crowded after the Roger Maris trade, and the catching depth chart had Berra and Howard ahead of him.
The 1961 season that made Blanchard a Yankee legend
Then came 1961. While the nation watched Maris and Mantle chase Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record, Blanchard quietly put together one of the greatest backup seasons in Yankees history.
In just 93 games and 275 plate appearances, the 28-year-old hit .305/.382/.613 with 21 home runs, 54 RBI and a 159 wRC+. He produced 3.3 fWAR, his only season above 1.0. Those 21 homers accounted for nearly a third of his career total of 67.
During one stretch, Blanchard hit four consecutive home runs across a three-game span, twice coming off the bench as a pinch hitter. That set a major league record at the time. When asked about the streak, Blanchard offered a line that captured his personality perfectly: “Who am I to hit five?”
He carried that production into the World Series. Against the Cincinnati Reds, Blanchard hit two home runs and batted .400 as the Yankees won the championship in five games. Over five Fall Classics with the Yankees, Blanchard posted a .345 batting average (10-for-29) with four doubles, two homers and five RBI. He holds the major league record with 10 World Series pinch-hit at-bats.
The pitch that haunted Blanchard from the 1960 World Series
Not all of Blanchard’s postseason memories were happy ones. In Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, he was behind the plate when Bill Mazeroski hit the most famous home run in baseball history.
Blanchard had driven in a key run in the eighth inning, singling home Berra to give the Yankees what appeared to be a commanding 7-4 lead. Pittsburgh roared back with five runs, topped by Hal Smith’s three-run homer. The Yankees tied it in the ninth, setting up the Mazeroski at-bat against Ralph Terry.
“I knew Mazeroski from the minors,” Blanchard said, according to SABR. “He liked to hit pitches high in the zone.”
Blanchard called for a fastball and crouched low. Terry shook him off and threw a high slider. Mazeroski took it for a ball. Blanchard called for another fastball. Terry shook him off again and threw another high slider. Mazeroski crushed it over Berra’s head for the series-ending home run.
“You can’t imagine,” Blanchard said, “how many times I have gone through every pitch in my mind, and I still can’t explain to people how we lost not only that game but the other three in that series.” He batted .455 in that World Series, his first.
Blanchard loved being a Yankee more than anything
When the Yankees traded Blanchard to the Kansas City Athletics in 1965, he cried. Leaving the pinstripes devastated him. He played briefly for the A’s and then the Milwaukee Braves before retiring at 32 with a .532 OPS in his final season.
“I was so lucky to have been a member of the best New York Yankee team ever,” Blanchard said of the 1961 squad, according to SABR. “With any other organization, I probably would have made the majors faster, and I might have had a longer career, but I wouldn’t trade my days with the Yankees for anything. I was truly blessed in that regard.”
Blanchard remained a fixture at Old-Timers’ Day celebrations for decades. He worked as a salesman and in real estate after retiring. He also served as the color commentator for the first live ESPN broadcast ever, a Professional Slowpitch Softball League World Series game in Lannon, Wisconsin, on Sept. 7, 1979.
Blanchard died of a heart attack on March 25, 2009, at 76, in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, just months before the Yankees won the World Series that fall. His career numbers (.239 average, 67 home runs, 200 RBI in 516 games) do not tell the full story. In October, when it counted most, Blanchard was one of the best bats the Yankees ever had coming off the bench.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
