As MLB enters a surreal September, a time when teams normally frantically dig into their farm systems for late-season help, let’s muse over some of the greatest September call-ups in the Yankees’ sprawling history – a list that won’t be added to in 2020 based on this year’s rules.
5. Jesus Montero
Though he debuted on September 1, 2011, at Fenway Park, Montero officially punched in on September 5, when he notched three hits and clubbed two homers at Yankee Stadium against the Orioles. For his maiden (and only) month in pinstripes, Montero batted .328 with a .406 on-base percentage, including four homers and 12 RBI.
4. Alfonso Soriano
On September 14, 1999, a stick-figure-thin Soriano took the field for the first time as a pinch runner, wearing No. 58. His primary role as a baserunner lasted five games, during which he went hitless in two at-bats. His first hit, however, made up for all the tedium of bench-warming. On September 24, in the 11th inning of a game against the Rays at Yankee Stadium, Soriano's first base hit was a walk-off home run off Norm Charlton. Not only did Soriano win a game with his first shot, the blast also clinched the AL East crown for the Bombers, who went on to win their third Fall Classic in four years.
Joe Torre once remarked that Soriano's swing reminded him of a young Hank Aaron, an opinion seconded by Jim Kaat. Can't really add to that. Even Aaron noticed the startling resemblance in appearance and bat speed. Sadly, Soriano was shipped to Texas in 2004, the main piece of the deal that grabbed A-Rod from the Rangers, and was a shell of himself when he returned nearly a decade later.
3. Shane Spencer
Get all technical, if you want. Sure, Shane Spencer played a measly 13 games between April and August, 1998. But who noticed? The Yankees were rolling like a Derecho over America. On September 4, when Spencer really joined the club, the Yankees were a laughable 100-38. (That's not a typo.) But then Spencer turned into, well, Shane Spence, the Home Run Dispense – a sudden, cinematic hero on the greatest team in MLB history, from the greatest franchise in American team sports history.
Spencer was like Popeye on spinach, batting .421 with eight homers and 21 RBI in 23 days. He had a hit in nine of his last ten games, and blasted a homer in four of his final five. He launched a grand slam on Sept. 24, and another on September 27, and overall, Spencer crushed three grand slams in four chances. The Yanks would have won the World Series without Shane Spencer, but, thankfully for baseball fans, they didn't have to.
2. Don Mattingly
On September 8, 1982, the Yankees sent out a call-up outfielder/first baseman to replace Ken Griffey in left field, and that kid would turn out to be the best Yankees first baseman since Lou Gehrig (certainly the best fielder ever). Don Mattingly, the kid from Indiana, wore No. 46 that day, and patrolled the outfield for all but three of his defensive innings in ’82.
He would later cut the number in half, move to first full-time, and become Donnie Baseball - arguably the best handle in MLB history, and one bestowed upon him by another legend, Kirby Puckett. Mattingly is easily the greatest Yankee never to win a World Series ring, and the six-time All-Star and nine-time Gold Glove winner would have his bust in Cooperstown if not for a balky back that chopped years from his career. He also won the 1985 AL MVP and tied the all-time MLB record by clubbing a homer in eight straight games. Not even the great Gehrig or Bambino did that.
1. Yogi Berra
Duh.
In 1946, the Yanks called up the 21-year-old catcher, who made his debut on September 22 against the (Philadelphia) Athletics. How’d that turn out? Three-time AL MVP, 18-time All-Star, the only MLB player with 10 World Series rings, Hall of Famer…pretty good! He was maybe the best bad-ball hitter ever, and also a master of malapropisms.
Everyone has a favorite Yogi-ism, but maybe the best came from Mickey Mantle taking Yogi to a pizzeria; when asked if he would like the pizza pie cut into four or six slices, Berra asked for four, because he was "not hungry enough to eat six."