Joe Pepitone

267
Joe Pepitone bigraphy, stories - American baseball player and coach

Joe Pepitone : biography

October 9, 1940 –

Joseph Anthony Pepitone (born October 9, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and outfielder who played the bulk of his career for the New York Yankees. He also played several seasons with the Chicago Cubs and had short stints with the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves. During his time with the Yankees, Pepitone was thrice-named to play in the All-Star Game and also won three Golden Glove awards. His fame was sufficient for him to become something of a cultural icon.

Baseball career

Yankees

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 $25,000 ($ today) signing bonus.

Yankee management believed he could handle the first base job, and before the 1963 season traded Skowron to the Dodgers. Pepitone responded, 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.

Astros, Cubs, and Braves

After the 1969 season, despite having won his third Gold Glove Award, Pepitone was traded to the Astros for Curt Blefary. However, he played only about half the 1970 season before being traded to the Cubs.

In Chicago, Pepitone replaced Ernie Banks at first base. He stayed with the Cubs through the 1971 and 1972 seasons, and was traded to the Atlanta Braves in May, 1973. In Atlanta, Pepitone only played three games, which marked the end of his major-league career in the United States.

Japan

In June 1973, Pepitone accepted an offer of $70,000 ($ today) 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".

Accolades

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.

Pop culture references

Larry David productions

Pepitone has been mentioned in at least five episodes of shows written by or produced by Larry David.

  • Joe Pepitone was mentioned in the 1993 Seinfeld episode titled The Visa. In the episode, Cosmo Kramer reluctantly describes his experience at a recent baseball fantasy camp, wherein Pepitone was crowding home plate while Kramer was pitching, leading to Kramer’s beanball that resulted in a subsequent camp-ending brawl, in which Kramer punched Mickey Mantle.
  • Pepitone was mentioned in the 1994 Seinfeld episode titled The Mom and Pop Store. In the episode, George Costanza buys John Voight’s car, thinking it belonged to Jon Voight the actor. George tells Mr. Morgan, "Well, I think we need more special days at the stadium, you know? Like, uh…Joe Pepitone Day. Or, uh…Jon Voight Day."
  • In the 1996 Seinfeld episode titled The Rye, Kramer (while driving a hansom cab through Central Park) refers to Joe Pepitone as the designer of New York City’s Central Park.
  • Pepitone is mentioned in the sixth season of the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm episode titled "The Anonymous Donor", in which Larry David’s Pepitone jersey gets lost at the dry cleaners. Larry and Leon Black then go out trying to find who is wearing it.
  • In the episode, "Mister Softee" in the eighth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry and Leon attend a baseball autograph signing where Leon says, "I’m gonna go check out Joe Pepitone up in here," though Pepitone does not actually appear.