Yankees 'Sunday John'Blanchard

It was early last Sunday morning, when I recalled a miniscule baseball character, "Sunday John Blanchard." The memory of him came to light, as I was once again practiced one of my baseball traditions, dating back over 50 years. It was Sunday, and I was headed to Kansas City, to watch a game between my beloved Kansas City Royals, and those "Damn N.Y. Yankees!"

In the early 1960s, the Yankees were the premier baseball team in America, but outside of New York, they held the distinction of being the single most despised, of all baseball franchises.

The fledgling team in Kansas City in those days was the Athletics. They had moved to Kansas City from Philadelphia, and played in the old downtown Municipal Stadium, from 1955-67. As a new franchise in a smaller midwestern market, the team was far from spectacular. Many of their best players always seemed to end up being traded to the Yankees.

Perhaps the most notable of these was the future Hall of Fame member, Roger Maris. The oft related, tongue-in-cheek reference to the Athletics was, that they were nothing more than a "farm team for the Yankees!"

Well none of that mattered to me then, nor does it today. When those "Damn Yankees" came to town, I wanted to see my Kansas City teams give them get a serious beat down.

In that era of baseball, it was still common practice for major league teams to play Sunday "double headers." There were a lot fewer teams in baseball back then, and for a brief time, Kansas City was the farthest team west in the United States. In 1959 the Dodgers and the Giants moved to L.A. and San Francisco.

Every August the Yankees would come to town for a four-game series. They would play games on Friday and Saturday, then a double header on Sunday. We always tried to get our tickets for that double header, so we could get more baseball bang for our buck.

The Yankees had two great catchers on their team. Yogi Berra and Elston Howard. By this stage of his career, Yogi played a lot of left field, while Howard caught most of the games.

On the weekends, the Yankees tried to rest some of their players, especially if they were playing a double header. They had a bench player, the afore mentioned John Blanchard. John was with the Yankees for several years, as both a back up catcher and outfielder.

Blanchard made good use of his limited playing time. He was a tall and muscular player, who displayed a lot of power. Since he was left handed, his game fit the short right field fence in Yankee Stadium.

He was so successful in those few games that the New York press dubbed him with the nickname, "Super Sub." On March 25, 2009, shortly after his passing, the New York Times posted a memorial article by Richard Goldstein, detailing the life and career of John Blanchard.

These were a few of the highlights Goldstein attributed to John. His best season was in 1961, the same year Maris hit 61 home runs, and Mickey Mantle blasted 54. Playing in 93 games, John hit a career high 21 home runs, and batted .305. In July, he set a major league record, hitting four home runs consecutively, over a three game stretch.

John played in every World Series from 1960 to 1964. In those games he had 10 hits in 29 at bats for a .345 average. In the Series against the Cincinnati Reds, he hit two home runs and batted .400.

Despite all of his success, he was unable to break into the regular lineup in NY. That was fine with me. While I always rooted for my hometown KC team, I still reveled in the times when those Yankees hit massive home runs at Old Municipal Stadium.