A Day That The Yankees Came To Town
By Jim Joanos
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It was early spring of 1978. The Florida State University (FSU) baseball team, winners of the Metro Conference championship the year before, were preparing for the oncoming season. There was great news. The New York Yankees, World Series Champions in 1977, would be coming to Tallahassee to play FSU in an exhibition game on April 5th.
At the time former FSU legend, Dick Howser, was on the coaching staff of the Yankees. It is believed that he had a major role in making the event happen. FSU’s head coach was Woody Woodward, a former major leaguer.
Game day was most exciting. As a result of being on some committees, I was invited to a luncheon to honor the New York Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner, and the Yankees’ coaching staff at the Florida governor’s mansion. Florida’s governor at the time, Rueben Askew, an FSU alum, was the host. Much to my amazement, I was seated at a table for four that included baseball great, Yogi Berra, a Yankees coach at the time. It is still hard to believe that I spent an hour or so talking about baseball and lots of other things with the great Yogi Berra.
That was not the only surprise that day. When my son and I got to the game, we found our seats were next to Roger Maris. He was living in Gainesville at the time and had come up for the exhibition game. So, on the same day that I had lunch with Yogi Berra, I watched a baseball game with Maris. Baseball dreams are made of things like that. Fortunately, my son had a baseball with him that we got Maris to sign and that we have to this day.
We got to the baseball field early. There they were, the mighty New York Yankees, Billy Martin, Dick Howser, Reggie Jackson, Willie Randolph, Graig Nettles, Lou Pinella, Chris Chambliss, Bucky Dent, Goose Gossage, and all of the rest of them. Even, Mel Allen, the Yankees broadcaster, had come to Tallahassee to call the game.
When I had been in law school in Connecticut, I had seen the Yankees play once but that was from the cheap seats, quite distant from the action. But here I was on the front row watching some of the all-time greats of baseball play my alma mater’s team in Tallahassee.
FSU held their own against the Yankees in the beginning. FSU even scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the third inning. At the end of four innings, FSU led 4 to 3. But after that it was mostly scoring by the Yankees. The game ended, New York 10, FSU 5. The Yankees had 14 hits. FSU nearly matched that with 12 hits. The score and statistics really did not matter. The college players on the FSU team had gotten to play against the best team in baseball and the fans in attendance had the enjoyment of watching it.
Both teams played many players. The Yankees were just a few days away from opening day in the American League. Reggie Jackson played the entire nine innings. Coach Woodward played nearly all the FSU players to give them that special experience of playing against the Yankees.
There were lots of special memories that FSU players took with them that day. Brooks Carey was FSU’s starting pitcher and held the Yankees in check during the two innings that he was on the mound. FSU’s shortstop, Bob Benda, went 3 for 4 at the plate and had two rbi’s. Blane McDonald, Seminole catcher, was 2 for 3 and scored a run. Centerfielder Mark Gilbert scored two runs. Designated hitter, Don Milner, went 2 for 2 and scored a run. Another one of FSU pitchers, Kevin Brooks, who grew up in my Tallahassee neighborhood, had the thrill of a lifetime when he got the mighty Reggie Jackson to pop up. I have been told that after graduating from FSU, Brooks had a picture of him that day pitching to Jackson that he hung in his dental office for years.
Since then, FSU has played the Yankees in exhibition games two other times, in Tallahassee in 1980, and in Tampa in 2014. I have been very fortunate to have witnessed all three games. Baseball memories do not come any better than having watched the Seminoles play the Yankees, my favorite two baseball teams.
About the author:
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Jim Joanos |
Memories of Garnet and Gold
Jim Joanos and his wife Betty Lou have deep roots at Florida State University. Avid sports fans, they have literally seen, and done, it all. Fortunately for us, Jim loves telling first-hand accounts dating back to FSU’s first football game, a 1947 clash with the Stetson Hatters on Centennial Field, where Cascades Park is today.
The Osceola will run a series of these colorful stories written by the former Tallahassee lawyer and judge, which we feel our readers will find enlightening and/or nostalgic.
Jim and Betty Lou, who was Associate Director of the FSU Alumni Association (1991-2003), have been married 65 years and are each listed as one of FSU’s 100 Distinguished Graduates. The couple were enshrined in the FSU Hall of Fame in 2015 as Moore-Stone Award Recipients. Ironically, both Deans Moore and Stone were instrumental in the Joanoses career development.
“Both Jim and Betty Lou Joanos have been exemplary fans and supporters of Florida State University, both academically and athletically,” said Andy Miller, retired President and CEO of Seminole Boosters, Inc. “You can’t go to an athletic event of any kind that you don’t see both Jim and Betty Lou Joanos together. They love their university as much as they love each other.”