Post columnist Steve Serby goes back in time, lobbing questions at the Old Timers who gathered yesterday at Yankee Stadium.
Q: What is your favorite Yankees memory?
DAVID CONE: Probably warming up in the outfield on the day that Joe DiMaggio died, and Paul Simon walks out and plays his famous song "Mrs. Robinson" ... Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? So I just sat down, with my back against the outfield wall, and watched Paul Simon. My own little personal concert is what it seemed like. That was an unbelievable moment. I was lucky: I got to pitch on the day Mickey Mantle died, the day Joe DiMaggio died. And that one, the day Joe DiMaggio died, that tribute was ... like none other.
Paul J. Bereswill
Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford
AP
Bernie Williams
BERNIE WILLIAMS: The old Stadium, winning the batting title from a personal standpoint on the last day of the [1998] season was very special. That same year, winning the championship, I don't know if I can top that. I think every year that I spent here was very special. I never took it for granted.
LOU PINIELLA: Winning our first world championship in 1977. I've always worn that ring with a lot of pride. I remember players I've played with and the teams that we beat on the way to that. My favorite year, though, was '78. That was the year that we were written off at the All-Star break and we came back from that 14-game deficit and had that wonderful, wonderful, memorable playoff game in Boston, the most fun-filled game I've ever played in my life.
WILLIE RANDOLPH: If I could just speak from a selfish standpoint, it was the '77 All- Star Game in the old Yankee Stadium. Obviously I'm a 22-year-old kid, rubbing elbows with guys I was emulating three years ago, you know? In front of all your family and friends. It's the ultimate dream come true. You got the Chris Chambliss home run [in the 1976 ALCS] obviously was huge, and there's a lot of other great memories being part of championships, but to me, just being able to stay on the field, look around and soak everything in on that one particular night, played the whole game, and just to be able to be on that stage, I felt like I really kind of arrived as a young player.
ROY WHITE: I always tell everybody that one of my great memories is the first time just coming into the Yankee Stadium clubhouse as a rookie and seeing Mickey Mantle sitting over in the corner and [Roger] Maris and then Whitey [Ford] and Elston Howard. Bobby Richardson, who was my idol as a second baseman, that was a great moment for me. If you want to talk about a moment on the playing field, I think a home run against Boston in '78, in a big series, in the bottom of the ninth [off Bill Campbell] that tied up a game that we won in extra innings, and we swept that series and it catapulted us into first place.
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