Andy Carey oral history interview
Date1994 January 22
DescriptionAn interview of Andy Carey conducted by Larry Moffi in Newport Beach, California on January 22, 1964. Content of the interview include: Side One -- Track 1 - (Starts with a lot of noise) On Don Larsen's perfect game, he pitched 97 pitches, 9 innings, no one reached first base, and prior to that, the night before, Carey's Mom & Dad were in Times Square and had two newspapers printed, one with a headline "Larsen Pitches No Hitter" and the other "Goonie Birds Pick Larsen to Win 5th Game," and was going to put them on Larsen's door, but then his father was afraid he might jinx him, so he tore up the No Hitter one and flushed it down the toilet, but kept the Goonie Birds one; Larsen had experimented with pitching no windup, it was developed by Bob Turley and was very effective for Turley, so Larsen wanted to try it, experimented with it for two or three weeks; Yogi Berra said that was the best game he ever pitched; in the 3rd or 4th inning, Jackie Robinson hit a smash to Carey's left that he dove for and it ricocheted off the tips of his fingers and went to Gil McDougald, who threw Robinson out at first; in another play, in the middle innings, Gil Hodges hit a line drive to left center, it might have been a home run in the Dodgers Stadium, but the man was playing back far enough that he back-handed it, a tremendous play; another fairly close one, in the 7th or 8th inning, Hodges hit a low line drive off to his left, and threw it to first base and afterwards, he thought, what if I'd thrown that sucker away; ballplayers are superstitious on the bench, and Larsen said something to Mickey Mantle about pitching a no-hitter and Mantle got up and walked away, another guy would only sit in the same seat, the mood of the bench was, they knew it was happening but didn't want to think about it until the 7th-8th,9th inning; it only becomes a phenomenon as the decades have past; didn't really grasp the significance of the event to baseball history; opposing pitcher Sal Maglie also pitched a good game, only 3-4 hits, Mantle hit a home run and Carey scored the other run, he got a single, was bunted to second by Larsen and scored from second on a hit by Hank Bauer (00:00:00 to 00:06:26) Track 2 - Carey also saw (Allie) Reynolds pitch a no-hitter, Carey got so excited that he jumped up in the dugout, forgetting that the ceiling was cement and nearly knocked himself out; saw (Sandy) Koufax pitch a no- hitter for the Dodgers in ‘62 (00:06:26 to 00:07:29) Track 3 - On his parents being in town for the Larsen no-hitter, his father was a big man, 280, very close with Larsen, and the Quills were friends of Larsen's; when Carey was with the Yankees, they were in the World Series, '52, '53, '55, '56, '57, '58, the only year they weren't in it was '54, when they lost to Cleveland; his father met Larsen through the Quills; Larsen was from California, the San Jose area, moved up to Idaho; Larsen had been with Baltimore and had won a couple of times, but wasn't that successful, he had gotten bombed earlier in the World Series, until Casey Stengel brought him in for the 5th game, it changed the Series outcome (00:07:29 to 00:09:29) Track 4 - (Profanity) Carey went to Alameda High School and graduated in '49 and got a full scholarship to Saint Mary's College of California where Johnny Vergez was the coach, in 1951 he signed with a bonus, second largest bonus at the time, Jackie Jensen got $75 and he got $60 (thousand?), and played Triple AAA with the Kansas City Blues, went down to spring training with George Selkirk, prior to that, he went to spring training in Phoenix, when the Yankees went from St. Petersburg to Phoenix, was Joe DiMaggio's last year, so he got to meet him; he always had a big appetite, and he had been signed by Yankees scout Joe Devine, so he asked him how much he could eat, and Devine told him to eat as much as he wanted, so he ate double shrimp cocktail, desserts, and ran up $45-$50 bills, after about a week, the secretary of the club, Bill Corey,(?) put the Yankees on meal money, here he was a young, brash rookie and he was eating himself out of the league before he even got into it, and the players didn't take too kindly to that, they always teased him about his appetite, he quit baseball weighing 202, now weighs about 204, and weighed about 180 when he first went up to the Majors; he played for the Blues in '51, was up and down twice in '52; '53 was his first full year in the Majors, Dr. Bobby Brown was the third baseman and was like a big brother to him, told him to establish himself and get a good reputation, told him how to behave, the Yankees were role models and the top team, so everyone watched them; he felt lucky to break into a team that won five straight championships; Carey took over for Brown, and also McDougal played third base, he was a very versatile guy, he was an All Star in three positions, third, shortstop and second, his talent was overlooked; Stengel wanted Carey to play shortstop but he wanted to be a good third baseman rather than a mediocre shortstop, Stengel never forgave him for that, Stengel got on Carey a lot, made him a scapegoat a lot of times, but also appreciated him; he was there for 8 ½ years, so he had to be doing something good; Stengel knew what he was doing, came from Oakland, where he won the Pacific Coast League championship, brought Billy (Martin?) up, Stengel was an excellent manager, the Yankees had tremendous depth, they had people sitting on the bench who would have been first string on other teams, a well-rounded team, a great pitching coach, Jim Turner; good offense, defense, (Mickey) Mantle, (Yogi) Berra, (Hank) Bauer, Joe Collins, Johnny Mize, Jerry Coleman, Billy (Martin,) (Phil) Rizzuto, McDougal, Martin, Bauer, Mantle, (Gene) Woodling, (Enos) Slaughter, (Johnny) Sain; Mize had been there from '49 to '53, Bauer, Woodling, Mize, Reynolds, Raschi, Lopat; the Yankees were a dynasty, people either loved them or hated them, mostly hated them because the won all the time; New York was a great place to play, the greatest city in the world then, not now; he and Bauer used to go out to dinner and then take a cab to Harlem, waving at (Roy) Campanella and go to the nightclubs in Harlem and never think anything of it, probably couldn't do that now; things have changed a lot, baseball has changed, more teams, players making more money; when he first broke in, he made $5,000, his first year he hit .321 and got a $3,000 raise; he hit .302 for the next year full season, and had to hold out to get a $3,000 raise, today, they make $500,000 or $1 million the first year, today the guys make big time money, pension has gone up, happy that the Hall of Famers can make extra money at card shows and fantasy games, would be better if they could get a percentage of the memorabilia and licensing (00:09:29 to 00:21:18) Track 5 - His father was a skinny 6-footer that was a varsity guy in four sports, he was his step dad, doesn't know if his real father had any athletic ability, he was in the lumber business; his step-dad influenced him a lot, growing up in Alameda, a lot of players came from there, Johnny Vergez, Dick Bartell, Jim McDonald, Ducky (Prise?) Billy Serena, all from the one little town, had a great semi-pro team, and he got a chance to play with a bunch of ex-Major Leaguers; when he was in high school he asked his coach Chet Malatte (?) if he had a chance to be a pro ball player, when he was a senior he hit .353, playing as a pitcher and a third baseman, and he got the scholarship to St. Mary's, went up to Weiser, Idaho, home of Walter Johnson, he hit .400 up there and that's when the scouts started to come around; everybody was interested in him, his dad handled all the negotiations; it was a big shock for him to go to Kansas City, he had never been out of California, and in KC they used to have big electrical storms, and the first time lightning struck, he dived for the ground, he was a little embarrassed; going to New York, he was very fortunate, playing with people like Yogi Berra, Mantle, Whitey Ford, Johnny Mize, Slaughter, some great ballplayers (00:21:18 to 00:25:20) Track 6 - '51 was his first year Triple AAA; '52 he was up and down; and '53 was his first full year in the Major Leagues; in '52, he was hitting .400 in spring training, but they took McDougall up instead; he hit .288 in Kansas City, they brought him up, he did so-so, then they sent him back down to Syracuse, hit .288, and then in '53 they brought him up and he played part time and hit .321, so the next year he got to play more (00:25:20 to 00:26:45) Track 7 - (Profanity) On terrific infield, Carey, McDougal, Coleman and Rizzuto, then Martin; he got his big break when Martin broke his leg, so Carey went to third; Stengel liked Martin, Martin was feisty as hell, aggressive, rose to the occasion, had 11 or 12 hits one series, Richardson tied or broke his record later on; Martin, Whitey and Mickey were pals and they always blamed Billy for everything; the Copa incident, it was Billy's birthday, Carey was invited to the party, but he had a cold and didn't want to go, but his roommate Bauer went, and there was a big problem; he and Bauer roomed together in NY, on the road, he roomed with McDougal; Carey was into photography, and would take photos at the games and develop them in the room; he would have loved being a professional photographer; they went to Japan in '55 and he took a lot of photos, '55 was the year they lost the Series; he remembers the first World Series trip from Yankee Stadium over to Ebbets Field, being escorted by policemen, when they got to Brooklyn, they threw tomatoes and fruit, it looked like a fruit salad (tape runs out) (00:26:45 to 00:31:16)
Object numberBL-2000-02292-004
Artist, Creator, or Manufacturer
Moffi, Larry
Classificationsaudio/visual materials
Collection NumberBA RMA 002 Larry Moffi oral history collection
Dimensions00:31:16|1 of 2
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RestrictionsDue to copyright restrictions, this interview can only be listened to at the Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Object number: BL-2001-00092-017
St. Louis Cardinals (Baseball team)
1968 February 08