Former Yankees first baseman Joe Pepitone dies at 82
Yankees outfielder Joe Pepitone is shown in this March 10, 1962 photo. Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Joe Pepitone was plenty good at baseball — a three-time All-Star for the Yankees in the mid-1960s who won three Gold Gloves as a first baseman and also was a solid defensive outfielder.
But for many young people in an era in which social norms were changing, among them the length of men’s hairstyles, Pepitone was a fashion icon of sorts, not to mention a self-destructive bad boy, which also appealed to many teenage fans of the day.
He was 82 when he died on Monday, but the flowing, full-bodied locks that emerged later in his career and beyond — natural and not-so-natural, as it turned out — are an enduring image of a player whose glory days came during a period of transition for the Yankees.
The Yankees won the World Series when he was a rookie in 1962 and won the American League pennant the first two times he was an All-Star, in 1963 and ’64. The third time, in 1965, they finished 77-85 and in sixth place.
In those days he was a source of amusement, annoyance and/or fascination for an aging generation of Yankees stars nearing the end of a dynasty, Mickey Mantle among them.
Pepitone, a lefthanded hitter with power who played a stylish first base, spent eight years with the Yankees and 12 overall from 1962-73, playing with the Astros, Cubs and Atlanta later in his career.
"The Yankees are deeply saddened by the passing of former Yankee Joe Pepitone, whose playful and charismatic personality and on-field contributions made him a favorite of generations of Yankees fans even beyond his years with the team in the 1960s,” the team said in a statement.
“As a native New Yorker, he embraced everything about being a Yankee during both his playing career — which included three All-Star appearances and three Gold Gloves — and in the decades thereafter.
“You always knew when Joe walked into a room — his immense pride in being a Yankee was always on display. He will be missed by our entire organization, and we offer our deepest condolences to his family, friends and all who knew him."
Pepitone was born on Oct. 9, 1940 (the same day as John Lennon) and grew up in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn.
He signed in 1958 and rose through the ranks, seemingly a star in the making. But after his fast start, he never fully lived up to his apparent potential.
Pepitone made a critical error in Game 4 of the 1963 World Series, in which the Dodgers swept the Yankees, but hit a grand slam in Game 6 of the ’64 Series. The Yankees lost that Series to the Cardinals in seven games.
Overall, he hit 219 home runs, drove in 721 runs and batted .258 in the majors.
After his major-league career ended in 1973, he signed to play in Japan, where he was known more for his late-night socializing than his baseball production.
Pepitone’s persona was immortalized in Jim Bouton’s landmark 1970 memoir, “Ball Four,” in which he describes his elaborate system for hair care — natural and supplemental. He forever would be remembered as the first major-leaguer to bring a hair dryer into a clubhouse.
In his own 1975 memoir, “Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud,” Pepitone described a difficult childhood and his history of hedonistic behavior.
The Yankees hired Pepitone as a minor-league hitting coach in 1980 and moved him to the majors in 1982. He was hired again in 1988 after serving four months in prison for two misdemeanor drug convictions.
In sentencing him in 1986, a judge said he had gone from “a first-rate baseball player'' to a ''second-rate drug operator.”
He was charged with misdemeanor assault in 1992 and was arrested in 1995 for driving while intoxicated in the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
Pepitone comes up in several episodes of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” presumably an ode from writer/producer Larry David, an avid Yankees fan who was at the impressionable age of 15 when Pepitone was a rookie.
In the first season of “The Sopranos,” a flashback notes a big game for Pepitone. His name also appears in pop culture contexts as varied as “The West Wing” and “Golden Girls,” among others.
He received World Series rings as a Yankees executive in 1998 and ’99.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
