The other night I watched the Billy Crystal-directed HBO film, "61*". It was about the year, 1961, that Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were chasing Babe Ruth's single-season home run record of 60.
The manager of the Yankees that season, and for several seasons to come, was Ralph Houk. He was first manager from 1961-63, winning two of the three World Series the Yankees appeared in.
After a brief stint as GM, he later returned to manage the Yankees part-way through the 1966 season and remained their manager until his final season of 1973. He also managed the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox. Prior to his becoming manager for the Yankees, he was a catcher for the team from 1947 through 1954.
I was aware that my mom knew Ralph Houk. On at least one occasion I even spoke with him on the phone when he called our house in South Gate, CA, in the 1960's. Whenever the Yankees were in Southern California to play the Angels, he would call and they would meet after a game.
From these two, old, B&W photograhs, which mom annotated as "Ralph Houk fishing in Mo." and "Ralph dumping boat", the two of them had obviously known one another for a number of years. What was the connection?
In reading more about Ralph Houk, one discovers that he was born (1919), and graduated high school, in Lawrence, Kansas, not that many miles from where my mom was born and raised in White Cloud, KS. These two photographs appear to be from the 1940's. His biography also states that he was a war hero and began playing for the Yankees in 1947. He died on July 21, 2010, at the age of 90 after a brief illness.
I never asked my mom how the two of them met and what the nature of their relationship was. I always figured they were two adults and that was their business. I am almost certain he was not aware that mom died in 2002, eight years before he passed away.
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