Pepitone to A-Rod: "Big deal!"

He begrudgingly, sarcastically and jokingly welcomes A-Rod into exclusive home-run club

Jim Baumbach

12:57 PM EDT, September 6, 2007

It didn't take long for Joe Pepitone to hear about how Alex Rodriguez hit two homers in an inning last night. The former Yankee was nearing the end of a day-long promotional appearance in Scranton, Pa. when one of his dinner mates told him the news.

"I told them, 'Big deal!'" Pepitone said.

Of course he was kidding. Rodriguez became only the fourth Yankee to accomplish the feat, something Pepitone knows all about. In 1962 Pepitone hit two home runs in the eighth inning of a game against the Kansas City Athletics, and he said today in a telephone interview from his Massapequa home that he didn't immediately realize then how big of a deal it was. He was only a 21-year-old rookie at the time.

"I remember when I came in the dugout and my roommate, Tommy Tresh, told me I just tied the record, and that Joe DiMaggio was the only other one who did it for the Yankees," Pepitone said. "I said, 'Wow.'"

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DiMaggio did it in 1936, followed by Pepitone in '62 and then Cliff Johnson in '77.

Johnson, 60, said in a telephone interview this afternoon that so many people called him with the A-Rod news while he was playing golf in Binghamton that his golf game suffered. That's because he had a lot of explaining to do. "Some people had it wrong," he said. "They said he broke my record. I was like, there's no way A-Rod broke my pinch-hit home run record."

Pepitone, 66, said he talks to Johnson about their place in Yankee history at Old-Timers' Days. The Yankees employ Pepitone to do appearances with their sponsors, so he's around the team during homestands. He has spoken with Rodriguez before, and now he is looking forward to formally welcoming him into their exclusive club. "I'll tell you one thing, when I did it I probably got a $4 dollar raise," Pepitone said. "He's probably going to get a $20 million dollar raise."

Pepitone remembered that his big inning came against the Kansas City A's, but he couldn't remember the names of the pitchers. "I always hit Kansas City well," he said.

According to the boxscore of the Yankees' 13-7 win found at retrosheet.org, Pepitone hit homers in a nine-run eighth off righthanders Dan Pfister and John Wyatt. "Pfister? He threw the ball about 20 miles per hour!" Pepitone said. "Oh, Wyatt. John Wyatt. Threw a hard fastball. Pretty good pitcher. They were both good."

But what meant the most to Pepitone about his accomplishment was the fact that he tied a record held by DiMaggio, who did it during the Yankees' 18-11 win at Chicago June 24, 1936. "Joe DiMaggio was one of my tutors," Pepitone said. "He really pushed me to the big leagues. What a great feeling for a kid."

Johnson matched DiMaggio and Pepitone on June 30, 1977 with two homers in the Yankees' eight-run eighth inning in an 11-5 win over the Blue Jays in Toronto. Johnson, who was traded by the Astros to the Yankees just 15 days earlier, already had homered in the fourth. Pepitone said, "I tell him I don't know he did it."

But Johnson remembered his home runs well. "I hit one off a righthander and one off a lefthander, and the righthander was Jerry Johnson, an old friend that I played with in Houston," he said. The lefthander was Jerry Garvin.

As impressive as that feat was, it's not what Yankees fans remember most about Johnson. Two years later he fought with Goose Gossage in the clubhouse, and Gossage suffered a torn ligament in his right thumb, an injury that effectively derailed the Yankees' title hopes that season. Johnson said, "Goose and I made up a long time ago."