June 12, 1964 - The New York Yankees fired a couple of shots heard ‘round the baseball world tonight.
Before the largest Yankee Stadium crowd of the season — 38,135 — they knocked off the White Sox, 6-1 and 3-0, and chopped the distance between them and first-place Chicago to three games.
The Yankees did it with power and pitching in just 4 hours 45 minutes as they won their third and fourth straight in opening a challenge round with the White Sox that will cover nine games in New York and Chicago this weekend and next.
The Yankee power broke loose the same way in each game and in the same inning, the sixth. The Bombers broke a 1-1 tie in the first game with six hits and five runs, including a homer by Joe Pepitone, and they broke a scoreless tie in the second game with three hits and three runs, including a two-run homer in the upper deck by Tony Kubek.
The pitching was supplied by Steve Hamilton, who made his first start as a Yankee after 45 relief appearances in 14 months, and Whitey Ford.
Ford threw 100 pitches in a dazzling four-hitter that embellished all sorts of streaks the lefty has achieved. It was his eighth straight victory of the season, following a defeat on opening day. It was his eighth complete game and his fifth shutout. And it was his 39th shutout in 13 seasons as a Yankee, tying him with Robin Roberts of Baltimore for career honors among active American Leaguers.
All this was generated before a roaring crowd that brought attendance at the Stadium for 18 playing dates to 279,655, about 10,000 fewer than the New York Mets attracted to Shea Stadium the last two weekends against the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. But it nudged the Yankee average up to 15,536 at home, with a single game scheduled tomorrow and two more on Sunday.
Bobby Richardson made the evening a ceremonial success when he became the 10th player to receive the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award. The award is presented by Phi Delta Theta, Lou’s old fraternity, to players who exemplify the spirit of the Yankee hero.
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