The next player in our Birthday Series, covering every type of New York Yankee we possibly can, is one I hold in special regard. Several years ago, we did a series covering the best complementary players in Yankees history, and he was one of the nominees: former outfielder and catcher Johnny Blanchard.
Johnny Blanchard
Born: February 26, 1933 (Minneapolis, MN)
Yankees Tenure: 1955-65
While everyone is always looking for that secret formula, the truth is there are many reasons behind a dynasty, and
that has always been the case — the Yankees would know more than any other in baseball history. Among the many important points, organizational depth is key, one properly illustrated by the likes of Johnny Blanchard — a player who was never a feature piece of a Yankee team in any given season, but did his part and then some in a couple of World Series-winning teams.
A native of the small town of Robbinsdale in Minneapolis, Blanchard was a standout athlete growing up, earning the attention of scouts in multiple sports. The Minneapolis Lakers tried to keep him in-state as a basketball player, but Blanchard took the rather tempting offer from the Yankees for $20k to sign out of high school. A product of Central High School, Blanchard was one of the two more notable major leaguers to come out of the school that closed its doors in 1982.
Signed as an outfielder, Blanchard was developing in the minors when he paused his career for a two-year period to serve in the US Army in the Korean War in 1953 and 1954. Struggling heavily in his first taste of pro ball, Blanchard had found himself in 1952 with an outstanding campaign, securing a .996 OPS for the Toplin Miners before his time with the Army.
Returning to the Yankees in 1955, Blanchard managed to get a cup of tea with the big league club, one that proved misleading concerning his proximity to the majors. From 1955 to 1958, Blanchard split his time between Double-A and Triple-A, struggling to gain space in the big league club and also working through a particularly difficult transition from the outfield to catching — one made even harder for a player whose natural talents didn’t particularly stand out that much, at least according to Blanchard himself.
Little could Blanchard have guessed that the transition to the catching position would earn him a better shot at playing time from 1960 onwards — the Yankee outfield became more crowded with the addition of Roger Maris via trade with the Royals, one that sparked the beginning of a particularly successful era of Yankee baseball.
Following two underwhelming seasons as a backup catcher in 1959 and 1960, Blanchard delivered one of the more memorable backup campaigns in the history of Yankee baseball — the backup catcher taking full advantage of that powerful left-handed swing to hit a whopping 21 homers in just 275 at-bats, and four of them even came in a row. Despite coming off the bench, one could argue that Blanchard was one of the more impactful players of that championship-winning team outside of the Mickey Mantle-Roger Maris duo.
Helping a Yankee team that beat the Reds four games to one in the World Series, Blanchard made his first of several productive Fall Classic appearances. Blanchard went 4-for-10 with a pair of home runs, the only Yankee hitter to go deep multiple times in the World Series. The first of those homers was a crucial one in the path of the whole series — after splitting the first two games at home, the Yankees trailed 2-1 in Cincinnati in Game 3, and Blanchard hit a game-tying shot, quickly followed by Roger Maris also going yard in a 3-2 Yankee victory. From then on, the Yankees cruised through a couple of blowout wins to win the series in five.
Although he was never quite able to repeat those regular-season numbers of 1961, Blanchard went on to put up three solid campaigns off the bench for the Yankees. New York made the World Series every year between 1961 and 1964 but only won a couple, and Blanchard never featured as much as he did in that first one against Cincinnati. However, to hold Blanchard to the standard of that outrageous 1961 campaign is a tad harsh to say the least. Between 1962 and 1964, Blanchard had a 107 OPS+ in over 700 plate appearances, an outstanding effort for a reserve catcher, one that any team would gladly take. With Yogi Berra manning the position, there wasn’t room in the Yankees roster for a larger role — it’s hard not to wonder what Blanchard might have done at his best if given the opportunity to start full-time.
A player coming from Minnesota, Blanchard learned to love being a Yankee more than the usual relationship between player and organization. One of his most memorable stories as a Yankee is that of his reaction following a trade in 1965, crying copiously at the thought of no longer wearing pinstripes. After playing for the Kansas City Athletics and Milwaukee Braves in 1965, Blanchard retired as a 32-year-old, clearly struggling more than you’d expect for a player of his age. That was by far Blanchard’s worst season, finishing it with a .532 OPS.
Many players’ love of the game leads to them occupying other roles upon retiring, but other than a failed comeback attempt a few years into his retirement, Blanchard didn’t. The retired ballplayer went on to work as a salesman in several different areas and was also involved in real estate.
Blanchard died of a heart attack on March 25th, 2009, in his hometown of Robbinsdale, Minnesota.
