Joe Pepitone
Joe Pepitone was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States on October 9th, 1940 and is the Baseball Player. At the age of 83, Joe Pepitone biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 83 years old, Joe Pepitone physical status not available right now. We will update Joe Pepitone's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.
In 1958, Pepitone was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent. After playing four seasons in the minor leagues, he broke in with the Yankees in 1962, playing behind Moose Skowron at first base. A much-discussed legend was that while on his way to 1962 spring training in Florida, Pepitone spent his entire $25,000 ($234,804 today) signing bonus. He won a World Series ring in his rookie year with the Yankees.
Yankee management believed he could handle the first base job and traded Skowron to the Dodgers before the 1963 season. Pepitone responded, hitting .271 with 27 HR and 89 RBI. He went on to win three Gold Gloves, but in the 1963 World Series he made an infamous error. With the score tied 1-1 in the seventh inning of Game Four, he lost a routine Clete Boyer throw in the white shirtsleeves of the Los Angeles crowd, and the batter, Jim Gilliam, went all the way to third base and scored the Series-winning run on a sacrifice fly by Willie Davis. He redeemed himself somewhat in the 1964 Series against the Cardinals with a Game 6 grand slam.
The ever-popular Pepitone remained a fixture throughout the 1960s, even playing center field after bad knees reduced Mickey Mantle's mobility. Yet by the end of the decade, as the Yankees struggled to return to a .500 winning percentage, fans booed Pepitone regularly and were disappointed with his lackadaisical play and inability to get on base, especially as a left-handed power hitter in old Yankee Stadium.
After the 1969 season, despite having won his third Gold Glove Award, Pepitone was traded to the Astros for Curt Blefary. However, he played only about half the 1970 season before being traded to the Cubs. In Chicago, Pepitone replaced Ernie Banks at first base. Peptitone stayed with the Cubs through the 1971 and 1972 seasons, and was traded to the Atlanta Braves in May 1973. In Atlanta, he played only three games, which marked the end of his major-league career in the United States.
In June 1973, Pepitone accepted an offer of $70,000 ($427,294 today) a year to play for the Yakult Atoms, (now the Tokyo Yakult Swallows) a professional baseball team in Japan's Central League. While in Japan, he hit .163 with one home run and two RBI in 14 games played. Pepitone spent his days in Japan skipping games for claimed injuries only to be out at night in discos, behavior which led the Japanese to adopt his name into their vernacular—as a word meaning "goof off."