Senators At Yankees, June 19, 1963, Elston Howard Takes Charge
8 December 2025
Album art features Elston Howard
The records credit Jim Bouton with the win, but everyone who followed the Yankees' 1963 season knows that the driving force in the middle of the year was Elston Howard.
Stepping up into a leadership role after Mickey Mantle broke his foot and moved to the Injured List for ten weeks, the Yankees catcher would shepherd the rotation through the summer months with performance like this one, taking the young Bouton through 8 scoreless innings.
Howard earned his American League MVP award by putting the Yankees on his broad shoulders.
Neither should we ignore opposing pitcher Claude Osteen. The left-hander packed heat alongside an arsenal of breaking pitches. Already established as the Senators' ace, the offence would rarely back him up, and 1963 would end with a 9-14 record. The Dodgers would offer him a lifeline, and in 1965, he would join Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, and Johnny Podres in a devastating rotation in Los Angeles.
Today? Today, you can see the difference Howard makes when supporting a young pitcher.
Ewan Spence and the Classic Baseball Radio team bring you this recreated radio broadcast from 1963.
You can find the boxscore here.
This game was played on June 19, 1963.