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From: microferret
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  • I actually remember this

  • I also was at the doubleheader. If memory serves, Horton hit a bullet to center which tipped the glove of Murcer. The ball went between the monuments and Mercer jumped between them and disappeared for 2 seconds. He then rifled a perfect blind throw to Gene Michael who was able to hold Horton to the longest triple in history. FYI, Stan Bahsan inadvertently tagged Pinson in the groin, sparking the fight

  • Hamilton actually taught a basketball class that I took. He was a talented guy to make it in two sports like he did. He played in two different World Series and in the NBA championship too. Only one other player ever did that and his name wasn't Air. Hamilton sure knew how to play head games with people in sports. He taught me all sorts of ways to mess with people's heads in a game. Hamilton was a treasure of knowledge and his attitude always shone through. He enjoyed every second of his life.

  • I knew Hamilton from his days at Morehead St. after his pro career.  Great guy.

  • Steve was my great grandson. I miss him.

  • Lol the good old days, I remember when I was just a two bit younging, strapping on suspenders with my penny candy watching the ole yanks take on Jimmy and the kids

  • Comment removed

  • oh yeah steve hamilton, hes my great uncle... oh wait no hes not. im not related to him, nor is anybody else here. stop making up stories and just enjoy the great freakin video. jeeez

  • The top of the 9th

  • This is such awesome, CLASSIC footage in the pre-renovated old Yankee Stadium! With Phil Rizzuto announcing, and  Rookie of the Year Thurman Munson catching! Doesn't get any better than this! Thank you so much for posting it! Wish we could view the entire game!

  • Actually it was June 24, 1970. Yanks lost this one 7-2 :0)

  • Best video Ive seen on Youtube yet.

  • That is my grate uncle

  • Thats my grate uncle

  • It was actually June 24, 1970...

  • Is everyone commenting on this video related to Hamilton? We've got a daughter, a grandchild, assorted nephews - Youtube family reunion?

  • i can throw a ball like that with a whip of my boner

  • To Liz and all of Steves family and friends. Steve was truly a gentleman to all he met! He was an awesome friend, father, husband and coach. Everyone who met him has memories that will last forever! RIP Steve, we miss you and thank you for bettering our lives! Dcaudill

  • This is awesome to see again. Steve Hamilton was my uncle and a great man. Those who speak little of him never knew him, and are less for it. RIP Uncle Steve, we still miss you very much.

  • I am Steve Hamilton's daughter. To all those who rudely, and with foul language, accused Keebemon of being a liar, please take your virtiol elsewhere.  He never got to know his grandfather the way many of you have had the opportunity to do. My dad was an awesome human being. We named a speed boat we had during my teen years, the "Folly Floater" after this pitch. He wasn't allowed to pitch it in the National league. He was and always will be a giant of a man. Thanks to all!

  • Sad that Tony Horton had a nervous breakdown before the end of this season and never played again...

  • bchuchus

  • To the "crappy pitcher" poster...... 17 seasons, 40-31 W/L, 3.05 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 531 K and 214 BB. A lefty vs lefty specialist who was an excellent relief pitcher.

  • @redunzl5 whats your major league stats ?

  • "The Professor" (not to be confused with "the ol' perfessor") used to throw this pitch for called strikes.

  • Just to be sure, those would be balls if the batters didnt swing right?

    LOL

  • Yankees Magazine (June 2010 edition) chronicles this game in an intersting article. I was also at this game as was my future college roommate and still best friend. Great memories!

  • I was also at this doubleheader.  A previous commenter mentioned that Bobby Murcer had to climb between the monuments to retrieve a ball. That ball was hit by the same Tony Horton and is one of the hardest shots I've ever seen - line drive shot over Murcer's head in centerfield on which Horton got a triple. I also remember Murcer's 4 homeruns, Fosse getting hit by the cherry bomb and Sam McDowell winning the first game with a complete game victory.

  • @Kabby54 Wow! What a day of baseball you had.

    I do have a memory, somewhat vague, of Murcer having to hunting a ball down that had gone missing between the monuments.

    As for McDowell, what an incredible presence he had on the mound, right?

    And here was a guy who won 20 games with the most anemic of players behind him(though Horton had his moments).

  • 3 big happy cheers for the memories your grandfather provided. I actually watched this on TV all those years ago, Tim Horton crawling into the dugout. One of those things where you actually think back and wonder if your really saw it, if it really every happened or just the memory plays tricks. Thanks for posting this incredible this gem and verifying my memory.

  • reminds me of my ex-wife.

  • @sherbear2345

    What reminds you of her? The folly floater or Horton absconding into the dugout on all fours?

  • 1970 or 1920? lol

  • Thank you,

    That was a classic moment

    from my younger days as a fan.

  • PRICELESS and HYSTERICAL !!!!

  • has the rest of this film been posted?

  • Thank you so much for posting this vid.

  • I went 18 years of my life and never knew this footage of my Grandpa (Hamilton) existed. Thank you for showing me stories he never had the chance to tell me in person.

  • I was there and have told the story many times. Your grandpa was a favorite of mine and many other Yankee fans. Hamilton was a wonderful pitcher who helped buoy up the Yankees in a time of decline. Shortly after the events of this video MLB revised the rule regarding balks. I remember the sadness I felt as Phil Rizzuto described how the rule now prevented Hamilton from throwing the "folly floater" with runners on base. -- I was 16 and remember this and Murcer's 4 consecutive homers.

  • The home runs. Murcer hit one at for is final at-bat of the first game. E then hit three more at each of his next three at-bats in the second game. Murcer was one of my favorites, as were Hamilton and Thurmon Munson (the man who caught Horton's foul pop-up. The following night I was listening on the radio to see if Murcer would continue his streak. He did not.

  • Your grandpa also went through the motion of a folly floater and at the last second threw a blazing 90 mph fastball.i loved when he did that!

  • @keebemon

    Your grandad was an exception athlete.I'm sure you know he was also a power forward for the Minnesota Lakers.Played in the '59 playoffs vs. the Celtics.And the greatest lefty specialist in Yankee history.Owned the great power hitter Boog Powell.I saw him pitch many times.When he saved an inning he would walk off the mound and "pull the chain" flipping his wrist upside down and pulling an imaginary chain.He was fun to watch on a Yankee team that struggled.The blooper is part of that.

  • @REVELONRAY We still have his Lakers warm up suit. Big fuzzy white thing. And I LOVED the "pull the chain move . . ." But my favorite thing was walking to the players parking lot after a game, holding my dad's hand and hearing people yell for his autograph. He always stopped and signed them (I'm his daughter, by the way).

  • @lizlt461830

    Thank you so much for the info.Your dad was a courageous competitor yet tremendously fun ballplayer.He gave everything he had,every time he pitched,no matter what the score.He's truly one of my favorite all time Yankees.I saw him pitch too many times to recall.And he always came across as a wonderful individual.Highly intelligent,genuine,warm and a heckuva lot of fun!

    I miss him too.

    God bless,and thank you again.

  • @keebemon hes not your grandpa, you faggot

  • @keebemon yo man you're grandpa is steve hamilton? My name is Zack Hamilton, and he's my uncle... i believe we're related.. hahahha hit me up on facebook

  • @keebemon I remember watching with great fondness Steve Hamilton throw this at un-suspecting batters.

  • Tht was awesome!

  • I was at this game in 1970 when I was 12 years old! It was Roy White postcard day....still have the post card!

    My parents took me to this game for my 1st visit to Yankee Stadium. Our seats were box seats on the 3rd base side that cost 4 dollars a piece.

    continued...

  • Murcer's consecutive home runs (my favorite Yankee), Hamilton's Folly Floater, and being in the isle behind home plate when the fight broke out were the big highlights for me.

    I'll never forget how excited I was and how overwhelming the old Yankee Stadium felt.

    A had a Kodak Instamatic camera with me, took a roll of film and had them developed into slides, which I still have.

  • Thanks for sharing these great memories!

    JD

    Colorado

  • awesome man

  • He never stopped his motion...so it's not a balk.

    If a pitcher does balk with no one on base...it's a ball.

  • Great clip. You sure this wasn't June 24, 1970?

  • You're right. It WAS June 24, 1970, arguably the wildest day ever at Yankee Stadium. Aside from the Folly Floater, the doubleheader, which the teams split, included four consecutive HRs by Bobby Murcer, a benches-clearing brawl that followed a collision between Yanks pitcher Stan Bahnsen and Indians OF Vada Pinson, and last but not least, a cherry bomb that was thrown on the field and then rolled under Indians C Ray Fosse and went off! At age 8, I attended this game and will never forget it.

  • I was also at the game. Ditto for me. One of the greatest baseball memories of my childhood. I remembered all of those events. We were sitting near the pitchers' wives and Connie Bahnsen when the brawl broke out with her husband.

  • What a day! I was there with my mom and brother because we got free tix in a promotion where I had been named a "Yankee Good Guy" (by an usher who was a family friend). The deal also included a picture with your favorite player. Mine was Mel Stottlemyre, but he was unavailable. "You can choose Munson or Murcer, kid," they told me. Munson was a rookie, so I didn't know much about him. I picked Murcer, and 20 years later, got him to autograph the pic. He certainly remembered that day!

  • LOL

  • im surprised you're allowed to post this, cool!

  • huj wam w dupe jebane pacany

  • No balk because there's no one on base!

  • Im surprised it wasnt considered a balk or an illegal motion because both feet are planted and he then moves his arm. Technically, he is in motion during the whole pitch ... but it looks like once both feet are planted, that would be the moment of a balk.

  • The Scooter at his best! Great moment in Yankees history, even though the team was in the midst of doldrums in the late 60's and early 70's. Thanks for posting.

  • Since the pitcher stoped his pitching motion, is'nt that technically a balk that he did?

  • well he technically never stopped. his arm is always moving

  • The Red Sox had Tony Horton at one time. I think he was traded to the Indians the Imposible Dream year 1967.

  • This is a sad clip. Tony Horton was a very sick man. He suffered a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide not long after this happened, and never played again. Terry Pluto wrote later that, while the fans in the stands were laughing as Horton crawled back to the dugout, the people that knew Horton weren't laughing. At all.

  • He didn't attempt suicide. He was clinically depressed from the constant booing of the fans in Cleveland. It has nothing to do with the eephus pitch he saw.

  • Uh ... yes, he did attempt suicide.

  • If he did it wasn't because of the eephus pitch that some of the idiots here are saying. That's rubbish and untrue.

  • Obviously. He was an extremely depressed guy long before those two pitches were lobbed at him.

  • i have been a baseball fan all my life and never seen or heard of anything like that! amazing

  • I was looking for a photo or an illustration about Truett 'Rip" Sewell of the 1943 Pirates, whom first attempted this 'eephus pitch'. When he brought this pitch out he won 21 games that season. There's a climax here for you Boston fans, when in 1946 at the All Star Game Ted Williams guess right and ran up on the eephus pitch and hit it out into right-center field bleachers at Ted Williams home stadium that all-star game,the first and only one that was ever hit off Sewell's 'eephus pitch'.

  • i met hamilton!

  • awesome

  • pure fun!

  • I watched this as it happened on WPIX channel 11. Sunday afternoon double header. Not much to get exited about in those days as a Yankee fan except Murcer, Munson and the folly floater. Who's gobbing at the beginning?

  • Actually you guys(Yankees) were close to the Orioles for much of the year until the Orioles pulled away in September. I think the O's won their last 14 in a row to win 108 games, but the Yanks finished with a respectable 93 wins and second place for their best finish since 1964 when they won the pennant with 99 wins. Believe it or not their wasn't the hatred and disdain that Sox fans and Yankee fans have today and many Sox fans like myself and others rooted for the Yanks over the O's

  • Great video! I read the autobiography of Yankee former PR man Marty Appel "Spinning for the Yankees" mentioned Steve Hamilton's folly floater. If I could ever turn back the clock, I would have loved to visited the 'OLD' Stadium. The facade around the upper grandstand, the real Death Valley dimensions!To anyone who remembered it, was it better than the renovated 1 (1976-2008)??

  • imagine arod trying to hit that one...he wouldnt even get close...hernandezs eephus is basically a really slow curve thats it...this one has a huge arch

  • wow that was hella funny.....were you get the vid?

  • I'd like to add that I lived next to Miami Baseball Stadium for many years. Jim Palmer used to run around the block of my house!

    I saw this Yankee team many,many times.

    I was an Indians fan,who I could never see because they trained in Arizona,and an Orioles fan. Still,that kind of pitch,with that particular Yankee team was an insult!I don't know why Ralph Houk permitted that.

    I guess he had given up by then.

  • I am sorry about the "crappy pitcher" remark. I know that ANYBODY who was a Major Leaguer in the sixties has to have been good. What I meant was that Steve Hamilton along with Fritz Peterson and the rest of the Yankee staff from that time was really not up to par with the rest of the league.

    This is the team of Jake Gibbs,not Munson,Curt Blefary,Horace Clarke,Jerry Kenney,etc.

    I'm leaving Murcer(R.I.P.) and Roy White and Stottlemyre out

    of this..but.

  • I think this was the incident that sparked Tony Horton's nervous breakdown in 1970. This incredibly gifted Baseball player suffered one of the most traumatic incidents in the history of major league baseball.

    After reading about this for many years I finally see this!! Steve Hamilton,by the way,was a crappy pitcher. Saw him many times in the old Miami Baseball Stadium with the worst Yankee team in history. Tony Horton was a superior ballplayer in every respect.

  • Steve Hamilton wasn't a crappy pitcher.

  • no question that the FLOATER folley would be insurmountable for Horton. He wuz a Solid player. Being that this is MLB, the highest level of play and the fact that the FLOATER Pitch could hav been Hit by a 12yo kid wuz extremely unfortunate for Horton at that time in his career. Yes, it should have NEVER been allowed. I am an Indian's fan then & Now and would rather forget that whole incident. It was just awful thing that should never happened to any ball player :(

  • awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Where he's getting the idea for a balk from is the fact that the pitchers body stops (ie he steps, but doesn't transfer his body weight onto his front foot).

    Balks have been called for such incidents, but I think the fact that he was winding up would let him get away with it.

    (Plus, as the ball was released, I doubt anyone was thinking about his action).

  • musicum22, how the fuck do you figure that to be a balk?????? he was moving forward the entire time!!! just because he slowed down doesn't mean it's a balk..

  • yo....  that looks awfully close to a balk. to me anyway. but that shit is cool.

  • There was nobody on base, yo.

  • As a pitcher for the Indians (Bx Federation)

    I tried to emulate  Hamilton's Folly Floater one day. I think it's still orbiting out there along with the other space junk!

  • he folly floater is a sick pitch.

  • awesome eephus

  • Got to love the old stadium. 463 feet to center field. Now those were dimensions!

  • I remember watching this game on TV. The old stadium was the best.

  • Considering Hamilton died in 1997, I'd say you're full of shit.

  • Tony Horton didn't have an "agent" as most players did. From what I understand his Dad was his agent. They didn't sign a contract with the baseball card people. What a shame, he was a very gifted hitter & just getting started before the tragedy of his early "retirement" two months after this incident.

  • I was there with my friends. This was the first game of a doubleheader that featured a bench clearing brawl in Game 1, Bobby Mercer running between the monuments in dead centerfield to chase down a ball, and then Mercer hitting a meaningless home run to close out Game 1 (the Indians were routing the Yanks when the Horton-Hamliton folly floater took place), and then following it up with three straight home runs in Game 2 to allow the Yanks to earn the split.

    Best. Doubleheader. Ever.

  • If I remember this.I think Tony Horton said if I can't hit this pitch,I will crawl into the dugout,Or something like that

  • According to retrosheet, this is June 24, 1970, not July. Love the old stadium.

  • Love the Anacin sign in center field!

  • Ahh, the old Stadium. Never got to see it personally, but I have to dig those field dimensions (463 to center). I even enjoyed the first few years of the current park when left center in front of the monuments was 430. (Munson was one of a few people to hit the ball into Monument Park on the fly.)

  • ths super sheelll time

  • Amusing, but this was the begining of the end for Horton. His crawl (meltdown) back to the dugout was the start of a nervous breakdown and he was soon out of baseball.

  • rip Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto and Thurman Munson

  • dude the eephous is the best pitch ever, and the folly floater just toped it. you just made my day.

  • eyval baba

  • Those were the good old days of baseball that truly made baseball, "America's Pastime."

    Now, the game is tainted with performance enhancing drugs.

  • Amphetimines are performance enhancing drugs so I guess willie stargell and willie mays are out of the hall of fame. And spitballs are cheating. so bye bye drysdale and gaylord perry and niekro. Lasik surgery and Tommy John surgery are performance enhancing. Christy Mathewson and Ty Cobb bet on baseball but it was swept under the rug. the good old days were just as crooked. these guys still have to workout and make contact. health concerns are the knock on steroids but hgh if used right is fine.

  • Totally agree with you. Plus, there's no scientific evidence that hgh is detrimental to your body in the short or the long run, like steroids are. Hgh simply enables the player to heal from an injury faster and get back out on the field sooner. Yeah these guys make a ton of money now, but I still think that despite that, they really want to play as much as possible. So why wouldn't they take hgh? It's logical.

  • Those were FUN days with the Yankees... this was before Adolf Steinbrenner stole the team from CBS in 1973 and ran up the free agency bill for all of us baseball fans to pay for until the end of time. Convicted felon bastard that he is. (My mistake.. he's a PARDONED convicted felon bastard.)

  • There is NOTHING fun about losing. It wasn't fun before 1976 and it wasn't fun from 1982 to 1993. (And it wasn't much fun to watch the Mets during the bad old days from '77 to '83, either.) The fun days are watching a well-assembled club play good baseball, whether they're in the Bronx or Anaheim. Steinbrenner's excesses are part of the public record. So are those of people who overpay and don't even get a round in October.

  • the owner of the rangers that paid AROD 20 mil is who fucked up free agency. steinbrenner was just in a big market with cash to spare.

  • On a related note, RIP Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto.

  • Lol, thats embarrasing when you dont hit a pitch like that.

  • It is very, very rare to see color footage of the original yankee stadium (before the 1975 refurbishing), probably because the yanks wew not contenders in the early days of color tv in the late 60's

  • "throws his hat in the air"....gotta love the 70s :D

  • This video is amazing!!!! How did you find this?

  • I was looking for information on the eephus pitch and through a few links I found this video.

  • HAHAH!!! Wow!! The eephus is so rare and what a sight to see. Sad that most kids crankin' up their Xboxs' now-a-days don't know what kind of history that pitch has. I am just in awe by that footage. Shame on those who say baseball isn't on par with, if not SURPASSING nba and nfl as the greatest sport of all time.

    Nice footage. BRILLIANT footage.

  • so tru

  • Nice vid

  • thats just crazy!

  • el duque eephus: watch?v=ZLqMKXdEk3s

  • Tony Horton was one great baseball player, shortly after this clip he suffered a nervous breakdown and never returned to baseball again. It was our loss.

  • Did you read Terry Pluto's 'The Curse of Rocky Colavito'? It has a lot of in-depth stuff about this at-bat and Horton's subsequent breakdown. Just a darn shame.

  • Great book--Pluto is a terrific writer. It's a shame how things worked out for Tony Horton.

  • Does anyone know why in the world Tony never gave permission to have a baseball card made of him?

  • No, but he does have a "kellogg" card floating around, from the Kelloggs cereal boxes. You can sometimes catch it on e-bay.

  • he has a 1969 nabisco card also

  • great vid

  • so awesome, I miss old baseball. Give me an outfielder throwing knuckleballs in a blowout, now that's entertainment.

  • Wow, great find micro. I put it on my blog.

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