finalyear bats birth_place debutyear finaldate statvalue position finalteam statlabel debutdate birth_date article_title debutteam name throws
1968 right baltimore , maryland 1962 september 29 .235 11 96 shortstop/second baseman new york mets batting average home runs runs batted in april 13 4 june 1939 phil linz
 new york yankees phil linz right
phil linz

philip francis linz -lrb- born june 4 , 1939 in baltimore , maryland -rrb- is an american former backup infielder in major league baseball .
from 1962 through 1968 , linz played for the new york yankees -lrb- 1962 -- 65 -rrb- , philadelphia phillies -lrb- 1966 -- 1967 -rrb- and new york mets -lrb- 1967 -- 1968 -rrb- .
he batted and threw right-handed , and was listed at and .
through jim bouton 's book `` ball four '' , he may be best known for the so-called `` harmonica incident , '' on august 20 , 1964 .
on the team bus , after a yankee loss to the chicago white sox , linz was in the back playing a plaintive version of `` mary had a little lamb '' on his harmonica .
yankee manager yogi berra thought the sad cowboy style mixed with a children 's nursery rhyme was mocking the team .
he told linz to pipe down .
linz did n't hear and kept playing .
berra became infuriated and called back from the front of the bus , `` if you do n't knock that off , i 'm going to come back there and kick your ass . ''
linz could n't hear the words over the music , so he asked mickey mantle , `` what he say ? ''
mantle responded , `` he said to play it louder . ''
this led the famous confrontation when berra stormed to the back of the bus , slapped the harmonica out of linz ' hands , and the instrument hit joe pepitone 's knee .
this altercation convinced the yankees ' front office that berra had lost control of the team and could not command respect from his players .
as a result , the decision was made to fire berra at the end of the season .
and even though the yankees eventually won the pennant , berra was fired .
linz is probably remembered more for this comical confrontation than for anything he accomplished on the field .
in the 1973 `` the great american baseball card flipping , trading and bubble gum book '' , authors brendon c. boyd and fred c. harris remarked -lrb- p. 43 -rrb- about '' ... the impression engendered in the hearts of all true yankee-haters everywhere , by his mere presence in the new york lineup , that the end of the yankee golden era had finally arrived . ''
in a seven-season career , linz posted a .235 batting average with 11 home runs and 96 rbi in 519 games played .
after shortstop tony kubek was sidelined with a back injury that eventually ended his career , linz started at shortstop during the 1964 world series .
david halberstam , describing the series in his book `` october 1964 '' , attributes the yankee loss in part to the ineffectiveness of the linz-bobby richardson combination in the middle of the yankee infield .
