Roy White: From Compton to the Bronx

Here are two things Yankee fans need to know:

First, and with due respect to Charlie Keller and Brett Gardner, Roy White is the most underrated Yankee of all-time.

Secondly, Roy White, with the help of writer Paul Semendinger, has an autobiography out, titled “Roy White: From Compton to the Bronx”.

Let’s start with the first part…

Why Roy White is underrated as a player isn’t hard to figure out. He had the misfortune of being a very good player when the Yankees were not very good – frankly they were pretty bad during White’s prime. By the mid-70s when the Yankees were great, White’s best days were behind him, although he was still a big contributor to the ’76 AL champs (5.5 bWAR, led AL in runs scored) and a solid player for the ’77 and ’78 World Series champs.

To make matters worse for anyone wishing to see White get his well-deserved notoriety, his teammates that made the team great were certainly not cut from the fly under the radar mold. Reggie Jackson, Graig Nettles, Sparky Lyle, and Rich Gossage (among others) had no qualms about expressing their emotions both on the field and to the media. And many of White’s teammates who were not attention seekers such as Thurman Munson, Willie Randolph, Catfish Hunter, and Ron Guidry, were an MVP winning, Cy Young Award winning, Rookie of the Year winning, Gold Glove winning, All-Stars group so they had no issue getting noticed even without making the back page of the local tabloids.

But here’s the reality about Roy White: From the late 60’s through the mid 70’s he was one of the best players in the American League.

He was also exhibit A in why batting average is still overrated but on base percentage is still underrated. White never hit .300 or better in a season but when he became a regular in 1968, he went a five season stretch with a .380 OBP (fourth best in the AL over that run) with above average power resulting in a 139 OPS+ from ’68 through ’72.

For some perspective, Carl Yastrzemski was the only AL player with as many PA as White from ’68 through ’72 with a higher OPS+.

And it didn’t stop with a short five season peak. Over a decade (1968 through 1977) White averaged 4.7 WAR per season for the Yanks with a Bernie Williams like consistency – i.e., no monster 8.5 win seasons but essentially good for an All-Star level, four to six wins every year.

For more perspective, here are the AL WAR leaders, 1968 – 1977:

Reggie Jackson, Rod Carew, Sal Bando, Carl Yastrzemski, Roy White.

White led the AL in runs scored in ’76 (I’d bet Thurman would give a lot of credit to White for his ’76 MVP considering White batted in front of Munson and White was always on base), base on balls in 1972 and finished in the AL’s top ten in WAR four times.

Furthermore, without getting into debates about the modern game vs. eras gone by, he also went 11 out of 12 seasons with a higher BB% than K%, which is remarkable for any era.

And for the “but rings!” crowd, not only does Roy have two with the Yanks*, but he hit key home runs to earn them. He hit what turned out to be the series clincher against KC in the ’78 ALCS, then took future Hall of Famer Don Sutton deep in the first inning of WS Game 3 giving the Yankees the lead. Reminder: The Yanks were down 2-0 in the series and facing a Cooperstown bound starting pitcher – White’s shot was a momentum turner.

(*I saw one of those rings in person when White was the guest speaker at my little league awards dinner. Decades later I still recall him being exactly as he appeared on TV: humble, soft spoken, and professional.)

I’ll finish by writing that I’m a small Hall of Fame guy, so to me White falls short of a Cooperstown level career. That said, here are my favorite “Damn, Roy White is underrate stats:

Career WAR:

Jim Rice 47.7
Roy White 46.9
Lou Brock 45.3

Peak WAR (best seven seasons):

White 37.1
Rice 36.4
Brock 32.0

White’s book “From Compton to the Bronx” details a fascinating rise in a fascinating time in Yankees’ history. Growing up as a bi-racial kid in Compton to walking into the Yankees clubhouse in the mid-60s – a clubhouse that had Mantle, Whitey, Yogi and Elston Howard in it. Then playing through the transitional era with Munson and Blomberg as the Yankees went from cellar dwellers to powerhouses again in the 70’s, as his career came full circle playing with more future Hall of Famers like Reggie and Catfish then and young stars like Ron Guidry and Willie Randolph. And in case you forgot, White finished his playing career in Japan, as a teammate of Saduhara Oh.

You can take a closer look at the book HERE.

Did I miss anything? Let me know. Leave a comment below or yell at me @mybaseballpage1 on Twitter and/or the “My Baseball Page” on Facebook.