Ex-Yank Johnstone dies at 74

Jay Johnstone, who won World Series championships as a versatile outfielder with the Yankees and Dodgers while being baseball’s merry prankster, has died. He was 74.

He died last Saturday of complications from COVID-19 and also had suffered from dementia in recent years, according to his daughter, Mary Jayne Sarah Johnstone. He died at a nursing home in Granada Hills, she said Monday.

“COVID was the one thing he couldn’t fight,” his daughter said by phone. “It’s really kind of shocking.”

Besides the Yankees and Dodgers, Johnstone played for the Angels, White Sox, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Cubs during a 20-year major league career that began in 1966 and ended in 1985.

He had a career batting average of .267, with 102 home runs and 531 RBI.

In the 1981 World Series, Johnstone’s pinch-hit, two-run homer in Game 4 rallied the Dodgers to an 8-7 victory over the Yankees. That tied the series at two games apiece, and the Dodgers won the next two games to claim the title.

In his first postseason experience, he went 7 for 9 as the Phillies got swept by Cincinnati in the 1976 NL Championship Series. He played for the Yankees when they beat the Dodgers to win the 1978 crown.

SERENA, NADAL START QUICKLY

Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal began the French Open with straight-set victories against overmatched foes in Court Philippe Chatrier on Monday.

Both have something significant at stake over the coming two weeks: a chance to equal a record for Grand Slam singles titles. Williams already has 23, the most by anyone in the professional era; one more will allow her to tie Margaret Court’s all-era mark.

Nadal began his attempt to pull even with rival Roger Federer for the most by a man, 20, by beating Egor Gerasimov of Belarus, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

Williams cruised to a 7-6 (2), 6-0 victory over 102nd-ranked American