The mighty Bronx Bombers had won four straight pennants, but most of the 1964 season had been a disappointment. In late August the team was hovering in third place behind Baltimore and Chicago. They had just lost four straight games to the White Sox and were on the team bus heading to O\'Hare Airport, demoralized. A reserve infielder named Phil Linz a career. 235 hitter who was still not entirely accepted in the Yankees team culture was sitting in the back of the bus, which was stuck in heavy traffic.It was a hot, humid summer day. Linz said that he was bored and he had pulled out his harmonica. He had the learner\'s sheet for Mary Had a Little Lamb. So he started fiddling. Blow in. Blow out. Berra, under stress as the manager of a third place team that was expected to win the pennant in an easy stroll, snapped from the front of the bus, \"Knock it off!\" When Linz asked what their manager had said, Mickey Mantle replied, \"Play it louder,\" and Linz obliged. Berra stomped to the back of the bus, saying, \"Shove that thing.\" \"I told Yogi that I didn\'t lose that game,\" Linz recalled. In response, Berra smacked the harmonica out of Linz\'s hands. It flew into Joe Pepi tone\'s knee and Pepi tone jokingly winced in pain. Soon the entire bus except for Berra was in stitches. Linz was fined 200 dollars. \"The next day,\" Linz says, \"the Hohner Company called and I got a contract for 5,000 dollars to endorse their harmonica. The whole thing became a big joke.\" The incident may have changed the season for the Yankees. The Yankees had a 226 record in September and won the pennant in a close race with the White Sox. A World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games cost Berra his job, but according to Harvey Frommer, there were those who said he was on his way out the day of the \"Harmonica Incident.\"The original way of playing the ten hole major diatonic harmonica, straight harp is well suited to simple melodies like \"Oh! Susanna,\" folk music, and any other type of music that you can play, or at least fake, using the major scale. In addition to scales like the major scale, which you play one note at a time, there are two easily played chords on the harmonica. If you blow on the bottom three or four holes of harp you are playing major chord, and when you draw on these same holes you are playing a G major chord. If you have an A harmonica, the bottom three or four hole blow chord is A major and the draw chord is E major. In first position, playing the blow chord is your home base. When playing the harmonica this way, the blow chord will usually be the chord the song starts and ends on, as well as the chord most often played throughout your song. The other chord played on the bottom three holes the draw chord is a very common second chord for harmonizing melodies you can play on the major scale. So, although you have a very limited choice of chords, you have two that can get you pretty far, especially in simpler music.

By Alex Movila who plays harmonica for over 30 years.

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