He is the nephew of the late Major League Baseball pitcher, Ryne Duren.
He pitched in only one game for the Yankees that year before being traded to the Angels with Ryne Duren for Tex Clevenger and Bob Cerv on May 8.
Duren was the inspiration for the character Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn in the movie Major League, according to its author and director David S. Ward.
After spending almost all of his 6½ years with the Yankees in its minor league system, he was traded along with Billy Martin, Ralph Terry and Bob Martyn to Kansas City for Ryne Duren, Harry Simpson and Jim Pisoni on June 15, 1957 (the MLB trade deadline at the time) in one of the many deals made between the two clubs during the late-1950s.
Düren | Ryne Sandberg | Ryne Duren | Düren (district) | Ryne Douglas Pearson | Peter Bander van Duren |
June 15, 1957: Ryne Duren, Jim Pisoni, and Harry Simpson were traded by the Athletics to the New York Yankees for Ralph Terry, Woodie Held, Billy Martin, and Bob Martyn.