Snippets from Strangers

In 1961, during spring training in Florida, LIFE gave 25-year-old Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek a camera and asked him to photograph his teammates: Mantle, Berra, Maris, Ford, and the rest of the players on what would, in time, be seen as one of the greatest teams in baseball history.
The resulting photos were never published (see slide 12 in this gallery for a possible reason why). Now, five decades later, LIFE.com presents those unpublished pictures, along with Kubek’s own insights and memories of that particular spring training, and that entire era of pro ball.
Pictured: Tony Kubek, photographed by LIFE’s Bob Fellows, sets up a shot of teammate Bobby Richardson (munching an apple) at spring training in 1961.