History of the New York Yankees
Encyclopedia
The New York Yankees
have a long history filled with many high points, milestones, and championships. With 27 world championships, they are the most successful team in Major League Baseball history, and have accomplished this feat with the help of such names as Babe Ruth
, Lou Gehrig
, Joe DiMaggio
, Yogi Berra
, Mickey Mantle
, Whitey Ford
, Reggie Jackson
, Mariano Rivera
and Derek Jeter
.
At the end of the season, Bancroft "Ban" Johnson
, president of the Western League, made moves to assert his league as a new major league in competition with the National League
(NL). This included changing the name to the American League
(AL) and adding teams in Eastern cities. Plans to put a team in New York City were blocked by the NL's New York Giants
, whose connections to Tammany Hall
gave them the political power to do so.
Instead, a team was placed in Baltimore, Maryland
, a city that had recently lost its NL team. Nicknamed the Orioles, they began play in , and were managed and owned in part by John McGraw. Johnson rigidly enforced rules about rowdiness on the field of play, causing a feud with McGraw. During the season, McGraw jumped to the NL, getting a job as manager of the Giants. He still, owned part of the Orioles, however, and a week later the owner of the Giants, John T. Brush
, gained a controlling interest in the team. He began raiding their best players until the AL stepped in and took control of the team.
In January 1903
, a "peace conference
" was held between the two leagues to settle disputes and try to coexist. At the conference, Johnson requested that an AL team be put in New York to play alongside the Giants as he always wished. It was put to a vote, and 15 of the 16 major league owners agreed to it, with Brush being the only opponent. As a result, the NL agreed to let the "junior circuit" establish a franchise in New York. The Orioles were chosen to make the move, and their new owners, Frank J. Farrell
and William S. Devery
, found a ballpark location not blocked by the Giants. Thus, the Baltimore team moved to New York. Baltimore went without a Major League team for 51 seasons until the St. Louis Browns moved in and became the Orioles
in 1954.
The new ballpark for the relocated team was constructed at 165th Street and Broadway
in Manhattan
, one of the highest points on the island. Formally known as "American League Park", it was nicknamed "Hilltop Park
" or "The Hilltop", and was significantly smaller than the Polo Grounds
, the Giants' home just a few blocks away.
Publisher William Randolph Hearst
's New York Evening Journal referred to the new club as the "Invaders" in 1903, but switched in the spring of 1904 to the name that would stick for several years: the New York Highlanders. The name was a reference to the team's location and also to the noted British military unit The Gordon Highlanders
, which fit as the team's president from 1903 to 1906 was Joseph Gordon. Like other AL teams, such as the team in Boston, they were also referred to as the "Americans". By 1904, the team was also being called the "Yankees" or "Yanks", a synonym for "Americans" which was also easier to type and fit in headlines. On April 7, 1904, a spring training story from Richmond, Virginia
carried the headline "Yankees Will Start Home From South To-Day." The New York Evening Journal screamed: "YANKEES BEAT BOSTON". However, initially "Highlanders" was the most common unofficial nickname of the new team.
As the Highlanders, the team enjoyed brushes with success only occasionally, finishing second in , and , with 1904 being their closest approach to a league title. That year, Highlander Pitcher Jack Chesbro
set the single-season wins record at 41, a record which still stands and, under current playing practices, is an unbreakable record.
The high point (and low point) of the Highlanders' existence however came on the last day of that 1904 season at Hilltop Park. Chesbro threw a wild pitch
in the ninth inning that allowed the eventual pennant-winning run to score for the Boston Americans
, which would later become the Boston Red Sox. The presence of the Highlanders in the AL pennant race had historical significance in several ways. For one thing, this series would be the last time Boston would beat New York in a pennant deciding game for a full century. The more immediate impact was on the 1904 World Series
. The Highlander's neighbor, the Giants, had won the NL pennant. Not wanting to play (and possibly lose) against their AL counterpart, the Giants announced that they would not participate in the World Series, claiming they would not play a "minor league" team. Although Boston won instead, the Giants stuck by their word and still refused to participate. This would be the last time until the strike-truncated year of 1994 that the World Series would not be played. The resulting backlash by the press caused Brush to take a stance and lead the committee to formalize the rules governing the World Series.
Much of the team's Hilltop Park days were spent in last place. Its somewhat corrupt ownership and a few questionable activities by some of the players (most notably first baseman Hal Chase
) raised suspicions of game-fixing. Such suspicions have never been proven, although Chase was eventually banned from baseball for corruption.
burned down in 1911
and the Highlanders allowed the Giants to play in Hilltop Park during reconstruction. Relations between the two teams warmed, and the Highlanders would move into the newly rebuilt Polo Grounds in 1913
. Now playing on the Harlem River, a far cry from their high-altitude home, the name "Highlanders" no longer applied, and fell into disuse among the press. The media had already widely adopted the "Yankees" nickname coined by the New York Press, and in 1913 the team became officially known as the New York Yankees.
By the mid 1910s, owners Farrell and Devery had become estranged and were both in dire need of money. At the start of 1915, they sold the team to Colonel Jacob Ruppert
and Captain Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston
for $1.25 million. Ruppert inherited a brewery fortune, providing the Yankees with an owner who possessed deep pockets and a willingness to dig into them to produce a winning team. This would lead the team to more success and prestige than Ruppert could ever have envisioned.
, when the Yankees made their first World Series appearance
, which was against the Giants
, the Yankees were told to move out of the Polo Grounds after 1922
. John McGraw was said to have commented that the Yankees should "move to some out-of-the-way place, like Queens." Instead, to McGraw's chagrin, the Yankees broke ground for a new ballpark in the Bronx, right across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds.
, losing to the Giants
for the second straight year. Meanwhile, the construction crew moved with remarkable speed and finished the new ballpark in less than a year.
In the years around 1920, the Yankees had a détente
with the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox
. Their actions antagonized Ban Johnson, garnering them the nickname "the Insurrectos". This was in stark contrast to the other five teams in the league who were known as "the Loyal Five".
This détente paid off well for the Yankees, as Ruppert and Huston would begin to enlarge their payroll. Most of these new players who would later contribute to the team's success came from the Red Sox. Red Sox owner, theater impresario Harry Frazee
, had bought the team on credit and needed to pay off his loans and purchase Fenway Park
from the Fenway Park Trust. If Frazee didn't own Fenway, Johnson could easily put another team in the ballpark. Also, as the strongest of the Insurrectos, the Red Sox faced a large amount of costly legal battles. To pay for his debts, Frazee was trading players to the Yankees for large sums of money.
From to , the Yankees acquired pitchers Waite Hoyt
, Carl Mays
, and Herb Pennock
, catcher Wally Schang
, shortstop Everett Scott
and third baseman Joe Dugan
, all from the Red Sox. The most talented of all the acquisitions from Boston, however, was pitcher-turned-outfielder George Herman "Babe" Ruth
. The Babe accumulated 2,213 RBIs over his career (second in MLB history), 1,971 of which came as a Yankee (second in team history), and become owner of the single-season home run record in 1919.
Ruth came to New York in January of . Frazee cited Ruth's demand for a raise, even though he was already the highest paid player in baseball, as the reason for the trade. Frazee also wished to aid the Yankees, who had taken his side in the legal battles against Johnson. Ruth did not help the situation in Boston any, as he was regarded as a problem, a carouser. This would continue in his Yankee years, but the New York ownership was more tolerant as long as he brought fans to the ballpark. The outcome of the trade would haunt the Red Sox for the next 84 years. After 1918, they would not win a World Series until 2004, often finding themselves victim to the success of the Yankees. This phenomenon eventually became known as the Curse of the Bambino
, as the failure of the Red Sox and the success of the Yankees seemed almost supernatural, stemming from that one trade.
Other important newcomers in this period were manager Miller Huggins
and general manager Ed Barrow
. Huggins was hired in 1918 by Ruppert while Huston was serving in Europe with the American army. This would later lead to a break between the two owners, with Ruppert eventually buying Huston out in 1923. Barrow came on board after the 1920 season, and, like many of the new Yankee players, had previously been a part of the Red Sox organization, as their manager since . He would act as general manager or president of the Yankees for the next 25 years, in which the Yankees had a lot of success. He was especially noted for development of the Yankees' farm system.
, the Yankees moved to their new home, Yankee Stadium at East 161st Street and River Avenue. This site was chosen because the IRT Jerome Avenue subway line
(now the NYCTA
's number 4
train) had a station stop practically on top of the stadium's outfield walls. It was the first triple-deck venue in baseball and seated an astounding 58,000. In the first game at Yankee Stadium, Babe Ruth hit a home run, which was fitting as it was his home runs and drawing power that paid for the stadium, giving it its nickname "The House That Ruth Built". He ended the year with "only" 41 home runs, but was walked a then record 170 times, and batted .393, still the highest batting average for a Yankee in Yankee Stadium. The Yanks finished first in the AL once again and faced the Giants
for the third straight year in the World Series
. Giants outfielder Casey Stengel
, who even then was being called "Old Case", hit two home runs to win two games for the Giants. In the end, however, the Yankees finally triumphed. Stengel would later come to the Yankees as a successful manager.
won the American League pennant as the Yankees finished in second and seventh, respectively. The slump would not last for long, though, as the team finished 91–63 and landed back in the World Series
against the St. Louis Cardinals
. Babe Ruth put up big numbers in the series, hitting three home runs in game four (which the Yankees won 10–5). The Cardinals would take the series in seven games though after winning the final two games on the road at Yankee Stadium.
", and some consider the team to be the best in the history of baseball (though similar claims have been made for other Yankee squads, notably those of , and ). The Yankees won an AL record 110 games with only 44 losses, and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates
in the 1927 World Series
. This squad would lead the American League wire-to-wire, a feat that would not be matched until the 1984 Detroit Tigers
. Ruth's home run total of 60 in 1927 set a single-season home run record that would stand for 34 years. He also batted .356 and drove in 164 runs. Meanwhile, first baseman Lou Gehrig
had his first big season, batting .373 with 47 round-trippers and 175 RBIs, beating Ruth's single-season RBI mark (171 in 1921).
Ruth hit third in the order, and Gehrig hit cleanup
. Right behind them were two more sluggers: Bob "The Rifle" Meusel
, who played either of the corner outfield positions, and Tony Lazzeri
, who played second base. Lazzeri actually ranked third in the league in home runs in 1927 with 18, and he hit .309 with 102 RBIs. Meusel hit .337 with 103 RBIs. Speed was another weapon used by both: Lazzeri stole 22 bases while Meusel was second in the league with 24. These numbers were all due, in part, to center fielder and leadoff man Earle Combs
. He hit .356, had a .414 on base percentage, and led the AL with 231 hits that year (a team record until Don Mattingly
broke it in 1986 with 238). The team's overall batting average in 1927 was .307. The Yankees would repeat as American League champions in , fighting off the resurgent Philadelphia Athletics
. They would then go on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals
in the 1928 World Series
. Ruth got 10 hits in 16 at-bats, his .625 average setting a new single-series record. Three of these hits were home runs. Meanwhile, Gehrig went 6 for 11 (.545), with four home runs. In the next three years, the Athletics would take the AL pennant and two world championships.
) came in as manager, and would restore the Yankees to the top of the AL. They met the Chicago Cubs
in the 1932 World Series
, sweeping them and bringing the team's streak of consecutive World Series game wins to 12 (a mark which would stand until the Yankees bested it in the 2000 World Series
). This series was made famous by Babe Ruth's famous "Called Shot
" in game three of the series at Wrigley Field
. This would be a fitting "swan song" to his illustrious postseason career, as Ruth would leave the Yankees, going to the NL Boston Braves
after , and would never see the postseason again.
. The young center fielder from San Francisco had an immediate impact, batting .323, hitting 29 homers, and driving in 125 runs in his rookie season of .
The team reeled off an unprecedented four consecutive World Series wins in the years from to behind the bats of DiMaggio, Gehrig, and Frank Crosetti. They were aided by the pitching staff, led by Red Ruffing
and Lefty Gomez
, and the whole team was anchored by catcher Bill Dickey
. For most of 1939 they had to do it without Gehrig, with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
forcing his retirement and saddening the baseball world.
During this stretch, the Detroit Tigers
were the Yankees' main competition. Once they had the pennant, however, they had little trouble. During Game 2 of the 1936 Series
, they pounded the Giants
18–4, setting the record for most runs scored in a World Series game, a record which still stands today. They took the Giants
4–2 in the series
, and beat them again 4–1 the next year. They swept the Chicago Cubs
in 1938
and the Cincinnati Reds
in 1939
.
of the Red Sox was in the hunt for the elusive .400 batting average, which he achieved on the last day of the season. Meanwhile, DiMaggio, who had once gotten a hit in 61 straight games with the San Francisco Seals
, began a hitting streak on May 15 that stretched to an astonishing 56 games. A popular song by Les Brown
celebrated this event, as Betty Bonney and the band members sang it:
The last game of the streak came on July 16 at Cleveland's League Park
. The streak was finally snapped in a game at Cleveland Stadium
the next night before a huge crowd at the lake front. A crucial factor in ending the streak was the fielding of Cleveland third baseman Pete Donaldson
, who stopped two balls that DiMaggio hit hard to the left. Modern baseball historians regard it as unlikely that anyone will ever hit .400 again, barring a change to the way the game is played, and that it will be extremely difficult to approach DiMaggio's 56-game streak, which is far beyond second place (44) and a modern day phenomenon.
The Yankees made short work of the Brooklyn Dodgers
in the 1941 Series
. Then, two months and one day after the final game of the Yanks' four-games-to-one win, the Pearl Harbor attacks occurred, and many of the best ballplayers went off to World War II
. The war-thinned ranks of the major leagues found the Yanks in the post-season again, as the team traded World Series wins with the St. Louis Cardinals
during and .
. After a couple of interim managers came and went, Bucky Harris
was brought in, and the Yankees righted the ship again, winning the 1947 pennant and a hard-fought battle against the Dodgers
in a Series
that took the Yankees
seven games to win and was a harbinger of things to come for much of the next decade.
in , Harris was released and the Yankees brought in Casey Stengel
to manage. Casey had a reputation for being somewhat of a clown and for managing bad teams, such as the mid-1930s Boston Braves
. Understandably, this selection was met with skepticism. His tenure, however, would prove to be the most successful in Yankees history up to that point. The Yankees
team was seen as "underdogs" who came from behind to catch and surprise the powerful Red Sox
on the last two days of the season, a face off that fueled the beginning of the modern Yankees – Red Sox rivalry. The post-season proved to be a bit easier, as the Yankees knocked off the Dodgers
four games to one.
By this time, the great DiMaggio's career was winding down. It has often been reported that he wanted to retire before he became an "ordinary" player. His retirement was also hastened by bone spurs in his heel. was the curtain call of the "Yankee Clipper." However, it also marked the arrival of the "Oklahoma Kid", Mickey Mantle
, who was one of several new stars that would fill the gap.
Bettering the clubs of the McCarthy era, the Yankees won the World Series five consecutive times under Stengel (–), which continues to be the major league record. Led by players like center fielder Mickey Mantle, pitcher Whitey Ford
, and catcher Yogi Berra
, Stengel's teams won 10 pennants and seven World Series titles in his twelve seasons as Yankee manager. Casey Stengel was also a master at publicity for the team and for himself, even landing a cover story in Time magazine in 1955. The 1950s was also a decade of significant individual achievement for Yankee players. In , Mantle won the major league triple crown
, leading both leagues in batting average (.353), home runs (52), and RBIs (130). A Yankee claimed ownership of the American League MVP six times in the decade (1950 Rizzuto, 1951 Berra, 1954 Berra, 1955 Berra, 1956 Mantle, 1957 Mantle). Pitcher Bob Turley
won the Cy Young Award
in , the award's third year of existence.
took the pennant with an AL record 111 wins. In 1955
, the Dodgers
finally beat the Yankees
in the World Series
, after five Series losses to the Yankees in '41
, '47
, '49
, '52
and '53
. But the Yankees
came back strong the next year. On October 8, in Game Five of the 1956 World Series
against the Dodgers
, pitcher Don Larsen
threw the only perfect game
in World Series history. The Yankees went on to win yet another World Series that season, and Larsen earned World Series MVP honors.
lost the 1957 World Series
to the Milwaukee Braves
. Following the Series, the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers left New York City for California
, leaving the Yankees as New York's only team. In the 1958 World Series
, the Yankees got their revenge against the Braves
, and became the second team to win the Series after being down three games to one. For the decade, the Yankees won six World Series championships ('50, 51, '52, '53, '56, '58) and eight American League pennants (those six plus '55 and '57). Led by Mantle, Ford, Berra, Elston Howard
(the Yankees' first African-American player), and the newly acquired Roger Maris
, the Yankees burst into the new decade seeking to replicate the remarkable success of the 1950s.
During the ownership of Arnold Johnson, the Kansas City Athletics
traded many young players to the Yankees for cash and aging veterans (much the same way the Red Sox had done under Frazee). When he'd bought the then Philadelphia Athletics from the family of Connie Mack
in , he was already the owner of Yankee Stadium, but the American League owners forced him to sell the Stadium as a condition for the purchase. He was also a longtime business associate of then-Yankees owners Del Webb
and Dan Topping
.
Trades between the A's and Yankees were so heavily weighted in the Yankees' favor that many fans, reporters and even other teams frequently accused the A's of being little more than a Yankee farm team at the major league level. Ironically, the Yankees' top farm team had been based in Kansas City from 1936 until they made way for the A's.
was acquired in one such trade, and in , Maris led the league in slugging percentage, RBIs, and extra base hits, finished second in home runs (one behind Mantle), and total bases, and won a Gold Glove and the American League MVP award. All of this, however, was a prelude to the year that would follow.
into the right field stands of Yankee Stadium, breaking the record with 61. However, Commissioner
Ford Frick
decreed that two separate records be kept, as Ruth's record-setting season was 154 games, and Maris hit 61 in 162 games. It would be 30 years before an eight-member Committee for Historical Accuracy appointed by Major League Baseball did away with the dual records, giving Maris sole possession of the single-season home run record until it was broken by Mark McGwire
in . Maris still holds the American League record.
The Yankees won the pennant with a 109–53 record and went on to defeat the Cincinnati Reds
in five games to win the 1961 World Series
. The 109 regular season wins posted by the '61 club remains the third highest single-season total in franchise history, behind only the 1998 team's 114 regular season wins and 1927 team's 110 wins. The 1961 Yankees also clubbed a then-major league record for most home runs by a team with 240, a total not surpassed until the Baltimore Orioles
hit 257 with the aid of the designated hitter
. Maris won his second consecutive MVP Award while Whitey Ford captured the Cy Young Award. Because of the excellence of Maris, Mantle, and World Series-MVP Ford, a fine pitching staff, stellar team defense, the team's strong depth and power, and its overall dominance, the 1961 Yankees are universally considered to be one of the greatest teams in the history of baseball, compared often to their pinstriped-brethren, the 1927 Yankees, the 1939 Yankees, and the 1998 Yankees.
, and they moved into the Polo Grounds, which would be their home until 1964, when they'd move to the current home, Shea Stadium
, 10 miles to the southeast of Yankee Stadium in Flushing, Queens
. That year the Mets
would lose a record 120 games while the Yankees would win the 1962 World Series
, their tenth in the past sixteen years, defeating the San Francisco Giants
in seven games.
. Behind World Series-MVP Sandy Koufax
, Don Drysdale
, and Johnny Podres
(who shut out the Yankees in ), the Dodgers' starting pitchers threw four complete games and combined to give up just four runs all Series. This was the first time the Yankees were swept in a World Series. In addition, this was the first World Series that a losing team trailed throughout.
Feeling burnt out after the season, Houk left the manager's chair to become the team's general manager and Berra, who himself had just retired from playing, was named the new manager of the Yankees.
– their fourteenth World Series appearance in the past sixteen years – to face the St. Louis Cardinals
in a series immortalized by David Halberstam
's book, October 1964. Despite a valiant performance by Mantle, including a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth of Game Three off of Cardinals' reliever Barney Schultz
, the Yankees fell to the Cardinals in seven games, and Berra was fired. It was to be the last World Series appearance by the Yankees for 12 years.
purchased 80 percent of the Yankees from Topping and Webb for $11.2 million. However, Topping and Webb stayed on as president and vice president, respectively. Jokesters at the time wondered if Walter Cronkite
would become manager, perhaps with Yogi Berra doing the newscasts.
also meant that the Yankees could no longer sign any player they wanted. Webb sold his 10 percent stake to CBS before the year was out.
Johnny Keane
, the winning Cardinals manager who joined the Yankees to manage in '65, was fired during the season, and GM Ralph Houk had to do double duty as field manager until the end of the year. Topping sold his 10 percent stake to CBS at the end of the season. CBS executive Mike Burke took over as president.
were next-to-last in the season, during which former farm director Lee MacPhail
returned to the organization as GM. The team's fortunes improved somewhat, but they would not become serious contenders again until . Various reasons have been given for the decline, but the single biggest one was the Yankees' inability to replace their aging superstars with new ones, as they had done consistently in the previous five decades. As mentioned above, the draft meant that the Yankees could no longer simply outbid the other teams for the best young players. Also, Topping and Webb decided as little as possible in order to make the team more attractive to buyers when they put it on the market in 1961. Their "special relationship" with the Athletics may have been a way to mask this problem. By the mid-1960s, the Yankees had little to offer in terms of trades, while Charlie Finley had taken the A's in a new direction. A more controversial theory is that the Yankees paid the price for bringing black players into the organization later than most other teams.
Also during this period the Yankees lost two of their signature broadcasters. The team fired legendary "Voice of the Yankees" Mel Allen
after the 1964 season. Years later, Allen said that he was fired as a cost-cutting move by the team's longtime broadcast sponsor, Ballantine Beer. Two years later, Red Barber
, a former Dodgers voice who joined the Yankees broadcast team in 1954, was also let go. Some blame Barber's firing on his on-air mention of a paltry showing of 413 fans (Yankee Stadium held 67,000 at the time) during a September 1966 home game against the White Sox
. Sports biographer David J. Halberstam
(different from the author of October 1964) also noted Barber's less-than-happy relationship with Joe Garagiola and even Phil Rizzuto
, ex-major leaguers with whom he shared the booth.
Topping and Webb had owned the Yankees for 20 years, missing the World Series only five times and going 10–5 in the ones they participated in. By contrast, the CBS-owned teams never went to the World Series.
, purchased the club from CBS on January 3, 1973 for $8.7 million. Mike Burke stayed on as president until he quit in April. Within a year, Steinbrenner bought out most of his other partners and became the team's principal owner, although Burke continued to hold a minority share into the 1980s.
One of Steinbrenner's major goals was to repair the Stadium, which had greatly deteriorated (along with the surrounding area) by the late 1960s. CBS had suggested renovations, but they would require the team to play elsewhere, and the Mets refused to open up their home, Shea Stadium
, to the Yankees. There were even plans to move the team to a new stadium in the Meadowlands
, in nearby New Jersey
. In mid-, Mayor John Lindsay
stepped in, and announced the city would buy Yankee Stadium for $24 million (ten times the amount it took to build) and lease it back to the Yankees. The renovations were then carried out, a two-year process that modernized the look of the stadium, and reconfigured some seating. The left field wall, which was approximately 60 feet farther than the right field wall, was brought in, and the bullpens were moved to behind this wall. The monuments, plaques, and flagpole that were once in the deepest point of center field were moved behind the fences in a new area between the bullpens named Monument Park
. As the city also owned Shea, the Mets were forced to allow the Yankees to play there during the period.
After the season, Steinbrenner made a move that started the modern era of free agency
, signing star pitcher Jim "Catfish" Hunter
away from Oakland. Midway through the 1975 season
, the Boss made another move, hiring former second baseman Billy Martin
as manager. With Martin as the helm, the Yankees reached the 1976 ALCS
where they won on a Chris Chambliss
home run. In the 1976 World Series
, the Yankees were swept by the Cincinnati Reds
, the famed Big Red Machine.
Steinbrenner continued his buying of high-priced free agents, by signing star outfielder Reggie Jackson
, who had been traded from the Athletics to the Baltimore Orioles
at the beginning of the season, for a then record $600,000 per year. Steinbrenner, Martin and Jackson would repeatedly feud throughout Jackson's five-year contract. Nevertheless, in Game Six of the 1977 World Series
, Jackson proved his worth by hitting three home runs - on the first pitch - against three different Dodger pitchers to wrap up the Series for the Yankees
, earning himself the nickname "Mr. October."
Throughout the late 1970s, the race for the pennant often came to a close competition between the Yankees and the Red Sox. For fans of both clubs, every game between the two became important and added to a rivalry that was often bitter and ruthless, with brawls frequently erupting between both players and fans from the two clubs.
. The Yankees then went on a tear, and by the time they met up with the Sox for a pivotal four-game series at Fenway in early September, the Yankees were only four games out. In what would become known as the "Boston Massacre", the Yankees swept the Red Sox, winning the games 15–3, 13–2, 7–0 and 7–4. The third game was a shutout by Ron Guidry
, who would lead the majors with nine shutouts, 25 wins (against only three losses) and a 1.74 ERA. Guidry also finished with 248 strikeouts, but Nolan Ryan
's 260 strikeouts deprived Guidry of the pitching Triple Crown
.
On the last day of the season, the two clubs finished the regular season in a tie for first place in the AL East. A one-game playoff (the 163rd game of the regular season) between the two teams was held to decide who would go on to the pennant race, with the game being held at Boston's Fenway Park
. With Guidry matched up against former Yankee Mike Torrez
, the Red Sox took an early 2–0 lead. In the seventh inning, the Yankees drove a stake through the hearts of their rivals' fans when Bucky Dent
drove a three-run home run over the "Green Monster
", putting the Yankees up 3–2. Reggie Jackson's solo home run in the following inning would seal the eventual 5–4 win that gave the Yankees their 100th win of the season and their third straight AL East title; it also gave Guidry his 25th win. (The outcome of this game, for Red Sox fans, was one of several emotional moments in their team's history that had their fans wondering if the Red Sox were under some kind of Yankee curse
.) However, Red Sox fans got a sense of payback for Dent's home run in 1990 when he was fired as manager of the Yankees before a game at Fenway Park.
After beating the Kansas City Royals
for the third consecutive year in the ALCS
, the Yankees faced the Dodgers
again in the 1978 World Series
. They lost the first two games on the road, but then came home to win all three games at Yankee Stadium before wrapping up their 22nd World Championship in Game 6 in Los Angeles
.
was killed in a plane crash. Four days later, the entire team flew to Canton, Ohio
for his funeral, only to return to New York later that day to play the Baltimore Orioles
. In a game that was televised nationally, the emotional contest was highlighted by Bobby Murcer
driving in all five of the team's runs in a dramatic 5-4 victory. Munson's uniform number (15) was retired, and his locker was not used after his death.
in the MVP voting. However, Brett's Royals
would sweep the Yankees in ALCS
.
had the Yankees finish first in the first half of the season. They would defeat the Milwaukee Brewers
in the 1981 ALDS
in five games. Then they would sweep Billy Martin
and the Oakland A's
in the 1981 ALCS
. The run would end on a sour note as the Dodgers
defeated the Yankees in the 1981 World Series
in six games.
During the 1980s, the Yankees, led by their All-Star first baseman Don Mattingly
, had the most total wins of any major league team, but failed to win a World Series (the first such decade since the 1910s). The Yankees consistently had powerful offensive teams - besides Mattingly, its rosters included, at one time or another, Dave Winfield
, Rickey Henderson
, Mike Pagliarulo
, Steve Sax
and Jesse Barfield
– but their starting pitching rarely matched the team's performance at the plate.
After posting a 22–6 record in , arm problems caught up with Ron Guidry, and his career went into a steep decline in the next three years. Dennis Rasmussen
, who won 18 games the following year, never matched his 1986 performance. Rick Rhoden
, acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates
in 1987, won 16 games that year but only went 14–14 in 1988.
The Yankees came close to winning the AL East in 1985 and , finishing second behind the Toronto Blue Jays
and Boston Red Sox
, respectively, but fell to fourth place in 1987 and fifth in 1988, despite having mid-season leads in the AL East standings in both seasons. 1988 would be the last season the Yankees had a winning record until 1993.
By the end of the decade, the Yankees' offense was also on the decline. Henderson and Pagliarulo had departed by the middle of , while back problems caught up with both Winfield (causing him to miss the entire '89 season) and Mattingly (he missed virtually the entire second half of 1990). Winfield's tenure with the team ended when he was dealt to the California Angels
in May 1990. That year, the Yankees had the second worst record in Major League Baseball, and their first last-place finish since 1966. The Bombers would finish at or near the bottom of the division until 1993. On July 1, , pitcher Andy Hawkins
became the first Yankee ever to lose a no-hitter, when the third baseman (Mike Blowers
) committed an error, followed by two walks and an error by the left fielder (Jim Leyritz
) with the bases loaded, scoring all three runners and the batter. The 4–0 loss to the Chicago White Sox
was the largest margin of any no-hitter loss in the 20th century. Ironically, the Yankees (and Hawkins) were again no-hit for six innings in a rain-shortened game with the White Sox eleven days later.
The poor showing in the 1980s and early 1990s would start to change when management was able to implement a coherent acquisition/development program without interference from Steinbrenner, who had been suspended from day-to-day team operations by then-Commissioner Fay Vincent
for hiring Howard Spira to uncover damaging information on former Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield. Under general manager Gene Michael and manager Buck Showalter
, the club shifted its emphasis from buying talent to developing talent through its farm system - and then holding onto it. The first significant sign of success came in 1994, when the Yankees had the best record in the AL before the season
was cut short by the players' strike, which ended Mattingly's best chance for a World Series appearance. The strike shook the fans and New York City to its core and has been considered one of the worst moments in New York City sports history. Because the Yankees were last in a postseason in a season cut short by a strike, the news media constantly reminded the Yankees about the parallels between the two Yankee teams (1981 and 1994), which included both Yankee teams having division leads taken away by strike. Throughout October, they continued to bombard the Yankees, talking about what might have been if there had not been a strike, making references to the days games in the post-season would have been played.
A year later, the team reached the playoffs as the wild card and were eliminated only after a memorable 1995 American League Division Series
series against the Seattle Mariners
where the Yankees won the first two games at home and dropped the next three in Seattle
. Mattingly had the unfortunate distinction of beginning his career (1982) and ending his career (1995) in years bracketed by Yankee World Series appearances (1981 and 1996).
Shaking it up once again, Steinbrenner replaced Showalter and his staff with manager Joe Torre
, who brought with him Don Zimmer
as bench coach and former Yankees pitching star Mel Stottlemyre
as pitching coach. Torre's managerial tenure was by far the longest under George Steinbrenner's ownership. One of Showalter's coaches, popular former Yankee second baseman Willie Randolph
, was retained by Torre as a third base coach. Initially derided as a retread choice ("Clueless Joe" ran the headline on the New York Post
), Torre's smooth manner proved to be what the team needed. The signing of Torre and the events of the 1996 season for the Yankees were also seen as the first steps in the rivalry between the their cross-town rivals, the New York Mets
, and the Atlanta Braves
intensifying, as Torre played for and managed both teams.
Going 8–0 on the road in the three playoff series that year, the Yankees won the 1996 World Series
, defeating the Atlanta Braves
in six games (after losing the first two games at home by a combined score of 16–1), and ending their 18-year championship drought, which could have ended in 1994, if there had not been a strike. Homegrown shortstop Derek Jeter
was named Rookie of the Year, an auspicious start to his association with the Yankees.
After their first World Series win since 1978, the Yankees signed lefties David Wells
and Mike Stanton to improve the pitching staff. They also allowed closing reliever (and Series MVP) John Wetteland
to leave as a free agent, and named setup man Mariano Rivera
as the team's new closer.
to the Cleveland Indians
.
, a former Yankee intern, after the 1997 season. Cashman made many key acquisitions to improve the team, through the acquisitions of third baseman Scott Brosius
, second baseman and leadoff man Chuck Knoblauch
, outfielder Darryl Strawberry
and starting pitcher Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez
.
On May 17, 1998 David Wells, who would later claim to have been hungover
that day, pitched a perfect game
against the Minnesota Twins. A year later, on July 18, 1999, which was "Yogi Berra Day" at the Stadium, David Cone
pitched a perfect game against the Montréal Expos
. In an amazing coincidence, Don Larsen, who pitched the perfect game in the 1956 World Series, was in attendance and had thrown out the ceremonial first pitch to Berra, his catcher for that storied game. An even more amazing coincidence is that Larsen and Wells both attended Point Loma High School
in San Diego, California
.
The 1998 Yankees are widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest teams in baseball history, having compiled a then-AL record of 114 regular season wins against just 48 losses en route to a Series sweep of the San Diego Padres
. The '98 Yankees went 11–2 during the playoffs and finished with a combined record of 125–50. Their 125 wins is a major league record, though their AL regular season record was surpassed by the 2001 Seattle Mariners
, who went 116–46 before losing to the Yankees in the ALCS
.
This was the only Yankees World Series championship during their 1990s dynasty that wasn't won against either the New York Mets or the Atlanta Braves. All their other championships during this time (1996, 1999, and 2000) came against either team (1996 and 1999 against Atlanta, 2000 against the Mets).
for Roger Clemens
, who had just completed two consecutive Cy Young Award and pitching triple crown seasons. After winning the Eastern division and defeating the Texas Rangers
for the third time in the 1999 American League Division Series
, the Yankees met up with the their longtime rivals, the Boston Red Sox
, in the next playoff round. Clemens, a former Red Sox pitcher, started the third game of the ALCS
against the Sox who blasted him 13–1 in what had been a highly anticipated pitching match up between Clemens and Pedro Martínez
, the winner of the Cy Young Award and the pitching triple crown that season. However, it was the only game the Red Sox won, as the Yankees won the ALCS four games to one, and then went on to sweep the Atlanta Braves
in the 1999 World Series
, with Clemens winning the clincher in Game Four in the Bronx. This gave the 1998–99 Yankees a 22–3 record (including four series sweeps) in six consecutive postseason series. This World Series win marked the last time that the Yankees would win a World Series at the original Yankee Stadium before it closed in 2008, as their win against their cross-town rivals
happened at Shea Stadium
(the only time that visiting teams would ever win a World Series there).
, the Yankees met up with the crosstown New York Mets
for the first Subway Series
World Series since . To get there, they defeated the Oakland Athletics
in the ALDS
and then the Seattle Mariners in the ALCS
. By winning the first two games of the Series
, the Yankees won a total of fourteen straight World Series games from 1996 to 2000, breaking their own record of twelve (in 1927, 1928 and 1932). When the Mets scored a run against Mariano Rivera, they snapped his string of postseason consecutive scoreless innings at 34 1/3. Prior to Rivera's streak, the record had been held by Whitey Ford, who had broken Babe Ruth's scoreless World Series pitching streak. The win ran the Yankees' postseason series winning streak to nine and gave them a 33–8 record during that run. The Yankees are the most recent major league team to repeat as World Series champions and after the 2000 season they joined the Yankee teams of 1936–1939 and 1949–1953, as well as the 1972–74 Oakland Athletics as the only teams to win at least three consecutive World Series.
The Yankees thanked the St. Louis Cardinals
for this World Series. Their sweep of the Atlanta Braves
made the Mets run to their first World Series appearance since winning the title in much easier. The Braves had eliminated the Mets from playoff contention on the final day of the 1998
season and in the 1999 National League Championship Series
.
In the emotional times of October 2001, following the September 11 attack on New York's World Trade Center
, the Yankees dramatically defeated the Oakland A's
three games to two in the ALDS
behind Derek Jeter
's incredible "Flip Play" in Game 3, and then the Seattle Mariners
, who had won 116 games, four games to one in the ALCS
. By winning the pennant for a fourth straight year, the 1998-2001 Yankees joined the 1921–1924 New York Giants
, and the Yankee teams of 1936–1939, 1949–1953, 1955–1958 and 1960–1964 as the only dynasties to earn at least four straight pennants
. The Yankees had now won eleven consecutive postseason series over a four-year period.
However, the World Series starters for the Arizona Diamondbacks
, Randy Johnson
and Curt Schilling
(later named the World Series
co-MVPs), kept them in check, starting Games One, Two, Four, Six and Seven; the Diamondbacks
won all four games at home
, including Game Seven where Yankee star closer Mariano Rivera uncharacteristically lost the lead—and the Series—in the bottom of the ninth inning; this marked the second time in five years that a team lost the World Series after taking a lead into the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 (following the Cleveland Indians
in ) and the first time since that the home team won all seven games of a World Series. The Yankees were also the first American League team to lose a World Series in which the home team won all seven games.
Despite the loss in the series, Derek Jeter provided one bright spot. Despite a very poor series overall, batting under .200, he got the nickname, "Mr. November," for his walk-off home run in Game 4, though it began October 31, as the game ended in the first minutes of November 1. In calling the home run, Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay said "See ya! See ya! See ya! A home run for Derek Jeter! He is Mr. November! Oh what a home run by Derek Jeter!" He said this after noticing a sign that says, "Mr. November."
Also, during the emotional times following the attacks, Yankee Stadium played host to a memorial service, just before the Yankees played their first home game following the attacks. The service was titled, "Prayer for America."
Soon after, the Yankees played "God Bless America
" during the seventh-inning stretch of every home game.
, fan favorites Paul O'Neill and Scott Brosius retired. Tino Martinez
and Chuck Knoblauch
left for free agency. The Yankees had a lot of reconstructing to do; they needed to rebuild the offense that was shut down by the Johnson-Schilling duo in the 2001 World Series. They did it by signing slugger Jason Giambi
and outfielder Rondell White
, as well as trading David Justice
to the Mets for third baseman Robin Ventura
. The team also brought back fan favorite David Wells to bolster the pitching staff. The Yankees finished the season with an AL best record of 103–58, winning the division by 10.5 games over the Red Sox
. The season was highlighted by Alfonso Soriano
becoming the first second baseman ever to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season, as well as Giambi's 41 home runs. In the ALDS
, the Yankees lost to the eventual World Series
champion Anaheim Angels
in four games.
, and then defeated their longtime rival Red Sox
in a tough seven-game ALCS
, which featured a bench-clearing brawl in Game Three and a Series-ending walk-off home run
by Aaron Boone
in the bottom of the 11th inning of the final game. The Yankees were then defeated by the Florida Marlins
—a team with a payroll a quarter of the size of the Yankees'—in the World Series
, four games to two. This was the first time since that visiting teams won a World Series at Yankee Stadium, though this was the last World Series to ever be played at the original Yankee Stadium.
, the Yankees hoped to add more power to a lineup which was shut down in the previous year's Series. They gained two sluggers, signing free agent Gary Sheffield
, and trading second-baseman Alfonso Soriano
to the Texas Rangers for shortstop Alex Rodriguez
. With Jeter as the Yankees All-Star shortstop, Rodriguez, who had played the position his entire career, agreed to move to third base. Throughout 2004
, however, the Yankees' weakness was their starting pitching. Despite this, they managed to win over 100 games with their powerful lineup, the third straight year they had done so, and reach the playoffs. In the ALDS
, the Yankees once again met and defeated the Twins three games to one.
In the 2004 American League Championship Series
against the Red Sox
, the Yankees became the first team in professional baseball history, and only the third team in North American pro sports history (it happened in the NHL twice and once afterwards), to lose a best-of-seven series after taking a 3–0 series lead.
The Yankees thought they needed to improve their pitching, which faltered in their loss to the Red Sox, and they signed free-agent pitchers Carl Pavano
and Jaret Wright
and acquired dominant lefty Randy Johnson from Arizona. However, none of the three performed up to expectations; Pavano pitched in only 17 games in 2005, missed the entire 2006 season and pitched only 2 games on the 2007 season due to a variety of injuries, Wright was traded after starting only 40 games over two seasons, and Johnson suffered from back problems which resulted in surgery in October 2006.
The 2005 season
started slowly for the Yankees, and they spent most of the season chasing the Boston Red Sox
for the division title. The Yankees, however, won the division, clinching it in the second-to-last game of the season against the Red Sox. Alex Rodriguez won the American League Most Valuable Player award, becoming the first Yankee to win the award since Don Mattingly in 1985. Giambi was named Comeback Player of the Year
, as voted by fans, and second baseman Robinson Canó
was runner-up in Rookie of the Year
voting. Another highlight of the season was the record-setting pitching by journeyman Aaron Small
, who became just the fourth pitcher in history to win at least ten games without a loss.
The Angels
defeated the Yankees in five games in the first round
of the postseason, marking the second time in four years that the Angels beat the Yankees in the first round. Alex Rodriguez, the American League's 2005 MVP, had a poor series, hitting .133 with no home runs and no RBIs.
from the archrival Red Sox. The Yankees also signed Kyle Farnsworth
, Mike Myers, Octavio Dotel
and Ron Villone
to improve their bullpen, which had been a weak point during the 2005 season.
On August 16, 2006, the Yankees officially broke ground on the new Yankee Stadium
, which opened next to the current Yankee Stadium in 2009.
Despite losing starting outfielders Hideki Matsui
and Gary Sheffield to injuries early in the season, the Yankees finished the first half of the 2006 season with 50 wins and 36 losses, three games behind the Red Sox
. But they caught up to the Red Sox, and on August 18, the Yankees entered Fenway Park with a 1.5 game lead for a five game series. The series opened up with a doubleheader that the Yankees swept 12–4 and 14–11, echoing the Boston Massacre of 1978, and prompting the Boston Globes Dan Shaughnessy
to dub the doubleheader sweep the "Son of Massacre". The Yankees went on to sweep all five games (calling the series the "Second Boston Massacre"). They outscored the Red Sox by a combined score of 49–26, and left them 6.5 games out of first place. The Red Sox would eventually end the season in third place in the AL East behind the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays, making it the first time since 1998 that the Red Sox did not finish in second place behind the Yanks.
The division win was the ninth consecutive AL East title for the Yankees. When the New York Mets
won their division for the first time since 1988
(snapping the Atlanta Braves' eleven-year stranglehold on the NL East), it marked the first time ever that both New York teams won their respective divisions in the same year. Their 97–65 record tied the Mets for the best record of the year, giving New Yorkers hopes for another Subway Series. However, they both lost to teams that went to the World Series
; the Yankees to the Detroit Tigers
in four games in the ALDS
, the Mets in the NLCS
to the eventual champion St. Louis Cardinals
in seven games.
On October 11, 2006, days after the ALDS was over, tragedy struck when pitcher Cory Lidle
died in a plane crash
. It has yet to be determined if Lidle or his co-pilot, Tyler Stanger, who was also killed, was piloting the plane which crashed into a highrise apartment building
on East 72nd Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side
. Lidle was the second active Yankee to be killed in a crash of his own private plane, following Thurman Munson's death in 1979.
and former Yankee Andy Pettitte
, who left the Yankees after 2003. The Yankees also re-signed pitcher Mike Mussina
to a two year deal.
The start of the 2007 season
proved to be very tumultuous for the Bombers. The Yankees fell well below .500 and in last place, 14.5 games behind their arch-rival Boston Red Sox
. Ace starter Chien-Ming Wang
was injured to start the season and the team saw extended stints on the disabled list for Mike Mussina
, Carl Pavano
and Jason Giambi
. Centerfielder Johnny Damon
was also playing hurt. The team saw a record number of rookie pitchers starting for the injury plagued Yankees that included Tyler Clippard
, Darrell Rasner
, Matt DeSalvo
, Chase Wright
, Jeff Karstens and highly touted prospect Phil Hughes. The rotation would later get a lift from Roger Clemens
, who had decided to come out of retirement and rejoin the team he won his only World Series
championships with. It saw the breakout years of homegrown talents of Melky Cabrera
, Andy Phillips
and Shelley Duncan
. Prized prospect Joba Chamberlain
was also brought up after the All Star break. Despite the team's slow start, the Yankees managed to win the AL Wild Card, only to lose in the ALDS to the Cleveland Indians
, making it the third consecutive year the Yankees lost in the first round
of the playoffs.
was best known for being the final season at the Old Yankee Stadium. That year, the Yankees hosted the All-Star game
in which the American League won in extra innings. The Yankees had some trouble due to the struggles of Chien-Ming Wang
and Phil Hughes, as well as the conversion of Joba Chamberlain
into a starter. However, the Yankees did get some help from the bats thanks to Jason Giambi
's Comeback Player of the Year season. On September 21, 2008, the Yankees hosted their final game at the old Yankee Stadium by defeating the Baltimore Orioles
. The Yankees finished in third place with an 89–73 record, missing the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.
began when the Yankees acquired first baseman Mark Teixeira
and pitchers CC Sabathia and A. J. Burnett
. However, things would go sour as Alex Rodriguez admitted to using steroids and got injured. On April 16, 2009, the Yankees opened up the New Yankee Stadium
. However, they lost two of the first four games to the Cleveland Indians
, including one where the Indians scored 14 runs in the second inning for a 22–4 victory. Alex Rodriguez
returned from the disabled list and helped lead them to a 90-44 record the rest of the way. They went on to win the division, in dramatic fashion, with 15 walkoff hits in the regular season, and two more in the postseason. They won the World Series
, defeating the Phillies
in a six game matchup.
will start and finish the season
against each other at Fenway Park. This was the first time since this has happened. It also featured Joe Torre playing games against the Yankees for the first time since becoming manager of the Dodgers. During the month of July, the Yankees did had unfortunate news. During the All-Star break, two longtime Yankee icons died. On July 11, former PA announcer Bob Sheppard
and two days later principal owner George Steinbrenner
. Eight days later, another longtime Yankee icon, former player and manager Ralph Houk
died. The Yankees still went on to play in the 2010 American League Championship Series
, and defend their title against the Texas Rangers
. The teams had met in all three of the Ranger's playoff appearances, the Yankees had won all previous meetings, 3–1 in the 1996 ALDS, and 3–0 in the 1998 and 1999 ALDS. This time, however, the Yankees lost in 6 games, being outscored 36-19 in the series, marking one of the worst in the Yankees recent history.
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
have a long history filled with many high points, milestones, and championships. With 27 world championships, they are the most successful team in Major League Baseball history, and have accomplished this feat with the help of such names as Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
, Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...
, Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
, Yogi Berra
Yogi Berra
Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra is a former American Major League Baseball catcher, outfielder, and manager. He played almost his entire 19-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
, Mickey Mantle
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle was an American professional baseball player. Mantle is regarded by many to be the greatest switch hitter of all time, and one of the greatest players in baseball history. Mantle was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.Mantle was noted for his hitting...
, Whitey Ford
Whitey Ford
Edward Charles "Whitey" Ford is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who spent his entire 18-year career with the New York Yankees. He was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.-Early life and career:...
, Reggie Jackson
Reggie Jackson
Reginald Martinez "Reggie" Jackson , nicknamed "Mr. October" for his clutch hitting in the postseason with the New York Yankees, is a former American Major League Baseball right fielder. During a 21-year baseball career, he played from 1967-1987 for four different teams. Jackson currently serves as...
, Mariano Rivera
Mariano Rivera
Mariano Rivera is a Panamanian right-handed baseball pitcher who has played 17 years in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees. Nicknamed "Mo", Rivera has served as a relief pitcher for most of his career, and since 1997, he has been the Yankees' closer...
and Derek Jeter
Derek Jeter
Derek Sanderson Jeter is an American baseball shortstop who has played 17 years in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees. A twelve-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, Jeter's clubhouse presence, on-field leadership, hitting ability, and baserunning have made him a central...
.
(1901–1902) Origins: the Baltimore era
Ban Johnson
Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson , was an American executive in professional baseball who served as the founder and first president of the American League ....
, president of the Western League, made moves to assert his league as a new major league in competition with the National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
(NL). This included changing the name to the American League
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...
(AL) and adding teams in Eastern cities. Plans to put a team in New York City were blocked by the NL's New York Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
, whose connections to Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
gave them the political power to do so.
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, a city that had recently lost its NL team. Nicknamed the Orioles, they began play in , and were managed and owned in part by John McGraw. Johnson rigidly enforced rules about rowdiness on the field of play, causing a feud with McGraw. During the season, McGraw jumped to the NL, getting a job as manager of the Giants. He still, owned part of the Orioles, however, and a week later the owner of the Giants, John T. Brush
John T. Brush
John Tomlinson Brush was an American sports executive who was the owner of the New York Giants franchise in Major League Baseball from 1890 until his death. He also owned the Indianapolis Hoosiers in the late 1880s, and the Cincinnati Reds from 1891 to 1902. Under his leadership, the Giants were...
, gained a controlling interest in the team. He began raiding their best players until the AL stepped in and took control of the team.
In January 1903
1903 Major League Baseball season
The Major League Baseball season saw the relocation of the Baltimore Orioles to New York, and become the Highlanders, the last relocation in MLB until 1953, when the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee, along with the playing of the first modern World Series with the Boston Americans defeating the...
, a "peace conference
Peace conference
A peace conference is a diplomatic meeting where representatives of certain states, armies, or other warring parties converge to end hostilities and sign a peace treaty....
" was held between the two leagues to settle disputes and try to coexist. At the conference, Johnson requested that an AL team be put in New York to play alongside the Giants as he always wished. It was put to a vote, and 15 of the 16 major league owners agreed to it, with Brush being the only opponent. As a result, the NL agreed to let the "junior circuit" establish a franchise in New York. The Orioles were chosen to make the move, and their new owners, Frank J. Farrell
Frank J. Farrell
Frank J. Farrell with William S. Devery were the first owners of the New York Highlanders . They purchased the Baltimore Orioles on January 9, 1903 for $18,000 and moved it to New York City....
and William S. Devery
William S. Devery
William Stephen Devery was the last superintendent of the New York City Police Department police commission and the first police chief in 1898.-Biography:...
, found a ballpark location not blocked by the Giants. Thus, the Baltimore team moved to New York. Baltimore went without a Major League team for 51 seasons until the St. Louis Browns moved in and became the Orioles
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...
in 1954.
(1903–1912) Move to New York: the Highlanders era
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, one of the highest points on the island. Formally known as "American League Park", it was nicknamed "Hilltop Park
Hilltop Park
Hilltop Park was the nickname of a baseball park that formerly stood in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. It was the home of the New York Yankees Major League Baseball club during 1903-1912 when they were known more often as the "Highlanders"...
" or "The Hilltop", and was significantly smaller than the Polo Grounds
Polo Grounds
The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used by many professional teams in both baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963...
, the Giants' home just a few blocks away.
Publisher William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
's New York Evening Journal referred to the new club as the "Invaders" in 1903, but switched in the spring of 1904 to the name that would stick for several years: the New York Highlanders. The name was a reference to the team's location and also to the noted British military unit The Gordon Highlanders
The Gordon Highlanders
The Gordon Highlanders was a British Army infantry regiment from 1794 until 1994. The regiment took its name from the Clan Gordon and recruited principally from Aberdeen and the North-East of Scotland.-History:...
, which fit as the team's president from 1903 to 1906 was Joseph Gordon. Like other AL teams, such as the team in Boston, they were also referred to as the "Americans". By 1904, the team was also being called the "Yankees" or "Yanks", a synonym for "Americans" which was also easier to type and fit in headlines. On April 7, 1904, a spring training story from Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
carried the headline "Yankees Will Start Home From South To-Day." The New York Evening Journal screamed: "YANKEES BEAT BOSTON". However, initially "Highlanders" was the most common unofficial nickname of the new team.
As the Highlanders, the team enjoyed brushes with success only occasionally, finishing second in , and , with 1904 being their closest approach to a league title. That year, Highlander Pitcher Jack Chesbro
Jack Chesbro
John Dwight Chesbro was a Major League Baseball pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates , New York Highlanders , and Boston Red Sox . His 41 wins during the 1904 season remains an MLB record for the modern era...
set the single-season wins record at 41, a record which still stands and, under current playing practices, is an unbreakable record.
The high point (and low point) of the Highlanders' existence however came on the last day of that 1904 season at Hilltop Park. Chesbro threw a wild pitch
Wild pitch
In baseball, a wild pitch is charged against a pitcher when his pitch is too high, too short, or too wide of home plate for the catcher to control with ordinary effort, thereby allowing a baserunner, perhaps even the batter-runner on strike three or ball four, to advance.A wild pitch usually...
in the ninth inning that allowed the eventual pennant-winning run to score for the Boston Americans
1904 Boston Americans season
The Boston Americans season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Americans finishing 1st in the American League with a record of 95 wins and 59 losses...
, which would later become the Boston Red Sox. The presence of the Highlanders in the AL pennant race had historical significance in several ways. For one thing, this series would be the last time Boston would beat New York in a pennant deciding game for a full century. The more immediate impact was on the 1904 World Series
1904 World Series
In 1904, there was no World Series between the champions of the two Major League Baseball leagues, the American League and the National League...
. The Highlander's neighbor, the Giants, had won the NL pennant. Not wanting to play (and possibly lose) against their AL counterpart, the Giants announced that they would not participate in the World Series, claiming they would not play a "minor league" team. Although Boston won instead, the Giants stuck by their word and still refused to participate. This would be the last time until the strike-truncated year of 1994 that the World Series would not be played. The resulting backlash by the press caused Brush to take a stance and lead the committee to formalize the rules governing the World Series.
Much of the team's Hilltop Park days were spent in last place. Its somewhat corrupt ownership and a few questionable activities by some of the players (most notably first baseman Hal Chase
Hal Chase
Harold Homer Chase , nicknamed "Prince Hal", was a first baseman in Major League Baseball, widely viewed as the best fielder at his position...
) raised suspicions of game-fixing. Such suspicions have never been proven, although Chase was eventually banned from baseball for corruption.
(1913–1964) Baseball dynasty: the New York Yankees era
The Polo GroundsPolo Grounds
The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used by many professional teams in both baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963...
burned down in 1911
1911 Major League Baseball season
- External links :*...
and the Highlanders allowed the Giants to play in Hilltop Park during reconstruction. Relations between the two teams warmed, and the Highlanders would move into the newly rebuilt Polo Grounds in 1913
1913 Major League Baseball season
- External links :*...
. Now playing on the Harlem River, a far cry from their high-altitude home, the name "Highlanders" no longer applied, and fell into disuse among the press. The media had already widely adopted the "Yankees" nickname coined by the New York Press, and in 1913 the team became officially known as the New York Yankees.
By the mid 1910s, owners Farrell and Devery had become estranged and were both in dire need of money. At the start of 1915, they sold the team to Colonel Jacob Ruppert
Jacob Ruppert
Jacob Ruppert, Jr. , sometimes referred to as Jake Ruppert, was a National Guard colonel; a U.S. Representative from New York; and brewery owner, who went on to own the New York Yankees...
and Captain Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston
Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston
Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston , popularly known as Cap Huston, was co-owner of the Major League Baseball team that became the New York Yankees with Jacob Ruppert from 1915 to 1922. They had purchased the club from Frank J. Farrell and William S. Devery...
for $1.25 million. Ruppert inherited a brewery fortune, providing the Yankees with an owner who possessed deep pockets and a willingness to dig into them to produce a winning team. This would lead the team to more success and prestige than Ruppert could ever have envisioned.
1921
The home run-hitting exploits of Ruth proved so popular with the public that they began drawing more people than their landlords, the Giants. In 19211921 Major League Baseball season
The season ended when the New York Giants beat the New York Yankees in Game 8 of the World Series. 1921 was the first of three straight season in which the Yankees would lead the majors in wins. Babe Ruth broke the single season home run record for the third consecutive season by hitting 59 home...
, when the Yankees made their first World Series appearance
1921 World Series
In the 1921 World Series, the New York Giants beat the New York Yankees five games to three. This was the last of the experimental best-five-of-nine series....
, which was against the Giants
1921 New York Giants season
- Roster:- Starters by position:Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in-Other batters:Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg...
, the Yankees were told to move out of the Polo Grounds after 1922
1922 Major League Baseball season
- External links :*...
. John McGraw was said to have commented that the Yankees should "move to some out-of-the-way place, like Queens." Instead, to McGraw's chagrin, the Yankees broke ground for a new ballpark in the Bronx, right across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds.
1922
In 1922, the Yankees returned to the World Series1922 World Series
In the 1922 World Series, the New York Giants beat the New York Yankees in five games...
, losing to the Giants
1922 New York Giants season
- Roster:- Starters by position:Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in-Other batters:Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg...
for the second straight year. Meanwhile, the construction crew moved with remarkable speed and finished the new ballpark in less than a year.
Détente
Détente is the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. The term is often used in reference to the general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War...
with the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
. Their actions antagonized Ban Johnson, garnering them the nickname "the Insurrectos". This was in stark contrast to the other five teams in the league who were known as "the Loyal Five".
This détente paid off well for the Yankees, as Ruppert and Huston would begin to enlarge their payroll. Most of these new players who would later contribute to the team's success came from the Red Sox. Red Sox owner, theater impresario Harry Frazee
Harry Frazee
Harry Herbert Frazee was an American theatrical agent, producer and director, and former owner of the Major League Baseball Boston Red Sox from 1916 to 1923.- Life as owner of the Red Sox :...
, had bought the team on credit and needed to pay off his loans and purchase Fenway Park
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...
from the Fenway Park Trust. If Frazee didn't own Fenway, Johnson could easily put another team in the ballpark. Also, as the strongest of the Insurrectos, the Red Sox faced a large amount of costly legal battles. To pay for his debts, Frazee was trading players to the Yankees for large sums of money.
From to , the Yankees acquired pitchers Waite Hoyt
Waite Hoyt
Waite Charles Hoyt was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball, one of the dominant pitchers of the 1920s, and the winningest pitcher for the New York Yankees during that decade...
, Carl Mays
Carl Mays
Carl William Mays was a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1915 to 1929. Despite impressive career statistics, he is primarily remembered for throwing a beanball on August 16, 1920, that struck and killed Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians, making Chapman one of two people to die...
, and Herb Pennock
Herb Pennock
Herbert Jefferis Pennock was a left-handed Major League Baseball pitcher best known for his time spent with the star-studded New York Yankee teams of the mid to late 1920s and early 1930s. Pennock won two World Series championships with the Red Sox and then four World Series championships with the...
, catcher Wally Schang
Wally Schang
Walter Henry Schang was a catcher in Major League Baseball. From 1913 through 1931, he played for the Philadelphia Athletics , Boston Red Sox , New York Yankees , St. Louis Browns and Detroit Tigers . Schang was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed...
, shortstop Everett Scott
Everett Scott
Lewis Everett Scott , nicknamed "Deacon", was an American shortstop in Major League Baseball who played for 12 seasons with the Boston Red Sox , New York Yankees , Washington Senators , Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds . Scott batted and threw right-handed...
and third baseman Joe Dugan
Joe Dugan
Joseph Anthony Dugan , was an American professional baseball player. Nicknamed "Jumping Joe", he played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop and third baseman from 1917 through 1931. Dugan played for the Philadelphia Athletics , Boston Red Sox , New York Yankees , Boston Braves and Detroit...
, all from the Red Sox. The most talented of all the acquisitions from Boston, however, was pitcher-turned-outfielder George Herman "Babe" Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
. The Babe accumulated 2,213 RBIs over his career (second in MLB history), 1,971 of which came as a Yankee (second in team history), and become owner of the single-season home run record in 1919.
Ruth came to New York in January of . Frazee cited Ruth's demand for a raise, even though he was already the highest paid player in baseball, as the reason for the trade. Frazee also wished to aid the Yankees, who had taken his side in the legal battles against Johnson. Ruth did not help the situation in Boston any, as he was regarded as a problem, a carouser. This would continue in his Yankee years, but the New York ownership was more tolerant as long as he brought fans to the ballpark. The outcome of the trade would haunt the Red Sox for the next 84 years. After 1918, they would not win a World Series until 2004, often finding themselves victim to the success of the Yankees. This phenomenon eventually became known as the Curse of the Bambino
Curse of the Bambino
The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 to 2004...
, as the failure of the Red Sox and the success of the Yankees seemed almost supernatural, stemming from that one trade.
Other important newcomers in this period were manager Miller Huggins
Miller Huggins
Miller James Huggins , nicknamed "Mighty Mite", was a baseball player and manager. He managed the powerhouse New York Yankee teams of the 1920s and won six American League pennants and three World Series championships....
and general manager Ed Barrow
Ed Barrow
Edward Grant Barrow was an American manager and executive in Major League Baseball, primarily with the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox...
. Huggins was hired in 1918 by Ruppert while Huston was serving in Europe with the American army. This would later lead to a break between the two owners, with Ruppert eventually buying Huston out in 1923. Barrow came on board after the 1920 season, and, like many of the new Yankee players, had previously been a part of the Red Sox organization, as their manager since . He would act as general manager or president of the Yankees for the next 25 years, in which the Yankees had a lot of success. He was especially noted for development of the Yankees' farm system.
1923
In 19231923 Major League Baseball season
The 1923 Major League Baseball season.- External links :*...
, the Yankees moved to their new home, Yankee Stadium at East 161st Street and River Avenue. This site was chosen because the IRT Jerome Avenue subway line
IRT Jerome Avenue Line
The IRT Jerome Avenue Line, also unofficially known as IRT Woodlawn Line, is a New York City Subway Line along Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. It was opened on June 2, 1917 as a shuttle service between Kingsbridge Road and 149th Street. This was in advance of through service to the IRT Lexington Avenue...
(now the NYCTA
New York City Transit Authority
The New York City Transit Authority is a public authority in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City...
's number 4
4 (New York City Subway service)
The 4 Lexington Avenue Express is a rapid transit service of the New York City Subway. It is colored green on station signs, route signs, and the official subway map, since it uses the IRT Lexington Avenue Line in Manhattan....
train) had a station stop practically on top of the stadium's outfield walls. It was the first triple-deck venue in baseball and seated an astounding 58,000. In the first game at Yankee Stadium, Babe Ruth hit a home run, which was fitting as it was his home runs and drawing power that paid for the stadium, giving it its nickname "The House That Ruth Built". He ended the year with "only" 41 home runs, but was walked a then record 170 times, and batted .393, still the highest batting average for a Yankee in Yankee Stadium. The Yanks finished first in the AL once again and faced the Giants
1923 New York Giants season
-Offseason:- Roster:- Starters by position:Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in-Other batters:Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg...
for the third straight year in the World Series
1923 World Series
In the 1923 World Series, the New York Yankees beat the New York Giants in six games. This would be the first of the Yankees' 27 World Series championships...
. Giants outfielder Casey Stengel
Casey Stengel
Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel , nicknamed "The Old Perfessor", was an American Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in ....
, who even then was being called "Old Case", hit two home runs to win two games for the Giants. In the end, however, the Yankees finally triumphed. Stengel would later come to the Yankees as a successful manager.
1924–26
In the next two seasons, the Washington SenatorsMinnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...
won the American League pennant as the Yankees finished in second and seventh, respectively. The slump would not last for long, though, as the team finished 91–63 and landed back in the World Series
1926 World Series
The 1926 World Series was the championship series of the 1926 Major League Baseball season, featuring the St. Louis Cardinals against the New York Yankees...
against the St. Louis Cardinals
1926 St. Louis Cardinals season
The St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 45th season in St. Louis, Missouri and their 35th in the National League. The Cardinals went 89-65 during the season and finished first in the National League, winning their first National League pennant...
. Babe Ruth put up big numbers in the series, hitting three home runs in game four (which the Yankees won 10–5). The Cardinals would take the series in seven games though after winning the final two games on the road at Yankee Stadium.
1927–28
The Yankees lineup was so potent that it become known as "Murderers' RowMurderers' Row
Murderers’ Row was the nickname given to the New York Yankees baseball team of the late 1920s, in particular the first six hitters in the 1927 team lineup: Earle Combs, Mark Koenig, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel and Tony Lazzeri....
", and some consider the team to be the best in the history of baseball (though similar claims have been made for other Yankee squads, notably those of , and ). The Yankees won an AL record 110 games with only 44 losses, and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates
1927 Pittsburgh Pirates season
The 1927 Pittsburgh Pirates season was a season in American baseball. That year, the Pirates won the National League pennant, which was their second in three years and their last until 1960...
in the 1927 World Series
1927 World Series
In the 1927 World Series, the New York Yankees swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in four games. This was the first sweep of a National League team by an American League team....
. This squad would lead the American League wire-to-wire, a feat that would not be matched until the 1984 Detroit Tigers
1984 Detroit Tigers season
The Detroit Tigers won the 1984 World Series, defeating the San Diego Padres, 4 games to 1. The season was their 84th since they entered the American League in 1901 and their fourth World Series championship. Detroit relief pitcher Willie Hernandez won the Cy Young Award and was chosen as the...
. Ruth's home run total of 60 in 1927 set a single-season home run record that would stand for 34 years. He also batted .356 and drove in 164 runs. Meanwhile, first baseman Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...
had his first big season, batting .373 with 47 round-trippers and 175 RBIs, beating Ruth's single-season RBI mark (171 in 1921).
Ruth hit third in the order, and Gehrig hit cleanup
Cleanup hitter
In baseball, the cleanup hitter is the hitter who bats fourth in the lineup. Although the third man up is generally the hitter with the highest batting average, cleanup hitters often have the most power on the team and are typically the team's best power hitter; their job is to "clean up the...
. Right behind them were two more sluggers: Bob "The Rifle" Meusel
Bob Meusel
Robert William "Bob" Meusel was an American baseball left and right fielder who played in Major League Baseball for eleven seasons from 1920 through 1930, all but the last for the New York Yankees...
, who played either of the corner outfield positions, and Tony Lazzeri
Tony Lazzeri
Anthony Michael "Tony" Lazzeri was an American Major League Baseball player during the 1920s and 1930s, predominantly with the New York Yankees. He was part of the famed "Murderers' Row" Yankee batting lineup of the late 1920s , along with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Bob Meusel...
, who played second base. Lazzeri actually ranked third in the league in home runs in 1927 with 18, and he hit .309 with 102 RBIs. Meusel hit .337 with 103 RBIs. Speed was another weapon used by both: Lazzeri stole 22 bases while Meusel was second in the league with 24. These numbers were all due, in part, to center fielder and leadoff man Earle Combs
Earle Combs
Earle Bryan Combs was an American professional baseball player, who played his entire career for the New York Yankees . Combs batted leadoff and played center field on the Yankees' fabled 1927 team...
. He hit .356, had a .414 on base percentage, and led the AL with 231 hits that year (a team record until Don Mattingly
Don Mattingly
Donald Arthur "Don" Mattingly is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and current manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nicknamed "The Hit Man" and "Donnie Baseball", he played his entire 14-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
broke it in 1986 with 238). The team's overall batting average in 1927 was .307. The Yankees would repeat as American League champions in , fighting off the resurgent Philadelphia Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
. They would then go on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals
1928 St. Louis Cardinals season
The St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 37th season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 37th season in the National League. The Cardinals went 95-59 during the season and finished first in the National League...
in the 1928 World Series
1928 World Series
In the 1928 World Series, the New York Yankees swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games. Along with , this was the first time a team had swept consecutive Series....
. Ruth got 10 hits in 16 at-bats, his .625 average setting a new single-series record. Three of these hits were home runs. Meanwhile, Gehrig went 6 for 11 (.545), with four home runs. In the next three years, the Athletics would take the AL pennant and two world championships.
1929–35
In , Joe McCarthy (no relation to the senator of the same nameJoseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
) came in as manager, and would restore the Yankees to the top of the AL. They met the Chicago Cubs
1932 Chicago Cubs season
The Chicago Cubs season was a season in American baseball. The team won the National League pennant with a record of 90-64, finishing four games ahead of the second-place Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cubs lost the 1932 World Series to the New York Yankees in four straight games.- Roster :- Starters by...
in the 1932 World Series
1932 World Series
The 1932 World Series was played between the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs , with the Yankees holding home field advantage. The Yankees swept the Cubs, four games to none...
, sweeping them and bringing the team's streak of consecutive World Series game wins to 12 (a mark which would stand until the Yankees bested it in the 2000 World Series
2000 World Series
-Game 1:Saturday, October 21, 2000 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkThe opener fell on two anniversaries. Twenty-five years prior, Boston Red Sox's catcher Carlton Fisk ended Game 6 of the 1975 World Series with his famous home run off the left field foul pole in Fenway Park in Boston to beat...
). This series was made famous by Babe Ruth's famous "Called Shot
Babe Ruth's Called Shot
Babe Ruth's called shot was the home run hit by Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees in the fifth inning of Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, held on October 1, 1932 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. During the at-bat, Ruth made a pointing gesture, which existing film confirms, but the exact nature of his...
" in game three of the series at Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales...
. This would be a fitting "swan song" to his illustrious postseason career, as Ruth would leave the Yankees, going to the NL Boston Braves
1934 Boston Braves season
The 1934 Boston Braves season saw the Braves finish in fourth place in the National League with a record of 78 wins and 73 losses.- Roster :- Starters by position :...
after , and would never see the postseason again.
1936–40
The awesome Yankees' run during the 1930s could also be called the "McCarthy era", after the man who would guide the team to new heights. With Ruth leaving in , Gehrig finally had the chance to come out of his shadow. However, there was no "Gehrig era". After one season as the main force of the Yankees, a new titan appeared, Joe DiMaggioJoe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
. The young center fielder from San Francisco had an immediate impact, batting .323, hitting 29 homers, and driving in 125 runs in his rookie season of .
The team reeled off an unprecedented four consecutive World Series wins in the years from to behind the bats of DiMaggio, Gehrig, and Frank Crosetti. They were aided by the pitching staff, led by Red Ruffing
Red Ruffing
Charles Herbert "Red" Ruffing was a Major League Baseball pitcher most remembered for his time with the highly successful New York Yankees teams of the 1930s and 1940s...
and Lefty Gomez
Lefty Gómez
Vernon Louis "Lefty" Gomez was an American left-handed major league pitcher who played in the American League for the New York Yankees between 1930 and 1942. Considered one of the great pitchers of the day, Gomez was a seven-time All-Star and a five-time World Series Champion with the Yankees...
, and the whole team was anchored by catcher Bill Dickey
Bill Dickey
William Malcolm Dickey was a Major League Baseball catcher and manager.He played his entire 19-year baseball career with the New York Yankees . During Dickey's playing career, the Yankees went to the World Series nine times, winning eight championships...
. For most of 1939 they had to do it without Gehrig, with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a form of motor neuron disease caused by the degeneration of upper and lower neurons, located in the ventral horn of the spinal cord and the cortical neurons that provide their efferent input...
forcing his retirement and saddening the baseball world.
During this stretch, the Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...
were the Yankees' main competition. Once they had the pennant, however, they had little trouble. During Game 2 of the 1936 Series
1936 World Series
The 1936 World Series matched the New York Yankees against the New York Giants, with the Yankees winning in six games to earn their fifth championship....
, they pounded the Giants
1936 New York Giants (MLB) season
- Roster:- Starters by position:Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in-Other batters:Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg...
18–4, setting the record for most runs scored in a World Series game, a record which still stands today. They took the Giants
1937 New York Giants (MLB) season
-Offseason:* January 6, 1937: Tommy Thevenow was purchased by the Giants from the Cincinnati Reds.* January 25, 1937: Ed Madjeski was purchased by the Giants from the New York Yankees.-Notable transactions:...
4–2 in the series
1937 World Series
The 1937 World Series featured the defending champion New York Yankees and the New York Giants in a rematch of the 1936 Series. The Yankees won the Series in five games for their second championship in a row and their sixth in fifteen years. It also broke a tie that they had reached in 1936, with...
, and beat them again 4–1 the next year. They swept the Chicago Cubs
1938 Chicago White Sox season
The 1938 Chicago White Sox season was the White Sox's 38th season in the major leagues and their 39th season overall. They finished with a record 65-83, good enough for 5th place in the American League, 32 games behind the first place New York Yankees....
in 1938
1938 World Series
The 1938 World Series matched the two-time defending champion New York Yankees against the Chicago Cubs, with the Yankees sweeping the Series in four games for their seventh championship and record third straight .Dizzy Dean, who had helped carry the Cubs to the National League pennant despite a...
and the Cincinnati Reds
1939 Cincinnati Reds season
The Cincinnati Reds season was a season in American baseball. The team finished first in the National League, winning the pennant by 4½ games over the St. Louis Cardinals with a record of 97-57...
in 1939
1939 World Series
The 1939 World Series featured the three-time defending champion New York Yankees against the Cincinnati Reds, who were making their first Series appearance since the scandal-tainted 1919 World Series. The Yankees swept the Series in four games for the second time in a row, winning their record...
.
1941–43
After an off season came the Summer of , a much-celebrated year that is often described as the last year of the "Golden Era" before World War II and other realities intervened. Ted WilliamsTed Williams
Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox...
of the Red Sox was in the hunt for the elusive .400 batting average, which he achieved on the last day of the season. Meanwhile, DiMaggio, who had once gotten a hit in 61 straight games with the San Francisco Seals
San Francisco Seals (PCL)
The San Francisco Seals were a minor league baseball team in San Francisco, California, that played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 until 1957 before transferring to Phoenix, Arizona...
, began a hitting streak on May 15 that stretched to an astonishing 56 games. A popular song by Les Brown
Les Brown (bandleader)
Les Brown, Sr. and the Band of Renown are a big band that began in the late 1930s, initially as the group Les Brown and His Blue Devils that Brown led while a student at Duke University. He was the first president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences...
celebrated this event, as Betty Bonney and the band members sang it:
The last game of the streak came on July 16 at Cleveland's League Park
League Park
League Park was a baseball park located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was situated at the northeast corner of Lexington Avenue and E. 66th Street in the Hough neighborhood. It was home to the National League Cleveland Spiders, the American League Cleveland Indians, and the Cleveland...
. The streak was finally snapped in a game at Cleveland Stadium
Cleveland Stadium
Cleveland Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in Cleveland, Ohio. In its final years, the stadium seated 74,438, for baseball and 81,000, for football. It was one of the early multi-purpose stadiums, built to accommodate both baseball and football...
the next night before a huge crowd at the lake front. A crucial factor in ending the streak was the fielding of Cleveland third baseman Pete Donaldson
Pete Donaldson
Pete Donaldson, is a Radio and Television presenter, Producer and Voice Over Artist who is best known for his radio shows on Xfm London and Xfm Manchester, alongside his work on the Alex Zane Breakfast Show and the Lauren Laverne Breakfast Show He also featured on the Danny Wallace Saturday show on...
, who stopped two balls that DiMaggio hit hard to the left. Modern baseball historians regard it as unlikely that anyone will ever hit .400 again, barring a change to the way the game is played, and that it will be extremely difficult to approach DiMaggio's 56-game streak, which is far beyond second place (44) and a modern day phenomenon.
The Yankees made short work of the Brooklyn Dodgers
1941 Brooklyn Dodgers season
The Brooklyn Dodgers, led by manager Leo Durocher, won their first pennant in 21 years, edging the St. Louis Cardinals by 2.5 games. They went on to lose to the New York Yankees in the World Series....
in the 1941 Series
1941 World Series
The 1941 World Series matched the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Yankees winning in five games to capture their fifth title in six years, and their ninth overall....
. Then, two months and one day after the final game of the Yanks' four-games-to-one win, the Pearl Harbor attacks occurred, and many of the best ballplayers went off to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The war-thinned ranks of the major leagues found the Yanks in the post-season again, as the team traded World Series wins with the St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...
during and .
1944–47
After 1943, the team went into a bit of a slump, and McCarthy was let go early in the 1946 season1946 Major League Baseball season
Due to the end of World War II many drafted ballplayers returned to the majors and the quality of play greatly improved. The World Series began on October 6 and pitted the Boston Red Sox against the St. Louis Cardinals who won in 7 games.- External links :*...
. After a couple of interim managers came and went, Bucky Harris
Bucky Harris
Stanley Raymond "Bucky" Harris was a Major League Baseball player, manager and executive. In 1975, the Veterans Committee elected Harris, as a manager, to the Baseball Hall of Fame.-Biography:...
was brought in, and the Yankees righted the ship again, winning the 1947 pennant and a hard-fought battle against the Dodgers
1947 Brooklyn Dodgers season
On April 15, Jackie Robinson was the opening day first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first black player in Major League Baseball since . Robinson went on to bat .297, score 125 runs, steal 29 bases and be named the very first Rookie of the Year...
in a Series
1947 World Series
The 1947 World Series matched the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Yankees winning the Series in seven games for their first title since , and the eleventh championship in team history...
that took the Yankees
1947 New York Yankees season
The New York Yankees season was the team's 45th season in New York, and its 47th season overall. The team finished with a record of 97-57, winning their 15th pennant, finishing 12 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers. New York was managed by Bucky Harris. The Yankees played their home games at Yankee...
seven games to win and was a harbinger of things to come for much of the next decade.
1948–51
Despite finishing only three games behind the pennant-winning Cleveland Indians1948 Cleveland Indians season
The Cleveland Indians season was a season in American baseball. The team won a one-game playoff against the Boston Red Sox and would then go onto win their second World Series in franchise history, its first in 28 years.-Off-season:...
in , Harris was released and the Yankees brought in Casey Stengel
Casey Stengel
Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel , nicknamed "The Old Perfessor", was an American Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in ....
to manage. Casey had a reputation for being somewhat of a clown and for managing bad teams, such as the mid-1930s Boston Braves
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves are a professional baseball club based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Braves are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. The Braves have played in Turner Field since 1997....
. Understandably, this selection was met with skepticism. His tenure, however, would prove to be the most successful in Yankees history up to that point. The Yankees
1949 New York Yankees season
The New York Yankees season was the team's 47th season in New York, and its 49th season overall. The team finished with a record of 97-57, winning their 16th pennant, finishing 1 game ahead of the Boston Red Sox. New York was managed by Casey Stengel. The Yankees played their home games at Yankee...
team was seen as "underdogs" who came from behind to catch and surprise the powerful Red Sox
1949 Boston Red Sox season
The 1949 Boston Red Sox season involved the Red Sox finishing second in the American League with a record of 96 wins and 58 losses.- Regular season :...
on the last two days of the season, a face off that fueled the beginning of the modern Yankees – Red Sox rivalry. The post-season proved to be a bit easier, as the Yankees knocked off the Dodgers
1949 Brooklyn Dodgers season
The Brooklyn Dodgers held off the St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League title by one game. The Dodgers lost the World Series to the New York Yankees in five games.- Offseason :...
four games to one.
By this time, the great DiMaggio's career was winding down. It has often been reported that he wanted to retire before he became an "ordinary" player. His retirement was also hastened by bone spurs in his heel. was the curtain call of the "Yankee Clipper." However, it also marked the arrival of the "Oklahoma Kid", Mickey Mantle
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle was an American professional baseball player. Mantle is regarded by many to be the greatest switch hitter of all time, and one of the greatest players in baseball history. Mantle was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.Mantle was noted for his hitting...
, who was one of several new stars that would fill the gap.
Bettering the clubs of the McCarthy era, the Yankees won the World Series five consecutive times under Stengel (–), which continues to be the major league record. Led by players like center fielder Mickey Mantle, pitcher Whitey Ford
Whitey Ford
Edward Charles "Whitey" Ford is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who spent his entire 18-year career with the New York Yankees. He was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.-Early life and career:...
, and catcher Yogi Berra
Yogi Berra
Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra is a former American Major League Baseball catcher, outfielder, and manager. He played almost his entire 19-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
, Stengel's teams won 10 pennants and seven World Series titles in his twelve seasons as Yankee manager. Casey Stengel was also a master at publicity for the team and for himself, even landing a cover story in Time magazine in 1955. The 1950s was also a decade of significant individual achievement for Yankee players. In , Mantle won the major league triple crown
Triple crown (baseball)
In Major League Baseball, a player earns the Triple Crown when he leads a league in three specific statistical categories. For batters, a player must lead the league in home runs, run batted in , and batting average; pitchers must lead the league in wins, strikeouts, and earned run average...
, leading both leagues in batting average (.353), home runs (52), and RBIs (130). A Yankee claimed ownership of the American League MVP six times in the decade (1950 Rizzuto, 1951 Berra, 1954 Berra, 1955 Berra, 1956 Mantle, 1957 Mantle). Pitcher Bob Turley
Bob Turley
Robert Lee Turley was a Major League Baseball pitcher.Turley was signed as an amateur free agent by the St. Louis Browns in . He played his first game on September 29, 1951 for the Browns and moved with them to Baltimore in...
won the Cy Young Award
Cy Young Award
The Cy Young Award is an honor given annually in baseball to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball , one each for the American League and National League . The award was first introduced in 1956 by Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick in honor of Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young, who died in 1955...
in , the award's third year of existence.
1954–56
The team won over 100 games in , but the Indians1954 Cleveland Indians season
The Cleveland Indians advanced to the World Series for the first time in six years. It was the team's third American League championship in franchise history...
took the pennant with an AL record 111 wins. In 1955
1955 Major League Baseball season
For the third consecutive season, a franchise changed homes as the Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City, MO and played their home games at Municipal Stadium.-Statistical leaders:-External links:*...
, the Dodgers
1955 Brooklyn Dodgers season
In , the Brooklyn Dodgers finally fulfilled the promise of many previous Dodger teams. Although the club had won several pennants in the past, and had won as many as 105 games in 1953, it had never won a World Series. This team finished 13.5 games ahead in the National League pennant race, leading...
finally beat the Yankees
1955 New York Yankees season
The New York Yankees season was the team's 53rd season in New York, and its 55th season overall. The team finished with a record of 96-58, winning their 21st pennant, finishing 3 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians. New York was managed by Casey Stengel. The Yankees played their home games at...
in the World Series
1955 World Series
The 1955 World Series matched the Brooklyn Dodgers against the New York Yankees, with the Dodgers winning the Series in seven games to capture their first championship in franchise history. It would be the only Series the Dodgers won in Brooklyn . The last time the Brooklyn franchise won a World...
, after five Series losses to the Yankees in '41
1941 World Series
The 1941 World Series matched the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Yankees winning in five games to capture their fifth title in six years, and their ninth overall....
, '47
1947 World Series
The 1947 World Series matched the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Yankees winning the Series in seven games for their first title since , and the eleventh championship in team history...
, '49
1949 World Series
The 1949 World Series featured the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Yankees winning in five games for their second defeat of the Dodgers in three years, and the twelfth championship in team history...
, '52
1952 World Series
The 1952 World Series featured the three-time defending champion New York Yankees beating the Brooklyn Dodgers in seven games. The Yankees won their fourth straight title—tying the mark they set between 1936 and 1939 under manager Joe McCarthy, and Casey Stengel became the second manager in Major...
and '53
1953 World Series
The 1953 World Series matched the four-time defending champion New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers in a rematch of the 1952 Series. The Yankees won in six games for their fifth straight title—a mark which has not been equalled—and their sixteenth overall...
. But the Yankees
1956 New York Yankees season
The New York Yankees season was the 54th season for the team in New York, and its 56th season overall. The team finished with a record of 97-57, winning their 22nd pennant, finishing 9 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians. New York was managed by Casey Stengel. The Yankees played their home games...
came back strong the next year. On October 8, in Game Five of the 1956 World Series
1956 World Series
The 1956 World Series of Major League Baseball was played between the New York Yankees and the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers during the month of October 1956. The Series was a rematch of the 1955 World Series...
against the Dodgers
1956 Brooklyn Dodgers season
The 1956 Brooklyn Dodgers edged out the Milwaukee Braves to win the National League title. The Dodgers again faced the New York Yankees in the World Series...
, pitcher Don Larsen
Don Larsen
Donald James Larsen is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. During a 15-year baseball career, he pitched from 1953-67 for seven different teams. Larsen is best known for pitching the sixth perfect game in baseball history, doing so in game 5 of the 1956 World Series...
threw the only perfect game
Perfect game
A perfect game is defined by Major League Baseball as a game in which a pitcher pitches a victory that lasts a minimum of nine innings and in which no opposing player reaches base. Thus, the pitcher cannot allow any hits, walks, hit batsmen, or any opposing player to reach base safely for any...
in World Series history. The Yankees went on to win yet another World Series that season, and Larsen earned World Series MVP honors.
1957–59
The New York Yankees1957 New York Yankees season
The New York Yankees season was the 55th season for the team in New York, and its 57th season overall. The team finished with a record of 98-56 to win their 23rd pennant, finishing eight games ahead of the Chicago White Sox. New York was managed by Casey Stengel...
lost the 1957 World Series
1957 World Series
The 1957 World Series featured the defending champions, the New York Yankees , playing against the Milwaukee Braves . After finishing just one game behind the N.L. Champion Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956, the Braves came back in 1957 to win their first pennant since moving from Boston in 1953...
to the Milwaukee Braves
1957 Milwaukee Braves season
The Milwaukee Braves season was the year that the team won its first and only World Series championship while based in Milwaukee. The Braves won 95 games and lost 59 to win the National League pennant by eight games over the second-place St. Louis Cardinals....
. Following the Series, the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers left New York City for California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, leaving the Yankees as New York's only team. In the 1958 World Series
1958 World Series
The 1958 World Series was a rematch of the 1957 Series, with the New York Yankees beating the defending champion Milwaukee Braves in seven games for their eighteenth title, and their seventh in ten years...
, the Yankees got their revenge against the Braves
1958 Milwaukee Braves season
The Milwaukee Braves season was a season in American baseball. The Braves finished first in the National League with a 92-62 record and returned to the World Series for the second consecutive year, losing to the New York Yankees in seven games.-Offseason:...
, and became the second team to win the Series after being down three games to one. For the decade, the Yankees won six World Series championships ('50, 51, '52, '53, '56, '58) and eight American League pennants (those six plus '55 and '57). Led by Mantle, Ford, Berra, Elston Howard
Elston Howard
Elston Gene Howard was an American Negro League and Major League Baseball catcher, left fielder and coach. During a 14-year baseball career, he played from 1955–1968, primarily for the New York Yankees...
(the Yankees' first African-American player), and the newly acquired Roger Maris
Roger Maris
Roger Eugene Maris was an American Major League Baseball right fielder. During the 1961 season, he hit a record 61 home runs for the New York Yankees, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60 home runs...
, the Yankees burst into the new decade seeking to replicate the remarkable success of the 1950s.
During the ownership of Arnold Johnson, the Kansas City Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
traded many young players to the Yankees for cash and aging veterans (much the same way the Red Sox had done under Frazee). When he'd bought the then Philadelphia Athletics from the family of Connie Mack
Connie Mack (baseball)
Cornelius McGillicuddy, Sr. , better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball player, manager, and team owner. The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he holds records for wins , losses , and games managed , with his victory total being almost 1,000 more...
in , he was already the owner of Yankee Stadium, but the American League owners forced him to sell the Stadium as a condition for the purchase. He was also a longtime business associate of then-Yankees owners Del Webb
Del Webb
Delbert Eugene Webb was an American construction magnate, real estate developer and sports-team owner, who is most significant for founding and developing the retirement community of Sun City, Arizona.-Early life:...
and Dan Topping
Dan Topping
Daniel Reid Topping was a part owner and president of the New York Yankees baseball team from 1945 to 1964. Daniel Reid Topping was the son of Rhea Reid and Henry J. Topping. Rhea Reid, the daughter of Daniel G. Reid, known as the "Tinplate King" for his vast wealth in the tin industry, was the...
.
Trades between the A's and Yankees were so heavily weighted in the Yankees' favor that many fans, reporters and even other teams frequently accused the A's of being little more than a Yankee farm team at the major league level. Ironically, the Yankees' top farm team had been based in Kansas City from 1936 until they made way for the A's.
1960
Johnson/Webb/Topping relationship significantly improved the Yankees' future prospects. In December 1959, a young outfielder named Roger MarisRoger Maris
Roger Eugene Maris was an American Major League Baseball right fielder. During the 1961 season, he hit a record 61 home runs for the New York Yankees, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60 home runs...
was acquired in one such trade, and in , Maris led the league in slugging percentage, RBIs, and extra base hits, finished second in home runs (one behind Mantle), and total bases, and won a Gold Glove and the American League MVP award. All of this, however, was a prelude to the year that would follow.
1961
The year would prove to be one of the most memorable in Yankee history. Throughout the summer, Mantle and Maris hit home runs at record pace as both chased Babe Ruth's single-season home run record of 60, and the media and the fans began referring to the duo as the "M&M Boys". Ultimately, a severe hip infection forced Mantle to leave the lineup and bow out of the race in mid-September with 54 home runs. Maris would continue the race though, and on October 1, the final day of the season, he sent a pitch from Boston's Tracy StallardTracy Stallard
Evan Tracy Stallard is a retired American professional baseball player, a Major League Baseball pitcher from 1960 to 1966. He played with the Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and St...
into the right field stands of Yankee Stadium, breaking the record with 61. However, Commissioner
Commissioner of Baseball
The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive of Major League Baseball and its associated minor leagues. Under the direction of the Commissioner, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts...
Ford Frick
Ford Frick
Ford Christopher Frick was an American sportswriter and executive who served as president of the National League from to and as the third Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1951 to . He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970...
decreed that two separate records be kept, as Ruth's record-setting season was 154 games, and Maris hit 61 in 162 games. It would be 30 years before an eight-member Committee for Historical Accuracy appointed by Major League Baseball did away with the dual records, giving Maris sole possession of the single-season home run record until it was broken by Mark McGwire
Mark McGwire
Mark David McGwire , nicknamed "Big Mac", is an American former professional baseball player who played his major league career with the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals. He is currently the hitting coach for the St...
in . Maris still holds the American League record.
The Yankees won the pennant with a 109–53 record and went on to defeat the Cincinnati Reds
1961 Cincinnati Reds season
The Cincinnati Reds season was a season in American baseball. It consisted of the Reds winning the National League pennant with a record of 93-61, four games over the runner-up Los Angeles Dodgers, but losing the World Series in five games to the New York Yankees. The Reds were managed by Fred...
in five games to win the 1961 World Series
1961 World Series
The 1961 World Series matched the New York Yankees against the Cincinnati Reds , with the Yankees winning in five games to earn their 19th championship in 39 seasons. This World Series was surrounded by Cold War political puns pitting the "Reds" against the "Yanks"...
. The 109 regular season wins posted by the '61 club remains the third highest single-season total in franchise history, behind only the 1998 team's 114 regular season wins and 1927 team's 110 wins. The 1961 Yankees also clubbed a then-major league record for most home runs by a team with 240, a total not surpassed until the Baltimore Orioles
1996 Baltimore Orioles season
The Baltimore Orioles season in which the Orioles finishing 2nd in the American League East with a record of 88 wins and 74 losses and qualifying for the post-season as the Wild Card team. The Orioles broke the all-time record for most home runs hit by a team with 257...
hit 257 with the aid of the designated hitter
Designated hitter
In baseball, the designated hitter rule is the common name for Major League Baseball Rule 6.10, an official position adopted by the American League in 1973 that allows teams to designate a player, known as the designated hitter , to bat in place of the pitcher each time he would otherwise come to...
. Maris won his second consecutive MVP Award while Whitey Ford captured the Cy Young Award. Because of the excellence of Maris, Mantle, and World Series-MVP Ford, a fine pitching staff, stellar team defense, the team's strong depth and power, and its overall dominance, the 1961 Yankees are universally considered to be one of the greatest teams in the history of baseball, compared often to their pinstriped-brethren, the 1927 Yankees, the 1939 Yankees, and the 1998 Yankees.
1962
In , the sports landscape in New York changed dramatically. A new expansion team was added to the National League, and it was put in New York to fill the hole left when the Giants and Dodgers moved to California. The new team was the New York MetsNew York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
, and they moved into the Polo Grounds, which would be their home until 1964, when they'd move to the current home, Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium
William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...
, 10 miles to the southeast of Yankee Stadium in Flushing, Queens
Flushing, Queens
Flushing, founded in 1645, is a neighborhood in the north central part of the City of New York borough of Queens, east of Manhattan.Flushing was one of the first Dutch settlements on Long Island. Today, it is one of the largest and most diverse neighborhoods in New York City...
. That year the Mets
1962 New York Mets season
The New York Mets season was the first regular season for the Mets, as the National League returned to New York for the first time since . They went 40-120 and finished tenth and last in the National League, games behind the NL Champion San Francisco Giants, who once called New York home...
would lose a record 120 games while the Yankees would win the 1962 World Series
1962 World Series
The 1962 World Series matched the defending American League and World Series champions New York Yankees against the National League champion San Francisco Giants, who had won their first NL pennant since 1954 and first since moving from New York in 1958, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in a...
, their tenth in the past sixteen years, defeating the San Francisco Giants
1962 San Francisco Giants season
The 1962 San Francisco Giants season saw the Giants finish in first place in the National League with a record of 103 wins and 62 losses. They finished the season tied with their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, for first place in the league, necessitating a three-game tiebreaker playoff to...
in seven games.
1963
The Yankees would again reach the Fall Classic in , but they were swept in four games by the Los Angeles Dodgers1963 Los Angeles Dodgers season
The Los Angeles Dodgers were led by pitcher Sandy Koufax, who won both the Cy Young Award and the Most Valuable Player Award. The team went 99–63 to win the National League title by six games over the runner-up St...
. Behind World Series-MVP Sandy Koufax
Sandy Koufax
Sanford "Sandy" Koufax is a former left-handed baseball pitcher who played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers...
, Don Drysdale
Don Drysdale
Donald Scott "Don" Drysdale was a Major League Baseball player and Hall of Fame right-handed pitcher with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was one of the dominant starting pitchers of the 1960s, and became a radio and television broadcaster following his playing career...
, and Johnny Podres
Johnny Podres
John Joseph Podres was an American left-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who spent most of his career with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers...
(who shut out the Yankees in ), the Dodgers' starting pitchers threw four complete games and combined to give up just four runs all Series. This was the first time the Yankees were swept in a World Series. In addition, this was the first World Series that a losing team trailed throughout.
Feeling burnt out after the season, Houk left the manager's chair to become the team's general manager and Berra, who himself had just retired from playing, was named the new manager of the Yankees.
1964
The aging Yankees returned for a fifth straight World Series in 19641964 World Series
The 1964 World Series pitted the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals against the American League champion New York Yankees, with the Cardinals prevailing in seven games. St...
– their fourteenth World Series appearance in the past sixteen years – to face the St. Louis Cardinals
1964 St. Louis Cardinals season
The St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 83rd season in St. Louis, Missouri and its 73rd season in the National League. The Cardinals went 93-69 during the season and finished first in the National League, edging the co-runner-ups Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies by one game each on...
in a series immortalized by David Halberstam
David Halberstam
David Halberstam was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and historian, known for his early work on the Vietnam War, his work on politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and his later sports journalism.-Early life and education:Halberstam...
's book, October 1964. Despite a valiant performance by Mantle, including a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth of Game Three off of Cardinals' reliever Barney Schultz
Barney Schultz
George Warren "Barney" Schultz , was a professional baseball player. He was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1944. He was a pitcher in the Major Leagues from 1955-1965. He would play for the St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago Cubs...
, the Yankees fell to the Cardinals in seven games, and Berra was fired. It was to be the last World Series appearance by the Yankees for 12 years.
(1965–1972) New ownership and a steep decline: the CBS era
After the season, CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
purchased 80 percent of the Yankees from Topping and Webb for $11.2 million. However, Topping and Webb stayed on as president and vice president, respectively. Jokesters at the time wondered if Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
would become manager, perhaps with Yogi Berra doing the newscasts.
1965
The Yankees finished in the Second division for the first time in 40 years. Worse yet, the introduction of the major league amateur draft in 19651965 Major League Baseball Draft
The 1965 Major League Baseball Draft is the first year in which a draft took place for Major League Baseball.In Major League Baseball's first Free Agent Amateur Draft, the Kansas City Athletics selected Arizona State sophomore Rick Monday as the number one pick...
also meant that the Yankees could no longer sign any player they wanted. Webb sold his 10 percent stake to CBS before the year was out.
1966
In , the Yankees finished last in the AL for the first time since .Johnny Keane
Johnny Keane
John Joseph Keane was an American manager in Major League Baseball. Born in St. Louis, Missouri and known as a patient manager of young players, Keane participated in one of the strangest turns of events in baseball history in , his final season at the helm of the St...
, the winning Cardinals manager who joined the Yankees to manage in '65, was fired during the season, and GM Ralph Houk had to do double duty as field manager until the end of the year. Topping sold his 10 percent stake to CBS at the end of the season. CBS executive Mike Burke took over as president.
1967-72
The Yankees1967 New York Yankees season
The New York Yankees season was the 67th season for the Yankees franchise, 65th in New York. The team finished ahead of only the Kansas City Athletics in the American League final standings, with a record of 72-90, finishing 20 games behind the Boston Red Sox. New York was managed by Ralph Houk...
were next-to-last in the season, during which former farm director Lee MacPhail
Lee MacPhail
Leland Stanford MacPhail, Jr. is an American retired front-office executive in Major League Baseball...
returned to the organization as GM. The team's fortunes improved somewhat, but they would not become serious contenders again until . Various reasons have been given for the decline, but the single biggest one was the Yankees' inability to replace their aging superstars with new ones, as they had done consistently in the previous five decades. As mentioned above, the draft meant that the Yankees could no longer simply outbid the other teams for the best young players. Also, Topping and Webb decided as little as possible in order to make the team more attractive to buyers when they put it on the market in 1961. Their "special relationship" with the Athletics may have been a way to mask this problem. By the mid-1960s, the Yankees had little to offer in terms of trades, while Charlie Finley had taken the A's in a new direction. A more controversial theory is that the Yankees paid the price for bringing black players into the organization later than most other teams.
Also during this period the Yankees lost two of their signature broadcasters. The team fired legendary "Voice of the Yankees" Mel Allen
Mel Allen
Mel Allen was an American sportscaster, best known for his long tenure as the primary play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees. During the peak of his career in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Allen was arguably the most prominent member of his profession, his voice familiar to millions...
after the 1964 season. Years later, Allen said that he was fired as a cost-cutting move by the team's longtime broadcast sponsor, Ballantine Beer. Two years later, Red Barber
Red Barber
Walter Lanier "Red" Barber was an American sportscaster.Barber, nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds , Brooklyn Dodgers , and New York Yankees...
, a former Dodgers voice who joined the Yankees broadcast team in 1954, was also let go. Some blame Barber's firing on his on-air mention of a paltry showing of 413 fans (Yankee Stadium held 67,000 at the time) during a September 1966 home game against the White Sox
1966 Chicago White Sox season
The 1966 Chicago White Sox season was the team's 66th season in the major leagues, and its 67th season overall. Eddie Stanky managed the White Sox to a fourth-place finish in the American League with a record 83-79, 15 games behind the first-place Baltimore Orioles.- Opening Day lineup :*Don...
. Sports biographer David J. Halberstam
David J. Halberstam
David J. Halberstam is the EVP/General Manager of Westwood One Sports. Previously, he was the play-by-play announcer for the Miami Heat and St...
(different from the author of October 1964) also noted Barber's less-than-happy relationship with Joe Garagiola and even Phil Rizzuto
Phil Rizzuto
Philip Francis Rizzuto , nicknamed "The Scooter", was an American Major League Baseball shortstop. He spent his entire 13-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
, ex-major leaguers with whom he shared the booth.
Topping and Webb had owned the Yankees for 20 years, missing the World Series only five times and going 10–5 in the ones they participated in. By contrast, the CBS-owned teams never went to the World Series.
(1973–2007) Return to glory: the Steinbrenner era
A group of investors, led by Cleveland-based shipbuilder George SteinbrennerGeorge Steinbrenner
George Michael Steinbrenner III was an American businessman who was the principal owner and managing partner of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees. During Steinbrenner's 37-year ownership from 1973 to his death in July 2010, the longest in club history, the Yankees earned seven World Series...
, purchased the club from CBS on January 3, 1973 for $8.7 million. Mike Burke stayed on as president until he quit in April. Within a year, Steinbrenner bought out most of his other partners and became the team's principal owner, although Burke continued to hold a minority share into the 1980s.
One of Steinbrenner's major goals was to repair the Stadium, which had greatly deteriorated (along with the surrounding area) by the late 1960s. CBS had suggested renovations, but they would require the team to play elsewhere, and the Mets refused to open up their home, Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium
William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...
, to the Yankees. There were even plans to move the team to a new stadium in the Meadowlands
New Jersey Meadowlands
New Jersey Meadowlands, also known as the Hackensack Meadowlands after the primary river flowing through it, is a general name for the large ecosystem of wetlands in northeast New Jersey in the United States. The Meadowlands are known for being the site of large landfills and decades of...
, in nearby New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. In mid-, Mayor John Lindsay
John Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay was an American politician, lawyer and broadcaster who was a U.S. Congressman, Mayor of New York City, candidate for U.S...
stepped in, and announced the city would buy Yankee Stadium for $24 million (ten times the amount it took to build) and lease it back to the Yankees. The renovations were then carried out, a two-year process that modernized the look of the stadium, and reconfigured some seating. The left field wall, which was approximately 60 feet farther than the right field wall, was brought in, and the bullpens were moved to behind this wall. The monuments, plaques, and flagpole that were once in the deepest point of center field were moved behind the fences in a new area between the bullpens named Monument Park
Monument Park (Yankee Stadium)
Monument Park is an open-air museum located at the new Yankee Stadium containing a collection of monuments, plaques, and retired numbers honoring distinguished members of the New York Yankees....
. As the city also owned Shea, the Mets were forced to allow the Yankees to play there during the period.
After the season, Steinbrenner made a move that started the modern era of free agency
Free agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....
, signing star pitcher Jim "Catfish" Hunter
Catfish Hunter
James Augustus "Catfish" Hunter , was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. During a 15-year baseball career, he pitched from 1965-1979 for both the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees...
away from Oakland. Midway through the 1975 season
1975 Major League Baseball season
The 1975 Major League Baseball season was held between the American and National Leagues.-News and notes:*Frank Robinson beacme the first black manager in the Major Leagues. He managed the Cleveland Indians....
, the Boss made another move, hiring former second baseman Billy Martin
Billy Martin
Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin, Jr. was an American Major League Baseball second baseman and manager. He is best known as the manager of the New York Yankees, a position he held five different times...
as manager. With Martin as the helm, the Yankees reached the 1976 ALCS
1976 American League Championship Series
-Game 1:Saturday, October 9, 1976 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City, MissouriThe opener was played on a bright Saturday afternoon at Royals Stadium and pitted Yankee ace Jim “Catfish” Hunter against left-hander and ex-Yankee Larry Gura. The Yankees got off to a quick start scoring two in the first...
where they won on a Chris Chambliss
Chris Chambliss
Carroll Christopher Chambliss is a former Major League Baseball player who played from to for the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves...
home run. In the 1976 World Series
1976 World Series
The 1976 World Series matched the defending champion Cincinnati Reds of the National League against the New York Yankees of the American League, with the Reds sweeping the Series to repeat. The Reds became the only team to sweep an entire multi-tier postseason. The Reds are also the last National...
, the Yankees were swept by the Cincinnati Reds
1975 Cincinnati Reds season
The 1975 Cincinnati Reds season was a season in American baseball. It consisted of the Reds winning the National League West with a record of 108-54, 20 games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Reds went on to win the National League Championship Series by defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in...
, the famed Big Red Machine.
Steinbrenner continued his buying of high-priced free agents, by signing star outfielder Reggie Jackson
Reggie Jackson
Reginald Martinez "Reggie" Jackson , nicknamed "Mr. October" for his clutch hitting in the postseason with the New York Yankees, is a former American Major League Baseball right fielder. During a 21-year baseball career, he played from 1967-1987 for four different teams. Jackson currently serves as...
, who had been traded from the Athletics to the Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...
at the beginning of the season, for a then record $600,000 per year. Steinbrenner, Martin and Jackson would repeatedly feud throughout Jackson's five-year contract. Nevertheless, in Game Six of the 1977 World Series
1977 World Series
-Game 1:Tuesday, October 11, 1977 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkThe Dodgers drew first blood off Don Gullett in the first when Davey Lopes walked and scored on a Bill Russell triple. Ron Cey made it 2–0 on a sacrifice fly...
, Jackson proved his worth by hitting three home runs - on the first pitch - against three different Dodger pitchers to wrap up the Series for the Yankees
1977 New York Yankees season
The 1977 New York Yankees season was the 75th season for the Yankees in New York and the 77th season overall for the franchise. It culminated in the 21st World Series championship in franchise history, and its first under the ownership of George Steinbrenner...
, earning himself the nickname "Mr. October."
Throughout the late 1970s, the race for the pennant often came to a close competition between the Yankees and the Red Sox. For fans of both clubs, every game between the two became important and added to a rivalry that was often bitter and ruthless, with brawls frequently erupting between both players and fans from the two clubs.
1978
The Yankees – Red Sox rivalry came to a head in the season. On July 14, 1978, the Yankees were games behind the Red Sox1978 Boston Red Sox season
The 1978 Boston Red Sox season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Red Sox finishing second in the American League East with a record of 99 wins and 64 losses.- Offseason :...
. The Yankees then went on a tear, and by the time they met up with the Sox for a pivotal four-game series at Fenway in early September, the Yankees were only four games out. In what would become known as the "Boston Massacre", the Yankees swept the Red Sox, winning the games 15–3, 13–2, 7–0 and 7–4. The third game was a shutout by Ron Guidry
Ron Guidry
Ronald Ames Guidry , nicknamed "Louisiana Lightning" and "Gator", is a former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. He played his entire 14-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
, who would lead the majors with nine shutouts, 25 wins (against only three losses) and a 1.74 ERA. Guidry also finished with 248 strikeouts, but Nolan Ryan
Nolan Ryan
Lynn Nolan Ryan, Jr. , nicknamed "The Ryan Express", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He is currently principal owner, president and CEO of the Texas Rangers....
's 260 strikeouts deprived Guidry of the pitching Triple Crown
Triple crown (baseball)
In Major League Baseball, a player earns the Triple Crown when he leads a league in three specific statistical categories. For batters, a player must lead the league in home runs, run batted in , and batting average; pitchers must lead the league in wins, strikeouts, and earned run average...
.
On the last day of the season, the two clubs finished the regular season in a tie for first place in the AL East. A one-game playoff (the 163rd game of the regular season) between the two teams was held to decide who would go on to the pennant race, with the game being held at Boston's Fenway Park
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...
. With Guidry matched up against former Yankee Mike Torrez
Mike Torrez
Michael Augustine Torrez is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball.-Career:Torrez had an 18-year career from 1967 to 1984. He played for the St...
, the Red Sox took an early 2–0 lead. In the seventh inning, the Yankees drove a stake through the hearts of their rivals' fans when Bucky Dent
Bucky Dent
Russell Earl "Bucky" Dent , is a former American Major League Baseball player and manager. He earned two World Series rings as the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees in and , and was voted the World Series MVP in 1978...
drove a three-run home run over the "Green Monster
Green Monster
The Green Monster is a popular nickname for the thirty-seven foot , two-inch high left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox baseball team...
", putting the Yankees up 3–2. Reggie Jackson's solo home run in the following inning would seal the eventual 5–4 win that gave the Yankees their 100th win of the season and their third straight AL East title; it also gave Guidry his 25th win. (The outcome of this game, for Red Sox fans, was one of several emotional moments in their team's history that had their fans wondering if the Red Sox were under some kind of Yankee curse
Curse of the Bambino
The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 to 2004...
.) However, Red Sox fans got a sense of payback for Dent's home run in 1990 when he was fired as manager of the Yankees before a game at Fenway Park.
After beating the Kansas City Royals
1978 Kansas City Royals season
The 1978 Kansas City Royals season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Royals finishing first in the American League West with a record of 92 wins and 70 losses...
for the third consecutive year in the ALCS
1978 American League Championship Series
-Game 1:Tuesday, October 3, 1978 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City, MissouriPrior to the start of this game, both teams had to deal with bad news. Ron Guidry, he of the incredible 25–3 Cy Young Award-winning season, would be unavailable to start until Game 4, if played, at least...
, the Yankees faced the Dodgers
1978 Los Angeles Dodgers season
The 1978 season ended with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning their second straight National League pennant and losing to the New York Yankees in the World Series again...
again in the 1978 World Series
1978 World Series
-Game 1:Tuesday, October 10, 1978 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CaliforniaWith Yankee ace Ron Guidry unavailable at least until Game 3, the Dodgers pounded twenty-game winner Ed Figueroa. Figueroa left after two innings, allowing home runs to Dusty Baker and Davey Lopes. Lopes would add a...
. They lost the first two games on the road, but then came home to win all three games at Yankee Stadium before wrapping up their 22nd World Championship in Game 6 in Los Angeles
Dodger Stadium
Dodger Stadium, also sometimes called Chavez Ravine, is a stadium in Los Angeles. Located adjacent to Downtown Los Angeles, Dodger Stadium has been the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers team since 1962...
.
1979
On August 2, 1979, Yankees catcher and team captain Thurman MunsonThurman Munson
Thurman Lee Munson was an American Major League Baseball catcher. He played his entire 11-year career for the New York Yankees...
was killed in a plane crash. Four days later, the entire team flew to Canton, Ohio
Canton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
for his funeral, only to return to New York later that day to play the Baltimore Orioles
1979 Baltimore Orioles season
The 1979 Baltimore Orioles season was a season in American baseball. The Orioles finished first in the American League East division of Major League Baseball with a record of 102 wins and 57 losses...
. In a game that was televised nationally, the emotional contest was highlighted by Bobby Murcer
Bobby Murcer
Bobby Ray Murcer was an American Major League Baseball outfielder who played for 17 seasons between 1965 and 1983, mostly with the New York Yankees, whom he later rejoined as a longtime broadcaster...
driving in all five of the team's runs in a dramatic 5-4 victory. Munson's uniform number (15) was retired, and his locker was not used after his death.
1980
The post-Munson era began with a bang as the Yankees won 103 games in 1980. Reggie Jackson hit .300 and 41 home runs. He finished 2nd to George BrettGeorge Brett (baseball)
George Howard Brett , nicknamed "Mullet", is a former Major League Baseball third baseman, designated hitter, and first baseman. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Kansas City Royals. Brett's 3,154 career hits are the most by any third baseman in major league history, and 15th...
in the MVP voting. However, Brett's Royals
1980 Kansas City Royals season
The 1980 Kansas City Royals season was a season in American baseball. The Royals finished first in the American League West with a record of 97 wins and 65 losses...
would sweep the Yankees in ALCS
1980 American League Championship Series
-Game 1:Wednesday, October 8, 1980 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City, MissouriThe series opener saw the Yankees throw their ace, Ron Guidry, against the Royals' Larry Gura. In the top of the second, the Bronx Bombers jumped out to a 2–0 lead when Rick Cerone and Lou Piniella smacked back-to-back...
.
1981
The strike-shortened 1981 season1981 Major League Baseball season
-First half:-Second half:-Overall record:-Statistical leaders:-Postseason:NOTE: Due to a strike in mid-season, the season was divided into a first half and a second half...
had the Yankees finish first in the first half of the season. They would defeat the Milwaukee Brewers
1981 Milwaukee Brewers season
The Milwaukee Brewers' 1981 season involved the Brewers' finishing 1st in American League East during the second half of the split schedule with an overall record of 62 wins and 47 losses. They proceeded to lose to the New York Yankees in the ALDS...
in the 1981 ALDS
1981 American League Division Series
-New York Yankees vs. Milwaukee Brewers:-Game 1, October 6:Royals Stadium in Kansas City, MissouriMike Norris faced Dennis Leonard and the defending AL Champions in Game 1. Both pitchers were on their game and the game was scoreless through three innings. But in the top of the fourth, the A's got a...
in five games. Then they would sweep Billy Martin
Billy Martin
Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin, Jr. was an American Major League Baseball second baseman and manager. He is best known as the manager of the New York Yankees, a position he held five different times...
and the Oakland A's
1981 Oakland Athletics season
The Oakland Athletics' 1981 season involved the A's finishing with the best overall record in the American League West with a record of 64 wins and 45 losses. The season was suspended for 50 days due to the infamous 1981 players strike, and the league resorted to a split-season format with the...
in the 1981 ALCS
1981 American League Championship Series
-Game 1:Tuesday, October 13, 1981 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkIn Billy Martin's return to Yankee Stadium , the Yankees drew first blood in front of their old skipper...
. The run would end on a sour note as the Dodgers
1981 Los Angeles Dodgers season
The Los Angeles Dodgers season got off to a strong start when rookie pitcher Fernando Valenzuela pitched a shutout on opening day, starting the craze that came to be known as "Fernandomania." Fernando went on to win both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards.The season was divided into two...
defeated the Yankees in the 1981 World Series
1981 World Series
The 1981 World Series matched the New York Yankees against the Los Angeles Dodgers, marking their third meeting in the Series in five years as well as a record eleventh Series meeting overall and last Series meeting to date...
in six games.
1982–1995
Following the team's loss to the Dodgers in the 1981 World Series, the Yankees would go into their longest absence from the playoffs since 1921. From 1989 to 1992 they had a losing record, having spent large amounts of money on free-agent players and draft picks that did not perform up to expectations.During the 1980s, the Yankees, led by their All-Star first baseman Don Mattingly
Don Mattingly
Donald Arthur "Don" Mattingly is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and current manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nicknamed "The Hit Man" and "Donnie Baseball", he played his entire 14-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
, had the most total wins of any major league team, but failed to win a World Series (the first such decade since the 1910s). The Yankees consistently had powerful offensive teams - besides Mattingly, its rosters included, at one time or another, Dave Winfield
Dave Winfield
David Mark Winfield is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. He is currently Executive Vice President/Senior Advisor of the San Diego Padres and an analyst for the ESPN program Baseball Tonight...
, Rickey Henderson
Rickey Henderson
Rickey Henley Henderson is a former Major League Baseball left fielder who played for nine teams from 1979 to 2003, including four stints with his original team, the Oakland Athletics. Nicknamed The Man of Steal, he is widely regarded as the sport's greatest leadoff hitter and baserunner...
, Mike Pagliarulo
Mike Pagliarulo
Michael Timothy Pagliarulo, aka "Pags" , is a former Major League Baseball third baseman during the 1980s and into the mid 1990s...
, Steve Sax
Steve Sax
Stephen Louis Sax is a former second baseman in Major League Baseball. He was a right-handed batter for the Los Angeles Dodgers , New York Yankees , Chicago White Sox , and the Oakland Athletics ....
and Jesse Barfield
Jesse Barfield
Jesse Lee Barfield is a former Major League Baseball right fielder who played for the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees . He batted and threw right-handed. He lived in Tenafly, a suburb of New York City.Barfield was well known for his powerful, accurate throwing arm...
– but their starting pitching rarely matched the team's performance at the plate.
After posting a 22–6 record in , arm problems caught up with Ron Guidry, and his career went into a steep decline in the next three years. Dennis Rasmussen
Dennis Rasmussen
Dennis Lee Rasmussen is a former starting pitcher for Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres , New York Yankees , Cincinnati Reds , Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals...
, who won 18 games the following year, never matched his 1986 performance. Rick Rhoden
Rick Rhoden
Richard Alan Rhoden is a professional golfer and was a Major League Baseball pitcher. During his 16 year baseball career, he played for the Los Angeles Dodgers , Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros of the National League; and the New York Yankees of the American League.-Early years:Rhoden was...
, acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...
in 1987, won 16 games that year but only went 14–14 in 1988.
The Yankees came close to winning the AL East in 1985 and , finishing second behind the Toronto Blue Jays
1985 Toronto Blue Jays season
The Toronto Blue Jays season saw the Blue Jays finishing first in the American League East with a record of 99 wins and 62 losses. The win total of 99 is a franchise record, and the division title was the franchise's first....
and Boston Red Sox
1986 Boston Red Sox season
The 1986 Boston Red Sox season involved the Red Sox finishing 1st in the American League East with a record of 95 wins and 66 losses.-Offseason:...
, respectively, but fell to fourth place in 1987 and fifth in 1988, despite having mid-season leads in the AL East standings in both seasons. 1988 would be the last season the Yankees had a winning record until 1993.
By the end of the decade, the Yankees' offense was also on the decline. Henderson and Pagliarulo had departed by the middle of , while back problems caught up with both Winfield (causing him to miss the entire '89 season) and Mattingly (he missed virtually the entire second half of 1990). Winfield's tenure with the team ended when he was dealt to the California Angels
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, United States. The Angels are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The "Angels" name originates from the city in which the team started, Los Angeles...
in May 1990. That year, the Yankees had the second worst record in Major League Baseball, and their first last-place finish since 1966. The Bombers would finish at or near the bottom of the division until 1993. On July 1, , pitcher Andy Hawkins
Andy Hawkins
Melton Andrew "Andy" Hawkins is a former Major League Baseball pitcher.A right-handed starter, Hawkins spent most of his career with the San Diego Padres, and also played for the New York Yankees and briefly for the Oakland Athletics...
became the first Yankee ever to lose a no-hitter, when the third baseman (Mike Blowers
Mike Blowers
Michael Roy Blowers is a former Major League Baseball third baseman and first baseman. He is an alumnus of Bethel High School in Spanaway, Washington, Tacoma Community College and the University of Washington...
) committed an error, followed by two walks and an error by the left fielder (Jim Leyritz
Jim Leyritz
James Joseph Leyritz is a former catcher and infielder in Major League Baseball.-Early years:Leyritz attended Turpin High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, Middle Georgia Jr...
) with the bases loaded, scoring all three runners and the batter. The 4–0 loss to the Chicago White Sox
1990 Chicago White Sox season
The 1990 Chicago White Sox season was the White Sox's 91st season. They finished with a record 94-68, good enough for 2nd place in the American League West, 9 games behind of the 1st place Oakland Athletics, as the White Sox played their final season at Comiskey Park before moving to the new...
was the largest margin of any no-hitter loss in the 20th century. Ironically, the Yankees (and Hawkins) were again no-hit for six innings in a rain-shortened game with the White Sox eleven days later.
The poor showing in the 1980s and early 1990s would start to change when management was able to implement a coherent acquisition/development program without interference from Steinbrenner, who had been suspended from day-to-day team operations by then-Commissioner Fay Vincent
Fay Vincent
Francis Thomas "Fay" Vincent, Jr. is a former entertainment lawyer and sports executive who served as the eighth Commissioner of Major League Baseball from September 13, 1989 to September 7, 1992.-Early life and career:...
for hiring Howard Spira to uncover damaging information on former Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield. Under general manager Gene Michael and manager Buck Showalter
Buck Showalter
William Nathaniel "Buck" Showalter III is an American Major League Baseball manager for the Baltimore Orioles. He has previously served in a similar capacity with the New York Yankees , Arizona Diamondbacks , and Texas Rangers...
, the club shifted its emphasis from buying talent to developing talent through its farm system - and then holding onto it. The first significant sign of success came in 1994, when the Yankees had the best record in the AL before the season
1994 Major League Baseball season
The 1994 Major League Baseball season ended with the infamous players strike ending the season on August 11, 1994.-Strike:As a result of a players' strike, the MLB season ended prematurely on August 11, 1994. No postseason was played...
was cut short by the players' strike, which ended Mattingly's best chance for a World Series appearance. The strike shook the fans and New York City to its core and has been considered one of the worst moments in New York City sports history. Because the Yankees were last in a postseason in a season cut short by a strike, the news media constantly reminded the Yankees about the parallels between the two Yankee teams (1981 and 1994), which included both Yankee teams having division leads taken away by strike. Throughout October, they continued to bombard the Yankees, talking about what might have been if there had not been a strike, making references to the days games in the post-season would have been played.
A year later, the team reached the playoffs as the wild card and were eliminated only after a memorable 1995 American League Division Series
1995 American League Division Series
-Seattle Mariners vs. New York Yankees:-Game 1, Tuesday, October 3:Jacobs Field in Cleveland, OhioAfter a 39-minute rain delay, Game 1 got underway with two veterans, Roger Clemens and Dennis Martínez, starting the opener. The Red Sox jumped in front first in the third on John Valentin's two run...
series against the Seattle Mariners
1995 Seattle Mariners season
The Seattle Mariners' 1995 season was the 19th in the history of the franchise. The team finished with a regular season record of 79–66, tying the California Angels for first in the American League West...
where the Yankees won the first two games at home and dropped the next three in Seattle
Kingdome
The Kingdome was a multi-purpose stadium located in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood. Owned and operated by King County, the Kingdome opened in 1976 and was best known as the home stadium of the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League , the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball , and the...
. Mattingly had the unfortunate distinction of beginning his career (1982) and ending his career (1995) in years bracketed by Yankee World Series appearances (1981 and 1996).
1996
Shaking it up once again, Steinbrenner replaced Showalter and his staff with manager Joe Torre
Joe Torre
Joseph Paul Torre is a former American professional baseball player and manager who currently serves as Major League Baseball’s Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations. A nine-time All-Star, he played in Major League Baseball as a catcher, first baseman and a third baseman for the...
, who brought with him Don Zimmer
Don Zimmer
Donald William "Popeye" Zimmer is a former infielder, manager, and coach in Major League Baseball, currently serving as a senior advisor to the Tampa Bay Rays baseball organization...
as bench coach and former Yankees pitching star Mel Stottlemyre
Mel Stottlemyre
Melvin Leon Stottlemyre, Sr. is a former Major League Baseball pitcher and pitching coach. He played 11 years in the Major Leagues, all of them with the New York Yankees...
as pitching coach. Torre's managerial tenure was by far the longest under George Steinbrenner's ownership. One of Showalter's coaches, popular former Yankee second baseman Willie Randolph
Willie Randolph
Willie Larry Randolph is a former Major League Baseball second baseman and manager, most recently the third base coach for the Baltimore Orioles...
, was retained by Torre as a third base coach. Initially derided as a retread choice ("Clueless Joe" ran the headline on the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
), Torre's smooth manner proved to be what the team needed. The signing of Torre and the events of the 1996 season for the Yankees were also seen as the first steps in the rivalry between the their cross-town rivals, the New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
, and the Atlanta Braves
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves are a professional baseball club based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Braves are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. The Braves have played in Turner Field since 1997....
intensifying, as Torre played for and managed both teams.
Going 8–0 on the road in the three playoff series that year, the Yankees won the 1996 World Series
1996 World Series
-Game 1:Sunday, October 20, 1996 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkGame 1 and Game 2 were originally scheduled for Saturday, October 19 and Sunday, October 20, respectively. Rain on October 19, however, washed out Game 1. The schedule was moved up one day, with Game 1 and Game 2 rescheduled for...
, defeating the Atlanta Braves
1996 Atlanta Braves season
-Offseason:* January 3, 1996: Jerome Walton was signed as a Free Agent with the Atlanta Braves.* January 9, 1996: Mike Kelly was traded by the Atlanta Braves to the Cincinnati Reds for a player to be named later and Chad Fox...
in six games (after losing the first two games at home by a combined score of 16–1), and ending their 18-year championship drought, which could have ended in 1994, if there had not been a strike. Homegrown shortstop Derek Jeter
Derek Jeter
Derek Sanderson Jeter is an American baseball shortstop who has played 17 years in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees. A twelve-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, Jeter's clubhouse presence, on-field leadership, hitting ability, and baserunning have made him a central...
was named Rookie of the Year, an auspicious start to his association with the Yankees.
After their first World Series win since 1978, the Yankees signed lefties David Wells
David Wells
David Lee Wells , nicknamed "Boomer", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. Wells was considered to be one of the game's better left-handed pitchers, especially during his years with the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays. He pitched the fifteenth perfect game in baseball history...
and Mike Stanton to improve the pitching staff. They also allowed closing reliever (and Series MVP) John Wetteland
John Wetteland
John Karl Wetteland is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who specialized as a closer. During a 12-year career , he pitched for four different teams: the Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, New York Yankees, and Texas Rangers.-Playing career:Wetteland was signed by the Dodgers as their second...
to leave as a free agent, and named setup man Mariano Rivera
Mariano Rivera
Mariano Rivera is a Panamanian right-handed baseball pitcher who has played 17 years in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees. Nicknamed "Mo", Rivera has served as a relief pitcher for most of his career, and since 1997, he has been the Yankees' closer...
as the team's new closer.
1997
The Yankees lost in the 1997 ALDS1997 American League Division Series
-Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees:-Game 1, October 1:Kingdome in Seattle, WashingtonThe Orioles had gone wire-to-wire and the Mariners had won the AL West for the second time in the decade. In Game 1, both teams had their best on the mound: Mike Mussina for the Orioles and Randy Johnson for...
to the Cleveland Indians
1997 Cleveland Indians season
The Cleveland Indians season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Indians making their second World Series appearance in three years...
.
1998
Bob Watson was replaced by Brian CashmanBrian Cashman
Brian McGuire Cashman is an American Major League Baseball executive for the New York Yankees.-Early life:Cashman was born in Rockville Centre, New York and raised in Washingtonville, New York. He was raised in an Irish Catholic family. He moved with his family to Lexington, Kentucky, where his...
, a former Yankee intern, after the 1997 season. Cashman made many key acquisitions to improve the team, through the acquisitions of third baseman Scott Brosius
Scott Brosius
Scott David Brosius is a former Major League Baseball third baseman for the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees . Brosius is currently the head baseball coach at Linfield College, his alma mater....
, second baseman and leadoff man Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch
Edward Charles "Chuck" Knoblauch is a retired Major League Baseball player. He played all or part of twelve seasons in the majors, from until , for the Minnesota Twins , New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals...
, outfielder Darryl Strawberry
Darryl Strawberry
Darryl Eugene Strawberry is a former American Major League Baseball outfielder who is well-known both for his play on the field and for his controversial behavior off it...
and starting pitcher Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez
Orlando Hernández
Orlando Hernández Pedroso , nicknamed "El Duque", is a former Cuban right-handed baseball pitcher....
.
On May 17, 1998 David Wells, who would later claim to have been hungover
Hangover
A hangover describes the sum of unpleasant physiological effects following heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages. The most commonly reported characteristics of a hangover include headache, nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, lethargy, dysphoria, diarrhea and thirst, typically after the...
that day, pitched a perfect game
Perfect game
A perfect game is defined by Major League Baseball as a game in which a pitcher pitches a victory that lasts a minimum of nine innings and in which no opposing player reaches base. Thus, the pitcher cannot allow any hits, walks, hit batsmen, or any opposing player to reach base safely for any...
against the Minnesota Twins. A year later, on July 18, 1999, which was "Yogi Berra Day" at the Stadium, David Cone
David Cone
David Brian Cone is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. During a 17-year baseball career, he pitched from 1986-2003 for six different teams. Cone pitched the sixteenth perfect game in baseball history. He also set the MLB record for most years between 20-win seasons. He was a member of five...
pitched a perfect game against the Montréal Expos
1999 Montreal Expos season
-Offseason:Future Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams was taken by the Montreal Expos in the 1998 Rule V Draft. The Expos sold his rights to the Texas Rangers.-Opening Day starters:* Shane Andrews* Miguel Batista* Orlando Cabrera* Brad Fullmer...
. In an amazing coincidence, Don Larsen, who pitched the perfect game in the 1956 World Series, was in attendance and had thrown out the ceremonial first pitch to Berra, his catcher for that storied game. An even more amazing coincidence is that Larsen and Wells both attended Point Loma High School
Point Loma High School
Point Loma High School is a public high school in the San Diego Unified School District in San Diego, California. It is located in the Loma Portal neighborhood of Point Loma. The school serves the neighborhoods of Point Loma and Ocean Beach. In addition, students who live in Mission Hills may...
in San Diego, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
The 1998 Yankees are widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest teams in baseball history, having compiled a then-AL record of 114 regular season wins against just 48 losses en route to a Series sweep of the San Diego Padres
1998 San Diego Padres season
The San Diego Padres season was a Major League Baseball season. The Padres won the National League championship and advanced to the World Series for the second time in franchise history....
. The '98 Yankees went 11–2 during the playoffs and finished with a combined record of 125–50. Their 125 wins is a major league record, though their AL regular season record was surpassed by the 2001 Seattle Mariners
2001 Seattle Mariners season
The Seattle Mariners' 2001 season was the 25th since franchise inception, and ended with the Mariners winning their third American League West division title, with a record of 116-46. The team set an American League record for single-season wins, and tied the Major League record set by the Chicago...
, who went 116–46 before losing to the Yankees in the ALCS
2001 American League Championship Series
-Game 1:Wednesday, October 17, 2001 at Safeco Field in Seattle, WashingtonGame 1's starting date was the latest ever for a League Championship series. The Yankees took a 1–0 lead on a Chuck Knoblauch single that scored Jorge Posada in the second, then increased it to 3–0 on a Paul O'Neill home run...
.
This was the only Yankees World Series championship during their 1990s dynasty that wasn't won against either the New York Mets or the Atlanta Braves. All their other championships during this time (1996, 1999, and 2000) came against either team (1996 and 1999 against Atlanta, 2000 against the Mets).
1999
After the 1998 season, fan favorite David Wells was traded to the Toronto Blue JaysToronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays are a professional baseball team located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball 's American League ....
for Roger Clemens
Roger Clemens
William Roger Clemens , nicknamed "Rocket", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who broke into the league with the Boston Red Sox, whose pitching staff he would help anchor for 12 years. Clemens won seven Cy Young Awards, more than any other pitcher. He played for four different teams over...
, who had just completed two consecutive Cy Young Award and pitching triple crown seasons. After winning the Eastern division and defeating the Texas Rangers
1999 Texas Rangers season
The Texas Rangers 1999 season involved the Rangers finishing 1st in the American League west with a record of 95 wins and 67 losses. The 95-67 mark would be the best in franchise history until 2011....
for the third time in the 1999 American League Division Series
1999 American League Division Series
-Cleveland Indians vs. Boston Red Sox:-Game 1, October 5:Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkThe Yankees once again swept the Rangers and held them to one run through three games. In Game 1, Aaron Sele went against Orlando Hernández...
, the Yankees met up with the their longtime rivals, the Boston Red Sox
1999 Boston Red Sox season
The 1999 Boston Red Sox season involved the Red Sox' finishing 2nd in the American League East with a record of 94 wins and 68 losses. Pedro Martinez won the AL Cy Young Award and become the second pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues....
, in the next playoff round. Clemens, a former Red Sox pitcher, started the third game of the ALCS
1999 American League Championship Series
-Game 1:Wednesday, October 13, 1999 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkGame 1 was a matchup between Kent Mercker and Orlando Hernández. The soon-to-be-named 1999 ALCS MVP got into trouble in the first two innings. After a leadoff single by Jose Offerman, John Valentin would reach on an error by...
against the Sox who blasted him 13–1 in what had been a highly anticipated pitching match up between Clemens and Pedro Martínez
Pedro Martínez
Pedro Jaime Martínez is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher. He is an eight-time All-Star, three-time Cy Young Award winner, and 2004 World Series champion...
, the winner of the Cy Young Award and the pitching triple crown that season. However, it was the only game the Red Sox won, as the Yankees won the ALCS four games to one, and then went on to sweep the Atlanta Braves
1999 Atlanta Braves season
-Offseason:*November 10, 1998: Bret Boone was traded by the Cincinnati Reds with Mike Remlinger to the Atlanta Braves for Rob Bell, Denny Neagle, and Michael Tucker.*December 1, 1998: Otis Nixon was signed as a Free Agent with the Atlanta Braves....
in the 1999 World Series
1999 World Series
The 1999 World Series, the 95th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series, featured a rematch between the defending champions New York Yankees against the Atlanta Braves during the month of October, with the Yankees sweeping the Series in four games for their second title in a row,...
, with Clemens winning the clincher in Game Four in the Bronx. This gave the 1998–99 Yankees a 22–3 record (including four series sweeps) in six consecutive postseason series. This World Series win marked the last time that the Yankees would win a World Series at the original Yankee Stadium before it closed in 2008, as their win against their cross-town rivals
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
happened at Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium
William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...
(the only time that visiting teams would ever win a World Series there).
2000: Subway Series
In 20002000 Major League Baseball season
The 2000 Major League Baseball season ended with the New York Yankees defeating the New York Mets in Game 5 of the World Series, known as the Subway Series because fans could take the Subway to and from every game of the Series. An all-time record 5,693 home runs were hit during the regular season...
, the Yankees met up with the crosstown New York Mets
2000 New York Mets season
The New York Mets' 2000 season was the 39th regular season for the Mets. They went 94-68 and finished 2nd in the NL East, but earned the NL Wild Card. They made it to the World Series where they were defeated by their crosstown rival New York Yankees. They were managed by Bobby Valentine...
for the first Subway Series
Subway Series
The Subway Series is a series of Major League Baseball games played between teams based in New York City. The term's historic usage has been in reference to World Series games played between New York teams...
World Series since . To get there, they defeated the Oakland Athletics
2000 Oakland Athletics season
The Oakland Athletics' 2000 season involved the A's finishing 1st in the American League West with a record of 91 wins and 70 losses.-Offseason:* December 30, 1999: Scott Service was signed as a free agent by the Athletics....
in the ALDS
2000 American League Division Series
-Oakland Athletics vs. New York Yankees:-Chicago vs. Seattle:The Seattle Mariners returned to the postseason to avenge two postseason failures in the 1990s. The Chicago White Sox returned to the postseason for the first time since 1993...
and then the Seattle Mariners in the ALCS
2000 American League Championship Series
-Game 1:Tuesday, October 10, 2000 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkGame 1 at Yankee Stadium started as a pitchers' duel between Mariners' Freddy García and Yankees' Denny Neagle. Neither team would score until the top of the fifth when Mark McLemore hit a two-out ground rule double off Neagle...
. By winning the first two games of the Series
2000 World Series
-Game 1:Saturday, October 21, 2000 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkThe opener fell on two anniversaries. Twenty-five years prior, Boston Red Sox's catcher Carlton Fisk ended Game 6 of the 1975 World Series with his famous home run off the left field foul pole in Fenway Park in Boston to beat...
, the Yankees won a total of fourteen straight World Series games from 1996 to 2000, breaking their own record of twelve (in 1927, 1928 and 1932). When the Mets scored a run against Mariano Rivera, they snapped his string of postseason consecutive scoreless innings at 34 1/3. Prior to Rivera's streak, the record had been held by Whitey Ford, who had broken Babe Ruth's scoreless World Series pitching streak. The win ran the Yankees' postseason series winning streak to nine and gave them a 33–8 record during that run. The Yankees are the most recent major league team to repeat as World Series champions and after the 2000 season they joined the Yankee teams of 1936–1939 and 1949–1953, as well as the 1972–74 Oakland Athletics as the only teams to win at least three consecutive World Series.
The Yankees thanked the St. Louis Cardinals
2000 St. Louis Cardinals season
The St. Louis Cardinals 2000 season was the team's 119th season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 109th season in the National League. The Cardinals went 95-67 during the season and won the National League Central division by ten games over the Cincinnati Reds...
for this World Series. Their sweep of the Atlanta Braves
2000 Atlanta Braves season
The 2000 season would mark the first time since 1990 that the Braves did not appear in the National League Championship Series. One of the highlights of the season was that the All-Star Game was held at Turner Field in Atlanta.-Offseason:...
made the Mets run to their first World Series appearance since winning the title in much easier. The Braves had eliminated the Mets from playoff contention on the final day of the 1998
1998 New York Mets season
The New York Mets' 1998 season was the 37th regular season for the Mets. They finished the season with a record of 88-74. Despite placing 2nd in the National League East, the Mets fell one game short of playoff contention following a catastrophic collapse during the final week of the season. They...
season and in the 1999 National League Championship Series
1999 National League Championship Series
-Game 1:Tuesday, October 12, 1999 at Turner Field in Atlanta, GeorgiaThe Braves began their eighth consecutive NLCS with a 4–2 victory over the Mets, defeating a team they left for dead two weeks earlier...
.
2001: 9/11 Series and "Mr. November"
In the emotional times of October 2001, following the September 11 attack on New York's World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, the Yankees dramatically defeated the Oakland A's
2001 Oakland Athletics season
The Oakland Athletics' 2001 season involved the A's finishing 2nd in the American League West with a record of 102 wins and 60 losses. Their 102 wins is the most wins ever by a team that won the Wild Card.-Offseason:...
three games to two in the ALDS
2001 American League Division Series
-New York Yankees vs. Oakland Athletics:-Game 1, October 9:Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington-Game 2, October 11:Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington-Game 3, October 13:Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ohio-Game 4, October 14:Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ohio...
behind Derek Jeter
Derek Jeter
Derek Sanderson Jeter is an American baseball shortstop who has played 17 years in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees. A twelve-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, Jeter's clubhouse presence, on-field leadership, hitting ability, and baserunning have made him a central...
's incredible "Flip Play" in Game 3, and then the Seattle Mariners
2001 Seattle Mariners season
The Seattle Mariners' 2001 season was the 25th since franchise inception, and ended with the Mariners winning their third American League West division title, with a record of 116-46. The team set an American League record for single-season wins, and tied the Major League record set by the Chicago...
, who had won 116 games, four games to one in the ALCS
2001 American League Championship Series
-Game 1:Wednesday, October 17, 2001 at Safeco Field in Seattle, WashingtonGame 1's starting date was the latest ever for a League Championship series. The Yankees took a 1–0 lead on a Chuck Knoblauch single that scored Jorge Posada in the second, then increased it to 3–0 on a Paul O'Neill home run...
. By winning the pennant for a fourth straight year, the 1998-2001 Yankees joined the 1921–1924 New York Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
, and the Yankee teams of 1936–1939, 1949–1953, 1955–1958 and 1960–1964 as the only dynasties to earn at least four straight pennants
Professional baseball
Baseball is a team sport which is played by several professional leagues throughout the world. In these leagues, and associated farm teams, players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system....
. The Yankees had now won eleven consecutive postseason series over a four-year period.
However, the World Series starters for the Arizona Diamondbacks
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix. They play in the West Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From 1998 to the present, they have played in Chase Field...
, Randy Johnson
Randy Johnson
Randall David Johnson , nicknamed "The Big Unit", is a former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. During a 22-year career, he pitched for six different teams....
and Curt Schilling
Curt Schilling
Curtis Montague "Curt" Schilling is a former American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in and won World Series championships in with the Arizona Diamondbacks and in and with the Boston Red Sox. Schilling retired with a...
(later named the World Series
2001 World Series
-Game 1:Saturday, October 27, 2001 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, ArizonaArizona showed no fear and chased Yankees starter Mike Mussina after just three innings. The Yankees gave up five unearned runs and the Diamondbacks rode Curt Schilling's seven strong innings to a 9–1 rout...
co-MVPs), kept them in check, starting Games One, Two, Four, Six and Seven; the Diamondbacks
2001 Arizona Diamondbacks season
The 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, in their fourth year of existence, looked to improve on their 2000 season. They had to contend in what was a strong National League West Division....
won all four games at home
Chase Field
Chase Field is a baseball stadium located in downtown Phoenix, Arizona and is the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball. It opened in , just in time for the Diamondbacks' first game as an expansion team...
, including Game Seven where Yankee star closer Mariano Rivera uncharacteristically lost the lead—and the Series—in the bottom of the ninth inning; this marked the second time in five years that a team lost the World Series after taking a lead into the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 (following the Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...
in ) and the first time since that the home team won all seven games of a World Series. The Yankees were also the first American League team to lose a World Series in which the home team won all seven games.
Despite the loss in the series, Derek Jeter provided one bright spot. Despite a very poor series overall, batting under .200, he got the nickname, "Mr. November," for his walk-off home run in Game 4, though it began October 31, as the game ended in the first minutes of November 1. In calling the home run, Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay said "See ya! See ya! See ya! A home run for Derek Jeter! He is Mr. November! Oh what a home run by Derek Jeter!" He said this after noticing a sign that says, "Mr. November."
Also, during the emotional times following the attacks, Yankee Stadium played host to a memorial service, just before the Yankees played their first home game following the attacks. The service was titled, "Prayer for America."
Soon after, the Yankees played "God Bless America
God Bless America
"God Bless America" is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938. The later version has notably been recorded by Kate Smith, becoming her signature song ....
" during the seventh-inning stretch of every home game.
2002
After the 2001 season2001 Major League Baseball season
The Major League Baseball season finished with the Arizona Diamondbacks defeating the New York Yankees in a Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. The attacks of September 11 pushed the end of the regular-season from September 30 to October 7. Because of that, the World Series was not completed until...
, fan favorites Paul O'Neill and Scott Brosius retired. Tino Martinez
Tino Martinez
Constantino "Tino" Martinez is a former Major League Baseball first baseman.Martinez was the first round draft pick for the Seattle Mariners in out of the University of Tampa where he starred during his time on campus. He began his Major League career in and has played for the Mariners, New...
and Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch
Edward Charles "Chuck" Knoblauch is a retired Major League Baseball player. He played all or part of twelve seasons in the majors, from until , for the Minnesota Twins , New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals...
left for free agency. The Yankees had a lot of reconstructing to do; they needed to rebuild the offense that was shut down by the Johnson-Schilling duo in the 2001 World Series. They did it by signing slugger Jason Giambi
Jason Giambi
Jason Gilbert Giambi is an American professional baseball first baseman with the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball.He was the American League MVP in 2000 while with the Oakland Athletics, and is a five-time All-Star who has led the American League in walks four times, in on base percentage...
and outfielder Rondell White
Rondell White
Rondell Bernard White is an outfielder and designated hitter in Major League Baseball. His career batting average currently stands at .284 and his career slugging percentage is .462....
, as well as trading David Justice
David Justice
David Christopher Justice is a former outfielder and designated hitter in Major League Baseball who played for the Atlanta Braves , Cleveland Indians , New York Yankees , and Oakland Athletics .-Early life:David was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Robert and Nettie Justice...
to the Mets for third baseman Robin Ventura
Robin Ventura
Robin Mark Ventura is the current manager of the Chicago White Sox. He is a former professional baseball player, a third baseman who played for four major league teams, most notably for the Chicago White Sox...
. The team also brought back fan favorite David Wells to bolster the pitching staff. The Yankees finished the season with an AL best record of 103–58, winning the division by 10.5 games over the Red Sox
2002 Boston Red Sox season
The 2002 Boston Red Sox season involved the Red Sox finishing 2nd in the American League East with a record of 93 wins and 69 losses.-Offseason:* October 9, 2001: Craig Grebeck was released by the Boston Red Sox....
. The season was highlighted by Alfonso Soriano
Alfonso Soriano
Alfonso Guilleard Soriano is a Major League Baseball outfielder for the Chicago Cubs....
becoming the first second baseman ever to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season, as well as Giambi's 41 home runs. In the ALDS
2002 American League Division Series
-Oakland Athletics vs. Minnesota Twins:-Game 1, October 1:Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkThe game went back and forth with the Angels taking a 5–4 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning. Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia brought in Scott Schoeneweis to pitch to Jason Giambi, who tied the game...
, the Yankees lost to the eventual World Series
2002 World Series
The 2002 World Series was a best-of-seven playoff series to determine the champion of Major League Baseball for the 2002 season. It was the 98th such contest between the champions of the American League and National League , and featured the AL champion Anaheim Angels against the NL champion San...
champion Anaheim Angels
2002 Anaheim Angels season
The Anaheim Angels 2002 season was the franchise's 42nd, and it ended with the team's first American League pennant and World Series championship....
in four games.
2003
In 2003, Derek Jeter was named captain of the Yankees, a title that was vacant since Mattingly's departure after 1995. The Yankees once again had the best league record (101–61), defeated the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS2003 American League Division Series
-Oakland Athletics vs. Boston Red Sox:-Game 1, September 30:Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York-Game 2, October 2:Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York-Game 3, October 4:Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota-Game 4, October 5:...
, and then defeated their longtime rival Red Sox
2003 Boston Red Sox season
The Boston Red Sox' 2003 season included the Red Sox attempting to win the American League East division, the ALDS, and the American League.-Offseason:...
in a tough seven-game ALCS
2003 American League Championship Series
-Game 1:Wednesday, October 8, 2003 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkBacked by three home runs, Tim Wakefield shut the Bombers down in Game 1.-Game 2:Thursday, October 9, 2003 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York...
, which featured a bench-clearing brawl in Game Three and a Series-ending walk-off home run
Walk-off home run
In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. It must be a home run that gives the home team the lead in the bottom of the final inning of the game—either the ninth inning, or any extra inning, or any other regularly scheduled final inning...
by Aaron Boone
Aaron Boone
Aaron John Boone is a former Major League Baseball infielder whose famous home run off Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield won the 2003 American League Championship Series for the New York Yankees. He played for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Florida Marlins, Washington...
in the bottom of the 11th inning of the final game. The Yankees were then defeated by the Florida Marlins
2003 Florida Marlins season
The 2003 Florida Marlins season was a season in American baseball. The Marlins were the National League Wild Card Winners, the National League Champions, and the World Series Champions.-Offseason:...
—a team with a payroll a quarter of the size of the Yankees'—in the World Series
2003 World Series
The 2003 World Series marked the 99th baseball World Series event. The Florida Marlins defeated the New York Yankees in six games, 4–2.-Background:...
, four games to two. This was the first time since that visiting teams won a World Series at Yankee Stadium, though this was the last World Series to ever be played at the original Yankee Stadium.
2004
After the 2003 season2003 Major League Baseball season
*World Series MVP: Josh Beckett**American League Championship Series MVP: Mariano Rivera**National League Championship Series MVP: Iván Rodríguez*All-Star Game, July 15 at U.S...
, the Yankees hoped to add more power to a lineup which was shut down in the previous year's Series. They gained two sluggers, signing free agent Gary Sheffield
Gary Sheffield
Gary Antonian Sheffield , nicknamed "Sheff", is an American retired Major League Baseball outfielder. He played for eight major league ball clubs from 1988 to 2009, primarily as an outfielder.-Biography:...
, and trading second-baseman Alfonso Soriano
Alfonso Soriano
Alfonso Guilleard Soriano is a Major League Baseball outfielder for the Chicago Cubs....
to the Texas Rangers for shortstop Alex Rodriguez
Alex Rodriguez
Alexander Emmanuel "Alex" Rodriguez is an American professional baseball third baseman with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. Known popularly by his nickname A-Rod, he previously played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.Rodriguez is considered one of the best...
. With Jeter as the Yankees All-Star shortstop, Rodriguez, who had played the position his entire career, agreed to move to third base. Throughout 2004
2004 Major League Baseball season
* Playoff MVPs** Manny Ramírez ** David Ortiz ** Albert Pujols * All-Star Game, July 13 at Minute Maid Park: American League, 9-4; Alfonso Soriano, MVP-References:* *...
, however, the Yankees' weakness was their starting pitching. Despite this, they managed to win over 100 games with their powerful lineup, the third straight year they had done so, and reach the playoffs. In the ALDS
2004 American League Division Series
-Anaheim Angels vs. Boston Red Sox:-Game 1, October 5:Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkPitching dominated in Game 1 as Mike Mussina faced Johan Santana. The Twins got on the board first when Shannon Stewart singled home Michael Cuddyer. Then in the sixth, Jacque Jones hit a solo home run to make...
, the Yankees once again met and defeated the Twins three games to one.
In the 2004 American League Championship Series
2004 American League Championship Series
The 2004 American League Championship Series was the Major League Baseball playoff series to decide the American League champion for the 2004 season. It was played between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, at Fenway Park and the original Yankee Stadium, from October 12 to October 20, 2004...
against the Red Sox
2004 Boston Red Sox season
The Boston Red Sox 2004 season was the 103rd Major League Baseball season for the Boston Red Sox franchise. Managed under Terry Francona, the team finished with a 98–64 record...
, the Yankees became the first team in professional baseball history, and only the third team in North American pro sports history (it happened in the NHL twice and once afterwards), to lose a best-of-seven series after taking a 3–0 series lead.
The Yankees thought they needed to improve their pitching, which faltered in their loss to the Red Sox, and they signed free-agent pitchers Carl Pavano
Carl Pavano
Carl Anthony Pavano is an American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher currently with the Minnesota Twins.-Early career:...
and Jaret Wright
Jaret Wright
Jaret Samuel Wright is an American former Major League Baseball starting pitcher, who played 10 years for five teams. He is the son of former major league pitcher Clyde Wright.-Early life and education:...
and acquired dominant lefty Randy Johnson from Arizona. However, none of the three performed up to expectations; Pavano pitched in only 17 games in 2005, missed the entire 2006 season and pitched only 2 games on the 2007 season due to a variety of injuries, Wright was traded after starting only 40 games over two seasons, and Johnson suffered from back problems which resulted in surgery in October 2006.
2005
2005 Major League Baseball season
Click on any series score to link to that series' page.Higher seed had home field advantage during Division Series and League Championship Series.The American League champion had home field advantage during the World Series as a result of the AL victory in the 2005 All-Star...
started slowly for the Yankees, and they spent most of the season chasing the Boston Red Sox
2005 Boston Red Sox season
The Boston Red Sox' 2005 season included the Boston Red Sox attempting to win the American League East in the American League. The Red Sox finished 95-67, with the same record as the New York Yankees...
for the division title. The Yankees, however, won the division, clinching it in the second-to-last game of the season against the Red Sox. Alex Rodriguez won the American League Most Valuable Player award, becoming the first Yankee to win the award since Don Mattingly in 1985. Giambi was named Comeback Player of the Year
MLB Comeback Player of the Year Award
The Major League Baseball Comeback Player of the Year Award is presented by Major League Baseball to the player who is judged to have "re-emerged on the baseball field during a given season." The award was developed in 2005, as part of a sponsorship agreement between MLB and Viagra...
, as voted by fans, and second baseman Robinson Canó
Robinson Canó
Robinson José Canó Mercedes is a Dominican baseball player who currently plays as a second baseman for the New York Yankees.-Family and early life:...
was runner-up in Rookie of the Year
MLB Rookie of the Year Award
In Major League Baseball, the Rookie of the Year Award is annually given to one player from each league as voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America . The award was established in 1940 by the Chicago chapter of the BBWAA, which selected an annual winner from 1940 through 1946...
voting. Another highlight of the season was the record-setting pitching by journeyman Aaron Small
Aaron Small
Aaron James Small is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. He is probably best remembered for his short successful stint as a starter for the New York Yankees in ....
, who became just the fourth pitcher in history to win at least ten games without a loss.
The Angels
2005 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim season
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 2005 season was the franchise's 45th since its inception. The regular season ended with a record of 95-67, resulting in the Angels winning the American League West division title for the second consecutive season, its fifth in franchise history.In the postseason,...
defeated the Yankees in five games in the first round
2005 American League Division Series
-Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim vs. New York Yankees:†: Game was postponed due to rain on October 8-Game 1, October 4:U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Illinois...
of the postseason, marking the second time in four years that the Angels beat the Yankees in the first round. Alex Rodriguez, the American League's 2005 MVP, had a poor series, hitting .133 with no home runs and no RBIs.
2006
In the 2005–06 offseason, general manager Brian Cashman was given more control of the direction of the Yankees, and in December 2005, the Yankees signed center fielder Johnny DamonJohnny Damon
Johnny David Damon is an American professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter. From 2000–2008, he was third among active players in runs and seventh in hits and stolen bases . He is currently second among active leaders in triples , five behind Carl Crawford...
from the archrival Red Sox. The Yankees also signed Kyle Farnsworth
Kyle Farnsworth
Kyle Lynn Farnsworth is a Major League Baseball relief pitcher who is currently the closer for the Tampa Bay Rays.-High school and college:...
, Mike Myers, Octavio Dotel
Octavio Dotel
Octavio Eduardo Dotel is a Domincan professional baseball pitcher who is currently a Free Agent....
and Ron Villone
Ron Villone
Ronald Thomas Villone Jr. is a Major League Baseball left-handed relief pitcher who is currently with the Somerset Patriots. He has not been on the same team for more than two years in his major league career and due to his many baseball travels, some of his teammates have affectionately referred...
to improve their bullpen, which had been a weak point during the 2005 season.
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium was a stadium located in The Bronx in New York City, New York. It was the home ballpark of the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008. The stadium hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the former home of the New York...
, which opened next to the current Yankee Stadium in 2009.
Despite losing starting outfielders Hideki Matsui
Hideki Matsui
is a Japanese Major League Baseball designated hitter and outfielder. He bats left-handed and throws right-handed.After playing the first ten seasons of his career for the Yomiuri Giants of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball, he played the next seven seasons, from 2003–2009, for the New York...
and Gary Sheffield to injuries early in the season, the Yankees finished the first half of the 2006 season with 50 wins and 36 losses, three games behind the Red Sox
2006 Boston Red Sox season
The Boston Red Sox' 2006 season was a season in American baseball. It included the Boston Red Sox attempting to win the American League East division...
. But they caught up to the Red Sox, and on August 18, the Yankees entered Fenway Park with a 1.5 game lead for a five game series. The series opened up with a doubleheader that the Yankees swept 12–4 and 14–11, echoing the Boston Massacre of 1978, and prompting the Boston Globes Dan Shaughnessy
Dan Shaughnessy
Dan Shaughnessy is an American sports writer.-Career:After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross, Shaughnessy began his career as a beat reporter covering the Baltimore Orioles for the Baltimore Sun in 1977. He has been a sports writer for the Boston Globe for approximately 30 years,...
to dub the doubleheader sweep the "Son of Massacre". The Yankees went on to sweep all five games (calling the series the "Second Boston Massacre"). They outscored the Red Sox by a combined score of 49–26, and left them 6.5 games out of first place. The Red Sox would eventually end the season in third place in the AL East behind the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays, making it the first time since 1998 that the Red Sox did not finish in second place behind the Yanks.
The division win was the ninth consecutive AL East title for the Yankees. When the New York Mets
2006 New York Mets season
The New York Mets' 2006 season was the 45th regular season for the Mets. They went 97-65 and won the NL East. They were managed by Willie Randolph. They played home games at Shea Stadium. They used the marketing slogan of "The Team. The Time...
won their division for the first time since 1988
1988 New York Mets season
The New York Mets' 1988 season was the 27th regular season for the Mets. They went 100-60 and finished 1st in the NL East. They were managed by Davey Johnson. They played home games at Shea Stadium.-Offseason:...
(snapping the Atlanta Braves' eleven-year stranglehold on the NL East), it marked the first time ever that both New York teams won their respective divisions in the same year. Their 97–65 record tied the Mets for the best record of the year, giving New Yorkers hopes for another Subway Series. However, they both lost to teams that went to the World Series
2006 World Series
The 2006 World Series, the 102nd edition of Major League Baseball's championship series, began on October 21 and ended on October 27, and matched the American League champion Detroit Tigers against the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals won the Series in five games, taking...
; the Yankees to the Detroit Tigers
2006 Detroit Tigers season
The 2006 Detroit Tigers won the American League Pennant. They represented the AL in the World Series before falling to the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to 1. The season was their 106th since they entered the AL in 1901.- Regular season :...
in four games in the ALDS
2006 American League Division Series
-Game 1, October 3:Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkA five-run third inning by the Yankees put the game out of reach for the Tigers. Bobby Abreu doubled to score Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter . Gary Sheffield then singled in Abreu, and Jason Giambi launched a two-run home run for a commanding 5–0...
, the Mets in the NLCS
2006 National League Championship Series
The National League Championship Series , the second round of the 2006 National League playoffs, began on October 12 and ended on October 19; it was scheduled to begin on October 11, but was postponed a day because of inclement weather. The St...
to the eventual champion St. Louis Cardinals
2006 St. Louis Cardinals season
The St. Louis Cardinals 2006 season was the team's 125th season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 115th season in the National League. The season started out with a bang, as the team raced out to a 31-16 record by late May...
in seven games.
On October 11, 2006, days after the ALDS was over, tragedy struck when pitcher Cory Lidle
Cory Lidle
Cory Fulton Lidle was an Americanright-handed baseball pitcher who spent nine seasons in the major leagues with seven different teams. His twin brother Kevin Lidle also played baseball, as a catcher for several minor league teams...
died in a plane crash
2006 New York City plane crash
The 2006 New York City plane crash occurred on October 11, 2006, when a Cirrus SR20 general aviation, fixed-wing, single-engine light aircraft crashed into the Belaire Apartments in New York City at about 2:42 p.m. local time...
. It has yet to be determined if Lidle or his co-pilot, Tyler Stanger, who was also killed, was piloting the plane which crashed into a highrise apartment building
Belaire Apartments
Belaire Apartments is a mixed-use high-rise condominium apartment building in Manhattan, New York City. The 42-story building is located at 524 East 72nd Street between York Avenue and the FDR Drive. It has 183 condominium apartments, a health club, parking garage and swimming pool...
on East 72nd Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
. Lidle was the second active Yankee to be killed in a crash of his own private plane, following Thurman Munson's death in 1979.
2007
Changes during the 2006–07 off-season included the trading of Gary Sheffield and Jaret Wright, and the signings of Japanese pitcher Kei IgawaKei Igawa
is a Japanese left-handed starting pitcher who is currently a free agent, originally from Ōarai, Ibaraki, Japan. He played for the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball from to . He led all pitchers in the Central League for strikeouts in , and 2006...
and former Yankee Andy Pettitte
Andy Pettitte
Andrew Eugene Pettitte is a retired American left-handed Major League Baseball starting pitcher.In his major league career, he played for the New York Yankees from 1995–2003. He then signed with the Houston Astros, and played for them from 2004 through 2006. In 2007, Pettitte rejoined the Yankees...
, who left the Yankees after 2003. The Yankees also re-signed pitcher Mike Mussina
Mike Mussina
Michael Cole Mussina , nicknamed Moose, is a former Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher. He played for the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees ....
to a two year deal.
The start of the 2007 season
2007 Major League Baseball season
The 2007 Major League Baseball season, began on April 1 with a rematch of the 2006 National League Championship Series; the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets played the first game of the season at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, which was won by the Mets, 6–1...
proved to be very tumultuous for the Bombers. The Yankees fell well below .500 and in last place, 14.5 games behind their arch-rival Boston Red Sox
2007 Boston Red Sox season
The Boston Red Sox' 2007 season began with the Boston, Massachusetts-based Major League Baseball team trying to rebound after a disappointing 2006 season, in which they finished third in the American League East behind the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays, and missed the postseason for...
. Ace starter Chien-Ming Wang
Chien-Ming Wang
Chien-Ming Wang is a Taiwanese Major League Baseball pitcher. He was initially signed as an amateur free agent by the New York Yankees for the 2000 season, and played for the Staten Island Yankees...
was injured to start the season and the team saw extended stints on the disabled list for Mike Mussina
Mike Mussina
Michael Cole Mussina , nicknamed Moose, is a former Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher. He played for the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees ....
, Carl Pavano
Carl Pavano
Carl Anthony Pavano is an American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher currently with the Minnesota Twins.-Early career:...
and Jason Giambi
Jason Giambi
Jason Gilbert Giambi is an American professional baseball first baseman with the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball.He was the American League MVP in 2000 while with the Oakland Athletics, and is a five-time All-Star who has led the American League in walks four times, in on base percentage...
. Centerfielder Johnny Damon
Johnny Damon
Johnny David Damon is an American professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter. From 2000–2008, he was third among active players in runs and seventh in hits and stolen bases . He is currently second among active leaders in triples , five behind Carl Crawford...
was also playing hurt. The team saw a record number of rookie pitchers starting for the injury plagued Yankees that included Tyler Clippard
Tyler Clippard
Tyler Lee Clippard is a Major League Baseball pitcher for the Washington Nationals.-New York Yankees:Clippard was drafted in the 9th round of the 2003 MLB Draft by the New York Yankees out of J. W. Mitchell High School...
, Darrell Rasner
Darrell Rasner
Darrell Wayne Rasner is a starting pitcher for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese Pacific League.Rasner attended the University of Nevada, where he was a health ecology major...
, Matt DeSalvo
Matt DeSalvo
Matthew Thomas DeSalvo is a Major League Baseball pitcher who is with the independent York Revolution...
, Chase Wright
Chase Wright
Sebern Chase Wright is an American professional baseball pitcher. He bats and throws left-handed. Wright throws a low 90s 4-seam fastball, a slider, a curveball, and a changeup.-Baseball career:...
, Jeff Karstens and highly touted prospect Phil Hughes. The rotation would later get a lift from Roger Clemens
Roger Clemens
William Roger Clemens , nicknamed "Rocket", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who broke into the league with the Boston Red Sox, whose pitching staff he would help anchor for 12 years. Clemens won seven Cy Young Awards, more than any other pitcher. He played for four different teams over...
, who had decided to come out of retirement and rejoin the team he won his only World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
championships with. It saw the breakout years of homegrown talents of Melky Cabrera
Melky Cabrera
Melky Astacio Cabrera is a Major League Baseball outfielder for the San Francisco Giants.-Minors:Cabrera was signed by the New York Yankees on November 13, 2001, at age 17...
, Andy Phillips
Andy Phillips
George Andrew "Andy" Phillips is the current assistant coach for The University of Alabama's baseball team. He has played for the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox. Phillips was raised in Demopolis, Alabama, where he played baseball for the Demopolis Academy...
and Shelley Duncan
Shelley Duncan
David Shelley Duncan is a Major League Baseball first baseman, outfielder, and designated hitter for the Cleveland Indians.-Personal:Duncan is the oldest son of Dave Duncan, a MLB catcher and pitching coach...
. Prized prospect Joba Chamberlain
Joba Chamberlain
Justin Louis "Joba" Chamberlain is a Major League Baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees.-Early life:Chamberlain was born and grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chamberlain's parents, Harlan Chamberlain and Jackie Standley, were never married and split up when Joba was 18 months old...
was also brought up after the All Star break. Despite the team's slow start, the Yankees managed to win the AL Wild Card, only to lose in the ALDS to the Cleveland Indians
2007 Cleveland Indians season
The Cleveland Indians' 2007 season saw the Indians win the AL Central title for the first time since 2001 and play for American League title before losing to the Boston Red Sox in seven games....
, making it the third consecutive year the Yankees lost in the first round
2007 American League Division Series
-Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees:-Game 1, October 3:Fenway Park in Boston, MassachusettsIn Game 1, Boston starter Josh Beckett threw a complete-game shut out, allowing the Red Sox to win the opener...
of the playoffs.
2008
The 2008 season2008 Major League Baseball season
The 2008 Major League Baseball season began on March 25, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan with the 2007 World Series champion Boston Red Sox defeating the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome 6–5 in the first game of a two-game series, and ended on September 30 with the host Chicago White Sox defeating the...
was best known for being the final season at the Old Yankee Stadium. That year, the Yankees hosted the All-Star game
2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 80th midseason exhibition between the all-stars of the American League and the National League , the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball. The game was held on July 14, 2009, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, the home of the...
in which the American League won in extra innings. The Yankees had some trouble due to the struggles of Chien-Ming Wang
Chien-Ming Wang
Chien-Ming Wang is a Taiwanese Major League Baseball pitcher. He was initially signed as an amateur free agent by the New York Yankees for the 2000 season, and played for the Staten Island Yankees...
and Phil Hughes, as well as the conversion of Joba Chamberlain
Joba Chamberlain
Justin Louis "Joba" Chamberlain is a Major League Baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees.-Early life:Chamberlain was born and grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chamberlain's parents, Harlan Chamberlain and Jackie Standley, were never married and split up when Joba was 18 months old...
into a starter. However, the Yankees did get some help from the bats thanks to Jason Giambi
Jason Giambi
Jason Gilbert Giambi is an American professional baseball first baseman with the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball.He was the American League MVP in 2000 while with the Oakland Athletics, and is a five-time All-Star who has led the American League in walks four times, in on base percentage...
's Comeback Player of the Year season. On September 21, 2008, the Yankees hosted their final game at the old Yankee Stadium by defeating the Baltimore Orioles
2008 Baltimore Orioles season
The Baltimore Orioles entered the 2008 season led by Dave Trembley, now starting his first full season as manager. President of Baseball Operations Andy MacPhail continued the rebuilding process...
. The Yankees finished in third place with an 89–73 record, missing the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.
2009
The hype of the 2009 season2009 Major League Baseball season
The 2009 Major League Baseball season began on Sunday, April 5, 2009 with the Atlanta Braves defeating the 2008 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies 4–1. The regular season ended on October 6, extended two days for a one-game playoff between the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins to...
began when the Yankees acquired first baseman Mark Teixeira
Mark Teixeira
Mark Charles Teixeira , nicknamed "Tex" is an American Major League Baseball player for the New York Yankees. Mostly a first baseman, he has also played third base and in the outfield...
and pitchers CC Sabathia and A. J. Burnett
A. J. Burnett
Allan James "A. J." Burnett is a right-handed Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the New York Yankees. Previously, he played for the Florida Marlins and the Toronto Blue Jays...
. However, things would go sour as Alex Rodriguez admitted to using steroids and got injured. On April 16, 2009, the Yankees opened up the New Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium was a stadium located in The Bronx in New York City, New York. It was the home ballpark of the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008. The stadium hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the former home of the New York...
. However, they lost two of the first four games to the Cleveland Indians
2009 Cleveland Indians season
The 2009 Cleveland Indians season marks the 109th season for the franchise, with the Indians attempting to improve on their 81-81 record and third place finish in the AL Central in 2008...
, including one where the Indians scored 14 runs in the second inning for a 22–4 victory. Alex Rodriguez
Alex Rodriguez
Alexander Emmanuel "Alex" Rodriguez is an American professional baseball third baseman with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. Known popularly by his nickname A-Rod, he previously played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.Rodriguez is considered one of the best...
returned from the disabled list and helped lead them to a 90-44 record the rest of the way. They went on to win the division, in dramatic fashion, with 15 walkoff hits in the regular season, and two more in the postseason. They won the World Series
2009 World Series
The 2009 World Series was the 105th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series. The best-of-seven playoff was contested between the Philadelphia Phillies, champions of the National League and defending World Series champions, and the New York Yankees, champions of the American League...
, defeating the Phillies
2009 Philadelphia Phillies season
The Philadelphia Phillies' 2009 season was the 127th season in the history of the franchise. The team, managed by Charlie Manuel, began their sixth season at Citizens Bank Park and defense of their 2008 World Series championship on April 5...
in a six game matchup.
2010
The 2010 season featured the rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox being revived to start and end the season. The Yankees and the Red Sox2010 Boston Red Sox season
The Boston Red Sox' 2010 season was the 110th in the team's history. The Red Sox opened and closed the season at home at Fenway Park against the New York Yankees...
will start and finish the season
2010 Major League Baseball season
The 2010 Major League Baseball season began Sunday, April 4, when the Boston Red Sox defeated their long-time rivals, the 2009 World Series champion New York Yankees at Fenway Park, 9–7; the regular season ended on October 3. The 2010 All-Star Game was played on July 13 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim...
against each other at Fenway Park. This was the first time since this has happened. It also featured Joe Torre playing games against the Yankees for the first time since becoming manager of the Dodgers. During the month of July, the Yankees did had unfortunate news. During the All-Star break, two longtime Yankee icons died. On July 11, former PA announcer Bob Sheppard
Bob Sheppard
Robert Leo "Bob" Sheppard was the long-time public address announcer for numerous New York area college and professional sports teams, in particular the MLB New York Yankees , and the NFL New York Giants .Sheppard announced more than 4,500 Yankees baseball games over a period of 56 years,...
and two days later principal owner George Steinbrenner
George Steinbrenner
George Michael Steinbrenner III was an American businessman who was the principal owner and managing partner of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees. During Steinbrenner's 37-year ownership from 1973 to his death in July 2010, the longest in club history, the Yankees earned seven World Series...
. Eight days later, another longtime Yankee icon, former player and manager Ralph Houk
Ralph Houk
Ralph George Houk , nicknamed The Major, was an American catcher, coach, manager, and front office executive in Major League Baseball...
died. The Yankees still went on to play in the 2010 American League Championship Series
2010 American League Championship Series
The 2010 American League Championship Series was the best-of-seven game series pitting the winners of the 2010 American League Division Series for the American League Championship. The American League wild card-winning New York Yankees faced the American League Western Division champions Texas...
, and defend their title against the Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers (baseball)
The Texas Rangers are a professional baseball team in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, based in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League, and are the reigning A.L. Western Division and A.L. Champions. Since , the Rangers have...
. The teams had met in all three of the Ranger's playoff appearances, the Yankees had won all previous meetings, 3–1 in the 1996 ALDS, and 3–0 in the 1998 and 1999 ALDS. This time, however, the Yankees lost in 6 games, being outscored 36-19 in the series, marking one of the worst in the Yankees recent history.