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The New York Yankees are one of the oldest baseball clubs in the majors. The Yankees began playing in 1901 in the American League. The Yankees started out with two decades of struggle. The team never won a pennant and only finished second twice. The team regularly finished near the bottom of the standings, well under .500.That all changed in 1920 when the Red Sox, one the most successful teams in the majors at the time, sold the contract of Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Ruth had been a pitcher who was instrumental in the Red Sox three World Series appearances from 1916 to 1918. The trade reversed the roles of the teams and the Yankees went on to win 26 World Series and the Boston Red Sox went on an 86-year drought.
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The Yankees turned Ruth into an outfielder and the Sultan of Swat took the Yankees to three straight World Series. The team won it first in 1923 when Lou Gehrig joined the team. Ruth’s time with Yankees ended in 1933 after seven AL Pennants and four World Series titles.
The Yankees followed Ruth with Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggio patrolled center field for the club and played for the club until 1951. He won three AL MVPs, led the league in batting average twice, led the league in home runs twice, and finished his career with 361 home runs. The Yankees DiMaggio and Gehrig won ten World Series in 11 tries.
DiMaggio’s later career coincided with the additions of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Elston Howard, and Roger Maris. The Hall of Fame roster dominated the rest of the ‘50s and the first part of the ‘60s with 11 AL Pennants and six World Series titles.
The years after 1964 with the stars leaving the club were tough for the team. The Yankees finished near the bottom of the AL East for the first time in over forty years. The team would wait until new ownership took over before becoming a force again in the late ‘70s.
George Steinbrenner purchased the club from CBS in 1973 and immediately took advantage of free agency. The Yankees signed pitcher Catfish Hunter right away. After the Yankees failed to win the World Series in 1976, Steinbrenner opened his pocket book again and signed Reggie Jackson. Manager Billy Martin and Steinbrenner fought constantly, but produced winners, winning the first World Series since 1962 in 1977 and repeating in 1978.
The Yankees remained competitive for a couple more years, but fell into a slump that lasted from 1982 to 1994. The slump included a number of second place finishes and an MVP year by Don Mattingly in 1985, but for the Yankees a slump meant not returning to the World Series in 1996.
The Yankees of he late ‘90s dominated with Joe Torre as manager, short stop Derek Jeter, and a host of changing rosters that included David Wells, Mike Stanton, Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch, Darryl Strawberry, and Orlando Hernandez.
The Yankees won the World Series in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000. The team continued to make high priced moves after the turn of the century, notably picking up Alex Rodriguez and his massive contract, but have failed to win another World Series despite threatening in the playoffs every year.
The New York Yankees will play their last season at Yankee Stadium this season and hope that the 2008 team will finish the stadium off with a World Series trophy. The team is beyond loaded on offense, but has some major concerns for the starting rotation. Chien-Min Wang, the staff’s ace, is the only sure thing. The rest of the rotation will have to deal with off-the-field distractions (Andy Pettitte), age (39-year-old Mike Mussina), or are simply being too green to be counted on (Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, and Ian Kennedy). The team is also playing with a new manager, Joe Girardi, who replaced Joe Torre after he refused to take a pay cut. The new season and powerful offense promise to have the Yankees at least contending in the American League East.
The New York Yankees are the most successful team in baseball with 26 World Series titles. The long list of Hall of Famers includes Lou Gerhig, Babe Ruth, and Mickey Mantle. The team is famous for playing for immediate success in recent years. General Manager Brian Cashman created a team that is the first to eclipse the $200 million mark for payroll.
Cashman has shown some restraint though, refusing to shell out large contracts to attract Carlos Beltran in years past and Johan Santana this past offseason. Still the team has sacrificed its farm system to sign high priced free agents like Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, Alex Rodriguez, and Johnny Damon.
The team is currently in the midst of a World Series drought, with the last title in 2000. Many different factors have been mentioned, including the drying up of the farm system, the replacement of the team’s core players who were so successful in the 90s, and bad coaching and team management. George Steinbrenner’s style has often been criticized for wearing heavy on the players, burning them out psychologically.
Some fans have even had a little fun with problem. Larry Mahnken, a sportswriter for The Hardball Times, called the failure to win the “Curse of Clay Bellinger.” The amusing analogy argues that the departure of utility player Clay Bellinger wil haunt the Yankees and rob them of World Series titles like the “Curse of the Bambino” did for the rival Red Sox. Only the long season and the grueling schedule will tell what happens for the Yankee in 2008.
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