B-Ref Top Ten: Damn Yankees
One of the best ways to waste time online is by digging around on Baseball-Reference. This series explores the top ten Baseball-Reference pages in a given category for the purpose of gawking in amazement, curiosity, and wonder. These are not necessarily the ten best ever, but they are the ten most fascinating.
Most teams do not elicit a visceral, emotional reaction just by mentioning their name. Unless you root for them- or a team in their division- the word “Padres” probably doesn’t impact your blood pressure. The same goes for “Orioles,” “White Sox,” “Reds,” or most other MLB clubs. But “Yankees” makes every baseball fan feel something. Its part and parcel with following the game. They’re the most iconic brand in the North American sporting landscape, and possibly the entire world.
27 World Series championships. 40 AL pennants. 55 playoff appearances. Babe, Lou, Joe, Mickey, Yogi, Whitey, Mariano. George! Mr. October, Mr. November, and even Mr. May. You know the names, the numbers, and the stories. You know why Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone share the same middle name, starting with “F.”
Love them or hate them, there’s no denying the enormous impact the Bronx Bombers have had on us all. Here are the top ten most interesting Yankee team pages on Baseball-Reference.
10. 1947
The American League might not have been able to stop the Yankees, but the war nearly did. 1947 ended an unthinkable four-year championship drought, in which they defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers (who else?), 4-3. The season wasn’t a cakewalk, though. They were merely 39-26 on June 29, before a franchise-record 19-game winning streak, during which they wouldn’t cede another game until July 18.
Despite something of a down year in which he only hit 20 home runs, Joe DiMaggio collected his third MVP. He squeaked by Ted Williams (who else?) in the closest vote in AL history, 202-201. The tally wouldn’t have been so razor-thin had not teammates George McQuinn and Joe Page earned MVP votes themselves, even though Tommy Henrich led the team in bWAR. Page enjoyed one of the great relief seasons of the pre-modern bullpen era, striking out 116 batters in 141.1 innings- nearly Aroldis Chapman numbers for his day.
This was one of the last hurrahs of the DiMaggio-era Yankees, with the torch passing to Mantle and Stengel within a few years. The next generation was already beginning to arrive, as evidenced by rookie catcher/outfielder Yogi Berra.
9. 2018
Above all else, the Yankees are known for prodigious sluggers and absurd home run numbers, but their bullpens have been just as spectacular. Perhaps their best relief corps was the 2018 group, and it may well be the best bullpen ever.
Ten relievers with at least nine innings pitched averaged 10 strikeouts per nine innings or more. Aroldis Chapman led the way by fanning 93 of the 212 batters he faced, and Dellin Betances was right behind him, whiffing 115 out of 272 opponents. Chad Green and David Robertson were other key contributors to a bullpen that set an MLB record with a combined 30.2% strikeout rate.
Beyond the relievers, 12 different batters reached double-digit home runs. The team smashed 267 dingers, breaking the record set by the 1997 Mariners. Of course, we would all laugh at this a year later, which we’ll discuss in further detail down below.
8. 1992
The 1992 Yankees really weren’t special. They finished 76-86, fourth in the AL East. Their best players were Mélido Pérez and Danny Tartabull, not Hall of Famers with plaques in Monument Park. Don Mattingly was a shell of his former glory, and Bernie Williams wasn’t a full-time starter yet. The most memorable event of the 1992 season was selecting Derek Jeter in the draft, but that won’t show up on the B-Ref team page.
The reason this page is worth your time is that this was the last losing season the franchise has suffered. In the 28 intervening years, their winning percentage has been no less than .519. They’ve missed the playoffs only five times since 1992 (not counting the strike-shortened 1994 season). There are Yankees fans who have been born, grown up, and graduated medical school since they last finished below .500, so we need to peek at the 1992 team page to remember what a subpar Yankee team looked like.
7. 1961
A season so magical that Billy Crystal made a movie about it! The 1961 Yankees finished 109-53, defeating the Reds in five games for the World Series trophy. Whitey Ford finished 25-4, collecting his only Cy Young award, but this season was all about the home runs.
Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, batting third and fourth in the lineup, each took aim at Babe Ruth‘s beloved record of 60 in a season. Mantle injured himself in mid-September, finishing with 54. Maris, of course, bested the Babe, setting a record of 61 that would last until the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa bash fest of 1998. The team record total of 240 blasts lasted nearly as long, finally falling in 1996.
6. 1913
There’s something perversely beautiful about Deadball Era stats. In modern times, it’s hard to fathom just how pathetic and punchless the 1913 Yankees were. The first team to call themselves Yankees- they were known as the Highlanders through 1912- lost 13 straight games from May 21-June 6, which is still the longest losing streak in franchise history. By the end of it, they owned an abysmal 9-34 record. They would finish the season in seventh place, 57-94.
Unless you are a true maven of baseball history, there are few recognizable names on the roster. Ed Sweeney and Harry Wolter tied for the team lead in home runs with… two apiece. The entire roster managed only eight round-trippers on the season. (Future iterations of Yankees would hit eight blasts in a single game on June 28, 1939 and July 31, 2007.) Their best pitcher was Russ Ford, who surrendered nine all by himself. The position players collectively batted .241, just 42 points higher than the pitchers.
5. 1927
A stark contrast from 14 years prior, the 1927 Murderer’s Row Yankees are one of the most famous lineups in baseball history. With a 110-44 romp through the regular season and World Series sweep over the Pirates, this is considered by many to be the best baseball team ever assembled.
The lineup’s homicidal nickname was earned by the first six batters:
- CF Earle Combs– a Hall of Famer who batted .356 with 23 triples.
- SS Mark Koenig– whose .285/.320/.385 batting line really doesn’t hold up over time.
- LF/RF Babe Ruth- 60 home runs was a record that would last until Roger Maris in 1961 and was more than the team total for every other AL club that year.
- 1B Lou Gehrig– his best season, in which he hit .373 with 47 home runs (and curiously tied for the team lead with 21 sac bunts).
- LF/RF Bob Meusel– a former home run champ himself, he slashed .337/.393/.510
- 2B Tony Lazzeri– another Hall of Famer, who swatted 18 home runs with a .383 on-base percentage.
4. 1978
If Murderer’s Row and M&M Boys are the most well-known Yankee team nicknames, Bronx Zoo isn’t far behind. The 1978 team won 100 regular-season games and defeated the Dodgers in the World Series for the second year in a row. Their success came despite a midseason managerial change- the first of five times Billy Martin would be relieved of duties.
The statistics and accomplishments aren’t the fun part; it’s the names that stand out. First names include Reggie, Thurman, Graig, and Rawly. Willie and Lou aren’t the most famous Willie and Lou in baseball history but still require no last names for recognition. There were nicknames such as Gator, Chicken, and Mick the Quick. There was a handful whose nicknames nearly replaced their given names altogether: Catfish, Goose, Sparky, and Bucky. Even the coaching staff included Yogi, Elston, and Stick.
3. 2019
EVERYONE hit ridiculous amounts of home runs across baseball last season, but the 2019 Yankees shattered the previous year’s MLB record with 306 (never mind that the Twins finished with 307). An astonishing 14 Yankees eclipsed double figures, and seven surpasses twenty bombs.
One of the quirks of Baseball-Reference team pages is that the listed starters are the players who played the most games at each position. Gleyber Torres, who led the team with 38 homers, split his time between second base and shortstop. However, he didn’t play more games at those positions than D.J. LeMahieu or Didi Gregorius, so he’s technically listed as a bench player. Ten players achieved a slugging percentage of .500 or better. Giancarlo Stanton wasn’t one of them but Troy Tulowitzki was!
Much like 2018, the bullpen was pretty special as well. Aroldis Chapman, Adam Ottavino, and Zack Britton each posted an ERA+ of greater than 200. These three plus Tommy Kahnle all allowed fewer than seven hits per nine innings.
2. 1931
There are four teams in baseball history that employed nine Hall of Famers: the 1930 Yankees, 1931 Yankees, 1932 Yankees, and 1933 Yankees. The 1932 group was the only of those iterations to reach the World Series, but the 1931 club set a modern MLB record with 1,067 runs scored. As a team, the position players slashed .308/.396/.477. Four players scored 120 runs or more: Lou Gehrig (163), Babe Ruth (149), Earle Combs (120), and Ben Chapman (120).
In addition to Ruth, Gehrig, and Combs, other Hall of Famers included Tony Lazzeri, for whom it was oddly a down year, young catcher Bill Dickey, and third baseman Jow Sewell- the hardest player to strike out in MLB history (he averaged five strikeouts in 615 plate appearances per season from 1925-33). Three pitchers would reach the Hall as well: Lefty Gomez, who enjoyed a brilliant first full season, as well as Herp Pennock and Red Ruffing.
1. 1998
The stellar 114-48 record doesn’t tell the full story of the 1998 Yankees. Including the 11-2 postseason, which culminated in a World Series sweep of the Padres, they truly finished 125-50. The Core Four of Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera were all in peak form. Bernie Williams won the batting title, hitting .339. Yankee dynasty mainstays David Cone, Tino Martinez, Ramiro Mendoza, Paul O’Neill, and Scott Brosius completed superlative seasons. Several aging veterans tagged along to add to the fun: Darryl Strawberry, Tim Raines, and Chili Davis.
There were so many great storylines which become evident just from recalling their names: David Wells‘ perfect game, the international hype of Hideki Irabu‘s first full season, the US arrival of Orlando “El Duque” Hernández, and Shane Spencer‘s bombastic, three-grand slam September. The names, the stats, the stories, and the championship make 1998 the quintessential Yankee team.
