| Table of contents |
|
2 Players of note
2.1 Baseball Hall of Famers
3 See also2.2 Current stars 2.3 Not to be forgotten 2.4 Retired numbers 2.5 Team captains 4 External Links |
In World Series play, the Yankees have won 26 and lost 13, over an 80-season span. This level of success is unmatched in professional sports in the United States.
The team originated in Minneapolis as a team in the minor Western League. After the National League Baltimore franchise was disbanded in 1899, the club moved to Baltimore. The Western League became the American League, asserted major league status and began to compete with the established NL. For two years the club played there under manager John McGraw. When the league wrested control of the club from McGraw in order to move it to the more lucrative New York market, McGraw left for the competition in that market, the New York Giants and achieve substantial success with them. The Highlanders, as they were known, enjoyed brief moments of success, finishing in second place in the American League in 1904 and 1910, but spent much of the 1900s and 1910s in the cellar.
Under new ownership in the late 1910s, the Yankees, as they were now called, acquired a number of players who would later contribute to their success, mostly from the Boston Red Sox, whose owner, Harry Frazee, was unwilling to pay high salaries to the players on his team despite that team having won four World Series titles in the 1910s. The Yankees acquired pitchers Carl Mays, Bob Shawkey and Herb Pennock, catcher Wally Schang, and most notably, pitcher-turned-outfielder Babe Ruth. Led by manager Miller Huggins, the Yankees went through their first period of great success, winning six AL pennants and three World Series during the decade. The 1927 team featured the one-two punch of Ruth and Lou Gehrig and is sometimes considered to be the best team in the history of baseball (though similar claims have been made for other Yankee squads, notably those of 1939 and 1998).
Other highlighted periods of the team's history:
Franchise history
In October 2001, New York defeated the Oakland Athletics 3 games to 2 in the Divisional Series, and then defeated the Seattle Mariners in the American League Championship Series, 4 games to 1, before losing a close World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
In October 2003, the Yankees defeated their archrival Boston Red Sox in a tough seven game ALCS, which featured a near brawl in Game 3, and a walk off, series ending home run by Aaron Boone in the bottom of the 11th inning of the seventh game. They faced the Florida Marlins in the World Series, losing 4 games to 2.
Players of note
Baseball Hall of Famers
Current stars
Not to be forgotten
Retired numbers
Team captains
"Team captain" is an honorary title.See also
External Links