For me being a Yankee fan was quite natural. I grew up near Newark, N.J. whose International League team the Bears was a farm team of the Yankees. I'll never forget the 1937 team which won the pennant by about 27 1/2 games. Small wonder with players like George Mcquinn, Joe Gordon, Babe Dahlgren, Pinky May, Charlie Keller, Jimmy Gleason, Bob Seeds, Buddy Rosar, Willard Hershberger, Spud Chandler, Steve Sundra, Joe Beggs, Atley Donald. I have probably left some out. I have made this list from memory. Honest!! The team is forever emblazoned in my memory. Practically the whole team was in the majors the next year, not all with the Yankees. Also in those days Yankee fans were also Giant fans, united by a mutual hatred of the Dodgers.
Obviously there are plenty of "real" Yankee fans...but there's also a ton of bandwagon fans, the same people who's favorite basketball team right now is the Lakers, and 10 years ago Bulls. And it's those bandwagon fans that act arrogant whom I'd like to give a roundhouse to the hip.
But if you're a real Yankee fan, no offense.
Oh(I just mentioned this in my other thread about the Yanks), how can people sit with a straight face watching the grounds crew at Yankee Stadium dance to YMCA while raking the dirt? I can't believe they don't get booed off the field....can't believe A-Rod and Jeter aren't out there joining them either.
Lou Gehrig's legendary accomplishments on the baseball diamond include a .340 lifetime batting average, the 15th highest in baseball history. He collected more than 400 total bases in five different seasons; a major league record. Only 16 players have achieved that level of power in a single season, Babe Ruth did it twice and Chuck Klein three times. Gehrig is one of only ten players with more with than 100 extra base hits in a single season, and only he and Chuck Klein did it in two different years.
Lou Gehrig hit 23 career grand slam home runs, a major league record, he hit 73 three-run homers and 166 two-run homers, giving him the highest average of RBI's per home run of anybody in history with more than 300 HR's. On June 3, 1932, Gehrig hit four home runs in a single game becoming the first American League player to accomplish this feat.
Gehrig won the Triple Crown in 1934 with a .363 batting average, hit 49 HR's with 165 RBI's. He was voted the Most Valuable Player in 1927 and in 1936. In the 1920's, a player could only win the Most Valuable Player Award once in his career. The award was changed in 1932 to allow a player to win it as often as he could. Either Gehrig or Babe Ruth would have won the MVP award every year in the 1920's and early 1930's as they were the greatest run producers baseball has ever known. Lou Gehrig was a compulsive worker with a record of 2,130 straight games played, and he proudly played his whole career with the New York Yankees. He played every game for more than 13 seasons, despite a broken thumb, painful back spasms, and a broken toe. X-rays taken late in his career, showed Gehrig's hands had 17 different fractures that had healed while he continued to play.
Gehrig is the only player who can stand comparison with his spectacular teammate, Babe Ruth. Batting back-to-back in the Yankee lineup, Ruth batting ahead of Gehrig were the most fearsome combination in history. Lou Gehrig's RBI's totals catch one's eye first, next his great run scoring makes a compelling statistic to rank him as the game's greatest total runs producer in baseball's history.
In his 13 full seasons, Lou Gehrig averaged 147 RBI's a year, from 1926 thru 1938. No other player was able to even reach the 147 RBI mark until George Foster of the Cincinnati Reds did so in 1977. In 1927, Gehrig had 175 RBI's, in 1930 he had 174 RBI's and in 1931 his 184 RBI's are the highest total in American League History. Gehrig drove in over 150 runs in a season seven times, over 170 three times.
This great run producer scored on average 138.8 runs per season in his 13 years. In 1927, Gehrig scored 149 runs, in 1931 he scored 163 runs and in 1936 he scored an incredible 167 runs. Only in his last season did he score less than 120 runs and in that year he scored 115 times.
Whitey Ford was Casey Stengel's designated big game pitcher, though curiously he never pitched a crucial seventh game of the World Series, despite the fact that the Yanks played seven of them during his career. A close buddy of Mickey Mantle, Ford was known as "The Chairman of the Board." He won 10 of his 22 World Series starts, including two games in a series three times. He entered the Hall of Fame with Mantle.
Nicknames
"The Chairman of the Board"
Played For
New York Yankees (1950, 1953-1967)
Post-Season
1950 World Series, 1953 World Series, 1955 World Series, 1956 World Series, 1957 World Series, 1958 World Series, 1960 World Series, 1961 World Series, 1962 World Series, 1963 World Series, 1964 World Series
World Champion?
Yes, six times: 1950, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961, and 1962.
Ultimate Games (3-4)
1955 World Series Game Seven, 1956 World Series Game Seven, 1957 World Series Game Seven, 1958 World Series Game Seven, 1960 World Series Game Seven, 1962 World Series Game Seven, 1964 World Series Game Seven.
Whitey Ford never pitched in an ultimate game, though the Yankees played in seven during his career, which seems odd since his manager Casey Stengel often referred to him as the "money pitcher."
In the 1955 World Series, Ford started and won Game One and was saved by Stengel and used in Game Six, where he also started and won ( a complete game four-hitter). In '56 he was rocked in Game One and came back on two days rest to win Game Three. Though he'd pitched just 12 innings in the two games, Casey held him back for the rest of the series as New York won in seven. In 1957 Ford out-dueled Warren Spahn to win Game One, lost Game Five, and was done for the series. In the seventh game of that series, Stengel used three starting pitchers in relief, but not Whitey. In 1958 Spahn beat Ford in Game One and Game Four, giving the Braves a 3-1 lead. After Bob Turley won Game Five, Whitey returned on two days rest to start Game Six. He gave up a run in the first, and after loading the bases in the second inning (Spahn having singled off him), Ford was replaced. The Yankees came back to win the game in extra-innings but Ford was done.
Two years later in 1960, Ford pitched shutouts in Game Three and Game Six, setting up the famous finale which New York lost on Bill Mazeroski's home run. In 1962, under Ralph Houk, Ford started and won Game One against the Giants. Ralph Terry started Game Two, Bill Stafford Game Three and Whitey returned for Game Four. He pitched six innings and left the game tied. Seemingly set up to start Game Seven, Ford was brought back on one-days rest to pitch Game Six, which the Yanks needed to nail down the title. He was tired, and was knocked out in less than five innings, allowing nine hits and five earned runs. The loss forced a Game Seven, which Terry won.
It seems that Ford was a big-game pitcher but he needed his rest. In both 1958 and 1962 he was used on short rest and was beaten. Though he won games on short rest at other times, his managers were unwilling to use him in Game Sevens when he was tired.
Honors
All-Star (8): 1954-56, 1958-61, 1964; Cy Young Award 1961
Thanks for the info, Edgar. I knew Gehrig was good. Just didn't realize how good.
I saw Ford pitch many times. A wily mix-em up kind of pitcher. Batters never knew what to expect.
I used to love Yogi Berra's at-bats. I remember him fouling off pitch after pitch after pitch. According to informed sources, he was tiring out the opposing pitcher. (This was before the days of pitch counts.) I used to joke with my friend that when Yogi came to to the plate, I could go home, have a snack, take a nap, come back to the stadium, and Berra would be still be at the plate. A bit of an exaggeration, but it was a good time to pay a visit to the ladies' room.
I love yogi-isms. They never grow stale.
I look for the Yankees to win tonight and close out the series on Saturday.
Here's what really gets me laughing...the SOX fans are rooting for the YANKS! They honestly believe the Sox can't win a world series without vanquishing the hated yankees
Panzade, Interesting. I was thinking just the opposite. If the Yankees are gone before Boston has to play them, the Sox have a chance.
Gus, You could be right. Despite the fact that the Yankees won 100 games, this his not been a stellar year for them. However, I'm root, root, rootin' for the home team.
At this point of the season, I believe the Sox are a bit stronger...but when you factor in the curse...who knows?
Shut the hell up with the curse. It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, and I want to shoot that damn Boston writer for making it up. The only "curse" is that the Yanks have had a consistently better team over the years.
And I am definitely not one of those "root for the Yankees....we have to beat them to get to the WS" fans. I could care less how the Sox get there, and I think it would be kind of sweet to see the Yankees get knocked out in the first round.
I haven't really followed MLB much this year...tell me, are the Tigers in it?
Nice post slappy...the more you ignore the curse...the more it eats you up. I can't wait for a Sox-Yankees playoff...talk about history?
It's gonna be the Yankees vs. the Red Sox, panzade.
The Red Sox will beat the Yankees with relative ease, and then contine on to win the World Series.
Mark my words.
