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The New York Yankees are a Major League Baseball team based in the borough of The Bronx , in New York City , New York . Since the 1969 expansion, the Yankees have played in the Eastern Division of the American League . The Yankees have been Major League Baseball's most dominant franchise. No team has won more pennants or World Series, and many of the game's biggest stars have been Yankees. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Yankees have been among the most storied teams in North America over their 100+ year history. Along with franchises like the Boston Celtics and Montreal Canadiens , the Yankees have helped exemplify the phrase "dynasty" in professional athletics. The Boston Red Sox are the Yankees' chief rivals, with the Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry often considered one of the most heated rivalries in all of American professional sports. The Yankees lead the league in total titles and the overall series. Distinctions The Yankees have won 26 World Series in 39 appearances; the St. Louis Cardinals and the Athletics are tied for second with 9 World Series victories each, and the Dodgers are second in World Series appearances with 18. Among the North America n major sports, the Yankees' success is only approached by the 24 Stanley Cup championships of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League . Most of those Cups were won during the period when the hockey league had only six teams, while most of the Yankees titles were won when the Major Leagues had 16 teams. The Boston Celtics of the NBA with 16 titles in a league roughly half as old as MLB (over 100 years to roughly 60 years) are currrently are winning championships at a similar rate, but are well behind the Yankees in quantity. The Yankees are also the only team that is represented at every position in the Baseball Hall Of Fame . Origins At the end of the 1900 season the American League re-organized and, with its president Ban Johnson as the driving force, decided to assert itself as a new major league. Previously a Minor League (known as the Western League until 1899), the American League carried over five of its previous locations and added three more on the East Coast, including one in Baltimore, Maryland , which had lost its National League Team when that league contracted the year before. The intention of Johnson and the American League had been to place a team in New York City , but their efforts had been stymied by the political connections that owners of the National League New York Giants had with Tammany Hall . When the team began play as the ''Baltimore Orioles'' in 1901 , they were managed by John McGraw . As a result of a feud with league president Ban Johnson, who rigidly enforced rules about rowdyism on the field of play, McGraw jumped leagues to manage the New York Giants in the middle of the 1902 season. A week later the owner of the Giants also gained controlling interest of the Orioles and raided the team for players, after which the league declared the team forfeit and took control, still intending to move the franchise to New York when and if possible. In January 1903 , the American and National Leagues held a "peace conference" to settle conflicts over player contract disputes and to agree on future cooperation. The NL also agreed that the "junior circuit" could establish a franchise in New York. The AL's Baltimore franchise became the New York franchise when its new owners, Frank Farrell and William Devery , were able to find a ballpark location not blocked by the Giants. Farrell and Devery both had deep ties into city politics and gambling. Farrell owned a casino and several pool halls, while Devery had served as a blatantly corrupt chief of the New York City police and had only been forced out of the department at the start of 1902 . The Highlanders The franchise's first park in New York was located at 165th St. and Broadway in Manhattan , near the highest point on the island. Consequently the field was known as Hilltop Park and the team quickly became known as the ''New York Highlanders''. The name was also a reference to the noted British military unit The Gordon Highlanders , as the team president from 1903 to 1906 was named Joseph Gordon. Today the site of the original Hilltop Park is occupied by buildings of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center . As the Highlanders, the team enjoyed success only twice, finishing in second place in 1904 and 1910 ; but otherwise, much of their first fifteen years in New York was spent in the cellar. Their somewhat tainted ownership, along with the questionable activities of some players, notably first baseman Hal Chase , raised suspicions of game-fixing, but little of that was ever proven. Their best chance came on the last day of the 1904 season, at the Hilltop. New York pitcher Jack Chesbro threw a Wild Pitch in the ninth inning which allowed the eventual pennant-winning run to score for the Boston Americans . This event had historical significance in several ways. First, the presence of the Highlanders in the race had led the Giants to announce they would not participate in the World Series against a "minor league" team. Although Boston had won the pennant, the Giants still refused to participate. The resulting tongue-lashing of the Giants by the media stung their owner, John T. Brush , who then led a committee that formalized the rules governing the World Series. 1904 was the last year a Series was not played, until the Strike -truncated year of 1994. For fans of the team formally named the Red Sox in 1908, the 1904 season-ender would prove to be the last time Boston would defeat the Yankees in a pennant-deciding game for literally a century. From 1913 to 1922 the team would play in the Polo Grounds , a park owned by their National League rivals, the Giants. Relations between the clubs had warmed when the Giants were allowed to lease Hilltop Park while the Polo Grounds was being rebuilt in 1911 following a disastrous fire. During the early 1900s, the nickname "Yankees" was occasionally applied to the club, as a variant on "Americans", verifiably as early as June 21 , 1904 , when Patsy Dougherty was traded from Boston to New York, and the Boston Herald 's report was headlined "Dougherty as a Yankee". That matter-of-fact wording suggests the nickname was already well-known. The '' New York Herald '', on April 15 , 1906 , reported "Yankees win opening game from Boston, 2-1". The name grew in popularity over the team's first decade. With the change of parks in 1913, the "Highlanders" reference became obsolete, and the de facto team nickname became exclusively "Yankees". Before very long, ''New York Yankees'' had become the official nickname of the club. By the mid 1910s, owners Farrell and Devery had become estranged and both were in need of money. At the start of 1915 , they sold the team to Colonel Jacob Ruppert and Captain Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston . Ruppert was heir to the Ruppert brewery fortune and had also been tied to the Tammany Hall machine, serving as a U.S. Congressman for eight years. Ruppert later said, "For $450,000 we got an orphan ball club, without a home of its own, without players of outstanding ability, without prestige." But now ''with'' an owner possessing deep pockets, and a willingness to dig into them to produce a winning team. The Ruth and Gehrig era Perhaps one of the greatest ironies of the Yankees dominance comes from its roots. The Yankees detente with the from 1919 until 2004 (see Curse Of The Bambino ), often finding themselves out of the World Series hunt as a result of the success of the Yankees. Harry Frazee finally found success on Broadway in 1927 with the musical comedy '' No No Nanette '', which included the song "Tea For Two". Other critical newcomers in this period were manager Miller Huggins and general manager Ed Barrow . Huggins was hired in 1919 by Ruppert while Huston was serving in Europe with the army (this would 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, having managed the team since 1918 . Barrow would act as general manager or president of the Yankees for the next 25 years and may deserve the bulk of the credit for the team's success during that period. He was especially noted for development of the Yankees' farm system. The home run hitting exploits of Ruth proved popular with the public, to the extent that the Yankees were soon outdrawing their landlords, the Giants. In 1921 the Yankees were told to move out of the Polo Grounds after the 1922 season. At that time, 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, they broke ground for a new ballpark just across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds. The construction crew moved with remarkable speed and finished the big new ballpark in less than a year. In 1923 the Yankees moved into Yankee Stadium at 161st St. and River Avenue in The Bronx . The site for the stadium was chosen because the IRT Jerome Avenue subway line, now the MTA 's#4 train, went right by there, practically on top of Yankee Stadium's right-field wall. The Stadium was the first triple-deck venue in baseball and seated an astounding 58,000. It was truly " The House That Ruth Built ", From 1921 to 1928 , the Yankees went through their first period of great success, winning six American League pennants and three World Series. In 1921 through 1923 they faced the Giants in the World Series, losing the first two match-ups but turning the tables in 1923 after the Big Stadium opened. Giants outfielder Casey Stengel , who even then was being called "Old Case", hit two homers to win the two games the Giants came away with. Stengel would later become a "giant" for the Yankees as a manager. The , who played second base. Lazzeri actually ranked third in the league in home runs in 1927 with 18. Meusel hit .337 with 103 runs batted in and, Lazzeri hit .309 with 102 RBI. Speed was another weapon used by both and Meusel's 24 stolen bases were second best in the league after George Sisler's (27), while Lazzeri swiped 22. All of these gaudy numbers were due in part to the leadoff man Earle Combs who played center field. Combs hit .356 and lead the AL with 231 hits that year (a team record until Don Mattingly broke it in 1986), and had a .414 on base percentage. The 1927 Yankees' team batting average was .307. The Yankees would repeat as American League champions in 1928, fighting off the resurgent Philadelphia Athletics , and sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Babe Ruth hit .625 with 3 home runs in that series, while Lou Gehrig hit .545 and belted 4 round-trippers. After three also-ran seasons, the Yankees returned to the American League top perch under new manager Joe McCarthy in 1932 and swept the Chicago Cubs in the World Series, running their streak of consecutive World Series game wins to 12, a mark which would stand until the 2000 Yankees bested it in the World Series that year. Babe Ruth hit his famous " Called Shot " home run in Wrigley Field in Game 3 of that Series, a fitting " Swan Song " to his illustrious post-season career. The DiMaggio era The Yankees run during the 1930s could also be facetiously called the "McCarthy era", as manager Joe McCarthy (no relation to the infamous Senator of the same name) would guide the Yankees to new heights. Just as Gehrig stepped out of Ruth's considerable shadow, a new titan appeared on the horizon, in the person of Joe DiMaggio . The young center fielder from San Francisco was an immediate impact player, batting .323, hitting 29 homers and driving in 125 runs in his rookie season of 1936. Behind the thundering Yankees bats of DiMaggio, Gehrig and Frank Crosetti , and a superb pitching staff led by Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez and anchored by catcher Bill Dickey , the Yankees reeled off an unprecedented four consecutive World Series wins during 1936-1939. They did it without Gehrig for most of 1939, as the superstar's retirement due to ALS saddened the baseball world. The strongest competition for the Yankees during that stretch was the Detroit Tigers , who won two pennants before that Yankees four-year stretch, and one after. When the Yankees did get into the Series, they had little trouble. During Game 2 of the 1936 Series , they pounded the Giants 18-4, still the World Series record (through 2005) for most runs by a team in one game. They took the Giants 4 games to 2 in that Series, and 4 games to 1 the next year. They also swept the Chicago Cubs in 1938 , and the Cincinnati Reds in 1939 . After an off season came the Summer of 1941, a much-celebrated year, often described by sportswriters as the last great year of the "Golden Era", before World War II and other realities intervened. Ted Williams 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 hit in 61 straight games as a minor leaguer with the San Francisco Seals , began a hitting streak on May 15 which stretched to an astonishing 56 games. A popular song by 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 lakefront. A crucial factor in ending the streak was the fielding of Cleveland third baseman Ken Keltner , 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 as virtually impossible that anyone will approach DiMaggio's 56-game streak, which is so far beyond second place (44) as to be almost a statistical anomaly. The Yankees made short work of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1941 Series . Two months and one day after the final game of the Yanks' 4 to 1 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 nonetheless found the Yanks in the post-season again, as they traded World Series wins with the St. Louis Cardinals during 1942 and 1943. The Yanks then went into a bit of a slump, and manager McCarthy was let go early in the 1946 season. After a couple of interim managers had come and gone, Bucky Harris was brought in and the Yankees righted the ship again, winning the 1947 pennant and facing a much-tougher Dodgers team than their 1941 counterparts, in a Series that went seven games and was a harbinger of things to come for much of the next decade. Despite finishing only 3 games back of the pennant-winning Cleveland Indians in 1948, Harris was released, and the Yankees brought in Casey Stengel as their manager. Casey had a reputation for being somewhat of a clown and had been associated with managing excruciatingly bad teams such as the mid-1930s Boston Braves , so his selection was met with no little skepticism. His tenure would prove to the most successful in the Yankees' history up to that point. The 1949 season is another that has been written about poetically, as a Yankees team that was seen as "underdogs" came from behind to catch and surpass the powerful Red Sox on the last two days of the season, in a faceoff that could be said to be the real beginning of the modern intense rivalry between these teams. The post-season proved to be a bit easier, as the Yankees knocked off their cross-town Flatbush rivals 4 games to 1. By this time, the Great DiMaggio's career was winding down. It has often been reported that he said he wanted to retire before he became an "ordinary" player. He was also hampered by bone spurs in his heel, which hastened the final docking of the " Yankee Clipper ". As if on cue, new superstars began arriving, including the "Oklahoma Kid", Mickey Mantle , whose first year ( 1951 ) was DiMaggio's curtain call. The 1950s Bettering the McCarthy-era clubs, Stengel's squad won the World Series in his first five years as manager, 1949 through 1953 . The five consecutive championships won by the Yankees during this period remains 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. The 1950s were also a decade of significant individual achievement for Yankee players. In 1956, Mantle won the major league Triple Crown , leading both leagues in batting average (.353), home runs (52), and RBIs (130). On October 8 , 1956 , in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Dodgers, pitcher Don Larsen threw the only Perfect Game in World Series history. Not only was it the only perfect game to be pitched in World Series play, it remains the only No-hitter of any kind to be pitched in postseason play. The Yankees went on to win yet another World Series that season, and Larsen earned World Series MVP honors. Yankee players also dominated the American League MVP award, with a Yankee claiming ownership six times in the decade (1950 Rizzuto, 1951 Berra, 1954 Berra, 1955 Berra, 1956 Mantle, 1957 Mantle). Pitcher Bob Turley also won the Cy Young Award in 1958 , the award's third year of existence. For the decade, the Yankees won six World Series championships ('50, 51, '52, '53, '56, '58) and eight American League pennants. Led by Mantle, Ford, Berra, Elston Howard , and the newly acquired Roger Maris , the Yankees burst into the new decade seeking to replicate the remarkable success of the 1950s. The 1960s The Yankees lost the 1960 World Series in heartbreaking fashion when Bill Mazeroski hit a game-winning, series-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 off Ralph Terry . It remains the only Game 7, Walk-off Home Run in World Series history. Stengel was blamed for the World Series loss for failing to start his ace, Ford, three times in the Series, and was replaced as manager with Ralph Houk prior to the 1961 season. Stengel himself, who had reached his seventh decade in July of that year, clearly thought the issue was age discrimination, remarking, "I'll never make the mistake of turning 70 again." Yogi Berra's assessment of the loss was the equally famous comment, "We made too many wrong mistakes." During the 1960-61 offseason, a seemingly innocuous development may have marked the beginning of the end for this Yankees dynasty. In December of 1960, Chicago insurance executive Charlie Finley purchased the Kansas City Athletics from the estate of Arnold Johnson, who had died that March. Johnson had acquired the then-Philadelphia Athletics from the family of Connie Mack in 1954 . He was the owner of Yankee Stadium at the time, but was forced to sell the stadium by American League owners as a condition of purchasing the Athletics. Johnson was also a longtime business associate of then-Yankees owners Del Webb and Dan Topping . During Johnson's ownership, the Athletics traded many young players to the Yankees for cash and aging veterans. Roger Maris had been acquired by the Yankees in one such trade, going to New York in a seven-player trade in December 1959. Many fans, and even other teams, frequently accused the Athletics of being operated as an effective farm team for the Yankees. Once Finley purchased the Athletics, he immediately terminated the team's "special relationship" with the Yankees. Nonetheless in 1960, Maris led the league in slugging percentage, RBIs, and extra base hits and finished second in home runs (one behind Mickey Mantle) and total bases, won a gold glove, and won the American League Most Valuable Player award. All of this was a prelude to the remarkable year that would follow. 1961 was one of the most memorable years in Yankee history. Throughout the summer, Mantle and reigning-MVP Roger Maris hit home runs at a record pace as both chased Babe Ruth's single season home run record of 60. The duo's home run prowess led the media and fans to christen them 'The M & M Boys.' Ultimately, Mantle was forced to bow out in mid-September with 54 home runs when a severe hip infection forced him from the lineup. On October 1 , 1961 , on the final day of the season, Maris broke the record when he sent a pitch from Boston's Tracy Stallard into the right field stands at Yankee Stadium for his 61st home run. However, by decree of Commissioner Ford Frick , separate single-season home run records were maintained to reflect the fact that Ruth hit his 60 home runs during a 154-game season, while Maris hit his 61 in the first year of the new 162-game season. Some 30 years later, on September 4 , 1991 , an 8-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 on September 8 , 1998 . (McGwire's record was later broken by Barry Bonds , whose 73 home runs in 2001 remain the major league record. 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 remain 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 1996 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. Because of the excellence of Maris, Mantle, and World Series-MVP Ford, a fine pitching staff, stellar team defense, the team's amazing depth and power, and their 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. In 1962 , the Yankees won their second consecutive World Series, defeating the San Francisco Giants in seven games. The Yanks would again reach the Fall Classic in 1963 , but were swept in four games by the Los Angeles Dodgers . Behind World Series-MVP Sandy Koufax , Don Drysdale , and Johnny Podres , 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. 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. The aging Yankees returned to the World Series in 1964 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 3 off Cardinals' reliever Barney Schultz, the Yankees fell to the Cardinals in seven games. It was to be the last World Series appearance by the Yankees for 12 years. After the 1964 season, CBS purchased the Yankees from Topping and Webb for $11.2 million. Jokesters at the time wondered if Walter Cronkite would become the manager, perhaps with Yogi Berra doing the newscasts. Topping and Webb had owned the Yankees for 20 years, missing the World Series only 5 times, and going 10-5 in the World Series. By contrast, the CBS-owned teams never went to the World Series, and in the first year of the new ownership - 1965 - the Yankees finished in the Second Division for the first time in 40 years; the introduction of the major league amateur draft in 1965 also meant that the Yankees could no longer sign any player they wanted. In 1966 the team finished last in the AL for the first time since 1912 , and next-to-last the following year. After that the team's fortunes improved somewhat, but they would not become serious contenders again until 1974. Steinbrenner takes over George Steinbrenner purchased the club for $10 million on January 3 , 1973 from CBS, renovated Yankee Stadium, hired and fired Billy Martin a number of times, feuded with star outfielder Reggie Jackson , and presided over the resurgence of the Yankees in the late '70s. Jackson's three home runs in the sixth and final game of the 1977 World Series against three different Dodger pitchers (earning him the nickname "Mr. October") defined the period as much as Martin and Steinbrenner. The race for the pennant often came to a close competition between the Yankees and the Red Sox, and for fans of both clubs, a game between the two teams (whether in the regular season or post-season championship games) was cause for a rivalry that was often bitter and ruthless, with brawls frequently erupting between both players and fans from the two clubs. The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry came to a head in the 1978 season, when the two clubs finished the regular season in a tie for first place in the AL East. A playoff game between the two teams was held to decide who would go on to the pennant, with the game being held at Boston's Fenway Park (because the Red Sox had won more head-to-head games between the two teams that season). The Yankees won the day, driving a stake through the hearts of their rivals' fans when Bucky Dent drove a game-winning home run over the " Green Monster ," one of several emotional moments in the team's history that had Red Sox fans wondering if their team was under some kind of a curse. A new dynasty The Yankees entered the 1990s as a last-place team, having spent well but not always wisely on free-agent players since their last appearance in the World Series in 1981 . During the 1980s the Yankees, led by their All-Star first baseman Don Mattingly , had the most total wins out of any major league team, but failed to win a World Series (the first such decade since the 1910s). In 1990 , Yankee pitcher Andy Hawkins became the first Yankees pitcher ever to lose a no-hitter, when the third baseman (Mike Blowers) committed an error, followed by 2 walks and an error by the left fielder ( Jesse Barfield ) with the bases loaded, scoring all 3 runners as well as the batter. The 4-0 loss (to the White Sox) was the largest margin of any no-hitter loss in the 20th century. To add to the oddity, the Yankees (and Hawkins) were no-hit by the White Sox 11 days later. The bad judgment and bad luck of the '80s and early '90s started to change when, while owner Steinbrenner was under suspension, management was able to implement a coherent program without interference from above. Under general managers Gene Michael and Bob Watson 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 when the season was cut short by the players' strike. A year later, the team reached the playoffs as the wild card and was eliminated only after a memorable series against the Seattle Mariners . Showalter was fired after the 1995 season due to a playoff collapse and personality clashes with Steinbrenner and his staff and was replaced by Joe Torre . Initially derided as a retread choice ("Clueless Joe" ran the headline on one of the city's tabloid newspapers), Torre's smooth manner proved out as he led the Yankees to a World Series victory in 1996 , defeating the Atlanta Braves in six games. General manager Bob Watson was dismissed when the Yankees failed to repeat in 1997 and was replaced by Brian Cashman , a former Yankees intern. However, the foundation laid by Michael and Watson of players like Derek Jeter , Andy Pettitte , Jorge Posada , Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams was a significant factor in the Yankees' return to prominence. Other prominent members of the late 1990s championships teams acquired through trades included Paul O'Neill , David Cone , Tino Martinez , John Wetteland , Chuck Knoblauch , and Roger Clemens , while Jimmy Key , Wade Boggs , David Wells , Mike Stanton , and Orlando "El Duque" Hernández were signed as free agents. The 1998-2000 Yankees were the first team to "three-peat" with World Series victories since the Oakland Athletics of the early 1970s. In 1998 and 1999 , they swept the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves, respectively. In 2000 , the Yankees met up with cross-town New York Mets for the first Subway Series since 1956 and won four games to one. In these four World Series victories, the Yankees won fourteen straight games. The Yankees are the most recent major league team to repeat as World Series champions. 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 World Series sweep of the Padres. The '98 Yankees went 11-2 during the playoffs and finished with a combined record of 125-50, a major league record. However, their regular season record was surpassed by the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who went 116-46 before losing to the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
The 21st century In the emotional October 2001 , following the September 11 attack on New York City's World Trade Center , the Yankees defeated the Oakland Athletics 3 games to 2 in the Division Series, and then the Seattle Mariners in the ALCS, 4 games to 1. But, the usually unhittable Mariano Rivera shockingly blew the lead - and World Series - to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 7. Arizona manager Bob Brenly used his pitching staff, which included Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling , very effectively. In addition, the usually potent Yankee attack turned ice-cold. The Yankee Dynasty was over. After the 2001 season, fan favorite players Paul O'Neill and Scott Brosius retired. Tino Martinez and Chuck Knoblauch left for free agency. The Yankees had huge holes to fill. They signed famous slugger Jason Giambi and outfielder Rondell White . The Yankees also managed to bring back David Wells . The Yankees finished the 2002 season with a AL best record of 103-58. In the 2002 Division Series, the Yankees lost to the miracle Anaheim Angels in 4 games. In 2003, the Yankees defeated their long-time rival the Boston Red Sox in a tough seven-game ALCS , which featured a near-brawl in Game 3 and a series-ending Walk-off Home Run by Aaron Boone in the 11th inning of the final game, only to be defeated by the Florida Marlins - a team with a payroll a quarter of the size of the Yankees' - in the World Series , 4 games to 2. After the 2003 season, the Yankees signed/traded for sluggers Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield to add more power to their lineup that was shut down in the 2003 World Series . Throughout 2004, the Yankees' weakness was starting pitching. Despite their pitching weakness, the Yankees managed to get into the playoffs and win over 100 games with the power lineup. 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), to lose a best-of-7 series after taking a 3-0 series lead. After the 2004 World Series , the Yankees needed to improve their pitching, which faltered in the devastating collapse to the Red Sox. They signed pitchers Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright . The Yankees also acquired dominant lefty Randy Johnson from the Arizona Diamondbacks . Post-2004 Era The 2005 season did not start as expected, once the Yankees were in last place in the American League East Division. Pavano, Wright, and Johnson struggled. As the season continued, the Yankees improved and slugger Jason Giambi started to hit again. Most of the season, the Yankees were 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. Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez won the American League MVP 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 Robinson Cano was runner-up in Rookie Of The Year voting. Another highlight of the season was the record-setting pitching by journeyman Aaron Small . Small was called up after the All-Star break to help fill some holes in the Yankees' rotation and became just the fourth pitcher in history to win at least 10 games without a loss, joining Tom Zachary, Dennis Lamp, and Howie Krist. In the 2005 American League Division Series , the Los Angeles Angels Of Anaheim defeated the Yankees in five games in the first round of the postseason, winning the deciding game by a score of 5-3. In the 2005-2006 offseason, general manager Brian Cashman was given more control of the direction of the Yankees, and on December 23 , 2005 , the Yankees stunned the baseball world by signing center fielder Johnny Damon from the rival Red Sox, where he was a marquee player. The Yankees began the season on April 3rd on a West Coast trip against the Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels Of Anaheim . Last time the Yankees started off there, they won the World Series. As the 2006 season, began most of the players got off to great starts. Mussina, Jeter, Johnson, Giambi and Sheffield got off to great start, that helped the team win more ball games than in April 2005. World Series drought Many explanations have been given for the lack of Yankee World Series titles since 2000. These include depletion of the Yankee farm system because of trades and free agent acquisitions, the aging or departure of the players who had formed the core of the Yankees during the late 1990s, and allegedly poor coaching (like the overuse of Mariano Rivera in the 2001 World Series). Buster Olney , in his book ''The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty'', argues that George Steinbrenner's management style resulted in the players burning out psychologically. Several Sabermetricians have argued that success in the playoffs is largely the result of luck. This argument is bolstered by the fact that the production of the Yankees' core players has decreased steadily since their 1996 World Series title. One particularly creative explanation jokingly proposed by blogger Larry Mahnken is the "Curse of Clay Bellinger ". By analogy with the Curse Of The Bambino , Mahnken points to the departure of Utility Player Clay Bellinger from the Yankee roster following the 2001 season and asserts that the Yankees will never again win the World Series until either they make amends to Bellinger or they win the championship anyway. The Tautology is part of the joke. On another note, there is also belief that the Yankees world series drought has been attributed to the events of 9/11 , thus coining the phrase Curse Of 9/11 . Despite their most recent drought in World Series championships, the Yankees have continued to perform well in the regular season, recently winning their eighth straight AL East division title. In September 2005 , the club set a new American League home attendance record of 4,090,696. The Yankees are only the third franchise in sports history to draw over 4 million in regular season attendance at their own ballpark (the others being the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays with 4,057,947 and the 1993 Colorado Rockies with 4,483,350). Some argue that the mere consideration of five years without a championship as some sort of "drought" it testament to the level of expectation the Yankees have created. No other franchise would consider a five year stretch as any kind of drought. Indeed, the Yankees are a franchise in a league of their own, and this level of dominance and expectation started with the deal that brought George "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox and can support the contention that the Curse Of The Bambino will remain as long as the Yankees position as the class of the MLB is a reality. Any team can win a championship (no one would consider the Arizona Diamondbacks or Florida Marlins, recent World Series champions, to be franchises threatening to topple the Yankees legacy over the last 85 years), so the Red Sox finally winning one doesn't put them back to the position of dominance over the MLB they held through the WWI years. Team Captains Howard W. Rosenberg, a historian on baseball captains and author of the 2003 book ''Cap Anson 1: When Captaining a Team Meant Something: Leadership in Baseball's Early Years'', has found that the count of Yankee captains failed to count Hall of Famer Clark Griffith , the 1903-05 captain, and Kid Elberfeld , the 1906-09 one, with 1913 Manager Frank Chance a strong circumstantial candidate to have been captain that year as well. Therefore, Jeter may in fact be the 13th or 14th Yankees' captain. Controversy The Yankees are a notable team not only for their impressive history on the field, but also for their financial situation. The current ownership spends more on player salaries than any other franchise in baseball. As of 2006, the team payroll is $198.7 million, which is $78.6 million more than the second-highest team, the Red Sox {Link without Title} . Frustrated after being outbid for pitcher Jose Contreras prior to the 2003 season, Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino even went so far as to dub the Yankees the " Evil Empire ," a characterization that is primarily popular among Red Sox fans and some Yankees fans. It is a heated debate whether the Yankees' free-spending is positive or negative for baseball, and whether a strict Salary Cap would make the sport fairer and increase Parity among the large-market and small-market teams. The following are arguments for and against these spending practices: For
Against
In 2003, the Office of Foreign Assets Control reported that the Yankees engaged in illegal trade with Cuba and had to settle with the United States government for US$ 75,000 {Link without Title} . Quick facts :Founded: As the Indianapolis , Indiana franchise of the Western League , originally a farm team of the Cincinnati Reds . In 1901 , became the Baltimore, Maryland franchise in the newly created American League. Moved to New York City before the 1903 season. :Formerly known as: Baltimore Orioles, 1901-1902. New York Highlanders, 1903- 1910 , "Yankees" as early as 1904 , used more and more interchangeably with "Highlanders" as their first decade in New York progressed. :Nicknames: Yanks, Bronx Bombers, Men in Pinstripes :Home ballpark: Yankee Stadium , at 161st Street and River Avenue in the Bronx, New York City, from 1923 to the present, excluding two years in the 1970s during renovation. Also played at the original Oriole Park in Baltimore, 1901-1902; Hilltop Park in Manhattan , New York City, 1903-1912; the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, 1913 - 1922 ; and Shea Stadium in Queens , New York City, 1974 - 1975 . The team plans to move into a newer Yankee Stadium modeled after the old one in time for the 2009 season. :Uniform design: Home uniform is white with distinctive pinstripes and a navy blue interlocking "NY" at the chest. Away uniform is gray with "New York" written in capitals across the chest. The player number is on the back of the uniform jersey and is not accompanied by the player name. (The interlocking NY was used by the New York Knicks on their warmup jackets, and later shorts from the 1960s to 1990 and remains on the Knicks' throwback uniforms.) In 1929, the New York Yankees became the first team to make numbers a permanent part of the uniform. Numbers were handed out based on the order in the lineup. In 1929, Earle Combs wore #1, Mark Koenig #2, Babe Ruth #3, Lou Gehrig #4, Bob Meusel #5, Tony Lazzeri #6, Leo Durocher #7, Johnny Grabowski #8, Benny Bengough #9, and Bill Dickey #10 (Grabowski, Bengough and Dickey all spent time catching). While other teams began putting names on the backs of jerseys in the 1960s, the Yankees did not follow the trend. Many companies create jerseys with names sewn on the back for fans to purchase, even though no Yankee has ever had their name on the back of a Yankee jersey in a game. :Logo design: An interlocking "NY" (based on an element of the original " style top hat covers the barrel of the bat. The inside lip of the top hat, originally blue, has mostly been reproduced in white since the mid-1970s. :Team theme song: "Here Come the Yankees" ( 1967 ), composed by Bob Bundin and Lou Stallman. The " Theme From New York, New York " is played at the end of each home game. ( Frank Sinatra 's version has been traditionally played following victories; Liza Minnelli 's original version following losses.) :Local Television: YES Network ; WWOR-TV (channel 9) :Local Radio: WCBS (880 AM) :All-time regular season record (1901-2005): 9192 won - 7029 lost - 87 tied - 3 no-decision
Postseason appearances +extra round added to 1981 playoffs due to strike shortened season, round was added permanently to the playoffs for the 1994 season, but due to another strike, this round was not added to the playoffs for permanent use until the 1995 season. Baseball Hall Of Fame rs (Affiliation according to National Baseball Hall of Fame; R. Jackson is affiliated with the Athletics, but wears a Yankee cap {Link without Title} {Link without Title} {Link without Title} ) Current roster Minor league affiliations
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