The New York Yankees
“Baseball season was always my favorite time of the year; not only because of the roaring crowds, smell of hot dogs, and the exciting energy around me, but because I got to watch the best team of all time, The New York Yankees” (Panik). The New York Yankees are considered by many to be the best team to ever exist, but do the facts back up these opinions? For years, I have been saying that the New York Yankees are my favorite team and the best team of them all but I have never actually looked into the solid facts that would verify these statements.
The New York Yankees were not always called the Yankees, nor were they always a New York team. According to nycgo.com, a baseball team was purchased from Baltimore in 1903 and it then resurfaced on 168th Street and Broadway, in New York. This newly put together New York team was named the “Highlanders” (Nycgo.com). The Highlanders were referred to by local sportswriters as the Yankees or Yanks. This nickname came from the fact that they were an American League team, and Americans were often referred to as Yanks by the British (Sportsencyclopedia.com). In 1912, the Yankees adapted their trademark “pinstripe” uniforms (Nycgo.com). The infamous pinstripe uniform is still worn today and is synonymous with the Yankee name. People everywhere spend a lot of money to buy a pinstripe Yankee jersey just to feel as if they are a part of the legacy. One year after the adaptation of the pinstripe uniform, in 1913, the team decided to make Yankees its official nickname (Sportsencyclopedia.com). When the Yankees first started out playing, they were not very good. Up until 1920, the Yankees had never won a single pennant. Little did this years Yankee team know, they would soon get a player to change everything for them. “The Boston Red Sox owner, Harry Frazee was looking to finance a Broadway Musical, ‘No-No Nannette,’ and sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $125,000. After this move, the Yankees went on to become the greatest dynasty in the history of sports, and the Red Sox would not win another World Series for 86 years” (Sportsencyclopedia.com). Some people say that Babe Ruth was the greatest player of all time and consider him to be the man who made the New York Yankees the team that they are today. I would definitely have to agree with this statement because he went on to set a new record of 54 home runs and led the Yankee to a 95 winning game streak in just one year.
Yankee stadium is often referred to as “The house that Ruth built.” After reading up on the statistics of the best New York Yankee players, I could understand why people say this. Bleacher Report columnist, Anthony Maimone wrote up an article titled, The Greatest New York Yankee of All Time. This article features the top 10 best Yankee players based on statistics. This article listed George Herman “Babe” Ruth as the number one New York Yankee player of all time. Although Babe Ruth died in 1948, his legacy is still known by even non-baseball fans. “With the Yankees, he batted .349, hit a team record 659 home runs and scored a record 1,959 runs” (Maimone). Babe Ruth, nicknamed the “Great Bambino,” was looked at as a “giant among men and there will never be a time again when one singular player will dominate their sport the way he did” (Maimone). In a personal interview with my dad, John Panik, he stated that, “The best three Yankee players of all time, to his knowledge, are Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio” (Panik). Kids in this generation, including myself, believe that Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are the best New York Yankee players of all time. While these players are not the number one players of all time, they are both in the top 10 best New York Yankee players, according to the article by Anthony Maimone. Without the exceptional players on the Yankees, the team would not hold the amazing records that they hold to this day.
As a team, the New York Yankees hold some of the best records in baseball history. According to Yankees.com, the New York Yankees won 27 world series’. They had 114 wins in a season in 1998, 65 at home wins in 1961, and 54 wins on the road in 1939. The Yankees most wins in a month was 28 wins in August of 1938. The most games played by the New York Yankees took place in 1964 and 1968 when the team played 164 both of these years (yankees.com). According to MLB.com, the New York Yankees have the most world series wins of all baseball teams. The New York Yankees hold 27 wins while the next best team, the St. Louis Cardinals, only has 11 world series wins. Also, the league that the Yankees are in, the American League, holds 62 total world series wins while the National League only has 44 world series wins (mlb.com). These records set by the New York Yankees are greater than almost all other baseball teams in existence.
The New York Yankees hold amazing records and have had some of the best players to ever play baseball, on their team. My dad got me into watching the New York Yankees and I know I will be a life long fan. I hope to watch the Yankees play with my son too someday and hopefully we will get to watch them win some more world series’ in the process. While I have always said that the New York Yankees were the best baseball team to ever exist, I never actually researched it and looked at the facts that support this statement. After all of the research I have done, I can conclude that the New York Yankees are, in fact, the best baseball team to ever exist.
Works Cited
"The History of the New York Yankees." Nycgo.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nycgo.com/articles/new-york-yankees1>.
Maimone, Anthony. "New York Yankees." Bleacher Report. N.p., 31 Jan. 2013. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. <http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1507318-greatest-new-york-yankees-of-all-time/page/12>.
"New York Yankees." Sportsecyclopedia.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/al/nyyanks/yankees.html>.
Panik, John. Father. Personal Interview. 15 Nov. 2013
"World Series Overview." MLB.com. Major League Baseball, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://www.mlb.com/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws.jsp?feature=club_champs>.
"Yankees Season Records." New York Yankees. Major League Baseball, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/nyy/history/season_records.jsp>.