Yankees by the Number - Part II
The 2018 Yankees are putting up all kinds
of fabulous numbers in their bid to get into the World Series, For those of you who enjoyed Part I – here
are more fabulous Yankee numbers. Enjoy
51
Number worn by Bernie Williams for
sixteen Yankee seasons. He is one of 13
players to wear No. 51. His tenure was the longest, 1991-2006. Two future Hall
of Famers who wore that number on other teams — Ichiro Suzuki and Randy Johnson
— were given other numbers as Yankees. Williams was given No. 51 because an
equipment manager thought he played like Willie McGee, the Cardinal great
outfielder at the time who wore the number.
52
The first Yankee to wear this number
was Johnny Lucadello in 1947. C.C. Sabathia has worn the number since
2009.
Doyle
Alexander in 1976 played his only season with the Yankees and wore Number
52.
53
Don
Mattingly, most doubles in a season by a Yankee, 1986
Mariano Rivera saves in 2004, new team
record, third-highest total in AL history.
54
Most
road wins in a season, 1939
Mickey
Mantle, most home runs by switch hitter, 54 in 1961
“Goose”
Gossage and Aroldis Chapman, shared this number many years apart.
55
Number
worn by Hideki Matsui in tribute to Japan’s legend Sadaharu Oh’s record 55
home runs in a season.
56
Joe
DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak included 56 singles and runs scored.
Number
assigned to Jim Bouton in spring training 1962. When it was obvious that the
rookie was going to make the team, he was given #27. But Bouton wanted to keep
#56 to "remind me of how close I was to not making the team."
"You see, you spend a good piece
of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the
other way around all the time." - Jim Bouton
Dave Righetti's rookie number.
57
The 1927 Yankees won 57 games at
Yankee Stadium tying an American League record.
Joe
DiMaggio allegedly lost out on $10,000 when his streak ended at 56 games; Heinz
57 ended pending endorsement deal.
58
Mariano
Rivera's original number.
58.4%
Stolen base percentage of the 1927
Yankees, fifth in the league. With their power, base stealing was not a
priority.
59
Juan Rivera was the last Yankee to
wear this number, 2002-2003
60
Babe
Ruth’s record setting home run total produced 100 RBI’s.
“61”
The film 61* was shot in Detroit, not
Yankee Stadium. Filmmaker Billy Crystal explained that the look of the ballpark
there resembled the 1961Yankee Stadium more closely than the current Yankee
Stadium at the time of the film’s shooting in 2000.
62
Number
of strikeouts Allie Reynolds recorded in 15 World Series games.
63
During
his 56 game hitting streak, Joe DiMaggio hit safely against 63 right-handed
pitchers.
On August 13, 1995, Mickey Mantle died of
complications from liver cancer at the age of 63.
Original number given
to Bernade Figueroa “Bernie” Williams, 1991
65
The
number of games Mickey Mantle played in 12 World Series.
$65,000
Highest
salary reportedly paid to Phil Rizzuto, 1951. That is $600,000 in today’s
dollars.
66
Yankee players who wore number 66: Steve Baboni, Jim
DeShales, Juan Miranda, and Andrew Brackman, J.R. Murphy
68
Dione
Navarro and Dellin Batances wore this number for Yankees.
69
Alan Mills in 1990 wore this number
for the Yankees.
71
Yogi
Berra, most career hits in World Series
72
Games won by Highlanders in
their first season.
Babe Ruth set a major league record by
homering twice in a game seventy-two times.
Mariano Rivera earned his first save
on May 17, 1996 against the Angels at the Stadium. Andy Pettitte got the
win. Rivera saved 72 of Pettitte’s wins, a record for any starter/closer
combination.
73
Gary
Sanchez wore this number in 2015.
74
Franchise record for stolen bases set by Fritz Maisel in 1914, broken by
Rickey Henderson in 1985.
Derek Jeter wore No. 74 in his first spring training in 1994. The next year
Yankees equipment manager Rob Cucuzza gave Jeter No. 2.
"Give him 2; he's going to be special." – Buck Showalter
75
Yogi Berra appeared in seventy-five
World Series games, most in baseball history.
77
Humberto
Sanchez wore this number in 2008.
80
A
10-5 triumph over Oakland on August 4, 1998 in the second game of a doubleheader
gave the Yankees 80 wins in their 108th game, earliest in franchise
history.
81
No
one ever wore this Yankee uniform number
82
Most times caught stealing in a
season, 1920, a franchise record.
83
Of 158 home runs hit by the 1927 Yankees,
83 were hit at Yankee Stadium
88
Number of pitches David Cone tossed
in perfect game, July 19, 1999 - 68 strikes and 20 balls.
89
The
Yankees and the Orioles played to a 1-1 tie September 30, 2001, in 15 innings,
the 89th tie in franchise history. It was Cal Ripken's last game at Yankee
Stadium.
91
The
fewest errors in a season – 1996 Yankees
Number
worn by Alfredo Aceves
93
Most
stolen bases by a Yankee in a season, Rickey Henderson, 1988
94
Yankee
World Series strikeout leader in 22 games, 146 innings
95
Dave Righetti’s no-hitter on July
4th, was pitched on a day temperature at the Stadium reached 95 degrees.
95.1%
Although part of the first Hall of Fame
inductee class, Babe Ruth was strangely not voted in unanimously. He received
95.1% of the votes
96.88
Dan Topping, Larry MacPhail and Del Web
Topping purchased this percentage of Yankees from Jacob Ruppert estate in
January of 1945.
97
Don Larsen used this number of pitches to
hurl his perfect game against the Dodgers at Yankee Stadium in the 1956 World
Series.
99
|
The highest uniform number ever issued
by the New York Yankees went to Charlie Keller (1952) and Brian Bruney
(2009).
|
|
|
100
Only
two Yankee clubs have lost more than 100 games in a season: 1912, 50-102, 1908,
51-103
Babe Ruth on
September 24, 1920 hit his 100th home run. It was off Washington's Jim
Shaw.
Derek
Jeter became along with Earl Combs and Ted Williams, the only one to score a
hundred runs in each their first seven seasons.
About Harvey Frommer
One
of the most prolific and respected sports journalists and oral historians in
the United States, author of the autobiographies of legends Nolan Ryan, Tony
Dorsett, and Red Holzman, Dr. Harvey Frommer is an expert on the New York
Yankees and has arguably written more books, articles and reviews on the New
York Yankees than anyone.
A professor for more than two
decades in the MALS program at Dartmouth College, Frommer was dubbed
“Dartmouth’s Mr. Baseball” by their alumni magazine. He’s also the founder of www.HarveyFrommerSports.com.
He is the author of the acclaimed
The Ultimate Yankee Book http://www.frommerbooks.com/ultimate-yankees.html
