There is no question that the New York Yankees are the greatest sports franchise in the world. No other sports team has 27 World Championships. Throughout their history, from the time they were the Baltimore Orioles, the Highlanders, and the New York Yankees, they have provided some of the most exciting and inspirational moments in all of the sports. With such a long history picking just ten of those moments was a daunting task. But, below I will present my arbitrary picks and explain why they are on this list.
10. Mariano Rivera’s tearful exit
On September 26, 2013, it was a meaningless game, but would turn out to be far from meaningless. Mariano Rivera the greatest reliever/closer of all time would make his last appearance at Yankee Stadium. Before a crowd of nearly 49k, Rivera would pitch his last one and two-thirds innings at Yankee Stadium.
In a last-minute decision manager, Joe Girardi would send Rivera’s greatest and long time teammates Andy Pettitte and Derek Jeter out to take the ball from Rivera in what would turn out to be one of the most iconic moments in Yankee history. As the two approached Rivera he would hand over the ball to Pettitte and collapse into his arms in tearful built up emotion.
Rivera would go one to become the first baseball player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by unanimous of the writers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_voxdzu2bvY
9. George M. Steinbrenner’s last time at Yankee Stadium
Before the start of the 79th Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, there was one surprise in a heavily scripted pre-game celebration. Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner made an appearance on the field, handing out the balls for the ceremonial first pitch. The Boss made his way from the outfield via golf cart and handed balls to Reggie Jackson, Goose Gossage, Whitey Ford, and Yogi Berra. This was a rare public appearance by Steinbrenner, who has been out of the public eye for the past two years.
The “boss had been rumored to have suffered a stroke or was suffering from Alzheimer’s. An emotional and obviously declining Steinbrenner made his last appearance at the Stadium, the same Stadium in which he bought the Yankees to new heights and a return to glory.
Steinbrenner was originally opposed to doing this as he thought he would be booed by fans, but the opposite turned out to be true as the Yankee faithful greeted him with immense applause, as they knew it might be the last time they would ever see the greatest sports team owner in history Almost two years to the day the “boss” would pass away from a massive heart attack.
8. Aaron Judge sets Rookie Record number of homers
2017 was a breakout year for the newest Yankee baby boomer. Hardly a baby, the monster 6′ 7″ 282 pound giant of a player would be an All-Star, would be a Silver Slugger, and an MVP candidate. He at the end of the season was crowned the Rookie of the Year. But on September 25th of the year, he would go into the history books by beating Mark McGwire’s rookie home run record hitting his 50th home run of the season.
7. Gerrit Cole signs record New York Yankee contract
The New York Yankees at the MLB winter meeting in 2019 showed that they were tired of not winning a World Series since 2009, and made it a priority to sign the best pitcher in free agency, Gerrit Cole.
To the meeting, they brought with them manager Aaron Boone, general manager Brian Cashman, pitching coach Matt Blake and their ace in the hole pitcher Andy Pettitte, a childhood hero of Cole’s. They presented him and his wife Amy with gifts and a Hal Steinbrenner approved $324MM contract to play for the Yankees for nine years. After a private meeting with Andy Pettitte, Cole accepted the largest contract ever offered to an MLB pitcher in history.
Cole although a southern California native he had always been a Yankee fan. During the Arizona/Yankee World Series in 2001, the ten-year-old attended with a sign saying “Yankee Fan Today, Tomorrow, Forever!”. Upon his signing and official news conference making him a New York Yankee he stunned all those in attendance by showing that sign he had saved since his childhood.
6. Bobby Mercer wins for Thurmon Munson
Bobby Mercer and Thurmon Munson were the best of friends that teammates could be. Each visiting each other’s families. On August 2, 1979, Munson would stun the baseball world when he was killed landing his own plane near his Canton, Ohio family home. A couple of days later Yankee Owner George M. Steinbrenner made the decision that the entire team would charter a plane and attend Munson’s funeral under the threat that they would have to default on that evening’s game if they didn’t get back in time for the game.
They did get back in time for the game with the Baltimore Orioles on that August 6th evening. The game couldn’t have been choreographed any better. The team was totally broken up by Munson’s death. Mercer gave a eulogy at that day’s funeral. Manager Billy Martin knowing how upset Mercer was told him he didn’t have to play that night, but Bobby Mercer insisted.
The rest is in baseball lore. Mercer obviously emotional would go on that night to drive in all five runs in the Yankee win, for his friend Thurmon Munson.
5. Babe Ruth… so many moments
I could do an entire top 10 on the special moments that Babe Ruth delighted the baseball world with on his way to becoming the greatest baseball player of all time. Here I will cover just two of those moments.
Few players in baseball have hit 3 home runs in a World Series game. But Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson, and Albert Pujols have. Only Ruth has done it twice. In the World Series in 1926 Ruth would hit 3 home runs in Game 4. And repeated the feat at the same stadium in Game 4 of the 1928 World Series.
In a famous game in the 1932 World Series supposedly called a home run and where it would land. In the video, it looks as if he was pointing to a spot in the outfield. Although this would go down in Yankee lore, Ruth admitted later that he never called the shot.
4. Roger Maris breaks Babe Ruth’s home run record
On October 1, 1961, this about to turn 16-year-old writer was in the stands at Yankee stadium when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth’s record of 60 home runs by hitting one last home run on the last day of the 162 game season. There will always be an asterisk after this feat as it took Maris a 162 game season to do it, whereas Ruth did it in a 154 game season.
All during the 1961 season both Maris and fellow teammate Mickey Mantle battled for the home run title. Mantle’s injuries late in the season allowed Maris to overtake him and eventually beat Ruth’s record. It took an additional 37 years for that record to be beaten by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and later by Barry Bonds. In this writer’s opinion, Maris still holds the record, as the aforementioned all visited the drug store before completing their feat.
In an interesting cultural note, notice in the video that most of the male fans are wearing ties and coats.
3. Lou Gehrig retires from baseball (the speech)
Lou Gehrig was most likely the second greatest baseball player in the history of the New York Yankees and most of baseball. His stats were amazing including his recond number of consecutive games. It was on Independence Day in 1939, the beloved Lou Gehrig was dying. He had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis which would later be named after him as Lou Gehrig Disease (ALS).
On this day in July Lou Gehrig would show the guy he always was. He would not talk about his accomplishments but how proud he was to be a New York Yankee and the privilege it was to play with his teammates. On this sad day in Yankee history, the famous Lou Gehrig would say goodbye to the Yankee fans for the last time. Gehrig would succumb to his disease on June 2, 1941.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLoq_st_JEo
2. The three openings of Yankee Stadium
After ten years of tenancy at the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants, the Yankees built their own stadium. The Yankees proved that they had become the gold standard in baseball by building the largest ever built baseball stadium. The franchise spent less than a year and $2.5 million erecting New York Yankee Stadium, a monstrous palace that housed some 20,000 more seats than the next largest major league facility. The Stadium was opened on April 2, 1909, and held 74,000 fans. The first game played the Yankees would shut out the Sox 4-0.
In 1973 Yankee Stadium had shown signs of wear, especially during the ownership of CBS that failed to make repairs. New New York Yankee owner George M. Steinbrenners decided it was time to update the stadium and the Yankees would play at Shea Stadium until the renovations were complete. Steinbrenner revealed a completely remodeled Yankee Stadium to begin the 1976 season. The new Stadium had more luxury boxes and amenities and held 57,545 fans in the stands.
In 2007 Steinbrenner and company decided it was time to retire the old Yankee Stadium and build a brand new state of the art ballpark for the Yankees and it’s fans. Some fans were not pleased to leave the old park where so many historic players played. On April 2, 2009, the new Yankee Stadium was introduced to the fans. Steinbrenner did a superb job building a field second to none while maintaining the feel of the old Stadium. The new Stadium is just across the street from the old one and cost $2.3 billion dollars with expanded public spaces, restaurants, and group boxes. These three Stadiums produced everything else on this list.
1. Don Larsen’s World Series perfect game
In 1956 the New York Yankees were in their second Yankee dynasty after winning six of the last nine World Series. Quite a feat in itself, but on October 8, 1956, the most iconic game in baseball history would be played by the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Yankees had lost the series to the same Dodgers in the previous year and the Yankees were looking for redemption.
Don Larsen who had a career record of 81-91 over his 14 years, on this one day this unlikely pitcher would put his name in the history books to be the only pitcher ever to pitch a perfect game in a World Series, a record that still stands today. It was game 5 of the 1956 World Series. Larsen faced the Dodgers Sal Maglie in the game. Mickey Mantle would hit a home run in the fourth inning against Maglie. In the sixth inning, Hank Bauer hit a single driving in Andy Carey for the two Yankee runs. That is all they would need as Larsen set down 27 out of 27 Dodgers and caused one of the most iconic baseball photos ever taken. Yogi Berra jumping into Larsen’s arms and causing me to select this as the most spectacular moment in Yankee History.
Honorable mentions for the best moments in Yankee history include Mister “October”, Mister “November,” Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak, Jeter flying into the stands, and the flip, David Wells perfect game, David Cone’s perfect game, One-handed Jim Abbot’s no-hitter, Mickey Mantle’s Triple Crown, Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit, and more that are too lengthy to name.