Harvey Frommer on Sports: New York Yankees By The Numbers III
by Harvey Frommer
We have got your number if you are a number cruncher, a stat guy, a fan or the Yankees or just into baseball trivia.
Single digits, double digist, triple digits and on and on - the world of baseball is one that lives and dies with numbers.
So for your perusal and reading pleasure . . .
1,995 - Most career RBIs, Lou Gehrig.
2010 = Expiration year of Derek Jeter's contract.
2,120 = Number of games Babe Ruth played for the Yankees. 2,130 - The number of consecutive games Lou Gehrig played in.
2,401 - Most games played in by a Yankee, Mickey Mantle, 1951-1968.
2,584 = Career hits, Reggie Jackson.
2,597 - The record number of career strikeouts by Reggie Jackson.
2,721 - The Yankee record number of hits recorded by Lou Gehrig.
3,654 = The number of home runs Yankees hit at old Yankee Stadium, 1923-1973
$6,595.38 - The amount payable in 1927 in bi-weekly checks to Babe Ruth that added up to the record salary he earned of $70,000.
$18,000 - Cost of purchasing the franchise of Baltimore and transferring it to New York City.
$50,000 The New York Giants offered that unheard of amount to the Yankees for Yogi Berra.
64,519 - The number of people in attendance at Yankee Stadium in 1956 when Don Larsen pitched his Perfect Game.
$65,000 = Gillette and Ford paid this amount for the exclusive sponsorship rights to the first televised World Series shown only in New York City, 1947. Liebmann Brewery had offered $100,000 for the rights, but baseball Commissioner Chandler rejected the offer claiming it wouldn't be appropriate having the Series sponsored by the producer of an alcoholic beverage.
211,808 - The New York Highlanders attendance, 1903.
2,561,123 - Shea Stadium attendance for Yankees, 1974-75 3,451,542 - Hilltop Park attendance 1903-1912
6,220,031 - Polo Grounds attendance 1913-1922
$12,357.143 = Annual salary of Bernie Williams in 2001, more than the entire Division playoff opposition's Oakland infield and two of its outfielders.
$12.6-million - Annual salary of Derek Jeter that began in 2001.
64,188,862 - Yankee Stadium attendance 1923-1973.
Harvey Frommer, now in his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books, is the author of 39 of them including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball."
His FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING: BABE RUTH, LOU GEHRIG AND THE GREATEST TEAM IN BASEBALL HISTORY, THE 1927 NEW YORK YANKEES will be published by Wiley, Fall 2007.
Frommer is at work on REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) an oral/narrative history.
Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of one millions readers appears on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.
