Yankees by the Numbers  (Part One)

          With so many of us biding the time until the 2018 season kicks off, here for your perusal some Bronx Bomber numerology to pass the time. Part trivia, part history, all Yankees, enjoy.

 

 

Zero 

Fewest passed balls in a season, 1931 team 

Number of days Dave Winfield spent in minor-league baseball before reaching the majors. 
                                                                    0002 

After Allie Reynolds pitched his second no-hitter for the Yankees in 1951, the Hotel Edison where he along with some teammates lived, changed his room number from 2019 to 0002.

.00009 

Difference between the batting average of George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss: .30854 and White Sox Tony Cuccinello: .30845 in the closest batting race in major league history, 1945. 
                                                          1 

Number of times Babe Ruth was pinch hit for. (Bobby Veach on August 9, 1925.)

Joe DiMaggio was the only player to get at least one hit in All-Star Games at Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field.

       During Joe DiMaggio's record 56-game hit streak, he had just one hit in 34 of those games. 
        Mickey Mantle hit for the cycle only 1 time in his career. He did it against Chicago at Yankee Stadium in 1957.

Billy Martin number retired August 10, 1986

The Yankees have had only one mascot "Dandy" (as in, Yankee Doodle Dandy), and he existed 1979 through 1981.

                                                    1.10   

       The major league rule banning a sticky substance such as pine tar on a bat beyond 18 inches from the bottom. That rule led to the "pine tar affair," Yankees against Royals in 1983.

1 1/2 

       Uniform number worn by opera star Robert Merrill, the man who for many years sang the national anthem at Yankee Stadium.

 1.95

       Career earned-run average of Herb Pennock in World Series competition. 
                                                      2

        Babe Ruth on two straight days slammed grand slam homers.

       Alex Rodriguez homered twice in the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium on September 5, 2007 against the Mariners giving him 48 home runs for the season.

    The number of Yankee managerial tours of duty of Dick Howser, Bob Lemon, Gene Michael and Lou Piniella. 
    Fewest shutouts by a Yankee pitching staff in a season, 1994. 
     Fewest times in a season grounded into a double play: Mickey Mantle, 1961, Mickey Rivers, 1977. 
    Most grand slams in a game, Tony Lazzeri, May 24, 1936 at Philadelphia. 

 

                                                   2.57

 Lowest earned run average by a Yankee pitching staff, 1904. 

                                                             3

All three perfect games in Yankee Stadium history were seen by Joe Torre: Larsen's beauty as a 16-year-old fan, and the gems spun by David Wells and David Cone from the dugout as Yankee manager. Don Zimmer was Torre's bench coach for the last two and he played in the first one as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956.  The Yankees have the most perfect games pitched by one club, all at Yankee Stadium.                      

            Babe Ruth's uniform number, retired June 13, 1948, second Yankee number. While the great Yankee was the first to wear it, he was far from the last. Seven other Yankees wore No. 3. Outfielder Cliif  Mapes wore it in 1948 when it was retired. Mapes switched to No. 7 the next year. After he was traded to the Browns in mid-1951, No. 7 went to a rookie named Mickey Mantle.

Shortstop Joe Sewell struck out only three times in 503 at-bats in 1932.

Babe Ruth and Bob  Meusel are the only players in history to hit for the cycle three times.

The Yankee Clipper is the only player to win a ring for winning the World Series in each of his first four seasons, 1936-1939. 

Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra each won three MVP awards.

Top number of perfect games by a franchise: Don Larsen, David Wells, David Cone.

                                                         4

 In 1923, Babe Ruth hit for his highest single-season average: .393. He came within four hits of batting .400.

Lou Gehrig's number, retired on July 4, 1939, the first athlete in any sport to have that distinction. He is the only Yankee to have worn number 4. 

 Most straight losing seasons in franchise history 1912-1915 and 1989-1992.

4.02

Lou Gehrig’s career RBIs for at bats, second to only Babe Ruth.   

                                                     5

Lefty Gomez was a starter in five All-Star Games  he won 3 of them)

Number of times Mickey Mantle hit a ball into the gothic iron facade that hung from the old stadium's roof. 
         Joe DiMaggio's uniform number, retired in 1952

Yanks won the World Series a record five straight seasons – 1949-53 

 October 16th, 2003 - Aaron Boone was the fifth player -- and second Yankee -- to end a post-season series with a walk-off home run. His solo shot in the bottom of the 11th inning capped a 6-5, Game 7 victory over Boston, giving the Yankees their 39th American League Pennant.

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Some of the material in this article was excerpted from Frommer’s The Ultimate Yankee Book http://www.frommerbooks.com/ultimate-yankees.html

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. In 2010, he was honored by the City of New York to serve as historical consultant for the re-imagined old Yankee Stadium site, Heritage Field

 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.