26 to 35 – New York Yankees By the Numbers

                            

By Harvey Frommer

 

          Numerology – amounts, stats quantities, numerals, whatever you call them – they keep on coming. Reaction has been so positive, that herewith the latest installment for numerals for the team from the Bronx. Please send along your own numbers. Will credit your selection if used.

 

26

          No Yankee pitcher has won 26 games in a regular season since Lefty Gomez in 1934.

          Only Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle recorded more hits by age 26 than Derek Jeter.

27

                            

          Number of General Managers that worked during George Steinbrenner’s tenure. 

 

28

Of the 60 record-setting home runs hit by Babe Ruth in 1927, 28 were at Yankee Stadium.

29

                   Joe DiMaggio, most homers by a Yankee rookie, 1939.

Mel Allen was a Yankee broadcaster for 29 seasons, television and radio.   

Whitey Ford over a 16 year career had 29 bases stolen off him. 

Paul O’Neill was awarded the 29th plaque in Monument Park.

30

Wee Willie Keeler’s bat length, measured in inches, shortest ever.

Yogi Berra, most home runs in a season by a Yankee catcher, 1952, and 1956

          Eddie Lopat, Mel Stottlemyre, Willie Randolph all wore #30.                                                     

          Roger Maris, of his 61 home runs in 1961, 30 were hit at Yankee Stadium.  

31 

          Bobby Richardson retired from the Yankees at the age of 31 and became baseball coach at the University of South Carolina.

32

Most passed balls as a team in a season, 1913       

          Earle Combs was given uniform #1 and as a leadoff man could have become the first Yankee player to bat identified by a uniform number. However, Yankees had a rain delay that day. Cleveland played before the Yankees and it’s likely one of their players wore the #1 first in 1929. So Combs would have been the first Yankees but not major leaguer to wear a number.

When Combs became a Yankee coach in 1936, he chose uniform #32. 

Uniform number of Elston Howard, retired July 21, 1984

Number of Yankee managers all time through Joe Girardi  
  33

Second longest hitting streak in franchise history, Hal Chase, 1907

          Number worn by Bill Dickey as Yankee coach.                                               

33 1/3                  

          Mariano Rivera’s longest post-season scoreless innings pitched.

 

34

          Pitcher Foster Edwards in 1930 was the first Yankee to wear this number.

35

          Outfielder Dixie Walker in 1931 was the first Yankee to wear this number.

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Dr. Harvey Frommer, a professor at Dartmouth College in the MALS program, is in his 40th year of writing books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, he is the author of 42 sports books including the classics: best-selling “New York City Baseball, 1947-1957″ and best-selling Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,as well as his acclaimed Remembering Yankee Stadium and best-selling Remembering Fenway Park. His highly praised When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl was published last fall.

His Frommer Baseball Classic – Remembering Yankee Stadium (Second Edition) is his newest sports effort. A link to purchase autographed copies of Frommer Sports Books is at: http://frommerbooks.com/

The prolific author is at work on THE ULTIMATE YANKEE BOOK (2017) http://frommerbooks.com/advance-praise.html