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Babe Ruth gets top billing in a September 30 Yankee history column. He stroked legendary home run no. 60 off Tom Zachary this day in 1927, breaking a 2-2 tie with the Senators and carrying the Yankees to a 4-2 victory. Amazingly, the game also featured the last appearance of early-century pitching phenom Walter Johnson, winner of 417 career games. Johnson pinch-hit for Zachary and flied out to Ruth. Continue reading September 30 in Yankee History
Over the years, the Yanks have backed into a few pennants when they were idle and a challenger lost, and some even when they lost on the clinching day, but not many could have been more drastic than the 2000 season when the Bronx-based team coasted into the postseason while being bashed and beaten 13-2 in Baltimore on September 29. We witnessed the carnage from good club-level seats on the first base side in Camden Yards as Andy Pettitte failed to survive the 10-run second inning. Chris Richard (later traded for Jack Cust) went yard twice, and Cal Ripken once. But we spent the rest of the evening watching their rotating scoreboard, where they finally admitted at 10:06 pm that the Red Sox had lost to Tampa Bay, 8-6. The Yanks were AL East Champs. Continue reading September 29 in Yankee History
There is little doubt which Yankee September 28 highlight deserves to lead off this column, as it was the doubleheader sweep over the rival Red Sox on this day in 1951. In Game One, Allie Reynolds immortalized himself by becoming the only American League hurler to ever throw two no-hitters in the same season, as he bested the Boston club, 8-0, in his seventh shutout of the year. This is the game that could have cemented Yogi Berra’s name in infamy, as he dropped Ted Williams’s foul pop for what should have been the 27th out, but Ted followed with another pop behind the plate, and Yogi didn’t miss twice. Then in the second game, the Bombers clinched their 18th pennant and Vic Raschi won, 11-3. Mickey Mantle knocked in three with a couple of two-base hits, and Joe DiMaggio hit a three-run homer, the final one of his career. Continue reading September 28 in Yankee History
Surprisingly, journeyman righty Paul Byrd delayed the almost relentless Yankee march to the 2009 AL East title for alomost six innings in a rain-soaked Yankee Stadium on September 27, 2009, against a game Andy Pettitte who, because he completed six innings, got the win. After Byrd allowed two, two-out singles in the sixth, Hideki Matsui singled in two runs three pitches after a Takashi Saitowild pitch to give the Bombers a 3-2 lead. Mark Teixeira homered for the final run in the 4-2 win in the eighth, Melky Cabrera went yard earlier, and the Yanks earened the division crown at exactly 5:00 pm New York time. Continue reading September 27 in Yankee History
New Supreme Court Justice-to-be, child of the Bronx and Yankee fanSonia Sotomayor threw out the first pitch in Yankee Stadium on September 26, 2009, and in the game that followed, the superb CC Sabathia reduced the Bombers’ magic number to clinch the AL East title to one with a 3-0 win over Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Red Sox. Robbie Cano broke a scoreless duel with a sixth-inning home run, and Johnny Damon singled in two in the eighth, but not until after pinch runner Brett Gardner escaped a rundown between home and third on a short almost wild pitch by diving back into third under an errant throw. Continue reading September 26 in Yankee History
The Yankees celebrated Spanish Heritage Month on September 25, 2009, by having Panama President Riccardo Martinelli throw out the ceremonial first pitch, as Yankee fans celebrated the first win in a three-game home sweep against the Red Sox, 9-5. Joba Chamberlain went six innings for the win over John Lester, and Alex Rodriguez led the way offensively with three runs scored and four rbi’s on two walks and three hits, one of them a two-run third inning jack that helped drive the Bosox lefty from the mound. Continue reading September 25 in Yankee History
Bronx, N.Y., September 24, 2011 – The celebration of the 50th anniversary of Roger Maris’s 61st home run, delayed from the rain-drenched Friday night, went off without a hitch Saturday afternoon, even better perhaps because this day was exactly one week from the actual anniversary, which falls after the regular season ends. The Maris family and two of Mickey Mantle’s sons took to the field following the announcements of Maris teammates Bob Cerv, Bobby Richardson, Moose Skowron, Whitey Ford, and Yogi Berra. Continue reading Roger, Freddy, and Jesus
Duane Kuiper collected both Indians hits in a 4-0 loss to the Yankees on September 24, 1978, as Ron Guidry threw his third two-hit shutout in a matter of weeks. Guidry, who had held the rival Red Sox to just a pair of safeties twice earlier in September, garnered his ninth shutout of the year, a new Yankee record, and one short of the AL southpaw season record set by Babe Ruth way back in 1916. Continue reading September 24 in Yankee History
A great night turned dramatically ugly on Septembeer 23, 2010, when CC Sabathia took the mound in the sixth inning with a 3-1 lead over the Rays in a game vs. Tampa Bay in Yankee Stadium on September 23, 2010. Four hits and two walks around a strike out and a seven-run inning was well on its way. Kareem Abdul Jabbar was in the house as Tampa inched toward an AL East title with a 10-3 win.
Continue reading September 23 in Yankee History
The September 22, 2007 Blue Jays/Yankees tilt in Yankee Stadium played out like two games, three if you want to count the one-hour-plus rain delay at the start. Toronto led 3-2 after five innings, but starters Phil Hughes and Shawn Marcum were long gone when, starting with the bottom of the sixth, consecutive half-inning scores of four runs, then five, then three, then three, and finally two were posted in a nail-biting, five-hour game that the Yanks finally won 12-11 in 10 innings. Every Toronto starter had at least two hits except for leadoff man Reed Johnson, and he reached on an error, walked twice, and scored twice too. It was one of Melky Cabrera’s finest days, with three hits and five rbi’s, including the game winner. He also started an 8-4-2 that nailed the go-ahead run at the plate in the top of the 10th inning. Alex Rodriguez had four hits, scored twice, and drove in three, and among the three runs Hideki Matsui delivered on three hits was his 100th rbi of the season. President Martin Torrijos of Panama was in attendance, although there’s no word on whether or not he lasted through the almost-all-day marathon battle. Continue reading September 22 in Yankee History
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