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February 5 in Yankee History

Dan McCourt — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:05:15 +0000

A tree may grow in Brooklyn, but on February 5, 1921, the New York Yankee baseball club purchased 20 acres in the South Bronx. This plot, across the Harlem River and within sight of the Polo Grounds they had shared with the Giants for almost 10 years, would be the location of Yankee Stadium. A product of Puerto Rico, Luis Arroyo was inducted into the Latin American Hall of Fame Museum on February 5, 2002.

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February 4 in Yankee History

Dan McCourt — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:05:56 +0000

In just one more sign that the eighties were not “The Glory Years,” on February 4, 1984, the Yanks traded righty reliever George Frazier, who looked a lot like a tall Ron Guidry until he threw the ball, and a young Otis Nixon, in his first year in the bigs, to Cleveland for Toby Harrah. Toby never really warmed to the opportunity to replace the traded and much beloved Graig Nettles. Harrah hit just .217

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February 3 in Yankee History

Dan McCourt — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:01:00 +0000

In the early years of the Twentieth Century, the game of baseball continued to evolve. One sign of progress was the acceptance of some practices which were then gradually called into question, only to eventually be ruled illegal. The spitball was a famous example of this phenomenon, but a less heralded one was the emery ball, described in one source as “an illegal pitch in which the ball is filed with an emery board for

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February 2 in Yankee History

Dan McCourt — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:00:27 +0000

February 2 is a great Baseball Hall of Fame day, and by logical extension it’s a great day in Yankee history too. To start with, Babe Ruth was inducted into the very first class this day in 1936, along with Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson, and Walter Johnson. (Some accounts report this event as having taken place on January 29 too.) And Yankee pitching greats from both sides of the plate were voted into

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February 1 in Yankee History

Dan McCourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:00:19 +0000

Wally Pipp, who lost his first base job to Lou Gehrig and The Streak, was sold to the Reds on February 1, 1926. A Forgotten Man, so to speak, in the Yankee past, but Pipp contributed a very impressive 80 home runs and 826 rbi’s in the Bronx from 1915-1925. Pipp had been the Yankee Opening Day first baseman for 11 consecutive years. We’ll intro one of the birthdays listed below to tell a tale

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January 31 in Yankee History

Dan McCourt — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:05:57 +0000

January 31 is a big Hall of Fame day. First, there are several fairly prominent members who were born this day (see below). And Yankees inducted into the Hall this day include Joe Sewell, who was voted in in 1977, along with a few others. A shortstop with the Indians for a decade, Sewell was pounced upon by the Yanks when the Tribe released him. Although his Hall years were really his Cleveland ones, Joe

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January 30 in Yankee History

Dan McCourt — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:05:57 +0000

Lefty Gomez, Eddie Lopat, Whitey Ford, Ron Guidry, all great Yankee lefty starters where they’re needed most: in the House That Ruth Built, with its short porch in right. But leading the way was Herb Pennock. Business Manager Ed Barrow knew what he was doing when he procured Herb from the Red Sox on January 30, 1923, just a few months before Yankee Stadium was to open. Barrow shipped infielder Norm McMillan, pitcher George Murray,

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January 29 in Yankee History

Dan McCourt — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:05:23 +0000

Two Yankee transactions from years ago that did not work out occurred on January 29. In 1943, the Bombers shipped second baseman Jerry Priddy and minor-league hurler Milo Candini to Washington for righthander Bill Zuber. Although Zuber posted an 8-4 mark in 1943, his four-year totals (18-23, two saves) dipped, but were not bad when compared with Priddy. He averaged more games with the Senators over three seasons than he had with the Yanks in

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January 28 in Yankee History

Dan McCourt — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:05:28 +0000

The American League was formally organized on January 28, 1901, as the Baltimore Orioles, the Philadelphia Athletics, and the Boston Somersets joined the Washington Nationals, the Cleveland Blues, the Detroit Tigers, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Chicago White Stockings. Franchises in Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and Buffalo, in the plans for the fledging league since it was first proposed a year earlier, were folded, and Ban Johnson was in control. The Orioles would fail after playing two

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January 27 in Yankee History

Dan McCourt — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:05:24 +0000

It briefly seemed like a great addition after the The Yanks signed right-handed pitcher Juan Acevedo to a one-year minor-league contract on January 27, 2003. Acevedo would travel north from Tampa as part of the Yankee pen, and he actually garnered six early saves with Mariano Rivera making a rare trip to the Disabled List. But the American League solved Juan’s fastball, he was hammered in a series of outings, and the Yanks would be

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