It took the Yankees seven innings to overcome the 3-0 lead the visiting Tigers grabbed off Luis Severino on a home run in the top of the first when shortstop Jesus Bastidas hit the second two-run double of the seventh frame and the home team took a 6-5 lead, that would end as an 8-5 victory two innings later. Oswaldo Cabrera and Harrison Bader first-inning rbi’s got the Yankees close early.
Back-to-back first-inning home runs by Tyler Wade and Clint Frazier, a two-run shot by Mike Ford in the eighth, and Zack Granite‘s rbi double accounted for all the runs in the Yankees’ home 7-1 victory over Tampa on February 27, 2020. J.A. Happ held the Rays to one run over the first three frames, but the most impressive pitching came late from Clarke Schmidt (three strike outs in the sixth and seventh) and Jonathan Loaisiga (four K’s in the eight and ninth).
Look back and shake your head now a year later, but Greg Bird actually put up a fight to be the starter at first base in 2019, and his three-run home run vs the Tigers in Lakeland, Fla., on February 27 gave the Yanks a quick 4-0 lead. But alas, Chance Adams (in the first) and Domingo Acevedo (the third) were the primary culprits when Detroit responded with a pair of five-run innings in the rain-shortened 10-4 Bombers loss.
The Yankees continued to roll in their 2018 Spring campaign on February 27, 2018, as a five-run seventh inning rally against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla., carried them to a 9-8 win. Minor league first baseman Ryan McBroom, who had a walkoff for Toronto vs the Yankees in March 2017, started the rally by tying the score for New York with a leadoff home run. And minor league outfielder Mark Dayton crowned the rally with a three-run double.
Yet another bright prospect was heard from when the Yankees visited the Orioles in Sarasota on February 27, 2017. A low-scoring game, the teams were tied 1-1 through eight on a Greg Bird rbi double in the first and a Jonathan Schoop homer in the third. An effective Chad Green threw the first two for the Yanks. But uber-prospect Clint Frazier singled to start the top of the ninth and, following another single, infielder Thairo Estrada, five days after his 21st birthday, homered to left center for the 4-1 Yankee win. Estrada’s 2018 season was largely lost as he recovered from a gunshot wound from a perp attempting to rob him. It is hoped that he is good to go in 2019.
The Yanks made it 0-2 on February 27, 2014, when they opened George M. Steinbrenner Field by losing 8-2 to the visiting Pirates, who had beaten them the day before as well. The teams battled to a 2-2 tie through seven, with Kelly Johnson and John Ryan Murphy knocking in the runs, but free agent righthander Robert Coello got a horrible Spring started by allowing seven of eight to reach in the eighth, with three of the five runs scoring on Mel Rojas, Jr.‘s home run. Lefty Jeremy Bleich and righty Branden Pinder were assigned to the club that day, and Pinder allowed a run in pitching the ninth inning.
Young righthander Nik Turley and veteran Cody Eppley were tagged for seven early runs in a 10-7 loss to Baltimore in George M. Steinbrenner Field on February 27, 2013. The home team scored early and late, but not in between, on a Brett Gardner three-run triple in the second, and rbi’s from Jose Pirela and Kyle Roller in a three-run ninth. Russ Canzler, whom the Yanks grabbed from Cleveland only to have the Orioles take him once New York released him two weeks later, and who is with the Yanks heading into 2014 Spring Training, played left field for the O’s.
You Get What You Pay For? Infielder Toby Harrah hit one homer with 26 rbi’s for the 1984 Yanks, an offensive output well below fan and team expectations. So on February 27, 1985, the club traded him to Texas for outfielder Billy Sample, who would reward New York with a one-home-run, 15-rbi year. Thus went the ’80s.
The Yankees beat the Phillies in Clearwater 7-3 on February 28, 2011, as Ivan Nova, Sergio Mitre, Boone Logan, Dellin Betances, and Adam Warren held the home-standing Phils to two hits, two walks, and no runs through six. Curtis Granderson made his 2011 intentions known early with a two-run bomb in the fourth, and the Bombers wrapped it up on a four-run rally in the sixth keyed by doubles from Brett Gardner, Nick Swisher, and Jorge Posada.
On February 27, 2023, the Yankees signed free agent shortstop Rafael Martinez to a minor league contract. Also, righthanders Baron Stuart, Chase Hampton, and Indigo Diaz; and lefthander Geoffrey Gilbert were assigned to the Yankees.
On February 27, 2021, the Yankees signed free agent pitcher Michael Gomez.
On February 27, 2020, righthander Jhony Brito, lefthander JP Sears, second baseman Ezequiel Duran, and outfielder Everson Pereira were assigned to the Yankees.
On February 27, 2018, the Yankees invited nonroster lefthander Trevor Lane to Spring Training. And lefthander Josh Rogers, righthander Adonis Rosa, and third baseman Angel Aguilar were assigned to the team.
Yankee lefty Herb Pennock was voted into the Hall of Fame on February 27, 1948, along with Pittsburgh third baseman Pie Traynor. A lefthander, Herb was acquired from the Red Sox by the wily Business Manager Ed Barrow just in time for Yankee Stadium, with its short porch in right, to open. He posted a 164-90 record with the Yanks, also contributed 22 saves, and went 5-0 in World Series games while playing in the Bronx.
Mickey Mantle signed his first six-digit contract ($100,000) on February 27, 1963.
Although infielder Joe Yeager‘s offense (54 rbi’s and 11 steals in 1905 and 1906) wasn’t very much missed, the Yanks hardly got the better of the deal when they shipped him to the Browns on February 27, 1907, for catcher Branch Rickey, who filled in at first base and in the outfield too. Rickey notched 15 rbi’s and stole four bases in New York, but he made the Hall of Fame later in life as a manager and executive, and as the man who orchestrated the breaking of major league baseball’s color barrier with Jackie Robinson.
On February 27, 2017, second basemen Thairo Estrada and Abiatal Avelino; shortstop Cito Culver; righthanders Matt Wotherspoon, Matt Marsh, and Kyle Haynes; and lefties Caleb Frare and Nestor Cortes were all assigned to the Yankees.
It can be both fun and informative to track the daily baseball news affecting future and former Yankee players, but they weren’t all “good old days.” One memory triggered by a February 27 transaction is painful to read about. Just the other day we shared how the Yanks had acquired starter Doug Drabek from Chicago with lefty reliever Kevin Hickey, only to send Drabek to Pittsburgh for Rick Rhoden before the young righty blossomed into a star and copped the NL Cy Young Award. In the pantheon of Yankee trade miscues it ranks with one brought to mind by the Giants’ trade of former Yankee prospect Andy McGaffigan along with Fred Breining and Max Venable in a package to Montreal to get Al Oliver on February 27, 1984. The Yanks had sent McGaffigan (with Ted Wilborn) to the Giants to get Doyle Alexander in 1982. And therein lies the bad Yankee memory. Alexander responded with a 1-9 mark before breaking his hand punching the dugout wall (unlike Kevin Brown in 2004, this was his pitching hand). Then to make matters worse, once Alexander and the Bombers parted ways, he rebounded to post a 46-26 mark with the AL East rival Blue Jays and lead Toronto to the 1985 AL East title.
There are two other February 27 transactions that affected future and former Yankee players if you include the Giants’ release of “Iron Man” Joe McGinnity in 1909. McGinnity fashioned a 39-30 mark with the 1901-1902 Baltimore Orioles, the team that was moved to New York as the Highlanders the following year. And the mention of LaMarr Hoyt, who checked himself into rehab on February 27, 1986, could evoke a McGaffigan-like regret for Yankee fans, as the former Yankee draft choice posted none of his 98 career wins (vs. 68 losses) for New York. But 1978 Yankee hero Bucky Dent was acquired in trade for Hoyt, so most Yankee fans are cool with that transaction.
It was February 27, 2002, that the sale of the Red Sox to a group headed by John Henry became final.
The Kennington Oval Cricket Field in London was the setting for the first game of American baseball ever played in England on February 27, 1874.
Players Who Have Died This Day
Two one-time Yankee players have died on February 27. Southpaw reliever Ensign Cottrell (1947) ended his 1911-1915 career by losing one of seven games (no starts) in which he pitched for the Yankees. During the earlier four seasons he pitched for the Pirates, the Cubs, the Athletics, and the Braves, and finished up at 1-2. Barney Wolfe (1953) was Cottrell’s opposite; he pitched with his right hand and started with New York, going 6-12 in 27 games (19 starts) with the 1903-1904 Highlanders. Wolfe finished the 04 season with Washington and pitched there in 1905-1906 too, to an overall record of 21 wins and 37 losses with one save.
The only noteworthy nonYankee player to have died on February 27 is righthander Fred Lasher (2022), who in 1963, and from 1966 through 1970, pitched for Detroit, plus two other stops through 1971; Fred won 11, lost 13, and saved 22 in 151 games (one start).
Players Born This Day
The names of Yankee players born February 27 likely to be familiar to today’s fans include that of Jersey City native Willie Banks (1969), who went 4-1 for the ’97 and ’98 Yanks; lefty reliever for the club in 1989-1992 Greg Cadaret (1962); and catcher Ron Hassey (1953), who played for the ’85 and ’86 Yanks. Banks signed as a free agent on June 3, 1997, and was traded to Arizona for Scott Brow and minor-leaguer Joe Lisio 17 months later. Cadaret, who posted a 22-23 mark with six saves for a generally pretty bad Yankee team, arrived in the Bronx in 1989 with Eric Plunk and Luis Polonia when Rickey Henderson was sent back to Oakland. Hassey was traded back and forth with the Cubs and White Sox several times in a two-year period, and he hit 19 homers while driving in 71 runs, and stealing one base while playing with Pinstriped players. Players involved in Hassey trades those three years include Porfi Altamirano, Rich Bordi, Henry Cotto, Ray Fontenot, Brian Dayett, Joe Cowley, Britt Burns, Matt Winters, Neil Allen, Scott Bradley, Carlos Martinez, Ron Kittle, Wayne Tolleson, Joel Skinner, Bill Lindsey, and minor-leaguers Glen Braxton, Mike Soper, Chris Alvarez, and Eric Schmidt.
Of the other two (from a time certainly no one reading this will remember) Yankee celebrants, catcher Cy Perkins (1896) played for 16 years while hurler Art Goodwin (1905) appeared in only three games. Goodwin allowed four runs, three earned, on two hits and two walks for the Bombers in 1905, and although Perkins only had seven rbi’s with the 1931 Yanks, he accounted for 30 homers, 409 rbi’s, and 18 steals in a career that spanned 1915-1934, almost all of it with the A’s in Philly.
Other birthdays: Negro Leagues player and official and Hall of Famer Hilton Smith (1912); John Wockenfuss (1949), remembered for a bizarre batting stance with middling results; Pete Smith (1966); Chris Howard (1966); Matt Stairs (1968); Cliff Politte (1974); Craig Monroe (1977); Anibal Sanchez (1984); Scott Mathieson (1984); Jumbo Diaz (1984); Denard Span (1984); Yovani Gallardo (1986); James Parr (1986); Carlos Triunfel (1990); Adam Morgan (1990); Matt Peacock (1994); Zach Muckenhirn (1995); Franklin Barreto (1996); Corey Julks (1996); Alexander Wells (1997); Adrian Morejon (1999); and Gabriel Árias (2000).
