February 26 in Yankee History

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  • With the birthday of the Warrior Paul O’Neill just yesterday and Don Mattingly having become Joe Torre‘s bench coach after several seasons as the Yankees batting coach during this time in 2007, and his replacement as manager with LA in 2011, it would be easy to wax nostalgic about the day some of our favorite players wore the Pinstripes for the last time. The fact that Donnie was wearing Dodger Blue with Torre in 2008 and 2009, and continued to until recently, and was with Miami when he won Manager of the Year, adds to the reverie. But perhaps no day in Yankee history is as fraught with that form of bittersweet musing than February 26, 1935. That is the day the Yankees released the Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth, so he could sign on with the Boston Braves of the National League. Of his 714 career homers and 2,213 rbi’s, the Bambino collected six and 12, respectively with the 1935 Braves.
  • OK, who, off the top of their head, can tell me who the offensive hero of the Yanks’ 7-0 win over visiting Atlanta in the GMS Field Spring opener on February 26, 2023? To start the bottom of the first, Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge, and Aaron Hicks singles loaded the bases off Bryce Elder, who would go on to have a fine season with the 2023 NL East champs. Then Jose Trevino jacked a 2-0 pitch to left for a grand slam.
  • Although all three Yankee doubles in their rain-shortened 8-2 win vs Washington in Tampa on February 26, 2020, were well hit, it would be incorrect to characterize this win as an offensive explosion, unless you compared it with the games that came before. Sloppy Nationals defense characterized by two throws that hit dugouts caused some of their trouble, but the missiles struck by Miguel Andujar (playing left field this day), DJ LeMahieu, and Clint Frazier (playing right field) led to four earned runs that would have carried the day, nonetheless.
  • Yankee fans who were concerned that the six-day-old trade for third baseman Brandon Drury might serve to block the major league progress of young third sacker Miguel Andujar received a little ammunition for their argument on February 26, 2018, as the slashing hitter who has come to be known as both “Du” and “Miggy” promptly tied a game with the visiting Phillies in his first at bat, with a pinch double in the bottom of the seventh. New York went ahead in the eighth only to see Scott Kingery tie matters with a two-out home run in the top of the ninth. But “Du” was due up third in the bottom half and, with two outs and a 2-2 count, homered to left for the 4-3 win. Just a Spring Training game? The year that followed seems to give it more weight than that.
  • On February 26, 2023, outfielders Spencer Jones, Felix Negueis, and Tayler Aguillar; third baseman T.J. Rumfield; first basemen Mickey Gasper and Spencer Henson; shortstops Caleb Durbin and Angel Rojas; catchers Antonio Gomez, Omar Martinez, and Augustin Ramirez; and righthanders Aaron McGarity, Clayton Beeter, Barrett Loseke, Steven Jennings, Michael Gomez, Will Warren, and Zach Messinger were assigned to the Yankees.
  • Outfielder Isiah Gilliam was assigned to the Yankees on February 26, 2020.
  • On February 26, 2019, lefthander James Reeves; first baseman Chris Gittens; and outfielder Rashad Crawford were assigned to the Yankees.
  • On February 26, 2018, infielder Diego Castillo and catcher Donny Sands were assigned to the Yankees. And the club also signed free agent righthander Angel Obando to a minor league contract.
  • The early success of the Yankee 2017 Spring Training campaign continued with a 7-2 victory over the visiting Blue Jays to GMS Field on February 26 of that year. Starting off a remarkable season, young Luis Severino went the first two scoreless for the Yanks, and Starlin Castro would give the home team all they would need with a three-run bomb in the second. Opening some eyes that have yet to be closed as the 2018 training period has arrived, outfield prospect Billy McKinney chipped in with a two-run tater in the seventh.
  • The Yanks got an early start to 2014 Spring Training, as they traveled to Bradenton to face the Pirates on February 26. And they came out smoking, up 4-0 in the second on four hits, two of them by minor league free agent signee Yangervis Solarte, whose second-inning home run capped the rally. But Chase Whitley, struggling in his second inning of work, allowed the Buccos four, seventh-inning runs, and the Yanks fell, 6-5. Assigned to join the club in Tampa that day, several-year minor league shortstop Addison Maruszak took over for Solarte in the fifth.
  • Former Yankee second baseman Tony Lazzeri was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans’ Committee along with Bill Veeck on February 26, 1991. Although Tony played with the Cubs and Giants his last two years, he was pure Yankee; he blasted 169 homers with 1,155 rbi’s and 147 stolen bases from 1926-1937 with the team. He played on five World-Series-winning teams, had seven 100-rbi seasons, and in 1936 he became the first player ever to hit two grand slam home runs in the same game.
  • The Yankees unconditionally released incumbent third baseman Aaron Boone on February 26, 2004. Boone’s 11th-inning homer clinched the 2003 ALCS win over Boston, but he failed with the winning run at third in the ensuing Game Five against the Marlins in the World Series. He was released after he injured his knee playing basketball during the offseason, an infraction of his contract.
  • Matching 2011’s early start, the Yankees dropped yet another one-run game to the Phillies, this one in Clearwater, on February 26, 2013, this time by a 4-3 score. The Phillies reached young righty Zach Nuding for three runs in the home seventh, an inning made a bit more memorable because John Mayberry, Jr. strode to the plate to hit after Nuding struck out Jimmy Rollins for the third out. This game was an eye opener for Yankee fans anxious about the future of their catching position, as JR Murphy drilled a two-run homer in the seventh, and just missed with a liner off the top of the wall in dead center in the ninth.
  • In what may have been the earliest Yankee Spring Training home opener since they relocated to Tampa in 1996, the Yanks fell 5-4 to the Phillies in George M. Steinbrenner Field on February 26, 2011, on the strength of a two-run eighth-inning rally off Eric Wordekemper started by 2012 Yankee Raul Ibanez.
  • On February 26, 2017, center fielder Rashad Crawford was assigned to the Yankees.
  • On February 26, 2012, the Yankees placed newly signed righthander David Aardsma on the 60-day disabled list, but it was not a setback, as New York knew David was recovering from July 2011 Tommy John surgery when they inked him. He would bounce back enough to throw a few September innings, but he is expected to be a big pen contributor in 2013.
  • The Yankees introduced former New York Mets ace Tom Seaver as their new television announcer of February 26, 1989.
  • First baseman Addison Maruszak, coming off a season with the Staten Island Yankees, was assigned to the Yankees organization on February 26, 2011.
  • February 26 news affecting future and former Yankee players includes the dismissal of much of Margo Adams‘s lawsuit against Wade Boggs in 1989; and Jack Kramer blaming Red Sox (and former Yankee) Manager Joe McCarthy for his sale to the Giants this day in 1950. And when Bucky Harris was signed to manage the Phillies on February 26, 1943, he became the fifth man to serve as field boss for four different clubs. Of the four guys, both Harris and Clark Griffith included a stint managing the Yankees on their resumes.
  • It is a Yankee fan who has an ax to grind who relates here that former Orioles and Brewers starter Ben McDonald missed the upcoming season with the Indians when he underwent shoulder surgery on February 26, 1998. The Brewers had dealt the Yankees two damaged players (Pat Listach, Graeme Lloyd) in 1996, and followed that by doing the exact same thing to Cleveland the following year. It’s a black eye to the game in this scribe’s view that the club owned by the Commissioner was dealing in such a suspicious manner.

Players Who Have Died This Day

  • Three ballplayers of note have died on February 26 as well, one a Yankee. It was near the end of George Uhle‘s (1985) 1919-1936 career that he posted a fine 8-5 record with the 1933-1934 Yankees in 22 games (eight starts). His overall mark of 200-166 with 25 saves was amassed with long stops in Cleveland and Detroit. Lefthanded first baseman Joe Kuhel (1984) hit 131 home runs with 1,049 rbi’s for the Senators and the White Sox from 1930-1947; and righthander Ned Garver (2017) won 129 games, lost 157, and saved 12 from 1948 through 1961, pitching mostly for the Browns, the Tigers, and the [Kansas City] A’s.

 

  • Jean Yawkey, who served as owner of the Boston Red Sox after her husband’s death, passed away on February 26, 1992. And New York Giants righthander Ace Adams, who won 41 games, lost 33, and saved 49 from 1941-1946, died on this day in 2006. Lefthanded outfielder Sandy Valdespino played 382 games for the 1965-1967 Twins and in five other stops through 1971. He hit seven home runs and drove in 67.

Players Born This Day

  • Backup catcher and pinch hitter deluxe Johnny Blanchard (1933) is the most prominent of the six Yankee players born February 26, though he is not the most recent celebrant to don the Pinstripes. Trying to get at bats on a team that already featured Yogi Berra and Elston Howard was no easy task. But Johnny did all right, with 64 dingers, 187 rbi’s, and two steals during his 1955, 1959-1965 Bronx stint that encompassed almost his entire big league stay. A lefty batter, he started the 1965 season in New York, but was traded with Rollie Sheldon to Kansas City for Doc Edwards on May 3. He finished that season, and his career, with the Braves in Milwaukee.
  • The aspect that all four birthdaying pre-2009 Yankees have in common is that they all broke in with the club. Rip Collins (1896) posted a 25-13 mark with one save with the 1920-1921 team, and played his entire 12 years in the American League. He was shipped to Boston with Roger Peckinpaugh, Bill Piercy, and Jack Quinn for Everett Scott, Joe Bush, and Sam Jones in December 1921, and played one season with the Red Sox, five with the Tigers, and three with the Browns.
  • Two other Yanks are of much more recent vintage, but lefthanded outfielder Matt Luke (1971) played just one game with the 1996 Bombers, which he followed with brief stops in L.A., Cleveland, and Anaheim. And although defensive whiz and portsided first sacker J.T. Snow (1968) has enjoyed a solid career with four years with the Angels and eight with the Giants, he only got into seven games with the Yanks in 1992, his debut year. He got two hits, two rbi’s, and scored a run, and then was traded to California with Jerry Nielsen and Russ Springer for inspirational lefthanded starter Jim Abbott. Snow signed with, and was released by, the rival Red Sox in 2006.
  • The second-newest Yankee February 26 birthdayer barely made the list. He was signed to a minor league deal with the 2009 club, but almost never made the trip to the big-league squad. But former Orioles and Blue Jays lefty Josh Towers (1977) finally got 16 outs over two games in the Bronx, to no decision. Towers finished the ’09 season with a 43-55 record since his debut in 2001.
  • A first-round draft choice (second pick) for Seattle in 2009, infielder Dustin Ackley (1988) had worn out his welcome in 2015 after collecting 42 home runs and 201 rbi’s from 2011, and was ripe for a move, with ex-Yank Robinson Cano having supplanted him at second base, leading to his trade deadline acquisition by the Bombers in exchange for outfielder Ramon Flores and righthander Jose Ramirez. In 23 games in New York down the stretch, Ackley contributed four home runs and 11 rbi’s, and he was counted on in the 2016 season as a key infield backup, including at first base with the loss of young Greg Bird to a season-long shoulder injury. But Ackley got off to a horrible start at the plate, batting just .148 with no home runs and four rbi’s in 28 games, when he was lost to a season-long injury. The Yankees released him in November, and he signed as a free agent with the Angels in February 2017.
  • Born this day in 1887, Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander posted a 373-208 W-L record in the bigs, and was a huge factor in the St. Louis Cards’ six-game victory over the Yanks in the 1926 World Series. Already holding a 1-0 record in the Classic, he pitched a complete game victory on October 9 to put the Cards up 3-2 in games, and came out of the pen the next day for a three-inning save in the clincher. (The Yankees would sweep his Cards two years later, btw.) During his career Alexander led the NL in innings pitched seven times, in wins six times, in e.r.a. four times, and he did the following on the per-nine-innings scale: fewest hits three times, most strike outs two times, and fewest walks four times.
  • Other birthdays: Dodgers and Pirates hurler Preacher Roe (1915), who went 127-84 from 1938-1954; Danny Gardella (1920), more famed for off-the-field league-jumping controversies than for his play; George Kopacz (1941) whom the Yanks acquired from the Pirates in 1973 for minor-league power hitter Tony Solaita; Kelly Gruber (1962); Scott Service (1967); David Howard (1967); Mark DeRosa (1975); Gary Majewski (1980) Joe Martinez (1983); Francisco Rodriguez (1983); Hector Rondon (1988); Kevin Plawecki (1991); Michael Papierski (1996); Richard Urena (1996); Peyton Burdick (1997); Luis Rengifo (1997); and Trevor Larnach (1997).