Manny Machado homered twice off Luis Cessa for visiting Baltimore on August 26, 2016, but that is the last of the bad news, as a six-run second-inning onslaught against Yovani Gallardo drove the O’s righty from the mound after having recorded just four outs. Young Gary Sanchez singled, doubled, and homered in this one, scoring three times and driving in four, and Mark Teixeira also went yard; he drove in three in a 14-4 drubbing.

Sonny Gray may have had his best ever start as a Yankee in a three-hit, one-run, seven-inning outing in a 6-3 win over visiting Seattle on August 26, 2017. Even more unexpected, the big blow was a three-run home run from Jacoby Ellsbury. Starlin Castro had a two-run single as well.

On August 26, 2021, the Yankees activated third baseman Gio Urshela, and sent righthander Brody Koerner outright to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

Evan Gattis homered twice, and Houston scored four times on four hits in the fifth inning of a 6-2 win over the Yankee in the Stadium on August 26, 2015. A Didi Gregorius two-run jack in the home seventh, the Yanks’ fifth and last hit, was the only offense they could muster. Righthander Michael Pineda, activated from the disabled list to make this start, took the loss, and Colin McHugh got the win. And in a sad finishing sight, injured Mark Teixeira, pinch hitting because he had not yet been correctly diagnosed with a broken shin bone, hobbled down the line on a grounder to first base for the game’s final out.

One of the most veteran Yankees and a journeyman with them briefly led the way when the Bombers bashed Derek Holland and the Texas Rangers 9-2 in Yankee Stadium on August 26, 2009. Jorge Posada got the rout going with a three-run bomb in the second, and Jerry Hairston, Jr. upped the lead with a fourth-inning homer. Derek Jeter, Nick Swisher, and Mark Teixeira drove in all the runs in a five-run home seventh inning, and Andy Pettitte went seven for the win.

Old friend and veteran catcher (and former Yankee manager) Joe Girardi and journeyman middle infielder Rey Sanchez had four hits apiece in the 18-2 drubbing the Yanks handed to Oakland on August 26, 1997. The Yanks piled up 22 hits on the day.

Sadly, it was August 26, 1991, that the Yanks penned number one draft pick Brien Taylor to a guaranteed $1.55 million contract, a new record. After ruining his shoulder in a bar fight, Brien never made it out of the minors. It was a particularly bitter pill for the Yankees, who won the most American League games in the 1980s while making just two early-decade postseason appearances, primarily with good-hitting, no-pitching teams.

Things got off to a good start in Yankee Stadium on August 26, 2008, when Johnny Damon fouled off four straight Tim Wakefield flutterballs, then homered to right leading off the bottom of the first, but it wasn’t the Yanks’ year, and things went downhill from there. The Red Sox pounded Andy Pettitte for 10 hits and six runs over the next four frames in the 7-3 loss. Damon would homer again on a gorgeous evening in the Bronx. GM Lou Lamorelli of the NHL New Jersey Devils advanced the games remaining in the old Stadium lever from 16 to 15.

Come-from-behind victories win pennants. The Yanks beat the Rangers, 6-5, on August 26, 1977, on the strength of Graig Nettles‘s ninth-inning, two-run triple. Winners of 12 of their last 13, the Yanks pulled two full games in front of Boston.

Big Unit Randy Johnson had one of his better days wearing the Pinstripes when he went eight innings in a 5-1 win over the Royals on August 26, 2005. Alex Rodriguez got the scoring going with a fifth-inning home run into the black seats in dead center and Bernie Williams added to the lead by going yard twice.

Was August 26, 2002, in Yankee Stadium a bigger night for Derek Jeter or for the Little League team from the Sendai Higashi league, who had just been victorious in the 56th LL Championships? The excited youngsters got to take the field with Yankee players before the game, and Jeter scored a 100th run for the seventh straight season once he started off a five-run seventh inning rally against Kenny Rogers and the Rangers. Orlando “el duque” Hernandez cashed in the 9-3 win despite allowing back-to-back sixth-inning jacks to Rafael Palmeiro and Alex Rodriguez. Alfonso Soriano homered and knocked in three runs in the home win.

When we were lucky enough to attend a ballgame in 2004 at Citizens Bank Ballpark, the Phillies’ new home that is so much better than Veterans Stadium, the first thing we saw was a statue of righthander Robin Roberts, who won more than 200 games for some less than great teams in that city, before he parted ways with the Phillies. After failing to make the Yankees’ roster in 1962, Roberts emigrated to Baltimore, and subsequently he bested Whitey Ford and the Bombers 2-1 pitching for the Orioles on August 26. The offense came from home runs by Brooks Robinson and Jim Gentile and the defeat completed a five-game Baltimore sweep against the Yanks.

The Yanks split two with the Angels on August 26, 1998, falling 6-4 in Game One when Yankee rookie Ryan Bradley, drafted as the 40th pick of the first round in the 1997 amateur draft, took his one loss in three big league decisions. Jeff Juden, who would pitch briefly for the Bombers in 1999, got the win, and Anaheim outfielder Reggie Williams hit the second of his two career homers off Bradley. The New Yorkers survived two Jim Edmonds home runs off David Wells in the nightcap as Homer Bush hit his only Yankee homer and Derek Jeter delivered the game-winner on a 3-2, two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth single off Mike Fetters. The 7-6 win gave the Yanks the split.

Jim Perry got the win in relief of Gary Bell on this day in 1959, as Rocky Colavito broke a 4-4, eighth-inning tie, and the Indians squeaked by the Yankees 5-4.

On August 26, 1960, the Yanks bested the Indians 7-6 in 11 innings with Yogi Berra‘s second homer of the day providing the difference. They hit five solo homers and stroked four pinch hits, and then won Game Two of the double dip 7-5 behind a three-run homer by Bob Cerv.

And a year later on the same day in 1961, when Roger Maris followed Tony Kubek‘s sixth-inning home run with one of his own, it was his 51st of the year. Bill Stafford held the A’s to one hit until the ninth, and the Yanks won, 5-1.

The worst of all Yankee killers, Detroit’s Frank Lary, beat them yet again, 5-3, on August 26, 1957.

Riding a six-game win streak, Detroit’s Earl Wilson gave himself a 5-3 eighth-inning lead over the Yanks on August 26, 1966, with a home run. But the Yanks halved the lead off Hank Aguirre with a Clete Boyer ninth-inning single, and Mickey Mantle homered over a leaping Al Kaline for a 6-5 Yankee win.

After the White Sox took the first of two against the Yankees 3-2 on August 26, 1951, behind Saul Rogovin, New York replied with an 8-6 win in the latter tilt. When 37-year-old Chicago infielder Bert Haas hit a pinch homer in the sixth frame of the nightcap, it would be his last major-league at bat, as the Chisox would release him the next day.

Bret Saberhagen of the Royals threw a 7-0 no-hitter against the White Sox on August 26, 1991. On the same day in 1962, Jack Kralick of the Twins no-hit the A’s, 1-0; Joe Bush no-hit Cleveland, 5-0, for the A’s on August 26, 1916. And when Minnesota’s Dean Chance held the Indians hitless on August 26, 1967, it was his second no-no in a month.

Roger Clemens just didn’t have it in an August tilt with the White Sox on August 26, 2003. Already leading Clemens 3-0 on Paul Konerko and Joe Crede home runs, the Sox loaded the bases and scored one on two hits and two walks in the fourth, and then Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez homered back to back, with Thomas’s a grand slam. Chicago cashed in a 13-2 drubbing.

On August 26, 2023, the Yankees signed free agent righthander Matt Givin to a minor league contract.

On August 26, 2020, the Yankees recalled Albert Abreu from the team’s Alternate Training Site, and purchased catcher Rob Brantly from the Giants for cash. The team then invited non-roster Brantly to Spring Training.

The Mets replaced Manager Dallas Greene, who had also served the Yankees in that position without much distinction, with Bobby Valentine on August 26, 1996.

The brief baseball career of actor Chuck Connors of the old TV show The Rifleman had a highlight when he hit his second (and last) career home run for the Cubs on this day in 1951 to tie the home-standing Giants at four, but Wes Westrum answered in kind for a 5-4 Giants win.

The highlight of the Yankees’ August 26, 1916, 10-6 win over the Indians was that they turned a triple play.

The first game of the August 26, 1939, doubleheader the Reds played the Dodgers at Ebbets Field was the first one ever telecast. Eventual long-time Yankee broadcaster Red Barber did the calls and the teams split a pair.

Lumbering White Sox first baseman Zeke Bonura stole 19 bases over seven major league seasons, but one of them was a 15th-inning steal of home against the Yankees on this day in 1935 for a 9-8 Chicago win.

On August 26, 2019, the Yankees signed free agent righthander Domingo Acevedo to a minor league contract. Acevedo had been released a week earlier.

In a drama that continues to play out in late 2018, the Yankees optioned first baseman Tyler Austin to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on August 26, 2017, and activated first baseman Greg Bird from the 60-day disabled list to fill that roster spot.

As mentioned in the game report at the top of this column, the Yankees activated Michael Pineda from the 15-day disabled list on August 26, 2015. The club also recalled righty Nick Goody from the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Roster space for these two was created by optioning righthander Nick Rumbelow to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and designating lefty Chris Capuano for assignment yet again.

The agonizing 2013 season continued to play out for the Yankee Captain on August 26, as Derek Jeter was activated from the disabled list. Preston Claiborne was sent to AAA to make room on the roster, but Derek would not remain active long.

Two Yankee transactions on August 26 did not pan out very well. They released Phil Rizzuto the day before to make room for the purchase of Enos Slaughter on this day in 1956, but Enos was getting old and would not contribute a lot. And the swap of starting pitchers with Cincinnati in 1987, getting Bill Gullickson for young lefty Dennis Rasmussen, failed as well. Gullickson did not warm to New York and played elsewhere the next season.

But on the other hand, the National Commission awarded hurler Jack Quinn to the Yankees on August 26, 1918. After having spent 1918 with the White Sox, the commission ruled he was free to go to the Yankees. Quinn had won 40 games with New York six years earlier, and would go 41-31 in New York over the next three seasons.

Tom Seaver shut out the Mets for the Reds at Shea Stadium on August 26, 1979, for his 11th consecutive win.

Yankee Carl Mays prevailed over Rasty Wright of the Browns, 9-2, on this day in 1922.

In honor of his passing in 2003, let’s include Bobby Bonds‘s five rbi’s for the Giants on August 26, 1969, which, along with the six knocked in by Willie McCovey, helped San Francisco beat the Phillies, 13-4. Bobby played with the 1975 Yankees.

We took advantage of a Yankee off day on August 26, 1999, to catch the Staten Island Yankees host the Hudson Valley Renegades the year before the new Richmond Valley Stadium was to open. We were hoping to spy a Yankee star of the future or two in the Yankees 8-2 win, and Andy Phillips did play third base that day, knocking in two runs with a triple, a single, and a walk. But in retrospect the 0-for-4 Renegades shortstop Jorge Cantu, a good hitter that Tampa Bay has since traded away, has shown the most promise since. Cantu plays on Florida’s East Coast for the Marlins in 2009. Meanwhile, Phillips has played for the Reds and the Mets.

Two different hurlers recorded their 20th season wins on August 26, starting with Boston’s Boo Ferriss, who notched that number in a 4-3 win over the A’s in 1945. Cincinnati’s Jim Merritt achieved that distinction this day in a one-run victory as well, as he beat the Phillies 6-5 on August 26, 1970.

Two hitting achievements and one pitching make the August 26 list of items featuring one-time Yankee players while they were with other teams. “Big Poison” Paul Waner, who would play his final 10 career games with the Yanks, went 6-for-6 in a Pirates game with the Cards on this day in 1927. Baltimore’s Paul Blair, a key Yankee playoff performer in the late 70s, hit an inside-the-park grand slam home run in the Orioles’ 10-1 win over Kansas City on August 26, 1973. And finally, when Randy Johnson whiffed nine Marlins in a 12-2 Arizona victory over Florida on this day in 2002, he became the fastest pitcher to ever reach 300 K’s in a season.

 
Players Who Have Died This Day

Righthander Danny MacFayden (1972) easily led the longevity list among the Yankee players who have died August 26, until 2016. Pitching in 64 games (32 starts) for the 1932-1934 Yankees, he won 14, lost 10, and saved one. In a 1926-1943 major-league stay largely spent with the Red Sox and the Bees, his record was 132-159-9. Much-coveted by the Yankees, lefty-hitting outfielder Dick Wakefield (1985) barely played in New York, going 1-for-2 with an rbi in three games in 1950. Playing mostly with Detroit from 1941-1952, Wakefield hit 56 home runs and drove in 315 runs. Shortstop Joe DeMaestri (2016) ended his career playing 79 games for the 1960-1961 Yankees, accruing no homers but four rbi’s. After appearing one year each with the White Sox (1951) and the Browns (1952) at the start, he played from 1953 through 1959 with the Philly, then Kansas City, A’s, with overall numbers of 49 homers with 281 rbi’s and 15 stolen bases.

Hugh McQuillan (1947) is the first of three righthanders that comprise much of the noteworthy nonYankee players to die this day. McQuillan won 88, lost 94, and saved 16 with the Braves from 1922-1927, with a brief career-ending stop with the Giants. Eddie Rommel (1970) posted a 171-119-29 record pitching just for the A’s from 1920-1932; and Ed Rakow (2000), a righty who switch-hit, won 36, lost 47, and saved five mostly with the A’s and the Tigers from 1960-1967. A lefty thrower who batted righty, Pete Burnside (2022) pitched for the 1955-1958 New York and San Francisco Giants, for the 1959-1960 Tigers, and for the 1961-1963 Senators, with one other stop. He went 19-36 with seven saves, in 196 games, 64 of them starts.

 
Players Born This Day

When the 2008 Yankees broke camp and headed north in April, they did so with the first Yankee player ever born August 26 in the person of infielder Morgan Ensberg (1975). Morgan had some good years playing third in Houston from 2000-2007. His one home run in New York with four rbi’s before he was released brought his career numbers to 110 and 347.

That club doubled in size with the signing of utility infiielder Jayson Nix (1982) for the 2012 season. He has played well at second, short, and third, and hit well too. As of this writing his two home runs and 21 rbi’s in 2013 have increased his career numbers to 36/123. The brother of fellow big leaguer Laynce Nix, Jayson, who has had a DL stint like most Yankee players in 2013, is playing for his fifth team in six years.

Although there were technically no Yankee birthdays on August 26 before Ensberg and Nix arrived, 15-year lefty-hitting outfielder Gene Moore (1909) earns honorary mention. Moore homered 58 times and knocked in 436 runs from 1931-1945, mostly with the Boston Braves, though he played for the Dodgers, the Senators, and the Browns as well. The Braves traded Moore and Buddy Hassett to the Yankees in February 1942 for Tommy Holmes.

Other baseball birthdays include Alex Trevino (1957); Jeff Parrett (1961); Chad Kreuter (1964); Ricky Bottalico (1969); Alex Sanchez (1976); Geoff Geary (1976); Brendan Harris (1980); Kyle Kendrick (1984); David Price (1985); Eric Fryer (1985); Darin Mastroianni (1985); Xavier Cedeno (1986); Brett Wallace (1986); Luis Marte (1986); Ryan Braiser (1987); Greg Halman (1987); Elvis Andrus (1988); Mario Hollands (1988); Daniel Corcino (1990); Trevor Gott (1992); Maikel Franco (1992); Tyler Wells (1994); Ranger Suarez (1995); Luis Alexander Basabe (1996); J.C. Mejia (1996); Brusdar Graterol (1998); and Spencer Torkelson (1999).