Author Archives: Dan McCourt

November 20 in Yankee History

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  • I know I’m not alone when I say that my love for the Yankees was born while watching Mickey Mantle play, even when both he and the team fell on hard times at the end of his career. And this feeling was nurtured through another very tough time in recent Yankee history by the respect and devotion I gave to the deserving Don Mattingly during his playing career, one that unfortunately ended just a bit too soon for him to win a Championship of his own. So November 20 is a great day for me. On this day back in 1962, The Mick was named American League Most Valuable Player for the third time. And on November 20, 1985, recent Yankee Batting and then Bench Coach Donnie Baseball received that year’s AL MVP Award. Congratulations, Donnie and Mick. It couldn’t have happened to two better guys. Mattingly, by the way, after managing the Dodgers for a few years, moved on to the Marlins for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Continue reading →

    • November 18 in Yankee History

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  • November 18, 2016, was a busy day in the Yankees franchise, starting with the release of outfielder Dustin Ackley and righthander Branden Pinder being sent outright to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Next, righthanders Nick Rumbelow and Nathan Eovaldi, and lefty Joe Mantiply, were designated for assignment. The club then selected the contracts of Yefry Ramirez and Jorge Mateo from the Tampa Yankees; of Ronald Herrera and Miguel Andujar from the AA Trenton Thunder; and of Giovanny Gallegos and Dietrich Enns from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Finally, the Yankees traded lefthander James Pazos to Seattle for righty Zack Littell. Continue reading →

    • November 17 in Yankee History

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  • Following three fifth-place finishes and one seventh in the AL East in five years, you could be forgiven for figuring the Yankees were not a team from which two expansion clubs would be looking for talent when the League stocked the new franchises in Miami and Colorado on November 17, 1992. But you’d be wrong. First, the Yanks had already decided to leave 1990 first round pick Carl Everett unprotected. But the Florida Marlins, after using their first (second overall) pick on Toronto’s Nigel Wilson, took Yankee third baseman Charlie Hayes next. Florida then took Everett with the 27th pick of the day. Not to be outdone in carving the Yankee pie, the Colorado Rockies took catcher Brad Ausmus 54th. Few realized that the Yanks had struck late-round magic when they nabbed the catcher in the 48th round of the amateur draft in 1987, but we know it today, as Brad has made himself quite a career as a sought-after receiver and manager in baseball more than two decades later. But he has not played for the Yanks. Continue reading →

    • November 15 in Yankee History

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  • After retiring and then un-retiring during the offseason, Roger Clemens came back to win his seventh Cy Young Award — and first in the NL — for the Astros in 2004, and he led the NL in era in ’05. Some of the “numbers” aficionados quibbled when the Rocket won his sixth AL Cy Young Award as a Yankee on November 15, 2001, complaining about his middle of the pack earned run average. But if you consider that the sport’s greatness is rooted in men excelling every once in a while in a game that is really mostly about failure, you realize that he was a lock based on the 20-1 mark he achieved to start the season, breaking an almost 100-year-old record. It was the kind of achievement the awards were made for. Continue reading →

    • November 14 in Yankee History

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  • The Yankees traded three minor leaguers to the Texas Rangers on November 14, 1979, for Eric Soderholm. The third baseman would hit .287 in 1980, but with only 11 homers and 35 rbi’s. The first-round draft choice of the Minnesota Twins in 1968, Soderholm would miss the 1981 season due to injury, and then retire. Continue reading →