We lead off the way we usually end this day, for the most obvious of reasons. The most famous (of six) Yankees to be born on November 25 is the Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio (1914). Hitter of 361 lifetime home runs (all as a righty batter) in a home ballpark with a virtually unreachable left center field wall, he won three MVP Awards and two batting titles, while driving home 1,537 runs. He led the league in rbi’s twice, in homers twice, slugging percentage twice, and total bases three times. He played 13 seasons around World War II, and wore the honor of being the “greatest living ballplayer” with dignity for almost 50 years before his death in 1999. Continue reading →
It was a move just too painfully characteristic of the Yankees in the eighties. On November 24, 1986, the Bombers shipped pitchers Brian Fisher, Logan Easley, and (most awfully) Doug Drabek to Pittsburgh for Rick Rhoden, Cecilio Guante, and Pat Clements. Although Guante was a serviceable reliever over the next two seasons (8-8, 12 saves), the trade must be judged by looking at the principals: the veteran Rhoden and the young arm of Drabek. The former went 28-22 in the Bronx over the next two years and was out of baseball in three. Drabek, on the other hand, would win 148 games in the National League over the next decade or so; he fashioned a 22-6 Cy Young Award-winning season in Pittsburgh in 1990. Continue reading →
The Yankees signed free-agent second baseman Steve Sax from the reigning World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers to a three-year contract on November 23, 1988. Perhaps this fateful decision cost the Yanks a bench coach in 2004, as the effect of the signing had the Yanks and Dodgers swapping second basemen, with former Pinstriped Captain Willie Randolph signing with L.A. Sax provided a decent singles stick (including a record 171 one-base hits in ’89) and poor defense in the Bronx over three years, but he netted good players in trade. Randolph kicked in six home runs and 135 rbi’s with the Dodgers, the A’s, and the Mets in a waning career that lasted through 1992, but the relationship he established in Flushing may have facilitated his ascension to their managerial slot a few years ago, leaving the Yankee bench coach position to take the job. After a year of Joe Girardi and one of Lee Mazzilli sitting next to Joe Torre, Don Mattingly took the spot next. Randolph was fired in Flushing in 2008, was bench coach in Milwaukee in 2009-2010 and will serve there in Baltimore in 2011, and Joe and Donnie moved on to the L.A. Dodgers in 2008. Mattingly managed there, then in Miami, and won NL Manager of the Year in 2020. Continue reading →
Mickey Mantle edged Ted Williams in the voting, 233 to 209, for the American League Most Valuable Player Award on November 22, 1957. The vote was controversial, as Mantle came in second in the league in batting average, on base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS, with Williams finishing first in all four, and Ted edged him in homers too (second, to Mantle’s third). Mickey did score more runs; he got more hits, walks, stolen bases, and total bases too. And two Chicago writers placed the Splinter an unbelievable ninth and 10th on their ballots. But I think The Mick earned his second of three MVP’s because he led his club to the pennant; Ted’s Sox were not a factor, 16 games back in third place. Continue reading →
The loss to the Royals in the ALCS did him in, so even though Manager Dick Howser of the 1980 New York Yankees had led his charges to a 103-win season, he gracefully “resigned” on November 21, 1980, when he was replaced on the bench by Gene “Stick” Michael. Continue reading →
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 →
On November 19, 2018, the Mariners traded southpaw starter James Paxton to the Yankees for lefthander Justus Sheffield, a prospect, along with Erik Swanson and Dom Thompson-Williams. Paxton had a good, almost great, 2019 season for the Yankees. Continue reading →
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 →
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 →
