Friday, March 23, 2007
Sweet Sixteen
I saw this on the Yankees website and had to post it. Although it appears that the original author of the post forgot about #10.
Enjoy.
1. Sixteen years -- Fourteen pennants, nine World Series championships. Beginning in 1949, Casey Stengel's first season as manager, through '64, the Yankees dominated the game as never before and never since.
2. Whitey Ford -- Is there a comparable No. 16 in New York sports history? Frank Gifford? Dwight Gooden? Not really. Is there a comparable "Chairman of the Board" other than Frank Sinatra? Although Ford debuted in 1950 and missed the '51 and '52 seasons, Ford was the primary pitcher in the Yankees' 1949-64 run as the preeminent team in the game. His resume reads as follows: Hall of Famer, 236 victories, 2.75 career ERA, .690 winning percentage and 10 World Series victories. And a New Yorker through and through. (Incidentally and appropriately, 16 players have wore the Yankees' No. 16).
3. 8 X 2 = 16 -- Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra, each a Hall of Fame catcher, wore uniform No. 8 through most of their careers. In the game's history, No. 8 has been retired six times for seven players. The Yankees are the only franchise to retire it for two players.
4. Sixteen managers -- Including Willie Randolph, who managed one game in 2004, the Yankees have had 16 managers during the reign of George Steinbrenner III: Ralph Houk, Bill Virdon, Billy Martin, Bob Lemon, Dick Howser, Gene Michael, Clyde King, Yogi Berra, Lou Piniella, Dallas Green, Bucky Dent, Stump Merrill, Buck Showalter, Joe Torre, Don Zimmer and Randolph.
5. Sixteen changes of manager -- Beginning with the hiring of Virdon (after efforts to hire Dick Williams were unsuccessful) to replace Houk between the 1973 and '74 season, Steinbrenner changed managers 16 times in a 16-year period that ended with the appointment of Green to succeed Piniella in the 1988-89 offseason.
6. Sixteen Opening Day games -- Joe McCarthy was the Yankees manager for every Opening Day from 1931-46, the longest run in franchise history.
7. No. 16 with a bullet -- When Mickey Mantle won Game 3 of the 1964 World Series with a final-pitch home run against Cardinals knuckleballer Barney Schultz, he also passed Babe Ruth in World Series home runs. It was Mick's 16th. Two more would follow in that Series. His record (18) still stands.
8. Sixteen total bases -- In Reggie Jackson's final four at-bats in the 1977 World Series. Slugging percentage: 4.000.
9. Sixteen numbers retired -- Martin, 1; Ruth, 3; Lou Gehrig, 4; Joe DiMaggio, 5; Mantle, 7; Berra and Dickey 8; Roger Maris, 9; Phil Rizzuto, 10; Thurman Munson, 15; Ford, 16; Elston Howard, 32; Stengel, 37; Jackie Robinson, 42; Jackson, 44; Ron Guidry, 49.
11. A difference of 16 -- The Yankees have won a record 26 World Series. The Cardinals' championship in '06 was their 10th. They have the second most.
12. Sixteen singles -- The most singles ever in a World Series game. They Yankees had 16 against the Dodgers in Game 5 in 1978; the Diamondbacks had 16 against the Yankees in Game 6 in '01.
13. Sixteen K memory -- The most strikeouts by a right-handed Yankees pitcher are the 16 by David Cone on June 23, 1997 -- in eight innings -- against the Tigers.
14. Sixteen doubles -- In DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. He also hit 15 home runs and four triples, drove in 55 runs, batted .408 and slugged .673.
15. Sixteen hits allowed -- In one game, by one pitcher. And the pitcher was Ford. He pitched 8 2/3 innings, a complete game, against the Kansas City Athletics on Aug. 18, 1962, and allowed 16 hits (12 singles), a club record that still stands. The final hit, a single by Haywood Sullivan, scored Gino Cimoli with the decisive run in a 5-4 Yankees loss in Kansas City in the first game of a doubleheader. The Yankees had six hits, three of them for home runs. Four Yankees pitchers allowed nine hits in the second game, an 11-7 Yankees victory.
16. Sixteen balks -- The club record belongs to Dave Righetti.
Don't forget about the Logo Contest which ends on Wednesday, March 28.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Labels: list, sweet sixteen, Yankees
Posted by Steve Kenul at 11:17 PM
posted at 8:37 PM
Typical 21st Century Yankee fan BS: LIVIN' IN THE PAST! The dynasty is DEAD. I see THIRD PLACE IN YOUR FUTURE PILGRIM.
Opening day is not far away-the venom is building!
;op
Steve Kenul posted at 10:03 PM
Should I apologize? I am sorry the Red Sox claim to fame is Ted Williams, a World Sries home run and 2004. Maybe I was inconsiderate seeing as how the Yankees are rich in history with glory.
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