New York Yankees
2012 New York Yankees season
Established	1901
Based in New York since 1903
100px Team logo Cap insignia
Major league affiliations
American League (1901–present) East Division (1969–present)
Current uniform
275px
Retired numbers	1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 23, 32, 37, 42, 44, 49
Colors
Navy blue, white, gray
Name
New York Yankees (1913–present)
New York Highlanders (1903–1912) Baltimore Orioles (1901–1902)
Other nicknames
The Bronx Bombers, The Yanks, The Pinstripers, The Bronx Zoo
Ballpark
Yankee Stadium (II) (2009–present) Yankee Stadium (I) (1923–1973), (1976–2008) Shea Stadium (1974–1975) Polo Grounds (IV) (1913–1922) a.k.a. Brush Stadium (1913–1919) Hilltop Park (1903–1912) Oriole Park (Baltimore) (1901–1902)
Major league titles
World Series titles (27)	1923 • 1927 • 1928 • 1932 1936 • 1937 • 1938 • 1939 1941 • 1943 • 1947 • 1949 1950 • 1951 • 1952 • 1953 1956 • 1958 • 1961 • 1962 1977 • 1978 • 1996 • 1998 1999 • 2000 • 2009
AL Pennants (40)[1]	1921 • 1922 • 1923 • 1926 1927 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 1937 • 1938 • 1939 • 1941 1942 • 1943 • 1947 • 1949 1950 • 1951 • 1952 • 1953 1955 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 1960 • 1961 • 1962 • 1963 1964 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 1981 • 1996 • 1998 • 1999 2000 • 2001 • 2003 • 2009
East Division titles (17)[2]	1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1980 1981 • 1996 • 1998 • 1999 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2009 2011
Wild card berths (4)	1995 • 1997 • 2007 • 2010
Front office
Owner(s)	Yankee Global Enterprises LLC
Manager	Joe Girardi
General Manager	Brian Cashman
President of Baseball Operations	Randy Levine

The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the American League's East Division. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 1901 as the Baltimore Orioles. The team moved to New York City in 1903 as the New York Highlanders, taking the Yankees as their official name in 1913.^[1] From 1923 to 2008, the Yankees' home ballpark was Yankee Stadium; in 2009, they moved into a new ballpark, also called Yankee Stadium.^[2]

The Yankees have won 27 World Series championships and 40 American League pennants, both MLB records.^[3][4] Forty-three Yankees players and eleven Yankees managers have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Yogi Berra.^[5] In pursuit of winning championships, the franchise has utilized a large payroll to recruit talent, particularly under former owner George Steinbrenner.

Due in part to their success, the Yankees have garnered widespread popularity and a dedicated fanbase. The Yankees brand is recognized worldwide.

History[link]

[edit] Origins in Baltimore (1901–1902)

At the end of 1900, Ban Johnson, president of the Western League, a minor league, reorganized the league. He added teams in three Eastern cities, forming the American League (AL) in an attempt to challenge the National League (NL) for supremacy. Plans to put a team in New York City were blocked by the NL's New York Giants, who had enough political power in New York City to prevent the AL from establishing a team. Instead, a team was put in Baltimore, Maryland, a city which the NL abandoned when it contracted from 12 to 8 teams in 1900.

Nicknamed the Orioles, the team began playing in 1901, and were managed and owned in part by John McGraw. During the 1902 season, McGraw feuded with Johnson, and secretly jumped to the Giants. In the middle of the season, the Giants, aided and abetted by McGraw, gained controlling interest of the Orioles and began raiding it for players, until the AL stepped in and took control of the team. In January 1903, a "peace conference" was held between the two leagues to settle disputes and try to coexist. At the conference, Johnson requested that an AL team be put in New York, to play alongside the NL's Giants.^[6] It was put to a vote, and 15 of the 16 Major League owners agreed on it, with only John T. Brush of the Giants opposing. The Orioles' new owners, Frank J. Farrell and William S. Devery, found a ballpark location not blocked by the Giants, and Baltimore's team moved to New York.

Move to New York: the Highlanders years (1903–1912)[link]

The team's new ballpark, Hilltop Park (formally known as "American League Park"), was constructed in northern Manhattan at one of the island's highest points between 165th and 168th Streets, just a few blocks away from the much larger Polo Grounds. The team came to be known as the New York Highlanders for two reasons: it was a reference to the team's elevated location and to the noted British military unit The Gordon Highlanders, which coincided with the team's president, Joseph Gordon. As was common with all members of the American League, the team was called the New York Americans. New York Press Sports Editor Jim Price coined the unofficial nickname Yankees (or "Yanks") for the club as early as 1904, because it was easier to fit in headlines.^[6][7]

The most success the Highlanders achieved was finishing second in 1904, 1906 and 1910, 1904 being the closest they would come to winning the AL pennant. That year, they would lose the deciding game on the last day of the season to the Boston Americans, who would later become the Boston Red Sox. This had much historical significance, as the Highlanders' role in the pennant race caused the Giants to announce that they would not play in the World Series against the AL pennant winner. The World Series would not be skipped again for another 90 years, when a strike truncated the entire 1994 season. It would be the last time Boston would beat New York in a pennant-deciding game for a full century (2004). 1904 was the year that pitcher Jack Chesbro set the single-season wins record at 41, which still stands. (Under current playing practices, this is most likely an unbreakable record).

New owners, a new home, and a new name: Years at the Polo Grounds (1913–1922)[link]

The Polo Grounds, home of the Yankees from 1913 to 1922

The Polo Grounds burned down in 1911 and the Highlanders allowed the Giants to play in Hilltop Park during reconstruction. Relations between the two teams warmed, and the Highlanders would move into the newly rebuilt Polo Grounds in 1913. Now playing on the Harlem River, a far cry from their high-altitude home, the name "Highlanders" no longer applied, and fell into disuse among the press. The media had already widely adopted the "Yankees" nickname coined by the New York Press, and in 1913 the team became officially known as the New York Yankees.

By the mid 1910s, owners Farrell and Devery had become estranged and were both in dire need of money. At the start of 1915, they sold the team to Colonel Jacob Ruppert and Captain Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston for $1.25 million.^[8] Ruppert inherited a brewery fortune, providing the Yankees with an owner who possessed deep pockets and a willingness to dig into them to produce a winning team. This would lead the team to more success and prestige than Ruppert could ever have envisioned.

Sluggers and the Stadium: Ruth, Gehrig, and Murderer's Row (1923–1935)[link]

With his hitting prowess, Babe Ruth ushered in an offensive-oriented era of baseball and helped lead the Yankees to 4 World Series titles

In the years around 1920, the Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Chicago White Sox had a détente.^{[clarification needed]} Their actions,^{[clarification needed]} which antagonized Ban Johnson, garnered them the nickname the "Insurrectos".^[9][10] This détente paid off well for the Yankees as they increased their payroll. Most new players who would later contribute to the team's success came from the Red Sox, whose owner, Harry Frazee, was trading them players for large sums of money. Pitcher-turned-outfielder Babe Ruth was the most talented of all the acquisitions from Boston, and the outcome of the trade would haunt the Red Sox for the next 86 years, a span in which the team did not win a single World Series championship. The Red Sox often found themselves eliminated from the playoff hunt as a result of the Yankees' success.^[11] This phenomenon eventually became known as the Curse of the Bambino as the failure of the Red Sox and the success of the Yankees seemed almost supernatural, and seemed to stem from that one trade. However, it would not be until 1990 when Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe wrote a book with the same title that the curse was publicized.^[12]

Ruth's multitude of home runs proved so popular that the Yankees began drawing more people than their landlords, the Giants.^[10] In 1921, when the Yankees made their first World Series appearance against the Giants, the Yankees were told to move out of the Polo Grounds after the 1922 season. Giants manager John McGraw was said to have commented that the Yankees should "move to some out-of-the-way place, like Queens", but they instead broke ground for a new ballpark in the Bronx, right across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds. In 1922, the Yankees returned to the World Series again, and were dealt a second defeat at the hands of the Giants. Important newcomers in this period were manager Miller Huggins and general manager Ed Barrow. The hiring of Huggins by Ruppert would cause a break between the owners that eventually led to Ruppert buying Huston out in 1923.

In 1923, the Yankees moved to their new home, Yankee Stadium. It was the first triple-deck venue in baseball and seated an astounding 58,000 people. In the first game at Yankee Stadium, Babe Ruth hit a home run, which was fitting as his home runs and drawing power paid for the stadium, giving it its nickname of "The House That Ruth Built".^[6] At the end of the year, the Yankees faced the Giants for the third straight year in the World Series, and finally triumphed for their first championship. Prior to that point, the Giants had been the city's icon and dominant team. From 1923 onward, the Yankees would assume that role, and the Giants would eventually leave the city for San Francisco.

In the 1927 season, the Yankees featured a lineup that became known as "Murderers' Row", and some consider this team to be the best in the history of baseball (though similar claims have been made for other Yankee squads, notably those of 1939, 1961 and 1998).^[13] The Yankees won a then-AL record 110 games with only 44 losses, and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1927 World Series. Ruth's home run total of 60 in 1927 set a single-season home run record that would stand for 34 years. Meanwhile, first baseman Lou Gehrig had his first big season, batting .373 with 47 home runs and 175 RBIs, beating Ruth's single-season RBI mark (171 in 1921). In the next three years, the Philadelphia Athletics would take the AL pennant each season and win two world championships.

In 1931, Joe McCarthy came in as manager, and brought the Yankees back to the top of the AL. They swept the Chicago Cubs in the 1932 World Series, and brought the team's streak of consecutive World Series game wins to 12. This series was made famous by Babe Ruth's "Called Shot" in game three of the series at Wrigley Field, a fitting "swan song" to his illustrious World Series career. Ruth would leave the Yankees to join the NL's Boston Braves after 1934, and would never see the World Series again.

Joltin' Joe DiMaggio (1936–1951)[link]

In 1941, Joe DiMaggio set an MLB record with a 56-game hitting streak

With Ruth retired, Gehrig finally had a chance to take center stage, but it was only one year before a new star appeared: Joe DiMaggio. The team would win an unprecedented four straight World Series titles from 1936 to 1939. For most of 1939, however, they had to do it without Gehrig, who was forced to retire because of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), now nicknamed "Lou Gehrig's Disease" in his honor. The Yankees declared July 4, 1939 to be "Lou Gehrig Day", on which they retired his number 4 (the first retired number in baseball). Gehrig made a famous speech in which he declared himself to be "the luckiest man on the face of the earth."^[14] He died two years later.

Often described as the last year of the "Golden Era" before World War II and other realities intervened, 1941 was a thrilling year as America watched two major events unfold: Ted Williams of the Red Sox hunting for the elusive .400 batting average and Joe DiMaggio getting hits in consecutive ballgames. By the end of his hitting streak, DiMaggio hit in 56 consecutive games, the current major league record.

Two months and one day after the Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1941 World Series, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and many of their best players, including DiMaggio himself, went off to serve in the military. The Yankees still managed to pull out a win against the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1943 World Series.

In 1945 construction magnate Del Webb and partners Dan Topping and Larry MacPhail purchased the team from the Ruppert estate for $2.8 million; MacPhail was bought out in 1947.

After a few slumping seasons, McCarthy was fired early in 1946. A few interim managers later, Bucky Harris took the job, righting the ship and taking the Yankees to a hard fought series victory against the Dodgers.

Despite finishing only three games behind the first place Cleveland Indians in 1948, Harris was released in favor of Casey Stengel, who had a reputation of being a clown and managing bad teams. His tenure as Yankee field manager, however, was marked with success. The "underdog" Yankees came from behind to catch and surprise the then-powerful Red Sox on the last two days of the 1949 season, a face off that fueled the beginning of the modern Yankees–Red Sox rivalry. By this time, however, DiMaggio's career was winding down, and the "Yankee Clipper" retired after the 1951 season. This year marked the arrival of the "Oklahoma Kid", Mickey Mantle, who was one of several new stars that would fill the gap.

Stengel's squad in the 1950s (1951–1959)[link]

Bettering the clubs managed by Joe McCarthy, the Yankees won the World Series five consecutive times from 1949–1953 under Stengel, which continues to be the major league record. Led by players like center fielder Mickey Mantle, pitcher Whitey Ford, and catcher Yogi Berra, Stengel's teams won ten pennants and seven World Series titles in his twelve seasons as the Yankees manager. Stengel was a master at publicity for the team and for himself, even landing a cover story in Time magazine in 1955. The 1950 was the only one of those five championships not to be won against either the New York Giants or Brooklyn Dodgers; it was won against the Whiz Kids of the Philadelphia Phillies.

In 1954, the Yankees won over 100 games, but the Indians took the pennant with an AL record 111 wins. In 1955, the Dodgers finally beat the Yankees in the World Series, after five previous Series losses to them, but the Yankees came back strong the next year. On October 8, 1956, in Game Five of the 1956 World Series against the Dodgers, pitcher Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history,^[15] which remains the only perfect game in postseason play and was the only no-hitter of any kind to be pitched in postseason play until Roy Halladay pitched a no-hitter on October 6, 2010.^[16]

The Yankees lost the 1957 World Series to the Milwaukee Braves. Following the Series, the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers left for California, leaving the Yankees as New York's only baseball team. In the 1958 World Series, the Yankees got their revenge against the Braves, and became the second team to win the Series after being down three games to one. For the decade, the Yankees won six World Series championships ('50, 51, '52, '53, '56, '58) and eight American League pennants (those six plus '55 and '57). Led by Mantle, Ford, Berra, Elston Howard (the Yankees' first African-American player), and the newly acquired Roger Maris, the Yankees entered the 1960s seeking to replicate their success of the 1950s.

The M&M Boys: Mantle and Maris (1960–1964)[link]

Mickey Mantle was one of the franchise's most celebrated hitters, highlighted by his home run chase with Roger Maris in 1961

Arnold Johnson, owner of the Kansas City Athletics, was a longtime business associate of then-Yankees co-owners Del Webb and Dan Topping. Because of this "special relationship" with the Yankees, he traded them young players for cash and aging veterans. Invariably, these trades ended up being heavily tilted in the Yankees' favor, leading to accusations that the Athletics were little more than a Yankee farm team at the major league level. Kansas City had been home to the Yankees' top farm team for almost 20 years before the Athletics moved there from Philadelphia in 1954.

In 1960, Charles O. Finley purchased the Athletics, and put a cease to the trades. However, before this, the Yankees strengthened their supply of future prospects, which included a young outfielder named Roger Maris. In 1960, Maris led the league in slugging percentage, RBIs, and extra base hits. He finished second in home runs (one behind Mantle) and total bases, and won a Gold Glove, which gathered him enough votes for the American League MVP award.

The year of 1961 would prove to be one of the most memorable in Yankee history. Throughout the summer, Mantle and Maris hit home runs at a fast pace, and became known as the "M&M Boys".^[6] Ultimately, a severe hip infection forced Mantle to leave the lineup and drop out of the race. Maris continued though, and on October 1, the last day of the season, he hit home run number 61, surpassing Babe Ruth's single season home run record of 60. However, MLB Commissioner Ford Frick (who, as it was discovered later, had ghostwritten for Babe Ruth during his career) decreed that since Maris had played in a 162-game season and Ruth had only played in one with 154, two separate records would be kept. It would be 30 years before the dual record would be done away with, and Maris would hold the record alone until Mark McGwire broke it in 1998. Maris still holds the American League record.

The Yankees won the pennant with a 109–53 record and went on to defeat the Cincinnati Reds in the 1961 World Series. The team finished the year with a then record 240 home runs. In 1962, the sports scene in New York changed when the National League expanded to include a new team, the New York Mets in nearby Flushing, Queens. The Mets lost a record 120 games while the Yankees would win the 1962 World Series, their tenth in the past sixteen years, defeating the San Francisco Giants in seven games.

The Yankees reached the 1963 World Series, but were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After the season, Yogi Berra, who had just retired from playing, took over managerial duties. The aging Yankees returned the next year for a fifth straight World Series, but were beaten in seven games by the St. Louis Cardinals. It would be the Yankees last World Series appearance until 1976.

New ownership and a steep decline (1964–1972)[link]

After the 1964 season, CBS purchased 80% of the Yankees from Topping and Webb for $11.2 million.^[17] With the new ownership, the team began to decline. In fact, the Yankees finished in the second division for the first time in 40 years in 1965. This was worsened by the introduction of the major league amateur draft that year, which meant that the Yankees could no longer sign any player they wanted. Webb sold his 10 percent stake to CBS before the year was over.

In 1966, the Yankees finished last in the AL for the first time since 1912. After they finished next-to-last in the 1967 season, the team's fortunes improved somewhat, but they would not become serious contenders again until 1974. Various reasons have been given for the decline, but the single biggest one was the Yankees' inability to replace their aging superstars with new ones, as they had consistently done in the previous five decades. Topping and Webb had owned the Yankees for 20 years, missing the World Series only five times and going 10–5 in the ones they did get to. By contrast, the CBS-owned teams never went to the World Series.

At the start of this period, the Yankees lost their signature broadcaster dating back to the early 1940s. All-time "Voice of the Yankees" Mel Allen was fired after the 1964 season, supposedly due to cost-cutting measures by long time broadcast sponsor Ballantine Beer.^[18]

During Baseball’s Centennial Season in 1969, the greatest players at each position for every team were named during a voting. The All-Time Yankees:

Catcher – Bill Dickey, Left-handed pitcher – Whitey Ford, Right-handed pitcher – Red Ruffing, Relief pitcher – Johnny Murphy

First base – Lou Gehrig, Second base – Tony Lazzeri, Shortstop – Phil Rizzuto, Third base – Red Rolfe

Center field – Joe DiMaggio (also named baseball's “Greatest Living Player”), Right field – Babe Ruth, Left field – Mickey Mantle

Manager – Casey Stengel

Steinbrenner, Martin, Jackson, and Munson: the Bronx Zoo (1973–1981)[link]

A group of investors, led by Cleveland-based shipbuilder George Steinbrenner (1930–2010), purchased the club from CBS on January 3, 1973 for $8.7 million.^[19] Mike Burke stayed on as president until he quit in April. Within a year, Steinbrenner bought out most of his other partners and became the team's principal owner, although Burke continued to hold a minority share into the 1980s.

One of Steinbrenner's major goals was to repair the Stadium, which had greatly deteriorated by the late 1960s. CBS initially suggested renovations, but the team would have needed to play elsewhere, and the Mets refused to open their home, Shea Stadium, to the Yankees. A new stadium in the Meadowlands, across the Hudson River in New Jersey, was suggested (and was eventually built, as Giants Stadium, specifically for football). Finally, in mid-1972, Mayor John Lindsay stepped in. The city bought the Stadium and began an extensive two-year renovation period. Since the city owned Shea, the Mets had to allow the Yankees to play two seasons there. The renovations modernized the look of the stadium and reconfigured some of the seating.

During 1974 and 1975, Yankee Stadium was renovated into its final shape and structure, as shown here in 2002

After the 1974 season, Steinbrenner made a move that started the modern era of free agency, signing star pitcher James Augustus "Catfish" Hunter away from Oakland. Midway through the 1975 season, Steinbrenner made another move, hiring former second baseman Billy Martin as manager. With Martin at the helm, the Yankees reached the 1976 World Series, but were swept by the Cincinnati Reds and their famed "Big Red Machine."

After the 1976 campaign, Steinbrenner added star Oakland outfielder Reggie Jackson to his roster. During spring training of 1977, Jackson alienated his teammates with controversial remarks about the Yankees captain, catcher Thurman Munson. He had bad blood with manager Billy Martin, who had managed the Detroit Tigers when Jackson's Athletics defeated them in the 1972 playoffs. Jackson, Martin, and Steinbrenner repeatedly feuded with each other throughout the life of Jackson's five-year contract. Martin would be hired and fired by Steinbrenner five times over the next 13 years. This conflict, combined with the extremely rowdy Yankees fans of the late 1970s and the bad conditions of the Bronx, led to the Yankee organization and stadium being referred to as the "Bronx Zoo."^[20] Despite the turmoil, Jackson starred in the 1977 World Series, when he hit three home runs in the same game, and overall, four home runs on four consecutive pitches from four different pitchers. Jackson's great performance in the postseason earned him the Series MVP Award, and the nickname "Mr. October."^[21]

Throughout the late 1970s, the race for the pennant was often a close competition between the Yankees and the Red Sox. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the Yankees had been dominant while the Red Sox were largely a non-factor. However, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Yankees were mired in second place and the Red Sox led the league. In the late 1970s the two teams were contending simultaneously and locked in a close fight.

On July 14, 1978, the Yankees were 14½ games behind the Red Sox. The Yankees went on a long winning streak, and by the time they met Boston for a pivotal four-game series at Fenway Park in early September, they were only four games behind the Red Sox. The Yankees swept the Red Sox in what became known as the "Boston Massacre", winning the games 15–3, 13–2, 7–0, and 7–4. The third game was a shutout pitched by "Louisiana Lightning" Ron Guidry, who would lead the majors with nine shutouts, a 25–3 record, and a 1.74 ERA. Guidry finished with 248 strikeouts, but Nolan Ryan's 260 strikeouts with the California Angels deprived Guidry of the pitching Triple Crown.

On the last day of the season, the two clubs finished in a tie for first place in the AL East, and a one-game playoff (the 163rd game of the regular season) was held at Fenway Park. With Guidry pitching against former Yankee Mike Torrez, the Red Sox took an early 2–0 lead. In the seventh inning, light-hitting Yankee shortstop Bucky Dent drove a three-run home run over the "Green Monster" (Fenway Park's famed left field wall), putting the Yankees up 3–2. Reggie Jackson's solo home run in the following inning sealed the eventual 5–4 win that gave the Yankees their one hundredth win of the season and their third straight AL East title and Guidry earned his 25th win of the season.

The Yankees' 1977 and 1978 trophies on display at the Yankees Museum in Yankee Stadium.

After beating the Kansas City Royals for the third consecutive year in the ALCS, the Yankees faced the Dodgers again in the World Series. They lost the first two games in LA, but won all three games at Yankee Stadium and won Game 6 in Los Angeles, winning their 22nd World Championship.

Changes occurred during the 1979 season. Former Cy Young Award-winning closer Sparky Lyle was traded to the Texas Rangers for several players, including Dave Righetti. Tommy John was acquired from the Dodgers and Luis Tiant from the hated Red Sox to bolster the pitching staff. During the season, Bob Lemon was replaced by Billy Martin.

The mask and catcher's mitt of Thurman Munson, the team captain who was killed in a plane crash in 1979

The 1970s ended on a tragic note for the Yankees. On August 2, 1979, Thurman Munson died after crashing his private plane while practicing "Touch and Go" landings. Four days later, the entire team flew out to Canton, Ohio for the funeral, despite having a game later that day against the Orioles. Martin adamantly stated that the funeral was more important, and that he did not care if they made it back in time. Bobby Murcer, a close friend of Munson's, was chosen to give the eulogy at his funeral. In a nationally televised and emotional game, Murcer used Munson's bat (which he gave to his fallen friend's wife after the game), and drove in all five of the team's runs in a dramatic 5–4 walk-off victory. Before the game, Munson's locker sat empty except for his catching gear, a sad reminder for his teammates. His locker, labeled with his number 15, has remained empty in the Yankee clubhouse as a memorial. When the Yankees moved across the street, Munson's locker was torn out and installed in the new Stadium's museum. The number 15 has been retired by the team.

The 1980 season brought more changes to the Yankees. Billy Martin was fired once again and Dick Howser took his place. Chris Chambliss was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for catcher Rick Cerone. Thanks to Howser's no-nonsense attitude, Reggie Jackson hit .300 for the only time in his career with 41 homers, and finished 2nd in the MVP voting to Kansas City's George Brett. The Yankees won 103 games and the AL East by three games over the 100-win Baltimore Orioles, but were swept by the Royals in the 1980 ALCS.

After the season ended, the Yankees signed Dave Winfield to a ten-year contract. The Yankees fired Howser and replaced him with Gene Michael. Under Michael, the Yankees led the AL East before a strike hit in June of 1981. In the second half of the season, the Yankees struggled under Bob Lemon, who replaced Michael. Thanks to the split-season playoff format, the Yankees faced the second-half winner Milwaukee Brewers in the special 1981 American League Division Series. After narrowly defeating Milwaukee in five games, they breezed through Billy Martin and the Oakland Athletics in a three-game ALCS. In the World Series, the Yankees got off to a hot start by winning the first two games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. But the Dodgers fought back and stunned the Yankees by winning the next four games to clinch their first World Series title since 1965.