New York Yankees

Team information

• Inaugural season: 1901
• Home ballpark: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York City
• Owner: Yankee Global Enterprises
• Team colors: Midnight navy blue, gray, and white

Overview

The New York Yankees are a Major League Baseball (MLB) team that plays in the American League East division. The Yankees are widely considered one of the most storied franchises in baseball history, having won a record twenty-seven World Series titles and produced more legendary players than any other team. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the franchise was moved to New York in 1903 and struggled for much of its first two decades in existence. However, everything changed in 1920 with the acquisition of George Herman “Babe” Ruth, the most prolific slugger of his generation and arguably the most famous baseball player of all time. For much of the next century, the Yankees sustained a tradition of excellence, dominating baseball during several eras and advancing to the postseason more than fifty times. Many of the Yankees’ greatest players are also counted among baseball’s all-time best. In addition to Ruth, these include Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera.

History

In 1901, the newly formed American League wanted to place a franchise in New York City, but its efforts were blocked by the National League’s New York Giants. Instead, the AL decided to establish a team in Baltimore. The team, nicknamed the Orioles, struggled financially for two seasons before it folded. In 1903, the American and National Leagues joined together under the oversight of Major League Baseball (MLB). The president of the American League still wanted a team in New York City and arranged for the sale of the Orioles franchise to two politically connected New Yorkers for $18,000. The team’s first stadium, Hilltop Park, was built at the highest point in Manhattan, leading to the franchise’s name, the New York Highlanders.

The Highlanders lived in the shadow of the New York Giants as the city’s best team for most of the 1900s and 1910s. The franchise lost more than one hundred games twice and posted only three winning seasons from 1903 to 1912. The team adopted the interlocking letters “NY” as its primary logo in 1909, and three years later, began wearing pinstripes on its home uniforms. Both elements would go on to be part of the franchise’s iconic look. In 1913, the team moved from Hilltop Park into the Polo Grounds, a field it shared with the New York Giants. No longer at the highest point in Manhattan, the Highlanders needed to come up with a new name. New York newspapers had been informally referring to the team as the Yankees for years, so the franchise officially adopted that name.

The name change did little to alter the Yankees’ fortunes as the team missed the playoffs from 1913 to 1919. On January 3, 1920, New York purchased the contract of star pitcher/outfielder Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for $100,000. The move not only transformed the Yankee franchise, but also changed the course of baseball history. Now focusing solely on his hitting, Ruth began smashing home runs at a record pace. When the team moved into the newly constructed Yankee Stadium in 1923, the ballpark was nicknamed “the house that Ruth built” because its short right field wall was ideal for Ruth’s left-handed swing. Joining Ruth on the 1923 team was rookie first baseman Lou Gehrig, who soon began challenging Ruth as the best player in baseball. In 1927, Ruth and Gehrig were part of a potent hitting lineup dubbed “Murderer’s Row,” the backbone of a team considered by many baseball experts as the best of all time.

The 1920s began an unprecedented streak of success that lasted for more than forty years and saw the franchise win twenty World Series championships. The Yankees made six World Series during the 1920s and won three, while the team won nine of ten World Series appearances in the 1930s and 1940s. The 1950s may have been the Yankees’ best decade, as New York made eight World Series and won six. New York won two more championships in the early 1960s before finally experiencing a losing season in 1965—the first time the Yankees had finished below .500 since 1925. The four-decade run was powered by a string of superstars from Ruth and Gehrig in the 1920s and 1930s, to Joe DiMaggio in the late 1930s and 1940s, to Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Yogi Berra in the 1950s.

With age catching up to their championship core, the Yankees entered a period of decline in the late 1960s, missing the playoffs from 1965 to 1975. The team rebounded in 1976 to make the World Series, although it lost to the Cincinnati Reds. A year later, New York signed flamboyant outfielder Reggie Jackson, whose behavior often caused turmoil in the clubhouse but resulted in wins on the field. Powered by Jackson, New York won back-to-back championships in 1977 and 1978 and made another World Series appearance in 1981. After losing that series, the Yankees struggled to find success for the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s. New York missed the playoffs from 1982 to 1994, the team’s longest postseason drought since it was named the Highlanders.

For much of that period, the Yankees tried to improve their team by signing high-priced free agents, with very little success. In the mid-1990s, the team began a rebuilding effort with homegrown players who came up from the Yankees’ minor league system. Chief among these were shortstop Derek Jeter and relief pitcher Mariano Rivera, who sparked a resurgence that saw New York make the playoffs every year from 1995 to 2007. As part of that run, the Yankees won four World Series titles, in 1996 and then three in a row from 1998 to 2000. They also reached the World Series in 2001 and 2003, though they did not win.

The Yankees remained a consistent playoff contender over the following years. While the franchise continued to rely on several key homegrown players, it also carried on its reputation for trading and spending freely on other stars, such as Alex Rodriguez and C. C. Sabathia. Despite sustained overall success, however, the team struggled to replicate its postseason dominance. Notably, the Yankees suffered what many fans considered a humiliating defeat at the hands of their arch rival, the Boston Red Sox, in the 2004 American League Championship Series (ALCS). Although the Yankees had a three-game lead in the series and were expected to win, the Red Sox made history by winning the next four games. After missing the playoffs altogether in 2008, the Yankees did manage to return to the World Series in 2009 (their first year playing in a new Yankee Stadium, built near the site of the original) and won a record twenty-seventh championship title.

The Yankees continued to be a force in the American League through the 2010s, winning three division titles and reaching the ALCS four times that decade. Jeter's retirement in 2014 and Rodriguez's final game in 2016 marked a turnover to a new generation of Yankees icons, highlighted by superstar outfielder Aaron Judge's emergence in 2017. This changing of the guard did bring some down years, however, as the team missed the playoffs in 2013, 2014, and 2016 and failed to meet expectations of a deep playoff run in several other seasons. This trend continued into the 2020s, as the Yankees generally enjoyed strong regular seasons but saw its title drought continue to grow. The team did make it to the 2024 World Series, but lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.

Notable players

More than sixty former players, managers, and team officials associated with the New York Yankees have been elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Of that number, twenty-four players have been inducted primarily for their accomplishments with the Yankees—the most of any MLB team. The franchise has also retired an MLB-record twenty-two jersey numbers, further indicating the Yankees' reputation as one of the most star-studded teams in sports history. Many Yankees icons are famous even beyond baseball as key figures in American pop culture.

Babe Ruth was inducted in 1936 as part of the inaugural Hall of Fame class. A larger-than-life figure both on and off the field, Ruth was an American cultural icon in the 1920s and 1930s. His 714 career home runs stood as the defining record in sports until it was broken in 1974 by Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves. Ruth played fifteen seasons in New York from 1920 to 1934, finishing with a franchise record of 659 home runs and 1,959 runs scored. His 1,978 runs batted in (RBIs) are second all-time in Yankee history. Ruth was also named the 1923 American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) and won four World Series with the Yankees.

Lou Gehrig played his entire career with the Yankees from 1923 to 1939 and was part of six World Series championship teams. Gehrig won three AL home run titles, five RBI titles, and two MVP awards during his career. His 1,995 RBIs are a franchise record and his 493 home runs are third on the list. Nicknamed the “Iron Horse” for his durability, Gehrig played in a then-record 2,130 straight games from 1925 to 1939. Tragically, he was forced to retire in 1939 after contracting the muscle-wasting disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that is often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Joe DiMaggio played with the Yankees from 1936 to 1951, although he spent 1943 to 1945 serving in the US Army during World War II. DiMaggio won nine World Series with the Yankees and three AL MVP awards. His 361 career home runs and 1,537 RBIs would undoubtedly have been much higher had he not lost three seasons in the prime of his career to military service. Mickey Mantle spent his entire eighteen-year career with the Yankees from 1951 to 1968. Mantle won seven World Series, three MVP Awards, and made twenty All-Star teams. His 536 home runs trail only Ruth in the team record books and his 1,509 RBIs are fourth. Eighteen-time All-Star Yogi Berra was the catcher on the great Yankee teams of the 1950s. He won ten championships with New York from 1946 to 1963—the most of any player in baseball history. Berra hit 358 home runs and drove in 1,430 runs in his career.

The pitching star on the 1950s and early 1960s Yankees was Whitey Ford, who holds the franchise record of 236 career wins and is second in strikeouts with 1,956. Andy Pettitte, who was part of New York’s five World Series titles of the late 1990s and 2000s, is the team’s all-time strikeout leader with 2,020. Reggie Jackson played just five of his twenty-one seasons with New York, but went into the Hall of Fame in 1993 as a Yankee. Jackson hit 563 career home runs and won the AL MVP with Oakland in 1973.

Derek Jeter was the heart and soul of the Yankees teams in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century. Nicknamed “The Captain,” Jeter was known for his hustling style of play and clutch playoff performances. His 3,465 hits stood as the most in Yankee history and sixth-most in MLB history at the time of his retirement. Jeter was also the franchise leader in games played with 2,747 and steals with 358. Jeter’s longtime teammate, relief pitcher Mariano Rivera, was the most dominant closer in baseball during his nineteen-year career. He set the MLB record for saves with 652 and was the first player ever elected to the Hall of Fame by a unanimous vote.

From his AL Rookie of the Year–winning 2017 season, Aaron Judge emerged as the new face of the Yankees franchise and one of baseball’s most feared power hitters. In his first full season, he broke the rookie record for home runs with 52 (although this was passed two years later by Pete Alonso of the New York Mets). In 2022, Judge set an American League record by hitting 62 home runs and won league MVP honors. He was named the sixteenth team captain in Yankees history in 2023.

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