Yankee All-Star Appearances, 1933-2026

Stan Musial and Mickey Mantle,

1975 All-Star Game, Milwaukee County Stadium

This list takes into account all times a player was named to an All-Star Team, whether he got into the All-Star Game or not; but not the doubled-up ASGs of 1958 to 1962. It does not include managers. And it only includes berths in the Game while with the Yankees, not with other teams.

Also, while the All-Star Game was canceled twice, in both cases due to travel restrictions, in 1945 because of World War II and in 2020 due to COVID-19, All-Star Teams were still named in those seasons.

Keep in mind also that the All-Star Game did not start until 1933. If it had started earlier -- say, in 1920 -- Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, in particular, would have had many more appearances.

Players in Yankee Blue are Monument Park honorees. Players in bold are Baseball Hall of Fame inductees.

Mickey Mantle, 16: 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968
Yogi Berra, 15: 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962
Derek Jeter, 14: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014
Joe DiMaggio, 13: 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951
Mariano Rivera, 12: 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013
Bill Dickey, 11: 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1946
Elston Howard, 9: 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965
Whitey Ford, 8: 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1964
Dave Winfield, 8: 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988
Aaron Judge, 8: 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026

Lefty Gomez, 7: 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940
Bobby Richardson, 7: 1957, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966
Alex Rodriguez, 7: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011

Lou Gehrig, 6: 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938
Red Ruffing, 6: 1934, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942
Joe Gordon, 6: 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1946
Thurman Munson, 6: 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977
Don Mattingly, 6: 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989
Tommy Henrich, 5: 1942, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950
Phil Rizzuto, 5: 1942, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953
Allie Reynolds, 5: 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954
Gil McDougald, 5: 1952, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959
Mel Stottlemyre, 5: 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970
Graig Nettles, 5: 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980
Reggie Jackson, 5: 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981
Willie Randolph, 5: 1976, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1987
Bernie Williams, 5: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
Jorge Posada, 5: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007
Robinson Canó, 5: 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013

Red Rolfe, 4: 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940
Charlie Keller, 4: 1940, 1941, 1943, 1946
Spud Chandler, 4: 1942, 1943, 1946, 1947
Vic Raschi, 4: 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952
Bill "Moose" Skowron, 4: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961
Bobby Murcer, 4: 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974
Rich "Goose" Gossage, 4: 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982
Ron Guidry, 4: 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983
Rickey Henderson, 4: 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988
Wade Boggs, 4: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996
Paul O'Neill, 4: 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998

Dellin Betances, 4: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
Ben Chapman, 3: 1933, 1934, 1935

Joe Page, 3: 1944, 1947, 1948
Hank Bauer, 3: 1952, 1953, 1954
Tony Kubek, 3: 1958, 1959, 1961
Roger Maris, 3: 1960, 1961, 1962
Joe Pepitone, 3: 1963, 1964, 1965
Sparky Lyle, 3: 1973, 1976, 1977
Jason Giambi, 3: 2002, 2003, 2004
Curtis Granderson, 3: 2010, 2011, 2012

Gerrit Cole, 3: 2021, 2022, 2023

Babe Ruth, 2: 1933, 1934
George Selkirk, 2: 1936, 1939
Frank Crosetti, 2: 1936, 1939
Johnny Murphy, 2: 1937, 1939
Monte Pearson, 2: 1936, 1940
Tiny Bonham, 2: 1942, 1943

Hank Borowy, 2: 1944, 1945
George McQuinn, 2: 1947, 1948
Bob Turley, 2: 1955, 1958
Ryne Duren, 2: 1958, 1959
Tom Tresh, 2: 1962, 1963
Roy White, 2: 1969, 1970
Jim "Catfish" Hunter, 2: 1975, 1976
Tommy John, 2: 1979, 1980
Bucky Dent, 2: 1980, 1981
Dave Righetti, 2: 1986, 1987
Steve Sax, 2: 1989, 1990
Jimmy Key, 2: 1993, 1994
Andy Pettitte, 2: 1996, 2001
David Cone, 2: 1997, 1999

Roger Clemens, 2: 2001, 2003
Alfonso Soriano, 2: 2002, 2003
Hideki Matsui, 2: 2003, 2004
Gary Sheffield, 2: 2004, 2005

Mark Teixeira, 2: 2009, 2015

CC Sabathia, 2: 2011, 2012

Masahiro Tanaka, 2: 2014, 2019

Luis Severino, 2: 2017, 2018

Gary Sánchez, 2: 2017, 2019

Gleyber Torres, 2: 2018, 2019

DJ LeMahieu, 2: 2019, 2020

Aroldis Chapman, 2: 2019, 2021

Clay Holmes, 2: 2022, 2024

Tony Lazzeri, 1: 1933

Marius Russo, 1: 1941
Buddy Rosar, 1: 1942
Johnny Lindell, 1: 1943
Rollie Helmsley, 1: 1944

Nick Etten, 1: 1945

Oscar Grimes, 1: 1945
George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss, 1: 1946
Aaron Robinson, 1: 1947
Frank "Spec" Shea, 1: 1947
Billy Johnson, 1: 1947
Tommy Byrne, 1: 1950
Jerry Coleman, 1: 1950
Eddie Lopat, 1: 1951
Johnny Mize, 1: 1953
Johnny Sain, 1: 1953
Irv Noren, 1: 1954
Billy Martin, 1: 1956
Johnny Kucks, 1: 1956
Bobby Shantz, 1: 1957
Bob Grim, 1: 1957
Jim Coates, 1: 1960
Luis Arroyo, 1: 1961
Ralph Terry, 1: 1962
Jim Bouton, 1: 1963
Al Downing, 1: 1967
Fritz Peterson, 1: 1970
Bobby Bonds, 1: 1975
Chris Chambliss, 1: 1976
Mickey Rivers, 1: 1976
Ron Davis, 1, 1981
Phil Niekro, 1: 1984
Scott Sanderson, 1: 1991
Roberto Kelly, 1: 1992
Mike Stanley, 1: 1995
John Wetteland, 1: 1996
Tino Martinez, 1: 1997
David Wells, 1: 1998
Scott Brosius, 1: 1998
Mike Stanton, 1: 2001
Robin Ventura, 1: 2002
Javier Vázquez, 1: 2004
Tom Gordon, 1: 2004
Nick Swisher, 1: 2010
Phil Hughes, 1: 2010
Russell Martin, 1: 2011
David Robertson, 1: 2011
Brett Gardner, 1: 2015

Carlos Beltrán, 1: 2016

Andrew Miller, 1: 2016

Giancarlo Stanton, 1: 2022

Jose Trevino, 1: 2022

Nestor Cortes, 1: 2022

Juan Soto, 1: 2024

Jazz Chisholm Jr., 1: 2025

Max Fried, 1: 2025

Carlos Rodón, 1: 2025

Ben Rice, 1: 2026

Cody Bellinger, 1: 2026

Cam Schlittler, 1: 2026

DiMaggio played 13 seasons, missing 1943, 1944 and 1945 due to service in World War II, and made the All-Star Game every season. He's the only player with as many seasons to make the All-Star Game every season.

Living Yankee All-Stars, in chronological order: Bobby Shantz, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Al Downing, Roy White, Sparky Lyle, Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Mickey Rivers, Willie Randolph, Reggie Jackson, Ron Guidry, Goose Gossage, Tommy John, Bucky Dent, Dave Winfield, Don Mattingly, Dave Righetti, Steve Sax, Roberto Kelly, Wade Boggs, Jimmy Key, Paul O'Neill, Mike Stanley, Andy Pettitte, John Wetteland, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, David Cone, Derek Jeter, David Wells, Scott Brosius, Jorge Posada, Roger Clemens, Mike Stanton, Jason Giambi, Alfonso Soriano, Robin Ventura, Hideki Matsui, Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Javier Vázquez, Tom Gordon, Robinson Canó, Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher, Phil Hughes, Curtis Granderson, CC Sabathia, Russell Martin, David Robertson, Masahiro Tanaka, Dellin Betances, Brett Gardner, Carlos Beltrán, Andrew Miller, Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, Gary Sánchez, Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu, Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton, Clay Holmes, Jose Trevino, Nestor Cortes, Juan Soto, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, Cam Schlittler.

Cone, Beltrán and Soto are the only players to be named to the All-Star Game as a Yankee and as a Met.

Based solely on most All-Star berths, this would be the all-time Yankee lineup:

1B Lou Gehrig
2B Bobby Richardson
SS Derek Jeter
3B Alex Rodriguez
LF Dave Winfield
CF Joe DiMaggio
RF Aaron Judge
DH Mickey Mantle
C Yogi Berra
SP1 Whitey Ford
SP2 Lefty Gomez
SP3 Red Ruffing
SP4 Allie Reynolds
SP5 Mel Stottlemyre

RP Mariano Rivera

September 6, 1995: Cal Ripken Becomes Baseball's All-Time "Iron Man"

September 6, 1995, 30 years ago: The Baltimore Orioles beat the California Angels, 4-2 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Cal Ripken Jr. batted 5th and played shortstop. As the game's 5th inning concluded, making the game official, the game was interrupted for a ceremony honoring Ripken, because it was his 2,131st consecutive game with the Orioles.

This broke the record of 2,130, set by Lou Gehrig with the New York Yankees, from June 1, 1925 to April 30, 1939.

Ripken's streak began on May 30, 1982, at the Orioles' previous home park, Memorial Stadium. Then 20 years old, and the son of Oriole 3rd base coach Cal Ripken Sr., he played shortstop, and batted 8th, going 0-for-2, but did draw a walk. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Orioles, 6-0, getting a 1-hit shutout from Jim Gott (6 innings) and Roy Lee Jackson (3). The only Oriole hit was a single by Rick Dempsey in the 5th inning.

Although he had been featured on the Orioles' "Future Stars" card in the 1982 Topps baseball card set -- along with shortstop Bob Bonner and pitcher Jeff Schneider -- he had, to this point, appeared in a grand total of 65 major league games. And the Orioles' most recent one hadn't been one of them.

He must have impressed manager Earl Weaver, because Earl put Cal in the next game as well. And the next. And so on. In 1982, he was named the American League's Rookie of the Year. In 1983, defying the "sophomore jinx" that had hit many Rookies of the Year, he became the only one, in either League, to win his League's Most Valuable Player award the following season. The Orioles won the World Series, beating the Philadelphia Phillies in 5 games, with Ripken catching a line drive from Garry Maddox for the last out.

Ripken became a perennial All-Star, and in 1991 was named AL MVP again, and also the MVP of the All-Star Game. He surpassed the various men ahead of him on the list of most consecutive games played: Stan Musial with 895, Billy Williams with 1,117, Steve Garvey with the National League record of 1,207, and Everett Scott with the pre-Gehrig record of 1,307.

When the Strike of '94 hit on August 12, 1994, with Ripken having played in 2,009 straight games, there was some question as to whether the next Orioles game, should he play in it, would count as part of the streak. Major League Baseball ruled that it would.

The Strike was ended, and Ripken and the Orioles resumed. On September 5, the Orioles beat the Angels, 8-0, having hit 7 home runs, 2 by Brady Anderson, 1 by Ripken as he tied Gehrig's record at 2,130.

On Gehrig's Monument in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, the inscription includes the words, "A man, a gentleman and a great ball player whose amazing record of 2130 consecutive games should stand for all time." Whether it should have stood for all time was a separate debate. But it took 56 years after Gehrig's retirement, forced by a fatal illness, to fall.

With the Washington Senators having moved to the Dallas area after the 1971 season, becoming the Texas Rangers, the Orioles became the closest MLB team to the nation's capital, and many Washington insiders made the 45-mile trip up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, took up the Orioles as their second team, and entertained prominent guests, first at Memorial Stadium, then, starting in 1992, at Camden Yards.

And because Ripken was the biggest star on the capital, he became a national figure, celebrated not for being spectacular, but for simply showing up and doing his job every day -- even though he had just come off the longest work stoppage in his industry's history. (Of course, the players were right and the team owners were wrong. But it does make the celebration of Ripken showing up every day a bit hypocritical.)

So when it was calculated, after the Strike's end, that September 6 would (barring a postponement) be Game Number 2,131, everybody who was anybody wanted to be there. This included President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, who watched the game with MLB Acting Commissioner Bud Selig. ESPN broadcast the game nationally.

The teams traded home runs in the 1st inning: Tim Salmon for the Angels, and Rafael Palmeiro for the Orioles. Bobby Bonilla led off the bottom of the 4th with a home run. Up next was Ripken, who was a few days past his 35th birthday, and he made it back-to-back home runs, causing Oriole broadcaster Jon Miller to shout, "Oh my goodness, he's done it again!" That made it 3-1 Orioles.

After the 5th inning, as the game began official, people turned to the warehouse beyond the right field wall, where 4 banners hung, reading 2, 1, 3 and 0. A 1 banner was unfurled over the 0 banner, making it 2,131. A standing ovation began, and would not stop. For the moment, he was not just a national treasure, a man widely seen as having restored baseball's popularity after the Strike: He was one of their own, a native of Aberdeen, Maryland, 34 miles to the northeast.

He took what English soccer fans would call a "lap of honour," shaking hands around the field. The ovation lasted 22 minutes, and ESPN did not break for commercial.

Palmeiro hit a home run in the 7th, and the Orioles won, 4-2. Future Hall-of-Famer Mike Mussina was the winning pitcher.

Ripken had once been an excellent defensive shortstop, but, in 1996, was moved to 3rd base, where he remained for the rest of his career. In 1996 and '97, he helped the Orioles reach the Playoffs, but their 1983 remained his only Pennant win. It had been suggested that he was hurting the team by not taking the occasional day off, but he kept going until September 20, 1998, at home against the Yankees, Gehrig's team. His streak ended at 2,632 in a row. He had surpassed Gehrig's record by 23 percent.

In taking the occasional day off, he 1999, he batted .340, the highest average of his career -- but also equal to Gehrig's career batting average. After the season, he was voted by fans onto the MLB All-Century Team. Early the next season, he collected his 3,000th career hit. He retired after the 2001 season, the Orioles retired his Number 8, and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Given what's now called "load management," the possibility of seriously approaching the streaks of Musial, Williams, Garvey, Scott and Gehrig, never mind Ripken's, is incredibly remote.

Crossing the Lines

Left to right: Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn and Don Ameche, in Cocoon

Today, I learned about The Brimley/Cocoon Line. A feed on BlueSky dedicated it said:

Born Nov. 11, 1974, Leonardo DiCaprio is 18,530 days old today, matching Wilford Brimley’s age on the day ‘Cocoon’ was released. Congrats Leo! You’ve reached the Brimley/Cocoon Line. 

The old people in the movie, released in 1985 and directed by Ron Howard, were Don Ameche, 77; Jack Gilford, about to turn 77; Hume Cronyn, 74; Jessica Tandy, Cronyn's wife, also 74; Herta Ware, 68; Maureen Stapleton, 60; Gwen Verdon, also 60; and Wilford Brimley, described in the film review written for Time magazine by Richard Corliss as "53, but he can pass for old," but, really, only 50. Brian Dennehy, about to turn 47, wasn't yet considered "old." Nor were Steve Guttenberg, 26; Tyrone Power Jr., Tyrone's son, also 26; or Latanee "Tahnee" Welch, Raquel's daughter, 23.

Brimley had become famous the year before, playing Pop Fisher, the manager of the New York Knights, in the film The Natural. He already had white receding hair and a bushy mustache, so he looked considerably older. Having to stand alongside a 45-year-old but still dashing Robert Redford, the Depression setting of the film, the baggy uniform, and the dilapidated condition of the main filming location, War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, didn't help how he looked.

He later became a spokesman for Quaker Oats, looking older than the old Quaker man on the container; and for diabetes awareness and an insurance company, and lived until 2020. It wasn't COVID that killed him, it was diabetes-aided kidney failure. He was 85, and looked it -- but he had looked 85 for years.

Seeing the words "Brimley/Cocoon Line" made me think of the various "age lines" I've crossed. I was born on December 18, 1969, so:

* I outlived every rock star in "The 27 Club," including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse, on my 28th birthday, December 18, 1997 -- the day Chris Farley died.

* Thurman Munson died at 32 years, 1 month and 26 days. I outlived him on February 9, 2002.

* Farley's hero, John Belushi, died at 33 years, 1 month and 9 days. I outlived him on January 28, 2003.

* Farley died at 33 years, 10 months and 3 days. I outlived him on October 22, 2003.

* Diana Spencer, former Princess of Wales, died at 36 years, 1 month and 30 days. I outlived her on February 18, 2006.

* Marilyn Monroe died at 36 years, 2 months and 4 days. I outlived her on February 23, 2006. (Elton John wrote his most famous song about Marilyn, then rewrote it for Diana -- and they were almost the exact same age when they died!)

* Lou Gehrig died at 37 years, 11 months and 15 days. I outlived him on December 4, 2007.

* Roberto Clemente died at 38 years, 4 months and 13 days. I outlived him on May 1, 2008.

* Martin Luther King Jr. died at 39 years, 2 months and 20 days. I outlived him on March 7, 2009.

* Malcolm X died at 39 years, 9 months and 2 days. I outlived him on September 20, 2009.

* John Lennon died at 40 years, 1 month and 29 days. I outlived him on February 18, 2010.

* Robert F. Kennedy died at 42 years, 6 months and 16 days. I outlived him on July 7, 2012.

* Elvis Presley died at 42 years, 7 months and 8 days. I outlived him on July 27, 2012.

* Freddie Mercury died at 45 years, 2 months and 19 days. I outlived him on March 10, 2015.

* Walter Payton died at 46 years, 3 months and 7 days. I outlived him on March 25, 2016.

* John F. Kennedy died at 46 years, 5 months and 24 days. I outlived him on June 13, 2016.

* Jack Kerouac died at 47 years, 7 months and 9 days. I outlived him on July 28, 2017.

* The Brimley/Cocoon Line is 50 years, 8 months and 26 days. I reached it on September 13, 2020.

* Michael Jackson died at 50 years, 9 months and 27 days. I outlived him on October 16, 2020.

* Babe Ruth died at 53 years, 6 months and 10 days. I outlived him on July 29, 2023.

* Jackie Robinson died at 53 years, 8 months and 24 days. I outlived him on September 11, 2023. (Probably the 2 most important baseball players of all time -- and they were very close to the same age when they died!)

* Abraham Lincoln died at 56 years, 2 months and 3 days. I would outlive him if I make it to February 22, 2026.

* Humphrey Bogart died at 57 years and 20 days. I would outlive him if I make it to January 8, 2027.

To match my grandparents, I would have to make it to early 2027, early 2035, early 2048, and late 2051. To match my father, I would have to make it to early 2041. To match my mother's current age, I would have to make it to mid-2048.

To match Donald Trump's current age, I would have to make it to early 2049. But I was more mature than he was when I was 14.

Each State's Greatest Baseball Player

Monte Irvin of Orange, New Jersey

Notes: This is based not necessarily on where the player was born, but where he was trained to play baseball. And, as you will see, personal feelings will be set aside, except where steroids are concerned: All players known to have used steroids are ineligible.

1. Alabama: Willie Mays of Fairfield.

2. Alaska: Chad Bentz of Juneau.

3. Arizona: Jim Palmer of Scottsdale.

4. Arkansas: Brooks Robinson of Little Rock.

5. California: Joe DiMaggio of San Francisco.

6. Colorado: Roy Halladay of Arvada.

7. Connecticut: Jeff Bagwell of Killingworth.

8. Delaware: Chris Short of Milford.

9. District of Columbia: Maury Wills of Washington.

10. Florida: Steve Carlton of North Miami.

11. Georgia: Ty Cobb of Royston.

12. Hawaii: Shane Victorino of Wailuku.

13. Idaho: Harmon Killebrew of Payette.

14: Illinois: Robin Roberts of Springfield.

15. Indiana: Sam Rice of Morocco.

16. Iowa: Bob Feller of Van Meter.

17. Kansas: Walter Johnson of Humboldt.

18. Kentucky: Jim Bunning of Southgate.

19. Louisiana: Mel Ott of Gretna.

20. Maine: George Gore of Hartland.

21. Maryland: Babe Ruth of Baltimore.

22. Massachusetts: Mickey Cochrane of Bridgewater.

23. Michigan: Derek Jeter of Kalamazoo.

24. Minnesota: Dave Winfield of St. Paul.

25. Mississippi: Frank White of Greenville.

26. Missouri: Albert Pujols of Independence.

27. Montana: Dave McNally of Billings.

28. Nebraska: Grover Cleveland Alexander of St. Paul.

29. Nevada: Greg Maddux of Las Vegas.

30. New Hampshire: Carlton Fisk of Charlestown.

31. New Jersey: Monte Irvin of Orange.

32. New Mexico: Alex Bregman of Albuquerque.

33. New York: Lou Gehrig of Manhattan.

34. North Carolina: Gaylord Perry of Williamston.

35. North Dakota: Roger Maris of Fargo.

36. Ohio: Cy Young of Newcomerstown.

37. Oklahoma: Mickey Mantle of Commerce.

38. Oregon: Mickey Lolich of Portland.

39. Pennsylvania: Honus Wagner of Carnegie.

40. Rhode Island: Nap Lajoie of Woonsocket.

41. South Carolina: Joe Jackson of Greenville.

42. South Dakota: Dave Collins of Rapid City.

43. Tennessee: Todd Helton of Knoxville.

44. Texas: Tris Speaker of Hubbard.

45. Utah: Bruce Hurst of St. George.

46. Vermont: Ray Fisher of Middlebury.

47. Virginia: Justin Verlander of Goochland.

48. Washington: Ryne Sandberg of Spokane.

49. West Virginia: Jesse Burkett of Wheeling.

50. Wisconsin: Al Simmons of Milwaukee.

51. Wyoming: Tom Browning of Casper.

June 1, 1925: Lou Gehrig's Streak Begins

June 1, 1925, 100 years ago: The New York Yankees lose to the Washington Senators, 5-3 at Yankee Stadium. Walter Johnson outpitched Sad Sam Jones. Sam Rice, the Senators' center fielder and leadoff hitter, headed for the Hall of Fame, went 5-for-5.

Despite their frequent billing as "Washington: First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League," there was no shame, at that time, in losing to the Senators. They had won the World Series the year before, and would fall just 1 game short of doing it again. But after staying in the Pennant race late in 1919 and 1920, winning the American League Pennant in 1921 and 1922, winning the World Series in 1923, and finished only 2 games behind the Senators in 1924, the Yankees were a mess.

Babe Ruth had only recently made his season debut, after an illness that still baffles baseball historians to this day. And a bunch of the players who had helped them win those 3 straight Pennants simply weren't hitting: 1st baseman Wally Pipp was batting .244, 2nd baseman Aaron Ward was at .255, shortstop Everett Scott was at .224, center fielder Whitey Witt was at .194, and catcher Wally Schang was at .247.

Scott didn't play in this game. Paul "Pee Wee" Wanninger did. He was the 1st New York-based shortstop nicknamed Pee Wee, but he was no Harold "Pee Wee" Reese.

Pipp. Ward. Scott. Witt. Schang. All 5 of these players would be replaced as starters by the time the 1926 season began. And the players they got would help them win another 3 straight Pennants, losing the World Series in 1926, but sweeping it in 1927 and 1928.

Schang wasn't exactly replaced. The Yankees tried Benny Bengough, Mike Gazella and Pat Collins, but it would take until Bill Dickey became the starter in 1929 for them to again have an elite catcher. It is an oddity that the 1927 Yankees, known as "Murderers' Row," have often been considered the greatest team in baseball history without having a great catcher.

But Witt had already been replaced in center field by Earle Combs, who would go on to became a Hall-of-Famer. Ward was replaced at 2nd base by Tony Lazzeri, who also went to the Hall of Fame. Scott was replaced at shortstop by Mark Koenig, a decent player.

As for Pipp... He was batting .244 after going 1-for-4 in this game. That's why he was replaced. Yes, later in the year, he was hit in the head by a batting-practice pitch, as the myth says. But he had already been replaced as the starting 1st baseman by that point. It's also not true that Pipp never played again. He did play, and well -- but for teams other than the Yankees.

His replacement, who had previously made only 34 major league appearances, pinch-hit for Wanninger with 1 out in the bottom of the 8th inning. He flew out to left fielder Goose Goslin, and replaced Pipp at 1st base in the 9th inning.

The next day, he started at 1st base, going 3-for-5. Bob Meusel hit 2 home runs, and the Yankees beat the Senators, 8-5. It was the 2nd of what would turn out to be 2,130 consecutive games. His name was Lou Gehrig. He became the greatest first baseman in the history of baseball.

July 10, 1934: The Crowning of King Carl Hubbell

July 10, 1934, 90 years ago: The 2nd baseball All-Star Game is held at the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants. Among the host players in the game for the National League are starting pitcher Carl Hubbell, starting 1st baseman Bill Terry, starting shortstop Travis Jackson, reserve outfielders Mel Ott and Jo-Jo Moore. Terry is also the NL team's manager, because he's the manager of the defending League (and, in this case, World) Champions.

But the American League's starting lineup is loaded:

2B Charlie Gehringer, Detroit Tigers, also their manager

CF Henry "Heinie" Manush, Washington Senators

RF Babe Ruth, New York Yankees

1B Lou Gehrig, Yankees

3B Jimmie Foxx, Philadelphia Athletics

LF Al Simmons, Athletics

SS Joe Cronin, Senators, also their manager and the AL team's

C Bill Dickey, Yankees

P Vernon "Lefty" Gomez, Yankees

Okay, Gomez wasn't a good hitter. Even by the standards of pitchers, he was lousy. Great pitcher, and a bit of a quipster, even as an old man, but a lousy hitter: "I never broke a bat until I was 73 years old, and that was by backing the car out of the garage." Still, all 9 are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Of course, the NL starting lineup wasn't exactly a bunch of Punch-and-Judy hitters:

2B Frankie Frisch, St. Louis Cardinals, also their manager

3B Harold "Pie" Traynor, Pittsburgh Pirates

LF Joe Medwick, Cardinals

CF Hazen "Kiki" Cuyler, Chicago Cubs

RF Wally Berger, Boston Braves

1B Bill Terry, New York Giants

SS Travis Jackson, Giants

C Charles "Gabby" Hartnett, Cubs

P Carl Hubbell, Giants

All of these are in the Hall of Fame, except Berger, and he was still a .300 lifetime hitter who peaked at 38 home runs in a season, despite playing in a pitcher's park for most of his career.

Gehringer started the game with a single to center, and advanced to 2nd base on an error by Cuyler. Manush followed by drawing a walk. And the Great Bambino was coming up, with the Polo Grounds' right-field pole only 257 feet away. It was not looking good for Hubbell.

Except Hubbell, a lefthander who was one of the earliest pitchers to throw an effective screwball, struck Ruth out on 3 pitches.

Gehringer and Manush executed a double steal, giving the lefthanded Gehrig a good chance at 2 RBIs, as if he didn't already have a good chance at 3 with that close pole. But Hubbell struck him out, too.

Next up was Foxx, Ruth's fellow Marylander, and the closest thing that righthanded hitting had to a Ruth: His 58 home runs in 1932 were then the most by any player other than Ruth. They even looked a lot alike. Gomez once said, "Even his hair has muscles." And, "He wasn't scouted, he was trapped." And the left-field pole wasn't a whole lot further out than the one in right: 279 feet. But Hubbell struck him out, stranding the runners.

Frisch led off for the NL with a home run off Gomez, giving Hubbell a 1-0 lead to work with. The next batter he faced was Simmons, a dangerous hitter who once batted .392, and would fall just 73 hits short of 3,000 for his career. Hubbell struck him out. Next up was Cronin, a lifetime .301 hitter on his way to his 5th straight season of at least 100 RBIs. Hubbell struck him out, too.

Hubbell had struck out 5 men who were already legends of the game. No one could believe it.

The next batter was Dickey, a dangerous hitter, and he singled. But next up was Gomez, and, as stated, he was no hitter. Hubbell had no problem striking him out.

Six strikeouts, all of them future Hall-of-Famers, including 5 in a row. Hubbell, a World Series winner with the Giants the season before, was known as "King Carl" from then on. In the 1936 and '37 seasons, he won 24 straight regular-season decisions, helping the Giants win the Pennant each time, and earning him a new nickname: "The Meal Ticket." Of course, that's in the regular season. In the 1936 World Series, a Gehrig homer helped to make him a losing pitcher, and the Yankees won both Series.

Hubbell finished his career in 1944, with a record of 253-154. The Giants made his Number 11 the 1st uniform number retired in the National League. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1947 (a player only needed to be retired for 1 full year at that time), and died in 1988. In 1999, he was ranked 45th on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

Here's the thing, though: Hubbell wouldn't be the 1934 All-Star Game's winning pitcher. Not even after Medwick hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 3rd inning. The AL closed to within 3-2 in the top of the 4th.

And then, well, you know what walks can do, especially the leadoff variety. Lon Warneke of the Cubs was brought in to relieve Hubbell, and he started the top of the 5th by walking Ruth and Gehrig -- neither, intentionally.

Terry replaced Warneke with Van Lingle Mungo of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and he had nothing, allowing an RBI single to Foxx, an RBI single to Simmons, a popup by Cronin, a walk to Dickey, and a 2-RBI double to Earl Averill of the Cleveland Indians, who had pinch-hit for Gomez. He then intentionally walked Gehringer. The next batter was the new AL pitcher, Charles "Red" Ruffing of the Yankees. He was a good hitter for a pitcher, and singled home 2 more runs. It was 8-4 AL.

The NL closed to within 8-7 in the bottom of the 5th, including a steal of home plate by Traynor. But an RBI double by Cronin in the 6th gave the AL a 9-7 lead, and that's the way it ended. The winning pitcher was the Indians' Mel Harder.

July 10, 1934 was a Tuesday. Jerry Nelson, the puppeteer who operated The Count on the kids' TV series Sesame Street, was born on this day.

October 1, 1932: Babe Ruth's Called Shot

 

October 1, 1932, 90 years ago: Game 3 of the World Series is played at Wrigley Field in Chicago. There was bad blood between the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs, because the Cubs had acquired former Yankee shortstop Mark Koenig late in the season, he'd helped them win the Pennant, and had announced that, whatever their individual players' shares of the World Series money would be, he would get only half as much.

The Yankees, including Babe Ruth himself, publicly called the Cubs cheap, and there was some rough stuff in the 1st 2 games at Yankee Stadium. When Ruth and his wife Claire got off the train at Union Station in Chicago, Cub fans were waiting for them, throwing garbage at them, and spitting on them. Neither was naive: The Babe had been treated badly before, and Mrs. Ruth, under her maiden name of Claire Hodgson, was an actress, and used to rough customers. But this was over the line.

The Yankees took a 4-1 lead, including home runs by Ruth and Lou Gehrig. But the Cubs tied it up in the bottom of the 4th. Ruth led off the top of the 5th, and the Cub fans were abusing him like crazy. In the Cubs dugout, the "bench jockeying" was nasty as well.

Ruth was no stranger to this. Because of his large, wide nose and big lips, there had been suggestions that he was part black. Research into his family history showed him to be almost completely German -- in fact, because his grandparents were born in Pennsylvania, before moving to Baltimore, they were "Pennsylvania Dutch" -- ethnically Amish, if practicing Catholics.

But that didn't stop people from indulging in rumors, and one of the names he was sometimes called was "(N-word) Lips." On one memorable occasion, which may be apocryphal, he heard this particular insult, walked over to the opposing dugout, and said, "Listen, you guys, call me 'bastard' or 'cocksucker,' or whatever you want, but lay off the personal stuff, would ya?"

Charlie Root was pitching for the Cubs, and he threw a called strike. The Babe didn't like the pitch, and the Cubs' bench jockeying got worse. A home movie -- sadly, silent, and with all the crowd noise, we probably wouldn't be able to hear what the players were saying anyway -- shows Ruth waving he hand at the Cub dugout, a classic "Ah, go on, ya bum" gesture.

The way the story is usually told, including on a newsreel by Ruth himself, there were only 3 pitches in this at-bat. In fact, Root's next 2 pitches were out of the strike zone, and called balls. His 4th pitch was called a strike. The home movie shows Ruth pointing directly at Root -- twice. His arm is not extended. Contrary to legend, he is not pointing at a spot beyond the outfield fence, as if to say, "I'm going to hit the next pitch there."

But he is sending a message. Cubs catcher Gabby Hartnett claimed Ruth said, "It only takes one." Another source said Ruth said, "You got one more, kid!" (To the Babe, who was terrible with names, if you were a young guy, you were "Kid"; if you were older, you were "Doc"; and if he didn't like you, or sometimes even if he did, you were "You son of a bitch!") Gehrig, in the on-deck circle, told a reporter that what Ruth yelled at Root was, "I'm gonna hit the next pitch right down your goddamned throat!"

So, yes, Babe Ruth called his shot.

Root threw him one more pitch. The Babe crushed it to dead center field. Longtime Cub observers said it was the longest home run ever hit in Wrigley Field to that point. The now-familiar center field scoreboard wouldn't go up until 1937, and no player has ever hit it with a home run. Had it been there in 1932, the Babe's blast might have hit it.

The crowd knew that the Babe had made his point, and, like the Russian fans turning from Drago to Balboa in Rocky IV, switched sides, and cheered him.

The next batter was Gehrig, and he also hit his 2nd home run of the game. The Yankees hung on to win, 7-5, and completed the sweep the next day.

Ruth's Called Shot remains, along with Bobby Thomson's 1951 Pennant-winning "Shot Heard 'Round the World," one of the two most talked-about home runs in baseball history, more so even than the World Series Game 7-winning shot by Bill Mazeroski in 1960, or the home runs that broke Ruth's records: Single-season, 61 by Roger Maris in 1961, then 70 by Mark McGwire in 1998, then 73 by Barry Bonds in 2001; and career, 715 by Hank Aaron in 1974, then 756 by Bonds in 2007.

Yankee All-Star Appearances, 1933-2022

Giancarlo Stanton, Most Valuable Player,

2022 Major League Baseball All-Star Game

This list takes into account all times a player was named to an All-Star Team, whether he got into the All-Star Game or not; but not the doubled-up ASGs of 1958 to 1962. It does not include managers. And it only includes berths in the Game while with the Yankees, not with other teams.

Also, while the All-Star Game was canceled twice, in both cases due to travel restrictions, in 1945 because of World War II and in 2020 due to COVID-19, All-Star Teams were still named in those seasons.

Keep in mind also that the All-Star Game did not start until 1933. If it had started earlier -- say, in 1920 -- Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, in particular, would have had many more appearances.

Mickey Mantle, 16: 1952 through 1965, 1967, 1968
Yogi Berra, 15: 1948 through 1962
Derek Jeter, 14: 1998 through 2002, 2004, 2006 to 2012, 2014
Joe DiMaggio, 13: 1936 through 1942, 1946 through 1951
Mariano Rivera, 12: 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013
Bill Dickey, 11: 1933, 1934, 1936 through 1943, 1946
Elston Howard, 9: 1957 through 1965
Whitey Ford, 8: 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958 through 1961, 1964
Dave Winfield, 8: 1981 through 1988
Lefty Gomez, 7: 1933 through 1938, 1940
Bobby Richardson, 7: 1957, 1959, 1962 through 1966
Alex Rodriguez, 7: 2004 through 2008, 2010, 2011
Lou Gehrig, 6: 1933 through 1938
Red Ruffing, 6: 1934, 1938 through 1942
Joe Gordon, 6: 1939 through 1943, 1946
Thurman Munson, 6: 1971, 1973 through 1977
Don Mattingly, 6: 1984 through 1989
Tommy Henrich, 5: 1942, 1947 through 1950
Phil Rizzuto, 5: 1942, 1950 through 1953
Allie Reynolds, 5: 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954
Gil McDougald, 5: 1952, 1956 through 1959
Mel Stottlemyre, 5: 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970
Graig Nettles, 5: 1975, 1977 through 1980
Reggie Jackson, 5: 1977 through 1981
Willie Randolph, 5: 1976, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1987
Bernie Williams, 5: 1997 through 2001
Jorge Posada, 5: 2000 through 2003, 2007
Robinson Cano, 5: 2006, 2010 through 2013
Red Rolfe, 4: 1937 through 1940
Charlie Keller, 4: 1940, 1941, 1943, 1946
Spud Chandler, 4: 1942, 1943, 1946, 1947
Vic Raschi, 4: 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952
Bill "Moose" Skowron, 4: 1958 through 1961
Bobby Murcer, 4: 1971 through 1974
Rich "Goose" Gossage, 4: 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982
Ron Guidry, 4: 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983
Rickey Henderson, 4: 1985 through 1988
Wade Boggs, 4: 1993 through 1996
Paul O'Neill, 4: 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998

Dellin Betances, 4: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
Aaron Judge, 4: 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022

Ben Chapman, 3: 1933, 1934, 1935
Joe Page, 3: 1944, 1947, 1948
Hank Bauer, 3: 1952, 1953, 1954
Tony Kubek, 3: 1958, 1959, 1961
Roger Maris, 3: 1960, 1961, 1962
Joe Pepitone, 3: 1963, 1964, 1965
Sparky Lyle, 3: 1973, 1976, 1977
Jason Giambi, 3: 2002, 2003, 2004
Curtis Granderson, 3: 2010, 2011, 2012

Babe Ruth, 2: 1933, 1934
George Selkirk, 2: 1936, 1939
Frank Crosetti, 2: 1936, 1939
Johnny Murphy, 2: 1937, 1939
Monte Pearson, 2: 1936, 1940
Tiny Bonham, 2: 1942, 1943

Hank Borowy, 2: 1944, 1945
George McQuinn, 2: 1947, 1948
Bob Turley, 2: 1955, 1958
Ryne Duren, 2: 1958, 1959
Tom Tresh, 2: 1962, 1963
Roy White, 2: 1969, 1970
Jim "Catfish" Hunter, 2: 1975, 1976
Tommy John, 2: 1979, 1980
Bucky Dent, 2: 1980, 1981
Dave Righetti, 2: 1986, 1987
Steve Sax, 2: 1989, 1990
Jimmy Key, 2: 1993, 1994
David Cone, 2: 1997, 1999
Andy Pettitte, 2: 1996, 2001
Roger Clemens, 2: 2001, 2003
Alfonso Soriano, 2: 2002, 2003
Hideki Matsui, 2: 2003, 2004
Gary Sheffield, 2: 2004, 2005
CC Sabathia, 2: 2011, 2012

Mark Teixeira, 2: 2009, 2015

Luis Severino, 2: 2017, 2018

Gary Sanchez, 2: 2017, 2019

Gleyber Torres, 2: 2018, 2019

DJ LeMahieu, 2: 2019, 2020

Aroldis Chapman, 2: 2019, 2021

Gerrit Cole, 2: 2021, 2022

Tony Lazzeri, 1: 1933
Marius Russo, 1: 1941
Buddy Rosar, 1: 1942
Johnny Lindell, 1: 1943
Rollie Helmsley, 1: 1944

Nick Etten, 1: 1945

Oscar Grimes, 1: 1945
George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss, 1: 1946
Aaron Robinson, 1: 1947
Frank "Spec" Shea, 1: 1947
Billy Johnson, 1: 1947
Tommy Byrne, 1: 1950
Jerry Coleman, 1: 1950
Eddie Lopat, 1: 1951
Johnny Mize, 1: 1953
Johnny Sain, 1: 1953
Irv Noren, 1: 1954
Billy Martin, 1: 1956
Johnny Kucks, 1: 1956
Bobby Shantz, 1: 1957
Bob Grim, 1: 1957
Jim Coates, 1: 1960
Luis Arroyo, 1: 1961
Ralph Terry, 1: 1962
Jim Bouton, 1: 1963
Al Downing, 1: 1967
Fritz Peterson, 1: 1970
Bobby Bonds, 1: 1975
Chris Chambliss, 1: 1976
Mickey Rivers, 1: 1976
Ron Davis, 1, 1981
Phil Niekro, 1: 1984
Scott Sanderson, 1: 1991
Roberto Kelly, 1: 1992
Mike Stanley, 1: 1995
John Wetteland, 1: 1996
Tino Martinez, 1: 1997
David Wells, 1: 1998
Scott Brosius, 1: 1998
Mike Stanton, 1: 2001
Robin Ventura, 1: 2002
Javier Vazquez, 1: 2004
Tom Gordon, 1: 2004
Nick Swisher, 1: 2010
Phil Hughes, 1: 2010
Russell Martin, 1: 2011
David Robertson, 1: 2011
Masahiro Tanaka, 1: 2014

Brett Gardner, 1: 2015

Carlos Beltran, 1: 2016

Andrew Miller, 1: 2016

Masahiro Tanaka, 1: 2019

Giancarlo Stanton, 1: 2022

Jose Trevino, 1: 2022

Nestor Cortes, 1: 2022

Clay Holmes, 1: 2022

Based solely on most All-Star berths, this would be the all-time Yankee lineup:

1B Lou Gehrig
2B Bobby Richardson
SS Derek Jeter
3B Alex Rodriguez
LF Dave Winfield
CF Joe DiMaggio
RF Tommy Henrich
DH Mickey Mantle
C Yogi Berra
SP1 Whitey Ford
SP2 Lefty Gomez
SP3 Red Ruffing
SP4 Allie Reynolds
SP5 Mel Stottlemyre
RP Mariano Rivera

52 Pickup

And so it has come to pass that, against tremendous odds, I have reached the age that matches the uniform numbers of CC Sabathia, Mike Webster, Ray Lewis, Jamaal Wilkes and Adam Foote.

I'm so old. (How old are you?) I'm so old, I can remember when the New York Yankees were owned by a man who said, "Winning is second to me, only to breathing" -- and ran the team as if he believed it.

I can remember when Michigan beating Ohio State in football was a common occurrence.

I can remember when Donald Trump was considered a mostly harmless egomaniac.

Last night, I visited the site of many memories, my alma mater, East Brunswick High School in Middlesex County, New Jersey. It was the 1st basketball game of the 2021-22 season. My first event there since I began the hip replacement process. I was a bit unsteady on the bleachers. And nobody recognized ne, although that was understandable, due to the mask mandate.

Nevertheless, it was good to be back, and to see the redevelopment with the new pennant-type banners. Da Bears played arch-rival Old Bridge, and won, 64-48.

I've seen a lot. I wish I'd seen less of that. I wish I'd seen more of other things.

But I'm still here. All the crap that's been thrown at me hasn't stopped me yet. I'm still walking (with some difficulty), and I'm still talking, and I'm gonna keep at it until I no longer can.

As Lou Gehrig, who didn't even get within 14 years of my current age, said, "I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."

*

Hours until the next Arsenal game: 5, at 12:30 this afternoon, New York time, away to Leeds United of Yorkshire.

Hours until the next game of the U.S. National Soccer Team: 8, at 8:00 PM Eastern Time tonight, a friendly against Bosnia & Herzegovina (that's 1 country), at Dignity Health Sports Park, in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California, home of MLS' Los Angeles Galaxy.

Days until the New Jersey Devils again play a local rival: 26, on Thursday, January 13, 2022, against the New York Islanders at the UBS Arena at Belmont Park.

Days until the next North London Derby: 29, on Sunday, January 16, 2022, at 11:30 AM New York time, at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Under 1 month.

Days until the 1st Baseball Hall of Fame election for which Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz will be eligible, and we will know for sure whether known steroid use keeps a player out, or if it's only been a Yankee who's accused of it that does: 38, on Tuesday, January 25, 2022. Under 6 weeks.

Days until the next Winter Olympics open in Beijing, China: 48, on Friday, February 4, 2022. Under 7 weeks.

Days until the next New York Red Bulls game: 70, on Saturday, February 26, 2022, away to the San Jose Sharks. Just 10 weeks.

Days until the Yankees play another game that counts: 103, on March 31, 2022, away to the Texas Rangers.

Days until the Red Bulls again play a nearby rival: 105, on Saturday, April 2, 2022, away to the New England Revolution.

Days until the Yankees' home opener: 110, on Thursday, April 7, 2022, against the Boston Red Sox.

Days until the Yankees' next series against the Boston Red Sox begins: See the previous answer.

Days until the next Rutgers University football game: 259, on Saturday, September 3, 2022, away to Boston College.

Days until the next East Brunswick High School football game: 265, on Friday, September 9, 2022, against arch-rival Old Bridge. Hopefully, our home field, under renovation through the entire 2021 season, will be ready, so we don't have to go back to the purple pit.

Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge game: See the previous answer.

Days until the next elections for the U.S. Congress and for the Governors of most States in the Union, including New York and Pennsylvania: 325, on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. Under 11 months.

Days until the next World Cup opens: 338, on Friday, November 21, 2022, in Doha, Qatar. A little over 11 months.

Days until the next Rutgers-Penn State football game: 343, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 26, at 12:00 noon, at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey. A little over 11 months.

Days until the next Women's World Cup opens: 569, on Friday, July 10, 2023, jointly held in the neighboring nations of Australia and New Zealand. A little over a year and a half.

Days until the next Summer Olympic Games: 951, on Friday, July 26, 2024, in Paris, France. A little over 2 and a half years.

Days until the next Presidential election: 1,053, on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Under 3 years.

Days until the next elections for Governor of New Jersey and Mayor of New York City: 1,417, on Tuesday, November 4, 2025. Under 4 years.

Yankees Beat Rays On MLB's 1st Annual Lou Gehrig Day

Major League Baseball has a 162-game season, and games are played nearly every day from early April to late September. The character of a team is defined in stretches like the one the New York Yankees are in now: 7 games in 7 days, at home; 4 against the Tampa Bay Rays, who have been their functional rivals in the American League Eastern Division in the last 3 seasons, including this one; and then 3 against the Boston Red Sox, who not only are their historical rivals, but have been their functional rivals in the AL East for about 25 years.

And after entering this week with a terrible slump, especially with hitting, and an injury crisis, it looked like the Yankees would need to take at least 5 out of the 7 to look like serious contenders again. And they lost the 1st game in ignominious fashion. But they won the 2nd game in dramatic fashion.

Last night was the 3rd game. It was the 80th Anniversary of the death of Lou Gehrig, and Major League Baseball celebrated its 1st annual Lou Gehrig Day, raising money for the research into the disease that killed him and now bears his name, and for other charitable causes.

Patch worn by all MLB teams yesterday

They couldn't do it on the anniversary of the original Lou Gehrig Day, at the old Yankee Stadium, in 1939, because that's the 4th of July, which already has planned celebrations. And they couldn't do it on the anniversary of his birth, because that's June 19. Some years, that's Father's Day, for which MLB has planned celebrations. It's also Juneteenth, a holiday for Black Americans. (I'm never sure: Is "Black" supposed to be capitalized here?)

Jordan Montgomery started for the Pinstripes, and gave the Yankees just what they needed: 6 1/3rd innings, 3 runs, only 1 of them earned, 5 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts. "Gumby" may have gotten a big boost when the Yankees gave him a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st inning, with a home run by Gio Urshela, driving in Giancarlo Stanton, who had singled.

The Rays took a run back in the top of the 4th. But the Yankees made them pay for it in the bottom of the 4th, with a leadoff double by Gleyber Torres, and single by Rougned Odor, a bases-loading walk by Gary Sanchez (yes, Sanchez drew a walk in a key situation), and a 2-run single by the previous night's 11th inning walkoff hero, Clint Frazier. 4-1 Yankees.

The Rays scored a run in the 5th, and another in the 7th. But the bullpen was very effective again: Between them, Jonathan Loaisiga, Chad Green and Aroldis Chapman went 2 2/3rds innings, allowing no runs on 1 hit, albeit with 3 walks.

Yankees 4, Rays 3. WP: Montgomery (3-1). SV: Chapman (12). LP: Shane McLachlan (2-1).

With the Red Sox losing to the Houston Astros in a Battle of the Exposed Cheats, the AL East is now led by the Rays by 2 games over the Red Sox, 3 1/2 over the Yankees, and 4 1/2 over the Toronto Blue Jays. In the all-important loss column, the Rays are 1 ahead of the Sox, and 3 ahead of the Yanks and Jays.

The series concludes this afternoon. Gerrit Cole starts against Ryan Yarbrough. Having Gerrit Cole available to possibly give you 3 out of 4 against the team you need to beat, giving you serious momentum going into a series against the team you really want to beat, with potential for a great season to come, reminds me of the close of Lou Gehrig's speech on his Day: "I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for."

Top 5 Old-Time Yankees Who Would Never Make It in the Social Media Age (And 5 Who Would Thrive In It)

We live in the Social Media Age, where some people, including athletes, have elevated themselves, and sometimes even society as a whole -- and some have made fools, or worse, of themselves.

Which Yankee Legends would have made it in this era? And which wouldn't have?

10. Would never make it: Babe Ruth

The media of the 1920s and early '30s loved the Sultan of Swat. He was great copy. So they protected him against revelations of his peccadilloes: His drinking, his carousing, his womanizing, and being possibly the worst driver in the history of the City of New York.

But by the early 1960s (more on that later), things began to change. Some players, the ones who cooperated with the media, would still be protected. Others, the ones who tended not to cooperate, were ripped. By the dawn of the 21st Century, as the Internet became a factor, and social media was on its way, any slip-up that got found out would have been exposed. The Bambino would have been shredded.

Granted, the media might soon have buried such a story, and pushed his redemption. Look at Kobe Bryant. Look at Tiger Woods (if you want to go outside the realm of sports). Maybe they would have let the Babe redeem himself.

But the Babe's own mentality would get in the way. In so many ways, he was like a kid that never really grew up. It would be wrong to say he was dumb: He was smart enough to understand every aspect of baseball. But he may have had a learning disability, one which blocked his ability to understand things he should have.

And social media might have been one of those things. Money certainly was: He needed his 2nd wife, Claire Hodgson, to be a proper business manager for him. I can certainly imagine her having control over his smartphone. But it might not have been enough: She slowed his carousing down, but it didn't really stop. He would still have been vulnerable to phone cameras recording his shenanigans.

9. Would thrive in it: Lou Gehrig

On the other hand, the Iron Horse would have adjusted just fine. The press didn't cover his private life because he didn't seem to have one. Today, people would have seen that he was a mama's boy, didn't go out partying with the Babe and the boys, didn't get married until he was 30 years old, and never had children, and might guess that he was secretly gay. (As far as I know, he wasn't.)

Or maybe, like Roger Maris, people in the media, and in social media, would have found him boring off the field. And, unlike Maris, he was able to roll with the punches. Twitter might have gotten Ruth into a problem he would have needed a lot of help to get out of. Gehrig wouldn't have had such a problem.

8. Would never make it: Joe DiMaggio

The Yankee Clipper was fiercely protective of his privacy. The very wording has become a cliche. He would never have gone on Twitter, probably not on Instagram, probably not on Facebook, either. Just as Seinfeld suggested that it would be absurd for Joltin' Joe to go into Dunkin Donuts (they called it "Dinky Donuts," but who's kidding who), I can't imagine him sharing intimate details like his breakfast or a new suit.

And the stories that were kept quiet by a media that was cowed into submission? His connections with organized crime? His treatment of his wives, first actress Dorothy Arnold, then superstar actress Marilyn Monroe? His late-night "raid" of Marilyn's place with Frank Sinatra? His later feud with Sinatra, in which the two most famous Italian-Americans of them all became bitter enemies -- over Frank's moves on Marilyn?

Joe would never have held up to modern scrutiny. And his attempts to avoid scrutiny, including calling on his aforementioned connections, might well have gotten him into hotter water.

7. Would thrive in it: Phil Rizzuto

But the Scooter would have loved it. During the games he was broadcasting, he was always talking about his family, the friends he had, the restaurants he dined at, the golf courses he played, the far-off places he visited. He would have been good on Twitter, better on Facebook, and, holy cow, maybe the King of Instagram.

6. Would never make it: Mickey Mantle

The Mick was basically shy. While Phil and Yogi were extroverts, Mickey, so different from Joe in some ways, was every bit the introvert. He didn't want to share his life with outsiders. And, with his drinking and womanizing, he had things to hide. Plus, if the stories about him shooing away autograph-seeking kids is true, then how he reacted to unkind online treatment might also have been bad.

5. Would thrive in it: Yogi Berra

Lawrence Peter Berra didn't look like an athlete, and he didn't look like an intelligent man. But he was both. The way he handled the media career that unexpectedly grew out of his baseball career, I have no doubt that he would have been just fine online.

As the man himself might have said, he would have been an overwhelming underdog, but he wouldn't have made too many wrong mistakes.

4. Would never make it: Roger Maris

Another guy really protective of his privacy. I can't see him ever opening an account. Maybe Facebook and Instagram after he retired, but never Twitter.

3. Would thrive in it: Joe Pepitone

Joe Pepitone had a lefthanded swing tailor-made for Yankee Stadium (especially before the renovation, when it was 296 feet to the right field pole and 344 to straightaway right), a nice glove, and a bubbly personality. He loved the spotlight. He enjoyed being a New York baseball star. If the Yankees had kept it going through the Sixties and into the Seventies, he would have been the guy to succeed Mantle as The Next Great Yankee.

There were 2 problems with this. The Yankees didn't keep it going. And Pepi cared more about being a star than about winning ballgames. It's one thing to be a man about town if -- like Mantle, the Jets' Joe Namath, and the Knicks' Walt Frazier -- you have the substance to back up the style.

Joe was backup to Moose Skowron at 1st base on the 1962 World Champions, but didn't appear in the World Series. He was the starter on the 1963 and '64 Pennant winners, and hit a grand slam in Game 6 of the '64 Series, so he'd done all that within a few days of his 24th birthday.

He made the All-Star team in '65, and won 3 more Gold Gloves. But he only batted .300 once (in 1971, with the Chicago Cubs after leaving the Yankees), only hit 30 homers once (in 1966), and topped out at 100 RBIs (in 1964, and that was the only time he even topped 90). That .307 season with the '71 Cubs was his last full season, and he turned 31 right after it ended.

But, oh, how he would have loved to make his case on social media. Oddly, now, at age 80, and apparently in good health, he's not on any of the major platforms. So maybe I'm wrong.

2. Would never make it: Billy Martin

There's a fine line between genius and madness, and Billy the Brat passed out on it. For every story about how good a manager he could be, there are a dozen about how he was nuts. The best thing he could have done with social media was stay the hell away from it.

1. Would thrive in it: Reggie Jackson

Reggie has been called "a sensitive soul." And he has been burned by mainstream media: SPORT magazine lied about him in both Oakland and New York, the New York media always seemed to take Martin's side, and the national media, which has never much liked the Yankees, always used them as good copy, Reggie among them. It seems like he wouldn't have fit in well with social media.

But he managed to turn the tables. He used the media as well, cultivating good relationships with some reporters, and doing commercials for things people actually liked to use: Candy, TV sets, cars, and the gasoline needed to power them.

And as the son of a Negro League player, and having come of age during the Civil Rights Movement, Reggie managed to get black activists on his side. Once he retired and his ego -- never greater than those of, say, Pete Rose or George Brett -- was no longer a threat to a fan's favorite team, he began to be seen as something of an elder statesman of baseball.

And he's been pretty good on Facebook and Instagram. (Less so Twitter, due mainly to fewer uses of it.) If he had the opportunity to use social media to go over the heads of his mainstream-media accusers of 1977, he might have been perceived differently then, and might even be better off now.

Finales of Yankee Legends

With today, September 28, being the 50th Anniversary of Mickey Mantle's last game, the 10th Anniversary of Mike Mussina's, the 5th Anniversary of Andy Pettitte's, and the 4th Anniversary of Derek Jeter's, I follow my September 1 post on the debuts of Yankee Legends, with their finales.

As I did on September 1, this list includes the last game for the Yankees of every Yankee figure in Monument Park, any member of the Baseball Hall of Fame who had significant contributions to the Yankees, and any player who got a YES Network Yankeeography. Obviously, it can't include current Yankees, even 38-year-old CC Sabathia, since, given that the Yankees have at least made the Wild Card Game, he might appear in a Yankee uniform at least one more time.

September 19, 1929, Yankee Stadium, Miller Huggins (as manager): Yankees lose to Chicago White Sox 7-0. The next day, just 51 years old, he checked himself into a hospital, was diagnosed with an infection, was further weakened by influenza, and, with antibiotics not available in those days, died on September 25.

May 27, 1930, Yankee Stadium, Waite Hoyt: Yankees lose to Washington Senators 7-2. Hoyt started and lost, and was soon traded to the Detroit Tigers.

September 23, 1933, Fenway Park, Herb Pennock: Yankees beat Boston Red Sox 16-12. Pennock was hit hard, but was the winning pitcher. He went back to the Red Sox for 1934, and then retired.

September 30, 1934, Griffth Stadium, Babe Ruth: Yankees lose to Senators 5-3. The Babe goes 0-for-3. The Yankees lose despite a home run from Lou Gehrig. 

September 29, 1935, Yankee Stadium, Earle Combs: Yankees lose to Red Sox 4-3. Combs is used as a pinch-runner for Bill Dickey, but does not score. He was still dealing with the effects of a head injury the season before, and retired at age 36.

October 10, 1937, Polo Grounds, Tony Lazzeri: Yankees beat New York Giants 4-2 in Game 5, to take the World Series. "Poosh-em-up Tony" went 1-for-3. Joe DiMaggio and Myril Hoag hit home runs, to make a winner out of Lefty Gomez.

October 9, 1938, Yankee Stadium, Jacob Ruppert (as owner): Yankees beat Chicago Cubs 8-3, to win Game 4 and sweep the World Series. Red Ruffing is the winning pitcher, and Tommy Henrich hits a home run. Ruppert died on January 13, 1939.

April 30, 1939, Yankee Stadium, Lou Gehrig: Yankees lose to Senators 3-2. Gehrig goes 0-for-4. He knows it is time to go, but he doesn't yet know why.

August 14, 1942, Shibe Park (later known as Connie Mack Stadium), Lefty Gomez: Yankees beat Philadelphia Athletics 11-2. Gomez is the winning pitcher, but only goes 6 innings, and doesn't pitch again that season. As he is not quite 36 years old, I suspect he was injured. He spent 1943 with the Senators, then retired.

June 29, 1946, Yankee Stadium, Red Ruffing: Yankees lose to A's 2-0. Ruffing was the losing pitcher. He didn't pitch badly, but was removed after 5 innings, and, like Gomez 4 years earlier, didn't pitch again that season, leading me to think he was injured. He pitched 1 more season, with the White Sox, and then retired.

May 23, 1946, Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium), Joe McCarthy: Yankees beat Detroit Tigers 12-6. Despite having won his last 2 games, McCarthy was tired of the new regime of Del Webb, Dan Topping and Larry MacPhail, especially the interference of MacPhail.

September 8, 1946, Yankee Stadium, Bill Dickey: Yankees swept by Senators in doubleheader, 2-1 and 9-8. Dickey had been appointed to succeed McCarthy as manager, but didn't enjoy it. In the 8th inning of the 2nd game, he sent himself up to pinch-hit for pitcher Al Gettel, singled to left, and then brought pitcher Joe Page in to pinch-run, and left the field as a player for the last time. He resigned as manager 4 days later, and Johnny Neun saw out the season as interim manager.

September 18, 1946, Comiskey Park, Joe Gordon: Yankees split doubleheader with the WHite Sox, winning the opener 4-0, and losing the nightcap 9-7. Gordon went 0-for-7 on the day. After the season, the Yankees traded Gordon to the Cleveland Indians for Allie Reynolds, one of the rare trades that works out very well for both teams: Gordon helped the Indians win a World Series, while Reynolds helped the Yankees win 6.

September 29, 1946, Shibe Park, Ed Barrow (as general manager): Yankees sweep doubleheader from A's, 6-0 and 2-1. Every bit as unhappy with the new ownership as McCarthy was, Barrow resigned as GM on December 31, 1946.

October 10, 1951, Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio: Yankees beat New York Giants 4-3 in Game 6, to take the World Series. The Yankee Clipper goes 1-for-2 with 2 walks, including an 8th inning double in his last at-bat.

October 5, 1953, Johnny Mize: Yankees beat Brooklyn Dodgers 4-3 in Game 6, to take the World Series. The Big Cat pinch-hit for Joe Collins in the 8th, and grounded out to 1st. He was 40 years old and fat, so, despite also being a 1st baseman, at age 40, did not take the position in the 9th, Casey Stengel instead sending Don Bollweg in to do so.

September 25, 1954, Yankee Stadium, Allie Reynolds: Yankees beat A's 10-2. Reynolds, dealing with a bad back, only goes 5 innings, but is the winning pitcher. Wealthy enough from investing in oil in his native Oklahoma, he was that rare player in the reserve clause era who didn't need a baseball salary (or an off-season job to fill in the gap between seasons), and retired at 37.

August 16, 1956, Yankee Stadium, Phil Rizzuto: Yankees lose to Red Sox 2-1. Nine days later, on Old-Timers' Day, the Scooter became an old-timer when GM George Weiss coldly released him. He was hired as a broadcaster the next season, and stayed 40 more seasons.

September 20, 1959, Yankee Stadium, Don Larsen: Yankees beat Red Sox 7-4. Larsen did not pitch well, allowing 2 runs in 2 1/3rd innings. On December 11, he was put into the trade to the Kansas City Athletics that brought Roger Maris. In 1962, he was the winning pitcher in Game 4 of the World Series -- against the Yankees, for the San Francisco Giants.

October 13, 1960, Forbes Field, Casey Stengel (as manager): Yankees lose to Pittsburgh Pirates 10-9 in Game 7 of the World Series. Exactly when co-owners Webb and Topping decided to fire Casey is unknown, but they had decided to do so even if the Yankees had won. They forced Casey to announce his "resignation" at a press conference on October 18. He dropped his prepared statement, and said, "I guess this means they fired me." The CBS/Mike Burke regime would make amends, and retired his Number 37.

October 13, 1960, Forbes Field, George Weiss (as general manager): Same game as Casey. Weiss, a bigot and a cheapskate, but a genius when it came to baseball transactions, saw the writing on the wall: He didn't know that Webb and Topping were already in the process of selling the Yankees, but he did know that years of trading prospects and marginal players, sometimes 4 at a time, to get 1 player who could help win the Pennant that season wouldn't work for much longer.

He gave it 5 years. He was right: After 4 more Pennants, the Yankees collapsed and finished 6th in 1965.

October 5, 1963, Dodger Stadium, Yogi Berra (as player): Yankees lose to Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0. It was Game 3 of the World Series. In the top of the 8th inning, Yogi pinch-hit for pitcher Jim Bouton, and lined out to Ron Fairly in right field. He managed the Yankees to a Pennant in 1964, was fired, and then was hired as a coach by the Mets, returning to play a few games in 1965.

October 4, 1964, Yankee Stadium, Mel Allen (as broadcaster): Yankees lose to Indians 2-1. This was the last regular-season game. Mel was not assigned to the World Series -- an honor he even got in 1946 when the Yankees didn't make it. He would return when the Yankees debuted on cable in 1976, on SportsChannel (which is now MSG+), staying through 1985.

September 30, 1966, Comiskey Park, Roger Maris: Yankees lose to White Sox 6-5. In the 9th inning, Roger pinch-hit for the Dooley Womack, and hit a home run off Hoyt Wilhelm, but the Yankees couldn't finish the comeback. After the season, the final insult of the Webb-Topping regime -- they sold their last shares to CBS soon after -- was delivered, trading Roger even-up to the St. Louis Cardinals for Charlie Smith. And if you're asking, "Who?" I'm answering, "Exactly."

May 21, 1967, Tiger Stadium, Whitey Ford: Yankees lose to Tigers 9-4. Whitey pitched 1 inning, and then had to leave the game due to his elbow bothering him, and he never pitched again. Jim Bouton was brought in to relieve, and his knuckleball didn't knuckle, and he allowed 5 runs in the 2nd to put the game out of reach.

August 2, 1967, Yankees Stadium, Elston Howard: Yankees lose to California Angels 5-4. Elston pinch-hits and strikes out, and is soon traded to the Red Sox, whom he helps win the Pennant, while the Yankees finish 9th.

September 28, 1968, Fenway Park, Mickey Mantle: Yankees beat Red Sox 4-3. Mickey bats in the top of the 1st inning, and Jim Lonborg gets him to pop up to 3rd baseman Rich Rollins. Andy Kosco goes out to 1st base in the bottom of the 1st, with Joe Pepitone (who switched positions with Mickey for 1967) playing center field, and they hit the home runs that make the difference.

August 16, 1974, Yankee Stadium, Mel Stottlemyre: Yankees split doubleheader with White Sox, winning the 1st game 9-8, losing the 2nd game 4-2. Mel comes into the 1st game not as a pitcher, but a pinch-runner, for Bill Sudakis in the bottom of the 12th. He does not score. The ChiSox score in the top of the 13th, but in the bottom of the 13th, Bobby Murcer singles, and Thurman Munson hits a home run to win it.

October 4, 1978, Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium), Sparky Lyle: Yankees lost to Kansas City Royals 10-4 in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. Sparky pitched the last inning and a 3rd of this game, allowing 2 runs, didn't pitch in the rest of the ALCS, did not appear in the World Series, and was traded to the Texas Rangers after the season. As Graig Nettles said, "Sparky went from Cy Young to Sayonara."

August 1, 1979, Comiskey Park, Thurman Munson: Yankees beat White Sox 9-1. Thurman started at 1st base, with rookie Jerry Narron catching. Narron, Reggie Jackson and Lou Piniella all hit home runs. In the 1st inning, Thurman drew a walk, and scored on Reggie's homer. He struck out in the 3rd, and was then replaced in the field by Jim Spencer.

He left Chicago that day, not on the Yankees' charter flight back to New York, but a plane to Cleveland, and went to his house in Canton, Ohio. He planned to spend the next day practicing takeoffs and landings in his new jet plane. He got the takeoff right. Not the landing.

September 17, 1979, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Jim "Catfish" Hunter: Yankees lose to Indians 6-5. Catfish got into the 7th inning without pitching well, but was not the losing pitcher.

October 25, 1981, Dodger Stadium, Reggie Jackson: Yankees lose to Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 in Game 5 of the World Series. Reggie went 1-for-4 with a 2nd-inning double. But he had been battling an injury, and manager Bob Lemon -- acting on George Steinbrenner's orders, it has been alleged -- kept "Mr. October" out of Game 6, and the Dodgers won to clinch the Series. George did not try to re-sign Reggie, which he later said was the biggest mistake he made as Yankee owner. Reggie signed with the Angels.

June 11, 1983, Milwaukee County Stadium, Bobby Murcer: Yankees lose 6-2 to Milwaukee Brewers. Bobby pinch-hit for Andre Robertson in the 9th, and grounded to 2nd. The pitcher was Bob Gibson -- but not that Bob Gibson. George then told Bobby he wanted to release him to open a roster spot for rookie Don Mattingly, but told him he'd give him a "Day" and a job as a broadcaster. Bobby accepted, and served in that capacity until his battle with cancer left him too ill to do so.

October 2, 1983, Memorial Stadium, Graig Nettles: Yankees lose to Baltimore Orioles 2-0. Nettles goes 0-for-4. George doesn't lift a finger to re-sign him. Or Goose Gossage. Both sign with the San Diego Padres (in Nettles' case, going to his hometown), and help them win the 1984 National League Pennant.

June 16, 1984, Yankee Stadium, Lou Piniella: Yankees beat Orioles 8-3. Lou starts in left field and goes 0-for-5. He then retires, and becomes the Yankees' hitting instructor, their manager in 1986 and '87, their general manager in '88, and the manager again in '88, before moving on to manage in Cincinnati, Seattle, Tampa Bay and Chicago (with the Cubs).

June 22, 1988, Tiger Stadium, Billy Martin (as manager): Yankees lose to Tigers 3-2 in 10 innings. Rickey Henderson hits a home run, but Billy, as he so often does, leaves a pitcher in too long, in this case Charles Hudson in relief of John Candelaria.

Billy wasn't managing badly that season, in his 5th turn as Yankee field boss. With all of the injuries the Yankees were having, this loss to the then-1st-place Tigers only dropped them to 2 1/2 games out of 1st. But he had become a disciplinary problem again, and George decided he had to fire Billy. There is evidence to suggest he was considering bringing Billy back for a 6th tenure, but Billy's death put an end to that.

September 27, 1988, Memorial Stadium, Ron Guidry: Yankees beat Orioles 5-1. Guidry goes 7 innings for the 170th and last win of his career, backed by 2 home runs by Mattingly.

September 30, 1988, Tiger Stadium, Willie Randolph: Yankees lose to Tigers 6-2. Willie goes 0-for-4, in the game that eliminates the Yankees from the AL East race. They finish only 3 1/2 games behind the Red Sox, but in 5th place behind the Sox, the Tigers, the Brewers and the Toronto Blue Jays.

September 22, 1989, Memorial Stadium, Rich "Goose" Gossage: Yankees beat Orioles 5-4. After 6 seasons away, the pitching-desperate Yankees reacquire the Goose. At age 38, he is no longer the fireballer he was in the Carter and 1st Reagan terms, but there are flashes of brilliance. This isn't quite one of them: He pitches the 8th inning, and gives up a hit and a walk, but no runs.

May 9, 1990, Oakland Coliseum, Dave Winfield: Yankees lose to A's 2-1 in 11 innings. Dave pinch-hits for Claudell Washington in the 11th inning, flies out to right field, and finishes the game in left field. Eric Plunk, one of the pitchers the Yankees got when they traded Henderson back to the A's, gets the 1st out in the bottom of the 11th, then loads the bases, and walks Henderson to force home the losing run.

Not hitting, and dealing with injuries to his back and his pride from George, Dave is soon traded to the Angels.

October 8, 1995, Kingdome, Don Mattingly: Yankees lose to Seattle Mariners 6-5 in 11 innings. An epic game to conclude an epic AL Division Series, but the Yankees drop 3 straight after taking the 1st 2. In his only postseason appearance, "Donnie Baseball" batted .417 with 2 home runs, including going 1-for-5 with a 2-RBI double in this game.

Afterward, he says, "I have a hard time feeling bad about it." And Yankee Fans forgave him. In 2007, Tom Glavine fell apart in what should have been a Playoff-clinching game for the Mets, and said, "I'm not devastated," and their fans have never forgiven him. One's a Hall-of-Famer, the other isn't. What's the difference?

October 6, 1997, Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field), Wade Boggs: Yankees lose to Indians 4-3, in the deciding Game 5 of the ALDS. In the top of the 6th, Boggs pinch-hits for Joe Girardi (Jorge Posada also pinch-hits in the inning, and replaces Girardi as catcher), and singles home a run. Boggs then replaces Charlie Hayes at 3rd base (Hayes replaces Rey Sanchez at 2nd base), and singles again in the 8th. But it's too late, as Andy Pettitte had a bad start.

October 25, 2000, Shea Stadium, David Cone: Yankees beat Mets 3-2 in Game 4 of the World Series. Cone had a terrible season, just 4-15, and this was his only appearance in the World Series against his former team. Manager Joe Torre brought him in to face 1 batter. With 2 outs and the bases loaded. Mike Piazza. Every Yankee Fan was worried. Coney got Mr. Bacne to pop up and end the threat.

November 4, 2001, Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field), Paul O'Neill: Yankees lose Game 7 of the World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 3-2. Don't blame Paulie, as he went 2-for-3, including a single in his last at-bat in the 7th. This was also the last game in a Yankee uniform for Scott Brosius (0-for-3), Chuck Knoblauch (flew out pinch-hitting for O'Neill in the 8th), and, at least we thought until his 2005 return, Tino Martinez (1-for-4). In other words, the Yankees had to replace nearly half their lineup in the off-season.

October 23, 2003, Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium), David Wells: Yankees lose to Florida Marlins 6-4 in Game 5 of the World Series. One of the most abominable starts in Yankee postseason pitching history: Boomer gets the Fish out 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 1st, then tells Joe Torre his back hurts and he can't pitch anymore. Maybe his back wouldn't hurt so much if his front wasn't so big. Jose Contreras, not prepared to pitch, and gets shelled.

October 9, 2005, Yankee Stadium, Tino Martinez: Yankees beat Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 3-2 in Game 4 of the ALDS. Tino is sent to 1st base in the 8th inning in place of Jason Giambi, and pops up to short in his only at-bat. He doesn't appear in Game 5, and the Yankees lose.

October 6, 2006, Comerica Park, Bernie Williams: Yankees lose to Tigers 6-0 in Game 3 of the ALDS. Bernie went 0-for-3. This was one of the most ghastly postseason displays in Yankee history: After winning Game 1, they not only lost 3 straight, but had a run of 22 consecutive scoreless innings.

September 5, 2007, Yankee Stadium, Bob Sheppard (as public address announcer): Yankees beat Mariners 10-2. Bob was sick, and Jim Hall, long his understudy, called every remaining home game at the old Stadium, before Paul Olden was handed the keys to the booth at the new Stadium. Bob was able, through a special hookup, to deliver the starting lineup at the old Stadium's last game, but never went to a game at the new Stadium.

October 7, 2007, Yankee Stadium, Roger Clemens: Yankees beat Indians 8-4 in Game 3 of the ALDS. Not that the Rocket had much to do with it, as he got hit hard and relieved early by Phil Hughes. Johnny Damon hit a home run.

October 8, 2007, Yankee Stadium, Joe Torre (as manager): Yankees lose to Indians 6-4. The Yankees went down very meekly in this AL Division Series. Afterward, the Steinbrenner sons lowballed Joe, and he told them what they could do with the offer, went west, and managed the Dodgers to 2 Division titles.

September 28, 2008, Fenway Park, Mike Mussina: Yankees beat Red Sox 6-2. Xavier Nady hits a home run. It was Mussina's 20th win of the season, the 270th win of his career -- and his last. He is the only pitcher ever to get his only 20-win season and then retire.

November 4, 2009, Yankee Stadium II, Hideki Matsui: Yankees beat Phillies 7-3 in Game 6 of the World Series. Outside of the Babe in 1928 and Reggie in 1977, nobody has ever had a better performance in a would-be World Series-clinching game than Matsui, with a home run, a double and a single that produced 6 RBIs. He was named the Series MVP. I figured that GM Brian Cashman would let either Matsui or Johnny Damon go after the Series, but he was so dumb (How dumb was he?), he let both of them go. Huge mistake.

July 11, 2010, Safeco Field, George Steinbrenner (as owner): Yankees beat Mariners 8-2. CC Sabathia is dominant, and Marcus Thames hits a home run. Two days later, on the morning of the day of the All-Star Game, George died after 37 years as Yankee "managing general partner."

October 6, 2011, Yankee Stadium II, Jorge Posada: Yankees lose to Tigers 3-2, in the deciding Game 5 of the ALDS. Don't blame Jorge: He went 2-for-4, singling in the 4th and 6th innings. It was a previously unknown injury to starting pitcher Ivan Nova that doomed the Yankees in this game.

September 26, 2013, Yankee Stadium II, Mariano Rivera: Yankees lose to Tampa Bay Rays 4-0. Mo pitches the 8th inning, and gets the 1st out in the 9th, and then, his teammates Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte, not his manager Joe Girardi, come to take him out and get his standing ovation.

September 28, 2013, Minute Maid Park, Andy Pettitte: Yankees beat Houston Astros 2-1. Against the team he grew up rooting for, and the only other major league team he played for besides the Yankees, Pettitte goes the distance, allowing 1 run on 5 hits and 2 walks, with 5 strikeouts, and gets the win, as the Yankees get 2 runs in the 6th thanks to some poor Astro fielding.

September 28, 2014, Fenway Park, Derek Jeter: The Yankees beat the Red Sox 9-5 at Fenway Park. It is 46 years to the day, and in the same ballpark, as Mantle's last game. Michael Pineda outpitches Clay Buchholz. Derek Jeter, the designated hitter on this day -- Stephen Drew is the shortstop -- hits a ground ball to 3rd base. Garin Cecchini fields it, but Jeter beats the throw, and Ichiro scores, to make it 3-0 Yankees.

Girardi sends Brian McCann in to pinch-run, and the Fenway crowd, which despises the Yankees and has long maintained that Jeter and his teammates "suck," gives him a standing ovation as he leaves a major league field for the last time.

August 12, 2016, Yankee Stadium II, Alex Rodriguez: Yankees beat Rays 6-3. A-Rod had already announced his retirement, and this was set up as his finale. He goes 1-for-4, including an RBI double to right in the 1st inning, and a grounder to short in his last at-bat.