Greatest American League
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The 1956 Yankees lost three of their first four games against the 1961 Yankees but won the last two games to earn a split and remain six games over .500 at 21-15. The '61 Yankees stayed eight games under at 38-46.
Roger Maris powered the '61 Yankees to a 10-6 win in Game One with a 2-3, double, homerun and five RBI performance. His three-run homer in the 7th inning broke a 6-6 tie. Yogi Berra took over for the '61 Yankees in their 8-4 win in Game Two. Berra went 3-4 with two homeruns, three RBI, and three runs scored. The '61 Yankees took a 3-1 lead in the series in Game Four with a tight 3-2 win, thanks to Mickey Mantle’s two-run homerun in the 8th inning that broke a 1-1 tie. Tom Sturdivant led the comeback for the '56 Yankees in Game Five with a 7-1 complete game win in which he struck out 10 batters. The '56 Yankees completed the split in the last game with a 4-2 win. Enos Slaughter hit two triples, one with the bases loaded in the first to give them a 3-2 lead, the other that lead to their other run.
Slaughter is one of three '56 Yankee hitters batting over .300; Berra leads at .319 and leads the team in RBI with 36. Mantle is hitting .305 and leads the team in homeruns with eight. Slaughter is hitting .305. Whitey Ford picked up his first loss; he is 5-1 with a 2.18 ERA. Sturdivant’s gem improved his record to 4-2 with a 3.87 ERA.
Elston Howard regained the lead in average for the '61 Yankees at .331 with 21 homeruns, 56 RBI, and 63 runs scored. Mantle cooled slightly in this series but is still hitting .328 and hit two more homeruns to give him 36 along with 77 RBI. Maris also hit two homeruns in the series to give him 37 for the season and 83 RBI. Luis Arroyo picked up his 21st save to go along with a 3.80 ERA. The '61 Yankees will face the 18-12 1936 Yankees in the next series.
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The 1936 Yankees won four of six games from the 1961 Yankees to improve their record to 22-14 while the '61 Yankees dropped to 40-50.
Pitching controlled the first two games with the '61 Yankees winning game One 2-1 and the '36 Yankees winning Game Two 3-0; Monte Pearson pitched a two-hit shutout and struck out 10. The bats exploded in Game Three as both teams combined to hit eight homeruns. The '36 Yankees won the slugfest 14-5 despite two homeruns from Roger Maris. Lou Gehrig hit a double, homerun and drove in five RBI. The '61 Yankees evened the series with a 6-1 win in Game Four thanks to two-run dingers by Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, and Mickey Mantle. The '36 Yankees won the final two games of the series 6-0 and 8-3. Bump Hadley pitched the second two-hit shutout of the series in Game Five.
Bill Dickey leads the '36 Yankees in hitting at .344 with 41 RBI and a 1.015 OPS. Joe Dimaggio is close behind at .340 with 12 HRs and a 1.075 OPS. Gehrig leads the team in HRs and RBI with 16 and 47 respectively while hitting .309 with a 1.179 OPS. Pearson improved his record to 2-3 with a 4.10 ERA. Hadley’s shutout raised his record to 2-1 with a 5.23 ERA.
Mantle is back as the team leader for the '61 Yankees at .324 with 38 homeruns and 80 RBI. Maris now has 39 homers and 86 RBI to go with a .260 average. Whitey Ford and Ralph Terry have both given up 20 or more homeruns in their starts. The '61 Yankees will take on the 11-7 1951 Yankees in the next series.
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The 1951 Yankees and the 1961 Yankees split their six game series. The '51 Yankees stayed four games over .500 at 14-10 while the '61 Yankees stayed 10 games under .500 at 43-53.
The '51 Yankees won the odd games while the '61 Yankees won the even games. Gil McDougald led the '51 Yankees to an 11-1 win in Game Three while going 3-5 with a double, homerun, and five RBI. Spec Shea picked up the win in Game Five while doing more than his share at the plate; Shea hit TWO homeruns with five RBI in a 10-4 win. The '61 Yankees pounded the '51 Yankees 14-2 in Game Four thanks to a monster game by Elston Howard: 5-6, double, homerun, and four runs scored. Game Six was the only game decided by less than three runs. The '61 Yankees scored four in the first inning, three coming on a bases-clearing double by Moose Skowron. The '51 Yankees came back and tied the game in the 6th on a two-out, two-run double by Joe Dimaggio. The game went to 11 innings where Clete Boyer’s two-run homer broke the tie, and the '61 Yankees held on for a 6-5 victory and the series split.
Mickey Mantle leads the '51 Yankees in hitting at .321 but is homerless in 95 at bats. Yogi Berra leads the club in homeruns (5) and RBI (25) while hitting .284. In four starts, Allie Reynolds is 2-1 with a 1.54 ERA.
Howard hit .407 in the series to raise his average to .328 with 24 homeruns, 64 RBI, and 71 runs scored. Roger Maris hit his 40th homerun in this series and now has 88 RBI. Mantle is hitting .322 with 39 homeruns, 81 RBI, 88 runs scored and a 1.134 OPS. Bill Stafford picked up his ninth win and reduced his ERA to 4.05. The '61 Yankees will battle with the 15-9 1939 Yankees in the next series.
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After losing or splitting five straight series, the 1961 Yankees won their series, four games to two, against the 1939 Yankees to improve their record to 47-55. The '39 Yankees dropped to 17-13.
Pitching was the reason the '61 Yankees won this series as they held the '39 Yankee offense to 14 runs and shut them out twice. After dropping Game One 4-0, the '61 Yankees won Game Two 5-4 in a game where the lead changed hands four times. Moose Skowron put them ahead for good with a two-out, two-run triple in the 7th. Bill Stafford and Luis Arroyo pitched a combined shutout for a 1-0 win in Game Three. Bobby Richardson drove in the only run with a walk-off single, made possible because of an error by Frankie Corsetti. After the '39 Yankees tied the series in Game Four with a 5-3 win, the '61 Yankees dominated the final two games, 10-1 and 2-0. Whitey Ford scattered six hits for the shutout in the final game.
Elston Howard raised his average to .330 to lead the '61 Yankees. with 25 homeruns and 66 RBI. Mickey Mantle dipped slightly to .320 and didn’t add to his 39 homeruns. Roger Maris extended his lead for homeruns with three in this series to give him 43 for the season along with 92 RBI. Stafford’s combined shutout dropped his ERA to 3.80 to go with a 9-5 record. Ford is 9-3 with a 4.15 ERA. Arroyo picked up a win and a save, his 25th, and reduced his ERA to 3.47.
Charlie Keller leads the '39 Yankees in hitting at .347. He and Red Rolfe lead the team in runs scored with 25. Joe Dimaggio is hitting .331 and leads the team in homeruns (9) and RBI (35). Red Ruffing gave up one unearned run in two starts; he is 3-1 with a 2.30 ERA. Atley Donald has been even better; he is 4-1 with a 1.28 ERA. The '39 Yankees will face the 35-49 1952 Yankees in the next series.
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The 1939 Yankees and the 1952 Yankees split their six game series. The '39 Yankees remained four games over .500 at 20-16 while the '52 Yankees stayed 14 games under .500 at 38-52.
The teams traded wins the entire series; the '39 Yankees won games 1, 3 and 5 while the '52 Yankees won games 2, 4, and 6. Lefty Gomez pitched a three-hit shutout in a 7-0 Game One win while Bill Dickey went 2-4 with a double and five RBI at the plate. In Game Three, Monte Pearson pitched a complete game with two RBI at the plate in a 8-2 win. Dickey had another five RBI outing in Game Five, a 10-2 blowout in which eight of the team’s runs were scored in the 7th and 8th innings. The '52 Yankees won Game Two 4-2 in a game that went back-and-forth. They won Game Four 6-2 by scoring a run in every inning from the 3rd to the 8th. They earned the split in Game Six with a 3-2 win thanks to a two-out walk-off double by Phil Rizzuto.
Hank Bauer leads the '52 Yankees in hitting at .294. Joe Collins is hitting .272 at leads the team in homeruns (19) and RBI (77). Yogi Berra is hitting .242 with 11 homeruns, 43 RBI, and a team-leading 63 runs scored. Allie Reynolds picked up a win and his first save in this series. He is now an amazing 14-3 with one save and a 2.69 ERA.
Dickey hit .333 in the series with three homeruns and 15 (!) RBI. He raised his average to .273, is now tied for the team lead in homeruns with Joe Dimaggio at nine, and leads the team in RBI with 36. Dimaggio is hitting .315 with a 1.018 OPS. Red Rolfe is hitting .282 and he leads the team in runs scored with 32. The shutout by Gomez helped reduce his ERA to 2.45 with a 3-4 record. The '39 Yankees will take on the 35-37 1958 Yankees in the next series.
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The 1958 Yankees dominated their series with the 1939 Yankees, winning five of six games to move to two games over .500 at 40-38. The '39 Yankees dropped to .500 at 21-21.
Moose Skowron led the '58 Yankees to a 4-3 win in Game 1 going 3-4 with three RBI. Mickey Mantle hit two homeruns with four RBI to lead them to a 10-5 win in Game Three. The '39 Yankees won their only game in Game Four 9-1; four players hit homeruns, two by George Selkirk who drove in three RBI. The '58 Yankees clinched the series in Game Five with a 4-0 shutout. Art Ditmar pitched a three-hitter while Elston Howard hit a three-run homer.
Howard leads the team in hitting at .345 after 50 games. Mantle tied Andy Carey for the team lead in homeruns with 16, and he leads the team in runs scored with 53… Carey missed the last three games due to injury but he still leads the team in RBI with 53. Ditmar’s shutout, his first start of the season, improved his record to 4-1 with a 3.92 ERA. Ryne Duren picked up three saves in the series to give him 17 for the season with a 1.85 ERA.
Charlie Keller leads the '39 Yankees in hitting at .309. Joe Dimaggio and Bill Dickey were both cold in this series; Dimaggio’s average dropped 25 points to .290 while Dickey’s fell 23 points to .250. Both hit their 10th homeruns of the season. Red Ruffing picked up the only win of the series to improve his record to 5-1 with a 2.13 ERA. The '39 Yankees will face the 21-21 1941 Yankees in the next series.
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The 1939 Yankees beat the 1941 Yankees four of six games to go back to two games over .500 at 25-23. The '41 Yankees fell to two games under .500 at 23-25.
The '39 Yankees overcame a 4-0 deficit in Game One with a Frankie Crosetti three-run homer in the 4th and a two-out, two-run walk-off triple in the 9th by Charlie Keller to win 5-4. They won the next two games convincingly, 7-1 and 6-2. In Game Three, the '39 Yankees earned 12 walks to go along with eight hits. The '41 Yankees won Game Four 5-4 thanks to Joe Gordon’s RBI double to break a 4-4 tie in the 8th inning. The '39 Yankees clinched the series in Game Five with a 13-1 blowout win in which every player had a hit and either scored or drove in a run.
Keller raised his average to .313 to lead the team. Joe Dimaggio and Bill Dickey both have 10 homeruns and 42 RBI to lead the team. Red Ruffing picked up another win to improve his record to 6-1 with a 2.12 ERA. Atley Donald is 5-3 with a 1.94 ERA.
Dimaggio leads the '41 Yankees in hitting at .335, homeruns with 20, and RBI with 48. Marius Russo picked up a win in his two starts to improve his record to 6-3 with a 2.59 ERA. Johnny Murphy picked up two saves to give him 11 for the season. The '41 Yankees will take on the 36-36 1962 Yankees in the next series.
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The 1941 Yankees beat the 1962 Yankees four games to two by sweeping the first four games of the series. The '41 Yankees improved their record to 26-28. The '62 Yankees dropped to 39-39.
The '41 Yankees came from behind in Game Two to win 5-4. Trailing 4-3 in the 9th inning, Buddy Rosar tied the game with a pinch-hit single, and Tommy Henrich won it with a walk-off RBI single. They won Game Three more convincingly 9-2 on the strength of four homeruns, two by Joe Gordon. The '62 Yankees had some luck when Game Five was rained out while trailing 11-1 in the 4th inning. They won the makeup game 7-4; Hector Lopez drove in four RBI with two doubles. Tom Tresh and Roger Maris each had three RBI in the final game, an 8-3 win.
Joe Dimaggio stayed steady in this series and is hitting .333, tops on the '41 Yankees. He didn’t add to his 20 homeruns but drove in four more runs to give him 52 for the season.
Bobby Richardson leads the '62 Yankees in hitting at .304. Mickey Mantle is hitting .284 with 21 homeruns and 52 RBI to lead the team. Ralph Terry and Whitey Ford have identical 8-3 records; Terry has a 3.29 ERA while Ford has a 4.00 ERA. The '62 Yankees will face the 25-23 1939 Yankees in the next series.
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The 1939 Yankees won five of six games from the 1962 Yankees to improve their record to 30-24. The '62 Yankees fell to 40-44.
The '39 Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the 9th inning of Game One with a chance at a Red Ruffing no-hitter. Ruffing lost the no no on a pinch-hit homerun by Tony Kubek, but they came back to score three runs in the 10th, two on a homerun by Babe Dahlgren for a 4-1 win. The '62 Yankees won their only game of the series in Game Two 4-2. All of their runs were scored on homeruns by Mickey Mantle, Elston Howard, and Bill Skowron. The '39 Yankees won the final four games of the series. Every player scored or drove in a run in a 11-2 blowout in Game Four. They made it back-to-back double figure scoring in Game Five with a 12-4 win. Charlie Keller hit two homeruns, Red Rolfe hit a grand slam, and Joe Gordon went 4-5 with a homer and four RBI. The final game was wild; the '39 Yankees took a 3-0 lead, then trailed 4-3 only to score six unanswered runs and hold on for a 9-8 win.
Keller leads the '39 Yankees in hitting at .325. Joe Dimaggio (.292) and Bill Dickey (.244) both have 11 homeruns to lead the team. Dimaggio leads the team in RBI with 45. Ruffing and Atley Donald continue to be dominant on the mound; Ruffing is 7-1 with a 2.02 ERA while Donald is 6-3 with a 1.95 ERA.
Richardson raised his team-leading average for the '62 Yankees to .311. Mantle’s average dipped to .275 but he hit three homeruns to give him 24 for the season with 55 RBI. Roger Maris is hitting just .237 but leads the team in RBI with 58 while hitting 16 homeruns. The '62 Yankees will take on the 38-28 1937 Yankees in the next series.
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The 1937 Yankees and 1962 Yankees split a wild six game series that went back and forth. The '37 Yankees remained 10 games over .500 at 41-31 while the '62 Yankees stay four games under .500 at 43-47.
Game One was a scoreless tie for eight innings until Mickey Mantle hit a bases-clearing triple with two outs, made possible by a Tony Lazzeri error to give the '62 Yankees a 3-0 lead. The '37 Yankees came back in the 9th with a two run homer by George Selkirk but fell short in the end 3-2. It would not be the last game Selkirk impacted. He went 3-5 with two homeruns and four RBI in Game Two as the '37 Yankees won 9-2. The '62 Yankees trailed 6-3 in Game Three but scored four runs in the seventh, a three-run homer by Tom Tresh followed by a solo shot by Mantle for a come-from-behind 7-6 win. The '37 Yankees won Game Four 9-4 to tie the series, but the '62 Yankees retook the advantage in the series with a 6-3 win in Game Five; Mantle went 2-3 with two homeruns and four RBI. The '37 Yankees earned the split with a final barnburner that featured eight homeruns. Bill Dickey opened the game with a homerun, part of a four run first inning. The '62 Yankees countered with six runs in the 2nd. to take a 6-4 lead. The '37 Yankees followed with four in the 4th to retake the lead 9-7. Moose Skowron blasted a three-run dinger, his second homer of the game, to put the '62 Yankees back in front 10-9. The '37 Yankees provided the final bit of fireworks in the bottom of the 9th as Dickey closed the game with a walk-off three-run blast for a 12-10 win.
Lou Gehrig leads the team in hitting at .333 with 22 homeruns, 59 RBI, 71 runs scored and a 1.177 OPS. Selkirk hit .480 in the series with five homeruns and 11 RBI to raise his overall average to .330 with 17 homeruns and 48 RBI. Joe Dimaggio is hitting .285 with a team leading 25 homeruns and 80 RBI. Lefty Gomez and Red Ruffing have identical 2.26 ERAs; Gomez is 6-3 while Ruffing is 9-2.
Bobby Richardson’s average dropped to .303, still tops on the '62 Yankees. Mantle hit .333 in the series with three homers and eight RBI to raise his average to .279 with 27 homeruns, 63 RBI and a 1.041 OPS. Marshall Bridges picked up three saves to give him 26 for the season; he also blew a save in the final game of the series and picked up his eighth loss. The '62 Yankees will battle the 14-10 1951 Yankees in the next series.