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Whitey Ford

Whitey Ford

Edward Charles "Whitey" Ford (born October 21, 1928) was a Major League Baseball pitcher. A native of New York City, Ford was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1947. He was given the nickname "Whitey" while in the minor leagues for his blond, almost white, hair. He began his Major League Baseball career on July 1, 1950, with the Yankees. In 1951 and 1952 he served in the Army during the Korean War. He rejoined the Yankees for the 1953 season, and the Yankee "Big Three" pitching staff became a "Big Four," as Ford joined Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi, and Eddie Lopat. Eventually he went from the #4 pitcher on a great staff to the universally-acclaimed #1 pitcher of the Yankees, becoming known as the "Chairman of the Board" for his ability to remain calm and in command during high-pressure situations. He was also known as "Slick" for his craftiness on the mound, necessary because he did not have an overwhelming fastball, but being able to throw several other pitches very well gave him pinpoint control. In 1955, he led the American League in complete games and games won; in 1956 in earned run average and winning percentage; in 1958, in earned run average; and in both 1961 and 1963, in games won and winning percentage. In 1961 he won the Cy Young Award. He played his entire 16-year career as a Yankee, retiring in 1967. He won 236 games, still a Yankee career record. Red Ruffing, the previous Yankee record-holder, still leads all Yankee right-handed pitchers, with 231 of his 273 career wins coming with the Yankees. Roger Clemens notched his 300th career victory as a Yankee, but pitched for the Yankees only five seasons with 77 wins. Among pitchers with at least 300 career decisions, Ford ranks first with a winning percentage of .690. Among those with at least 200 decisions, only Pedro Martinez ranked ahead of him at the end of the 2005 season, at .701. Among starting pitchers whose careers began after the advent of the Live Ball Era in 1920, Whitey's 2.75 earned-run average is second to Martinez's 2.72. Hoyt Wilhelm, mainly a reliever during his career, leads all post-1920 pitchers in ERA at 2.52. After his career ended, Ford admitted to occasionally cheating by damaging baseballs. He would sharpen his belt buckle to use it to scuff the ball, and would sometimes use the diamond in his wedding ring. Ford wore number 19 in his rookie season. Following his return from the army in 1953, he wore number 16 for the remainder of his career. He was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1974 with his longtime pal and Yankee teammate Mickey Mantle. At that time, the Yankees retired his number 16. On August 2, 1987, the Yankees dedicated plaques for Monument Park at Yankee Stadium for Ford and another lefthanded pitcher who reached the Hall of Fame, Lefty Gomez. Ford's plaque calls him "One of the greatest pitchers ever to step on a mound." In 1999, he ranked number 52 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Facts

In the 1961 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Ford snapped Babe Ruth's streak of 29 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings in World Series play (it would eventually reach 33 2/3). During the regular season, teammate Roger Maris had broken Ruth's single season home run record.

External links


- Whitey Ford at:
  - [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/ford_whitey.htm Baseball Hall of Fame]
  - [http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=fordwh01 Baseball Almanac]
  - [http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/F/Ford_Whitey.stm Baseball Library]
  - [http://www.baseball-reference.com/f/fordwh01.shtml Baseball Reference] Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey Ford, Whitey

October 21

October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 71 days remaining.

Events


- 686 - Conon becomes Pope.
- 1492 - Christopher Columbus lands on the San Salvador Islands.
- 1512 - Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg
- 1600 - Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the leaders of rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, which marks the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, who in effect rule Japan until the mid-Nineteenth century.
- 1774 - First display of the word "Liberty" on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts and which was in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.
- 1797 - In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched.
- 1805 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar - a British fleet led by Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain under Admiral Villeneuve. It signalled the virtual end of French maritime power and left Britain navally unchallenged until the twentieth century.
- 1805 - Napoleonic Wars: Austrian General Mack surrenders his army to the Grand Army of Napoleon at Ulm, reaping Napoleon over 30,000 prisoners and inflicting 10,000 casualties on the losers. Ulm was considered to be one of Napoleon's finest hours.
- 1824 - Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement.
- 1854 - Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to the Crimean War.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Battle of Ball's Bluff - Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war. Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, is killed in the fighting.
- 1867 - Manifest Destiny: Medicine Lodge Treaty - Near Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas a landmark treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate a reservation in western Oklahoma.
- 1879 - Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13 1/2 hours before burning out).
- 1895 - The Republic of Taiwan collapses as Japanese forces invade.
- 1902 - In the United States, a five month strike by United Mine Workers ends.
- 1921 - President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting President against lynching in the deep south.
- 1941 - World War II: Germans rampage in Yugoslavia, killing thousands of civilians.
- 1944 - The first kamikaze attack: HMAS Australia was hit by a Japanese plane carrying a 200 kg (441 pound) bomb off Leyte Island, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.
- 1945 - Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.
- 1945 - Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón married actress Evita.
- 1947 - 21 die as a fire destroys an asylum in Hoff, Germany.
- 1954 - The first part of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the The Fellowship of the Ring is published in the U.S.A.
- 1957 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.
- 1959 - In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
- 1959 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.
- 1966 - Aberfan disaster: A coal tip falls on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren
- 1967 - Vietnam War: More than 100,000 war protesters gather in Washington, DC. A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial is followed by a march to The Pentagon and clashes with soldiers and United States Marshals protecting the facility (event lasts until October 23; 683 people will be arrested). Similar demonstrations occurred simultaneously in Japan and Western Europe.
- 1973 - John Paul Getty III's ear is cut off by his kidnappers and sent to a newspaper in Rome; it doesn't arrive until November 8.
- 1977 - The European Patent Institute is founded
- 1980 - 1980 World Series: In 6 games, the Philadelphia Phillies win their first World Series.
- 1986 - In Lebanon, pro-Iranian kidnappers claim to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy (he will be released in August 1991).
- 1987 - Former Miss America Bess Myerson is arrested on charges of bribery, conspiracy, and mail fraud, all involving an alimony-fixing scandal. She is later found not guilty.
- 1990 - Apple Day first celebrated, in Covent Garden, London - initiated by Common Ground
- 1994 - North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea and the United States sign an agreement that requires North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.
- 1997 - Hotel owners from the Detroit area meet to discuss Jack Kevorkian's practice of leaving corpses in hotel rooms.

Births


- 1328 - Hongwu Emperor of China (d. 1398)
- 1449 - George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (d. 1478)
- 1527 - Louis I, Cardinal of Guise, French cardinal (d. 1578)
- 1581 - Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (d. 1641)
- 1650 - Jean Bart, French admiral (d. 1702)
- 1660 - Georg Ernst Stahl, German scientist (d. 1734)
- 1675 - Emperor Higashiyama of Japan (d. 1710)
- 1687 - Nicolaus I Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1759)
- 1712 - Sir James Denham Steuart, British economist (d. 1780)
- 1725 - Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy, Austrian field marshal (d. 1801)
- 1757 - Pierre François Charles Augereau, duc de Castiglione, French marshal (d. 1816)
- 1762 - Herman Willem Daendels, Dutch statesman (d. 1818)
- 1772 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, British poet (d. 1834)
- 1775 - Giuseppe Baini, Italian composer (d. 1844)
- 1790 - Alphonse de Lamartine, French writer (d. 1869)
- 1833 - Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor and founder of the Nobel Prize (d. 1896)
- 1847 - Giuseppe Giacosa, Italian writer (d. 1906)
- 1851 - George Ulyett, British cricketer (d. 1898)
- 1895 - Edna Purviance, American actress (d. 1958)
- 1904 - Patrick Kavanagh, Irish poet (d. 1967)
- 1912 - Sir Georg Solti, Hungarian conductor (d. 1997)
- 1914 - Martin Gardner, American writer
- 1917 - Dizzy Gillespie, American musician (d. 1993)
- 1921 - Malcolm Arnold, British composer
- 1924 - Celia Cruz, Cuban singer (d. 2003)
- 1928 - Whitey Ford, baseball player
- 1929 - Ursula K. Le Guin, American author
- 1940 - Geoff Boycott, British cricketer
- 1940 - Manfred Mann, British musician
- 1941 - Steve Cropper, American musician
- 1942 - Elvin Bishop, American musician
- 1942 - Judy Sheindlin, American judge and television host
- 1943 - Brian Piccolo, American football player (d. 1970)
- 1949 - Benjamin Netanyahu, 9th Prime Minister of Israel
- 1952 - Trevor Chappell, Australian Cricketer
- 1953 - Peter Mandelson, British politician
- 1955 - Rich Mullins, American musician (d. 1997)
- 1956 - Carrie Fisher, American actress and writer
- 1957 - Wolfgang Ketterle, German physicist, Nobel Prize laueate
- 1957 - Steve Lukather, American musician
- 1959 - Ken Watanabe, Japanese actor
- 1962 - David Campese, Australian rugby player
- 1971 - Nick Oliveri, American musician
- 1972 - Felicity Andersen, Australian actress
- 1973 - Lera Auerbach, Russian composer
- 1978 - Joey Harrington, American football player
- 1984 - Kieran Richardson, British footballer

Deaths


- 310 - Pope Eusebius
- 1125 - Cosmas of Prague, Bohemian writer
- 1221 - Alix of Thouars, Duchess of Brittany (b. 1201)
- 1266 - Birger jarl, Swedish statesman and founder of Stockholm (b. 1210)
- 1422 - King Charles VI of France (b. 1368)
- 1500 - Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (b. 1442)
- 1558 - Julius Caesar Scaliger, Italian humanist scholar (b. 1484)
- 1600 - Toda Katsushige, Japanese warlord (b. 1557)
- 1623 - William Wade, English statesman and diplomat (b. 1546)
- 1662 - Henry Lawes, English composer (b. 1595)
- 1687 - Sir Edmund Waller, English poet (b. 1606)
- 1765 - Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect (b. 1691)
- 1775 - Peyton Randolph, American president of the Continental Congress (b. 1721)
- 1777 - Samuel Foote, English dramatist and actor (b. 1720)
- 1805 - Horatio Nelson, British admiral (mortally wounded in battle) (b. 1758)
- 1873 - Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet (b. 1807)
- 1896 - James Henry Greathead, British engineer (b. 1844)
- 1931 - Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian writer (b. 1862)
- 1944 - Alois Kayser, German missionary to Nauru (b. 1877)
- 1969 - Jack Kerouac, American novelist (b. 1922)
- 1969 - Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician (b. 1882)
- 1975 - Charles Reidpath, American athlete (b. 1887)
- 1980 - Hans Asperger, Austrian psychologist (b. 1906)
- 1984 - François Truffaut, French film director (b. 1932)
- 1986 - Lionel Murphy, Australian politician and judge (b. 1922)
- 1995 - Shannon Hoon, American singer (Blind Melon) (b. 1967)
- 1995 - Jesús Blasco, Spanish comic book author (b. 1919)
- 2003 - Fred Berry, American actor (b. 1951)
- 2003 - Luis A. Ferré, Governor of Puerto Rico (b. 1940)
- 2003 - Louise Day Hicks, American politician (b. 1916)
- 2003 - Elliott Smith, American musician (b. 1969)
- 2005 - Francisco Alejandro Gutierrez, Cuban-American musician Captain Jack (b. 1962)

Holidays and observances


- R.C. saints - Saint Ursula and her 11 (or 11000) virgins; Saint Hilarion
- Also see October 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Republic of China - Overseas Chinese Day
- Trafalgar Day — celebrated throughout much of the British Empire in the 19th and early 20th Century.
- International Day of the Nacho — celebrated in the United States and Mexico since the early 1990s.

Etc


- In the comic novel Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, the Earth was born on this day in 4004 BC, within a quarter of an hour of 9 in the morning. This was supposedly because God liked to get things over with early.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/21 BBC: On This Day] ---- October 20 - October 22 - November 21 - September 21 – more historical anniversaries ko:10월 21일 ms:21 Oktober ja:10月21日 simple:October 21 th:21 ตุลาคม

1928

1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-May


- January 6-7 - River Thames floods in London - 14 drowned
- January 7 - Moat at the Tower of London, previously drained in 1843, is completely refilled by a tidal wave
- January 12 - US murderer Ruth Snyder executed at Ossining
- January 17 - OGPU arrests Lev Trotsky in Moscow; he assumes a status of passive resistance and is exiled to Turkestan
- February - Kurume University (Japan) established
- February 11 - 1928 Winter Olympic Games open in St. Moritz, Switzerland
- February 12 - Heavy hails kill 11 in England
- February 25 - Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, DC becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.
- March 12 - Malta becomes a British dominion
- March 12 - In California, the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles fails killing 400
- March 21 - Charles Lindbergh is presented the Congressional Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
- April 10 - Pineapple Primary - Republican Party primary elections in Chicago preceded by assassinations and bombings
- April 12 - Bomb attack against the King of Italy in Milan - 17 bystanders dead
- April 22 - Earthquake destroys Corinth - 200.000 buildings destroyed
- May 15-17 - Christian X of Denmark visits Finland
- May 15 - Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, commenced operations
- May 15 - Release of the animated short Plane Crazy, featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
- May 23 - Bomb attack against Italian consulate in Buenos Aires - 22 dead, 41 injured
- May 24 - Airship Italia crashes on the North Pole; one of the occupants is Italian general Umberto Nobile
- May 30 - A rescue expedition leaves for the North Pole

June-August


- June 11 - Medical doctor's strike begins in Vienna
- June 14 - Students take over the medical wing of Rosario University in Argentina
- July 6 - The world's largest hailstone falls in Potter, Nebraska.
- July 12 - Mexican aviator Emilio Carranza dies in a solo plane crash in the New Jersey Pine Barrens while returning from a goodwill flight to New York City.
- June 17 - Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to successfully pilot an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she succeeded the next day).
- July 17 - Jose del León Toral assassinates Alvaro Obregon, president of Mexico
- June 20 - Shooting incident in Yugoslavian parliament - Punica Rasic shoots 3 opposition representatives and injures three others
- June 24 - Swedish aeroplane rescues part of Italian North Pole expedition, including Umberto Nobile. Soviet icebreaker Krasin saves the rest July 12
- July 16 - Leon Toral assassinates Álvaro Obregón, president of Mexico
- July 25 - USA recalls its troops from China
- July 27 - Tich Freeman becomes only bowler ever to take 200 first-class wickets before end of July.
- July 28 - Official opening ceremony of the 1928_Summer_Olympics in Amsterdam.
- August 16 - Murderer Carl Panzram is arrested in Washington, DC after killing about 20 people.
- August 25 - Ahmet Zogu proclaims himself King Zog I of Albania; he is crowned September 1
- August 28 - The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris - it was the first treaty which outlawed aggressive war.

September-December


- September 1 - Richard Byrd leaves New York for Arctic
- September 3 - Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin
- September 15 - Tich Freeman sets all-time record for number of wickets taken in an English cricket season.
- September 16 - The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane kills at least 2,500 people in Florida.
- October 2 Saint Josemaria Escriva, founds Opus Dei
- October 7 - Haile Selassie crowned king (not yet emperor) of Abyssinia
- October 12 - An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston.
- November 3 - cartoon star Mickey Mouse appears in Steamboat Willie, an animated short produced by Walt Disney.
- November 4 - At Park Central Hotel in Manhattan, Arnold Rothstein, New York City's most notorious gambler, is shot to death over a poker game.
- November 6 - Swedes start a tradition of eating Gustavus Adolphus pastries to commemorate the old warrior king.
- November 6 - U.S. presidential election, 1928: Republican Herbert Hoover wins by a wide margin over Democrat Alfred E. Smith.
- November 10 - Hirohito was enthroned as Emperor of Japan.
- November 11 - US gambling king Arnold Rothstein is shot to death in New York City
- December 3 - In Rio de Janeiro, a seaplane sunk near Cap Arcona with Alberto Santos-Dumont on board.
- December 5 - Police disperses Sicilian gangs' meeting in Cleveland
- December 21 - U.S. Congress approves the construction of The Boulder Dam, later renamed The Hoover Dam
- December 31 - Bells of Big Ben first time in a radio

Unknown dates


- Charles King elected president of Liberia with 600,000 votes; the whole of country has only 15,000 voters.
- Chaco war
- Coca Cola enters Europe through the Amsterdam Olympics.
- Eliot Ness begins to lead the prohibition unit in Chicago, Illinois.
- The old Canaanite city of Ugarit is rediscovered.
- Turkey switches from the Arabic to the Latin-based modern Turkish alphabet.
- The right to vote extended to all women in the United Kingdom.
- Frederick Griffith conducts the Griffith experiment, indirectly proving existence of DNA.
- Motorola is founded.
- First (and last) Best Title Writing Academy Award given.
- The Episcopal Church in the United States of America ratifies a new revision of the Book of Common Prayer.
- W2XBS, RCA's first television station, is established in New York City.
- Australian farmer, Jack Trott, finds Rhizanthella gardneri in his garden.

Births

January


- January 5 - Ali Bhutto, President of Pakistan and Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1979)
- January 5 - Walter Mondale, U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate
- January 7 - William Peter Blatty, American writer
- January 11 - David L. Wolper, television producer
- January 16 - William Kennedy, American author
- January 17 - Jean Barraqué, French composer (d. 1973)
- January 17 - Vidal Sassoon, English cosmetologist
- January 23 - Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
- January 23 - Jeanne Moreau, French actress
- January 24 - Desmond Morris, anthropologist and writer
- January 26 - Roger Vadim, French film director (d. 2000)
- January 30 - Hal Prince, American stage producer and director

February


- February 5 - Andrew Greeley, American Catholic priest and novelist
- February 9 - Frank Frazetta, American illustrator
- February 9 - Roger Mudd, American journalist
- February 23 - Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut (d. 1990)
- February 26 - Fats Domino, American musician
- February 26 - Anatoli Filipchenko, cosmonaut
- February 27 - Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel

March-April


- March 4 - Alan Sillitoe, English writer
- March 6 - Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 8 - Gerald Bull, Canadian engineer (d. 1990)
- March 10 - James Earl Ray, American assassin (d. 1998)
- March 12 - Edward Albee, American dramatist
- March 16 - Christa Ludwig, German mezzo-soprano
- March 19 - Hans Küng, Swiss theologian
- March 19 - Patrick McGoohan, Irish actor
- March 20 - Fred Rogers, American children's television host (d. 2003)
- March 24 - Byron Janis, American pianist
- March 25 - Jim Lovell, astronaut
- March 28 - Zbigniew Brzezinski, Polish-born U.S. National Security Advisor
- March 31 - Gordie Howe, Canadian hockey player
- March 31 - Lefty Frizzell, American country music performer
- April 1 - Jane Powell, American dancer, actress, and singer
- April 1 - George Grizzard, American actor
- April 2 - Serge Gainsbourg, French singer (d. 1991)
- April 4 - Maya Angelou, American poet and novelist
- April 6 - James D. Watson, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- April 7 - James Garner, American actor
- April 7 - Alan J. Pakula, American producer and director (d. 1998)
- April 8 - Eric Porter, English actor (d. 1995)
- April 9 - Tom Lehrer, American songwriter
- April 12 - Jean-François Paillard, French conductor
- April 19 - Alexis Korner, British blues musician (d. 1984)
- April 23 - Shirley Temple, American actress and politician

May-June


- May 3 - Dave Dudley, American singer (d. 2003)
- May 4 - Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt
- May 8 - Theodore Sorenson, American lawyer and speechwriter
- May 9 - Colin Chapman, English automotive engineer (d. 1982)
- May 9 - Pancho Gonzalez, American tennis player (d. 1995)
- May 9 - Barbara Ann Scott, Canadian figure skater
- May 12 - Burt Bacharach, American composer
- May 16 - Billy Martin, baseball player and manager (d. 1989)
- May 18 - Pernell Roberts, American actor
- May 23 - Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (d. 2002)
- May 26 - Jack Kevorkian, American physician
- June 1 - Georgi Dobrovolski, cosmonaut (d. 1971)
- June 1 - Bob Monkhouse, English comedian and game show host (d. 2003)
- June 13 - John Forbes Nash, Jr., American mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics
- June 14 - Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, Argentine-born revolutionary (d. 1967)
- June 19 - Nancy Marchand, American actress (d. 2000)
- June 25 - Alexei Abrikosov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 26 - Jacob Druckman, American composer (d. 1996)

July-September


- July 5 - Warren Oates, American actor (d. 1982)
- July 10 - Moshe Greenberg, American-Israeli Bible scholar
- July 11 - Bobo Olson, American boxer (d. 2002)
- July 12 - Elias James Corey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 13 - Leroy Vinnegar, American musician (d. 1999)
- July 16 - Robert Sheckley, American writer
- July 25 - Keter Betts, American jazz bassist (d. 2005)
- July 26 - Stanley Kubrick, American film director (d. 1999)
- July 26 - Bernice Rubens, British novelist (d. 2004)
- August 6 - Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
- August 10 - Eddie Fisher, American singer
- August 12 - Bob Buhl, baseball player (d. 2001)
- August 15 - Nicolas Roeg, English film director
- August 18 - Marge Schott, baseball team owner (d. 2004)
- August 25 - Herbert Kroemer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 11 - William Kienzle, American author (d. 2001
- September 14 - Angus Ogilvy, husband of Princess Alexandra of Kent (d. 2004)
- September 15 - Julian Cannonball Adderley, American saxophonist
- September 19 - Adam West, American actor
- September 22 - James Lawson, American civil rights activist and minister
- September 30 - Elie Wiesel, Romanian Holocaust survivor, writer, and lecturer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

October-December


- October 1 - George Peppard, American actor (d. 1994)
- October 8 - Bill Maynard, British actor
- October 9 - Einojuhani Rautavaara, Finnish composer
- October 27 - Kyle Rote, American football player (d. 2002)
- October 30 - Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1999)
- November 3 - Osamu Tezuka, Japanese artist (d. 1989)
- November 3 - George Yardley, American basketball player (d. 2004)
- November 10 - Ennio Morricone, Italian composer
- November 11 - Carlos Fuentes, Panamanian writer
- November 17 - Rance Howard, American actor
- November 29 - Paul Simon, U.S. Senator from Illinois (d. 2003)
- December 7 - Noam Chomsky, American linguist
- December 15 - Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (d. 2000)
- December 16 - Philip K. Dick, American author (d. 1982)
- December 25 - Dick Miller, American actor

Unknown date


- Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu, King of Malaysia

Deaths


- January 1 - Loie Fuller, American dancer (b. 1862)
- January 6 - Alvin Kraenzlein, American athlete (b. 1876)
- January 11 - Thomas Hardy, English writer (b. 1840)
- January 29 - Douglas Haig, British soldier (b. 1861)
- January 30 - Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, Danish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1867)
- February 1 - Hughie Jennings, baseball player (b. 1869)
- February 4 - Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- February 15 - Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1852)
- February 16 - Eddie Foy, American vaudevillian (b. 1856)
- April 2 - Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
- April 5 - Roy Kilner, English cricketer (b. 1890)
- June 4 - Chang Tso-lin, Chinese warlord (b. 1873)
- June 22 - A. B. Frost, American illustrator (b. 1851)
- August 12 - Leos Janacek, Czech composer (b. 1854)
- August 30 - Wilhelm Wien, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
- October 22 - Andrew Fisher, fifth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1862)
- December 1 - José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian writer (b. 1888)
- December 10 - Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect (b. 1868)
- Robert Abbe, American surgeon (b. 1851)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Owen Willans Richardson
- Chemistry - Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus
- Physiology or Medicine - Charles Jules Henri Nicolle
- Literature - Sigrid Undset
- Peace - not awarded ko:1928년 ms:1928 ja:1928年 simple:1928 th:พ.ศ. 2471

Pitcher

:This article is about the sport of baseball. For other references with this word, see pitcher (disambiguation). ---- pitcher (disambiguation) In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter who attempts to either make contact with it or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. In most cases, the object of a pitch is to deliver the ball to the catcher without allowing the batter to hit the ball. The ball is delivered in such a way that the batter either can't hit a pitch through the strike zone or is compelled to swing at a pitch outside of the strike zone. If the batter elects not to swing at the pitch, it is called a strike if the ball passes through the strike zone and a ball otherwise. Nearly all action during a game is centered around the pitcher for the defensive team. A pitcher's particular style and skill heavily influences the dynamics of the game and will often determine the victor. The type and sequence of pitches chosen depends upon the particular situation in a game. Because pitchers and catchers must coordinate each pitch, a system of hand signals are used by the catcher to communicate choices to the pitcher, to which the pitcher either vetoes or accepts. Keeping a foot on the pitcher's rubber at the center of the pitcher's mound, which is 60 feet 6 inches from home plate, the pitcher throws the baseball to the catcher, who is positioned behind home plate and catches the ball. Meanwhile, a batter stands in the batter's box at one side of the plate, and attempts to bat the ball safely into fair play. Although the object and mechanics of pitching remain the same for all pitchers, pitchers may be classified according to their roles and effectiveness. The starting pitcher begins the game and he may be followed various relief pitchers, such as the long reliever, the left-handed specialist, the setup man, and/or the closer. Famous past Major League Baseball pitchers include Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Sandy Koufax, Steve Carlton, and Nolan Ryan. Famous current pitchers (as of 2004) include Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Johan Santana, and Pedro Martinez.

Pitching in a game

Pedro Martinez Effective pitching is vitally important in baseball. In baseball statistics, for each game, one pitcher will be credited with winning the game, and one pitcher will be charged with losing it. However, pitching is also physically demanding, especially if the pitcher is throwing with maximum effort. A full game usually involves 120-170 pitches thrown by each team, and most pitchers begin to tire before they reach this point. As a result, the pitcher who starts a game often will not be the one who finishes it, and he may not be recovered enough to pitch again for a few days. The act of throwing a baseball at high speed is very unnatural to the body and somewhat damaging to human muscles, thus pitchers are very susceptible to injuries, soreness, and general pain. Teams have devised two strategies to address this problem: rotation and specialization. To accommodate playing nearly every day, a team will include a group of pitchers who start games and rotate between them, allowing each pitcher to rest for a few days between starts. Also, teams have additional pitchers reserved to replace that game's starting pitcher if he tires or proves ineffective. These players are called relief pitchers, relievers, or collectively the bullpen. The relief pitchers often have even more specialized roles, and the particular reliever used depends on the situation. Many teams designate one pitcher as the closer, a relief pitcher specifically reserved to pitch the final inning or innings of a game when his team has a narrow lead, in order to preserve the victory. Generally, relief pitchers pitch fewer innings and throw fewer pitches than starting pitchers, but may be able to pitch more frequently without needing multiple days to recover. A skilled pitcher often throws a variety of different pitches in order to prevent the batter from hitting the ball well. The most basic pitch is a fastball, where the pitcher throws the ball as hard as he can. Some pitchers are able to throw a fastball at a speed of over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). Other common types of pitches are the curveball, slider, changeup, forkball, split-fingered fastball, and knuckleball. These generally are intended to have unusual movement or to deceive the batter as to the rotation or velocity of the ball, making it more difficult to hit. Very few pitchers throw all of these pitches, but most use a subset or blend of the basic types. Some pitchers also release pitches from different arm angles, making it harder for the batter to pick up the flight of the ball. (See List of baseball pitches.) A pitcher who is throwing well on a particular day is said to have brought his "good stuff".

After the ball is pitched

The pitcher's duty doesn't cease after he pitches the ball. He has several standard roles at that point. The pitcher must attempt to field any balls coming up the middle, and in fact a Gold Glove Award is reserved for the pitcher with the best fielding ability. He must also cover first base on balls hit to the right side, since the first baseman might be fielding them. On passed balls and wild pitches, he covers home-plate when there are runners on. Also, he generally backs up throws to home plate.

Significant pitchers

Baseball Hall of Fame members

* Negro Leagues

Other noteworthy pitchers

* Active ** Negro Leagues

See also


- Baseball
- List of baseball pitches
- Baseball fielding positions
- Cy Young Award winners Category:Baseball pitching Category:Baseball positions
- ja:投手



New York Yankees

:"Yankees" redirects here. For other uses, see Yankee (disambiguation). ---- The New York Yankees are a Major League Baseball team based in The Bronx, New York City, New York. They are in the Eastern Division of the American League and are widely considered the most successful baseball franchise. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Yankees have been among the most storied teams in American sports over their 100+ year history; along with franchises like the Boston Celtics, Dallas Cowboys, and Montreal Canadiens, the Yankees have helped exemplify the phrase "dynasty" in professional athletics. They are one of two major league franchises which operate in New York City, the other being the New York Mets of the National League. The Yankees have won 26 World Series in 39 appearances; the St. Louis Cardinals and the Athletics franchise are tied for second with 9 World Series victories each, and the Dodgers franchise is second in World Series appearances with 18. Among the North American major sports, the Yankees' success is only approached by the 24 Stanley Cup championships of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League. The Yankees are also the only team that is represented at every position in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Origins

At the end of the 1900 season, the American League re-organized and, with its president Ban Johnson as the driving force, decided to assert itself as a new major league. Previously a minor league (known as the Western League until 1899), the American League carried over five of its previous locations and added three more on the East Coast, including one in Baltimore, Maryland, which had lost its National League team when that league contracted the year before. The intention of Johnson and the American League had been to place a team in New York City, but their efforts had been stymied by the political connections that owners of the National League New York Giants had with Tammany Hall. When the team began play as the Baltimore Orioles in 1901, they were managed by John McGraw. As a result of a feud with league president Ban Johnson, who rigidly enforced rules about rowdyism on the field of play, McGraw jumped leagues to manage the New York Giants in the middle of the 1902 season. A week later the owner of the Giants also gained controlling interest of the Orioles and raided the team for players, after which the league declared the team forfeit and took control, still intending to move the franchise to New York when and if possible. In January 1903, the American and National Leagues held a "peace conference" to settle conflicts over player contract disputes and to agree on future cooperation. The NL also agreed that the "junior circuit" could establish a franchise in New York. The AL's Baltimore franchise became the New York franchise when its new owners, Frank Farrell and William Devery, were able to find a ballpark location not blocked by the Giants. Farrell and Devery both had deep ties into city politics and gambling. Farrell owned a casino and several pool halls, while Devery had served as a blatantly corrupt chief of the New York City police and had only been forced out of the department at the start of 1902.

The Highlanders

The franchise's first park in New York was located at 165th St. and Broadway in Manhattan, near the highest point on the island. Consequently the field was known as Hilltop Park and the team quickly became known as the New York Highlanders. The name was also a reference to the noted British military unit The Gordon Highlanders, as the team president from 1903 to 1906 was named Joseph Gordon. Today the site of the original Hilltop Park is occupied by buildings of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. As the Highlanders, the team enjoyed success only twice, finishing in second place in 1904 and 1910; but otherwise, much of their first fifteen years in New York was spent in the cellar. Their somewhat tainted ownership, along with the questionable activities of some players, notably first baseman Hal Chase, raised suspicions of game-fixing, but little of that was ever proven. Their best chance came on the last day of the 1904 season, at the Hilltop. New York pitcher Jack Chesbro threw a wild pitch in the ninth inning which allowed the eventual pennant-winning run to score for the Boston Americans. This event had historical significance in several ways. First, the presence of the Highlanders in the race had led the Giants to announce they would not participate in the World Series against a "minor league" team. Although Boston had won the pennant, the Giants still refused to participate. The resulting tongue-lashing of the Giants by the media stung their owner, John T. Brush, who then led a committee that formalized the rules governing the World Series. 1904 was the last year a Series was not played, until the strike-truncated year of 1994. For fans of the team formally named the Red Sox in 1908, the 1904 season-ender would prove to be the last time Boston would defeat the Yankees in a pennant-deciding game for literally a century. From 1913 to 1922 the team would play in the Polo Grounds, a park owned by their National League rivals, the Giants. Relations between the clubs had warmed when the Giants were allowed to lease Hilltop Park while the Polo Grounds was being rebuilt in 1911 following a disastrous fire. During the early 1900s, the nickname "Yankees" was occasionally applied to the club, as a variant on "Americans", verifiably as early as June 21, 1904, when Patsy Dougherty was traded from Boston to New York, and the Boston Herald's report was headlined "Dougherty as a Yankee". That matter-of-fact wording suggests the nickname was already well-known. The New York Herald, on April 15, 1906, reported "Yankees win opening game from Boston, 2-1". The name grew in popularity over the team's first decade. With the change of parks in 1913, the "Highlanders" reference became obsolete, and the de facto team nickname became exclusively "Yankees". Before very long, New York Yankees had become the official nickname of the club. By the mid 1910s, owners Farrell and Devery had become estranged and both were in need of money. At the start of 1915, they sold the team to Colonel Jacob Ruppert and Captain Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston. Ruppert was heir to the Ruppert brewery fortune and had also been tied to the Tammany Hall machine, serving as a U.S. Congressman for eight years. Ruppert later said, "For $450,000 we got an orphan ball club, without a home of its own, without players of outstanding ability, without prestige." But now with an owner possessing deep pockets, and a willingness to dig into them to produce a winning team.

The Ruth and Gehrig era

Over the next few years the new owners would begin to enlarge the payroll. Many of the newly acquired players who would later contribute to their success came from the Boston Red Sox, whose owner, theater impresario Harry Frazee, had bought his team on credit and was hard-pressed to pay off his loans and also produce Broadway shows. From 1919 to 1922, the Yankees acquired from the Red Sox pitchers Waite Hoyt, Carl Mays and Herb Pennock; catcher Wally Schang; shortstop Everett Scott; and third baseman Joe Dugan. However, pitcher-turned-outfielder Babe Ruth was the biggest of them all. Frazee traded Ruth in January of 1920, citing Ruth's demand for a raise after being paid the highest salary in baseball, and slumping bat as reasons for the trade. He was also regarded as a problem, a carouser. That would continue during his Yankees years, but the ownership was more tolerant, provided he brought fans and championships to the ballpark. Two of the four Boston newspapers agreed with the deal at the time. The Red Sox did not win a World Series from 1919 until 2004 (see Curse of the Bambino), often finding themselves out of the World Series hunt as a result of the success of the Yankees. Harry Frazee finally found success on Broadway in 1927 with the musical comedy No No Nanette, which included the song "Tea For Two". No No Nanette Other critical newcomers in this period were manager Miller Huggins and general manager Ed Barrow. Huggins was hired in 1919 by Ruppert while Huston was serving in Europe with the army (this would lead to a break between the two owners, with Ruppert eventually buying Huston out in 1923). Barrow came on board after the 1920 season, and like many of the new Yankee players had previously been a part of the Red Sox organization, having managed the team since 1918. Barrow would act as general manager or president of the Yankees for the next 25 years and may deserve the bulk of the credit for the team's success during that period. He was especially noted for development of the Yankees' farm system. The home run hitting exploits of Ruth proved popular with the public, to the extent that the Yankees were soon outdrawing their landlords, the Giants. In 1921 the Yankees were told to move out of the Polo Grounds after the 1922 season. At that time, John McGraw was said to have commented that the Yankees should "move to some out-of-the-way place, like Queens". Instead, to McGraw's chagrin, they broke ground for a new ballpark just across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds. The construction crew moved with remarkable speed and finished the big new ballpark in less than a year. In 1923 the Yankees moved into Yankee Stadium at 161st St. and River Avenue in the Bronx. The site for the stadium was chosen because the IRT Jerome Avenue subway line, now the MTA's #4 train, went right by there, practically on top of Yankee Stadium's right-field wall. The Stadium was the first triple-deck venue in baseball and seated an astounding 58,000. It was truly "the House that Ruth Built", From 1921 to 1928, the Yankees went through their first period of great success, winning six American League pennants and three World Series. In 1921 through 1923 they faced the Giants in the World Series, losing the first two match-ups but turning the tables in 1923 after the Big Stadium opened. Giants outfielder Casey Stengel, who even then was being called "Old Case", hit two homers to win the two games the Giants came away with. Stengel would later become a "giant" for the Yankees as a manager. The 1927 team was so potent that it became known as "Murderers' Row" and is sometimes considered to have been the best team in the history of baseball (though similar claims have been made for other Yankee squads, notably those of 1939, 1961 and 1998). Ruth's home run total of 60 in 1927 set a single-season record which would stand for 34 years, and first baseman Lou Gehrig had his first big season with 47 round-trippers. The Yankees would repeat as American League champions in 1928, fighting off the resurgent Philadelphia Athletics, and sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Babe Ruth hit .625 with 3 home runs in that series, while Lou Gehrig hit .545 and belted 4 round-trippers. After three also-ran seasons, the Yankees returned to the American League top perch under new manager Joe McCarthy in 1932 and swept the Chicago Cubs in the World Series, running their streak of consecutive World Series game wins to 12, a mark which would stand until the 2000 Yankees bested it in the World Series that year. Babe Ruth hit his famous "Called Shot" home run in Wrigley Field in Game 3 of that Series, a fitting "Swan Song" to his illustrious post-season career.

The DiMaggio era

The Yankees run during the 1930s could also be facetiously called the "McCarthy era", as manager Joe McCarthy (no relation to the infamous Senator of the same name) would guide the Yankees to new heights. Just as Gehrig stepped out of Ruth's considerable shadow, a new titan appeared on the horizon, in the person of Joe DiMaggio. The young center fielder from San Francisco was an immediate impact player, batting .323, hitting 29 homers and driving in 125 runs in his rookie season of 1936. Behind the thundering Yankees bats of DiMaggio, Gehrig and Frank Crosetti, and a superb pitching staff led by Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez and anchored by catcher Bill Dickey, the Yankees reeled off an unprecedented four consecutive World Series wins during 1936-1939. They did it without Gehrig for most of 1939, as the superstar's retirement due to ALS saddened the baseball world. The strongest competition for the Yankees during that stretch was the Detroit Tigers, who won two pennants before that Yankees four-year stretch, and one after. When the Yankees did get into the Series, they had little trouble. During Game 2 of the 1936 Series, they pounded the Giants 18-4, still the World Series record (through 2005) for most runs by a team in one game. They took the Giants 4 games to 2 in that Series, and 4 games to 1 the next year. They also swept the Chicago Cubs in 1938, and the Cincinnati Reds in 1939. After an off season came the Summer of 1941, a much-celebrated year, often described by sportswriters as the last great year of the "Golden Era", before World War II and other realities intervened. Ted Williams of the Red Sox was in the hunt for the elusive .400 batting average, which he achieved on the last day of the season. Meanwhile, DiMaggio, who had once hit in 61 straight games as a minor leaguer with the San Francisco Seals, began a hitting streak on May 15 which stretched to an astonishing 56 games. A popular song by Les Brown celebrated this event, as Betty Bonney and the band members sang it: "He tied the mark at 44 / July the First, you know / Since then he's hit a good 12 more / Joltin' Joe DiMaggio / Joe, Joe DiMaggio, we want you on our side." The last game of the streak came on July 16 at Cleveland's League Park. The streak was finally snapped in a game at Cleveland Stadium the next night before a huge crowd at the lakefront. Modern baseball historians regard it as unlikely that anyone will ever hit .400 again, barring a change to the way the game is played; and as virtually impossible that anyone will approach DiMaggio's 56-game streak, which is so far beyond second place (44) as to be almost a statistical anomaly. The Yankees made short work of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1941 Series. Two months and one day after the final game of the Yanks' 4 to 1 win, the Pearl Harbor attacks occurred, and many of the best ballplayers went off to World War II. The war-thinned ranks of the major leagues nonetheless found the Yanks in the post-season again, as they traded World Series wins with the St. Louis Cardinals during 1942 and 1943. The Yanks then went into a bit of a slump, and manager McCarthy was let go early in the 1946 season. After a couple of interim managers had come and gone, Bucky Harris was brought in and the Yankees righted the ship again, winning the 1947 pennant and facing a much-tougher Dodgers team than their 1941 counterparts, in a Series that went seven games and was a harbinger of things to come for much of the next decade. Despite finishing only 3 games back of the pennant-winning Cleveland Indians in 1948, Harris was released, and the Yankees brought in Casey Stengel as their manager. Casey had a reputation for being somewhat of a clown and had been associated with managing excruciatingly bad teams such as the mid-1930s Boston Braves, so his selection was met with no little skepticism. His tenure would prove to the most successful in the Yankees' history up to that point. The 1949 season is another that has been written about poetically, as a Yankees team that was seen as "underdogs" came from behind to catch and surpass the powerful Red Sox on the last two days of the season, in a faceoff that could be said to be the real beginning of the modern intense rivalry between these teams. The post-season proved to be a bit easier, as the Yankees knocked off their cross-town Flatbush rivals 4 games to 1. By this time, the Great DiMaggio's career was winding down. It has often been reported that he said he wanted to retire before he became an "ordinary" player. He was also hampered by bone spurs in his heel, which hastened the final docking of the "Yankee Clipper". As if on cue, new superstars began arriving, including the "Oklahoma Kid", Mickey Mantle, whose first year (1951) was DiMaggio's curtain call.

The 1950s and 1960s

Bettering the McCarthy-era clubs, Stengel's squad won the World Series in his first five years as manager, 1949 through 1953. The five consecutive championships won by the Yankees during this period remains the major league record. Led by players like center fielder Mickey Mantle, pitcher Whitey Ford, and catcher Yogi Berra, Stengel's teams won 10 pennants and seven World Series titles in his twelve seasons as Yankee manager. The 1950s were also a decade of significant individual achievement for Yankee players. In 1956, Mantle won the major league triple crown, leading both leagues in batting average (.353), home runs (52), and RBIs (130). On October 8, 1956, in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Dodgers, pitcher Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history. Not only was it the only perfect game to be pitched in World Series play, it remains the only no-hitter of any kind to be pitched in postseason play. The Yankees went on to win yet another World Series that season, and Larsen earned World Series MVP honors. Yankee players also dominated the American League MVP award, with a Yankee claiming ownership six times in the decade (1950 Rizzuto, 1951 Berra, 1954 Berra, 1955 Berra, 1956 Mantle, 1957 Mantle). Pitcher Bob Turley also won the Cy Young Award in 1958, the award's third year of existence. For the decade, the Yankees won six World Series championships ('50, 51, '52, '53, '56, '58) and eight American League pennants. Led by Mantle, Ford, Berra, Elston Howard, and the newly acquired Roger Maris, the Yankees burst into the new decade seeking to replicate the remarkable success of the 1950s. However, the Yankees lost the 1960 World Series in heartbreaking fashion when Bill Mazeroski hit a game-winning, series-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 off Ralph Terry. It remains the only Game 7, walk-off home run in World Series history. Stengel was blamed for the World Series loss for failing to start his ace, Ford, three times in the Series, and was replaced as manager with Ralph Houk prior to the 1961 season. Stengel himself, who had reached his seventh decade in July of that year, clearly thought the issue was age discrimination, remarking, "I'll never make the mistake of turning 70 again." Yogi Berra's assessment of the loss was the equally famous comment, "We made too many wrong mistakes." During the 1960-61 offseason, a seemingly innocuous development may have marked the beginning of the end for this Yankees dynasty. In December of 1960, Chicago insurance executive Charlie Finley purchased the Kansas City Athletics from the estate of Arnold Johnson, who had died that March. Johnson had acquired the then-Philadelphia Athletics from the family of Connie Mack in 1954. He was the owner of Yankee Stadium at the time, but was forced to sell the stadium by American League owners as a condition of purchasing the Athletics. Johnson was also a longtime business associate of then-Yankees owners Del Webb and Dan Topping. During Johnson's ownership, the Athletics traded many young players to the Yankees for cash and aging veterans. Maris had been acquired by the Yankees in one such trade. Many fans, and even other teams, frequently accused the Athletics of being operated as an effective farm team for the Yankees. Once Finley purchased the Athletics, he immediately terminated the team's "special relationship" with the Yankees. In the meantime, 1961 was one of the greatest years in Yankee history. Throughout the summer, Mantle and reigning-MVP Roger Maris hit home runs at a record pace as both chased Babe Ruth's single season home run record of 60. The duo's home run prowess led the media and fans to christen them 'The M & M Boys.' Ultimately, Mantle was forced to bow out in mid-September with 54 home runs when a severe hip infection forced him from the lineup. On October 1, 1961, on the final day of the season, Maris broke the record when he sent a pitch from Boston's Tracy Stallard into the right field stands at Yankee Stadium for his 61st home run. However, by decree of Commissioner Ford Frick, separate single-season home run records were maintained to reflect the fact that Ruth hit his 60 home runs during a 154-game season, while Maris hit his 61 in the first year of the new 162-game season. Some 30 years later, on September 4, 1991, an 8-member Committee for Historical Accuracy appointed by Major League Baseball did away with the dual records, giving Maris sole possession of the single-season home run record until it was broken by Mark McGwire on September 8, 1998. (McGwire's record was later broken by Barry Bonds, whose 73 home runs in 2001 remain the major league record. Maris still holds the American League record.) The Yankees won the pennant with a 109-53 record and went on to defeat the Cincinnati Reds in five games to win the 1961 World Series. The 109 regular season wins posted by the '61 club remain the third highest single-season total in franchise history, behind only the 1998 team's 114 regular season wins and 1927 team's 110 wins. The 1961 Yankees also clubbed a then-major league record for most home runs by a team with 240, a total not surpassed until the 1996 Baltimore Orioles hit 257 with the aid of the designated hitter. Maris won his second consecutive MVP Award while Whitey Ford captured the Cy Young. Because of the excellence of Maris, Mantle, and World Series-MVP Ford, a fine pitching staff, stellar team defense, the team's amazing depth and power, and their overall dominance, the 1961 Yankees are universally considered to be one of the greatest teams in the history of baseball, compared often to their pinstriped-brethren, the 1927 Yankees, the 1939 Yankees, and the 1998 Yankees. In 1962, the Yankees won their second consecutive World Series, defeating the San Francisco Giants in seven games. The Yanks would again reach the Fall Classic in 1963, but were swept in four games by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Behind World Series-MVP Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Johnny Podres, the Dodgers starting pitchers threw four complete games and combined to give up just four runs all Series. This was the first time the Yankees were swept in a World Series. Feeling burnt out after the season, Houk left the manager's chair to become the team's general manager and Berra, who himself had just retired from playing, was named the new manager of the Yankees. The aging Yankees returned to the World Series in 1964 to face the St. Louis Cardinals in a Series immortalized by David Halberstam's book, October 1964. Despite a valiant performance by Mantle, including a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth of Game 3 off Cardinals' reliever Barney Schultz, the Yankees fell to the Cardinals in seven games. It was to be the last World Series appearance by the Yankees for 12 years. After the 1964 season, CBS purchased the Yankees from Topping and Webb for $11.2 million. Jokesters at the time wondered if Walter Cronkite would become the manager, perhaps with Yogi Berra doing the newscasts. Topping and Webb had owned the Yankees for 20 years, missing the World Series only 5 times, and going 10-5 in the World Series. By contrast, the CBS-owned teams never went to the World Series, and in the first year of the new ownership - 1965 - the Yankees finished in the second division for the first time in 40 years; the introduction of the major league amateur draft in 1965 also meant that the Yankees could no longer sign any player they wanted. In 1966 the team finished last in the AL for the first time since 1912, and next-to-last the following year. After that the team's fortunes improved somewhat, but they would not become serious contenders again until 1974.

Return to glory

George Steinbrenner purchased the club for $10 million on January 3, 1973 from CBS, renovated Yankee Stadium, hired and fired Billy Martin a number of times, feuded with star outfielder Reggie Jackson, and presided over the resurgence of the Yankees in the late '70s. Jackson's three home runs in the sixth and final game of the 1977 World Series against three different Dodger pitchers (earning him the nickname "Mr. October") defined the period as much as Martin and Steinbrenner. The race for the pennant often came to a close competition between the Yankees and the Red Sox, and for fans of both clubs, a game between the two teams (whether in the regular season or post-season championship games) was cause for a rivalry that was often bitter and ruthless, with brawls frequently erupting between both players and fans from the two clubs. The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry came to a head in the 1978 season, when the two clubs finished the regular season in a tie for first place in the AL East. A playoff game between the two teams was held to decide who would go on to the pennant, with the game being held at Boston's Fenway Park (because the Red Sox had won more head-to-head games between the two teams that season). The Yankees won the day, driving a stake through the he