123 Fun Facts About New York Yankees

Through the 2009 season, how many World Series championships had the Yankees won?

27 came in 2009, when the Yankees beat the Phillies in the first season at their new stadium, just as they had christened the old one with a title in its first season, 1923.

Which nickname was attached to the original Yankee Stadium when it opened in 1923?

The House That Ruth Built was sportswriter Fred Lieb's coinage: Ruth's home runs had sent attendance soaring and, in effect, paid for the 1923 stadium.

What was George Steinbrenner's famous nickname as Yankees owner?

The Boss was the name George Steinbrenner earned as a famously hands-on owner from 1973 until his death in 2010, hiring and firing managers at a furious pace.

How many consecutive games did Joe DiMaggio hit safely in during his famous 1941 streak?

56 straight games with a hit, from May 15 to July 16, 1941; the streak ended in Cleveland when third baseman Ken Keltner made two fine plays on DiMaggio.

The Yankees began in 1903 when the American League replaced which defunct club with a New York team?

Baltimore Orioles of the American League fell apart in 1902 after manager John McGraw defected to the rival Giants; two Tammany Hall figures then paid $18,000 for the league's new franchise in New York.

What name did the club use before it became the Yankees?

Highlanders was the club's name for its first ten seasons in New York, usually traced to its hilltop ballpark or to club president Joseph Gordon, whose name recalled the Gordon Highlanders regiment.

Which Yankee was the last major leaguer to wear number 42 full time, until 2013?

Mariano Rivera kept 42 under a grandfather clause after MLB retired it league-wide for Jackie Robinson in 1997; the Yankees retired it for him in 2013, his final season.

Whose version of "New York, New York" plays at Yankee Stadium after Yankees wins?

Frank Sinatra's version of the Kander and Ebb song, written for Liza Minnelli in the 1977 film New York, New York, has followed Yankees wins since 1980; in 2025 the club stopped playing it after losses.

Boston's 1919 sale of Babe Ruth gave rise to which superstition?

The Curse of the Bambino followed Boston's sale of Ruth after the 1919 season; the Red Sox went decades without a title, and Dan Shaughnessy's 1990 book of that name made the phrase famous.

Aaron Judge became the team's 16th captain in December 2022, the first since which player retired in 2014?

Derek Jeter, captain from 2003, was the 15th; after he retired the post sat empty for eight years, until the Yankees handed it to Judge the day after he re-signed for nine years and $360 million.

In the sitcom Seinfeld, which character spent several seasons working for Steinbrenner's Yankees?

George Costanza worked as assistant to the travelling secretary for the Yankees from the 1994 season; Larry David voiced the unseen Steinbrenner, whose own filmed cameo was cut.

The closer nicknamed "Sandman" grew up in the fishing village of Puerto Caimito in which country?

Panama is where the Sandman grew up, the son of a fishing-boat captain; as a boy in Puerto Caimito he played with a milk-carton glove and a tree-branch bat, and the Yankees signed him in 1990.

The Yankees' 1979 season was shattered when captain Thurman Munson died in what kind of accident?

Plane crash: Munson was practising touch-and-go landings in his own Cessna Citation jet at Akron-Canton airport on August 2, 1979; his locker stayed empty and later went to the new stadium's museum.

Whose ninth-inning steal began Boston's 2004 ALCS comeback against the Yankees?

Dave Roberts, running for Kevin Millar, stole second and scored the tying run off the Yankees' closer; Boston won that night and the next three, the first MLB team to win a series after trailing 3-0.

In June 2019 the Yankees and Red Sox played the first MLB games ever held in Europe, in which city?

London hosted both games at the converted Olympic Stadium; in the opener each side scored six runs in the first inning, and neither starting pitcher lasted long enough to finish it.

Who hit three homers on three straight pitches in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series?

Reggie Jackson homered off Burt Hooton, Elias Sosa and Charlie Hough on consecutive pitches in Game 6 on October 18, 1977, sealing the title and the nickname 'Mr. October'.

Which nickname did the 1927 Yankees lineup of Ruth and Gehrig carry?

Murderers' Row was first pinned on a Yankees lineup in 1918, two years before Ruth arrived; the 1927 version, with Gehrig hitting behind Ruth, won 110 games and swept the World Series.

Which shortstop's homer over the Green Monster decided the 1978 one-game playoff at Fenway?

Bucky Dent, a light-hitting shortstop, lifted a three-run homer off Mike Torrez in the seventh inning on October 2, 1978, earning a profane middle name from Red Sox fans.

Who threw a perfect game against Brooklyn in Game 5 of a World Series?

Don Larsen needed 97 pitches to set the Dodgers down in order through nine innings; Yogi Berra leaping into his arms afterward became one of baseball's iconic photographs.

From 1913 to 1922 the Yankees shared which ballpark with the National League's Giants?

Polo Grounds, the Giants' home in upper Manhattan, housed the Yankees for ten seasons; once Ruth made the tenants the bigger draw, the Giants served notice and the Yankees built their own park across the Harlem River.

Since September 2001, which song has been played at Yankee Stadium during the seventh-inning stretch?

God Bless America has been played at the stretch since the September 11 attacks; for years it was Kate Smith's recording, dropped in 2019 after other songs of hers drew accusations of racism.

Which team beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series with a ninth-inning rally?

Arizona Diamondbacks won Game 7 on November 4, 2001, when Luis Gonzalez's bloop single over a drawn-in infield scored Jay Bell, ending the Yankees' run of three straight titles.

Which Yankee's nine World Series titles as a player rank second only to Yogi Berra's 10?

Joe DiMaggio won nine titles in a career of just 13 seasons, 1936 to 1951, even though he lost three years to Army service in World War II; Berra's 10 came between 1947 and 1962.

Where did the Yankees play home games in 1974 and 1975 while their stadium was renovated?

Shea Stadium, the Mets' home in Queens, took in the Yankees for 1974 and 1975 while the city rebuilt their Bronx park; the NFL Jets and, in 1975, the Giants were tenants too.

Which broadcaster called Yankees games on the radio for 36 seasons, from 1989 to 2024?

John Sterling was the radio voice from 1989 until his retirement in April 2024; his trademark was a drawn-out home run call and a personalised catchphrase for every hitter.

Which Royals star's ninth-inning homer against the Yankees was erased, then restored, in 1983's Pine Tar Game?

George Brett's go-ahead homer was voided for too much pine tar on his bat, but the league president upheld the Royals' protest, and Kansas City won when the game resumed 25 days later.

In 1973 George Steinbrenner's group bought the Yankees for $10 million from which company?

CBS had bought the club in the mid-1960s, then watched it slide and sold for less than it had paid; the buyers' leader, a Cleveland shipbuilder, promised to stay in the background.

Which manager did George Steinbrenner's Yankees hire five separate times between 1975 and 1988?

Billy Martin's five terms began in 1975, 1979, 1983, 1985 and 1988; the first ended in 1978 after he said of his star slugger and the owner, 'One's a born liar, and the other's convicted.'

Which pitcher signed a nine-year, $324 million contract with the Yankees in December 2019?

Gerrit Cole signed what was then the richest contract ever given a pitcher; at his introduction he held up the 'Yankee Fan Today Tomorrow Forever' sign he had carried as an 11-year-old at the 2001 World Series.

Who was named MVP of the 2024 ALCS after hitting four home runs against Cleveland?

Giancarlo Stanton hit four home runs in the series against the Guardians, and the series win delivered the franchise's 41st pennant, its first since 2009.

Which Red Sox owner sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees after the 1919 season?

Harry Frazee, a theatre producer, sold Ruth for $100,000 in a deal announced in January 1920; months later the Yankees' owner also lent him money secured by a mortgage on Fenway Park.

Mickey Mantle edged whom for the 1956 batting title?

Ted Williams hit .345 to Mantle's .353, and the batting title completed Mantle's Triple Crown: his 52 home runs and 130 RBI also led both leagues.

The 1998 Yankees swept which team in the World Series?

San Diego Padres led the opener 5-2 until Chuck Knoblauch and Tino Martinez homered in a seven-run seventh; the sweep left the Yankees 125-50 overall, then the most wins in any season.

Aaron Judge played college baseball for which program before the Yankees drafted him in 2013?

Fresno State won out after the Oakland A's drafted Judge in the 31st round out of high school in 2010; Notre Dame, Stanford and UCLA had wanted him as a football tight end.

Which Yankee was named MVP of the 2009 World Series win over Philadelphia?

Hideki Matsui, the designated hitter, homered off Pedro Martínez and tied the single-game World Series RBI record in the clinching Game 6 on November 4, 2009, then signed with the Angels that December.

The Yankees' all-time hits leader grew up and played high school ball in which Michigan city?

Kalamazoo raised the future captain from the age of four, and he starred at Kalamazoo Central; when Houston passed on him with the first pick of the 1992 draft, its scout Hal Newhouser quit, and New York took him sixth.

Which pitcher, the Yankees' leader in career wins, was nicknamed "the Chairman of the Board"?

Whitey Ford won 236 games for the club, and in the 1961 World Series he broke the record for consecutive scoreless Series innings that Babe Ruth had set as a Red Sox pitcher.

Which Yankees first baseman is said to have sat out with a headache in 1925, losing his job to Lou Gehrig?

Wally Pipp sat on June 2, 1925, and Gehrig, whose streak had begun a day earlier off the bench, ran it to 2,130 games; 'being Wally Pipped' became shorthand for losing a job by taking a day off.

In 1987 "Donnie Baseball" set a major league record by hitting how many grand slams in a single season?

Six grand slams in 1987 set the single-season record, since tied by Travis Hafner in 2006; oddly, they were the only grand slams of Don Mattingly's career.

The Yankees' 2000 World Series against the Mets was the first Subway Series in how many years?

44 years: the previous all-New York World Series had been against the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the Yankees beat the Mets 4-1 in 2000.

Which manager guided the Yankees to a record five consecutive World Series titles from 1949 to 1953?

Casey Stengel arrived in 1949 with a reputation as a clown who managed bad teams and won ten pennants and seven World Series between 1949 and 1960.

Red Sox president Larry Lucchino gave the Yankees which lasting nickname in 2002?

The Evil Empire: Lucchino used the label in a New York Times interview after Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras chose New York over Boston, and critics of the club's spending have used it ever since.

Who was the first African-American player to appear for the Yankees?

Elston Howard debuted in April 1955, eight years after Jackie Robinson; the 1963 AL MVP later helped bring the weighted batting 'doughnut' to the on-deck circle.

Before reaching the majors, Yogi Berra served as a Navy gunner's mate in which World War II operation?

The Normandy landings found the 19-year-old Berra on a six-man rocket boat that fired on the German beach defences ahead of the troops; he had spent the previous summer in the Yankees' farm system.

Which Oakland ace did the Yankees sign on New Year's Eve 1974 as baseball's first big-money free agent?

Catfish Hunter became a free agent when arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled that A's owner Charlie Finley had broken his contract by skipping an insurance-annuity payment; nearly every club then bid for him.

Steinbrenner was banned from day-to-day operations in 1990 for paying a gambler to dig up dirt on which of his players?

Dave Winfield was the target: the feud began over a contract clause funding his foundation, Howard Spira got $40,000 for dirt, and commissioner Fay Vincent imposed the ban once the payment came to light.

Lou Gehrig studied engineering at which university before signing with the Yankees in 1923?

Columbia was where Gehrig studied engineering and played fullback; on April 18, 1923, the day the original stadium opened, he struck out 17 Williams batters for the Lions.

Tiffany & Co. designed the interlocking "NY" logo for an 1877 medal of valor honoring which group?

Police officers were the honorees: the 1877 Medal of Valor went to John McDowell, an NYPD officer shot in the line of duty; the club adopted the design in 1909.

How did the Yankees assign uniform numbers when they made them permanent in 1929?

By batting order: Ruth wore 3 and Gehrig 4 because they hit third and fourth when the numbers went on permanently in 1929.

Which owner's 1915 purchase of the Yankees was soon followed by pinstripes becoming permanent?

Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast Huston bought the club in January 1915, and pinstripes became permanent that season; the tale that they were added to slim Babe Ruth is false, since they first appeared in 1912.

Who was honored with the first monument at Yankee Stadium, erected in center field in 1932?

Miller Huggins, who died in office in September 1929, got the first monument on May 30, 1932; those to him, Gehrig and Ruth stood in fair territory in center field for decades.

The original Yankee Stadium rose in under a year on a Bronx lumberyard bought from which family's estate?

Astor: the lumberyard belonged to the estate of William Waldorf Astor, and it lay just across the Harlem River from the ballpark the Giants were forcing the Yankees to leave.

A Red Sox fan on the construction crew buried which Boston slugger's jersey under the new Yankee Stadium?

David Ortiz's jersey was meant to hex the new park; after co-workers tipped off a newspaper, the Yankees had it dug out of two feet of concrete and gave it to the Jimmy Fund, a charity long tied to the Red Sox.

The 2006 groundbreaking for the new Yankee Stadium fell on the anniversary of what?

Babe Ruth's death came on August 16, 1948, 58 years to the day before the ceremony; his open casket had lain in the old stadium for two days while tens of thousands of fans filed past.

The public park built on the site of the demolished original Yankee Stadium is called what?

Heritage Field opened in April 2012 on the old stadium's footprint, two years after demolition finished; it gave the neighbourhood back some of the parkland the new stadium had been built on.

Why is sports editor Jim Price said to have coined the nickname "Yankees" around 1904?

It fit in headlines: the club's original name was too long for a newspaper column, so Jim Price of the New York Press is credited with shortening it to 'Yankees', and other writers followed.

Which world leader got a Monument Park plaque in 2014 for his 1990 Yankee Stadium visit?

Nelson Mandela addressed a rally at the stadium on June 21, 1990, four months after his release, wearing a Yankees cap and jacket and telling the crowd, 'I am a Yankee.'

Mickey Mantle was named after Mickey Cochrane, a Hall of Famer at which position?

Catcher: Cochrane starred for the Philadelphia Athletics when Mantle was born in 1931; his real first name was Gordon, and Mantle later said he was relieved his father never knew it.

Which Red Sox pitcher surrendered Roger Maris's record 61st home run in 1961?

Tracy Stallard threw the pitch on October 1, 1961, the season's final day; the homer was the only run of a 1-0 game, and fan Sal Durante caught the ball in the right-field seats.

Which reigning AL MVP did the Yankees acquire from Texas in February 2004 and move to third base?

Alex Rodriguez agreed to give up shortstop to join the Yankees, who had lost their third baseman to a winter injury; weeks earlier the players' union had blocked a deal sending him to Boston.

Which team was on the wrong end of David Wells's perfect game on May 17, 1998?

Minnesota Twins were set down in order through nine innings on May 17, 1998; Wells later claimed he pitched it hung over, and David Cone repeated the feat 14 months later against Montreal.

Which Yankee pitcher threw a no-hitter against Boston on July 4, 1983?

Dave Righetti no-hit the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1983, striking out Wade Boggs for the final out on owner George Steinbrenner's birthday.

Which two-word tabloid headline greeted Joe Torre's hiring in November 1995?

Clueless Joe was a tabloid back page when Torre, who had never won a playoff series as a manager, was hired in November 1995; four titles between 1996 and 2000 made it a punchline.

The Yankees retired No. 8 in 1972 for two catchers, Yogi Berra and which other Hall of Famer?

Bill Dickey, who had mentored Berra as his catching coach, shared the honour on Old-Timers' Day, July 22, 1972; both men wore 8.

The Yankees' 1978 four-game Fenway sweep earned which nickname?

Boston Massacre: the Yankees outscored the Red Sox 42–9 over the four September games, wiping out the last of a 14-game deficit from July and leaving the clubs tied for first.

Which New York pitcher set the modern single-season record for wins in 1904?

Jack Chesbro won 41 games in 1904 with his spitball; cruelly, his ninth-inning wild pitch on the season's final day handed the pennant to Boston.

The Captain's 3,000th career hit was a home run off which Tampa Bay pitcher on July 9, 2011?

David Price threw the pitch the Captain drove into the left-field seats on July 9, 2011; he went 5-for-5, and only Craig Biggio had collected as many hits in his 3,000th-hit game.

The "Judge's Chambers", where fans sit in robes and wigs, occupies which section at Yankee Stadium?

Section 104, in the right-field stands below Judge's position, holds the 18 seats of the Judge's Chambers, opened in May 2017 for fans picked by the club.

In which Upper Manhattan neighbourhood did Hilltop Park, the Yankees' first home, stand?

Washington Heights, on Broadway between 165th and 168th Streets, held Hilltop Park; a hospital complex now covers the ground, where a plaque the Yankees gave in 1993 marks home plate.

What were the Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox nicknamed around 1920 for trades that angered Ban Johnson?

The Insurrectos was the press label for the three clubs after the 1919 Carl Mays affair, when Boston sold the pitcher to New York and Johnson tried to block the deal.

Which Yankees second baseman had a 30-homer, 30-steal season in 2002?

Alfonso Soriano hit 39 homers and stole 41 bases in 2002; the 103-58 Yankees, best in the AL, then lost the Division Series to the eventual champion Angels.

What first-inning ritual do the Bleacher Creatures perform at Yankees home games?

Roll Call: after the first pitch the Creatures chant the fielders' names one by one until each acknowledges them; in the old stadium they did it from Section 39 of the right-field bleachers.

Which Cleveland shortstop died after being hit by a pitch from the Yankees' Carl Mays in 1920?

Ray Chapman was struck in the head in New York on August 16, 1920, and died the next morning; Cleveland went on to win its first World Series that autumn.

Which Hollywood star married Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio at San Francisco City Hall in January 1954?

Marilyn Monroe filed for divorce after only nine months, yet DiMaggio later arranged her funeral and had red roses delivered to her crypt for 20 years.

Which actor played Lou Gehrig in the 1942 film The Pride of the Yankees?

Gary Cooper earned a Best Actor nomination, one of 11 Oscar nominations for a film that reached cinemas the year after Gehrig died.

Babe Ruth hit his famous 'called shot' against which team in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series?

Chicago Cubs players were heckling Ruth when he gestured and then homered to deep center field; nobody has settled whether he pointed at the fence, the pitcher or the dugout.

Babe Ruth's career record of 714 home runs fell in 1974 to which National League slugger?

Hank Aaron hit number 715 off Al Downing, who had been a Yankees All-Star in 1967, and held the career record for 33 years.

Which shortstop broke Lou Gehrig's record of 2,130 consecutive games played in September 1995?

Cal Ripken Jr. played his 2,131st straight game on September 6, 1995, then kept going for three more years before ending the streak himself at 2,632.

Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig was known by which nickname?

The Iron Horse fit better than anyone knew: X-rays taken late in his life showed Gehrig had played on through several fractures without leaving the lineup.

Which nickname did the press give the two Yankees who chased Babe Ruth's home run record in 1961?

The M&M Boys, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, hit a combined 115 home runs that season, a record for two teammates, and despite press talk of a feud they were close friends.

Which substance on George Brett's bat led umpires to cancel his 1983 home run against the Yankees?

Pine tar ran past the 18-inch limit, so Brett was called out and the Yankees seemed to have won; the league president later restored the homer and the Royals won 5–4.

Yankee Stadium's groundskeepers groom the infield mid-game while dancing to which Village People hit?

Y.M.C.A. plays after the fifth inning, and the crew pauses its infield drag to spell out the letters with their arms as the crowd joins in.

Who threw the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series?

George W. Bush, seven weeks after the September 11 attacks, wore a bulletproof vest under an FDNY fleece and fired a strike as the crowd chanted U-S-A.

Which rapper performed his New York anthem at Yankee Stadium before Game 2 of the 2009 World Series?

Jay-Z shared the stage with Alicia Keys for Empire State of Mind, on a night when John Legend sang the national anthem.

Which Simon & Garfunkel hit from The Graduate name-checks Yankees great Joe DiMaggio in its final verse?

Mrs. Robinson could have named Mickey Mantle instead: Paul Simon, a Mantle fan, said he chose DiMaggio because the syllables fit the beat.

Who voiced Yankees owner George Steinbrenner whenever the character spoke in the sitcom Seinfeld?

Larry David did the voice uncredited while two other actors played the body, almost always shot from behind so the owner's full face was never shown.

Who directed 61*, the 2001 HBO film about the Mantle and Maris home run chase?

Billy Crystal got his own Yankees moment in 2008, signing a one-day contract and leading off a spring training game, where he struck out on six pitches.

The Yankees popularized which bat design, with its widest point moved closer to the hitter's hands?

Torpedo bats made news when the Yankees hit a franchise-record nine home runs in one early-season game, and the league confirmed the bowling-pin shape was legal.

Whose 11th-inning walk-off home run off Tim Wakefield won Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS for the Yankees?

Aaron Boone had entered only as a pinch-runner and swung at the first pitch of the inning; in 2018 he came back to the Yankees as their manager.

In the 2000 World Series, Roger Clemens flung a piece of shattered bat toward which Mets star?

Mike Piazza had been concussed by a Clemens fastball to the head earlier that year, so the benches emptied; Clemens said he had mistaken the broken barrel for the ball.

Which team traded reigning MVP Alex Rodriguez to the Yankees after the 2003 season?

Texas Rangers management had first agreed to send him to Boston for Manny Ramirez, but that deal collapsed; in New York the star shortstop agreed to move to third base.

The Yankees partnered with which English soccer club in 2013 to found a Major League Soccer expansion team?

Manchester City teamed up with the Yankees to pay the $100 million expansion fee, and the new club moved into Yankee Stadium for its first season in 2015.

Which insects swarmed Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain on the mound in Cleveland during the 2007 playoffs?

Midges kept coming even as he was sprayed again and again with repellent, and the rattled rookie threw two wild pitches that let in the tying run.

Which defending champions did the Yankees beat in the 1996 World Series after losing the first two games at home?

Atlanta Braves hitters outscored the Yankees 16–1 in those two games, then lost four straight as New York took its first title since 1978.

Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle was nicknamed the Commerce Comet after his hometown in which state?

Oklahoma's lead and zinc mines employed his father, who raised him to switch-hit; Mantle later turned down a football scholarship from the state university.

The Yankees' primary logo shows what hanging from the barrel of a red bat?

An Uncle Sam hat tops the bat, which doubles as the upright stroke of the K in the red script; sports artist Henry Alonzo Keller drew the design.

Which regional sports network went on air in March 2002 as the new television home of the Yankees?

YES Network grew out of YankeeNets, a holding company formed when the Yankees merged their business operations with the NBA's New Jersey Nets.

Which Yankees shortstop nicknamed the Scooter won the 1950 AL MVP award and later broadcast the team's games?

Phil Rizzuto said a minor league teammate coined the nickname after watching him run the bases, and he led the American League in sacrifice bunts four years running.

Which Yankees first baseman, the 1985 AL MVP, had his number retired despite never winning a World Series as a player?

Don Mattingly reached the postseason only in his final season, 1995, and hit .417 in a losing Division Series; he is the only Yankee whose number was retired without a title won with the club.

Which Yankees pitcher, born without a right hand, threw a no-hitter against Cleveland in September 1993?

Jim Abbott rested his glove on his right forearm as he threw, then slipped his hand into it in time to field; he had reached the majors without a day in the minors.

Who pitched a perfect game for the Yankees against Montreal in July 1999, on a day honoring Yogi Berra?

David Cone threw it on a day held to celebrate Berra's recent reconciliation with George Steinbrenner, and no Yankee pitched another no-hitter until 2021.

Which center fielder of the 1990s Yankees dynasty is a classically trained guitarist nominated for a Latin Grammy?

Bernie Williams grew up playing classical guitar as well as baseball, and has composed and recorded albums that blend jazz, classical and Latin sounds.

Which third baseman celebrated the Yankees' 1996 World Series win by touring the stadium field on horseback?

Wade Boggs, a longtime Boston star, jumped up behind a mounted patrolman and toured the field with a finger in the air, despite a self-professed fear of the animals.

Which left-hander from the Yankees' Core Four retired in 2013 as baseball's all-time leader in postseason wins?

Andy Pettitte won 19 postseason games, and in the middle of his Yankees years he spent three seasons with the Houston Astros to pitch closer to his family home.

Which 12-year-old fan reached over the Yankee Stadium wall in the 1996 ALCS and turned a fly ball into a home run?

Jeffrey Maier knocked the ball over the fence as right fielder Tony Tarasco waited beneath it, and umpire Rich Garcia ruled it a game-tying homer, not fan interference.

Whose ninth-inning home run in Game 7 beat the favored Yankees in the 1960 World Series?

Bill Mazeroski, a second baseman famous for his glove, hit the first home run ever to end a World Series, though the Yankees had scored more than twice as many runs as Pittsburgh.

Which Yankees manager won four straight World Series from 1936 to 1939 without ever having played in the majors?

Joe McCarthy won seven titles in all with the Yankees, and his 1936–39 clubs were the first to take more than two World Series in a row.

Which former Yankees catcher managed the team to the 2009 World Series title?

Joe Girardi had won three championships as a Yankees player in the 1990s, and was behind the plate for both a no-hitter and a perfect game.

Which Yankees left-hander, nicknamed Louisiana Lightning, went 25–3 to win the 1978 AL Cy Young Award?

Ron Guidry struck out 18 Angels that June, and the crowd's clapping on two-strike counts that night is usually cited as the start of a Yankee Stadium tradition.

Which Yankees reliever won the 1977 Cy Young Award and then co-wrote the clubhouse tell-all The Bronx Zoo?

Sparky Lyle was the first American League reliever to win the award, yet the Yankees decided to upgrade at closer that very off-season.

Which public address announcer, a former speech teacher, was the voice of Yankee Stadium from 1951 to 2007?

Bob Sheppard outlasted his own career: a recording of his voice kept introducing the Yankees' longtime shortstop at home until September 2014, four years after Sheppard died.

Which broadcaster, long promoted as the Voice of the Yankees, was abruptly dropped by the team in 1964?

Mel Allen was told that September his contract would not be renewed, yet he stayed loyal to the club and later became the first host of This Week in Baseball.

Which former Yankees pitcher wrote Ball Four, the 1970 tell-all diary that scandalized baseball?

Jim Bouton was pressed by the commissioner to say the book was fiction, and for years afterwards he was left out of the Yankees' Old-Timers' Games.

Which slugger's three-run homer in the 10th inning of Game 5 sent the Yankees to the 2024 World Series?

Juan Soto went deep after an intense two-out at-bat in what proved his only Yankees season; that winter he signed a 15-year contract with the crosstown Mets.

Yogi Berra grew up across the street from fellow catcher Joe Garagiola in which Midwestern city?

St. Louis had its chance: the hometown Cardinals signed Garagiola and passed on Berra, who then took the same $500 bonus from the Yankees.

George Steinbrenner made his fortune in which industry before he led the group that bought the Yankees?

Shipbuilding followed shipping: he joined his family's Great Lakes cargo line in 1957, then became chairman of the American Shipbuilding Company a decade later.

Which veteran Yankees bench coach lunged at Pedro Martínez during a 2003 ALCS brawl and was shoved to the turf?

Don Zimmer accepted responsibility for charging the Boston ace and apologized; a quarter-century earlier he had managed the Red Sox himself.

Which Yankees third baseman hit .471 and was named Most Valuable Player of the 1998 World Series?

Scott Brosius had arrived from Oakland before that season in a trade for pitcher Kenny Rogers, and went on to win three straight titles with the Yankees.

Which instrument did Yankees infielder Phil Linz play on the team bus in 1964, enraging manager Yogi Berra?

Harmonica music after a road loss so angered Berra that the instrument ended up flying down the bus and struck first baseman Joe Pepitone on the knee.

The Yankees formed the stadium concessions firm Legends Hospitality in 2008 with the owner of which NFL team?

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and George Steinbrenner announced the venture together, to run food and merchandise sales at both clubs' new stadiums.

A 1957 brawl at which New York nightclub gave the Yankees' front office its excuse to trade Billy Martin?

Copacabana punches were pinned on a teammate, but general manager George Weiss used the scandal as leeway to ship Martin to Kansas City within a month.

Which Yankee became the first designated hitter to bat in a major league game, at Fenway Park in April 1973?

Ron Blomberg drew a bases-loaded walk from Luis Tiant in that first trip to the plate, and the bat he carried is in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown.

Whose ninth-inning home run against Kansas City won the 1976 pennant and sent fans storming the Yankee Stadium field?

Chris Chambliss was mobbed on the basepaths and never reached home; when he was led back out to make the homer official, the plate itself had been stolen.