SAVOR IT!
THERE have been a lot of things the Yankees have accomplished this year that got a lot more attention, and that’s as it should be. They are on a 108-win pace, after all. They are on a collision course with the sport’s other behemoths, the Astros and Dodgers, in the fight to win a 28th championship for the most decorated of all franchises.
Still, when the Yankees beat the Indians on Friday night, it was their 82nd win of the season. And that means that for a 27th straight year, the Yankees will post a winning record. Now, as with most things the Yankees do when measured against their vast history, that actually isn’t all that impressive.
The 1925 Yankees — hurt by Babe Ruth’s various gastrointestinal (and other) issues, finished 69-85. The 1965 Yankees, who rather famously all got old at the same time, checked in at 77-85. And in the 39 seasons connecting those two years, the Yankees posted winning records in every single one.
It seems like winning more games than you lose ought to be a fairly modest goal every year. Then you look around at other teams and see that it’s not all that easy at all, especially to do it year after year. Look at the other teams in town, and their all-time records for consecutive winning seasons:
The thing is, since the Yankees last tasted losing seasons — a four-year stretch from 1989-92 that saw them go 74-87, 67-95, 71-91 and 76-86 under four different managers (Dallas Green, Bucky Dent, Stump Merrill and Buck Showalter) — the Yankees haven’t come especially close to dipping under .500, twice going 84-78 under Joe Girardi in 2014 and 2016.
(Not to belabor the point, but if the Mets were to finish 84-78 this year, that would be their 18th-best record since 1962. In that time, 84-78 is tied for 40th best for the Yankees. And will become 41st sometime this week.) This is a good time to reflect on what the Yankees have become, because it was exactly 30 years ago Sunday that George Steinbrenner had his fill of Green’s lip and fired him, replacing him with Dent. It was the 15th time in Steinbrenner’s first 16 years owning the team that he’d changed managers, and of course there would be a few more before Showalter stabilized things in 1992.
And then, of course, the Yankees shockingly became the Pittsburgh Steelers of Major League Baseball. The Steelers, rather famously, have had three coaches — three! — in the past 50 years. The Yankees have had three managers since 1996. There were two different years in Steinbrenner’s salad days when the Yankees had that many managers in a season.
“One of these days, the man upstairs will take a look at what he’s done to his baseball team and he’ll realize you can’t keep shaking things up like you’re trying to spray a damned bottle of champagne,” Green said a few days after Steinbrenner exiled him. “Until then it’s going to be more of the same.”
Green wasn’t much of a manager for the Yankees, but he was quite the soothsayer. The streak is now 27 years and counting, and doesn’t seem close to ending anytime soon. They make it look so easy around here. Ask everyone else in town. It isn’t.