Joe Torre’s Yankees have been about stars like Clemens and Jeter, Rivera and Williams, El Duque and Soriano. But they’ve also been about the non-stars. Jim Leyritz in ’96. Shane Spencer in ’98. Chad Curtis in ’99. Luis Sojo in ’00. Maybe you can’t even remember what each player did to become a hero – but you know that the team won, don’t you?
The winning began in 1994 under Buck Showalter, when the strike hit with the Yankees in first place. They would lose in the dramatic Game 5 in Seattle the next season. But then Torre took over in 1996 and carried his club to its first World Series in 15 years. The Yankees promptly dropped the first two games to Atlanta in slaughterhouse fashion before rebounding to take four straight, Wade Boggs galloping around The Bronx on horseback to cap the festivities.
After a stunning first-round loss in 1997, the Yankees took out their vengeance for the next three seasons. They won an absurd 114 games in 1998 before sweeping the Padres in the Series. They won 98 games in 1999 before sweeping the Braves in the Series. Then it was on to the transcendent Subway Series in 2000 when the Yankees took a quick 2-0 lead – making it 14 straight wins in World Series games – before finishing off the Mets, 4-1.
In 2001, the Yanks fell a broken-bat single short of a four-peat, but in the offseason, they added one of the best hitters on the planet in Jason Giambi. The result? Another 103 wins last year (although a first-round playoff loss) and a first-place run this year.
The dynasty is still going and there’s no reason to expect it to end any time soon.
1998
THE REGULARS
POS. … PLAYER … HR … RBI … AVG.
C … Jorge Posada … 17 … 63 … .268
1B … Tino Martinez … 28 … 123 … .281
2B … Chuck Knoblauch … 17 … 64 … .265
SS … Derek Jeter … 19 … 84 … .324
3B … Scott Brosius … 19 … 98 … .300
OF … Chad Curtis … 10 … 56 … .243
OF … Bernie Williams … 26 … 97 … .339
OF … Paul O’Neill … 24 … 116 … .317
DH … Darryl Strawberry … 24 … 57 … .247
TOP STARTERS
PITCHER … W … L … ERA
David Cone … 20 … 7 … 3.55
David Wells … 18 … 4 … 3.49
Andy Pettitte … 16 … 11 … 4.24
Hideki Irabu … 13 … 9 … 4.06
Orlando Hernandez … 12 … 4 … 3.13
TOP RELIEVERS
PITCHER … W … L … SV … ERA
Mariano Rivera … 3 … 0 … 36 … 1.91
Mike Stanton … 4 … 1 … 6 … 5.47
Jeff Nelson … 5 … 3 … 3 … 3.79
Darren Holmes … 0 … 3 … 2 … 3.33
Graeme Lloyd … 3 … 0 … 0 … 1.67
AL RANKINGS
CATEGORY … NO. … RANK
RUNS … 965 … 1st
HITS … 1,625 … 2nd
HR … 207 … 4th
RBI … 907 … 1st
AVG. … .288 … 2nd
OBP … .362 … 1st
ERA … 3.82 … 1st
WINS … 114 … 1st
SAVES … 48 … 3rd
Ks … 1,080 … 4th
AL EAST STANDINGS
TEAM … W … L … PCT. … GB
Yankees … 114 … 48 … .704 …
Boston … 92 … 70 … .568 … 22
Toronto … 88 … 74 … .543 … 26
Baltimore … 79 … 83 … .488 … 35
Tampa Bay … 63 … 99 … .389 … 51
