The Eleven Who Won Five
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by user Harold Friend LouGehrig
Yogi Berra, Hank Bauer, Gene Woodling, Johnny Mize, Joe Collins, Ralph Houk, Jerry Coleman, Charlie Silvera, Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds, and Eddie Lopat are a unique group of eleven individuals. They are members of a group that no other baseball players will ever join. Each of the eleven was a member of the Yankees five consecutive World Championships, a streak that started in 1949 and didn't end until 1953. There is virtually no chance that any team will ever again win five consecutive World Championships, and even less of a possibility that any player will be with that team for all five championships.
Excellence over an extended time period requires stability as well as change. Winning World Championships requires pitching. Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds, and Eddie Lopat provided pitching stability. During the five year championship streak, Raschi went 92-40, Reynolds was 83-41, and Lopat won 80 and lost 36. Change was provided by Whitey Ford, who arrived on the scene in 1950, left to help defend our freedoms until he returned in 1953, Tom Morgan, who joined the team in 1951, and veterans such as Johnny Sain, Jim McDonald, and Bob Kuzava. Among the regulars, Gil McDougald arrived in1951 and was the American League Rookie of the Year, Mickey Mantle also became a Yankee in 1951, Irv Noren was obtained from the Senators in 1952, and rookie Andy Carey was added in 1952.
In the time since the Yankees' amazing streak of five consecutive championships, only the vastly underrated Oakland A's from 1972-74 and the Yankees from 1998-2000 have won as many as three consecutive World Championships. A disclaimer must be made that in baseball, two years is a long time. Being a member of three consecutive champions is far less remarkable than being on five consecutive champions. Nonetheless, Sal Bando, Bert Campaneris, Joe Rudi, Reggie Jackson, Angel Mangual, Gene Tenace, Ted Kubiak, Dick Green, Dal Maxvill, Larry Haney, Ken Holtzman, Catfish Hunter, Blue Moon Odom, Vida Blue, Dave Hamilton, Rollie Fingers, and Darold Knowles were on the three consecutive World Champions. That is a total of seventeen players, which is remarkable, but that number was matched by the last team to win three consecutive titles, the 1998-2000 Yankees. Jorge Posada, Tino Martinez, Chuck Knoblauch, Scott Brosius, Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, Luis Sojo, Ricky Ledee, Shane Spencer, Andy Pettitte, David Cone, El Duque Hernandez, Mariano Rivera, Mike Stanton, Jeff Nelson, and Ramiro Mendoza.
No claim is being made that stability wins championships. When the Yankees won their five consecutive titles from 1949-1953, it was a different game. Players had NO choice of teams after signing with their first team. There was no free agent draft as there is today. All unsigned players were fair game for all teams. As an example, Mickey Mantle signed with the Yankees before the 1949 season as an amateur free agent. Mickey was then bound to the Yankees forever, unless they would decide to trade his services to another team. Under these conditions, almost all contending teams, and many who were not contenders, were quite stable, but a stable team with mediocre players is not going to win.
Modern teams, thanks primarily to free agency, have rosters that are constantly undergoing change. The Yankees have won nothing since the 2000 World Championship. It would take too much space to list all the players who have played for the Yankees from 2001 to the present, so let us take 2003, which is five seasons ago. The players who were on the 2003 Yankees and are currently Yankees are Jorge Posada, Jason Giambi, Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, Mike Mussina and, Mariano Rivera. While Andy Pettitte is with the team in 2007, he was in Houston from 2004-2006. Roger Clemens was with the 2003 Yankees, but he was in Houston with Pettitte from 2004-2006 and will be with the Yankees as a part time player in a few weeks. Six players on today's Yankees have been with the team since 2003. No wonder the Yankees have Met(s) with such little success the last few seasons.
References:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/1949.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/1972.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/1998.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason
