New York Yankees | History & Notable Players (2024)

New York Yankees, American professional baseball team based in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. One of the most famous and successful franchises in all of sports, the Yankees have won a record 27 World Series titles and 40 American League (AL) pennants.

The franchise began in 1901 in Baltimore, Maryland, competing as the Orioles in the AL for two seasons. The struggling Baltimore team was bought by Frank Farrell and Bill Devery in 1903 and taken to New York, initially to Hilltop Park (1903–12), one of Manhattan’s highest points, which led to the name New York Highlanders. Local sportswriters often referred to the team as “Yankees” or “Yanks,” because the team was in the American League.

After the club moved to the Polo Grounds in 1913, the name Highlanders fell further into disuse, and the team was officially renamed the Yankees. The team has also been called the Bronx Bombers, the Pinstripers (due to the distinctive pinstripes on their home uniforms), and the Evil Empire (by opposing fans, particularly those of their archrival, the Boston Red Sox). They played at the Polo Grounds until 1922 and then moved to Yankee Stadium (“The House that Ruth Built,” nicknamed after famed Yankees slugger Babe Ruth), where they played from 1923 to 2008. The team moved to a new ballpark, also named Yankee Stadium, in 2009.

The team was not a regular pennant contender during its first 18 years in New York. Its fortunes changed completely in 1920, however, with the acquisition of Ruth from the Red Sox for cash and a loan against Boston’s Fenway Park—the most famous sale in baseball history. With the superstar pitcher-turned-outfielder leading the charge, the Yankees dynasty began to take shape during his second season with the team. It won three consecutive AL championships and the team’s first World Series title (1923).

The Yankees solidified their command throughout the 1920s and ’30s, winning a total of 11 pennants and eight World Series championships, with contributions by such baseball legends as first baseman Lou Gehrig, outfielder Joe DiMaggio, and pitcher Waite Hoyt. In the mid-1920s the hard-hitting Yankees lineup—including Ruth, Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Bob Meusel, and Earle Combs—earned the nickname “Murderers’ Row.” The 1927 Yankees, distinguished by Ruth’s 60 home runs (a record that stood for 34 years before being surpassed by that of another Yankee, Roger Maris, in 1961) and Gehrig’s 175 runs batted in, are considered by many baseball enthusiasts to be the best team of all time.

Despite losing Gehrig to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (better known as Lou Gehrig disease) and Ruth to retirement, the Yankees continued their dominance unabated in the 1940s, with three consecutive league pennants (1941–43) and two World Series championships (1941, 1943) by teams starring DiMaggio. This stretch was followed by five consecutive World Series titles (1949–53) under manager Casey Stengel, whose squads featured such illustrious greats as centre fielder Mickey Mantle, catcher Yogi Berra, shortstop Phil Rizzuto, and pitcher Whitey Ford. In 12 seasons as the team’s manager, Stengel won 10 AL pennants and seven World Series.

One of Stengel’s World Series-winning squads was a part of arguably the most memorable moment in World Series history: in game five of the 1956 series, with the Yankees and their rival Brooklyn Dodgers tied at two wins apiece, unheralded pitcher Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in postseason history, retiring all 27 opposing batters without letting anyone on base.

Following another era of dominance in the late 1950s and early 1960s (featuring World Series championships in 1958, 1961, and 1962), the Yankees entered a period of relative decline. They failed to win another major league title until 1977, when they were managed by Billy Martin and led by the celebrated slugger Reggie Jackson, who had been signed in the previous off-season by the team’s outspoken and controversial new owner, George Steinbrenner.

After two decades most notable for the multiple firings and rehirings of Martin by Steinbrenner, the Yankees returned to glory under the stewardship of Joe Torre (1996–2007), who managed the team to six AL championships and four World Series titles (1996, 1998–2000), with teams featuring star shortstop Derek Jeter, closer Mariano Rivera, seasoned pitcher David Cone, and veteran role players such as Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill. In addition to their on-field success, the Yankees under Steinbrenner were notable for the vast amount of money the team spent on its payroll, which was routinely the highest in the league and occasionally neared 10 times the size of the smallest payroll in the sport. Steinbrenner’s teams also had a propensity to make splashy acquisitions of superstar players, including pitchers Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens, outfielder Gary Sheffield, and third baseman Alex Rodriguez.

Over the years, Steinbrenner ceded the duties of overseeing the Yankees to his two sons, Hank and Hal, and in 2008 Hal was given control of the team, while George remained the nominal chairman until his death in 2010. In 2009 the Yankees returned to the World Series for the first time in six years, under Joe Girardi, who had become the Yankees’ manager in 2008. In six games the Yankees dethroned the Philadelphia Phillies, en route to winning their 27th World Series title, the most of all teams.

The team continued to post winning records and qualified for the playoffs four times over the following seven seasons, but the Yankees’ failure to reach the World Series over that span—and the then recent retirements of Rivera, Jeter, and Rodriguez—led the team to trade away much of its top-flight talent and start a rebuilding effort during the 2016 season. That plan paid off immediately, as a young Yankees squad qualified for the playoffs in 2017, ultimately losing the seven-game AL Championship Series (ALCS) to the Houston Astros.

New York won 100 games and returned to the postseason in 2018, which ended in a Division Series loss to the Red Sox. The Yankees captured another division title in 2019 and advanced to the ALCS, where the team was again eliminated by the Astros. In the 2020 season, which was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, New York lost in the Division Series to the Tampa Bay Rays. A strong finish in the 2021 regular season—which included a 13-game winning streak—helped the Yankees qualify for the playoffs. However, the team lost to the Red Sox in the Wild Card Game.

In 2022 Yankee Aaron Judge set the American League record for the most home runs hit in a season. His 62 home runs broke the 61-year-old record held by former Yankee Roger Maris. The Yankees won their division and reached the ALCS, but the team again lost to the Astros.