The Bronx is Boiling: Yankees Offseason Vol. II

Mandatory Credit: milb.com

LUIS SOJO

In August of 1996, the Yankees picked up a scrappy utility player off waivers from Seattle. What they wound up getting was a guy who would have a career .400 batting average over the next four World Series he won with the Yankees. Sojo became a guy that could sit on the bench for a week and come off and deliver a huge pinch hit single. He could also play under the pressures of a playoff run or even become the second baseman in the World Series when big money Chuck Knoblauch started his struggles.

Sojo was never the greatest Yankee, but he was always the first one off of the bench with a huge smile to welcome Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius or Paul O’Neill back to the dugout. He was so valuable that when they decided to go younger in the 2000 season and failed, they traded to get him back for the playoff run. This turned out to be a tremendous move because he played a key role in defeating the Mets in the 2000 Subway Series, including driving in the winning runs in the deciding Game 5 of that Series. John Sterling called Sojo, “The best .200 hitter ever.”

ROGER MARIS

The Yankees finished third in 1959 and unloaded Yankees’ favorites Hank Bauer, Don Larsen and two others for this kid Roger Maris who spent his first four seasons bouncing around the American League. He was a career .248 hitter with 77 career home runs at that point. We all know what happens next.

Roger Maris would become a legend, winning the AL MVP Award in his first two seasons in the Bronx. They would go to the World Series for the next five seasons and he and Mickey Mantle would become household names. The M & M Boys combined for the sickest season two teammates have ever had in that magical 1961 season and had The Mick been able to finish the season, we can only imagine what would have been.

Alas, he didn’t, and Maris was able to chase down the ghost of the Bambino by hitting 61 home runs (no asterisk), driving in 141 (to lead the AL in RBI for the second consecutive season) and scoring 132 more. It is still astonishing that his 61 home runs caused more controversy than Mark McGwire’s, Sammy Sosa’s and Barry Bonds record setting blasts. Maris would not become a Hall of Famer, but he will forever be remembered in baseball lore.

Mandatory Credit: nymag.com

MICKEY RIVERS AND ED FIGUEROA

Circa 1975, Rivers was making a name for himself as a speed demon. He had led the league in triples from 1974 to 1975 (hitting 24 over that span) and led the league with 70 stolen bases in ’75, but his talents were being misused for the sub-mediocre California Angels. The Yankees would go and pull off a steal of a trade, sending Bobby Bonds across the country for Ed Figueroa and Mickey Rivers.

Once acquiring Figueroa and Rivers, the Yankees would go on to the next three World Series, winning two of them. While the Bronx Zoo was afire in New York City, Rivers and Figueroa were playing unsung heroes to one of the more charismatic runs in baseball history. Figueroa would win 55 regular season games over the three year World Series stretch in the late 70s. He never performed very well in the post season, but the Yanks would have undoubtedly not been there were it not for his regular season stuff.

Mandatory Credit: Bettman/CORBIS

Rivers would go on to have the best four years of his 16-year career in pinstripes. He was beloved by Yankees fans for his all out hustle and blazing speed. He hit .299 in the Bronx, smashing 34 home runs and driving in 209 runs, all of which were the highest amongst any of his stops.He would go on to be a menace in the ALCS (batting .417 over his career) and the World Series (hitting .333 in the ’79 Fall Classic).

SCOTT BROSIUS

Brosius, the third baseman for the Oakland Athletics, had a breakout season in 1996 hitting .304 with 22 home runs. He followed that performance up with one of the worst seasons imaginable. When the Yankees sent All-Star pitcher Kenny Rogers to Oakland for a guy coming off a .203, 11 home run season, Yankees’ fans couldn’t figure out what the heck had happened. By the time Brosius hung it up after the 2001 World Series, he would be a Yankees’ legend.

Brosius would go to the World Series four straight seasons in pinstripes (the final four seasons of his career). If you think he wasn’t as crucial a piece of the Yankees dynasty as any of the Hall of Fame names on the roster, you didn’t watch Yankees’ baseball. Brosius hit memorable home run after memorable home run in the post season. His first season in the Bronx, Brosius hit .400 in the ALDS, .300 in the ALCS, and .417 with two game-changing home runs in the World Series to allowed him to capture the 1998 WS MVP Award. Brosius would never stop, hitting 8 home runs in the post season, including one of the more unforgettable ones in the 2001 World Series. Though the Yanks would lose that Series, Brosius’s spark resinated across the nation in one of the more emotional World Series ever played.