New York Yankees: 50 greatest players of all-time

The Highlanders acquired right-hander Russ Ford from Atlanta of the Southern Association, selecting him in the Rule 5 draft in September 1908.

Ford was the first player born in Manitoba to reach the major leagues. His family came to the United States, immigrating to Minneapolis, when Ford was three and he debuted in the minors with the Cedar Rapids Rabbits of the old Three-I League in 1905, according to Ford’s bio at the Society for American Baseball Research.

He appeared in one game for the Highlanders in 1909 before taking the American League by storm as a 27-year-old rookie in 1910.

Throwing a devastating breaking ball (helped by a piece of emery board he kept stashed in his glove), Ford posted a 1.65 ERA and a 0.881 WHIP in 299.2 innings in 1910, starting 33 of his 36 appearances, completing 29 of them with eight shutouts, and going 26-6.

He followed that up with a 22-11 campaign in 1911 with a 2.27 ERA and 1.162 WHIP in 281.1 innings in 37 appearances, 33 starts, as the league began to adjust.

Ford pitched two more seasons with New York, one as a Highlander and the second as a Yankee in 1913, before jumping to the Buffalo Buffeds of the upstart Federal League when the Yankees wanted to cut his salary.

His emery ball was banned by the American League and the Federal League followed suit in 1915, which also marked Ford’s last big-league season.

In five seasons with New York, Ford was 73-56 with a 2.54 ERA and 1.166 WHIP to go with 553 strikeouts in 1,112.2 innings.

He died Jan. 24, 1960, in Rockingham, North Carolina at the age of 76.

Right-hander Ray Caldwell joined the Highlanders in 1910, when his contract was purchased from McKeesport of the Pennsylvania League.

After a late-season cameo in 1910, Caldwell slotted into the Highlanders’ rotation in 1911, posting a 3.35 ERA and 1.251 WHIP while going 14-14 in 41 appearances, 26 of them starts, and 255 innings with 145 strikeouts.

He struggled in 1912, working 183.1 innings in 30 games, 26 of them starts, while going 8-16 with a 4.47 ERA and 1.435 WHIP for a team that finished 50-102.

Caldwell stabilized in 1913 despite missing time with a sore arm, with a 2.41 ERA and 1.162 WHIP in 164.1 innings.

He had his best season with New York in 1914, going 18-9 with a 1.84 ERA and 0.958 WHIP in 213 innings and became the workhorse of the staff in 1915, throwing a career-high 305 innings while going 19-16 with a 2.89 ERA and 1.223 WHIP.

Per SABR, his career was hampered by his affinity for the New York nightlife and in December 1918, the Yankees traded Caldwell to the Boston Red Sox in a seven-player deal.

In nine seasons in New York, Caldwell was 96-99 with a 3.00 ERA and 1.219 WHIP, striking out 803 hitters in 1,718.1 innings. But he could also swing the bat, being used occasionally as an outfielder and first baseman and often as a pinch-hitter.

He hit .250/300/.323 in 1,033 career player appearances for New York, with seven homers, 34 doubles and 98 RBI, while stealing 23 bases.

Caldwell would later pitch for the Cleveland Indians before fading to the minor leagues after the 1921 season. While he pitched professionally from 1910-33, only 12 of those seasons were in the bigs.

He died Aug. 17, 1967, in Salamanca, New York at the age of 79.

Bob Meusel came to the Yankees in 1919, when he was purchased from the Vernon Tigers of the Pacific Coast League, and he debuted in New York the following season as a third baseman/outfielder.

By 1921, he became entrenched in the outfield, playing right field for two seasons before moving primarily to left field the next seven years.

Nicknamed “Silent Bob,” he became part of the famous Murderers Row lineups of the 1920s, leading the American League with 33 home runs and 134 RBI in 1925. He topped the 100 RBI plateau five times as a Yankee, including a career-best 138 in 1921.

Even for an era known for its offensive firepower, Meusel was a standout, with an OPS+ of 121 in 10 seasons with the Yankees. He hit .311/.358/.858 in 1,294 games as a Yankee, with 146 home runs, 1,009 RBI, 764 runs scored and 338 doubles.

In six World Series appearances, Meusel didn’t fare quite as well, hitting .225/.291/.632 with one homer and 17 RBI in 144 plate appearances, helping New York to three World Series titles.

In October 1929, his contract was sold to the Cincinnati Reds and he played one season with the Reds and two more in the minors before retiring in 1932.

A Los Angeles native, Meusel died Nov. 28, 1977, in Downey, California at the age of 81.

Paul O’Neill had been a perfectly average right fielder in five full seasons with the Cincinnati Reds through the 1992 season, helping the Reds to a World Series title in 1990 and earning an All-Star nod in 1991.

But with a career .259/.336/.431 slash line over eight seasons, no one was expecting what would happen when the Yankees sent outfielder Roberto Kelly to the Reds to get O’Neill and minor league first baseman Joe De Berry.

It turns out that left-handed stroke was tailor-made for Yankee Stadium and O’Neill turned into a perennial .300 hitter with pop and run-producing talent galore.

O’Neill won the American League batting title in the strike-shortened 1994 season, hitting .359, and he was a four-time All-Star for the Bombers in his nine seasons in New York, playing with four World Series winners along the way.

He hit .303/.377.,492 in all with 185 homers and 858 RBI as a Yankee before retiring after the 2001 season, posting an OPS+ of 125 over that span.

He topped the 100 RBI mark four straight times from 1997-2000, with a career-best 117 in 1997 and oddly became a better base stealing threat as he aged. Of his 141 career stolen bases, more than half — 73 — came in his final five seasons, with a career-high 22 in 2001 at the age of 38.

Embed from Getty Images

Jack Chesbro made some noise in the fall of 1902 when he jumped from the establishment Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League to the brand-new Highlanders of the upstart American League.

Chesbro had led the NL with 28 wins and eight shutouts in 1902 and was solid in his first season with the Highlanders, going 21-15 in 40 appearances, 36 starts, and 324.2 innings, striking out 147 with an ERA of 2.89 and a WHIP of 1.152.

But nothing Chesbro had done up to that point could have prepared anyone for one of the most incredible seasons in baseball’s modern era (post-1901).

Chesbro was basically the No. 1 and No. 2 starters (and occasionally the No. 3) for the Highlanders, who battled the Boston Americans — who won the inaugural World Series the previous October — down to the final day of the season.

The Highlanders went to Boston for a pair of doubleheaders needing a split of the four games to take home the crown, with the games originally scheduled for Hilltop Park in New York.

But Highlanders owner Frank Farrell had rented out the facility to the Columbia University football team for their Oct. 8 game and those final four games were instead moved to Boston’s Huntingdon Avenue Grounds.

Boston swept the Saturday twin-bill and put New York in the position of needing to sweep another doubleheader on Oct. 10 to win the pennant. Chesbro, who had beaten Boston 3-2 in New York on Oct. 7, took the ball on two days’ rest for the first game.

Chesbro had a 2-0 lead in the seventh when it all came apart. His defense faltered behind him and Boston was able to tie the game. It came apart for the right-hander in the eighth.

With the go-ahead run on third base and two outs, Chesbro threw his spit ball — his best pitch — to Freddy Parent with two strikes. The ball sailed past catcher Red Kleinow and his the backstop on the fly. Lou Criger jogged home from third and that was that. Boston won the pennant.

With apologies to the #KillTheWin crowd, Chesbro was magnificent in 1904, despite the way it ended. He started 51 games, relieved in four others, completed 48 games and amassed 454.2 innings en route to a 41-12 record, a 1.82 ERA and a 0.937 WHIP.

The 41 wins will stand as a modern-era record (barring turning the game over to androids in the future). Ed Walsh of the Chicago White Sox in 1908 is the only other 40-game winner since the turn of the 20th century.

Chesbro, who turned 30 during the 1904 campaign, remained solid, but was never quite as sharp again. He led the AL with 42 starts and 49 appearances in 1906 en route to a 23-17 record. The Highlanders waived Chesbro in September 1909 and he finished his big-league career with Boston, which had been renamed the Red Sox in the interim.

In seven seasons with New York, Chesbro was 128-93 with a 2.58 ERA and 1.120 WHIP in 1,952 innings. In 1907 he pitched 206 innings without surrendering a home run, an impressive accomplishment even for the dead ball era.

Chesbro died Nov. 6, 1931, in Conway, Massachusetts at the age of 57. He would be posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame when he was selected by the Old Timers Committee in 1946.

Embed from Getty Images

The Yankees signed multi-sport star Bobby Murcer in June 1964, with Murcer turning down a scholarship to play running back at the University of Oklahoma in lieu of pursuing a career in baseball.

It was a good call. Murcer got his first taste of the bigs as a 19-year-old shortstop in 1965 and got a cup of coffee late in the 1966 season.

He would spend most of the next two seasons in the U.S. Army after being drafted. When he returned for the 1969 season, he made the opening day roster as the everyday third baseman before being shifted to right field in May.

The next season, he was moved over to center field and was a fixture there the next four years as his bat began to emerge. He was an All-Star four straight seasons from 1971-74, leading the American League in on-base percentage and OPS in 1971 and in runs and total bases in 1972, a season in which he also scored his lone Gold Glove.

In October 1974, the popular Murcer was shipped to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for fellow All-Star center fielder Bobby Bonds.

Murcer spent two seasons with the Giants before being traded to the Chicago Cubs in February 1977 and in June 1979, the Yankees re-acquired Murcer from the Cubs in exchange for minor-league right-hander Paul Semall.

Now 33, Mercer settled into a role as a part-time outfielder/designated hitter, with his role gradually decreasing until he was released in June 1983 after appearing in only nine games.

In parts of 13 seasons as a Yankee, Murcer hit .278/.349/.802 in 1,256 games, posting an OPS+ of 129 with 175 homers and 687 RBI to go with 641 runs scored.

Murcer died from a malignant brain tumor on July 12, 2008, in Oklahoma City, his hometown, at the age of 62.

A three-sport star at Fordham Prep in the Bronx, Snuffy Stirnweiss wound his way to the major leagues after playing football and baseball at the University of North Carolina.

He signed with the Yankees after graduating from North Carolina in the spring of 1940, sticking as a utility infielder with the Yankees in 1943.

Kept out of the military by an ulcer, Stirnweiss became a regular for the war-depleted Yanks in 1944, leading the American League in runs, hits, triples and stolen bases that season while finishing fourth in the MVP voting.

He captured the AL batting title in 1945, as well as again leading the league in runs, triples and steals and adding the league lead in slugging percentage (despite hitting only 10 home runs), OPS and total bases. Stirnweiss as third in the AL MVP race.

When the stars returned from the front lines in 1946, Stirnweiss retained his grip on the second-base job for the Yankees, earning his lone All-Star berth in 1946 even as his numbers dipped severely from their levels during the war.

He lost the starting gig to rookie Jerry Coleman in 1949 and was traded to the St. Louis Browns in a six-player deal in June 1950.

Stirnweiss’ last big-league appearance was with the Cleveland Indians in 1952 and he briefly tried to come back with the Philadelphia Phillies organization in 1954 before retiring at age 35.

In parts of eight seasons as a Yankee, Stirnweiss hit .274/.366/.382 in 884 games, with 27 homers, 66 triples, 253 RBI, 562 runs scored, 130 stolen bases and a 108 OPS+.

He was one of 48 people killed on Sept. 15, 1958, when a commuter train in New Jersey plunged off an open drawbridge into Newark Bay. He was 39 at the time.

Embed from Getty Images

Before he had the most famous headache in the history of baseball, Wally Pipp was a very productive player for a decade with New York.

The Yankees purchased the contracts of Pipp, a first baseman, and outfielder Hugh High from the Detroit Tigers in February 1915 and Pipp was immediately slotted into the starting lineup.

He was more of a free-swinger than many players of his era, leading the American League in strikeouts with 82 in 1916, a year in which he also won the home run crown with 12 long balls.

He repeated as home-run king in the AL in 1917 with nine dingers and led the circuit with 19 triples for the Yankees in 1924.

His home-run totals didn’t increase with the introduction of the live ball in 1920, but he was a solid run producer, topping the 100 RBI three times (1921, 1923-24).

But the native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, likely would have faded into oblivion had it not been for one of the recurring headaches he often got as the result of a hockey injury as a boy, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

Dealing with a headache on June 2, 1925, manager Miller Huggins suggested to Pipp he go see the trainer and take the day off, telling Pipp, “The kid can replace you this afternoon.”

“The kid” was Lou Gehrig and it was the beginning of the end for Pipp as a Yankee.

The veteran was beaned in batting practice by rookie pitcher Charlie Caldwell in early July and was hospitalzed for two weeks with a concussion. When he returned, Gehrig was entrenched at first base and Pipp was relegated to pinch-hitting duty the rest of the season.

After several failed attempts to trade him to another American League club, Pipp’s contract was sold to the Cincinnati Reds in January 1926.

In 11 seasons with the Yankees, Pipp hit .282/.343/.414 with 80 homers, 121 triples and 833 RBI while scoring 820 runs. Pipp was part of the Yankees’ first three World Series teams from 1921-23, including the championship club of 1923.

Pipp returned to Michigan after his career and died on Jan. 11, 1965 at the age of 71.

Embed from Getty Images

At the time free agent Dave Winfield signed with the Yankees in December 1980, his 10-year, $23.3 million contract was the largest in baseball history.

Winfield was solid in the strike-shortened 1981 season, hitting .294 with 13 home runs and being named to the All-Star Game. In the postseason for the first time after eight years with the moribund San Diego Padres, Winfield was 7-for-20 in the AL East Division Series against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Then the wheels came off. He was just 2-for-13 in a three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics in the ALCS and famously went 1-for-22 in a six-game loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

By 1985, the relationship between Winfield and owner George Steinbrenner had deteriorated to the point that Steinbrenner told the New York Times, referring to Reggie Jackson, that “I got rid of Mr. October and got Mr. May,” in a reference to Winfield.

Winfield and Steinbrenner battled through the remainder of Winfield’s time in the Bronx, with the owner eventually earning a 30-month suspension for paying a gambler $40,000 to provide information damaging to Winfield.

Through it all, Winfield was an eight-time All-Star in parts of nine seasons with New York, missing the 1989 season after surgery to repair a herniated disc. He was traded to the California Angels in May 1990 in exchange for right-hander Mike Witt.

As a Yankee, Winfield hit .290/.356/.851 in 1,172 games with 205 homers, 818 RBI, 722 runs and an OPS+ of 134.

He played through the 1995 season and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2001. Winfield is one of two athletes — Dave Logan from the University of Colorado being the other — to be drafted by teams in MLB, the NFL and the NBA.

CC Sabathia stands as one of only two current members of the Yankees to make the countdown, having come to the Bronx as a free agent on a massive nine-year, $205.9 million deal in December 2008.

The big lefty paid immediate dividends, slotting in at the top of the New York rotation and posting a 3.18 ERA and 1.189 WHIP over 705 innings in his first three seasons, starting 101 games and fanning 624 batters.

He experienced some rough patches afterward, missing most of the 2014 season with a knee injury and putting up a 4.81 ERA and 1.402 WHIP in 69 starts and 424.1 innings from 2013-15.

Sabathia stabilized things the last two seasons, notching a 3.81 ERA and 1.297 WHIP over 328.1 innings covering 57 starts. He’s not the dominant force he once was, but as he has entered his late 30s, he’s figured out how to remain an effective big-league starter.

During the Yankees’ World Series run in 2009, Sabathia was named MVP of the ALCS after silencing the Los Angeles Angels over two starts, allowing two runs on nine hits with three walks and 12 strikeouts over 16 innings.

He led the American League in wins each of his first two seasons in New York, posting 19 wins in 2009 and coming back with 21 in 2010 and his 4.48 strikeouts-to-walk ratio in 2012 was the AL’s best.

Through the 2017 season, Sabathia had a 3.75 ERA and 1.259 WHIP in 255 starts and 1,657.2 innings as a Yankee with 1,453 strikeouts and a 120-73 record.

He is a three-time All-Star as a Yankee, as well, to go with the three appearances he made in the Midsummer Classic with the Cleveland Indians in 2002-03 and 2007.

He re-signed with the Yankees last December on a one-year, $10 million deal.

Embed from Getty Images

Hank Bauer was a solid piece of the Yankees dynasty in the 1950s, manning right field for 11 full seasons and earning three trips to the All-Star Game.

Bauer signed his first pro contract at age 18 in 1941 before enlisting in the Marines in 1942, according to the Society of American Baseball Research. Bauer was wounded in action on Guam and had bits of shrapnel in his back for the rest of his life and returned to the U.S. after the war with thoughts of abandoning baseball.

He signed a contract with the Yankees in 1946, however, because a scout remembered him from before the war and Bauer sped through the farm system and got a call up late in the 1948 season.

Bauer was with the club for good, filling in for injured Joe DiMaggio in center field early in the 1949 season before settling into right field as a platoon player with lefty swinging Gene Woodling.

Bauer became one of manager Casey Stengel’s favorites, hitting just about everywhere in the lineup and gaining a reputation as a heady player. He led the American League with nine triples in 1957, but his playing time began to dwindle in 1958 and 1959 as he became a part-time player.

In December 1959, Bauer was traded to the Kansas City Athletics in a seven-player deal that most notably brought Roger Maris to the Bronx.

Bauer was briefly a player-manager in Kansas City, taking over the helm in June before being released as a player in late July.

He later managed the Baltimore Orioles to their first World Series title in 1966 and managed the A’s again, this time in Oakland, for most of the 1969 season.

In 12 seasons in New York, Bauer batted .277/.347/.791 in 1,406 games with 158 homers, 654 RBI and 792 runs scored.

A native of East St. Louis, Illinois, Bauer died Feb. 9, 2007, in Lenexa, Kansas at the age of 84.

Embed from Getty Images

Roger Maris was another in a long line of left-handed sluggers who came to the Yankees and found that the friendly short porch in right field was tailor-made for their swing.

Maris showed some power potential as a young player with the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Athletics, but nothing he had done in three previous big league seasons could have prepared the American League for what was going to be unleashed when Maris was acquired by the Yankees from the Athletics in a seven-player trade in December 1959.

Maris had been an All-Star for the Athletics in 1959, more because someone had to be than because of star-caliber play.

But in 1960, Maris burst on to the scene in New York, leading the AL with a .581 slugging percentage and 112 RBI while belting 39 home runs.

That was just the warm-up act. In the 1961 expansion season, Maris clubbed a then-record 61 home runs and led the league with 132 runs scored, 141 RBI and 366 total bases en route to his second straight MVP award.

Maris would never again approach those levels, but he was solid for most of his remaining five seasons in the Bronx.

Injuries limited Maris to 90 games in 1963 and a misdiagnosed broken hand, per the Society for American Baseball Research, cost him all but 46 games in 1965. Another injury-plagued season in 1966 in which Maris hit just .233/.307/.689 was his final season in New York.

In December 1966, the Yankees traded Maris to the St. Louis Cardinals for infielder Charley Smith.

In seven seasons in New York, Maris hit .265/.356/.872 with an OPS+ of 139 to go with 203 home runs, 547 RBI and 520 runs scored.

Maris helped the Cardinals to a World Series title in 1967 and retired after another injury-filled season in 1968 at just 33 years old.

In retirement, Maris ran a beer distributorship in Florida with the help of Cardinals owner Gussie Busch, who set up Roger and brother Rudy Maris up with the business.

Diagnosed with lymphoma in 1984, Maris’ No. 9 was retired by the Yankees that summer at Old Timers’ Day. He died Dec. 14, 1985, in Houston at the age of 51 and to date, has not been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Embed from Getty Images

Elston Howard made Yankees history in the first game of a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on April 14, 1955, when he became the first black player in franchise history.

A 26-year-old rookie in 1955, Howard played the corner outfield spots while backing up catcher Yogi Berra as a part-time player.

Howard debuted with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro American League in 1948 and in July 1950, the Monarchs sold Howard’s contract to the Yankees for $25,000, per the Society of American Baseball Research.

He finished the season at Class A Muskegon before his career was interrupted by a two-year stint in the Army during the Korean War. When he returned, he was promoted to AAA, playing a year in Kansas City and the 1954 season in Toronto.

Howard gradually began to play more often behind the plate and by 1960, he was the full-time catcher. But he had already made his mark, earning All-Star nods as a part-time player in 1957-59.

In 1961, Howard hit a career-high .348 with 21 home runs and a .936 OPS, but was completely overshadowed by the home-run race between teammates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

In 1963, Howard was the American League’s first black MVP, hitting .287/.342/.869 with an OPS+ of 141 to go with 28 homers and 85 RBI.

A shorter stroke in 1964 upped his batting average to .313 and he contributed 15 homers and 84 RBI while finishing third in the MVP voting.

He remained with the Yankees until he was dealt to the Red Sox in August 1967 and retired after being released in October 1968.

Howard came back to the Yankees as a coach from 1969-78, but heart problems forced him to give up the job and he died from heart failure on Dec. 14, 1980 at the age of 51.

He was a 12-time All-Star and won two Gold Gloves behind the plate for the Yankees, as well as helping them to four World Series titles. In parts of 13 seasons, Howard hit .279/.324/.760 with an OPS+ of 110 to go with 161 home runs, 733 RBI and 588 runs scored.

Embed from Getty Images

Roger Peckinpaugh was a 22-year-old prospect when he was acquired by the Yankees from the Cleveland Naps in a three-player trade in May 1913.

He became one of the top fielding shortstops of the dead ball era and anchored the infield for the Yankees for nearly a decade.

Along the way, he became the youngest manager in Major League Baseball history, leading the Yankees for the final 20 games of the 1914 season after the resignation of Frank Chance. Peckinpaugh was just 23 at the time.

A native of Cleveland, Peckinpaugh turned pro in 1909 when he signed with his hometown Naps after graduating from high school, per the Society for American Baseball Research.

Peckinpaugh led all American League shortstops in assists three times while a Yankee and developed into a fair hitter along the way.

After helping New York to its first World Series appearance in 1921, Peckinpaugh was dealt to the Boston Red Sox in a blockbuster six-player trade in December of that year. Less than a month later, he was traded again, this time to the Washington Senators.

He was American League MVP with the Senators in 1925 and played 17 seasons in all before retiring in 1927.

With the Yankees, Peckinpaugh hit .257/.334/.676 in parts of nine seasons, playing in 1,219 games and hitting 36 homers to go with 428 RBI while scoring 670 runs and stealing 143 bases.

He went on to manage the Cleveland Indians from 1928-33 and again in 1941. After five years in Cleveland’s front office, he retired from baseball for good in 1946.

Peckinpaugh died in Cleveland on Nov. 17, 1977 at the age of 86.

Lanky left-hander Herb Pennock was the last of 11 Boston Red Sox regulars to find his way to the New York Yankees during the time Harry Frazee owned the Boston club from 1916-23.

Pennock was signed as a teenager by Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics in 1911 and made his debut for the American League powerhouse in 1912, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

When Mack let his star players go after the 1914 season, Pennock emerged as the A’s ace, but heavy doses of losing cost him his confidence and Boston claimed him off waivers in June 1915.

He saw part-time duty before enlisting in the Navy in 1918, but upon his return in 1919, Pennock earned a full-time spot in the Red Sox rotation.

But his career took off after he was acquired by the Yankees in January 1924 in exchange for three minor leaguers and $50,000 cash.

Pennock led the American League with a .760 winning percentage in 1923, going 19-6 in 35 appearances and 27 starts, and later led the circuit with 277 innings in 1925 and twice posting the AL’s best WHIP (1925-26).

Pennock also led the AL with five shutouts in 1928 and the control freak three times posted the best walks per nine innings rate in the league.

His role gradually reduced until he was primarily a reliever by 1933 at age 39. The Yankees released Pennock in January 1934 and he signed with the Red Sox for a final big league season, becoming the first pitcher in MLB history to record wins as a teenager and in his 40s, a feat later matched by Bert Blyleven and Mike Morgan.

Pennock coached for the Red Sox from 1936-39, as well, and was the general manager for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1944-48, briefly changing the name of the team to the Blue Jays.

In 11 seasons with the Yankees, Pennock had a 3.54 ERA and a 1.335 WHIP to go with an ERA+ of 114 in an era of heavy offensive firepower. He appeared in 346 games and 2,203.1 innings with 700 strikeouts to go with a 162-90 record, 165 complete games and 19 shutouts.

Attending a league meeting in New York on Jan. 30, 1948, Pennock collapsed from a stroke and died at the age of 53. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame later that year.

A third-round pick out of the College of Charleston by the Yankees in 2005, Brett Gardner has become a fixture for the Yankees during his 11 seasons in the Bronx, manning left and center field with his speed.

Gardner broke into the bigs with the Yankees in June 2008 and spent a couple of years as a part-time player before nabbing the starting left field gig in 2010. Save for an injury-shortened 2012 season, Gardner has been a regular ever since.

He led the American League with 49 stolen bases in 2011 and with 10 triples in 2013. He earned his first All-Star berth in 2015 and won a Gold Glove for his defensive work in 2016.

Fundamentally sound, Gardner also led the AL with 13 sacrifice hits in 2014, even as the bunt has fallen out of vogue in the era of launch angles.

He’s also added some pop to his repertoire, mashing 21 home runs last season to set a career high.

In 10 seasons through the end of 2017, Gardner has hit .264/.347/.740 in 1,218 games, with 84 homers, 405 RBI, 241 stolen bases and 695 runs scored.

He’s under contract through this season, with the Yankees holding a $12.5 million option with a $2 million buyout for 2019.

Mike Mussina delivered for nearly a decade as the staff ace for the Baltimore Orioles and, after signing a six-year, $87 million contract with the Yankees as a free agent in December 2000, he just did more of the same.

In eight seasons in the Bronx, Mussina never won a Cy Young Award, never made an All-Star team and largely went unnoticed.

All he did was take the ball every fifth day and usually give the Yankees a chance to win a ballgame.

Moose never started fewer than 27 games as a Yankee and even as he aged, he adapted to remain a solid starter.

In his final season in 2008, Mussina had his only 20-win season, going 20-9 with a 3.37 ERA and 1.223 WHIP in a league-leading 34 starts covering 200.1 innings, striking out 150 and walking only 31 as a 39-year-old.

In eight seasons in the Bronx, Mussina posted a 3.88 ERA and 1.212 WHIP to go with a 114 ERA+, a 123-72 record and 1,278 strikeouts in 1,553 innings.

A 270-game winner in 18 seasons, Mussina inched closer to Hall of Fame induction this year, receiving 63.5 percent of the vote, up from 20.3 percent in his first year of eligibility in 2014.

Right-hander Waite Hoyt was another member of the first Yankees dynasty clubs of the 1920s to find his way from Boston to the Bronx. The Yankees acquired Hoyt from the Red Sox in an eight-player trade in December 1920.

He became a fixture on the Yankee staff for most of the next 10 years, leading the American League with 22 wins and a .759 winning percentage in 1927, posting the AL’s top WHIP in 1923 at 1.228 and, for good measure, topping the circuit with eight saves (before it was an official stat, of course) in 1928.

After back-to-back 20-win seasons in 1927 and 1928, Hoyt’s effectiveness waned a bit and he was traded to the Detroit Tigers in May 1930 as part of a five-player swap.

In parts of 10 seasons with the Yankees, Hoyt notched a 3.48 ERA (115 ERA+) and a 1.336 WHIP in 2,272.1 innings, striking out 713 while working in 365 games, starting 276 and completing 156. Hoyt pitched 15 shutouts and recorded 29 saves.

His career, as it turned out, was far from over. He pitched until 1938 with five clubs, primarily the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Hoyt was a Brooklyn native and joined the New York Giants as a 16-year-old in 1916,  making his big-league debut two years later.

Traded to Rochester of the International League in January 1919, he resurfaced in the big leagues with the Red Sox later that year.

He spent 21 seasons in the big league, earning Hall of Fame induction from the Veteran’s Committee in 1969 and was one of the first players to transition into broadcasting, calling Cincinnati Reds games from 1942-64, according to the Society for American Baseball Research, and remained in Cincinnati after his retirement.

Hoyt died from a heart attack on Aug. 24, 1984 at the age of 84.

Embed from Getty Images

Tommy Henrich found his way to the Yankees as one of baseball’s first free agents.

Having been assigned by the Cleveland Indians to an unaffiliated minor-league team in Milwaukee, Henrich wrote a letter to Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis seeking clarification of his status, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

Landis would rule that the Indians were not allowing Henrich a fair opportunity to reach the majors and declared him a free agent. The Yankees pounced on the young outfielder, signing him on April 19, 1937, five days after Landis’ ruling.

Henrich was a part-time player for most of his first four seasons in New York before landing the starting right field job for good in 1941.

The triumph was short-lived; Henrich joined the Coast Guard in August 1942 as part of the war effort and spent three years at a training station in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

Henrich returned to the Yankees with a flourish in 1946 and continued to play well deep into his 30s.

He led the American League in triples in both 1947 (13) and 1948 (14) and led the AL with 138 runs scored in 1948.

Nicknamed “Old Reliable,” Henrich was a five-time All-Star and part of four World Series champions.

He played his entire big-league career with the Yankees and in 11 seasons, hit .282/.382/.873 with an OPS+ of 132 and 183 homers, 705 RBI and 901 runs scored.

At the time of his death on Dec. 1, 2009, he was the oldest living Yankee at age 96.

The Yankees signed acrobatic shortstop Joe Gordon from the University of Oregon in 1936 and in 1938 he stepped into the shoes of legendary Tony Lazzeri at second base.

It was a smooth transition. Gordon made the first of his six All-Star appearances as a Yankee in 1939 and was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player in 1942, leading a club shorn of many of its stars because of World War II to the pennant.

Gordon entered the Army Air Force in March 1944. A licensed pilot, Gordon spent two years stationed in Hawaii and San Diego before returning to the Yankees in 1946.

Shortly after the season, Gordon was swapped to the Cleveland Indians in a straight-up deal for right-hander Allie Reynolds.

In seven seasons with the Yankees, Gordon hit .271/.358/.825 with an OPS+ of 120 to go with 153 homers, 617 RBI and 596 runs scored.

Gordon made three more All-Star teams in Cleveland and helped them to the 1948 World Series title.

Gordon hit .500 (7-for-14) with seven walks in helping the Yankees past the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1941 World Series, finishing with a homer and five RBI in the five-game series win.

His big league career ended after the 1950 season, but he spent two seasons as a player-manager for Sacramento in the Pacific Coast League. He later became a scout for the Detroit Tigers and joined their coaching staff in 1956. Later that year, he returned to the PCL to manage in San Francisco.

He was named manager of the Indians in June 1958 and in August 1960 was part of a one-of-a-kind trade when he was swapped to Detroit for their manager, Jimmy Dykes.

Gordon would go on to briefly manage the Kansas City Athletics and was the first manager for the expansion Kansas City Royals in 1969.

He died April 14, 1978, in Sacramento at the age of 63. Gordon was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Veteran’s Committee in 2009.

Embed from Getty Images

The Yankees landed right-hander Mel Stottlemyre off a farm in 1961.

Having pitched two seasons as Yakima Valley Junior College in Washington, Stottlemyre didn’t get a deal after a tryout with the Milwaukee Braves, who said he didn’t throw hard enough, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

He moved up the farm system quickly and got his first call to the majors in August 1964.

Armed with a sinker that hitters would pound into the ground over and over again, Stottlemyre posted a 2.06 ERA and 1.167 WHIP in 96 innings to close the season and went 1-1 in three World Series starts.

Stottlemyre led the American League with 18 complete games and 291 innings pitched while posting 20 wins in 1965, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the crumbling Yankees from falling to sixth place.

Despite 20 losses for a last-place club in 1966, he was an All-Star for the second straight year. He later led the AL with 24 complete games in 1969, topping the 300 innings mark in the process, and would make five All-Star squads in all.

Stottlemyre tore his rotator cuff in 1974, before corrective surgery for the problem had been devised, and a short-lived comeback in the spring of 1975 ended when the Yankees released their long-time ace.

In 11 seasons, Stottlemyre had a 2.97 ERA (112 ERA+) and 1.219 WHIP in 360 appearances, 356 of them stats, and 2,661.1 innings. He struck out 1,257 and completed 152 games with 40 shutouts.

Stottlemyre embarked on a second career as a coach, serving as minor-league roving pitching instructor for the expansion Seattle Mariners from 1977-81. He resigned after his 11-year-old son Jason died from leukemia, returning to the game in 1984 as pitching coach for the New York Mets, a job he held for 10 years.

Stottlemyre was pitching coach for the Houston Astros in 1994-95 before returning to the Yankees in that role in 1996 and serving for 10 years. He was back in the game in 2008-09 for a two-year stint as pitching coach and was awarded a plaque in Monument Park in 2015.

Embed from Getty Images

The Yankees landed a star when they purchased center fielder Earle Combs from Louisville of the American Association in January 1924.

Combs had hit a robust .380 at Louisville in 1923 with 75 extra-base hits while patrolling center field with his blazing speed.

He was late reporting to the Yankees because of a dispute with the Louisville club over his share of the $50,000 purchase price, according to the Society for American Baseball Research, before missing most of the season with a broken ankle.

But in 1925, Combs took over the everyday duties in center field and became a fixture at the top of the batting order, setting the table for the Murderers Row lineup.

In 1927, Combs led the American League with 231 hits and 23 triples and would twice more lead the AL in three-baggers, pelting 21 in 1928 and 22 in 1930.

He was also a standout in World Series play, hitting .350 with a homer and nine RBI in four appearances (he did miss most of the 1928 series with an injury).

In 1934, Combs career took a dramatic turn when he injured his shoulder and knee and fractured his skull crashing into a wall chasing a fly ball. He spent two months in the hospital, much of it in critical condition, but returned in 1935 as a player-coach.

Combs appeared in 89 games before a broken collarbone ended his season and prompted him to retire at age 36.

He coached with the Yankees and three other clubs from 1936-54 before returning back to his farm in Kentucky.

In 12 seasons with the Yankees, Combs hit .325/.397/.859 with a 125 OPS+ to go with 154 triples, 58 home runs, 633 RBI and 1,186 runs scored.

A Veteran’s Committee selection into the Hall of Fame in 1970, Combs died July 21, 1976 at the age of 77 after a long illness.

Embed from Getty Images

The Yankees signed San Francisco native Gil McDougald in the spring of 1948 and it wasn’t long before he was a regular for a dynasty in the Bronx.

With regular infielders Jerry Coleman and Bobby Brown and prospect Billy Martin all off to the military with the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, the Yankees called up McDougald from Triple-A Kansas City for spring training in 1951.

He settled in, seeing regular time at both third and second base en route to earning AL Rookie of the Year honors after hitting .306/.396/.884 in 131 games with 14 homers and 63 RBI.

McDougald played mostly third base in 1952 and 1953, shuffled between second and third in 1954, took the regular second base job in 1955, added shortstop to his repertoire as a sort of everyday utiilityman from 1956-59 and primarily played third base in 1960.

He led the American League with nine triples and 19 sacrifice hits in 1957 and was a five-time All-Star with the Yankees. But a couple of incidents that season affected McDougald’s future in baseball.

In the span of a week, McDougald — known for his scorching line drives — drilled Detroit Tigers right-hander Frank Lary with a liner and then slammed a line drive into the right eye of Cleveland Indians lefty Herb Score.

McDougald vowed to retire if Score lost the eye, according to the Society for American Baseball Research, and was disconsolate when Score’s career faded quickly after the injury.

He was part of five World Series winners with the Yankees, notably going 9-for-28 with two homers and four RBI in 1958 as New York erased a 3-1 deficit to dethrone the Milwaukee Braves, who had beaten the Yankees the previous year.

He privately told management before the 1960 season it could be his last year, but he went public with his intentions that fall when he realized he could be left unprotected in the draft to stock new expansion clubs in Los Angeles and Washington.

The Angels chose McDougald, who turned down a two-year, $100,000 contract offer from owner Gene Autry and retired anyway. He spent a short time as a scout for the New York Mets and later was the head baseball coach at Fordham University from 1969-76.

Hearing loss affected him later in life, the result of an undiagnosed skull fracture sustained when he was struck by a Bob Cerv liner during batting practice in August 1955.

In 10 years with the Yankees, McDougald hit .276/.356/.766 with an OPS+ of 111 to go with 112 homers, 576 RBI and 697 runs scored.

He died Nov. 28, 2010, in Monmouth County, New Jersey at the age of 82.

Embed from Getty Images

Bob Shawkey had been part of the Philadelphia Athletics last pennant winning team in 1914 and was toiling for a last-place club the following season when the Yankees rescued him from Connie Mack’s fire sale for $3,000.

It was money extremely well spent.

Shawkey came to New York and became the ace of the Yankees’ staff, leading the American League with eight saves while starting 27 games and relieving in 26 in 1916.

In 1920, Shawkey led the AL with a 2.45 ERA and posted a league-best 8.1 hits per nine innings in 1923.

With the exception of 1918, when he missed most of the season serving in the U.S. Navy at the Philadelphia shipyards during World War I, Shawkey logged at least 236 innings every season from 1916-23.

He won his only start in the 1923 postseason, when the Yankees won their first World Series title, allowing three runs and battling through 7.2 innings despite allowing 12 hits, walking four and hitting a batter.

Late in his career, Shawkey was a player-coach, pitching mostly in relief while serving as pitching coach.

In parts of 13 seasons for New York, Shawkey had a 3.12 ERA (117 ERA+) and 1.269 WHIP, going 168-131 in 415 appearances and 274 starts. He had 164 complete games, 26 shutouts and 27 saves while working 2,488.2 innings and striking out 1,163.

Released by the Yankees in November 1927, he was a pitcher-pitching coach for Montreal in the International League in 1928 before coming back to the Bronx as the full-time pitching coach in 1929.

Shawkey was named Yankee manager for the 1930 season, after the death the previous September of Hall of Fame skipper Miller Huggins. After a third-place finish, Shawkey was dumped as manager in favor of the more experienced Joe McCarthy, who had been let go by the Chicago Cubs.

According to the Society for American Baseball Research, Shawkey returned to the minors, managing in Jersey City and Newark from 1931-35 before retiring to a remote area of Quebec to manage a gold mine he had purchased.

He returned to minor league managing after World War II in Watertown, Tallahassee and Jamestown and was a roving instructor for both the Pittsburgh Pirates and Detroit Tigers in the late 1940s.

He coached at Dartmouth College from 1952-56 before retiring. In retirement, he threw out ceremonial first pitches for the 50th anniversary of the first Yankee Stadium in 1973 and for its re-opening in 1976 following a renovation project.

Shawkey died Dec. 31, 1980, in Syracuse, New York at the age of 90.

Embed from Getty Images

The Yankees signed University of Maryland standout Charlie Keller in the summer of 1936 and he was immediately assigned to their top farm club in Newark for the 1937 season.

He made it to the big leagues just two years later, installed in right field before moving to left for the 1941 season.

He had impressive power and patience at the plate, but unlike many left-handed hitters in the Bronx, Keller did not go out of his way to pull the ball. Instead, he was content to drive it where it was pitched, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

The approach worked. Keller was a five-time All-Star for the Yankees, twice leading the American League in walks and topping the circuit with a .922 OPS in 1943. He missed most of 1944 and part of 1945 serving in the Merchant Marines.

He played a full season in 1946, but injuries began to take a toll. A slipped disc in June 1947 ended his season after 45 games and he was never again a full-time player.

The Yankees released Keller in December 1949 and he spent two seasons with the Detroit Tigers before returning in September 1952 for a two-game cameo with the Yankees.

In parts of 11 seasons, Keller hit .286/.410/.928 with an OPS+ of 152, clubbing 184 homers with 723 RBI and 712 runs scored.

He was part of three World Series winners for the Yankees, hitting .306/.367/.978 with five home runs and 18 RBI in 19 World Series games. Keller was particularly good in a four-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds in 1939, going 7-for-16 with three homers and six RBI.

In retirement, Keller founded Yankeeland Farms in Maryland and raised champion harness racers.

He continued to work the farm until he died from colon cancer on May 23, 1990 at the age of 73.

Embed from Getty Images

The first time Phil Rizzuto got a professional baseball tryout, it didn’t go well.

According to the Society for American Baseball Research, a coach for the New York Giants told Rizzuto he was too small to play in the majors and should consider shining shoes.

But in 1937, he shined brightly enough to get a contract with the Yankees and with that, the Brooklyn native was off and running.

He broke in to the bigs in 1941, claiming the starting shortstop job and holding it through seven World Series titles and five All-Star appearances, interrupted from 1943-45 while he served in the Navy.

When the Yankees won the World Series title in 1949, Rizzuto was runner-up to Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox for the MVP award, an honor he claimed the following season.

It wasn’t for his big offensive numbers. The 5-foot-6 Rizzuto never hit more than seven home runs in a season and hit better than .300 just twice in his career.

But he was the table-setter for the Yankees. Getting on base and moving up runners. He led the American League in sacrifice hits four straight years from 1949-52 and finished his 13-year career with 193 successful sacrifices.

He also led the AL with 735 plate appearances in 1950, a season in which he batted .324/.418/.439 and scored 125 runs.

Rizzuto faded into a part-time role in 1955 and was released in August 1956, less than a month shy of his 39th birthday.

For his career, he hit .273/.351/.706 in 1,661 games, scoring 877 runs with 38 homers and 563 RBI.

But that wasn’t the end of Rizzuto’s days with the Yankees, spending 40 years as a broadcaster for the team until retiring in 1996.

Rizzuto was a Veteran’s Committee selection for the Hall of Fame in 1994 and he died Aug. 13, 2007 at the age of 89.

Jorge Posada didn’t immediately become a star for the Yankees. Instead, he grew into the role, serving as a backup catcher and then splitting time with Joe Girardi for a couple of seasons before moving into the job full-time in 2000.

A native of Puerto Rico, the Yankees drafted Posada in the 24th round of the 1990 amateur draft out of Calhoun Community College in Alabama.

Posada reached the majors for the first time in September 1995, making an appearance as a defensive replacement, but didn’t get his first at-bat until May 1996.

He stuck for good in the bigs as a backup in 1997 and the switch-hitter moved into a platoon role behind the plate in 1998.

His power stroke emerged with a 28-home run breakout season in 2000. In 2003, Posada finished third in the AL MVP voting after hitting .281/.405/.518 with 30 homers and 101 RBI.

Posada was a five-time All-Star and hit 11 home runs in 125 career postseason games, backstopping the Yankees to four World Series titles.

He played out his final contract in 2011 after playing primarily as a DH and retired at the age of 40 after parts of 17 seasons with the Yankees. He hit .273/.374/.848 with an OPS+ of 121, 275 homers, 1,065 RBI and 900 runs scored.

His No. 20 jersey was retired in August 2015, but he fell off the Hall of Fame ballot on his first year of eligibility in 2017 after receiving only 3.8 percent of the vote.

Embed from Getty Images

The Yankees purchased the contract of Lefty Gomez from the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League in August 1929 and what they got was one of the greatest postseason pitchers in history.

Gomez got his first call to the majors at the end of April 1930 and, as young pitchers often do, struggled. But when he returned for good to start the 1931 season, the Yankees had found a left-handed ace who marched to the beat of his own drummer.

Gomez led the American League in wins in 1934 and 1937, in winning percentage in 1934 and 1941, in ERA in 1934 and 1937 and topped the circuit in strikeouts three times.

A seven-time All-Star, Gomez was selected to start the first All-Star Game in 1933 and was third in the MVP voting in 1934.

But it was in the World Series where Gomez morphed from merely great to unbeatable.

Gomez started seven games over five World Series appearances and was 6-0 with a 2.86 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 50.1 innings, tossing four complete games.

He was no slouch in the regular season, either, going 189-101 with the Yankees in 13 seasons, with an ERA of 3.34 (125 ERA+) and 1,468 strikeouts in 2,498.1 innings, while completing 173 games and posting 28 shutouts.

With his fastball fading, his role diminished by the 1942 season, when he appeared in only 13 games, and he was released in January 1943.

Gomez was known for his wit as well as his arm. Late in his career, he was asked by a reporter about his declining fastball, per the Society for American Baseball Research:

I’m throwing just as hard as ever. The ball’s just not getting there as fast.”

The banter never really left. Gomez dabbled in show business during his career and spent some time as a minor-league manager in the Yankee organization.

When Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon in 1969 and NASA scientists puzzled over an unidentified white object on the surface, Gomez was quick to come up with an answer:

I knew immediately what it was. It was a home run ball hit off me in 1937 by Jimmie Foxx.

Gomez was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972 by the Veteran’s Committee and died from heart problems on Feb. 17, 1979 at the age of 80.

Embed from Getty Images

Graig Nettles had turned some heads with his power in three seasons playing third base for the Cleveland Indians, but turned into a perennial All-Star after being acquired by the Yankees in November 1972.

New York sent four players to the Indians to get Nettles and Jerry Moses in a six-player swap and never regretted it.

Nettles was a five-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner with the Yankees, helping them to World Series titles in 1977 and 1978. He also won the American League home run crown with 32 in 1976, topping the 20-homer mark six straight years from 1973-79.

Age and injuries cut into his effectiveness and his playing time as the 1980s dawned, but he bounced back with a 20-homer season in 1983 at age 38 before he was traded to the San Diego Padres in March 1984 in exchange for lefthander Dennis Rasmussen and a minor leaguer.

He helped New York to four American League pennants by hitting .286 with five homers in 19 ALCS games, even as he didn’t fare that well at the plate in four World Series appearances, hitting .221 with five RBI in 19 games.

In 11 seasons with the Yankees, Nettles hit .253/.329/.762 with an OPS+ of 114 to go with 250 homers, 834 RBI and 750 runs scored.

He was originally drafted by the Minnesota Twins out of San Diego State University in 1965 and broke in with the Twins before being dealt to Cleveland between the 1969 and 1970 seasons.

Nettles played with the Padres for three years, earning another World Series trip, and bounced around as a pinch-hitter with the Atlanta Braves and Montreal Expos before retiring at age 44 after the 1988 season.

His range at third base was exceptional — he led AL third basemen in assists three times.

Nettles played in the Senior Professional Baseball Association for its two-year run in 1989-90 and managed one season in the minor leagues in 1996.

Embed from Getty Images

Don Mattingly made the jump from 19th-round draft pick to superstar in roughly five years and was on his way to being one of the all-time greats before a bad back changed his career path.

Mattingly was drafted as a high-school outfielder from Evansville, Indiana in 1979, but a move to first base cleared a path to the majors that he jumped on.

He came up for a cup of coffee in September 1982 and returned to stay after a two-month demotion to Triple-A in early 1983.

He did most of the heavy lifting at first base for the remainder of that season and returned with a breakout campaign in his first full season in the bigs. Mattingly won the batting title in 1984 with a .343 average and led the American League in hits and doubles.

That was just the warm-up act.

In 1985, Mattingly put together an MVP season while leading the Yankees to the final weekend of the chase for the division title before they fell short to the Toronto Blue Jays. Mattingly led the AL with 145 RBI, 370 total bases and 48 doubles while hitting a career-high 35 home runs.

He may have been better in 1986, hitting .352 and leading the league in slugging, OPS, OPS+, total bases, hits and doubles.

But his power began to fade after a 30-homer campaign in 1987. That season, he injured his back and missed some time. His power numbers dropped off until 1990, when the bottom fell out. He played in just 102 games before he was shut down because of chronic back problems.

According to the Society for American Baseball Research, it was a congenital deformity that limited and changed his swing as he got older. Mattingly worked hard to rehab and adjust and played five more seasons, but was not the same player.

The Yankees finally made the postseason in his final season, 1995, and he went out with a strong showing in a five-game loss to the Seattle Mariners, going 10-for-24 with a homer and six RBI in the series.

From 1984-87, Mattingly put together one of the best four-year stretches ever, hitting .337/.381/.941 with 119 homers and 483 RBI. With the power, Mattingly had tremendous bat control, striking out only 147 times in that span.

In 14 seasons overall, he hit .307/.358/.830 with a 127 OPS+ and 222 home runs, 1,099 RBI and 1,007 runs scored, striking out 444 times in 7,722 plate appearances.

Mattingly was a six-time All-Star and won seven Gold Gloves for his work at first base.

He returned to baseball, and the Yankees, as their hitting coach in 2004. Mattingly was promoted to bench coach in 2007, then followed Joe Torre to the Los Angeles Dodgers to be their hitting coach, eventually succeeding Torre as manager in 2011.

He is currently in his fourth season managing the Miami Marlins.

Embed from Getty Images

Roy White spent his entire 15-year career with the Yankees and got to experience some success with a pair of World Series titles late.

But he was also a constant during the lean years between the Yankees’ World Series wins in 1964 and 1977, manning left field and doing the little things well.

The Yankees signed the switch-hitting outfielder in July 1961 after he graduated from high school in Compton, California, and he worked his way to the majors, debuting with a September call-up in 1965.

He was a part-timer in the outfield the next two seasons before locking down the left field job in 1968 and holding it for a decade.

The durable White led the American League in plate appearances in 1973 and 1976, topped the circuit with 104 runs in 1976 and drew an AL-best 99 walks in 1972.

An All-Star in 1969 and 1970, White could run well, had some pop, was a solid fielder, knew how to hit situationally (he led the AL in sacrifice flies in both 1969 and 1971) and had 53 career sacrifice hits.

In three postseasons with the Yankees (1976-78), White hit .278.,387/.817 with two homers, eight RBI and 20 runs scored in 25 games, playing as a starter in 1976 and 1978.

When his contract expired in the fall of 1979, White went to Japan for three more seasons before retiring in 1982.

In 15 seasons with New York, White hit .271/.360/.764 with a 121 OPS+ to go with 160 homers, 758 RBI, 964 runs and 233 stolen bases.

He returned to the Yankees as their hitting coach from 1983-86 and spent time with the organization in the front office and as a roving minor league instructor and scout.

After five years in the Oakland Athletics organization as a minor league hitting coach, White returned to the Yankees in 2004 for another three years as a coach.

The Yankees signed infielder Robinson Cano from the Dominican Republic in January 2001 and the 18-year-old sped to the major leagues, debuting in May 2005.

Cano took over the regular second base duties from the time he arrived in the Bronx, finishing second in the Rookie of the Year voting to Oakland Athletics closer Huston Street.

His batting eye improved with his power and he hit at least 25 home runs in each of his last five seasons with New York (2009-13), with a high of 33 in 2012.

Cano was a five-time All-Star with the Yankees and finished third in the MVP voting in 2010, when he hit .319/.381/.914 with 29 homers and 109 RBI while scoring 103 runs.

He also earned two Gold Gloves while in New York before leaving to sign a 10-year, $240 million contract with the Seattle Mariners in December 2013.

In nine seasons with the Yankees, Cano hit .309/.355/.504 with 204 homers, 822 RBI, 799 runs and an OPS+ of 126.

He didn’t have the same success in the postseason, hitting just .222/.267/.686 in 51 games with eight homers and 33 RBI.

Cano has gone on to three more All-Star appearances with the Mariners, but is currently serving an 80-game suspension for violating MLB’s joint drug agreement. He can be reinstated Aug, 14.

Embed from Getty Images

Right-hander Red Ruffing was a pitcher that seemed to embody the old saying that a pitcher’s gotta be pretty good to get enough chances to lose 20 games.

With the Boston Red Sox, Ruffing twice lost 20 or more games with a club that was among baseball’s worst at the time.

His rescue came in May 1930, when the Yankees acquired Ruffing from Boston in exchange for spare outfielder Cedric Durst and $50,000.

Shockingly, Ruffing began to win … a lot.

He was a six-time All-Star in 15 seasons with the Yankees, leading the league with 190 strikeouts in 1932 and twice topping the AL in strikeouts per nine innings. Ruffing was also a constant in New York’s rotation for 13 years.

In 1943 at age 37, he was drafted into the Army and served two years as a non-combatant (he had lost four toes in an accident as a teenager when his left foot was crushed between two coal cars while he was working at an Illinois mine, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

Ruffing returned to the Yankees for two seasons after the war as a spot starter and closed his career pitching one season with the Chicago White Sox in 1947.

In 15 seasons with New York, Ruffing was 231-124 with a 3.47 ERA (119 ERA+) and started 391 of the 426 games in which he appeared, completing 261 with 40 shutouts. He also had 1,066 strikeouts in 3,168.2 innings.

Ruffing was very good in seven World Series appearances, six of which resulted in Yankee titles. He was 7-2 in 10 World Series starts with a 2.63 ERA and 61 strikeouts in 85.2 innings, completing eight games.

Ruffing went on to work in the farm systems for both the White Sox and Cleveland Indians and spent the inaugural 1962 season as pitching coach for the New York Mets.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1967, voted in via runoff on his final year on the ballot. He died from heart failure on Feb. 17, 1986 at the age of 80.

Embed from Getty Images

Tony Lazzeri is another one of a fairly long line of Yankees greats with Bay Area roots. The Yankees acquired the young second baseman from the Pacific Coast League’s Salt Lake City Bees for three players to be named later and $50,000 cash.

That season with Salt Lake City, Lazzeri clubbed 60 home runs with 52 doubles and 14 triples, hitting .355 with an astounding 512 total bases.

He won the second base job for the Yankees the following year and while he never approached that sort of power production outside of the thin Utah air, Lazzeri was a solid producer in the shadows of megastars Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

In 12 years with the Yankees, Lazzeri hit .293/.379/.847 with an OPS+ of 120 to go with 169 homers, 1,157 RBI, 952 runs and 147 stolen bases.

He was in the inaugural All-Star Game in 1933 and was third in the MVP voting in 1928 despite missing almost 40 games to injury, hitting .332/.397/.932 with 10 homers and 82 RBI in 116 games.

Lazzeri played in seven World Series with New York, with the Yankees winning five of them, as he hit .262/.342/.762 with four home runs and 19 RBI in 32 games.

He was released by the Yankees in October 1937 and played a season as a utility infielder with the Chicago Cubs and split 1939 between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants.

But for most of his life, and after his death, Lazzeri was more known for striking out against Grover Alexander to end Game 7 of the 1926 World Series.

In a 1945 interview, per the Society for American Baseball Research, Lazzeri seemed resigned to his fate:

Funny thing, but nobody seems to remember much about my ball playing, except that strikeout. There isn’t a night goes by but what some guy leans across the bar, or comes up behind me at a table in this joint, and brings up the old question. Never a night.

For more than 50 years, Lazzeri’s name was on a plaque at the Hall of Fame, even though he wasn’t. Alexander’s plaque includes this passage:

He won the 1926 world championship for the Cardinals by striking out Lazzeri with the bases full in the final crisis.

Lazzeri managed in the minors for a couple of seasons before returning to San Francisco and owning and operating a tavern. He died on Aug. 6, 1946, from a heart attack at the age of 42.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame, finally, by the Veteran’s Committee in 1991.

Embed from Getty Images

The Yankees took Kent State University catcher Thurman Munson with the fourth overall pick in the 1968 June Amateur Draft and the dividends he returned were swift.

Munson made his major league debut for the Yankees a little more than a year later, in August 1969, and was New York’s starting catcher by the start of the 1970 season.

He was the American League Rookie of the Year that season, hitting .302/.386/.801 with six homers and 53 RBI in 132 games, scoring 59 runs.

Munson made the first of his seven All-Star appearances the following season and in 1973 was awarded the first of three Gold Gloves.

When the Yankees won their first American League pennant in 12 years during the 1976 season, Munson earned AL MVP honors after hitting .302/.337/.769 with 17 homers, 105 RBI and 69 runs while also stealing a career-best 14 bases.

Munson was the leader of the Yankees’ World Series winners the following two seasons, driving in 100 runs in 1977, marking three straight seasons reaching that plateau.

He was less than two months past his 32nd birthday, still in his prime, when he opted to fly home to Canton, Ohio, on an off-day on Aug. 2, 1979. While practicing touch-and-go landings at the Canton-Akron airport, his new jet crashed, killing the first Yankee to be named captain since Lou Gehrig.

The shock of Munson’s death reverberated throughout the sporting world, even in the days before instant messaging and instant news. Flags were flown in the states of New York and New Jersey out of respect for the Yankees’ fallen leader.

In 11 seasons with New York, Munson hit .292/.346/.756 with an OPS+ of 116 to go with 113 home runs, 701 RBI and 696 runs scored.

He was placed on the ballot for Hall of Fame consideration less than two years after his death, in 1981, but never garnered more than 15.5 percent of the vote from the writers before falling off the ballot in 1995.

In postseason play, Munson was terrific, hitting .357/.378/.874 with three homers, 22 RBI and 19 runs in 30 games, including a massive 1976 October during which he was 19-for-40 in nine games.

Bernie Williams was the first of the vaunted “core” of the Yankees dynasty of the late 20th century to take his place, taking over in center field as a regular in 1993 after two years as a reserve and holding the job for more than a decade.

The Yankees signed the Puerto Rican prospect on his 17th birthday in September 1985 and he worked his way through the farm system slowly at first, getting his first call to the bigs in July 1991.

Williams’ breakout season was 1996, when he added pop to his .300 average by belting 29 home runs and driving in 102 for a team that would win the first of its four World Series titles in a five-year span to close the millennium.

He went on to make five All-Star appearances and earn four Gold Gloves and won the American League batting title with a .339 average in 1998.

The dependable Williams hit a career-best 30 home runs in 2000 and had five seasons with 100 or more RBI to go with eight years in which he scored at least 100 runs.

He retired after the 2006 season at the age of 38 after a 16-year career as a Yankee. He hit .297/.381/.858 with an OPS+ of 125 and 287 home runs, 1,257 RBI and 1,366 runs scored.

A classically trained guitarist, Williams has released two jazz albums. The first, “The Journey Within,” dropped in 2003 and reached No. 3 on the U.S. jazz charts. His second, “Moving Forward,” was released in 2009 and climbed to No. 2 on the charts.

Williams was nominated for a Latin Grammy for “Moving Forward,” which featured collaborations with Bruce Springsteen, Jon Secada and Dave Koz, per Williams’ no-longer-maintained page on MySpace.

Williams fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in his second year of eligibility in 2013 after receiving only 3.3 percent of the vote.

The Yankees selected left-hander Ron Guidry in the third round of the 1971 June Amateur Draft and the little guy from Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette) waited awhile for his opportunity, but grabbed it tightly when he got it.

Guidry got his first call up in July 1975, making one start and 10 appearances overall, before being sent back to Triple-A Syracuse for most of the 1975 season as the Yankees tried to convert the 5-foot-11, 161-pounder into a reliever, concerned he didn’t have the stamina to make it as a starter.

Man, did they read that wrong.

Guidry made the team out of spring training in 1977 as a reliever, but excelled in one start against the Seattle Mariners in late April, throwing 8.1 innings of shutout baseball with eight strikeouts.

But he didn’t go into the rotation for good until three weeks later, but was solid, going 14-7 with a 2.96 ERA and 155 strikeouts in 188.1 innings over 24 starts the rest of the way.

Guidry came back in 1978 with one of the most dominant seasons in major league history.

He was 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA and 0.946 WHIP with 248 strikeouts in 273.2 innings, leading the league in wins, winning percentage, ERA, shutouts (nine), WHIP and hits per nine innings (6.1).

Guidry ran away with the Cy Young Award and finished runner-up to Jim Rice of the Boston Red Sox in the MVP race.

He went on to lead the AL in ERA again in 1979, in WHIP in 1981, in complete games (21) in 1983, in wins in 1985 and in fewest walks per nine innings in 1986.

Guidry was a four-time All-Star, finished second in the Cy Young voting in 1985 and was third in 1979, while also winning five Gold Gloves.

He was shut down after 17 starts and five relief appearances in 1987 because of shoulder problems, per the New York Times, that required surgery and his comeback in 1988 was limited to 12 games and 10 starts covering 56 innings. He retired after the season.

In 14 seasons with New York, Guidry was 170-91 with a 3.29 ERA (119 ERA+) and 1.184 WHIP in 2,392 innings, striking out 1,778 with 95 complete games and 26 shutouts.

Andy Pettitte was a later-round draft pick that thrived, rising from the 22nd round of the 1990 June Amateur Draft to become a stalwart in the New York rotation for the better part of two decades.

Pettitte was selected as an 18-year-old and the left-handed Texan reached the majors in 1995, joining the rotation early in the season and finishing third in the Rookie of the Year voting that season.

In 1996, Pettitte emerged as an ace, leading the American League with 21 wins and finishing second in the Cy Young voting.

He would win 20 games once more in his career, in 2003, but was a solid piece of the rotation for four World Series championships from 1996-2000.

Pettitte left as a free agent in December 2003 to sign with the Houston Astros, but returned three years later and helped pitch New York to another World Series title in 2009.

He retired in February 2011, but returned to the Yankees a third time the following spring, pitching two more seasons before retiring for good at the end of the 2013 season.

He was a three-time All-Star and led the American League in 1997 by allowing only 0.3 home runs per nine innings, a remarkable feat in the era in which he played.

His tenure in New York was not, however, without controversy. In 2007, Pettitte admitted to using human growth hormone while recovering from a 2002 elbow injury.

Pettitte was one of 85 players named in the infamous Mitchell Report following an investigation into performance-enhancing drug use in baseball.

In 15 seasons with the Yankees, Pettitte was 219-127 with a 3.94 ERA (115 ERA+) and 1.373 WHIP, notching 2,020 strikeouts in 2,796.1 innings.

Pettitte appeared in 13 postseasons with New York, making 40 starts and going 18-10 with a 3.76 ERA and 1.305 WHIP over 251.1 innings. He was the MVP of the Yankees’ 2001 ALCS win over the Seattle Mariners.

Willie Randolph was never the best player with the Yankees, but for 13 seasons he might have been the steadiest.

Randolph came to the Yankees in a December 1975 trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates, with righthander Doc Medich going the other way in exchange for Randolph and pitchers Ken Brett and Dock Ellis.

But it was Randolph who was the big catch.

He was an All-Star as a 22-year-old in 1976 and brought speed to the Yankees lineup and solid glove work to the middle infield.

Randolph was a five-time All-Star with the Yankees and led the league with 119 walks in 1980.

In four postseasons with the Yankees (Randolph missed the 1978 playoffs with an injury), he hit .212/.320/.678 with four homers and 11 RBI while scoring 17 runs.

Four times, Randolph stole at least 30 bases, with a career-high 37 in 1976. He never hit more than seven home runs in a season, but he was a rock in the No. 2 spot in the order, combining a good eye for the strike zone with consistent contact.

He drew 1,005 walks in 13 years in New York, with just 512 strikeouts in 7,464 plate appearances.

Overall as a Yankee, Randolph his .275/.374/.731 with an OPS+ of 105, 48 homers, 549 RBI, 1,027 runs and 251 steals. He also had 75 sacrifice hits.

Randolph left in December 1988 to sign as a free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers and later played with the Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets before retiring after the 1993 season.

He returned to the Yankees in a front office role and was a coach with the club from 1994-2004 before being named to manage the Mets.

Randolph had that job from 2005-08. He later coached with the Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles and was a coach for Team USA at the last two World Baseball Classics in 2013 and 2017.

Embed from Getty Images

A native New Yorker, Whitey Ford signed with the Yankees in the 1946-47 offseason and made his way through the minors fairly quickly.

Ford had been a first baseman for most of high school before moving to the mound as a senior, according to the Society for American Baseball Research, but he was a quick study.

Ford arrived to the Yankees on July 1, 1950, and was sensational down the stretch, going 9-1 with a 2.81 ERA and 1.241 WHIP in 20 appearances, making 12 starts and striking out 59 in 112 innings.

After throwing 8.2 innings of shutout baseball in the World Series-clinching Game 4 win against the Philadelphia Phillies, but his career took a detour when he was drafted into the Army in November 1950.

After his two-year hitch was up, Ford returned to the Yankees and quickly installed himself as their ace. He led the American League in ERA and innings pitched twice, posted the league’s best WHIP and won the Cy Young Award (which at the time was only awarded to one pitcher in baseball) in 1961.

Ford was the rock of the staff for 13 years before injuries and age slowed him down in 1966. Despite coming back and pitching well early in the 1967 season, Ford retired on May 30 of that year, ending his 16-year career.

He was 236-106 with a 2.75 ERA and 1.215 WHIP (133 ERA+), with 1,956 strikeouts in 3,170.1 innings. Ford also had 156 complete games and 45 shutouts.

Ford was a 10-time All-Star and was third in the Cy Young voting in 1956, while finishing third in the MVP race in 1963.

In 22 World Series starts, Ford was 10-8 with a 2.71 ERA and 1.137 WHIP, striking out 94 hitters in 146 innings with seven complete games and three shutouts.

He was the World Series MVP in 1961, when he blanked the Cincinnati Reds over 14 innings in his two starts, allowing only six hits and walking one.

Ford was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974, in his second year of eligibility.

Embed from Getty Images

The Yankees snatched up young catcher Bill Dickey after he was waived by the Class D Jackson Senators after the 1927 season and by the end of 1928, the 21-year-old was making his debut for the Yankees.

He took over as New York’s regular catcher in 1929 and had a phenomenal run behind the plate, earning 11 All-Star nods and helping the Yankees to seven World Series titles.

Dickey was second in the MVP voting in 1938, when he was in the midst of a four-year stretch of .300 averages to go with at least 22 homers and 105 RBI.

Dickey was commissioned into the Navy in June 1944, just before his 37th birthday, and missed two seasons before returning to the Bronx for one last go-around in 1946, a season in which he also served 105 games as player-manager.

Born in Louisiana and raised in Shelby, Arkansas, Dickey was one of two brothers to catch in the bigs along with younger sibling George Dickey, who played parts of six seasons from 1935-47.

Dickey’s prime years from 1936-39 were as good as any stretch ever by a catcher. Over that span, he hit .326/.415/.980 with 102 homers and 460 RBI in 512 games.

The rest of his 17-year career wasn’t bad either, as he finished at .313/.382/.868 with an OPS+ of 127 and 202 homers, 1,209 RBI, 930 runs scored and only 289 strikeouts in more than 7,000 plate appearances.

In eight World Series, Dickey hit .255/.329/.709 with five homers and 24 RBI.

After retirement, he spent nine years as a coach with the Yankees from 1949-57 and later returned to Little Rock, Arkansas,, selling securities with his brother, ccording to the Society for American Baseball Research.

Dickey was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1954 and died on Nov. 12, 1993 at the age of 86.

Three MVP awards, two gigantic contracts and a career shrouded in controversy — thus was the 23-year journey through Major League Baseball of one Alex Rodriguez.

What he did on the field was undeniably great. What he did off it will forever taint that legacy.

Rodriguez was long accused of using performance-enhancing drugs, issuing denial after denial before he was suspended for the entire 2014 season in the wake of the Biogenesis scandal the previous year.

But in 12 seasons with the Yankees, Rodriguez put up some gargantuan numbers.

The Yankees obtained the reigning AL MVP from the Texas Rangers in February 2004, giving up Alfonso Soriano and Joaquin Arias to get him.

The move to New York necessitated a position switch, as Rodriguez was not going to unseat Derek Jeter at shortstop. He shifted over to third base and remained there until becoming a full-time DH his final two seasons.

His first season in pinstripes wasn’t without controversy.

While the Yankees were collapsing in the 2004 ALCS against the Boston Red Sox, Rodriguez made one of the plays that marked his career, slapping the ball out of the glove of Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo running out a swinging bunt in the sixth inning of Game 6.

He was ruled out for interference and a run that cut Boston’s lead to 4-3 was taken off the board.

In 2005, Rodriguez settled in, winning the first of his two MVP awards with the Yankees, slugging a league-best 48 home runs while leading the AL in runs, slugging percentage and OPS along the way.

He won his second MVP award in 2007, hitting 54 homers and driving in 156 runs. He was also a seven-time All-Star in New York.

Then there was that whole … postseason … thing. From 2005-07, Rodriguez all but disappeared at the plate in the playoffs, going 7-for-44 with one homer and one RBI in that span as the Yankees were eliminated in the first round each year.

He rebounded with a strong 2009 postseason, hitting six homers with 18 RBI in 15 games, but did relatively little at the dish the remainder of his career. In all, Rodriguez hit .240/.363/.794 in 61 playoff games for the Yankees, with 10 homers and 33 RBI.

In 12 seasons, his regular-season totals were vastly different. He his .283/.378/.900 with an OPS+ of 136 to go with 351 home runs, 1,096 RBI, 1,012 runs scored and 152 stolen bases.

But all those numbers — 696 career home runs chief among them — probably won’t get him to Cooperstown, if the voting results of others connected to PEDs are any indicator.

Panamanian Mariano Rivera almost went into the books as another guy who couldn’t quite cut it as a starter in the major leagues.

Signed as an amateur free agent in February 1990, Rivera was already 25 by the time he reached the majors in May 1995.

He started 10 games for the Yankees that season and was just 3-3 with a 5.94 ERA and 1.680 WHIP in 50 innings.

Hardly the stuff of legends.

He won a setup role for the Yankees in 1996 and never started again. In that role, he was third in the Cy Young voting in 1996, striking out 130 in 107.2 innings over 61 relief outings.

In 1997, he assumed the closer role and didn’t relinquish it until he retired in 2013, just shy of his 44th birthday.

Rivera finished more games than any pitcher in baseball history, 952, and saved 652 of them, also an all-time record. His ERA+ of 205 is the best ever, as well.

Over 17 seasons, Rivera was nearly a lock with a late lead, converting 652-of-732 save opportunities and seven times posting a save percentage of 90 percent or better, including going 83-for-86 over the 2008-09 seasons.

In the playoffs? Fuhgeddaboudit. Rivera made 96 postseason appearances with 42 saves and a 0.70 ERA and 0.759 WHIP in 141 innings — all all-time records.

In 19 seasons, Rivera was 82-60 with a 2.21 ERA and 1.000 WHIP in 1,283.2 innings. A 13-time All-Star, he was second in the Cy Young voting in 2005 and third in 1996, 1999 and 2004.

He will appear on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this fall and is likely a lock for induction in 2019.

Embed from Getty Images

From 1949-62, the Yankees won nine World Series titles and 11 American League pennants.

During that stretch, there was just one player who was there for all of it — Lawrence Peter Berra.

Yogi Berra signed with the Yankees for a $500 bonus in October 1942 at the age of 17 and made his big-league debut in September 1946.

He shared the catching duties in 1947 before taking the job over in 1948. While he spent some time in the outfield late in his career, Berra was the primary guy behind the plate for the dynasty years.

He was a three-time AL MVP, winning in 1951 and then back-to-back in 1954 and 1955. He never led the league in any major category and at 5-foot-7 and 185 pounds hardly fit the profile of a superstar.

But that’s exactly what Berra was. He drove in 100 or more runs five times in 18 years with the Yankees, added three more top-three MVP finishes to his three wins (second in both 1953 and 1956 and third in 1950)  and was the engine that drove the dynasty.

He was an 18-time All-Star and in postseason play batted .274/.359/.811 in 75 games, with 12 homers and 39 RBI to go with 41 runs.

Berra slugged with precision, though, striking out 414 times in 8,359 plate appearances in his career.

He retired after the 1963 season to accept the managerial job with the Yankees, finishing with a .285/.348/.830 slash line with an OPS+ of 125 and 358 home runs, 1,430 RBI and 1,174 runs.

He piloted New York to the pennant in 1964, but was fired after the Yankees lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. Berra returned in 1984 to manage again, but was fired just 16 games into the 1985 season. He also managed the New York Mets to a World Series appearance in 1973.

Berra joined the Mets in 1965 as a player-coach, retiring as a player in May of that year, but remained with the club as a coach until getting the managerial job after the death of Gil Hodges in April 1972.

He returned to the Yankees as a coach in 1976 and stayed until 1983, when he was again named manager. Berra would later coach with the Houston Astros from 1986-89.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972 and died Sept. 22, 2015 at the age of 90.

No one played more games, had more hits, stole more bases or played more years with the Yankees than The Captain, Derek Jeter.

Jeter was the sixth overall pick by the Yankees from Kalamazoo (Mich.) Central High School in the 1992 June Amateur Draft and less than three years later, he was making his major league debut at Yankee Stadium in May 1995.

He stuck for good in 1996 and spent most of the next two decades playing the shortstop position and leading the Yankees on and off the field.

Jeter won American League Rookie of the Year honors in 1996 after batting .314/.370/.800 with 10 home runs, 78 RBI and 104 runs while helping New York to its first World Series title in 18 years.

That was just the beginning, though. Jeter was a 14-time All-Star and a five-time Gold Glove winner, finishing second in the MVP voting in 2006 and third in both 1998 and 2009.

Jeter batted leadoff or in the No. 2 hole for most of his career and did it well in either spot in the order. Over his 20-year career, Jeter hit .319/.377/.817 with an OPS+ of 115, 260 homers, 1,311 RBI and 1,923 runs.

He is also the only player to eclipse 3,000 hits as a Yankee, finishing with a club-record 3,465.

He led the league in hits more than 10 years apart, stroking 219 safeties in 1999 and finishing atop the AL with 216 hits in 2012, at the age of 38.

A broken bone in his ankle during the playoffs in 2012 nearly ended his career, as he was only able to play in 17 games the following season, but he returned for a solid final season as a 40-year-old in 2014.

Jeter also led the AL with 127 runs in 1998 and finished his career with 97 sacrifice hits and a franchise-record 170 times hit by pitch.

He played almost an entire season in October (and November) as well, hitting .308/.374/.838 in 158 career postseason games, with 20 homers, 61 RBI and 111 runs. Jeter was the 2000 World Series MVP, going 9-for-22 with two homers in a five-game victory over the New York Mets.

Jeter became part owner and CEO of the Miami Marlins in September 2017, overseeing the day-to-day operations of the franchise.

Embed from Getty Images

Joe DiMaggio was destined for great things early, it seemed, as he put together a 61-game hitting streak for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League in 1933 … at the age of 18.

The Yankees sent five players and $25,000 cash to the Seals to purchase DiMaggio’s rights after the 1934 season, but because of a knee injury that sidelined him the final two months of the season, the Yankees had DiMaggio play another year with San Francisco to ensure he was healthy, per the Society for American Baseball Research.

DiMaggio hit .398 with 34 homers and 154 RBI and the Yankees were convinced.

He debuted with the Yankees in 1936, starting at all three outfield spots before finally settling into center field, where he remained for the rest of his career.

He led the league with 15 triples as a rookie and followed it up with the home run crown in 1937, belting 46.

DiMaggio won two straight batting titles in 1939 and 1940, led the league in homers and RBI in 1948 and amassed 418 total bases with 151 runs scored in 1937.

In 1941, DiMaggio set a record by hitting safely in 56 straight games, while leading the league in RBI and total bases and earning his second MVP award.

He was an All-Star for seven straight seasons between 1936-42, winning a pair of MVP awards, before he missed three full seasons while serving in the Army Air Force during World War II.

DiMaggio returned in 1946 and made six more All-Star appearances and was the AL MVP for a third time in 1947.

Slowed by a heel injury in 1949, DiMaggio played two more seasons before retiring at the end of the 1951 campaign.

In 13 seasons, he batted .325/.398/.977 with an OPS+ of 155 to go with 361 homers, 1,537 RBI and 1,390 runs scored … and scores of questions about what his numbers would have looked like with three full seasons in his prime from ages 28-30.

He played in 10 World Series over just 13 years in the majors, hitting .271/.338/.760 with eight homers and 30 RBI in 51 games.

DiMaggio disappeared from baseball for nearly two decades before coming back in 1968-69 as a coach with the Oakland Athletics.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1955 and died March 8, 1999 from lung cancer at the age of 84.

Embed from Getty Images

Mickey Mantle was just 19 years old when he broke spring training with the Yankees in April 1951, less than two years removed from signing with the club after his graduation from high school in Commerce, Oklahoma.

He struggled at first and was sent back to the minors for a spell, but when he returned, he put his stamp on baseball, even as he limped his way through the second half of his career and left everyone wondering how great he would have been had he stayed healthy more and partied less.

He played mostly in right field as a rookie next to aging great Joe DiMaggio and moved to center field the following season.

Mantle was named an All-Star in 1952, the first of 20 appearances in the Midsummer Classic, and in 1956 put together one of the greatest seasons ever.

He hit .353 with 52 homers and 130 RBI, winning the American League Triple Crown — just the 14th time in baseball history a player had led the league in all three categories — and rolled to the first of his three MVP awards.

Mantle repeated as MVP in 1957 and won it again in 1962 despite playing in just 123 games.

He led the AL in home runs four times and finished second in the MVP voting three times — 1960, 1961 and 1964 — and was third in 1952.

In 12 World Series appearances, Mantle hit .257/.374/.908 with a record 18 home runs to go with 40 RBI and 42 runs scored in 65 games.

Injuries took a toll late in his career. Mantle missed 39 games in 1962, 97 in 1963, 40 in 1965 and 54 in 1966 and limped to the finish line his final two seasons playing first base.

In 18 years, Mantle hit .298/.421/.977 with an OPS+ of 172 and 536 home runs (still the most by a switch-hitter in MLB history), 1,509 RBI and 1,676 runs scored.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974 in his first year of eligibility.

Mantle’s heavy drinking caught up to him. He sought treatment for alcoholism in 1993, but the damage was done. He was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer in 1994 and received a transplant on June 8, 1995, per the Society for American Baseball Research.

The surgery was a success of sorts, but Mantle died on Aug. 13, 1995 at the age of 63.

Embed from Getty Images

Lou Gehrig was signed by the Yankees off the Columbia University campus in 1923 and immediately joined the big-league team before being sent down to the minors for more seasoning.

He spent more of 1923 and 1924 with the Hartford Senators in the International League. Gehrig made the Yankees out of spring training, but was stuck behind Wally Pipp for the first two months before being inserted into the lineup on June 2, 1925.

He had played the day before as a pinch hitter, marking the first of a then-record 2,130 games played, a streak that lasted until what would be his final game on April 30, 1939. Gehrig took himself out of the lineup, having been struggling at the plate and with fatigue.

He was diagnosed on June 19, his 36th birthday, with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Per the Society for American Baseball Research, Gehrig was told he had an incurable disease which caused a hardening of the spinal cord, leading to deterioration of muscles and nerve endings.

He retired on June 21 and was honored on July 4, 1939, when he delivered the iconic speech that included the famous line:

Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

Less than two years later, Gehrig died, on June 2, 1941 at the age of 37.

But for 17 seasons, he was one of the greatest to ever play the game, teaming with Babe Ruth to form the first dynamic power hitting duo in baseball history.

Gehrig was named AL MVP in 1927 — the year Ruth hit a then-record 60 home runs — and again in 1936. He led the AL in home runs three times and topped the circuit in RBI five times, including an AL-record 185 in 1931.

And he did it playing every single day for almost 14 straight years.

In his 17 years with the Yankees, Gehrig hit .340/.447/1.080 with an OPS+ of 179 while clubbing 493 home runs to go with 1,995 RBI and 1,888 runs scored.

He was runner up for MVP twice, in 1931 and 1932, and was named to the first seven All-Star games, although he did not play in the 1939 contest.

In seven World Series, Gehrig hit .361/.483/1.214 in 34 games with 10 home runs, 35 RBI and 30 runs scored.

Gehrig was inducted into the Hall of Fame via special election in 1939.

Embed from Getty Images

Babe Ruth was at the forefront of baseball’s rapid change from a game of speed and small ball to a game of swinging for the fences with the advent of the live ball in 1920.

That coincided with the arrival of Ruth with the Yankees, who acquired him from the Boston Red Sox for $100,000 cash in December 1919.

Ruth had transitioned from a full-time pitcher and sometimes outfielder in 1919 with the Red Sox into more of a full-time position player to take advantage of his powerful bat.

He led the American League in homers in 1918, hitting 11 long balls in just 95 games, and followed that up with a record 29 in 1919.

Had he remained on the mound, it’s entirely possible Ruth would have been a Hall of Famer. He hurled nine shutouts in 1916 while winning 23 games and leading the AL with a 1.75 ERA. But his power was too alluring to only use him every fourth or fifth day.

More Articles About Babe Ruth:

After joining the Yankees, Ruth would make just five more mound appearances in his career.

But wow, did he hit the ball.

His .690 slugging percentage, 1.164 OPS and 206 OPS+ are still the highest in baseball history.

Ruth extended his single-season home run record to 54 in 1920 and topped it again in 1921 with 59.

In 1927, he clubbed a then-record 60 home runs.

In spite of his heroics, Ruth only won the MVP award once, in 1923, when he just missed a Triple Crown. He led the league with 41 homers and 130 RBI, but his .393 average was second to the .403 posted by Harry Heilmann of the Detroit Tigers.

He had another near miss in 1924, when he won his only batting title by hitting .378 and led the league with 46 homers, just finished tied for second with 124 RBI behind the 129 of Goose Goslin of the Washington Senators.

Ruth played in the first two All-Star games in 1933 and 1934, but was released by the Yankees in February 1935.

More from New York Yankees All-Time Lists

• 
  10 worst trades in New York Yankees franchise history
  
• 
  Yankees: 7 clutch playoff moments that deserve more praise
  
• 
  Yankees: 5 Best Playoff Games of the ’90s Dynasty
  
• 
  Yankees: 4 Best NYY Teams That Didn’t Win the World Series
  
• 
  Yankees: 6 Greatest World Series Pitching Performances of All Time
  

In 15 seasons for New York, Ruth batted .349/.484/1.195 with an OPS+ of 209 to go with 659 homers, 1,978 RBI and 1,959 runs. His 714 home runs were baseball’s most until the mark was broken by Hank Aaron in 1974.

In seven World Series with the Yankees, Ruth hit .347/.788/1.278 in 36 games, with 15 home runs, 30 RBI and 37 runs.

Ruth played his last game on May 30, 1935, for the Boston Braves and entered the Hall of Fame with its inaugural induction class in 1939.

In November 1946, Ruth checked himself into a Manhattan hospital with headaches and pain above his left eye. His diagnosis of cancer was never published in the newspapers of the day, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

Next: New York Yankees: All-time greatest seasons by position

Baseball held Babe Ruth Day in April 1947, with honors at every park, and he made his final Yankee Stadium appearance on June 13, 1948. He died on Aug. 16, 1948, at the age of 53.