New York Yankees

Pinstripes, navy blue, the city that never sleeps and legends – these are all common associations with one of baseball’s greatest dynasties: The New York Yankees.

The New York Yankees began their reign in NY in 1903 after moving from Baltimore. The baseball club is considered one of the most successful clubs in professional sports history worldwide. Having won 18 division titles, 40 American League pennants and 27 World Series championships, it’s easy to see why. Each of these is also a MLB record. There have been 44 Yankees players and 11 managers inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, including legendary greats: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Yogi Berra.

Babe Ruth was acquired from Boston in the 1920s and New York made its first World Series appearance in 1921. They lost to the Giants and repeated the same outcome in 1922. In 1923, the team moved to Yankee Stadium, considered “The House that Ruth Built.” They faced the Giants in the World Series for the third straight year and were finally able to triumph, winning their first championship. In 1934, Ruth left the team to join the Boston Braves.

The Yankees next stars were Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio. The team won 4 straight World Series championships from 1936-1939. In 1951, Mickey Mantle joined the Yankees and the club won 5 consecutive World Series from 1949-1953, which remains a major league record today.

The franchise declined in the 1960s and early ‘70s due to changes in ownership as well as the introduction of the MLB draft, limiting how the Yankees could go about signing new players.

In 1973, a group of investors led by George Steinbrenner, a Cleveland shipbuilder, purchased the team for $8.7 million. In less than a year, Steinbrenner bought out most of his other partners to become the team's majority owner. One of his big goals initially was to renovate the stadium. The renovations modernized the look of the stadium and also changed some of the seating. In the late 1970s, the competition was tight between the Yankees and their rivals, the Boston Red Sox, a rivalry that remains intense today between the 2 AL East squads.

The Yankees lost to the LA Dodgers in the 1981 World Series and began their longest absence from the playoffs since 1921. In 1995, shortstop Derek Jeter made his debut for the Yankees and would go on to play 20 seasons with the team, becoming one of the most popular Yankee players of all time. The 1998 team swept the San Diego Padres in the World Series and the 1998 Yankees squad is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest teams in baseball history, with only 48 losses.

In 2008, manager Joe Torre left the Yankees to join the Dodgers. In 2009 the new Yankee Stadium opened and the team won its most recent World Series, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.

Love them or hate them, the Bronx Bombers are a historic piece of baseball history and despite their limited success in recent years, the team’s fans span well beyond the metro New York area.