team spans more than a century. Frank J. Farrell and William Stephen Devery bought the rights to an American League (AL) club in New York City after the 1902 season. The team, which became known as the Yankees in 1913, rarely contended for the AL championship before the acquisition of outfielder Babe Ruth after the 1919 season. With Ruth in the lineup, the Yankees won their first AL title in 1921, followed by their first World Series championship in 1923. Ruth and first baseman Lou Gehrig were part of New York's Murderers' Row lineup, which led the Yankees to a then-AL record 110 wins and a Series championship in 1927 under Miller Huggins. They repeated as World Series winners in 1928, and their next title came under manager Joe McCarthy in 1932. The Yankees won the World Series every year from 1936 to 1939 with a team that featured Gehrig and outfielder Joe DiMaggio, who recorded a record hitting streak during New York's 1941 championship season. New York set a major league record by winning five consecutive championships from 1949 to 1953, and appeared in the World Series nine times during the next 11 years. Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Whitey Ford were among the players fielded by the Yankees during the era. After the 1964 season, a lack of effective replacements for aging players caused the franchise to decline on the field, and the team became a money-loser for owners CBS while playing in an aging stadium. George Steinbrenner bought the club in 1973 and regularly invested in new talent, using free agency to acquire top players. Yankee Stadium was renovated and reopened in 1976 as the home of a more competitive Yankees team. Despite clubhouse disputes, the team reached the World Series four times between 1976 and 1981 and claimed the championship in 1977 and 1978. New York continued to pursue their strategy of signing free agents into the 1980s, but with less success, and the team eventually sank into mediocrity after 1981. In the early 1990s, the team began to improve as their roster was rebuilt around young players from their minor league system, including Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. After earning a playoff berth in 1995, the Yankees won four of the next five World Series, and the 1998–2000 teams were the last in MLB to win three straight Series titles. As the 2000s progressed, the Yankees' rivalry with the Boston Red Sox increased in intensity as the sides met multiple times in the American League Championship Series (ALCS), trading victories in 2003 and 2004. New York regularly reached the postseason, but were often defeated in the first two rounds. In 2009, the Yankees opened a new Yankee Stadium and won the World Series for the 27th time in team history. The furthest the Yankees have gone in the postseason since then is the ALCS, in 2010 and 2012. Contents [hide] 1Pre-World War II 1.1Background: 1901–02 Baltimore Orioles 1.21903–12: Early years 1.31913–20: New ownership and acquisition of Babe Ruth 1.41921–28: First World Series win and Murderers' Row 1.51929–35: Hiring of Joe McCarthy and Ruth's called shot 1.61936–41: Renewed domination 2World War II to free agency 2.11942–47: Pre-Stengel era 2.21948–56: Stengel hire and five straight World Series wins 2.31957–64: Continued success 2.4 1965–72: New ownership and decline 2.51973–76: Steinbrenner takes over 3Free agency era 3.11977–81: "The Bronx Zoo" 3.21982–95: Struggles and return to postseason 3.31996–2001: Championship run 3.42002–08: Final years in old Yankee Stadium 3.52009–present: New stadium and record 27th championship 4Notes 5References 6Bibliography Pre-World War II[edit] Background: 1901–02 Baltimore Orioles[edit] John McGraw was the first manager of the Baltimore Orioles, and had an ownership interest. At the end of the 1900 baseball season, the Western League was positioned by its president, Ban Johnson, as a new major league that would compete with the established National League (NL). The league was reorganized and renamed the American League (AL), and eight cities fielded teams in the 1901 season. A Baltimore team had played in the NL through the 1899 season, after which the club was shut down by the league. Baltimore was one of three former NL cities where the AL placed teams in an effort to reach underserved fans.[1] The new Orioles' first manager was John McGraw, who had held the same position for the previous Baltimore team in 1899; McGraw also held an ownership stake.[2] In 1901, their first season, the Orioles had a 68–65 win–loss record and finished in fifth place in the AL.[3] During the season, there were numerous disputes between Johnson and McGraw over disciplinary issues, which continued into the following year.[4] Rumors began to spread that Johnson was interested in relocating the team to New York City, in an attempt to compete directly with the NL. McGraw left the Orioles and joined the New York Giants as their manager; he transferred his interest in the Baltimore team to the Giants as part of the deal.[5] Several Orioles—including Roger Bresnahan and Joe McGinnity—joined the Giants after McGraw's departure, and the Giants gained a majority of the Orioles' stock. The league managed to take back control of the team from the Giants; after the Orioles forfeited a game because they lacked enough active players,[6] Johnson ordered that the team be "restocked with players essentially given away by the other teams in order to play out the schedule", according to author Marty Appel.[7] The Orioles finished last in the league both in the standings and in attendance.[8] The AL and NL signed an agreement after the 1902 season that ended the leagues' battles for players, which had led to increasing salaries. Johnson sought the right to locate an AL team in New York City, which was granted as part of the leagues' peace agreement. His intention was for the team to play in Manhattan, but the idea was opposed by Giants owner John T. Brush and former owner Andrew Freedman, who were connected to the city's Tammany Hall political organization. They blocked several potential stadium locations, before a pair of Tammany Hall politicians, Frank J. Farrell and William Stephen Devery, purchased the New York franchise in the AL.[9] The pair paid US$18,000 for the team. It is not clear whether Farrell and Devery purchased the remains of the Orioles and moved them to New York, or if they received an expansion franchise.[10][note 1] It was the last change in the lineup of MLB teams for half a century.[13] 1903–12: Early years[edit] The ballpark for the New York team was constructed between 165th and 168th Streets, on Broadway in Manhattan. Formally known as American League Park, it was nicknamed Hilltop Park because of its relatively high elevation.[14] The team did not have an official nickname; it was often called the New York Americans in reference to the AL. Another common nickname for the club was the Highlanders, a play on the last name of the team's president, Joe Gordon, and the British military unit, the Gordon Highlanders.[15] The team acquired players such as outfielder Willie Keeler and pitcher Jack Chesbro. The player-manager was Clark Griffith, obtained from the Chicago White Sox. On April 22, 1903, the Highlanders began their season with a 3–1 loss to the Washington Senators; eight days later, they won their first game in Hilltop Park, defeating the Senators 6–2. New York fell out of contention for the AL pennant in May, falling to seventh place after playing games away from Hilltop Park for a 24-day period while construction on the stadium concluded. With a final record of 72–62 after wins in 19 of 29 games played in September, New York finished in fourth.[16] New York plays a game at Hilltop Park in 1912. Chesbro won 41 games in New York's 1904 season, still an AL record.[17] New York contended for the AL pennant with the Boston Americans (later nicknamed the Red Sox); Johnson aided New York by helping the team acquire multiple players in trades, including Boston's Patsy Dougherty. Boston and New York faced each other in a season-ending five-game series that decided the pennant winner, and was played from October 7–10. Boston won two of the first three games, which meant that New York needed to win the two contests scheduled on October 10 to win the AL title. With the score of the first game tied 2–2 in the ninth inning, Chesbro threw a wild pitch that allowed a runner on third base to score, giving Boston a 3–2 victory that clinched the AL pennant; New York won the now-meaningless second game.[18] New York's performance declined in 1905, as numerous pitchers dealt with arm injuries and conditioning issues. After losing 18 of 25 games in May, the Highlanders ended the season in sixth.[19] In its 1906 season, New York again contended for the AL championship. With 13 games left, the team held a one-game lead over the White Sox, but finished in second place three games behind Chicago.[20] According to Appel, "What would follow would be a string of mediocre to bad seasons and not a very good attraction for baseball-crazed New York fans."[21] New York recorded a fifth-place finish in 1907, with 70 wins, 22 fewer than the league champion Detroit Tigers.[22] The 1908 and 1909 teams finished last and fifth, respectively, and there were multiple managerial changes in the period.[23] New York had a second-place finish in 1910, but did not seriously contend for the pennant. Manager George Stallings and first baseman Hal Chase, the team captain, clashed towards the end of the season; facing opposition from Ban Johnson, who wanted him to resign as manager, Stallings left the position. Chase managed New York's last 14 games.[24] The following season, New York had a sixth-place finish.[25] Early in the season, New York allowed the Giants to play in Hilltop Park after the Giants' stadium, the Polo Grounds, burned down; the arrangement lasted until June 28, when the rebuilt Polo Grounds opened.[26] Chase resigned as manager before New York's 1912 season; Harry Wolverton accepted the position.[27] That year, New York had a last-place finish with a record of 50–102, the winning percentage of .329 the lowest-ever for the club.[28] After their first couple of seasons in New York City, team ownership infrequently invested in new players. The ownership group of Farrell and Devery spent their money on personal pursuits such as gambling, leaving them with little to put into the team. New York's star player, Chase, consorted frequently with gamblers. Author Jim Reisler dubbed him "the most crooked player to ever play the game" because of reports that he took part in game fixing.[29] The club also had difficulty drawing fans to Hilltop Park.[30] Appel wrote that "maybe the best thing you could say about the ballpark was that it never burned down."[31] By the end of the 1912 season, Farrell was searching for a site to build a new stadium on.[32] 1913–20: New ownership and acquisition of Babe Ruth[edit] Babe Ruth in 1920, the year he joined the Yankees New York started playing home games at the Polo Grounds in 1913 as tenants of the Giants.[33] Before the 1913 season, the team gained an official nickname for the first time. Either "Yankees" or "Yanks" had been used frequently since 1904 in newspapers such as the New York Evening Journal, since "Highlanders" was hard to fit in headlines.[34] Such unofficial nicknames were common during that era,[15] but thereafter the official name took hold—the New York Yankees.[35] A third major league, the Federal League (FL), began play in 1914 and lasted for two years. While the Yankees did not have to contend with direct competition for fans, as the FL chose to place its New York City franchise in Brooklyn instead of Manhattan,[36] the team nearly lost leading pitcher Ray Caldwell to the rival league after the 1914 season.[37] With the Yankees finishing seventh in 1913 and sixth in 1914,[38] Farrell and Devery sold the team to brewery magnate Jacob Ruppert and former United States Army engineer Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston.[39] The Yankees had rarely been profitable over the previous 10 years, and carried debts of $20,000.[40] The sale was completed on January 11, 1915, as the pair paid a combined $460,000. Ruppert called the team "an orphan ball club, without a home of its own, without players of outstanding ability, without prestige."[41] The new owners intended to spend freely to improve the club's talent level and made a major purchase in 1915, buying pitcher Bob Shawkey from the Philadelphia Athletics. In spite of this, the Yankees' 69 wins were only enough for fifth in the league.[42] After wearing different designs during the Highlanders years, in 1915 the Yankees introduced white uniforms with pinstripes and an interlocking "NY" logo during games at the Polo Grounds; this remains their home uniform design today. For road games, the team began to wear gray uniforms with "New York" across the chest from 1913; the Yankees still wear similar garb.[43][44] Following the acquisition of third baseman Frank "Home Run" Baker from the Athletics,[45] the 1916 Yankees had 80 wins and contended for the AL pennant for most of the season, before suffering a run of injuries to key players, including Baker.[46] In the Yankees' 1917 season, New York finished in sixth; Bill Donovan, the club's manager since 1915, was fired in the offseason.[47] Ruppert replaced him with Miller Huggins, completing the hire while Huston was overseas fighting in World War I.[48] The Yankees contended for first place in the war-shortened 1918 campaign along with the Red Sox and Cleveland Indians, but lost numerous players to military service and were fourth at 60–63.[49] After the season, the Yankees acquired three players—including outfielder Duffy Lewis and pitcher Ernie Shore—in a trade with the Red Sox, the winners of the 1918 World Series. In 1919, the club made another trade with Boston, acquiring pitcher Carl Mays for two players and $40,000. The midseason deal provoked a dispute between the teams and Ban Johnson, who unsuccessfully attempted to block it.[50] Mays had a 9–3 pitching record as a Yankee, and the team improved to 80–59 for the season; the mark was good for third in the AL.[51] The 1919 season was the first in which the Yankees played games at the Polo Grounds on Sundays; until then, blue laws had banned Sunday baseball in New York state. The Yankees' attendance more than doubled in 1919, rising to about 619,000.[52] The Giants soon moved to force the Yankees out of the Polo Grounds, in an effort to secure more Sunday home games.[53] On December 26, 1919, the Yankees made an agreement with the Red Sox to purchase outfielder Babe Ruth for $25,000 cash and $75,000 in promissory notes. The deal, which was announced on January 5, 1920, was called "the most famous transaction in sports" by author Glenn Stout.[54] After tying for the MLB home run lead in 1918 with the Athletics' Tilly Walker (with 11), Ruth broke the single-season record with 29 in 1919.[55] At the same time, he sought a new contract that would double his $10,000 yearly salary.[56] After the trade, Boston did not win another World Series championship until 2004; an alleged jinx against the Red Sox, which was known as the Curse of the Bambino (after a nickname for Ruth), was first brought up when they lost the 1986 World Series and became widely discussed after Dan Shaughnessy authored a book with the title.[57] The deal became a symbol of "how things [would] always go wrong for the Red Sox and right for the Yankees", according to Stout.[58] With Ruth in the lineup, the Yankees' fortunes were transformed.[59] Playing on four World Series champion teams, Ruth hit 659 home runs and scored 1,959 runs; both marks are team records as of 2016. He is second in club history with 1,978 runs batted in and accumulated 2,518 hits as a Yankee, third on the team's all-time list.[60] As well as prowess on the field, Ruth had a larger-than-life personality, bringing him and his team a huge amount of press and public attention.[61] The addition of Ruth helped the Yankees increase their attendance to 1,289,422 for the 1920 season; it was the first time that any MLB team drew more than one million fans in a year.[62] His skills and charm appealed to large segments of the New York City population; Stout wrote that "He belonged to everyone."[63] New York was the AL attendance leader for 13 of Ruth's 15 seasons with the team; the Yankees became solidly profitable as well, making over $370,000 in 1920 and remaining in the black for the rest of the decade.[64] In 1920, Ruth hit 54 home runs for a new record; his total was higher than that of all other MLB teams but the Philadelphia Phillies. New York had 95 wins, the most in team history to that point, but fell three wins short of the AL championship and finished third.[65] In an August 16 game against the Indians, a pitch from Mays hit Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in the head, leading to his death; the Yankees slumped after the incident as Cleveland captured the pennant.[66] After the season, the Yankees hired general manager Ed Barrow from the Red Sox. Barrow made numerous trades with his former club, including one immediately after his departure that brought catcher Wally Schang and pitcher Waite Hoyt to New York.[67] The Yankees also became involved in another dispute with Ban Johnson, this time over the replacement of baseball's existing governing body, the National Commission, after reports came out that the 1919 World Series had been fixed. The Yankees and 10 other franchises—including the entire NL—supported the idea of a three-man committee drawn from outside baseball running MLB, and for a time a move by the Yankees to the NL was rumored; ultimately, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was named MLB's first commissioner.[68] 1921–28: First World Series win and Murderers' Row[edit] The 1921 season began a 44-year period in which the Yankees were, according to author Richard Worth, "The greatest sustained winning 'empire' in sports".[69] Ruth surpassed his own record by hitting 59 home runs. He also led MLB in on-base percentage with a .512 mark for the season.[70] The Yankees won the AL pennant for the first time, winning 98 games in the regular season; the total gave them the league championship by a margin of  4 1⁄2 games over Cleveland. In the best-of-nine 1921 World Series, they faced the Giants and won the first two games, but their opponents claimed the Series title when they won four of the next five games. Ruth suffered an arm infection, which limited his playing time in the later part of the Series.[71] He and Bob Meusel participated in exhibition games during the offseason, in violation of MLB rules forbidding players on pennant-winning teams from barnstorming after the World Series. Season-long suspensions were considered a possibility, but Landis decided to suspend the pair for six weeks.[72] Despite the setback, New York had 94 wins and repeated as AL champions. The St. Louis Browns were the closest pursuers, finishing one game behind New York. In the World Series, the Yankees again faced the Giants in an all-New York matchup; the Series changed to a best-of-seven format that year. The Giants defeated the Yankees in five games, including one that ended in a tie when it was suspended because of darkness.[73] Lou Gehrig was part of the Yankees' 1927 Murderers' Row lineup. By 1923, the teams no longer shared the Polo Grounds, as Giants owner Charles Stoneham had attempted to evict the Yankees in 1920. Although the attempt was unsuccessful,[74] and Stoneham and the Yankees' owners agreed to a two-year lease renewal,[75] the Giants indicated that the Yankees would not receive an extension after 1922.[76] The treatment pushed the Yankees into seeking their own stadium. In 1921, the team bought a plot of land in the Bronx, and the construction crew finished the new ballpark before the 1923 season.[77] Yankee Stadium, a triple-deck facility, was originally designed to hold more than 55,000 spectators; it was later able to hold over 70,000.[78] Writer Peter Carino called the stadium "a larger and more impressive facility than anything yet built to house a baseball team."[79] At Yankee Stadium's inaugural game on April 18, 1923, Ruth hit the first home run in the stadium, which sportswriter Fred Lieb named "the House That Ruth Built" as the Yankees would not have needed such a large stadium without the Ruth-driven attendance. Ruth himself had a resurgence after receiving vocal criticism for his 1922 World Series performance. He shared the MLB lead with Cy Williams by hitting 41 home runs in the 1923 season, and had a career-best .393 batting average; his performance earned him the AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.[80][81] The Yankees finished first for the third consecutive year, and faced the Giants again in the 1923 World Series. Giants outfielder Casey Stengel hit game-winning home runs in two of the first three games of the World Series, but Ruth's three home runs helped the Yankees win in six games for their first MLB title.[82] Off the field, Ruppert purchased Huston's share of the Yankees for $1,250,000, assuming full ownership of the club.[83] The Yankees did not return to the World Series in either of the following two seasons. By 1925, New York had fallen to seventh place.[84] That year marked the team's last losing season until 1965; the 39-year streak of winning seasons is an MLB record.[85] First baseman Lou Gehrig debuted in 1925, earning a spot in the lineup he would not relinquish for almost 15 years, a then-record consecutive games played streak.[86] The Yankees made more talent upgrades before their 1926 season, which included the signing of infielder Tony Lazzeri, who spent over a decade with the club. New York's performance on the field surpassed preseason expectations, and a 16-game winning streak in May gave the team a substantial lead. With a three-game final margin over the Indians, the Yankees won the pennant and a spot in the 1926 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.[87] After the Yankees took a 3–2 series lead, the Cardinals won the final two games in Yankee Stadium to claim the Series title. Ruth hit three home runs in the fourth game, but made the final out of the Series on a failed stolen base attempt.[88] The Yankees' lineup in the 1927 season, which featured Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri, Meusel, Mark Koenig, and Earle Combs, was known as Murderers' Row for its power hitting. The team led in the standings throughout.[89] The Yankees took first place in early May, and by the end of June had posted a 49–20 record, giving them a large lead in the AL standings; by mid-September, they had clinched the pennant.[90] The 1927 Yankees had a 110–44 record in the regular season, and broke the AL record for wins in a year.[91] Ruth's total of 60 home runs set a single-season home run record that stood for 34 years.[55] Gehrig added 47 home runs and his 175 RBI topped the AL; he won the first of his two AL MVP Awards.[92] The Yankees completed the season by sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1927 World Series.[93] The 1927 Yankees squad is included among the great teams in baseball history.[94] To begin the 1928 season, the Yankees went on a 34–8 run and took a sizable lead. The Athletics chased them for the AL pennant towards the end of the season, but New York won the title again and faced the Cardinals in the 1928 World Series, sweeping them in four games. Coming off a 54-home run regular season, Ruth had three more and a .625 batting average in the Series, while Gehrig batted .545 with four home runs.[95] With the Yankees' run of three straight league pennants and two World Series titles came criticism from fans of other teams, who decried the team's dominance. Calls to "Break up the Yankees!" were made, and critics hoped that the team would sell Gehrig to separate him from Ruth; Ruppert declined to do so.[96] 1929–35: Hiring of Joe McCarthy and Ruth's called shot[edit] The Yankees' run of pennants was broken up by a rising Philadelphia Athletics team, which denied the Yankees a fourth straight AL championship in 1929.[97] The team's manager, Huggins, died on September 25. After Art Fletcher managed for the rest of the year, Shawkey took the position for the 1930 season, in which the Yankees had a third-place finish.[98] The Yankees fired Fletcher and hired Joe McCarthy; in his first season as manager, the team won 94 games but finished second behind the Athletics.[99] McCarthy's team was undergoing a transition from Murderers' Row; new contributors included Bill Dickey, who had first played for the Yankees in 1928, and pitchers Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez.[100] Ruffing, who had a 39–96 record with the Red Sox before being traded to New York, ended up 231–124 in his Yankees career.[101] In 1932, McCarthy's Yankees returned to the top of the AL with 107 wins, enough for a 13-game margin over the Athletics.[102] The Yankees met the Chicago Cubs in the 1932 World Series and swept them four games to none. Gehrig had three home runs, eight RBI, and a .529 batting average for the Series, while Ruth contributed a pair of home runs in the third game at Chicago's Wrigley Field. The second of Ruth's home runs was his "called shot"; after pointing towards the center field stands, according to some post-game press reports, Ruth homered to break a 4–4 tie in the fifth inning. Although accounts of the incident vary greatly, author Eric Enders called the home run "the most talked-about hit in baseball history".[103] The Yankees began cutting their payroll in 1933, as their finances were strained by the Great Depression. Regardless, the makeup of the team was minimally impacted in comparison to the Athletics, who were forced to sell key players to lower their expenses.[104] From 1933 to 1935, the Yankees posted three consecutive second-place finishes.[105] Ruth's performance declined from previous seasons in 1933 and 1934, his final years with the team. The Yankees released Ruth from his contract before the 1935 season, and Gehrig took a leadership role for the club; he was named New York's captain.[106] New York was beginning to see results from an initiative to buy minor league teams in an effort to reduce the cost of obtaining players; after buying their first minor league club in 1929, the Yankees had a 15-team system by 1937. Players developed in the farm system entered the Yankee lineup beginning in the mid-1930s, and into the early 1960s this remained the team's primary player acquisition method.[107] McCarthy worked to regulate player behavior in areas such as mental focus and off-field attire; the Yankees acquired a "corporate image" that they retained for many years.[108] 1936–41: Renewed domination[edit] Joe DiMaggio recorded base hits in an MLB record 56 straight games in 1941. New York's 1936 season was Joe DiMaggio's first with the club. The young center fielder was signed in 1934 from the Pacific Coast League's San Francisco Seals, and made his debut with the Yankees in 1936, gaining an extra year's experience with the Seals. DiMaggio had a .323 batting average, 29 home runs, and 125 RBI in his rookie season. Gehrig won the AL MVP Award for his season, in which he hit a career-high 49 home runs, with a .354 batting average and 152 RBI. Behind these performances, the Yankees had a 102-win season and won the AL pennant, before defeating the Giants in the 1936 World Series, four games to two.[109] After a second consecutive 102-win regular season and AL championship in the 1937 season, the Yankees again defeated the Giants in the Series—this time winning 4–1.[110] The 1938 Yankees had 48 victories in 61 games during one stretch, and won the team's third straight AL championship despite a drop in batting performance by Gehrig. In the 1938 World Series, the Yankees swept the Chicago Cubs in four games. Ruppert died early in 1939; before his death, he sold his ownership interest to Barrow, who took over as the Yankees' president.[111] Financially, the club's position had improved from earlier in the decade; after posting a net loss of around $170,000 from 1931 to 1935, the team made over $1 million during the next four years.[112] The 1939 Yankees lost the services of Gehrig early in the season. After starting the year poorly, he ended his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played; he was later diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which forced him to retire.[113] Despite the loss of Gehrig, New York fielded a team that posted 106 victories in 1939, 17 more than the second-place team. DiMaggio was named MVP of the league; he led the AL in batting average (.381) and was second in RBI (126). Ruffing led the Yankees' pitchers with 20 wins. In the 1939 World Series, the Yankees swept the Cincinnati Reds in four games for the club's fourth consecutive Series championship.[114] Writers have given the 1936–39 Yankees acclaim for their success in regular season and World Series play; Stout wrote that the 1939 squad was "magnificent", and that their campaign was "wholly without drama" besides Gehrig's departure from the lineup.[115] In response to the Yankees' dominance, after the 1939 season the AL temporarily barred most transactions between the last pennant winner and other league teams in an attempt to prevent New York from improving its roster.[116] The Yankees' run of championships ended in 1940; the team had 18 more losses than in the previous season and finished second, two games behind the Tigers.[117] DiMaggio recorded base hits in 56 consecutive games for the Yankees during the 1941 season, breaking the MLB record of 44 games that had been set by Willie Keeler in 1897. His hitting streak lasted from May 15 to July 17, when DiMaggio failed to record a hit during a game against the Indians at Cleveland Stadium.[118] After winning the AL pennant, the Yankees met the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1941 World Series, prevailing in five games. In Game 4, the Yankees trailed 4–3 in the ninth inning and were on the verge of defeat when Tommy Henrich struck out; Dodgers catcher Mickey Owen was unable to field the pitch, allowing Henrich to reach base. That began a four-run game-winning rally, and New York won the championship in Game 5 the following day.[119] World War II to free agency[edit] 1942–47: Pre-Stengel era[edit] The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred during the offseason, and some baseball players immediately joined the Armed Forces. Most of the Yankees' roster remained with the team in 1942, and the club repeated as AL champions despite Gomez's departure. In the 1942 World Series, the Cardinals gave the Yankees their first Series loss since 1926, after winning in eight consecutive appearances.[120][121] DiMaggio and other Yankees entered the military before the 1943 season, but the club won the AL championship for the 14th time and 7th since 1936. The Cardinals met the Yankees in a World Series rematch, and New York won four games to one.[122] After 1943, more of the team's players were drafted into military, and the Yankees ended 1944 in third place, one position higher than they finished the following season.[123] A group consisting of Larry MacPhail, Dan Topping, and Del Webb bought the Yankees, their stadium, and the franchise's minor league teams for $2,800,000 in 1945.[124] Under the new ownership, Yankee Stadium underwent extensive renovations that included the installation of lights. With the war over and the return of players from overseas, the Yankees set an MLB single-season home attendance record by attracting 2,265,512 fans in 1946. McCarthy resigned as manager early in the season. The Yankees used two other managers during the year (Bill Dickey and Johnny Neun), and ended 1946 in third place.[125] Catcher Yogi Berra made his Yankees debut that year; in his 18-season career, Berra won the AL MVP Award three times.[126] Bucky Harris was brought in to be the manager, and his 1947 team won the AL pennant and defeated the Dodgers in a seven-game World Series.[127] After the end of the Series, MacPhail sold his share of Yankees ownership to Topping and Webb for $2 million.[128] 1948–56: Stengel hire and five straight World Series wins[edit] Despite contending late into the season, the 1948 Yankees finished in third place. Harris was released and the Yankees brought in Casey Stengel to manage.[129] At the time, Stengel had "a reputation as a bit of a clown", according to Appel, and had been unsuccessful in two previous MLB managing stints.[130] As the Yankees' manager, he optimized matchups by using a platoon system, playing more left-handed batters against right-handed pitchers.[131] Numerous injuries affected the team[132] during the 1949 season but it battled with the Red Sox for the AL pennant; before a season-ending two-game series at Yankee Stadium, New York trailed Boston by one game and needed a pair of wins.[133] By scores of 5–4 and 5–3, the Yankees won the two games and the league championship.[134] New York won a World Series rematch with the Dodgers in five games.[135] Stengel was named AL Manager of the Year in his first season.[132] The Yankees faced another competitive pennant race in 1950, as the Tigers joined New York and Boston at the top of the AL. Late in the season, the Yankees broke a tie with the Tigers for first place and went on to win the pennant.[136] In the 1950 World Series, the Yankees swept the Phillies; the second game was decided by a DiMaggio home run in the tenth inning.[137] Following the season, Yankee Phil Rizzuto was named AL MVP after recording 200 base hits during the regular season.[138] Mickey Mantle won the AL Triple Crown in 1956, five seasons after first joining the Yankees. Fan interest in attending games had begun declining throughout MLB in the late-1940s, and the Yankees faced a drop-off in their crowds after 1947, when they sold about 2.2 million tickets. By 1957, season attendance was down by over 700,000.[139] New York baseball fans had the option of watching games on television instead by the early 1950s. The Yankees joined the other New York City franchises in allowing game telecasts. This was a departure from the team's strategy when radio broadcasts were introduced.[140] Regular season games of the Yankees were not broadcast until 1939, as management believed that fewer fans would attend games if they could listen on radios.[141] DiMaggio played his final MLB season in 1951, while highly touted outfielder Mickey Mantle made his debut for New York. Pitcher Allie Reynolds threw two no-hitters during 1951, as the Yankees claimed the AL pennant for the third straight year. They then won the 1951 World Series against the Giants, four games to two.[142] When their 1952 team took the AL pennant, the Yankees had an opportunity to match the four straight World Series championships won by the team from 1936 to 1939. In another Yankees–Dodgers matchup, New York fell behind three games to two, but victories in games six and seven gave the Yankees the title.[143] New York and Brooklyn were matched again in the 1953 World Series, and a Billy Martin base hit that decided the sixth and final game of the Series gave the Yankees another four games to two victory and a fifth title in a row.[144] As of 2016, the 1949–1953 Yankees are the only MLB teams to win five straight World Series; no team since has won more than three in a row.[145] The Yankees won 103 games in 1954, the most yet for a Stengel-managed team, but the Indians took the pennant with a then-AL record 111 wins.[146] One year later, the 1955 Yankees faced the Dodgers in the World Series.[147] After the teams split the first six games of the Series, the Yankees lost the seventh and final game 2–0, giving the Dodgers their first Series win.[148] Elston Howard, the first African American player in Yankees history, made his debut in 1955. His arrival came eight years after MLB's color line had been broken, as the Yankees' management had sought to avoid integrating the club's roster.[149] As teams such as the Dodgers added black players, the Yankees turned down numerous opportunities to acquire Negro league talent.[150] Management feared alienating white fans and harbored stereotypes of African American players. Author Robert Cohen called these views "symbolic of the overall arrogance of Yankee ownership and management, as well as their prevailing racial attitudes."[151] In 1956, Mantle won the MVP award for a season in which he led the AL and MLB in batting average (.353), home runs (52)and RBIs (130), becoming the second Yankee (after Gehrig in 1934) to win a Triple Crown.[152] The 1956 Yankees won the franchise's seventh AL championship under Stengel and advanced to a World Series rematch with the Dodgers. In Game 5, with the Series even at 2–2, Yankees pitcher Don Larsen threw a perfect game.In seven games, the Yankees won the Series: