1923 New York Yankees

 The last 100 years of Major League Baseball has been highlighted above all by the success of one team. The New York Yankees have 27 titles starting from 1923. Of the last century of the World Series, they've appeared in almost half and won over a quarter of them. Many of those titles came without several rounds of playoffs to fight through, but that also meant that the only way into the World Series was by being the best in the league, no question; there were no wild cards to fall back on.

But as hard as it was to believe, before 1923 the Yankees were seen as a 2nd rate team in their own city. The kings of NY at the time were the New York Giants. They had the titles and prestige that the Highlanders-turned-Yankees could only sit in the shadow of. Not only were the Yankees in the Giant's shadow, they also were playing in the Giant's home, the Polo Grounds.

Things changed for the Yankees, as for the rest of baseball. with the acquisition of Babe Ruth. Soon the Yankees were outdrawing the Giants and fast becoming a force in the AL. They'd win pennants in 1921 and 1922 but each time the Giants were able to stay on top by prevailing in the World Series. Not only that, but after 1922 they made the Yankees move out.

1923 began not only the era of Yankee Stadium, but also the era of the most dominating sports franchise of all time. The Yankees could only start such a run one way: by dispatching the reigning champs of not only baseball, but the city of New York. The Yankees met the Giants once again in the World Series, this time coming out on top 4 games to 2 and putting the world on notice.

Soon it was the Yankees running New York; keeping the Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers under them until both of them moved out west. The Mets would arrive soon after, but to this day they struggle to stand up to the Yankees. As for the rest of baseball, it wasn't long before the Yankees overtook the lead for titles, and in the 1990s they overtook the lead for titles in all of professional sports.

Babe Ruth put the Yankees on the map, no question. The Babe was on another level, pulling an on-base of 16 while most hitters were lucky to pull off 10. The homers on his chart seem insulting at just 19+ but with the Babe always getting the advantage, home runs were a frequent occurrence. He did launch 41 bombs after all.

 

The rest of the regulars. Pipp's days at the starter were numbered, but in '23 he proved to still have what it took by driving in over 100. Ward's 10 home runs were good for 2nd place on the team. Infield defense was stellar. I've talked before about how a combined infield defense of +14 was perfect, and the '23 Yankees roll a +13. Dugan especially was an underappreciated defensive gem of his time.

  

 

The bench of champions (I say tongue in cheek). Some of these guys are vomit inducing, with their charts being over half outs! But a couple standouts are obvious.
Ernie Johnson was a waiver pick up into the season, and thus had limited stats to draw upon, but he clearly made the most of it.
And of course, there was Lou Gehrig. He played in just 20 games during his rookie campaign, not enough to push Wally Pipp aside (yet) but there were no growing pains in 1923 as the future legend hit the ground running with a phenomenal card that was already rivaling Babe Ruth.

Yankees pitching in '23 topped the league in ERA and Ks. Jones led the charge with 21 wins, Bush and Shawkey paced them with 125Ks each, while Hoyt and Pennock held down with stellar ERAs of 3.02 and 3.13 respectively. ALL with 8IP.

The "bullpen" made for a fine assortment of guys to call upon in a blowout. Pipgras had a future in the rotation, but in 1923 he was still waiting for his opportunity. There were 10 "saves" for Yankee pitching that year, 9 of them came from the starters helping each other out or strive to finish their own games rather than putting the game in the hands of these three. So your 1923 Yankees collection will be without a Closer.