Yankee Roadkill
Murdered Row: A Captivating Expose on Some Pretty Lousy Yankee Teams
By Short Al Statts
Hop into the Yankees bullpen car for a driveby shooting of The New York Yankee teams that opponents loved to face. Not every season is a World Series winner, as this potholed filled trip down memory lane will prove.
The 1912 New York Highlanders (50-102) were so bad that they ditched the name and became the Yankees the following season. Amazingly this remains the last 100 loss team of the franchise. With hitting leaders like Birdie Cree (.332 average) and Guy Zinn ( 6 homeruns) it’s easy to see why there is very little Highlander era memorabilia hanging at Yankee Stadium. The 1913 name change didn’t immediately help as the Yanks celebrated the occasion with their worst win percentage ever as the Yankees at .377 (57-94)
The 1925 New York Yankees (69-85) finished 7th out of 8 A.L. teams in large part because of the Babe’s “bellyache.” You can’t surround the Babe with players name Pee Wee Wanniger and expect big things especially when “The Bambino” was limited to just over 350 AB’s from what has long been rumored to be a battle with venereal diseases. The Babe did manage 28 homers. However, oft-forgotten Yankee star Bob Meusel led the team with 33. The grander story that history would take from this sub-par season was an injury to Wally Pip that would lead to the Iron Horses charge to greatness.
The 1966 New Yankees finished only a half game behind the Red Sox. How then do they find themselves on this list? Easy. The Red Sox finished in 9th place in the ten team American League, which placed the Yankees in dead last. The Yankee basement dwellers were only five years removed from their historical season of ’61. Maris and the Mick combined for 115 HR’s in ’61, but only 36 in ’65 which helped the team finish 26 ½ games out of first. Mel Stottlemyre, who would later become famous as Yanks pitching coach spent the year becoming the last Yankee pitcher to lose 20 games in one season. Jim Bouton went 3-8 while collecting notes for his infamous book, Ball Four.
The 1990 New York Yankees (67-95) are unequivocable the worst collection of human beings to wear Yankee pinstripes. Led by ringless Don Mattingly this squad managed to have THREE players with 100+ At-bats hit below .200 (Deion Sanders .158, Steve Balboni .192, and Mike Blowers .188) Jesse Barfield led the team with 25 homeruns edging out rookie Kevin Maas’ wild finish with 21. Stump Merril and Bucky “Bleepin” Dent managed a pitching staff that saw some remarkable feats. Reilef Pitcher Lee Guetterman led the team with 11 wins. This was made possible because Tim Leary was busy leading the league with 19 losses and setting a Yankee record with 23 wild pitches. Lest we forget the magic of Andy Hawkins. Hawkins pitched a no-hitter against the White Sox on July 1st, however the 1990 Yankees lost 4-0.
The 2008 New York Yankees (89-73) somehow missed the playoffs despite outspending everyone once again. They remain the only interleague era Yankee squad not to make the playoffs. This collection of non-winning Yankees was the culmination of eight seasons of Bronx Blueballs. Giambi. Abreu. Pudge Rodriguez. Sexson. Mussina. Pavano. All stars of the 2000’s who would leave the Bronx ringless.
