The New York Yankees Need To Rebound In Franchise Value And In The Standings
When New York Yankees´ fans learned recently that their team had reportedly fallen behind the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots in sports franchise value, you could hear the Bronx cheers resonating clear across the Hudson River. But when the anguish subsided, the only question left was what the Yankees front office was going to do about it.
Throughout the Yankees glorious history, their brass has time and again jolted life into the Bombers by engineering big off-season moves. More than once, a confident and outspoken star has paraded down Broadway into Yankee Stadium with bold claims of turning the franchise around.
The first of these was one George Herman Ruth. Ruth instantly boosted the Yankees franchise worth. And he knew right away what it would take to transform the Yanks on the field.“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime, ¨ he said according to Babe Ruth.com.
And after the Yankees bought him from the Boston Red Sox, Ruth did jump start the Yankees instantly. He hit 659 of his 714 career home runs as a Yankee, showing that his bat backed up his mouth.
The Babe was perhaps most proud of the Yankees 1927 team, which he believed no team would ever rival. “Those Yankees were the best team. Figure it out. After we got going we won twelve straight World Series games-twelve in a row. It was murder. The Yankees had the greatest punch baseball ever knew. We never even worried five or six runs behind…Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! and Wham! No matter who was pitching,¨ he said according to angelfire.com.
But Ruth was just the first of many shrewd off-season moves the Yankees have made. And it might not even be the one that caused the greatest uproar. That distinction could go to George Steinbrenner´s signing of Reggie Jackson between the 1976 and 1977 seasons.
Reggie was not shy about letting Yankees´ fans know just where his place would be in Yankees lore. ¨”I didn’t come to New York to be a star, I brought my star with me,¨ he said according to Baseball Almanac.
And looking at his numbers, you would have to say that he did just that. Sure, everybody remembers his three home runs against the Dodgers in the final game of the 1977 World Series. But there is so much more that gets forgotten.
Altogether, Reggie hit 144 home runs for the Yankees in five years, batting .281 with 461 RBI.
Yet another big off-season pick up was Rickey Henderson, who came to the Yankees in December of 1984. Rickey had some of Jackson´s flair, and all of his confidence. Brian Cashman, who was then working his way up the Yankees ladder, once called Henderson to find out why he had not cashed a bonus check the Yankees had given him, Rickey let Cashman know that he was in no hurry. “I’m just waiting for the money market rates to go up,¨ he said according to Chiefsplanet.com.
And Rickey deserved every penny. He provided pop at the top of the lineup. In all, Henderson hit 78 homers and batted .288 for the Yankees. He also set the franchise career stolen base record at the time with 326.
But even Henderson, with all his brashness, could not top the outrageous attitude that Roger Clemens brought with him when he came to the Yankees before the 1999 season. Clemens later infuriated Boston fans by proclaiming that the Yankees, not the Red Sox, were the organization that owned his heart.
“He’s the one (George Steinbrenner) who gave me a chance to get to the World Series. This is where I wanted to be all along. We had a couple of nice offers from other teams, Clemens said according to Baseball Almanac. ¨ But I tied my agents’ hands. I told them I wanted to be a Yankee.” Like Ruth, Jackson and Henderson, The Rocket made his mark in the Bronx. He went 83-42 in six years, helping the Yankees to two World Series titles.
In 1981, the Yankees acquired Dave Winfield, another star who was not afraid to speak his mind. Winfield made it clear that baseball players did not take a back seat to anyone, even actors.¨Tom Cruise only makes one or two film appearances a year,¨he said, according to Baseball Almanac. A baseball player can be the hero or the goat 162 times a year.¨
Winfield hit 205 home runs for the Yankees with 818 RBI and a batting average of .290. Despite his regular season success, Steinbrenner frequently criticized Winfield for his poor production in critical games. But there is no question that Winfield quickly energized the Yankees and their fans.
So there you have five guys who came to the Yankees with their jaws flapping. And every one of them was able to back it up on the field. And now, as their franchise worth is dropping in the rankings, they are desperately in need of another to help them rebound.But is there a player out there who could do it again? And if there is, does the current Yankees brass have the fortitude to go get him? The voices carrying across the Hudson River want to know.