Best 50 — 1962 New York Yankees (#32)

Successive editions of this text are counting down the 50 best ballclubs of all time — a/okay/a the Finest 50 — as ranked by my new ebook, Baseball’s Finest (and Worst) Groups. At present’s entry focuses on No. 32, the 1962 New York Yankees.

Right here’s a fast boilerplate rationalization that I’m appending to each story on this collection:

I compiled the Finest 50 by analyzing 2,544 major-league groups from 1903 to 2024. These golf equipment have been ranked by their group scores (TS), that are plotted on a 100-point scale. (A given membership’s all-time percentile is the share of the opposite 2,543 groups that it outperformed.)

See my ebook for an evidence of my TS calculations. The ebook additionally presents separate breakdowns of the perfect and worst golf equipment for each decade and franchise, complete profiles of the Finest 50 (together with position-by-position lineups and far more info than you’ll discover on this e-newsletter), and comparable summaries of the ten worst groups of all time.

Now on to right now’s profile.

Workforce: 1962 New York Yankees

Workforce rating: 86.401 factors

All-time rank: 32 of two,544

All-time percentile: 98.78%

Season file: 96-66 (.593)

Season place: First place in American League

Closing standing: World champion

The 1962 Yankees lacked the panache of their fast predecessors. They positioned third amongst 20 big-league groups in house runs and seventh in earned run common. New York’s 1961 membership had ranked first and second, respectively.

The Yankees gained solely 33 of their first 61 video games in 1962, miring them in fourth place within the American League. Supervisor Ralph Houk refused to give up. “We bought 100 video games to play,” he barked on June 23. “We ain’t going to stop.”

The Yankees, no matter their limitations, nonetheless knew how one can win. They accelerated to a 32-11 file through the subsequent six weeks, placing them 6.5 video games forward of their closest pursuers as of August 3. The AL race was successfully over.

A brand new hero emerged in that sizzling stretch. Pitcher Ralph Terry went 8-2 throughout these six torrid weeks. He turned New York’s ace — supplanting the nice Whitey Ford — and completed with a league-leading 23 victories.

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The Nationwide League’s race resulted in a useless warmth, forcing a playoff collection between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Giants emerged with a hard-fought pennant.

New York Occasions columnist Arthur Daley contended that the Giants had been “emotionally and bodily drained” by the playoff. He couldn’t think about them defeating the well-rested Yankees within the World Sequence.

But the 2 golf equipment traded victories 3 times — first New York, then San Francisco. Recreation Seven was a nail-biter. The Yankees clung to a 1-0 lead with two outs within the backside of the ninth. The Giants had runners on second and third. San Francisco slugger Willie McCovey scorched a line drive — “the toughest ball I ever hit,” he later stated — however second baseman Bobby Richardson speared it to save lots of the Yankees’ twentieth world championship.

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The Yankees’ home-run totals returned to earth in 1962. Proper fielder Roger Maris led the membership with 33, not the 61 that had introduced prompt fame in 1961. Middle fielder Mickey Mantle hit 30, not 54. Your complete squad completed with 199 homers, not the prior season’s file rely of 240.

Maris additionally topped the group with 100 RBIs, although his efficiency was usually thought-about a disappointment. He had gained the American League’s Most Worthwhile Participant Awards in 1960 and 1961, however he didn’t obtain a single vote in 1962’s balloting.

Mantle appeared to undergo a season-ending harm as he ran out a grounder on Might 18. He collapsed “as if he had been gunned down in full flight,” reporter Til Ferdenzi wrote. Mantle initially feared that his knee had blown out, however docs finally recognized a torn thigh muscle. He was sidelined for a month.

Bobby Richardson helped fill the void, hitting .308 within the 25 video games Mantle missed. The second baseman was a straight arrow who had at all times been extra expert with a glove than a bat. “He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t chew, he doesn’t keep out late, and he nonetheless can’t hit .250,” former supervisor Casey Stengel as soon as moaned. Richardson shocked his critics by main the AL with 209 hits in 1962.

One other nice shock was pitcher Ralph Terry, who had surrendered the house run that misplaced the 1960 World Sequence. Terry rebounded to a 23-12 file in 1962, including a pair of postseason victories. “Thank God for the second alternative,” he stated after locking down Recreation Seven of the ’62 collection.