Yankees Facts

• The first MLB All-Star Game was played in 1933 and six Yankees players were selected to the squad: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Lefty Gomez, Tony Lazzeri, and Ben Chapman.
• The Yankees, as a team, scored 968 runs in the 2008 season, the highest total for the franchise since 1937 when they scored 979 times.
• Twice in franchise history have the Yankees pounded out as many as eight homers in a game: June 28, 1939 and July 31, 2007.
• Ten players have homered in their first at-bat as Yankees players, the most recent, Wilson Betemit, did so in 2007.
• In 2005, ex-Yankees outfielder Melky Cabrera was selected to the World Team for the 2005 MLB Futures Game but was unable to compete because he was promoted to the Major Leagues before the game.
• Robinson Cano’s dad, Jose Cano, was originally signed by the Yankees in 1980 and later made the Major Leagues with the Houston Astros, pitching in six games.
• Robinson Cano wears the number 24 in honor of Jackie Robinson, who wore numbers 42, for whom he was named.
• From 1998 through 2008, Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon has the most home runs from the leadoff position than any other batter in the Major Leagues except for former Yankees player Alfonso Soriano.
• In 1929, the Yankees became the first team to permanently wear uniform numbers on the backs of jerseys.
• In 1929, the Yankees wore a black armband on the left jersey sleeve in honor of the late manager Miller Huggins. It was the first time the Yankees did this to honor the passing of one of their own.
• When Babe Ruth passed away in 1948, the Yankees added a black armband to the jersey sleeve for the remainder of the season in his honor.
• In 1990, to honor the passing of former Yankees player and manager Billy Martin, the Yankees wore a black number 1 on the left jersey sleeve.
• In 1999, two Yankees legends passed away: Joe DiMaggio and Catfish Hunter. To honor them, the Yankees added a number 5 patch and a black armband to the left jersey sleeve.
• When longtime player and broadcaster  Bobby Murcer passed in 2008, the Yankees added a black armband to the left jersey sleeve for the season.
• On April 7, 2010, Jorge Posada tied Mickey Mantle for most career doubles as a Yankee with 344!
• On January 3, 1973, a group led by Mr. George Steinbrenner III buys the Yankees from CBS.
• The late Bobby Murcer, a longtime center fielder for the Yankees, called his first Yankees game the day after he retired as a player in 1983.
• When the Yankees held Spring Training in Bermuda in 1913, it marked the first time that a Major League team traveled outside the United States for Spring Training.
• The 1936 Yankees are the only club in Major League history to feature five players with 100 or more RBI: Bill Dickey (107), Joe DiMaggio (125), Lou Gehrig (152), Tony Lazzeri (109), and George Selkirk (107).
• The first Yankees player to collect six hits in one game was Myril Hoag, who notched six singles against the Red Sox in the first game of a doubleheader, June 6, 1934.
• On April 18, 1950, Yankees second baseman Billy Martin hit a double and single in the eighth inning against the Red Sox, becoming the first player to collect two hits in one inning in his Major League debut.
• On May 8, 1925, the Yankees Everett Scott sat out a game against the St. Louis Brown, ending his Major League record of 1,307 consecutive games played. Just three weeks later, Scott’s teammate Lou Gehrig began a streak of 2,130 straight games that would break Scott’s record and stand for decades.
• The last Yankees pitcher to hit a home run in a regular season game was Lindy McDaniel, who homered on September 28, 1972.
• Despite being the “road” team, the Yankees wore their home pinstripes in both games they played against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the Tokyo Dome, March 30 and 31, 2004.
• The 1st walk-off hit by a Yankees player in World Series play occurred in Game 1 of the 1939 World Series against Cincinnati. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the score tied 1-1, and men on first and third, Bill Dickey singled off Reds pitcher Paul Derringer to win the game, 2-1.
• No one has ever collected more total bases in one season than Yankees slugger Babe Ruth, whose 457 total bases in 1921 has been a record or nine decades.
• The first Yankees infielder to win a Gold Glove Award was second baseman Bobby Richardson (1961).