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Some players made their mark before coming to the
Bronx. Name these players who had some of their best
moments before they were Yankees. Hover over the
"Answer" links to view individual answers in a small
pop-up.
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This player who came to the Yankees via a late 80’s trade was best known for
his strong bat and strong right field arm. Before joining the Yankees, he
won two gold glove awards (1986, 1987) and lead the AL in Home Runs in 1986
with 40. He was a decent hitter who never topped the .300 mark but came
close with a .289 mark in both 1985 and 1986. This was probably due to his
tendency to pile up the strikeouts, surpassing the century mark in seven of
his nine full seasons in the big leagues.
Answer
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Before coming to the Yankees, this player was a solid hitter who never quite
made the jump to star status. He was a two-time all-star (1982, 1985), once
with Minnesota and once with Texas. A career .289 hitter, he averaged 18 HR
and 76 RBI in his five seasons prior to signing with the Yankees as a free
agent in the 1986 off-season. He matched the home run and RBI numbers in
his first year in New York, but his average dropped to a career low .248.
It was also much lower than his career best 28 HR and 91 RBI.
Answer
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Before coming to the Yankees, this pitcher started Game 7 of the 1996 NLCS
for the Cardinals. That's right...Game 7 of the NLCS. Now you know why the
Yankees faced the Braves that year.
Answer
Before becoming a Yankee, this line drive hitting lefty enjoyed six solid
years in Pittsburgh where he was an All-Star in 1981 and a member (although
a bench player) of the 1979 World Champs. He became a starter in 1980 for
the first time in his career at the age of 29, despite already having spent
parts of the previous six seasons in the majors, first with Houston, then
California before finding a home in Pittsburgh. He made the most of his
starting opportunity, hitting .338 with 21 HR in 132 games.
After three more decent seasons in Pittsburgh, he was traded to Boston in
return for John Tudor. The trade paid dividends for Boston as he reached
career highs in HR with 27, RBI with 91, runs scored with 87, hits with 188
and doubles with 31 to go along with a .313 average. He followed up with a
respectable, but less stellar campaign in 1985. In the spring of 1986, he
was traded to the Yankees in exchange for Don Baylor. He turned in a decent
year for the Yanks with a .302 average, but a below expected 14 HR and 78
RBI.
Ever desperate for pitching, the Yankees sent him to Philadelphia in
exchange for Charles Hudson in December of 1986. It was a short lived trip
to Philly however, as the Yankees re-acquired him in June of 1987. He
finished the season as a part-time player, was released after the season and
called it a career.
Answer
- Before coming to the Yankees, this player was a Rookie of the Year
winner, and AL all-star and member of the division winning White Sox...all
in 1983. But, it was downhill from there. His 35 HR, 100 RBI, .254 AVG
dropped to 32, 74 and .215 in 1984, then dropped even more to 26, 58 and
.230 in 1985. When the decline continued in 1986, he was shipped to the
Yankees with Joel Skinner and Wayne Tolleson in return for Ron Hassey,
Carlos Martinez and a player to be named later. He improved slightly in a
part-time role in NY, including a respectable 12 HR, 28 RBI and .277 in 59
games in 1987. The Yankees released him after that season and he bounced
around the AL for four more years before hanging it up, never having come
close again to regaining his rookie year form.
Answer
- Before he became a Yankee, this southpaw starter was a
one-time 21 game winner, two-time all-star and an owner of three World
Series champion rings. Early on in his career he drew comparisons with
Sandy Koufax. Both were lefties, both were Jewish and both had terrific
curveballs. In fact this player even notched two no-hitters in his career
(1969, 1971). He joined the Yankees for their 1976 pennant stretch run and
went 9-7 with a 4.17 ERA. He did not pitch in the post-season for the
Yankees, instead being relegated to the bullpen where Billy Martin refused
to call on him, reportedly due to a lack of confidence. He also had gotten
into a feud with George Steinbrenner by demanding a trade almost immediately
after the Yankees acquired him. He spent 1977 with the Yankees where he
pitched very little, mostly due to an order from Steinbrenner. It looked to
be more of the same in 1978 when the Yankees put him on the DL in early
June, despite the assertation that he was healthy. On June 10th, the
Yankees put him out of his misery and traded him to the Cubs where he
pitched through 1979 then called it a career at age 33 with a 174-150 record
and 3.49 career ERA.
Answer
- Before coming a Yankee, this player had already put
together a Hall of Fame career...all in the NL. A 10 time all-star through
his career, he was as a power hitting lefty who also hit for average and was
tough to strike out. He topped 40 HRs three times in his career, with his
top mark being a 51 HR season. He had one batting title, four HR titles and
led the league in RBI three times. In fact, he topped the century mark in
RBI 8 times. The Yankees purchased him from the Giants in late August of
1949 and he found himself in the World Series for the first time. He stayed
around until 1953, quickly making up for lost time by quickly collecting 5
World Championship rings. We was still a contributor though. He blasted 25
HR in 1950 and garnered some MVP consideration. In the 1952 World Series,
he hit home runs in games three, four and five, drove in six total runs and
batted .400. In 1953, he made the all-star squad for the final time in his
career and retired after the season. In 1981, he was voted into the Hall of
Fame by the Veteran's Committee.
Answer
- Before this pitcher joined the Yankees he had already had
an MVP award and two all-star appearances under his belt. Out of his first
eight years in baseball, those two consecutive all-star years were the only
two where he posted a winning record and double digits in victories, going a
combined 42-17. The other six years he went 27-48. Finally, in his ninth
season he came to the Yankees in a twelve player deal where he quickly
turned his fortunes around. He joined an already formidable staff and went
11-5, led the majors with a 2.45 ERA and made the all-star squad again. He
also picked up the first of his 8 consecutive gold glove awards. He would
go on to collect two World Series championship rings with the Yankees in
four years, posting a combined record of 30-18. He was selected as the
first player by the Washington Senators in the 1961 expansion draft and
traded two days later to the Pirates. He would play for five NL teams in
his final four seasons, calling it a career after the 1964 season.
Answer
- Here's another Hall of Famer. He established his
credentials based on his 13 years with the St. Louis Cardinals where he was
a 10-time all-star outfielder who hit with some power and always hit around
.300 (his career average.) A tough man to strikeout, he averaged almost two
walks to every strikeout over his career. He owns four World Championship
rings, two with St. Louis and two with the Yankees, but will best be
remembered for scoring the winning run in game seven of the 1946 World
Series where he scored from first base on a soft single to left field. He
came to the Yankees at the age of 38, where he served a reserve/pinch
hitting role for all or part of his final six seasons.
Answer
- This player was a six-time all-star before joining the
Yankees in his 19th MLB season at the age of 41. Primarily a shortstop, he
was the first player in MLB history to play each position in a single major
league game in 1965 with the Kansas City A's. He was a winner of three
World Series championship rings and primarily known for his speed and
versatility, compiling 649 stolen bases over the course of his career. An
anomaly in his career stats were that he totaled double digits in home runs
only one season in his career (22 in 1970), never surpassing a total of 8 in
any other year. After Charlie Finley broke apart his championship teams in
1976, this player moved to Texas for 2-1/2 years, California for 2-1/2 years
before ending up in Pinstripes to close out his career as a perfect Billy
Martin-type bench player with a robust .322 average in 60 games.
Answer
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