‘89 Yankees Even Fall Shy of 1925 Team

In 1925, Miller Huggins’ New York Yankees were on their way to a seventh-place finish. At one point, the Yankees fell 18 games below .500.

The 1989 Yankees of Manager Bucky Dent (well, at least he was manager when this newspaper went to press) repose 14 games behind the American League East-leading Baltimore Orioles.

Yankee fans may draw some comfort from that. But look closely. There is no comfort there. The ’89 Yanks have equaled a record for futility, but they are by no means the equal of the ’25 club. Not even close.

This Yankee team has descended to an intolerable position. It is duller than 50 gallons of dishwater. Poor play and losing go in cycles. Eventually, the Yankees will be up again. But because of the tension, instability and panicky disorganization that exists throughout, it may take many years.

But dullness is unforgivable in the entertainment business.

The Yanks of 1989 will avoid last place only because of the Detroit Tigers, who have died this season of natural causes. The Yankees have been murdered by their owner and their own hands.

The 1925 team finished 69-85. Yankee fans stayed away. After drawing more than 1 million fans for five consecutive seasons, attendance fell to 697,000. But dullness was not a problem. Huggins was in the middle of an 11 1/2-year tenure. Before George Steinbrenner, a Yankee manager’s position was relatively safe as long as he did the job. Huggins, Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Ralph Houk all managed 10 years or more, although Houk’s term was divided in two parts, ending in 1973.

One difference between the Yankees of 1925 and 1989 is the difference between Miller Huggins and Bucky Dent. Huggins was tough, seasoned and in full command. Dent is hanging timidly around until the ax connects with his fully exposed neck.

The 1989 Yanks don’t have hope. Isn’t that awful? No hope. Only dullness and certain uncertainty. They lost 19-5 to the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.

The 1925 Yanks allowed 19 runs in a game, too, losing 19-1 to Detroit in mid-June. But they were only pausing to pull their feet out of the mud during that season and everyone knew it. In the next three years, they would win three pennants and two world championships.

June 1, 1925 was a significant date for the Yankees.

It was on that day that Lou Gehrig replaced Wally Pipp at first base. Some 2,130 games later, the Iron Horse came out of the lineup. It was also the day Babe Ruth was inserted into the Yankee lineup for his first game of the year.

The Associated Press ignored Gehrig but reported this on Ruth in The Courant on June 2: “In the clean-up position of the Yankees batting order again after almost two months’ confinement to a hospital with influenza and indigestion, Ruth’s opening successes were limited to fielding features.”

Walter Johnson was pitching that day for the first-place Washington Senators, who in October would lose the World Series in seven games to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Ruth would play 98 games, hit 25 homers and drive in 66 runs in his curtailed season. That was expected. Gehrig had played 13 games for the Yanks in 1923 and 10 in 1924. No one could forsee his magnificant baseball future when he replaced Pipp on that day. But in the ensuing 126 games he hit 20 homers and knocked in 68 runs, batting .295. Oh, these Yankees had hope all right.

The next year they had a rookie second baseman, Tony “Poosh ‘em Up” Lazzeri, who was ready. He played 155 games. Ruth hit 47 homers, Gehrig 16 with 107 RBI. Leadoff man Earle Combs had a solid season and the pitching, anchored by veteran Herb Pennock (23-11), was sound as a 1925 gold piece. The Yanks won 91, lost 63 and although they lost the series to the St. Louis Cardinals and 39-year-old Grover Cleveland Alexander, the dynasty was reestablished.

The next season they won 110, and the next 101.

Today’s Yankees are sliding more and more rapidly backward. They have some fine players -- Don Mattingly, Steve Sax, Bob Geren, Dave Righetti, Roberto Kelly, Jesse Barfield -- but they don’t have hope. It is not a team that can hope for anything except avoiding the cellar this year, and little else next. 1990 will not be like 1926 for the Yankees. They don’t have the weapons or the will to make the needed commitment.

Too much trouble. Too much Steinbrenner. Too much dullness. Shame, shame, shame.