The Lost Honorable Mentions

This post is part of a series that includes material originally written for The New York Yankees All-Time All-Stars but had to hit the cutting room floor prior to publication. For other posts in the series you can search for the label "Author's Cut" on this site.

After selecting the All-Time All-Stars for the book there were plenty of players that just missed the cut. Many of these players were included in the Honorable Mentions section, but naturally some cuts had to be made there as well. Here's the best of the rest, or the Slightly Less Honorable Mentions, if you will. Each of these guys was important to the Yankees during their career in some way, shape or form.

Snuffy Stirnweiss – Second Base

The majority of his value as a Yankee came during 1944 and 1945 while most of baseball’s superstars served in World War II. He led all American League position players in WAR both years. He remained a viable starter for the Yankees for a few years after the war and earned three World Series rings.

Wade Boggs – Third Base

Already a surefire Hall of Famer in Boston, he was deemed washed up by the Red Sox after a down year in 1992. At 35 years old the Yankees signed him and he proved he was anything but. Over the next four years he hit well over .300, earned two Gold Gloves, and was named an American League All-Star each season. In 1996 he kept the long-standing tradition of exiled Red Sox finding a home in New York alive and won the World Series.

Bucky Dent – Shortstop

Nearly every bit of Dent’s value to the Yankees was squeezed out of his glove, with one gargantuan exception. During the Yankees’ one-game playoff in Boston after the 1978 season his improbable home run over Fenway Park’s Green Monster gave them a 3-2 lead in a game they would eventually win. His hot hitting continued in the 1978 World Series where he was named the MVP. Otherwise, he was just a really good fielder and did little else.

Dent is a four-letter word, especially in Boston.

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George Selkirk – Right Field

Probably the best player in Yankee history that was born in Canada. He had the unenviable task of replacing Babe Ruth as the Yankees’ regular right fielder in 1935. Never a superstar, he was well above average both at the plate and in the field. Clearly, he was the type of guy a team wins championships with as he had five World Series rings to show for his nine years with the Yankees.

Mickey Rivers – Center Field

Not the most dramatic member of The Bronx Zoo Yankees but certainly the quirkiest. His humorous quips were reminiscent of Yogi Berra – he once said, “Me, George and Billy, we’re two of a kind.” – and he walked with the gait of a man three times his age. However, he helped those teams win thanks to his prototypical leadoff skills and excellent range in center field. Mick The Quick was just that.

Ben Chapman – Outfield

Another speedster who spent the first six and a half years of his career mostly hitting right after Ruth and Gehrig in the Yankee lineup. As a result, he drove in over 100 runs in 1931 and 1932. In the latter year he also drove in six runs in an easy World Series win, the only one of his career. Unfortunately, his legacy is that of an unabashed racist who, among other transgressions, willfully opposed Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier in 1947.

Gene Woodling – Left Field

Played for six different teams, but his six years with the Yankees made up the entirety of his prime. In those six seasons he was a huge factor in five World Series wins, posting a line of .318/.442/.529 in those games. Had great plate discipline, a sound glove in left field, and thrived as a platoon player. You can add him to the long list of players that made Casey Stengel look like a genius.

Bob Meusel – Outfield

Tall and slender with a rocket for a right arm, he also served as a right-handed bat to complement Babe Ruth. In 1925, Ruth’s down year, he led the American League with 33 home runs and 134 RBI’s. Two years later he hit only eight long balls and drove in 103 runs for Murderers’ Row, although he was actually more productive than in 1925 thanks to a career high .337 batting average.

Meusel acquired the nickname "Long Bob" during his career.

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Hideki Matsui – Left Field

Came to New York amid much fanfare as a superstar in Japan. Nicknamed “Godzilla” as a young man because of acne problems, but it quickly became a reference to his monstrous hitting. In his first game at Yankee Stadium he hit a grand slam, winning over the hearts of the Yankee faithful. For seven years he was the definition of a professional hitter for the Yankees and was named the 2009 World Series MVP after hitting .615 with three home runs and eight RBI’s. Like a great showman, he left the fans in New York wanting more.

The Hideki Matsui experiment was successful for the Yankees.

Keith Allison/Wikimedia Commons

CC Sabathia – Starting Pitcher

The Yankees responded to their first playoff-less season in 13 years by signing this big lefty to a megadeal in 2008. Most large, long-term contracts for a star pitcher don’t work out well for the team signing them, but he wasn’t your average star pitcher. He anchored a pitching staff that won the World Series in 2009 and was an elite pitcher for four years in New York before injuries and personal struggles caught up with him. Most well-paid athletes simply fade away when in that situation, but he responded by transforming himself into a finesse pitcher at age 35 and revived his career.

Sabathia was the latest in a long line of great Yankee lefties.

Arturo Pardavila III/Wikimedia Commons

Russ Ford – Starting Pitcher

A dead-ball era pitcher who relied heavily on spitballs and scuffing the ball any way he could. Of course, he wasn’t the only one doing those things in his day. He led the major leagues in WAR after his rookie year with the Yankees in 1910. His production declined each of the next three years and left baseball for good once doctoring the ball was universally banned.

Roger Clemens/Orlando Hernandez/David Wells – Starting Pitcher

This three-headed monster helped sustain the Yankees’ dynasty in the late 1990’s and into the 2000’s. All three were major contributors to at least one of the Yankees’ three straight World Series wins from 1998 through 2000, all with very different approaches. Clemens came to New York as one of the greatest pitchers of all time. He wasn’t quite that with the Yankees, but he was still very good. His game was built on overpowering hitters and he won the American League Cy Young Award in 2001. Hernandez was a Cuban defector who debuted with the Yankees as a 32-year old rookie in 1998. With his high leg kick and constantly changing arm angles, “El Duque” kept hitters off balance and was as reliable as they come in the playoffs. Wells was a party animal with a beer gut and a problem with authority figures. Surprisingly, he had impeccable control of his pitches on the mound and threw a perfect game for the Yankees in 1998. By the mid-2000’s, all three had left the team and, by no coincidence, the Yankees’ success in the playoffs began to wane.

Joe Girardi – Manager

After a long career as a big league backstop, in which he won three World Series rings with the Yankees, he succeeded Joe Torre as manager in 2008. A season later the Yankees took home the 27th World Series trophy in franchise history. They wouldn’t win another one during his regime, but the Yankees were 200 games over .500 in his ten years as skipper. His slick bullpen management and willingness to rely on younger players served the team well.

Girardi found success as both a player and manager.

Jerry Reuss/Wikimedia Commons

Ralph Houk – Manager

Another former catcher who spent eight seasons as a reserve for the Yankees. In 1961 he got his first big league managing gig with the team and piloted one of the best teams ever thanks to Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. They would return to the World Series the next two years, winning it again in 1962. After the 1963 season he moved up to the general manager position, only to re-hire himself as manager in 1966. He lasted eight seasons in his second stint with no real success to speak of, although he helped develop players that would later end the Yankees’ championship drought.

Gene Michael – General Manager

After an underwhelming playing career as a shortstop, he continued working for the Yankees in various roles over the next few decades. In the early 1980’s he briefly served as both field manager and general manager but didn’t stick in either role. By 1991 he was given a second chance at the GM job and made the most of it. After years of excess under George Steinbrenner, he decided to take a patient approach and slowly built a winner. Despite getting fired in 1995, he had sowed the seeds that would blossom into an extended championship run starting just a year later. He was the true architect of the dominant Yankee teams in the late 1990’s.

Michael successfully re-built the Yankees in the early 1990's.

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