Ranking the Plaques in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park - Part II
Last month we began our review and rankings of the plaques on display at Monument Park. We're back with a new batch of bronze. The eight plaques featured here are a notch above the group we looked at last time, but they're not anything to write home about either. Rest assured that things will be looking pretty good from here on out.
As was the case last time, I won't share a picture of every plaque because they tend to run together and get redundant as you scan through them. For any that I don't have a picture of below, it's relatively easy to find via google.
24. Lou Gehrig - dedicated on July 4, 1941
A minimilast approach here for Lou, whose plaque was the second one commissioned by the Yankees after Miller Huggins. The first bit reads just like Babe Ruth's plaque, and awkwardly starts with this sentence: "A man." His consecutive games streak is mentioned, as it should be, but I must deduct points for no mention of his "Luckiest man" speech and the fact that they infuriatingly separated the word "teammate" into two words in the last sentence.
23. Joe McCarthy - dedicated on April 21, 1976
Another short, but sweet one. It has a promising start, as we learn that McCarthy was a beloved and respected leader. Unfortunately, we have no idea why because the plaque then trails off into an underwhelming list of accomplishments. You would expect a little more for arguably the most successful manager in franchise history.
22. Joe DiMaggio - dedicated on April 25, 1999
On the surface, DiMaggio's plaque - which became a monument after his death in 1999 - is a dud. The meat of it is simply a list of statistics and awards. However, the things they fit around the edges really improve the final product. We see his nickname (The Yankee Clipper), we learn about his crowning acheivement (the 56-game hitting streak), and we understand that he was considered the "greatest living ballplayer" for a long time. You can read this one and at least start to understand what made DiMaggio a mythical figure.
21. Thurman Munson - dedicated on September 20, 1980
This is a plaque unlike any other in Monument Park. It's simply a quote, seemingly from his teammates, that reflects their love and admiration for their captain. It doen't suffer the same fate of many modern plaques (listing a bunch of stats), which is refreshing. This was dedicated only a year after his untimely death, so you can forgive the Yankees for not really capturing the full context of his career, but it feels like more could be said about the iconic backstop.
20. Ron Guidry - dedicated on August 23, 2003
Guidry's long overdue dedication contains the usual nonsense we've seen in the rankings thus far, and therefore it uses too many words. Yet there are some redeeming qualities here. The plaque describes him as a respected leader and dominating pitcher, so we start to get a glimpse at the kind of character that Guidry was. We also get the bonus of both of his nicknames - Gator and Louisiana Lightning - included right at the top. You don't have to stretch your mind too much to read this and pitcture why it was so much fun to watch Guidry pitch in the late 70's.
19. Tino Martinez - dedicated on June 21, 2014
There was nothing super exciting about Tino as a player - had had no major strengths or glaring weaknesses - and his plaque reflects that. It's a perfectly adequate script that tells us why Tino was important without relying heavily on stats. The most interesting thing here is that it looks nothing at all like Tino Martinez. He looks more like Wellington Mara with a Yankee hat on.
18. Don Mattingly - dedicated on August 31, 1997
My admiration for Don Mattingly is well-documented, so I have to swallow hard when I see that the bulk of his plaque is literally a list of accomplishments. Thankfully, they included "Donnie Baseball" at the top and four succinct sentences at the bottom that perfectly describe why Mattingly was a hero whom millions of Yankee fans still look up to.
17. Willie Randolph - dedicated on June 20, 2015
If Guidry's plaque was overdue, then the amount of time the Yankees made Randolph wait for his was criminal. It reads as basically the inverse of Mattingly's - his partner for many years on the right side of the Yankee infield. The first paragraph gives us a great summary of Willie's unique abilities as both a hitter and fielder. The rest is the usual nonsense with the only saving grace being that they acknowledge his success as a third base coach. If they had stopped after the first two sentences here, it might be in the top half of the rankings.
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