Jimmy Sez

Last year I embarked on a journey to definitively rank the plaques that adorn the walls of Monument Park, lurking behind centerfield in Yankee Stadium. After a long pause, we're ready to bring you the thrilling conclusion and reveal the top eight pieces of bronze that thousands of Yankee fans flock to go see each year. I know the suspense has been killing you... One thing I learned in doing this project is that there is no perfect plaque in Monument Park. Much like the plaques in the Baseball Hall of Fame, even the best ones have their flaws. Regardless, if you have the time to stroll through them during your next trip to Yankee Stadium, these are the can't-miss plaques you should tell your friends about. A view inside Monument Park in New Yankee Stadium. Most of the plaques covered in this series sit behind the wall of retired numbers in the foreground. PVSBond/Wikimedia Commons As was the case previously, I won't share a picture of every plaque because they tend to run...

In our first two installments of this series we covered the bottom half - in terms of quality - of plaques currently sitting behind the centerfield wall of Yankee Stadium. Now we're ready to dive into the good ones, the ones that start to capture the essence of why these guys matter to the most successful franchise in baseball history. If you ever visit Monument Park with the intention of learning something about the Yankees, I would start with these. In the bottom left corner above, you can see the original three monuments in the field of play at Old Yankee Stadium. Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain As was the case previously,  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 . 16. Phil Rizzuto - dedicated on August 5, 1985 Scooter's plaque was made in 1985, so I know this isn't the case, but I could swear th...

Recently, Joe Posnanski - the greatest baseball writer of our generation - undertook the task of ranking all of the plaques currently captured in the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. It's an interesting project, and certainly a unique way to dig through baseball history. Naturally, those rankings got me thinking about the Yankees and how we could do a similar exercise with the plaques housed in Monument Park. At the very least, it would be a good way to distract myself from the beatings they took recently from the Red Sox, Orioles, Braves, and Mets. In these rankings I focused only on plaques that cover what I'll call "uniformed" Yankees. That is, players and managers only. The handful of other plaques in Monument Park tend to be quite different in nature. I'm also ignoring the blue plaques beneath the retired numbers in Monument Park. There's a subset of players and managers who have been honored with a bronze plaque that have also had their uniform number...

When Whitey Ford passed away a few weeks ago it left the Yankee Universe asking themselves a question that has had an obvious answer for a very long time. Ford was one of many former Yankees who racked up championship rings at record rates in the 1950's and 60's. Since that time, the team has been lucky enough to celebrate those teams by inviting the men who made them legendary back to Yankee Stadium every year. And of that group, there's always been a clear elder statesman, an old guy with a Hall of Fame resumé who serves as the unofficial patriarch of the extended Yankee family. For nearly 50 years this role was filled by Joe DiMaggio. The man who touted himself as the "Greatest Living Ballplayer" was treated as such whenever returning to the Bronx. There were others in the running of course, none more so than Mickey Mantle, but The Mick tragically died at the way too young age of 63 and DiMaggio held the title until he passed away in the spring of 1999. At tha...