Jimmy Sez

The Baseball Hall of Fame recently announced the candidates that will be included on the 2024 ballot for the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee to consider. The eight-person ballot is comprised of those who contributed to baseball as a manager, executive, or umpire since 1980. Of those eight, two candidates have strong ties to the Yankees. As is usually the case with these Veterans Committees, it will be difficult for any of the eight to be voted in since the electorate will be limited to just four votes, and 75% of that vote will be needed for election. Obviously, I'll be pulling for the gentlemen detailed below when the results are announced on December 3rd. Lou Piniella Sweet Lou spent 15 years of his long baseball career as a Yankee in some way, shape or form. A former Rookie of the Year and All-Star with the Royals, Piniella was traded to the Yankees prior to the 1974 season. For the next 11 years he was a key contributor to the Yankees mainly in a hybrid fourth outfielder/d...

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. “He knew how to hold a ball club together. He was a master psychologist. I thought he was a very brilliant man in many ways. He’d leave one player alone. He’d get one mad. Like Yogi he’d leave alone, and me he’d get mad all the time.” – Billy Martin The New York Yankees were at a crossroads in 1949. They had enjoyed unthinkable success under Joe McCarthy in the 1930’s and early 1940’s, but in the five years from 1944 through 1948 they had won only one World Series and were underwhelmed by Bucky Harris’ two-year stint as manager. Instead they handed the keys over to Casey Stengel, who in nine years as a manger in the National League compiled a record that stood 161 games below .500 and never finished bett...

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. “Our manager has taught us what we have to do to win. Everyone on this team plays hard and is ready to perform when he calls on them.” – Derek Jeter Like Casey Stengel before him, Joe Torre getting hired as Yankee manager was a head-scratcher. After a long and productive career as a player he transitioned right into managing where he excelled at losing consistently. By the time he reached the Yankees he was the sad clown of baseball, and nobody expected those fortunes to change in The Bronx. Yet, just like Stengel did, he shocked the baseball world and helped crown the Yankees the unquestioned kings of the diamond again. His cool demeanor and sober approach to baseball’s daily grind was tailor made for th...

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. “ The greatest manager who ever lived. ” – Waite Hoyt The Yankees have come to be known as the gold standard of excellence in baseball, but that wasn’t always the case. The first 15 years of the franchise’s existence was marked by near misses at best and complete futility at worst. Miller Huggins was hired as manager in 1918 to help change those fortunes, and while his impact wasn’t immediate, he eventually would mold the Yankees into a world class team. Undersized and ultracompetitive as a player, Huggins was the same as a manager and transformed what was a team of mercenaries into a tight-knit group of competitors. More than anyone, Huggins was responsible for setting the foundation of a winning cul...

This post is the first in 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. “He had incredible motivational skills and he could get players on a team to rally around each other like it was us against the world. Billy was so aggressive, he made us feel as if we were all in a bunker together and that baseball was all about war.” – Willie Randolph Baseball is often referred to as a thinking man’s game, but to Billy Martin it was visceral. Whether he was playing or managing, the typical game involving Martin would have his fingerprints, or fists, all over it. To him, baseball was about forced action and reaction, heart and will, and proving to the opposition with every move that he had a stronger desire to win than they did. As effective as his approach could be, it didn’t come...