Next
up in my “Turn Back The Clock” series is the 10th anniversary of the
new “Murderer’s Row”, the 1961 New York Yankees and their march towards
another World Championship:
The Yanks almost matched the franchise record of 110 wins (1927 team),
but fell one short, but it wasn’t a problem as they took the American
League and them swept the Cincinnati Reds to take yet another title
during the Berra/Mantle era.
Although they had great pitching as evidenced by their six pitchers with
double-digit wins and single-digit losses, led by the “Chairman of the
Board” Whitey Ford and his Cy Young winning 25-4 record, it was their
monster line-up that featured no less than six players with 20 or more
home runs.
Of course it was all about Mantle and Maris, as they slammed their way
into the record books with 54 and 61 homers respectively. But they were
helped by 28 homers by Bill Skowron, 22 homers by Yogi Berra, and 21
homers apiece for Elston Howard and Johnny Blanchard, who managed his 21
homers in only 243 at-bats!
Considered one of the great teams of all-time, they had the Cy Young
winner in Ford and the MVP in Maris, with Mantle as arguably the player
with the MVP season!