Yankees Legends Team

In my favorite baseball game, All Star Baseball 2004, you can unlock a Yankees Legends team. They created a team of not only great Yankees, but guys who also fall into the category of "legends". Unfortunately, the game did not have the rights to many deserving players, leaving the vacant spots filled by players active at the time like Soriano at second and Stanton in the pen. I've always wanted to make a more complete team, so i went over the stats and have created what in my mind is the Yankees Legends Team.

There were basically two qualifications for making the team: Statistics and Fame. There are many great Yankees statistically, who are lost in time and fail to live up to the title of a "Legend". The team was mostly decided based on statistics while a Yankee, but other players were added to the team due to their notoriety despite not having overly-significant Yankee stats.

The Team

• Batters are followed by their years with the Yankees, Average, Homers, RBI, and Hits as Yankees
• Pitchers are followed by their years with the Yankees, Wins, Era, and strikeouts as Yankees Saves are noted for relief pitchers.
• Bold indicates Hall of Famer, Italicized are Hall of Famers as Yankees
• #X indicates number is retired
• C indicates a captain of the Yankees

Starting Line-Up (Years) Avg, HR, RBI, Hits

1. SS-Derek Jeter (15+) .316, 215, 1032, 2624. C
2. CF-Joe Dimaggio (13) .325, 361, 1537, 2214. #5
3. RF-Babe Ruth (15) .349, 659, 1975, 2518. C, #3
4. 1B-Lou Gehrig (17) .340, 493, 1995, 2721. C, #4
5. LF-Mickey Mantle (18) .298, 536, 1509, 2415. #7
6. 3B-Alex Rodriguez (6+) .299, 219, 653, 905
7. DH-Reggie Jackson (5) .281, 144, 461, 661. #44
8. C-Yogi Berra (18) .285, 358, 1430, 2148. #8
9. 2B-Joe Gordon (7) .271, 153, 617, 1000

Bench

• 3B-Tony Lazzeri (12) .293, 169, 1154, 1784
• OF-Bernie Williams (16) .297, 287, 1257, 2336
• OF-Dave Winfield (9) .290, 205, 818, 1300
• SS-Phil Rizzuto (13) .273, 38, 563, 1588. #10
• C-Bill Dickey (17) .313, 202, 1209, 1969. #8
• 1B-Don Mattingly (14) .307, 222, 1099, 2153. C. #23

Starting Rotation (Years) Wins, Strike Outs, ERA

• Whitey Ford (16) 236, 1956, 2.75. #16
• Red Ruffing (15) 231, 1526, 3.47
• Lefty Gomez (13) 189, 1468, 3.34
• Ron Guidry (14) 170, 1778, 3.29. C. #49
• Catfish Hunter (5) 63, 492, 3.58

Bull Pen

• Long Relief-Mel Stottlemyre (11) 164, 1257, 2.97
• Set Up-Goose Gossage (7) 42, 512, 2.14, 151 sv
• Sparky Lyle (7) 57, 454, 2.14, 141 sv
• Dave Righetti (11) 74, 940, 3.11, 224 sv
• Closer-Mariano Rivera (15+) 69, 973, 2.30, 500 sv

Just Missed

• OF-Earle Combs (12) .325, 58, 632, 1866
• OF-Rickey Henderson (7) .288, 78, 255, 663
• C-Thurman Munson (11) .292, 113, 791, 1558. C. #15
• C-Elston Howard (13) .279, 161, 733, 1405. #32
• 2B-Willie Randolph (13) .275, 48, 549, 1731. C
• SP-Allie Reynolds (8) 131, 967, 3.30
• SP-Andy Pettitte (12+) 185, 1635, 4.02
• SP-Mike Mussina (8) 123, 1278, 3.88
• SP-Roger Clemens (6) 83, 1014, 4.01

Worth Noting

• 3B-Graig Nettles (11) .253, 250, 834, 1396. C
• 1B-Johnny Mize (5) .299, 157, 505, 733
• C-Jorge Posade (15+) .277, 231, 916, 1422
• SP-Jack Chesbro (7) 128, 913, 2.58

Future members?

• 2B- Robinson Cano
• C-Jorge Posada
• SP-CC Sabathia
• 1B-Mark Teixiera