Also on this day in 1998 surprisingly the New York Yankees clinched the AL East division crown when they increased their lead over the second place Boston Red Sox to 20.5 games. The Yankees would set an American League record in 1998 with a 114-48 record but I think clinching the division on September 9th may be more impressive.
Finally on this day in 1961 the M&M boys Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle passed another set of Yankees teammates in the MLB record books. On this day Maris hit his 56th home run of the season and when you combine that with Mantle's 52 the Yankees teammates held the record for the most single season home runs by a pair of teammates with 108. The M&M boys passed the 1927 Yankees teammates and legends Babe Ruth (60) and Lou Gehrig(47) for the MLB record.
I tend to get numbers stuck in my head and that 98 season sticks in my mind as one of the rare seasons when I would imagine what their record could be, and then it happened. They were 52-19 which was unheard of, and They just kept winning. For instance, and you can reference the game logs but after the all star break that year, they were 65-20, and 92-30 and finished the year 114-48 and after going 11-2 in the playoffs, they finished with the 125-50 final record. I don't know if we'll ever see that type of dominance again in our lifetimes. And I've missed it every year since.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Doubt we see another team this dominant in our lives, especially a Yankees team. It was fun while it lasted but it went far too quick.
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