1965 New York Yankees
This was the end of the great Yankee dynasty. In 1963 and 1964 the Yanks had won the American League pennant, although they had to survive a thrilling finish in 1964. That race went to the final weekend with New York, the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles all in contention before the Yanks beat Cleveland twice to wrap up the title.
Having lost the 1963 World Series to the Dodgers in four games, they returned in 1964 only to be defeated by the St. Louis Cardinals in seven.
The Yankees showed their age in those two Series, and showed it even more in 1965. Elston Howard, 37, managed just a .233 average and nine home runs. Mickey Mantle was 34 and limited by deteriorating legs to part-time duty, Whitey Ford, 37, did make his standard 36 starts but his 3.26 ERA translated to only a 16-13 record. Roger Maris made only 186 plate appearances producing just eight homers.
Yogi Berra was gone as both player and manager, and the fill-ins did not measure up to the standards of Yankee immortals. Those successors included Phil Linz (.207), Tony Kubek (.218), Joe Pepitone (.247), Al Downing (12-14, 3.40), Jim Bouton (4-15, 4.82) and Bill Stafford (3-8, 3.56).
Under first-year manager Johnny Keane, the Yankees started 24-28 and were eighth in the 10-team American League in early June. They never made a move, settling permanently into sixth place in mid-July and playing 36-39 ball over the course of the season’s second half.
They finished 25 games behind the American League champion Minnesota Twins. But that was good by comparison with the following season, when New York dipped all the way to the American League basement on a 70-89 record that prompted Keane’s May firing. New York had begun a decade-long absence from the World Series, the team’s longest since World War I.