New York Yankees: The All-Time Bracket
No. 2 vs. 7 seed
The 1939 New York Yankees are every bit the challenge that the 1936 team was. Gehrig’s illness-related absence only seemed to spur the team to new heights. DiMaggio hit a league-best 381 with 30 homers and 126 RBIs, taking home the American League MVP in the process. He headed an every-day lineup that featured five .300 hitters and four 100-RBI guys.
The Yanks scored a half run more per game than any other team and hit 42 more home runs. They also had by far the superior pitching staff with a team 3.31 ERA…this in a year when the league average was 4.62.
Ruffing was 21-7 and 2.93, and seven arms won in double digits.
The 1961 Yankees had plenty of weapons of their own. Winners of 109 games in the newly expanded 162-game schedule, they were famously led by the M&M Boys, Roger Maris (61 homers, 141 RBIs), and Mickey Mantle (54 homers, 128 RBIs). Mantle also hit .317 but Maris took his second consecutive MVP award.
Whitey Ford dominated the pitching numbers with a 25-4 record and 3,.21 ERA. Not surprisingly, Ford won the Cy Young Award that year. And by the way, a few words are in order about those four losses: three of them came by scores of 2-1, 2-1 and 1-0.
Ralph Terry supported Ford with a 16-3, 3.15 season, and Luis Arroyo rolled up 29 saves in 119 innings of work.
Game 1: The 1961 Yanks had a .673 regular-season percentage. Bu the 1939 team’s 106-45 works out to a .702 percentage, giving it the win.
Game 2: The 1961 team finished off the Cincinnati Reds in just five World Series games. But in an all-time Yankee bracket, five games isn’t good enough. The 1939 team swept the Cincinnati Reds four straight.
Game 3: In 1939 all those Yankee bats piled up a 111 team OPS+. The 1961 Maris-Mantle team hit plenty of long balls, but they only lifted the OPS+ to 109. Another sweep looms.
Game 4: The 1961 Ford-led pitching staff showed off a 107 ERA+. But the 1939 Yankees went other-worldly, with a staff ERA+ of 132.
Result: As inconceivable as it may seem to those who saw the 1961 team play, this series goes to 1939 in four straight.