Last Time Yanks Didn’t Finish 1st Or 2nd
The talk, earlier today, about the Yankees (maybe) not finishing in first or second, this season, in the A.L. East got me thinking about the last time the Yankees did not finish first or second in the A.L. East.
That was a long time ago. It was 1992. It was Buck Showalter’s rookie year as big league field skipper. That truly was the “last” bad Yankees team.
For the fun of it, here’s the typical line-up and batting order for the Yankees in 1992:
1. Andy Stankiewicz SS
2. Don Mattingly 1B
3. Roberto Kelly CF
4. Mel Hall LF
5. Danny Tartabull RF
6. Kevin Maas DH
7. Matt Nokes C
8. Charlie Hayes 3B
9. Pat Kelly 2B
That season, the Yankees starting rotation was Melido Perez, Scott Sanderson, Scott Kamieniecki, Tim Leary, and a combination of Jeff Johnson and Sam Militello.
Melido Perez was “off the charts” good that season. If not for Melido, the Yankees rotation in 1992 would have been a thought uglier than having to deploy one of Manny Ramirez’ game-used Doo Rags to swaddle your newborn baby.
The Yankees closer in 1992 was the under-rated Steve Farr. Also in the pen, setting up Farr, were John Habyan and Rich Monteleone. (They both worked the 7th and/or 8th innings. And, were “helped out” be lefties Greg Cadaret and Steve Howe.)
In 1992, the Yankees finished tied for 4th – 20 games back of the World Champion Blue Jays. In fact, the Jays pounded the Yankees that season – with Toronto beating New York in 11 of the 13 games where they faced each other. (The Yankees played just about .500-ball against everyone else “not named the Blue Jays” in ’92.)
Bernie Williams was the Yankees best “prospect” most close to the majors back in 1992. In fact, why Bernie was not on the big league team, for the full-season, that year is beyond me. Williams was there in the farm along with guys like Brien Taylor, Carl Everett, Hensley Meulens, Russ Davis, Gerald Williams, J.T. Snow, Dave Silvestri, Lyle Mouton, Brad Ausmus, Robert Eenhoorn, Russ Springer, Sterling Hitchcock, Mark Hutton, and the fabled Kevin Mmahat.
On the bright side, way down in the minors, the Yankees had four guys named Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera – who turned out pretty good when they got their chance in the Bronx.
Makes you wonder if there are four guys in the Yankees farm, now, who will have the same Bronx impact, four years from now, that Pettitte, Jeter, Posada and Rivera had once they were established in the show.
In fact, why Bernie was not on the big league team, for the full-season, that year is beyond me.
=============
No room (Kelly, Hall, Tartabull & Barfield, IIRC). And given what I’ve heard over the years, it probably wasn’t a good idea to have him & Mel Hall in the same clubhouse.
Memory may be playing tricks on me, but I think Bernie bumped Roberto Kelly to LF. Kelly wasn’t too happy with the move. Didn’t matter, as he would be traded for O’Neill during the offseason.
Raf has it right.
When Bernie did play, some of the other players resented him, Kelly being one.
Mel Hall was both friendly and abusive to Bernie, and Tartabull was considered also a bad influence. The idea was to get Bernie some seasoning, some experience, but they wanted to clean out the team first. (not just for Bernie, but in general).