Top 10 All Time Yankee Home Runs
The Ten Biggest and Baddest Home Runs In Bronx Bomber History
They have hit a lot of home runs over the years. But here, for your reading pleasure, are the ten greatest home runs ever hit by the New York Yankees.
The New York Yankees are nicknamed the Bronx Bombers for a reason. A very good reason. Because it sounds cool. Well, yeah, but the Yankees also had the moniker bestowed upon them because so many great home run hitters have worn the pinstripes, and so many of those players have hit big home runs while playing for the Yankees. Babe Ruth's 700th, Mickey Mantle's 500th, Don Mattingly's record sixth Grand Slam; there have been a lot of them. But, according to a poll conducted of just one fan who's been watching the Yankees every day for thirty years, what follows is the definitive list of the Top 10 Home Runs in New York Yankee History.
Number 10. The Jeffrey Maier Home Run (October 9, 1996)
In the first game of the 1996 American League Championship Series, the Yankees trailed the Baltimore Orioles by a score of 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning when Derek Jeter hit a deep fly ball to right field. Right fielder Tony Tarasco moved back towards the fence and appeared to draw a bead on the ball just before 12-year old Jeffrey Maier reached over the fence and deflected the ball into the stands.
Right field umpire Rich Garcia, who did not have a good angle on the ball and thus couldn't see if Maier's hands were in the stands or in play when he caught the ball, did his best and ruled the play a home run almost immediately. The shot tied game the at 4-4.
A replay clearly showed that Maier deflected the ball into the stands. Whether or not Tarasco would have caught the ball is a matter for Yankee fans to square with themselves and the Higher Power.
The Yankees went on to win the game in the eleventh inning on Bernie Williams' walk-off home run. The Yankees won the ALCS, and then beat the Atlanta Braves to capture their first World Series in fifteen years.
As a result of the play, Yankee Stadium now has a railing on top of the right field wall to prevent fans from reaching over it. Jeffrey Maier is now a 22-year old intern scout for the Milwaukke Brewers. Derek Jeter still plays shortstop for the Yankees.
Number 9. Thurman Munson (October 6, 1978)
In Game 3 of the 1978 ALCS, the Yankees trailed the Royals by one run in the bottom of the eighth inning. A loss would mean that the Bombers would go down 2 games to 1 in the Series. With Game 5 scheduled to be played in Kansas City, the Yankees could not afford a loss. That's when Munson came to the plate with Roy White on base and drove a two run homer over the "430" feet mark wall in Death Valley. It put the Yankees ahead for good, 6-5. They went on to win the ALCS and the World Series.
It was Munson's last postseason home run. He died ten moths later in a plane crash.
Number 8. Mickey Mantle's 535th Homer (September 19, 1968)
Mantle's career was winding down at the end of the 1968 season. Because of injuries and his off-the-field lifestyle, Mantle was much older than his 36 years. His bat wasn't nearly as quick as it had been years earleier. The end was coming.
When Mantle came to bat in the top of the eighth inning against Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers, he had been stuck on 534 career home runs for almost a month. That number tied him with Jimmie Foxx for second most home runs in history, behind Babe Ruth's 714.
The Tigers led 6-1 in the game, and had already clinched the American League pennant. As mantle walked towards the plate, McLain told his catcher Bill Freehan, "I'm gonna let him hit one."
Sure enough, McLain threw Mickey a fat pitch right down the middle. Mantle hit it into the right field stands, and moved past Foxx on the all time list.
Mickey did hit one more home run before retiring, so even the purists who don't find this piece of baseball lore amusing can rest assured that Mickey still finished ahead of Double X. .
Number 7. Babe Ruth Opening Day (April 18, 1923)
Four years after he had left Boston, Babe Ruth had become so great and so famous that he even built his own stadium. Well, not really. The "House that Ruth Built" is a metaphor, and an appropriate one at that. After the Yankees acquired Ruth from the Red Sox before the 1920 season, they saw a steady growth in attendance for the next few years. They also saw the team rise in the standings, winning the AL pennants in 1921 and 1922. Accordingly, it came time to give Ruth and the team a stadium that would equal the team's dominance and popularity.
With the proceeds of Ruth's immense popularity, Ruppert paid $2.5 million for the construction of a 58,000 seat baseball palace near 161st Street in the Bronx. The Stadium opened on April 18, 1923 with the Yankees playing the rival Red Sox. It was a game for the Yankees to show off their biggest star and the Stadium built on his back to the team that let him get away.
Never one to shrink from the New York spotlight, Ruth crushed a three run homer that propelled the Yankees past the Sox, 4-1. The Yankees won their first World Series that October, and proceeded to win 25 more while playing in the Stadium.
Number 6a: Jim Leyritz (October 4, 1995)
It was the first time the Yankees were in the playoffs in fourteen years. They were locked in a heated battle in Game 2 of the American League Divisional Series against the Seattle Mariners. The game had gone on for almost seven hours, and as the rain that had fallen all night picked up during the break between the top and bottom of the 15th inning, fans worried that the game would be suspended.
But Pat Kelly led off the bottom of the inning with a walk. Then, as the drops grew bigger and the rain fell harder, Jim Leyritz, the Yankees backup catcher and reserve first baseman, connected with a pitch on the outside corner of the plate that he drove towards the right field wall. Fans at the game claim that it took ten minutes for that ball to finally drop just beyond the '314' sign down the right field line.
Number 6: Jim Leyritz (October 23, 1996)
About a year after his ALDS heroics, Jim Leyritz found himself in his first World Series, against the heavily favored Atlanta Braves. The Braves hammered the Yankees in Games 1 and 2, but the Yankees took Game 3 behind the solid pitching of David Cone.
The Braves, however, took a 6-0 lead early in Game 4 and held a 6-3 edge in the top of the eighth inning as their closer, the unhittable Mark Wohlers, faced down Leyritz with two on and two out. The Braves were this close to taking a 3-1 Series lead and everybody knew it. But Mark Wohlers hung a slider over the meat of the plate, and Leyritz jumped all over it. He pummeled the ball, driving it well 400 feet over the left-center field wall. The game was tied.
The Yankees went on to win in 10 innings, and eventually took the Series in six games. Most fans and players agree that Leyritz's home run was the crucial turning point of the Series.
