H. Res. 306

In the House of Representatives, U.S.,

September 30, 2003.

Whereas the New York Yankees were officially acquired in

1903 and are celebrating their 100th anniversary in

2003;

Whereas what would become the most successful team in

sports history actually began as the Baltimore Orioles in

1901. When that franchise folded after only two seasons,

it was purchased for $18,000 by two colorful New Yorkers, Frank Farrell and Bill Devery;

Whereas New York’s third Major-League team, joining the

New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers of the National

League, would play its home games in a hastily constructed, all-wood park at 168th Street and Broadway.

Because the site was one of the highest spots in Manhattan, the team was named the ‘‘Highlanders’’ and their

home field ‘‘Hilltop Park.’’ They played their inaugural

game on April 22, 1903, losing 3–1 to the Senators at

Washington. New York recorded the first win in franchise history the next day, a 7–2 decision at Washington;

Whereas the Highlanders nearly captured the AmericanLeague pennant in 1904—only their second season—as

they finished only 1.5 games behind the Boston Pilgrims

in the first of three second-place finishes from 1904 to

1910;
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Whereas after a spectacular fire severely damaged the Polo

Grounds in 1911, the Highlanders’ owners invited the Giants to share Hilltop Park. Two years later the Giants

returned the favor and allowed the Highlanders to move

into their rebuilt and vastly superior park. With the

move, the Highlanders officially changed their nickname

to ‘‘Yankees (by which they had actually been known for

most of their history).’’ Two years after the move—on

January 11, 1915—Colonel Jacob Ruppert and Colonel

Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston purchased the franchise from its by-now disgruntled owners;

Whereas from 1911 to 1919, the Yankees won as many as

80 games in a season only twice, but the franchise’s fortunes would change forever on January 3, 1920. On what

is perhaps the most significant date in club history, the

Yankees purchased the contract of George Herman

‘‘Babe’’ Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for $125,000 and

a $350,000 loan against the mortgage on Fenway Park;

Whereas Ruth’s impact was immediate. The Yankees won 95

games in 1920, their highest victory total to date, and

captured their first American-League pennant a year

later. Their attendance at the Polo grounds doubled to

1,289,422 in 1920 and, in 1921, the Giants notified their

tenant to vacate the Polo grounds as soon as possible.

Now bitter rivals, the two teams squared off in the World

Series in 1921 and 1922 with the Giants winning both

times;

Whereas with their departure from the Polo Grounds inevitable, the Yankee owners set out to build a spectacular

ballpark of their own. Baseball’s first triple-decked structure with an advertised capacity of 70,000, it would also

be the first baseball facility to be labeled a ‘‘stadium’’;
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Whereas construction began on May 5, 1922 and, in only 284

working days, Yankee Stadium was ready for its inaugural game on April 18, 1923 vs. the Boston Red Sox.

An announced crowd of 74,200 fans packed Yankee Stadium for a glimpse of Baseball’s grandest facility while

thousands milled around outside after the fire department finally ordered the gates closed. Appropriately,

Ruth christened his new home with a three-run homer to

cap a four-run inning as the Yankees coasted to a 4–1

win;

Whereas because it was widely recognized that Ruth’s tremendous drawing power made the new stadium possible,

it would immediately become known as ‘‘The House that

Ruth Built’’. Later that season, the Stadium hosted the

first of 36 World Series and the Yankees won their first

World Championship over their former landlord, the Giants. Of course, as the Stadium became the stage for a

staggering number of World titles—now totaling 26—it

would also become known as ‘‘The Home of Champions’’;

Whereas on June 1, 1925 in a 5–3 loss vs. Washington, Manager Miller Huggins inserted a 21-year-old rookie first

baseman as a pinch hitter for light-hitting shortstop Pee

Wee Wanninger. No one could have imagined at the time

that this appearance would be the first of 2,130 consecutive games played by Lou Gehrig, who, with Babe Ruth

and later Joe DiMaggio, anchored some of the greatest

ball clubs of all time;

Whereas after a disheartening loss to the St. Louis Cardinals

in the 1926 World Series, the Yankees rolled to World

Championships in both 1927 and 1928, sweeping the Series both years. The 1927 club, the first Yankee team to

be labeled ‘‘Murderers’ Row’’, became the yardstick by
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which athletic greatness is measured. During that season,

Ruth shattered his own single-season home run record

with his 60th on the season’s final day on September 30,

1927;

Whereas in his 15 seasons in pinstripes, Ruth helped build

a tradition of winning with seven American-League pennants and four World Championships. He finished his

unparalleled career (with the Boston Braves in 1935)

with 714 home runs, 12 American-League home-run titles and six RBI crowns, including five seasons with more

than 150. A charter member of Baseball’s Hall of Fame,

he remains widely regarded as the greatest player of alltime;

Whereas after the 1934 season, Ruth’s last in New York, the

Yankees purchased the contract of a budding star named

Joseph Paul DiMaggio from the San Francisco Seals of

the Pacific Coast League. Two years later, DiMaggio

made his debut in pinstripes and helped the Yankees to

an incredible string of four consecutive World Championships under Manager Joe McCarthy from 1936 through

1939. The decade of the thirties also produced one of the

game’s greatest lefty-righty pitching combinations in future Hall of Famers Lefty Gomez and Red Ruffing. A

four-time 20-game winner-including 24–7 in 1932 and

26–5 in 1934—Gomez was also 6–0 in five World Series.

Ruffing posted seasons of 20, 20, 21 and 21 wins on four

World-Championship clubs from 1936–1939;

Whereas sadly, in 1939, Gehrig was diagnosed with a crippling disease and his streak of 2,130 games came to an

end on May 2 when he did not appear in a 22–2

Yankees’ win at Detroit. On July 4, the Yankees honored

their captain with an emotional ‘‘Lou Gehrig Apprecia-
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tion Day’’ at Yankee Stadium and his uniform number

(4) became the first in Baseball to be retired. He died

on June 2, 1941;

Whereas with the departure of Gehrig, DiMaggio became the

pillar of the next generation of Yankee champions. In his

13 seasons in pinstripes, the Yankees played in the World

Series in all but two years and won 10 World-Series titles. The legendary ‘‘Yankee Clipper’’ compiled one of the

game’s most remarkable—and perhaps unbreakable—

records in 1941 when he hit safely in a record 56 consecutive games;

Whereas the Yankees also made a seamless transition after

DiMaggio’s retirement at the age of 37 after the 1951

season. With Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle joining future Hall of Famers Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto, the

Yankees won eight American-League pennants and six

World Championships under Manager Casey Stengel during the 1950’s. Their streak of five consecutive World-Series titles from 1949 through 1953 remains a MajorLeague record with no other winning as many as four

straight;

Whereas Mantle would achieve greatness despite an arrested

case of osteomyelitis and numerous injuries. The powerful switch-hitter belted 536 home runs, collected 2,415

hits and batted .300 or more 10 times in an 18-year career. In his first 14 seasons in pinstripes, the Yankees

missed the World Series only twice (in 1954 and 1959);

Whereas Ford’s lifetime record of 236–106 gives him the best

winning percentage (.690) of any 20th century pitcher

and he paced the American League in victories three

times and in ERA and shutouts twice. He still holds
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many World Series records, including 10 wins, 33 consecutive scoreless innings and 94 strikeouts;

Whereas the heart of the Yankees for 18 seasons, Berra

played on an incredible 14 pennant winners and 10

World Champions. He was a three-time MVP and was selected to the All-Star team in every season from 1948

through 1962;

Whereas Rizzuto was recognized as the glue of 10 pennant

winners and eight World-Series Champions from 1941–

56 and captured the league’s MVP award in 1950, batting .324 with 200 hits and 125 runs scored;

Whereas not every contributor to Yankee—and Baseball history was a future Hall of Famer. In Game Five of the

1956 World Series vs. the Brooklyn Dodgers on October

8th at Yankee Stadium, right-hander Don Larsen authored what is perhaps the game’s greatest pitching performance when he retired all 27 Dodger batters for the

only perfect game in World Series history;

Whereas the Yankees opened the decade of the sixties in their

usual fashion, winning pennants in the first five seasons

(1960–64) and World Series titles in 1961 and 1962. Incredibly, in the 29 seasons from 1936 to 1964, the

Yankees won a remarkable 22 pennants and 16 World

Championships. The 1961 club is still regarded as one of

the best teams in Baseball history. With Mantle and

Roger Maris embroiled in a season-long race to break

Ruth’s single-season home-run record, the Yankees rolled

to 109 wins en route to the World Championship. Maris

smashed Ruth’s record when he belted his 61st home run

on October 1 at Yankee Stadium in the last game of the

season;
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Whereas but age finally caught up with the ball club after a

seven game Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in

1964. The Yankees would finish in the first division only

once in the next nine seasons and actually plummeted to

last place in 1966 for the first time in 53 years;

Whereas the team’s fall from grace ended on January 2,

1973, when the most storied franchise in sports history

was sold by CBS to a group headed by George M.

Steinbrenner III. With the addition of Catfish Hunter—

Baseball’s first marquee free agent—shrewd trades which

brought Ed Figueroa, Mickey Rivers, Chris Chambliss

and Willie Randolph and a strong nucleus which included

Thurman Munson, Graig Nettles, Roy White, and Sparky

Lyle, the Yankees would make their first post-season appearance in 12 years in 1976 by winning their first

American-League-East title. Then on October 14, 1976,

in the deciding fifth game of the League Championship

Series vs. the Kansas City Royals, Chambliss launched a

ninth-inning, pennant-winning home run to put the

Yankees back in the World Series;

Whereas after a disheartening four-game sweep vs. the Cincinnati Reds in the 1976 World Series, the Yankees introduced Reggie Jackson—the most prolific slugger of his

era—as the club’s newest free-agent acquisition. Jackson

then capped an exciting 1977 season with one of Baseball’s greatest individual performances. In Game Six of

the World Series vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers at Yankee

Stadium on October 18, ‘‘Mr. October’’ belted three

home runs on three swings of the bat;

Whereas in 1978, the Yankees overcame a 14.0-game deficit

in the American League East to force a one-game playoff

with the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park to decide the
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American-League pennant. Shortstop Bucky Dent erased

a 2–0 Red Sox lead in the seventh inning with a dramatic three-run homer and the Yankees went on to a 5–

4 win en route to a second straight World Championship;

Whereas the ’78 season also saw the emergence of Ron

Guidry as one of the franchise’s greatest pitchers. A fourtime American-League All-Star, Guidry compiled one of

the most dominating seasons in baseball history in 1978

and became known as ‘‘Louisiana Lightening’’. He went

25–3 with a 1.74 earned run average in leading the

Yankees to their dramatic comeback, compiling a clubrecord 248 strikeouts and nine shutouts en route to a

unanimous selection as the A.L.’s Cy Young Award recipient. On June 17, 1978 vs. the California Angels at

Yankee Stadium, Guidry shattered the club record for

strikeouts with 18. The Yankees’ co-captain—with Willie

Randolph—from 1986 through 1988, Guidry also won 20

games in 1983 (21–9) and 1985 (22–6);

Whereas the seventies ended with tragedy as Thurman Munson, the Yankees’ first captain since Gehrig, was killed

in the crash of his private jet on August 2, 1979. Only

32 at the time of his death, Munson was the undisputed

leader of the clubs that won three consecutive pennants

and two World Championships. After their Captain’s

death, the Yankees would make only one more World-Series appearance (1981) in 17 years despite compiling the

best record in the Major Leagues during the decade of

the eighties;

Whereas the eighties also saw the development of one of the

franchise’s greatest and most popular players, Don Mattingly, ‘‘Donnie Baseball,’’ the team captain from 1991

through 1995, batted .307 in his Yankee career (1982–
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95) and compiled an incredible six-year stretch from

1983–89. During those years, he batted .327 and topped

100 RBI five times, including a career-high 145 in 1985

when he captured the A.L. MVP award. A year earlier,

he outdueled teammate Dave Winfield on the final day of

the season for the league’s batting crown (.343 to .340);

Whereas Winfield, who came to the Yankees as the game’s

most-sought-after free agent in 1981, compiled Hall of

Fame credentials in his eight-plus seasons in pinstripes

(1981–90). He belted 205 home runs for the Yankees

with 818 RBI and won five gold gloves;

Whereas after an absence of 13 years, the Yankees returned

to post-season play in 1995 as the American League’s

first-ever ‘‘Wild-Card’’ entry. A devastating five-game

loss to the Seattle Mariners in the Division Series was

only the start of an incredible run for eight consecutive

post-season appearances, a record shared only by the Atlanta Braves;

Whereas in 1996, under new skipper Joe Torre, the Yankees

returned to the World Series and would win four of the

next five World Championships, including three straight

from 1998 through 2000. Their 114 victories in 1998

shattered the 44-year-old American-League mark of 111

wins by the 1954 Cleveland Indians (was broken by Seattle in 2001) and their 125 total victories (with 11 postseason wins) remains Baseball’s best single-season total;

Whereas the Yankees’ most-recent era of greatness featured

a consistent lineup of great homegrown and acquired

players to rival any period in franchise history. Since the

arrival of Bernie Williams in 1991, the Yankees’ farm

system has produced All-Stars Derek Jeter, Andy

Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera. In addition,
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shrewd trades and free-agent acquisitions have brought

such All-Stars as Wade Boggs, Scott Brosius, Roger

Clemens, David Cone, Jason Giambi, Tino Martinez,

Mike Mussina, Paul O’Neil, Mike Stanton and David

Wells;

Whereas in 2001, the Yankees failed to become only the second team in history to win four consecutive World-Series

titles, but captured the hearts of the nation in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. The Yankees

dropped the first two games of the Series vs. the Arizona

Diamondbacks at Bank One Ballpark, but rallied to win

the next three at Yankee Stadium behind dramatic ninthinning comebacks in both games Three and Four. On

consecutive nights, Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius

erased two-run, ninth-inning Diamondback leads with the

Yankees winning both games in extra innings. It marked

the first time in World Series history that a team won

two games in the same series when trailing by at least

two runs in the ninth inning;

Whereas as the Yankees begin their second century in 2003,

they seek to extend their franchise record of consecutive

post-season appearances to nine (a record matched only

by the Atlanta Braves, 1995–02). They will do so by expanding upon the kind of innovation that set their first

century—and its 26 World Championships—in motion.

One hundred years ago, the original 1903 team was built

with stars from no fewer than eight different MajorLeague teams. The 2003 Yankees—with the additions of

Cuban All-Star pitcher Jose Contreras and three-time

Japan Central League MVP Hideki Matsui—will be comprised of stars from no fewer than six nations;
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Whereas the Yankees recorded their 41st first-place finish in

team history in 2002, the most of any professional sports

franchise . . . they are followed by the Montreal Canadians (32), Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers (27), Boston

Celtics (24), Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers (24), Boston/

Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (23), New York/San Francisco

Giants (21), Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland A’s (20)

and New York (football) Giants (20) . . . the Yankees’

first-place total includes the strike-shortened 1981 season

when they won the first half title; and

Whereas the Yankees have won 26 of the 97 World Series’

played (27 percent) . . . they have won 38 of the 101

American League Pennants (38 percent). Since 1921, the

Yankees have been a participant in 38 of the 81 World

Series’ played (47 percent). The Yankees have won a

total of 127 games in the World Series . . . no other team

has even played in that many World Series games: Now,

therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives and the

American people extend heartfelt congratulations to the New

York Yankees on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, and

express the sincerest gratitude to the entire organization.

Attest:

Clerk.