- 2 days ago
Needs more NYC teams if you ask me
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:06Welcome to Who's Number One.
00:07I'm Trey Wingo.
00:09The 20 greatest Major League Baseball teams of all time.
00:13That's covering a lot of ground.
00:14We had to go in the way back machine for this one, but we should tell you, we did stop
00:19short
00:19of the 19th century.
00:21That eliminated such greats as the Louisville Colonels, the Hartford Dark Blues, and the
00:25Kansas City Cowboys.
00:26Ah, the Dark Blues.
00:28But anyway...
00:30...analyzed pitching rotations, batting orders, and managers.
00:34It came up with a list that could play hardball with anyone, anywhere, anytime.
00:39Now, you're probably sitting there thinking you might see the name New York more than once.
00:43Easy, Cowboy.
00:44You've got to see it at least five times.
00:46Let's find out.
00:5020.
00:5120.
00:52And the Blue Jays have repeated as World Series champions.
00:57Yeah!
00:57Pull, Carter, Molitor.
01:02The 1993 Blue Jays had the greatest of all trades.
01:06They knew how to win.
01:08Defending champs, they were stocked with veterans like Paul Molitor, Dave Stewart, and Ricky Henderson.
01:12But another veteran, Joe Carter, swung the timeliest stick, his walk-off homer defeating Philadelphia.
01:47Here's the pitch on the way.
01:49I'll have some fingers left.
01:50I'll have some fingers left.
01:51Touch of all, Joe!
01:52You'll never hit a bigger homerun in your life!
01:55It really was one of the defining moments in Canadian sports history.
01:58It was unbelievable.
02:00It was like a dream.
02:01We were celebrating for almost a week.
02:02Everybody was so happy.
02:03It was amazing.
02:05Baseball in Canada, obviously, has just been second to hockey, but here it was, one great
02:11moment for a franchise that had really built itself up the right way.
02:21The Mets win the ball game!
02:24It's absolute bedlam here at Shea Stadium!
02:2769.
02:28If they were an all-time great team, how was it a miracle that they won?
02:32The Mets to me are the ultimate Cinderella story.
02:36I think it was Ed Cranepool who asked how the Mets would do that, and he said, you know,
02:39people are going to be walking on the moon before the Mets ever win anything.
02:43And he was right, but just by a few months, you know.
02:47The 69 Mets are never going to get too little attention because they're a New York darling
02:52and a Mets fan darling.
02:53On the other hand, they are one of the New York teams that gets great credit, that actually
02:57deserves it.
02:5819-19.
03:00They will forever be known as the Amazing Mets because in 1969 they did things for which
03:05there was no ready explanation.
03:07Led by Tom Seaver, they won 100 games.
03:10A one season improvement of 27.
03:13And then they upset Baltimore in the World Series in five games.
03:19You want to make any analogy to life of a person facing long odds, the baseball analogy
03:24to me is the 69 Mets.
03:26There really was the feeling that anything is possible if the Mets could win the series.
03:32And they went up against the great Baltimore Orioles team in the World Series, which really
03:38completed the story.
03:40They became Destiny's Darkness.
03:43They had guys making catches, pulling the ball out of their ear.
03:46I mean, they were performing magic tricks.
03:48It took 25 guys, a lot of whom we'd never heard of before, but we certainly remember
03:53them now.
03:54Waiting is Jones, the Mets of the World Champion.
03:59The Mets show that when you're inspired, when you get momentum rolling your way, that a
04:03baseball team can rise up for a week and play above itself, play a whole level above itself.
04:08And those Mets do.
04:14There has never been a major league team more talented than the 29 Philadelphia Athletics.
04:20Al Simmons and Lefty, Mickey Cochran, Jimmy Fox.
04:24The number of Hall of Famers that occupied their roster is considerable.
04:30I have to say they weren't even the most talented team in, I believe they were in the AL.
04:35Well, how can they be the most talented team of all time when the Yankees at the same time
04:42have Ruth and Garrick and Combs and I think Lazeri?
04:49Let's just give them their credit, but let's not go and exaggerate.
04:58That lavishly talented team featured a total of five future Hall of Famers.
05:03More stacked than a 10-A stack, the A's won 104 games and then beat the Cubs in the World
05:09Series.
05:1018, 18.
05:12The 29 Athletics are a very powerful team playing in the era of the lively ball.
05:17Although they also had excellent pitching in particular.
05:20The lefty Grove was as dominant in 1929-31 as Sandy Koufax was from 1962 to 1966.
05:29But he had a better team behind him.
05:31Later, Connie Mack had to sell off his stars during the 1930s because of the Depression.
05:36Out of the fairness of his heart, he knew that Al Simmons should be making $40,000, $50,000 a
05:41year,
05:41and Lefty Grove should be making $50,000 a year.
05:44And he said, I can't pay you, so I'm going to sell you to somebody that can't.
05:48But at that point, a team that was so good that it almost needed to be broken completely dominated the
05:55sport.
06:0017, 17, 17.
06:02You know what made the Cardinals famous?
06:04It was the Gas House Gang.
06:06Tupper Martin, Joe Medrick, and Dizzy Dean, and all those guys.
06:10That whole line-up had about...
06:11They're not the last Cardinals team to appear on this list. Probably.
06:15Six or seven people in it who had the same chemistry, the same attitude.
06:21The Yankees of that era were the men in the gray flannel suits.
06:25The Cardinals were the Depression-era hustlers.
06:28They were the hobos riding the rails.
06:30The Cardinals were the team of the people.
06:35In 1934, the people's champ, Dizzy Dean, would be the Yankees' last 30-game winner.
06:42He and his brother Daffy accounted for all four St. Louis wins over Detroit in the World Series.
06:48And to get there, the Cards won 33 of their last 45 games, beating to a pulp and moving past
06:55the Giants.
06:56Once they say play ball and cross those foul lines, they play as a unit and they play as a
07:03winner.
07:03They had fun playing baseball.
07:05Now, you didn't think they were fun if you were on the other side of the field.
07:08That team was hated by a lot of other teams in baseball because they played the game hard.
07:12But they played it hard all the way, on the field and off the field.
07:2216, 16, 16.
07:25Some kids want to run away and join the circus and other kids want to play Major League Baseball.
07:29I said, look at me, I get to do both.
07:32There wasn't enough mustard to cover the 1978 Yankees, stocked as they were with hot dogs.
07:38But for all their fussing and feuding, they rallied from 14 games out to force a playoff against Boston.
07:44Then won five to four on homers by the unlikely Bucky Dent.
07:48And of course, the peacock, Reggie Jackson.
07:51You had George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson. That's a triangle.
07:59You had Thurman Munson and Jackson who despised each other.
08:03It wasn't that they were mad at each other, but they all had that ego.
08:07There was always some sort of acrimony in this clubhouse.
08:11Look at Billy as he hot.
08:14He told me he was going to kick my ass.
08:16And I looked at him like, the alcohol you're drinking must be going to your head.
08:23There was a certain insanity to it all.
08:26And yet, you put these guys out on the field and most of the time they won.
08:29People think that you've got to get along off the field.
08:33You don't really have to.
08:34As long as you get along and the umpire says, play ball.
08:37And that's the most important thing.
08:38You don't always have to have the good chemistry. Chemistry comes after.
08:42We had chemistry in a different way.
08:44Everything off the field that was going on, it never affected the chemistry of the way the team played on
08:48the field, which was really unique.
08:51Holy cow!
08:53Well, it's time to do battle.
08:55Everybody's on the same page and everybody does what's needed to do.
08:58It's a fun thing.
08:59And that's exactly what we had in New York.
09:01The world champions for the second year in a row, the New York Yankees.
09:08Fifteen.
09:08Fifteen.
09:09Fifteen.
09:10The 63 Dodgers were the right team for the right era because they just dominated you with their pitching.
09:17Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale.
09:19If the left hand don't get you, the right one surely will.
09:23Combined, the iron-armed aces of the 1963 Dodgers won 44 games, struck out 557, and had 37 complete games.
09:33In sweeping the Yankees, Los Angeles allowed only four runs.
09:38Here's the 2-2 pitch to Bright.
09:40Swung on and missed and struck him out!
09:42Roseboro congratulates Koufax.
09:45Koufax looked like he had arrived from a different planet and he had some skills that were beyond those of
09:51a normal human.
09:52He was unhittable is what he was.
09:54The fourth straight strikeout for Sandy Koufax.
09:59He was just awesome.
10:00I remember the 63 World Series.
10:02In the first inning when Richardson came up, Koufax threw him a fastball here, swing and a miss.
10:08Fastball here, swing and a miss.
10:10Fastball here, swing and a miss.
10:11And then he looked into the Yankee dugout.
10:14And with that look, he was saying, I'm gonna pitch it to your power and I will still strike you
10:20out.
10:21The fact that they would sweep the Yankees in the 63 series is a fitting culmination to maybe the best
10:27of the VAC teams.
10:29And not a month goes by that I don't mention to somebody that we beat the Yankees 4-3.
10:41Fourteen. Fourteen. Fourteen. Fourteen.
10:43All of all is the World Cup.
10:471970 is still the monument and the testament to the greatest of all Earl Weaver's teams.
10:52They were so good, it was ridiculous.
10:54You combine their pitching and their defense and their hitting, I don't think that team had a flaw.
11:00They were as seamless as a completed jigsaw puzzle.
11:03Not a single missing piece.
11:06Three twenty game winners.
11:07Bombers Boog Powell and Frank Robinson.
11:09And vacuum cleaner Brooks Robinson at third.
11:12Result? 108 wins.
11:14And then a World Series win over the Reds.
11:17Fourteen. Fourteen.
11:20I think they had the greatest pitching staff for that particular year that I've ever seen.
11:25Cuellar and John Palmer and McNally.
11:28You're talking about the year that you got so many twenty game winners on one club.
11:33Earl Weaver had it pretty good to send out those kind of pitchers.
11:37They certainly had enough hitting with Frank Robinson and Boog Powell.
11:41They hit the ball out of the ballpark.
11:42They scored a lot of runs.
11:44They played Earl Weaver baseball.
11:46Three run homers pitching defense.
11:47The left side of the infield baseball history with Mark Belanger and with Brooks Robinson.
11:54It was Brooks Robinson's showcase defensive World Series in which he seemed to rob Lee May every time anybody looked
12:00up.
12:00Oh! Robinson does it again!
12:04You have the quintessential Oriole of the period having his defining World Series with the best of those teams.
12:1513, 13, 13, 13.
12:19The Red Sox are three outs away from being swept.
12:24I look back on that ninth inning of game four of the ALCS.
12:28Mariano Rivera is on the mound.
12:29In the postseason, six for six and save chances against Boston.
12:34The Red Sox are finished.
12:36I mean, in baseball terms, that is clinically dead.
12:39High and inside.
12:40He walked in.
12:40The tying run is on.
12:42Dave Roberts will pinch run.
12:44And here comes this gritty, gutty group of idiots as they call it themselves.
12:50Here is the throw.
12:51Roberts dies and he is safe.
12:53Dave Roberts steals the base and here we go.
12:56It's on and on and on.
12:57Swing and a ground ball up the middle.
12:59Here comes Roberts.
13:00Rounding third.
13:01And he scores!
13:02The tying run!
13:04Foster is still alive!
13:06Just as the Yankees thought they were moving on, you gave them the worst beating in the history of beatings.
13:15They really believed in each other.
13:18And when we started playing good, it really came together.
13:22Damon running to the plate.
13:24And he can keep on running to New York.
13:26Game six tomorrow night.
13:31I think we didn't know any better.
13:33You know, we had nothing to lose.
13:34The Boston Red Sox have won the pennant.
13:38The biggest comeback in postseason baseball history.
13:46From the far edge of hopeless, the 2004 Red Sox became the first team ever to overcome a 3-0
13:53deficit in the postseason.
13:54Then they shook free from the embrace of an 85-year-old hex sweeping the Cardinals in the World Series.
14:00The curse of the Bambino no more.
14:03It's almost like they burst through this wall.
14:06This brick wall that the Yankees had become for them.
14:08And once they got through that, there was no stopping them.
14:11There was this extreme confidence that they couldn't be beaten.
14:14And it just grew by the game.
14:16The Cardinals had no chance.
14:17Red Sox fans have longed to hear it.
14:20The Boston Red Sox are world champions.
14:25Something really special happened with those guys.
14:27From the time that Dave Roberts stole that base to the last game of the World Series,
14:31they played eight of the best baseball games we've ever seen.
14:34They could have played the Yankees and Cardinals into December and not lost a game the way that thing was
14:38going.
14:39This is a great team for one season.
14:41Are they going to be a great team for all time? Probably not.
14:43But for that season, they were as good as anybody.
14:44They're the greatest Red Sox team that's ever been seen!
14:53Twelve. Twelve.
14:55The 1932 Yankees were one of those teams that were so good
15:00that you only have to look at the lineup in the baseball encyclopedia and say,
15:05who don't they have?
15:07Well, they had Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig,
15:10who combined for 75 home runs and 288 RBI.
15:14And enough additional talent to win 107 games
15:17and the first of Hall of Fame manager Joe McCarthy's seven world championships.
15:22But what's passed into lore from the 1932 World Series
15:26is whether the Babe actually called his shot in Wrigley Field.
15:30The Cubs were, you know, ragging him mercilessly from the dugout.
15:35And he heard them.
15:36And he gestured with his arm.
15:38With two strikes on him, he pointed to deep center field,
15:42supposedly saying that's where he was going to hit the next pitch.
15:46But when he did hit it up, everybody believed immediately
15:49that there was a direct connection between his pointing and his hitting it.
15:52We wanted to believe it because it was Babe Ruth.
15:55It was any other hitter that would have been dismissed.
15:57The point was, though, that they were ragging him,
16:00and he wound up hitting the ball out of the park.
16:02It was a tremendous act of bravado by him.
16:06We have this Herculean myth to wrap him in,
16:10and so we're not going to let it go.
16:13When your whole life is a series of majestic events,
16:17when you do one more, everybody is going to believe it.
16:2411.
16:2511.
16:26They were strutting scruffians who gloried in playing baseball like it was mud wrestling.
16:32The 86 Mets swaggered to 108 wins,
16:35rescued three playoff games against Houston in their last at bat,
16:39then capped it off with an improbable World Series win over the Red Sox.
16:45There was a time in the 80s when the Mets dominated New York City.
16:48They generated genuine interest among New York fans because they had characters.
16:53They had Doc Goodman, Daryl Strawberry, and Keith Hernandez,
16:56and Gary Carter, and Ray Knight.
16:58They knew they were good.
16:59The underlying thing about that team was that we wanted to win,
17:03and we wanted to win bad.
17:06There was a new hero every day,
17:08and that was what was so special about that ball club.
17:11They just had a spark to them.
17:13They were arrogant.
17:14Too arrogant.
17:15But, you know, every team that's won that I played against
17:18had a certain arrogance and cockiness.
17:20They weren't cocky for no reason.
17:22As Dizzy Dean said,
17:24if you can do it, it ain't bragging.
17:26And they could do it.
17:28This team was meant to win.
17:30They knew it.
17:30They loved it.
17:32They fed off it.
17:33They were Destiny's team.
17:35The end run is at second base with two out,
17:39three and two to Mookie Wilson.
17:41The worst thing that could happen is that I strike out.
17:44And I was about to let that happen.
17:46Little roller up along first,
17:48behind the bag.
17:49It gets through Buckner.
17:51Here comes Knight, and the Mets win it.
17:54I was in amazement.
17:55I touched my hair.
17:57I just felt like I was on some kind of magic carpet going in there.
18:00that there's nothing like getting out of a jam
18:04and having another chance and having another day.
18:07He's fucking out!
18:09The Mets have won the World Series!
18:12Every time somebody passes me on the leg
18:14or says something about, hey, thank you for 86,
18:17and I say, thank you, thank you.
18:20Batter up, and here comes the team ranked number 10.
18:29The most boring baseball season
18:31that I ever covered on the beat was 1984.
18:34But there was nothing boring about the excellence of the Tigers.
18:38Fueled by Kirk Gibson, Alan Trammell, Jack Morris,
18:41and reliever Willie Hernandez,
18:43who was voted the MVP and Cy Young Awards,
18:46the Tigers won 104 games
18:48and went 7-1 in the postseason.
18:53We jumped off to a 35-5 start,
18:56which is the best 40-game start in the history of baseball.
19:00It was a streak that just put us at another level.
19:04Nobody goes 35-5, not even in Little League.
19:08Got him swinging, and he has his no-hitter!
19:11We were on a mission.
19:12We were playing the 1927 Yankees and the 1975 Reds.
19:16The 84 Tigers felt we were going to win.
19:18And there it goes!
19:21They had a lot of blue-collar guys that knew what their jobs were.
19:25They went out and did them.
19:27Tigers are the champions of 1984!
19:30The Tigers have won the World Series!
19:33You know, that year was an incredible year.
19:35We capped it off for the World Championship,
19:37and it's in the books.
19:46The 67 Cardinals were a fun team to watch.
19:50That was the first standout team that had a good mix of both black players,
19:55Latin American players, and obviously the white players.
19:57That 67 team was perhaps the greatest Cardinal team of all time.
20:03They had everything.
20:04They had speed, they had defense, they had power, and they had Gibson at the top of the rotation.
20:12That wasn't the last Cardinals teams we'd see.
20:15I just hope we can get a Stan Musial team.
20:18The outfield consisted of Lou Brock, Kurt Flood, and Roger Maris.
20:23First baseman Orlando Cepeda was voted MVP.
20:27And then there was Bob Gibson with that laser glare.
20:31He had three complete game wins in the World Series,
20:34allowing Boston all of only three runs.
20:38We knew that the Red Sox had a good ball club,
20:41and, you know, you had to be on your best game playing against them
20:46because they did have the great players on their club.
20:49With Bob pitching, I knew we had an excellent chance.
20:52Bob Gibson was one of the guys that climbed the summit whenever the pressure was on.
20:58When Bob Gibson pitched, it transcended baseball.
21:02It was an act of war.
21:04He was ferocious.
21:07He was mean.
21:08He almost had an anger when he was on the field.
21:11Some pitchers, they like to throw at you, but you can intimidate them not to.
21:15They don't know you might come after them.
21:17They'd think twice before they'd throw at you, but Gibson didn't mind that.
21:21He'd beat you halfway.
21:22And the old saw about he'd knock down his grandmother.
21:25That's true.
21:26He would.
21:27When he walked under that mound, he was king as far as he was concerned.
21:32You were not going to beat him.
21:34He struck him out.
21:35And that's all for the Boston Red Sox.
21:43Eight.
21:44Eight.
21:45Eight.
21:47Like pepperoni pizza at midnight,
21:49the Yankees of 40s and 50s just kept repeating.
21:53In 1953, they became the only team to win five straight World Series,
21:59dusting the Dodgers with a roster including Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Billy Martin.
22:04The manager, irrepressible Casey Stengel.
22:07Eight.
22:08Eight.
22:11Casey Stengel was a terrible manager in Boston,
22:14a terrible manager in Brooklyn,
22:17was a brilliant manager, the best that ever lived in New York.
22:20Five World Series in a row for Casey Stengel and his American League whiz-bangs.
22:24What Stengel realized is that people have strengths and weaknesses and limitations.
22:34The great success of Stengel is the almost military understanding of lawyer troops for a particular battle.
22:42He had a feel for the game, I think, of getting the right person in the right spot at the
22:47right time.
22:48While those players did not like it,
22:50and Hank Bauer may not have liked being held to 120 games a year,
22:54those 120 games were in the situations where they would be their best
22:59and where they would cash very large World Series checks in October.
23:10The 1961 Yankees had no weaknesses.
23:13They were just a great, exciting team.
23:15What people remember with the 61 Yankees
23:17is the fact that they could hit the long ball better than anybody else.
23:20Fastball hit deep to the right.
23:22It's looking in.
23:23Way back there.
23:25Oh, now it's there.
23:29You think of that team, you think, obviously, Roger Maris.
23:32But it's Mickey Mantle, too.
23:34And it's Elston Howard and it's Yogi Berra.
23:36They put the fear of God in teams.
23:38Seven.
23:39Seven.
23:40The M&M boys dominated the summer of 61.
23:44Roger Maris overtook Babe Ruth
23:46and combined with Mickey Mantle for 115 homers and 270 RBI.
23:52Bronx Bombers indeed.
23:53With six players hitting at least 20 home runs,
23:57the Yankees won 109 games and beat the Reds in the World Series.
24:05Everyone on that team could hit home runs.
24:07They hit 240 that year.
24:08At the time, the greatest home run hitting team in the history of baseball.
24:12They absolutely crushed, just dominated opponents.
24:17We had a lineup that was pretty solid all the way through.
24:20There really wasn't any easy outs.
24:21You'd get down to Elston Howard batting.
24:24And he could kill you, whatever he hit that year, you know, in the mid-300s.
24:29That team was just overpoweringly good and was so untested that there was almost a sense
24:34you didn't know how good they were because there was nobody who could push them.
24:37At that peak, the 1961 Yankees could beat any team, including the 1927 Yankees,
24:43which were basically Ruth and Garrett.
24:50Six, six, six.
24:53Fans of the 78 Yankees might give you an argument,
24:56but I think the 73 A's may have been the most colorful team to ever play the game.
25:02We were a rugged-looking bunch of ballplayers, and we went back to the old, old days.
25:08The long hair and the mustaches.
25:10It was a little embarrassing at times.
25:12I mean, you almost felt like you were a sideshow.
25:14We were a raggedy-tag bunch of old-timers that could play.
25:19Play indeed.
25:21They were stronger than garlic, winning the second of three straight World Series.
25:26And they oozed charisma.
25:28Mustachioed Raleigh Fingers, spotlight-loving Reggie Jackson,
25:31and Jim Hunter, better known as Catfish.
25:34How good was this team?
25:36Even their uniforms were colorful.
25:38It was just a great team.
25:40Put together by Charles O. Finley with so many great players.
25:44We all came up through the minor leagues together,
25:46and we all hit the big leagues right around 1969, 1970.
25:50Most of the guys were 21, 22, 23 years old at that time in the nucleus of our ball club.
25:58As Jackson delivers his third hit in a row.
26:01We were looked upon at that time as this highly efficient machine that would roll over people.
26:07I see that as the end of the era.
26:09It was the last pre-free agent dynasty.
26:12If you're going to go out as far as the traditional baseball setup goes,
26:16what better team than that colorful bunch of guys in the A's?
26:235-5-5.
26:27Duke Snyder had 42 homers and 136 RBI.
26:32Roy Campanella won his third MVP.
26:36The Dodgers started 22-2 and cruised to the pennant.
26:41Then loomed the Yankees, who had beaten Brooklyn five times in the previous 14 seasons.
26:47But this time, it was the boys of summer that triumphed.
26:53You're talking about one of the best teams at that time.
26:59Four of the starters' position players are in the Hall of Fame.
27:03That would be Duke Snyder, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and Roy Campanella.
27:08Unfortunately, the Brooklyn...
27:09No, it's five because Gil Hodges is in the Hall of Fame.
27:13The Brooklyn Dodgers always had trouble beating the Yankees in a World Series.
27:19Finally, in 1955, the Dodgers win in seven games,
27:22thanks to Sandy Amorosa's marvelous catch-off, Yogi Berrett,
27:26and thanks to a young pitcher, Johnny Padres.
27:30Johnny Padres pitched a 2-0 shutout in the seventh game
27:34to finally get the monkey off their back as the Brooklyn Dodgers.
27:38It was the first and only one we ever won in Brooklyn,
27:40so it meant something to all of us.
27:42It meant a lot more to the veteran players on the Brooklyn Dodgers.
27:46To get that off their back, it was a very big thing.
27:49The 1955 Dodgers are important
27:51because there's a whole period of wonderful teams there,
27:55and they need a culminating moment
27:57when they beat the miserable, rotten, no-good Yankees.
28:05Four.
28:06Four.
28:08The 1939 Yankees were loaded.
28:10Seven pitchers posted at least ten wins.
28:13Five players hit over 300.
28:16They won the pennant by 17 games
28:18and then a fourth straight World Series sweeping the Reds.
28:22One star, though, shined brightest.
28:24MVP Joe DiMaggio
28:26hit a league-leading 381 with 126.
28:30The most impressive part about that
28:32is Gehrig had to retire before the season,
28:34and they still were that great.
28:36RBI.
28:38Four.
28:38Four.
28:40Thirty-nine Yankees won despite Lou Gehrig
28:43having become sick during that season
28:46and having to retire.
28:48Joe DiMaggio and all the others
28:50managed to keep them at the same level.
28:53That Yankee team included a pitching staff
28:57that just wouldn't stop,
28:58and Joe DiMaggio at his absolute peak.
29:03DiMaggio's one of the all-time greatest players
29:05that ever lived.
29:06He had a presence, a grace.
29:09Something about him had the touch of poetry
29:13and perfection about it that moved people.
29:16I've never seen him make a mistake.
29:18He doesn't make a mistake.
29:20He was a perfect ball player.
29:23He was the most determined,
29:25most ferocious, winning ball player
29:28that we had ever seen.
29:30DiMaggio's teams made ten World Series,
29:32and they've won nine of them.
29:35That's all you need to know.
29:41Three, three, three, three.
29:44And Cincinnati has won the World Championship.
29:48That big red machine, boy, they could play.
29:51I mean, they could really play.
29:54They were a tremendous team of great talent.
29:58Sparky, he knew the class of players that he had,
30:01and he just let them go out there and play.
30:04Joe Morgan, arguably the best second baseman ever.
30:08Johnny Bench, arguably the best catcher ever.
30:11Pete Rose, with the most hits ever.
30:13Tony Perez, an RBI machine for the big red machine.
30:17They comprised the engine room of the 75 Reds
30:20who prevailed over Boston in a memorable World Series.
30:25In a seven-game series, they might have been able to beat any team that ever played.
30:29That's gone.
30:30Way back.
30:32They could run.
30:33I mean, you know, they could hit.
30:35I mean, there's nothing those Reds couldn't do.
30:37They hustled.
30:38They helped each other.
30:39And if someone wasn't doing the right thing,
30:42the rest of the guys made sure that they knew about it.
30:45We had a lot of leaders on the team,
30:47strong leaders on the ball club,
30:48which really helped out.
30:49Everybody expected to win all the time.
30:51By winning the 1975 World Series,
30:54it validated the fact that the Cincinnati Reds
30:57really were the big red machine.
31:052-2-2-2
31:07The 98 Yankees simply had everything.
31:12That team...
31:15The 98 Yankees simply had everything.
31:19That team just got it rolling, kept it rolling,
31:23never did anything except play on the highest level.
31:28Bernie Williams led the American League in hitting.
31:30Derek Jeter topped the league in runs
31:32and sparkled it short.
31:34David Cohen won 20.
31:36Mostly, the 1998 Yankees were perfect links
31:39in a long, long chain.
31:41They totaled 125 wins,
31:44including an 11-2 record in the postseason.
31:47Ball game over.
31:48World Series over.
31:51It was just beyond anyone's description
31:54how things fell into place and how good they were.
31:56There was a starting pitcher every day
31:59that seemed to have a chance to win.
32:00David Wells has pitched a perfect game!
32:04As far as good pitching, good defense, timely hitting,
32:07those are the things that we're capable of doing.
32:09Those are the things we did do.
32:11Amazing!
32:12And the Yankees are running away with it.
32:14Yankees win!
32:17That year was so special.
32:19If we would be losing in the sixth,
32:21we knew we were going to come back.
32:26We just wanted to win every single day.
32:28We basically wrapped up the division there
32:31by a month to win the season.
32:34I remember being on the air that year saying,
32:37folks, we're going to remember these as the good old days.
32:40It was the perfect season.
32:42125 wins!
32:44Probably never see this again!
32:47The Yankees' winning percentage was 7-14,
32:50which is a fairly magic number in Yankee history,
32:53considering that was the number of home runs
32:54that Babe Ruth had.
32:56We won more games than 18.
32:58I'm saying the terrible luck of Tony Gwynn.
33:04I mean,
33:06he went to two World Series
33:09and then ran into the 84 Tigers
33:12and the 98 Yankees.
33:14Two teams on this list?
33:15Really?
33:23I don't know if the record was on anybody's mind.
33:28It's just that when we went out on the field,
33:30we played the game hard,
33:31we played it good,
33:32and we won.
33:33As far as depth and overall team play,
33:36we may have played together better than any team in history.
33:38I'm not saying we were the best players
33:40that ever played the game,
33:41but we certainly were the best team
33:43that ever played the game.
33:44It was so easy to wrap your arms around that team
33:46because they did things the right way,
33:48they had class guys,
33:49and there was just nobody who could touch them.
33:53Welcome back to Who's Number One
33:54in the 20 greatest Major League teams of all time.
33:57Let's have reverently.
34:06Everyone knows that the Ruth and Garrett Yankees
34:09dominated the 1920s right into the 1930s,
34:12but one of their teams has to be the best.
34:14The quintessential baseball team of all time
34:17was none other than the 1927 New York Yankees.
34:21This rare assemblage of talent was called Murderer's Row.
34:27They just hurtled the field
34:29from the beginning of the season to the end.
34:31Two great, great stars were the heart and soul
34:34of Murderer's Row in 1927
34:37that made the Yankees a legendary baseball team.
34:41There's never been anything like that.
34:43Never been a Ruth-Garrick combination, no.
34:46They still remain the gold standard in baseball.
34:49The highest compliment you can give a team
34:51is to say that they're on par with the 1927 Yankees.
34:55Ruth and Garrick combined for 107 home runs
34:58and 339 RBI.
35:00And New York's team batting average, 307.
35:04This was truly an embarrassment of riches.
35:10The symbolic moment for the 27 Yankees
35:13is the batting practice
35:14before the first game of the World Series
35:15against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
35:16And they're watching
35:17Ruth, Garrick, Lazeri, Combs, Musil,
35:22home run after home run.
35:23The series is over before it starts.
35:26They annihilated the Pirates
35:28four straight in the World Series.
35:30The Pirates were in awe of them,
35:31looking up at Garrick and Babe Ruth.
35:33And this was the one that established the Yankees.
35:35From then on, the Yankees were a dynasty.
35:38You could have fabulous teams now,
35:40but they are not as good relative to their competition.
35:43The team would have to hit 400 home runs today
35:45to be that superior.
35:4627 Yankees were to baseball
35:49what Microsoft is to software,
35:52what the Beatles were to the top 10.
35:55That's why the 27 Yankees are unique.
35:57Not because they're better
35:58than the great teams of the last 30 or 40 years,
36:00but because they're better
36:01relative to the other teams of their period.
36:06So you say you favor the Bronx Bombers.
36:08Not enough information.
36:09Which Bronx Bombers?
36:10Maybe you lean toward the big...
36:12I told you before the beginning,
36:14there would be more than five,
36:16there would be at least five Yankees teams on this list.
36:21I counted about six.
36:26Big Red Machine.
36:28Which Big Red Machine?
36:29You see, the entire list offers difficult choices.
36:33ESPN Classic made its picks,
36:34and now our resident second-guessers make...
Comments