The History of the New York Yankees: Every Era, from the First Season to Today
The New York Yankees in eras, from the 1901 Baltimore Orioles and the Highlanders to the Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle, Jackson and Jeter years, with 41 pennants and 27 World Series titles placed in context.
The New York Yankees have won 27 World Series and 41 American League pennants, and no other franchise is close on either count. The historical record, through the 2025 season, puts their record at 10,990 wins and 8,369 losses across 125 seasons, a winning percentage of .568. Put differently, the club has been about 2,600 games over .500 since the American League began play in 1901. That is the kind of margin that makes a franchise history read like a single long argument about dominance.
But the dominance came in waves, and the waves are the interesting part. The club spent its first twenty seasons without a pennant, won eleven pennants in the 1920s and 1930s, took ten in twelve years under Casey Stengel, and then fell into a hole in the late 1960s that lasted into the 1970s. It returned in 1976, went through another long absence in the 1980s and early 1990s, rebuilt around a homegrown core, and won four titles in five years from 1996 to 2000. This article takes the eras in order and uses the season-by-season record to show how each one worked.
All numbers come from the historical record through 2025. For the current record and the next game, use the live Yankees page.
From Baltimore to Hilltop Park, 1901 to 1919
The franchise did not begin in New York. It started in 1901 as the Baltimore Orioles, one of the American League's eight charter clubs, and moved to New York in 1903. This is not the same club as today's Baltimore Orioles, who began as the Milwaukee Brewers in 1901, became the St. Louis Browns in 1902 and arrived in Maryland in 1954; the full story of that team is in the Orioles history. The New York club was known as the Highlanders from 1903 to 1912, a name tied to the high ground in Manhattan where Hilltop Park stood, and became the Yankees in 1913. The site's team file lists the club as founded in 1903.
The early team was not good for long. Clark Griffith managed the club from 1903 to 1908 and posted a 419-370 record. The best near-miss came in 1904, when Jack Chesbro won 41 games, the most by any pitcher in a season since 1900 in the historical record, and the club went 92-59 and finished second to Boston. The pennant was decided on the last day, and a wild pitch by Chesbro decided the game. The club then sank. It lost 103 games in 1908, 102 in 1912 and 94 in 1913, and its best season attendance at Hilltop Park was only 501,000.
Two things changed the club in this period. In 1913 it moved into the Polo Grounds as a tenant of the New York Giants, a share that lasted ten seasons. And in 1915 Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast Huston bought the club. Miller Huggins took over as manager in 1918 and managed through 1929, and in the winter of 1919 to 1920 the new owners bought Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox rivalry that followed is told in the Red Sox history.
Ruth, Gehrig and the first dynasty, 1920 to 1930
Ruth's first season with New York was 1920, and the effect was immediate. He hit 54 home runs, and the next man in the American League hit 19. The Yankees won 95 games and finished third; a year later they won the first pennant in franchise history, and the Giants beat them in the World Series both in 1921, in a best-of-nine format, and in 1922. The club finally won a title in 1923, beating the Giants four games to two in the first season at Yankee Stadium.
The new ballpark would be the club's home through 1973. The best attendance at the original Yankee Stadium was 2,373,901. For a history of the building and its later versions, see the Yankee Stadium guide. Ruth became its signature figure, and his figures with the club are still extraordinary: 659 home runs, a .349 average, 1,959 runs and 1,852 walks in 15 seasons from 1920 to 1934. He won the MVP award in 1923.
The most famous Yankee team of the period was the 1927 club. It went 110-44, swept Pittsburgh in the World Series and had Ruth hit 60 home runs, a record that stood for 34 years. Lou Gehrig, who hit 47, won the MVP award. The 1928 club swept St. Louis. Gehrig would spend 17 seasons with the franchise, hit 493 home runs and drive in 1,995 runs, which is the most in club history. Miller Huggins, who guided the team to the first three titles, died in the last weeks of the 1929 season. His 1,067-719 record remains the fourth-best by wins among the franchise's managers.
McCarthy, DiMaggio and the second dynasty, 1931 to 1946
Joe McCarthy was hired in 1931, after managing the Cubs, and stayed through 1946. His record with the club is 1,460-867, the most wins by any Yankee manager, and he won seven World Series: 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941 and 1943. The 1932 title was a four-game sweep of McCarthy's old team, the Cubs. The 1936 to 1939 run of four straight titles was the longest in the club's history to that point; the Yankees would later stretch the record to five.
The star of the era was Joe DiMaggio, who came up in 1936 and hit 361 home runs and collected 2,214 hits in 13 seasons through 1951, with a .325 average. He won the MVP award in 1939, 1941 and 1947. In 1941 he hit in 56 straight games, a record that has never been broken. Gehrig played his last game in 1939 after 2,130 straight appearances, and died in 1941; his .340 career average with the club is second only to Ruth's .349 among Yankees with 3,000 at-bats. Other stars included Bill Dickey, the catcher who spent 17 seasons with the club, Red Ruffing, who won 231 games, and Lefty Gomez, who won 189.
The war interrupted the pattern. The Yankees lost the 1942 World Series to the Cardinals, four games to one, and won it back in 1943, with Spud Chandler winning the MVP award. Then they fell back. McCarthy resigned in 1946, and the Yankees won the 1947 World Series under Bucky Harris before turning to a new manager.
Stengel, Mantle and ten pennants in twelve years, 1947 to 1964
The 1947 title, four games to three over the Dodgers, was the last before Stengel. The club hired him for 1949, when he was 58 and had a reputation as a joker more than a winner. He went 1,149-696 in 12 seasons, and won ten pennants, in 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1960. Seven of them became World Series titles, including five in a row from 1949 to 1953, which is still the only run of five straight titles in the record.
The roster was a conveyor belt. Yogi Berra won MVP awards in 1951, 1954 and 1955 and spent 18 seasons with the club, with 358 home runs. Whitey Ford won 236 games, the most in club history, with a 2.75 ERA and 45 shutouts, and won the 1961 Cy Young Award. Mickey Mantle debuted in 1951 and hit 536 home runs in 18 seasons, winning MVP awards in 1956, 1957 and 1962. In the 1956 World Series Don Larsen threw a perfect game, the only one in World Series history. For Mantle's story see our Yankees all-time greats.
The bad year was 1960. The Yankees won the pennant but lost the World Series to Pittsburgh in seven games, on a Game 7 home run by Bill Mazeroski, and Stengel was replaced by Ralph Houk. Houk's teams won in 1961, when Roger Maris hit 61 home runs to break Ruth's record and the club went 109-53, and in 1962, when the Yankees beat the Giants in seven games at Candlestick Park. The Yankees lost the 1963 World Series to Los Angeles in a sweep, and lost again in 1964 to St. Louis, four games to three. That was the 29th pennant, and the last for twelve years.
The collapse, 1965 to 1975
The fall was fast. CBS bought the club in the mid-1960s, and the dynasty ended with surprising speed. In 1965 the Yankees went 77-85 and finished sixth. In 1966 they went 70-89 and finished last, tenth in the ten-team league. Mantle retired after 1968. The club hovered near .500 through the early 1970s, finishing second with a 93-69 record in 1970, when Thurman Munson won Rookie of the Year, but never contended seriously.
In 1973 a group led by George Steinbrenner bought the club. Yankee Stadium was rebuilt in 1974 and 1975, and the Yankees played their home games at Shea Stadium, where they drew about 1.3 million fans each year. Billy Martin took over as manager in 1975, with the first of his several stints, and he finished with a 556-385 record across 941 games with the club. Steinbrenner had already signed pitcher Catfish Hunter after an arbitrator voided Hunter's contract with Oakland, and he would sign Reggie Jackson in the first full free-agent class after the 1976 season.
Steinbrenner, Martin and Reggie, 1976 to 1981
The Yankees won the American League East in 1976 with a 97-62 record, then beat Kansas City in the ALCS, three games to two, and lost the World Series to Cincinnati in a sweep. Munson won the MVP award. A year later Jackson arrived as a free agent, and the Yankees beat the Dodgers in the World Series, four games to two, with Jackson hitting three home runs in the clincher. Sparky Lyle won the Cy Young Award in 1977.
The 1978 season was the most dramatic. Ron Guidry went 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA and won the Cy Young Award. The club trailed Boston by a large margin in July, caught them, tied for the division at the end of the season and won a one-game playoff at Fenway Park on a home run by Bucky Dent. Martin resigned in July, and Bob Lemon took over. The Yankees then beat Kansas City in the ALCS, three games to one, and beat the Dodgers in the World Series, four games to two, after losing the first two. In 1979 Munson died in a plane crash.
The club won 103 games in 1980 but was swept by Kansas City in the ALCS. In 1981, in a season split by a players' strike, it won the AL East, swept Oakland in the ALCS and lost the World Series to the Dodgers, four games to two, after winning the first two. Dave Righetti was the Rookie of the Year.
The long gap, 1982 to 1995
The Yankees were one of the best-funded clubs in the sport and they did not play in October for 13 seasons, 1982 through 1994. The last of those, 1994, was ended by a players' strike with no postseason, with the Yankees leading the division at 70-43. Don Mattingly won the MVP award in 1985, when the club went 97-64 and finished second, and he collected 2,153 hits for the franchise. Rickey Henderson stole 326 bases for the club between 1985 and 1989. But the team churned through managers and spent big on free agents who did not last, and in 1990 it went 67-95 and finished seventh, the club's worst season since 1913.
The way out was the farm system. The pitchers and hitters who would carry the next dynasty, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams, all came up through the organization in the early 1990s. The team won 88 games in 1993, led the division in the shortened 1994 season, and in 1995 won a wild-card berth, losing the division series to Seattle, three games to two. Buck Showalter, who had managed since 1992, left, and the club hired Joe Torre.
The Torre dynasty, 1996 to 2007
Torre managed from 1996 to 2007 with a 1,170-765 record, and the club made the postseason in all 12 of those years; with the 1995 wild card, that is 13 straight playoff seasons. The Yankees won the 1996 World Series, beating Atlanta four games to two after losing the first two, then won 114 games in 1998 and swept San Diego, swept Atlanta in 1999 and beat the Mets in the 2000 Subway Series, four games to one. That is four titles in five years. The 2001 team lost the World Series to Arizona in seven games, in a Series played in November after the September 11 attacks.
Jeter spent 20 seasons with the club, from 1995 to 2014, and finished with 3,465 hits, the most in franchise history, plus 1,923 runs and 358 stolen bases. Rivera saved 652 games in 19 seasons and has a 2.21 ERA, the best among Yankees with 1,000 innings. Pettitte won 219 games, third on the club list, and struck out 2,020 batters, first. Add Posada, who drew 936 walks, and Bernie Williams, with 2,336 hits, and the farm system produced a core that spent more than a decade together.
The Torre years ended in a string of narrow series. In 2003 the Yankees beat Boston in the ALCS in seven games, on an extra-inning home run by Aaron Boone, and lost the World Series to Florida in six. In 2004 they led Boston three games to none in the ALCS and lost the next four, a collapse that left Boston as the only team in major-league history, as of the 2025 season, to win a best-of-seven series after trailing three games to none. Alex Rodriguez won MVP awards in 2005 and 2007, with 351 home runs for the club. The Yankees lost the division series in each of 2005, 2006 and 2007.
2008 to 2025: a new stadium and the Judge years
In 2008 the club missed the postseason for the first time since 1993, in the last season of the old Stadium, and drew a club-record 4,298,655 fans. In 2009 the new Yankee Stadium opened. The site's data gives it a capacity of 46,543, with 318 feet to left, 399 to left-center, 408 to center, 385 to right-center and 314 to right, the short porch in right being its signature. Joe Girardi's team won 103 games, beat the Angels in the ALCS, four games to two, and beat the Phillies in the World Series, four games to two, for the 27th title.
Since 2009 the club has won no title but has been consistently good. It lost the ALCS in 2010 to Texas, in 2012 to Detroit by a sweep, in 2017 and 2019 to Houston, and in 2022 to Houston in another sweep. It missed the postseason in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2023. Jeter retired in 2014, Rivera in 2013, and CC Sabathia, who struck out 1,700 batters in 11 seasons, in 2019.
Aaron Judge arrived in 2016 and was the 2017 Rookie of the Year, with 368 home runs for the club through 2025. In 2022 he hit 62 home runs, the American League record, and won the MVP award, and he won it again in 2024 and 2025. Gerrit Cole won the Cy Young Award in 2023. Aaron Boone took over as manager in 2018 and went 697-496 through 2025. The 2024 club won the AL East, beat Kansas City in the division series, three games to one, and beat Cleveland in the ALCS, four games to one, for the 41st pennant, then lost the World Series to the Dodgers, four games to one. In 2025 the Yankees won 94 games, won the wild-card series against Boston, two games to one, and lost the division series to Toronto, three games to one.
Managers and titles
| Manager | Years | Record | Titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miller Huggins | 1918 to 1929 | 1,067-719 | 1923, 1927, 1928 |
| Joe McCarthy | 1931 to 1946 | 1,460-867 | 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1943 |
| Casey Stengel | 1949 to 1960 | 1,149-696 | 1949 to 1953, 1956, 1958 |
| Ralph Houk | 1961 to 1973 | 944-806 | 1961, 1962 |
| Joe Torre | 1996 to 2007 | 1,170-765 | 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 |
| Aaron Boone | 2018 to 2025 | 697-496 | none |
The 1977 and 1978 titles came under Martin and Lemon, and the 2009 title under Girardi, who won more than 900 games with the club. The records are with the Yankees only.
Common questions
How many World Series have the Yankees won? Twenty-seven, the most of any franchise. The last was in 2009, and the club reached the World Series again in 2024.
Who is the Yankees' all-time home run leader? Babe Ruth, with 659 for the club, ahead of Mickey Mantle with 536, Lou Gehrig with 493 and Aaron Judge with 368 through 2025.
What was the longest stretch without a title since the first one? The 18 years between the 1978 title and the 1996 title, as of the 2025 season. The club's most recent title is 2009.
Why did the Yankees play at Shea Stadium? The original Stadium was rebuilt after the 1973 season, and the club shared the Mets' home in 1974 and 1975.
Who are their main rivals? The AL East also includes Boston, Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Toronto. The Rays history covers the newest of them.
Where to go next
To see how the Yankees' titles fit into the history of the sport, read the history of the World Series and The Best New York Yankees Seasons and Every October Run. The live Yankees page and the Yankee Stadium page carry the current record, and the Yankees topic page collects the latest news.