The New York Yankees are the best, most prolific, and fiercest team in baseball history. Their 27 World Series Championships, 40 league pennants, and 20 division titles speak volumes of their dominance in the MLB. They have a strong sense of tradition and strive to be the best.
However, even the best teams can have bad seasons and the Yankees have some of the worst teams in their history. Since they started playing in 1901, the team has had some of the best seasons in sports history. But they were unable to bad season too. Here is a list of the three worst Yankees teams ever.
1990 New York Yankees: The total mess
During this season, the Yankees had a 67-95 record, which was their lowest moment in the American League and make them the worst Yankees team. Their season was a total mess. In 1990, Jesse Barfield was the best player for the Yankees. But the star outfielder never lived up to the expectations the Yankees had for him.
Don Mattingly had back problems all season, which limited him to just 102 games and gave him the worst stats of his career. The worst Yankees performance in years caused the team owners to fire manager Bucky Dent on June 6. The team was ready to play the Red Sox at Fenway Park when the sacking news was made public.
After a fight with Dave Winfield, owner George Steinbrenner paid a private investigator to find “dirt” on his star player Dave Winfield. MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent put a ban on the Yankees owner. Though he was initially banned for life, it was later reduced. Even worse, Steinbrenner was getting most of his information from a small-time gambler and racketeer named Howard Spira, who used to work for Winfield’s charity foundation.
The 1990 season was the worst in the Yankees’ history and they finished last after 24 years. It was their first last-place finish in the division era and the second most losses after 1912.
1989 New York Yankees: Destined to fail
The Yankees of 1989 are the weakest ever fielded in the MLB by the New York franchise. The Yankees finished the season with a record of 74–87, which put them in fifth place in the American League, 14.5 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays. At the start of the season, it looked like the Yankees could be a serious contender. From there, though, things only got worse and they made history as one of the worst Yankees teams.
Dave Winfield was the Yankees’ best hitter, but he hurt his back and missed the whole season. The Yankees also decided to trade two of their best players, the young and promising Al Leiter and the fast base-stealer Ricky Henderson. No one seems to know why they did this. With a weak pitching staff, the 1989 Yankees will be remembered as one of the worst Yankees teams in franchise history.
1966 New York Yankees
In their 64th season as the Yankees, the team went 70-89 and finished 26.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles. The last time they came in 10th was with the 1912 New York Highlanders. The Yankees played their home games at the well-known Yankee Stadium. Johnny Keane and Ralph Houk were in charge of this team that rank among the worst Yankees teams.
They were unable to fill the seats, which was a shame. On September 22, 1966, when the New York Yankees played the Chicago White Sox, only 413 people paid to be there. Seeing only 413 people in a stadium that seats 65,000 was very discouraging, and it might have been a good way to describe the whole 1966 season.
Do you know any other worst Yankees team that played worse than the above three? Let us know in the comments section.
