1948 New York Yankees season

MLB yearly infobox-pre1969‎
name = New York Yankees
season = 1948
misc = Babe Ruth's Number is retired

current league = American League
y1 = 1901
Uniform
ballpark = Yankee Stadium
y4 = 1923
city = New York City, New York
y5 = 1903
owners = Dan Topping and Del Webb
managers = Bucky Harris
television =

---

Name = Babe Ruth
Number = 3
Team = New York Yankees
Year = 1948|

The New York Yankees' 1948 season was the 46th season for the Yankees and their 48th overall. The team finished with a record of 94-60, finishing 2.5 games behind the Cleveland Indians and 1.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox. New York was managed by Bucky Harris. The Yankees played at Yankee Stadium.

The fractional games-behind came about due to the frenzied pennant race, which saw the Yankees, Red Sox and Indians all battling it out to the end. The Yankees fell just a little short, and the Red Sox and Indians finished in a tie for first at 96-58. They held a one-game playoff, which counted as part of the regular season, so the Indians' victory raised their record to 97-58, and dropped the Red Sox to 96-59.

The Yankees did not renew Bucky Harris' contract after the season, opting instead to hire Casey Stengel starting in 1949. This move raised some eyebrows, but Stengel had just led the Oakland Oaks to the Pacific Coast League pennant in 1948, demonstrating that with good talent, he had a good chance to succeed. The Yankees were about to begin the most dominating stretch of their long dynasty.

Babe Ruth's Death

On July 26, 1948, Babe Ruth attended the premiere of the film "The Babe Ruth Story", a biopic about his life. William Bendix portrayed Ruth. Shortly thereafter, Ruth returned to the hospital for the final time. He was barely able to speak. Ruth's condition gradually became worse, and in his last days, scores of reporters and photographers hovered around the hospital. Only a few visitors were allowed to see him, one of whom was National League president and future Commissioner of Baseball, Ford Frick. “Ruth was so thin it was unbelievable. He had been such a big man and his arms were just skinny little bones, and his face was so haggard,” Frick said years later.

.At his death, the New York "Times" called Babe Ruth, "a figure unprecedented in American life. A born showman off the field and a marvelous performer on it, he had an amazing flair for doing the spectacular at the most dramatic moment." [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Babe Ruth, Baseball's Great Star and Idol of Children, Had a Career Both Dramatic and Bizarre |url=http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0206.html |quote=Probably nowhere in all the imaginative field of fiction could one find a career more dramatic and bizarre than that portrayed in real life by George Herman Ruth. Known the world over, even in foreign lands where baseball is never played, as the Babe, he was the boy who rose from the obscurity of a charitable institution in Baltimore to a position as the leading figure in professional baseball. He was also its greatest drawing-card, its highest salaried performer--at least of his day--and the idol of millions of youngsters throughout the land. |publisher=New York Times |date=August 17, 1948 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]

Regular Season

eason standings

Roster

Pitching

Starting pitchers

References

External links

* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/1948.shtml 1948 New York Yankees]
* [http://baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/roster.php?y=1948&t=NYA 1948 New York Yankees team page at www.baseball-almanac.com]