Best Yankees Tickets

With the MLB underway for the 2012 season, now is the best time to start looking for the best Yankees tickets. The action will kick off on April 6, 2012 as the New York Yankees are set to take on the Tampa Bay Rays as they look to defend their divisional title. Manager Joe Girardi is excited about leading one of the most celebrated teams in the world to another potential world series championship. Fans looking for the best Yankees tickets should find some right at home in Yankee Stadium. This is one of the best venues and is filled with baseball tradition as the Yankees are a popular MLB team. Perhaps the Yankees will face stiff competition this year from opposing teams like the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles. Only time will tell. Either way, the Yankees are going to have a great 2012 season.

New York Yankees in 2011

The New York Yankees are having a successful season in 2011 as the regular season winds to a close.  Going into the season however, there were a lot of question marks when it came to both offense and defense.

In the 2010 offseason the New York Yankees made Cliff Lee one of their top priorities and offered him a lucrative contact, although he later turned it down to go to the Philadelphia Phillies instead.  With the retirement of Andy Pettitte in the offseason, the Yankees had gaps to fill in their starting rotation.  To make up for these gaps the team signed a bevy of pitchers to minor league deals, including Mark Prior, Bartolo Colon, Buddy Carlyle, and Freddie Garcia, among others.  To shore up their bullpen the Yankees signed Rafael Soriano to a three year deal, along with Pedro Feliciano and the resigning of Mariano Rivera.  As far as offense, the Yankees desperately needed a catcher that could hit for both power and average, and they were able to get that in signing Russel Martin.  Other offensive moves included signing Andruw Jones and Eric Chavez, along with resigning Derek Jeter.  All in all the New York Yankees had a busy offseason with a lot of risky moves that might not have paid off.

Fortunately for the Yankees, there were many gold nuggets to be found in all of the minor league contracts they had created, especially when it came to starting pitching.  Bartolo Colon was able to resurrect his career as well as Freddie Garcia, and are now in the middle of the Yankees rotation.  Role players have stepped up for the team as well in Andruw Jones and Eric Chavez.  Curtis Granderson has been a great surprise for the New York Yankees in 2011, along with the solid play of Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira.  The New York Yankees are certainly a team that can make a run for the World Series title in 2011.

New York Yankees Tickets Online

New York Yankees tickets are always hard to come by these days, especially ones available at decent prices.  The New York Yankees are one of the premier teams in any sport, and certainly has a worldwide fan base that hardly any other team can rival.  With that said, what is the best way to get New York Yankees tickets?  Have you ever considered getting them online?

Instead of having to go to the stadium and wait in line for hours just to hope to get a ticket, why not go online and get tickets quickly and easily?  There are three great ways to consider when trying to get the best Yankees tickets online.  The first way is through the official team’s website.  This should really be looked at as a final option, since the prices will be very high and there is no real guarantee that you will find the seats you are looking for.  The second way to get Yankees tickets online is through an online ticket company.  For some reason or another they have gotten a bad reputation, when in fact they are a great, safe alternative to consider.  Since there are so many of them around they have to keep their prices low in order to stay competitive, which means great deals for you.

No matter which way you are thinking about, getting New York Yankees tickets online is a great idea to consider, especially when on a budget.  When buying tickets online though, always check to make sure that the company or website is reputable and has a money back guarantee in case anything were to go wrong.  It is always better to be safe than sorry.

The New Yankee Stadium

One of the most iconic ballparks in all of major league baseball is the new Yankees Stadium.  The New York Yankees had played in the old Yankees Stadium from 1923 until 2008, which hosted some of the greatest players in the history of professional baseball, including Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Lou Gehrig, not to mention a few World Series games from time to time.  The new Yankees stadium is truly a technological marvel, but it did not come without its fair share of dilemmas.

One problem that the franchise had to face was financing for the new stadium.  At an estimated cost of $1.5 billion dollars, it was originally expected that taxpayers would fund much of the construction of the stadium.  However, this changed when Michael Bloomberg became mayor of New York City and declared that the team would have to finance the stadium on its own.  Another unique situation arose during construction when a die-hard Boston Red Sox worker buried a David Ortiz jersey under one of the team dugouts.  Despite all of the quirkiness that went on during the construction of the stadium, it was built in time for the 2009 season when the New York Yankees won another World Series title.

The New Yankees stadium features many great technologies available to both players and fans.  The players got a clubhouse that was double the size of what was in the old Yankees Stadium, along with touchscreen computers at every locker, indoor batting cages, underwater treadmills, the list goes on.  Fans are treated to perks such as many more available concession stands, a state of the art scoreboard, as well as the Yankees Museum, which features valuable memorabilia covering all of the great teams and players throughout the franchise’s history.

All in all, the new Yankees Stadium is a fantastic ballpark that must be attended at least once by any devoted baseball fans.

New York Yankees Famous Players

Being one of the most storied franchises in all of sports, the New York Yankees certainly have their fair share of great players that have performed for the team since its inception in New York in 1903.  While there are many players worth mentioning when it comes to the New York Yankees, there are two of them that have stood the test of time as the most famous players to have ever played for the franchise.

The most well known player in the New York Yankees organization as well as major league baseball for that matter is Babe Ruth.  What was most interesting about Ruth was that he was a fantastic pitcher before being traded to the Yankees from the Red Sox (which was later known as the Curse of the Bambino) before being converted into an outfielder.  Who has ever heard of someone else who hit 714 home runs with a .342 average, along with winning almost a hundred games as pitcher with an era of 2.28?  The numbers that Ruth put up are immense to say the least, and that is why he is considered as one of the greatest to have ever played the sport of baseball.

Another great fielder to have played for the New York Yankees was Lou Gehrig.  While he is unfortunately most known for the disease that ended his spectacular career (Lou Gehrig’s disease), he was a fantastic hitter for the team throughout the 1920s and 1930s.  He finished with a lifetime average of .340 and hit 493 home runs to go with it.  While Gehrig set many records during his playing days, the one that he was most known for was his consecutive games streak at 2,130 games, or 13 straight seasons without missing a game.  This, along with DiMaggio’s hit streak was thought to be untouchable, although Cal Ripken was finally able to break through and surpass him in 1996.  Both of these players had fantastic careers for the New York Yankees and show why the team was able to become so dominant through the years.

New York Yankees – Boston Red Sox Rivalry

One of the most well known rivalries in all of sports is between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.  It is not as if the rivalry has been going on for a couple of years either, as the two teams have battled it out against one another for many decades.  What is the reason for such a rivalry?  Here are two main reasons why the rivalry is considered as one of the best in all of sports.

When one looks at the rivalry out of the context of baseball one will find that the two cities of Boston and New York City have competed amongst one another as well for many centuries.  Boston at first had the edge over New York City as an educational capital of the world, along with its harbor providing an economic boom to the city, while New York City was in a period of transition.  As time progressed however New York City became the financial capital of the world, and this has led to much rivalry between the two cities as to which is the better of the two.

When it comes to the teams themselves, both have been extremely successful through the years, with the Yankees more so than the Red Sox.  Many believe that the rivalry became what it is today due to the Red Sox trading Babe Ruth over to the Yankees for practically nothing in return, thus leading to “Curse of the Bambino.”  For a great deal of time after that the Red Sox were never able to pull through and win a World Series title, while the New York Yankees couldn’t fill up their trophy room fast enough.  Since the 1990s though the rivalry has become a lot more intense as the Red Sox have become more successful.   Nowadays one can’t help but catch a Red Sox-Yankees game on all of the major television networks.

Origin of the New York Yankees

Around the turn of the century, near the end of 1900, the Western League was trying to reorganize its baseball teams, in particularly adding three teams to Eastern cities to create the American League.  New York City was one of those proposed cities, but the National League’s New York Giants blocked those attempts so instead a team was put in Baltimore, Maryland.  Baltimore had previously had a National League team, but when the League cut back from 12 to 8 teams they had been left in the dust.

The new Baltimore team was called the Orioles and their first season began in 1901.  There was considerable drama in the first few years during which time the Orioles manager secretly defected to the Giants and stole a number of players from the Orioles until the American League intervened.  As part of the peace negotiations 15 of the 16 Major League owners agreed that a team should be put in New York to play alongside the Giants.  The only opposing owner was, of course, John T. Brush of the Giants.  The Orioles new owners found a ballpark free of the Giants’ interference and the Orioles moved to New York.

Their new home field was Hilltop Park and thanks to its elevation and the coincidence between the team’s president, Joseph Gordon, and the British military unit, The Gordon Highlanders, the Orioles became known as the New York Highlanders.  The press, however, called them the New York Americans, as was common of all American League teams at the time.  The name Yankees (sometimes Yanks) came about thanks to the New York Press sports editor Jim Price who decided it fit better in the headlines.  In 1911 the Giants’ ballpark burned down and the Highlanders shared the use of Hilltop Park.  When Polo Grounds was rebuilt in 1913 the Highlanders moved into it.  Their name no longer applies so the already standing nickname “Yankees” became their official team name.

Yankee Sluggers

The New York Yankees have been home to many famous hitters over the years.  Perhaps the most famous of all, Babe Ruth, spent most of his illustrious career with the Yanks.  Lou Gehrig, one of the better known and somewhat more tragic heroes of America’s Pastime also wore the pinstripes.  Somewhat less famous but certainly still a recognized name (due in part to the song, Mrs. Robinson) was “Joltin’” Joe DiMaggio.  Shortly after Lou Gherig’s retirement and shortly before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor was the 1941 season.  The Red Sox’s Ted Williams was on the hunt for a .400 batting average and Joe DiMaggio came out of nowhere when he started getting hits game after game.  And he continued to get hits, every single game.  His streak continued on to 56 games, the current major league record.

After manager McCarthy drove the team to several losing seasons and was let go in 1946 and a number of other managers continued the downward spiral, Bucky Harris came along and forced the comeback necessary to lead the Yankees to a Series win over the Dodgers.  Even so, he was released in 1948 after finishing third behind the Cleveland Indians and Casey Stengel stepped into the position.

The Stengel era was one of the brightest in Yankees’ history, both in terms of success and star players.  DiMaggio’s career was coming to a close and he retired in 1951, but this was the same year that Mickey Mantle joined the team and began slugging his way to stardom.  The Yankees were rich with talent all over the field at this time with Mickey Mantle in center field, Whitey Ford on the mound, and Yogi Berra behind the plate.  The Yankees won the World Series five times in a row between 1949 and 1953, a record that still stands.

Yankees Injury Report

The Yankees are currently facing a fairly smooth lineup in terms of injuries.  With only two players on the recent injury list and one of them apparently fully recovered, they can expect to bring a strong, nearly complete roster to the ALDS on Friday, September 30.

Phil Hughes is in his fourth year with the Yankees franchise and he appears to be here to stay despite frequent injuries.  Hughes was picked up in 2007 as the second youngest player in the American League.  His first game he gave up four runs on seven hits in 4 innings in his Major League debut on April 26, 2007 again the Toronto Blue Jays.  The next time out, on May 1 against the Texas Rangers, he made a much stronger showing, holding down a no hitter for 6 and a third innings.  Then he pulled his hamstring throwing a curveball.  He was out until August 4.  That year he relieved Roger Clemens in Game 3 of the Series and pitched 3.2 scoreless innings before striking out the fourth and earning his first playoff win. When Clemens left with a hamstring injury Hughes replaced him, the youngest player taking the place of the oldest.  Hughes has since had ups and downs and began this year as a third starter before being moved to the disabled list due to arm fatigue and shoulder inflammation.  He has just been returned to the bullpen and is expected to remain there for the rest of the season.

Francisco Cervelli has a less optimistic outlook for the remainder of this season.  He broke his foot in March, returned to the roster on April 29, and on May 8 hit his first home run of the season which also happened to be his first career grand slam.  On August 30 he made his mark against the Yanks’ Red Sox rivals when he knocked a homer over the Green Monster in the top of the 5^th against John Lackey.  He applauded the catcher before touching in at home.  In the top of the 7^th Lackey belted Cervelli with a fastball and after he approached the mound and exchanged some words with the Red Sox catcher, the benches cleared.  Cervelli came back to hit in the Yank’s fifth score of the game, the Yankees won 5-2.  Cervelli is currently on the disabled list with a concussion and lingering symptoms keep him benched.