1948 New York Yankees season

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Babe Ruth's number 3 was retired by the New York Yankees in 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.

[edit] 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.

The grave of Babe Ruth

On August 16, the day after Frick's visit, Babe Ruth died at age 53. His body lay in repose in Yankee Stadium. His funeral was two days later at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. Ruth was then buried in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York.

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." ^[1]

[edit] Regular Season

[edit] Season standings

[edit] Roster

[edit] Game Log

Template:1948 New York Yankees season game log

[edit] Player stats

[edit] Batting

[edit] Other batters

[edit] Starting pitchers

[edit] Other pitchers

[edit] Relief pitchers

[edit] References

1. ^ "Babe Ruth, Baseball's Great Star and Idol of Children, Had a Career Both Dramatic and Bizarre", New York Times, August 17, 1948. Retrieved on 2007-07-21. "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." 

[edit] External links

• 1948 New York Yankees
• 1948 New York Yankees team page at www.baseball-almanac.com