Little-Known Yankees Facts and Records

by Dusty Writes

January 1, 2026

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Many fans know about Yankees' records such as Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. Although no longer a record, Roger Maris' 61 homers in 1961 is also widely known. But there are so many amazing Yankees facts that many fans are not aware of.

Here are some of them:

Andy Pettitte, according to the Society of American Baseball Research ( SABR), was the only pitcher in history, when he retired, to pitch more than 15 seasons and never had a losing season. That is incredible because somewhere along the line most pitchers who pitch that long either have an off season as they decline late in their career, or even when they are in their prime, may have a losing record when they pitch only a few games and have a losing record, for example of 1 win and 2 losses before they go on the I.L. for most of the season.

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Bill Virdon managed the Yankees for the 1974 season and most of 1975. During this time the Yankees played their games at Shea Stadium, as Yankee Stadium was being renovated. Virdon, therefore, is the only Yankees manager since 1923, when the original Yankee Stadium opened, to never manage a game in his home ballpark.

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Somewhere along the line, almost every great player declines and has an (OPS+) less than league average (100 OPS+). Even the greats such as Willie Mays and Hank Aaron toward the end of their career had an OPS+ less than 100. Remarkably, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, with a combined 31 years of MLB, never had a below average OPS+.

The following stat may be a record: Teammates Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle, who spent the vast majority of their career as teammates, both played for only one team 15 or more years, and Ford never had a below average ERA+ and Mantle never had a below average OPS+.

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Yogi Berra, usually ranked either as first or second- best catcher in history, according to many books and articles, never led the league in a single batting category. That is amazing especially since Yogi won 3 MVP Awards.

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Graig Nettles had one of the more amazing careers of consistency as far as hitting home runs go. He hit 15 or more homers for 17 straight seasons. What makes this stretch of consistency even more impressive was that Nettles didn't become an everyday player until age 26. 

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We can be very confident this record will never be broken: Joe Sewell, who played on the Yankees 1932 world championship team struck out 3 times in 503 at bats.

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Darryl Strawberry finished with exactly 1,000 career rbi. Roy White, a very underrated player, especially by non-Yankees fans had exactly 300 career doubles.

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Fans know about Whitey Ford and his amazing career. But it was another Ford, Russ Ford, who won 26 games for the Highlanders in 1910. Whitey's most wins in a season was 25. 

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Frank" Home Run" Baker, who played for the Yankees part of his career had more triples in his career (103) than home runs ( 96). 

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Clete Boyer hit 14 homers for the Yankees in 1966. His brother Ken, hit 14 homers in 1966 for the Mets. Both Clete and Ken hit a home run in game 7 of the 1964 World Series.

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The Yankees Bob Meusel and his brother Emil "Irish" Meusel, played against each other in the 1921, 1922, and 1923 World Series. Bob had a career .309 batting average. Emil had a career .310 batting average. Bob had 95 career triples and Emil had 93 triples, Bob's career OPS+ was 119, and Emil had a 118 OPS+. Bob's career fielding percentage was .958, while Emil had a .959 percentage.

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Spud Chandler and Don Gullett had in some ways incredibly similar careers, yet in other ways their careers were completely different. Chandler had a fantastic won lost record of 109-43 for a .717 win percentage. Gullett had a 109-50 record for a .686 win percentage. Those win percentages are amazing. Chandler was on 6 world championship teams and 7 pennant winners in just 11 seasons. Gullett pitched only 9 seasons and was on 4 world championship teams 6 pennant winners. His 1973 Reds were one game away from winning another pennant. These 2 players had short careers compared to many others but their winning percentages and amount of championships they won, especially taking into account they didn't have 20 -year careers, was extraordinary.

The big difference between these 2 pitchers was that Chandler didn't pitch his first MLB season until age 30, Gullett started at age 19 and his last season was at age 28. How many championships could Gullett have won if he played until age 38 or 39 or so? Gullett won a World Series in his last 4 seasons, 2 with Cincinnati and 2 with the Yankees. In the 1976 World Series Gullett defeated the Yankees in Game 1 as the Reds swept the Yankees. The next season Gullett started Game 1 of the World Series pitching for the Yankees as he pitched a strong game and defeated the Dodgers.

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Tom Tresh, a power hitter for the Yankees in the 1960s and his father Mike Tresh had some similarities in their careers as well as big differences. Mike played 12 seasons (1938-1949) and had a career on base percentage of .335. Tom in 9 seasons (1961-1969) had the same career on base percentage of .335.  Tom played almost his entire career with the Yankees. In his last season (1969) he went to the Tigers, a year after the Tigers won the World Series. Mike played almost his entire career with the White Sox, but in his last season played for the Indians in 1949. He also joined his new team a year after they won the World Series. Both Tom and Mike had similar career batting averages. Tom had a .245 batting average and Mike had a .249 batting average. However, here's the big difference. Tom was a very good power hitter, especially in the pitching dominated 1960s. Tom had seasons of hitting 27, 26, 25, 20, 16, 14, 14, and 11 homers. He also won the Rookie of the Year in 1962, made 3 All-Star teams and received MVP votes in 4 seasons. He also won a Gold Glove. He hit at least 1 home run in all 3 World Series (1962-1964), and made a fantastic catch in the 1962 World Series that played a big part in the Yankees winning.

Mike Tresh, however, had virtually no home run power. If he wasn't the worst home run hitter in history, he definitely is one of the worst home run hitters of all time. In 3,169 career at bats, he hit 2 home runs!

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This next stat seems to be impossible to be true, but it is. Cecil Fielder, who played a big role with many clutch post season hits to play a big part in the Yankees 1996 world championship hit 319 career home runs. His son, Prince Fielder, also hit 319 home runs. In addition to this remarkable stat, they both had 97 homers with 2 outs, 49 homers in the 4th inning, 29 homers in the 5th inning, 18 homers in the 9th inning! They also both hit 50 homers in a season.

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Phil Niekro, a Hall of Famer, and his brother Joe, both pitched for the Yankees late in their careers. They were teammates on the Yankees in the 1980s. Joe Niekro had only 1 career home run in 19 years and 973 at bats. Joe's only MLB home run came off of his brother, Phil in 1976. It wasn't nepotism because that home run was the difference in a 4-3 Astros win as Joe defeated Phil that game 4-3.