The Greatest Yankees Lists of All-Time: The Best Yankees Executives and Coaches
By James Vlietstra
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My next list is My next list includes the best Yankees executives and coaches of all time.
This will include owners, general managers, field managers and coaches. Ironically, Larry McPhail and his son Lee McPhail were both executives with the Yankees and both were elected to the HOF but I didn’t include them on my lists of Yankees executives.
Here they are:
36. Hal Steinbrenner. His father passed away in 2010. Since this time Hal has run the team for 12 years. The value of the team has climbed from $1.3B to $6B. However, the Yankees have not won a World Series during this time.
35. Dan Topping Jr. Started on the ground crew, then ticket office, publicity, then GM and VP. He spent 7 years in the organization. He’s 84 years old. They won 2 World Series while with the team.
34. Marty Appel. Public Relations director. Was with the team for 10 years.
33. Rob Thompson. Was a coach for 10 years and won 1 World Series.
32. Chris Chambliss. Was a coach for 6 seasons, winning 4 World Series.
31. Billy Martin. 8 years as a manager. Was hired 5 times. , meaning he was fired/ resigned 5 times. Win 1 World Series.
30. Tony Cloninger. 10 years as a coach, 4 World Series.
29. Yogi Berra. Coached for 8 years, managed 3. Won 2 World Series.
28. Tony Peña. Coached for 12 years, winning one World Series.
27. Mel Stottlemyre. Coached 10 seasons, won 4 World Series.
26. Dick Howser. Coached 10 seasons and managed 1. Won 2 World Series.
25. Don Zimmer. Coached 10 years, winning 4 World Series.
24. Charlie O’Leary. Coached 10 years, winning 3 World Series.
23. Jim Hegan. 15 years as a coach. Won 2 World Series.
22. Earle Combs. Coached for 9 seasons, winning 6 World Series.
21. Joe Girardi. 1 year as coach and 10 as manager. Won 1 World Series.
20. Bill Dickey. Managed one season, coached 12. Won 6 World Series.
19. Willie Randolph. 11 years as a coach, winning 4 World Series.
18. Elston Howard. First black coach in the AL. Coached 11 years, winning 2 World Series.
17. Miller Huggins. Managed for 12 seasons, winning 3 World Series and getting elected to HOF.
16. Del Webb. Co owned the Yankees for 20 years. The team won 10 World Series during this time.
15. Joe Torre. 12 years as the manager. Win 4 World Series and was elected to the Hall Of Fame.
14. Jim Turner. 19 years as a coach. Won 7 World Series.
13. Ralph Houk. The Major spent 5 years as a coach, 2 years as the GM, 11 years as the manager. 5 World Series.
12. Johnny Schulte. 15 years as a coach, winning 7 World Series.
11Casey Stengel. The Old Professor managed for 12 seasons He won 7 World Series and was elected to the Hall Of Fame.
10. Dan Toping. 20 years as coowner. 19 years as President. Won 10 World Series.
9. Ed Barrow. GM for 18 years. President for 7 years. Hall of Fame member. Won 10 World Series.
8. Gene Michael. Coach, Manager, General Manager, VO Scouting, VP Sr Advisor. He was part of the front office over 30 years and won 7 World Series.
7. Jacob Ruppert Jr. 25 years as owner. Purchased Babe Ruth. Built Yankees Stadium. Elected to the HOF. Won 7 World Series.
6. Brian Cashman. Worked his way up from an intern to assistant GM for the first 12 years in the organization. The next 24 he has been the GM and Sr VP. He has won 4 World Series.
5. Art Fletcher. He coached for 19 years and won 9 World Series.
4. George Steinbrenner. The Boss was the owner for 37 years. He built Yankees Stadium 2 and won 7 World Series.
3. Joe McCarthy. 16 years as the manager with 6 100+ win seasons and his 1460 wins are most in franchise history. He was elected to the HOF and won 7 World Series.
2. Frank Crosetti. Spent 23 years as the third base coach, winning 9 World Series. Including his days as a player he won 17 total World Series.
1.George Weiss. 29 years split between the head of player development and GM. He won 15 World Series and was elected to the HOF.
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PREVIOUS ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES:
GMSIII got New York City taxpayers to build YS2 for him (not sure if that cuts in his favor or against). However, he was also responsible -- personally responsible for his meddling and incompetence -- for an 18-year WS championship drought and a 13-year post-season drought (I believe that without the strike, the Yankees would have made the post-season in '94, so I can't blame George for that). Indeed, the entire success of the mid-90s to early-00s Yankees emanates from his all too short "banning for life."
So will our WS drought be known as the Curse of George or the Curse of Hal?