1955 New York Yankees season explained

New York Yankees
Season:	1955
Misc:	American League Champions
League:	American League
Ballpark:	Yankee Stadium
City:	New York City
Owners:	Dan Topping and Del Webb
General Managers:	George Weiss
Managers:	Casey Stengel
Television:	WPIX
Radio:	WINS (AM) (Mel Allen, Jim Woods, Red Barber)

The 1955 New York Yankees season was the team's 53rd season. The team finished with a record of 96 wins and 58 losses, winning their 21st AL pennant, finishing 3 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians. New York was managed by Casey Stengel. The Yankees played their home games at Yankee Stadium. In the World Series, they were defeated by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 7 games.

Offseason

November 17, 1954: Gene Woodling, Harry Byrd, Jim McDonald, Hal Smith, Gus Triandos, Willy Miranda and players to be named later were traded by the Yankees to the Baltimore Orioles for Don Larsen, Billy Hunter, Bob Turley, and players to be named later. The deal was completed on December 1, when the Yankees sent Bill Miller, Kal Segrist, Don Leppert, and Ted Del Guercio (minors) to the Orioles, and the Orioles sent Mike Blyzka, Darrell Johnson, Jim Fridley, and Dick Kryhoski to the Yankees.^[1]

Regular season

Notable transactions

May 11, 1955: Enos Slaughter and Johnny Sain were traded by the Yankees to the Kansas City Athletics for Sonny Dixon and cash.^[2]
July 30, 1955: Ed Lopat was traded by the Yankees to the Baltimore Orioles for Jim McDonald.^[3]
September 14, 1955: Jerry Staley was selected off waivers by the New York Yankees from the Cincinnati Redlegs.^[4]

Roster

1955 New York Yankees roster
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		OutfieldersOther batters		ManagerCoaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	147	542	147	.272	27	108
1B	108	288	92	.319	12	61
2B	141	533	152	.285	13	53
3B	135	510	131	.257	7	47
SS	98	255	58	.227	3	20
LF	132	371	94	.253	8	59
CF	147	517	158	.306	37	99
RF	139	492	137	.278	20	53

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
97	279	81	.290	10	43
105	278	65	.234	13	45
88	173	26	.208	16	42
81	143	37	.259	1	9
43	96	22	.229	0	8
55	85	29	.341	3	22
20	70	21	.300	1	9
11	26	4	.154	0	3
14	26	5	.192	0	1
10	9	1	.111	0	1
14	6	2	.333	0	0
2	5	0	.000	0	0
2	5	2	.400	0	2
1	3	0	.000	0	0
1	2	2	1.000	0	3
7	2	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
39	253.2	18	7	2.63	137
36	246.2	17	13	3.06	210
27	160.0	16	5	3.15	76
19	97.0	9	2	3.06	44
16	86.2	4	8	3.74	24
1	3.0	0	0	3.00	1

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
29	126.2	8	7	3.41	49
26	92.1	7	5	4.19	63
16	53.0	0	2	3.91	22
10	29.0	1	1	5.28	15

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
45	7	2	11	2.32	19
40	7	3	10	3.25	17
33	1	3	0	3.16	48
3	0	0	0	6.75	5
2	0	0	0	6.00	2
2	0	0	0	13.50	0

1955 World Series

See main article: article and 1955 World Series. In Game One on September 28, Elston Howard became the sixth player in the history of the World Series to hit a home run in his first World Series at bat.

NL Brooklyn Dodgers (4) vs. AL New York Yankees (3)

Game	Score	Date	Location	Attendance
1	Dodgers – 5, Yankees – 6	September 28	Yankee Stadium	63,869
2	Dodgers – 2, Yankees – 4	September 29	Yankee Stadium	64,707
3	Yankees – 3, Dodgers – 8	September 30	Ebbets Field	34,209
4	Yankees – 5, Dodgers – 8	October 1	Ebbets Field	36,242
5	Yankees – 3, Dodgers – 5	October 2	Ebbets Field	36,796
6	Dodgers – 1, Yankees – 5	October 3	Yankee Stadium	64,022
7	Dodgers – 2, Yankees – 0	October 4	Yankee Stadium	62,465

Post-season exhibition

From October 11 to November 21, the Yankees embarked on a 25-game barnstorming exhibition tour. The team played five games in Hawaii, 16 games in Japan, one game in US-controlled Okinawa, two games in the Philippines, and one game in Guam; they won 24 of the 25 games and tied one game against an all-star team in Sendai.^[5] ^[6]

Awards and honors

Yogi Berra, American League MVP

All-Star Game

League leaders

Whitey Ford, league leader, complete games (Ford was the first player to lead the American League in complete games with fewer than 20)^[7]

Farm system

References

1955 New York Yankees at Baseball Reference
1955 World Series
1955 New York Yankees at Baseball Almanac

Notes and References

https://www.baseball-reference.com/l/larsedo01.shtml Don Larsen
https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/slaugen01.shtml Enos Slaughter
https://www.baseball-reference.com/l/lopated01.shtml Ed Lopat
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stalege01.shtml Jerry Staley
Web site: Tale of two trips: 1955 Yankees here weeks, 2004 team days. subscription. https://web.archive.org/web/20190107184155/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2004/04/14/baseball/tale-of-two-trips-1955-yankees-here-weeks-2004-team-days/#.XDOdeXbP3IU. January 7, 2019. April 14, 2004. Wayne. Graczyk. The Japan Times.
Yanks Capture Japan. November 14, 1955. Curtis. Prendergast. Sports Illustrated.
Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p.106, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York,
Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007