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New York Yankees

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

The Yankees are without dispute the most successful franchise in baseball history. They have won a record of 22 World Series and 33 American League pennants and totally dominated the sport in the 1940s and, especially, the 1950s. They have won more games than any franchise, even though they are in the younger American League. The deal that made the Yankees into a powerhouse came in January 1920, when they bought Babe Ruth from the Red Sox as Boston owner Harry Frazee sold off his stars to finance his Broadway shows. Ruth changed baseball history by hitting 54 Home runs in 1920, breaking the record of 29 that he had set the previous season.

The Yankees resumed their pennant-winning ways with another three straight, 1926-28. In 1929 the Yankees wore numbers on their backs, the first team to do so on a permanent basis. They had won 12 consecutive World Series games. The team finished second the next three seasons, with Ruth being let go after 1934. Mantle hit his famous 565-foot home run in Washington that April 17 and Whitey Ford came back from two years of military service to become the staff ace as the Yankees coasted to another title. Stengel got his record fifth consecutive World Championship as Martin hit 0.500 in the series against the Dodgers, equaling the Series record with 12 hits. Former third-string catcher Ralph Houk took over the reins in 1961 as two teams and eight games were added in expansion.

Maris and Mantle chased Ruth's 60 home runs all season, with Maris topping it in the final game and winning his second MVP, Most Valuable Player award. Ford had his best season, going 25-4 and winning Cy Young honors, as Houk 1abilized the rotation for the first time in years and Luis Arroyo saved 29 games.

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