Baseball is a sport that celebrates looking backwards, with its sometimes crippling need to observe, adhere to and proclaim fealty to the past. We turn legends into deities in these parts -- sometimes on these very pages -- continuing to write about, speak of and dress like Don Mattingly circa

This interview appears in Episode 5 of the New York Yankees Official Podcast. Subscribe here or at the podcast platform of your choice.

There’s a line that we like to use here in New York City, maybe you’ve heard it a time or two (possibly even while exiting Yankee Stadium after a Yankees win). It’s a bit brash, a bit grandiose, perhaps evocative of a citizenry a bit too sure of its place

In most walks of life, the realization of a dream usually coincides with the end of a long journey. More often than not, it happens after quite a few years -- decades, even -- of doing one thing, of pursuing a single goal. The narrative surrounding Anthony Volpe during the

It’s not often that a misunderstanding leads to a better outcome or to a life-changing, legacy-defining decision. But when Mike Gallego hit the free-agent market following a seven-year tenure with the Oakland A’s, that’s exactly what happened. The infielder, who had helped Oakland reach the World Series in 1988, 1989

Gerrit Cole is getting pretty accustomed to setting records. After establishing a new Yankees single-season benchmark with 257 strikeouts in 2022, the 32-year-old right-hander picked up right where he left off, striking out 11 San Francisco Giants in a 5-0 Opening Day win. Afterward, the Yankees’ media relations department disseminated

There is a natural order to the way a Spring Training clubhouse lays itself out, drawn from the tried and proven methods that remain in place when the team heads north. For the most part, pitchers' locker next to pitchers, catchers alongside one another and other position players tend to

Yankee Stadium was only about a half-hour old when the first legendary moment occurred there. On April 18, 1923, after spending the previous 10 years across the Harlem River as tenants of the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds, a period that, itself, followed 10 years in a wooden

Joe Pepitone, a three-time All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove winner for the Yankees at first base, passed away on March 13 at the age of 82. The Brooklyn native began his big league career with the Yankees in 1962, and he donned the pinstripes for eight seasons, contributing to

What does progress sound like? If you’re a New Yorker, it’s the sound of welding torches and jackhammers building and repairing the city’s infrastructure. If you’re the parent of a child learning an instrument, it’s fewer sour notes with each practice session. If you’re Jose Trevino, it’s the whirr of

There are times when Yankees history seems endless, and others when the generations meet and tangle in such a way that makes the past six-score years feel compact as a midseason West Coast swing. Jack Chesbro, who Newsday’s Steve Jacobson wrote in 1978 “was known as Happy Jack, because he

There is a scene in the 1997 film "Donnie Brasco" in which an FBI technician played by Paul Giamatti is reviewing audio of mobster conversations and rather innocently says to the film’s protagonist, the overly entrenched and overworked undercover agent Joseph D. Pistone, “Hey, can I ask you something? What’s

It’s hard to imagine too many better endings for a season than catching the final pitch of a no-hitter to clinch a championship. For Yankees Minor League catcher Austin Wells, whose 2022 season started in big-league Spring Training, then made stops in High-A Hudson Valley, Low-A Tampa and, finally, Double-A

It all began on Delaware Street in Buffalo, N.Y. Long before George Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees 50 years ago -- before he made the transition from a shipbuilding executive to the most recognizable team owner in sports; to a visionary who charted the path to seven World Series championships and

If you watch a person over time, you can pick up on certain tendencies: habits that they fall into, predilections they revert to. Aaron Judge has, with good cause, stood and spoken before countless watchful reporters in his first seven seasons in pinstripes. And now with a new nine-year deal

To gain an understanding of who Oswaldo Cabrera is, try putting yourself in his spikes on the afternoon of Sept. 7: Facing the Twins in the first game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, they have you leading off a lineup that features Ronald Guzmán hitting cleanup and Miguel Andújar

The best fairy tales’ details transcend their origins. There’s barely a film or novel whose plot doesn’t at least borrow from our allegorical comfort food, from the lessons and lullabies that mark our time. Take the concept of a fish out of water. The reference dates back to the 14th

There are two larger-than-life bobbleheads on the Main Level concourse at Yankee Stadium, depicting two of the greatest players in Yankees history. Just behind the press box, fans often stop to photograph the giant plastic statues of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. But for all of the accomplishments that these

Gleyber Torres stood in a corner of the visiting clubhouse at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, pondering the six years since his baseball life changed. The room should have been exceptionally familiar to the infielder; as a Cubs prospect, signed out of Venezuela as a 16-year-old, he was supposed to

There were only about 8,000 fans in the stands, yet they produced a collective roar the likes of which New York City had never heard. It was Sept. 30, 1927, and the crowd at Yankee Stadium was there not to witness a pennant-clinching victory -- the “Murderers’ Row” Yanks had

It had been a few months since the New York Yankees’ second consecutive World Series championship celebration. For baseball’s most successful franchise, the 1962 triumph was a milestone. It was the Yankees’ 20th title, all of them coming in less than four decades, beginning with the team’s first in 1923.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance graced movie theaters in 1962, the same year that saw the Yankees win a ninth championship in 14 seasons. Even if you’ve never seen the flick, perhaps you’ve heard at least some version of its most famous -- if oft-misquoted -- line: “When the

In one of those old-time photos from a bygone era, there is a picture of the 1938 New York Yankees -- including such immortal legends as Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Bill Dickey. Eighty-four years later, the name George Selkirk might not be as recognizable to Yankees fans as the

Paul O’Neill didn’t want to leave Cincinnati. The Ohio native grew up idolizing the Big Red Machine, was drafted by the Reds in 1981, made his big-league debut with them in 1985, and won a World Series as a Red in 1990. But the baseball gods had other ideas for

The scene was as majestic in 2022 as it was 60 years ago. Since the early 1960s, Dodger Stadium on a midsummer evening has provided fans and players with a utopia-like atmosphere, combining perfect Southern California weather with all of the excitement that a big league ballpark can hold. On