1974 New York Yankees season

The 1974 New York Yankees season was the 72nd season for the team in New York and its 74th overall dating from its origins in Baltimore. The team finished with a record of 89–73, finishing 2 games behind the Baltimore Orioles. New York was managed by Bill Virdon. The Yankees played at Shea Stadium due to the ongoing renovation of Yankee Stadium.

1974 New York Yankees
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)George Steinbrenner
General manager(s)Gabe Paul
Manager(s)Bill Virdon
Local televisionWPIX (Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer, Bill White)
Local radioWMCA
(Frank Messer, Phil Rizzuto, Bill White)
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Offseason

The off-season became controversial when George Steinbrenner and Gabe Paul sought to hire former Oakland Athletics manager Dick Williams, who had resigned immediately after leading the team to its second straight World Series title. However, because Williams was still under contract to Oakland, A's owner Charlie Finley sought to block the move, the subsequent legal wrangling prevented the Yankees from hiring him. On the first anniversary of the team's ownership change, the Yankees hired former Pittsburgh Pirates manager Bill Virdon to lead the team on the field.

Notable transactions

Regular season
  • August 25, 1974: Nolan Ryan of the California Angels struck out Sandy Alomar of the Yankees for the 1500th strikeout of his career.[7] Ryan and Alomar had been teammates at the beginning of the season, but Alomar had been sold to the Yankees on July 8.
  • September 7, 1974: The Yankees' Graig Nettles hit a home run against the Detroit Tigers. The next time up, he hit a broken-bat single. Tigers catcher Bill Freehan scrambled for the six superballs that came bouncing out. Nettles was called out on the single, but his solo homer was allowed and the made all the difference as the Yankees won 1–0.[8]

Hall of Fame
Whitey Ford's number 16 was retired by the New York Yankees in 1974.

Mickey Mantle and former teammate Whitey Ford were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame together in 1974, Mantle in his first year of eligibility, Ford in his second. Ford's number 16 was retired as well. Although Ford wore number 19 in his rookie season, following his return from the army in 1953, he wore number 16 for the remainder of his career.

Season standings
AL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
Baltimore Orioles 9171 0.562 — 46–35 45–36
New York Yankees 8973 0.549 2 47–34 42–39
Boston Red Sox 8478 0.519 7 46–35 38–43
Cleveland Indians 7785 0.475 14 40–41 37–44
Milwaukee Brewers 7686 0.469 15 40–41 36–45
Detroit Tigers 7290 0.444 19 36–45 36–45

Record vs. opponents
1974 American League Records

Sources:
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK TEX
Baltimore —10–87–55–712–614–48–48–106–611–76–64–8
Boston 8–10—4–88–49–911–74–810–86–611–78–45–7
California 5–78–4—10–8–13–95–78–103–98–103–96–129–9
Chicago 7–54–88–10–1—8–47–511–78–47–11–14–87–119–7–1
Cleveland 6–129–99–34–8—9–98–410–86–67–115–74–8
Detroit 4–147–117–55–79–9—7–59–93–911–75–75–7
Kansas City 4–88–410–87–114–85–7—11–18–104–88–108–10
Milwaukee 10–88–109–34–88–109–91–11—6–69–95–77–5
Minnesota 6–66–610–811–7–16–69–310–86–6—4–85–139–9
New York 7–117–119–38–411–77–118–49–98–4—7–58–4
Oakland 6–64–812–611–77–57–510–87–513–55–7—8–10
Texas 8–47–59–97–9–18–47–510–85–79–94–810–8—

Notable transactions

Roster
1974 New York Yankees
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

  •  2 Sandy Alomar
 Outfielders

Other batters

 Manager

Coaches

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 Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
CThurman Munson144517135.2611360
1BChris Chambliss11040097.243643
2BSandy Alomar7627975.269127
3BGraig Nettles155566139.2462275
SSJim Mason152440110.250537
LFLou Piniella140518158.305970
CFElliott Maddox137466141.303345
RFBobby Murcer156606166.2741088
DHRon Blomberg9026482.3111048

Other batters

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

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Fernando González5112126.21517
Otto Vélez276714.209210
Walt Williams43536.11303
Larry Murray610.00000

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Pat Dobson3928119153.07157
Doc Medich38279⅔19153.60154
Dick Tidrow33190⅔1193.87100
Rudy May17114⅓842.2890
Mel Stottlemyre16113673.5840

Other pitchers

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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Dave Pagan1649.1135.1139
Fritz Peterson37.2004.705

Relief pitchers

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

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Fred Beene60012.7010
Tom Buskey40116.353
Ken Wright30003.182
Rick Sawyer100016.200

Awards and honors
  • Bill Virdon, The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Syracuse Chiefs International League Bobby Cox
AA West Haven Yankees Eastern League Doc Edwards
A Fort Lauderdale Yankees Florida State League Pete Ward
A-Short Season Oneonta Yankees New York–Penn League Mike Ferraro
Rookie Johnson City Yankees Appalachian League Gene Hassell

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Oneonta[17]

Notes
  1. Jim Mason page at Baseball Reference
  2. Lou Piniella page at Baseball Reference
  3. Hal Lanier page at Baseball Reference
  4. Ron Swoboda page at Baseball Reference
  5. Ken Phelps page at Baseball Reference
  6. Walt Williams page at Baseball Reference
  7. "The Nolan Ryan Express | The Strikeout King". smackbomb.com/nolanryan. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2008.
  8. http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/cheaters/ballplayers.html
  9. Chris Chambliss page at Baseball Reference
  10. Mike Pazik page at Baseball Reference
  11. Horace Clarke page at Baseball-Reference
  12. Lowell Palmer page at Baseball-Reference
  13. Dennis Sherrill page at Baseball Reference
  14. Rudy May page at Baseball Reference
  15. Sandy Alomar page at Baseball Reference
  16. Jesús Figueroa page at Baseball Reference
  17. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007

References
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