1985 New York Yankees season

The New York Yankees' 1985 season was the 83rd season for the Yankees. The team only played 161 games, came in second place in the American League Eastern Division with a record of 97-64, and finished 2 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays. New York was managed by Yogi Berra and Billy Martin. The Yankees played at Yankee Stadium.

1985 New York Yankees
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)George Steinbrenner
General manager(s)Clyde King
Manager(s)Yogi Berra, Billy Martin
Local televisionWPIX
(Phil Rizzuto, Bill White, Spencer Ross)
SportsChannel NY
(Mel Allen, Mickey Mantle, others from WPIX)
Local radioWABC (AM)
(Frank Messer, Phil Rizzuto, Bill White, John Gordon)
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Offseason

Regular season
  • Rickey Henderson set a new club record by stealing 80 bases in one season. The previous mark had stood since 1914.

Henderson also scored 146 runs. It was the most in the Major Leagues since Ted Williams scored 150 runs in 1949.[8] In addition, Rickey Henderson became the first player since Lou Gehrig in 1936 to amass more runs in a season than games played.[8]

  • Don Mattingly became the first Yankee since Joe DiMaggio to have back to back 200 hit seasons.
  • Mattingly's 48 doubles were the most since Lou Gehrig hit 52 in 1927.
  • Mattingly was the AL MVP and RBI leader with 145. Mattingly hit for a .324 average with 35 home runs.
  • Dave Winfield became the first Yankee since Yogi Berra to achieve four straight 100 RBI seasons. Berra did it from 1953 to 1956.
  • On April 28, the Yankees fired Yogi Berra as manager 16 games into the season, only hours after being swept by the Chicago White Sox in a three-game series at Comiskey Park. Owner George Steinbrenner did not fire Berra personally, but instead dispatched general manager Clyde King to deliver the news. Berra was replaced by Billy Martin, whom he replaced as manager after the 1983 season. It became the fourth of Martin's five stints as Yankee skipper. Berra vowed after the slight to never again set foot in Yankee Stadium as long as Steinbrenner owned the team
  • On September 22, while at a hotel bar in Baltimore, Maryland, pitcher Ed Whitson broke manager Billy Martin's arm after a heated argument that spread to other parts of the hotel. Whitson's Yankee tenure was also memorable for constantly being heckled and booed during home games.
  • On October 5, the Yankees entered the next-to-last game of the season against the division-leading Toronto Blue Jays trailing them by two games. However, the Jays, led by pitcher Doyle Alexander, triumphed 5-1, clinching their first division title in franchise history.
  • On October 6, Phil Niekro shut out the Blue Jays 8-0 for his 300th major league win. He did not throw his trademark knuckleball until the final pitch of the game, striking out Jeff Burroughs.

Season standings
AL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
Toronto Blue Jays 9962 0.615 — 54–26 45–36
New York Yankees 9764 0.602 2 58–22 39–42
Detroit Tigers 8477 0.522 15 44–37 40–40
Baltimore Orioles 8378 0.516 16 45–36 38–42
Boston Red Sox 8181 0.500 18½ 43–37 38–44
Milwaukee Brewers 7190 0.441 28 40–40 31–50
Cleveland Indians 60102 0.370 39½ 38–43 22–59

Record vs. opponents
1985 American League Records

Sources:
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore —5–87–58–48–56–76–69–46–61–127–56–610–24–8
Boston 8–5—5–74–8–18–56–75–75–87–55–88–46–65–79–4
California 5–77–5—8–58–48–44–99–39–43–96–79–49–45–7
Chicago 4–88–4–15–8—10–26–65–85–76–76–68–59–410–33–9
Cleveland 5–85–84–82–10—5–82–107–64–86–73–96–67–54–9
Detroit 7–67–64–86–68–5—5–79–43–99–38–45–77–56–7
Kansas City 6–67–59–48–510–27–5—8–47–65–78–53–106–77–5
Milwaukee 4–98–53–97–56–74–94–8—9–37–63–94–88–34–9
Minnesota 6–65–74–97–68–49–36–73–9—3–98–56–78–54–8
New York 12–18–59–36–67–63–97–56–79–3—7–59–38–46–7
Oakland 5–74–87–65–89–34–85–89–35–85–7—8–56–75–7
Seattle 6–66–64–94–96–67–510–38–47–63–95–8—6–72–10
Texas 2–107–54–93–105–75–77–63–85–84–87–67–6—3–9
Toronto 8–44–97–59–39–47–65–79–48–47–67–510–29–3—

Notable transactions
  • June 3, 1985: Shane Turner was drafted by the Yankees in the 6th round of the 1985 Major League Baseball Draft.[9]
  • August 24, 1985: Jim Leyritz was signed by the Yankees as an amateur free agent.[10]
  • September 13, 1985: Bernie Williams was signed by the Yankees as an amateur free agent.[11]
  • September 15, 1985: Jim Deshaies and players to be named later were traded by the Yankees to the Houston Astros for Joe Niekro, who joined his brother Phil Niekro in the rotation. The Yankees completed the deal by sending Neder Horta (minors) to the Astros on September 24 and Dody Rather (minors) to the Astros on January 11, 1986.[12]

Roster
1985 New York Yankees
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

  • 20 Bob Meacham
 Outfielders
  • 33 Ken Griffey

Other batters

 Manager

Coaches

  • 51 Dom Scala (Bullpen)

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
CButch Wynegar10230969.223532
1BDon Mattingly159652211.32435145
2BWillie Randolph143597137.276540
3BMike Pagliarulo13838091.2391962
SSBobby Meacham156481105.218147
LFKen Griffey, Sr.127438120.2741069
CFRickey Henderson143547172.3142472
RFDave Winfield155633174.27526114
DHDon Baylor142477110.2312391

Other batters
Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Ron Hassey9226779.2961342
Dan Pasqua6014831.209925
Billy Sample5913940.288115
Andre Robertson5012541.328217
Dale Berra4810925.22918
Omar Moreno346613.19714
Henry Cotto345617.30416
Rex Hudler20518.15701
Scott Bradley19498.16301
Juan Bonilla8162.12502
Juan Espino9114.36400
Victor Mata671.14300
Keith Smith400.---00

Pitching

Starting pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO
Ron Guidry342592263.27143
Phil Niekro3322016124.09149
Joe Cowley30159.21263.9597
Ed Whitson30158.21084.8889
Marty Bystrom841325.7116
Joe Niekro312.1215.844

Other pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO
Bob Shirley48109552.6455
Dennis Rasmussen22101.2353.9863
John Montefusco370010.292

Relief pitchers
Player G W L SV ERA SO
Dave Righetti74127292.7892
Brian Fisher5544142.3885
Rich Bordi516823.2164
Neil Allen171012.7616
Mike Armstrong90003.0711
Don Cooper70005.404
Rod Scurry51012.8417
Dale Murray300013.500

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Columbus Clippers International League Doug Holmquist and Stump Merrill
AA Albany-Colonie Yankees Eastern League Barry Foote
A Fort Lauderdale Yankees Florida State League Bucky Dent
A-Short Season Oneonta Yankees New York–Penn League Buck Showalter
Rookie GCL Yankees Gulf Coast League Carlos Tosca

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Oneonta, GCL Yankees

References
  1. Matt Keough page at Baseball Reference
  2. Ron Hassey page at Baseball Reference
  3. Rick Cerone page at Baseball Reference
  4. Rickey Henderson page at Baseball Reference
  5. Jay Buhner page at Baseball Reference
  6. Ed Whitson page at Baseball Reference
  7. Billy Sample page at Baseball Reference
  8. Baseball's Top 100: The Game's Greatest Records, p.45, Kerry Banks, 2010, Greystone Books, Vancouver, BC, ISBN 978-1-55365-507-7
  9. Shane Turner page at Baseball Reference
  10. Jim Leyritz page at Baseball Reference
  11. Bernie Williams page at Baseball Reference
  12. Jim Deshaies page at Baseball Reference
  • Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-0-9637189-8-3.
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