Successive editions of this newsletter are counting down the 50 greatest ballclubs of all time — a/k/a the Best 50 — as ranked by my new book, Baseball’s Best (and Worst) Teams. Today’s entry focuses on No. 2, the 1998 New York Yankees.
Here’s a quick boilerplate explanation that I’m appending to every story in this series:
I compiled the Best 50 by analyzing 2,544 major-league teams from 1903 to 2024. Those clubs have been ranked by their team scores (TS), which are plotted on a 100-point scale. (A given club’s all-time percentile is the percentage of the other 2,543 teams that it outperformed.)
See my book for an explanation of my TS calculations. The book also offers separate breakdowns of the best and worst clubs for every decade and franchise, comprehensive profiles of the Best 50 (including position-by-position lineups and much more information than you’ll find in this newsletter), and similar summaries of the 10 worst teams of all time.
Now on to today’s profile.
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Team: 1998 New York Yankees
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Team score: 97.945 points
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All-time rank: 2 of 2,544
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All-time percentile: 99.96%
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Season record: 114-48 (.704)
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Season position: First place in American League East
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Final status: World champion
The Yankees languished for 13 years, failing to qualify for the playoffs between 1982 and 1994. They finally made a brief postseason appearance in 1995, then broke through in an unexpectedly big way in ’96. New York captured the ultimate prize, trouncing the highly rated Atlanta Braves in the World Series.
The Yanks reverted to recent form in 1997, settling for second place and a quick exit from the playoffs. They started 1998 in similarly disappointing fashion, losing four of their first five games. New York’s tabloids seethed with negativity, though shortstop Derek Jeter advised patience. “If this wasn’t happening at the beginning of the season,” he said, “it would be no big deal.”
He was right. The Yanks promptly won 22 of their next 24 contests. They opened a 10-game divisional lead by early June, eventually pushing it to 22 games. Their 114 victories were the most for any club since the 1906 Chicago Cubs, and their final winning percentage of .704 ranked as the highest for any team since the 1954 Cleveland Indians.
Get the complete lowdown on the 50 greatest (and 10 weakest) clubs of all time
The Yankees notched a pair of shutouts while sweeping the Texas Rangers in the American League Division Series. But their pitchers failed to inspire the same awe during the AL Championship Series. Cleveland rolled to 4-1 and 6-1 wins after New York’s victory in Game One. The Yanks took command thereafter, securing the pennant in Game Six.
The World Series never seemed in doubt. New York scored nine runs in each of the first two contests, then completed its sweep of San Diego by scores of 5-4 and 3-0. Third baseman Scott Brosius led the Yanks, going eight-for-17 with six RBIs.
Derek Jeter staked his team’s claim at the end. “I’m a little young to know about the teams back in the early 1900s,” he said, “but we were 125-50 [including the postseason], and there’s not too many teams that can say that.”
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Derek Jeter was the youngest player in New York’s lineup — just 24 years of age — yet the intense shortstop was already acknowledged as the club’s leader. “Derek was the centerpiece of the entire team. We took on his persona,” said pitcher David Cone. Jeter led the American League in runs scored (127) and batted a solid .324.
Only one teammate posted a higher BA. Bernie Williams, a soft-spoken center fielder, topped the league at .339. That made him the first player in history to win a batting crown, Gold Glove, and World Series ring in the same season. Two other Yankees joined the .300 club: right fielder Paul O’Neill (.317) and third baseman Scott Brosius (.300). Brosius batted eighth or ninth in the order, yet somehow drove home 98 runs. Jeter hailed him as “our MVP.”
The Yankees weren’t especially powerful, ranking fourth in the AL in home runs. Their primary slugger was first baseman Tino Martinez (28 homers, 123 RBIs). The team anticipated comparable numbers from designated hitter Darryl Strawberry, but he slumped badly during the second half of the season. The reason became obvious in September, when doctors diagnosed a colon tumor.
A pair of Davids — Wells and Cone — paced the starting rotation. The mercurial Wells pitched a perfect game on May 17, overcoming what he described as “a raging, skull-rattling hangover.” His 3.49 ERA was fifth-best in the league. Cone accumulated an AL-leading 20 wins. He had first reached that magic number a decade earlier with the 1988 Mets.