1990 New York Yankees season

The New York Yankees' 1990 season was the 88th season for the Yankees. The team finished in seventh place in the American League East with a record of 67-95, finishing 21 games behind the Boston Red Sox. It was the Yankees' first last-place finish in 24 years, the first in the two-division era, and their most recent to date. New York was managed by Stump Merrill and Bucky Dent. The Yankees played at Yankee Stadium.

1990 New York Yankees
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)George Steinbrenner
General manager(s)Harding "Pete" Peterson, Gene Michael
Manager(s)Bucky Dent, Stump Merrill
Local televisionWPIX
(Phil Rizzuto, George Grande, Tom Seaver)
MSG
(Tony Kubek, Dewayne Staats, Al Trautwig)
Local radioWABC (AM)
(John Sterling, Jay Johnstone)
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Offseason

Notable transactions

Death of Billy Martin
Billy Martin's grave in Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven.

Multi-time former Yankees manager Billy Martin was working as a special consultant to Yankees owner George Steinbrenner when he was killed in a one-car crash in Binghamton, New York, on Christmas Day (December 25) in 1989. Martin had been drinking heavily with his friend, William Reedy, who was driving a pickup truck at the time of the accident. When Martin was killed, the media reported that he was a passenger in Reedy's pickup. However, Peter Golenbock, in his book Wild, High, and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin, makes the case that Martin was the driver and that his wife and Reedy covered up the truth. According to the HBO TV series Autopsy,[9] forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden performed the autopsy on Martin and investigated the accident scene, including the pick-up truck in which Martin died. The autopsy revealed that Martin's impact injuries were all on the right side, and that hair and other DNA found on the right side of the shattered windshield belonged to Martin, who was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident. The conclusion of the autopsy study was that Reedy drove the pick-up.

Billy Martin was eulogized by Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, before his funeral at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. His grave is located about 150 feet from the grave of Babe Ruth. The following epitaph by Billy Martin himself appears on the headstone: I may not have been the greatest Yankee to put on the uniform but I was the proudest. Former President of the United States Richard Nixon attended Martin's funeral. The Yankees started the season with a small number 1 on their left sleeves.

Regular season
  • June 6, 1990: Yankees manager Bucky Dent was fired before a game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.[10] George Steinbrenner was severely criticized for firing Dent, his 18th managerial change in 18 years, because he did it in Boston, where Dent had his greatest moment as a player.[11] However, Bill Pennington called the firing of Dent "merciless."[12]
  • On July 30, 1990, Commissioner Fay Vincent banned Steinbrenner from baseball for life after he paid Howard Spira, a small-time gambler, $40,000 for "dirt" after Dave Winfield sued him for failing to pay his foundation the $300,000 [13] guaranteed in his contract.
  • October 3, 1990: Cecil Fielder hit two home runs at Yankee Stadium to finish with 51 for the season. The 50th home run was hit off of Steve Adkins. Fielder would be the first Major Leaguer since George Foster in 1977 to hit 50 home runs in a season. It was the 18th time that a major leaguer (and the 11th time that an American League player) hit for 50 home runs in a season.

Season standings
AL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
Boston Red Sox 8874 0.543 — 51–30 37–44
Toronto Blue Jays 8676 0.531 2 44–37 42–39
Detroit Tigers 7983 0.488 9 39–42 40–41
Cleveland Indians 7785 0.475 11 41–40 36–45
Baltimore Orioles 7685 0.472 11½ 40–40 36–45
Milwaukee Brewers 7488 0.457 14 39–42 35–46
New York Yankees 6795 0.414 21 37–44 30–51

Record vs. opponents
1990 American League Records

Sources:
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore —4–97–56–66–76–78–37–66–66–74–83–98–45–8
Boston 9–4—7–56–69–48–54–85–84–89–44–88–45–710–3
California 5–75–7—5–87–55–77–67–59–46–64–95–88–57–5
Chicago 6–66–68–5—5–75–79–410–27–610–28–58–57–65–7
Cleveland 7–64–95–77–5—5–86–69–47–55–84–87–57–54–9
Detroit 7–65–87–57–58–5—5–73–106–67–66–67–56–65–8
Kansas City 3–88–46–74–96–67–5—4–88–58–44–97–65–85–7
Milwaukee 6–78–55–72–104–910–38–4—4–86–75–74–85–77–6
Minnesota 6–68–44–96–75–76–65–88–4—6–66–76–75–83–9
New York 7–64–96–62–108–56–74–87–66–6—0–129–33–95–8
Oakland 8–48–49–45–88–46–69–47–57–612–0—9–48–57–5
Seattle 9–34–88–55–85–75–76–78–47–63–94–9—7–66–6
Texas 4–87–55–86–75–76–68–57–58–59–35–86–7—7–5
Toronto 8–53–105–77–59–48–57–56–79–38–55–76–65–7—

Notable transactions

Draft picks
  • June 4, 1990: 1990 Major League Baseball Draft
    • Carl Everett was drafted by the Yankees in the 1st round.[19]
    • Robert Eenhoorn was drafted by the Yankees in the 2nd round of the 1990 June Draft. Player signed June 10, 1990.[20]
    • Sam Militello was drafted by the Yankees in the 6th round.[21]
    • Jalal Leach was drafted by the Yankees in the 7th round. Player signed June 8, 1990.[22]
    • Ricky Ledée was drafted by the Yankees in the 16th round. Player signed June 5, 1990.[23]
    • Andy Pettitte was drafted by the Yankees in the 22nd round, but did not sign.[24]
    • Jorge Posada was drafted by the Yankees in the 24th round. Player signed May 24, 1991.[25]
    • Shane Spencer was drafted by the Yankees in the 28th round. Player signed June 7, 1990.[26]

Roster
1990 New York Yankees
Roster
Pitchers
  • 54 Tim Leary
 Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Kevin Maas
  • Kevin Maas set a major league record for the fewest at bats (72) to hit 10 home runs. He also set a record by hitting his first 15 home runs in the fewest at-bats. About halfway through the season a group of a dozen or so young ladies began wearing "Maas-tops" to Yankees home games and sitting in the right field stands. Whenever Maas hit a home run to right, the girls would get up, remove their tops and jump up and down until Maas finished circling the bases. However, after a few home runs the women were banned from entering Yankee Stadium.

Andy Hawkins no-hitter
  • July 1, 1990: Yankees pitcher Andy Hawkins threw a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox but lost the game 4-0.[27] The following year, Major League Baseball changed the rule to require a minimum nine complete innings pitched to count as a no-hitter, and as Hawkins pitched only eight innings, as Chicago hosted and did not bat in the ninth, his no-hitter is no longer official.[28]

Line Score

July 1, Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
New York 000 000 000 043
Chicago 000 000 04x 402
W: Barry Jones (10-1)  L: Andy Hawkins (1-5)  
Attendance: 30,642 Time: 2:34

Batting
New York Yankees AB R H RBI Chicago White Sox AB R H RBI
Kelly, cf 4 0 0 0 Johnson, cf 3 1 0 0
Sax, 2b 4 0 0 0 Ventura, 3b 4 1 0 0
Mattingly, 1b 4 0 0 0 Calderon, dh 3 0 0 0
Balboni, dh 4 0 0 0 Pasqua, lf 4 0 0 0
Tolleson, pr, dh 0 0 0 0 Gallagher, lf 0 0 0 0
Barfield, rf 4 0 1 0 Kittle, 1b 3 0 0 0
Leyritz, lf 3 0 1 0 Lyons, 1b 0 0 0 0
Blowers, 3b 3 0 0 0 Karkovice, c 2 0 0 0
Geren, c 3 0 1 0 Fletcher, 2b 2 0 0 0
Espinoza, ss 2 0 1 0 Sosa, rf 3 1 0 0
NONE 0 0 0 0 Guillen, ss 2 1 0 0
Totals 31 0 4 0 Totals 26 4 0 0

Pitching
New York Yankees IP H R ER BB SO
Hawkins, L (1-5) 8.0 0 4 0 5 3
Chicago White Sox IP H R ER BB SO
Hibbard 7.0 4 0 0 0 4
Jones W (10-1) 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
Radinsky 1.0 0 0 0 0 0

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
CBob Geren11027759.213831
1BDon Mattingly102394101.256542
2BSteve Sax155615160.260442
3BJim Leyritz9230378.257525
SSÁlvaro Espinoza15043898.224220
LFOscar Azócar6521453.248519
CFRoberto Kelly162641183.2851561
RFJesse Barfield153476117.2462578
DHSteve Balboni11626651.1921734

Other batters
Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Mel Hall11336093.2581246
Kevin Maas7925464.2522141
Matt Nokes9224057.238832
Rick Cerone4913942.302211
Deion Sanders5713321.15839
Claudell Washington338013.16306
Wayne Tolleson737411.14904
Dave Winfield206113.21326
Luis Polonia11227.31803

Pitching

Starting pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO
Tim Leary312089194.11138
Chuck Cary27156.26124.19134
Dave LaPoint28157.27104.1167
Andy Hawkins28157.25125.3774
Mike Witt1696.2564.4760
Dave Eiland530.1213.5616
Pascual Pérez314121.2912

Other pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO
Jimmy Jones1750126.3025
Clay Parker522114.5020

Relief pitchers
Player G W L SV ERA SO
Dave Righetti5311363.5743
Lee Guetterman6411723.1948
Jeff Robinson543603.4543
Greg Cadaret545434.1580
Eric Plunk476302.7267
Alan Mills361504.1024
Lance McCullers111003.6011
Rich Monteleone50106.148

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Columbus Clippers International League Stump Merrill and Rick Down
AA Albany-Colonie Yankees Eastern League Rick Down and Dan Radison
A Prince William Cannons Carolina League Gary Denbo
A Fort Lauderdale Yankees Florida State League Mike Hart
A Greensboro Hornets South Atlantic League Brian Butterfield
A-Short Season Oneonta Yankees New York–Penn League Trey Hillman
Rookie GCL Yankees Gulf Coast League Glenn Sherlock

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Oneonta[29]

gollark: I don't understand *how* you rapidly alternate between threatening to kill me and fearing my wrath.
gollark: Did you *read* clause 4.1?
gollark: https://osmarks.net/p3.html#4-1
gollark: Help with what?
gollark: The policy says you agree to it.

References
  1. Dickie Noles page at Baseball Reference
  2. Steve Kiefer page at Baseball Reference
  3. Rafael Santana page at Baseball Reference
  4. Pascual Pérez page at Baseball Reference
  5. Tim Leary page at Baseball Reference
  6. Rick Cerone page at Baseball Reference
  7. Mariano Rivera page at Baseball Reference
  8. Dave Silvestri page at Baseball Reference
  9. Autopsy: Billy Martin
  10. Cafardo, Nick (June 7, 1990). "Dent Dumped by Yankees". The Boston Globe. p. 37. Dent's greatest moment as a player—and his worst moment as a manager—came in Boston.
  11. Shaughnessy, Dan (June 7, 1990). "His Back Was Against the Wall". The Boston Globe. p. 37.
  12. Pennington, Bill (2019). Chumps to Champs: How the Worst Teams in Yankees History Led to the '90s Dynasty. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 32. ISBN 9781328849854.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  13. Anderson, Dave (March 7, 1988). "Sports Of The Times; Dave Winfield's Rebuttal". The New York Times.
  14. Luis Polonia page at Baseball Reference
  15. Dave Winfield page at Baseball Reference
  16. Clay Parker page at Baseball Reference
  17. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcculla01.shtml
  18. Deion Sanders page at Baseball Reference
  19. Baseball Draft: 1st Round of the 1990 June Draft - Baseball-Reference.com
  20. https://www.baseball-reference.com/e/eenhoro01.shtml
  21. Sam Militello page at Baseball Reference
  22. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/leachja01.shtml
  23. Ricky Ledée page at Baseball Reference
  24. Andy Pettitte page at Baseball Reference
  25. Jorge Posada page at Baseball Reference
  26. Shane Spencer page at Baseball Reference
  27. Times, Michael Martinez, Special To The New York (July 2, 1990). "No-Hitter, but With No Glory". The New York Times. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
  28. Donaghy, Jack (April 14, 1992). "Is revised no-hitter rule a no-no?". Eugene Register-Guard. pp. 2D. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  29. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007
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