By the time Mantle hung up his spikes, the Yankee dynasty was in severe decline. After winning World Series crowns in 1961 and 1962, and another American League title in 1964, the team won didn’t win another pennant for a dozen years, their longest drought since acquiring the Babe in 1920. During the decade from 1965 to 1974, they won 805 games and lost 804, barely posting a winning record and disappointing fans who’d grown accustomed to championship caliber teams year in and year out.

Many blamed the team’s downfall on its purchase by CBS. In the twenty years prior to the television network’s purchase of the team, they’d been to the World Series fifteen times. Perhaps it was just a coincidence that in CBS’s first year of ownership the Yankees finished below .500 for the first time in 40 years. It was with some relief, then, that the network announced the sale of the team in 1973 to shipbuilding mogul George Steinbrenner for $10 million. Upon assuming ownership of the team, Steinbrenner told the New York Times: "We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees is concerned. We're not going to pretend we're something we aren't. I'll stick to building ships." Yeah, right.


The Yankee Eras:

• Before the Babe (1901-1919)

• The Team That Babe Built (1920-1935)

• The DiMaggio Years (1936-1951)

• The Mantle Years (1951-1964)

• The Fallen Empire (1965-1974)

• The Billy Martin Years (1975-1983)

• The Donnie Baseball Years (1984-1995)

• The Joe Torre Era (1996-present)