The Greatest Team Ever--But with a Big Asterisk

By Daniel Okrent

Sure, they're awfully good. But how do the 1998 Yankees stack up against the other candidates for history's greatest team?

1906 CUBS: The only team ever to have won more regular-season games than this year's Yankees (116), and they did it in a shorter season. But the game played by the Cubs of Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance--the game everyone played until Babe Ruth came along--was a rough scramble for runs made of walks, bunts, stolen bases and singles. The Cubs' top power hitter, Wildfire Schulte, managed all of seven home runs, typical for the era. If a club like this one had to play the highly evolved 1998 version of the game, it would be bashed into submission. Even by the Arizona Diamondbacks. And by the way: the Cubs lost the World Series to the White Sox.

1909 PIRATES: Won 110, lost 42--which makes them the only Series champion with a higher winning percentage than the '98 Yankees (.742 to .714). That's nice, but see above.

1927 YANKEES: This powerhouse, led by Ruth and Gehrig, went 110-44. It disemboweled Pittsburgh in four straight in the Series and has since been widely regarded as the best ever. But these Yankees may, in fact, not even belong in the top five. The magic of the '27 season derived in large part from uncanny luck: the team was so free of injury that six of its eight position players enjoyed more than 500 at bats. A good thing this was, for Murderers' Row obscured a hollow bench whose most productive resident, catcher Johnny Grabowski, contributed exactly one home run and 25 runs batted in.

1931 PHILADELPHIA A'S: Connie Mack's finest team won 107 games behind the well-muscled Jimmie Foxx and Al Simmons, with an assist from catcher Mickey Cochrane. The rest of the offense was a collection of relative mediocrities, and beyond the great Lefty Grove (31-4), the pitching staff was just better than average.

1953 YANKEES: Of Casey Stengel's five straight champions, this squad won the most games and defeated an excellent Brooklyn team in the World Series. But look around the infield: Joe Collins at first, Billy Martin at second, Phil Rizzuto at short and Gil McDougald at third. Good players all, and not one of them would have started for this year's Yankees. Mickey Mantle had yet to hit 25 home runs in a season or drive in 100. And even the excellent starting pitchers of '53 don't match up against the six men who made up the fathoms-deep '98 rotation.

1953 DODGERS: Won 105 games. Great team with memorable players: Duke Snider and Carl Furillo, Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese. But they lost the Series to the '53 Yankees.

1975 CINCINNATI REDS: This imposing group had several superb players. Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Pete Rose: the first two are in the Hall of Fame, the third ought to be, and the last would be if he weren't such a jerk. Broadcaster Bob Costas insists that this year's Yankee starting lineup couldn't compete with the eight everyday players on the '75 Reds. This may be true, but just try to name another Cincinnati starting pitcher apart from the hardly immortal Don Gullett. If you said Fredie Norman, Gary Nolan or Jack Billingham, you win a prize. You also pull the plug on the Big Red Machine.

So we're back with this year's Yankees, who won the pennant by 22 games, humiliated the Padres by a combined score of 26-13 and accomplished the rare exacta of scoring the most runs of any team in their league while allowing the fewest.

These numbers remind you of the Dimaggio-Gehrig-Gomez Yankees of 1936-39, who won the American League pennant by an annual average of 15 games. Over the same years, those New Yorkers owned the World Series, scoring 113 runs to their opponents' 52; winning 16 games while losing three. They led the league in both runs scored and fewest runs allowed for a breathtaking four years in a row.

So are the current Yankees the greatest ever? For a single season, yes. As strong on the mound and in the field as they were at bat; endowed with a bench of superb role players; blessed with a rare balance of speed and power; managed by a man of calming temperament--the 1998 Yankees are a team for the ages.

But baseball eras are measured in dynasties. Unless these Yankees can maintain their dominance for three more years, I'm sticking with the demigods of '36-'39.

--By Daniel Okrent