You can use them to mark the time. Ruth and Gehrig. Then DiMaggio. Mantle and Maris. Then Reggie.
And, now, Jeter.
Lay them end-to-end and there's barely a gap.
The Dallas Cowboys, Boston Celtics, Montreal Canadiens — all have laid claim to eras, spans of dominance in which they transcended their respective sports to become a part of something larger, a piece of the national consciousness, same as the music, movies or books of the time.
With the Yankees, it's more than an era.
It's a century — and counting.
 |
| Frank Farrell, one of the ballclub's original owners |
Jan. 9, 1903 — Frank Farrell and Bill Devery buy the defunct Baltimore Orioles of the American League for $18,000 and move the team to Manhattan.
March 12, 1903 — The New York franchise 
is approved as a member of the American League. The team will play in a hastily constructed, all-wood park at 168th Street and Broadway. Because the site is one of the highest spots in Manhattan, the club will be known as the Highlanders, and their home field is called Hilltop Park.
 |
| A New York Highlanders poster from 1911 |
April 11, 1912 — Pinstripes first appear on the Highlanders' uniforms.
April 1913 — The Highlanders are officially renamed the "Yankees" after moving to the Polo Grounds, home of the National League's New York Giants.
Jan. 11, 1915 — Col. Jacob Ruppert and Col. Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston buy the Yankees for $460,000.
Dec. 26, 1919 — The Yankees purchase the contract  |
| Babe Ruth's transfer agreement from the Red Sox |
of Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for $100,000 and a $350,000 loan against the mortgage on Fenway Park. Ruth's new contract pays him $10,000 per year for three years. Ruth will go on to endorse products such as Quaker cereals, All-America Athletic Underwear, Girl Scout Cookies, Remington Hi-Skor Ammunition, Murphy's Soap and Wheaties. He also founds the George H. Ruth Candy Co. and produces Ruth's Home Run, a 5-cent chocolate bar.
1920 — The Yankees eclipse 1 million in attendance for the first time.
Feb. 6, 1921 — William Waldorf Astor sells 10 acres in the west Bronx to the team for $675,000. The land, directly across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds, is the future site of Yankee Stadium.
May 5, 1922 — Osborne Engineering Co. of Cleveland begins construction on Yankee Stadium. The venue is designed by New York's White Construction Co. The companies agree to complete the job for $2.5 million and by Opening Day 1923.
May 21, 1922 — Col. Ruppert buys out Col. Huston for $1.5 million.
April 18, 1923 — 284 days after breaking ground, Yankee Stadium, baseball's first triple-deck structure, opens before a reported crowd of 74,200. Babe Ruth, whose $52,000 salary is more than five times the league average, hits the stadium's first home run. A team press release boasts of an unheard of "eight toilet rooms for men and as many for women scattered throughout the stands and bleachers."
Sept. 30, 1927 — Ruth swats his 60th home run, setting a single-season record that stands until 1961.
April 16, 1929 — The Yankees become the first team to make numbers a permanent part of the uniform. Numbers become standard for all teams by 1932.
July 4, 1930 — George M. Steinbrenner III is born in Rocky River, Ohio.
Nov. 21, 1934 — The Yankees purchase Joe DiMaggio from the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League for $50,000.
April 1939 — Mel Allen is hired as the team's first broadcaster for broadcasts on WABC radio.
 |
| Lou Gehrig during his famous speech |
July 4, 1939 — Lou Gehrig's uniform number (4) is the first to be retired in Major League Baseball, and he makes his famous speech, saying, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
May 15, 1941 — Joe DiMaggio begins his 56-game hitting streak with a first-inning single off Chicago White Sox pitcher Edgar Smith.
Jan. 25, 1945 — Dan Topping, Del Webb and Larry MacPhail  |
| Yankees co-owner Larry MacPhail |
purchase the Yankees for $2.8 million from the estate of the late Col. Ruppert.
May 28, 1946 — The first night game is played at Yankee Stadium, and the Yankees suffer a 2-1 loss to Washington before 49,917 fans. The Yankees finish the season with attendance of 2.2 million, up from 881,846 the previous season.
June 13, 1948 — Babe Ruth's uniform number (3) is retired at Yankee Stadium's 25th anniversary celebration. Ruth makes his final stadium appearance; he dies two months later.
1949 — Mel Allen and Curt Gowdy announce the first Yankees television broadcast on Dumont TV.
April 17, 1951 — Bob Sheppard begins his first of 53 seasons as public address announcer.
1966 — The brown, concrete exterior of the stadium is painted white and all of the grandstand seats go from green to blue as part of a $1.5 million upgrade.
 |
| Musical ran for 1,019 shows |
May 5, 1955 — "Damn Yankees" opens at the 46th Street Theatre. The story about Joe Hardy, a middle-aged, happily married baseball fan who sells his soul to the devil to help the Washington Senators win the World Series, enjoys a run of 1,019 performances.
A Yankees game program from 1957
April 1959 — The Yankees unveil MLB's first electronic scoreboard.
1960 — For $25,000, Steinbrenner and a group of investors buy the Cleveland Pipers of the National Industrial Basketball League. The following year, the team joins the newly formed American Basketball League and wins the championship. Steinbrenner gains approval to make the Pipers an NBA team, but the deal disintegrates when he can't raise the league's entry fee. The team folds.
Oct. 1, 1961 — Roger Maris breaks Ruth's single-season  |
| Roger Maris hits No. 61. |
home run record on the final day of the season, hitting No. 61.
April 1964 — Volume Services, now Centerplate, becomes Yankee Stadium's concessionaire, marking the start of what's become the longest-running concessionaire relationship in pro sports.
Nov. 2, 1964 — CBS purchases 80 percent of the Yankees for $11.2 million. The network later buys the remaining 20 percent.
February 1972 — Steinbrenner offers $9 million 
for the Cleveland Indians but is rebuffed.
Aug. 8, 1972 — After years of debate about the future of the aging ballpark, the Yankees sign a 30-year lease to play in a remodeled Yankee Stadium, to be completed in 1976. The team will play at Shea Stadium for two years, beginning in 1974, as stadium renovations continue.
Jan. 3, 1973 — A limited partnership, headed by Steinbrenner as its managing general partner, buys the Yankees from CBS for $8.8 million. "I won't be active in the day-to-day operations of the club at all," Steinbrenner says at the time. "I can't spread myself so thin. I've got enough headaches with my shipping company." General partner Mike Burke, a CBS holdover, resigns four months later after power struggles with the new owner.
April 5, 1974 — Steinbrenner is indicted on 14 criminal counts. Four months later, he pleads guilty to two — making illegal campaign contributions to President Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign fund, and obstruction of justice. He is fined $15,000. MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn in November suspends Steinbrenner for two years but reinstates him after nine months.
 |
| Catfish Hunter signs a record contract with the team |
Dec. 31, 1974 — Free agent Jim "Catfish" Hunter signs a then-record five-year, $3.75 million contract.
April 15, 1976 — Remodeled Yankee Stadium opens. The stadium includes baseball's first "telescreen,"  |
| Reggie Jackson in 1977 |
which provides instant replays of the action by showing a then-incredible "nine shades of gray."
Nov. 29, 1976 — Free agent Reggie Jackson signs a five-year, $3.5 million contract.
April 13, 1978 — Standard Brands Confectionary Co. passes out 72,000 Reggie! bars at Yankee Stadium, 
most of which were thrown onto the field after a three-run homer by the candy's namesake.
Spring 1979 — Cablevision's SportsChannel begins a $6.7 million-per-year cable TV deal to show Yankees games.
Aug. 2, 1979 — Yankees captain Thurman Munson dies in a plane crash in Canton, Ohio, at age 32. His number (15) is immediately retired.
Dec. 15, 1980 — Free agent Dave Winfield signs a then-record 10-year, $15 million contract.
May 31, 1983 — American League President Lee MacPhail suspends Steinbrenner for one week, citing "repeated problems" with the outspoken owner's public criticism of umpires. Steinbrenner, who had already been fined $50,000 by Kuhn during spring training for berating some National League umpires, cannot attend games or be in his Yankee Stadium office during the suspension.
January 1988 — The Yankees sign a then-record 12-year, $486 million TV contract with Madison Square Garden Network, beginning with the 1989 season.
June 23, 1988 — Billy Martin is replaced as manager for the fifth and final time.
1989 — Dave Winfield sues Steinbrenner for failing to pay the Winfield Foundation $300,000, as was guaranteed in the outfielder's contract.
July 30, 1990 — Commissioner Fay Vincent orders Steinbrenner to resign as the club's general partner by Aug. 20 and bans him from day-to-day operation of the team for life after it becomes known that The Boss paid $40,000 to gambler Howie Spira for providing damaging information on Winfield. The following December, Spira is sentenced to 2½ years in prison for attempting to extort $110,000 from Steinbrenner.
March 12, 1992 — Yankees vice president and chief administrative officer Joseph Molloy, Steinbrenner's son-in-law, is elected new managing general partner of the club.
March 1, 1993 — Steinbrenner resumes his role as general partner after Vincent reverses lifetime ban.
 |
| Steinbrenner |
May 1994 — The Yankees gain a place in "Seinfeld" lore when George Costanza takes over as the team's assistant to the traveling secretary on the show. Costanza is remembered for implementing a switch from polyester to cotton uniforms. In May 1997, he is traded to the Tyler Chicken Co. in Little Rock, Ark., in exchange for that company providing free chicken dogs to Yankee Stadium.
Oct. 10, 1995 — Steinbrenner is fined $50,000 for criticizing the umpiring in the New York-Seattle A.L. Division Series.
February 1996 — After training in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for 32 springs, the Yankees open Legends Field in Tampa, a $30 million facility that also will house the Florida State League Tampa Yankees. The teams' 30-year lease with Hillsborough County calls for the MLBteam to retain all stadium-generatedrevenue, minus $75,000 per year rent,and a small ticket surcharge.
March 1997 — Adidas signs a 10-year, $94 million apparel deal with the team. Two months later, the Yankees and Adidas file an antitrust lawsuit against Major League Baseball. The case is settled the following April.
May 13, 1997 — Baseball's executive council votes unanimously to immediately remove Steinbrenner from the ruling body, a result of the disagreements the two sides have regarding the club's Adidas deal.
1997 — A study by architect HOK estimates that a 50,000-seat baseball-only stadium with a retractable roof located in Manhattan would cost $850 million, while a similar project would cost $950 million in the Bronx.
1998 — Steinbrenner spends much of the year discussing with Cablevision the sale of the team. Talks break off shortly after the team wins the World Series.
September 1998 — The Yankees become the first MLB team to sell an interactive CD-ROM team yearbook; developed by C-Squared Studios Inc., it is sold at Yankee Stadium for $19.95.
Sept. 27, 1998 — The Yankees establish an American League record with 114 wins during the regular season.
March 15, 1999 — The New York mayor's office announces it has hired John Moag, the former head of the Maryland Stadium Authority, which built Camden Yards, to develop potential new facilities for the New York Mets, Yankees and Jets.
Sept. 23, 1999 — Nets Holdings buys 37.5 percent of the Yankees for $225 million, and owns 42 percent of the YankeeNets partnership.
January 2000 — Turner Sports President Harvey Schiller signs a five-year, $10 million deal to become CEO of YankeeNets. He will resign 20 months later.
Aug. 22, 2000 — Puck Holdings LLC, a YankeeNets 
affiliate, buys the New Jersey Devils for $175 million.
Oct. 26, 2000 — The Yankees beat the Mets in the World Series to win their 26th world championship. It is the first Subway Series since 1956.
December 2000 — The NFL Giants and YankeeNets (representing the Yankees and New Jersey Nets and Devils) strike a deal to cross-sell sponsorship and advertising packages. All four teams involved also will sell each other's merchandise in their respective team stores.
February 2001 — A comprehensive partnership with Manchester United is 
announced that will see the two powerhouses jointly marketing their franchises through sponsorships, merchandise and TV, as well as a U.S. tour in 2003. No money is exchanged.
Feb. 9, 2001 — Derek Jeter signs a 10-year, $189 million contract, the second richest in sports history.
Dec. 13, 2001 — Jason Giambi, runner-up in the 2001 AL MVP balloting, signs a seven-year, $120 million contract with the Yankees, marking the largest MLB free-agent contract of the off-season.
Dec. 28, 2001 — The Yankees sign a new lease that expires Dec. 31, 2005, with five one-year options.
Dec. 28, 2001 — Three days before he leaves office, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani signs tentative agreements with the Yankees and Mets to build two new $800 million stadiums, with the city paying half of that cost. "I can't imagine he won't support it," says Giuliani about incoming Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The state would pick up a $150 million tab for infrastructure improvement around Yankee Stadium — including parking and a new commuter train station in the South Bronx, the mayor says.
Dec. 28, 2001 — The Yankees announce that they are dropping flagship radio station WABC, after 21 years, in favor of a deal with Infinity Broadcasting's WCBS. WABC also broadcast Yankees games in 1939 and 1940.
January 2002 — "At the moment, everybody understands — given the lack of housing, given the lack of school space, given the deficit in the operating budget — it is just not practical this year to go and to build new stadiums," new Mayor Michael Bloomberg says. The mayor does say, however, that he will honor a provision of the Giuliani agreement that requires the city to pay each team $5 million a year for the next five years for design and other planning costs.
March 19, 2002 — The YES Network debuts with a Yankees-Reds spring training game.
April 29, 2002 — The YES Network files a lawsuit against Cablevision, 
charging the cable operator with antitrust violations, the latest shot in a developing war over televising Yankees games on Cablevision's systems.
Sept. 5, 2002 — The 30 MLB clubs formally ratify a new collective-bargaining agreement negotiated with the MLBPA. The vote is 29-1; the Yankees cast the lone dissenting vote.
Dec. 19, 2002 — Japanese baseball star Hideki Matsui agrees to a three-year, $21 million contract with the Yankees.
March 31, 2003 — Just over 24 hours before the team's season opener, YES Network and Cablevision sign a one-year carriage agreement. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer mediated the negotiations.
April 10, 2003 — YankeeNets announces that Japanese media company Yomiuri Shimbun will promote the Yankees brand in Japan as part of a new partnership. Yomiuri Shimbun owns the Yomiuri Giants, the former team of Hideki Matsui, as well as the largest circulation newspaper in the world.
