What The World Was Like The Last Time The Yankees Had A Losing Season

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If you are under 36, you only know the Yankees having winning seasons. They don't make the playoffs every year (they've missed in 1993, 2008, 2013-14 and 2016) but they've had a winning percentage of over .519 each and every season since 1993. I'm guessing most people reading this only know the Yankees as a winning team. 

They currently sit at 60-64. This could be the first season with a losing record since they went 76-86 in 1992. So what were the Yankees like then? What was the world like then? Let's take a look.

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The 1992 Yankees were a mess. This was the fourth losing season in a row and they came into the season with a rookie manager who was 36 years old and never played in the major leagues. Their most famous player was Don Mattingly who had lost most of his power with back issues that cropped up in 1990. Those same back problems would end his career after the 1995 season. The 1992 Yankees actually hit OK led by new addition Danny Tartabull but other than Melido Perez, they couldn't pitch and ended up with the 2nd worst ERA in the American League.

But what Yankee fans couldn't understand yet was this was the beginning of the tides turning. That rookie manager was Buck Showalter. They made an August callup for a centerfielder named Bernie Williams. Bernie was so good that the Yankees were able to trade Roberto Kelly in the offseason for Paul O'Neill. Finally, the Yankees had the 6th overall pick the draft that June. They drafted a high schooler from Michigan named Derek Jeter.

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How long ago was this? When the 1992 Yankees season wrapped up on October 4th, the Aikman/Irvin/Emmitt Cowboys hadn't won a Super Bowl yet (they would beat the Bills for the first time months later). It was an election year and George Bush (not George W. Bush) was trying to win re-election against a young governor from Arkansas named Bill Clinton. 

The top movies? The Last of the Mohicans was number one in the box office but that was the same weekend that The Mighty Ducks debuted. People were only finding out about the genius of Gordon Bombay while the Yankees were losing two out of three to Mo Vaughn and the Boston Red Sox. 

On TV, Cheers was just about to begin its final season. Friends and ER were two years away from debuting. No one knew who The Rock, Drake or who Jay-Z was. November Rain by Guns N Roses was a Top 10 hit. So was Jump Around by House of Pain. Greg Maddux was still on the Cubs. The internet looked like this:

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I give the Yankees a ton of shit but it is remarkable to be competitive for this long. The Braves are always recognized for "always being good". They've had 6 losing seasons in that stretch. It is crashing down around the Yankees as we speak. They have two future Hall of Famers in Gerritt Cole and Aaron Judge but the other 24 players on the roster are among the worst in baseball. Giancarlo Stanton is hitting .199/.281/.434 and is signed for FOUR more years. Carlos Rodon and Luis Severino have combined to make 20 starts with a combined ERA of 7.80. They are fucked.

But even speaking as someone who does hate the Yankees, I have to respect them. To win 84 or more games (in every 162 game season played) from 1993-2022 is an incredible 30 year stretch. It's not currently easy to be a Yankee fan in 2023 but imagine going back in time and telling fans then that they wouldn't have a losing season for 30 years. You never know when everything will turn around.

Of course, I'm hoping this begins another 30 year stretch for the Yankees and we can all watch them turn into the sewer of MLB.