Yankees' Lineup Among Best Ever?

April 3, 2006
By PETE CALDERA
STAFF WRITER
BERGEN COUNTY RECORD

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Seventy years ago, American League pitchers were forced to navigate through a Yankees lineup comprised of future Hall-of-Famers Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey and Tony Lazzeri.

And those AL pitchers often found themselves thrown against the rocks.

The 1936 Yankees statistically were the most fearsome group in the Bronx Bombers' lineage since Prohibition ended, scoring more than 1,000 runs, without a designated hitter, in a 154-game schedule – more potent than even the 1927 Murderer's Row club.

And now?

"There's a chance this could be one of the best of all time," Johnny Damon said, talking about the names on manager Joe Torre's lineup card for tonight's opener.

It starts with Damon, the Yankees' prime off-season target – the kind of leadoff hitter they've craved since Chuck Knoblauch retired, and who inspires comparisons with Ichiro Suzuki.

That's how Alex Rodriguez views it, and he's the reigning AL Most Valuable Player, batting cleanup tonight between sluggers Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi.

Hideki Matsui, whose RBI total has risen from 106 to 108 to 116 in three seasons, bats sixth. Switch-hitters Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams follow. And Robinson Cano, who hit .297 with 14 homers in his rookie season, is ninth.

Now Derek Jeter can maximize his inside-out swing to become "the best No. 2 hitter in baseball," Giambi said.

And now for the disclaimer: No one is guaranteed to repeat the numbers on the back of his baseball card. Injuries could happen at any time, especially for a lineup with an average age of 32.

Still, in the pantheon of Yankees' lineups past, "I don't think there was one better than this," said television personality Keith Olbermann, a lifelong Yankees observer and member of the Society for American Baseball Research.

For overall balance, Olbermann sees two comparables – the 1951 club, the only year DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle shared, and the 1978 team.

"Even on the greatest teams, there's always one role player," said Olbermann, who clicked off names such as Jerry Lumpe and Charlie Silvera – men who appeared on the opening-day lineups of pennant-winning Yankee teams.

But since 1978, "This is the first lineup that doesn't leave you shaking your head later and saying, 'What do you mean that Dennis Werth was the opening-day designated hitter? [in 1981]' '' Olbermann said.

As the cleanup hitter on that 1978 world championship club, Reggie Jackson admittedly has a far more personal preference for that lineup, though it scored only 735 runs – an average of 4.54 runs per game.

Looking at the current lineup, "This should be a 900-plus [runs scored] team," Jackson said. "It could be the best offensive team of the recent era. But it's not the best offense ever."

Jackson concedes that to the Yankees of the pre-World War II era.

"It's hard to match up with [Babe] Ruth or Gehrig, or any of those powerhouse lineups of the '20s and '30s," Jackson said, quickly adding the true measure of any lineup comes in October.

"Obviously, October is something I need to improve on," A-Rod said after the Yankees finished their workout Sunday in Oakland. "We need to have a team that's structured to win, and that's our goal."

Jackson credited Mickey Rivers' instinctive abilities in the leadoff spot as something that set apart the Yankees of his era. Almost 30 years later, Damon was imported to provide the very same thing.

"Johnny Damon gives us the greatest flexibility," Torre said. "As a prototypical leadoff guy, Knoblauch was that guy for us, and Johnny is that guy."

Damon said he's in a "dream spot, with all those [potential] Hall-of-Famers coming up behind me."

Jackson mostly likes how Damon's personality fits in. "From what I've seen, he's a special player,'' he said. "I think his makeup, the total package of what he brings, his style – he's a little odd, a little carefree and he just goes for it."

But like Jackson's Yankees, who "were a little heavy left-handed," these Yankees could be vulnerable to certain left-handed pitching.

Cano and Damon will bat back-to-back, but for now "we'll let it play and see how good we are," Torre said.

There's less concern about the patient Giambi and Matsui (who hit .354 against lefties last year) batting consecutively against lefties.

So is this the best lineup Torre's ever written out?

"I hope so," the manager said with a smile.

Brian Cashman, who was in his first year as general manager in 1998 when the club won 114 regular-season games and the World Series, still clings to that lineup as the most potent – a lineup of which Jeter, Williams and Posada remain.

"This lineup, obviously, is as stacked as you can get," Cashman said. "But the '98 lineup was obviously stacked, too. So, we've got a little competition going on."

E-mail: caldera@northjersey.com