[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 306 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 306

  Congratulating the New York Yankees on the occasion of their 100th 
                              anniversary.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 26, 2003

     Mr. Serrano (for himself and Mr. Ney) submitted the following 
  resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Congratulating the New York Yankees on the occasion of their 100th 
                              anniversary.

Whereas the New York Yankees were officially acquired in 1903 and are 
        celebrating their 100th anniversary in 2003;
Whereas what would become the most successful team in sports history actually 
        began as the Baltimore Orioles in 1901. When that franchise folded after 
        only two seasons, it was purchased for $18,000 by two colorful New 
        Yorkers, Frank Farrell and Bill Devery;
Whereas New York's third Major-League team, joining the New York Giants and 
        Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League, would play its home games in a 
        hastily constructed, all-wood park at 168th Street and Broadway. Because 
        the site was one of the highest spots in Manhattan, the team was named 
        the ``Highlanders'' and their home field ``Hilltop Park.'' They played 
        their inaugural game on April 22, 1903, losing 3-1 to the Senators at 
        Washington. New York recorded the first win in franchise history the 
        next day, a 7-2 decision at Washington;
Whereas the Highlanders nearly captured the American-League pennant in 1904--
        only their second season--as they finished only 1.5 games behind the 
        Boston Pilgrims in the first of three second-place finishes from 1904 to 
        1910;
Whereas after a spectacular fire severely damaged the Polo Grounds in 1911, the 
        Highlanders' owners invited the Giants to share Hilltop Park. Two years 
        later the Giants returned the favor and allowed the Highlanders to move 
        into their rebuilt and vastly superior park. With the move, the 
        Highlanders officially changed their nickname to ``Yankees (by which 
        they had actually been known for most of their history).'' Two years 
        after the move--on January 11, 1915--Colonel Jacob Ruppert and Colonel 
        Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston purchased the franchise from its by-now 
        disgruntled owners;
Whereas from 1911 to 1919, the Yankees won as many as 80 games in a season only 
        twice, but the franchise's fortunes would change forever on January 3, 
        1920. On what is perhaps the most significant date in club history, the 
        Yankees purchased the contract of George Herman ``Babe'' Ruth from the 
        Boston Red Sox for $125,000 and a $350,000 loan against the mortgage on 
        Fenway Park;
Whereas Ruth's impact was immediate. The Yankees won 95 games in 1920, their 
        highest victory total to date, and captured their first American-League 
        pennant a year later. Their attendance at the Polo grounds doubled to 
        1,289,422 in 1920 and, in 1921, the Giants notified their tenant to 
        vacate the Polo grounds as soon as possible. Now bitter rivals, the two 
        teams squared off in the World Series in 1921 and 1922 with the Giants 
        winning both times;
Whereas with their departure from the Polo Grounds inevitable, the Yankee owners 
        set out to build a spectacular ballpark of their own. Baseball's first 
        triple-decked structure with an advertised capacity of 70,000, it would 
        also be the first baseball facility to be labeled a ``stadium'';
Whereas construction began on May 5, 1922 and, in only 284 working days, Yankee 
        Stadium was ready for its inaugural game on April 18, 1923 vs. the 
        Boston Red Sox. An announced crowd of 74,200 fans packed Yankee Stadium 
        for a glimpse of Baseball's grandest facility while thousands milled 
        around outside after the fire department finally ordered the gates 
        closed. Appropriately, Ruth christened his new home with a three-run 
        homer to cap a four-run inning as the Yankees coasted to a 4-1 win;
Whereas because it was widely recognized that Ruth's tremendous drawing power 
        made the new stadium possible, it would immediately become known as 
        ``The House that Ruth Built''. Later that season, the Stadium hosted the 
        first of 36 World Series and the Yankees won their first World 
        Championship over their former landlord, the Giants. Of course, as the 
        Stadium became the stage for a staggering number of World titles--now 
        totaling 26--it would also become known as ``The Home of Champions'';
Whereas on June 1, 1925 in a 5-3 loss vs. Washington, Manager Miller Huggins 
        inserted a 21-year-old rookie first baseman as a pinch hitter for light-
        hitting shortstop Pee Wee Wanninger. No one could have imagined at the 
        time that this appearance would be the first of 2,130 consecutive games 
        played by Lou Gehrig, who, with Babe Ruth and later Joe DiMaggio, 
        anchored some of the greatest ball clubs of all time;
Whereas after a disheartening loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1926 World 
        Series, the Yankees rolled to World Championships in both 1927 and 1928, 
        sweeping the Series both years. The 1927 club, the first Yankee team to 
        be labeled ``Murderers' Row'', became the yardstick by which athletic 
        greatness is measured. During that season, Ruth shattered his own 
        single-season home run record with his 60th on the season's final day on 
        September 30, 1927;
Whereas in his 15 seasons in pinstripes, Ruth helped build a tradition of 
        winning with seven American-League pennants and four World 
        Championships. He finished his unparalleled career (with the Boston 
        Braves in 1935) with 714 home runs, 12 American-League home-run titles 
        and six RBI crowns, including five seasons with more than 150. A charter 
        member of Baseball's Hall of Fame, he remains widely regarded as the 
        greatest player of all-time;
Whereas after the 1934 season, Ruth's last in New York, the Yankees purchased 
        the contract of a budding star named Joseph Paul DiMaggio from the San 
        Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. Two years later, DiMaggio 
        made his debut in pinstripes and helped the Yankees to an incredible 
        string of four consecutive World Championships under Manager Joe 
        McCarthy from 1936 through 1939. The decade of the thirties also 
        produced one of the game's greatest lefty-righty pitching combinations 
        in future Hall of Famers Lefty Gomez and Red Ruffing. A four-time 20-
        game winner-including 24-7 in 1932 and 26-5 in 1934--Gomez was also 6-0 
        in five World Series. Ruffing posted seasons of 20, 20, 21 and 21 wins 
        on four World-Championship clubs from 1936-1939;
Whereas sadly, in 1939, Gehrig was diagnosed with a crippling disease and his 
        streak of 2,130 games came to an end on May 2 when he did not appear in 
        a 22-2 Yankees' win at Detroit. On July 4, the Yankees honored their 
        captain with an emotional ``Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day'' at Yankee 
        Stadium and his uniform number (4) became the first in Baseball to be 
        retired. He died on June 2, 1941;
Whereas with the departure of Gehrig, DiMaggio became the pillar of the next 
        generation of Yankee champions. In his 13 seasons in pinstripes, the 
        Yankees played in the World Series in all but two years and won 10 
        World-Series titles. The legendary ``Yankee Clipper'' compiled one of 
        the game's most remarkable--and perhaps unbreakable--records in 1941 
        when he hit safely in a record 56 consecutive games;
Whereas the Yankees also made a seamless transition after DiMaggio's retirement 
        at the age of 37 after the 1951 season. With Whitey Ford and Mickey 
        Mantle joining future Hall of Famers Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto, the 
        Yankees won eight American-League pennants and six World Championships 
        under Manager Casey Stengel during the 1950's. Their streak of five 
        consecutive World-Series titles from 1949 through 1953 remains a Major-
        League record with no other winning as many as four straight;
Whereas Mantle would achieve greatness despite an arrested case of osteomyelitis 
        and numerous injuries. The powerful switch-hitter belted 536 home runs, 
        collected 2,415 hits and batted .300 or more 10 times in an 18-year 
        career. In his first 14 seasons in pinstripes, the Yankees missed the 
        World Series only twice (in 1954 and 1959);
Whereas Ford's lifetime record of 236-106 gives him the best winning percentage 
        (.690) of any 20th century pitcher and he paced the American League in 
        victories three times and in ERA and shutouts twice. He still holds many 
        World Series records, including 10 wins, 33 consecutive scoreless 
        innings and 94 strikeouts;
Whereas the heart of the Yankees for 18 seasons, Berra played on an incredible 
        14 pennant winners and 10 World Champions. He was a three-time MVP and 
        was selected to the All-Star team in every season from 1948 through 
        1962;
Whereas Rizzuto was recognized as the glue of 10 pennant winners and eight 
        World-Series Champions from 1941-56 and captured the league's MVP award 
        in 1950, batting .324 with 200 hits and 125 runs scored;
Whereas not every contributor to Yankee--and Baseball history was a future Hall 
        of Famer. In Game Five of the 1956 World Series vs. the Brooklyn Dodgers 
        on October 8th at Yankee Stadium, right-hander Don Larsen authored what 
        is perhaps the game's greatest pitching performance when he retired all 
        27 Dodger batters for the only perfect game in World Series history;
Whereas the Yankees opened the decade of the sixties in their usual fashion, 
        winning pennants in the first five seasons (1960-64) and World Series 
        titles in 1961 and 1962. Incredibly, in the 29 seasons from 1936 to 
        1964, the Yankees won a remarkable 22 pennants and 16 World 
        Championships. The 1961 club is still regarded as one of the best teams 
        in Baseball history. With Mantle and Roger Maris embroiled in a season-
        long race to break Ruth's single-season home-run record, the Yankees 
        rolled to 109 wins en route to the World Championship. Maris smashed 
        Ruth's record when he belted his 61st home run on October 1 at Yankee 
        Stadium in the last game of the season;
Whereas but age finally caught up with the ball club after a seven game Series 
        loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964. The Yankees would finish in the 
        first division only once in the next nine seasons and actually plummeted 
        to last place in 1966 for the first time in 53 years;
Whereas the team's fall from grace ended on January 2, 1973, when the most 
        storied franchise in sports history was sold by CBS to a group headed by 
        George M. Steinbrenner III. With the addition of Catfish Hunter--
        Baseball's first marquee free agent--shrewd trades which brought Ed 
        Figueroa, Mickey Rivers, Chris Chambliss and Willie Randolph and a 
        strong nucleus which included Thurman Munson, Graig Nettles, Roy White, 
        and Sparky Lyle, the Yankees would make their first post-season 
        appearance in 12 years in 1976 by winning their first American-League-
        East title. Then on October 14, 1976, in the deciding fifth game of the 
        League Championship Series vs. the Kansas City Royals, Chambliss 
        launched a ninth-inning, pennant-winning home run to put the Yankees 
        back in the World Series;
Whereas after a disheartening four-game sweep vs. the Cincinnati Reds in the 
        1976 World Series, the Yankees introduced Reggie Jackson--the most 
        prolific slugger of his era--as the club's newest free-agent 
        acquisition. Jackson then capped an exciting 1977 season with one of 
        Baseball's greatest individual performances. In Game Six of the World 
        Series vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers at Yankee Stadium on October 18, 
        ``Mr. October'' belted three home runs on three swings of the bat;
Whereas in 1978, the Yankees overcame a 14.0-game deficit in the American League 
        East to force a one-game playoff with the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park 
        to decide the American-League pennant. Shortstop Bucky Dent erased a 2-0 
        Red Sox lead in the seventh inning with a dramatic three-run homer and 
        the Yankees went on to a 5-4 win en route to a second straight World 
        Championship;
Whereas the '78 season also saw the emergence of Ron Guidry as one of the 
        franchise's greatest pitchers. A four-time American-League All-Star, 
        Guidry compiled one of the most dominating seasons in baseball history 
        in 1978 and became known as ``Louisiana Lightening''. He went 25-3 with 
        a 1.74 earned run average in leading the Yankees to their dramatic 
        comeback, compiling a club-record 248 strikeouts and nine shutouts en 
        route to a unanimous selection as the A.L.'s Cy Young Award recipient. 
        On June 17, 1978 vs. the California Angels at Yankee Stadium, Guidry 
        shattered the club record for strikeouts with 18. The Yankees' co-
        captain--with Willie Randolph--from 1986 through 1988, Guidry also won 
        20 games in 1983 (21-9) and 1985 (22-6);
Whereas the seventies ended with tragedy as Thurman Munson, the Yankees' first 
        captain since Gehrig, was killed in the crash of his private jet on 
        August 2, 1979. Only 32 at the time of his death, Munson was the 
        undisputed leader of the clubs that won three consecutive pennants and 
        two World Championships. After their Captain's death, the Yankees would 
        make only one more World-Series appearance (1981) in 17 years despite 
        compiling the best record in the Major Leagues during the decade of the 
        eighties;
Whereas the eighties also saw the development of one of the franchise's greatest 
        and most popular players, Don Mattingly, ``Donnie Baseball,'' the team 
        captain from 1991 through 1995, batted .307 in his Yankee career (1982-
        95) and compiled an incredible six-year stretch from 1983-89. During 
        those years, he batted .327 and topped 100 RBI five times, including a 
        career-high 145 in 1985 when he captured the A.L. MVP award. A year 
        earlier, he outdueled teammate Dave Winfield on the final day of the 
        season for the league's batting crown (.343 to .340);
Whereas Winfield, who came to the Yankees as the game's most-sought-after free 
        agent in 1981, compiled Hall of Fame credentials in his eight-plus 
        seasons in pinstripes (1981-90). He belted 205 home runs for the Yankees 
        with 818 RBI and won five gold gloves;
Whereas after an absence of 13 years, the Yankees returned to post-season play 
        in 1995 as the American League's first-ever ``Wild-Card'' entry. A 
        devastating five-game loss to the Seattle Mariners in the Division 
        Series was only the start of an incredible run for eight consecutive 
        post-season appearances, a record shared only by the Atlanta Braves;
Whereas in 1996, under new skipper Joe Torre, the Yankees returned to the World 
        Series and would win four of the next five World Championships, 
        including three straight from 1998 through 2000. Their 114 victories in 
        1998 shattered the 44-year-old American-League mark of 111 wins by the 
        1954 Cleveland Indians (was broken by Seattle in 2001) and their 125 
        total victories (with 11 post-season wins) remains Baseball's best 
        single-season total;
Whereas the Yankees' most-recent era of greatness featured a consistent lineup 
        of great homegrown and acquired players to rival any period in franchise 
        history. Since the arrival of Bernie Williams in 1991, the Yankees' farm 
        system has produced All-Stars Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada 
        and Mariano Rivera. In addition, shrewd trades and free-agent 
        acquisitions have brought such All-Stars as Wade Boggs, Scott Brosius, 
        Roger Clemens, David Cone, Jason Giambi, Tino Martinez, Mike Mussina, 
        Paul O'Neil, Mike Stanton and David Wells;
Whereas in 2001, the Yankees failed to become only the second team in history to 
        win four consecutive World-Series titles, but captured the hearts of the 
        nation in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. The Yankees 
        dropped the first two games of the Series vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks 
        at Bank One Ballpark, but rallied to win the next three at Yankee 
        Stadium behind dramatic ninth-inning comebacks in both games Three and 
        Four. On consecutive nights, Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius erased two-
        run, ninth-inning Diamondback leads with the Yankees winning both games 
        in extra innings. It marked the first time in World Series history that 
        a team won two games in the same series when trailing by at least two 
        runs in the ninth inning;
Whereas as the Yankees begin their second century in 2003, they seek to extend 
        their franchise record of consecutive post-season appearances to nine (a 
        record matched only by the Atlanta Braves, 1995-02). They will do so by 
        expanding upon the kind of innovation that set their first century--and 
        its 26 World Championships--in motion. One hundred years ago, the 
        original 1903 team was built with stars from no fewer than eight 
        different Major-League teams. The 2003 Yankees--with the additions of 
        Cuban All-Star pitcher Jose Contreras and three-time Japan Central 
        League MVP Hideki Matsui--will be comprised of stars from no fewer than 
        six nations;
Whereas the Yankees recorded their 41st first-place finish in team history in 
        2002, the most of any professional sports franchise . . . they are 
        followed by the Montreal Canadians (32), Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers 
        (27), Boston Celtics (24), Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers (24), Boston/
        Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (23), New York/San Francisco Giants (21), 
        Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland A's (20) and New York (football) Giants 
        (20) . . . the Yankees' first-place total includes the strike-shortened 
        1981 season when they won the first half title; and
Whereas the Yankees have won 26 of the 97 World Series' played (27 percent) . . 
        . they have won 38 of the 101 American League Pennants (38 percent). 
        Since 1921, the Yankees have been a participant in 38 of the 81 World 
        Series' played (47 percent). The Yankees have won a total of 127 games 
        in the World Series . . . no other team has even played in that many 
        World Series games: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives and the American people 
extend heartfelt congratulations to the New York Yankees on the 
occasion of its 100th anniversary, and express the sincerest gratitude 
to the entire organization.
                                 <all>