WI: THE NEW YORK YANKEES NEVER WON A WS?

I don't think the Red Sox would remain superbly dominant with Ruth hitting, necessarily. He'll have rather high salary demands, and the Red Sox will likely still sell quality players away - Carl Mays, Sam Jones, Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, Joe Bush, Wally Schang, etc. Of course, Ruth could bring in tons of fans and improve the Red Sox financial situation.

I never said they'd dominate, but they would continue to be contenders and certainly in the first half of the 1920s after about 1925 then it starts being determined by what the Red Sox do player-wise in response to money, whether they need or have it.
 
Hi all, I'm new to this board and I love it -- easily one of the more interesting places on the internet in my opinion.

I thought I'd chime in on what if the Yankees never won a World Series, and how baseball and American sports would be different in some ways and similar in others to our current timeline.

The Yankees success with Babe Ruth injected millions of dollars into a team that was for the first thirty years of its existence a third rate team at best. Of the three teams in New York, the Giants were by far the most successful and the richest until Ruth came to the Yankees, of course. Had Ruth never come to the Yankees, they never would have been able to sign basically any great amateur player they wanted, bolstering their incredible farm system. Bear in mind, there was no proper "minor leagues" until the 1950s, and major league teams basically bought great players from lesser professional leagues for massive sums of money in some cases. They also would never have had their amazing scouting system that allowed them to sign Mickey Mantle from an unknown league in Texas for almost nothing, or Joe Dimaggio from the San Francisco Seals for a ton of money at the time.

Without the Yankees becoming a dynasty, the Giants would have certainly remained in New York, as well as the Dodgers. I don't think they would have folded, but they would have perhaps moved to the West Coast in the late 40s/early 50s.

Baseball would never have been as popular as it was back then and as it is today. Babe Ruth doing his thing in the media capital of the universe helped baseball and the Yankees more than words can describe, so perhaps football would become more popular earlier than it did if he never played in New York.
 
MAKE WAY FOR THE KING!

Hi all, I'm new to this board and I love it -- easily one of the more interesting places on the internet in my opinion.

I thought I'd chime in on what if the Yankees never won a World Series, and how baseball and American sports would be different in some ways and similar in others to our current timeline.

The Yankees success with Babe Ruth injected millions of dollars into a team that was for the first thirty years of its existence a third rate team at best. Of the three teams in New York, the Giants were by far the most successful and the richest until Ruth came to the Yankees, of course. Had Ruth never come to the Yankees, they never would have been able to sign basically any great amateur player they wanted, bolstering their incredible farm system. Bear in mind, there was no proper "minor leagues" until the 1950s, and major league teams basically bought great players from lesser professional leagues for massive sums of money in some cases. They also would never have had their amazing scouting system that allowed them to sign Mickey Mantle from an unknown league in Texas for almost nothing, or Joe Dimaggio from the San Francisco Seals for a ton of money at the time.

Without the Yankees becoming a dynasty, the Giants would have certainly remained in New York, as well as the Dodgers. I don't think they would have folded, but they would have perhaps moved to the West Coast in the late 40s/early 50s.

Baseball would never have been as popular as it was back then and as it is today. Babe Ruth doing his thing in the media capital of the universe helped baseball and the Yankees more than words can describe, so perhaps football would become more popular earlier than it did if he never played in New York.
WELCOME, WELCOME, WELCOME! We are all thrilled to have no less a celebrity than Mr. Hank Steinbrenner, principal owner of the New York Yankees, as a poster on this website!:cool:
 
It would be hard to believe a team thats been in existence for over 100 years has never won a world Series. The Florida Mariners won it on the 2nd or 3rd season (I believe) a few years ago.

Plus they are from one of the biggest cities in the US and are part of popular culture. "Pride of the Yankees". When Abbott and Costello's did Who's on First they wore Yankees uniforms.
 
WELCOME, WELCOME, WELCOME! We are all thrilled to have no less a celebrity than Mr. Hank Steinbrenner, principal owner of the New York Yankees, as a poster on this website!:cool:

I'm actually not a Yankees fan at all. I can, however, give credit where credit is due and realize that New York is and was the cultural and media capital of the US and the world starting in the 1920s, when Ruth was at his peak. My point being, had he not played for such an over publicized team like the Yankees, in the midst of such a large level of media coverage that one could only find in New York, he never would have made such an impact on popular culture that he did. I love the Red Sox but they had a foolish, greedy owner (like many teams did back then and still do) and had Ruth stayed there he would have been just another great Red Sox player who pitched more than he hit. His manager in Boston knew he was a great power hitter, but before 1920, that simply wasn't the way the game was played and he was much more valuable as a left handed pitcher.

His popularity transcended baseball itself. Non baseball fans would go and see him play. This boosted ticket sales not only for the Yankees but every team that played host to them on the road. Other teams started signing power hitting players and the game was changed forever, with the emphasis now on the great hitter rather than the great pitcher, which had been the case for 50 years prior. Ted Williams' popularity never did that, neither did Stan Musial's or Willie Mays', even though all three were better hitters and better players than Ruth in my opinion.

Hank Steinbrenner? Name calling is so unbecoming, Bill Buckner.
 
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