The Dynasty's Hinge Year

Every dynasty has a hinge year. For the Yankees of the late 1930s, it was 1936.

That spring, a 21-year-old from San Francisco named Joe DiMaggio joined a lineup that already had Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, and Tony Lazzeri. Joe McCarthy had the deepest roster in baseball and the discipline to use it. What followed was four straight World Series titles, something no team had ever done before.

The numbers are hard to believe even now. In four Fall Classics, the Yankees went 16-3. They beat the Giants twice, then swept the Cubs and the Reds without much drama. The 1939 club won 106 games while losing its captain, Gehrig, whose career ended that spring after 2,130 consecutive games.

The 1920s Yankees got the legend and the nickname. The late-1930s Yankees may have been the better team, and they did it with a quieter swagger.