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New York Yankees Team Captains - The position of team captain for the New York Yankees is one that is often held in high regard, as the officially recognized list of captains comes out to only 11 players in the team's over 100 years of history. After the death of captain Lou Gehrig, then manager Joe McCarthy declared that there would never be another Yankee captain. The position remained vacant until team owner George Steinbrenner named Thurman Munson as captain in 1976, a position he held until his untimely death in 1979.
 There is, however, some controversy over the official list. Howard W. Rosenberg, a baseball historian and author of Cap Anson 1: When Captaining a Team Meant Something (Tile Books, 2003) has found that the official count of Yankee captains failed to include Clark Griffith, the captain from 1903-1905, and Kid Elberfeld, the captain from 1906-1907, while manager Frank Chance may have served as captain in 1913.
Rosenberg also found a 1916 article that said Roy Hartzell had been a captain earlier in franchise history. Griffith, Elberfeld, Chance and Hartzell were mentioned in an article on Yankee captains in the New York Times on March 25, 2007, by Vincent M. Mallozzi. Willie Keeler was added to the unofficial list, believed to have served as captain for 1908-1909, having been first located in a full-text database in late 2006 by Society for American Baseball Research member Clifford Blau and confirmed by Rosenberg subsequent to the March 25, 2007 article.
14 Yankee Captains in franchise history:
Captain Position Years active Tenure
Clark Griffith Pitcher 1891–1914 1903–1905
Kid Elberfeld Shortstop 1898–1914 1906–1909
Hal Chase First baseman 1905–1919 1910–1912
Frank Chance First baseman 1898–1914 1913
Roger PeckinpaughShortstop 1910–1927 1914–1921
Babe Ruth Outfielder 1914–1935 1922
Everett Scott Shortstop 1914–1926 1922–1925
Lou Gehrig First baseman 1923–1939 1935–1939
Thurman Munson Catcher 1969–1979 1976–1979
Graig Nettles Third baseman 1967–1988 1982–1984
Willie Randolph Second baseman 1975–1992 1986–1988
Ron Guidry Starting pitcher1975–1988 1986–1988
Don Mattingly First baseman 1982–1995 1991–1995
Derek Jeter Shortstop 1995–present 2003–presen
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