Jeter, Posada & Rivera: The End Of An Era In The Bronx

For seventeen consecutive seasons, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera have played together for the New York Yankees. Posada’s in the last year of his contract and is not expected to return to the Yankees next season, if he plays at all. In the history of professional baseball, only two other sets of teammates played together continuously for longer than Jeter, Posada & Rivera.

No other set of teammates played together in as many post-seasons or won as many World Series titles as the Yankees trio--and that’s not even counting what the Yankees might achieve in this year’s playoffs.

Detroit Tigers keystone partners Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker played together continuously for nineteen years (1977-1995), the major league record. Trammell was a six-time All-Star; Whitaker played in five consecutive mid-summer classics. Both won multiple Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards. But in those nineteen years, the Tigers made the playoffs only two times: 1984, when the Tigers won the World Series over the San Diego Padres; and 1987, when they lost in the American League Championship Series to the Minnesota Twins.

Two sets of teammates played together for eighteen years, but only George Brett and Frank White played those eighteen years consecutively (1973-1990), for the Kansas City Royals. More on Brett and White in a bit.

Honus Wagner and Fred Clarke wore the Louisville Colonels uniform from 1987-1899 and then donned the Pittsburgh Pirates jerseys from 1900-1911 and again from 1913-1915. Wagner played for the Pirates in 1912 but Clarke didn’t play at all that year -- breaking the consecutive seasons streak. Wagner and Clarke played in two World Series together: 1903, when the Pirates lost to the Boston Americans, and 1909, when the Pirates beat the Detroit Tigers.

George Brett and Frank White not only played together for eighteen consecutive seasons, but they also played fifteen straight years with Hal McRae (1973-1987) and Willie Wilson (1976-1990). The eleven years all four of them displayed the Royals crown (1976-1987) were the heydays of the Royals franchise: seven post-season berths, two World Series (1980 and 1985), and one World Series Championship (1985).

The Royals weren’t the only franchise sporting teammates for multiple, consecutive seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. Indeed, the ‘70s and ‘80s were a kind of Golden Era for longstanding teammates. The Reds had Pete Rose and Tony Perez (1964-1976 & 1984-86). The Orioles had Jim Palmer and Mark Belanger (1965-1981). The Phillies had Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton (1972-1986). The Red Sox had Dwight Evans and Jim Rice (1974-1989) with Carl Yastremzki until 1983. The Brewers had Robin Yount and Jim Gantner (1976-1992) and then added Paul Molitor (1978-1992). And the Tigers had Trammell and Whitaker.

Familiarity led to success. With Palmer and Belanger, the Orioles played in seven post-seasons, winning the World Series in 1966 and 1970. With Rose and Perez, the Reds saw the playoffs five times, winning the World Series in 1975 and 1976. Schmidt and Carlton played in six post-seasons together for the Phillies, winning the World Series in 1980.

Other than Wagner & Clarke, Rose & Perez, Palmer & Belanger, and Yount & Gantner, the only other teammates to play with the same team for seventeen consecutive years were Max Carey and Babe Adams (1910-1926) and Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski (1956-1972) -- all for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Clemente and Mazeroski won two World Series titles with the Pirates (1960 and 1971) and saw playoff action in two other seasons. Carey and Adams landed in the post-season only once, but they made it count, winning the World Series in 1925.

And then there’s Jeter, Posada and Rivera. Jeter and Rivera joined the Yankees in May of 1995. Posada was a September call-up that year and only played in one game. By 1996, Jeter was the everyday shortstop and Rivera was the sometime closer. Posada spent most of the year in the minors, playing only eight games with the Yankees. The next year, they were all important pieces on the Yankees’ 25-man roster: Jeter at shortstop, Rivera as the closer and Posada behind the dish. And it remained that way until this season when the Yankees transitioned Posada to the Designated Hitter role.

This week, as Mariano Rivera notched his 600th career save, we were reminded that the Yankees almost traded Rivera. Twice. The first near-trade was in 1995, when the Yankees considered sending Rivera to the Tigers for David Wells. Two years later, the Yankees tried to talk the Mariners into trading Randy Johnson for Rivera. Lucky for the Yankees, neither trade happened.

A young Andy Pettitte also made his major league debut with the Yankees in 1995. He pitched in pinstripes until 2003, when he left to join the Houston Astros. Pettitte returned to the Yankees in 2007 and pitched for four more seasons, retiring at the end of 2010.

And let’s not forget Bernie Williams. He, too, had a long and successful career with the Yankees, from 1991 through 2006.

But it all goes back to 1995.

In 1995, the Yankees played in the post-season for the first time since 1981, ending a fourteen-year playoff drought that is the longest in franchise history. In the ensuing fifteen years, the Yankees of Jeter, Posada and Rivera played October baseball fourteen times: every year but 2008. And they will be there again in 2011.

In a way, it’s fitting that 2011 marks the last year the Yankees trio will play together. In a game for the ages on July 9, Jeter got his 3,000th career hit (not counting the postseason, of course). Rivera recorded his 600th save this week and is heading straight for Trevor Hoffman’s career saves record of 601. And Posada played second base for the first time in his career.

Jeter, Posada and Rivera. Fifteen playoff appearances. Seven World Series. Five World Series Championships.

It’s a legacy we may never see again in the history of Major League Baseball.

Wendy Thurm writes about baseball and life at Hanging Sliders.