Saban wrote:The New York Yankees were really better than the San Francisco 49ers for the first 2 years of the All-America Conference (1946-47). They beat the 49ers twice in 1946 and twice in 1947 and played in the league championship game both years.
In 1948, the AAFC commissioner decided to make the top teams help out the weaker teams by giving them some players. So, the New York Yankees gave some players away (to the Chicago Rockets I think), and the Cleveland Browns gave some players, including Y.A. Tittle and starting left tackle Ernie Blandin, to the Baltimore Colts. I don't know if San Francisco gave any players away. This hurt the Yankees so much that they actually became a losing team in 1948.
Anyway, in 1946, the Yankees started out with some of the remaining players that had played for the NFL Brooklyn Dodgers during the early 1940's. This included 2 players that are in the Hall of Fame in tailback Ace Parker and tackle Bruiser Kinard. Also, there was back Frank Sinkwich, who was MVP in the NFL in 1944. Then there were All-Pro types end Perry Schwartz, end Bob Masterson, Fullback Pug Manders, and back Ray Hare. There were some others including Bruser Kinard's brother George (a guard).
Some of those players were probably a little past their primes, but the Yankees also filled their roster with some pretty good rookies about as good a job as the 49ers and maybe Cleveland in that respect. Probably the best of these was Spec Sanders, who was sensational as a runner and could throw the ball as well. The Yankees used the single wing formation and Ace Parker and Spec Sanders split time at the tailback position.
The Yankees got some good rookies to strengthen their line play with guys like tackles Nate Johnson, Harvey Johnson, and Derrell Palmer and ends Bruce Alford and Jack Russell and center Lou Sossamon. Their lines were so strong that I read someplace that the Yankees had 2 platoons on defense. Don't know exactly how that would work with the limited substitution, but they did have a very strong line, especially for a first year team.
A couple more good rookies were fullback Eddie Prokop and wingback Lowell Wagner. It was a very nice mix of rookies and veterans. The older vets probably helped the rookies develope and may have been like extra coaches on the field. Of course, head coach Ray Flaherty was one of the best in pro football and had previously led the Washington Redskins to two NFL championships.
So, the 1946 New York Yankees were a force to be reckoned with in the new AAFC. I thought that they would have been heavy favorites to win the AAFC title in 1946, but I guess that the Chicago Rockets were for some reason. That was a surprise to me because the Yankees started out with so many good experienced players and also had Flaherty as head coach.
The Yankees were to be very tough in the first couple of years of the new league, but there was this team from Podunk with a high school coach that would give them a lot of trouble.
The story goes that the 1948 New York Yankees were forced to give away players to weaker teams due to the AAFC Commissioner's plan for the strong teams (the haves) to help the weak teams (the have nots), and that is what ruined the team that year (a 6 and 8 record for the 1948 Yankees), after playing in the league championship game after the previous 2 seasons. I don't totally agree with that.
Yes, the Yankees did lose Dick Barwegen, one of the best guards in football, Nate Johnson, a very good tackle, and a good running back named Eddie Prokop. I guess that they may have given up more players than that, but I don't know who they were, if any. That hurt, but I think that there was more to the Yankees decline than that.
I think that it also hurt that those veteran players from the old NFL Brooklyn Dodgers were mostly gone by 1948, Including Ace Parker and Bruiser Kinard, who are both in the HOF, and also good players like Bob Masterson, Pug Manders, Ray Hare, and Perry Schwartz.
The 1948 Yankees started out with only one win in their first 4 games, losing twice to the Baltimore Colts, who were much improved with players obtained from Cleveland like Y.A. Tittle and Ernie Blandin. After finishing in last place in the AAFC Eastern Division in 1947 with a 2-11-1 record, the Colts finished with a 7 and 7 record in the 1948 regular season to tie the Buffalo Bills for the division lead. Unfortunately for Baltimore, the Colts lost to Buffalo, 28 to 17 in a playoff game that year.
On the other hand, in 1948, the Yankees still had Spec Sanders and Buddy Young, which still should have given them at least a decent running game. Even though they lost Bruiser Kinard and Nate Johnson, they still had tackles Derrell Palmer and Harvey Johnson and they even got a sensational rookie tackle named Arnie Weinmeister.
So, it doesn't seem like they should have fallen that far and that fast in 1948. After their 1 and 3 record in their first 4 games, their great head coach, Ray Flaherty, was let go. In 1949, Flaherty was hired by the Chicago entry of the AAFC, now called the Chicago Hornets.
I guess that it was a combination of things that caused the Yankees 1948 downfall. Teams like Baltimore with Y.A. Tittle and Buffalo with QB George Ratterman got better, and teams like Cleveland and San Francisco just got too good. The Yankees lost both of their games with undefeated Cleveland, San Francisco, who lost only to Cleveland that year, and Baltimore. They also lost games to Buffalo and Chicago in 1948.
That, with the loss of players to the have nots and the loss of the veteran players from the old NFL Dodgers, and probably some things that I have no idea of is probably the answer to the mystery of the 1948 Yankees.