Where Whitey Warmed Up: A Yankee Stadium Bullpen Home Plate From the 1960s

The early 1960s were the last great run of the old Yankee dynasty, and this plate was part of the backdrop. The Yankees won five straight American League pennants, and they played in every World Series from 1955 through 1964 except 1959. The decade started with heartbreak, a World Series loss to Pittsburgh in which the Yankees outscored the Pirates 55-27, then turned into one of the most celebrated seasons in the game's history. In 1961, Roger Maris hit 61 home runs, Mickey Mantle hit 54, and Whitey Ford won 25 games for a 109-win team that beat the Reds in five games in the World Series. Ford won the Cy Young Award and the World Series MVP, and the Yankees followed with another title in 1962, beating the Giants in seven games, with Ralph Terry named Series MVP.

Every one of those pitchers started his day on a mound like this one. This home plate was set in the bullpen at Yankee Stadium, the spot where starters loosened up before taking the ball and relievers waited for the call, with the whole stadium above them. It's a simple object that has nothing to do with the main field, which is exactly why it's appealing: a piece of the working machinery of a dynasty, and not just a seat or a sign. The era didn't last. Mantle retired after 1968, and the roster that won all those pennants was broken up in the years that followed, which makes a plate from the high point of the decade a link to the final stretch of the old Yankees empire.