Revisiting the 1959 Yankees-A's Trade That Sent Roger Maris to the Bronx

From 1947 to 1964, the New York Yankees went on an unheard-of postseason streak: the heralded ball club made 15 World Series appearances in an 18-year stretch. New York won 94 and 103 games when they didn't make the Fall Classic in 1948 and 1954, but things were different when they failed to make it in 1959. The Yankees went just 79-75 that season, their lowest win total since 1918.

New York was greedy, of course, and they felt they needed to make a trade to be able to compete for a World Series again the following season. The Yankees sacrificed a lot to put a charge back in their offense, and it made all the difference when dealing with their veritable "farm club" the Kansas City A's.

The Kansas City Athletics traded Roger Maris and two others to the Yankees for a package that included Don Larsen and Hank Bauer, and New York never looked back. After the team's worst season in four decades, the Yankees made it to five straight World Series, thanks to Maris and Mickey Mantle.

Maris won AL MVP his first two seasons in pinstripes, and in 1961, he broke Babe Ruth's single-season home run record. That record would hold up for 27 years, but the team's record of five consecutive trips to the World Series still stands today.

Although Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge teamed up exactly 58 years after Maris and Mantle did, even this loaded Yankees roster couldn't come close to touching the organization's 20th century greatness.