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The 2013-14 offseason has brought the Yankees several big multi-year contracts already. It is of course nothing new for the Yankees to be reaping the free agent crop; it's a tradition that goes back to free agency's beginnings and late owner George Steinbrenner's ambitions to build the best baseball team possible through the almighty dollar. For as much as fans can criticize the Boss for his decisions on who to sign, there's no denying that his willingness to actually use the big bucks brought in by the Yankees' franchise to improve the team rather than pocket it for greater personal gain was a personality trait unique among owners. Other franchise directors were just as wealthy as Steinbrenner if not more so, but they rarely spent as fervently as him.
The Yankees' decision to lock up a few more multi-year deals this winter got me thinking about exactly how many such contracts, including extensions, they have signed throughout the nigh-40 years of free agency. That's what led me to coming up with the trivia questions from the "Baseball Blueprints" contest earlier this week. It wasn't the smoothest project since signings are not extremely well-documented or conveniently organized anywhere. I went through every single Baseball-Reference Yankees season transaction log since the end of the 1974 campaign and looked up every signing's initial news report through the Google News archives to obtain as precise details about the signings as possible (and to weed out the one-year deals).
It's complete now, and I've entered the quiz onto Sporcle here, so have it and share how you did! If you have any questions about the quiz, definitely let me know as well. Per usual with these Sporcle posts, use the spoiler tag (the little black box when discussing answers in the comments so that none of the answers are given away (I will delete comments that don't use appropriately use the tag). Enjoy!
