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For the Yankees, 1998 has been a year of memorable moments and falling records (not to mention falling beams). Relive all of this season's milestones below.

Bob Watson resigns as general manager and assistant Brian Cashman is named to replace him. At age 30, Cashman becomes the second-youngest GM in baseball history.		Cashman wastes little time, acquiring All-Star second baseman Chuck Knoblauch from the Minnesota Twins for four players and cash.
The club wields its financial muscle by signing 16-year-old Venezuelan righthander Ricardo Aramboles to a contract with a $1.52 million bonus.		Continuing their youth movement, the Yankees hire 29-year-old Kim Ng to fill Cashman's old job. She becomes the highest-ranking woman ever to be on the Yankees' payroll and only the second female assistant GM in major league history.
The Yankees again outbid numerous teams for a coveted pitcher, this time signing Cuban defector Orlando Hernandez to a four-year, $6.6 million deal. El Duque, age 28 or 32, depending on the source, fled Cuba in a leaky raft on December 26 and spent 10 hours at sea before landing on an uninhabited island in the Bahamas, where he and his shipmates were found a few days later by the U.S. Coast Guard.		The Yankees open the 1998 season inauspiciously, dropping a 4-1 decision to the Anaheim Angels at Edison International Field. Ace Andy Pettitte surrenders all four runs in six innings of work. Bernie Williams has three of the club's five hits and scores the only run in the sixth on Chili Davis's double-play grounder.
The Yankees are 0-3 after a 7-3 loss in Oakland. "If the Yankees were a Broadway play," writes Jon Heyman of Newsday, "they might have closed by now." But things would turn around quickly: New York would lose just three more games the rest of the month, heading into May with a 17-6 record.		At approximately 3 p.m., a 500-pound concrete-and-steel beam falls on a row of empty seats at Yankee Stadium, forcing postponement of two games against the Angels. Giacomo Turano held tickets for the seats that were crushed. "No way are my grandchildren going to sit in those seats," said the 62-year-old furniture importer. "They're no good—it's scaramanzia [a bad omen]!"
With Yankee Stadium still being evaluated, the Bronx Bombers travel to Queens to beat the Angels 6-3 before 40,743 fans at Shea Stadium. "It was interesting riding the bus over," said Yankees starter and former Met David Cone. "But we knew we were going to be part of something historic." Another onetime Shea resident, DH Darryl Strawberry, smacks his fourth home run of the year in the fifth.		A near-capacity crowd of 49,820—only because of Beanie Baby Day—watches David Wells spin baseball's 13th perfect game this century, a 120-pitch, 11-strikeout, 4-0 gem over the Minnesota Twins. "Growing up a Yankee fan, to come out here and make history, it really is a dream come true," Wells says afterward. Mayor Rudy Giuliani later awards the hefty lefty a key to the city, and Wells would make an appearance on Late Show with David Letterman.

Continued

Text by Albert Lin

Photos by (top to bottom) Pat Sulliven/AP Photo, Bob Rosato, David Seelig/Allsport

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