produced a first-division team in nine attempts as manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves. But in the 12 years from 1949 through 1960, the Weiss-Stengel tandem would win ten AL pennants and seven world titles (1949–53; 1956; 1958). Even when their five-season run as world champions ended in , the Yankees won 103 regular-season games (to finish second, by eight lengths, to the Cleveland Indians). The Yankee farm system produced two more Hall of Famers early in Weiss's GM tenure, Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle, and continued to contribute key members of their 1950s teams. When it began to falter somewhat in mid-decade, Weiss swung a series of multiplayer trades with second-division teams, first with the Baltimore Orioles and then, frequently, with the Kansas City Athletics, to keep the Bombers at the forefront of their league. These transactions netted the Yankees top players such as Bob Turley, Don Larsen, Bobby Shantz, Art Ditmar, Ryne Duren, Ralph Terry, Clete Boyer and Héctor López. But they also began to struggle in World Series play, losing to Brooklyn in 1955 and the Milwaukee Braves in 1957. In , they won only 79 of 154 games and fell all the way to third, behind the White Sox and Indians. It was the only season during Weiss's time as general manager in which the Bombers failed to win at least 92 games. He responded by acquiring outfielder Roger Maris from Kansas City in a seven-player transaction in December 1959. A 25-year-old budding star, Maris would win back-to-back American League Most Valuable Player Awards in and and, in the latter year, smash 61 home runs in his record-setting chase of Babe Ruth's single-season mark. But by the 1961 season, Weiss was gone from the Yankees' front office. After Maris helped the 1960 club return to the top of the American League standings, they were again defeated in that year's World Series, this time by the Pittsburgh Pirates. In the days following the World Series, both Stengel and Weiss were forced into retirement. A longtime assistant, Roy Hamey, succeeded Weiss as general manager. The Yankees then won four more pennants in succession, along with the 1961 and 1962 World Series. New York Mets Weiss and Stengel both ended up with the Mets, set to return National League baseball to New York City in 1962, four seasons after the departure of the Dodgers and New York