​New York Yankees manager Ralph Houk in Yankee Stadium for an Opera News magazine portrait assignment, Bronx, New York, circa 1972. (Photo by Michael Gold/Getty Images) | Getty Images The Yankees have had some decent success in replacing franchise cornerstones over the years. Back in the day, they had a run at catcher that, with some small gaps, went from Bill Dickey to Yogi Berra to Elston Howard to Thurman Munson. Their careers overlapped, but Mickey Mantle became the Yankees’ center fielder shortly after Joe DiMaggio’s career at the spot, a generation after Joe D. effectively succeeded Murderers’ Row center fielder Earle Combs. In recent years, Didi Gregorius did an extremely admirable job taking over at shortstop after Derek Jeter retired.In terms of Yankee managers, Casey Stengel is arguably the best ever. He’s tied with Joe McCarthy with seven World Series titles, while Stengel has one more pennant and did all that in a shorter time frame. However, the Yankees did — somewhat controversially — dismiss Stengel following the 1960 World Series loss. While the man who followed Stengel didn’t match the number of World Series titles or anything, he did pretty well himself.Ralph George HoukBorn: August 9, 1919 (Lawrence, KS)Died: July 21, 2010 (Winter Haven, FL)Yankees Tenure: 1947-54 (player); 1955-60 (coach/Triple-A manager); 1961-63 and 1966-73 (manager); 1964-66 (general manager)Born in Kansas in 1919, Ralph Houk grew up on a farm not far from Stull. He grew a love of baseball while watching his uncles play local semi-pro ball. He eventually started playing himself, and took to the catcher position, where he excelled with his sturdy frame at Lawrence High School in the shadow of the University of Kansas. He also excelled in football and indeed had offers to play in college both at Kansas and Oklahoma. However, Houk preferred baseball, and eventually inked a deal with the Yankees in 1939.Houk got off to a decent start in his first couple minor-league seasons, but he left to serve in the army in World War II ahead of the 1942 campaign. While he wasn’t part of the initial D-Day Normandy landings, Houk did land on Omaha Beach shortly after and took part in the Battle of the Bulge. He received a number of commendations in his time in the military, including a Silver Star and a Purple Heart. Houk’s strong military background eventually led to him being referred to as “the Major.”Well over four years after his previous professional games, Houk eventually returned to baseball in 1946. He did enough that season and in spring training in 1947 to make the Yankees, but he spent the next couple seasons going back and forth between the majors and Triple-A. During that stretch, he nearly gave up on the Yankees at one point, believing that he should be with the big league team and not in the minors, but was eventually persuaded to stick through it.Houk eventually would play with the Yankees for good from 1950-54, but was very much a third-