Baseball Musings: Requiem for the Yankees

August 27, 2008

Requiem for the Yankees

The Red Sox defeated the Yankees 11-3 tonight, pushing New York seven games back in the wild card standings and for all intents and purposes ending the chance of the Yankees making the playoffs. This isn't a good team playing poorly. No one sits there thinking, "If only Sidney Ponson and Darrell Rasner can live up to their potential." Age, injuries, and lack of depth caught up with this group, and in the last season in the House that Ruth built they're more than likely to be watching the playoffs from the sidelines.

It was a great run. For thirteen straight seasons New York played in the post season. They fielded the greatest team I've ever seen in 1998. They won three World Championships in a row for the first time in 25 years, and came a few feet away from making it four in a row. The organization gave us Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera. They turned Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius into stars.

The Yankees turned Joe Torre into a Hall of Famer. He experienced some moderate success as a manager before the Yankees, but New York proved to be the perfect fit for Joe's personality and methods. He took over an intelligent team. He protected them from the owner and the media, and they produced wins and comebacks. He showed that someone could manage under Steinbrenner for the long term.

The team was always interesting. Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, David Wells, Mike Mussina, Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon showed they weren't afraid to spend to money. They generated headlines, controversy, adulation, and yes, wins.

While it was clear for a while this teams wasn't as good as the ones of the last decade, tonight pretty much seal the deal. In two games that would make them contenders once again, the Yankees went down without much of a fight. So it goes. Now the team can focus on next year. They'll have money, a new stadium, and a good group of stars. I suspect they won't be down for long.

Posted by David Pinto at 10:42 PM | Team Evaluation | TrackBack (0)

Comments

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Posted by: Steve at August 27, 2008 11:47 PM

let us not forget what they brought to the game of baseball. THIS IS A CLASS GROUP OF MEN THAT GAVE THE FANS SOMETHING TO CHEER FOR. WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR.

Posted by: jorenstin at August 28, 2008 12:04 AM

The Yankees are many things, but classy is not one of those things this year. Classy is not cheesy Jeter Ford commercials every two minutes. Classy is, by definition, never involved in males sharing a gold lame thong, or the owner of the thong growing a porn 'stache. Classy is the opposite of Sidney Ponson. Classy is not ditching your wife to fool around with Madonna. Classy is not having a statue of yourself in your house (I-Rod). Classy is not routinely withholding information from the media. And so on. Basically, what little class this organization had was packed up in boxes and shipped to Los Angeles when Joe Torre was thrown overboard.

Posted by: Steve H at August 28, 2008 12:40 AM

Classy is also not an organisation where if you walk to the bathroom during god bless america you'll be thrown out from the park. Not so much there.

This will be like it is every few seasons for the yankees. Good team -> mediocre team -> bottom of the league -> rebuild farm and start again. That is, provided, that Steinny Jr. doesn't continue to overpay year after year for aged stars which throwing the farm system away.

Posted by: jacques at August 28, 2008 05:15 AM

Classy is also not an organisation where if you walk to the bathroom during god bless america you'll be thrown out from the park. Not so much there.

Posted by: jacques at August 28, 2008 05:15 AM

The Yankees biggest problem has been that they've tried to push the young pitchers without any major league experience into being star pitchers - IN NEW YORK.

Kennedy & Hughes, have combined for 0-8. Trying to fill in gaps with starters like Ponson and Rasner, wasn't smart. How they sold that one, I'll never know. The Yankees really need better scouting on pitching before they can contend again. Seriously.

Posted by: Devon Young at August 28, 2008 06:31 AM

NYY started to fall short when they thought they could buy the WS every year in the free agent market. Martinez, Brosius and O'Neill were all good all around players. Giambino, sheffield, Damon not so much. Williams, Jeter, Posada, Rivera, Pettitte all became stars after coming up thru the NYY system and mixed in with good all around players. Obviously a lot more pitching depth with Key, Cone, clemens and Pettite. Since Posada and Pettite the only players I can think of that NYY has brought thru their system who are all-star caliber players are Soriano and Wang. Joba, if they take care of him and work on his conditioning and motion, Cano if they can figure out why he's hitting .268 maybe have a chance but outside of that I don't see much. NYY really needs to figure out where they're going but I don't think the free agent market is going to solve their problems and I don't think Hank knows wtf he's doing.

Posted by: Bandit at August 28, 2008 08:27 AM

Screw the haters.

Posted by: Empire at August 28, 2008 08:29 AM

The postseason is largely a crapshoot. The 2000 Yanks, for instance, weren't a very good team at all. Only a .540 winning percentage and a +57 run diff. But they lucked into the postseason and then got hot, or at least warm, and won the Series.

This year's Yankee team may be almost as good as that club. They've got a .530 winning percentage and a +32 run diff. I think the "decline of the Yanks" story is way overblown. Some key players like Posada may be through, but the club has the bucks to buy replacements.

It would not amaze me to see the Yanks slip into the postseason next year. Tampa Bay is riding a big chunk of luck in one-run games, so the Yanks could easily finish second next year and cop the wild card. And once you're in the tournament, anything can happen.

Posted by: Casey Abell at August 28, 2008 11:48 AM