Though more people watch the NFL, baseball is forever America's game. For the last 11 years, the New York Yankees have consistently been the best team to play America's game. After the Yankees' loss to the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night, though, it is time to admit that an era has come to an end. The team from the Bronx has been dying a slow, painful death from that universal disease called aging. No matter the frequent injection of talent both young and old and the surely more common injections of anabolic steroids, this death was inevitable just like any other, despite any signs or spurts of life.
Joe Torre has kept his job after this most recent failure, but Boss Steinbrenner is aging along with his team and wants more championship rings to show off to the other important people he will meet in the afterlife, so there must be changes. Alex Rodriguez simply cannot play in New York and must be offloaded, presumably for young pitching talent. Old mainstay Bernie Williams is a mere shade of his former self while mercenaries Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield and Bobby Abreu do not have the team mentality of a Paul O'Neill or Scott Brosius. If not for the continued excellence of Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter, these Yankees would not have made the playoffs. The team will be radically different nest year, provided other sides are willing to take on the massive contracts of a number of Yankee stars.
Wait a minute. If this is the end of a dynasty, though the Yankees will surely remain dangerous, let us look back on and appreciate what was the best team in American sports for over a decade.
Torre was hired in 1995 to win the World Series, and he did just that. With a team built around young talents Jeter, Rivera and Williams and venerable veterans including Jimmy Key and John Wetteland, the 1996 team was the first Yankee team since 1978 to bring home a world championship.
Since then, the Yankees have made the playoffs all 11 seasons between 1996 and 2006, winning the American League East division 10 times. They will likely be the favorites to win the division again in 2007; the A.L. East crown seems their birthright.
The Yankees, have become known for a standard of excellence that demands more than a simple playoff berth. Such a demeanor would have served the Atlanta Braves well during their recently snapped streak of postseason appearances. During the recent run, there was never relief when the playoffs started.
For the Yankees, the regular season was no more than a glorified and extended preseason. Much credit must be given to Torre on this count since he has been the epitome of steadiness, his face unchanging despite the constant personnel flux and more recently, the playoff disappointments.
The pinnacle for the modern Yankee dynasty came in 1998 when the team won a total of 125 games including the playoffs and swept Kevin Brown and the San Diego Padres in the World Series. The future was bright and the combined dreams of all Yankee fans came to fruition as the team won the next two World Series against the Braves and Mets.
These great Yankee years were made possible by the team's front office. The men at the top — Jeter, Rivera, Jorge Posada and Williams — deserve a great deal of credit for recognizing and signing the talents who would come up through their farm system and win them championships. Torre again should be credited here. Can there be anyone who has had as great an influence on Jeter's career?
With Steinbrenner's millions the front office has made free agency the boon of the organization rather than its bane. Now it must be evident to all it was not only money which won the Yankees championships in the 20th century, for the current Yankees are the richest ever and have won nothing. The team is bloated: too many old men with long, expensive contracts who cannot play as well as their younger selves, not to mention their current backups. No manager, not even Torre, can sit a Rodriguez or a Sheffield.
Detroit's series win this past weekend might signal a changing of the guard.
The Tigers strike the same balance the Yankees once did: young, energetic, homegrown talent mixed with reliable veterans.
If they win the World Series, they will have their moment in the sun, and with their young pitching, it may be a long moment.
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