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Jayson Stark says
Topic Started: Apr 2 2006, 10:42 PM (73 Views)
Mantlemurcer
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Mantlemurcer
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Yankees win! Thaaaa Yankees win!
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com

We are peering through the haze, peering ahead to October.

We see confetti floating. We see champagne spouting. We see another of baseball's interminable World Series droughts fading into the past tense.

The Cubs, you ask? The Indians? The Giants?

Nope. Sorry. We can see it now. From the same sport that wiped out 86 years of unbearable Red Sox doom and then obliterated 88 years of unceasing White Sox gloom, perhaps the most painful drought of them all is about to cease. Finally.

We are talking about the anguish, the suffering of ...

The New York Yankees ... a team that hasn't won the World Series in nearly 5½ long years.

Well, they're back, friends. This is their year.

Some teams dream about winning the World Series. The Yankees are required to win the World Series. Every stinking year. Or else.

So you don't think 5½ trophy-less years for them are the equivalent of 86 years of droughts and curses in a place like New England? Guess again.

"Oh yeah, it may be," Derek Jeter laughs. "I don't know about the other side, obviously. But here, it definitely seems like it's been a long time."

Five consecutive Octobers, they've had to watch some other team celebrate. And almost all of those teams got to celebrate, by the way, because, somewhere along the line, they'd vanquished the mighty Yankees.

That is not the Yankees' idea of fun. It is more like the Yankees' idea of torture.

Asked if he even watches the World Series when his team isn't in it, Jeter gets a look on his mug that is the kind of look the rest of us might get if we were asked if we'd like to pass a kidney stone the size of a bowling ball.

"Noooo," Jeter says. "I ain't watching that. No interest. I get sick to my stomach watching that stuff.

"I'm not a good loser," Jeter reminds us, as if anybody suspected otherwise.

And his boss, his owner -- that Steinbrenner character -- he's an even worse loser. Which is why, since the last time the Yankees won a World Series (way, way back in the year 2000), Steinbrenner's team has …


With Mariano Rivera pitching the ninth inning, the Yankees are always in good hands.
• Run up combined payrolls of approximately $978.5 million -- which, in case you're wondering, is more than the annual gross national products of Argentina, Switzerland and Russia put together.

• Signed 12 major free agents (i.e., players making more than $5 million a year): Jason Giambi, Mike Mussina, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui (twice), Gary Sheffield, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, Kyle Farnsworth, Jose Contreras, Sterling Hitchcock, Robin Ventura and Steve Karsay. Total price tag: more than half a billion dollars ($529.45 million).

• Traded for Randy Johnson, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Brown, Raul Mondesi and David Justice -- all of whom made slightly more than, say, Bubba Crosby.

• Lost postseason series five times to teams -- the Diamondbacks, Angels, Marlins, Red Sox and Angels again -- that spent a combined 362.7 million fewer payroll dollars than the Yankees did.

After every one of those lost series, Steinbrenner has stewed, fumed and done an excellent job of pulling out his checkbook.

But if you haven't paid attention lately, maybe you haven't noticed some very significant Yankees events -- events that indicate a shifting of Yankees philosophies.

Two winters ago, they actually passed on a chance to sign Carlos Beltran, because they didn't see tying up another $100 million (plus a potential $40 million more in luxury tax) as a real brilliant idea.

And this past winter, while the big headlines revolved around the signings of Damon and Farnsworth, the most important Yankees news really had nothing to do with players -- whether they were new, old or engraved on a monument in left field.

No, the biggest story was Steinbrenner's decision to make peace with manager Joe Torre and to give GM Brian Cashman not just a new contract, but more control over the direction of the operation.

There is monstrous significance to those developments for many reasons. But one of them is that Cashman is trying hard to steer the Yankees away from the mind-set that clubs should be put together like a giant fantasy team.

So Cashman, realist that he is, is not a man who is particularly thrilled with those suggestions that five straight parade-free years in the Bronx is a crime that ought to result in everyone responsible being deported to Chechnya.

"I get a little insulted when people say, 'It's been five years,'" Cashman says. "You know, it's not easy to win a World Series. It's impossible [to win it every year]. The odds of that aren't good.

"I hear people talk about our payroll and that's why we should win. Well, if that was true, then we would have had 100 world championships already -- because we've probably led in payroll for 100 straight years. … So that's why I get insulted by that talk, because we respect the game way too much to have that attitude."

There aren't many people left anymore, you realize, who were part of all four recent Yankees title teams, oh those many years ago (1996, '98, '99 and 2000).

“  This is the greatest franchise on this planet. Everyone knows what the New York Yankees are. You either love 'em or you hate 'em. And it's my turn to love 'em. ”
  — Johnny Damon

The GM was there in '96 (although as an assistant GM). The manager hasn't changed. But Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams are the only players who have been around for the last decade. And now, with the exit of pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, even the coaching staff has been 100 percent turned over.

So this year's coaches include four former big league managers (Larry Bowa, Tony Pena, Lee Mazzilli, Joe Kerrigan), plus two living Yankees legends (Don Mattingly and Ron Guidry). That staff has spent this spring refocusing this group's attention on The Little Things (execution, baserunning, preparation, etc.). What a concept.

"Maybe we took a little of that stuff for granted here -- but not this spring," Cashman says.

"To win, you have to be able to do the little things," Jeter says. "One thing that bothers me a lot about baseball and how it's gone today is … you turn on the TV every night to watch the highlights, and all you get is home runs. But when you get to the postseason, there are not too many home run hitting contests."

Of course, the 1996-2000 Yankees didn't just practice the little things. They worshipped the little things. It remains to be seen how much this star-studded roster can ever resemble that one. But we still didn't see one team this spring any better than these Yankees. Not one.

So why do we think they'll win it all? Here's why:


Full Story

Gammons picked them too :think:
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Ray
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:laugh2: :laugh2:
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Yanks473
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And the Band played on......
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Ray
Apr 2 2006, 09:44 PM

What are you laughing about, four eyes?
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HomieYank
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Yanks473
Apr 2 2006, 10:20 PM
Ray
Apr 2 2006, 09:44 PM

What are you laughing about, four eyes?

Seriously. Whats so funny? :dunno:
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amit
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Yanks473
Apr 3 2006, 06:20 AM
Ray
Apr 2 2006, 09:44 PM

What are you laughing about, four eyes?

:laugh:
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Mantlemurcer
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Yanks473
Apr 2 2006, 10:20 PM
Ray
Apr 2 2006, 09:44 PM

What are you laughing about, four eyes?

You were nice...I was thinking, "what are you laughing at f*ckface?"
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Ray
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"four eyes"?

What is this, kindergarten?
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Yanksfan03
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Amazingly enough, Gammons was right about the WBC but that was a fluke more than anything else. And Stark is an assclown too. I wish they'd pick against us because them picking us to win is like a bad omen.
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