Yankees in 6

All criticisms of managers, players and umpires aside, the Yankees emerged and cemented their role as the best team in baseball in 2009. In a pretty exciting post-season, this team never really had its back to the wall. While their opposition made errors with the glove, on the bases and at the plate, the Yankees executed near perfectly and capitalized on their opponents mistakes like true champions. And when it came down to it, in a game 6 at home against a bitter rival, Pedro Martinez, the heart of their order got it done, in particular the man on the way out the door - Hideki Matsui. 37-year-old Andy Pettitte couldn't top 87 on the radar gun but outsmarted hitters by keeping his pitches outside of the zone all night and making them chase. One of the all-time grinders, Pettitte is an absolute legendary Yankee and all-time post-season pitcher. As a friend texted me last night, it's hard to believe we were just freshmen in high school last time the Yankees won it all. It was a decade from my birth before they would win their first in 1996 and now we spanned nearly another decade since their last. Much has changed since that first one. Steroids, a new manager, a new owner, record-setting contracts, players gone, players gone and back, players gone and back to manage and of course a brand new stadium.

As I watched the Yankees clinch it last night it was a pretty good moment. The excitement Mariano showed. Derek Jeter getting another and earning it. Jorge Posada. The young guys, Hughes and Cano and Joba. It was cool to see. I even thought it was fun to watch A-Rod exhale a huge sigh of relief, he dropped his guard and was, for once, candid and overwhelmed with happiness. Still, I couldn't help but think back to the 95-00 seasons, sitting downstairs with my step-dad or at my father's house or sometimes over with a friend. The excitement of their late inning heroics. Maybe, it's because I'm getting older, but I think more likely because of the ridiculous gap between the amount of money the Yankees are spending vs. everyone else - I simply couldn't get too excited this year. It was nice to watch but I didn't struggle to sleep when they lost and I didn't stay awake abuzz with excitement when they won. I didn't head right to my bedroom and flip on WFAN to listen to callers express their joy or pain until early into the morning like I used to after every game. Yankees fans should be excited, but until the playing field is leveled out a bit, I for one will temper my enthusiasm. A perfect example of this is my mom knocking on my door this morning:
Me: What?
Mom: We are going to the parade tomorrow. Do you want to come?
Me: (Thinking it through in my head - hmm, tomorrow, hmm, Friday, hmm Breeders Cup) No, I'm not going.

...wonder what my answer would have been in 98...

Couple notes from last night:
First and foremost, I don't care what statistics you drop in front of me. Matsui was not the MVP of that series. He had one monster game and was basically an after-thought the rest of it. He had a great game last night and basically won it single-handedly, but his contributions pale in comparison to the gigantic at-bats and subsequent hits Johnny Damon put together, the leadoff prowess Derek Jeter had or even Pettitte and Rivera's pitching in my opinion. You can't give the MVP to a positional player (that is - DH) who can't play in half the games and really only made a big impact on one. But, I have always liked Matsui and it's good for him, I'm not bitter and certainly don't take things like World Series MVP's as serious as most people - but I thought it was a pretty shallow choice.

Pettitte had absolutely nothing but guts and smarts last night. Brilliant.

As much as I ripped into the Yankees spending and it is unfair. It's interesting that their three big signings - Burnett, CC and Tex ranged from decent to terrible in the World Series. CC and Burnett each won a game but also pitched in the only two losses they had. Tex hit .136 and that's after a 1-3 last night. Just saying...

I'll leave it at that. Go Knicks.