The Yankees Might Just Win The World Series Again

Everything is relative in the Bronx. Watching their team take home a record 26 World Series titles including four from 1996-2000 made Yankees fans accustomed to greatness. By most standards the team has done pretty well since the end of their late-nineties dynasty but they haven't won the championship, and that's all that matters to most of the Yankees faithful. Now, after missing the postseason in 2008 for the first time in thirteen years, the Yankees are entering the postseason with more wins than any other team in the Major Leagues. After beginning the playoffs with a victory against the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday, the'yre just six wins away from the World Series. The pressure is on to bring home the title.

This is the team’s first season in a new $1.5 billion stadium that’s a gleaming monument to the excess of professional sports. It’s a sleek mess of bright lights, polished stone, massive LCD screens, and high-priced luxury suites. Across the street, the ballpark that, until last year, was home to the Yankees for nearly a century, sits darkened, covered in scaffolding, and waiting for a wrecking ball.

It takes a special organization to demolish their own legacy. The original Yankee Stadium was baseball’s hallowed ground, the diamond where all-time greats like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, and Mickey Mantle became legends. None of that mattered to Yankees management who wanted the new stadium built to make more money from luxury seating and services. Since George Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973, the Yankees have outspent every other team in baseball to justify a ruthless “must win” mentality. It’s a blend of capitalism and naked ambition that fits perfectly in New York.

On Wednesday evening I was working late, so I watched the first part of the game on television. The Twins jumped out to a two run lead in the third inning, but the Yankees struck back in the bottom of the third. Shortstop Derek Jeter, the team captain who’s know for dating celebrities and postseason heroics added another characteristically clutch hit to his resume with a two-run homer off Twins pitcher Brian Duensing to tie things up.

After Minnesota scored early in the game, ace starter C.C. Sabathia, a bear of a man who is all sweat and rumpled pinstripes on the mound, shut down the Twins’ lineup. By the 7th inning the Yankees had continued to have their way with Minnesota’s pitching and were winning 6-2 so I felt comfortable tearing myself away from the television and taking the subway up to The Bronx to see the rest of the game up close.

A short train trip later, I stood outside the gates of Yankee Stadium peeking at the massive TV screen in the cavernous “Great Hall.” Drunk fans eager to beat post-game traffic were already streaming out of the building cheering as they poured into the streets. It was the eighth inning. Sabathia was no longer in the game, but the bullpen, which is often the Yankees’ Achilles Heel, actually hadn’t imploded and the score held steady at 7-2. 

A woman named Cherie also stood outside of Gate 6 with a handwritten sign asking fans “can i please have your Used tickets?” Cherie said ticket stubs are “big business actually, every ticket from every game is worth money and especially the first playoff at the new stadium.” Cherie said she sells “all the giveaways from the Stadium.” Last week, she got a bunch of Beanie Baby dolls that she said are “worth $40 a piece.”

Every piece of the Yankees has been monetized. A store inside Yankee Stadium sells dirt from the old ballpark encased in crystal starting at $70 a pop.

When Yankees closer Mariano Rivera put the Twins away to end the game, I went to the bars along River Avenue where stumbling groups of fans celebrated the team’s victory. One fan wore an Elmo costume with a furry, red bodysuit.

I asked two police officers watching over the scene if they enjoyed working the beer-soaked playoff beat. One of them said “I hate the Yankees,” his partner said “I’m tired of this shit too.”