Yankees Still Four Wins From Acceptable

NEW YORK -- The Yankees partied into Monday's wee hours in "American League Champion" T-shirts.

Then they should have burned the shirts.

The franchise's 40th pennant, the AL East title, the 110 wins this year -- all are as worthless as one of those T-shirts if the Yankees don't win four more games.

Such is life in pinstripes.

"There's no other goal," pitcher A.J. Burnett said. "Somebody said in spring training -- I don't remember who it was -- that if you don't win the World Series, it's a failure. And I agree."

So do millions of others.

Former Yankees manager Joe Torre has often told a story from spring training 2002, when a fan told him, "Too bad about last year. You'll do better this year."

In that "last year," 2001, the Yankees were two outs away from a fourth straight World Series title with Mariano Rivera on the mound.

For 29 other teams, that would be a year to remember.

For Yankees fans, it wasn't good enough.

Call it a sense of entitlement. Call it high standards. But it's there, and inescapable.

And it all originates from owner George Steinbrenner.

After the Yankees finished the regular season with 103 wins, Steinbrenner issued this statement:

"This has been a tremendous year for our team as we have settled into our new home. The New York Yankees are proud of our rich history of outstanding players, and this year's team has worked hard to prove that they are worthy of the great distinction of calling themselves Yankees.

"We look forward to finishing what we started this season and never losing sight of our goal -- to bring another championship to the best fans in the world and the great city of New York."

Then, after the Yankees eliminated the Twins:

"As we move on to the ALCS, our team's focus remains the same. With the support of the greatest fans in the world, we will continue to march forward as we have done all year."

And on Monday:

"The Yankees' enormous will to win, tremendous professionalism and great team spirit, backed by the best, most vocal and supportive fans have propelled us into the World Series. We're looking forward to our 27th ring."

Some might call it admirable that Steinbrenner won't settle for anything less than a title, especially considering what he spends on salaries.

But it's also not realistic (not that Steinbrenner has ever been accused of being realistic).

Yet the titles from the late 1990s -- like nuclear radiation in a Japanese monster movie -- fed the beast until it was unstoppable.

"What we've done in the past, it's hard to do that," Jorge Posada said. "It's not like you're supposed to be here. It's tough to get here."

But what has happened in New York is that the fans have bought into Steinbrenner's championship-or-bust philosophy, as witnessed by Torre's anecdote. Those expectations are echoed from the top down in the organization, and the media have picked up on them.

The nine years without a World Series title seem like 900 in the Bronx. People are already wondering who will pay the price if the drought reaches a decade -- a coach? the manager? -- but under the current regime, where Hal Steinbrenner lets general manager Brian Cashman call the shots, there seems to no longer be that itchy trigger finger.


Not that manager Joe Girardi is afraid. When he managed the Florida Marlins in 2007, he told the team in its first meeting that the goal was to win the World Series. So nothing changed when he came to the Yankees.

"We obviously have one more goal," he said during the ALCS celebration. "I think every team starts Day One [feeling] they're in it to win the World Series. And that's what we're in it for.

"That's why we're playing the game."

Girardi was a catcher on the 1998 Yankees team that won 114 games in the regular season plus 11-of-13 postseason games.

Asked earlier this month to compare that club to the current one, Girardi said, "I think you're measured really by the championship, if you win a championship. Seattle went out and won 116 games [in 2001] and they didn't win the World Series, and that team is not talked about like the 1998 [Yankees] team."

Because of the win-or-else atmosphere, few around the Yankees take the long view during the regular season, treating it more like a football season where every loss has major ramifications. It makes it harder to managers to sacrifice now for later by resting a regular or giving a reliever a day off, and that caught up to some of Torre's later teams.

Girardi has successfully handled it, so far.

Now the Yankees face a team that actually has the same lofty standards, at least this year. By winning last year's World Series, the Phillies set their bar. Nothing short of a repeat is a success.

It should make for a compelling battle. But there's still a feeling that Philadelphia would be proud of two pennants and one championship in two years, while New York would grumble at a Series loss, considering it $200 million wasted.

"We haven't stopped yet," Rivera said after saving the ALCS clincher. "We haven't finished. We have to finish it."

The old guard embodies that philosophy, and the newcomers pick up on it quickly.

Burnett said he understood the expectations before he put the Yankees uniform on for the first time.

"But when you put that uniform on and you get out there on the field," he said, "it becomes more realistic every game."