Not the American Dream, but Give Yankees Props

NEW YORK -- There is something arrogantly American about it, I know. The $210-million Yankees have won a World Series amid a destructive recession, doing it for Boss George Steinbrenner in the first season of their $1.5-billion edifice of excess, where a $275-million lightning rod just happened to overcome a steroids crisis and finally deliver the postseason we've long demanded. None of those elements are universally endearing to the masses, yet all converged on a festive, rocking November night when Championship No. 27 wasn't welcomed by the pinstripe haters as much as force-fed into them like skunk oil.

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Look, President Obama might say, "This is corporate America at its bloated, ignorant worst. The White Sox have a better business plan."

"We're supposed to win," said Yankees manager, Joe Girardi. "We know that every day we come to work."

That said, even the bashers have to rise up and give the Yankees props. They came. They spent. They conquered. This time, they didn't spend a fortune and fall short, as they did eight consecutive years since their last championship in 2000. You might say they are supposed to win when their payroll is almost twice as much as anyone else's and eight times higher than that of the Florida Marlins. But unlike other years, they identified the right players to make wealthy. Along the way, their most expensive and problematic player, Alex Rodriguez, found a woman who wasn't Madonna, wasn't a madam but was a good-luck charm and soothing soul, and how fitting that Kate Hudson -- she of the .800-plus winning percentage when attending Yankees games -- partied with the rest of them Wednesday night like the groupie she was in "Almost Famous."

Nothing is almost famous about this franchise, of course. The Yankees, again, are the most celebrated and polarizing team in American sports, if not all the world, finally living up to the highest payroll in baseball and dethroning the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3, in Game 6. Of all the sluggers to dominate the final game, few would have guessed Hideki Matsui, who could have been playing his last game with the Yankees. Godzilla, as they call him, launched the party with a two-run homer and wound up with six RBIs in an epic performance. Is this the way he wants to say sayonara?

"It's unbelievable. I surprised myself," Matsui said through an interpreter during the on-field celebration. "I hope it works out that way that I can stay. I love New York, I love the fans. I feel so great."

Give the man a two-year contract. How can you cut loose the World Series MVP, the first full-time designated hitter to win that trophy? By night's end, as the fans shrieked and police ringed the field, A.J. Burnett had to nail one last triumphant victim with a victory pie. Would it be Matsui? Nada.

It was Girardi, who pulled together several multi-million-dollar corporations and turned the Yankees into a genuine cohesive group.

"A.J. promised me one by the end of the year," he said.

As Sinatra's epic "New York, New York" -- apparently, Jay-Z isn't the new Sinatra just yet -- blasted off the $2,000 cushioned seats, the various theme restaurants and bars, the replicated frieze that lines the roof and the 50,000 worshippers who wouldn't have missed this in a tsunami, it was clear that the Yankees are back to where they ought to be. For eight years, no team in pro sports spent more money with less reward. The Steinbrenner clan and their general manager, Brian Cashman, spent nearly $2 billion in salaries since their dynasty officially ended in 2001, when they were toppled by Arizona upstarts. But at long last, management watched the paid help, one by one, live up to their massive contracts and satsify The Boss, who has been ill for some time and couldn't make it to the new Stadium to see his seventh championship since he purchased the team.

"Dad, I know you're watching at home with mom. This one is for you," said his son, Hal, who has been more front and center in running the club this year than his brother, the combustible Hank. "I think this means everything to him. It's been a while, nine years, and he's proud. This team just fights and fights and fights. They deserve this, for sure."
"This is a dream, an amazing dream, and I waited a long time for it. Twenty-five guys bought into Joe Girardi's system, and I couldn't be prouder."
-- Alex Rodriguez
They finish the decade with as many World Series titles -- two -- as the Boston Red Sox. Some would say that gives the edge to the Red Sox, seeing how they haven't spent nearly as much money. If so, the Yankees could take some satisfaction in beating up a mouthy Red Sox mainstay in 2004, the one who dared to diss the Bambino and may have contributed to ending the curse. Who can forget Game 7 that year, when the Yankees were about to complete an all-time choke job in a silent Stadium and the Red Sox rubbed it in by bringing in Pedro Martinez, the nemesis? Well, there was Pedro again, reincarnated in a Phillies uniform, taking his lumps You thought it was surreal seeing him five years later? So did Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte, who opposed Martinez on the mound. "Me and Derek were talking about it in the clubhouse, just how strange this is after all the battles with him being in Boston," Pettitte said.

Anyone who thought Pedro was going to throw more voodoo, at 38, doesn't understand the physics of the Yankee universe. It became clear in May, when Rodriguez returned with a healthier hip and an unclouded head, that this was their year. It became clearer when the Red Sox faded and the Angels couldn't hang. Only the Phillies had a shot, but when Ryan Howard morphed into Jared from the Subway commercial and was done in by sliders, you knew the defending champs couldn't do it only with "Ut-Lee'' -- a combination of Chase Utley and Cliff Lee, two magnificent performers who made history in this Series but needed help from teammates who rarely showed up.

It was the year when Rodriguez, admittedly at "rock bottom" after he was forced to reveal his steroids use, decided to stop thinking, to stop trying to craft a public image that America loathed and simply relied on the enormous talents with which he was blessed. "With all the stuff I've been through, you have nothing to lose," he said of his approach this season. "For the first time in my career, I've felt like an underdog." Now he is a champion, having shed the awful numbers in his previous three postseasons combined -- .159, one homer, one RBI -- to carry his team with six homers and a franchise-record-tying 15 RBIs. Remember all the stories in the past about the rancor between A-Rod and the captain, Jeter? I watched them hug in the infield for about 15 seconds.

"This is a dream, an amazing dream, and I waited a long time for it," Rodriguez said. "Twenty-five guys bought into Joe Girardi's system, and I couldn't be prouder. A lot of people were running the other way from me this year. My teammates and the manager and the coaches were right there next to me the whole way. Now, we're standing here right now as world champions. And we're gonna enjoy this and we're gonna party!"

It was the year when the starting rotation, such a mess in recent season, was fixed by talent and savvy. Oh, sure, it was easy enough to throw $423.5 million at CC Sabathia and Burnett, but both produced when necessary, particularly Carsten Charles, a workhorse who rarely didn't keep the Yankees in the game and often was dominant. They said Pettitte wouldn't survive on three days' rest in Game 6, but he was the only one hung up on the fatigue issue. He showed why he's the all-time winningest pitcher in postseason history, notching his 18th victory and sixth that ended a series, both all-time records. He was the starter in all three clinching games of the Yankees postseason. Like his former friend, Roger Clemens, Pettitte was nabbed as a juicer in the steroids scandal. Unlike Clemens, he apologized from the heart and was accepted back by the New York crowds. He won't make the Hall of Fame and shouldn't be forgiven for his sins, but there's no questioning his heart.

It was the year when Girardi shut up the critics, including some in his own front office, who accused him of not communicating well enough with the players and overmanaging with his Northwestern engineering degree, his ThinkPad laptop and a big, blue, 200-plus-page binder with every imaginable statistic. The New York media jumped him when he tried to play a game of cerebral chess in the American League championship series with Mike Scioscia, the revered Angels manager. But in the end, didn't Girardi win the series? Against the Phillies, he dared to go with a three-man rotation, an old-school device that hasn't been used in a World Series since the Twins in 1991. When Burnett was rocked in Game 5, the Joe-bashers were back. But his strategy made perfect sense: If you're going to pay big money for Sabathia and Burnett, and if you have the all-time postseason winner in Pettitte, why not pitch them on short rest in the final three games and let it all hang out? If the Yankees couldn't win one of those three, then they didn't deserve to be champions anyway.

They did win one of them. And when the critics chided him for using Mariano Rivera in two-inning save situations, guess what? He survived that gamble, too -- to the point RIvera, not Matsui, should have been the Series MVP. Laugh all you want at the binder, but when he was pondering the postseason roster, Girardi noticed that reliever Damaso Marte -- he of the 9.45 ERA in the regular season -- had three strikeouts in three at-bats against Howard. It wasn't the only reason he made the roster, but Girardi looks quite sharp now that Marte has been a revelation the last three weeks. Joe Torre was a god among Yankees fans. His former catcher, Girardi, not only has overcome that shadow but proved he could manage his emotions better after his embarrassing dismissal by the Marlins in 2007, a year after he was voted Manager of the Year.

"I think it would have been somewhat difficult for any manager to do, because he was here for so long -- the relationships he had with the players, the media, with everyone involved. Obviously, I understood that going in," Girardi said of Torre. "It wasn't going to be easy to replace him. I never tried to replace him. I just tried to be myself."

Torre had to deal with the daily meddling of Boss George. Girardi has avoided that burden thanks to Cashman and Steinbrenner's sons, who let the manager manage. "I think for me, pressures always came from within, because I want it really bad," said Girardi, who wore No. 27 all year in hopes it would help inspire title No. 27. "I want it for the organization, I want it for Mr. Steinbrenner and his family, and I want it for the guys in that room."

It also was a year when these spectacular-priced stars, who didn't have to like each other, genuinely formed a bond of love. Girardi was ridiculed early in spring training when he hired a bus one night to take the team to a Tampa pool hall. But these are human beings, believe it or not, and Girardi helped succeed in melding personalities. A-Rod used to be a loner. Now, he hangs out with the guys -- when Kate isn't around, of course. The chemistry was reflected in how they won games. When Mark Teixeira was cold in the postseason, A-Rod picked him up. When A-Rod was sidelined early, Jeter and Johnny Damon carried the club. Yes, the Yankees are the Best Team Money Can Buy. But the Core Four, as they're called -- Jeter, Pettitte, Rivera and Jorge Posada -- formed a foundation that is almost unheard of in modern sports. They've been around for 13 years and five championships, and Jeter and Rivera will be first-ballot Hall of Famers. This team could have gone south after Rodriguez's turbulent spring, but the veteran leadership refused to let A-Rod sulk through the season and bring down the cause. The culture helped him immensely. Because they carried him emotionally, he carried them with his bat. They are not dummies, these Yankees.

There was a sense in the Bronx air, after midnight, that the inevitable finally happened after a nine-year delay. "When you add the top three free agents," Damon said of Sabathia, Teixiera and Burnett, "you should get better." Still, the Yankees never fail to give us intrigue, conversation pieces, controversy and, for the first time since 2004, good TV ratings in the postseason. America needs this franchise playing in the autumn, for love or hate purposes, and it's good to see they're back.

Even if the payroll is hideous and a watered-down beer costs $10.