Yankees Decade

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    For every decade, the story of the Yankees can be summed up in a few words.  In the 70’s it was Reggie Jackson and the Bronx Zoo.   In the 90’s it was Joe Torre’s dynasty.  The 2000’s can be summed up as great collapses and great comebacks.  When Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino bounced a ground ball to Yankee’s second baseman Robinson Cano, the Yankees capped off one of their strangest decades in the team’s history.  Being the first team to win a World Series in the first and last year of a decade only adds to its peculiarity.

  Back when people were bopping their heads to the Baha Men, the Yankees beat the New York Mets in a climactic 2000 World Series in five games each being decided by 2 or fewer runs.  The next year, with all the depression New York was feeling after 9/11, the Yankees were able to bring some light.  They made it back to the World Series and faced the Arizona Diamondbacks.  In games 4 and 5 the Yankees, at home, hit two out two-run home runs to tie the game, and then won in extra innings.  But the series was lost in the desert as Mariano Rivera blew a lead in Game 7 and the Diamondbacks won in the ninth.  

  After that moment the organization took a turn for the worse.  When key players like Paul O’ Neill, Tino Martinez, and Scott Brosius, left for free agency the Yankees threw money at the best player in the league.  In 2002, the Yankees signed power first baseman Jason Giambi for 120 million dollars.  But his Yankee career was shadowed with steroid scandals and his most famous attribute was his black mustache rather than his bat.  In 2003, the Yankees staged an epic seven game series with the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS.   Aaron Boone hit a walk-off home run in Game 7 to send the Yankees to the World Series, but they ultimately lost the series to the low budget Florida Marlins.  It was in that off-season the Yankees made their most controversial move yet.

  When Aaron Boone tore his knee ligament in the offseason playing a pick-up basketball game, the Yankees needed of a third baseman.  The Yankees heard that the Red Sox might get Alex Rodriguez, the then best player in baseball, so they swooped in and signed him, along with his ego, and his record setting contract.  By increasing their payroll to $200 million in 2004, the Yankees became a juggernaut filled with stars up and down their lineup.  But when this team went up three games to nothing in the ALCS against the Red Sox, they fell apart.  The Red Sox came back and won four games in a row doing what no other baseball team had ever done by coming back from a 3-0 deficit.  And when the Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years, the Yankee organization hit rock bottom.

 From 2005 to 2008, the Yankees continued with their outlandish spending and bad luck.  Randy Johnson’s Yankee career ended before it started by hitting a cameraman when walking in the street. Pitcher Kevin Brown punched a wall breaking his hand.  Carl Pavano, who signed a four year-contract, was plagued by injuries.  Cory Lidle died in a plane crash in New York after the 2006 season. The Yankees iconic manager Joe Torre who guided them to four world championships decided he had enough of New York and said “se la vi” to the organization.  And the House That Ruth Built was abandoned after the 2008 season in which the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs for the first time since 1993.

  In the 2009 off-season, the front office decided they had to do something to revamp their pitching and offense.  So they decided to spent $423.5 million on first baseman Mark Teixeira, and pitchers CC Sabathia, and AJ Burnett.  They also signed jubilant player Nick Swisher who was a big part of their new, more relaxed clubhouse.  The season started with a thud when Alex Rodriguez’ name appeared on a list of 104 players that took steroids in 2003.  He also had surgery to remove a cyst in his hip, which sidelined him until May.  With time to ponder his career and his role among the other Yankees, he came back and hit a home run on his first at bat.  From then on the Yankees began to click.  They won the Division Title and the playoffs with ease.  Rodriguez, who was known as the goat in previous playoffs, became Mr. October.  When Rivera got that final out in the World Series, for most Yankees the ring was their first.  For players like Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, and Mariano Rivera, it was one for the thumb.  To the organization it was a great way to finish one of their most turbulent decades in <!--EndFragment-->