Nowhere in sight was the plucky, energetic, opportunistic team that ran roughshod over the Red Sox those five games in August and took command of the AL East. And don't think that Steinbrenner wasn't hearing it from his Tampa player development kitchen cabinet: "Where the hell is Melky Cabrera?"
If nothing else, Torre's unabated loyalty to his veterans led to his - and his team's - undoing.
Everybody knew moving Gary Sheffield to first base was a gamble and that rushing him back into the lineup based on past performance would tamper with the Yanks' chemistry. Even Torre acknowledged that adding Sheffield and Alex Rodriguez to the mix these past couple of years made the Bombers too home-run conscious, with everyone trying to win the game with one swing of the bat. They fizzled those last four games against the Red Sox in the '04 ALCS and against the Angels in last year's division series, and it was the same story this time around: Twenty consecutive innings without a run...