2009 New York Yankees: 'Everyone knows they play to win!'
By Matthew Storey
'Here come the YANKEES
Let's get behind and cheer the YANKEES
They're gonna learn to fear the YANKEES
Everyone knows they play to win, cause...
They're the New York YANKEES'
Yankees theme song, 1966.
When I was a kid, this song used to signal the start of the Yankee games on WPIX, channel 11, and I learned its lyrics and knew them cold by the end of the 1970 season.
But my Yankees, those Yankees, didn't 'play to win' or win much of anything, the New York Mets were the World Champions and the talk of the town. I loved the Yankees though, so I read about Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe D, MIckey and Yogi...and I learned that being a Yankee fan wasn't about this team, this year - it was about the FRANCHISE, about all the Yankee teams over all the years.
They had three glimmers of hope on those teams, a classy Center Fielder named Bobby Murcer and a fiery Ohio kid catcher who was the 1970 Rookie of the Year, Thurman Munson and a left handed Closer with a bushy mustache they got from the Red Sox. Murcer was a connection to Mickey and past glory, Munson and Sparky Lyle, the first cornerstones of future glory.
In 1973, George Steinbrenner bought the team and began to live up to the song. He made it clear, from the start, they're the New York Yankees and they WILL play to win. He tore down the beaten up old ballpark I loved and put in a state of the art version, hired '50s Yankee hero, Billy Martin, to manage, traded for talented young players on the rise (Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Willie Randolph, Mickey Rivers, Lou Piniella, Ed Figueroa, Mike Torrez) and a big Free Agent pitcher, 'Catfish' Hunter, by 1976, their first year in the New Yankee Stadium, they matched the accomplishment of the 1923 Yankees who opened the original, by winning the AL Pennant on a 9th Inning Walk-off HR by Chambliss.
They got swept that year in the World Series, by the incredible Big Red Machine and Yankee fans hardly cared, they were young and exciting. But Steinbrenner cared, the hadn't WON. He went out and signed the best power hitter in Baseball, Reggie Jackson and added ANOTHER closer, Goose Gossage, to their existing Cy Young winner, Sparky. Fans all over baseball cringed - this was overkill.
The Yankees won the next two World Series, Goose and Reggie are in the Hall of Fame. Steinbrenner, who bought the team for 10M in 1973, had a brand new ballpark, a two time champion and the best brand in the game by 1978, a year when the Yankees stormed back from 14 1/2 games behind to catch the Red Sox and defeat them when a guy named Bucky Dent went yard and Yaz popped up into Nettles glove.
Munson died in a plane crash the next year, 1979 and George flew into a rage when his 103 Win 1980 team got beat on a George Brett HR off Goose, and fired Manager Dick Howser. They went to one more series, in 1981, but lost this time to the Dodgers. Winfield was the new Free Agent, Don Mattingly the next homegrown hero, but the team stumbled through a series of missteps in the '80s, Steinbrenner eventually pushing too hard and getting suspended for two years. The break gave him a chance to take a step back and that 1970 Yankee Shortstop, Gene 'Stick' Michael, used the opportunity to stuff the Yankee pipeline with draft picks and young talent. Yankee lifer Buck Showalter was brought in to teach fundamentals and captain Don Mattingly was joined by Paul O'Neill from the Reds, David Cone from the Blue Jays and the Yankees were back in the Playoffs. But, the Boss was back now, and when the Seattle Mariners ousted the Yankees, that was not winning. Close don't count.
Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada all came up from the system. Tino Martinez took over for the broken down Mattingly, veteran Catcher Joe Girardi was brought in to handle the pitching staff and a guy who'd never won anything took over for Showalter.
Guy named Joe Torre.
Yankees won it all that year, lost the next, won 3 more, lost one in brutal fashion with a 9th Inning blown save in 2001 and then lost to a young talented Marlins squad in the 2003 World Series. Red Sox came back to beat them in the 2004 ALCS, they won division titles in 2005 and 2006 but lost first round playoff series, then settled for a wildcard in 2007 and saw Torre depart. Former Catcher, Girardi came in to replace him and suffered through a playoff less 89 win season in 2008. The Steinbrenner family looked at the lost season and decided, Girardi, the Yankee core and the Yankee homegrown talent was strong enough to handle the bullpen and the lineup, but they needed more starting pitching and a 1B to replace Jason Giambi. They signed CC and AJ and Tex, got big years from Jeter, Posada, Rivera, Pettitte and newer Yankees, Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and aging free agent winners Johnny Damon and a Japanese superstar named Hideki Matsui.
They started cold, got superstar Alex Rodriguez back from injury and went on to win 103 games, sweep the Twins, beat the Angels in six and the Phillies in six more.
World Champions. Number 27 for the franchise, and #7 in the Steinbrenner era.
After all, they're the Yankees.
Everyone knows, they play to win.
