Monday, October 07, 2002
Home alone: Yankees not used to early exit
By RONALD BLUM
AP Sports Writer
NEW YORK — When three buses filled with the New York Yankees pulled up outside Yankee Stadium at 3 a.m. Sunday, not a single fan was there to greet their team.
When you win, millions cheer and salute you with ticker tape parades.
When you lose, you come home alone.
Manager Joe Torre, looking glum, was the first off the buses following the flight home from California. Players, many still looking dazed, exchanged goodbyes in the parking lot, most choosing not to go into the clubhouse.
“We expected to go to the World Series,” Andy Pettitte said.
Not this year.
No workers painting through the night to add another year to the long list of titles at baseball's most famous ballpark.
No winter spent as the toasts of the town.
Not even the two kids playing handball at 2:30 a.m. bothered to wait for the former champions.
In New York, you're either at the top of the heap — as the song says — or you're nothing. One backpage headline Sunday blared: “BRONX BUMS.”
“We got our butts beat,” Mike Stanton said as players scattered to their cars. “You can't look at any one play or anything like that.”
After winning four straight AL pennants, including three World Series in a row from 1998 to 2000, the Yankees were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round by Anaheim, a wild-card team. Not since 1997 had the Yankees been dealt such an early exit.
New York's 3-1 defeat in the best-of-five series wasn't an ordinary loss. After going 103-58 during the regular season, the best record in the major leagues, the Yankees had an 8.21 ERA — the worst in any of their 57 postseason series going back to 1921, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Anaheim's .376 average was the highest of any major league team in any postseason series. After four years of finding ways to win, New York found ways to lose, blowing leads in all three defeats, including a 6-1 advantage in pivotal Game 3.
“Pitching is what makes or breaks us, and it broke us during this series,” general manager Brian Cashman said.
Pettitte said the late-night flight was quiet, with players watching movies.
Hours later, on a sunny Sunday morning, the bunting was still up at Yankee Stadium, but the only baseball being played was across the street, a youth game in Macombs Dam Park. The Yankees clubhouse, with equipment still out as if the next game were just hours away, was quiet, with only David Wells, Sterling Hitchcock, Jeff Weaver and Juan Rivera showing up during the afternoon.
In the weeks following the loss to Arizona in Game 7 of last year's World Series, when Mariano Rivera couldn't hold a ninth-inning lead, New York rebuilt as Paul O'Neill and Scott Brosius retired, Tino Martinez was let go, Jason Giambi and Rondell White were signed, and Robin Ventura was acquired in a trade.
The sputtering offense of 2001, exposed by Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling in the World Series, was cured with the changes, which increased owner George Steinbrenner's major league-leading payroll to more than $135 million. But while the Yankees were a far better regular-season team, they lacked that special character in the playoffs.
“It's a different group,” Derek Jeter last week.
Pitching, the strength of the Yankees, has become less consistent. Aging is far better for wines than arms, and at times “New York's rotation” meant whose turn it was to see a doctor rather than to take the mound.
The primary starters included Roger Clemens (40), Wells (39), Orlando Hernandez (37 this week), Mike Mussina (33) and Pettitte (30). Pettitte (strained elbow) spent 59 days on the disabled list, Hernandez (strained back) 42 and Clemens (strained groin) 25.
“I think George will figure something out. He always does,” Wells said Sunday before joining Kirk Gibson on a hunting trip. “He doesn't like to lay back in the weeds.”
Mussina (18-10, 4.05) also is back, but Clemens (13-6, 4.35), seven wins shy of 300, is eligible for free agency. New York has an $11.5 million option on Pettitte (13-5, 3.27) and must decide whether to offer a contract to Hernandez (8-5, 3.64), eligible for salary arbitration.
Jeff Weaver, 26, made eight starts and seven relief appearances after the Yankees acquired him from Detroit on July 5.
“It was fun to see just how I could adapt to the situation,” Weaver said. “But I'm expecting to start. That's what I want to be.”
In the bullpen, whose struggles kept the Yankees to 83-8 when leading after seven innings, decisions must made on Mike Stanton and Ramiro Mendoza, both eligible for free agency. Rivera, who spent 64 days on the DL with a strained groin and right shoulder, has an option to terminate his contract and become a free agent.
Giambi (.314, 41 homers, 122 RBIs, .435 OBA) provided the promised offensive lift at first, Alfonso Soriano (.300, 39, 102, 41 SB) had a breakout year at second, Jeter (.297, 18, 75) had another solid season at shortstop and Ventura (.247, 27, 93) hit better than expected at third.
New York, coping with increased costs created by baseball's new luxury tax, must decide whether to re-sign Ventura, eligible for free agency, or go with Drew Henson, who struggled at Columbus (.240, 18, 65).
Center fielder Bernie Williams, after yet another slow start, got hot with the weather (.333, 19, 102) and catcher Jorge Posada (.268, 20, 99) also produced, but the corner outfield spots were problems.
Rondell White (.240, 14, 62) and Shane Spencer (.247, 6, 34) fell short and Raul Mondesi (.232, 26, 88), acquired on July 1, failed in clutch situations. The Yankees played rookie Juan Rivera in the playoffs, and they spent time scouting Japanese star Hideki Matsui.
Come February when the unusually long offseason ends, the roster could be far different when spring training starts in Tampa, Fla. Making the final eight isn't good enough for Steinbrenner.
“It was just not up to our standards, and we paid the price,” Torre said. “You're never satisfied unless you get to the World Series when you manage the New York Yankees, or play for the New York Yankees.”
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Home alone: Yankees not used to early exit
