YANKS LOSE SOMETIMES!
Rare defeat still evokes memories of ’98 champs
Finally, after scaring the heck out of the Red Sox again, the Yankees ran out of late-inning magic, at least for one night. But even in losing 5-4 they offered more reason to believe this season is shaping up as something special. For a third straight night they rallied against the Sox pen, this time coming back from 4-0 in the seventh inning to tie the game, energizing a sleepy crowd that was about ready to call it a night, due in part to a 55-minute rain delay.
That they couldn’t finish this one off might have had more to do with the law of averages than anything else, as the Yankees have defied the odds lately with their lightning-strike comebacks against some of the best teams in the American League.
In fact, now that they’ve finished this stretch against the Angels, Astros, Indians and Red Sox with a rather stunning 11-2 record, you can’t help but conclude that this team is headed for greatness.
In some ways they remind you of the 2009 team, which featured a powerful offense and specialized in late-inning comebacks en route to winning 103 games and then the Yankees’ most recent championship.
But this recent run was spectacular enough to make anything seem possible. Like shooting for the Holy Grail known as the ’98 Yankees.
They’ve already shown a willingness to achieve such heights: you don’t win 17 of 18 games against the best teams in the league without being as mentally tough as you are tremendously talented.
Not since 1953 had any Yankee team accomplished such a feat, and yet taking on the ’98 team, which won 114 games, will require still another level of day-to-day intensity.
I wouldn’t rule it out, in part because tanking is at an all-time high in baseball, meaning a lot of bad teams the Yankees will bludgeon with their bats.
Consider, for example, their first 50 games to start the second half of the season after the All-Star break: they play 43 of them against the Mets, Rays, Royals, Orioles, White Sox, Rangers, Marlins, Tigers, A’s, Mariners, and Twins.
In college basketball Dick Vitale calls that cupcake city.
Even so, it’s rare that teams win more than 100 games anymore, so the ’98 Yankees have become the modern standard for greatness, not only winning 114 regular season games but going 11-2 in the postseason to win the second of four championships in a five-year span under Joe Torre.
The Mariners did them two better in the 2001 regular season, tying the major league record with 116 wins, but they failed to validate such dominance with a championship, losing to the Yankees in the ALCS.
In any case, the ’98 team famously got off to a 1-4 start on the west coast, but promptly went 25-3 to get to 26-7, which is worth noting since the current team is 26-11 after losing Thursday.
Meanwhile, that ’98 team didn’t lose its 11th game of the season until it had 35 wins. So Aaron Boone’s team merely has to win another nine straight, starting with the A’s at home this weekend, to match their pace.
All of which is why I asked David Cone, who has a front-row seat as a YES analyst to what this team is doing, and was a 20-game winner on that ’98 team: does he think this team compares to that championship ballclub?
“There’s still a little bit of an unknown here,” he said at the Stadium on Thursday, “about how high the ceiling is for some of these kids we’re watching. That’s the difference between ’98 and here.
“We had more known quantities, where this still is a question of: how good can this team be? How sustainable is it? Even after last year, it feels like they’re a little bit ahead of schedule because so many kids are playing big roles.”
Naturally, Cone takes pride in what that ’98 team accomplished, and what he remembers as being most remarkable was the top-to-bottom strength of the roster that allowed the Yankees to win day after day after day.
In fact, while the nucleus of the team revolved around Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Paul O’Neill, and Tino Martinez, Cone cites the addition of Scott Brosius and El Duque Hernandez as being vital, and reserves like Darryl Strawberry, Tim Raines and Homer Bush as playing key roles that year.
“We really had no weak spot,” Cone recalled. “That’s why when I look at that team, I’d say it was the best 1-through-25. There might have been a better starting nine throughout history. You could probably make that argument easily.
“But 1-through-25? No. Show me. I’ve never seen a better entire roster. It all fit perfectly together.”
Cone said he is seeing signs already from this team that remind him at least somewhat of ’98, in the way they’re getting so many contributions up and down the roster, especially from young players like Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar and Domingo German, as well as the way they’re winning games late.
“I’d love to see them make a run at what we did,” said Cone. “But can I believe everything I’m seeing? The only answer to that is to keep running these kids out there and find out.”
They ran out of magic on this night, but the 11-2 stretch against the best teams in the league is compelling evidence they can be great this season. The question is: how great?