Pinstripe Empire

by Marty Appel

  The monuments were relocated to dead center field (as opposed to left center), where they were hidden by the fence lest they reflect in the batter’s eye. Thus the best view of them came from the upper deck, not the lower seats.

  The video board was breathtaking, both for its size—59’ × 101’—and for the quality of its high-definition images. A 24’ × 36’ board was placed in the Great Hall. A crew of twenty-five, led by Mike Bonner, elaborately planned in-game entertainment.

  The player clubhouses were huge, along with all the requisite trappings of the modern game: indoor batting cages, video screening areas, state-of-the-art training facilities, and even secure, indoor parking to get the players in and out without concern over crowd control. That was one daily ritual that ended—fans greeting the players as they walked from the player lot to the player entrance at the old park.

  The stadium was decorated with historic Yankee photographs from the archives of the Daily News, and the luxury suites, now wrapping end to end around the park, were branded with uniform numbers, with every player who ever wore the corresponding number listed on a plaque outside the suite. (Suite 4 had only one name, Lou Gehrig; fifty-two players had worn number 22, and still counting.) Those who feared the memory of the old Yankees would fade were relieved to see the homage to the old days. Even replica medallions, bearing eagles, went into holes in the concrete over the entrance gates, replicating the look of the 1923 park.

  Auxiliary scoreboards showing the line score went back up at field level in right-and left-center fields, a reminder of the post-1947 stadium.

  Nothing, however, made it more “Yankee Stadium” than the frieze that topped the upper deck. On the most important thing, the public was in agreement: It still felt like Yankee Stadium. The ability to connect the two parks was crucial, and it succeeded. It would still be the park visiting players wanted to play in, still be part of the reason free agents wanted to be Yankees, and it seemed to rightfully carry the history of the franchise with it. After all, it was still at East 161st Street and River Avenue. It was just across the street. And for the 2009 season, the two parks were up side by side, as demolition of the outer concrete at the old place did not begin until late in the year.

  The first section of sod from DeLeo Sod Farms in Pilesgrove, New Jersey, was installed on October 15, 2008, giving the playing surface plenty of time to knit together. The front office moved in on January 23, retaining the phone number that it’d had since 1952.

  Over the years, the demographics had changed for the ticket-buying public, with a more affluent crowd now, and often businesses prepared to pay well over Broadway-show prices for three hours of live baseball featuring a star-laden team.

  Ticket prices were set between $500 and $2,500 for 4,397 premium seats. People in those seats would also receive access to restaurants under the stands, which gave the appearance of unsold seats, since many were “down below” during the games, indulging their appetites for shrimp and prime rib.

  But then something unexpected happened: a stock market crash late in the 2008 season.

  So bowing to the new reality, the team announced in late April that they were lowering prices, with the $2,500 seats halved, and the $1,000 seats along the base lines dropping to $650.

  In the last year of the old stadium, the top ticket price had been $400, which covered the first eleven rows of the seats closest to home plate. There were sixteen different price points, all the way down to a $14 bleacher seats.

  In the new park, bleacher seats were still $14 (and $5 for some partially obstructed views). Field-level box seats were $325, but then lowered to $235. There were $100 and $75 tickets as you moved toward the outfield, reaching down to $23 for the upper grandstand.

  THE FIRST GAME in the new stadium, Friday, April 3, was an exhibition game against the Cubs, managed by Lou Piniella. In the spirit of 1923, bleacher seats sold for twenty-five cents and grandstand seats for $1.10.

  The official opener would not come until April 16, a Thursday-afternoon game against the Indians, with Sabathia pitching against Cliff Lee.

  There was no Bob Sheppard to announce this time, as he had now officially retired at ninety-eight. The job went to Paul Olden, a former Yankee radio broadcaster who had once famously asked Tom Lasorda what he thought of Dave Kingman’s three-home-run performance against him, a hilarious audio tape that lives on in blooper compilations.

  It was sunny and 56 degrees for the opening game. I arrived early and sought the exact spot outside the park where a photo would replicate the best-known opening-day photo of 1923, the one with cars driving by the first-base side. Satisfied that I had the shot, I joined one of my PR successors, Jeff Idelson, in a right-field, foul-territory section in time to catch the opening ceremonies. Jeff was now the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame and interested in what artifacts might be donated to the Hall from the game.

  George Steinbrenner was in attendance and appeared on the giant video screen with a wave to the fans. He had lived to see the magnificent new ballpark open, although travel back and forth to Tampa had become very difficult. As he left after the game, he responded to a shout-out from Anthony McCarron of the Daily News by saying simply, “It’s beautiful.”

  A statue of Steinbrenner was placed in the Yankee office lobby near gate 2, and a replica of it appeared outside Steinbrenner Field in Tampa prior to 2011 spring training. That one cited eleven pennants and seven world championships during his time of ownership. He might have vetoed mention of the eleven pennants, since it reflected four lost World Series.

  The field ceremonies featured the West Point Marching Band performing John Philip Sousa songs, such as “Stars and Stripes Forever,” to recall the ’23 opener. John Fogerty performed “Centerfield” from center field on a baseball-bat-shaped guitar (later claimed by Idelson), and then Bernie Williams did a soulful acoustic guitar version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” to great cheers of “Ber-NIE, Ber-NIE, Ber-NIE.” A huge flag was unfurled, and a military flyover accompanied the national anthem, which was performed by Kelly Clarkson, an American Idol winner. This was especially ironic when the Indians were introduced, for there was the “American Idle” himself, Carl Pavano, to a chorus of boos. No one thought to take their picture together.

  The ceremonial first pitch was delivered by the beloved eighty-three-year-old Yogi Berra, who loved the honor but stood closer to home plate each year for the pitch.

  The Yankees starting lineup was Jeter, SS; Damon, LF; Teixeira, 1B; Swisher, RF; Posada, C; Cano, 2B; Matsui, DH; Ransom, 3B; Gardner, CF.

  Ransom was at third because Alex Rodriguez was out following surgery to repair a labral tear on his right hip. The news had broken as spring training opened, and it was believed that he would need a second surgery later on. His recovery was such, however, that the second surgery was deemed unnecessary. Whether it took a little of his game away was an open debate.

  Ransom made two errors and hit into two double plays, hardly capitalizing on his opportunity before the pumped-up crowd.

  At 1:06, it was “play ball,” as Sabathia delivered a fastball to Grady Sizemore. Sizemore grounded out to Teixeira at first, unassisted, the same play that ended the previous season, with Ransom at first.

  In the last of the first, as Bob Sheppard’s recorded voice introduced Jeter as the leadoff hitter, a Babe Ruth bat was placed on home plate. Jeter picked it up and gave the fans a laugh as he handed his own bat to the batboy, but then he got down to business and flied out to center.

  Damon had the first hit in the new stadium, a single. Posada hit the first home run, a shot to center field in the fifth. But it wasn’t the Yankees’ day. Sabathia, having thrown 122 pitches, left with two outs in the sixth, and then the Indians erupted for nine runs in the seventh, mostly off Damaso Marte. The outburst included a grand slam by Sizemore, which was thrown back onto the field, as had now become a Yankee Stadium custom.

  The paid attendance of 48,271 was announced as a sellout, and it meant that 1) the
days of fifty-thousand-plus were pretty much over—the stadium didn’t hold that many—and 2) the days of drawing four million were over. The new stadium would produce more revenue, but the total crowd size would not approach the records that had been set across the street. Indeed, the season attendance for the first year of the new stadium would be 3,719,358, a drop of almost six hundred thousand despite a year of mostly sellouts. (They did manage to sell fifty thousand tickets during the postseason when fewer comp tickets were available.)

  A-Rod returned to the Yankee lineup on May 8 and hit a home run his first time up. He missed twenty-eight games and the team was 13–15 without him. His return was a big reason for the team going 90–44 the rest of the year, and seldom has a player had a more dramatic day than A-Rod had on the last game of the season, when he hit two homers and drove in seven runs in one inning to give him 30 homers and 100 RBI for the season—the twelfth year in a row he reached both standards.

  The season had its share of milestones: On June 28, Rivera recorded the 500th save of his career at the Mets’ new park, Citi Field.

  On September 11, Jeter passed Gehrig for the most hits recorded by a Yankee, 2,722, a record held by Gehrig for seventy-two years. His Yankee teammates leaped out of the dugout to embrace him, and even the Orioles’ players applauded from their dugout. The charter franchises in the major leagues all had their hit leaders, and they had names like Cobb, Aaron, Lajoie, Banks, Musial, Mays, Rose, Yastrzemski, and Clemente.

  2009 was a great year in Jeter’s career. He batted .334, won a Gold Glove, and finished third in MVP balloting and hitting.

  The Yanks set a major league record with eighteen consecutive errorless games, and they also hit 244 home runs in 2009, 136 of them at home. For most of the season, home runs were flying into right field in abundance, making many wonder what could possibly have brought about this oddity. The W.B. Mason office-supply company loved it; their outfield billboard was seen repeatedly in replay after replay.34 Seven Yankees bettered 20 homers, and Jeter hit 18.

  Engineers sought answers. There were open drafts to exits in this park that weren’t in the old park. Could that have been it? There were 26 home runs hit in the first six games at the new park. Through June 18, an average of 3.5 home runs per game went out from both teams. But then, as mysterious as the power surge had been, it began to slow later in the season, and wasn’t there by 2010.

  “Guys obviously adjust,” was Joba Chamberlain’s take on the reduction. “You don’t necessarily pitch away from your game. But you pitch a little different.”

  Chamberlain himself was adjusting. From his sensational debut in 2007, he had been a starter and reliever in 2008 and was now strictly a starter in 2009. Phil Hughes became the reliable setup man. The sensation was gone, even as the Yanks carefully followed the “Joba Rules” to limit his pitch count. He made 31 starts but was only 9–6 with a 4.75 ERA. The following year he would be back to the bullpen, but without his setup role. Careful as the Yankees had been, perhaps some undetected injury had snuck into his big frame and changed everything. He was still throwing in the mid-nineties, but the “magic” had faded. Then in June 2011, despite pain-free success on the mound, he was found to have a torn ligament in his right elbow, and Tommy John surgery ended his season.

  Part of the home run oddity of 2009 was the propensity for the Yankees to deliver walk-off victories. They did it fifteen times, plus twice in the postseason, and part of the celebration was a “pie in the face” from A.J. Burnett (actually shaving cream in a towel). It was great fun, and the Yanks romped to a 103–59 record, eight games ahead of Boston, winning their first division crown in three years.

  The Yankees knocked the Twins out in three straight in the ALDS, with Teixeira’s walk-off homer in the eleventh winning game two, and Pettitte beating Pavano (now a Twin) in the clincher. But A-Rod was the story. Long maligned for not delivering in the postseason, he was in a zone at the plate that few had ever seen. Against the Twins, he batted .455 with two homers and six RBI.

  Then he hit .429 in the ALCS against the Angels, with three more homers and six more RBI in the six-game series, the Yanks taking it behind two wins from Sabathia to go to the World Series for the fortieth time. By winning the pennant in a new Yankee Stadium, the team matched the feats of the 1923 and 1976 Yankees.

  Joe Girardi had worn uniform number 27 all season, his mission being to win the Yanks’ twenty-seventh world championship. With Steinbrenner watching for his final time from his box, it was Sabathia vs. Cliff Lee at Yankee Stadium, the same matchup as opening day, as Lee had since moved to the Phillies.

  Lee hurled a six-hit complete game and Chase Utley hit two of what would be five World Series homers, tying Jackson’s record from 1977. But Burnett won game two on homers by Teixeira and Matsui, with fans aware that Matsui might be playing his final week for the Yankees with free agency looming and the team likely to go for a younger replacement.

  Matsui hit a pinch-hit homer in game three, a Yankee victory, and Damon, another likely free-agent departee, had three hits to lead the Yanks to victory in game four.

  After Lee won again in game five, the Yankees won their twenty-seventh world championship in game six as Pettitte beat old nemesis Pedro Martinez, 7–3. Matsui hit .615 in the Series and was named MVP, and A-Rod drove in six more runs to add to his fabulous postseason performance.

  It was time for another ticker-tape parade and a City Hall reception, as the team won its first World Series in nine years. Girardi changed to uniform number 28 for 2010. Much was made of the Core Four: Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte, and Posada, the guys who all been together since 1994 at Columbus and had now won a fifth ring together, one more Yankee ring than Babe Ruth.35

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  THERE WAS MEASURED SADNESS TO the winter departures of several key members of the world championship team.

  Melky Cabrera was traded to Atlanta for reliever Boone Logan and the return of starter Javier Vazquez, who would disappoint again in his second time around.

  But two emotional departures were Matsui and Damon. Neither wanted to go, and in both cases, the Yankees liked them and the fans loved them. But baseball is a business; they were getting older and making a lot of money. It was time to give Brett Gardner a regular job in left, and the Yanks obtained Curtis Granderson from Detroit to play center.

  Matsui and Damon would be greeted as returning heroes with their first trips back to New York in 2010, but the Matsui return had a special resonance. He had signed with the Angels, and they were in town for opening day—the day the world championship rings were distributed. And so Hideki Matsui was called from the Angel dugout to receive his ring, as his Yankee teammates of the year before gathered to welcome the Series MVP “home.” The fans had so connected to this Japanese star—his quiet leadership, his presence. He waved his red Angels cap, he gave everyone an embarrassed and modest smile, and then he bowed and returned to the Angel dugout. It was a very sentimental moment.

  The day also featured the return of Yankee head athletic trainer Gene Monahan, a fixture since 1973 in the Yankee dugout and the senior trainer in baseball. Monahan had battled cancer and missed his first spring training since his minor league days in the sixties. He had sent a number of assistants over the years on to the top jobs on other teams. His assistant and ultimate successor, Steve Donahue, had been at his side since 1986. Monahan had, through his professionalism, elevated the profession to being much more than providing liniment rubdowns and ethyl chloride for bruises. Everyone in the game respected him, and the fans cheered his proud stance and military salute along the first-base line on this day. Monahan returned in midseason, then retired after the 2011 season.

  While Teixeira, Jeter, Posada, Granderson, and A-Rod all underachieved at the plate in 2010, Cano became one of the elite players in the league and third in MVP voting. Burnett, Vazquez, and Chamberlain never found their hoped-for levels of excellence, while Hughes became a dependable starter and Kerry Wood a terrific one-year setu
p man. Rivera was still at the top of his game as he turned forty, with no sign of slowing up. Sabathia went 21–7, while Pettitte was 11–3 and seemingly headed for even better things before an injury sidelined him for much of the second half.

  In the winter, he announced his retirement at a stadium press conference. He had 240 victories, and had his 37 wins for Houston come with the Yankees, he would have passed Ford as the team’s all-time leader.

  He was 19–10 in postseason play, the most wins in the postseason for anyone.

  A-Rod hit his 600th home run on August 4, joining Bonds, Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., and Sosa as the only players to reach that level. At thirty-five, he was the youngest to do it, and only Ruth had done it in fewer games. Rodriguez missed twenty-five games due to injury, but managed to reach 30 home runs for the thirteenth year in a row (along with 125 RBI) when he hit four against Boston on September 24–26, the final home games of the year. In doing so he became the first player ever with fourteen 100-RBI seasons.

  ON JULY 11, Bob Sheppard died at his home in Long Island, three months shy of his one hundredth birthday. Throughout his fifty-seven-year career, he had fought to keep his age a secret, but never denied playing football for St. John’s University from 1929 to 1931. His voice announcing Jeter’s every at-bat played on, and he had a plaque in Monument Park.

  Just two days later, at his home in Tampa, George M. Steinbrenner III suffered an early-morning heart attack and was rushed by ambulance to St. Joseph’s Hospital, two miles from Steinbrenner Field. He died at the hospital at 6:30 A.M. at the age of eighty, surrounded by his family. The Yanks had just celebrated his birthday on July 4 at Yankee Stadium without him present.