Core Four: The Heart and Soul of the Yankees Dynasty

by Phil Pepe

  Jeter heard about or read the article and seethed in silence. He didn’t comment, but he didn’t forget. There was history between them. They were good friends once, now they were merely teammates—and that meant something to Jeter.

  Jeter was the sixth pick in the 1992 MLB amateur draft. The next year, Rodriguez was the No. 1 pick in the draft and he sought out Jeter for advice. They hung out in Florida during the off-season and even had sleepovers at each other’s homes. Jeter said that when they first came up to the big leagues, he and Rodriguez talked all the time, especially early in the season because “we both knew if we didn’t get off to a good start we might get shipped out.”

  ARod’s comments in the magazine thawed the relationship considerably.

  It wasn’t the first time that two Yankees stars feuded. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig didn’t speak for years over some disagreement between their wives. Joe DiMaggio was cool with almost all of his teammates (Lefty Gomez and Billy Martin were two exceptions) and was distant toward Mickey Mantle when the switch-hitter arrived as a rookie in 1951.

  The Rodriguez-Jeter feud wasn’t even the first one between Yankees that was precipitated by a magazine article. It paralleled the 1977 feud between Reggie Jackson—like Rodriguez the Johnny-come-lately to the Yankees, the new kid on the block, the interloper—and Thurman Munson—like Jeter the incumbent star, team captain, and clubhouse leader.

  In a famous Sport magazine article, Jackson told the writer, “I’m the straw that stirs the drink. Munson thinks he can be the straw that stirs the drink, but he can only stir it bad.”

  Rodriguez would learn—just as Jackson did with Munson—that Jeter was the respected, admired, and beloved one to his teammates, and that shortstop was his position and the Yankees were his team and would remain that way until he was ready to walk away.

  Jackson would spend the next few years attempting to repair the rift right up until Munson’s tragic death in a 1979 airplane crash.

  And, like Jackson, Rodriguez has made a concerted effort to mend fences with Jeter.

  ARod’s immediate reaction once his comments hit the fan was to defend himself by using the shopworn excuse that his words were taken out of context.

  “How can I ever dog Derek Jeter?” he said. “It’s impossible. There is nothing to knock. He’s a great defensive player. He’s a great offensive player. He’s one of the top three players in the game, for the greatest team of my era.

  “It’s my mistake because I said it. It’s not the journalist’s fault. It’s been my fault for just talking the game and being too general. I guess you have to be very specific. When you say you don’t go into New York trying to stop Derek, to me that’s more of a team compliment. When you come to Texas now, you don’t say you have to stop Ivan [Rodriguez], Alex or Raffy [Rafael Palmeiro]. You say ‘Let’s stop one through nine because everybody can hurt you.”

  It wasn’t ARod’s only mistake where Jeter was concerned. Soon after he signed his record $252 million, 10-year contract, he said the salary was going to be difficult to top, even for Jeter.

  “It’s going to be hard for him to break that,” Rodriguez said, “because he just doesn’t do the power numbers and defensively he doesn’t do all those things.”

  While Jeter remained mute on the subject of the feud, his Yankees teammates and friends came to his defense, pointing out that before ARod arrived in the Bronx, in the previous 10 years the Yankees with Jeter won six American League pennants and four World Series. Over the same 10 years, the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers with Alex Rodriguez won none.

  When reports of the coolness between Jeter and Rodriguez surfaced the fans naturally took sides. Not surprisingly, they lined up with Jeter and greeted ARod with boos. It was suggested that Jeter could put an end to the “Bronx cheers” by publicly expressing his support for his teammate. To that idea, ARod said thanks, but no thanks.

  “I’m a big boy,” he said. “I should be able to handle myself out there.”

  Eventually, maturity set in and time began to heal old wounds. Although there would no longer be sleepovers between them, ARod and Jeter settled into an uneasy truce. While the media continued to report that bad blood still existed between the two Yankees, ARod said his attempt to make it appear that his friendship with Jeter remained strong was something of a sham. For years he pretended he and Jeter were still as close as ever—which they weren’t—and maintained they were great friends—which they weren’t—and that “Things couldn’t be better”—which they could. The truth of his relationship with Jeter, said Rodriguez, was neither warm and fuzzy nor icy cold, but somewhere in between.

  “People start assuming that things are a lot worse than what they are, which they’re not,” Rodriguez told a group of writers. “But they’re obviously not as great as they used to be. We were like blood brothers. You don’t have to go to dinner with a guy four, five times a week to do what you’re doing. It’s actually much better than all you guys expect, but I just want the truth to be known

  “So let’s make a contract. You don’t ask me about Derek anymore and I promise to stop lying to all you guys.”

  Again, Jeter had no comment, but, probably for the good of the team, he could be seen engaging Rodriguez in small talk around the batting cage, in the dugout and in the clubhouse. And when ARod hit his 600th career home run against Toronto on August 4, 2010, Jeter was the first one to greet him at home plate.

  The previous night, Rodriguez was 0-for-3 in a loss to the Blue Jays, extending his hitless streak to 17 at-bats and his homerless streak to 46 at-bats. Jeter took the occasion to approach Rodriguez in the clubhouse after the game and sit down with him for a pep talk.

  “Just try to get a base hit,” the Captain suggested. “Maybe even bunt.”

  The next day Jeter opened the bottom of the first with a single through the left side. After Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira were retired, Rodriguez drove a tremendous shot over the center-field fence for career home run No. 600, scoring Jeter ahead of him. (Coincidentally, exactly three years to the day earlier, ARod hit his 500th career home run also with Jeter on base.)

  Waiting at home plate for Rodriguez to arrive, Jeter greeted him with a warm embrace and a smile.

  “Well,” said Jeter, “there goes the bunting situation.”

  Later, Jeter said, “I’m happy that we on the team were able to watch him achieve it. And I’m happy that he had a chance to do it at home. It’s a special moment. It’s well deserved.”

  17. Return of the Prodigal

  Three seasons with the Houston Astros apparently con- vinced Andy Pettitte that home cooking just isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Those three seasons also drove home to Pettitte how much he missed New York, the Yankees, his old teammates, and pitching in the World Series. So, on December 8, 2006, once more a free agent, Pettitte signed a one-year, $16 million contract with the Yankees.

  It took Roger Clemens only five months to follow his best friend back to the Yankees.

  While Pettitte and Clemens were being welcomed back like conquering heroes, their return was viewed by many as too late to reverse the decline of the so-called “Evil Empire,” the tag put on the Yankees by Boston Red Sox chief executive officer Larry Lucchino. It also was believed to be too late to save Torre, who was being accused in some quarters of losing his grip on the situation having failed to advance past the Division Series in each of the two previous playoffs.

  Torre faced a crisis in Game 4 of the 2006 Division Series against the Detroit Tigers. After winning the first game of the series 8–4, the Yanks dropped the next two games 4–3 and 6–0, and were one defeat away from their second straight KO in the first round of the playoffs. In an effort to right the ship, Torre identified Alex Rodriguez as the chief culprit in his team’s demise. In the first three games, ARod had been held to one hit in 11 at-bats (four strikeouts and nine runners left on base), and hadn’t drive
n in a run in 11 straight playoff games, dating back to 2004.

  As a result, for Game 4, Torre dropped Rodriguez from fourth to eighth in the batting order, a move that the proud and ego-driven Rodriguez viewed as an insult. He hadn’t batted that low in a lineup since May 7, 1996, when he was a 20-year-old shortstop for the Seattle Mariners.

  “It was very disappointing to see my name there,” Rodriguez said. “Yes, I was embarrassed. But it’s not my job to judge or even have an opinion on it. I’ve got to look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘What the hell did I do to get in that situation?’ I never questioned Joe. So it’s always about me.”

  ARod held his tongue and spent time with Reggie Jackson, who suffered his own indignity from Billy Martin when he was benched in the final game of the 1977 American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals. Jackson sat, but got his chance in the eighth inning. With the Yankees trailing 3–1, he pinch-hit and singled in the Yanks’ second run. They would score three more in the ninth to advance to the World Series.

  Nine days later, in one of the greatest displays in World Series history, Jackson hit three home runs on three pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers to clinch the Yankees 21st world championship and earn the nickname “Mr. October.”

  Now, 29 years after his greatest performance, Jackson was imparting the wisdom of his own experience on Rodriguez.

  “I told him not to worry about it, go in there and play. He’s happy he’s in the lineup and he’s got a chance to help.”

  Batting Rodriguez eighth in Game 4 of the 2006 Division Series against the Tigers proved to be no panacea for Torre and the Yankees. ARod continued in his funk, going hitless in three at-bats to finish the series 1-for-14, a batting average of .071 with no RBI and four strikeouts, and the Yankees lost 8–3 and slipped quietly into the off-season.

  Proving you actually can go home again, Pettitte stepped right in and won 15 games in 2007, second on the team to Chien-Ming Wang, a right-hander from Taiwan who won 19 games for the Yankees for the second straight season.

  Despite the 34 wins from their two top pitchers, Pettitte and Wang; Rivera’s 30 saves; Jeter’s .322 average, 12 homers, and 73 RBI; Posada’s .338 average, 20 homers, and 90 RBI; a monster MVP season from a rejuvenated Alex Rodriguez of .314/54/156; a combined 60 homers and 301 RBI from Hideki Matsui, Bobby Abreu, and the youngster Robinson Cano; and 94 wins, the Yankees came in second in the AL East, two games behind the Red Sox.

  Finishing second to the Red Sox didn’t sit well with the Boss, George Steinbrenner. There was unrest in the Bronx. To add to Torre’s plight, as the American League wild-card, the Yankees’ first-round playoff opponent would be the Cleveland Indians. It was in Cleveland where Steinbrenner made his reputation and his fortune as president of the American Ship Building Company. He was raised in a Cleveland suburb and had investments and many friends still in Cleveland. Losing to the Indians was unacceptable and would not be tolerated.

  Nevertheless, the Yankees proved to be no match for the Indians, who beat the Yankees in the best-of-five series, three games to one. Not even the return of Andy Pettitte could save the Yankees.

  In Game 1, the Indians pounded 14 hits off of four Yankees pitchers in a 12–4 rout and, once again, Torre turned to Pettitte in Game 2. Andy was on his game. He was better than that. He was brilliant, holding the Indians scoreless and departing with a 1–0 lead with one out in the seventh inning. But the Indians tied the game in the eighth on a wild pitch by Joba Chamberlain, who lost his composure on the mound when he was attacked by a swarm of bugs called midges.

  The Indians went on to win 2–1 in 11 innings to go up two games to none, and both manager Joe Torre and catcher Jorge Posada were taken to task in the press by their failure to come to the aid of their beleaguered reliever.

  The press maintained that either the manager or the catcher should have gone to the mound to calm the young pitcher or called time, but neither did a thing.

  The Yankees returned home needing a sweep of the next three games to advance to the League Championship Series. There was hope when the Yankees won Game 3 by a score of 8–4. Now they needed to win one more game in order to send Pettitte out for a climactic Game 5. But Andy never got another chance, as the Indians scored two runs in the first and two more in the second off Wang, knocked him out, and handed him his second defeat of the series, 6–4. The Yankees were done and so, as it turned out, was Torre.

  To add to Posada’s frustration and embarrassment, he made the final out of the Series.

  When the season ended, Posada officially became a free agent with a chance to make a big score that would set him up financially for life. The Yankees’ crosstown rivals, the New York Mets, came at Posada hard, offering him a five-year contract. But Posada, preferring to finish his career with the only team he had ever played for, turned down the Mets’ offer and agreed with the Yankees on a four-year contract for $52 million.

  Against the Indians in the Division Series, Jeter batted .176 with one RBI. Posada hit .133 and didn’t drive in a run. Rivera appeared in three games, pitched 4²⁄³ scoreless innings, allowed two hits, and struck out six, but never was in a position to win or save a game.

  The Yankees and Torre were done. In 12 years he had won 10 division titles, six pennants, and four World Series championships, but it had been seven years since they had won their last one, and that was unacceptable.

  In failing health, George Steinbrenner no longer was ruling the Yankees’ roost as “the Boss.” He had turned control of the team over to his sons, Hank and Hal (the latter as managing general partner), and to team president Randy Levine and senior vice president/general manager Brian Cashman.

  Within the Yankees front office there were pro-Torre and anti-Torre factions—those that wanted him replaced and those that thought he deserved to remain in control. There were also many who feared the public backlash if the Yankees dumped the popular Torre, whose fate would be discussed at a meeting in Steinbrenner’s Tampa home.

  It was decided by the group to offer Torre a one-year contract for $5 million with performance incentives that could bring the total amount to $8 million. Torre would still be the highest-paid manager in baseball, but the cut in salary was a drastic and insulting one. He insisted that he didn’t deserve a cut in pay, but the Yankees remained adamant and severed relations with their manager.

  For Torre’s replacement, the Yankees selected Joe Girardi, who was the Yankees’ catcher from 1996 to 1999, after which he spent three seasons with the Chicago Cubs and one with the St. Louis Cardinals. When he retired as a player, Girardi returned to the Yankees as a television analyst. Later, he joined Torre’s staff as bench coach and catching instructor. In 2006, he was named manager of the Florida Marlins, with whom he finished in fourth place in the National League East and was named NL Manager of the Year.

  A disagreement with ownership caused Girardi to resign as manager of the Marlins after only one season, and he returned to the Yankees broadcast booth for a year until he was named Torre’s successor on a three-year contract.

  Robinson Cano

  In eight seasons, Robinson Cano has gone from being a top prospect in the minors to a superstar of major league baseball, a worthy successor to the Yankees’ line of superstars that extends from Ruth to Gehrig to DiMaggio to Mantle to Jeter. Cano has hit at least 14 home runs in each of his eight seasons, has averaged 89 runs batted in a season, and has a career batting average of .308.

  Cano was born in San Pedro de Macoris, the Dominican Republic, but his family spent three years in the United States and Robinson attended Newark, New Jersey, schools in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades before the family returned to the Dominican Republic. Robinson’s father, Jose, appeared in six games as a pitcher for the Houston Astros in 1989. Jose Cano named his son Robinson in honor of Jackie Robinson, and as homage to his namesake Cano wears Yankees uniform No. 24, Jackie Robinson’s
No. 42 in reverse.

  When Cano won the Home Run Derby during the 2011 All-Star Game festivities he conjured up thoughts of a scene from Field of Dreams by choosing his dad to be his batting practice pitcher.

  18. Moving Day

  The 2008 season was the beginning of one era and the end of another in the long and glorious history of the New York Yankees. Next year there would be a magnificent, majestic, brand-new Yankee Stadium rising out of the rubble next to the famed “House That Ruth Built” that Col. Jacob Ruppert had conceived 85 years earlier. For now there was a new manager calling the shots and making the moves on the field.

  The Joe Girardi era got off to a shaky start, struggling on a win-one-lose-one diet in its early days. On May 20, after losing three out of four to Tampa Bay (George Steinbrenner’s adopted home), two games to the hated Mets, and one to the Orioles, the Yankees were 20–25 and had fallen into last place in the American League East, 7½ games out of first.

  Had Boss Steinbrenner still been calling the shots, he might have done what he did several times in the past and fired his manager right then, and there never would have been a Joe Girardi Year Two. But it was not the old reckless, impatient, impetuous, impulsive, hair-trigger Boss in charge, it was a younger, more patient, more fiscally prudent Steinbrenner, his son Hal, making these decisions now, and he was willing to give Girardi a little more rope.

  From June 12 to June 19, the Yanks won seven straight games, moved over the .500 mark to 40–33, and climbed out of the cellar into third place, five games out of first. It was as high as they would get all season and their lowest finish in 16 years.

  The final game at the “old” Yankee Stadium came on Sunday night, September 21, against the Baltimore Orioles, a lovely late-summer evening that was perfect for baseball and for nostalgia as 54,610 fans crammed into the old ballpark, swelling the season’s attendance to an all-time Yankees record of 4,298,655.