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| Barton Silverman / The New York Times |
Sitting – no, standing – in the upper deck at the new Yankee Stadium watching the New York Yankees win the 2009 World Series will forever be one of the greatest nights of my life.
I remember almost everything about that night, thanks in large part to my uncle recording a ton of videos on his brand-new iPhone 3GS. But as the ten-year anniversary of that night approaches, something I was caught saying on-camera has been on my mind these last few days.
“28 next year!” I shouted, mere minutes after the Yankees won 27.
Watching that video makes me wish Doc really did build a time machine out of a DeLorean, and that I could travel back to that moment and warn my 11-year-old self of what was to come…. or not come, for that matter.
It’s incredibly difficult to win a professional sports championship, and, in my opinion, even tougher to win the World Series. 30 spring training games and 162 regular season games are spread across seven grueling months. Then, if you make the postseason (and let’s just say you’re a Wild Card team like the Washington Nationals), you need to win 12 more games to win it all, which, if you go the distance in each round, would mean you play an additional 20 games.
That means a World Series champion plays roughly 200 nine-inning baseball games in eight months. I’m not trying to say my hopes for a repeat in 2010 were misguided, but I do wish I was more realistic. In order for your team to win a World Series, almost everything has to go their way in almost every game, be it lucky bounces, a batter swinging when he shouldn’t, a pitcher making a mistake in location, and even the wind blowing in a certain direction. All of those things and more went the Yankees’ way in 2009 and 26 other years. Don’t get me wrong, talent and execution are still crucial to winning baseball games, but come October, every team is talented and every team executes well.
So when nothing goes your way, you wind up with a decade like the Yankees had in the 2010s:
A.J. Burnett was one out away from finishing six strong innings and handing the dominant Yankees bullpen a 3-2 lead in Game 4 of the 2010 ALCS. The Yankees winning Game 4 would’ve tied the series up and completely shifted the momentum.
Instead, Bengie Molina jumped on a pitch that caught a bit too much of the plate and hit a three-run home run to give the Texas Rangers a 5-3 lead. The Rangers went on to win Game 4 and took a commanding 3-1 series lead. They then won the series in Game 6.
Derek Jeter missed what would’ve been an iconic, game-winning two-run home run in Game 5 of the 2011 ALDS by an arm’s length.
Rather than a 4-3 Yankees lead going into the top of the ninth with Mariano Rivera on the mound, the Detroit Tigers held onto their 3-2 lead and won the game and the series.
The slightest misstep caused Jeter’s fragile ankle to shatter in the top of the 12th of Game 1 of the 2012 ALCS, dooming the series and the following season for the Yankees.
In the bottom of the tenth, Jeter popped out with the winning run on third base.
Todd Frazier hit a game-tying three-run home run in the top of the seventh of Game 6 of the 2017 ALCS....
....if the game was played in any other ballpark. Instead, it was a long flyout because Minute Maid Park has one of the deepest right-center fields in all of baseball. The Yankees lost their chance to clinch the series in Game 6, and lost Game 7 and the series the next night.
Gary Sanchez got a hold of a Craig Kimbrel fastball that should’ve landed in the seats and forced the 2018 ALDS back to Fenway Park for a Game 5.
Instead, it was a flyout to the warning track, and the Yankees lost Game 4 and the series in heartbreaking fashion on the very next play.
Aroldis Chapman hung a breaking ball to Jose Altuve that, if better placed, might have given the Yankees the chance to take the lead in the top of the tenth of Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS.
Instead, it was a walk-off two-run home run, ending the Yankees’ season just minutes after D.J. LeMahieu had saved it in dramatic fashion.
I’m not trying to excuse the Yankees for their self-inflicted shortcomings and embarrassing postseason failures. Far from it. They certainly brought a lot of these losses and championship-less seasons on themselves.
However, when I look back at the Yankees of the 2010s, I can't help but think of these moments before anything else. Things just never went their way when it mattered most, and yet there the Yankees were, always putting up a fight and coming incredibly close to 28, 29, and so on.
You can’t predict baseball, Suzyn.
