OPENING DAY AT THE STADIUM: The Ring Ceremony

Wow. As arrogant and pompous as this is going to sound, it feels like it's been a long time since the Yanks held one of these. To be fair, by the estimation of the Yankee measuring stick, it really has been a while. When you win 25 championships in a millennium, failing to win over a span of 8 seasons is entirely unacceptable. At the same time, it felt like it was only yesterday when O'Neil and Tino and Chad Curtis and Shane Spencer and the rest of the team of 2000 was out on the field showing off their jewelry. Maybe that's cause their former teammates, guys like Pettitte, Jeter, Mo, and Posada, were out there rejoicing, just as they were 9 seasons ago. It was a pretty weird thing. If it weren't for the new faces of Swisher, Teixeira, A-Rod, Cano, etc., you'd think that the 2001-2008 seasons had never happened. It was if those bomber veterans in some way had erased the memory of those losing campaigns. Well, that's at least partially how I perceive it in my warped and biased version of the baseball narrative of the '00 decade. I can never completely forget the shameful one-and-done playoff runs and the painful emotions of the blown championships (god damn Diamondbacks).

This brings me to another point I'd like to address, and that is the age-old contention that the Yankees "buy" success. Sure, to a certain extent, this is more than valid. A-Rod. Giambi. Clemens. Teixeira. Burnett. Sabathia. Mussina. Martinez. Abreu. The list goes on and on. Given the choice, I don't think anyone would pass on the +$200 million dollar of Yanks in favor of, say, the $70 million dollar payroll of their division rival Rays. Yet, for all the accusations that the money is THE reason the Yanks win, I would vehemently object. The money is a factor, of course; but look more closely. Their best pitcher in last year's postseason was Andy Pettitte, a product of the Yankee farm system. Jeter, their most reliable hitter of the 00's, who had one of his greatest years in the field and at the plate last season, has been a Yankee all his life. Posada too, a staple of the middle of their batting order, and the anchor of an ever-changing pitching staff, has always worn pinstripes. Let's not forget Mo, the greatest closer of this and any era. Even their most productive young players, Cano and Melky (who had more game-winning hits than anyone on the team last year), are Yankee originals through and through. Don't forget Joba and Hughes (their best bullpen guy next to Mo), as well.

It's funny how if you focus strictly on the middle of the field (C, SS, 2B, CF, P), you'll find that, more or less, it was comprised of all Yankee draft choices/minor leaguers last season. Now that's not to say that offseason transactions didn't help. But if you look at the guys who made the most consistent contributions, and the guys who came through when it mattered most (save A-Rod and Matsui in that one game), it was the veterans. The farmhands. The guys who they didn't buy. The same could be said of the '90 dynasty (ironically, maybe to a lesser degree than the '09 team). When the Yanks began to approach team-building with that kind of big-money, 'buy buy buy' mentality in the middle of the decade, they faltered. The teams weren't gelling. But I think they definitely re-oriented their focus to the minor league system in more recent years. They got guys like Hughes and Melky and Cano and Joba. The chemistry returned. The swagger returned. The feeling of pride and of placement, of being a Yankee and not some gun-for-hire type player returned. And that is the real reason the Yankees won. That was the reason the ring ceremony was so sweet for me this year. To see both the new faces and the old, the new farmhands and the seasoned vets, to see those two generations of Yankees side-by-side and receive their rings was something truly special. I even got a little choked up for Girardi, as much as he stunks as a Yankee and semi-stinks as a coach.

Coming back to the ceremony, the event was certainly oozing with pomp and circumstance. Yogi was there and Whitey was there and those clodhoppers Kay and Sterling were there narrating the action in their sensationalist way. But all that grandiose and pretentious formality was downplayed by the palpable sense of playfulness that characterizes the current Yanks. It was made evident by the fake ring trick that they pulled on both Swisher and Matsui (I don't know if other teams do this, but I thought it was kind of funny). Speaking of Matsui, that moment where the team kind of engulfed him at the end of the ceremony was pretty amazing. I don't know how many teams would do that to a guy who was not only now an opponent, but was an opponent who they were playing that day! It's that sense of appreciation, that sense of class, as well as that sense of playfulness and the understanding that it's still just a game, all that was captured so well by that moment. I think it all stems from that Yankee connection and that farmhand chemistry this team has with one another, and honestly, it's what keeps me watching.