Give me a break
10/31/2000
Codding Home / Sports Channel / Bullz-Eye Home
Hopefully, the start of the NBA season will finally take those damn Yankees out of the national spotlight and place them on the back burner... well, until they sign one of the marquee free agents, that is. I'm so tired of being told how much I should admire this Yankees "dynasty." I don't care if Paul O'Neill thinks his team deserves more respect than they receive. And if I had to hear those brown-nosing Fox commentators blab on and on about the Yankees "remarkable" success any longer, I would have shut my TV off. And then thrown it out the window.
Yeah, I'm a little fed up. Listening to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver sputter on and on about the latest Yankees dynasty will do that to any die-hard Yankee hater. I understand they've now won three-straight world championships and four out of the last five. Impressive? Sure. But does that qualify these Pinstripers as a dynasty? Not so fast.
Webster's defines a dynasty as "a succession of rulers who are members of the same family." Based on this definition, I'd say the 1996-2000 Yankees fall short of the "dynasty" tag.
For a comparison, let's take a quick look at an undeniable Yankees dynasty, the 1949-1953 teams that won five-straight World Series titles:
1949:
C: Yogi Berra
1B: Tommy Henrich
2B: Jerry Coleman
3B: Bobby Brown
SS: Phil Rizzuto
OF: Cliff Mapes
OF: Gene Woodling
OF: Hank Bauer
Bench: Joe DiMaggio, Billy Johnson, Johnny Mize, Joe Collins
1950:
C: Yogi Berra
1B: Joe Collins
2B: Jerry Coleman
3B: Billy Johnson
SS: Phil Rizzuto
OF: Joe DiMaggio
OF: Gene Woodling
OF: Hank Bauer
Bench: Cliff Mapes, Bobby Brown, Tommy Henrich, Johnny Mize, Billy Martin
1951:
C: Yogi Berra
1B: Joe Collins
2B: Jerry Coleman
3B: Bobby Brown
SS: Phil Rizzuto
OF: Joe DiMaggio
OF: Gene Woodling
OF: Hank Bauer
Bench: Gil McDougald, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Mize, Billy Martin, Billy Johnson
1952:
C: Yogi Berra
1B: Joe Collins
2B: Billy Martin
3B: Gil McDougald
SS: Phil Rizzuto
OF: Mickey Mantle
OF: Gene Woodling
OF: Hank Bauer
Bench: Bobby Brown, Jerry Coleman, Johnny Mize - DiMaggio in WWII
1953:
C: Yogi Berra
1B: Joe Collins
2B: Billy Martin
3B: Gil McDougald
SS: Phil Rizzuto
OF: Mickey Mantle
OF: Gene Woodling
OF: Hank Bauer
Bench: Jerry Coleman, Johnny Mize - DiMaggio in WWII
That, my friends, is the blueprint of a baseball dynasty, what Webster's would say is "a succession of rulers who are members of the same family." Guys like Mantle, DiMaggio, Collins and McDougald came up through the Yankees system, spent their time on the bench, worked into their starting roles and then retired having played their entire baseball careers in a Yankees uniform. And when guys like Jerry Coleman and Bobby Brown lost their starting jobs, the Yankees put them in backup roles instead of trading for spare parts to sit the bench. Meanwhile, the pitching staff through all five seasons was led by Vic Raschi, Ed Lopat and Allie Reynolds, all of whom spent at least seven years in a New York uniform.
In 1996, guys like Mariano Duncan, Joe Girardi, Wade Boggs, Kenny Rogers, Jimmy Key and John Wetteland played key roles in the Yankees' world championship. In 1998, Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch, Chad Curtis, David Wells, Hideki Irabu and Orlando Hernandez took their spots. Then David Wells was traded for Roger Clemens in 1999. This past season, the Yanks had the money to trade for David Justice, Glenallen Hill, Jose Vizcaino, Jose Canseco, Denny Neagle and Luis Polonia. Manager Joe Torre didn't even want Canseco on the team because he didn't have the room for him. If that's what Fox considers a dynasty, I'd hate to hear their definition of a family.
But I'm not naïve. Obviously, times have changed. Free agency now runs the sports world, especially in baseball, where "deadline deals" have become as exciting as postseason play to today's typical fan. It wasn't as easy or commonplace to trade for a David Justice or sign a Chuck Knoblauch in 1950 as it is today. Players didn't jump ship as often and teams showed much more loyalty to their players. Ya know, the exact opposite of how the Yankees treated David Wells after the 1996 season. I still remember George Steinbrenner, when asked about that Wells/Clemens trade, saying something to the effect that baseball is a business, and in business there isn't much room for loyalty or devotion. He saw the opportunity to make a trade that would (questionably) make his team better and he took it. That right there epitomizes baseball today and this so-called Yankees dynasty.
And while Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams and Andy Pettitte were all developed in the Yankees' farm system, those four basically have been the only constants on these great teams, along with David Cone, Tino Martinez and Paul O'Neill. But even those three were brought in as pieces to Steinbrenner's championship puzzle after beginning their careers in other cities. And now they're practically being pushed out the door (there's that loyalty again) with the talk of guys like Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and Mo Vaughn coming to the Bronx.
But I'm not crying. This is the way the game is played today. Drain every last hit or strikeout from your players, then send them off and replace them with better, higher-priced talent. If you're the Yankees or the Dodgers, you can do that. But if you're the Twins or the Expos, you're in deep kaka unless you've got one of the best farm systems in baseball (and this is coming from an Indians fan, not a small-market fan who's tired of seeing his team get stomped by 50 games every year). I understand all of that, and as a true fan I also have to accept it. I know loyalty pretty much went out of style the day free agency became a way of life in sports. Don't think for a second the Twins wouldn't give A-Rod $20 million a year if they could afford it.
But please, don't tell me the Yankees team of the past five or six years is a dynasty. It's just not true. Great teams? Sure. Great teams filled with great players and led by a truly outstanding manager. And I certainly respect that. But Joe Buck is full of crap when he says it's amazing to see a team dominate baseball like the Yankees have for the past five years, especially in today's era of free agency. He's got it backwards. Show me a team that wins three, four or five World Series in a row without the benefit of a huge payroll or free agency and I'll place that all-mighty "DYNASTY" label on them. But a team like the Yankees, whose success is dependent upon the ability to outbid the competition every year for baseball's elite talent, isn't baseball's next dynasty. It's only baseball's best-run business.
In the Bullz-Eye
The Los Angeles Lakers. The NBA season kicked off this week and every team in the league has their sights on the Finals. Yes, even the Clippers - at least until their first 40-point loss. Obviously, with Shaq and Kobe still running the show the Lakers will once again be a force. But the Spurs and Blazers both had outstanding offseasons, signing or re-signing enough talent to seriously jeopardize L.A.'s repeat chances. Head coach Phil Jackson needs to have his team focused all year, but I'm pretty sure he knows what he's doing... didn't he have a nice little run in Chicago a couple years ago?