In Joe Torre's first five years as Yankees manager, from 1996-2000, New York went 487-322 (.602) in the regular season and 46-14 (.767) in the postseason. In Joe Torre's last five years as manager, from 2003-2007, New York went 488-322 (.602) in the regular season and 19-22 (.463) in the postseason. (RS | PS)
At some point, Destiny & Mystique left the building.
As Yankees braintrust convenes in Tampa to discuss the future of Joe Torre, their No. 1 question might be: What happened to the infallible October Yankees, and how can we get them back?
A sensible question might be, Can we get them back at all?
What the Yankees did, from 1996-2000, was staggering. They won 12 series and lost one, a 5-game ALDS to Cleveland in 1997. Only once, in the 2000 ALDS against Oakland, did they even need the maximum number of games to eliminate an opponent. Those types of runs are reserved for NBA teams, not baseball teams. Which is why there's been only one other franchise since 1973 to win consecutive World Series titles (the 1992-93 Blue Jays). Since 1995, only the Yankees (4) and the Marlins (2) have won more than one World Series.
I hope Steinbrenner, Inc. measures our "sad failures" sensibly. If the Yankees, who played .602 ball in the last five regular seasons, were to play the same .602 ball in the postseason (which shouldn't even be expected, because of stiffer competition), their record over 41 playoff games would not have been 19-22, but 24-17, a difference of five games.
Will Joe Torre lose his job over the result of five games over five years? I hope not.
At least 24 hours later and no work on the coup detat for the Steinbrenner throne. The sons have stormed the castle, tossed King George aside and sat themselves up on the throne of the Yankees.
Shocked. Shocked I tell ya, to see no comments from you, just as big of a Steinbrenner fan as a Yankees fan.
Posted by Larry at October 16, 2007 1:14 AM