Ruth built the House across the way with the long ball, which has been part of the culture on both sides of 161st Street for nine decades, the Babe only the first in the lineage of Yankees who could win games with one swing of the bat.
Wee Willie Keeler had nothing on these guys when it came to hitting them where they ain’t, because no fielder ever was where he would have needed to be when the George Herman, Lou, Joe D., Mickey, Roger, Reggie or Alex was parking them in the stands.
The culture of winning was borne by the culture of the home run.
Murderer’s Row.
Five O’ Clock Lightning.
Ballantine Blasts.
Going, Going, Gone.
Bronx Bombers.
But these interlocking historical eras are, if not gone, then surely on hiatus. The Yankees, shut down and out 1-0 on two hits yesterday afternoon by Tampa Bay right-handed rookie Chris Archer, have not hit a home run in their past nine games, since Ichiro Suzuki touched them all on July 14 in the final game before the All-Star break.
It is their longest home run drought in 29 years, since the 1984 team went 10 straight without one. The team that clubbed opponents into submission through the first four years of residence at their new address — a franchise record 245 home runs last season after smacking 222, 201 and 244 the three years before that — has hit 88 through 104 games, 14th in the AL.
They are the only team in the majors without a home run since the All-Star Game.
The power, the glory, the porch, the history. The bandbox of the new place that suddenly has been transformed into Yellowstone, the fences as far from home plate for the home team batters as if looking through the wrong end of a telescope.
Where have all the homers gone? Gone with Curtis Granderson to Tampa and the club’s minor league rehab center. Gone with Mark Teixeira to the disabled list. Gone with a new organizational checkbook mentality. Gone with Nick Swisher to Cleveland, with Raul Ibanez to Seattle, with Russell Martin to Pittsburgh.
Gone with A-Rod, who most surely is going, going away.
Robinson Cano, who went a feeble 0-for-3 against Archer without getting the ball out of the infield, has gone 13 straight games and 48 at-bats since he last hit one out on July 10, his only home run in the last 21 games.
Alfonso Soriano, who was acquired from the Cubs to provide right-handed power — no homers from the right side of the plate for the Yankees in 28 straight games since June 25 — never before had hit cleanup as a Yankee before Friday night.
He now is a career 0-for-8 in pinstripes out of the four hole.
“I remember the Yankees when I used to play,” he said. “We don’t lose games like this, 1-0. I don’t remember one or two games [that were] 1-0 with two hits.
“The game has changed a lot.”
The Yankees have changed a lot. Pop has become pop-gun. The all-or-nothing team at the plate that was often ridiculed the past four years has been reduced to pretty much nothing at all. Yesterday represented the ninth time the Yankees have been shut out — the most since 1997 — and the fourth time they have been limited to two hits.
First place seems as far away as the fences. Yesterday’s defeat dropped the fourth-place team to a season-high eight games off the East lead held by the Rays. The second wild-card spot, held by Baltimore, is 3 1/2 games away after the Orioles’ 7-3 loss last night to the Red Sox, who own the top wild card and trail the Rays by a half-game for the East lead.
Once there was Power and Glory.
Now there are Punch and Judy.
Once there was Shock and Awe, as the legend of ’27 would have it that the Pirates were demoralized and defeated in the World Series simply by watching Murderer’s Row take batting practice before Game 1 of what became a sweep.
Now there’s shock, all right.
Culture Shock.
The Yankees are hitting them where they are.