The worst postseason for the Yankees did not belong to Alex Rodriguez or Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson or Robinson Cano.
The worst postseason belonged to Yankee Stadium. If we are going to turn it into The House That Truth Built, then we have to say that what once was the greatest home-field advantage is gone, with no easy recovery plan available.
The sound of silence was all too prevalent this October — from the Yankees bats and from the stands. There is a theory that the lack of offense led to diminished enthusiasm in the seats, but that is an alibi that does not fit reality. The stands were quiet — and pretty empty — at the outset of home playoff games and hardly sustained much life even during rallies.
The old Stadium used to be an actor in postseason games, deafening, rocking, claustrophobic. Opposing players have talked quite a bit about the intimidation factor having vanished. This just is not a tough place for a visitor to perform any longer.
In the old place, a wall of noise and menace closed in upon the opposition. Some of that is lost because the upper deck no longer drapes over the field. By law, it pitches back and far away from the field — taking some of the team’s most passionate fans farther away with it.
Obviously, the high pricing has led to an older, more restrained clientele closest to the field: A Dockers-and-loafers crew that isn’t likely to unsettle the opponent.
But none of this is completely explained away with pricing, traffic and Stub Hub. A lot of this is about you, the fans.
Drug addicts become used to the dosage and have to keep increasing the amounts to get the same high. This is where Yankees fans are now. Winning 95 games and a division and having the best record in the AL and setting a team record for homers and advancing a round in the playoffs is not enough. The only acceptable high is a championship.
The Yankees were swept in the ALCS and were treated like something the Houston Astros dragged in. Yes, of course, we in the media contribute and the Yankees stoke all the fires with their championship-or-bust mantra and mandate. But it is hard to ignore what this means to the fans and that Stadium. If there is no joy in the journey — and major accomplishments along the way — then that helps explain a lot of the now-routine dispassion in the crowd.
This is what happened in Atlanta. The Braves made 14 straight postseasons, but won just one World Series and somewhere along the line the mere magical act of reaching the playoffs was no longer enough to fill the stadium, even for playoff games. This is where the Yanks are now.
The Stadium was going to pose all kinds of difficulties to make loud ardor overt, in part because it has so many places to duck inside to escape heat, cold or simply to enjoy food. But what came first: the better food options or the more-detached fan? There were empty seats at Yankees playoff games and that would have seemed inconceivable two or three years ago no matter the hardships of pricing or traffic. Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports reported the Yankees recognized the embarrassment of what it looked like on TV and had their ushers move fans from the upper decks into lower-down seats to create a better visual.
Solving the Stub Hub matter or lowering prices isn’t going to solve this. As counterintuitive as it sounds, the Yankees probably have to miss the playoffs for a few years to make this experience feel fresh for their fans again. Of course, that would do major harm to their current business model. But the playoff difference in home noise/enthusiasm/advantage between the Stadium and Camden Yards and Comerica Park were epic, and it clearly was about less-jaded fans reveling in simply being in something as great as the playoffs.
Media who were at both said Citi Field on the day R.A. Dickey went for his 20th win for a hopeless Met team was louder and more involved than the Stadium during the playoffs. Which should, by the way, be a memo to the Mets about what’s possible at their place if they ever could get the team right.
I would never tell fans how to spend their money, even less at a tough economic time like now. But this is also about honoring the process. If you didn’t notice more and more teams are ebbing up toward the Yankees payroll (the Dodgers may exceed it next year), though many — such as those Dodgers, Angels, Red Sox, Phillies and, for a half a season anyway, the Marlins — still missed the playoffs. If the Yankees are choking dogs and their whole roster needs to be renovated, what do we make of the 20 teams not good enough to reach the postseason and the 26 not good enough to make an LCS?
The Yankees did win the most home games (51) in the majors this season and that was, in part, due to constructing a roster around lefty power that helped the Yankees hit 11 more homers at home than any other club. But even in that way, their Stadium might have undermined them in the playoffs (when they were 2-3 at home) as their offense became unraveled when it could not get the ball over the fence.
The Stadium is a seductress because it is an ATM for the organization and because its short porch is such a temptation for roster building. Is it possible these playoffs exposed that the best items about the Stadium for the Yankees are also the worst?
joel.sherman@nypost.com