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Here are a few words that will never, ever be associated with the Yankees:
Plucky. Spirited. Feisty.
Go-getters. Upstarts.
Underdogs.
“That’s not who we are,” Mark Teixeira said, smiling, “no matter how many people may have picked against us at the start of the season.”
Yes. On the day between the end of the regular season and the start of the second season, the first day of winter in a lot of places — notably New England — the Yankees afforded themselves five minutes, maybe six, to reflect on what life was like as the plucky, spirited upstarts of the American League East.
“We don’t like to say, ‘Hey, we ruined all your hypotheses,’” Teixeira said, officially becoming the first baseball player in the modern era to properly use the word “hypotheses.” “But we understood that there was another team that a lot of people thought would be better than us.”
“That’s the beauty of 162,” Derek Jeter said. “You have the opportunity to show what you’re all about on the field. And I think this season was a reminder of that.”
So yesterday, in Boston, Theo Epstein and Terry Francona sat side by side behind a podium at Fenway Park, with expressions that reflected the mood of their city, talking about how the most expensive club in the team’s history managed to go from consensus preseason darlings to unanimous, historic losers.
And at that exact same moment the Yankees were squeezing a workout in between torrential rainstorms at Yankee Stadium, the division crown already in their pockets, a fresh pursuit for a 28th championship sitting before them starting this evening against Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera and the rest of the Detroit Tigers.
“This is gratifying,” Joe Girardi said “We accomplished the first goal that we set out to do, win our division and have home-field advantage. But that’s only the first goal. You can’t sit on that. There’s a lot of work to be done here. We know how tough our opponent is. And it’s going to be a tough series.”
Beyond that, there was a familiar feeling inside the Yankees clubhouse, and you didn’t have to look very far, dig very deep, to see where it was, or what it is.
“I guess the target is back on our backs,” Teixeira said.
And it is. It was a nice six-month run these Yankees had, lurking in the shadows of the Red Sox. For a time it seemed like they might actually play along, too, struggling so often against their ancient rivals, sitting in second place as recently as late August. All along, it was assumed that, regardless of who finished 1 and who finished 2, the Sox and the Yankees would enter the AL tournament like Duke and Carolina in the ACC, like Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer at Wimbledon, top and bottom of the bracket, waiting to settle things in October.
Only one of them never got out of September. The Rays turned out to be Wake Forest, turned out to be Novak Djokovic. Spoilers. Intruders. The Red Sox are out, the Yankees are in, the nouveau favorites are golfing, the old reliables are playing.
Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss.
“If there’s one thing we learned this season, it’s that being a favorite may be nice but it doesn’t guarantee you anything,” Teixeira said. “And now that people perceive us that way again, it’s a lesson worth remembering.”
But not one the Yankees need to relearn. For the first time since they first re-launched toward prominence in 1996, they were able to avoid the season’s primary spotlight, and it produced one of their most satisfying results. But it isn’t an unfamiliar place where the Yankees now sit. And they are accustomed to the words surrounding them now.
Deep. Talented. Experienced.
Decorated. Veteran.
Favorites.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com