Uncork the champagne and use red socks to mop up spills on the clubhouse carpet. That would be quite a Yankee Stadium party.
Lights, camera, AL East title. The Yankees can make it official this weekend, appropriately enough with the Red Sox across the field to witness the celebration.
Is the division title significant? When you have gone two seasons without one, like the Yankees — who believe it is their birthright to wear the AL East crown — it sure is.
Just as importantly, the Yanks need to finish what they started. Entering the playoffs as anything but the AL East champions, after seizing control of the race in August, would be a huge disappointment.
“We want to win the division because we’re in control of that right now,” GM Brian Cashman said yesterday. “This is more of a mental thing. If you have control of the division and you lose it, it’s a letdown.”
Not to mention that home-field advantage throughout the playoffs is still at stake. That is just another piece of business the Yankees may have wrapped up by Sunday, when the Red Sox leave town.
“It always ends up Boston-Yankees,” Johnny Damon said. “It’s the best rivalry in sports and I have been part of it for eight years. Hopefully, we can drop that magic number and clinch soon.”
The magic number to clinch the AL East remained at five last night when the Red Sox rolled over the Royals 10-3 in Kansas City, meaning the Yankees will need a three-game sweep of Boston to secure their 10th AL East title in 12 seasons.
But if the Red Sox get hot over the weekend, they could have their own Stadium celebration — after clinching the wild card.
The Yankees have won a division title in front of the Red Sox before. It last occurred in 2005, when the Yanks won at Fenway Park on the penultimate day of the season to clinch the AL East. Boston took the wild card.
The Red Sox are all but assured of the wild card this season, making the weekend a possible appetizer for the ALCS. Of course, the Yankees just won two of three games in Anaheim with the idea they were facing a potential playoff foe.
“Playing these tough teams is important because it gives you an idea what you are going to face in October,” manager Joe Girardi said.
At least the Yankees are long removed from wondering if they can beat the Red Sox. Was it really this season the Red Sox won eight straight games against the Yanks? Since then the Yankees have countered with six victories in seven meetings, including a four-game sweep last month in The Bronx.
Girardi said the fact the Red Sox seem headed to the postseason party and the Yankees have already clinched a spot won’t detract from these three games.
“There are three teams that would all like to have the best record, so I don’t think it takes anything away from it,” said Girardi, whose Yankees hold a six-game cushion in the race for home field.
Cashman said this last stretch of games will be a balancing act for the Yankees.