MLB

Girardi’s boldness pays off

THERE’S just one number that counts, being No. 1.

Manager Joe Girardi has understood that from the first day he put on a baseball uniform. Now that Girardi is planning on changing his number from 27 to 28, the Yankees are officially in pursuit of World Championship No. 28.

Way to go Joe. Too many teams are not bold enough to say they are shooting for No. 1. The Red Sox, who once challenged the Yankees, are now one of those teams just happy to be here, saying the goal is to get to the playoffs and then everything from that point on is a crap shoot, a matter of luck.

Yeah, right.

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THE ROAD TO TITLE 27

As long as the Red Sox keep thinking that way, the path to No. 1 for the Yankees will be wide enough to drive CC Sabathia to the World Series, which if the AL wins the All-Star Game again next July in Anaheim, will once again begin in The Bronx.

At this rate, Girardi could one day be wearing Casey Stengel’s No. 37.

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Just imagine if the Yankees wind up with Roy Halladay. It wasn’t too long ago that the Yankees won four championships in five years under Joe Torre so this ball could keep rolling under Girardi. He is new wave, making moves Torre would not make.

The biggest thing Girardi did was turn a group of mercenaries into a team that cared about one another and, whether they liked it or not, sacrificed for the team. That’s Girardi’s calling card.

I talked to his former youth league coach yesterday, Dave Rodgers, who still is out there coaching high school baseball in Illinois. It was Rodgers who had the bright idea of putting a 10-year-old on his All-Star team of 11 and 12 year olds, a kid named Joe Girardi. Girardi played three straight summers on that All-Star team.

It was Rodgers who turned the third baseman into a catcher. “He did not like that,” Rodgers said. But Girardi didn’t complain to the coach. “Joe’s been a winner his entire life. I watched the Yankees all year, and I could see his influence on every one of those guys.”

Girardi was not afraid to do it his way. From pitchers going on three days’ rest to Jose Molina being A.J. Burnett’s personal catcher with Jorge Posada sitting out.

“This is no controversy,” Rodgers said of Girardi’s decisions. “This is just the way he’s going to do it. Just like the three days’ rest. He firmly believed it was best for the team. Even if it failed, he wasn’t going to second-guess the decision. That’s Joe.”

The same Joe who will be on a float rolling through the Canyon of Heroes today, the first time the Yankees have had such a journey since 2000.

Rodgers, 65, said Girardi is capable of making changes for the best like he did this year. “He’s not going to lack for inner strength,” Rodgers said. “I don’t know many people who have that, and passion. He’s got tremendous passion and you have to play with passion or you are not going to play for him.”

Girardi was a leader from Day 1.

“He has such strong faith and it’s been within him to lead by example and he never wavers,” explained Rodgers, who gave High School Joe some great advice, telling him that Northwestern would be a much better situation for him than the University of Iowa. “He made them into a family. He used adversity to build much stronger people. You heard the Yankees all talking about how they won this together.

“I’m so glad for him,” Rodgers added. “In my book, this championship gets the monkey off his back.”

The Yankees 27th World Championship gets the 27 off Girardi’s back. The baseball world is on notice. The Yankees are going hard after championship No. 28 with Girardi in the driver’s seat.

That’s the only attitude to have if you are going to be No. 1.

kevin.kernan@nypost.com