ALL ACROSS baseball, all across the country, you see the evidence of just how hard it is to qualify for the playoffs. You see the Mets slipping on a string of banana peels for two straight weeks, but you also see the Phillies winning just about every game they had to, just to sneak in by a game.
You see the Padres displaying grit and guts and amazing resilience, getting right to the brink of the postseason despite losing two-thirds of their outfield to M*A*S*H units . . . and you see that it isn’t enough, because a wonderful collection of Colorado Rockies started winning baseball games a couple weeks ago and never stopped right to the bottom of the 13th inning on Monday night.
You see seven of the eight teams who comprised the MLB playoffs one year ago sitting home.
And you see who the one holdover is.
“Here’s the thing about our team, and I mean this sincerely,” Johnny Damon said. “You look at guys who’ve been in the playoffs their whole careers – Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano [Rivera]. Some guys might think it’s a birthright, making it to the playoffs. These guys never do. They remind you, ‘Nobody owes us anything.'”
Damon smiled.
“If you even think about taking the playoffs for granted around here,” Damon said, “you’re gonna hear about it real quick.”
This is a good time for Yankees bashers to point out that the Yankees spend close to $67 gajillion every year; that they collect All-Stars and Hall of Famers the way kids collect bugs, stamps and baseball cards; that the YES Network contributes about $87 fabillion to the team’s coffers; yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.
Here’s something for you: In 2007, 12 teams built rosters with payrolls richer than $90 million. Here are eight of those teams: the Mets, White Sox, Dodgers, Mariners, Tigers, Orioles, Cardinals and Giants. Would you like to know what those eight teams have in common? Of course, you already know: They are choosing between Titleist and Top Flite right now.
Money helps. Money is a wonderful asset. But money is not a magic elixir. The Mets spent $115 million, the White Sox and Dodgers $108 million, the Mariners $106 million. How’d that work out for them? The Rockies spent $54 million, the Diamondbacks $52 million. How’s that work out for them?
The Yankees may have a better head start than everyone else, but that doesn’t guarantee them October. Only the Yankees can do that. Only the baseball on the field can do that. And they have made October every single year since 1995. Thirteen straight years and counting. Generous accounting doesn’t account for that kind of run.
At some point, however begrudgingly, you have to credit magnificence over munificence.
“It was grueling at times,” Joe Torre said of the Yankees’ digging out of the various pickles in which they found themselves this year. “Now we can start over again. And hope that we don’t dig ourselves a hole again.”
The Yankees beat the Indians six times in six tries this year, and most believe they’ll survive this five game-gauntlet, even if most of America would pay anything to see them stumble again. And that’s OK. In October, the rants of the anti-Yankees faction are just as much a part of the soundtrack as the roar of 55,000 in The Bronx. It’s all part of a beautiful baseball melody.
“When you’re not part of it, it’s incredible how much you miss it,” said Andy Pettitte, who this time last year experienced the first empty autumn of his life when the Astros’ desperate dash fell a little short. “Even on the last day I kept figuring there was some kind of mistake, it just felt like it was time to be in the playoffs. And to not be there was very, very strange. Not a good feeling.”
Not as good as what he has now, another October, another chance, another dance with autumn glory he knows so well. All of the Yankees do. Sometimes they can make it look so easy, easier than it’s supposed to look and, ultimately, easier than it really is. Ask the Padres how easy it is. Ask the Tigers.
Whew. Ask the Mets.