Speaker 1: Welcome to Special Teams, a production of My Heart Radio
Speaker 1: Greetings and Welcome Inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
Speaker 1: Mike Harmon, a podcast it looks back at individual seasons
Speaker 1: for sports teams that are so incredibly memorable. We have
Speaker 1: to commemorate them, whether it's because they won, because they lost,
Speaker 1: somewhere in between. They were fun, They had a lot
Speaker 1: of streakers running on the court, whatever it was, gotta
Speaker 1: have a streaker two or colossally bad, Smith, because we
Speaker 1: will laugh at or with fan bases as well. We're
Speaker 1: gonna look back at the two thousand and nine season
Speaker 1: for the New York Yankees. This was their most recent championship,
Speaker 1: and my goodness, was this full of twists and turns
Speaker 1: from the beginning. I don't know that any team has
Speaker 1: won a championship that's gone through as much off season
Speaker 1: red tape and controversy as the Yankees have had coming
Speaker 1: into this year, well going into that year. It's almost
Speaker 1: like the taking off of tabloid TV on a whole
Speaker 1: other level, right, So it only fit that the Yankees
Speaker 1: and the back pages of the Fish Wrap would have
Speaker 1: a story seemingly every day of great magnitude, and we
Speaker 1: watch it all the way through to right as the
Speaker 1: Yankees celebrated the departure of Mookie Bets from the Red
Speaker 1: Sox roster. Right, all of those things that we see
Speaker 1: time and again. But yeah, this was a season unlike
Speaker 1: they'd seen in a long, long time. It was a
Speaker 1: long way to get to beating the Phillies in the
Speaker 1: World Series. And here's to give you an idea of
Speaker 1: what the Yankees went through to start the season. First
Speaker 1: of all, they were opening the new Yankee Stadium. All right,
Speaker 1: the old stadium was done. Here's a new Yankee Stadium
Speaker 1: with the jet stream and all the balls are flying out,
Speaker 1: a new Yankee state to um. I remember, the prices
Speaker 1: of the seats was the big deal when New Yankee
Speaker 1: Stadium opened. It was wait a minute, this seat in
Speaker 1: New Yankee Stadium. If you corroborated to the old Yankee Stadium,
Speaker 1: the seat for this game is two more. I mean,
Speaker 1: that was what the prices were for New Yankee Stading.
Speaker 1: The corollary absolutely huge. Way you shrink the stadium a
Speaker 1: little bit, and let's face it, you gotta pay for
Speaker 1: that construction in New York somehow. Hey, the stadium didn't
Speaker 1: go up for nothing, you know, and no matter what
Speaker 1: you're doing on the TV network side and whatever other
Speaker 1: sweet deals you might have made with the construction companies.
Speaker 1: See I wanted to make you laugh. There no getting
Speaker 1: in some nefarious The potential is there, and I'm not
Speaker 1: accusing anybody of anything. I'm just saying people do each
Speaker 1: other favors. You want to build something on six square blocks,
Speaker 1: you gotta come talk to me, allegedly. So the facts
Speaker 1: of the matter is you've got a recoupsive costs and
Speaker 1: that's the way it goes. Personal seat licenses, all of
Speaker 1: those kind of things, sweet prices and consent, you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta pay the piper. And to get a seat
Speaker 1: in a new stadium on any of the major cities.
Speaker 1: Right we're ready to launch a new one here in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. You could only have so many Taylor Swift
Speaker 1: lover fests. Eventually you gotta lay some sports in there,
Speaker 1: and the sports people they've got to pay for some
Speaker 1: of this. So while the Yankees are waiting to open
Speaker 1: the new stadium, there was a big passing of control.
Speaker 1: Is George Steinbrenner stepped down as the main decision maker
Speaker 1: for the team on November twenty the year before his
Speaker 1: son's Hank and how would run the team. This is
Speaker 1: a seismic move because this is a guy who micro
Speaker 1: managed every aspect of the Yankee franchise, sometimes to the
Speaker 1: franchises detriment before they got all those great players in.
Speaker 1: But Steinbrenner was it. He was the back page guy.
Speaker 1: He was Jerry just Straw who stirred the drink, but
Speaker 1: even more so than Jerry Jones, because every day George
Speaker 1: Steinbrenner gave you something. It was sometimes outlandish, it was
Speaker 1: sometimes pointed, but he always gave you something. And look
Speaker 1: in ill health. You know, he passed away um about
Speaker 1: a year or so later, but he went from being
Speaker 1: a larger than life figure too. Now his sons are
Speaker 1: running the team. Wow, and he traded Castanza for some
Speaker 1: fermented Yeah, no, I that's just huge, right. We talked
Speaker 1: about larger than life figures in the inner sporting world.
Speaker 1: You know, we commemorated and more in the loss of
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant tragically, you know, in that helicopter crash, and
Speaker 1: that's abrupt. But then you have giants like a George
Speaker 1: Steinbrenner who had been part of the game and had
Speaker 1: been so instrumental to the growth of the game and
Speaker 1: what he did buying the Yankees and creating a network
Speaker 1: and all of this changing the way business was done,
Speaker 1: and be with all the headlines that he controlled and
Speaker 1: made sure New York was always a number one and
Speaker 1: the a block of every breakdown, every highlights show ever
Speaker 1: to come because your kid, you know, when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, the Mets stunk, then they got good in
Speaker 1: the mid eighties when the Yankees stunk, and that's when
Speaker 1: Steinbrenner really started taking over because if the team wasn't good,
Speaker 1: at least he was gonna make headlines. And that's what
Speaker 1: he did, and it was every day. It was boy,
Speaker 1: everybody knew all the players, and you knew George. You
Speaker 1: didn't know who the hell own the Mets. Nobody knew,
Speaker 1: nobody cared, but you knew George Steinbrenner. I was gonna
Speaker 1: make a joke about who's still owning the Mets and
Speaker 1: will own the Mets and chaos that's associated we know,
Speaker 1: don't anybody. I don't think anybody needs to know that.
Speaker 1: It doesn't I don't think anybody does know, but I
Speaker 1: don't think anybody needs to know that either well, I
Speaker 1: mean that might hit their Google machine and see who
Speaker 1: owns it today. Could be Bobby Benia for all we know.
Speaker 1: But that just that that switch is just seismic, just
Speaker 1: because when we look at our major sports landscapes, there's
Speaker 1: from an ownership perspective, a lot of anonymous, faceless guys
Speaker 1: and and women to that matter, I mean across sports
Speaker 1: that that don't cut through, that aren't making noise, that
Speaker 1: aren't even when we talk about the commissioner and who
Speaker 1: is you know, their brains, japs, who are the leaders
Speaker 1: like you mighty know two or three of them. In
Speaker 1: baseball you still have Jerry Ryan Storff with the White Sox.
Speaker 1: But even then he's one of one of thirty. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of other guys. If you tried to,
Speaker 1: you know, play the game, I mean, you're really good
Speaker 1: at state capitals. We tried to play that game with
Speaker 1: sports ownership groups or principles, it would be a very
Speaker 1: difficult game to play. The capital of Washington is Olympia.
Speaker 1: Uh So, while this is going on, Brian Cashman makes
Speaker 1: big changes to this Yankee team because they were coming
Speaker 1: off missing the playoffs for the first time. Since nineteen
Speaker 1: Think about that for a second. Obviously, ninety four there
Speaker 1: was no season the Yankees. Yankees made the playoffs every
Speaker 1: year from through till two thousand and seven. Every year
Speaker 1: there We didn't win the World Series every year, but
Speaker 1: they were in the playoffs every year. Two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight they still won eighty nine games. Didn't matter. Wasn't
Speaker 1: good enough. So what do the Yankees do in the
Speaker 1: off season? They part ways with Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano,
Speaker 1: Bobby A. Bray, you, Von Rodriguez, Mike Mussina retired. You
Speaker 1: also lose the Jason Giambi and the and the golden thong.
Speaker 1: So there is that. No, it was his brother that
Speaker 1: had the golden No, was it a Jeremy No, Jeremy
Speaker 1: Johny didn't have anything. It was Jason Johnbi had the
Speaker 1: golden thong. Jeremy Giambi he was, he was in He
Speaker 1: was in Moneyball for five minutes. Jeremy he was he
Speaker 1: was a little, a little out there sometimes. So that
Speaker 1: shed ninety million dollars in salary for the Yankees. And yeah,
Speaker 1: but how many people remember that Ivan Rodriguez's not many,
Speaker 1: but it would look, Hey, it happened, but it did happen,
Speaker 1: Like the golden thong happened, and whether you want admitted
Speaker 1: or not, it happened. I think you used to wear
Speaker 1: a golden thong and that brings back back. Oh wow, really,
Speaker 1: that's something for our show at night. Hang on, let
Speaker 1: me write that down, right down. Let's celebrate all of it.
Speaker 1: So that sheds ninety million dollars in salary. What are
Speaker 1: the Yankees do? They bring in Nick Swisher, nice trade
Speaker 1: White Sox in the year before extra base hits sixt
Speaker 1: RBI did only hit two nineteen, but came up with
Speaker 1: some big hits and still some power. They bring in
Speaker 1: a J. Burnett, who was for most of his career disappointing,
Speaker 1: but for this one moment in time hit it pretty
Speaker 1: good with the Yankees this year. Seemed to find the
Speaker 1: right group to hang out with. That that season, Mark
Speaker 1: two Share comes in and becomes a Yankee right away,
Speaker 1: a big addition. And they go out and spend a
Speaker 1: lot of money to get C. C. Sabathia, who was
Speaker 1: the free agent prize acquisition. He goes seven years, hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty one million dollars. That Yankees told out a
Speaker 1: lot of money. They gave eighty two million dollars to A. J. Burnett,
Speaker 1: they gave to Share eight and one eighty, So shedding
Speaker 1: all that salary said, Yep, we're gonna gift to Share
Speaker 1: a bunch of money. We're gonna give it to A J. Burnett.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give to Cec Sabathia. It's kind of funny
Speaker 1: when you look at to Share, the thought that he'd
Speaker 1: already been through three teams before he showed up in
Speaker 1: New York. A guy at that caliber, with that level
Speaker 1: of production the year before, thirty three home runs, one
Speaker 1: with a three or eight batting average, and CC Sabathia
Speaker 1: getting all that money, he must have passed a lot
Speaker 1: of health inspections because the way he was brutalized by
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Brewers, I thought his arm was gonna fall.
Speaker 1: I remember seeing that contract going. The end of that
Speaker 1: contract is going to be so incredibly brewted. Remember remember
Speaker 1: when that was how the two thousand eight season just
Speaker 1: every other day it seemed like we've gone back in
Speaker 1: time to where guys were pitching fifty seven times in
Speaker 1: a season with CC. Who's pitching for the Brewers today?
Speaker 1: Sabathia fday Sabathia. It's like, wait, he pitched Monday, It's
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning. What the hell? He he started him on
Speaker 1: eight hours rest. It's gonna be great. He goes eleven
Speaker 1: and two for the Brewers, has a fantastic season, goes
Speaker 1: into the postseason, whatever. But it was just one of
Speaker 1: those when the Yankees signed him, is really, what do
Speaker 1: you expect? To your point, what do you expect the
Speaker 1: podcast three years, how heavy he's gonna be, the injuries,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't a great last three years, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it was going
Speaker 1: to be. At the end, well, and the tail was
Speaker 1: quite long, right, I mean, he just finally hangs him
Speaker 1: up after the season. So this is where the Yankees are.
Speaker 1: They're feeling pretty good. They remake the team, and then
Speaker 1: just before spring training, Alex Rodriguez admitted to using steroids
Speaker 1: while playing for the Rangers back in two thousand one
Speaker 1: to two thousand and three. He admits this, it's a
Speaker 1: huge story. And then a rod gets hurt, so he
Speaker 1: misses most of spring training the early part of the
Speaker 1: season with a hip injury, and now the Yankees have
Speaker 1: to answer for Alex Rodriguez admitting to steroid usage, not
Speaker 1: with the team, but way before they got him. Doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: A Rod Yankee steroids. This is what they're dealing with
Speaker 1: going into the season. Kind of a big deal. You
Speaker 1: make a bunch of additions and looking to rebuild off
Speaker 1: of a non playoff year, and this is a Rod.
Speaker 1: Still you're trying to He's not embraced as a Yankee
Speaker 1: at this point, right, it's still Derek Jeter, all the
Speaker 1: rest of your high priced free agent acquisitions and the
Speaker 1: guys that were home spun home grown, and you still
Speaker 1: have a Rod. And now you've got this admission, and
Speaker 1: he misses the first month and a half of the season.
Speaker 1: So it adds to just enough for the tabloidal nature
Speaker 1: of the newspapers and reporting as well. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is back when Jeter versus a Rod was everybody loves Jeter,
Speaker 1: everybody hates a Rod. You know, A Rod's image was bad,
Speaker 1: and now the the steroid thing tarnished it even more.
Speaker 1: And how are the Yankees gonna survive with Alex Rodriguez.
Speaker 1: Look at this is around the time when we started
Speaker 1: finding out the names of the big players who involved
Speaker 1: with stories. Mandy Ramirez was there as well, and it
Speaker 1: was just a gut punch after gut punch. It was
Speaker 1: following the Mitchell Report. But here's a Rod who people
Speaker 1: couldn't stand anyway, and now here he is, Oh steroid,
Speaker 1: you're ape d guy, that's why you're so good. It
Speaker 1: was everybody hates Alex, everybody loved Jeter even more, which
Speaker 1: a lot to do with this popularity increase at this time.
Speaker 1: But I didn't see, even though the Yankees thrived on controversy,
Speaker 1: how are they going to survive this? How are they
Speaker 1: gonna because a Rod's gonna come back and play, They're
Speaker 1: paying him a lot of money. There was no way
Speaker 1: they were getting out of it. There was no way
Speaker 1: they were trading him. He was gonna come back and
Speaker 1: play eventually. How are they going to get out of this?
Speaker 1: Like like Batman? Like every like every time when I
Speaker 1: watch Batman as a kid, And there would be they
Speaker 1: would cut the episode into two and hanger was, here's
Speaker 1: Batman and Robin and there in some kind of cylinder
Speaker 1: that's gonna pull their molecules apartner all, they're never getting
Speaker 1: out of this one. Then they get out of it
Speaker 1: like that's kind of how I felt about a Rod?
Speaker 1: How are how is a Rod? And the Yankees gonna
Speaker 1: get out of this one? I mean they did, but
Speaker 1: I didn't see it at that time. I got to
Speaker 1: help by the fact we mentioned all of the off
Speaker 1: season acquisitions with very hefty price tags with him. So
Speaker 1: by this point his contract, he was just a guy
Speaker 1: in terms of the dollars and cents, and you could
Speaker 1: slink away a little bit. The team playing well and
Speaker 1: having the run that they did certainly helped. And showing
Speaker 1: back up onto the field and hitting a home run
Speaker 1: in your first at bat probably not a bad way to,
Speaker 1: you know, re engage your audience once you come back
Speaker 1: from that hip injury. Well, you still had great players
Speaker 1: around the team, not only who they signed. Remember this
Speaker 1: is still Robinson Canoe playing second base. You know, this
Speaker 1: is Johnny Damon in the outfit when the Johnny Damon
Speaker 1: contract was still pretty good for them. You know, look,
Speaker 1: they had a pretty talented team. Melky Cabrera was a
Speaker 1: big contributor here, had DECKI mit Sue at designated hit.
Speaker 1: It's not like missing Alex Rodriguez suddenly met boy they
Speaker 1: have a gaping hole. It's just how do you navigate this.
Speaker 1: How does Joe Girardi navigate this looking for a championship
Speaker 1: when you have Alex Rodriguez hanging over the team. And
Speaker 1: not only that, you had Joe Tori's book The Yankee
Speaker 1: Years come out right before the season started, which caused
Speaker 1: a lot of controversy because he called out Alex Rodriguez
Speaker 1: and Brian Cashman in his book, saying that Brian Cashman
Speaker 1: betrayed him in contract negotiations, said that the Yankee players
Speaker 1: called a rod a fraud, and so many Yankees were upset.
Speaker 1: They felt, oh, Joe Tore breached the confidence of the
Speaker 1: locker room by writing this tell all book. And Joe
Speaker 1: Tori said, no, I didn't. But it didn't matter. No,
Speaker 1: it's good that he helps out a major League baseball
Speaker 1: Now wait less tell a book on Major League Baseball
Speaker 1: comes out. That's sausages made. But I kept three of
Speaker 1: the trash cans for the Houston Astros. But this was
Speaker 1: surprising because you didn't think Joe too. I was surprised
Speaker 1: because I didn't think Joe Tory would do something like this.
Speaker 1: This was not a Joe Tory thing to say, here's
Speaker 1: a book, I'm gonna make money a lifetime baseball guy.
Speaker 1: This isn't a front office dude who came of the
Speaker 1: you know, accountants a lot at some company because he
Speaker 1: was good at analytics, got hired in. This was a
Speaker 1: guy who was an m v P. This was a
Speaker 1: guy who was thrice World Series winning manager. All of
Speaker 1: these things and he releases this book. It just flies
Speaker 1: in the face of everything about the clubhouse code and
Speaker 1: and everything else. But you know what, everybody, uh, everybody's
Speaker 1: got a price, right, didn't That what Ted Dibiacy taught
Speaker 1: us all those years ago on our Saturday Morning WWF.
Speaker 1: Soa Joe already has got the briefcase out? Is that
Speaker 1: what he is? Is he? No? Well, that's the question.
Speaker 1: Is he the guy getting the money from Virgil? Am
Speaker 1: I giving the money to this? Well, let's see Virgil
Speaker 1: held up Virgil's Brian Cashman. Okay, because he gave out
Speaker 1: the I was gonna wonder whoever the publisher was of
Speaker 1: this book, would they be virginal in this scenario? How
Speaker 1: did the Yankees go on from here? How did they
Speaker 1: go on to win a hundred and three games? How
Speaker 1: did they go on to finish first? And how did
Speaker 1: Alex Rodriguez complete the most unlikely character turn we have
Speaker 1: seen in sports and quite sometime. Keep it right here.
Speaker 1: All the drama is ahead. We haven't even gotten to
Speaker 1: the season yet. Now yet for the Yankees, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is a year that you know, the Cowboys open
Speaker 1: Jerry World. In two thousand and nine, your guy Mark
Speaker 1: Burley pitched a perfect game, one of my favorite, because
Speaker 1: he could always pitch a game and under two hours.
Speaker 1: You had plans that night, you had no problems. Those
Speaker 1: games were going fast. But the biggest thing in two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine is we just give you one nice
Speaker 1: thing to get ready for the rest of the podcast.
Speaker 1: We do what we do. We look back at the
Speaker 1: year that was in two thousand nine, we saw Bellatour
Speaker 1: one have followed. Yeah, I think they're up to now
Speaker 1: Bellatore five thousand, because there's belletor like every three days
Speaker 1: seems like that. I think that's where we're creeping up
Speaker 1: on two fifty years pretty fast. That was Belt one
Speaker 1: all the way back in Hollywood, Florida at the Seminal
Speaker 1: Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. It was so popular they
Speaker 1: taped it the day before, cut it down and aired
Speaker 1: it the next night. On television. Oh that that that's
Speaker 1: how big Bellator one was. It was an exclusive television
Speaker 1: agreement with ESPN. Deportez. Why do you gotta roll your tongue?
Speaker 1: You can't just say he's Panda Portis because it made
Speaker 1: it sound better. Okay, you're like a local news anchor.
Speaker 1: Why not? Right? Okay? I just wonder why you're doing
Speaker 1: it Los Angeles. So all that more coming up right
Speaker 1: here as we look back at the two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine New York Yankee season and all the while twists
Speaker 1: continuing on here. The two thousand nine Yankees, the last
Speaker 1: championship team for the Yankees. How did things start out
Speaker 1: for them? This was Joe girardi second season. The pressure
Speaker 1: was on him because the Yankees didn't make the playoffs
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight and this was it for him.
Speaker 1: If they didn't win this year, it would have been boy.
Speaker 1: We made the playoffs every year since, right the Yankees
Speaker 1: the first time they didn't make it. Well, obviously we
Speaker 1: had the no season, but every year in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and the first year for Girardi they don't make it.
Speaker 1: They started out pretty rocky. It's not like this Yankee
Speaker 1: team was dominant from the beginning. I wonder how much
Speaker 1: more rocky or things needed to get to, like if
Speaker 1: they got to the All Star Break still underachieving, if
Speaker 1: Girardi would have even been around, because you know, we
Speaker 1: talked about it. They spent so much money trying to
Speaker 1: get this team ready. They got rid of so much
Speaker 1: salary from the year before and brought in so many
Speaker 1: new players. I know that he would have gotten more
Speaker 1: than the All Star Break to get things going. No,
Speaker 1: really curious because in April, aygo twelve and ten and
Speaker 1: then they lose six of their first eight May games
Speaker 1: and George Steinbrenner earlier in his life the Billy Martineers,
Speaker 1: Joe Girardi has gone. He might be back by the
Speaker 1: end of the year. And the way the revolving door
Speaker 1: work twice exactly. But the potential certainly was on out
Speaker 1: there for it, and the curiosity was already held held firm,
Speaker 1: waiting for things to gel. Perhaps you know, a little
Speaker 1: calmer heads of with all those new additions and the
Speaker 1: high priced add ons that you've got that maybe you
Speaker 1: needed it to marinate a little longer before you you
Speaker 1: got hit your stride. But that's a good thing. It
Speaker 1: did but even into the All Star break, not exactly
Speaker 1: running on all cylinders and causing the wow factor at
Speaker 1: least for a moment. And I remember the articles being written.
Speaker 1: It's like, is the day of paying big salaries and
Speaker 1: you know, trying to be Goliath. Are they over? This
Speaker 1: was a turning point in the season for them because
Speaker 1: at this point Alex Rodriguez is set to come back
Speaker 1: after being injured, after answering questions about performance and answering drugs,
Speaker 1: and it was I remember Yankee fans, my dad, all
Speaker 1: Yanks going all the last thing we need now is
Speaker 1: a Rod coming back. Last week is a Rod coming back.
Speaker 1: Turns out what they needed was a Rod coming back,
Speaker 1: because this, more so than any other season, turned out
Speaker 1: to be Alex Rodriguez is dark side of the mood.
Speaker 1: It was his. He had other seasons with better stats
Speaker 1: fifty home runs, hundred and fifty r b i s,
Speaker 1: but this was his season where the Yankees needed him.
Speaker 1: He not only came in and gave you a great year,
Speaker 1: but as you're gonna hear about later on, I mean,
Speaker 1: he was this close to being World Series MVP. Without
Speaker 1: a Rod, this team doesn't do it. He comes back
Speaker 1: in May hits a three run homer on the first
Speaker 1: pitch of the season. The Yankees have three walk off
Speaker 1: wins against Minnesota and they start getting things together a
Speaker 1: little bit. Look, the only way a Rod was gonna
Speaker 1: get past the pe d allegations, which were a huge bombshell.
Speaker 1: It was, oh my god, a Rod PDS. This was
Speaker 1: back when it was oh my god, Manny Ramirez and
Speaker 1: a Rod. Here's all the great sluggers of the past
Speaker 1: ten years. To see, we're hoping we're not gonna hear
Speaker 1: their names, and then boom, here's a bombshell with Manny.
Speaker 1: And then boom, it's Alex Rodriguez and it's a Rod.
Speaker 1: And and look, everybody wanted to go crazy on him
Speaker 1: because people didn't like him. And now it was always
Speaker 1: a Yankee. Now I can hate him even more. He
Speaker 1: was very polarizing, and it was now but you were
Speaker 1: always a great player, and now you needed help, and
Speaker 1: now it's all a Rod, a Rod, And he really
Speaker 1: flipped the script. But that's the thing with a Rod,
Speaker 1: and the handwringing was there was no body change right
Speaker 1: when he came up. He was a big kid, right McGuire.
Speaker 1: We we laugh at the five tops card. We laugh
Speaker 1: at the stick figure. Relatively speaking, that was the night
Speaker 1: seven rookie cards that were out there just to bring
Speaker 1: in the memorabilian sports world, because those are the images
Speaker 1: we remember more so than anything. Barry Bonds going from
Speaker 1: what he was at his beginning of his career at
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh to what he became. Sammy Sosa look at him
Speaker 1: when he was with the White Sox. Then he goes
Speaker 1: away for one offseason and he looks like an action
Speaker 1: figure with a rod. He looked the same, And I
Speaker 1: think that got people salty because it raised a lot
Speaker 1: of other questions as to you know, it just used
Speaker 1: to seem, Okay, the guy got bulkier, right, the guy
Speaker 1: got more muscular, blah blah blah with a rod. More
Speaker 1: or less, he looked like the same guy. So it
Speaker 1: got you handwringing a bit. But for the Yankees, all
Speaker 1: pressure was on him once he came back, so everybody
Speaker 1: else just got to relax and play their game. So
Speaker 1: it was no surprise that they at least started to
Speaker 1: push a little bit in the right direction, because all right,
Speaker 1: a rod is gonna do his thing. They're gonna worry
Speaker 1: about getting him out and the media is just gonna
Speaker 1: worry about him, so we could just go back to
Speaker 1: work and with all that pressure on him, and a
Speaker 1: Rod has never had the image of being a pressure guy.
Speaker 1: He finishes that year where thirty home runs in a
Speaker 1: hundred RBIs but all the time he missed. The Yankees
Speaker 1: set a record with home runs two three. But he
Speaker 1: still goes thirty and a hundred in a game in
Speaker 1: which he's coming off injured, a year in which he's
Speaker 1: coming off injury. He's coming off this controversy, and he
Speaker 1: was the spark the Yankees needed. They won a big
Speaker 1: game in June. They had a closed door meeting with
Speaker 1: Brian Cashman when they were playing in Atlanta and the
Speaker 1: Yankees that night, the Yanks are getting no hit through
Speaker 1: six innings. Brett Gardner gets picked off first base, Joe
Speaker 1: Girardi gets ejected for arguing Francisco Savelliot's his first MLB
Speaker 1: home run. The Yankees going to win this game eight
Speaker 1: to four, and it became a spring board win. In fact,
Speaker 1: Yankees even talked about what was the difference in your season,
Speaker 1: and they all say, well, a Rod coming back and
Speaker 1: putting his head down and hitting and that game beating Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and from then on the Yankees just steamrolled by everybody.
Speaker 1: What's not like they ever were in trouble. After that,
Speaker 1: A Rod came back, He put his head down and
Speaker 1: the hit. They won this game. Everything started clicking and
Speaker 1: the Yankees roll to the AL East Division. From July
Speaker 1: one to the end of the season, they go fifty
Speaker 1: nine and seven, absolutely dominating that month of August one
Speaker 1: and seven record and all the offense started to flow.
Speaker 1: And when when you look at the end of year numbers,
Speaker 1: I mean you mentioned that that point it was became
Speaker 1: a launching pad just like you expected. What two plus
Speaker 1: home runs as a team, which I always used the
Speaker 1: phrasing of the veritable congo line and it was ever
Speaker 1: in full effect. This was the gashouse Guerrillas and bugs
Speaker 1: buy d'antanta dantana. Uh. They win the AL East by
Speaker 1: eight games over the Red Sox, the Tampa Bay Rays
Speaker 1: in third place nineteen games out. I mean, this was
Speaker 1: the Yankees suddenly are oh man, uh watch out that.
Speaker 1: You know. Now they got a ride back. Everything is
Speaker 1: is going their way and they get to the playoffs
Speaker 1: and her first round. All about a Rod again, all right,
Speaker 1: it's very quickly how this season became about him, when
Speaker 1: Derek Jeter was so beloved, But this was, like I said,
Speaker 1: this was Alex Rodriguez, this moment, Game two against Minnesota,
Speaker 1: they're down three one in the ninth inning, and you know,
Speaker 1: look the Twins are it, have a chance to tie
Speaker 1: this series and suddenly turn it into something. They got
Speaker 1: Joe Nathan, one of the best closes in the game
Speaker 1: on the mound, and a Rod goes yard hits a
Speaker 1: game time to run homer. You got David Robertson escapes
Speaker 1: a bases loaded, no outs jam in the eleventh to
Speaker 1: share it, hits a walk off home run in the
Speaker 1: bottom of the eleventh, and they sweep the Twins, who
Speaker 1: offer little resistance there on out. But as much as
Speaker 1: you have heroes with to share it is a Rod's
Speaker 1: two run homer. He had two home runs and six
Speaker 1: RBI in the sweep. He is your best player. He's
Speaker 1: the guy leading you through the A, L. D s.
Speaker 1: And this is very anti Alex Rodriguez so far. Well
Speaker 1: that's just it. You'd find those find those moments where
Speaker 1: guys that have always been great you wait for them
Speaker 1: to break through. For him, for Barry Bonds, postseason was
Speaker 1: not always kind and for this this became the the
Speaker 1: magical moment that acceptance. And even after that series, they
Speaker 1: would obviously, as we go through, go on to win
Speaker 1: at all. But even in that moment, it turned the
Speaker 1: tide of all right, he's we kind of embrace him
Speaker 1: as one of ours, right uh Lebron James coming to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, went through a whole year where he's still
Speaker 1: stand off ish arms length with everybody, and then it
Speaker 1: took reading names of the those who perished in the
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant helicopter crash and then throwing a prepared speech
Speaker 1: to the ground and kind of add living. That became
Speaker 1: his moment to a Laker being a Laker. For Alex
Speaker 1: Rodriguez took shining in the first of these postseason series,
Speaker 1: and I remember that home run and it was like
Speaker 1: something happened and that it was okay A Rods. Even
Speaker 1: the biggest skeptics were okay, well, A Rod's always hit
Speaker 1: home runs, always done well. That now need him and
Speaker 1: a two run homer when it looked like the game
Speaker 1: was over and he ties it. Not only do the
Speaker 1: Yankees tie the game, they go on and win it.
Speaker 1: They sweep the Twins, and it was, hey, now this
Speaker 1: this is a post season a Rod. You know we
Speaker 1: have playoff Rondo, and now we have post season a
Speaker 1: Rod who turns into someone who gets heroics in the
Speaker 1: a LCS when they play the Angels Game two, HiT's
Speaker 1: a huge home run to tie the game at three
Speaker 1: three and the eleventh thinning off Brian Flente's who was
Speaker 1: the Angels closer. They go on to win that game
Speaker 1: in thirteen innings. Another big clutch home run in Game
Speaker 1: two where the series can still go either way for
Speaker 1: the Yankees, and it's a Rod hitting another big home run.
Speaker 1: This was it was he's doing it again. It felt
Speaker 1: like every time he came up when he's gonna get it.
Speaker 1: Hit this two thousand nine postseason, it was like, there's
Speaker 1: everybody else. Look. C C. Sabathia wins the ALCS m
Speaker 1: v P because he has two incredibly great starts. He
Speaker 1: goes eight innings and both of his starts gives up
Speaker 1: on three days rest, gives up just a couple of
Speaker 1: runs as e r A is one point one three,
Speaker 1: and he wins the A l C S m v P.
Speaker 1: He was absolutely huge, but it was still all about
Speaker 1: a Rod. Remember being on the air, and it was
Speaker 1: every night was Alex Rodriguez. And here's Alex Rodriguez trying
Speaker 1: to invent things to talk about with a Rod because
Speaker 1: you know, whatever else the Yankees were doing, it was
Speaker 1: Alex rod. He had a lot of love and positivity
Speaker 1: towards it. All right, redemption, and we always love a
Speaker 1: redemption story. But then there's still that little shadow and doubt.
Speaker 1: It's like, all right, he got he had gotten musted
Speaker 1: and everything. It's like, is he still canny still? And
Speaker 1: there's always just that nervousness for Yankee fans. It was
Speaker 1: now turned up, all right, we need this guy as
Speaker 1: opposed to he was just a high price luxury and
Speaker 1: not accepted and everything else. And in this series, like
Speaker 1: CC Sabathia, you know, this was about as good as
Speaker 1: you can get. We talked about what Milwaukee tried to
Speaker 1: do with him the year before. I think he would
Speaker 1: have pitched every game if they could have pulled it off.
Speaker 1: I don't know union rules to where you can't, but
Speaker 1: just a phenomenal series again, and for Alex Rodriguez, something
Speaker 1: that really helped in that redemptive story. So for the Yankees.
Speaker 1: They advanced to the World Series. We're waiting for them.
Speaker 1: The Philadelphia Phillies coming off the two thousand and eight
Speaker 1: World Series victory over Tampa Bay. They're trying to go
Speaker 1: back to back. And this was the dominant Cliff Lee.
Speaker 1: This was as far as Madison Bumgardner had been so
Speaker 1: good in the postseason in the late teams here late
Speaker 1: two thousand's, it was Cliff Lee. And he turned into
Speaker 1: the biggest, most dominant postseason picture there was. And I
Speaker 1: remember going into the World Series going, boy, this Phillies
Speaker 1: team is loaded, right. You got Jimmy Rollins is saying
Speaker 1: we're gonna win in five or six games if we
Speaker 1: want to be nice to the Yankees. I mean, Chase
Speaker 1: Utley had a huge World Series. This is back when
Speaker 1: Chase Utley was one of the top five players in baseball.
Speaker 1: But Cliff Lee was unbeatable. And I remember saying, here's
Speaker 1: my prediction for the World Series. And I've never been
Speaker 1: more right about many things in my life. I said
Speaker 1: that Yankees is gonna win the World Series, but the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Phillies are gonna win every game. Cliff lea pitches.
Speaker 1: I just the Yankees had that momentum. The Phillies were
Speaker 1: still so good, but they couldn't stack up. But they
Speaker 1: weren't gonna beat cliff Ley. And that's kind of what
Speaker 1: happened in the World Series. Yeah, cliff Ley, for those
Speaker 1: that that forget, I mean just dominant two point eight
Speaker 1: one e r A won both his games. Yeah, thirteen
Speaker 1: strikeouts against three walks, and going up against that lineup. Man, look,
Speaker 1: you're getting going out with four or less runs allowed
Speaker 1: in six innings. You're feeling pretty good, like you gave
Speaker 1: your team a chance. But for him, just dominant work
Speaker 1: just didn't have enough around him. So that's where the
Speaker 1: Yankees sat Yankees Phillies. How did they win and what
Speaker 1: former Yankee nemesis popped up to try to get in
Speaker 1: their way? With all that more coming up next right
Speaker 1: here Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike Carmen, we
Speaker 1: look back at the World Series championship of the two
Speaker 1: thousand nine Yankees. So just how did it go for
Speaker 1: the Yankees and what former nemesis showed up to say, Hey,
Speaker 1: you're not getting on and actually I'm gonna allow you
Speaker 1: to win the World Series. As I said a few
Speaker 1: minutes ago, and when I said on the radio at
Speaker 1: the time, Did I say that enough people remember that
Speaker 1: I said that you've been around? Yeah? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you want to people know that you want me to
Speaker 1: patch you on the back if I If I do
Speaker 1: it loudly enough, they can believe that it exists. I
Speaker 1: said Cliff Lee was gonna win both games he pitched.
Speaker 1: As long as he pitches two games, I would pitch
Speaker 1: Cliffy every day because Lee was just that good, and
Speaker 1: the Yankees will win every other one. Well, Cliff Lee
Speaker 1: one game one, six to one, and he won Game
Speaker 1: five eight to six, but those were the only wins
Speaker 1: for the Philadelphia Phillis. Let me taging. Let me pat
Speaker 1: myself that that that pat myself. You really have no flexible.
Speaker 1: You got as bad flexibility was. It was my left
Speaker 1: ar because I'm not a lefty. My right arm can
Speaker 1: get up high. I can't do my right off because
Speaker 1: I got an impingement in my shoulder that needs rehab
Speaker 1: and probably surgery. You have an impingement and surgery. I
Speaker 1: just can't go off. It's not my fault. Should have
Speaker 1: you should have stopped. What did you do? They got
Speaker 1: your arm? Well, you should have wrestle the Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I didn't wrestle the gator. You probably wrestled, though. Wrestled
Speaker 1: my brother when I was fourteen and I jumped off
Speaker 1: the top rope and I missed in my arm behind
Speaker 1: my back that ready ready savaged him team and then
Speaker 1: I got slammed on on a on a folding table.
Speaker 1: So Harmon and Smith brand tables for your next tails.
Speaker 1: Why were the Yankees able to win the World Series
Speaker 1: because they beat up on wait for it, wait for it,
Speaker 1: wait for it. Pedro Martinez, who the Phillies trotted out
Speaker 1: there for a couple of games. He had entered the
Speaker 1: Phillies rotation in August, right he he had signed with them,
Speaker 1: couldn't get in the rotation. This his pagro at the
Speaker 1: end of his long career where he had really nothing
Speaker 1: left in the tank. But he had pitched pretty well
Speaker 1: when he comes in the Phillies rotation. Philadelphia won their
Speaker 1: first seven starts that he had, and he pitched really well,
Speaker 1: pitched good against the Dodgers in the NLCS and against
Speaker 1: the Yankees. He actually pitched okay in Game two, but
Speaker 1: he left down two to one and he lost that game.
Speaker 1: I mean that was like the last great moment for Pedro.
Speaker 1: This is him at the end. He did get the
Speaker 1: start later on in Game six, the must win game.
Speaker 1: We gotta stay alive, and this is when he gets
Speaker 1: lit up. He allows four runs and four innings and
Speaker 1: the Yankees win the World Series. And not only do
Speaker 1: they win, but they can stand up and say we
Speaker 1: beat Pedro again and now we're World Series champions. Nine
Speaker 1: starts to a three sixty three e r A in
Speaker 1: the regular season, forty four innings pitched. That was it.
Speaker 1: That that postseason, and off to broadcasting. He went. No
Speaker 1: more issues with Don Zimmer or anybody else. It was
Speaker 1: time for the next phase of Pedro Martinez. But for
Speaker 1: the the New York Yankees getting past another nemesis like
Speaker 1: that and a nice wink guy who was a real pain.
Speaker 1: You know, think about the unbalanced schedule. If those teams
Speaker 1: with Pedro and those guys were battling these Yankees now
Speaker 1: how much I mean we talked about it all the time,
Speaker 1: just the prime time games Yankees Red Sox and just
Speaker 1: has that extra for baseball fans. Think about that if
Speaker 1: they're going eighteens and like they do now, like good god,
Speaker 1: so it was about Cliff Lee, it was about Pedro Martinez,
Speaker 1: but the World Series is also about two other players,
Speaker 1: and again we circle back to Alex Rodriguez. It very
Speaker 1: easily could have been Alex Rodriguez World Series m v
Speaker 1: P Game four, pivotal game. He doubles down the line
Speaker 1: at the top of the ninth thinning against Brad Lidge.
Speaker 1: Yankees win the game five four, and it's a rotic
Speaker 1: then coming through in the clutch in a game in
Speaker 1: which the Yankees absolutely have to have him, and it
Speaker 1: was almost like it was just gonna happen. He's up
Speaker 1: in a clutch situation, He's gonna get a hit, and
Speaker 1: I remember going through this saying he's gonna wind up
Speaker 1: being the World Series MVP, just like had the Giants
Speaker 1: held on against the Angels in two thousand two, Barry
Speaker 1: Bonds had such a great World Series after a horrible
Speaker 1: lifetime in the postseason, he would have been the World
Speaker 1: Series m v P. But Angels win, and so of
Speaker 1: course he's not. But he was that close. Alex Rodriguez
Speaker 1: was that close as well. Three doubles, a home run,
Speaker 1: six rb I in this series bad at two fifty.
Speaker 1: So when you get down to it, Matt Suey doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: He had, he had big hits, he had. It's it's
Speaker 1: just that there's also gonna be that one guy, just
Speaker 1: like you know, that guy that will never know who
Speaker 1: didn't vote until he writes a book I didn't vote
Speaker 1: for Jeter to the Hall of Fame. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: one or two guys on that panel are like, forget it,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not name in this guy m v P.
Speaker 1: Right that that's still gonna be a very real effect. Right, So,
Speaker 1: no matter how clutch he was, I think he was
Speaker 1: facing an uphill battle to get any extra accolades unless
Speaker 1: he really just outshined everybody to a monstrous degree. Well
Speaker 1: that's the thing because this series, and in which Hideki
Speaker 1: Matsuey goes on to win the m v P, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to Game six coming up in a second,
Speaker 1: because that's the game mitsue one m v P four
Speaker 1: is that it's not like anybody else had a great
Speaker 1: World series for the Yankees. It's not anybody else. It's
Speaker 1: mitts sue And it was really just Game six and
Speaker 1: a Rod with his clutch hits. So it's not like
Speaker 1: I can look as go Johnny Damon did this, and
Speaker 1: and you know we saw a J. Burnett did this
Speaker 1: or Sabbathia did this. It was really it was really
Speaker 1: Alex Rodriguez. And when you look back at this World Series,
Speaker 1: I can honestly tell you they would not have won
Speaker 1: without Alex Rodriguez, because they won without HDECKI Mit Suey sure,
Speaker 1: they would not have one without any The only other
Speaker 1: guy you'd look at was Mariano Rivera because all the
Speaker 1: starters were at can't. I can't give a closer, And
Speaker 1: that's where we always get into the difficulties of the closers,
Speaker 1: right hey, unanimous though, take that over Jeter uh In
Speaker 1: Game six, which is the game the Yankees would blow
Speaker 1: the Phillies out and win the World Series, this was
Speaker 1: a Decky mit Sue, the Decky mit Souee game. Um
Speaker 1: at Sue. He ended up with six rb I in
Speaker 1: the game. He had a home run, he had a double,
Speaker 1: he had a two run single, he got a hit
Speaker 1: in the second game of the fourth and sixth, and
Speaker 1: he got the Yankees out to a big lead. And
Speaker 1: when you look at the gaudy numbers, six rb I
Speaker 1: in a World Series clinching game. He had six fifteen
Speaker 1: for the World Series, albeit in limited at bat bats
Speaker 1: for the series. They give him the m v P.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna go back to a moment that possibly
Speaker 1: pushed it from a Rod to Met Suey in this game,
Speaker 1: in the mid Sui game, in game six, he has
Speaker 1: bases loaded and he strikes out looking against Pedro Martinez.
Speaker 1: The next adders Mit Suey, who gets hit and brings
Speaker 1: in two runs. This is what gives them the bigger lead,
Speaker 1: pushes their lead out, and it's not a game anymore.
Speaker 1: Had a Rod gotten a hit there, all right, he
Speaker 1: gotten a hit instead of striking out leading up to
Speaker 1: Matt Suey. He wins the m v P. He wins
Speaker 1: the mv because now it's another game in which bases loaded,
Speaker 1: a clutch hit for a Rod. A Rod gets this hit,
Speaker 1: he wins the m v P. And I'll never forget
Speaker 1: this as long as I live. The photo on the
Speaker 1: front page of ESPN dot com that they put up
Speaker 1: after the Yankees win the World Series, right, it's it's
Speaker 1: a photo of the Yankee celebrating, and this shows you
Speaker 1: the completed journey of Alex Rodriguez. It was taken at
Speaker 1: such the perfect time, the perfect angle in which they
Speaker 1: win the World Series, right, and they're they're celebrating on
Speaker 1: the field and a Rod is taking steps towards the
Speaker 1: pitching mound, you know, with his hands out like hey,
Speaker 1: I won, and literally all of the Yankees who are
Speaker 1: in the infield, we're all s airing at him and
Speaker 1: running towards him like they were going to tackle him.
Speaker 1: Because of the season he had. This is here. He
Speaker 1: started out as a fraud Joe Tori's book and everything else,
Speaker 1: and this was where he had a lot to do
Speaker 1: to win the team over and to win everybody over
Speaker 1: because it was still Jeter or a Rod. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody still loved Jeter. It was like Shaq and Kobe,
Speaker 1: everybody loved Shack. But that picture was the total transformation.
Speaker 1: Here's a Rod and here's the rest of his teammates
Speaker 1: are gonna look to jump on top of him to celebrate.
Speaker 1: They wanted to celebrate with him because they knew he
Speaker 1: was responsible. We want to also show our love for him,
Speaker 1: our teammate who did a lot this year and went
Speaker 1: through a lot of crap to be able to celebrate
Speaker 1: this moment with us. That was the complete and total
Speaker 1: transformation from a rod That picture, I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1: Here it is, he's smiling and everybody else wants to
Speaker 1: jump on top of him. I'll think about it as
Speaker 1: as we sit here talking about this early who's the
Speaker 1: face of baseball? You could argue and Jacob dem nicely done.
Speaker 1: But when we talk about baseball where we sit in
Speaker 1: you don't have a guy Alex Rodriguez in the broadcast
Speaker 1: booth and some of it you know, j Lo uh
Speaker 1: and I mean, he's he's about as good as it gets.
Speaker 1: Right in terms of the large characters of the game.
Speaker 1: We can talk about guys putting up great performances. You've
Speaker 1: got Pete Alonso, who looks like you know, he's got
Speaker 1: a Dad Bodar right. You've got Mike Trout, he's a
Speaker 1: great weatherman and Eagles fan. But beyond that, Albert Pooholes
Speaker 1: near the back end to his run. You've got a
Speaker 1: few other guys mixed there in some of the young
Speaker 1: Dodger guys getting some run. Maybe it could become a
Speaker 1: Mookie Bets kind of world. But Alex Rodriguez is about
Speaker 1: as big as you get in the game. Ten years
Speaker 1: plus after this moment. But in that World Series, victory
Speaker 1: becomes a true Yankee, embraced by everybody, wipes out a
Speaker 1: lot of the ill will of the failed post seasons
Speaker 1: of the past, and everybody kind of pushes those to
Speaker 1: the side and will always be a champion. Because there's
Speaker 1: guys that play for the Yankees but don't ever really
Speaker 1: become Yankees. They they play for a few years and
Speaker 1: either the Yankees don't win or they don't live quite
Speaker 1: up to expectations, but they still play well enough, but
Speaker 1: they never really become Yankees. Do you need that moment?
Speaker 1: You need that whatever the achievement is. And this was
Speaker 1: a Rod. Yeah, I'm a Yankee now, you know what.
Speaker 1: The rest of my doesn't matter how much longer I play.
Speaker 1: I'm a Yankee. And when you think of a Rod,
Speaker 1: it's not a Rod early in his career with Seattle.
Speaker 1: It's not the big contract with Texas. It's a Rod
Speaker 1: and the Yankees and the look he had, the controversy
Speaker 1: at the end and his contract. But you know, you
Speaker 1: think of him as a Yankee because of this World Series,
Speaker 1: because he finally won. You know, a Rod turns into
Speaker 1: one of the Yankee greats of all time. And he
Speaker 1: also gets away from that list of look at all
Speaker 1: our leaders and all these statistical categories in the all
Speaker 1: time greats that never got there, right, because I mean
Speaker 1: he was destined or so. It seemed to be the
Speaker 1: latest in a long line of Hey, look at all
Speaker 1: the great stats, great years, but in the playoffs empty, No.
Speaker 1: Here he delivered. Now. One of the things outside of
Speaker 1: a Rod the Yankees were able to do to win
Speaker 1: the World Series, which is really difficult to do, but
Speaker 1: they had the line up to do it was they
Speaker 1: kept hitting home runs. It was their calling card all
Speaker 1: season long. We talked about them setting a new franchise
Speaker 1: record then for home runs in a year. But it's
Speaker 1: hard when you rely on home runs in October because
Speaker 1: if you don't have an offense that's generating runs, eventually
Speaker 1: you're gonna run into a Hey we're swinging from the
Speaker 1: heels on every pitch and if we don't hit home runs,
Speaker 1: well we're going home. It's hard to hit home runs
Speaker 1: through three rounds of playoffs and win, and the Yankees
Speaker 1: did it. They were so powerful top to bottom you
Speaker 1: could get home runs from anywhere, and they did. They
Speaker 1: got from the the regular suspects. They got him from
Speaker 1: places he didn't expect to get them. But they still
Speaker 1: were able to get a couple of home runs every game,
Speaker 1: and that turns a three one game into a three
Speaker 1: three game of four two game into a five four win.
Speaker 1: And they were able to do it. It never got
Speaker 1: and never ran empty. The him of that sock drawer
Speaker 1: never came up empty. Hey, we stopped hitting home runs
Speaker 1: for three games and we wound up losing, getting knocked
Speaker 1: out of the playoffs. They always hit home runs. Well,
Speaker 1: that's the beauty of having just power throughout the lineup.
Speaker 1: But we see it now and again. We saw it
Speaker 1: with the twins and twins that should say, and a
Speaker 1: few others. I mean, some of these Phillies lineups were
Speaker 1: absurd back in the day. But yeah, normally the well
Speaker 1: runs dry. But as you broke down the Phillies pitching
Speaker 1: staff outside of Lee, you got a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that you you you rode the power performances of the
Speaker 1: offense for most of the year. When you're praying for
Speaker 1: big moments out of Pedro Martinez when he's out of gas,
Speaker 1: I and you you've tipped your hand as to your
Speaker 1: depth of your rotation. So the Yankees win the World Series,
Speaker 1: but there remains one big PostScript coming off of this series. Again,
Speaker 1: the last championship the Yankees had, they had loaded up,
Speaker 1: they had signed a lot of players, and you thought, well,
Speaker 1: this is the beginning of a run of dominance. This
Speaker 1: turned out to be hit Decki Mitsui's last game as
Speaker 1: a Yankee. Fans were screaming, bring him back, bring him back,
Speaker 1: bring him back. Mitsue had been in the middle of
Speaker 1: that line up for a while. He was thirty five,
Speaker 1: but he was still hitting, he was still mashing. And
Speaker 1: you have the World Series m v P and it
Speaker 1: was let's bring a docu mitsouey back. But the Yankees
Speaker 1: had a gloot of outfielders, so in the off season
Speaker 1: they let mit Sue and Johnny Damon go in free agency,
Speaker 1: and they struggle a little bit after that. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: it's not like Mitsue was still the guy he was
Speaker 1: when he was thirty. He was a thirty five and
Speaker 1: one twenty you know, he was still twenty five and eighty.
Speaker 1: But it was still he was such a big part
Speaker 1: of that team, and he was just one of those
Speaker 1: guys you counted on for so long. That was gonna
Speaker 1: hit in the lineup. You started taking out a couple
Speaker 1: of those pieces and it's, oh boy, now we really
Speaker 1: need those guys to step up in that hole. And
Speaker 1: when you don't, you realize the production that walked away.
Speaker 1: It's not like Mitsouey had a lot left in the tank.
Speaker 1: He retired very shortly after, but still it was Keith Mitsouey.
Speaker 1: And when mitsue left, that left a big hole in
Speaker 1: that line up. Well, the continuity, right, he never went
Speaker 1: into really long, protracted slumps like he was a consistent hitter.
Speaker 1: Never never the godzilla that we thought was showing up
Speaker 1: to major League Baseball. Right. He wasn't a fifty home
Speaker 1: run guy. Everybody was expecting these gargangean numbers. But he
Speaker 1: was a consistent player and whenever you have to replace that.
Speaker 1: We watched that with teams in every sport. There's always
Speaker 1: just those glue guys that you don't recognize in the moment,
Speaker 1: especially when you're talking about the type of run generation
Speaker 1: that this team had. Just thinking his absence would be
Speaker 1: that much of a of a drop off because that
Speaker 1: was a big salary, I mean, that was that was
Speaker 1: one one or the other things. Not that the Yankees
Speaker 1: shed salary for some you know, philosophical reasons. They know
Speaker 1: she said that they don't let money go for philosophical reasons.
Speaker 1: But it became a we're not gonna pay him to
Speaker 1: stick around at that point. So it was someone someone
Speaker 1: in the early early days of analytics. All right, it's
Speaker 1: always been analytics. Now we just have added the pejorative
Speaker 1: tone to it when we say it, uh these days.
Speaker 1: So there's your Yankees World Series champions in two thousand nine.
Speaker 1: A validates Joe Girardi at validates CC Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez.
Speaker 1: What about some of those guys, where are they now?
Speaker 1: Mike Carmen, All right, let's start. Let's start with the fun.
Speaker 1: Well the two obvious. Well, I mean, you've got a
Speaker 1: lot of guys that stayed around the game that are coaches.
Speaker 1: So Anthony, because this is fun, you had twenty three
Speaker 1: different pitchers usual by the Yankees to get through the
Speaker 1: two thousand nine season, So underscore that a little bit.
Speaker 1: You've got a lot of bodies rolling through. Uh. You've
Speaker 1: got uh, Anthony Claggett. He's now a pitching coach after
Speaker 1: he was with the New Jersey Jackals. I wanted to
Speaker 1: make a note of that because that's just kind of cool.
Speaker 1: I We'll have to look at that logan. You might
Speaker 1: need a new hat. Uh. He's now at Washington State.
Speaker 1: After a couple of other stops along the way, you
Speaker 1: got Shelley Duncan, who's working for the Blue Jays, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you what you thought a major
Speaker 1: league field quarterinamer did a major league field because because
Speaker 1: I know with our kids soccer league, Okay, there's someone
Speaker 1: that that has to find practice fields or whatever. No,
Speaker 1: and they make sure what when the fields are booked
Speaker 1: and when you can But I'm pretty sure no one's
Speaker 1: booking Yankee Stadium. I don't think so. I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody like, oh, hey we can't play the World Series.
Speaker 1: Why I let I let up? You know a a
Speaker 1: peewee football team. They're gonna come on and scrimmage that day,
Speaker 1: So yeah, we can't play the World Series. I believe
Speaker 1: it's kind of kind of a an operations role is
Speaker 1: kind of how it works. Field coordinator for just the Yankees.
Speaker 1: Well he's within Blue Jays now, so but just one team,
Speaker 1: but just one team, So I think it's kind of
Speaker 1: a flow as too, Uh, implementing ideas throughout the organization. Right,
Speaker 1: So here's what we want to do and the trickle
Speaker 1: down effect to make sure managers and coaches are are
Speaker 1: following the instruction, so kids, the kids at class A
Speaker 1: are getting taught the same thing in double A all
Speaker 1: the way up as opposed to al right, next up,
Speaker 1: this guy's got a totally different so as best I
Speaker 1: can and can relay, that's where it was. How about
Speaker 1: Chimman Long another guy that was a legend last not
Speaker 1: that do we have a job for him, but there
Speaker 1: was a documentary. You're gonna say last scene or you're
Speaker 1: gonna last scene, Well last scene had a bunch of
Speaker 1: premiers for a documentary made out of his life around
Speaker 1: the baseball diamond. Anyway, uh call did he started? It
Speaker 1: was the Chimman Wong story starring Cheman I believe, basically
Speaker 1: called Late Life, which is what they called his slider life.
Speaker 1: But the idea of this is the guy that battled
Speaker 1: a lot of injuries to get back on the diamond
Speaker 1: and they to really extend his career. So late life
Speaker 1: having double meanings. See how clever they are in Hollywood
Speaker 1: actually in Taiwan, Uh, because it was, you know, a
Speaker 1: celebration of their guy, and and how he battled back
Speaker 1: and became a folk here on finally, Brian Bruney. All right,
Speaker 1: so he pitched with the White Sox. He pitched in
Speaker 1: a for four teams in Major League Baseball. Got to
Speaker 1: bring up the White Sox. Course you'll you'll like this.
Speaker 1: Currently he works for a time share company as an
Speaker 1: executive in Seaside, Oregon. That's fine. As a kid, he
Speaker 1: was an extra in kindergarten. Cop Oh, which one was he?
Speaker 1: I don't know, how do you not have that? I've
Speaker 1: not found that well, but he's an extra. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean he doesn't. He wasn't. He was one of the
Speaker 1: kids in the in the room. But I don't think
Speaker 1: he has a speaking role. Our mom said, my dad's
Speaker 1: a real sex machine. I mean it wasn't. Okay, Well
Speaker 1: we know it wasn't her. Okay, I'm making making sure.
Speaker 1: So wait, so now he's one of those guys that says, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: you can have a free stay in this hotel, but
Speaker 1: you gotta listen to this pitch for an hour. What's
Speaker 1: funny though, sign if you they counterbalance, there's somebody inviting you.
Speaker 1: And there's another guy skin out of your time share. Now, Hey,
Speaker 1: if you buy a time shore, I'll tell you a
Speaker 1: story about the two thousand nine Yankees, Derek, Jeter and Jetersburg. Honey,
Speaker 1: we gotta buy this. I gotta hear this story. I
Speaker 1: don't know who involves we to do it. That'd be
Speaker 1: a good story. I mean storytime with Jetersburg. Play Brian
Speaker 1: Bruney really gets a lot of time share. Sould Hook
Speaker 1: tells a lot of stories about he's got a lot
Speaker 1: of two. I mean, he had Jeter and he had
Speaker 1: a rod. Come on. So there it is our look
Speaker 1: back at the last championship to New York Yankees had
Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine. You can hit us up
Speaker 1: on Twitter at how about a Frescup? Mike at Swollen Dome.
Speaker 1: You have an idea for a future Special Teams podcast
Speaker 1: with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon. We'll talk to you
Speaker 1: next week before you go rate and review the show.
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