Talk Bronx New York

Crew from ‘98 teams up with area kids in symbolic ceremony

NEW YORK — Paul O’Neill strode down a flight of concourse stairs at the new Yankee Stadium on Saturday, set his feet on the warning track — a rough, dirt expanse, still studded with rocks and a few small puddles — and took an exhaustive look around.

“Look at this joint, huh?” he said.

Out before him lay a baseball field, albeit an incomplete one, properly proportioned to match the dimensions of the old Yankee Stadium. Sod, with seams still showing, filled much of the area, and a large blue sign shouted the words “YANKEE STADIUM” from above center field. Waves of dark blue seats down the left-field line dumped into a still-unfinished section behind home plate, where metal supports hinted at where more seats are still to come.

And on the mound, roughly 60 area children helped cram some dirt from the old Yankee Stadium into the new one. Read more..

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For the New York Yankees, this is the worst October since 1986, when America’s most decorated team paused in the early stages of a 13-year playoff drought to watch the cross-town Mets and the hated Red Sox meet in the World Series.

2008 MLB playoffs

In fact, this October is less appealing to the Yanks than that one. Even though the 2008 Mets offered some comfort by choking on muscle memory, this postseason is a house of ungodly pinstriped pain.

It’s a cross between the fall of the Roman Empire and a revival of the Broadway musical “Damn Yankees.”

Joe Hardy has been replaced by Joe Torre, who must’ve made some Faustian deal to score this devilishly sweet proposition: a chance to take the Dodgers to the World Series while the censors who deleted his contributions from that closing Yankee Stadium ceremony do the slowest Bronx-is-burning burn.

Only this goes way beyond a bum-rushed manager seeking payback with the aid of a slugger, Manny Ramirez, who has a distinguished history of sending Yankee mystique and aura over the outfield wall.

Sure, the Steinbrenners already look foolish for presenting Torre an offer designed for him to refuse after he’d earned them a dozen straight playoff berths. Torre extended his personal streak to 13 in L.A. while his replacement, Joe Girardi, ended the Yankees’ streak at 13 (Buck Showalter started the run) and, in the process, failed all the human condition exams Torre forever aced in the clubhouse and press box.

But in the end, Torre is managing a faraway team in a faraway division of an entirely different league. As much as it would hurt the Yankees to see him win it all with the Dodgers, they’ll get over it.

The Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays? There’s no getting over them.

The Sox and Rays are right out of the American League East. Boston and Tampa are young, tough, hungry, and athletic. They’re everything the New York Yankees are not.

If the introduction of the wild card in ‘95 provided a safety net the Yankees needed only twice in Torre’s time, there is no insurance policy for the third-best team in anyone’s division.

Boston is the larger long-term problem, of course, because it has won two of the last four championships and won’t run into the budget limitations that could ultimately temper Tampa’s ambition. The Sox are loaded with 20-something starters, relievers and position players who are proven winners, all a credit to a front office that has assembled the kind of burgeoning dynasty Gene Michael, Bob Watson and Brian Cashman once pieced together in the Bronx.

NLCS-bound Joe Torre is having the last laugh on the Yankees. (Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press) Read more..

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