2008 Woodie Awards
Yankees collapse once again in Playoffs
Juan Bernal
Issue date: 10/16/06 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 2 next >
The 21st Century has not been kind to the New York Yankees. After winning the World Series over their crosstown rival New York Mets in 2000, the Yankees have failed to win another World Series title since then, and recently things started to get a little tense in New York.
With a payroll upwards of $200 million and with the additions of Johnny Damon from the Boston Red Sox and Bobby Abreu from the Philadelphia Phillies, the Yankees had emerged as one of the World Series favorites. That presumption was helped by the fact that they finished 97-65, ten games ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays and 11 games ahead of the rival Boston Red Sox. They did it with injuries to Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui, in which both missed most of the season. Randy Johnson and Mariano Rivera also got hurt at the end of the season as well, leaving their pitching staff short on depth. Reigning AL MVP Alex Rodriguez had a miserable year by his standards in which he hit .290 with 35 home runs and 122 RBI's. Despite those stellar numbers, Rodriguez was repeatedly criticized by the New York media for not being able to hit in the clutch, striking out too much, committing too many (24) errors in the field and leaving too many runners on base. It became evident that the speculation was getting to him in the playoffs as he hit 1 for 14 in the playoffs and was switched from batting 4th to 6th to 8th against the Tigers.
The Detroit Tigers were baseball's best team from April to August, however when September rolled around, they almost suffered an epic collapse. After being sure bets to win the AL Central crown, the Tigers lost 18 of their final 31 and managed to concede their AL Central lead, which was as many as seven games at one stretch in the season.
The Twins ended up winning the AL Central, however, they flopped in three games to the AL West champion Oakland A's. Johan Santana, who had not lost a game at the Metrodome since the middle of 2004, gave up an early home run to Frank Thomas, who later in that game became the oldest player to have a multi-home run game in the postseason. In Game 2, with the game tied at 2, Twins centerfielder Torii Hunter, who has one five gold gloves in center field in his career with the Twins, made a pivotal error that led to an inside the park homer that plated two runs. The A's went on to take the first two from the Twins and would win their first postseason series in 14 years two days later as they would get an 8-3 game 3 victory.
With a payroll upwards of $200 million and with the additions of Johnny Damon from the Boston Red Sox and Bobby Abreu from the Philadelphia Phillies, the Yankees had emerged as one of the World Series favorites. That presumption was helped by the fact that they finished 97-65, ten games ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays and 11 games ahead of the rival Boston Red Sox. They did it with injuries to Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui, in which both missed most of the season. Randy Johnson and Mariano Rivera also got hurt at the end of the season as well, leaving their pitching staff short on depth. Reigning AL MVP Alex Rodriguez had a miserable year by his standards in which he hit .290 with 35 home runs and 122 RBI's. Despite those stellar numbers, Rodriguez was repeatedly criticized by the New York media for not being able to hit in the clutch, striking out too much, committing too many (24) errors in the field and leaving too many runners on base. It became evident that the speculation was getting to him in the playoffs as he hit 1 for 14 in the playoffs and was switched from batting 4th to 6th to 8th against the Tigers.
The Detroit Tigers were baseball's best team from April to August, however when September rolled around, they almost suffered an epic collapse. After being sure bets to win the AL Central crown, the Tigers lost 18 of their final 31 and managed to concede their AL Central lead, which was as many as seven games at one stretch in the season.
The Twins ended up winning the AL Central, however, they flopped in three games to the AL West champion Oakland A's. Johan Santana, who had not lost a game at the Metrodome since the middle of 2004, gave up an early home run to Frank Thomas, who later in that game became the oldest player to have a multi-home run game in the postseason. In Game 2, with the game tied at 2, Twins centerfielder Torii Hunter, who has one five gold gloves in center field in his career with the Twins, made a pivotal error that led to an inside the park homer that plated two runs. The A's went on to take the first two from the Twins and would win their first postseason series in 14 years two days later as they would get an 8-3 game 3 victory.
Be the first to comment on this story