The Yankees embarrassment of riches proved simply too much for the Phillies.
NEW YORK — Ballpark: $1.5 billion.
Payroll: $201,449,289.
Pushing the Philadelphia Phillies off their world championship perch and christening the new yard with World Series champagne in its first post-season?
Well, you get the picture.
“To the riches go the spoils!” blurted Yankees first baseman Mark Teixera, butchering the cliché inside a baseball clubhouse positively raining champagne, looking as goofy as could be conducting interviews in a pair of ski goggles.
“You always dream of what it would be like. What you will say, what you will do…” he said, realizing it was nearly impossible to take him seriously in his current state. “Then you just go with it.”
New York beat Philadelphia 7-3 to win the World Series in six games. It was the Yankees 27th title and the first in the new Yankee Stadium, and anyone who tells you the best team didn’t win the 2009 World Series must have been through Teixeira’s booze-soaked goggles these past 10 days.
The Bronx Bombers wore t-shirts that read “Do It For The Boss,” and though the reclusive George Steinbrenner was nowhere to be seen — the Yankees asked FOX not to train their TV cameras on him, as he is 79 and suffering from illness — he was in their hearts all fall.
“George Steinbrenner built an empire here, he really did,” Teixeira said. “He deserves to have a great stadium, the best money can buy. And this is it. Look at this stadium — look at this team. It’s all because of his hard work.”
There are many examples in the world of sport of how money can’t buy happiness or championships. None of those apply to the free-spendingest, most big league organization in the Big Leagues however, as the Yankees embarrassment of riches, pitching, power and talent proved simply too much for the Phillies to contain.
“We had a good team, went to the World Series and got outplayed,” said Phillies lefty Cliff Lee, who had the decision in both of his club’s wins. “They beat us.”
Beat ‘em clean.
In a lineup that just comes at you from so many angles, Hideki Matsui was the Game 6 hero with six RBI’s, which tied a 49-year-old World Series record. Matsui hit .615 in the series, had three homers and eight RBI’s to claim World Series MVP honours.
He hit a grand slam in his first game at Yankee Stadium after coming over from Japan in 2003, claiming then it was the greatest moment in his life. “I guess you could say that this is the best moment in my life … now,” he amended through an interpreter after the game.
Really though, with a batting order this potent, if Matsui didn’t get the Phillies someone else would have.
After scorching the Los Angeles Angels in the ALCS, Alex Rodriguez only hit .250 in the fall classic. But he had three doubles and a homer, played flawless defence, and can finally shed the tag of a regular season star who does not produce in the post-season.
This championship — and that reputation alteration — are two things he had in mind when he joined the Yankees in 2004.
“I said that day, that this is going to turn out to be one of the most special days in my life,” he recalls. “I’m so happy, just happy to be part of this team.”
His opposite number would have killed to hit .250 in this series, but Philadelphia slugger Ryan Howard’s bat went positively polar in this World Series. Between his .174 average with 13 strikes outs, and the awful season of last year’s Series MVP Cole Hamels, the Phillies went into battle with too many empty chambers in their gun.
“It’s nothing I’ve never seen before,” said Howard. “It’s just, sometimes you’ve got it, sometimes it’s not there.”
“Sometimes you don’t get it done, sometimes you do,” agreed Teixeira, who had a brutal Series at the plate. “We’re all failures in baseball. So when you do succeed, it feels good.”
On a night that began with such pitching promise — with greats Pedro Martinez and Andy Pettitte going head to head for the first time in post-season history — the only pitcher who truly lived up to his billing was perhaps the greatest closer of them all. The Sandman — Mariano Rivera — got the final five outs for New York, then hoisted the World Series Trophy for the fifth time.
“All of them are great, but this one is special,” he said. “There was a drought for nine years, and we finally got one. Thank God for that.”