And Just Like That, They Win

There's This Rule that Says...


Jeter and Torre.


Jeter and A-Rod


Jeter and A-Rod again


It's all about A-Rod and Jeter...? Maybe not, but from available photos, you'd think it was. :)

The Yankees beat the Red Sox today 8-4 and took out the AL East division.

BOSTON - Not their best season. Not their smoothest. And certainly not the biggest title for a franchise that has 26 World Series championships in its illustrious past.

Yet somewhere in the spray of champagne in the visitors’ clubhouse at Fenway Park on Saturday was the satisfaction that these Yankees came farther to win this AL East championship than any New York team since Bucky Dent popped one into the net here in 1978.

“I can’t take my glasses off. I’m crying like a baby,” manager Joe Torre said on the field after New York beat Boston 8-4 to clinch the division for the eighth consecutive year.

“This was the best of all of them,” he added in the clubhouse. “The first is always memorable. But this has to be the most special because of everything that went on this year.”

Randy Johnson won his sixth straight decision and the Yankees scorched Tim Wakefield for three homers — from Alex Rodriguez, Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield — to win for the 16th time in 20 games. Mariano Rivera finished up, gloving Johnny Damon’s high-chopper and throwing to first baseman Tino Martinez to set off a restrained on-field celebration.

After all the fretting abut he post-season, the Yankees won their division with 1 game to play by dint of Cleveland losing their game as well as having won 10 games to 8 against Boston this season.
The catch that nobody really looked up was that even if the Bosox win tomorrow, the Yankees have won one more against Bosox in the series this year that they claim the division. Gee. Nobody looked that up until it happened.
Fark. What a tight, cliff-hanger season that was. I'm still amazed at what this team pulled off. 94 wins after a 11-19 start is pretty damn amazing. Here comes another tense October!