Mission 27, page 29
The off-limits areas of the ballpark took on a dreamlike haze filled with the warring aromas of booze and cigars. Within the coaches’ room, Sigma Chi gathered. A-Rod appeared with Kate Hudson and Kurt Russell, and Teixeira recalls speaking to bench coach Tony Pena about his faith. Some players offered a toast to their vanquished rival, Jimmy Rollins. Phillies in five? Try Yankees in six. “That’s why you close your mouth and let things happen,” Molina said. “He had confidence in his team, but you keep it to yourself. I know guys, especially the veteran players, weren’t happy about that. We did what we had to do, playing the game on the field, not with our mouths. We shoved it up his ass.”
Chad Bohling, the Yankees’ director of mental conditioning, shared a private moment with Jeter moments after what would be the Captain’s final championship title. “The party kind of died down a little bit, and I remember going back to the food room and grabbing something to eat,” Bohling said. “Derek was sitting down there as well. It was his fifth ring, and I remember Derek saying something like, ‘Everyone is special.’ He just won a World Series but understands how tough those things are to do. He had a good perspective on how tough it is to win but then also appreciating it and not taking it for granted.”
While fans hugged, kissed, and shouted on the sticky floors of the taverns across River Avenue, Girardi and his family piled into their SUV for a 20-minute trek to suburbia. The clock read approximately 2:30 am when Girardi’s wife, Kim, spotted a wrecked vehicle on the left side of the Cross Country Parkway. “The kids are in the back of the car and they’ve got like a 102 [degree] fever, and she’s like, ‘Stop, stop!’” Girardi said. “So I stopped. I said, ‘Call 911.’”
Dressed in a light jacket, T-shirt, and jeans, Girardi sprinted across the eastbound lanes of the parkway. Approaching the vehicle, Girardi found Marie Henry, a 27-year-old Connecticut woman, behind the wheel. Henry had sustained cuts on her face and arms after her Chevrolet Trailblazer blew a tire, slamming into a concrete wall. “There was glass all over her from the window,” Girardi said. “I wanted her to get out of the car, but she wouldn’t. I said, ‘I’m afraid that someone’s going to come around the corner, not see you, and smoke you.’ She was just out of it. I would say within a minute thirty the police were there.”
After Girardi climbed back into his car and sped off, the responding officer, Kathleen Cristiano, filled Henry in on the identity of her Good Samaritan. Days later a thank you note from the motorist appeared in Girardi’s Stadium office. “When she told me it was Joe Girardi, I was stunned,” Henry told the Connecticut Post. “There were plenty of cars that went by and didn’t stop, but he did. And he took a big chance to get to my car. That tells me what a good person he is. Most people know him as manager of the Yankees, but I will always think of him as the guy who went out of his way to help a stranger in trouble.”
At the moment Girardi was trying to pry open the mangled door of a mid-size SUV, most of his players were shedding their alcohol-soaked gear in favor of something drier. It was too early to head home, and who could guarantee that they’d experience another night like this? As they felt the rush of the cold November air, the Yankees were ready to enjoy the bright lights of New York City as champions.
26. Mission Accomplished
The clubhouse celebration had died down, though the stench of spilled champagne would linger for weeks to come. Players and coaches hugged as they prepared to head for the streets, subway, or the Stadium parking garage, but this was not good-bye. A parade was already being planned, giving the entire team a chance to soak in the love of more than a million New Yorkers.
A number of players, coaches, and front-office types had decided to keep the party going at 1 OAK, a nightclub on West 17th Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. When Nick Swisher’s car ascended to street level, he was stunned to see how many fans were still reveling underneath the tracks for the 4 Train. River Avenue looked like Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. “I thought everybody in New York would’ve been at the bars partying,” Swisher said. “It was a mob of people. I’ll never forget it. I decided I was going to get out of my car, get on the hood, and pump the crowd up. I couldn’t quite make it; I got bum-rushed, bro. Getting the hugs and the high-fives that people were giving me, it was so amazing. The love that New York City and Yankees fans have for their team, you can’t beat that.”
Most of the gang eventually did make it to the trendy nightlife venue, where they exchanged hugs and high-fives with anybody who looked vaguely familiar. Champagne bottles continued to pop all night, and players and coaches passed them around like they were attending a fraternity kegger. “It was rowdy and crazy loud, but we were all just in a little group,” A.J. Burnett said. “We were all together in this spot, celebrating this achievement together. I can’t even remember how long we stayed. I don’t remember a lot from that night after we left the clubhouse. I didn’t drive; I know that.”
Johnny Damon had won a World Series five years earlier with the Boston Red Sox, though they clinched at Busch Stadium, so that celebration took place in a St. Louis hotel. “Winning at home, that’s a whole different ballgame,” said Damon, who recalled ending up at a karaoke bar in Koreatown at some point after Game 6. “When I won with Boston, we were in St. Louis, so everyone had to pack so we could go home. That took away from us hanging out for a long time. This was just a great, fun night.”
The season culminated with the championship the Yankees had envisioned when they first assembled in early February, though their path to the World Series had been anything but smooth. That was part of what made the journey so memorable. “Everything that happened that year, we had so many ups and downs,” CC Sabathia said, “A-Rod being hurt, him coming back, us struggling, just all that stuff. We expected to win the World Series, too; that’s a tough thing to deal with. I think it was a big exhale. We had a lot of fun. You don’t want that night to end.”
Swisher said that he remembers being “so excited but yet so exhausted” as he realized the Yankees had accomplished their mission for 2009. Including spring training, the regular season, and the postseason, the team played 212 games, winning 138. “That’s unbelievable,” Swisher said. “To go through that entire season and be able to celebrate at the end of it, it’s a fucking blowout. At that point you know you don’t have anything to do for a little bit and you’re champs.”
Even players that didn’t typically partake in such events made it to the club. Derek Jeter, for example, was six years removed from a public tussle with George Steinbrenner over late hours and a bachelor lifestyle. Even though it resulted in a memorable credit-card commercial, Jeter preferred to save his partying for special occasions. This qualified. “I remember being excited that Jeet was out,” Sabathia said. “He never goes out to the club, so to have him there was fun. That was the big celebration, the big night. We had a blast. We were out all night.”
One unlikely snapshot of the evening included Mark Teixeira against a back wall of the club, swigging from bottles of champagne in both hands as Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” thumped at incredible decibel levels. “He was standing on the booth; he was going to work,” Joba Chamberlain said. “When Tex lets loose, Tex lets loose. It’s fun to be around.”
Had it been Teixeira’s choice, the team might have spent the entire night together partying at the Stadium—Sigma Chi perhaps—though he went with the flow. “I’m not a big club guy and I didn’t really want to party with people I didn’t know,” Teixeira said. “I would rather stay in the clubhouse for two straight days, but eventually you’ve got to go to sleep.”
Last call in New York City is 4:00 am, but considering the final out of Game 6 was recorded 10 minutes before midnight, it’s likely the establishment bent the ordinance to let the champions celebrate a few hours longer. Billy Eppler, the assistant general manager, said that he remembers that the sun had come up by the time he was ready to call a car service.
“I don’t think I recovered from that,” Alex Rodriguez said. “We had a great time that night.”
Suffice it to say, most of the players’ congratulatory phone calls and text messages went unreturned in the early morning hours of November 5. Phil Hughes said that he stayed in bed for an entire day after the post-World Series parties, while some of the support staff—unable to make it all the way home—crashed in hotels.
Less than 36 hours after Robinson Cano zipped the final out of Game 6 into Teixeira’s glove, a parade honoring the World Series champions was scheduled to proceed through the Canyon of Heroes. Few of the players were operating at 100 percent that morning. “Everybody needed that time, especially Johnny,” Hughes said. “My favorite thing is they gave us copies of that DVD, the MLB Productions one, and seeing these interviews where he’s got these bloodshot eyes and bed head. You can tell it’s from two days after we had won. It’s pretty funny.”
Their adrenaline was flowing as the Yankees reunited at the Stadium at 6:30 am on the morning of the parade. A police escort shuttled them into Lower Manhattan, and the floats moved slowly from Broadway and Battery Place, proceeding north to Chambers Street. “There’s a lot of hurry up and wait, so I knew we were hurrying and we were waiting,” Damon said. “You can’t really go throughout the city of New York because there’s so much traffic.”
A wide range of estimates pegged the crowd as being between 500,000 and three million people, though most seemed to settle on a number in the million-plus range. Everywhere you looked, fans in Yankees hats lined the streets with many holding signs thanking their favorite players for the team’s 27th championship. “It was as good as the first one,” Andy Pettitte said. “The parade is absolutely one of the greatest things. You want to win a championship to be able to experience that again and be able to let the guys do it that had never experienced a parade. It’s one of America’s great events.”
For those first-timers, the sight of that many people in one place was awe-inspiring. “New York is a big, impressive place,” Teixeira said. “When you pack millions of people into a few blocks, it becomes even more impressive.”
“You’re used to playing in front of a packed house every night, so 45 or 50,000 people doesn’t sound that crazy anymore,” Hughes said. “It was a staggering amount of people there. You really got a sense of how many Yankee fans there are in the city.”
Fans clamored to see their favorite players, chanting “MVP!” at Hideki Matsui while lauding superstars like Jeter and A-Rod. One of Michael Kay’s favorite memories of that morning was seeing the genuine wonder on Rodriguez’s face. “He was overwhelmed because a lot of people had been telling him, ‘Wait until you see this’ and he finally got a chance to experience it,” said Kay, the play-by-play broadcaster. “This is a guy that, for whatever reason, never received the love that would be commensurate to his level of talent. He felt the love that day.”
When a float would roll by with someone they didn’t recognize, fans would shout, “Who are you?” “I was just a rookie; they’re like, ‘Where’s Derek? Where’s CC? Where’s Andy?’” David Robertson said. “It was a good time. I just couldn’t believe how many people showed up.”
The ticker tape that rained upon the Yankees for their first two parades through the Canyon of Heroes in 1961 and 1962 was no longer in use, so high above Broadway, observers leaned out of windows and flung tons of shredded office paper, confetti, and toilet paper into the air. “To look down the street and see nothing but people and people sitting outside of balconies throwing paper like 30 floors up,” Swisher said, “it looked like it was snowing in November.”
Francisco Cervelli was joined by a couple of A-list companions. As his float rolled through the streets, A-Rod was on the catcher’s left, sporting dark sunglasses, a fedora, and a Yankees dugout jacket. To Cervelli’s right was Jay-Z, who wore a World Series cap and acknowledged cheering fans as though he had led the club in home runs and RBIs. “A-Rod was in the front with Jay-Z and he told him, ‘Hey, Cervy is the player; let him live this moment,’” Cervelli said. “I was in the front watching everything; I cannot forget it. People were hanging everywhere off the lights.”
As a high school student, Dana Cavalea had skipped class to attend the Yankees’ parades in the late 1990s, clamoring for a view of Jeter or Bernie Williams. Now he was part of the team on the other side of the fun. As the strength and conditioning coach marveled at the throngs of fans, all he could think was, Are you kidding me? “We just won together, but you felt that it was already over,” Cavalea said. “That was the undertone of it all. But you were a part of the greatest team in the world that day, going through New York City. People were just going wild. It was a little bit scary, too, because here you are as a moving target, and people can throw things out the window.”
Once the caravan reached city hall, players, coaches, and executives took seats on the stage, walking in to Queen’s “We Are the Champions.” Jeter carried the World Series trophy, hoisting it high above his head, and the attendees were bathed in brilliant sunshine. “It’s been too long, hasn’t it?” Jeter said to the crowd. “It feels good to be back.”
“You forget how magical this is,” Hal Steinbrenner added.
Jay-Z took the stage for another performance of “Empire State of Mind,” adding an appropriate closing touch to an unforgettable season. “It was our song,” Sabathia said. “Still to this day, that’s my song. When it comes on, it’s our ’09 World Series song. It was cool to have that be our thing.”
“It does remind me of what was a very special October and getting to be part of the parade, which was unreal,” Hughes said. “But I’d be perfectly happy never hearing that song again. I’d like to keep it in a time capsule with my ring and everything else from that year. It does bring back good memories, but you’re not going to find it on any playlists I have.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered a few prepared lines, including a zinger about Jimmy Rollins needing a new crystal ball, and then presented a ceremonial key to the city to each player, coach, and executive. The final one was issued to George Steinbrenner, which Hal accepted on his father’s behalf. “I was so happy for Hal; it was his first year as managing general partner, and we were so ecstatic,” team president Randy Levine said. “It’s a great, great sense of accomplishment, and you’re very happy. You’re like that for two days and then you’ve got to start all over again. That’s the way the Yankees are.”
Joe Girardi said that he had spoken with The Boss before arriving at city hall, delivering a message from the famous owner to his players. “The only thing greater than this celebration is doing it two years in a row,” Girardi said. “So he asked me to remind you that pitchers and catchers report in 96 days. Be ready to defend it.”
The conclusion of the parade closed the book on 2009. Players dispersed to their respective offseason homes, while the front office began plotting the quest to defend their title. By the beginning of the next week, the pro scouting meetings were underway. Call it Mission 28, an objective that still remains to this day. “We don’t get the chance in the front office to enjoy it as much as others because the work starts immediately thereafter,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “During the World Series run, I was already talking about Curtis Granderson with [Detroit Tigers general manager] Dave Dombrowski.”
When the Yankees opened 2010, they did so without Damon, Matsui, Brian Bruney, Melky Cabrera, Phil Coke, Jerry Hairston Jr., Eric Hinske, Ian Kennedy, Jose Molina, Xavier Nady, and Chien-Ming Wang, all of whom had been traded, released, or signed elsewhere as free agents.
The home opener was scheduled for April 13 against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The team that the Yankees had defeated in the American League Championship Series the previous fall had signed Matsui as a free agent only five weeks after he was named the MVP of the World Series. It was a happy coincidence that Matsui would be present to receive his ring along with his former teammates.
With Girardi, Yogi Berra, and Whitey Ford handing out the treasures, each player was summoned to receive a ring, which was handcrafted in white gold by Balfour and featured a Yankees blue stone accented by a diamond-clustered “NY” logo. A beautiful rendition of the Stadium adorned the sides, along with the words “Tradition” and “Unity.”
When Matsui’s name was called, the title team enveloped the slugger in a circle of love and admiration. His red cap and gray uniform stood out in a swarm of navy blue hats and white pinstripes. “It was just so heartwarming for everybody to surround me in that way and appreciate me,” Matsui said. “That was probably the one moment that I almost had tears in my eyes. I was so happy.”
Jeter played a prank on his friend, replacing Matsui’s ring with a fan giveaway that had been distributed that spring. Matsui didn’t inspect the ring immediately, but when his Angels teammates cracked open the wooden box, some remarked that it looked cheaper than they expected. Girardi gave Matsui the real ring during pregame introductions. “Knowing Matsui,” Jeter said, “he probably appreciated the fake one, too.”
A more private ceremony took place in George Steinbrenner’s suite, as Girardi and Jeter presented The Boss with his seventh ring. A Michigan fan, Jeter playfully told Steinbrenner that he would need to take off his Ohio State ring in order to claim the new Yankee version. Instead, Steinbrenner removed his 2000 ring, replacing it with 2009. “I consider that one of my most special moments as a Yankee, handing him a ring,” Girardi said. “That is probably the best way you can say thank you to George—to give him a World Series ring.”
