Finally, Yankees Earn Their Pinstripes

NEW YORK -- On a pleasant, Doppler-free evening made for bare, brawny forearms, Alex Rodriguez continued his postseason awakening without even swinging a bat. This was in the fourth inning, when the Angels were unable to employ their desired intentional walk because the bases were loaded. So as 50,000 fans stood and shrieked and awaited magic in the new Stadium -- all except Kate Hudson, who sat like she was waiting for Matt Dillon in You, Me and Dupree -- A-Rod stepped in and sought a pitch to rip into the galaxy.

The fat one never came. Joe Saunders walked him, forcing in the Yankees' third run when it was apparent that the Angels wouldn't score more than that off two Doctor Octobers, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera. All that awaited were the police to ring their field, and when they arrived nearly at the stroke of midnight, the Yankees were celebrating their 40th American League pennant and first World Series trip in six years, which in these parts is an eternity.

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It's no coincidence that their return to the Fall Classic, as the Best Team Money Can Buy, arrives with Rodriguez's autumn surge as The Best Mercenary The Steinbrenners Can Splurge On. Finally, he has shed the feeble, ghastly memories of playoffs past -- the wimpy swat of Bronson Arroyo's glove, his 0-for-20 rut with runners in scoring position the last three postseasons -- and become a force worthy of a $275-million contract and Hollywood starlet girlfriend. With five home runs, 12 RBI and a .438 batting average in nine playoff games, A-Rod has transformed the Yankees from the biggest annual bust in sports, the franchise that got the least bang for its buck, into the favorites to win their 27th world championship. After spending billions of dollars on payrolls and another billion and a half on an immaculate ballpark where the hot-dog mustard is pumped from crystal fountains -- think I'm kidding? -- the Yankees finally are where they're supposed to be in sport and life.

As is he.

"I've been dreaming about this since I was 5 years old. Now, it's not a dream anymore. We're in the World Series with 24 of the greatest guys you could ever play with," a grinning Rodriguez said after the 5-2 victory in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series, which assured a classic I-95 matchup against the Phillies. "I couldn't be more excited right now. I feel like a kid."

It's a dream for many of the Yankees, even as a cynical America wonders how a team with a $210-million payroll can embrace storybook ambitions. For Joe Girardi, it's proof that he truly can manage this operation when he didn't make the playoffs last year and was ripped for making too many pitching decisions earlier in the ALCS. For Derek Jeter, Game 6 winner Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada -- the "Core Four" who have been around since the glory days started in the mid-1990s -- it's a chance to win a fifth title after so many disappointments. For general manager Brian Cashman and the Steinbrenner boys, Hal and Hank, it justifies spending $423.5 million on ALCS MVP CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett. And though he wasn't in the house that Ruthlessness Built, it is a dream for George Steinbrenner, whose spend-and-win spirit remains alive and well amid a poor American economy and remains the inspirational focus for everyone involved.

"I spoke to him this morning," said Hal Steinbrenner, clutching the new trophy in the neon-blue-lit clubhouse. "Everyone feels like we're doing this for him. We want to win the whole thing for him."

"We're trying to do this for Pops," Girardi said. "Mr. Steinbrenner deserves another championship, and that's why I wear the number I do."

It was the Boss, of course, who bought into the A-Rod monster and brought him to New York, even when Rodriguez's immaturity and penchant for controversy suggested he'd be a tabloid nightmare. Not until now has the grand idea paid off. "What he's been able to in this postseason has been really pretty incredible," Girardi said. "You know, it's just not the home runs, it's just not the RBI. He's a great baserunner. And his defense has been exceptional. I think his leadership has been exceptional. It's more than just the numbers sometimes what Alex does. He's been as good as anyone I can remember."

Let's also be sure to keep his surge in perspective. Joe Buck, the FOX play-by-play man, described Rodriguez as a "hero" on the Game 6 broadcast. A-Rod is no hero. What we're watching is a man who needlessly took steroids -- cheated -- when he was blessed with more physical gifts than any baseball player alive. At last, I presume, the man is clean and allowing his abilities to circumvent his mental baggage to dominate a postseason for the first time, in part because he has found romantic peace with an actress who is cuter than the Rally Monkey, much younger than Madonna and more reputable than that Manhattan madam.

Hero? Nope, just another flawed human being who figured out life.

"I certainly feel free and liberated," he said. "It's the happiest I've been in a long time."

Happy and healthy, with a surgically repaired hip that remarkably isn't bothering him in the least, Rodriguez is the difference between the Yankees flopping again and hosting Game 1 this Wednesday. Oh, it helps to have Sabathia pitching three times in the Series, not to mention Andy Pettitte as the winningest postseason pitcher ever, with his 16th victory quelling pre-game silliness that his start would backfire on Girardi. It also helps to have the greatest closer ever in Rivera, who shockingly was nicked for a run in the eighth, and a batting order that has only one weakness in Nick Swisher. But for all the star power that goes to work in the world's gaudiest clubhouse -- a hot tub for 12, dark tiling in the bathrooms, frosted glass partitions dividing the lockers, ThinkPad computers, a climate-controlled bat room -- make no mistake: The 2009 Yankees are an A-Rod spectacular.

Which is powerful stuff, considering where he was eight months ago. That is when he was caught in the big lie, having to acknowledge steroids use after denying it often in the past. He was an American pariah, no longer known for his accomplishments -- closing in on 600 home runs, 12 All-Star Games, 10 Silver Slugger Awards, three AL MVPs -- as much as his infamy. To compound matters, he was fighting hip problems that required surgery and seemed capable of eventually sabotaging his career. He marriage was ruined. His image was trashed. His new nickname was A-Fraud, straight from the mouths of teammates.

"I think it's fair to say I hit rock bottom this spring, between the embarrassment of the press conference and my career being threatened with my hip injury," Rodriguez said. "My life and my career were at a crossroads, and I was either going to stay at the bottom or I was going to bounce back."

At 34, he chose redemption. From his first game back after surgery in May, when he homered in Baltimore on his first at-bat, to his month-long assault on Angels and Twins pitching, Rodriguez has been the epicenter of baseball's biggest ongoing story. For once, we needn't try to figure out A-Rod. We simply can enjoy him. "Mentally? I'm not a psychologist, man. You need to ask him," said Derek Jeter, his longtime nemesis and now-trusted teammate. "He just seems comfortable. I don't know what he's thinking, I don't want to know. Just leave him alone, that's the biggest thing. He seems like he was comfortable pretty much the whole end of the year and just carried it into the playoffs. I ain't trying to figure it out, man."

"I don't think I've ever seen a guy go through a stretch like this, especially in the postseason," Teixeira said. "You know the other team is trying everything they can to get him out, but he's not missing pitches and he's not swinging at bad pitches. Alex is one of the greatest hitters of all time and he's showing it now."

"I don't think I've ever seen a guy go through a stretch like this, especially in the postseason. ... Alex is one of the greatest hitters of all time and he's showing it now."
-- Mark Teixeira The word you hear in the new Stadium is "comfortable." When A-Rod is comfortable, he makes everyone else comfortable. And vice versa. For decades, the Steinbrenner circus has been a pressure cooker like no other in sports, a place where insanely paid players unravel in the big-media glare. But in Girardi, they found a leader who could keep the ship calm, having learned his lessons about anger management after his firing in Florida. They were ready to zing him again if Pettitte failed, but, please, why would Pettitte fail when he has thrived so often in October? "This is why I came back. I feel blessed," said Pettitte, who has distanced himself from his own steroids admission and dirt-dishing on Roger Clemens. Girardi also handled A-Rod's tender psyche better than most professional shrinks could have, and he made the transition smooth for Sabathia, Burnett and Teixiera. Naturally, he deflected the attention from himself to the players. "The difference was, we had big players play big for us," Girardi said. "CC was huge. Alex was huge. Mariano. It all started with Alex, with his home runs in the seventh, ninth and 11th [inning]. We've had big players do big things. That's why we have a chance to go to the World Series."

Translated, extraordinarily paid players are earning their money, which isn't usually the case in cash-grab situations. That's what is different about this team: In times when Americans don't want to hear about stinking-rich athletes, the Yankees are earning their keep and their pinstripes. "We came in with the goal of winning a championship, and we're one step closer," Sabathia said. "It's really not a surprise that we are here. I don't want to say it that way, but this is a real good team of guys who blend in well together."

No one symbolizes the breakthrough more than A-Rod, who always has been the wild card in the puzzle. Which Alex are you getting day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year? Now there's a thread of dominance for the greater body of work. OK, so there's a story circulating that his girlfriend, Hudson, has been using her Buddhist upbringing to help her man in prayer at games. Better it be Buddhism, apparently, than Madonna's Kabbalah.

"He's doing something different," Angels outfielder Torii Hunter. "I think he's shorter with his swing and being patient, a lot more patient. He looks different at the plate. He definitely wants it. You can tell by the way he's swinging. That guy's a bad guy, man. I wish he was on my team."

For the first time, the Yankees are happy that he is on their team.