Friday October 23,1998
World Series
7B
'98 Yankees' season evaluated
Place in history disagreed upon
The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — The greatest team ever? Former baseball manager Sparky Anderson said the 1998 New York Yankees aren't even two-thirds of the way there.
"They're a great team for this era and will go down in history as a great team," Anderson said. "But they cannot be rated until they've won at least three World Series."
With Wednesday night's 3-0 victory against San Diego, the Yankees completed their first Series sweep since they dismantled the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies.
With a 114-48 regular season record, an 11-2 postseason mark and two Series titles in three seasons, their place in history is assured.
"I'm a little young to know about the teams back in the early 1900s." Derek Jeter said. "We were 125-50, and there's not too many teams that can do that. So I think we can argue about us being the best of all time."
Even last spring, Yogi Berra knew this team was special.
"I said they were going to win by
25," he recalled Wednesday. "They only won by 22."
They finished with a .714 winning percentage, the highest in baseball since the '27 Yankees led by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and the fourth-highest ever.
But how good are they? The best in 71 years? The best ever?
"That can't be answered," said Berra.
Led by the M&M Boys, the '61 Yankees had more power, with Roger Maris hitting 61 homers and Mickey Mantle hitting 54 en route to a 109-53 record and a 4-1 Series win over Cincinnati.
The '39 Yankees were the strongest of Joe DjMaggio's teams, finishing the regular season 106-45 and sweeping the Reds and winning their fourth straight Series title.
The '27 Yankees, generally regarded as baseball's best, went 110-44 and then swept Pittsburgh.
And what about Anderson's 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds, the Big Red Machine led by Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Pete Rose?
"I would rank this (1998 Yankees) team third or fourth," said The Chicago Tribune's Jerome Holtman, who has been on the beat for 42 seasons. "There isn't a Hall of Famer. They don't have a dominant hitter."
Holtzman rates this team behind the '27 Yankees, the '61 Yankees.
"They're a great team for this era and will go down in history as a great team, but they cannot be rated until they've won at least three World Series."
the Big Red Machine and perhaps the '19 White Sox, who threw the World Series against Cincinnati in a gambling scandal.
Sparky Anderson Former baseball manager
a gambler's surreal
Morgan puts these Yankees behind the 76 Reds because there's no superstar.
Anderson knows something about great teams, too. He managed the Reds to World Series titles in '75 and '76 and the Tigers in '84.
"You can never rank teams for this reason: There's no way the '27 Yankees can ever play the '98 Yankees or the Baltimore Orioles and the Oakland Athletics or the great Reds team." Anderson said.
"If you're going to dominate for a long time, you have to have a stud," Morran said.
It's also hard to rank these Yankees because they had a huge lead by the All-Star break and coasted to the most wins in the regular season since the '06 Cubs went 116-36.
"New York played against themselves all year just to see how good they could be," Morgan said. "Maybe they would have won 120 games if someone was pushing them."
The A's from 1973-75 were the last team to win three titles with the same nucleus. New York manager Joe Torre looks up to the Catfish Hunter-Reggie Jackson-Rollie Fingers teams as a standard, along with the Yankees in the '40s and '50s and the Big Red Machine.
"The 27 Yankees may have the better club, but we have the best record," Torre said after the finale. "We have to take a back seat to no one in my lifetime."
Scott Brosius, the World Series MVP, said it was impossible to have a definitive answer.
I think that will probably be talked about forever," he said. "The comparisons will go on and on, and maybe nobody will have a definite answer for the best team of all time. But you can look at this year and say we had the best single season of any other team, and that's a great accomplishment."
Yankees fans rejoice World Series title
New Yorkers' pride at an all-time high
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Fans are pumped.
After whooping it up in bars, on streets and outside an empty Yankee Stadium all night. Yankees supporters spent yesterday morning preparing to welcome the World Series champions home.
The Clubhouse, a Manhattan store that sells Yankees paraphernalia, was doing good business.
Manager John Camilleri said he
arrived at 6 a.m. and found a dozen people waiting for him at the door.
It's amazing, he said.
But not unpredictable.
Bernie Calamilleri was so sure the Yankees would beat the San Diego Padres and clinch their 24th championship, he put all the new merchandise out Wednesday night. He opened an hour early at 7 a.m., anticipating an eager crowd.
Yankees championship T-shirts and hats were flying off shelves as a steady stream of smiling fans came and went.
Much of the Yankees apparel is sure to be on display today during a victory parade up the Canyon of
Heroes on Broadway.
Many fans weren't waiting for the parade to start celebrating.
In the shadow of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, people spilled into the streets early today banging pots, blowing whistles ring.
"This is where it's at," said 26-year old Jay Justino of the Bronx, looking wistfully at the stadium.
ig cowbells and generally making as much noise as possible.
"Just to think, if they were home."
"Awesome," he said, referring to the 1998 version. "It reminds me of the early '60 teams because they're unbeatable. Even when they're losing, you expect them to win."
Longtime Yankees devote Tony Magro said the team ranks with the dominant clubs of the early 1960s, which featured Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.
Before the game started, Harrelson, a member of the 1969 world champion Mets, paid the team perhaps the ultimate compliment.
"If we were amazin', they're just incredible," he said.
Scott Brosius named World Series MVP
The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — Scott Brosius waited for the grounder, and after fielding it, he fired the ball to first base for the final out of 1998.
The New York Yankees swept the San Diego Padres to become World Series champions, and Brosius was their MVP.
For both, there couldn't have been a more fitting finish.
Brosius, an unknown commodity when the Yankees traded for him last November, ended this October as the most valuable player on one of the most celebrated teams in baseball history.
Brosius finished the series 8 for-17 (471) with two homers and six RBIs in four games to become the sixth third baseman in World Series history to be named MVP.
"I just think the biggest moment is that third out," Brosius said. "Throwing the ball and knowing it was the end of the game and the end of the season.
After the Yankees completed the sweep. Brosius was serenaded by his teammates in the clubhouse the same way the right-field bleacher fans rhythmically chanted his name all season at Yankee Stadium.
"I think it's every player's dream to get to the World Series and feel like you've played a part of the team getting there and the team winning." Brosius said.
"Scotty Bro-sius ... Scotty
bro-sius."
Brosius, who said he was eating pizza and watching TV when Florida won the Series last October, drove in the second run of the Yankees' Game 4 win with a soft single in the eight inning that didn't make it out of the infield.
"There certainly some satisfaction in how this has worked
out." Brosius said. "But I also just feel very lucky to be in this position, how things have changed from last year. It's just an unbelievable turnaround."
Last fall, the Yankees finally dumped disappointing pitcher Kenny Rogers to Oakland and got Brosius in return. There were some eyebrows raised at the deal since the third baseman was coming off a miserable 1997 season with the A's, batting .203 with just 41 RBIs.
But from the outset of this season, Brosius fit right in with the Yankees. He batted .300 with 19 homers and 98 RBI in 152 games.-Punctuating his remarkable season and the Yankees' incredible depth is the fact that Brosius often batted ninth in the order.
Forget the World Series MVP. Many of the Yankees thought Brosius was their most valuable player since April because of his presence on the field and in the clubhouse.
"There's a lot of things he has done base-hit wise, defense-wise and just attitude-wise that has helped everyone on the bench also," Yankees' manager Joe Torre said before Game 4.
Brosius, 32, played the postseason while his father underwent colon cancer surgery and chemotherapy. His father was in the stands Tuesday night when Brosius hit the two homers and came close to hitting a third.
Brosius was such a low-key part of the Yankees during spring training that Torre stared at the team press guide, trying to figure out why his numbers tailed off so much the year before.
"we didn't know what Scott Brosius was all about," Torre said. "The first half of the year, it didn't take long for us to see that he knacked in big runs for us and was very important for us both defensively and offensively."
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