BALTIMORE — For the Yankees, there is no victory tour for winning yet another division title, readying for one more Division Series.
This is sun-rising-in-the-morning stuff, Wednesday following Tuesday. It is expected and you get no applause for it. And, really, the Yankees assure this is the case by embracing the championship-or-bust mandate. They get a parade or misery — no in between. This is the spirit of George Steinbrenner, as strong as ever.
But if anything, this season has been a manifesto on just how difficult it is to even get here: Game 1 today of the ALDS against the Orioles, not the Rangers.
Yes, let’s take the Rangers, as Exhibit A. For the first time in years, there was a team that had to win a championship more than the Yankees. Texas had adopted the rings-or-wrath motif because it had lost the last two World Series. In 2011, the Rangers were within one strike of their first-ever title — twice. So the only acceptable outcome this year for the franchise was that strike.
And look at what a weight that became for the organization. Most scouts would tell you Texas probably had the best combination of major league talent, minor league talent and willingness to spend money of any club in the sport. For most of this year, it was believed the Rangers and Yankees were the two best AL teams.
Yet Texas could not even make a Division Series date with the Yankees. The Rangers played like an exhausted, frazzled team down the stretch. Was that the extra rounds of playoffs in 2010-11 catching up to their bodies? Was it the burden of knowing that nothing short of the last champagne party of the season was tolerable? Both?
The Yankees payroll disparity is regularly cited to explain their annual success. But the Angels had a $100-million edge on the A’s and finished third in the AL West. Texas had a $65-million advantage on Oakland and — unlike the Yankees with Baltimore — could not hold off an upstart and win the division. That put the Ranges at the mercy of Friday night’s wild-card game, which was a microcosm of how tight they had become carrying the must-win mantle.
The Phillies and Red Sox were 2-3 in payroll and didn’t make the playoffs, neither did the No. 4 Angels. The Marlins began the year seventh in payroll, were done by the All-Star break and replaced in the No. 7 slot by the salary-consuming Dodgers. Neither made the playoffs. Detroit was No. 5 and struggled to win the weakest division in the majors, the AL Central. And No. 6 was the Rangers, one and done.
Money, of course, helps. But it also adds age and pressure to win, or else. The Red Sox began the year second or third in payroll in each of the past three seasons, made the playoffs in none of them, and humiliated themselves the past two.
The Yankees have avoided that. They have made the playoffs 17 out of 18 years. They have managed to escape the serial unprofessional, ignominious infighting and behavior that has caricatured Boston since last September. The Orioles haunted the Yankees this September, like the Rays did to the Red Sox last September, like the A’s did to the Rangers this September. But the Yankees prevailed.
I do think it has something to do with their culture. This is a pretty professional, serious group. There is good clubhouse leadership, beginning with Derek Jeter. The franchise probably will miss his steadiness, seriousness and commitment to winning as much as the hits when he is gone. Orioles manager Buck Showalter has been saying that for years, wondering if the culture will crumble once Jeter’s follow-the-leader tone is removed.
The front office also has done a good job of adding veteran pros happy to keep the boat pointed in the right direction rather than to rock it.
Still, it is impressive how consistently the Yankees have spit out playoff teams. Again to cite Showalter, he always said the hardest thing in baseball is not winning, but winning year after year when everyone expects you to win.
For that reason, as time goes by, I have even more respect for the 1996-2000 four-time champion Yankees. You see with retrospect how many potholes are out there in the 162-game regular season and three rounds of playoffs. This really isn’t the NCAA tournament. There are no automatic bids and as the infield fly fiasco on Friday showed there are plenty of ways to be eliminated if you get here.
Well, the Yankees are here again, having avoided falling to second in the AL East, escaping the wild card game that those talented Rangers could neither escape nor win. The Yankees will get no applause for simply taking the field tonight for another playoff appearance, for honoring must-win yet again.
Maybe they should.