Yankees give ‘The Boss’ his 7th title as owner

NEW YORK (AP)—For a guy who was hundreds of miles away, George Steinbrenner still managed to dominate the World Series.

Talk about a fitting tribute.

The frail owner was in Tampa, Fla., when New York beat Philadelphia 7-3 on Wednesday night to secure another championship, but there’s no doubt the outcome brought a smile to his face.

“He’s the reason we’re here,” captain Derek Jeter(notes) said. “First of all, we wouldn’t be in this stadium if it wasn’t for him. We wouldn’t have this group together if it wasn’t for him. This is a special moment. We all tried to win it for him. He deserves it.”

It was the 79-year-old Steinbrenner’s seventh crown since he bought the team in 1973 and first since turning over the day-to-day operations to his son, Hal, last November.

“Dad, I know you’re at home watching with mom,” Hal Steinbrenner said after accepting the championship trophy. “This one is for you.”

George Steinbrenner has made few public appearances since his health deteriorated in recent years. He attended the first two games against the Phillies, returning to the new Yankee Stadium for the first time since opening day.

Hal and his brother Hank talked to their father during the clinching game.

“He’s happy now,” Hank Steinbrenner said. “Like I said, he was just, I say teary-eyed, emotional, very emotional.”

Long after the players filed off the field, there was a picture of the trophy and the message “BOSS, THIS IS FOR YOU” displayed on the massive videoboard in center.

“He built this ballpark for us,” Game 6 winner Andy Pettitte(notes) said. “He put this team together. He set a standard for us to uphold. These guys embraced it, and that makes it even sweeter to accomplish what we did.”

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE: Ryan Howard(notes) broke out of his World Series slump, but it wasn’t enough for the Phillies to force a Game 7.

Howard hit an opposite-field, two-run homer to left off Andy Pettitte in the sixth inning to cut New York’s lead to 7-3, but that was it for the Philadelphia offense. The big first baseman batted just .174 (4 for 23) against the Yankees with a Series-record 13 strikeouts.

“They just got hits in clutch situations,” Howard said. “Obviously, it hurt us. I’m not disappointed. I’m proud of what we’ve done.”

Howard, who was MVP of the Phillies’ NL championship series victory over Los Angeles, finished with 17 RBIs in the postseason, tying the National League record set by San Francisco’s Rich Aurilia(notes) in 2002 and equaled by Florida’s Ivan Rodriguez(notes) in 2003.

“I feel cool. The only thing I can do now is go home and relax and come back for spring training,” Howard said. “That’s just the game. Sometimes you got it. Sometimes, it’s not.”

MORE FOR FOUR: The last Yankees championship team and the current one has four things in common: Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada(notes) and Mariano Rivera(notes).

The core four have been there for the team’s last five World Series titles.

“The funny thing about those four guys is the team in the 1990s couldn’t have won without them, and the team now couldn’t have won without them,” said Paul O’Neill, another star of the four title-winning teams and a current Yankees broadcaster. “I don’t think you’ll ever see that again, four constants like that.”

The lone holdovers from the mid-1990s, when the Yankees began their run of four titles in five years, were all involved in New York’s 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in the clinching Game 6.

No player had won five titles with one team since Yogi Berra (10 titles), Mickey Mantle (seven) and Whitey Ford (six) did it as Yankees in 1962, according to STATS LLC.

They’ve gone from brash 20-somethings to stars pushing 40, but their contributions have not diminished over the years.

“I’ve been blessed because I have four guys, we played for 15 years together,” Rivera said, “and we have accomplished everything together.”

RECORDS: Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira(notes) was hit by a pitch in the third inning Wednesday night, tying two World Series records.

Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez(notes) each were plunked three times against the Phillies, joining Pittsburgh’s Max Carey in 1925 as the only players to be hit three times in a single Series.

The 2009 Yankees, 1909 Pirates and 2001 Diamondbacks are the only clubs with six HBPs as a team in a Series.

READY FOR ANOTHER RUN: The Phillies dropped to 2-5 in the World Series and left the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds as the only National League team to win consecutive championships since 1923.

With a strong core of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley(notes) and Jimmy Rollins(notes), Philadelphia could be return to the World Series soon.

“We’ve got a good team, and we love to play baseball,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “It’s been really enjoyable to coach and manage our team because of who we’ve got on our club. I’ll tell you something, we will be back.”

AP Sports Writer Howie Rumberg contributed to this report.