Celebrating the forever champion 1998 Yankees, contrasting this team's current reality
NEW YORK – Andy Pettitte was among the 1998 world champion Yankees who recalled the wreckage of the ’97 team, and how that “really drove us’’ toward a forever season.
“We were so hungry in ’98,’’ Pettitte said.
That ’97 club saw their season abruptly end in Cleveland, in the AL Division Series. And that was a better Yankee team than the club that won the 1996 World Series.
This 2023 team won’t see the postseason, and you wonder how they’ll emerge from the debris in ’24 with a Core Two of Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole and many areas of need to address.
“That was really a low point,’’ Hall-of-Fame manager Joe Torre said of the sudden ending in ’97.
But the ’98 club that won 125 total games?
“They were relentless,’’ Torre said.
Derek Jeter gets the DiMaggio treatment at Old-Timers' Day
Long before Saturday's unsightly 9-2 Yankees loss to the contending Milwaukee Brewers, it was a day to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that amazing ’98 team - with Derek Jeter making his Old-Timers’ Day debut, the 75th such occasion at Yankee Stadium.
“I’m working on rebranding the name Old-Timers’ Day to something else,’’ said Jeter, 49, introduced last – the Joe DiMaggio treatment accorded to the legendary Hall of Fame Yankees captain.
Torre received a standing ovation, and there were the customary big cheers for Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams, who was absent due to shoulder replacement surgery but recorded a heartfelt video message.
Current manager Aaron Boone’s introduction was accompanied by groans and mixed with boos (not Boooones), a brief reminder of the Yankees’ present last-place reality.
“Just what I get chatting with Boonie and seeing him from time to time, he’s handling it really well,’’ Torre said. “They’ve had some bad breaks but that’s not an excuse when you’re a member of the Yanekes.
“You’re expected to win. When he signed up for it, he knew what he was getting into.’’
David Wells: "You don't have a George Steinbrenner anymore''
Meanwhile, GM Brian Cashman was a long way from the Bronx this weekend, scouting the next best player who could impact the majors in 2024 from Japan.
Right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 25, threw his second career no-hitter for the Orix Buffaloes and Cashman was applauding from a front row seat, alongside special adviser Omar Minaya.
How much the Yankees are willing to spend toward refiguring their 2024 roster is unclear, though David Wells offered his opinion on why the organization has gone pennant-less since 2009.
“You don’t have a George Steinbrenner anymore. And that’s the guy who created this dynasty. He went out and got guys who wanted to win,'' said Wells, suggesting owner Hal Steinbrenner adopt more of his late father's business model.
Author of a perfect game in 1998 and uninhibited about expressing his views, Wells’ Saturday hit list included current clubhouse culture and baseball analytics.
“I go into clubhouses, guys have got their headphones on, they’re hiding in the back room,’’ Wells said of a lack of camaraderie.
“And it’s these analytics…to me, personally, it’s ruining the game because these guys don’t have the free will to be themselves and go out and try to find their own identity.
“They’re having an identity brought to them.’’
Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dominguez and the Yankees' future
The absence, again, of any Old-Timers’ Day game – a huge disappointment for the fans - seemed be a relief to the core Yankees.
“I didn’t want to embarrass myself out there,’’ said Posada.
Those fans waited through a nearly three-hour rain delay to see Game 142 of a lost Yankee season, though the play of Anthony Volpe and the arrival of Jasson Dominguez provides hope for a brighter future.
With experience, “he’s going to get better,’’ Jeter said of Volpe, the new shortstop.
“It’s tough to play here in New York as a young player when the expectation levels are so high. But from everything I can tell, the way he handles himself stands out most.’’
Jeter’s advice to the kids, as always, is that it’s “the same game, just more people in the stands.’’
Have fun. Be yourself, but “the bottom line here is you’ve got to win,'' said Jeter, on a September day when the glory of that '98 championship Yankee team never seemed so far away.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Yankees celebrate 1998 world championship team with Derek Jeter
