Yankee Talk: First of (hopefully) many

Yanks looking for three more celebrations

NEW YORK – It seems like a long time ago when the Yankees were able to pour beer and champagne on each other in a victory celebration.

That came in late September of 2007 when they clinch a playoff berth as a Wild Card entrant, making the celebration somewhat unfulfilling.

This time, the Yankees were able to celebrate on their terms and did not have to consider it as if they were accepting a bronze or silver medal.

When Mariano Rivera’s cutter jammed Jacoby Ellsbury and the slow groundball found the glove of the great Yankee reliever who threw to first end the game, it was their 100th victory of the season and clinched everything that could be clinched.

It was now time to celebrate.

They had earned this title. After last season, there was nothing to celebrate on the field. It was a lost year in the final season of old Yankee Stadium. The only celebration that took place was the final home game of the year when everyone said goodbye to the old cathedral.

Here in 2009, they set out to change course and get back to the playoffs. Anything short would be a failure. They spent $160 million on CC Sabathia, $82 million on AJ Burnett and capped it off by giving Mark Teixeira $170 million.

They struggled early on as they tried to find their identity and battled through injuries. The bullpen bridge was an absolute mess and as they shuffled relievers in and out, you wondered how bad it would get losing games late in a tough division where before the year they were ranked by the (drive by) media as the third best team in their own division.

In June, they didn’t know where they were as a team. Battling back from a slow start, they won 19 of 25 games and then promptly went to Boston and were swept, running the tally in their season series to 0-8 and questions as to whether they could ever beat the Red Sox anymore.

They lost two of three at home to the Nationals and you thought that the season could not get any worse.

In Atlanta, they had already lost the first game and were losing the second game before Joe Girardi lost his top disputing a call where Brett Gardner was called out when he was safe after replay. The Yankees came back to win that night and since that day are 62-24. Translate that over the course of 162 games, and that winning percentage is higher than the 1998 team that won 114, than 11 more in the playoffs that totaled 125.

During the season, the team would celebrate wins with wrestling belts and cream pies when a player won the game with a walk off. Now, as they could count down the outs, they were looking forward to a much better way to rejoice their season accomplishment.

What they are hoping is that this is the first of four celebratory moments where they can break out the goggles, pop the corks and pour beer on each other.

Sunday was the first moment.

The next moment would come after winning the Division Series.

The next would come after winning the American League pennant.

The final one would come after capturing that world championship that has eluded them since 2000.

While this moment was a long time coming, it was also inevitable. Now, they can enjoy what they have done, but realizing that they are playing for a much bigger prize.

Making the playoffs was the minimum, but now they gear up to win 11 more games. Three wins put them in the ALCS. Seven wins put them in the World Series. Eleven wins bring a 27th world title.

Let’s keep the celebrations coming.