Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2009 Yankees land in this spot?
From the point of view of the Yankees, 2009 was a long time coming. New York had last won a World Series in 2000, and had lost in both 2001 and 2003 — there was also that whole letting the Red Sox come back from down 3-0 in the 2004 American League Championship Series thing to contend with. For most teams, a nine-year wait isn’t significant, especially not for a franchise that was constantly in the thick of things in the intervening years. For the Yankees, though, after racking up championships in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000, nine years felt like an eternity, especially with the rival Red Sox winning in 2004 and 2007 in between.
The 2009 season put a stop to the waiting, and with authority. The Yankees won 103 games, powered by free agent acquisition Mark Teixeira, who not only won a Gold Glove at first base in a lineup that already had future Hall of Fame shortstop Derek Jeter in it, as well as Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Canó and Johnny Damon. Hideki Matsui slugged .509 with 28 homers as the team’s DH, which, in comparison to what Jeter, Rodriguez and Cano were doing, was basically a footnote. That’s not a knock on Matsui, so much as a reminder of just how good the rest of the lineup was.
The rotation wasn’t as strong, but that’s not the same as saying it was weak. CC Sabathia was a Cy Young contender and the rotation’s anchor. A.J. Burnett threw 207 innings as an above-average starter, with Andy Pettitte having a similar campaign in his age-37 season. The back-end of the rotation was less reliable, but the bullpen trio of Phil Hughes, David Robertson and the fantastic Mariano Rivera — who had a 1.76 ERA with 44 saves even at the age of 39 — helped keep that from being a problem in October.
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The Yankees handled the Twins with ease in the ALDS, sweeping them in three games. The ALCS took more work, but New York handled the 97-win Los Angeles Angels in six, with Sabathia picking up two of those wins en route to being named series MVP for his 16 innings with just two runs allowed. The World Series was against the 2008 defending champion Phillies — the Yankees also won the Fall Classic four games to two. While there might have been more potent sluggers on the roster in the regular season, no one in this World Series made more of an impact than Hideki Matsui. He hit .615/.643/1.385 with 3 home runs and 8 RBIs in six games: in Game 2, his solo shot against Pedro Martinez snapped a tie and led to a Yankees’ win, and in Game 6, Matsui went deep off of Pedro again to put New York up 2-0, before adding another run with a single in the next inning. The Yankees would win Game 6, 7-3, and the World Series with it.
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