The LoHud Yankees Blog and many others have the details…

Only 1,000 of the book were printed, which is a shame, since its $3,000 price therefore limits it to the coffee tables of owners, players and other billionaires and millionaires.  Apparently a scaled-down version is available for $295.  Presumably that edition is bound.

Good news on the auction of the super-duper-deluxe version is that proceeds will benefit RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) and the Players Trust.  Bad news is that, as of 10:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, 10/12, the reserve has not yet been met, with $7,000 as the current bid.

Which brings me to the commemorative Memorial Day caps teams sported in yesterday’s games.  Last year, the Yankees were forced to wear hideous red caps which looked terrible against their road grays and home pinstripes.

Yesterday’s white caps fit the uniform quite a bit better (even if Brett Gardner, as noted in today’s Star-Ledger, noted that it was worse than his Little League cap).  I suppose I had put the red cap disaster out of my mind, forgetting about the new Memorial Day “tradition,” but of course immediately noticed the white lids when the team began stretching.  To me, it recalled the look of some of the very early Yankees teams.  To others, it might have recalled the Good Humor man, an apt connection on such a hot day in the Bronx.

I like that the Yankees don’t have alternate jerseys, Sunday jerseys, or other alterations to their uniforms, even though I enjoy seeing teams wearing “throwback” or Negro Leagues jerseys from time to time.  I recall only one game that the Yankees wore Negro League jerseys, I believe it was at Detroit in 1996 when they donned N.Y. Black Yankees uniforms.  I think once a year, maybe Old Timer’s Day or another weekend game, or even a road game against a classic rival, I wouldn’t mind seeing them in a Highlanders jersey (say, 1911 next year) or revive the Black Yankees, since they played at the Stadium on occasion.

My three favorite on-field alterations:
- Jackie Robinson 42’s (but one day only, please)
- pink bats, sweatbands for Memorial Day
- occasional throwback jerseys

Sandomir’s light-hearted piece gives a bit of the history of both and catches up with the original writers, and the BATS post asks fans to submit their own, updated lyrics in the comments.

Written out, the original lyrics — especially those of the Bombers’ song — seem a bit comical nearly a half-century later.  (“We’re gonna scream, ‘Put it over the wall,’” “Oh, the butcher and the baker and the people on the streets, Where did they go?”).  They probably seemed a bit comical in the 1960s as well…

But, then, so do college fight song lyrics written in the early 1900s.  Like fight songs, the Yankees tune is more timeless than the lyrics.   The “Meet the Mets” lyrics have proven to be more enduring, even if “…step right up and BEAT the Mets” probably followed minutes after the first Yankees fan heard the famed first line.

When I used to hear the Yankees tune before and after broadcasts in the 1970s, they were already using the instrumental version.  I just assumed that the song had been around for many years, and it wasn’t until years later that I found out that it had lyrics and that it was actually written during the team’s dry spell, which lasted more than a decade from the mid-60s through the mid-70s.

I have the full version of “Here Come the Yankees” on my iPod, and it shuffles in every so often.  For both songs, their corniness is part of the charm.  They don’t need updated lyrics or new versions, as “unofficial anthems” like Sinatra’s “New York, New York” or Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” finding their own place in Yankees lore, the latter helping the team keep up with the times.

1926 Yankees

Sports are full of things that seem meaningful but really are not:  bold, profound-sounding statements that by giving some slice of the past are supposed to predict the future or place certain players or teams into categories, like Hall of Fame or Best Team Ever.  Tidbits like “teams that win the first two games win the series x percent of the time,” (of course they do, they’re usually the better team in the first place), or “Only five players in MLB history had x number of hits, y stolen bases and z hit by pitches,” with the reasoning that one who is otherwise not in the class of the other four should be considered as such.

But applied properly, items like “the last time such-and-such happened” speaks to how true the idea is that you can see something new just about every time you watch a game.  Who would have thought, for example, that the last time the Yankees won the first four series of the season — just four series! — was 1926.  They still weren’t a dominant force in the league, having won just one title (1923).  It was the first year that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were teammates together at the start of the season, and that team went on to win “only” 91 games, a nice total but one of the lowest ever for a Yankees pennant winner.

That team, of course was just one year away from being the outfit that some still consider the greatest in baseball history, and the starting eight and five regular pitchers were part of both squads.  The ‘26 Yanks actually won the first five series, then promptly lost three straight to the Philadelphia A’s, who would finish third, just six games out.

Further, 52 Yankees teams have won more than 91 games, 48 of them after 1923.  Yet none of them were able to win the first four series outright.  That’s almost 90 years ago.  Some of the best teams ever, the aforementioned ‘27 squad, 1939, 1953, 1961 and 1998 teams among them, never did that.  Fans may recall that the ‘98 Yanks lost four of their first five games and were 3.5 games out of first (!) before ripping off 25 of the next 29 and never looked back.

It doesn’t guarantee anything, but I like the tie to history that “the last time” notes suggest.  And the more basic and apples-to-apples the fact — “won the first four series,” as opposed to “won 10 games started by lefties in day games,” the better the connection.

• Our own Jerry Milani shares some news at Baseball Digest about Thursday being declared as “Jackie Robinson Day” across MLB, with all players wearing Robinson’s #42.
• Yankee fans aren’t exactly ecstatic about Javier Vazquez being back in his old-time Yankees form, to say the least.
• Bill Ivie points to the preseason predictions of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, who apparently have netted out on the Yankees and Phillies making it to the Fall Classic again this year.
• The NYT’s Fred Bierman has the lowdown on those basketball-shoes-that-are-really-baseball-cleats (or something like that) that Yankees hurler CC Sabathia has been rocking.

After a 15-year Major League career, Cuellar pitched his last game in May 1977, just as I was becoming a fan, so I never got to see him play.  But I recall, even early on in discovering the game, a certain connection I felt towards Cuellar.  I remember reading a lot about the four 20-game winners on the Orioles staff, and seeing the highlights of those early 70’s World Series that the Orioles were in, and seeing Jim Palmer and Dave McNally and, to a degree, Pat Dobson, getting more attention.  Then I’d look at Cuellar’s numbers in the Baseball Encyclopedia and wonder why he didn’t get more acclaim.

I think it’s exactly because he wasn’t like Palmer that Cuellar fascinated me.  He didn’t have the dominating fastball or the underwear ads or the TV persona that Palmer had.  Plus, Palmer was still going strong in the late 70s, and Cuellar was already retired, which made him a little more of a mythic figure to me.  Cuellar wasn’t famous outside of Baltimore — certainly not in New York — and he wasn’t even a Yankee (!).  Yet I remember connecting with him.

Diaz’s piece drove another point home to me, one that I think is lost on today’s young fans.  Cuellar, though clearly one of the best pitchers in the game for a solid six years right in the middle of Baltimore’s championship run, never made enough money in the game (max salary: $45,000) to take care of his family.  Cuellar just missed out on free agency, and had he put that 67-win, three-year stretch together today — as a lefty, to boot — he’d be a $10-million-plus player.  Cuellar gave his whole life to the game; it was all he knew.  He’d been pitching so long that he had played for Havana when it was still in the International League, pre-Castro.  And he ended up working part time as a starter and ranger at a country club after he retired.

The point of Diaz’s column is that Cuellar didn’t let that define him, just as his recent illnesses couldn’t break his bond with family an ex-ballplayer friends like Felix Millan.  It was a life well lived, and to be celebrated, even by a Yankees fan who never saw him play.  R.I.P. Mike.

The panelists on the show are Fran Healy, Gary Carter, Sparky Lyle, Will Leitch and Steve Hirdt.

I just caught on to this today, so I missed out on voting on the catchers and first basemen.  The game has a complicated points system based on which players contestants select vs. those of the panel (you’re supposed to pick a top five).  The prizes include signed baseballs from legendary players, and Ford sponsors the contest.

They list the catchers, first basemen and second basemen that are considered, but not the other positions, I suppose to get users to have to come back each week, which I think most will forget to do.  So I’ll do those positions for now — and the ones the panel has picked so far.

CATCHER
Nominees: Mike Piazza, Gary Carter, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Jorge Posada, Bill Dickey, Thurman Munson, Al Lopez, Elston Howard and Roger Bresnahan.

My Picks: Berra, Piazza, Carter, Dickey, Campanella
Note: It’s tough to compare eras, and as important as defense is to the position, it’s difficult to rate.  Berra has all those World Series titles, Piazza is the best offensive catcher of all time and Carter and Dickey combined both.  I went with Berra and the championships.
MSG Picks: Berra, Campanella, Piazza, Posada, Carter

FIRST BASE
Nominees: Lou Gehrig, Bill Terry, Keith Hernandez, Don Mattingly, Johnny Mize, Hal Chase, Gil Hodges, George Kelly, Ed Kranepool, Tino Martinez
My Picks: Gehrig, Mattingly, Hernandez, Terry, Hodges
Note: Surprisingly not as strong a field as you would think for such an offensive position.  Gehrig is so far and away ahead of this field that first place has no debate — he’s probably the most accomplished 1B in MLB history.  The rest are kind of a toss-up, but the fact that Kranepool and Chase are even on this list speak to the strange lack of 1B depth in NY.
MSG Picks: Gehrig, Hernandez, Mattingly, Mize, Terry

Frankie Frisch

SECOND BASE
Nominees: Tony Lazzeri, Joe Gordon, Jackie Robinson, Bobby Richardson, Frankie Frisch, Willie Randolph, Billy Martin, Jeff Kent, Felix Millan, Billy Herman
My Picks:  Robinson, Frisch, Gordon, Lazzeri, Richardson
Note:  Not much debate here.  Robinson is pretty clearly ahead of this field, which is kind of light (Felix Millan?  Jeff Kent?).

Two baseball “bracket” setups are coming this week, as Was Watching is preparing a “Greatest/Favorite” Yankees tournament.  I hope that site proprietor Steve Lombardi decides on one of the two, because they are quite different questions.  I look forward to participating.

The other is on Baseball Daily Digest, which is teaming with Strat-O-Matic for a comprehensive, bracket-type elimination tournament with the 64 best teams of all time.  I’d be interested to see if they seed by record, or a subjective perceived greatness, or weighing teams against their own competition, rather than against teams all time.  I don’t know if those generally accepted superteams like the ‘27, ‘61 and ‘98 Yankees, ‘75 Reds, ‘84 Tigers and late-80s A’s teams translate to Strat.  And will the deadball era Cubs, Pirates and Red Sox be included?  “Selection Show” coming soon.

That’s because there isn’t one.  And unless Damon does an about face, there will be two in 2010.  You could say three if you include Melky Cabrera, but as he was the centerpiece in a trade for Javier Vazquez, it’s not like the Yankees gave up on Cabrera (much in the same way they traded David Wells for Roger Clemens after the 1998 title and Moose Skowron for Stan Williams after 1962).

Now, that hasn’t always translated to returns to the World Series, although only once in the last half-century (1979) has a Yankees team coming off a World Series win failed to advance to the postseason.

Here are the top players the Yankees didn’t bring back from a championship squad, since 1960:

• 2009 – Matsui (FA, to Angels); Damon (current FA); Cabrera (traded, to Braves for Vazquez)
• 2000 – David Cone (FA, to Red Sox); Jason Grimsley (released); Jeff Nelson (FA, to Mariners)
• 1999 – Chili Davis (released); Chad Curtis (traded, to Rangers for Brandon Knight and Sam Marsonek)
• 1998 – Tim Raines (released); Wells (trade, to Blue Jays for Clemens)
• 1996 – Jim Leyritz (traded, to Angels for two minor leaguers); Jimmy Key (FA, to Orioles); John Wetteland (FA, to Rangers)
• 1978 – Sparky Lyle (traded, to Rangers for Dave Righetti and Juan Beniquez as part of 10-player deal)
• 1977 – Mike Torrez (FA, to Red Sox)
• 1962 – Skowron (traded, to Dodgers for Williams)
• 1961 – none

There are two ways to look at this. One, anyone the Yankees “gave up” on in this period was basically done.  Key had one more good year with the Orioles, Wetteland went on to pitch decently for four years with Texas and Torrez won 32 games the next two years for Boston and pitched in the bigs through 1984, though with less success.

The natural tendency is to want to keep as much of a team together as possible, with the reasoning that one year shouldn’t make that much difference in players’ abilities, and the formula and combination have proven to be a winner. In the pre-free agent days, prominent players would rarely move, and unless they were at the very end of careers, players on champions almost always returned.

Since free agency, though, there have been more opportunities for player movement. The Yankees have elected to keep their champions as intact as possible, with no major offensive pieces, and only a few important pitchers, not retained.  And the results have mostly been good – the encores have mostly produced World Series participants or winners.

But more than ever, teams are put together one year at a time, with an eye to a bigger picture but with general managers preferring to get rid of a guy one year early rather than one year too late.  If Damon, as seems likely, signs elsewhere, it will mean that the two most prominent players to leave a Yankee champion will have come in the same off-season.

While on paper, even without Matsui and potentially Damon, the 2010 Yankees look as strong, it will be in two key areas a different team.  More different than any Yankees champion before.