The New York Yankees are back to the playoffs and Joe Girardi has likely saved his job as manager of his club. By beating their true arch-nemesis (sorry Boston) the Anaheim Angels 6-5 on Tuesday New York secured at least the wild card in the American League. In doing so the team took an important step towards establishing the new Yankee dynasty whose construction and philosophical implementation began in earnest last season with the changing of the guard at the manager position and the re-focusing on the youth elements of the franchise as apposed to the spend-and-fill techniques used to patchwork the dysfunctional teams that floundered in the postseason after the collapse of the Torre-led dynasty from the 90s.
In fitting fashion, Yankee farm system product Brett Gardner scored the tie-breaking run Tuesday night on an Alex Rodriguez line drive. Jorge Posada also homered, and Mariano Rivera closed a game that featured a lineage of Yankee-bred talent connecting the Torre and Girardi era in much the same way the manager himself does, once as a championship player and now as the skipper with championship aspirations. The connection is clear in the dualistic identities and styles of the teams Girardi played for and the one he now manages.
The greatest embodiment of that connection, Yankees captain (and fellow farm system product) Derek Jeter collected his 200th hit of the season for the 7th time in his career, making him the oldest Yankee and the oldest regular shortstop ever to post that total in a season. In fact, Jeter's latest milestone gains him access to the ultra-exclusive group of Nap Lajoie, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Paul Warner, Pete Rose, and Tony Gwynn as the only players to post 200 hits in a season before the age of 25 and again after the age of 34.
In a season that has seen Derek Jeter achieve a plethora of milestones and accomplishments (including passing Lou Gehrig as the all-time Yankees hit leader) he now finds himself honing in on another, only one season behind Gehrig for the most 200 hit seasons as a Yankee. All of these marks tend to show the age of an accomplished player that is now the stalwart veteran, the future Hall of Famer, for sports' greatest franchise. But to remind people that he's far from feeling the effects of his "progressing age," Jeter promptly stole second base after slashing the single that was his 200th hit to right field, in classic Jeter-like fashion.
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