Yankees Demonstrate Their Depth and Desire

It’s a pretty good word for this Yankees team: hybrid. As in, “I love the hybrid qualities of this team,” which is David Cone’s expression.

“Professional” could be another suitable term. This is an engaging team, a likeable mix of a team. You couldn’t say that about every team that wins. Manager Joe Torre says he doesn’t “have to sell them a bill of goods on what they have to do.”

They were sorely tested when their lead shrank from 12 games to 2 1/2, That Man stalking the floor like the Grim Reaper, and they responded.

Consider how those players looked the devil in the eye Wednesday night at 20 minutes to deadline--for them and us--and stared the devil down. Consider how they came through the desperate hours of trailing in the game until the eighth inning, with That Man in his turtleneck pacing upstairs, and winning in the 12th to get the series to Texas tied.

“It’s desperate from the very first pitch,” Torre said, looking appropriately ragged.

They were in deep trouble, looking at going into that awful Texas place having to sweep three games. “I did everything I could to win the game,” Torre said. “Fifth game, seventh game, final game--whatever you want to call it--that’s the way I managed.”

Consider that they were behind, 4-1, with Andy Pettitte, their stopper, looking hardly better than the dance team that sweeps the infield. “We didn’t hit the panic button early,” Bernie Williams noted. Poise and patience stem from the manager, who was brought here by the embattled general manager, Bob Watson.

Their first run was scored by Tino Martinez, who wasn’t here last season. Their second came on a home run by Big Daddy Cecil Fielder, who wasn’t here until August. The third run, which got them within one, was pieced together on home-grown Jim Leyritz, who catches Pettitte, being hit by a pitch, unflappable rookie Derek Jeter’s single, and a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly by Tim Raines and Charlie Hayes, newcomers both.

Let’s not overlook the backhanded catch Williams made after running a Bronx mile on Kevin Elster’s drive to left-center in the sixth. For lip readers, Pettitte turned his grateful eyes back from the outfield and said, “Wow!”

Time was short in the eighth when home-grown Williams got a hit and made a professional’s play to get to second base on a fly to left. Safe and lazy thinking would have the runner going halfway to second so he could advance if the left fielder dropped the ball. How often does that happen? Coach Jose Cardenal shouted, “Get back,” Williams tagged up and ran to scoring position. “It was just a play,” Williams said. “I was caught up in the game. I had no choice but to play hard.”

That’s what this team does without being asked. Torre says it’s the quietest clubhouse he’s ever seen after a loss. “They feel it,” he said.

It is a self-policing team. Unlike Buck Showalter, who needed to control everything, Torre permits these players their own responsibility. They don’t complain about the batting order. “They don’t test you like children to see how far they can push the envelope,” the manager said. “Players respect each other; they don’t even have to like each other.”

He likened them to the fine St. Louis Cardinals teams of the late 1960s. “Red Schoendienst would write a lineup and yell at us sometimes,” Torre said. Contrary to previous house procedure, sometimes he who manages least manages best--and making that decision correctly is good managing. “This is not an upstart team,” Torre said. “They know they’ve got to get to the World Series to have a meaningful season.”

Williams having cleverly advanced, the aforementioned import Fielder singled him home. Until then it hardly mattered that the Yankees’ greatest edge was in the bullpen.

“We were desperately trying to tie the game to get a chance to win,” said Cone, who was breathing with difficulty along with the rest of them in the dugout. “There was the sense that we have got to find a way to get it tied. We got our second run and the third. We have to find a way. When we tied it, there was a sense that we were going to win.”

First Mariano Rivera threw lightning for 2 2/3 innings, even getting out Juan Gonzalez. In actual fact, it was Torre who discovered Rivera’s value this season. Rivera seldom goes more than two innings, but Torre figured after 16 pitches, Rivera could also pitch the ninth. Eight batters, eight outs and by then the Yankees were tied. And Rivera had a day off coming.

The manager figured Rivera should be all right for tonight’s resumption. “If he isn’t, he isn’t,” Torre said. “We needed to win that game.”

That was the first fact of life. John Wettleland escorted the tie for two innings and Torre pieced together the top of the 12th with Graeme Lloyd, Jeff Nelson, Kenny Rogers and then Brian Boehringer, the only one of them who was with the team last season.

Somehow, Watson may have done something right in addition to standing between the spaniel and the hydrant of the owner and the manager.

They got to the bottom of the 12th and Jeter opened with a line single, his third hit of the night. Consider that Jeter has played virtually every day at the most draining position. Teammates note that Jeter has very few weak at-bats. When he made out three times with runners on base in the Game 1 loss, there was some question whether he had at last fallen victim to inexperience under pressure. Torre judged that Jeter merely had an off night.

“He’s a tough kid,” Torre said after the win. “I was asked several times, am I going to talk to him? I didn’t sense any need for that. After we lost that game he walked around same as always. He came to my door and said, ‘Get a good night’s sleep.’ Same as always.”

Raines fought for a base on balls. Torre wanted the winning run on third. Hayes put a sacrifice down on the newly wet grass and Dean Palmer threw it away. The Yankees won, 5-4. They could think they put on the pressure until the Rangers cracked.

They were going to Texas knowing both teams had to take two of three to win. “I wouldn’t say the momentum had shifted,” Fielder said, “but at least we feel good about ourselves.”

They’ve had a terrible time in Texas for years, from before The Ballpark was built. But this tournament time is different from all that. “It doesn’t have anything to to do with it,” Martinez, the very professional first baseman, said.

Hybrid, indeed.