DYNASTY

Comparing eras is a tricky task for those who wonder where these New York Yankees fit in the glamorous history of baseball’s most decorated franchise.

The game has changed so drastically that matchups are pointless. There are few if any similarities between the dead-ball, day-game years when the first seeds of the Yankees dynasty were planted, and the double-knit, designated hitter times in which they operate today.

What is indisputable is that after winning the team’s 24th World Series championship, capping a remarkable 125-win season, these Yankees belong right up there with the teams of Ruth and Gehrig, DiMaggio and Berra, Mantle and Ford.

Nobody hit 60 homers like Ruth, or drove in 175 runs like Gehrig. Nobody hit in 56 straight games like DiMaggio, or consistently hit bad pitches for homers like Berra. Nobody had the power of Mantle or the panache of Ford.

Those are Hall of Fame names, players whose achievements are celebrated forever with plaques in that baseball shrine called Yankee Stadium. But none of them, not the Murderers’ Row teams of the ‘20s and not the dynasty teams of the ‘50s and ‘60s, dominated the game any more completely than the current Yankees.

Look at the numbers.

No team ever won more games in a season than this team. Only three teams, none in more than 70 years, ever had a better winning percentage than this team’s .714.

Does that make this group the greatest? It’s hard to say. This is a franchise, remember, that won five straight World Series from 1949-53.

What can be said for this team is that it accomplished things that were never accomplished before. And for that it must be celebrated.

Ball players say the quality they strive for most is consistency, the ability to achieve excellence not once, but over and over again. And that’s what these Yankees did.

They were on a mission from the start of spring training, a roster of very good if not dominant players, who came to work each day with a purpose that was admirable and productive.

When they were 30 games over .500, they were angry it wasn’t 40. And when the gap reached 40, they went after 50. Their fierce determination--the final margin was an astounding 66 games over .500--sometimes even puzzled their manager.

Joe Torre has been around big league baseball for nearly 40 years and said he had never seen a team with the selfless psyche of this one. No one cared who got the winning hit, as long as somebody did.

They have no standout star, no 70-home run slugger, no 250-strikeout pitcher. They had no elected starters for the All-Star game and probably won’t win any of the individual postseason awards. There are no automatic Hall of Famers in this group, maybe no Hall of Famers at all.

Individually, they are a couple of cuts above ordinary. But put them all together and they are virtually unbeatable, a special group. So special, in fact, that they achieved something much more significant than simple hits and runs.

They made George Steinbrenner cry.

There he was, this tough boss, overcome by emotion and bawling in the middle of the winning clubhouse.

People who have been around the Yankees for a while, looked at each other with raised eyebrows and shrugged. This was clearly out of character for Steinbrenner, who lives by the motto, “Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.”

It doesn’t say anything about weeping.

But these Yankees touched the Boss, touched him like none of the other teams in the years since he bought a controlling interest in 1973. Maybe it is because he is contemplating selling the team. Maybe he is turning into an old softie.

Whatever the reason, it was clear that this Yankees championship was special for the owner, achieved by a team of substance and executed with a sense of style.

So, when they get around to putting the next plaque up in the Stadium’s center field museum, make it for the 1998 Yankees. They earned it.