There’s Nothing Like the Pride of the Yankees

It’s not something you can easily put your finger on, or attach a number to, or describe in a few quick words. Some have called it “a look,” some have called it “an aura.” Whatever this intangible is, the New York Yankees seem to have it every October.

It’s a combination of talent and confidence, of experience and execution, of intensity and instinct, of focus and determination, and it has enabled the Yankees to turn pressure-packed playoff situations into the routine.

It’s also probably the biggest reason the Yankees will be shooting for their fourth consecutive championship when they begin the World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks today in Bank One Ballpark.

“There’s a sense of purpose with this team,” said Reggie Jackson, the Hall of Fame outfielder and Yankee advisor who has traveled with the team throughout the playoffs. “You just feel like they’re going to win. I know they feel that way because I feel it from them.”

Jackson, of course, was known as “Mr. October” because he carried so many teams in the playoffs. Though the current Yankees have several superstars, there is no one dominant personality, no single player who casts a long shadow over his teammates, as Jackson did in the 1970s.

These Yankees are more like Team October.

One night it’s shortstop Derek Jeter making a phenomenal defensive play, retrieving an overthrown ball from right field near the first-base line and making a 20-foot, backhand shovel pass to the catcher to snuff out the potential tying run. Another night, it’s veteran center fielder Bernie Williams hitting a clutch home run to spark a comeback victory.

One night pitcher Andy Pettitte or Mike Mussina will shut down the opposition, allowing the Yankees to win with one or two runs.

Another night, rookie second baseman Alfonso Soriano will hit a walk-off homer in the ninth inning.

The Yankees have won four of the last five World Series, and since their 1997 American League division series loss to Cleveland, they are 40-11 in postseason play, a phenomenal .784 winning percentage.

The more the Yankees play in October, the more comfortable they have become, and the more they win in October, the more confident they get, a cycle that neither the Oakland Athletics nor Seattle Mariners, teams that were considered superior to New York this season, could break this month.

Talent has plenty to do with the Yankee success; they’ve had deep and dominant rotations, the game’s best closer in Mariano Rivera, strong bullpens, and lineups full of veteran hitters who come through in the clutch and play solid defense.

A $120-million payroll has enabled the Yankees to retain stars such as Williams and Jeter, while other teams have lost players of such caliber. An aggressive approach to the free-agent market, where they plucked Mussina for $87 million last winter, enables the Yankees to plug immediate holes, and a successful Latin American program has produced stars such as Rivera and Williams and high-caliber players such as Soriano and reliever Ramiro Mendoza.

What’s more, the Yankee farm system has produced stars such as Jeter and catcher Jorge Posada and has several top prospects, such as first baseman Nick Johnson and third baseman Drew Henson, who appear ready to step into big league roles, virtually assuring the Yankees will be perennial contenders.

They have one of baseball’s most respected managers in the even-keeled Joe Torre, a sage bench coach in Don Zimmer, whom Torre relies heavily on, and a top-notch pitching coach in Mel Stottlemyre.

And no team in baseball is more prepared for postseason play, thanks to an army of expert scouts who have been able to expose weaknesses in even the most formidable foes.

But the Yankees aren’t just built to win in October, they seem programmed to do it.

“I think it’s a learned behavior because you’ve had the experience,” Torre said. “The players who were here when I got here [in 1996] had the experience from the year before [when the Yankees lost to Seattle in the 1995 division series]. I put a lot of weight behind the fact you have experience, because I really think it eliminates the unknown. You know what it’s like.”

For those who have never played in the World Series, merely stepping onto the field for pregame stretching and batting practice can be as much a shock to the senses as a bucket of Gatorade in the face.

Hundreds of reporters, radio broadcasters and television crews line the field, a considerably larger number than attend the first two rounds of the playoffs, and any player who agrees to an interview with one writer is immediately swarmed by a few dozen more.

There is little refuge. Last week in Yankee Stadium, as right fielder Paul O’Neill took a few practice swings near the backstop before a league championship series game, a woman shouldering a television camera zoomed in on him from about two feet away as if this was an earth-shattering event. Paul O’Neill takes soft toss! Film at 11!

It truly is a media circus, and for the uninitiated, it can be unnerving at best, a major distraction at worst. But the Yankees know the drill, having been through it virtually every October since 1995, and they know how to get their work done in the face of it.

If pregame time is a circus, the postgame drill can be mayhem. Clubhouses are packed with reporters whose pens and microphones might as well be scalpels, the way each game is dissected.

No play, no detail, is too minute to ask about. Minor mistakes that are ignored in the regular season, like Soriano’s failure to cover second base in the seventh inning of a game the Yankees were trailing, 9-2, turn into bold headlines. Every manager’s decision is scrutinized; every key hit or pitch is probed.

“Obviously, you’re under the microscope; everything you do is going to be magnified, but you can’t shy away from it,” said Jeter, who was a rookie in 1996, when the current Yankee dynasty began, and has grown up in the playoffs. “You have to enjoy playing in this kind of atmosphere.”

A big part of that atmosphere is Yankee Stadium itself. It’s baseball’s most tradition-rich venue, “The House That Ruth Built,” home to 26 World Series champions and countless Hall of Famers.

There are monuments of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Miller Huggins, and plaques of those whose uniform numbers have been retired beyond the left-field wall. There are baseball’s most boisterous, aggressive and creative fans, relentless in their support of the Yankees and their vilification of the opponent.

The San Diego Padres went to Yankee Stadium for the 1998 World Series, toured Monument Park, soaked up all that history and tradition and atmosphere and were promptly throttled by the scores of 9-6 and 9-3 in the first two games of what turned into a New York sweep.

The Yankees don’t rattle like that. They have won in hostile environments such as Cleveland, Seattle and Boston, and hushed huge crowds in Oakland and San Diego. They have thrived in Yankee Stadium, going 6-0 at home in the last three World Series.

“We’ve got jitters and nerves, just like anyone else, and we can’t just expect these things to happen,” O’Neill said. “But I think we’re used to winning big games, and that’s important.”

To the Yankees, every playoff game is big. They treat every one as if it were Game 7 of the World Series, regardless of the situation. What happened yesterday, and what might happen tomorrow, are irrelevant.

“We get to the postseason, and our record is 0-0; we have the mind-set that every game is a must-win,” third baseman Scott Brosius said. “It’s real easy to gain a focus and concentration when you feel like you’re in a must-win game.”

This mental approach prevents the Yankees from getting complacent when leading a series or panicking when behind. When they trailed Oakland, two games to none, in the division series two weeks ago, they didn’t dwell on their needing to win three in a row. All they thought about was winning Game 3. Once they did that, they focused only on Game 4. And then Game 5.

That mind-set also helps the Yankees purge lopsided losses from memory. After getting blown out, 14-3, by Seattle in Game 3 last Saturday, New York won Games 4 (3-1) and 5 (12-3). The Yankees followed an 11-1 division series Game 4 loss to Oakland in 2000 with a 7-5, series-clinching victory. They followed a 13-1 division series Game 3 loss to Boston in 1999 with 9-2 and 6-1 victories.

“We’ve been good in the postseason, no getting around that, and we’ve done it more than once or twice,” Torre said. “That makes my job easier in the respect that I don’t have to keep reminding these guys where we are and who we are playing and what it means. Sure, it’s tougher to repeat, but in some ways it’s easier because they understand what ingredients are needed.”

So, the Yankees will take their business-as-usual approach to another World Series while so many Diamondbacks, even veterans such as Randy Johnson and Mark Grace, embark on their first.

Some think the 1-2 punch of Curt Schilling and Johnson will give Arizona a chance against New York, but the Diamondbacks are essentially World Series neophytes, and there’s no telling how they will react under intense pressure.

The Yankees, on the other hand, know how to perform under the brightest lights, and when they encounter stressful situations, those critical points when games are won or lost, they are the only team in baseball that can look back and think:

Been there, won that.

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WORLD SERIES* GAME 1

Today, 5 p.m., Channel 11