All is right in the world again. Order has been restored as the Yankees won their twenty-seventh World Series. Hideki Matsui tied Bobby Richardson’s record with six RBIs in one World Series game en route to winning the MVP honors. Andy Pettitte fought hard with an empty tank pitching 5 2-3 innings and giving up only three. Mariano Rivera, the player who is better by the largest margin at his position than any other player in the history of baseball, recorded the final five outs including the sealing slow groundball to Robbie Cano. Yet let us not forget the smaller contributions:

- Damaso Marte coming back from a horrible injury filled season to have a perfect postseason including a clutch three-pitch strikeout of Chase Utley in Game Six

- Mark Teixeira, a high-priced free agent first baseman who had a miserable postseason with the bat, playing an incredible first base and saving several errors throughout the course of the playoffs and covering second when Bobby Abreu overrounded the bag in the ALCS

- Nick Swisher, another player slumping with the stick, playing an excellent right field including a heady force play at second and a great play to double up Vlad at first in the ALCS

- Gardbrera who played an great center field

- Robinson Cano (my favorite player) who is the only second baseman in the league who could turn the clutch double play on Jimmy Rollins in the fifth innnig

- Johnnie “No longer a caveman” Damon for his excellent clutch at bats and instinctive baserunning

The list goes longer than the twenty-five man roster — and that is what makes this team different than years past. Players like Frankie Cervelli, Mark Melancon, Ramiro Pena, David Robertson, Chad Gaudin, Alfredo “The Mexican Gangtster” Alceves, and Jonathon Albadejo all made contributions throughout the year. Of course it did not hurt to have higher profile players consistently contributing at a high level, but this TEAM was actually greater than sum of its already very valuable parts.

Which brings me to Joe Girardi. Do I think he is a perfect manager? No. Do I think he is getting better? Slowly. Do I wish he would burn that binder he keeps in the dugout? Undoubtedly. Do I think he deserves to come back for another season? (I can only imagine anyone not from New York wondering how can this guy even fathom asking that question) Yes. You can tell he learned from his earlier postseason mistakes. He began to trust his gut over the numbers, scouting reports, and charts exemplified by Joba leapfrogging Hughes in the bullpen pecking order, Marte consistently being the first loogy used, and going to Mariano in the eight during Game Six when Marte and just breezed through Utley and Howard on six pitches. The man put a ton of pressure on himself by choosing to wear number twenty-seven, and he came through.

Somewhere there was a 9-year-old Yankees’ fan who had never seen his team win a championship. To him, the Boston Red Sox was the model franchise. He probably could not remember the World Series losses in 2001 and 2003. His first memory may have been losing a three games to none lead to the hated Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS. At eight years old he did not even see October baseball. The stories he had heard of greats like Jeter, Posada, Pettitte, and Mariano were just that - stories. But after nine loyal years of torture and suffering - and nine years in Yankee time is like 101 in Cubbie land - that little kid can now go to sleep happy, understanding the greatness that comes with the pinstripes. Goodnight little Yankees’ fan and goodnight 2009 baseball season. Hears to hoping more memories are made in 2010.

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