The State of the Yankees: El Duque

Mr. Steinbrenner, President Levine, Manager Girardi, Captain Jeter, Madam Radio Speaker, coaches, players, scribes...

My fellow Yankeeans…

Today, we citizens of the Yankiverse stand at the crossroads of Mariano and Pavano... of heaven and hell.

Last fall, we witnessed the collapse of our great organization. In the hope of righting our ship of state, we embarked upon an unprecedented surge of spending. Yet there are no guarantees.

In 2009, we either restore our greatness or become the Mets. (booing)

Our aging infrastructure has grown slow and frail. Last year, we lost our catcher, ace pitcher, leftfielder and much of our bullpen. It could happen again.

Endless wars against Tampa Bay and Boston (booing) has exposed our thin defense. Unless we play as a team -- move base runners, take pitches, hustle -- the Girardi administration will go down in history as a two-year experiment, a Gene Mauchian failure.

Simultaneously, we must welcome a new stadium and learn its mysteries. Will it favor hitters? Lefties? Home runs? Pitchers? And who will be there?

Our new home is a luxury box with a field in the middle. We will see vacant suites and golden frills, out of touch with these economic times. Many -- if not most of us -- will always prefer the old park.

We never needed a new stadium.

We just needed a new generation of stars.


We have a captain who will need days off or, worse, a defensive replacement. (Loud boos.) We have a third-baseman who may need psychiatric counseling. There is no certainty he'll play the full season. (booing)

But this is a date with Yankee history.

This is the last stand of Hideki Matsui. (Applause).

The last stand of Jorge Posada. (Applause)

The last stand of Johnny Damon. (Applause)

The last stand of Andy Pettitte. (Applause)


The last stand of the great Marinano Rivera. (Loud applause for 30 seconds.)


The home stretch (drowned out by applause) of our captain, Derek Jeter. (65 seconds, non-stop applause)


These are the final days of a team once known as "Torre’s Yankees." Yes, I will say the name, Joe Torre. (booing)

Recently, his book gave us a few jabs. We needed them. More than ever, this team needs to win... to establish its own identity, its own legacy. We are no longer Torre's Yankees.(Applause)

Ladies and gentlemen, the state of the Yankees is clear: We are exactly where we should be.

Between Mariano and Pavano.

Between heaven and hell.

God bless the Yankees, God bless you all, and goddamm the fukkin Redsocks.

PLAY BALL.