There has been several drastic changes in the Yankees Organization over the past few years. The original Yankee stadium — one of the last remaining cathedrals of baseball — was torn down, and the new Yankee Stadium, full of modern bells and whistles was erected. There have been losses. The Boss is gone. Bob Sheppard, the “voice of God”, passed. Even ol’ Freddie is gone. “Clueless” Joe Torre is now a Baseball Executive. More major changes are soon to come.
I’m 25 years old now. The players on the field during my first visit to Yankees Stadium included the likes of Mike Stanley, Pat Kelly, Jim Abbott, and Donnie Baseball. This was a sorry team in comparison to the ones in the years following. I wallowed about how much “Danny Tartabull stunk”. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the franchise was also in the process of change. I was clueless; I had no idea what a playoff-caliber Yankees team was like. Then of course there was the strike-ridden 1995 season, and the Playoff series against an intimidating Seattle Mariners team. Randy Johnson was terrifying to watch as a kid. But still, I never thought the Yankees team of 1995 would evolve into a baseball juggernaut over the next 15 years. Besides, I was too busy cheering Don Mattingly, and his first postseason homerun, then immediately feeling sad the day he announced he would not return for 1996.
