The LoHud Yankees Blog

Well, that didn’t take long (though no one thought it would) and we’ve got our winner of a pair of VIP tickets to tomorrow’s parade. I’ll allow the winner to share his identity in the comments if he or she wants to do so (or not, if they don’t). Otherwise, let me just say thank you to everyone who jumped on and entered – according to new boss Sean Mayer in the office, the response was “crazy.” I expected nothing less from you guys.

Also, since I’ve had a few emails from people not from New York, I thought I’d post this link which explains what, exactly, the “Canyon of Heroes” is and where the name came from. You can also check out this page which lists all the ticker-tape parades in New York, starting with the first – an imprompteau gathering to recognize the Statue of Liberty going up. Not bad company for the Yankees, I’d say.

(Looking at that list, which one would have wanted to be at? If the Albert Einstein one seems intriguing to me, does that make me a nerd? Seeing JFK come through the streets would have been pretty spectacular too, I bet …)

UPDATE, 5:45 p.m.: For those coming into the city via train tomorrow, it seems that New Haven Line trains will add cars to existing scheduled trains, while the Harlem Line will add a special train leaving Southeast at 8:30 a.m. and the Hudson Line will add a train leaving Poughkeepsie at 8:41 a.m. Check out the MTA website for more.

There figures to be more than 3 million people watching the Yankees come up the Canyon of Heroes tomorrow in downtown Manhattan, which means getting a good view will be tough.

Or maybe not.

In cooperation with our good friends at Pepsi, the LoHud Yankees Blog is pleased to announce that we’ll be giving away two VIP tickets to the Pepsi VIP Parade Viewing Area on Broadway near City Hall for tomorrow’s festivities. With thousands of people jamming the sidewalks everywhere, this will be a great chance for one of you (and a guest) to have a terrific view.

How do you enter? It’s easy. Just send an e-mail to sports@lohud.com with your full name and telephone number (make it a cell phone or one you’ll always answer). Whoever sends in the 27th e-mail – in honor, of course, of the 27th Yankees World Series title – will get the tickets. It’s as simple as that!

A few rules and requests:

• Only ONE E-MAIL PER PERSON. If you’re the winning entry but we look at the first 26 emails and you’ve entered more than once, we’ll go on to the next winner. Everyone should have a chance to win and limiting it to one e-mail per person is the fairest way. Comments here don’t count – it’s got to be an e-mail to sports@lohud.com.

• Please only enter if you’re going to be able to go. The winner will be put in touch with a Pepsi representative to arrange a meet-up near the VIP area around 9:30 a.m. tomorrow (the parade begins at 11), so, if you’re entering, you should be sure that you’ll be able to arrive at that time and have proper ID to show the Pepsi rep before receiving the tickets.

Good luck!

While Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada were winning their fifth World Series last night, Alex Rodriguez, Hideki Matsui and Mark Teixeira were winning their first. And in euphoria, some of the details get a bit fuzzy.

Teixeira recorded the final out at first base, taking the throw from Robinson Cano.

“I didn’t feel it,” he said. “I literally did not feel it hit my glove. I had to look down afterward to make sure that I caught it.”

But he did catch. The last out of the World Series was in his possession.

“I gave it to Johnny and I don’t know where it is now,” he said.  ”You’ll have to ask him. It was in my glove and everyone was throwing all their stuff down, we were throwing all our gear down, and it was in my glove. I’m not sure where it is.”

When it was over, he sprinted to the middle of the infield. What was his plan? Where was he going?

“I don’t even know,” he said. “Who was the first person? I’ll have to look at the tape. I don’t even know the first person that I jumped on.”

Here’s the audio from Teixeira, enjoying his first moment at the top.

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Well-embedded moles tell me that Derek Jeter will appear on David Letterman’s show tonight, so check that out later on. (Or, just set your DVR since, if you’re like me, there’s VERY little chance you’ll still be awake at 11:30 p.m. tonight).

Also, if you’re looking to pass some time at work, check out this slideshow of images from the World Series narrated by TJN’s terrific photographer Frank Becerra.

UPDATE, 1:30 p.m.: Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte will join The Captain.

UPDATE, 3 p.m.: Sounds like Hideki Matsui will also be in the house.

After the Yankees wrapped up their 27th championship on Wednesday night, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum collected items that will be featured in an exhibit to open in mid-November in Cooperstown. The exhibit will remain on display through the 2010 postseason.

The World Series case honors the present year champions in the Autumn Glory exhibit, which celebrates baseball’s postseason.

I’m sure most of you have been to Cooperstown. If you haven’t, you should absolutely go. I’ve been three or four times and it never disappoints.

Artifacts Collected Wednesday night
Mariano Rivera hat from postseason
Hideki Matsui Game 6 bat
Derek Jeter Game 6 bat
Andy Pettitte cap from World Series
Johnny Damon spikes from Game 4 double steal
Jorge Posada mask for postseason
Jose Molina mask for post season
Suzyn Waldman Game 6 scorecard
Cliff Lee cap from postseason

Not to second guess the Hall of Fame, but it would be nice to see Alex Rodriguez and Chase Utley represented.

The Yankees are champions again, beating the Phillies in Game 6 to win their first World Series since 2000. Chad Jennings chronicled the celebration.

It took 27 outs to get No. 27, and my column focused on something I’ll bet many of you did – counting down the outs to zero.

Hideki Matsui didn’t start three games of the six-game series but was named MVP anyway after an absolutely monster Game 6. Josh Thomson takes a look at the Japanese star who may – or very well may not – have played his last game in pinstripes.

Alex Rodriguez capped an up-and-down year on the highest of highs, finally becoming a champion. Matsui may have been the MVP of the World Series but there’s no doubt that A-Rod was the MVP of the Yankees postseason. Rick Carpiniello has the story.

Johnny Damon hurt his calf and came out of Game 6 early but he partied hard all the same. The notebook also has items on George Steinbrenner, Damaso Marte, the Phillies and more.

Want photos? Check out the LoHud photo gallery from Game 6. Or check out my intrepid efforts as an iPhone photographer in the celebration. You can quickly tell who the pros are.

UPDATE, 8:59 a.m.: Think Joe Girardi was in a daze last night after winning the World Series? Nope. He stopped to help out someone who had been in a car accident on the way home. Great job by Hoa Nguyen getting this story this morning.

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Mayor Bloomberg announced Wednesday that the city will host a ticker-tape parade for the Yankees on Friday at 11 a.m. The parade will start at Broadway and Battery Place, travel up through the Canyon of Heroes to Chambers Street and will be followed by a ceremony at City Hall Plaza where Bloomberg will present the team with keys to the city.

There are no tickets to the parade; it’s open to the public.

However, a limited number of tickets will be made available for people who wish to attend the ceremony inside City Hall Plaza. Details on ticket availability will be announced later today. For those fans who can’t get a ticket, the ceremony can be watched on a giant TV screen that will be set up near City Hall Park.

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Lastly, I just want to take this opportunity to thank a few people who have been a part of this month-long wild ride through the end of the season and on into the playoffs. Thanks to:

• Henry Freeman, editor of The Journal News, who said the paper was committed to not only keeping this blog strong but making it bigger and better after Pete left; Henry’s support has been encouraging and much, much appreciated. He also hired Chad, which was a pretty fantastic decision as well.

• All the people in the office, from editors to copy editors to tech guys to the gurus who got the video live chats up and running have been terrific, and we wouldn’t have been able to give all of you as as much material as we did without them.

• John “Flash Points” Flaherty, who graciously gave his time each game day to talk with me and try to help the average fan understand a little more about the pitching match-up that night. It was a terrific feature that a lot of you e-mailed to say you enjoyed, and I’m grateful to John for agreeing to do it.

• All of you, more than anyone. People smarter than me will probably find a way to quantify just many times you’ve visited and how often you’ve commented, but I don’t need numbers to know that the past month has been absolutely incredible. The readers and fans are the best part of this blog, and your passion, excitement and energy for this team – and this community – are overwhelming. It’s a pleasure to write for you and a pleasure to hear from as many of you as I do. As I say to many of you when in my e-mails, I sincerely hope that you’ll keep reading and stay in touch.

Now, I know many of you will start thinking about next year right away and the hot-stove is definitely going to be exciting. Believe me, we’ve got all types of plans for the blog this winter and there will be lots of stuff to talk about and debate about and fight about soon enough.

But don’t rush. Trust me. Enjoy this one a little bit. After spending the past month with you, I know that you all deserve it.

It’s about 20 minutes before two in the morning, and the video board at Yankee Stadium is glowing with five words beneath a picture of the World Series trophy: “Boss, this is for you.”

As Hank Steinbrenner said tonight, nine years isn’t much of a wait for most franchises, but for a Yankees team that won four championships in five years, this one seemed to take a while.

“It feels better than I remember,” Derek Jeter said.

The scene was exactly as you might imagine it. Alfredo Aceves was a mad man with the champagne. Derek Jeter was surrounded by television cameras in the corner. Nick Swisher is still taking pictures on the field. It was honestly difficult to move in the clubhouse. People everywhere, most of them drenched.

Meanwhile, you might have heard on television that Mariano Rivera said he feels like he could pitch for another five years. Turns out, he wasn’t joking.

“I’m serious,” he said. “I hope the organization does whatever it takes to bring me back.”

Rivera, Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada winning a championship in 2013? On a night like this, it really does seem possible.

More audio coming soon. Thank you all for being here with us. We’ve enjoyed it.

UPDATE, 2:12 a.m.: Sam here. And yes, we’re still at the Stadium. Here’s some audio from Alex Rodriguez. There’s some terrific stuff in here, especially towards the end when he talks about how he knows he was “too stiff” a personality before. “I took myself too seriously,” he said. Check it out.

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And here’s Derek Jeter. Listen to the Captain as he talks about his emotions after winning his “one for the thumb.”

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George Steinbrenner was not in the $1.5-billion house he built tonight as the Yankees won their 27th World Series, the one he sought ever since that Game 7 loss to the Diamondbacks in 2001. His absence did not go unnoticed to either his family or people on the field.

“It was very weird, very strange,” Hank Steinbrenner said. “But he’s happy now.”

Hank said he and several others talked to the elated Boss following the Yankee victory in Game 6.

“It meant everything to him,” Hank said. “It meant a lot, just like every other championship. But this one, I can’t say it was more special than the others, but it was right up there toward the top.”

Here’s audio from Hank:

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Brian Cashman spoke to reporters at length on the field as well. He has been largely absent this postseason, so you can listen to what Cashman had to say on a number of topics here:

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Cashman called Alex Rodriguez “one of the greatest players of all-time” and said “he’s done everything now.” So what’s left for A-Rod? “Now the rest of his career he can just write history.”

The GM said the time to discuss impending free agents Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon will come. “We’ll celebrate and the business side of the game will kick in at some point here rather soon,” he said.

Asked if he’ll return, Damon said “I hope so.” Matsui hadn’t given it much thought. He said he never focused on his future during his MVP performance or record-tying six-RBI night. “I didn’t have that on my mind,” Matsui said through a translator. “All I was focusing on was winning this game and helping this team become world champions.”

One more item: Both Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner praised the work of Joe Girardi, who won in his second year as manager and repaid their faith in him. “We’ve always had confidence in Joe,” Hal said. “We went through a pretty laborious process with interviewing people and he was clearly the man. I can’t say enough about him. He brought this team together.”

Well, we’re back upstairs and not completely drenched from the Champagne. The celebration was long, loud, soaking wet and still going when they finally closed the clubhouse to the media. Here are a few camera phone shots I was able to get. I particularly like the one of Andy Pettitte with his son on his shoulders (and one of the Yankee wives. Who am I kidding?)

Joe Girardi put the number on his back when he arrived two years ago, and the Yankees have made the dream come true tonight.

The Yankees beat the Phillies, 7-3, in Game 6 to win their 27th World Series championship. Congratulations to the Yankees and to all of you who have been living and dying right along with them.

Back with much, much, much more from the clubhouse as soon as we can.