For all that people say about individual players and free agent acquisitions, there is something special about a team's chemistry, its ability to come together as a single unit. For the last 15 years, we have enjoyed the Core Four generation. Derek Jeter is the last member of the Core Four still in active play, and now that has announced his imminent retirement, it'll be interesting to see how the next generation will form.
Derek Jeter was the face of the most recent generation of Yankees to play. However, he was hardly the only player or the only contributor to the Yankees success during this time. Of course, there is the Core Four with Andy Pettitte, Mariana Rivera, and Jorge Posada as key figures. There was also Paul O'Neill, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, Joe Girardi, Scott Brosius, and many others.
This generation was characterized by hard play, hustle, and self-discipline. You did not want to face O’Neill or Tino in the clubhouse if you did not run down every ball and go full throttle down the line. They checked their egos at the door, as Derek Jeter likes to say, and came to play all 9 innings for all 162 games.
Unfortunately, the formation of such a generation individuals is not a given. Think of the Don Mattingly generation that preceded the current one. Aside from Mattingly himself, it's hard to find other individuals that were key contributors for an entire generation. As good as Donnie baseball was, he himself could not carry an entire franchise the way that the Core Four did. While there were certainly many flashes of brilliance during that time, there was no extended period of dominance and no World Series wins.
Now go back one more generation to the Bronx Zoo generation. Even where the individuals hated each other, they knew how to come together and win as a single unit, a single generation. Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Willie Randolph, Ron Guidry, Graig Nettles, and many others knew how to take the field and win despite all the madness in the clubhouse. They played with huge egos and they played hard. It did not matter if you had sore knees and bursitis in your arm. It did not matter if you had to start a fight with an opposing player who came crashing into home plate. It did not matter if you had to pretend to lose the ball in the sun to keep the runner at second. You went out there to win, and you walked off the field with your dignity intact, dammit.
Now we look to the next generation. Pardon the Olympics analogy, but it is Derek Jeter's turn to pass the torch to the next group of Yankees. When you are looking at the foundation of the team, you look at guys like CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, David Robertson, and Brett Gardner. Will long-term acquisitions like Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, and Masahiro Tanaka join that group? How about the kids like Zoilo Almonte, Ivan Nova, and David Phelps - what will their contribution be?
As the season unfolds, we are all going to find out what this team is really made of. Derek Jeter will hold center stage for most of the season, and rightly so, as this is his farewell tour. Nevertheless, those of us who are paying close attention should see the next set of standard-bearers emerge. Whatever happens, things are going to get very interesting in Yankees Universe.
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