Their fall in Motown is a classic
If you are a Red Sox fan, this was your World Series.
The Yankees were unceremoniously eliminated from the postseason by the Detroit Tigers yesterday. It is the story of the baseball year, and no matter what else happens, this is unlikely to change.
There will be ample time to celebrate the Tigers some other day. Cleat-wearin' Jim Leyland and his band of pitchers who are not old enough to rent cars will be back on the national stage Tuesday to open the ALCS against the Oakland A's. This is a repeat of the 1972 ALCS, when Bert Campaneris threw his bat at Lerrin LaGrow. Big-time baseball is back in Detroit, and we're already at work on odes to Motown and young pitchers named Bonderman, Zumaya, and Verlander.
But today we come to celebrate the colossal flop of the 2006 Pinstripes. We come to bury the New York Yankees, a favorite pastime here in New England. Red Sox fans are still licking their wounds from the five-game disgrace at Fenway Park in August, but if you love to hate the Yankees, it doesn't get any better than what went down the last three days in New York and Detroit.
The Tigers stunned the Yankees, 4-3, in the Bronx Thursday afternoon. Friday night it was Kenny Rogers shutting them out (with help from a couple of relievers) and yesterday the Tigers embarrassed the Yankees, 8-3. Jeremy Bonderman needed only 40 pitches in the first five (perfect) innings and went 8 1/3 before handing the ball over to Jamie Walker.
Before Game 1 in New York, there was considerable discussion about this Yankee lineup as the greatest in the history of baseball. Indeed, Joe Torre's batting order in Games 1, 2, and 3 represented a true All-Star team: Every player had been an All-Star. The lineup included three MVPs (if you included Derek Jeter, who seems certain to win this year). The No. 9 batter, Robinson Cano, almost won the 2006 American League batting title.
When the Yankees scored five runs before recording an out in the third inning of Game 1, the ``greatest ever" themes resurfaced. The Yankees won that game, 8-4, and Leyland talked about his Tigers as a ``freshman team" against the New York ``varsity." When the Tigers won Game 2, rocket rookie Joel Zumaya said they'd moved up to junior varsity.
In Games 2, 3, and 4, Detroit's JV pitchers shut down the vaunted Yankee lineup for 20 consecutive innings. When the Yankees finally rediscovered home plate yesterday, they were already trailing the Tigers, 8-0, in the seventh.
Which brings us to the Alex Rodriguez situation. He went 1 for 14 against the Tigers after going 2 for 15 against the Angels in the playoffs last year. It has reached a point where you almost feel sorry for him (then again, maybe not).
It has become pathetic. All the money and fame and MVP awards and perfect smiles cannot mask the plague of being A-Rod in New York. Sox fans can take some pleasure in the fact that it all started after New York's 19-8 Game 3 victory at Fenway in 2004. Since that night, Rodriguez has struggled, and along the way, the Yankees have been knocked out of the playoffs by the Red Sox, Angels, and Tigers.
Rodriguez has become the poster boy for New York's expensive failure. Yesterday he was reduced to batting eighth. Brian Cashman has to trade him now (assuming A-Rod waives his no-trade, and why wouldn't he?). The thought of another full season, another 162 games of Rodriguez putting up big, hollow numbers -- waiting for the inevitable autumnal fall -- is grotesque. He truly is the ``cooler" of baseball teams (Mariners, Rangers, now Yankees). Time to go.
Rodriguez may not be the only Yankee who played his last game in pinstripes yesterday. Gary Sheffield is probably gone. And what about Mike Mussina? In six years with New York, Mussina has never won 20 games and, like Sheffield and A-Rod, he's failed to deliver a championship. A-Rod is a handy whipping boy, but Mussina shouldn't get off the hook for coughing up a 3-1 lead Thursday when things started to fall apart for the Yanks.
All this has to take a toll on the estimable Torre. Lou Piniella would love to come back to New York. Might Joe decide to walk? Given what he's been handed, he should have won a championship at least once in the last six years. Time to stop talking about the greatness of 1996-2000. The Yankees are in a full-blown October slump, and in terms of embarrassment, the Motown meltdown ranks second only to the fold of 2004.
The numbers are numbing. Six straight years of playoff failure. A $200 million payroll going home after only one round. It should make some of you smile to realize that since the end of the 2000 season, George Steinbrenner has spent $1.2 billion in player salaries (plus luxury taxes) and he's 0 for 6 in championships. The Yankees were 3-1 favorites to beat the Tigers in the first round, then got swept three straight after winning the first game.
No Red Sox in the playoffs this year. The Detroit demolition of the Yankees will have to do.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. 
