Yankees cash in for 27th title

By Fred Guzman
ESPN550.com

The wailing began moments after second baseman Robinson Cano fielded Shane Victorino's routine grounder and threw the ball to Mark Texeira at first base for the final out of the New York Yankees' clinching 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

And the familiar cry of "Damn Yankees!" will continue to be heard for the coming days, months and well beyond.

The Yankee haters will point to an inflated payroll of about $210 million as the reason why New York nailed down its 27th World Series title last night at the expense of the defending champion Phillies.

There will be plenty of talk about the need for some sort of a salary cap to even the playing field.

There will be lots of grumbling about how the lack of competitive balance is killing baseball.

There will be the usual outrage about how New York went out and brought itself yet another championship at the expense of the small-market teams.

Money, indeed, has always played a critical role in the Yankees' success over the years, going back to the days of Babe Ruth.

During the previous off-season, New York signed the top three free agents – Texiera, lefty CC Sabathia and right-hander AJ Burnett – to contracts worth more than $423 million.

But money alone isn't the only reason for New York's victory, otherwise the Yankees wouldn't have had to wait nine years between titles and six years between World Series appearances.

In the end, however, the brightest star of this World Series was not one of the big-money new free agents, or the mega-salaried likes of Alex Rodriguez or Derek Jeter.

That distinction belonged to designate hitter Hideki Matsui, who drove in six runs on three hits in Wednesday's clincher. Matsui became the first Japanese player to win the World Series MVP award after hitting for a sizzling .615 average by going 8-for-13 with three homers and eight RBI.

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