The players were elated. The turtle's name is Bronxie, an ode to its home borough, and it lives a comfortable life. It wiles away most of its hours in a tank with a piece of tape labeled "Bronxie the Turtle" on it. It is well-fed. At times, it even roams freely, crawling among the white, interlocking-NYs on the blue clubhouse carpet.
The Yankees famously do not have an organizational mascot, but Bronxie has been immediately embraced. Cortes is very much a proud papa, but others, including DJ LeMahieu -- who is said to just enjoy staring at Bronxie -- are involved and engaged caretakers, as well. This week, Bronxie made his first road trip, joining the team in Boston. He smiled and jogged out to join his teammates. Who are those Yankees?
Maybe they are Bronxie's team. The last championship dynasty Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and others ended two decades ago, but for many, the larger philosophical sentiment underpinning those Yankees teams, and really all Yankees teams under George Steinbrenner, persists.
The Yankees are the best, that thinking goes. So, they buy the best players, use those players to put together the best teams and, because of all that, should win the World Series all the time. Michael Kay, who does play-by-play of the Yankees games on television and also hosts a weekday radio show in which he often takes calls from fans, said he calls this phenomenon "the Steinbrenner-ization of a generation. Burnett and Mark Teixeira in the offseason before winning the franchise's 27th title.
For an ever-growing segment of Yankees fans, as well as a significant part of the Yankees organization, that model -- the Rays' bargain-hunting brilliance -- is aspirational as well as, it sure seems, quite a bit more fun.
Who doesn't prefer diamonds found to diamonds bought? But there isn't anything close to unanimity on that kind of seismic shift, within or outside the team, and so a schism has developed that makes years like this one even more complicated.
When the Yankees thrive, is it because of their high-priced stars performing? Or because of canny decision-making from the manager or the front office? And when they swoon, is it because general manager Brian Cashman pushes the team to rely too much on analytics?
Or not enough? At the center of it is Boone, the former Yankee who had his own indelible moment against Boston with that AL Championship Series-winning home run in Boone is as warm and thoughtful as he was in his playing days, and he remains the epitome of the old-school ballplayer.
He comes from a baseball family. He essentially grew up around major league clubhouses before playing 13 big league seasons himself, and he largely presents in that classic mold. He defends his players and their ability to perform to the point of occasional absurdity. He is relentlessly positive. Boone has tried to engage with the injection of analytics that Cashman has brought to the club through assistant GM Michael Fishman, but it is clearly not his natural inclination.
His coaching staff is a mix of old-school and numbers-rooted coaches, and he is a frequent target for complaints about his inconsistency in the cacophonous multiverse that is Yankees fans on the internet. Sunday's decision to remove reliever Clay Holmes after one inning, in which Holmes struck out the side, was just the latest example.
Boone's steadfast commitment to remaining unruffled can give him an at-times pained look on the bench, but Kay said he sensed a visceral difference in Boone for a few weeks back in August. Yes, it was during one of the Yankees' best stretches this summer, but it wasn't simply because they were winning, either, Kay said.
Not coincidentally, their style shifted, as well. While most team logos are almost inextricably linked to the team itself -- it's hard to imagine anyone outside the United States looking at, say, the Orioles' cartoonish bird logo and immediately thinking of Baltimore -- the Yankees hat is appealing to many simply because it smacks of New York.
Add in its long-running presence in films, television shows and music videos -- Jay-Z alone has made the Yankees hat a pop-culture fashion classic -- and even Major League Baseball officials are quick to admit that a large percentage of the people wearing Yankees hats abroad have little idea they're supporting anything other than New York City. And that's powerful. Part of that, obviously, comes from success -- winning 27 World Series titles doesn't hurt.
But the Yankees have purposely worked to cultivate their brand internationally, too, signing a partnership agreement with the Chinese national baseball federation in , even before MLB had a leaguewide one.
They also did marketing deals with big-name global sports teams such as the Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo, and Manchester United first and Manchester City more recently in England.
In recent years, more and more major league clubs have worked to grow their brand internationally, including the Boston Red Sox , who are led by an ownership group that also runs European soccer champions Liverpool. Still, the Yankees remain the standard, if for no reason other than sheer tonnage. The next time you go to Cameroon or Cambodia, Swaziland or Switzerland, take a walk through a public park or city square and look around.
Skip to main content Skip to navigation. Borden: Why the Yankees hat has become a global fashion sensation. Atlanta Braves. Houston Astros. Hendriks, Hader named MLB's top relievers in ' Chicago White Sox. Longtime Royals scout Art Stewart dies at Kansas City Royals. LHP Rodriguez stays with Yankees on 1-year deal.
Baseball is better and more interesting when the Yankees are one of the teams to beat. When the Yankees are in the postseason, more people pay attention. The numbers back that up. When the Yankees were in the World Series, viewership increased 6. Without the Yankees in , there were 5. Sure, some of that is simply the result of the larger population in the New York metro area. But the Yankees bring in more casual fans across the country as well, on television and at the ballpark. The Yankees are ready to embrace that role again.
This is our reality. Gardner is the longest-tenured Yankee, joining the club in Along with Sabathia, he was part of the championship team. In our division, a lot of people like the way it is because people see those teams more, and they bring their big-star players.
The Yankees also make other teams better.
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