An Ode to the 2012 Yankees
Raul be seeing you in the right field seats!
The 2012 Yankees were the last gasp of my childhood. I was born in 1997, into the heart of the late 90s/early 2000s Yankees dynasty. My dad wanted to name me Derek, after the Yankees rookie shortstop sensation (he also wanted to name me Aaron, apropos of nothing at the time, but very relevant to the 2022 Yankees). My first baseball memory was watching the 2003 World Series and the next year, I remember the anger pervading my household after the 2004 ALCS. I wasn’t a real baseball fan for another couple of years, but the 2009 World Series was my gateway drug into baseball fandom. For those first four years, I was in baseball heaven, watching a team that, although not always perfect, averaged 98 wins, went to the ALCS three times and won the World Series. They were still driven by the same core that had been powering them since 1996, with new faces around the ages. Some players retired, some left and came back, but the Jeter/Rivera/Petitte/Posada Yankees were an institution until they weren’t, in one sickening crack of an ankle bone.
The 2012 Yankees had a season’s worth of drama before Opening Day even arrived. First, longtime catcher Jorge Posada retired after the 2011 ALDS, supplanted by Russell Martin behind the plate. Martin was thought to be a stopgap for the next Yankee legend Jesus Montero, but a shocking offseason trade sent Montero to Seattle for young pitching stud Michael Pineda, who would pair with newly acquired Hiroki Kuroda to form a dominant rotation behind CC Sabathia and Ivan Nova. The coup de grace came halfway through Spring Training, when out of the blue, Jack Curry dropped the ultimate news bomb.
Andy Pettitte was in George’s metaphorical box and was coming back to the Yankees. This news stunned Yankees fans, as Pettitte had retired after the 2010 season to spend time with his family in Texas. The baseball itch struck Andy, as it does for many retired players, and so he found his way to Tampa to make a late spring return to the Yankees. With the shoulder injuries that would ultimately torpedo Pineda’s first two Yankees seasons, it was a much needed return, just the first surprise in a year filled with them. Andy wasn’t just a familiar face - he was a key contributor in the Yankee rotation, going 5-4 with a 2.87 ERA in 12 starts. Along with CC (15-6, 3.38 ERA) and Hiroki Kuroda (16-11, 3.32 ERA), he formed a strong top three in an exceptional Yankee rotation that provided stability when inconsistency and injury hit the offense.
Game 1 of the 2012 ALCS opened in a jam-packed Yankee Stadium. It was the Yankees’ fourth game in four days and the fans smelled blood in the water after the events of the preceding three days. The Yankees had taken down the pesky Orioles in a tight five game series, which featured the unbelievable heroics of Raul Ibanez in Game 3 and a yeoman pitching performance of CC Sabathia to carry the Yankees in the Game 5 elimination match. Now, Andy Pettitte took the mound in Game 1 against the Detroit Tigers and Doug Fister. Another World Series berth seemed inevitable. The Tigers had won a weak AL Central with only 88 wins and squeaked by the Oakland A’s in the ALDS. Both teams had momentum, but the Yankees had the home field advantage and a desire for revenge after their elimination in 2011 at the hands of Detroit. In the early innings, the game lived up to the hype, with both teams going scoreless through five innings. Everything was on the line in this series opener.
In April, the Yankees seemed to be cruising to another early division lead, going 13-9, but disaster struck on May 3rd. Mariano Rivera, the indomitable and immortal closer, finally met his match - the Kansas City outfield warning track.
When shagging fly balls in BP, Rivera went down in a heap and was revealed to have torn his ACL. He was out for the season and the Yankees were down a closer, and most importantly, their end game advantage. When the Yankees went 8-10 in their next 18 games and found themselves tied for last place with the Red Sox behind the emergent Baltimore Orioles, things seemed bleak. However, it was time for a new bullpen savior - Rafael Soriano, the master of #UNTUCK, named after his save celebration of violently untucking his jersey. Soriano, who had struggled in 2011 as Rivera’s set up man, thrived as the closer, saving 42 (coincidence - I think not) games with a 2.26 ERA. He was backed up by the new heir apparent David Robertson, who posted a 2.67 ERA as the new eighth inning man. It was a bullpen combo that rivaled anything the 90s Yankees could throw out there and it proved to be devastatingly effective during the Yankees’ run to the AL East title. The team began to find their footing as well, going 10-3 in their next 13 games to claw back into the division rate. The fun was only just beginning in the Bronx that summer.
In the sixth inning, the Tigers broke through against Pettitte. An Austin Jackson triple and a Miguel Cabrera intentional walk were followed by RBI singles by Prince Fielder and Delmon Young. The Tigers lineup was deep and relentless and would make teams pay if given too many opportunities. The Yankee lineup, while also deep, was mightily struggling with runners in scoring position. They left the bases loaded in the first, second and sixth innings and for the game, were only 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position. All season, the Bronx Bombers were able to score runs by hitting home runs, setting the team record for homers, but faced issues with getting runners home via other means. This was the peak of #TooManyHomers and in Game 1, the power bats were dormant for many of the earlier innings, taking the run scoring with them.
In June, the 2012 Yankees arose from their slumber and established themselves as the team to beat in the AL East. They ripped off a 10 game winning streak during interleague play against the NL East and ended the month at 47-30, up five games in the division. It seemed like the Orioles were just a flash in the pan, destined to regress, and the Yankees were claiming their spot atop the division. This surge was fueled by production up the middle. Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson were the major players in this offense and each one of them made their contributions in different ways. After a down 2010-2011, Derek Jeter returned to the top of the Yankee lineup for his last great season. He batted .316, leading the league in hits at the age of 38. His double play partner wasn’t far behind, batting .313 with 33 home runs and 94 RBI for a fourth place MVP finish. Both of these players played in at least 159 games, a remarkable combination of health and effectiveness. In center field, Granderson continued his power breakout, hitting over 40 home runs for the second straight season and establishing himself as the Yankees main power threat amidst injury plagued seasons from Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez. The aging Yankees were battered but not beaten, continuing to expand their division lead to a season high ten games by the time they played Toronto on July 18th. They didn’t know it then, but that lead would soon evaporate just as quickly as it had been built up.
Things were bleak in the eighth inning of Game 1, as the Tigers tacked on two more runs to build their advantage to 4-0 off the strength of a Delmon Young home run and an Avisail Garcia RBI single off Boone Logan. Old friend Phil Coke handed the ball off to Joaquin Benoit in the eighth inning, who worked around a Nick Swisher double to keep the Yankees scoreless. In the ninth, Cody Eppley (the human white flag) came in and gave up a leadoff double to Austin Jackson. The game seemed over and the crowd grew quiet, but Eppley somehow kept the Tigers off the board. Still, with Tigers closer Jose Valverde coming in, the game seemed all but over with a four run deficit. A Russell Martin single seemed like the last gasps of a dying team, but none other than Ichiro Suzuki stepped to the plate with a chance to spark a comeback.
When Brett Gardner went down early in the 2012 season with an elbow injury, it opened a hole in left field that the Yankees spent months trying to fill with a combination of Andruw Jones and Raul Ibanez. Neither player was hitting all that well and their defense was more than suspect, so it became clear that an outside solution was needed. However, no one expected the mother of all trades to go down on July 23rd, when none other than Ichiro Suzuki landed in Yankee pinstripes. Although Ichiro seemed on the downswing of his career, posting a .643 OPS since the beginning of the previous season, he was a future Hall of Famer and legendary player. Ichiro was the only MLB player that didn’t need a last name associated with him; he was Ichiro and that was more than enough to know how good he was. Because the Yankees were in Seattle, Ichiro merely had to cross clubhouses to don the pinstripes, presenting one of the more awkward scenarios for any Mariners fan showing up to the game that night who wasn’t aware of the trade. Being a Yankee and playing in a postseason race rejuvenated Ichiro’s bat, as he hit .322 with a .794 OPS down the stretch. When he hit two home runs in a Sunday night baseball game against the Red Sox in August, he earned his true Yankee pinstripes.
With Russell Martin on second base and one out, Ichiro dug in against Jose Valverde. The Ichiro experience always involved his trademark jersey tug, bat circle, and look into the pitcher’s eyes, demonstrating that this was an artist at work and he would always have the upper hand. All that was needed was a base hit, but Ichiro, not known for his power but always adamant that he could be a 30 home run hitter if he tried to, decided to let Valverde in on his hidden power secret. He took Valverde’s 0-1 pitch down the right field line, just keeping the ball inside the foul pole.
It was a home run, the first of Ichiro’s postseason career, and the Yankees had life. The deficit was two runs, but the Stadium started to come alive. The energy dulled a bit after Robinson Cano struck out against Valverde, but plate discipline savant Mark Teixeira worked a walk, bringing a man to the plate who had become an unexpected October legend. His name? Raul Ibanez.
Just as quickly as the 2012 Yankees got hot, they got equally as cold. They left that series in Seattle with an 8 game lead in the division, but the Baltimore Orioles, who had been hanging around all season, suddenly began a stretch of red hot play that coincided with an August slump for the Yankees. The Orioles shaved 5 games off the division lead just in time for a late summer trip to New York, where they won two of three (the only Yankee win was a 4-3 squeaker which I attended, not having realized months earlier when I got the tickets that this would be a close game). Two days later, the division was tied, with the Yankees and Orioles having identical 76-59 records. It was a collapse of epic proportions for the Yankees. Rarely in their history had they blown a double digit division lead, but now they had done it and the Orioles had all the momentum. Thus began a September to remember, one in which for a full month, the Yankees and Orioles were separated by, at most, a game and a half. Even more incredible is that the Yankees never fell out of first, as they tied the Orioles on multiple occasions but never fell behind. For this, they have a man named Raul to thank.
On August 31st, Raul Ibanez, part time DH/left fielder and mostly resigned to the bench in the wake of the Ichiro trade, was batting .235 with a .739 OPS. His suspect defense and mediocre bat made him a candidate to be left off the postseason roster rather than a key Yankee contributor. However, Raul had a knack for the clutch hit, even before the stretch run (his game winning grand slam against Toronto in July was just a preview of what was to come). As the Yankees battled the Orioles, Raul made his move into Yankees lore. First, there was the game tying home run against Oakland after the Yankees went down by 4 runs in the 13th inning, capping off a huge comeback and eventual win.
Raul wasn’t done, as the season came down to the last series against Boston. In the ninth inning, Ibanez hit a game tying home run against Andrew Bailey and a game winning single in extra innings to preserve the Yankees’ one game lead against Baltimore, helping them wrap up the division the next night.
In the ALDS, the Yankees faced Baltimore yet again. They split the first two games in Camden Yards and returned home for Game 3. Trailing by one run in the ninth inning, Joe Girardi called back a struggling A-Rod to have the lefty Ibanez face the righty Jim Johnson. Once again, Ibanez delivered.
Finally, against lefty Brian Matusz in the bottom of the twelfth, against a pitcher who was brought in specifically to neutralize left handed hitters like Ibanez, well, let’s just let Chip Caray take it from here.
It all came down to this. Raul Ibanez, Yankee postseason god, at the plate against Jose Valverde. It’s not often that the hottest hitter comes to the plate at the right time, but Valverde had no intention of walking Ibanez to bring the winning run to the plate. After all, Ibanez couldn’t work his magic again, could he?
“Fly ball, right field, pretty deep. Back to the wall….he’s done it again!!!” - Chip Caray
“Is it fair to ask him for another home run? It’s unfair I guess….Swung on and hit in the air to deep right field! That ball is high, it is far, it is gone! He’s done it AGAIN!....How many times can he do it?? Raul, so cool!” - John Sterling
It was surreal. It was electric. It was a moment that you never want to forget, one that makes you think anything is possible. Ten years later, we know what happened afterwards, how this was the last gasp of a dying dynasty. What I wouldn’t give to go back and live in those moments, to preserve the innocence and purity of baseball as it was that October night.
The end after that came short and quickly. The end is rarely an elegant moment. For this Yankees team, it came three innings later, as Derek Jeter ranged to his right to field a ground ball from Jhonny Peralta and fell down in pain. It was a gut punch moment. Jeter, the unflappable, unmovable, immortal object at shortstop, had a smile on his face but couldn’t get up. Even Ron Darling was in disbelief, saying “He’s fine.” when it was clear that he wasn’t. As he was carried away, the Yankees were only down by a run, but the game felt over. We would later learn that Jeter’s ankle was broken, ending his season and effectively his career as an above average player. An injury plagued 2013 sealed his decision to retire a year later. Sometimes, the end is a broken ankle, pulling the metaphorical carpet out from under you.
The Yankees went on to lose ALCS Game 1 in extra innings and only scored two runs in their next three games. The pitching tried its best to keep them in the series, but it wasn’t meant to be, as Detroit sealed its ALCS sweep with an 8-1 victory, knocking the Yankees out of the postseason for the second straight year. Although they didn’t know it at the time, the Yankees wouldn’t make it back to the ALCS for five years. In that time, the old guard of Jeter, A-Rod, Rivera and Pettitte retired, making way for a new core of Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino and Gleyber Torres. You never know when the end is going to come and for the Yankees, the 2012 ALCS was the last moment of joy and success for a generational group that lived a baseball lifetime together.
What was so special about the 2012 Yankees, as we sit here on the tenth anniversary of this team and remember some guys? To me, 2012 was a reflection of the highs and lows of baseball. This Yankees team had something for everyone - MVP and Cy Young level performances, out of nowhere contributions from baseball veterans, and everything in between. We saw them at their peak, steamrolling the competition over the summer. We saw them collapse, blowing that ten game lead to Baltimore. We saw them in a thrilling pennant race down the stretch, with so much riding on every game. It was truly a baseball season to remember, with some of the most exciting games I’ve ever seen. The 2012 Yankees may not have won the title, but they sure as hell tried and put on a show for all the fans. That’s worth celebrating in my book. The end is never pretty when it arrives, but in hindsight, it’s easier to move past the pain and remember the good times. Here’s to the 2012 Yankees, to Jeter and Cano, to CC and Kuroda, to the return of Pettitte and the welcoming of Ichiro, to the bunt that turned the season around and the usher in section 207, to Raul and Raul and Raul again, to a group of guys who kept fighting until their bodies gave out on them. Here’s to baseball and hope eternal, as symbolized by the Yankees of ten years ago. May they live far into baseball’s future.
