that really might have to be my new facebook picture

Loved the Mo-Jorge moment. Loved Jeter and A-Rod coming together not as friends but as teammates and in the center of the diamond. Loved the coaches with the group hug. This is a fun team.

Yeah, and they were so calm. I felt as if the entire sound in the stadium was silenced, and there was just Mo and Jorge, walking calmly toward each other like they'd been doing this forever and that it was simply what they did.

That was a beautiful, almost surreal moment.

[3] It really was. I loved the fact that Jorge held tight like a good friend does and Mo had been ready to let the hug go but held on tight and with a big broad smile. It was two long-time friends embracing in a magical moment.

I love that image of Andy. I got angry listening to the Fox folk run him down before the game, as if CC was the only way the Yankees could win. I, for one, thought he was the ideal pitcher to clinch. Toughness, indeed.

I relished all those moments. I was moved by all of it, the camaraderie, the unbridled joy.

At least we get one day of calm before this all begins again.

[5] I bow down before Mo, but my heart belongs to Andy.

[6] Spoken like a true Yankees fan. Ditto.

I was feeling that Mo-Po thing as it happened, I even came over to the game thread to ask if anyone else felt the same way. Glad to see you did. It touched me a lot, still does. Calm, adult joy. Alex is right: in the chaos of the moment, the sport, that did border on the surreal, and add that the team did not rush the mound, the way all teams do, they mobbed at short with Alex/DJ/Tex. They left MoPo alone for that bit of time.

Special moment.

[7] hey i'm a true yankee fan and i've always liked mo better than anyone except maybe bernie

I Love Andy Pettitte. I hope he makes the HOF someday, but it really doesn't matter that much to me, he's already in the HOF inside my mind and my memories.

[9] I don't know what you thought I was saying. Mo has always been my number one. And, like Weeping for Brunhilde, I bow before him. But, I also have a big place in my heart for Andy. He's not only a gamer, but a big stage gamer whose success is gratifying and heartwarming. I wish him continued success cause his success is our success.

Does that make me less of a Yankee fan?

[9] By the way, I have no doubt that you are a true Yankee fan regardless of whom you like. Why else would you be bantering about?

[11] i thought the sentiment being expressed was that while mo is inhumanly great, it's more appropriate for a "true" yankee fan to like someone like pettitte more. i think we'd all agree that pettitte is awesome, and if that's all you meant to say, sorry for my response. nothing that i know of makes you less of a yankee fan.

the hug was one of those little special moments that people who aren't Yankee fans might overlook, but for us it holds a little extra something.

like O'Neill jumping on top of the dogpile in '96, rolling over, and then deciding to do it again.

Cone pointing up over 3rd for the last out of his perfect game, then the way he put his hands on top of his head in utter disbelief.

or Bernie getting down on one knee in center in Shea after catching the last out.

We care about it because when you follow these guys year in and year out, every single day, and really every day from February to October...they get to feel like part of the family after a while.

I think there is room for Mo, Pettitte, Jeter, Bernie, Posada and quite frankly anyone you want in the circle of trust.

I love Mo, but he's the best. We know he's the best, everyone else knows he's the best...you're in awe of him just as much as you love him.

Andy on the other hand, loving him is a unique Yankee fan experience. He's not "the best" by any stretch, but he's ours. Sometimes he's great, sometime's he's bad, plenty of times he's somewhere...but he's always there and thats what we appreciate most.

I still say the most frustrating and infuriating day I've ever had as a Yankee fan was the day we let him walk out the door without a second thought...conversely one of my most satisying days as a fan, outside of winning a big game, was the day 3 years ago when he came home.

Getting to have Andy be a huge part of (at least) one more title run is hugely satisfying.

It's all good.

[14] I love all those moments and the ones yet to come.

Now we have a classic moment that we can refer to as 'the hug" and we'll remember how special it felt.

[16] Hear, hear.

[16] this is the type of thing i thought i was responding to in [9]. and while i think it's understandable in some ways, i just don't understand why it isn't actually more of a unique yankee fan experience to love the guy who is "the best" and who no other team has ever experienced. i love mo because he is the best.

[19] my view is just that a fan from the outside can see how much we love Mo and say "well that guy's the greatest relief pitcher of all time and a first ballot hall of famer...why the hell WOULDN'T they love him?"

whereas with Andy, someone might wonder what's so special about a guy with a 4.02 career Yankee ERA. They might say "well he's good, but guys like Mussina and Clemens had better individual seasons. Why aren't they more popular than Pettitte?"

But as Yankee fans, we just know why...we can't describe it, but we just know.

and then there's this:

The New York Yankees have been blasting Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" during their playoff run. Now, the team is having the rap king perform the song live to kick off Game 1 of the World Series.

Jay-Z and fellow New Yorker Alicia Keys are set to perform the hit on Wednesday, as the Yankees take on defending World Series champs, the Philadelphia Phillies.

In an interview Monday, Jay-Z was excited about the performance, and said: "Thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee."

[21] wow, george really is out of the loop

Yeah, let's see Jay-Z replace Ronan Tynen .... :-)

I was moved by "the hug" .... it felt like Posada was so relieved to have survived the season and make it to the Series again. Think about how many questions we had about him coming into the year ....

francesa gives jorge a slight - SLIGHT (his emphasis) - edge over posada. and i'm pretty sure he thinks jeter and rollins is a wash.

RagingTartabull wrote: "Andy on the other hand, loving him is a unique Yankee fan experience. He’s not “the best” by any stretch, but he’s ours."

I like that... Cashman has done an outstanding job putting the pieces of this great team together, but as a Yankee fan, I have a special affinity for those home grown players signed all those years ago by Stick that still make up the nucleus of this championship run. Andy, Derek, Mariano, and Jorge. And while I love A-Rod, Teixeira and CC I kinda miss that tingle I'd get up my spine seeing Bernie run from first to third. I guess that's pride that they were all, as RagingTartabull said, ours.

I wonder how much Ronan Tynan regrets his mindless, anti-semitic comments. Did he forget that he llives in NYC?

[26] 13 of the 25 guys on the alcs roster were home grown. not counting matsui. i'm pretty sure that's more than were on any of the late 90s teams.

I also loved the hug. Surreal, indeed; could not believe it as it went through. I kept waiting for the pile to come in of for the jumping up and down and screaming.

But no, this moment was different; two veterans cherishing the fact of going back together to the WS. Appreciating each other. It rounded out the moment when Jorge deposited the ball into Mariano's glove, gently, in the bottom of the 8th.

I wish I could read minds, but Jorge's hug seemed to say "Don't ever leave; we can't do this without you"; Mo's hug seemed to say "Don't worry about it, man; be happy and live the moment"...

At least that's hot it transpired in my mind, and I kept thinking how would I react if I was Mo or Jorge...

[28] I don't have the rosters, but of the guys who played in the Serious:

In 1996, 6 of 25 were homegrown (7 if you count Boehringer, but he wasn't drafted/originally signed by the Yanks).

In 1998, 10 of 21 (including El Duque).

In 1999, 7 of 23 (again including El Duque).

In 2000, 7 of 22 (again including El Duque).

In 1999 and 2000, even if we assume all the guys who made the roster but didn't play were "home grown", it still doesn't beat 2009. The only chance is in 1998 . . . I'll see if I can find that roster.

[26, 28] I mean Mo is ours as well, my point is just that Mo is an all-time great , his greatness transcends team and everything else; whereas Andy is a Yankee great...like a Mattingly or a Munson. One isn't better then the other, just slightly different. I don't know if I'm articulating this well, but you can be an all-time Yankee without being an all-time great in my mind, and Andy falls solidly in that category.

I don't think it has anything to do with being home grown though. Tino was a Mariner, O'Neill was a Red, Coney was a Royal/Met/Blue Jay....I didn't love them any less for it.

[28] [30] OK, the 4 missing players were Raines (no), Curtis (no), Sojo (no), and Irabu (not really "home grown"). Though I guess that means Homer Bush - who came from the Padres in the Irabu trade, which I did not know, doesn't really count either, so make it 9 of 21 in 1998.

98- williams, posada, jeter, pettitte, rivera, mendoza, spencer, ledee were all home grown
el duque and irabu were something in between
homer bush came up through the padres farm system but was traded to the yankees in the irabu deal before he made his major league debut
o'neill, martinez, knoblauch, sojo, brosius, girardi, cone, wells, lloyd, stanton, nelson, curtis, davis and holmes were definitely not home grown.

right, raines, not darren holmes. but i thought holmes was on the roster for one of the postseason series but just never pitched. maybe not.

wait so raines didn't play at all in the 98 world series? why the hell not?

Jay-Z is channelling Joe D? THAT is surreal! (The 'thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee' line is Joe's). Waite Hoyt said, even better, 'It's great to be young and a Yankee.'

The Andy/Mo thing is, in a way, a function of an off-day and excitement here but ... of course there's no 'true fan' aspect to our personal favs. Can't be. My sister-in-law loves Pettitte for his dimpled chin. (I kid you not.) But I agree with Raging ... if we love someone because he's the best ever at his position and he's on our team ... that's easy, isn't it? Only A Rod has made it hard for some (like ted Williams apparently did in Boston). But absent complex baggage, cheering for the lock HoFer on your team is a snap. It is when a very good player grows hugely in affection that it gets more ... interesting? Murcer got it because he was kind of the only game in town. Paul O'Neill had a decent, not great career in the NL, came to NY and ... he fit. Arrived at the right time, right manager, right park, city that embraced his ferocious temper and self-mutilation. Yankee fans locked on. Andy gets some of the same love, fiercely competitive and part of the glory years (The iconic game for most of us is probably beating Smoltz 1-0 and the moment of moments is the throw to 3rd base - they showed it last night - he looked amazingly young. He was!). We cut him a world of slack on the PED confession, and it felt right. I don't personally think the Yankees did him down when he left, that was a complex two-way scenario, but the prodigal son is a kind of myth in sport, too. It gave me so much pleasure to see him dealing last night, getting the win.

[35] Ledee hit .600/.615/.900 in the Serious, and who else was going to be sat to give Rock some playing time?

In fact, all the regulars hit except Bernie (.063/.167/.250) and O'Neill (.211/.25/.263) (OK and Girardi, but I'm not sure he was a regular). Once they lost the DH in SD, there was Chili (a strange power-free line (.286/.500/.286)) and Spencer to pinch hit, and Bush to pinch run . . . so I can see Rock not seeing a plate appearance.

Raines also hit .100/.250/.100 in the ALCS; maybe that played into it? Torre loved to ride the hot hand in the playoffs (and seemingly still does, says Vicente Padilla).

[16] [36] Yes, it was sad when Pettitte left, but the Yanks got a 1st round draft pick out of it.

The Yanks used that pick to draft Phil Hughes.

I adore Pettitte - his is the only jersey hanging in my closet - but given that piece of information, I've always gladly accepted his 3 year sabbatical in Houston.

[37] yeah, ledee got very hot in the world series. i was confused because the reason he got so much playing time was that spencer hadn't hit well in the alcs (he was also 1/10), so it seems strange that torre would go to ledee and not the veteran raines. but i guess it was because raines was also bad in the alcs. of course, ledee was 0/5 in the alcs, and spencer had been as hot as anyone i've ever seen in the month leading up to it, including the divisional series (he did get the start in game 3 even though ledee was 4/6 in the first 2 games). anyway, it's a bit surprising that raines got no playing time whatsoever in the series. he did hit .290 with a .395 obp in the regular season.

[29] There will be poor with you always; me, you will not have always.

[36] "Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive but to be young was very heaven."--Wordsworth on the Revolution Francaise.