Sunday night, the Astros completed the four-game ALCS sweep and sent the New York Yankees home for the offseason. The Astros have eliminated the Yankees four times in the last eight postseasons and will now face the Phillies in the World Series. The Yankees, meanwhile, are now staring out the window and planning for 2023.
The Yankees took a, let’s call it an unusual approach to motivating their players prior to Game 4 — the team’s mental skills coach circulated videos of the Red Sox winning the 2004 ALCS, the only time in history a team overcame a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series. In a vacuum, yeah, that makes sense. Show your players it can be done. But this is not a vacuum, and 2004 ALCS is arguably the worst moment in Yankees’ history. Certainly the worst moment in recent history.
“We watched that video today, oh yeah,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told the Associated Press prior to Game 4. “We sent it out to all our coaches and (got) it out to our players. It was just the belief that they had. They had a confidence and you see (Kevin) Millar: ‘Don’t let us win one. Why not us?'”
Ultimately, using the 2004 ALCS video to motivate players did not work, and now members of that 2004 Yankees team are being asked about the 2022 Yankees using their failure as motivation. Hall of Famers Derek Jeter and Joe Torre were both asked about it at Jeter’s charity event Wednesday night. From the New York Post:
“You try anything,” Torre said Wednesday at Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation dinner in Midtown. “My guess … is they were trying to show it can be done. Unfortunately, we let [that series] get away from us. Whatever they think is gonna help, I’m all for. You don’t hide from it. We had a 3-0 lead. It’ll always be a sad time for us, but give the Red Sox credit, too.”
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“I heard about that,” Jeter said of the video being sent out. “I don’t know the context. I still don’t like to talk about [the ’04 ALCS] myself. It makes me sick just thinking about it.”
That’s about as politely and diplomatically as you can say “I hate that we have to talk about this again.” I reckon most 2004 Yankees players are rankled by it, even if they’ll never admit it publicly. If, say, the Dodgers overcame a 3-0 deficit to beat the Giants and the Yankees tried to use that as motivation, great! Go for it. But the Red Sox beating the Yankees? Good gravy. Read the room, guys.
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