Yankees 13-Year Streak of Postseason Appearances Ended in 2008

Today, I’m starting my next season-long history project, similar to what I did last year with “Hardball Hypberbole.” This one is focused on 2009 which, as you all know, was the last time the Yankees won the World Series, and it will be called, here’s a surprise, “Yankees 2009: The Last Championship.” 

Each Saturday I’ll take you back to the big moments, key games and memorable performances that led to World Series victory No. 27. We’ll get things started with a review of the disappointing 2008 season when the Yankees missed the postseason for the first time since 1993 which concurrently brought an inglorious end to the 85-year life of Yankee Stadium. Lets get to it.

The 2008 season ended appropriately enough for the Yankees on the Sunday evening of Sept. 28 in the second game of a doubleheader against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

After the Yankees had rallied to tie matters with two runs in the top of the ninth, a Yankees pitcher you’ve probably never heard of, Jose Veras, gave up a leadoff triple in the bottom of the 10th inning to someone you have heard of because he is currently the manager of the present day Red Sox, Alex Cora. And then moments later, Veras served up a walk-off single to another guy you’ve probably never heard of, Boston’s Jonathan Van Every, and Cora trotted home with the winning run.

And so came to a close a massively disappointing 89-73 season because this was the first time since 1993 (not counting the 1994 strike season) that the Yankees missed the MLB postseason. In other words, the first time since the man who was now captain of the Yankees, Derek Jeter, made his Bronx debut during the 1995 season.

We were at a point in Yankees history where missing the playoffs was pretty much blasphemous, so the fact that the Tampa Bay Rays - yes, can you even imagine the indignity of losing out to an 11-year-old franchise - won the AL East by two games over Boston and eight over third-place New York was simply stunning to a spoiled pinstripe fan base.

What was frustrating is that unlike the 2023 abomination that missed the playoffs, this was not a bad Yankees team. First-year manager Joe Girardi penciled in a lineup that was still led by Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Robinson Cano, Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui, backed by a pitching staff that included Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte, and Mariano Rivera.

But from the start it was clear that the Yankees just didn’t have much juice and they were a franchise in need of a reboot. They had actually started to leak oil in 2007, Joe Torre’s last season as manager, when they saw their incredible streak of nine straight AL East division titles end at the hands of the hated Red Sox, followed by an unceremonious bouncing from the AL divisional round in four games by Cleveland.

And then in 2008, they sputtered to a 14-15 start in April and as late as June 6 they were still under .500 and sitting in last place in the division, 6.5 games behind the Red Sox. A decent stretch in June and July inched them to within 4.5 games, but then came a crushing 13-15 August that coincided with the Rays winning 21 of 28 games which also propelled Tampa Bay past Boston.

Thus, on the morning of Sept. 1, the Yankees were not only 12.5 games behind Tampa Bay, they were 7.5 games behind the Red Sox in the race for the lone wild-card berth and they were done.

The offense wasn’t terrible as it finished sixth in MLB in on-base percentage at .342, eighth in OPS at .769, and tied for ninth in home runs with 180, but it was on the mound where the Yankees struggled.

Despite the fact that the 38-year-old Mussina won 20 games for the first time in his career and compiled a 3.37 ERA in what would be his last season, and Pettitte won 14 games at the age of 36, the rotation was a mess as it finished with a 4.44 ERA, 18th in MLB.

Early in the season the Yankees tried to go with two kids, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, both recent first-round draft picks, but neither was ready for the assignment. They each went 0-4 with Hughes putting up a 6.62 ERA, Kennedy an 8.17, and they spent the bulk of 2008 back in the minor leagues.

And then Chien-Ming Wang, who had won 19 games in back-to-back seasons and was off to an 8-2, 4.07 start, suffered a career-altering foot injury running the bases in a game on June 15 in Houston - back when the NL still didn’t have the DH and pitchers had to hit for themselves in NL parks. That ended his 2008 season, and he never came close to being the pitcher he was in 2006 and 2007 which was a sad misfortune.

From then on, Girardi was left to try to piecemeal things together with mediocrities like Darrell Rasner, Sidney Ponson and Joba Chamberlain who the Yankees were still screwing around with, monitoring his innings - remember, the Joba Rules? - in an effort to keep him healthy. He got hurt anyway and appeared in only 42 games, 12 of those starts.

One of the lone feel good moments of the year came on the night of Sept. 21 when the Yankees staved off their inevitable elimination from the playoff race by winning the final game at 85-year-old Yankee Stadium, beating Baltimore 7-3.

“I’m very, very thankful that we were able to win the game,” Pettitte said.

The team put on a stirring 65-minute pre-game ceremony during which numerous former Yankees gave their final salutes, many in person, many from afar, and some from beyond represented by living relatives.

Once the game began, Johnny Damon hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the third, Jose Molina hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the fourth, and that ultimately allowed Pettitte to get credit for his 95th victory in the Bronx cathedral, fifth-most all-time behind only Whitey Ford, Red Ruffing, Lefty Gomez and Ron Guidry.

Jeter, who went 0-for-5 in his final tour around the old ballpark, was pulled from the game with two outs in the ninth by Girardi so that the sellout crowd of more than 54,000 could give him a standing ovation. And then once Rivera recorded the final out, the team remained on the field and Jeter was given the microphone near home plate.

The entire team then took a lap around the field to say its final goodbyes to a place that witnessed 39 AL pennants and 26 World Series championships.

A day later, in his final meeting with reporters before the long offseason would begin, Girardi summed up the crash and burn of 2008 this way, but also offered a glimmer of hope for 2009.

“It was a toll of things that happened that hurt us, but I still believe we have the people in this room to get it done,” he said. “We didn’t have the season we wanted, but we still won 89 games and we’re not that far off from being a playoff team.”

That turned out to be a prescient statement.

NEXT SATURDAY: The Yankees win the offseason by spending nearly half a billion dollars to sign pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, first baseman Mark Teixeira, and outfielder Nick Swisher.