If you've ever seen the Paul O'Neill "Yankee-ography" on YES, you may remember that when he talks about the crushing loss to the Mariners in the 1995 Division Series, he said the Yankees learned to "hang on a little harder" in the post-season.
That phrase sticks with me, because from 1996 to 2001, that's what the Yankees did. Hang on a little harder. They staged incredible comebacks, even with two out in the ninth, and when they were eliminated, by the Indians in 1997 or the D'Backs in 2001, it came down to the last game, last inning, last batter. They were all but impossible to close out.
After that, starting in 2002 ...
with O'Neill and Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius and a lot of others gone, the Yankees lost that. They went down very quietly to the Angels in '02, and Jorge Posada said, pointedly, "we didn't want it bad enough."
They fought like hell to win the ALCS in 2003, but once things went awry against the Marlins in the World Series, they went down very quietly against Josh Beckett in Game 6. Very quietly.
Then came the total collapse in 2004.
They fought off elimination once against the Angels in '05, but played a terrible Game 5 and lost.
In Game 6, it looked like they flat out quit in Game 4 against the Tigers.
They fought off elimination once against the Indians in '07, but then went down quietly in Game 4.
You get the drift. The 2002-2007 teams just didn't have that survival instinct, or killer instinct, or will to win that the 1996-2001 team had. They couldn't put teams away, and their will could be broken and a meek cave-in would usually follow.
Now, does this team, in 2009, have that O'Neill-defined ability to "hang on a little harder?" Their Game 2 win in the Division Series was a good sign, a win like the '96-01 teams might have done it. And Game 3, the nail-biter that it was, was also a good sign.
The ALCS, the Angels all over again, will be the big test. That's the intangible you may want to look for. Will the Yankees, when things go wrong, "hang on a little harder?"
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