David Justice said it on national television, but the murmurs had started earlier in the week. And in the champagne-drenched aftermath of the Yanks’ pennant victory over the Mariners on Tuesday, it was a full-blown theme.
“We told you so,” the Yankees said with a collective, proud smile. “You doubted us and we proved you wrong.”
The statements weren’t quite that bold and challenging, but the Bombers did indeed gain a measure of motivation during the postseason as they read and heard all the reports of their demise.
“We were written off,” Justice pointed out. “We stuck together.”
After clobbering the big blow in Tuesday’s 9-7 victory over Seattle, Justice did an on-camera interview and about halfway through he reminded viewers that the Bombers had been saddled with doubts, but came through anyway. A moment later, his teammates did the same thing in their rounds of interviews in the clubhouse.
Even newcomer Denny Neagle pointed out that “a lot of people wrote us off – people were saying we were done and there was a chink in our armor, but we stuck together and proved that we could do it even when we were down.”
Neagle, who was an All-Star Break addition, even went so far as to suggest the World Series berth this year meant almost as much to the team as the one in 1998 because of the doubters.
“I know everyone on this club is real proud of what they accomplished in 1998,” Neagle said, referring to the Yanks’ record 125-win season, “but this year we had to do it the hard way. When that happens, and you pull together to win, it’s extra gratifying.”
Chuck Knoblauch said: “We’re not the old Yankees. We’re the Yankees of 2000. We did it how we did it, whether it was convincingly or not to outside people, we still did what we had to do.”
But all along, as their fan base voiced concerns over an aging lineup and rotation and the team’s late-season impotency, the Yankees believed.
Even Jose Vizcaino, who is one of the more invisible Yankees, said he was confident in his teammates.
“I knew all along we’d be here in the World Series,” he said calmly and confidently after he scored the game-tying run on Justice’s three-run bomb that put the Yanks ahead for good at 6-4 in the seventh.
While the sentiment of “told ya so” was loud and clear after Tuesday’s win, the Yankees had been proving the naysayers wrong since the beginning of the playoffs.
After Game 3 of the ALCS when the Yanks took a 2-1 lead over the Mariners, Derek Jeter noted what he thought was an inequity.
“When we play well it’s, ‘Oh, it’s Yankee Baseball,’ ” Jeter said. “When we play bad, it’s, ‘They’re too old.’ We believed all along we could play well, even when we had that bad stretch.”
Jeter’s father Charles agreed that the all the talk about the Yankees’ run ending was premature. He spoke with The Post after the Yanks’ Game 4 win in Seattle.
“All teams go through slumps at some times,” Charles Jeter said with the same unwavering confidence as his son. “This team has won three out of the last four. Even in September, I had confidence in this team.”
Even opponents had confidence in the Yankees. On Tuesday night, first base coach Lee Mazzilli said he had a conversation with Ranger Rafael Palmeiro during the second half of the season. It was during one of the Yankees’ slumps, but Palmeiro assured Mazzilli the Yanks would come through in the postseason. Mazzilli replied, “That’s interesting, why do you say that?” and Palmeiro said he sees “something in the eyes” of the Yankees that tells him they are champions.
But the Yanks still have another hurdle – the Mets – before the can wear the crown again.
“You can’t count us out,” said catcher Jorge Posada. “A lot of people said we were too old, but we pulled together. Now we have to go out and defend our title.”