Has It Really Been 20 Years?

I'd been looking forward to today's Yankee game pretty much all season.  Today was the 20th anniversary celebration of that incredible 1998 team.  It also made me feel really old.  Was 1998 really 20 years ago?  (For the record, Gleyber Torres was 1 and Miguel Andujar was 3 that season.)

That 1998 squad, of course, is really the standard that modern baseball teams are measured against.  They won 114 regular season games (tying the American League record at the time) and finished a remarkable 75 games over .500 including the playoffs.  And the most memorable moment of that season had to be the perfect game thrown by David Wells on May 17!

Just like at their 1996 reunion two years ago, a good number of the players on that team returned for the celebration.  Even the random dudes who played like three games in mid-June were there!  There were some absences for various reasons, but Scott Brosius and Derek Jeter both sent videos.  And Don Zimmer's wife was there to represent him, which was a really nice touch.

For the most part, though, all of the principles were there.  Joe Torre even threw out the ceremonial first pitch.  And they kept the 1998 theme going all day long by playing songs from the late-90s between innings (among the selections: Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn," Faith Hill's "This Kiss," The Barenaked Ladies' "One Week").

At the 1996 celebration, the players ran out from center field individually.  I guess they determined that took too long, so this time they all rode in in golf carts by position.  That didn't stop us from reacting more for certain players, though.  Extended applause for Tino Martinez and the outfielders (Bernie Williams and Paul O'Neill were together), standing ovations for Joe Torre, David Wells and Mariano Rivera (complete with "Enter Sandman" for Mo).

Anyway, I'm sure you've had enough of me talking about it.  So, in case you didn't watch it on YES, here are some of my pictures from the ceremony (notice I had a much better seat than I did for 1996).

The perfect game Davids rode in together...

...so did Pettitte and Posada, the most frequent pitcher/catcher
combo in Yankees history.

None other than Hall of Famer Joe Torre throwing out the first pitch.

This was just the start of the celebrations, too.  Next year, they could actually do two reunions if they want to--one for 1999, one for 2009.  Then there's the 2000 team that completed the three-peat.  

Those won't be the same, though.  It was, for the most part, the same cast of characters.  But that 1998 squad will always be the special one.  Yes, that was the one that set the records and forever earned a place in baseball history.  But it was so much more than that.  The 1998 team will always be special.