Fast forward to the fourth of November and all of the chatter early on that you can’t buy a championship has quieted. Yes, the Yankees do have many home grown components on the roster but without the addition of the big three free agents there would not have been a 27th World championship won.

After a rash of busts that have gone through Yankee Stadium since the last championship in 2000, the organization was meticulous in doing their home work. They needed to address the starting rotation and did so in astonishing fashion, inking lefthander CC Sabathia and righty A. J. Burnett. With Jason Giambi’s albatross of a contract finally expired, the Yankees had a hole at first base.

At the 11th hour, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman swooped in and signed Mark Teixiera right under Boston’s nose. This completed the trifecta of big name additions and immediately put the Yankees as favorites to win it all.

They not only dominated the regular season by finishing with the best overall record but easily dismissed the Twins and Angels in the playoffs. They then defeated the defending champions in six games. The Phillies were a formidable opponent but it was men versus boys. Even the biggest Yankee hater has to tip his or her hat to them following the 7-3 clincher at the new Yankee Stadium.

It is quite amazing when you sit back and ponder that not only have the Yankees captured 27 titles but also 40 American League pennants since they moved from Baltimore back in 1903. The next two teams on the list are the St. Louis Cardinals with 10 World Series championships and the Athletics franchise (Philadelphia, Kansas City and Oakland) is next with nine.

Even the staunches Yankee hater has to tip his or her hat to them. Come to think of it, a bigger story this year would have been if they didn’t win it all.

NEW YORK YANKEES WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIPS

1923, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2009

Photo by Bill Menzel

One of the first things that CC Sabathia told the media on Thursday was that he got a “chill” when he said that he was a member of the New York Yankees and put on their hat. He also was sporting a pinstriped jersey with the number 52 on the back, which no doubt must have been at least what the size tag stated and still not baggy enough to hide his 311-pound girth.

For a free agent that did everything possible to find another taker closer to his northern California home, it would seem a bit of a farce that Sabathia would resort to the Yankee mystique as an attraction to inking a seven-year, $161 million contract.

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“As far as having a chance to win every year, and that’s something that I talk about all the time, if you ask anybody, that’s the bottom line for me,” he said. “There really was no other place to go.”

The key to that entire statement is the last part. Was Sabathia referring to the Yankees being perceived as ‘winners’ and playing for them will guarantee some semblance of success, or that there were no other offers out there even close to the one he accepted?

The Milwaukee Brewers – who Sabathia went 11-2 with after being acquired from Cleveland – put forth a five-year, $100 million offer to the 28-year-old lefthander. Besides that and the Yankees’ original $146 million over six years, there were no other bidders out there for his services. Sabathia was blatant about preferring the west coast teams, but besides a rumored low-baller from the Giants (obviously hoping for a hometown discount and a bit gun shy after getting burned on Barry Zito), it was the Yankees bidding against themselves.

The Bombers’ new ace spoke about going house hunting with his wife. Wherever he ends up residing, it may be a short stay. One of the final ingredients in the negotiations was the inclusion of a player opt-out clause after three years. Makes one think of how genuine his “chill” was or if he only felt one because of President-elect Barrack Obama’s plan on blasting the rich with heavy taxes.

If Sabathia does decide to pack his solid gold luggage in 2011 and head west, he will have pocketed $69 million of Hal Steinbrenner’s money and – the rest remains unanswered. Delivering what is the only goal of the organization – World Series title number 27 – determines if signing the overweight southpaw was worth it or not.

For a team like the Yankees, spending another $82.5 million on a second free agent hurler is merely a luxury. A.J. Burnett was also introduced at the press conference and brings with him a history of injury problems to 161st street. Timing is everything, and the righthander remained healthy in 2008 while going 18-10 for Toronto, giving him enough reason to opt out of a contract paying him $11 million a year. Now he has five years to prove that it was the right move.

“We’re all family now,” Burnett said at the press conference.

A very wealthy one at that.

On the heels of shelling out $243.5 million for two pitchers, the holdup in the Mike Cameron for Melky Cabrera deal is money. If you’re Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin, how do you not want to projectile vomit on the other end of the telephone when Yankees counterpart Brian Cashman had the balls to ask for relief in a paltry 2009 salary of $10 million?

Apparently looking to cut corners, Cashman appears to be content on playing the waiting game with the Brewers, either them giving in or the Yankees including another slug – pitcher Kei Igawa – in the deal.

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Although Cameron is not the same player he once was – except for the ability to strike out often (142 in 2008) – he is an upgrade over the once-promising Cabrera, who took a huge step back last year. Igawa has been a disappointment since coming to America and does not figure to be in the team’s long-term plans. Why Milwaukee would want to take on the two years and the $10 million remaining on the ineffective lefthander’s contract remains to be seen.

With the Yankees throwing money around, it is hard to even fathom them caring about saving a dollar here, a dollar there. And the rest of the league should take notice and not give in an inch when negotiating with them.

At the start of the 2008 baseball season, Andy Pettitte seemed to be pitching with his mind elsewhere. Although his numbers weren’t all bad, the inconsistency that was rarely a part of his game seemed to be the only thing consistent during April and May and the beginning of June. One could hardly blame him, with the volatile offseason filled with the George Mitchell investigation and testimony for the congressional hearings starring Roger Clemens.

That all seemed to be past him as Pettitte won four straight decisions to improve to 9-5. Then word leaked out that he may have to testify in the federal defamation lawsuit that Clemens filed against both hurlers’ former trainer Brian McNamee. The following day, Pettitte got pounded by the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

While all of that may just be a coincidence, one has to remember the fragile psyche that Pettitte has and the fact that he is – when Clemens is part of the equation – a follower and not a leader. The Rocket is the bad boy to Pettitte’s altar boy, and it was obvious during this whole ordeal that the religious lefthander was pained to be speaking so brutally frank about his own human growth hormone use and what he knew of his close friend’s alleged indulgence into performance-enhancing drugs.

The Bronx Bombers need Pettitte to be the ace of the rotation in the second half of the season. They are currently in third place in the American League East, 9.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays and 4.5 back of Boston. In the Wild Card race, the Yanks are five back, chasing three teams.

Since number-one starter Chien-Ming Wang went on the disabled list, the pressure on veterans Pettitte and Mike Mussina grew even larger to step up and lead the way in the wake of the two youngster’s (Ian Kennedy and Phillip Hughes) disastrous seasons.

A 4.22 ERA in today’s AL is not anything to hang your head about, but if Pettitte expects to lead this team into the postseason, he will have to repeat the effective part of June and forget about his off-the-field issues. Clemens is finished and cannot help him in any way, shape or form at this stage of their lives, and the wider distance that Pettitte puts between them will only be a boost to his game.

Although Pettitte was obviously downplaying his HGH use, at least he made an attempt to put the entire issue past him. When he made his public apology statement following the release of the Mitchell Report, he said that he only used HGH on two occasions. Then during his testimony to investigators before the February Congress circus, he said that it was three times. Anyone who has even the slightest of knowledge of PEDs knows that these drugs are used in cycles and one or two administrations will not be effective. Because McNamee could only attest to the few incidents, it was easy for Pettitte to keep it at that number, or somewhere reasonably close to it.

Because Clemens chose to not only deny his use of PEDs but go to extremes in doing so, he has switched the burden of proof onto himself. That has dragged many others into the fray, including Pettitte, who probably wished that he had chosen his friends more carefully.

Photo credit: New York Sportscene magazine