Billiards and Bombers

Last night, during the locker room celebration, YES reporter Kimberly Jones asked Mariano Rivera when he knew this Yankees team could win the American League pennant. Without missing a beat, Rivers pointed to Spring Training, specifically the team’s daylong outing to a local pool hall.

I laughed because, back in February, a few days after the team’s trip to Peabody’s, I wrote this about the field trip:

While I'm all for team-building exercises, I wouldn't put too much stock in yesterday's pool outing. The baseball season is long and grueling. No matter how many field trips the Yankees schedule between now and October, it won't make a lick of difference if the starting rotation fails to deliver, or A-Rod once again withers under the intense media spotlight.

Well, nearly 10 months later, the Yankees reached the World Series behind a stellar starting rotation and an amazing performance from A-Rod. But I also don't want to discount the role chemistry played in the team's successes in the regular season and the first two rounds of the postseason. That the 2009 Yankees seemed—and played—more relaxed than they have in recent years was a running theme in their season-long narrative, cited by many, from Michael Kay to John Heyman: the pies in the face; the championship belt; kangaroo court; fantasy football leagues; fishing trips. This year's Yankees team actually got along and came together much more cohesively than in the past. And, at least according to Mo, the Hammer of God, the team's chemistry all started back in February, when Joe Girardi gave his team a day off and took his players to a pool hall in Florida.