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by Tom Verducci

Posted: Fri September 25, 1998

There is no column on the official stat sheet for magic. You won't find a team's supply of serendipity tucked between the tallies of runs batted in and sacrifice hits. That is why taking measure of the world champion 1996 Yankees is an inexact science. It was a team you had to see to believe.

The '96 club sensed it was a team of destiny when 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier helped Derek Jeter to a home run at the expense of Orioles rightfielder Tony Tarasco.    (Chuck Solomon)

The 1998 Yankees have been a set team since Day One of spring training, except for the emergence of Orlando Hernandez as the fifth starter in place of Ramiro Mendoza. The Yankees of two seasons ago were a work in progress. Seven of the 25 men on their postseason roster weren't even in the organization for the first 81 games. The club struggled all season against lefthanded starters (20-27), never did have a true leadoff hitter (Wade Boggs made the most starts in that spot), and had Ruben Sierra as its most-used DH—the same guy who upon being shipped to Detroit in July tried to chide the Yankees by snorting, "All they care about is winning." It would have worked perfectly as the club's motto.

The alchemy of the '96 Yankees happened in October. They trailed in every game against Texas in the Division Series, and won in five. With the assist of 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier (oh, yes, and a sizzling Bernie Williams) they took out Baltimore in the ALCS. And then, after losing the first two games of the World Series by the worst combined score in Series history (16-1), they took four straight from Atlanta, including the second-greatest comeback in World Series history in the epic Game 4. The '96 team was a very good regular-season team, but a spectacular postseason one.

So how does this year's Yankees club compare to the franchise's 23rd world championship team? As the following categories indicate, the '98 team clearly is more talented. The final call, however, belongs to October.

OFFENSE: This year's team has hit 207 home runs, second-most in franchise history; only the '61 club hit more (240). This year's team stole 153 bases; only two other Yankee teams since 1916 stole more. That gives you an idea of the versatility of the machine. The '98 Yankees have outscored their opponents by almost 300 runs. The '96 squad, despite an identical batting average (.288), did so only by 84 runs. The '98 Yankees are the only team in American League history with five players with at least 10 homers and 10 stolen bases: Williams, Paul O'Neill, Scott Brosius and the best double-play combo in franchise history, Derek Jeter and Chuck Knoblauch. EDGE: '98 Yankees by a wide margin.

DEFENSE: The '98 Yankees actually have committed more errors than the '96 unit (98 to 91). That's misleading. The interior defense is improved, with Knoblauch replacing Mariano Duncan, Brosius taking over for Boggs and Jeter playing shortstop much more smoothly than he did as a rookie. EDGE: '98 Yankees, slightly.

BULLPEN: Mariano Rivera and John Wetteland gave the '96 Yankees one of the best late-inning tandems in history. The team was 70-3 that year when it took a lead into the seventh inning. (The Yanks are 90-7 this year.) The '98 Yankees don't have the same kind of push-bottom relief formula, especially with Jeff Nelson recovering from a back injury. But Rivera is every bit the closer Wetteland was. The '98 Yankees lost only one game all year when they took a lead into the eighth inning; the '96 team dropped two such games. EDGE: '96 Yankees, slightly.

STARTING ROTATION: This is what makes the '98 Yankees so special. Their starters were 86-39 (in '96, they were 67-49) and have thrown 139.9 more innings than they did two years ago, almost never straining the bullpen. Though Andy Pettitte is having a down year compared to '96, David Cone is healthier and far more effective, and David Wells, Hideki Irabu and Hernandez are durable upgrades from Jimmy Key, Dwight Gooden and Kenny Rogers. EDGE: '98 Yankees, by far.

INTANGIBLES: The '96 Yankees saw a 12-game lead in late July chopped to 2 1/2 with 20 to play. They responded with an 11-4 run to clinch the East before finishing with 92 wins. Then they branded themselves as one of the greatest comeback teams in postseason history. The '98 Yankees never have been pushed. They haven't played a critical series since the second week of the season. But don't hold that against them. They're that good. EDGE: Stay tuned.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci, the magazine's lead baseball writer, covered the Yankees' run to the 1996 World Series championship.

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