The more I think about the big A from the Midwest, the more I think about the big A from the Bronx -- Alex Rodriguez. Let's say, hypothetically, Pujols hit a grounder back to the box in Game 5. Would he have attempted to slap the ball out of the pitcher's glove? Would he have taken an extra fast start toward first? How you lose your last game defines how you're seen for the first game of the next season.
Having a great player on a team makes everyone better. Not because that one player can always pull you out of a tight spot; those players set the bar for everyone else. Want to know why the Yankees were watching the ALCS, not playing in it? Nobody was setting that bar. Nobody delivered when it mattered - not Jeter, not A-rod, not Matsui. The Yankees tradition of winning (or of greatness or of sportsmanship or of whatever) looked, honestly, a lot less like the highest payroll in baseball.
I'm all for tradition -- it holds our dispersed families together; it creates a framework for looking back on four years at Princeton; it's why most of us cheer for the same teams as our parents. As traditions develop and take root, they become initial points. Tradition is a cause and not an effect.
Tradition begets respect. Respect begets sportsmanship. Sportsmanship begets leadership. Leadership begets winning. In four months we'll see how far back to the basics the Yankees have gone.