2006 Yankees

We won 97 games in 2006 and I barely remember any of them. That's not because the regular season was boring -- Jeter put together one of the best years of his career, Chien-Ming Wang won 19 games on pure sinker-ball sorcery, and the lineup was stacked so deep you couldn't find a soft spot with a search warrant. No, I barely remember the regular season because of what happened in October, when the Detroit Tigers showed up and punched us right in the mouth. And then, four days later, something happened that made October losses feel small.

But let's rewind. Because before the gut punch and the tragedy, this was actually a really fun team.

Damon Defects (to Us)

Johnny Damon signed a four-year, $52 million deal in December 2005 and did the one thing Red Sox fans couldn't forgive -- he shaved. The long hair, the caveman beard, the whole Boston identity: gone. In its place was a clean-cut Yankee who hit .285 with 24 home runs, 80 RBI, and 25 stolen bases. He brought speed to the leadoff spot, energy to the clubhouse, and a permanent smirk to every Yankees-Red Sox series. Stealing him from Boston never stopped being hilarious (and honestly, it still hasn't).

Jeter's MVP Case

Derek Jeter hit .343 with 214 hits, 118 runs scored, 97 RBI, and 34 stolen bases. He won the Gold Glove. He won the Silver Slugger. He played with the kind of controlled fury that made you think the man personally took offense every time the scoreboard showed the Yankees trailing. And he finished second in the MVP vote -- behind Justin Morneau of the Twins, who hit .321 with 34 homers and 130 RBI.

Look, Morneau had a great year. But Jeter's combination of offense, defense, baserunning, and leadership on a 97-win team should've won the award. I'm not over it. I'll probably never be over it. It was the kind of MVP snub that Yankees fans bring up at Thanksgiving dinner (whether anyone wants to hear about it or not).

The Lineup and the Rotation

A-Rod hit 35 home runs with 121 RBI but had a weirdly inconsistent season that included long cold stretches and some truly baffling at-bats with runners on. Jorge Posada mashed 23 home runs behind the plate. Robinson Cano hit .342 with 41 doubles and made second base look effortless -- the kid was 23 and already one of the sweetest swings in baseball. Bobby Abreu, acquired from Philly at the deadline, gave us a professional hitter with a .419 on-base percentage down the stretch. Jason Giambi slugged 37 homers with a .413 OBP, which is absurd production even if he couldn't field his position without generating a prayer circle in the press box.

The whole team scored 930 runs -- best in the league. Just an absolute wrecking crew from top to bottom.

On the mound, Wang was the story. The Taiwanese sinker-baller went 19-6 with a 3.63 ERA, and his approach was the opposite of everything the modern game worships. He didn't strike guys out (76 K in 218 innings). He just threw that heavy sinker, got ground ball after ground ball, and let his infielders do the work. Mike Mussina went 15-7 with a 3.51 ERA. Randy Johnson -- 42 years old with a creaky back -- put up a 17-11 record but still posted a 5.00 ERA that made you nervous every fifth day.

Mariano Rivera closed with 34 saves and a 1.80 ERA. Because of course he did.

The Fenway Massacre

The five-game sweep at Fenway Park from August 18-21 was the defining stretch of the regular season. We entered with a slim one-and-a-half-game lead over Boston. We left with a six-and-a-half-game cushion. The Yankees outscored the Red Sox 49-26 across the series -- the first five-game sweep at Fenway since the Cleveland Indians pulled it off in 1954. The back pages called it "Boston Massacre 2.0," and the Red Sox never recovered, stumbling to a 9-21 August and missing the postseason entirely. It was the kind of dominant stretch that made you think this team couldn't lose.

Turned out it could. Just not in August.

October: The Tigers

We won the AL East for the ninth straight year. Nine. That kind of dominance should've built up some October karma. It didn't.

The ALDS against Detroit opened at Yankee Stadium, and we took Game 1 behind Wang, 8-4. It felt like a statement. It was actually a mirage. The Tigers won Game 2, then went back to Comerica Park and destroyed us -- a 6-0 shutout in Game 3 behind Kenny Rogers (whose brown-substance hand became its own controversy), followed by an 8-3 rout in Game 4. Three consecutive postseason series losses for the first time in franchise history. Torre caught heat. A-Rod caught more.

Tragedy

Four days after the ALDS loss, the season took a turn nobody could've anticipated. On October 11, a Cirrus SR20 piloted by Cory Lidle and flight instructor Tyler Stanger crashed into the Belaire Apartments on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Both men were killed. Lidle had been with the Yankees for barely two months -- acquired from Philadelphia in the same deadline deal that brought Bobby Abreu -- and his death stunned the baseball world. He was 34. It was the first death of an active major leaguer since Thurman Munson's plane crash in 1979, and it cast a shadow over the entire offseason that no amount of roster analysis could lift.

Key Moments

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the Yankees' record in 2006?

The 2006 Yankees went 97-65 and won the AL East by 10 games over the Toronto Blue Jays. They scored 930 runs (best in the American League) but lost the ALDS to the Detroit Tigers in four games, dropping three straight after winning the opener.

Why didn't Derek Jeter win the 2006 MVP?

Jeter hit .343 with 214 hits, 34 stolen bases, a Gold Glove, and a Silver Slugger on a 97-win team, but finished second in MVP voting to Minnesota's Justin Morneau, who had 34 home runs and 130 RBI. The vote remains one of the most debated MVP results in modern baseball history -- Jeter received 12 first-place votes to Morneau's 15, losing by just 14 points.

How did the Yankees lose the 2006 ALDS?

After winning Game 1 at home behind Chien-Ming Wang, the Yankees dropped three straight to the wild-card Detroit Tigers. Kenny Rogers threw 7.2 scoreless innings in Game 3 (amid pine-tar suspicions), and Jeremy Bonderman closed the series with a commanding Game 4 performance. The Yankees scored just six combined runs in the final three games.

What happened to Cory Lidle after the 2006 season?

On October 11, 2006 -- four days after the ALDS loss -- Cory Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger were killed when their small plane crashed into the Belaire Apartments on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Lidle was 34 years old. It was the first death of an active major leaguer since Thurman Munson's 1979 plane crash, and the NTSB attributed the accident to pilot error during a U-turn over the East River.