AUTHOR’S NOTE: I know this is usually a food blog, and I apologize that the next 2000 or so words are all about baseball…but after watching my beloved Yankees have a terrible postseason run, I just have to vent today. So what follows is my personal gameplan for the Bronx Bombers. I know it really doesn’t matter what I say (especially to my Met fan friends) but I must use this space to detail what I think happened in their historically dismal collapse—but more importantly—where they should go from here.

Well, let me begin by saying my father raised me to be a Yankee fan, always telling me stories about Thurman and Reggie and the late ‘70s dynasty. I was born in the spring of ‘81, so I was only about six months old when the Yankees were in the World Series that year. I had to wait fourteen years after that to see a Yankee playoff game in 1995. I started going to regular season games in the mid ‘80s and had posters of Don Mattingly on my walls and my heroes were Rickey Henderson, Dave Winfield and Steve Sax…

But I also grew to have an appreciation for a lot of non-superstars—but solid guys—like Mike Pagliarulo, Rick Cerone, even “Bye Bye” Balboni. During the years where their outfield was Roberto Kelly, Jesse Barfield and Mel Hall, I still rooted hard just like Phil Rizutto. When they had losing teams from ’89 to ’92, I was in the stadium watching Kevin Maas, Randy Velarde, “Bam Bam” Meulens and others. The reason I am saying this is to make it clear that I did NOT jump on the bandwagon in 1996.

What made me really appreciate the ’96 team was that it took a few years to build. Non-performers like Danny Tartabull and the aforementioned Roberto Kelly were ushered out, and guys like Paul O’Neill came into the fold. I remember watching the Oneonta Yankees and seeing the exciting young talents of Bernie Williams and Gerald Williams before they made it into the Bronx. That must have been 1990 or so. Ok I will stop with the nostalgia now and get into the present.

This past Yankee postseason was really a difficult one to watch, one of the most difficult I’ve ever watched to be honest. The World Series starts Wednesday and the Yankees aren’t in it. This kills me. It seemed to me that as soon as the ALCS began it was as if the team was diagnosed as having four games to live, and each pitch felt like a slow death. And to me, each out was a microcosm of something much bigger, signifying a real end of an era and a glaring need to go back to the drawing board.

Before I start my personal analysis of the 2012 Yankees, let me first preface this by saying that great starting pitching is (and will always be) the most important thing in Major League Baseball—especially in October. Now this year’s Yankees DID have a strong staff, there is no question about that, but every team that makes the playoffs usually does as well. And when you cannot get any runs on the board, it doesn’t matter who your starter is. This is pretty obvious stuff, and it’s pretty obvious that the Yankees did not advance in the playoffs this year due to their lack of hitting, inability to manufacture runs and get any significant rallies together.

Some fans may say that this team simply gave up when the Captain went down and that they no longer had any heart or fight left in them. Maybe that is partially true, but when Jeter was playing in the ALDS against the Orioles, the Yankees still had their difficulties. And although they were less pronounced then they were in the ALCS, serious warning signs were being displayed that the team was running out of gas more than anything having to do with heart.

Is there such a thing as “homerun fatigue,” where you have a 40-homer guy in Curtis Granderson who seemed to have no more power left to muster anything and continually whiffed at pitches outside of the strike zone (not to mention pitches right down the plate). Could it be that he just had no more longballs left in his bat?

Mike Francesa of WFAN recently stated on his show that a general manager cannot “build a team for the postseason.” His rationale is that you get the best players you can and then hope that those players who were successful in the regular season perform in the postseason. Basically, he is saying that it’s all a crapshoot once the playoffs arrive and that you have to count on the All-Stars who got you to that point to continue their All-Star play and not slump when it counts the most. I love Francesa but I disagree with his thoughts.

The 1996-2000 Yankees won 4 World Series and Mike basically claims that that was all a freak occurrence. He attributes those immensely talented groups of World Champions as being won with postseason heroics coming with very fortunate timing. I agree only partially with that and I will explain why. Yes, timing is obviously essential, but there is certainly a way to build a team for the postseason to greatly improve the odds of winning during the three rounds of playoffs.

While those Yankee teams indeed had their power hitters, the power was not anchored by one guy who hit 43 and batted .232 like Granderson. See the ’98 and ‘99 Yankees hit a lot of homeruns like the 2012 team, but you had a collective effort where almost every guy had between 15-28 apiece. So what I am trying to say is that when you had players like Bernie with 26 longballs, there wasn’t “homerun fatigue” going into the playoffs from a guy with twice as many. This leaves reserve fuel in the tank for when it counts most.

I would rather have a guy hit 25 during the regular season and then 5 more in the playoffs as opposed to 45 in the regular season and then strike out every chance they get in October. Keep in mind, a lot of the time, regular season statistics get inflated because you are seeing a lot of weak pitchers who are out playing golf this time of year!

Ok, so how does one build a team for the postseason? Well how was it done in the ‘90s? Was it truly just all freak luck? Let’s break it down a bit. All the “superstars” were in their primes and none of them were “all-or-nothing” players by any means. Was it total luck that Jeter, Bernie, Posada, O’Neill and Tino were ALL at their peaks? Or, was a combination of drafting and trading for players who were multi-dimensional talents?

Although it was not nearly enough, it was the likes of Ibanez, Ichiro and Nunez who provided the best moments for New York. Who else could the Yankees count on or expect anything out of? Andruw Jones? He should not have even been on the roster. But when your big hitters like Granderson, Cano and A-Rod can’t get it done, where do you turn? Granderson has really become an “all-or-nothing” hitter so it really should not come as a shock that he struck out a million times against the O’s and the Tigers. But Cano is a much more well-rounded player. So what else can you attribute his slump to other than the fatigue factor?

One guy who I just simply cannot explain is Nick Swisher. When he first arrived, I LOVED the signing and actually thought he was “Paul O’Neill Lite.” What I mean by that is that they have very similar statistics overall and share that fiery “get-dirty” makeup. Swisher is exactly the model of the type of player that the roster should be filled with. He may not have eye-popping numbers but is very solid. His lack of clutchness baffles me and his lack of October success really hinders my entire case here. But remember, my theories are just that, and all theories have their exceptions. My only explanation for Swish is that maybe he is just too sensitive for the big stage?

Who are some other memorable guys of those ‘90s teams that jump out? Multi-dimensional contributors like Chili Davis, Tim Raines, Scott Brosius and Chuck Knoblauch come to mind. When “all or nothing” Jose Canseco was claimed off of waivers in 2000, Joe Torre had no use for him. Because he did not fit the mold of the Yankees success. The keys to their success were the well-rounded rosters they had year in and year out, just like the Tigers have which allows you to mix and match and be able to have more options.

The idea of Eric Chavez for a slumping A-Rod may fit that formula, but if you break it down, it really doesn’t. Chavez always had the homerun mentality, he was a 30 HR /100 RBI guy for years who was probably the one person who never did steroids to inflate those numbers to 50 / 150. However, the duo of Wade Boggs and Charlie Hayes worked so well because when Hayes spelled Boggs, he wasn’t up there to prove himself by trying to hit one out of the ballpark. Hayes was a contributor who was happy to be in there for a Hall-of-Famer and he produced because he wasn’t trying so hard.

Brett Gardner is the perfect Yankee, but he suffered from the reverse of fatigue which was being out of sync due to a lack of at-bats all year. Not his fault, that was injury-related and I can bet you that had he been on the field in 2012 more, he would come through this postseason. Guys like him don’t have the weight of the world on their shoulders and they know their roles. The role of a ballplayer is to help the team win in any way possible.

The ’96-2000 Yankees had a variety of role players and bench players, youth and experience—all without egos. People want to throw a fit that Girardi pinch-hit for A-Rod or didn’t start him, but what about when Tino sat for Cecil Fielder in 1996? Sure Tino was annoyed but it was taken in stride for the betterment of the team. Then you had Tim Raines and Darryl Strawberry sharing time—two borderline Hall-of-Famers. I can go on all day about all the various, scrappy guys that those winning teams had. And that’s not all a matter of luck, it’s a matter of creatively building a balanced group! The moments of mystique were provided by not just Tino and Jeter but Luis Sojo, Jim Leyrtiz, Jose Viscaino, Chad Curtis, Shane Spencer…just to name a few.

To go back to my opening about pitching, those teams did have fantastic pitching. Hey, there was no El Duque to save the day this year. But as I will reiterate, you need to have a well-rounded roster from top to bottom for a better chance at success. Yes of course we are always gonna have a “marquee” name or two. This is the New York Yankees. But you also need middle-of-the-road guys, guys who can bunt and play hit-and-run and do the little things AND the big things.

That is what made the ’96 thru 2000 Yankee ballclubs so special. They had that mix. And you don’t get that by wishing and hoping. You can get that by putting the pieces together and by building with a formula. The Yankees need to start from scratch and start fresh. If it takes a year or two to get another dynasty going, I think every fan will take that. I’m not saying we’ll have to endure four consecutive losing seasons like we did from 1989 to 1992. I never anticipate that happening again in this new era of added playoff teams, but no team should be happy with just getting there. And no team should “hope for the best” when they do get there.

I feel I have proven my case as to why and how you can build a team to have a better shot at succeeding in the postseason. It was done in the ‘90s and it can be done again in 2013. It’s up to Brian Cashman (or someone else) to get rid of the dead weight and the overpaid underachievers and get a new core in place for the future.

Thanks to the sports gods I was also raised a New York football Giant fan so the winter won’t be that long.