Mike Celizic

It’s six years since they’ve been to the World Series, and to the Yankees, that’s almost forever.

I’m well aware that there are many out there who say they’d be happiest if the Yankees never made the World Series again. But those Yankee haters are not being honest. You can’t hate the Yankees if they never play for a prize you really want to see them lose. And six years is long enough between efforts.

So get over it and admit that seeing New York in the year’s final seven-game set isn’t such a bad thing. Especially now, when life keeps throwing us curve balls, it’s good to see a familiar face in the postseason. It’s an affirmation that there are still some things that are constant in life, even if it’s the dreaded Yankees.

You know that Major League Baseball is delighted to see one of its biggest drawing cards playing in its showcase event. The folks who equate importance with television ratings would prefer that the Dodgers were occupying the other dugout to drag both coasts into this.

They’ll settle for an Amtrak Series, hoping that somebody west of the Mississippi will tune in to watch.

If they do, it will be to see the men in pinstripes. It has always been so and always will be. What Marilyn Monroe was to Hollywood, the Yankees are to professional sports — the platinum standard. If they’re on the big stage, there’s not much choice about it. You don’t watch because you want to as much as because you have to.

There have been times when I haven’t been able to say such things, but that was when the Yankees dominated baseball. My first dim remembrances of the game were formed while New York was somewhere in its all-time run of appearing in 14 World Series in the 16 seasons from 1949-64.

I lived in Cleveland Indians country back then, and all I knew about baseball was that the Yankees won and my team lost. I hated the Yankees for that, and yet when my brother and I played Whiffle ball, if he was the Indians, I was the Yankees. It was the only team other than my own whose lineup I knew.

I suspect it’s much the same today. Even casual fans can name most of the Yankee lineup. They’re familiar, their fame spread beyond the sports pages. The Phillies have some terrific baseball players, but none of them date Kate Hudson.

As an aside, Alex Rodriguez is in his first World Series, and that’s newsworthy in itself. After a year that started with admissions of steroids and a divorce, the highest-paid player in the game will be on the grandest stage. Will he be a choker or clutch hitter?

But as much as the Yankees dominate discussion, they have not dominated the game. It’s been nine years since they won their 26th World Series and five years since they last made it past the first round of the playoffs. Since the Yankees were last even in the Series, the Red Sox have won it twice.

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That speaks to just how incredibly difficult it is to even play for a title, much less win one. Having more money to spend than anyone else helps, but it’s not enough, and the Yankees have had long periods when they couldn’t buy a pennant or even a divisional crown. And when the Yankees start throwing money at names rather than at talent, it’s easy to celebrate when they fall flat.

It’s also hard to hate them when they do it right. The team that won four titles in five years from 1996-2000, was hard to hate, even if you tried. How can anyone hate Paul 0’Neill, Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez, Bernie Williams and David Wells?

When players like that were placed by Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano and Kevin Brown, it was a lot harder to care. It wasn’t just the Yankees who suffered. Baseball did, too.

But they’re back, and instead of feeling like just another in a long and tedious parade of appearances, it’s got a fresh feeling to it. There are new faces, new pitchers, a manager new to the postseason. They’re facing the defending champion Phillies, which happens to be a terrific baseball team.

It will be a good show. When the Yankees are involved, it always is.

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