Yeah Tim that sweep will be talked about for decades.
I think what happened this year was this: The yankees had fielded an all star team of sorts the past few years. The problem with all star teams is that noone wants to accept a role and noone leads the team, everyone else expects someone else to do it.
I also think the pitchers had slacked off the last few years because they always felt the hitting would bail them out. Little did we yankee fans know that the injuries we thought had doomed them, actually reinvented the team and made it a beast.
When Matsui and Sheff went down it was tragic, then we lost giambi for a while as well as damon for a while and lost Cano for over a month.
Funny thing happened then, the pitchers bore down, guys Like Melky Cabrera and Bernie Williams stepped up, and Jeter just flat out took the role as leader on the field and off and directed them. The other big deal was that the Yankees had relied on power and hadn't been adept at manufacturing runs with old fashioned things like stolen bases, sac flies, bunts, etc. When they were suffering from all those missed players they started playing good old fashioned run manufacturing baseball.
It was almost like a boot camp for them. They emerged from he injuries and kept up the mindset that carried them through the hard times. Whats even scarier is that the big lead allowed Matsui and Sheff not to have to rush back and both are 100% physically fine. Matsui is already knocking the rust off and I expect Sheff to do the same thing the next 10 days, hes been activated again. With those guys back in the lineup and guys like Melky and bernie available to fill in or pinch hit if needed, I expect them to roll in the playoffs.