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Updated Saturday, November 7, 2009 2:06 pm TWN, By Larry Fine, Reuters

Yankees revel, but tough decisions ahead

NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees christened the new US$1.5 billion Yankee Stadium the same way they opened “The House That Ruth Built” 86 years ago — with a World Series title, the 27th for Major League Baseball's storied franchise.

The Bronx Bombers battered the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 Wednesday to clinch the Fall Classic in six games and return the pinstripers to the pinnacle after a nine-year absence that seemed like an eternity to Yankee fans spoiled by success.

The master plan drawn up by the Steinbrenner family owners and executed by general manager Brian Cashman to mark the new team home with a championship paid off after an off-season investment of US$423.5 million to three free agents.

“You can call us anything you want, but you also have to call us world champions,” Cashman told reporters.

Times have not changed that much, since the Yankees won the first of their World Series championships after paying the Red Sox the considerable sum of US$100,000 and sending several players to Boston for the services of Babe Ruth.

Pitchers CC Sabathia (US$161 million) and A.J. Burnett (US$82.5 million) and first baseman Mark Teixeira (US$180 million) helped put the Yankees into winning position.

Putting the Yankees, who lost in the 2001 and 2003 World Series, over the top was a piece added to the puzzle seven years ago — Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui.

Matsui produced one of the greatest Series games in 105 years of the Fall Classic by driving in a record-tying six runs with a two-run homer, two-run double and two-run single to single-handedly overpower Philadelphia in Game Six.

“My first and foremost goal when I joined the Yankees was to win the world championship,” Matsui told reporters through an interpreter. “Certainly it's been a long road and very difficult journey.”

Ticker-Tape Parade

The next stop for the Yankees is a ticker-tape parade Friday along the Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan.

Victory meant a return to the winner's circle for captain Derek Jeter, starter Andy Pettitte, closer Mariano Rivera and catcher Jorge Posada, who were on teams that won four World Series in five years from 1996.

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