Can we talk? Cashman speech inspired Yankees

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Now it can be told.

Although Yankee General Manager Brian Cashman is widely credited with making this year’s Yankees successful by signing the likes of CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett, it may have been something he said rather than something he did that got the team to the World Series.

New York was limping along in second place, five games off the pace in the American League East, when the team went into Atlanta for an interleague series in late June. Cashman met the team there and gave a clubhouse pep talk, after which the Yankees went a baseball-best 65-27. Including the playoffs, New York has won nearly 72% of its games since the Cashman speech.

‘We were barely picking up wins and not playing good ball,’ outfielder Johnny Damon said. ‘And when Cashman came and had a talk with us down in Atlanta, we got it going. And we’ve been able to battle every night because we know that every team out there was gunning for us.’

-- Kevin Baxter