NEW YORK — Something interesting happens when opposing teams are introduced at Yankee Stadium.
Aside from the usual chorus of boos and jeers from the Bronx crowd, the "Imperial March" of "Star Wars" fame blares over the PA system, accompanying opposing players to the field.
This was again the case Tuesday at Yankee Stadium prior to New York's 8-4 AL wild-card win over the Twins.
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What makes the choice interesting is the juxtaposition of self-awareness: For the longest time, the Yankees were known as the "Evil Empire," ruling the galaxy with baseball destroyers and open checkbooks. But the home squad is introduced with another piece of "Star Wars" music — the one associated with the good guys.
A new empire is rising from the ashes of the old. On Tuesday night, the Bombers took their first major step toward completion.
The Empire has crumbled in recent years, forcing the franchise to rebuild nearly from scratch. With that comes youth, inexperience and sometimes a lack of confidence, but to seven-year veteran Todd Frazier, these guys are different.
"They're humble," Frazier told Sporting News after the victory. "You saw the at-bats they had today. No nervousness about it. They came in, didn't worry about a darn thing, and just trusted in their abilities. That's the best thing you can ask from young guys."
GAME CENTER: Twins-Yankees complete box score
It's not a secret or a surprise that the Yankees are developing a core akin to that of the '90s dynasty teams (a new Death Star for the Empire to play with). The true surprise is that this year's team was able to win 91 games and secure a playoff spot in its first full season together.
Simply put, this crew is fully operational. It hasn't played like a squad trying to jell — it just happened. The tenacity of the Yankees' youth has been a prevailing theme all season, a microcosm of which played out in the first inning when New York came to bat down 3-0 and with ace Luis Severino already out of the game.
"'We got some work to do,'" right fielder Aaron Judge said when asked about his mindset entering the bottom of the first. "We've been in that situation multiple times this year. This team never panics."
Judge was a member of the 2016 Yankees squad that seemed like the last stand for the previous "era" of Bronx Bombers. He said Tuesday the team's approach this season felt different.
"Mentality of this team," Judge said. A long pause followed as he gathered his thoughts. "Our mentality is just keep fighting. Keep passing the baton. If a guy doesn't get the job done, don't worry about it. We know the guy behind us will get it done."
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Judge didn't have to worry about passing the baton often Tuesday: He finished the game with two hits, one of them a two-run line-drive homer to left field that gave the Yankees a 7-4 lead in the fourth. From there, New York wouldn't look back.
Now it moves on to the ALDS, where a juggernaut Indians squad waits. Cleveland won the season series 5-2.
None of that matters, though.
Regardless of what happens in the next round, this Yankees season should be viewed as a rousing success. To call the 2017 squad a failure would be grossly inaccurate, even if the franchise's mentality for the better part of four decades has been "World Series or bust."
"I think (winning Tuesday) means a lot, because a lot of (the young guys) showed up in a big way," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said in his postgame press conference. "You think about the day that Aaron Judge had, Sanchez had a big double, scored a run. You can think about (Greg) Bird driving in a big run, the job that (Chad) Green did tonight (two innings in relief of Severino). … I think it's big."
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The Yankee teams since the 2009 World Series championship had been like a TV show fans have grown to despise: must-see TV in the beginning, then evolving into something terrible that they couldn't turn away from because they had become too invested and wanted to see it through to the end.
This team, though, is like a brand-new, reincarnated TV show, with all the flashiness, pizzazz and flair that's directed at a new generation. It shouldn't be looked upon the same way as the team that was on its last legs last year after a mass exodus of aging, injured and ineffective core players who had taken the field in the past five years.
Girardi said as much before the game Tuesday.
"This team is much more athletic than the teams in the past that we've had the last three or four years," he told reporters. "You're hoping that athleticism helps in a game like this. I mean, that's part of the reason we made the lineup the way we did, because we feel that we have [a] faster team, defensively we're going to cover more ground, and those sort of things."
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Maybe in years past it was fair to criticize the Yankees for coming up short. After all, New York was paying major money to players who weren't exactly producing to the dollar amount on their paychecks.
Now the paradigm has changed. They're investing big money in a small group of big-name stars — mostly pitchers — but are no longer landlocked at every position.
"It's just a different team. We're riding the wave of all these young, talented guys. We have the veteran presence as well. I think that makes us work really well," reliever Dellin Betances told SN after Tuesday's game. "We're a confident group. We've been playing really good baseball as a group. We didn't give up after that first inning. We came right back. I think that just shows the team we have."
Yankees management knew what it had in its prospects. While it showed restraint — both financially and in player development — not seen since the early 2000s, it handed the keys to the Death Star to that new group of generally unproven players. That uncertainty seemed to go by the wayside Tuesday.
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While there is something ironic about the Yankees portraying themselves as the last Jedi, in truth, underneath the pinstripes lie the robes of Sith lords. They might be the good guys, but it seems as though the Evil Empire is making a return.
And the rest of baseball should sense a disturbance in the Force.
