News'Rules' and future far from Joba's mind
Savoring Yankees' title only concern for multipurpose righty
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By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com
11/09/09 7:15 PM EST
NEW YORK -- The hottest-selling articles of clothing in town may be those trumpeting the Yankees' 27th World Series title, which are keeping cash registers humming and flying off the racks.
Joba Chamberlain played a part in getting those T-shirts out to the retail market, and he is hoping that the ones emblazoned with his name -- and his cautious inning limits -- will remain as irrelevant as the now-outdated "26 rings" shirts.
"I think the 'Joba Rules' shirts can hopefully be done for a while," Chamberlain said.
This year was an up-and-down one for the 24-year-old Chamberlain, who spent essentially the entire regular season as a starter and was re-converted into a reliever for the playoffs, helping the Yankees celebrate after the six-game World Series against the Phillies.
Chamberlain went 9-6 with a 4.75 ERA in 32 regular-season appearances (31 starts), but because of a strict innings limit that kept him from going far beyond the 157 1/3 he finished with, some of those starts were either truncated or skipped.
It made for an interrupted season, and one that pushed the Yankees in the direction of using a three-man rotation for the entire postseason and bypassing Chamberlain, who settled back into the relief role where he starred late in 2007 and for part of '08.
"It's like riding a bike," Chamberlain said. "It was a little wobbly at first, but once you get going, you get right back into it. It was pretty easy, because I've done it before. I've been fortunate enough to be in a lot of situations here in my short 2 1/2 years, and that made it pretty easy."
In 6 1/3 postseason innings, Chamberlain allowed two runs on nine hits for a 2.84 ERA, issuing one walk while striking out seven.
Even in Game 4 of the World Series, when Chamberlain served up a game-tying homer to Pedro Feliz, he led a charmed existence when the Yankees reached Brad Lidge for three runs and gave Chamberlain his first postseason victory.
"It was good and bad," Chamberlain said of his season. "You take everything and learn from it. There's always stuff you can take from each year and make yourself better. I'm going to enjoy this offseason, be home and relax, and rest."
Chamberlain won't start his workout routine up again until the first week of December, and while he vows to have no preference toward starting or relieving, the Yankees did see good things at times from Chamberlain as a starter -- especially when he was unshackled.
By Spring Training, the club will have made a decision whether it sees Chamberlain -- and Phil Hughes, for that matter -- as part of the starting rotation for 2010, a choice that could be affected by Andy Pettitte's willingness to come back. For now, Chamberlain said he will be patient.
"It's a long year," Chamberlain said. "I guess whenever that happens, we'll tackle it. Right now, I'm just going to enjoy myself. ... I know what it takes to be successful in this game. I want to do it for a long time.
"As a competitor, it's frustrating sometimes, but you also know it's for the better. The organization has done great with me, and has been tremendous through the last couple of years. I can't thank them enough, even though at times it gets frustrating."
As he clutched a key to New York City presented to him earlier that day and spoke to reporters in the clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, Chamberlain could look over and see his young son, Karter, tapping away on a computer keypad previously assigned to Freddy Guzman.
It was special for Chamberlain to have his family at the Fall Classic, with father Harlan pushing his motorized scooter across the infield dirt after the World Series victory to be near his son.
During the parade down the Canyon of Heroes, Karter threw toilet paper back at the fans, a videotaped memory that made Chamberlain grin.
With Chamberlain identifying Johnny Damon's Game 4 dash and Pettitte's grit as his postseason highlights, the entire push toward No. 27 was "a blur." The right-hander is looking forward to collecting his thoughts about the whole experience over the next few weeks.
"It's funny -- I remember facing guys and not being nervous, just being so excited to be in the situation," Chamberlain said. "A couple of times, I had to catch myself, just because I so enjoyed being there pitching -- I almost forgot what was really going on. This is the World Series, this is Game 6, we're going to win. You've got to slow it down."
Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
