It wasn't always so, among the Yankee faithful. Think back to 1995, when Tino was the enemy, a Seattle Mariner, a member of the team that broke the back of the Yankees with a three-game sweep at the Kingdome, and broke the heart of Yankee captain Don Mattingly, who retired shortly thereafter. Donnie Baseball had been at first base for the Yankees since 1983, for thirteen years and over 1700 games--he was the heart and soul of the team and the team's most popular figure. To say there were skeptics that Tino could replace the beloved Mattingly would be an understatement.

And yet, when Tino arrived in 1996, he instantly became part of a new era in Yankee baseball. Joe Torre and Derek Jeter also debuted that year, and the team had their first spring training at Tampa's Legends Field. No one knew it would be the start of the dynasty, and the start was somewhat rocky for Tino, as he struggled to relax and find his stroke amidst the intense pressure and media scrutiny placed on him. The Bronx-boo-birds gave it to him when he'd ground out with men in scoring position. But on April 24th, he homered in Yankee Stadium as part of a 10-8 Yankee win over Cleveland. Tino's stroke had returned just in time for a crucial series with the Yanks' hot Eastern Division rivals in Baltimore.

The two game series at Camden Yards was tensely fought, with both games stretching into either extra innings, or extra hours. The Yanks won the first game 13-10 in the then longest nine inning game ever played. The second game pushed on late into the night as well, into the 15th inning, and the bases were loaded when Tino stepped to the plate.

The grand slam that resulted was the first of many big hits that would follow in the next six years in the clutch, both in the regular season and postseason. He lead the team with 177 RBIs and, incidentally, lead the AL in fielding percentage (.996). Tino also made one quite memorable heads-up play in the field, diving into first base after fielding a ground ball, to beat the runner and preserve Doc Gooden's no-hitter against Seattle.

Later that year the Yankees would return to Baltimore for the American League Championship Series. Tino's big double in Game Three moved Bernie Williams into scoring position--and the fleet Bernie came all the way home when Todd Zeile muffed a throw and dropped the ball in the infield.

Tino was determined to be an even bigger contributor in 1997, and employed an ex-Marine to be his conditioning coach during the offseason. Daily sprints, weight lifting, and sit ups kept Tino focused all winter and lead to his career year: in which he hit .296, 141 RBI, and became the first Yankee to hit over 40 home runs since Reggie Jackson in 1980. The other fellas on that very short list? Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, DiMaggio and Maris. He led the team in HR, RBI, slugging percentage, total bases, sac flies, and walks. he made the All-Star Team, and won the Home Run Derby. He won the Silver Slugger and was hot all season. In the AL Division Series against Cleveland he had 4 RBI and one home run, but the Yankees were defeated in five games.

In 1998, Tino was involved in one of the rougher incidents in his career. Back when he was a Mariner, June 7 1995, he had faced pitcher Armando Benitez after Benitez had given up a grand slam to Edgar Martinez. Benitez drilled Tino with a pitch, and a brawl ensued. On May 19th Tino again faced Benitez, this time right after Bernie Williams had hit a three-run homer to give the Yankees a 7-5 lead. Benitez drilled Tino in the back. Tino would not charge the mound, but held up two fingers as if to signify "that's twice you've done that to me." Benitez responded with verbal abuse which was too much for the other Yankees. Darryl Strawberry led the charge from the dugout, and Graeme Lloyd rallied the bullpen. The brawl's effect on the team was only to galvanize them further on their incredible 125-win run, but Tino suffered with a deep injury for over a month. After the beaning, he went 18-for-101 (.178) before going 3-for-5 with a two run homer against Chicago. By July he was hot, and on July 2nd hit two home runs in a game against Philadelphia. The second one was a two-out, game-tying, three-run shot off Mark Leiter that led to a 9-8 Yankee win in 11 innings. The slump didn't stop him from leading the team in homers again, with 28, and drove in 123 runs.

But as we know, October is different. The Yankees battled through the first two rounds of playoffs with a minimum of offense and worries about Darryl Strawberry's bout with cancer. Tino was among those who struggled at the plate. But he got hot for the World Series, where he batted .385 and did something only sixteen men before him had done (eight of them Yankees), namely, hit a grand slam in a World Series. It was Game One at Yankee Stadium, and both Tino and Chuck Knoblauch were being slammed in the press for poor performances in the ALDS and ALCS, and booed for their part in a botched play at first base that had cost the Yankees a game. Padres ace Kevin Brown was cruising into the seventh inning with a 5-2 lead. With one out and two men on, Brown was pulled, Donne Wall came to the mound, and the Yankee bats pounced. Knoblauch hit a three run home run to tie the game. After a Jeter single, Mark Langston then came in to pitch, and with a wild pitch, an intentional walk, and another walk, the bases were loaded for Tino. When the damage was done, Yankee consciences were as clear as the bases, and the Bombers had scored seven runs. The Padres were swept in four games.

1999 might not have seemed quite like the magic carpet ride that 1998 was for the team, with Joe Torre suffering cancer and Joe DiMaggio passing away, nor was it the monster offensive year of 1997 for Tino. But Tino's production and fielding remained a consistent key to the Yankees' on-field success, reaching his fifth consecutive season with 25 home runs and 100 RBI (.263 - 28 - 105). Oddly, 21 of those 28 home runs were hit on the road, and many felt Tino's offensive production was slipping. And yet from 1995 through 1999 Tino logged 587 RBI, the most in the AL in that span, and topped in all of Major League Baseball only by Mark McGwire (600). The 1999 postseason was a cakewalk for the Yankees, as they swept the Rangers, lost only once to the Red Sox, and then swept the Braves, in no small part due to the fact that Tino racked up 8 RBIs--three against Texas, five against Atlanta. Probably the only scary moment in October was when Don Zimmer got beaned by a foul ball of Chuck Knoblauch's bat. Tino helped the Yankees cruise to a coronation as Team of the Century. Many people also felt he should have won the Gold Glove that year, too, but the award was given to Rafael Palmeiro, who had spent most of the year as a DH.

In 2000 Tino's offensive numbers definitely slipped, to .258 - 16 - 91. He struggled to get out of his slump and the struggle only made things worse. Mid-season Joe Torre pulled him aside and told him not to try to hit a five-run homer ever time up. Tino recovered a bit then, and with some video tinkering from minor league coach Gary Denbo, Tino's swing returned late in the year. In the postseason he was on fire in all three series', batting .421 against Oakland and banging out eight hits, .320 against Seattle with eight more hits and a home run, and .364 against the Mets in the World Series with another eight hits! His 24-for-66 in the postseason was one hit shy of the all time record (Marquis Grissom hit 25 in 1995 for Atlanta). Tino once again proved himself a key piece to Yankees October dominance.

That offseason, troubled by his inconsistency, Tino considered hiring his old pal the ex-marine again. The two men ran into one another in Tampa and Tino mentioned the idea to him. The trainer reminded him how much pain and suffering it would be, and Tino reminded him that the result was his career year. "Let's do it." Tino spent the winter in grueling workouts, running and doing sit ups every day until he would vomit. The result? He lost weight, trimmed his upper body, and produced the team lead in home runs and RBI once again with a .280 - 34 - 113 season in 2001. The big hits he had struggled for in 1999 came off his bat once again, as on April 20th. The Red Sox were looking tough for the first half of the season, while Manny Ramirez' bat was potent and Pedro Martinez' shoulder was healthy. In their first appearance at Yankee Stadium, the Sox sent Hideo Nomo, who had pitched a no-hitter earlier in the month, to the mound. Nomo got into immediate trouble in the first inning, walking three men (though Jeter was forced at second by a Paul O'Neill grounder). Tino came to the plate and crushed a 2-2 pitch that caused Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione to emit a long, loud "awwwww...." of disappointment before he would report that the ball had sailed into the upper deck. With that grand slam, TIno became one of only seven players to have grand slams in seven consecutive seasons. (Willie McCovey holds the record at nine.)

On September 8, 2001 the Yankees faced the Red Sox again, in what would have been the Sox last gasp to get back in the division race. But Mike Mussina pitched a three hitter (this just six days after his near-perfect one hitter at Fenway Park) and Tino homered twice to bury the Sox for good.

He also had another Gold Glove caliber season, making only 5 errors all year, despite the sometimes errant throws of rookie second baseman Alfonso Soriano, and some doozies from the left side of the infield as well, as both Derek Jeter and Scott Brosius had strangely off years defensively.

But by the time the 2001 postseason came around, there was already talk that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was interested in Oakland A's first baseman Jason Giambi. Top prospect Nick Johnson was looking ready for a try in the majors, and some Yankee-watchers thought a one-year platoon of Johnson/Tino at first and DH would be ideal, much the way veteran catcher Joe Girardi was retained an extra year to help groom Jorge Posada. But would Tino accept a one year deal to play part time, when he probably had several good years left in him? Would the Yankees even consider such a scenario? These were the questions already swirling in the newspapers and in the stands as the division series began, well into October because of the September 11th tragedies. "Jason Giambi Is Not For Sale" read banners at the Oakland Coliseum.

Tino and the entire Yankees lineup struggled to score runs in October. There were no seven-run outbursts as there had always been in previous postseasons in the Torre dynasty. It was as if their bats were as heavy as their hearts after the team had visited rescue workers and victims families near Ground Zero.

And yet, Tino would still come through in the clutch. In what would be his second-to-last night in pinstripes at the Stadium, Tino left a permanent mark on Yankee World Series history. With the Yankees trailing 2-1 in the series, and down by two runs in Game Four, Tino stood at the plate with two out in the bottom of the ninth and Paul O'Neill on base. Baffling sidearm thrower Byun-Hyung Kim was on the mound in his second inning of work. Tino went to the plate with a plan. "I said [to myself] 'the first two strikes are mine.' I was just looking for anything out over the plate that I could take a good, strong hack at." Kim threw him a slider? a fastball? who could tell with that wild delivery of his? that hung or slid or failed to go where Kim wanted it and instead went where Tino wanted it: into the right field bleachers to tie the game and send it into extra innings. Derek Jeter would win the game with an opposite field dinger of his own that just cleared the short porch in right to earn the nickname "Mr. November" as he came to bat just after midnight on November 1st. But without Tino's blast, he never would have had the chance. He had walked to the plate intending to do whatever was necessary to keep the Yankees alive. The game-tying homer was no accident. It was greatness.

The ending of this storybook might have been different if the ninth inning of Game Seven had gone differently, and the Yankees had held on for one more World Series win. But the Yankees did not win, and remaking their offense, at the expense of sentimentality, became their priority. Joe Torre called Tino before the team began pursuing Giambi, and Tino knew it was goodbye. He'll be moving on to the St. Louis Cardinals, where once again he will need to fill the shoes of a beloved franchise player, the just-retired Mark McGwire. Manager Tony LaRussa knows what all Yankees fans know. He's getting a man who was a pillar of a dynasty.