NEW YORK -- The architect in the polo shirt was trying to stay dry, trying to retreat from the frat party madness unleashed by the best team money could buy.
Brian Cashman could have bathed himself in the victor's spoils. For all the indelible 2009 moments delivered by pieces new (Mark Teixeira) and old (Derek Jeter), Cashman was the New York Yankees' MVP for building a regular season worthy of a $1.5 billion home.
But the general manager stood warily on the outer fringe of the clubhouse Sunday, flanked by his young children Teddy and Grace, when soaked Jorge Posada approached from the rear and tipped an open bottle of Mumm Napa near his employer's skull.
"Come on, you don't want to get my kids," Cashman told his catcher.
"Not them, you," Posada screamed. "You're hiding behind them."
If Cashman was using his own flesh and blood as human shields, it was his first bad move of the year.
Posada obeyed the GM's command and left Cashman to put another 100-win season and American League East title in pinstriped perspective.
Last October, the worst month of his front office career, Cashman accepted a three-year contract and defiantly pledged to reverse the perception that he'd single-handedly dismantled baseball's answer to the Roman Empire.
"I'm staying to change the story," he said.
So in the delirium of the first celebration in the new Yankee Stadium, Cashman was asked if he'd written the headline he was chasing last fall.
"No," he said. "We really need to run the table. We have a chance to do something special, and I just hope we'll play our best baseball when it counts, in October."
Cashman is paid to worry about the playoffs, to honor a mission statement that sure didn't change after the ruling Steinbrenners gave him $423.5 million for CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira. But Sunday wasn't about the division series, where the Tigers could steal a best-of-five just like they did in 2006.
It was about the postseason return of a franchise that looked lost in its doomed building in 2008, a franchise with 26 World Series titles that appears primed to claim the number on Joe Girardi's back.
It was about the moves Cashman did and didn't make to give the Yankees their best shot at a parade since 2004.
"He brought some good guys in," Jeter said, "and people talk about their personalities. But the bottom line is they can play."
Only Cashman's work didn't start with the roster. It started with the man he picked to succeed Joe Torre, the once tense and distant figure Cashman had successfully lobbied to temper his approach with the players and press.
Girardi embraced Cashman after this sweetest sweep of Boston, and thanked him for his focus and faith.
"With the personalities of the guys we brought in here," Girardi said, "they did a lot of homework in the offseason, the front office. ... I think the way last year ended left a bad taste in all our mouths."
Cashman signed Sabathia and Burnett for the gross national product of a Third World country, and then lobbied Hal Steinbrenner to spend another $180 million to keep Teixeira out of Fenway Park.
"We're not here without that piece, Teixeira, along with a lot of others," Cashman said.
Cashman won by saving money, too.
He refused to ship Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, Jeff Marquez and Ian Kennedy to the Twins for an ace, Johan Santana, who would have demanded a $137.5 million deal on the back end.
Santana broke down in the same season that saw Hughes become an invaluable reliever, Cabrera develop into an above-average starting center fielder and Nick Swisher (obtained for a package that included Marquez) hit 27 homers.
Cashman wouldn't pay Toronto's absurd in-season price for Roy Halladay, a deal including Hughes and/or Joba Chamberlain plus top prospects and the boatload of money. The GM wisely decided that any major acquisition would cost him talent or cash, but not both.
In June, Cashman also decided he could apply a human touch to his lifeless machine. He showed up in Atlanta, sat in on a hitters meeting, said a few even-tempered words and told reporters his team had the goods to win and win big.
The Yankees have overwhelmed the rest of baseball ever since.
Meanwhile, Cashman is enjoying a personal renaissance to match the one savored by Captain Clean at short.
"Hopefully this is just the first step for us," Jeter kept saying from under his dripping AL East championship cap.
Cashman did his best to stay away from the spray and from any suggestion he had outfoxed his Boston counterpart, Theo Epstein. As he stood outside a clubhouse door, ready to exit stage left, the GM maintained he was merely happy for the stars he landed, and for the Hinskes and Hairstons, too.
He changed the story. As advertised.
