A Cup that’s bubbling over with promise Paul Sokoloski Opinion

Already soaked with the sweet delight of world championship success, Phil Hughes was talking about his improbable season when one of his New York Yankees teammates drenched him with champagne.

Yankees teams are winning because of him, whether Hughes is working as the ace starting pitcher at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre or as an important late-inning reliever in New York.

So it wasn’t exactly a shock when Hughes went from winning a Governors’ Cup championship with the SWB Yankees last year to winning a World Series title with the New York Yankees this week.

Certainly, becoming a world champion with New York feels bigger to him, because it happened on baseball’s biggest stage.

“I’d say so,” Hughes said with a laugh, champagne spraying all around him after New York flipped away the Phillies in six games with a 7-3 victory Wednesday at the new Yankee Stadium. “This is what everybody plays for. That’s everyone who’s playing in baseball, from the time you first start to play.”

But playing in a minor league championship season at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last year really set the stage for the realization of his lifelong dream of being a World Series champion.

Hughes, a 23-year-old righthander, turned into something special as a starting pitcher during Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s 2008 playoff run, looking every bit like the star prospect the New York Yankees projected him to become.

He struck out 11 batters and gave Pawtucket four hits and no runs over eight fantastic innings in a first-round playoff game for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Hughes was even more brilliant while striking out 12 Durham batters in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s Governors’ Cup championship clincher.

Hughes established Scranton/Wilkes-Barre playoff records with his 12 strikeouts in one game and 23 strikeouts in one playoff stretch. He said he gained so much self-confidence from that.

While crediting everyone but his grandmother for winning a world championship, New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi applauded the accomplishments of New York’s senior vice president of baseball operations Mark Newman and his minor league staff.

“All the players we brought up from Triple-A, some of them from Double-A last year, (with) the job that they did, I am so happy for all those people,” Girardi said.

Because the Yankees bullpen was pretty much a bust through the first part of this season before New York converted Hughes into a reliever, and eventually their key eighth-inning setup man, for the second half.

After that move, the Yankees passed the Boston Red Sox for the American League East title. They won more than 100 games for the first time since 1998. Then they won the American League pennant and their 27th world title.

“To me, it seems like such a small role,” Hughes said. “Everyone else played much bigger roles than I did this year. I’m just so happy to be here and be a part of this.”

His humility is as deceptive as his fastball, because when Hughes shows up on the mound, his teams seem to win. One way or another, he drenches them with championships.