Glory Days, Until They Pass By When you root for the Yankees now, clearly, you root for the past to flicker to life. The players are familiar from the glory of their younger days. Great older players will say they can do what they once did, just not as often. So it is with the Yankees of 2013, and with Alfonso Soriano this week. Soriano has homered four times and driven in 13 runs in his last two games, the latest an 11-3 thrashing of the Angels on Wednesday. Soriano is 37, three teams removed from his first Yankees tour, when everything seemed possible. Games like these do not come easily. "It's harder now because of the age," Soriano said before batting practice Wednesday. I have to work more to keep my body in shape. Before, when I was young, I just came late to the ballpark, just practice and play the game. Now I have to go to the weight room, get loose, do a lot of stuff that I did not do when I used to be young. It's a little different now, but I like it. Soriano first joined the Yankees with a dynasty in progress, on Sept. 14, 1999, as a pinch-runner for Darryl Strawberry. Ten days later, he hit a game-ending homer, and two years after that, his homer in Arizona in Game 7 of the World Series nearly gave the Yankees a fourth consecutive title. The Yankees have kept winning, not to that level, but enough to reach the postseason every season but one since then. Developing Soriano helped them land Alex Rodriguez in a trade. Other impact players from the farm system - Robinson Cano in 2005, Brett Gardner in 2008 - ensured that the lineup would have some spots filled with low-cost players, to make the big contracts fit. "I don't think anybody could expect - because careers are so fleeting - that somebody's going to have a 6-to-10-year run," General Manager Brian Cashman said. I don't think we ever look at it like that, because most players don't put up careers like Soriano has. He's hit some plateaus recently, but you still look at his career and think, Wow. Soriano is one of only four players in the last 60 years to make their debuts with the Yankees and go on to collect 2,000 career hits, joining Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and Don Mattingly. He had to approve his trade from the Chicago Cubs last month and was eager to return to the Bronx. "This is an organization that likes to win, and I like to win," Soriano said. So no matter what happens, they're always contenders. I love playing with this organization. I had a fun time playing with other organizations, but it's nothing like the Yankees. It is reasonable to wonder how long the Yankees will stay contenders, without impact players like the Soriano of 1999 in their farm system. Free agents are dubious gambles, and fewer good ones are available now as more teams sign their players to long-term extensions. Besides, the Yankees" existing contracts clog much of their future payroll, and past signings have robbed them of high draft picks. The Angels used one of those picks, in 2009, to select Mike Trout. Minor leaguers can always exceed expectations; the Texas Rangers, after all, chose Joaquin Arias over Cano as the prospect in the Rodriguez trade. But the Yankees have no one on the fast track. Their best prospects - Mason Williams, Gary Sanchez, Slade Heathcott, Tyler Austin - have been underwhelming this season. The recent top draft choices Cito Culver and Dante Bichette Jr. have struggled. The best minor league pitchers are injured, as are two of the team's top picks from this June's draft. "We've certainly hit a bump in the road; there's no doubt about it," Cashman said. We've had our share of injuries and our share of development setbacks, as well as bad luck and bad decisions. Without many enticing prospects to deal, the Yankees specialize in acquiring big names that other teams were eager to shed - Ichiro Suzuki last summer, Vernon Wells this spring and Soriano. They first acquired Soriano in 1998, for five years and $3.15 million, after he retired from a team in Japan to become a free agent. For years the Yankees were aggressive internationally, with successes like Soriano, Orlando Hernandez, Hideki Matsui and Chien-Ming Wang. There were plenty of busts, too, mostly forgotten names like Jackson Melian and Adrian Hernandez. International signing rules have changed, but other teams have snagged the top free agents in recent years. Yu Darvish, Yasiel Puig, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Aroldis Chapman, Yoenis Cespedes - all of them play elsewhere, some having signed as high-risk gambles based on little, if any, actual game competition. "The financials have exploded on the international market," Cashman said. We are very aggressive, but we're trying to be responsible at the same time. The Yankees" roster still has enough talent to summon past greatness, now and then, and if Soriano stays this hot, he could carry the team for a while. With 23 games left against Boston, Tampa Bay and Baltimore, the Yankees have a chance to make the pennant race interesting. "We know we have our work cut out for us," Manager Joe Girardi said. We're playing a lot of the teams that are in front of us. We're in our division a lot going down the stretch here. Just try to ride this as long as you can. That is the theme of these Yankees. When it works, as it has this week, it is a comforting reminder of the talent their stars still possess. But it seems unlikely to work for long.