The new Steinbrenner Era has dawned in New York. George is retired now, but his aggressive sons are keeping his legacy alive.

The big-budget Yankees are all the way back, as they demonstrated by toppling the defending world champions in six games.

This could be the first of several World Series triumphs for this group, which will only improve after another winter of big spending.

Here is what some of our favorite pundits wrote after the clinching victory:

Mike Freeman, CBSSports.com: “What began as a terrific World Series ended with a whimper and a slaughter. The Yankees clobbered the Phillies in the head with their big bag of money and the suddenly the happy-to-be-here Phillies fell to the ground like Curly from The Three Stooges.”

Jay Mariotti, FanHouse: “There is something arrogantly American about it, I know. The $210-million Yankees have won a World Series amid a destructive recession, doing it for Boss George Steinbrenner in the first season of their $1.5-billion edifice of excess, where a $275-million lightning rod just happened to overcome a steroids crisis and finally deliver the postseason we’ve long demanded. None of those elements are universally endearing to the masses, yet all converged on a festive, rocking November night when Championship No. 27 wasn’t welcomed by the pinstripe haters as much as force-fed into them like skunk oil.”

Jayson Stark, ESPN.com: “We understand this is no tale of some plucky underdog battling to this place against all odds. This was a $208-million baseball team we’re talking about. This was a team that paid its four infielders alone more money ($81.225 million) than 16 of the other 29 franchises paid their WHOLE TEAM. This was a team that had spent nearly $1.8 billion hard-earned Steinbrenner-family dollars in between trips to the Canyon of Heroes. But contrary to popular belief, it’s never dollars alone that make that happen. You need talent. You need brains. And you need people — people who understand what winning is all about, what leadership is all about, what being a teammate is all about.”

Gordon Edes, Yahoo! Sports: “The ghosts may have been abandoned across the street, where the House that Ruth Built is awaiting the imminent arrival of the wrecker’s ball. But from old to new, the New York Yankees left no doubt in the House that George Built that their championship tradition runs as straight and true as a pinstripe.”

Joe Posnanski, SI.com: “These Yankees were the best team in baseball in 2009. There really wasn’t much doubt about that. They won 103 games, the most in baseball. They scored the most runs, they hit the most home runs, closed out the most saves. They were the best team, and in a World Series that offered just enough drama to keep the tabloids interesting (but no more), they closed out the Phillies in six games. They clinched their 27th World Series championship with a dry and bloodless 7-3 strangling Wednesday night in the new Yankee Stadium. Still, in the larger sense, the question remains: Why THIS Yankees team? New York had not won a World Series since 2000, and while eight years hardly seems to be a dry spell, it is a major dry spell when you are spending a lot more money to get players than any other team.”

As much fun as Yankees fans will have with the New Steinbrenner Era, nothing could top Boss George at his best.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering if top prospect Lars Eller can awaken the slumbering Blues offense:

• Does anybody really expect Marc Bulger’s to scramble out of the pocket and rush downfield for first downs? If fans want to rip him — and they surely do — shouldn’t they rip him for misfiring on critical throws?
• Can we really blame Green Bay for giving Brett Favre a rough ride? Was booing him really out of line?
• How will history remember the Brad Thompson Era with the Cardinals?

SNEAKER WARS TURN PETTY

Marcus Jordan, son of Michael Jordan, felt he just HAD to wear Nike shoes during his debut exhibition game Central Florida. Family unity dictated that he go with the Air Jordans.

As a result, he effectively terminated the six-year, $3 million sponsorship deal adidas had with the UCF athletic department.

“The University of Central Florida has chosen not to deliver on their contractual commitment to adidas,” adidas spokeswoman Andrea Corso wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “As a result we have chosen not to continue our relationship with them moving forward.”

Something tells us Nike will swoosh in and make this all better.

MEGAPHONE

“You don’t look at it as a failure. We had a great year. We just got beat by a better team. That’s the thing about the World Series, it’s never guaranteed.”

Our Town’s Ryan Howard, on Philly’s failure to defend the world championship.

INBOX

From the electronic mail bin:

I wrote a column arguing that trading either Albert Pujols (for a mother lode of talent, before he reaches free agency) or Steven Jackson (for draft picks) is a bad idea for the Cards and Rams respectively. Naturally, STLToday.com readers begged for differ.

“It amazes me how you continue to spew ignorance and yet hold a job. As usual, you’re wrong on both accounts.”

John Isselhardt

This reminds me, I’m coming up on 25 years at the Post-Dispatch and STLToday.com. Good times!

“How did the Cowboys do after they traded Herschel Walker? Dallas ended up with a total of six of Minnesota’s picks over the succeeding years, two of which were used to draft Emmitt Smith and Darren Woodson. Jimmy Johnson used the other draft picks to make trades with other teams around the NFL. One of the trades led to obtaining the first overall draft pick in 1991, which was used to draft Russell Maryland. In other words, the trade of Herschel Walker to the Vikings contributed largely to the Cowboys’ success in the early 1990s. For this reason, ESPN.com’s Page 2 lists it as the 8th most lopsided trade in sports history.  Seventeen years later, the trade was still an easy target for satire: one ESPN columnist, assessing the impact of free agency on the NFL, noted that it had almost entirely replaced significant trades and by doing so, ‘took away one of the greatest shortcuts to becoming a Super Bowl champion: fleecing the Vikings.’ They should trade Jackson to the Cardinals for all of their draft picks.”

Tim Farquhar

How did the Rams do after trading Eric Dickerson to the Colts? That is a much better example of what happens when you trade quality for quantity. Quality is difficult to acquire. There are many ways to build quantity. As for dealing Jackson to the Cardinals for all their picks, I don’t expect we’ll ever see another team pull a Mike Ditka/Ricky Williams maneuver. Arizona would get quality over quantity in that deal, but at too big a price.

ELSEWHERE ON STLTODAY.COM

Despite winning just one of their first eight games, are the Rams really building a foundation to rebuild upon? Can we tell if Steve Spanguolo really is making progress?