Yankees win, Theeee Yankees win! On video!

Via Amanda Rykoff:



View her game 2 photo gallery here

Argument for Instant Replay gets stronger

1) Watch this video.

2) Tell me what you see.

If you saw the same thing I saw, you saw a) a short hop to Ryan Howard, b) no stepping on first base, and c) a throw wide of second base.

In theory, the Yankees should have bases loaded, one out, with Mark Teixeira at bat.


Instead, the play was ruled a double play--that Howard caught the ball and tagged the runner--and instead of being able to expand their lead and perhaps momentarily avoid using Mariano Rivera, the Yankees had to call on their 39 year-old closer for a 39 pitch save.

I was seated in the right field grandstand last night (check the photos from the post below), and, with Howard's back to me, I knew it was a blown call.

How did I know? If it really was a double play, Howard had utterly no reason to throw to second base.


It seems, that with every round there' yet another botched call, and each one increasing in severity after the last.

It has now gotten to the point where every play, even ones that should be utterly routine, have become the subject of much dissection.

Umpiring along with journalism has one single, cardinal rule: never become the story.

Alas, in the 2009 postseason, the umpires have.

"The Funnest I've Ever Had"

So this is what the World Series, the real World Series, feels like, huh?

What with the pitching and the timely hitting and the Mariano-ing and the Hoosierdaddy-ing and the mid-game-change-your-luck-Tweetups with Amanda Rykoff and Brent Nycz and the OHMIG-D YOU DID NOT REALIZE PAUL O'NEILL WAS THROWING OUT THE FIRST PITCH!

This is what it feels like.

It feels pretty darn good.

This isn't just baseball.

This is love.


***
Unlike last night's cold, rainy and windy drudge, tonight felt like October baseball.

There was, first of all, getting off the subway and walking, in the pale, dying sunlight, across the street to the Stadium. There, you find yourself transported to another world, one in which nothing matters except baseball. Nothing.





There was, in the pregame, the Jay Z/Alicia Keys mini-concert.

I'm not even a Jay Z fan, but the show the two put on seemed to set something off: the Stadium came alive, as if, finally, finally, we realized what it is our team has accomplished.







We're here, in the World Series.

We've reached the last round, we will play in the last Major League baseball game on the 2009 calendar; we will play into November.





The National Anthem is sung by John Legend and there's a flyover which goes right over my head, all of which is utterly awesome and makes it hit me again: HEY THIS IS THE WORLD SERIES, but it pales in comparison to the reaction when Paul O'Neill comes out to throw out the first pitch.




We are ready for this game to start.


AJ Burnett takes his warm up tosses not to the 300 soundtrack as normal, but instead to Marilyn Manson.

I don't know if today will be Good AJ or Bad AJ, not yet, but the music choice soothes me: almost every other time I've seen Burnett pitch this season with his normal warm up music, he's been bombed. Maybe the change will do him good.









After a few innings, after the Phillies take a 1-0 lead and Pedro Martinez refuses to let the Yankees do anything besides chant "Who's Your Dad-dy?", Amanda Rykoff and I start texting. She's scored a last second ticket to the game and we're talking about a mid-game tweet-up, along with Brent Nycz, to change the Yankees' luck. We decide: Top of the fourth inning, by section 413.

So, we meet and we walk over to one of the concession stands so I can buy myself some Twizzlers.

We watch the game on the screens, which are about 10 seconds behind the actual play on the field.

We watch AJ Burnett pitch a 1-2-3 inning, and then we watch Mark Teixeira hit a game-tying home run into the Yankees' bullpen, and we decree the tweet-up a success: our luck has been changed.



After we part, Burnett pitches as though he has taken it to another level. Slowly, we stop holding our breath with every pitch AJ throws, and instead begin to long for the next one. It may not be Lee's dominance, but you could have fooled us.

In the seventh inning, the crowd senses that this is something spectacular. So we chant: "AJ! AJ! AJ!"

He dazzles.

Later on, while speaking to reporters, he'll say it's "the funnest I've ever had".



In the bottom of the seventh, with a one run lead, the Yankees threaten for more. With first and third and no one out, a Melky Cabrera singles makes the score 3-1 and knocks Pedro Martinez from the game. Hoosierdaddy!







After a pinch-hitting Jorge Posada reaches, Derek Jeter bunts foul ("I was stupid", he is rumored to have said) and Johnny Damon comes to the plate.

I'll examine this in more detail tomorrow, but from our seats, what we saw was him ground to Ryan Howard, who, without touching first, threw the ball wide of second base. It should have left the Yankees with the bases loaded and no one out, but it was instead ruled a double play.

Somehow, you get the feeling, that it's impossible to conduct a 2009 postseason game without some sort of major umpiring scandal.



Still, the umpires' awful call notwithstanding, the Yankees took no chances, and went straight to Enter Sandman.

With the top of the Phillies' lineup due up in the eighth inning, going to Mariano Rivera is, in terms of, leverage-baby-leverage, a no-brainer. With the off day tomorrow, the Yankees could afford to do it, and so they did.

Rivera did make things a little exciting, but, being the great Mariano, he found a way.



Ball game over, Yankees win, theeeee Yankees win!



****

I found and purchased a "Got Pie" t-shirt. It's a much better souvenir than the program, which cost $5 more than normal and is mostly a reprint of the LCS program.

I still can't get over the umpires' call in the bottom of the 7th. I will address tomorrow, likely in the afternoon.


Any photo taken after the fourth inning is credit Brent Nycz. The video of the final out (will be uploaded in morning) is credit Amanda Rykoff.

All Hangs on AJ

For the first time this postseason, the Yankees find themselves behind, down in a series and in much need of a win.

While comparisons to 1996 invoke a certain romanticism, it is not a position in which any Yankee fan wants to find his team--as fun as a come-from-behind series win would be, a series tied at one game a piece is still a much better option than being down 0-2 and having to go on the road.

So it falls to AJ Burnett to shut the door.

AJ Burnett, who has been so predictable--the same pitcher that surrendered six runs to Baltimore in one inning is also the one who one-hit the Red Sox through eight.

Burnett's unpredictability is nothing new--in fact, it's probably the most consistent thing about him.

Tonight, the Yankees need the "good AJ" to show up and shut Philadelphia down, and, well, not repeat his outing the last time he faced the Phillies.

AJ wants to be a big game pitcher; this is his shot.

He still needs a little pie, after all.

Gone Astray

Sometimes things don't go the way you want.

It has happened before, and it will happen again.

It wasn't as though CC Sabathia collapsed or had some sort of awful performance--the two runs surrendered were the same as in his ALDS game one performance--it was that Cliff Lee pitched the game of his life.

To have beaten Cliff Lee tonight, the Yankees would have had to pitch perfectly.

Until the ninth inning, the Yankees had just one batter reach second base, and none reach third.

There's not much else to day--it wasn't a bad managerial move that cost the Yankees the game; the other team simply pitched better.

Okay, so perhaps Brian Bruney should not be anywhere near a postseason roster, but this isn't really the point here.

You can debate how you would have pitched the top of the eighth--my faith in Robertson didn't work out the way I'd hope, but it happens--but it wasn't a bullpen that blew the game.

With the way that Lee pitched, even if the score had remained 2-0, the Yankees' chances were still slim--he was that good.

The first six innings, at least--before the Yankees went to the bullpen--were everything that a neutral fan would want to see in a World Series game: good pitching, good fielding, and played in a crisp manner.

Alas for us, we have a rooting interest that was on the wrong end of that game.

So what now, then?

For the first time this postseason, the Yankees find themselves trailing in a series, faced with their first real must-win of the month. Lose tomorrow, and it's 0-2 going to Philly--although, as we all remember previous occasions, it's not as though the Yankees haven't overcome that obstacle before.

The Yankees don't have to face Cliff Lee tomorrow; they have to face Pedro Martinez which is an entirely different story for reasons probably already familiar to you.

There is no reason to think that the Yankees will not fight. We've seen this team play too long this year with their swagger. They always seem to find a way.

As Douglas Adams would have said, DON'T PANIC.

There is still a lot of baseball left to play.

****

I will be at tomorrow's game. If you are going and would like to say hello, send an email or tweet my way.

Stadium to Open for Fans for Game 4

Via LoHud, Yankee Stadium will open to fans on Sunday so that they may view the road game four.

With luck, this game could be especially significant (although my gut tells me this is unlikely).

Having gone to the viewing party for Game 3 of the ALCS, I must say that if you have the chance to go on Sunday, I highly recommend it.

There's really nothing like watching the game with a few thousand fans of the same team. It is, after all, the same reason you congregate in bars and friends homes to watch the postseason, especially the latter rounds in any sport.

The event is free (save for concessions), so you needn't worry about cost. Just get there early--if you're there early enough, you can even try out some of the Legends Seats!

PBP #6: HELLO THE NAME IS SWAGGER (Live Chat)

Who's Your Game 2 Starter?

By now you've likely heard the news: Pedro Martinez will start Game 2 of the World Series for the Phillies.

Game two.

In New York.

This, of course, would be the same Pedro who once uttered, "just call the Yankees my daddy", spawning non-stop "who's-your-daddy?" chants at the Stadium.

Pedro was once dominant against the Yankees--holding them to one hit in the 1999 ALCS--but has struggled lately, with an ERA close to six in his past five starts.

While he did pitch well against the Dodgers, the Yankees could easily be another story.

Charlie Manuel is taking a huge gamble--Pedro has been better than Hamels this postseason, sure, but Pedro's home/road splits are worrying at best and somewhere the law-of-averages is waiting to rear its ugly head.

***

Live chat at 7.30. Be there

Baseball as it Should Be

The World Series is supposed to be about the two best teams in each league duking it out for supreme bragging rights.

Often, this fails in favor of two teams that simply get hot at the right time, but this year, it is, in fact, the league's two best teams going at it.

In one corner, you have the team from Philadelphia. A group of "gamers" as some have described them, defending World Champions, a National League team with a lineup that mashes on an American League score.

In the other corner, the Bronx Bombers. Despite the motley of expensive free agents, this team also boasts one of the highest percentage home-grown rosters in the league. The team that took off in May has flat-out dominated since then, cruising to its best record since the record-breaking 1998 season.

Both teams have lost just two games in the postseason, both have survived playing in utterly frigid conditions in New York and Colorado, and both have their own lofty expectations.

While it may have been easy to pick the Yankees over the Twins or the Phillies over the Dodgers, predicting a World Series winner is another thing entirely. I am a die-hard Yankees fan, but I would be shocked if the series went less than six games. These teams are, simply put, too good.

This, though, is how it should be.

A World Series, by definition, should go to seven games. It should have a bit of everything (except blown calls, of course), and it should make you love the game all that more.

The Phillies-Yankees series holds that promise: baseball as it should be.

****

More later, including a live chat at 7.30 pm, so make sure you're there!

(Something Profound About 1999 Goes Here)

When we talk of the Yankees' dynasty at the end of last century, three teams consistently enter our mind:

The 1996 squad, a combination of pure grit and utter youth, of the waning days of the likes of Cecil Fielder, Doc Gooden and Jimmy Key, and of the coming out of the likes of Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera (Jorge Posada would debut later).

The 1998 team, sheer and utter domination. Wells and Cone, Duque and Pettitte, and an offense that always found a way to win. A team that won 125 games over all, lost only fifty and is considered by many to be one of the best teams in any sport of all time.

The 2000 team, Subway Series champions that survived more on luck--winning the World Series with just 87 wins--than anything else. This was a team that got their game winning hits from Jose Vizcaino and Luis Sojo, and the team whose pitching staff was anchored by the Rocket Roger Clemens.


The one team, it seems, that we never pay any mind, is the 1999 squad.

Why is it? The 1998 team may have been more dominant in the regular season, but the 1999 team lost just one game in the postseason--a one-hitter against the Red Sox and a Pedro Martinez in his prime.


Maybe it has to do with the regular season being, well, regular. There was the death of Joe DiMaggio in Spring Training, and David Cone's perfect game in July--neither of these events insignificant, but in 1999 that the Yankees would go on to win the World Series seemed simply a given, that there was no one there who could rightfully challenge them.

Much of the 1999 team boasted the same roster, just a year older than the 1998 team, and so perhaps we saw that team as a continuation of 1998, a comfortable plateau of hey-we're-the-best-and-no-one-is-even-close.

You see, that's what happens when a dynasty reaches its zenith: nothing is there to challenge it, and so, for the moment its successes seem inevitable and unremarkable.

It is only after the dynasty has fallen that we realize just how impressive the dynasty has been.

By the end of 2001, there were teams to challenge the Yankees: a 116-win team in Seattle and the eventual World Champions in Arizona, and the dynasty would come to an end.

Followed by years of disappointment, first round exits, and The Great Evil of Which We Do Not Speak, the Dynasty Years quickly accrued a glory usually reserved only for the greatest of our moments.


In 2009, the Yankees have a chance to give rebirth to that pride that makes us Yankees fans in the first place.

All that remains to be seen is which team the similarities are most drawn: is it the gritty 96ers? The dominant Team of the Century? The dynasty's least-written about 99ers, or the 00 squad?

The answer is probably a little of all four.

Leverage, baby, Leverage

When Mariano Rivera began to warm in the seventh inning last night, there were a variety of reactions. Some liked the move, some did not, and I admit that, at first, I was a little worried--what if something happened, Rivera pitched two innings, the Yankees lost the game and then Rivera wasn't able to pitch a Game Seven?

Fortunately, I soon came to my senses, and remembered that I do believe in the concept of use-the-best-reliever-in-highest-leverage, as this is exactly what Girardi did last night.

In the top of the eighth inning, in a game that was still a two-run score, Girardi went with his best reliever to get the top--and then the meat--of the Angels' batting order: Figgins-Abreu-Hunter-Guerrerro-Morales.

Just as recently as Game 5, Phil Hughes struggled against that same part of the lineup, unable to get the one out he needed, and as big a Robertson fan as I am--and I'm a big one--when you have the option to go to Rivera, you take it.

Now, according to Fangraphs, the fourth inning in which the Yankees scored their first three runs was the highest-leveraged situation of the game, but at that time the starter was still pitching, and, well, ideally you don't remove a starter in the fourth inning.

Still, as the graph indicates, the leverage situation in the eighth inning was still much higher than that in the ninth.

The Yankees, last night, employed Mariano Rivera in the most effective way that they could. How is the mood repaying them?

The team's off to their fortieth World Series.


****

Stay tuned for more World Series/Turnpike Series goodies. I've got somehwere to be this afternoon, but plan on a Live Chat Tuesday evening, round 7.30. I will post a reminder tomorrow.

Anything is Possible

(photo credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images)


I had forgotten what it felt like.

Not the winning, but the euphoria.

This feeling, that nothing can touch us, that nothing can stop us, that for this moment, the baseball gods have smiled.

The Yankees, though, the Yankees were there to make sure I remembered.

***

No one said that beating the Angels would be easy, and it wasn't.

Six games, six games in which every emotion as a fan was tested: there was anxiety, nervousness, pleasure, pain, face-palming and, at long last, euphoria.

To be the champions of your league, you have to beat the best along the way.

The Angels were the only team in the league that played the Yankees well consistently all season, and so it was fitting that the road to the World Series would have to go through Anaheim.

When it came down to it, it wasn't just that the Yankees had ALCS MVP CC Sabathia and the Angels didn't, or that the Yankees had Alex Rodriguez and the Angels didn't, it was that the Yankees never forgot how to play fundamental baseball.

Fundamental errors cost the Angels games two and six; even just costing them one of those games would have been too much.

****

It is only fitting that Andy Pettitte was on the mound tonight.

He was there in 1996, he should be there again this season, when comparisons to the late nineties Yankees have been so apparent.

It was fitting, and Pettitte was vintage.

He only pitched into the seventh inning, but he kept the Angels to just one run, and you get the feeling that once the Yankees scored, the Angels never really had much of a chance.

There was Pettitte, and then there was Joba, where we held our breath, and then there was Rivera.


****

I've gone back and forth on Rivera in the eighth, but ultimately it was the right decision. As a proponent of the leverage argument, tonight's use of Rivera is exactly what should have been done, with him facing Figgins, Abreu, Hunter, Guerrerro and Morales in the the eighth inning, in a two run game.

You knew Rivera would be on the mound for the final out, regardless of the score.

It just wouldn't be right without it.

****

The work isn't done.

Philadelphia's not just a good team, they're the defending World Champions and with good reason.

Yet, you get the feeling, if anyone can beat the Phillies, these Yankees can.

We have watched this team, all season, dazzle us, surprise us, enthrall us and, most of all, make us believe.

And so we do believe.

The quest for 27 remains, and it closer than ever.

This team is showing us that they are of the Substance, that they are Yankees.

The euphoria is back.

Anything is possible.