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.

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

What do you Remember?

Where were you the last time the Yankees won a World Series?

What were you doing? How did you celebrate? What feeling are you most anxious to feel again?


I remember getting so nervous as Mike Piazza hit a deep fly to center, thinking it might never come down...and then Bernie was there, and the Subway Series complete.

I remember being a freshman in a high school that leaned strongly towards the Mets, and I remember the naivete: the fourteen-year-old feeling that, yes, we were invincible.


So what about you? What do you remember from last time? What do you want to remember from this time?

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.

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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.

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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.