Who'll be this year's hero? (My money's on A-Rod : )
Posted on 09/17/2004 8:27:59 AM PDT by presidio9
This is the kind of September we are supposed to have with the Yankees and the Red Sox. This is the way it is supposed to be, a series like this at the Stadium this weekend, then another one next weekend at Fenway Park. It wasn't supposed to be as easy as the Red Sox made it look in April. It wasn't supposed to be the kind of knockout punch the Yankees threw at Boston at the end of June, that three-game series when Derek Jeter, in addition to everything else, seemed to have taught himself how to fly.
It wasn't supposed to be the Yankees ahead by 10-1/2 games in August, as giddy as that made everybody around here feel, when the Red Sox were declared dead, and gone, again.
This, tonight at the Stadium, is the way it is supposed to be:
El Duque Hernandez with the ball in the top of the first tonight, trying to kick his leg to the upper deck and duck his head behind his shoulder and throw one of those breaking balls that starts out by Ruppert Place past Johnny Damon of the Red Sox.
Maybe last year isn't as good as the Yankees vs. the Red Sox could ever be. Because after everything that has happened between Game 7 last October and now, the sides are still even.
"A showdown in the Bronx," is the way Damon described this series the other night.
It is all of that.
It is not the kind of all-in, knockout baseball it used to be in the old days, the way it was in September of 1978, when it was the Yankees trying to come from way back in the pack. Barring a total collapse by the Red Sox - and it is hard to see them collapsing after the kind of good, clean hardball they have played lately - you can almost book both teams making the playoffs.
So no matter which of these two teams wins the American League East, it looks as if we will be right where we were a year ago after the regular season, hoping to get both of them through the first round, and into another series with a trip to the World Series on the line. Where it will be all-in, knockout baseball. Where everything could come down to one swing of the bat, the way it did with Aaron Boone, on the night when he finally ended the greatest Yankee-Red Sox season of them all.
But you have to know this: The Yankees don't want to blow the biggest regular-season lead they have ever blown. The Yankees do not want the Red Sox to come back from 10-1/2 behind on the 15th of August to win the AL East, whether they know they've got the safety net of the wild card or not. Because in their minds, they would be carried into October on a stretcher.
For now, we get these six games, starting with the ball in El Duque's hand tonight. Where would the Yankees be without him? Second place, is where. The big fat lead would be gone already. Alex Rodriguez was supposed to be the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox this season. We've got him, Yankee fans crowed. They don't. That was the first time the season was declared over, back in February, when it was announced that the Yankees had made a deal with the Rangers for A-Rod.
Only he has not been the difference. Somehow, even as he has hung up fairly gaudy numbers, even with the richest contract in the history of sports, A-Rod has just been one of the stars on the Yankees this season. Just not the biggest. The Yankees are still ahead because Gary Sheffield has been the kind of batting star A-Rod was supposed to be. And because El Duque, with all his spin and mystery intact at whatever age he really is, remains one of the great big-game Yankee pitchers of them all.
Now he gets the biggest game he has had in a while, at least until he gets to the playoffs.
"[The Red Sox] are still trying to catch us," Derek Jeter said.
Only for about 900 years.
But for now, the two teams are as close as they could be. In the last two seasons, counting the 2003 postseason, the Yankees and Red Sox have played 39 games. Thirty-nine. The Red Sox have won 20 and the Yankees have won 19. All those games, and really only one swing from Boone separating them.
The Red Sox don't go away. They made their run and now the Yankees have won eight of their last 10. There is a great wild-card race in the National League East. But this is something different. This is the Yankees against the Red Sox. The season started with all those games between them in April. Now here we are again, 11 months, exactly, from Aaron Boone.
Curt Schilling is with the Red Sox now, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte are gone from the Yankees. Nomar Garciaparra is gone from the Red Sox. The Red Sox tried to cut Manny Ramirez of Washington Heights to get A-Rod and now Ramirez might be MVP. The Yankees got A-Rod. We get the September we wanted. It is the September we always want. Somehow, the sides are still even.
This isn't 1978 and the Sox aren't playing like it is. The Yankees pitching sucks, they manage to win games with their bats.
It's safe to say good pitching beats good hitting.
Regardless of the outcome between now and rest of the season, the Yankees simply don't have the pitching to win the world series.
Miguel Cairo.
Fourteen World Champion Yankee teams in my lifetime and 26 over all. Each and every one SINCE 1918.
Nothing will bring me more pleasure than those remote camera shots of depressed patrons at Who's On First? on Yawke Way as the Sox make their final out.
Yeah! LOL The Yankees face the Curse of Hillary! Bwaaaaahahahahahahahaha!
Forget 1918 - The Yankees are done hahahahahahahahaha!
Sorry to rain on your parade, but Varitek left his mask and helmet on for a fight. I think it's pretty clear who the pussy is here.
How about "Both of them are pussies because they get paid to play baseball - something almost every kid dreams of at least once in their life - and yet they still can't go without being idiots..."?
It's always someone like Cairo. Makes it that much more painful for the Sox fans. And he's been clutch all year.
I've mentioned that a few times on both FR and some sports boards (the Curse of Hillary!) Yep, let's all remember, fans...
Oct 2000--Yanks beat Mets in Series
Nov 2000--"Lifelong Yankee Fan" Shrillary elected
Nov 2001--Yanks lose to Diamondbacks in Series slightly
delayed by 9-11
Oct 2002--Angels beat Giants in Series
Oct 2003--Marlins (hello Jeb Bush) beat Yanks in Series
I will say, though, that I understand A-Rod is a Bush
supporter (as is Steinbrenner, who donated $$) so we've got some stuff in common, but I wonder, especially since
Grady Little is nowhere to be seen now...
COULD THIS BE THE RED SOX YEAR? :)
>>Hillary is on record saying that she is a Cubs fan.
Another Dem flip-flop. Not surprised! :) (too bad..I was hoping for a Cubs-Red Sox series last year)
Even though I'm a Red Sox fan, I gotta say:
World Series in 2001: W throws a "strike" for the first pitch at Yankee Stadium
Day before DNC in 2004: Kerry (hogging the cameras
all game on ESPN) makes a GIRLIE-MAN first pitch toss.
Oh, and W threw from the mound.
Kerry from in front of the mound.
Perhaps Kerry would be better off throwing first pitch in Little League game (mound only 46 ft from plate)
Well, maybe if the Curse of HIllary plays a role, we could see a very good year ;0)
Nope. Did you even watch the game? Rodriguez had just been hit by a pitch and was headed up the first baseline. Varitek followed him and instigated. I would not even have brought this up if some goofy Red Sox fan hadn't used it to indicate how "tough" Veritek is. He's a creep who understands that in a fair fight Rodriguez would tear his head off.
ping!
I'm going to the game on the 22nd.
Another thing to keep in mind is that A-Rod also himself said that his "language was a bit strong... stronger than it should have been" or something to that effect.
Botomm line is BOTH were instigating, and both are guilty. Period.
Regardless of the rivalries between our teams, this kinda crap is just stupid. I can admit that both players, mine and yours, were in the wrong. Can you?
Is that true? A-Rod and Steinbrenner are Bush supporters?
Why does A-Rod pick a fight with someone wearing a catchers mask - not the sharpest tool in the shed, eh?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.