Daily Archives: October 2, 2005

Yankee fans have the luxury of kicking back this afternoon and enjoying the final game of the season. Sure, there are still things at stake, but it isn’t the do-or-die scenerio that it could well have been. If the Yankees win, they’ll most likely host the Angels Tuesday. If they lose and the Angels win, the ALDS will begin in Anahiem. The Red Sox are a pretty good bet to make the playoffs themselves. If the Indians lose, the Sox are in. If the Sox win, they are in. Should Boston lose and Cleveland win, the two teams would meet at Fenway Park tomorrow in a one-game playoff (I think that both the Indians and the Sox will win today and that’ll be that).

Jaret Wright will start against Curt Schilling today, and several Yankee starters will get some rest (I’m thinking that Sheff and Giambi will not play, but would be surprised not to see Jeter, Posada, Rodriguez and Matsui out there). Anyhow, let’s just hope that nobody gets hurt, and that a couple of guys can pad their stats a ‘lil bit.

The Bronx Bombers are headed to the playoffs again. Four months ago I wasn’t so sure that’d happen. Today is a good time to take pause and appreciate just how hard the players worked to earn this playoff berth, and for us to really take in how fortunate we’ve been to root for such a special team since Joe Torre became the manager in 1996.

Enjoy the day. Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

It was an uncommonly beautiful day in Boston yesterday. Not a single cloud could be found in the deep blue sky and the mid-day sun cast harsh shadows across the field at Fenway Park. In many ways, it was reminiscent of the afternoon 27 years ago today when Ron Guidry and Mike Torrez faced off to decide the American League’s Eastern Division, and with the temperature a crisp 64 degrees, there was more than a hint of playoff baseball in the air.

After 160 games, it had come to this. The Yankees and Red Sox were tied atop the AL East. The winner of this game would clinch a tie for first place. More significantly, a win by the Yankees and a loss by the Indians in Cleveland would hand the division to New York outright. On the mound for the two teams were a pair of veteran aces. Forty two-year-old future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, 4-0 in five starts against the Red Sox this year was set to face 39-year-old Tim Wakefield, the pitcher who almost single-handedly defeated the Yankees in the 2003 ALCS only to, in a cruel twist of fate, surrender the series-ending home run in relief in Game Seven. Three weeks ago the two had matched up in a grueling 1-0 pitchers duel won by Johnson in the final match-up of the year between the two teams at Yankee Stadium.

On this day, things would be a little different. Wakefield’s knuckler, which in that September 11 match-up was as good as it’s ever been, resulting in a career-high twelve strikeouts for Wakefield, simply didn’t have as much movement, and the Yankees, several of whom took batting practice against a former Yankee hurler who had learned the pitch from Wakefield himself, took advantage.

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