Daily Archives: October 6, 2006

The worst case scenerio reared its ugly head tonight for the Yankees as Kenny Rogers, the consumate October choke-artiste, came up aces for the Tigers, throwing the best money game of his career. It was nothing short of Ripley’s I tell you and I can’t recall being more livid watching a game all season. Rogers had a nasty curve ball that he used for a strike-out pitch, to go along with his normal assortment of slop. His control was excellent and he had the Yankees at his mercy. Did he make a deal with the Devil? This certainly wasn’t the Kenny Rogers we knew in New York.

The Yankees had a runner on base in each of the first eight innings but could not score a run. The team went 0-18 with runners on base, and as result lost Game 3 in humiliating fashion, 6-0. Rogers kept the Yankees off-balance, had them chasing a diving change-up out-of-the-zone, and frozen, looking at fastballs perfectly placed on the black. In all, Rogers had eight strike outs in 7 2/3 innings of work. Moreover, Rogers was increasingly animated and charged-up on the mound as the game progessed.

The Yankees, it seems, can not buy a break in this series. In the fifth inning, with the score 3-0, Bernie Williams narrowly missed a two-run home run. He chased ball four in the dirt and struck out instead. When Robinson Cano went down next, Rogers screamed at his catcher, “C’mon, godammit, give me the ball.” In the top of the sixth, Derek Jeter smoked a line up the middle. The ball caught Rogers–an excellent fielder–in the glove and he was able to pick it up and throw Jeter out. In the bottom of the inning, Carlos Guillen’s two-out line drive hit off Jeter’s glove for a hit, opening the door for the Tigers to score two more runs. And that’s the way the cookie crumbled for the Bombers who now look to Jaret Wright to stop the bleeding and salvage the season. Think about that for a moment and see if you can sleep well tonight. (Emily, always the voice of reason said to me, “Well, if Kenny Rogers can pitch a great game what makes you think Jaret Wright can’t do the same thing?”)

Randy Johnson allowed five runs but he wasn’t entirely awful. A three-run second inning featured an awful defensive throwing play by Jason Giambi. It was just not the Yankees night, pure and simple. Things happen fast in the first round. The Yankees and Twins were the hot teams going into October, but Minnie was swept by the Oakland A’s and the Yankees are hanging on for dear life. Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano have done bubkus in the series (though Cano got his first hit, a single, tonight). Damon, Giambi and Abreu did dick tonight. The entire team mustered just five hits.

But this is no time for pointing fingers. The entire team has got to suck it up and show-up in full-force tomorrow. Otherwise, what has been a fine and awfully enjoyable season will end prematurely and regrettably. Time to see what kind of fight these guys have in them.

Hang tough, guys. The Yanks’ll get ’em tomorrow. Nobody said it was going to be easy.

The notion of Alex Rodriguez as an over-priced flop has been the single largest media story around the Yankees in years. Rodriguez does not go 5-5 in playoff games like Derek Jeter–he hasn’t done much of anything substantial in his past two-and-a-half playoff series. Forget about what he has done in the past–his lifetime post-season numbers are far from embarassing–New York is a what-have-you-done-for-us-lately town. I hear Yankee fans everywhere hating on A Rod, and the papers fuel the flames. The back page of the Daily News today shows a close shot of A Rod after a strike out. He is looking down, a sullen expression on his face, as he lifts the helmet off his head in frustration. The headline reads “Awol.” The New York tabloids relish humiliating Rodriguez when he does not play well, especially in the playoffs.

Even far-minded critics like my man Jake Luft are harping on Rodriguez’s failure, which grows more glaring with each mediore game. Buster Olney has a great blog entry on the subject today over at ESPN. A Rod hit the ball well in Game One, but only had one hit to show for it. He whiffed three times in Game Two. The first and lasat K you have to give to Verlander and Zumaya, the other two at-bats are on Rodriguez.

But New York’s obsession with hating Rodiriguez says more about Nee Yorkers themselves, and the nature of the tabloid competition here, than it necessarily does about Rodriguez himself. (Just like ovation Torii Hunter got from Twins’ fans after mis-playing a ball into an inside-the-park home run said something about Minniesota fans. I know Hunter is different to them than A Rod is to Yankee fans, I’m just saying. ) Not that A Rod doesn’t contribute to the matter but the resentment that people express says more about what they demand from the highest-paid player: nothing short of being the absolute best in every way. They feel entitled to take the guy down if he doesn’t match their expectations.

It’s not that Yankee fans don’t want him to do well. They do want to see him succeed. He got a bonafide ovation as he walked to the plate in his first at bat of the series. But when he fails the fans turn on him quickly and without mercy. He reminds us of our own failures, our own inability to meet certain “clutch” situations all the time in our own lives. Not only that, he confirms our worst fears about ourselves–that we won’t do well. Watch a Rodriguez at-bat with a group of Yankee fans and most of them expect him to fail, and go so far as to root against him. It’s a weird kind of maschochistic thing, I don’t get it.

I heard two construction workers talking about the Yanks in the local deli this morning and their entire riff on A Rod was what a bum he was for making all that money. “If you or I performed like that in our jobs, Frankie, we’d be out of jobs, am I right?”

“And then he sits there and takes pitches. How do you take pitches.”

“They teach you in little league you gotta swing the bat, right?”

“I can’t believe a guy gets paid all that money to leave the bat on his shoulder.”

And so forth. You’ve heard it all. It’s not as if Rodriguez has not have some big hits as a Yankee–he has. But he has to have them in the playoffs. Now. He’s the only star player in baseball whose entire season is judged almost exclusively by how he does in the playoffs. 120 RBI? Should have been 148. Get bent. What have you done for me lately?

It is a very real media story and while we’re all sick of it but it could get the guy run out of town if he fails and the team bows out early. That would be a shame because headcase or not, after three years in New York, Rodriguez is probably the best third baseman in Yankee history, and that’s pretty awesome. He’s not Nettles with the glove by a long stretch, but he’s a much better hitter. Better base runner, better player. But a bigger mystery. When the game looks hard for a player, when he’s a scrappy guy like Wally Backman or David Eckstein, fans identify them with and give them a pass. It’s the Wayne Cherbet syndrome, you know what I mean? The game is hard for A Rod too, even though he’s supremely gifted. It’s just difficult in a different way, a way people can’t relate to or identify with. They just see that he’s good looking and very rich and he’s strikes out three times in a playoff game.

But now it’s time for Mr. Rodriguez to meet our old pal, the Gambler Kenny Rogers. If you don’t get at least two hits tonight, it’s only gunna get worse tomorrow, kid. So as Don Corelone said to Johnny Fontaine, “You can act like a MAN! (slap) What’s the matter with you?” Go get ’em, bro, leave it all out on the field and kick some ass. Remember, the Gambler is a bigger headcase than you. Doubles in the gap, dude, doubles in the gap. The story won’t go away until you come through. Make it happen.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

The Tigers tied the best of five series against the Yankees on a sunny and crisp fall afternoon in New York. They followed the ideal formula to beat the Bombers: a few well-timed hits (the revenge of Marcus Thames), add some pop (Carlos Guillen), mix in some decent starting pitching and then get to your devastating bullpen. Final score: 4-3. Justin Verlander was effectively wild as the Yankees did not score early, which tends to mean they’re going to have a long day. Other than Johnny Damon’s three-run, upper-deck home run, were effectively shut down all game long. Jason Giambi hit a long ball that went foul, Bobby Abreu hit a long single that was just short of a dinger too. And Mike Mussina could not protect a 3-1. The worst of for Mussina came when he left an 0-2 mistake rigth over the plate to Curtis Granderson, who tripled home the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh.

Joel Zumaya was sick for the Tigers, striking out Jeter, Giambi and Alex Rodriguez late in the game and throwing steadily over 100 mph. Rodriguez went 0-4 and took the brunt of the fan’s abuse. He didn’t have a good game, however, his first and last strike outs, well, those were cases where you just have to credit the pitcher now, don’t you?

For a fine re-cap of the game, check out Tyler Kepner’s story today in the Times. Pete Abraham has a host of good links for a change.

Now, we’ve got ourselves a serious. You may have your doubts about Randy Johnson, who is looking to make-up for his lousy showing in Game 3 of the 2005 ALDS (and I think he will), but as a friend said to me yesterday, “It’s not so much that I’m confident in Johnson, it is that I am positive that Kenny Rogers will be awful.” Tonight gives a new twist to the title “Grumpy, Old Men.” Johnson and Rogers may have different styles, but they both seem like miserabl sobs in their own special way.

I’m headed up to Vermont for the weekend. I’ll be checking in and providing pre-and-post game articles, though there may be fewer links than usual, on the count of they’ve only got a dial-up connection where I’m going to be out in the sticks. Cliff returns on Sunday from his honeymoon. Here’s hoping he’ll have something to sink his teeth into (i.e., ALCS Preview) when he arrives.

If you’ve got free time, check out a Q&A I did with Wade Boggs earlier this week. It includes a link to one of SI’s great interviews of all-time–from the 1986 Baseball Preview issue, Boggs, and Don Mattingly sit down to talk hitting with Ted Williams.