I’ll admit it. I don’t have a favorite Major League Player. I really have not had one since 1979, when Thurman Munson died. I have a favorite team, but no player stands out, as being my favorite since players today seems so transient. It was only a few years ago that Yankee fans hated Roger Clemens or Wade Boggs. With players changing teams more often the some people change underwear it makes it nearly impossible to root for a single player. To quote Jerry Seinfeld, “if you like a team, you are really rooting for the jersey, since players change from year to year” (I am paraphrasing). I have been participating in fantasy baseball leagues for a few years, which also makes it difficult to focus on a single player. If you did try to draft your favorite player it would be very difficult to ward off the other players or you can just kiss your money goodbye if you stick by players and not necessarily the numbers.
So, by chance I happened to have tickets this past week to two different Toronto Blue Jays road games, one at Fenway Park (July 2) and one at Yankee Stadium (July 5). I decided this would be an excellent opportunity to find the most exciting player on a rather drab, small-market team that has certainly under-performed this year. .
The first game was the first game of a day/night double header, a make up of an earlier rain out. When I saw an opportunity to see a day game at Fenway Park, and take time off from work, I jumped at the chance. The game time temperature was a hot and humid 91 and the heat index had to be close to 110. Both teams were working quickly, since they did not seem to want to be outside in this oppressive heat either.
I got to see the knuckleball throwing Tim Wakefield, from right behind home plate. The ball had unbelievable action as it dived and danced all over the place. It was amazing. Needless to say the Jays either did not care or were mesmerized by the pitching. Wakefield gave up 3 hits over 6 innings. We questioned why he was pulled so early, when he was pitching so well, but we figured the heat must have had him fatigued, though it was later reported that Wakefield offered to pitch out of the bullpen in the nightcap. (When do you suppose the last time a starting pitcher pitched in both ends of a double header?). In the 7th inning, things got interesting. Grady Little put in Willie Banks, who quickly gave up a single to Shannon Stewart and a double to Jose Cruz Jr., which scored Stewart. This caused us to question the removal of Wakefield yet again.
On the other side of the plate, Chris Carpenter was getting shellacked (5 hits, 3BB in 6 1/3); it only seemed a matter of time until the Red Sox would break out. A few well-timed double plays were the only thing that kept this game from being a complete blow out. This included a throw from Jose Cruz Jr. to home plate to nail the slow-footed Jose Offerman at the dish. Carpenter gave up a long single off the green monster to Shea Hillenbrand and was relieved after getting Tony Clark. He had a 1-0 lead, so the worst that could happen to him was a no decision. Freshman manager Carlos Tosca, brought in the lefty Scott Eyre to the face left handed Trot Nixon. Eyre had only one job that was to retire Nixon and he blew it by walking him. Tosca then brought in Scott Cassidy to retire the back up catcher, Doug Mirabelli, the promptly gave up a triple to the impressive second bagger Lou Merloni, which scored Nixon and Hillenbrand.
The Red Sox brought Alan Embree in to pitch in the 8th and I thought we might see Uggie Urbina in the 9th, since they had a one run lead and they were trailing the Yankees by 2 games at the time, but Little defied conventional wisdom and stayed with Embree who picked up his first AL save.
Final Thoughts on the game: Nomar Garciaparra has an incredibly sweet swing; his motion is beautiful to watch. Shea Hillenbrand hit the ball hard all over the park and looks like he deserved the starting 3b in the All-Star extravaganza. Lou Merloni hustled and played hard in sweltering heat. Carlos Delgado is a very selfish player, throughout the game the Red Sox infield shifted to the right, and each time he was up, the out was recorded on the right side of the field, he never attempted to go the other way to sneak out a hit. Very selfish. Also interesting was Tom Wilson, the Jays catcher could not get the ball back to the pitcher in the 8th inning, throwing it to the 1st base side numerous times and once throwing it past the pitcher. Very humorous way to end the game
The second game was played in a much balmier 80 with a cool breeze blowing left to right. El Duque Hernandez was making his first start since coming of the DL, and the Jays were countering with Estaban Louiza. This time the Jays showed nothing until it was too late. El Duque shut them down for 6 innings, allowing no runs 2 hits, 2 walks and 9 K’s. It was a very good performance. Louiza on the other hand gave up 6 runs in 4+ innings and was gone before the sunset. He allowed a solo HR to Bernie Williams in the 1st, a two run shot to Jorge Posada in the 2nd , and then a succession of hits to begin the 5th sending him to the showers early. Only a lousy performance by Steve Karsay made this game interesting.
Well my conclusion is that one of the reasons the Blue Jays are so bad, is they have to be the worlds most boring team and watching them twice was even worse than I ever expected. Jose Cruz Jr. deserves the honor for the lone RBI in Boston and a gun from the OF, though I was hoping for Eric Hinske since he is (was) on my fantasy team. He also provided RBI’s and another gun in the second game as well
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Friday, March 29, 2002
A Yankee fan review the 2001 Yankees ill-fated playoff run
This article first appeared in Zisk Magazine #5 (ziskmagazine.blogspot.com)
I have been a Yankee fan since the 1976 World Series when I was 7 years old. That was the year my beloved Thurman Munson played his heart out, batting .539 despite being swept by my neighbor and best friend’s team the Johnny Bench led Cincinnati Reds. From that fall on I had my team. I knew not of the future to come, 6 more World Series Championships, the most in my lifetime (Attachment 1). I just knew that this was the team I was going to root for forever.
I obviously love the New York Yankees but they should have lost earlier in the playoffs last year then they actually did. The 2001 version of the Yankees was not that good. They were getting old (Scott Atrocious and Paul O’Neil retired at the end of the season as did Luis Sojo but he seems to have resurfaced again), they had lost some speed and punch (Knoblauch and Martinez), and the 4&5 pitching spots were suspect all season long (who remembers Christian Parker as the 5th starter in April?). Injuries proved costly to them over the course of the season, but they were still able to make the playoffs because the Red Sox, as predicted, self-destructed before September.
Somehow, they were able to get past a hungry Oakland team in the Divisional Series. The Young A’s nipped at the Yankees heals for a second straight year. Pushing them to the brink until Jeremy Giambi’s inability to slide at home plate allowing Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada to make perhaps the best post season play I have ever witnessed (time and again on ESPN’s Sportscenter). Had he slid, he probably would have been safe and New York would not have even made it to the Series. It would have allowed the Mariners to fulfill my preseason prediction of the M’s going to the Series, since the A’s would have believed that they did what they needed to do by knocking out the dreaded Yanks. But Giambi did not slide. I bet the Oakland coaches have slid him to death this spring.
The Yankees were able to ride the momentum of that play through the ALCS and past the 116 win Seattle Mariners in a series without much drama. Some will claim that this series was payback for the 1995 Division Series, but enough players had turned over (hell Tino Martinez and Luis Sojo played for the other side in ’95 plus Jeff Nelson and Sterling Hitchcock had been back and forth in that time) to make this theory a real non-issue. Needless to say the New York Yankees were on to their 5th World Series in 6 years, and playing the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks, under rookie manager Bob Brenly.
On paper, the World Series looked pretty even. It will go down in history as one of the best Series of all time. Most of the games were close and had the intensity that you would expect from a World Series. The home team wound up winning every single game, which send the fans home happy. The Yankees showed their legacy and pride, the fight and determination that had won 4 of the previous 5 series.
However they only did this for 4 (3,4,5 & 7) of the 7 games played. They were manhandled and had their asses handed to them in the other games. They barely bothered to show up for the other games hoping for some kind of Yankee magic to miraculously happen again that would lift them to victory.
Let me give credit where credit is due. The Diamondbacks deserved to win and were the better team. They outplayed and out hustled the Yankees. They had a 1-2 pitching punch of Schilling and Johnson that was in the end impossible to beat. I don’t wish to take anything away from the (this hurts) World Champion’s since they were the better ball club, but here is my rant none-the-less.
Bob Brenly is a horrible manager, not a genius that he was made out to be after the World Series. His decision in Game 4 to pull Schilling in the seventh inning, because of a pitch count is ludicrous. He has the 3 time defending Champs on the ropes with his ace who has no problem racking up the innings on the mound in a groove killing the Yankees. Why is he concerned about Game 7, when he is about to go up 3-1? Does he believe in the Yankee mystique so much that he knows they are going to come back?
Then in just about the opposite situation in Game 6, he leaves Randy Johnson in for 7 innings in a 15-2 blowout. He should have brought Johnson out in the 5th so that he qualified for the win. That way he could have used Johnson sooner in Game 7 (which he was obviously planning on playing since Game 4) than he actually did if Schilling ran into any problems. I have no idea what would possess him to leave his 2nd ace in for all this time, in a blowout, and burn his arm out when he could have needed him earlier in Game 7. In retrospect he did not need Johnson until the 8th, but if you are going to play game 4 conservative, why not play Game 6 conservative as well. I just don’t get it.
Finally, bringing in a 21-year old Byong-Hyon Kim back in Game 5 after he got shellacked in Game 4, when you have experienced veterans like Mike Morgan, Greg Swindell, and Bobby Witt in the bullpen. Now, in hindsight there is no way you can predict that your reliever is going to self destruct two nights in a row, but Brenly had ample opportunity to see that Kim did not have his best stuff and could have pulled him prior to giving up the second bomb, that almost brought the Yankees back from the brink.
That is just bad managing. He alone gave the Yankees multiple opportunities to come back, when he had the hammer in his hand ready to hit the nails in the coffin. Game 7 should never have been played. Had Brenly been a better manager, the outcome that will go down in the ages, should never had occurred. But it did.
In the end, if the Dbacks had won Game 7 by a score such as 7-2 or 4-1 or even blew the Yankees out again ala Game 6, I would have been satisfied with the outcome. I would have been able to commend them on being the better team with no second thoughts. I might have even been able to read the paper and news articles about the greatness of the series or the individual games, without my stomach turning over. But how they won Game 7 will forever burn in my stomach, at least it still does today 5 months later. They beat us at our own game, coming back in the 9th against the worlds best and most clutch reliever in the history of the game, with 1 bunt, 3 dribblers (2 that should have been turned into DP’s) and 1 well hit ball(Attachment 2). It was a nice run while it lasted. The 2001 Yankees went further than they really deserved.
However all is fair in love and baseball and April 1 we start anew again. I expect the 2002 Yankees to reclaim the crown stolen by those snakes in Phoenix and I don’t really expect the Diamondbacks to repeat, nor do I predict that will even make it back to the Series this October. But that is just me, I have been a Yankee fan for over a quarter century.
Yankees over Cardinals in 6 games, unless Rick Ankiel pitches then the Yankees sweep.
(Attachment 2)
Lets painfully relive my thoughts on that (un)fateful night.
The unheralded rookie Alfonso Soriano hitting what should have been a Series winning and MVP producing home run in the 8th should have been sufficient for the Yankees. Instead Joe Torre reached into the well a little too early and perhaps a little too often, starting the bottom of the 8th with Mariano Rivera. I suggested at the time he should have gone with Stanton a little longer or brought Mendoza in to start the inning. If either one of them got into trouble you can always go to Rivera and they are able to get through the 8th then that leaves Rivera fresher for the 9th, when you really need him at his best. Somehow, we got through the 8th virtually unscathed though Rivera looked shaky. It was raining in the desert, which is never a good sign. The Yankees went quietly in the 9th as the Big Unit retires Bernie, Tino and Jorge in order.
Then Mark Grace, Mr. Cub as far as I am concerned (why the hell did the Cubbies not resign him?) and Mr. Poopy-pants from my fantasy team perspective gets a lame hit off of Rivera to lead off the 9th. The rain continues to fall, making the grip on the ball more and more slippery. Grace is taken out for a pinch runner, you don’t need to be a brain surgeon to know that Grace is no Carl Lewis. A dribbler is hit back to the box. Rivera fields the ball cleanly then…NOOOOOOO, FUCK, HE THROWS THE BALL INTO CENTERFIELD. Ok, 1st and 2nd no one out. It should have been a DP, but whatever, he still has not blown a save in the postseason since 1997. Jay Bell then pinch-hit’s for Randy Johnson. He bunts. Rivera fields it cleanly throws to Atrocious at 3b for the force. But Atrocious does not attempt the DP. AAAARGGGH. He holds the ball instead of trying to get the slow-footed Bell at 1st . That would have left a one run lead, with 2 outs and a man on 2nd. But no, now we have a one run lead, men at 1st and 2nd and only one out. The rest is history: Womak doubles scoring a run, Counsell is HPB, Gonzalez bloops a ball to right over a drawn in infield, game over.
(Attachment 1)
World Series Championships in my lifetime (1969-present)
NY Yankees – 6 (1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000)
Oakland Athletics – 4 (1972, 1973, 1974, 1989)
Cincinnati Reds – 3 (1975, 1976, 1990)
Baltimore Orioles – 2 (1970, 1983)
Los Angeles Dodgers – 2 (1981, 1988)
Minnesota Twins – 2 (1987, 1991)
New York Mets – 2 (1969, 1986)
Pittsburgh Pirates –2 (1971, 1979)
Toronto Blue Jays – 2 (1992, 1993)
Arizona Diamondbacks – 1 (2001)
Atlanta Braves – 1 (1995)
Detroit Tigers – 1 (1984)
Florida Marlins – 1 (1997)
Kansas City Royals – 1 (1985)
Philadelphia Phillies – 1 (1980)
St. Louis Cardinals – 1 (1982)
I have been a Yankee fan since the 1976 World Series when I was 7 years old. That was the year my beloved Thurman Munson played his heart out, batting .539 despite being swept by my neighbor and best friend’s team the Johnny Bench led Cincinnati Reds. From that fall on I had my team. I knew not of the future to come, 6 more World Series Championships, the most in my lifetime (Attachment 1). I just knew that this was the team I was going to root for forever.
I obviously love the New York Yankees but they should have lost earlier in the playoffs last year then they actually did. The 2001 version of the Yankees was not that good. They were getting old (Scott Atrocious and Paul O’Neil retired at the end of the season as did Luis Sojo but he seems to have resurfaced again), they had lost some speed and punch (Knoblauch and Martinez), and the 4&5 pitching spots were suspect all season long (who remembers Christian Parker as the 5th starter in April?). Injuries proved costly to them over the course of the season, but they were still able to make the playoffs because the Red Sox, as predicted, self-destructed before September.
Somehow, they were able to get past a hungry Oakland team in the Divisional Series. The Young A’s nipped at the Yankees heals for a second straight year. Pushing them to the brink until Jeremy Giambi’s inability to slide at home plate allowing Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada to make perhaps the best post season play I have ever witnessed (time and again on ESPN’s Sportscenter). Had he slid, he probably would have been safe and New York would not have even made it to the Series. It would have allowed the Mariners to fulfill my preseason prediction of the M’s going to the Series, since the A’s would have believed that they did what they needed to do by knocking out the dreaded Yanks. But Giambi did not slide. I bet the Oakland coaches have slid him to death this spring.
The Yankees were able to ride the momentum of that play through the ALCS and past the 116 win Seattle Mariners in a series without much drama. Some will claim that this series was payback for the 1995 Division Series, but enough players had turned over (hell Tino Martinez and Luis Sojo played for the other side in ’95 plus Jeff Nelson and Sterling Hitchcock had been back and forth in that time) to make this theory a real non-issue. Needless to say the New York Yankees were on to their 5th World Series in 6 years, and playing the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks, under rookie manager Bob Brenly.
On paper, the World Series looked pretty even. It will go down in history as one of the best Series of all time. Most of the games were close and had the intensity that you would expect from a World Series. The home team wound up winning every single game, which send the fans home happy. The Yankees showed their legacy and pride, the fight and determination that had won 4 of the previous 5 series.
However they only did this for 4 (3,4,5 & 7) of the 7 games played. They were manhandled and had their asses handed to them in the other games. They barely bothered to show up for the other games hoping for some kind of Yankee magic to miraculously happen again that would lift them to victory.
Let me give credit where credit is due. The Diamondbacks deserved to win and were the better team. They outplayed and out hustled the Yankees. They had a 1-2 pitching punch of Schilling and Johnson that was in the end impossible to beat. I don’t wish to take anything away from the (this hurts) World Champion’s since they were the better ball club, but here is my rant none-the-less.
Bob Brenly is a horrible manager, not a genius that he was made out to be after the World Series. His decision in Game 4 to pull Schilling in the seventh inning, because of a pitch count is ludicrous. He has the 3 time defending Champs on the ropes with his ace who has no problem racking up the innings on the mound in a groove killing the Yankees. Why is he concerned about Game 7, when he is about to go up 3-1? Does he believe in the Yankee mystique so much that he knows they are going to come back?
Then in just about the opposite situation in Game 6, he leaves Randy Johnson in for 7 innings in a 15-2 blowout. He should have brought Johnson out in the 5th so that he qualified for the win. That way he could have used Johnson sooner in Game 7 (which he was obviously planning on playing since Game 4) than he actually did if Schilling ran into any problems. I have no idea what would possess him to leave his 2nd ace in for all this time, in a blowout, and burn his arm out when he could have needed him earlier in Game 7. In retrospect he did not need Johnson until the 8th, but if you are going to play game 4 conservative, why not play Game 6 conservative as well. I just don’t get it.
Finally, bringing in a 21-year old Byong-Hyon Kim back in Game 5 after he got shellacked in Game 4, when you have experienced veterans like Mike Morgan, Greg Swindell, and Bobby Witt in the bullpen. Now, in hindsight there is no way you can predict that your reliever is going to self destruct two nights in a row, but Brenly had ample opportunity to see that Kim did not have his best stuff and could have pulled him prior to giving up the second bomb, that almost brought the Yankees back from the brink.
That is just bad managing. He alone gave the Yankees multiple opportunities to come back, when he had the hammer in his hand ready to hit the nails in the coffin. Game 7 should never have been played. Had Brenly been a better manager, the outcome that will go down in the ages, should never had occurred. But it did.
In the end, if the Dbacks had won Game 7 by a score such as 7-2 or 4-1 or even blew the Yankees out again ala Game 6, I would have been satisfied with the outcome. I would have been able to commend them on being the better team with no second thoughts. I might have even been able to read the paper and news articles about the greatness of the series or the individual games, without my stomach turning over. But how they won Game 7 will forever burn in my stomach, at least it still does today 5 months later. They beat us at our own game, coming back in the 9th against the worlds best and most clutch reliever in the history of the game, with 1 bunt, 3 dribblers (2 that should have been turned into DP’s) and 1 well hit ball(Attachment 2). It was a nice run while it lasted. The 2001 Yankees went further than they really deserved.
However all is fair in love and baseball and April 1 we start anew again. I expect the 2002 Yankees to reclaim the crown stolen by those snakes in Phoenix and I don’t really expect the Diamondbacks to repeat, nor do I predict that will even make it back to the Series this October. But that is just me, I have been a Yankee fan for over a quarter century.
Yankees over Cardinals in 6 games, unless Rick Ankiel pitches then the Yankees sweep.
(Attachment 2)
Lets painfully relive my thoughts on that (un)fateful night.
The unheralded rookie Alfonso Soriano hitting what should have been a Series winning and MVP producing home run in the 8th should have been sufficient for the Yankees. Instead Joe Torre reached into the well a little too early and perhaps a little too often, starting the bottom of the 8th with Mariano Rivera. I suggested at the time he should have gone with Stanton a little longer or brought Mendoza in to start the inning. If either one of them got into trouble you can always go to Rivera and they are able to get through the 8th then that leaves Rivera fresher for the 9th, when you really need him at his best. Somehow, we got through the 8th virtually unscathed though Rivera looked shaky. It was raining in the desert, which is never a good sign. The Yankees went quietly in the 9th as the Big Unit retires Bernie, Tino and Jorge in order.
Then Mark Grace, Mr. Cub as far as I am concerned (why the hell did the Cubbies not resign him?) and Mr. Poopy-pants from my fantasy team perspective gets a lame hit off of Rivera to lead off the 9th. The rain continues to fall, making the grip on the ball more and more slippery. Grace is taken out for a pinch runner, you don’t need to be a brain surgeon to know that Grace is no Carl Lewis. A dribbler is hit back to the box. Rivera fields the ball cleanly then…NOOOOOOO, FUCK, HE THROWS THE BALL INTO CENTERFIELD. Ok, 1st and 2nd no one out. It should have been a DP, but whatever, he still has not blown a save in the postseason since 1997. Jay Bell then pinch-hit’s for Randy Johnson. He bunts. Rivera fields it cleanly throws to Atrocious at 3b for the force. But Atrocious does not attempt the DP. AAAARGGGH. He holds the ball instead of trying to get the slow-footed Bell at 1st . That would have left a one run lead, with 2 outs and a man on 2nd. But no, now we have a one run lead, men at 1st and 2nd and only one out. The rest is history: Womak doubles scoring a run, Counsell is HPB, Gonzalez bloops a ball to right over a drawn in infield, game over.
(Attachment 1)
World Series Championships in my lifetime (1969-present)
NY Yankees – 6 (1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000)
Oakland Athletics – 4 (1972, 1973, 1974, 1989)
Cincinnati Reds – 3 (1975, 1976, 1990)
Baltimore Orioles – 2 (1970, 1983)
Los Angeles Dodgers – 2 (1981, 1988)
Minnesota Twins – 2 (1987, 1991)
New York Mets – 2 (1969, 1986)
Pittsburgh Pirates –2 (1971, 1979)
Toronto Blue Jays – 2 (1992, 1993)
Arizona Diamondbacks – 1 (2001)
Atlanta Braves – 1 (1995)
Detroit Tigers – 1 (1984)
Florida Marlins – 1 (1997)
Kansas City Royals – 1 (1985)
Philadelphia Phillies – 1 (1980)
St. Louis Cardinals – 1 (1982)
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