Call me a smug Yankees fan for saying so if you want, but the meaningful part of the Yanks' regular season is over. I had the pleasure of attending the finale Wednesday night, as the Yanks, behind a two-run opposite-field homer from Jason Giambi and a gritty performance by Andy Pettitte, beat Derek Lowe and the Boston Red Sox 3-1. The win clinched both the three-game series and the season series over the Sox, dealing Boston a mortal blow that had Lowe doing the math. "If they play .500, we'd have to go - what? - 21-4?" he said afterwards, referring to the Sox chance of tying the Yanks for the AL East lead.
Not that the race is completely over, of course The Yankees are apparently putting their clichιs on one pant-leg at a time. "We feel good about it, but it's not over," says Yankee reliever Steve Karsay. "You have to take one game at a time until we clinch. You can't look forward to next week or you will find yourself in a position you don't want to be in." Uh-huh. Tune in tomorrow, when the pitching staff pledges to throw strikes and stay within their abilities, while Joe Torre promises to get everybody some at-bats while giving people some rest so they stay... zzzzzzzz.
Wednesday night's game was a satisfying one. Pettitte struggled early, allowing three hits and one run on his first eight pitches, the key hit being Johnny Damon's bloop bunt. It sailed past the pitcher to a vainly charging Soriano, who short-hopped the ball and made a wild throw to first that was already too late. Dandy Andy labored his way out of trouble repeatedly, throwing 49 pitches in the first three innings and not posting a 1-2-3 inning until the 6th. But he finished strongly, retiring 12 out of the last 13 hitters--not bad for a guy who'd missed his previous start due to back trouble. Pettitte and Karsay (who earned the save by pitching the final two innings) used the Sox ageless DH Carlos Baega as their inning-ending escape hatch; Baerga grounded out with two on and two out in both the first and third innings, and struck out with a man aboard to end the eighth. Yankee outfielders Bernie Williams and Raul Mondesi made a couple of fine catches to bail Pettitte out on sharply hit balls by Nomar Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez, respectively.
The Yanks threatened Lowe early, Alfonso Soriano leading off with a single and Derek Jeter catching the Sox off guard with a bunt single. But Lowe struck out Jason Giambi looking and wriggled his way out of the jam. Giambi exacted his revenge in the third. Juan Rivera doubled, Lowe hit Soriano with a pitch (perhaps in retaliation for Pettitte hitting Shea Hillenbrand in the top of the inning?), Jeter grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, and then Giambi poked a sinker that didn't sink over the leftfield wall. Two pitches later, Lowe had Bernie Williams 0-2, but plunked him on the wrist, then bounced his next pitch past catcher Jason Varitek. One pitch later, Jorge Posada lined a single to left-center, scoring Bernie with their third and final run.
The most telling moment of last night came on the subway ride home. A well-dressed man switched cars at 86th Street, boarding the one my pal Nick and I were riding. He took one look at us in our Yankees caps, and closed his eyes in disgust, grimacing and throwing his hands up in mock surrender as a shock of recognition hit him. It was our friend Gabe--a Brooklyn-residing Red Sox fan--finding himself in exactly the wrong place for sympathy. Nick and I needled him (albeit rather gently) as we discussed Boston's slow fade and the two ballclubs' strengths and weaknesses on the ride home.
Anyway... following Thursday's win over Detroit and Boston's loss to Toronto, the Sox are now down 9.5 games and the Yanks' magic number is 15. None of this would be worth mentioning except for the fact that neither of the two teams faces an above-.500 club for the rest of the regular season; the Yanks meet (meat?) Detroit (6), Baltimore (7), the White Sox (3), and Tampa Bay (7), while the Sox draw the O's (7), the Jays (3), the Rays (7), the Other Sox (3), and Cleveland (4). This should leave Boston fans with a glimmer of hope for gaining ground in the Wild Card race. While the Sox play the aforementioned patsies, the red-hot Oakland A's, surging Anaheim Angels, and sinking Seattle Mariners spend the last three aweeks of the season jockeying for position.
The Yanks do have some very real questions to answer over the next few weeks, centering around--what else?--pitching. Mariano Rivera, on the DL for the third time this season with shoulder-itis, expects to be ready for the playoffs, but he has yet to resume throwing. In his absence, the bullpen-by-committee approach starring Karsay, Mike Stanton and Ramiro Mendoza has done admirably, converting nine straight since Mariano went down the third time. Five pitchers besides Rivera have combined for 19 of the Yanks' 46 saves. Nobody can fault the Yanks for wanting their ace back, but Joe Torre is stoically shoring up his troops for a worse-case scenario.
On a brighter note, the starting pitching is starting to resemble the guys in the catalog, with Clemens sticking the bat in the collective Sox, Pettitte rebouding emphatically from his latest health scare, and Orlando Hernandez working his crafty repertoire against the lowly Tigers. David Wells' back has held up admirably; he's only 4.1 innings off Mike Mussina's club lead in addition to his 15-7, 4.12 record. Moose keeps showing up for work, and has shown signs of shaking his slump, pitching two very good games over the Mariners and the Red Sox in between three bad ones. My hunch is still that El Duque is the odd man out in the postseason, barring injury to another of the Yanks' starting five--simply because he's the only one who's pitched any relief at all this season. And also because I don't trust the Yanks to embarrass a pitcher to whom they've got a long-term commitment by sending him to the bullpen for the postseason (i.e., Mussina), in favor of a more difficult one whom they might look to dispose of (i.e., Hernandez).
Speaking of off-season considerations, Bob Klapisch points out the big decisions the Yanks are facing, especially with regards to Clemens. Klapisch reports that in addition to the $10.3 million in deferred compensation due Clemens next season, the Rocket is likely to seek $15 million--which is especially steep because it may influence the team's thinking on Pettitte's $11 million option. Given that Pedro Martinez and Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy have both floated thought balloons in recent days on bringing Clemens back to Boston, it's practically a given that George will pay whatever it takes to foil the Sox plans (unless of course this is some of that reverse psychology, as the Sox conveniently scheme to bloat the Yanks' already bloated payroll...).
Mariano Rivera has an opt-out clause after the season, though he's not likely to risk an $8.5 million while his value is depressed due to his injury problems. Mike Stanton and Robin Ventura are two other key free agents. The bullpen--not to mention the postseason in general--seems unthinkable without the lefty setup man, who's been a constant for the Yanks since '97 and who hasn't missed a postseason since 1990 (excepting the '94 strike, of course). Ventura, who's already topped 25 HR and 90 RBI while hitting .258 AVG/.376 OBP/.483 SLG, has certainly earned a return invitation, especially given highly-touted prospect Drew Henson's lack of, um, seasoning. Henson made his major-league debut on Thursday, pinch-running for Bernie Williams in the 8th inning.
One Yank who could be purged in the offseason to save money is leftfielder Rondell White, who despite staying relatively healthy has hit a pathetic .235/.286/.355, including a .130 August. Rookie Juan Rivera was activated on August 30 (recovered from a bizarre golf-cart accident) to keep him eligible for the postseason roster; he will apparently get a long look this month as the Yanks assess whether he can help them in October or next season. The kid whacked an 0-2 Lowe pitch for a double on Wednesday, starting their three-run rally, but he apparently missed a hit-and-run sign which led to Jeter grounding into a double-play prior to Giambi's homer. Oh, those rookies.
And hey, speaking of rookies...(At this point the yammering writer rambled off to bed )...
I'm still alarmed that such a belief prevails among the great majority of baseball fans--over three quarters of them according to some polls. Why do fans direct their anger at players making $200,000 or $2 million or even $20 million a year doing what they do extremely well and with passion, instead of at incompetent sandbaggers worth $200 million or $2 billion who hamstring their franchises with millstone contracts and hold cities hostage until taxpayers cough up stadiums? Sufffice it to say that the owners' badmouthing of the product (the players) took a powerful hold on a public which still refuses to understand the issues. Why anybody would believe (for example) Bud Selig instead of Forbes Magazine when it comes to an objective look at the game's finances is beyond me. And why anybody would side with the likes of the Seligs, the Reinsdorfs, the Mooreses, and the Hicks instead of the players also escapes me.
Both ESPN Magazine's Tim Keown and that famed iconoclast Jim Bouton offer similarly interesting views on this phenomenon. The former writes: "There is perhaps no issue galvanizing our nation quite like the distasteful notion of young, able-bodied men making millions of dollars playing baseball." Keown remains as mystified as anybody when it comes to the reasons behind this phenomenon, especially given the Commissioner's ineptitude as the game's chief spokesman:
The direction of public opinion is mystifying, really. Everyone seems to understand and accept Bud Selig's epic incompetence and seemingly bottomless capacity for -- to be highly generous -- twisting the truth. Just to pick something at random, Selig can't even embrace the game's best stories -- the allegedly impossible small-payroll successes in Minnesota and Oakland. Those two franchises are models, and Bud calls them aberrations. They should be honored, instead they are belittled. Has there ever been a worse spokesman for the game than Selig?
Bouton, in a New York Times Op-Ed piece, attempts to direct fans' anger towards the owners instead of the players. He writes that the owners have engaged in a systematic PR campaign against the players ever since the advent of free agency:
The owners are counting on your resentment of the players to frighten them into giving in at the bargaining table. Their campaign to turn you against the players, by calling them greedy and overpaid, began soon after the players won a measure of free agency in 1976. Yet all the owners have succeeded in doing is turning a nation of fans against players they once loved and admired. Which is pretty foolish when you consider that players are not just employees they're the product.
Bouton points out that since winning free agency, the players have been expected to compromise on top of compromise every time the Collective Bargaining Agreement comes up for renewal, "effectively giving up their free agency in bits and pieces."
But let's cut to the chase: I'm ecstatic there is no strike. Without being too particular about the particulars of the deal, I'm elated that the season can continue unabated. I'm happy that Minnesota Twins players and fans alike can stick it to Bud, knowing that their franchise has survived a bout with the Grim Reaper, as contraction is off the table for the duration of the new CBA. I'm filled with glee that the three-team dogfight for the AL West can continue. I'm practically turning cartwheels knowing that A's fans and Twins fans can continue to speculate on whether their team can beat the Yankees this fall. Hell, I'm even thankful that I can fret about Mariano Rivera's shoulder (and psyche) withstanding the rigors of the postseason. It beats the Selig out of staring at an October devoid of baseball.
And I'm not going to worry too much about whether the Yankees and George Steinbrenner will suffer unduly at the hands of the revenue-sharing and luxury-tax portions of the new agreement. Let's face it: Raul Mondesi plays a mean rightfield when he's so motivated, but acquiring an $11 million mediocrity midseason just because the Boss loses patience with a platoon of proven role-players doesn't speak well for the status quo. Let Steinbrenner tighten the Yankee belt this winter, showing Roger Clemens the door when the Rocket asks for another $10 million on top of his $10 million "option" and burying Sterling Hitchcock in the Tomb of The Next Ed Whitson so that he can pick up Andy Pettitte's option instead. Let him find a taker for Rondell White so that he can give Juan Rivera a shot at a starting job. And let him pass up Japanese star Hideki "Godzilla" Matsui so that Nick Johnson can continue to develop. We don't need those steenkin' free agents--well, most of them--anyway.
The one thing about the new CBA which truly troubles me is that there's still nothing to prevent revenue-sharing recipients from pocketing the money and continuing to sandbag. The one potential positive about a strike would have been shaking out some of those skinflints crying about their inability to keep up with the Yanks while shaking Steinbrenner down for cash. What's going to stop those owners from dragging their feet for another four years in exchange for even more concessions from the players' union? There's also nothing in the new CBA which distinguishes between a relatively well-run small- or mid-market team (like the Cleveland Indians or the Seattle Mariners) and the blundering large-market Philadelphia Phillies. The system can still be abused.
I'm not exactly crazy about the MLBPA's concession on the contraction issue come 2007, but so long as it's the Devil Rays, the Marlins, or anything with Jeffrey Loria's fingerprints on it, I don't really care too much from this distant vantage. I'm curious to see how the Expos situation is resolved, with regards to the team's currrent ownership status, its future in Montreal (or Washington, D.C.), and the pending RICO lawsuit by the former minority partners which names Selig and Loria as defendents.
But on the whole, I'm impressed that the two sides were able to avert a work-stoppage. If nothing else, it sets a precedent that future negotiations don't have to end in bloodshed, acrimony, and litigation. Perhaps the new CBA will restore some of that phantom "competitive balance" we've supposedly been missing, offering "hope and faith" that the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates can continue to bungle things on their own accord. Perhaps it will give some of those billionaires their cues to skiddoo instead of whinging about their inability to compete. Perhaps Bud Selig will stop badmouthing the product and instead work on rebuilding baseball's fan base.
Or better yet, perhaps Bud will view this as an opportunity to exit the Office of the Commissioner, taking his bad rug and ugly mug home to Milwaukee. Or Timbuktu--let's provide some hope and faith for Brewers' fans, after all. While Selig may deserve at least some modicum of credit for averting a stoppage, it's still not enough to atone for a decade of ineptitude, badwill, and a missing World Series. If a season without a strike seemed like a pipe dream a week ago, at least permit me to hold onto one more dream.
But enough of my ranting about Selig. On a Labor Day with labor peace, I'm ready to put all of this aside and get back to the game I love. It's about time.
