Author Archive
Yankees Postscript: How to Make a Dynasty »
With all the cards now on the table, and the trophy safe in Derek Jeter's arms, the overwhelming majority of fans are going to remember 2009 as the year Alex Rodriguez broke out in October, and call that the Reason they won. And in the grand scheme of things, they won't be completely wrong—but they won't be entirely right, either. Over the [...]
At the Finish Line…Thoughts Before the Last »
In the grand scheme of things, baseball is a kid's game. It makes heroes out of ordinary men. It makes celebrities out of lowlifes like Jose Canseco and John Rocker. It turns cities against each other—sometimes, even boroughs of the same city. Its victories and defeats are celebrated and suffered with pure emotion. It can make an 18-year-old kid [...]
World Series Game Four: The “Phillies Take a »
I was going to wait until the World Series was over before I wrote a word. I wanted to know everything and stop making predictions from game to game, as it drove me nine different kinds of crazy in the ALCS. And as superstitious as I am, I didn't have any intention of jinxing the Yankees on the doorstep of a championship. But with the most [...]
World Series Preview: What the New York Yankees Must »
Well...that was fast. My night of celebration ended about 15 minutes after I posted the last piece . Immediately, my mind started to shift to the new question at hand. How do the Yankees beat the Phillies this week? Here's the game plan, in three(-ish) parts: 1. Use the Long Lineup to Tire Out Cliff Lee and the Philly Starters Early. Then, Go [...]
ALCS Game Six: Six Years in the Making, Yanks’ »
He was as animated on the mound as we've ever seen him—and exactly the way we always remember him. For six-and-a-third innings and two-and-a-half hours Sunday night, Andy Pettitte turned back the clock yet again, as we've seen him do time and again in the most important of games, and gave the Yankees the victory they needed to advance to their [...]
ALCS Game Five: The Angels Won’t Die »
Alex Rodriguez is having a career-altering postseason. Nick Swisher? Not so much. No matter whether he's hitting left-handed or right-handed, whether he's swinging at fastballs or breaking balls, whether the pitch is a foot outside or right over the middle of the plate and thigh high, he is the surest out in the Yankee lineup right now. Don't get [...]
ALCS Game Four: The Yankees Make a Statement »
It doesn't always take a historical, dramatic baseball game to clue a fanbase in on something special happening with their team. In the later years of the Joe Torre era, with the bullpen in shambles and the starting rotation often in flux, the uneasy feeling that no lead was safe ran through every regular season game. And in the playoffs, it got [...]
The Angels Are Who We Thought They Were (But I’m »
There was a scenario I forgot to mention at the end of the last column . If the Angels were able to come back from a big deficit and beat our bullpen in Game Three, that might make this series a series again, too. That was silly of me to overlook. I forgot about Game Three of the 2005 ALDS, when the Angels blew a 5-0 lead against Randy Johnson, [...]
ALCS Game Two: Putting the “Game That »
In a season full of dramatic ballgames, the context of the drama of Game Two of the American League Championship Series can only be described as What We Have Come to Expect. "One relief pitcher left in the bullpen, one position player left on the bench, in a five-hour affair featuring pitchers getting into and out of jam after jam..." kind of [...]
ALCS Preview…The Quickie Version »
Twenty minutes to go before Game One. I am sorry I left this so long, but I've had a lot to look at, and a long week at my real job . These two teams are absolutely the best two teams in the American League, both by record and by statistics. The winner of this series is the prohibitive favorite to win the World Series, no matter which National [...]