The 2009 postseason has seen its share of umpiring blunders. One member of the media who's name alludes me now said that this is the worst postseason umpiring he has ever seen.
Now, I haven't watched many of the postseason games outside of the Yankees, so I don't know what went on in the other series', but I know there has been shoddy umpiring all around.
In the ALDS between the Yankees and Twins and 11th inning ball down the left field line hit by Joe Mauer was emphatically called foul by leftfield ...
Every Yankees championship season in recent memory has had a signature moment that defined that particular postseason run.
Let's take a look back, shall we?
1996: The One With Jim Leyritz (World Series, Game Four)
The Yanks were down two-games-to-one against the defending world champion Braves and trailing by three runs in the eighth when Leyritz stepped into the box with two on against closer Mark Wohlers.
That's when Wohlers made the Wohlers-like error of going away from his dominating fastball, and Leyritz made him pay by hammering a hanging slider over the left-field ...
What a difference a year makes.
Last year, the Philadelphia Phillies rode Cole Hamels and Brad Lidge to a World Series title. In this year’s World Series, Hamels and Lidge have imploded in back to back games and now the Phillies are on the brink of elimination.
In a crucial Game Four, Alex Rodriguez broke a 4-4 tie with a double in the ninth inning off Lidge and Jorge Posada singled home two more runs to give the Yankees a 7-4 victory over the Phillies.
The Yankees now lead the best-of-seven World Series ...
For the second time in the history of Major League Baseball, the World Series was being played in November.
After an exciting Game Three that saw the bats come alive, the Yankees were facing the Phillies in Game Four of the 2009 World Series.
Coming into the game, the Phillies fans were excited and some were present earlier in the day to watch the Philadelphia Eagles rip apart the New York Giants just across the street at Lincoln Financial Field, so for some of the fans at Citizens Bank Park, it was ...
Joe Girardi may as well change his jersey number to 30 right now.
Monday night, the Yankees have a chance to leave Philadelphia with their 27th World Series title in hand. Thus fulfilling Girardi's goal he set out to accomplish when he replaced Joe Torre, and intentionally wore the number 27.
The New York Yankees just appear to be much better than a great Phillies team who have nobody other than Cliff Lee to stop the Yankees lineup. If he manages to delay the inevitable, then we can just keep the champagne ...
With Johnny Damon down 1-2 in the count against Brad Lidge with two outs in the ninth, things were beginning to look very iffy for the Yankees' chances of winning their 27th World Series.
After Joba Chamberlain surrendered a game-tying home run to Pedro Feliz in the bottom of the eighth, the Phillies carried all the momentum into the ninth.
With Philadelphia's ace, Cliff Lee, scheduled to start Game 5 on Monday against A.J. Burnett on just three days' rest, a win on Sunday would've put the National League champs in control ...
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 important inning of the postseason—and surely the most amazing play in recent memory—under our viewing belts, the time is right.
C.C. Sabathia has had a long, tough ...
Let me rewind to the 1995 ALDS between the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees.
It was Game Five, and the “Refuse to Lose” Mariners had rallied from a 2-0 series deficit to force a decisive final game at the old Kingdome.
The game was a classic and is undoubtedly remembered for the infamous Edgar Martinez walk-off, two-run double that scored a jet-fueled Ken Griffey Jr. in the 11th inning.
But I want to flash back to the bottom of the ninth inning, with the game tied at 4-4.
The Mariners had rallied ...
For only the second time in Major League Baseball history the World Series continues into November. An interesting piece of trivia is that the New York Yankees have been involved in both of the November series.
The first time this occurred was in 2001 and was a result of baseball being postponed a week after the bombings of the World Trade Center. This delayed the end of the regular season by six days and in turn pushed the playoffs and ultimately the World Series by a week.
The 2001 World ...
With the soul of David Ortiz circa 2004 apparently having been transferred to Alex Rodriguez, at least for the 2009 playoffs, it's a good time to look back at the days before people thought he couldn't perform in the postseason. During his time with the Seattle Mariners, there was no sense of Alex Rodriguez choking in the clutch: he scored a run in his first playoff game, the deciding game 5 of the 1995 ALDS , hit a homer in his first playoff start in 1997, and had averages over ...