All Good Things...
Sigh. The Yankees lost to the Angels last night, 5-3, in a weird and frustrating game that they really didn't deserve to lose—but they didn't deserve to win, either.
Here's why they didn't deserve to lose.
1) Mike Mussina pitched far better than the stat sheet would suggest. He was victimized by what was really a three-base error when Bubba Crosby and Gary Sheffield collided in the outfield, dropping a catchable ball that led to two runs scoring. (The officials ruled it a triple.) The following inning, a weird succession of bloop hits drove him from the game.
2) In the top of the 7th, the Yankees were screwed by a hideous call. Robinson Cano ran to first base after catcher Benjamin Molina dropped the ball on a swinging third strike. The first baseman dropped Molina's throw, but the umpire ruled that Cano had strayed from the basepath. Instead of bases loaded with two outs, the inning was over. The call was wrong, and ended the Yankees' best chance to come back.
But I have to admit, there are probably more reasons why the Yankees didn't deserve to win. Let's start with the most obvious...
1) A-Rod. He hit, what, .145 for the division series? No home runs, no RBIs. For the second year in a row, A-Rod choked in the playoffs; there's just no other way to put it. The contrast between him and Jeter, who batted before A-Rod, was so stark it was embarrassing. In big games, Jeter seems to will himself to rise to the occasion; he takes his already outstanding game to a higher level. He had three hits last night, including a home run that put the game, at 5-3, within reach. He started the top of the ninth with a single, which was wasted when A-Rod promptly hit into a double-play. He was sterling in the field. (A-Rod, surprisingly, wasn't—he made a key error in Game Two, and a poor play in Game Three which led to an error by Cano.) This is why Jeter is a player for the ages, and A-Rod is, so far, just a player with great statistics.
2) The Yankee hitting generally. Gary Sheffield had three hits yesterday, but didn't have any extra-base hits during the series. Hideki Matsui stranded eight, count 'em, eight men in an 0-5 evening. Bernie Williams has aged so fast and so badly, it's tragi-comic. Jorge Posada isn't the threat he used to be. Am I wrong, or was Jeter the only Yankee who homered during the series?
3) Defense. The Yankees set the baseball record for most errors in a division series with, I think, six. That's embarrassing. They could easily have been charged with more, too, if not for some generous scoring on the aforementioned fly ball.
4) A general lack of clutch performances. Did anyone other than Jeter come up big at a critical moment? If so, I can't remember it. Maybe Rivera in Game 4, pitching two shutout innings. Al Leiter, getting a huge double play, also in Game 4. But that's about it. Randy Johnson pitched great last night, but he was horrific in Game 2.
The truth is, the Yankees went as far as they deserved to, given their level of talent. Now it's time for the off-season and some much needed rearranging. Here's my wish list.
1) Joe Torre, Mel Stottlemyre and Brian Cashman need to stay. These three are terrific executives, and getting rid of them won't help anything.
2) Getting rid of Bernie Williams, on the other hand, will help a lot. For at least the past two seasons, the Yankees have been saddled with a once-great centerfielder who morphed into the easiest out on the team. Every opposing pitcher breathes a sigh of relief when Bernie comes to the plate. He's a good guy and all, it's true. But sentiment can not rule here. It's time for Bernie to quit. The Yanks can't afford to have a center fielder who hits .249, can't throw, can't run, and can't cover much territory in the field. Plus, last night Bernie made an unforgiveable mental error, missing a hit-and-run sign with Robinson Cano on first. Cano, looking to see if Williams had made contact, was thrown out by a yard.
3) Clear out the other dead wood. Ruben Sierra, Felix Rodriguez, Scott Proctor, Tony Womack, Wayne Franklin. Tino Martinez and Tom Gordon are tougher calls, but I'd let them both leave. Tino really didn't hit this year, especially when you take away that one streak of seven homers in seven games. Tom Gordon had a terrific season, but was crummy, as he is wont to be, in the playoffs. Plus, he's 38. The Yankees need to get younger. And that includes starting to look forward to the day when Jorge Posada—whose offensive production is in decline—is no longer the catcher. I love Jorge; he's a great Yankee and a great competitor, a real team leader. But he needs to start hitting again.
4) Rebuild the team around the core of the infield: A-Rod, Jeter, Cano, Giambi and Posada. Then you have Matsui and Sheffield in the outfield. And Bubba Crosby, too; he's a young player who could really develop and could take over in right when Sheffield retires, which would probably be after next season. Did I mention that the Yankees need to get younger?
5) Sign Johnny Damon for centerfield. Also, some middle-inning, left-handed relief.
The end of this season isn't the end of the world for the Yankees.
The Times would suggest that the fact of the Yankees not having won the World Series in five years in an unacceptable phenomenon to Yankee fans. That may be true for George Steinbrenner, or for some of the fans who came to New York during the Yankee boom years of the late '90s. But for those of us who've been Yankee fans for decades and remember the bad old days—Jim Mason, anyone?— we're not complaining. They field a good team every year, they're in the playoffs every year...and they've won the Series when they've deserved to. (Except maybe in 2001, when we lost a heartbreaker.) It's good for baseball when new blood does well, like the White Sox and the Astros, and true fans find solace in that, even when our team doesn't make it to the final round.
Plus, we did last longer than the Red Sox.
