An inch meant a ton in World Series
Yankees win one for the shipper
By James D’ArcangeloCorrespondent
Every once in a while, much as you hate it, there’s some universal balance and poetic justice when the bad guys win and your team goes home without the trophy. And so it was when the Yankees beat the Phillies last week.
Shipping magnate George Steinbrenner made a lot of money as a Cleveland, then Tampa-based shipbuilder. But he earned his fame and a lot more dough as a dynasty builder in the Bronx, as owner of the New York Yankees. He revolutionized professional sports with the first push to big free agent signings, the push to stadium luxury boxes, the push for his team’s own TV network--and the first pushy owner to be suspended twice by his league commissioner (once, in 1990, he was banned for life for hiring a bookie to dig up dirt on one of his players).
But George is in very poor health and his 80s now, and very immobile (he had to be carted around new Yankee Stadium on Opening Day, an inauspicious-but-poor foreshadowing loss I witnessed), skipping all but a small handful of Yankees games this year. Given all of that, there was a sense of finality and a yearning for celebratory closure at the commencement of the World Series for George and Yankees fans.
George did his part, summoning the strength to be there in Yankee Stadium for the Series start. And, though Steinbrenner could not be present at the end, the Yankees did their part, assuring a championship would be there for him when the Series finished. Surely, whether you love or hate the Yankees and George Steinbrenner, like Derek Jeter, you have to respect him. In the early ‘70s, Steinbrenner bought a moribund Yankees franchise that hadn’t made the play-offs in nearly ten years and a beat up old Yankee Stadium that hadn’t been filled in just about as long. He has added eleven pennants, seven7 championships, a new stadium, nearly a billion dollars of value and whole lot of swagger to the Yankee franchise. Quite an accomplishment for a shipping guy from Cleveland.
The Series? Well, like all of baseball, the truly deciding games (3 and 4) were decided by a few small inches. And the Phillies fell a few inches short of the foot they wanted to get in the door of the dynasty establishment that a second championship would have brought.
To sum it up:
Game 1 – Cliff Lee nonchalantly shut down the Yankees, and Chase Utley opened up on the Yankees ace C.C. Sabathia with two home runs. Inches? In this one, the Phillies beat the Yankees by a mile.
Game 2 – This one was just lost by the Phillies or, rather, won by the Yankees. A. J. Burnett was Cliff Lee, Part Deux. Pedro Martinez was almost the “old Pedro” of the 90s and early 00s – but he turned out to be merely the old Pedro, good but not good enough. The Phillies met an immovable object and, well, we all know what happens when one hits an immoveable object.
Game 3 – if Cole Hamels had gotten the call on what appeared to be (per the FOX “strike box” graphics) strike three against Mark Texeira and had he thrown a fast ball to pitcher Andy Pettitte (instead of a curve ball), the Phillies probably would have won the game. But he didn’t and they didn’t. Yankees up two games to one and in control.
Game 4 – if Lidge could’ve gotten strike three past Johnny Damon - or if Carlos Ruiz could have held onto that third-strike foul tip by Damon - and ended the Yankees ninth inning, with Phil “I got his autograph when he was a Trenton Thunder player 13 months ago” Coke in Yankees bullpen, it’s safe to say the Phillies might well have won.
An inch here, a different pitch there, the Phillies could have been up 3-1, but were down 3-1. Though the Fightins came back to win Game 5 on the back, or, really, the swing of Chase Utley and his World Series-record-tying fourth and fifth home runs, the Series was effectively over. Back in New York, Game 6 was a formality as the Yankees romped, making Pedro look like their grand daddy. The Phillies’ reign as champs over. The Yankees’ rain of champagne for George Steinbrenner and their fans had begun.
Begrudgingly, I say “Good for the Yankees.” And good for the old Yankee Shipper. George, this one’s for you. You earned it.
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