They wear the same pinstripes and play in the same historic ballpark, but these New York Yankees are a pale imitation of the Yankee ballclubs people loved to hate.
No longer are the two-time defending World Series champions the fearsome bullies who bludgeon the opposition with their patient hitting style and a boatload of veteran arms. The team that swept the Padres and Braves the last two World Series lives only in the fervent imagination of Yankees fans, while the 2000 model more closely resembled the Cubs in recent weeks.
New York plays host to Seattle on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, seeking its 37th AL pennant and 26th world championship. The Yankees crept into the ALCS after finishing 13-17 over the final month and losing 15 of their last 18 games, including their final seven.
From Sept. 13 to the end of the season, the Yankees looked old and in the way. They had the worst record in all of baseball in that span. But New York suddenly revived itself in its division series against the A’s, scoring six runs in the first inning of Game 5 and hanging on for a 7-5 victory and a 3-2 series triumph.
“Who said we’re too old?” Yankees reliever Mike Stanton said. “We are just old enough.”
So are the Yankees just over-the-hill bums or a blessed bunch of crafty veterans?
“I get so tired of hearing how we turned it on and turned it off,” New York manager Joe Torre said. “This ballclub comes to play every day. This is the ballclub I’m most proud of . . . because it has been through so much.”
But Seattle has been through just as much hoopla, beginning with the departure of longtime star center-fielder Ken Griffey Jr. in an off-season deal with Cincinnati. Though the Mariners are officially Junior-free, General Manager Pat Gillick used the savings from Griffey’s contract to sign free agents Aaron Sele, John Olerud, Arthur Rhodes, Kaz Sasaki, Mark McLemore and Stan Javier. All were key contributors in the Mariners’ most successful regular season, along with ex-White Sox outfielder Mike Cameron, who replaced Griffey in center.
The Mariners went 19-10 in September and, after giving up the division lead to Oakland with four days left in the season, managed to win their final two games to clinch the wild-card spot on the final day. Solid starting pitching, an unhittable bullpen and Lou Piniella’s by-the-seat managing led the Mariners to a three-game first-round sweep of the White Sox, giving them a three-day break before the start of the ALCS. The Yankees have made four cross-country trips to and from Oakland in the last week.
“They’ve had to make that [extra] trip twice now,” Piniella said. “Remember in ’95 when we played Cleveland [in the ALCS] and we were caught in a similar situation? But they’re not the world champions for nothing. They showed it. It’s fitting to play the defending world champions to go to the World Series. It’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase our team in New York. We’re going to go in nice and relaxed.”
The Yankees have the home-field advantage and three aces capable of dominating in the postseason–Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte. The Mariners counter with two young pitchers obtained in the Randy Johnson trade two years ago–Freddy Garcia and John Halama–a veteran in Sele and Paul Abbott, a journeyman who began the season in the bullpen.
Much will be made of the two marquee shortstops, New York’s Derek Jeter and Seattle’s Alex Rodriguez, while ageless Edgar Martinez will walk softly and carry his big stick for the Mariners. Martinez drove in 145 runs at the age of 37, surpassing Babe Ruth for the most RBIs by a player 37 or older.
In Game 5 of the 1995 division series pitting the Yanks and Mariners, it was Martinez’s two-run double off Jack McDowell in the bottom of the 11th that scored the winning runs in the Kingdome, helping Seattle win the series after losing the first two games.
“It was so dramatic,” Rodriguez recalled. “We were serious underdogs. Nobody expected us to do anything.”
This ALCS appears to be up for grabs, with the Yankees showing no signs of consistency and the Mariners virtually untested by an impatient White Sox offensive attack. Either team seems eminently capable of pulling off a sweep, or of being swept.
