Todd Zeile remembers the request from his former manager, Joe Torre. It came when the Baltimore Orioles were getting ready to play the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series four years ago.
“I saw Joe before Game 4,” Zeile said. “We grew up together with the Cardinals, with Joe as my manager. He said to me, `Hey, kid, I may only have one crack at this. You have a lot of years left to go grab yours, so take it easy on me.”‘
Guess what? Torre wasn’t exactly on borrowed time in 1996. When his Yankees host the Mets in Game 1 on Saturday night, it will be the Yankees’ fourth World Series in five years.
Under Torre, the Yankees have won three of every four playoff games. They have lost only one of 12 series (to Cleveland in the first round in ’97) during this run.
“We just want to win–that’s the bottom line,” shortstop Derek Jeter said. “I think a lot of times people may become content with one championship or a little bit of success, but we don’t really reflect on what we’ve done in the past. We focus on the present.”
That would be the World Series against Zeile and the New York Mets. It will be a first-time experience for manager Bobby Valentine and almost all of his players. Al Leiter, Dennis Cook and Mike Bordick are the only Mets with Series experience.
Comfort should be an edge for the Yankees. Here’s a look at how they match up otherwise:
Pitching
Two weeks after the Series is over, Mike Hampton will be one of the most aggressively pursued free agents. His stay with the Mets could end after one year. But if he keeps pitching as he has been, he could leave with a World Series ring among his parting gifts.
Hampton, who was 2-4 with a 6.52 earned-run average in his first seven starts this year, threw nothing but zeroes against St Louis in the National League Championship Series. He set the tone with seven scoreless innings in Game 1 and then kept the series from returning to Busch Stadium with a three-hitter in Game 5.
“I was able to focus on every pitch,” Hampton said. “Some of those games you might lose focus for an inning, and then the next thing you know, you’re out there battling and you’re two or three runs down. I was able to focus.”
Hampton and Leiter have given Valentine the majors’ best combination of left-handers. But the Mets’ rotation isn’t as deep as the Yankees’ rotation.
Torre has three proven winners in Orlando Hernandez, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte. Fourth starter Denny Neagle is the weak link.
“The starting pitching, especially the three guys, has been very, very good,” Torre said.
By contrast, Valentine can’t be sure what to expect from right-handers Bobby J. Jones and Rick Reed. Jones, like Clemens, has thrown a one-hitter in this postseason. But that gem against San Francisco came from nowhere and was followed by a shaky outing in Game 4 of the NLCS. Reed got hammered in his last start,knocked out in the fourth inning.
In previous years, the Yankees could count on a deep bullpen. But they badly miss swingman Ramiro Mendoza, who had surgery on his shoulder in September.
Torre acknowledges “missing Mendoza in a couple of spots during the postseason.” He has gone to Jeff Nelson earlier than he would otherwise, with mixed results.
Valentine has a major advantage in middle relief. Neither Turk Wendell nor Cook has been scored on during October. Left-hander Glendon Rusch, who won 11 games as the Mets’ fifth starter, could wind up pitching more innings than Jones or Reed.
You wonder what would happen to the Yankees’ confidence if Mariano Rivera ever blew a postseason. He had a playoff streak of scoreless innings end at 33 1/3 when Seattle scored in eighth inning of Game 6 but brings a postseason ERA of 0.47 into the World Series. Mets closer Armando Benitez is good, but not that good.
Hitting
Neither team is exactly tearing the cover off the ball. The Yankees have hit .263 in the playoffs, compared with .238 for the Mets.
But something significant happened in the last two games of the NLCS. Mike Piazza had three hits, including a double and a home run. He has felt locked in since a first-inning double off Darryl Kile in Game 5.
“When I take a big swing like that, it just kind of clicks in,” Piazza said. “I feel that I know I’m swinging the way I want to swing.
But Zeile, the No. 5 hitter, could be the key man in the Mets’ order. Piazza and cleanup man Robin Ventura have been walked 19 times in nine playoff games.
Zeile made St. Louis pay for that strategy in Game 5, clearing the bases with a double to give Hampton a 6-0 lead.
“I enjoy hitting in those types of situations, whether I succeed or fail,” Zeile said. “They pitched around Robin and Mike [in Game 4] to get the bases loaded. They pitched around Robin and Mike [in Game 5] to get the bases loaded. There’s a little added motivation when you see that happen.”
David Justice, acquired from Cleveland on June 29, has three of the Yankees’ seven homers in the postseason. He has been moved into the third spot in the order, which previously belonged to Paul O’Neill.
“When I first got here I was trying to hit everything out, just to show [Torre] that everything was working, but that wasn’t working,” Justice said. “I settled down after a week to 10 days, and it was the guys who made my transition smooth.”
First baseman Tino Martinez is the Yankees’ hottest hitter, batting .364 in the postseason. They have needed middle-of-the-order production because O’Neill (.231), Jorge Posada (.194) and Scott Brosius (.200) are struggling.
Management
Even though the Mets got to the sixth game of the NLCS a year ago, team ownership wasn’t sure Valentine was the guy for the long haul. It declined to give him and General Manager Steve Phillips contract extensions, so both are at the end of their terms. They are expected to stay.
Phillips has assembled a cast of low-key veterans who have grown into the most cohesive team in the majors. With things under control in the clubhouse, Valentine can concentrate on what he does best–running the games.
“When you have great players playing great, it makes my job real easy,” Valentine said.
Torre and GM Brian Cashman have kept Yankees owner George Steinbrenner from overreacting to the peaks and valleys of a difficult season.
X factors
Piazza jokes that Timo Perez is “the best thing to come from Japan since the VCR.” The 5-foot-9-inch Perez has come up big since the Mets lost Derek Bell to a severely sprained ankle in Game 1 of the division series He has given Valentine both a solid right-fielder and an exciting leadoff man.
Perez, who had started only nine games in the big leagues before the playoffs, is hitting .300 and has scored a team-high 10 runs for the Mets. The Yankees will try to take advantage of his willingness to chase pitches outside the strike zone (one walk in 41 postseason plate appearances).
“It always has been a big dream of everybody’s to reach the World Series, and I’m here in my first year,” said Perez, who played four years with Japan’s Hiroshima Carp before signing with the the Mets in March. “I feel very happy and joyous to be able to be in this position.”
Torre counts on Chuck Knoblauch to set the tone for the Yankees’ lineup. He has hidden the second baseman’s erratic arm by using him as the designated hitter but won’t be able to do that in Games 3-5 at Shea Stadium.
Fans at Shea will be merciless on Knoblauch (15 errors in 82 games), which could prompt Torre to stick with veteran Luis Sojo.
“I’ve played many, many games at second, and I’m no dummy,” Knoblauch said. “I welcome it. I always want to play second, and I’ll continue to want to do that.”
Momentum
These are not the Yankees of previous years. They are 10-20 since Sept. 14, including the postseason. Torre believes their late-season problems were the result of pressing to finish the job. If he’s right, they could feel even more pressure at the end of the postseason.
“Winning isn’t easy,” Jeter said. “We made it look easy the past few years. . . . And as bad as we’ve been, so to speak, we’re still in a good position.”
This is the Yankees’ stage, and the Mets are trying to steal it. They also are playing great, having gone 7-2 in the postseason and 17-3 since Sept. 22.
“We got pretty hot and were very confident going into postseason,” Hampton said. “We’ve beaten two very good teams. The Giants have a great team–they won the most games in the league–and then we had to face the Cardinals team that never quit. I think we’ve very confident in our ability.”
